Matthew
Jedi Master
'Downfall' is a movie made in Germany, not a "BBC drama". The original title is "Der Untergang".
Thank you for the correction.
'Downfall' is a movie made in Germany, not a "BBC drama". The original title is "Der Untergang".
I haven't seen it, this guy is a great reviewer in my opinion, he is quite astute and does not suffer the SJW crowd. He's also pretty hillarious!
Spoiler alert if you don't want to know what happens don't watch.
I've watched this movie and well... it wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either.
Here are my thoughts on it:
What was the point? that's something that matters when watching any movie, what is the message trying to be conveyed and how well did they convey the message?. The message, as far as I can tell was that you can be who you choose to be regardless of who you're supposed to be. Leaving aside the SJW angle, it's not a bad message. Kylo was supposed to be the bad guy, and he redeemed himself at the end, sacrificed himself to undo the evil he had already done, I didn't mind that. Rey was supposed to be the good girl and had a conflict with everyone thinking she was supposed to be the good girl and so she went on a dark path, that showed her that she could also be, supposed to be, evil because of her Palpatine heritage, but chose otherwise. The storm troopers were supposed to be storm troopers but they can also choose to be rebels. In this sense, I feel that the message was clear and well depicted, I agree with others that the Kylo-Rey dynamic was the best, particularly in conveying the message the movie wanted to convey.
One of the things that movies, or any work of fiction, has to accomplish effectively is the suspension of disbelief. Beyond the fact that you're consciously bringing yourself to watch something you know for a fact isn't real, fiction has a way to present the story in such a way that suspends that knowledge for a while. If this is done effectively the movie passes through "clean" into your consciousness and so that's as I understand the concept of suspension of disbelief.
Which also explains why there are tons of videos online that nitpick at movies and they're so successful, much like the one 897baz shared, they're funny because they put a mirror up to our own selves showing us how crazy it was for us to suspend our disbelief, and this is in itself really entertaining, it's the best form of comedy in my view, but it's also a bit "cheap" as it's just pointing out the obvious, but it's not their fault if a movie successfully suspends the disbelief by carefully crafting a narrative then people will praise it, not mock it.
Look at inglorious basterds for instance, it's still function and it's such a highly unlikely narrative, but no one mocks it, they praise that movie.
This movie failed, to me, in delivering that suspension because of the constant damage control they were doing with EP8, it was so obvious that it constantly made me go back to reality and say.. ohhh that's what they mean, so I had to work now to fall back inside the narrative in front of me. When that happens the movie fails in my view.
I don't mind the fan service, but it was oddly placed and again, it brought people out of the movie to look for references and this didn't help. I think JJ Abrams tried to please people too much and that created a bad product, this movie felt more like a not very sincere response to the response to TLJ, than a planned end of the saga.
So, people complained about SJW agendas in it... well here's a heterosexual relationship.
So, people complained about Rose, well... here's almost zero screen time.
So, people complained about the tossing of the lightsaber, well.. here's luke obviously rectifying that
So, people complained about Rey's lack of training, well... here's her training scene
So, people complained about Leia flying through space, well... heres her own jedi training
So, people complained about Holdo's maneuver, well.. here's Finn saying that it's one in a million.
and so on..
Which, isn't bad, but it didn't feel like an honest apology, it felt like a too obvious one that just tried now to pander to the other side of the equation, which is why the critics hate this movie and loved TLJ. Which again, isn't bad because you're responding to outrage, but also you're not producing art or adding to the lore, you're spending millions of dollars truing to look good, this never works, it's like getting a liposuction because someone called you fat.
Then there's the other aspect, where people feel like they own Star Wars or Star Trek, and a lot of the criticism comes from them feeling betrayed because this movie didn't do what the previous one did, which was insert them into the world the movie created and inspire them. And it wouldn't, ironically it was because of that original success that the brand became profitable and Disney bought it and it now is not what it used to be. So.. the commitment that leads people to feel betrayed is what caused the betrayal because they all made it successful and put it on the radar of a large corporation that seeks profit first of all.
Having said all that, I considered it better than episode 8, and perhaps better than episode 7, it is also true that you shouldn't have to sit there and consider all these things before watching a movie, and maybe that's enough to make the movie be bad, but maybe i'm too much of an optimist, but once you see through some of the decision making process.. what's left it's not that horrible and maybe even good.
My two humble cents
Sadly, Star Wars today is a product (or victim?) of this time, it’s no longer an inspired bold story being told despite the risk, it’s the result of scanning and marketing studies on social networks, studies with the goal of producing the most successful product. That was never going to work with Star Wars
Which to me, is a good sign and can only hope these large companies learn from it because it hurts them where they feel it the most, their pocketbooks.
Enough. (Ask me whether I stayed true to this after the movie is available on streaming )