Thursdays at the Theater XIV
Hello there Titans, how are you? It’s your old pal Josh back from the end of semester 1 with the return of my bi-weekly feature Thursdays at the Theater! Seeing as I have been gone for so long, I felt that it would be proper to celebrate my return with reviews for Star Wars and Deadpool. And as for what’s releasing this week, I can only tell you to stay as far away from Gods of Egypt as possible. You have been warned.
Star Wars review first.
I’ve gotta give you a little background: I’ve been a Star Wars fan all my life. I grew up with the original three movies, I still own a Darth Vader’s lightsaber toy, and I wore the tape on my VHS copy of Star Wars almost every weekend when I was a kid from playing it over and over again. I love these movies, they’re classic film-making and storytelling, and they put a whole new spin on the fairy tale genre. It’s not just sci-fi, there’s a lot of fantasy elements at work here once you take a closer look at the story.
Then the prequels came along, and I watched them. I know a lot of people like the prequels, but I’m just not a fan of those. Even when I was a kid and didn’t really differentiate movies by their qualities, I always wondered why I enjoyed Luke blowing up the Death Star or facing down Vader, or Han shooting off a few wisecracks before he shot some Stormtroopers way more than anything that happened in the prequels, and I realized it’s because the prequels were pretty much controlled by one guy in their production: George Lucas, the very creator of Star Wars. The originals were a collaborative effort where actors were in real environments instead of just stale blue-screen sets, while Lucas just did whatever he wanted with the prequel films. Revenge of the Sith eventually came out, and hearing that was the last Star Wars movie ever bummed me out. But I did come to accept it and move on with my life, until Disney bought Lucasfilm back in 2012 and that there would be new Star Wars movies once again.
Hearing that made me feel super excited for the future of Star Wars, since I knew that this movie was now in the hands of fans and they were going to do what we always wanted them to do: Continue the legacy, continue the story, and make Star Wars come back again with a vengeance.
Going into The Force Awakens, I was so excited. Once the first scene of this film played out and we got introduced to a few of our main characters, I knew that we were in good hands with Disney and JJ Abrams. I am so incredibly happy to say that this is the best I’ve felt after watching a Star Wars film since Return of the Jedi. The action is incredible in this movie, the focus on practical effects really sell the aesthetic, and the performances! Harrison Ford returns as Han Solo and he OWNS the role. We see Carrie Fisher as Leia again, and she’s really good in her few scenes. And Luke… He’s in the movie, I’ll say that. I won’t say the specifics, but anything else would drift into spoiler territory. But the new cast are all awesome! Daisy Ridley plays Rey, and she is the heart and soul of the film. She feels very much like the new Luke Skywalker. She’s strong and resourceful, intelligent, resilient and carries the movie. John Boyega as Finn is amazing, and his chemistry with Daisy Ridley is a joy to watch. Adam Driver plays Kylo Ren, an agent of the Dark Side serving under the new character Supreme Leader Snoke, played by Andy Serkis, and while you may think he’s a Vader rip-off at first glance, he is not. He is his own unique character. He has his own motivations, and in terms of development, he got the most of it in the whole film. Lastly, Oscar Isaacs plays Poe Dameron, a confident pilot who oozes charm and charisma and is the pure definition of likeable.
These new players all work together to create this new entry in the Star Wars universe, and this movie made me feel like I was 8 years old again pretending I was slicing through objects with my lightsaber. And the lightsaber fights are real, visceral and intense. The air-combat is masterfully put together, since it’s really dogfighting, something we’ve never seen in Star Wars before. This is what this film does though: It brings in the old elements with the new ones we’re introduced to and does it so well that you just feel like you’re actually watching people in a galaxy far, far away. There are callbacks to the old movies, even a sly reference to the prequels to add validity to them in the eyes of fans, and it never stops moving. This is a frantically-paced film that takes off from the word ‘go’ and never ends until the credits roll and you see that blue text against the background of outer space.
I do have to say, if I had to talk about a few issues with the film, it would be that certain characters that you may expect to have a certain presence don’t, but the movie does not feel any lesser for it. It’s only because we’ve seen them in the marketing that we feel that way, but don’t worry because I know for a fact due to the production details of Episode VIII that we’re going to be seeing these characters a lot more in the next two films. And the film does admittedly have a lot of similarities to the original 1977 film, but that did not affect my enjoyment of this movie. It wasn’t just dumb fanservice and lazy nostalgia, everything had a purpose in this movie, and while it answers some questions it leaves a lot more open for discussion until we actually find out about everything that’s going on in Episodes VIII and IX. And before I forget, John Williams returns to compose the score for Star Wars and he does a beautiful job, with my personal favorite being the track played at the very end called “Jedi Steps”.
The more I think about this movie the more I love it, and I can sit here talking about it all day but I’m going to say it: I award Star Wars: The Force Awakens a full 5 out of 5 stars. That’s how much I loved this film. That full score does not mean I feel that the movie’s perfect, it means that I felt that the movie outshines its faults more than enough to be an incredible film. I cannot stop talking about it, and I want to see it again as soon as possible. Great job JJ Abrams and the rest of the cast and crew who could not all fit on one article. But most of all the person who should be thanked is Bob Iger, the man who actually made the deal with George Lucas to sell to Disney Star Wars and Lucasfilm as a whole, and now the franchise is in a better place than it’s ever been before. Thank you all for making this Star Wars fan happier than he’s been about this franchise since he first saw the original three movies. Thank you from the bottom of my hopeless, nerdy heart.
So, what about Deadpool? Well, that was pretty awesome as well.
For this newest superhero flick, we follow Wade Wilson, a Canadian ex-special forces mercenary who is diagnosed with cancer and agrees to undergo treatment in order to cure it. However, this treatment leaves Wade horribly disfigured and insane, filling him with a desire for revenge against the man who ruined his life, leading him to track the man down in order to get him fix his new deformities. Donning the alter ego of Deadpool, the Merc with a Mouth, Wade goes on a 4th wall-breaking, bloody rampage in order to set his life back on track.
First off, the script is amazing. It is super funny and clever, and it sets up the character of Deadpool perfectly. You understand why this guy wants to seek revenge since Ryan Reynolds does a great job acting as the character. You believe his relationships with the people around him, you laugh at his jokes, especially since his whole schtick is that he talks to the audience.
The action is superbly shot, and they use the film’s limited budget to it’s fullest effect. This forces the filmmakers to work with less resources and more of their creativity to compensate, and I feel that this really helped the movie a lot. This is a passion project of Ryan Reynolds’ too, and whatever you think of this film, you can’t say that he was not 100% committed to this movie and this role.
In particular the relationship between Wade and his love interest Vanessa is extremely well done, and is one of the most believable romantic relationships I’ve seen depicted in, not just a big budget movie, but any recent movie. If all of that doesn’t appeal to you, then you shouldn’t go see this movie, plain and simple. And I mean it, because the opening credits tell you exactly what you’re in for.
So, with that I’m going to give Deadpool a well deserved 4 out of 5 stars. It is a great time at the movies, and seeing that it has made so much money already due to its genius marketing campaign as well as its quality, is great to see as a superhero fan.
So there you got it Titans, two reviews in one edition of Thursdays at the Theater. If you want to check out more articles on this website, just stay tuned by following us on Twitter and liking us on Facebook. This is Joshua Volkers for the Titan Times signing out!!
