My response to Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace 3D

I’m not going to write an official review for a movie that has been released in theaters a decade ago. Star Wars is a beloved franchise, I’m one of its biggest fans. This movie has a lot of haters, but slowly has gained defenders. My stance has calmed, when first released I was not happy with it. I never really have fully enjoyed Jar Jar Binks. I don’t despise the character, many of his bits I actually find funny, but he sure does bring eye rolling moments with it. My biggest problem with the film was deciding to have Anakin be a young boy. Would much rather have had him be like thirteen or even older than that. Give us a little weight to Anakin. Make him angry about being a slave. If older the audience could buy him being a great pilot. As a young child it just never really works. That hands down is the films main problem, not Jar Jar.

Still this movie gets tossed under the bus far too often. The story is strong for what it is. As a starting point everything works from start to finish. The action set pieces on the big screen are some of the best and have yet to be over taken. The pod race in 3D is stunning and a lot of fun. I found myself getting chills during several moments. Th 3D isn’t extreme, and it simply helps everything blend and pop a little stronger than in 2D. The final twenty minutes is very strong. The mix between the major battle/The Darth Maul fight and the space battle is astonishing. I found myself smiling many times in the film. My anger has faded, if you just step back and look at the movie you’ll see that is really just a lot of fun. The action is frankly better than most films that have come out since.

The 3D is strong here, mind you it matters where you see it. I saw this on a digital screen. If concerned I would contact your multiplex and look into how the 3D will be presented. For me though it was a great experience that I would suggest for fans who don’t hate the prequels should totally check out.

Weekend box office: Jan. 20-22nd

This might not come as a surprise to any of you but Kate Beckinsale in tight leather shooting guns really gets people into the theater. Underworld:(Should have just used 3 but instead we just put a word we found in the thesaurus)Awakening took in over $25 million in it’s first weekend. I’m sure the 3D screens helped it out a bit. Pretty good take for a franchise I thought was dead… Get it?… Movie is about vampires… I’ll move on. Landing in second place surprisingly was the WW2 Tuskegee airmen film Red Tails. Doing much better than expected with about $19 million, that’s without 3D screens if you were wondering. I’m sure this makes George Lucas smile as he’s been trying to get this film made for decades(that’s right decades) and many believed it would be an epic flop.

The rest of the list is pretty basic, Contraband is performing pretty well as it landed in third with about $12 million. It’s total is close to $50 million which is way above what I personally was expecting this film to make. Maybe people are ready for just some gritty action films. Steven Soderbergh’s new action flick Haywire scored only about $9 million over the weekend. Some might say that’s not good, for me though it’s lead is an MMA fighting woman, the advertising was minimal at best. I think that is a win.

The crying inducing film Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close landed in fourth with $10 million bucks. This film has been slowly expanding and the plan seems to be working as more people flock to the theaters for the film.

What is odd to me is that some of the award grabbing films aren’t getting a boost. The Artist and The Descendants should be bringing in the bucks but just aren’t on enough screens. I think studio’s need to expand their models for films like these and release them nation wide. It’s great the L.A. and NY and Chicago get films early but cities in the South and middle of the country don’t even get a chance to see them on the big screen. That’s a shame and frankly I think the films would do better if they did.

It should also be noted that Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is on it’s way to $200 million and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is close to $100 million, which many thought couldn’t happen. Here is the list…

1. Underworld: Awakening $25.4 million

2. Red Tails $19.1 million

3. Contraband $12.2 million

4. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close $10.5 million

5. Haywire $9 million

6. Beauty and the Beast 3D $8.5 million

7. Joyful Noise $6 million

8. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol $5.5 million

9. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows $4.8 million

10. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo $3.7 million

 

Movie Review: Red Tails

George Lucas has been rumored to be working on making this film for decades, well here it is and maybe Lucas should have just focused on Star Wars. The story follows the Tuskegee Airmen, an all black WW2 flying unit. The film is essentially a throw back to the old war movies. This and many other problems make Red Tails the stand out as the worst movie of the year and hands down one of the worst war films to come out in a while.

The story we’ve heard before, the airmen must fight through adversity as they gain the respect to fly in the air and fight German aircraft. Their missions mainly were focused on defending American bombers. They saved thousands of lives in the air and took down many German aircraft. So the story is there but the film just started on the wrong foot. It’s main issue is that it is beyond corny. Every character just seems fake and it doesn’t help that the dialogue is just stale. It’s very obvious we’re suppose to like these characters but each one just fits into stereotypes that are hard to ignore. One is really cocky, the other a loud mouth, one is religious… Come on! Don’t send a half dozen characters with thin archs in my face, give me two solid one’s.

The film doesn’t know how to save itself either, the plot strays from the story line way too many times. One character is shot down and is captured. Placed in a POW camp for no reason then he gets to escape ten minutes later. Nothing comes out of this and it’s unclear why it was even in the film. One other character starts up a relationship with a local Italian woman, these scenes are brutal to watch as it’s clear no one involved knew how to make romance work in a film like this. I get it was suppose to be like old war films from the past, problem is we’ve advanced when it comes to story telling. I’m sure your grand father will love this film, because it’s a throw back. For me though I need a lot more in a film like this for me to chew on.

Now the dog fights are fun, but the way obvious CGI makes it hard for one to connect with the action. At many times it looks like a well produced video game. There is no weight to any of the violence. We see a German pilot with a scar on his face. He’s a villain because that’s what he needs to be. He never is really that big of a villain but yet we’re suppose to be happy when people survive his attacks? Also the large amount of death in this film and no one seems to care. Movies like Saving Private Ryan gave war an edge in film because the violence mattered. Spielberg also pulled this off in Warhorse which was a pg-13 rated war film.

In the end you can see what they were trying to do here but the film is just boring. You’ve either seen it before or the lack of weight of anything that’s happening will leave a bad taste in your mouth. If you can see this in the theater for really cheap, some of the action scenes are worth it. Sadly I suggest avoiding this film if you can.

Rating: 1.5/10