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Reviews
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Going at it solo: A hopeful space-western for the new generation
When looking at Star Wars now, I do realize I have a very different outlook on these movies than when I was a kid. Being from that awkward middle-generation that is old enough to grow up with the original trilogy for a couple years, but witnessing the prequels shortly after and developing (varying degrees, but) a strong fondness to both, I always asked myself the question: why do I like these movies so much? After a lot of attempts to describe it in detail, I think I have come to a very simple conclusion: Star Wars is as great as it is because it appeals to our very drive to do good, to be bigger than the sum of our parts, even if we fail sometimes.
It is about hope, the value of resistance, about generations passing the baton to other generations in hope that their mistakes will not be repeated by them. Following a very traditional narrative, Star Wars has never been about extensive narrative flourishes or even overly concerned with explaining itself in the movies, it has relayed its concepts through one thing primarily: characters. Characters that inspire us to look up to them, even though they sometimes fall victim to the same flaws that we all have. Characters that could choose to run away, but choose to stay to believe in something bigger than themselves. In Star Wars, almsot no one is so far gone as to not be redeemed, and the one who is is appropriately the bane of the whole universe. Star Wars is about hope and the people believing in the good in others and themselves, even though it is not the rational thing to do. That is what makes it timeless, what makes it enjoyable to kids and adults alike.
Thus, whenever I watch Star Wars now, I ask myself: Can I connect to the characters? Do I like the thematic approach to the material? Do I think that if I were a kid again, I would be inspired by it, and can I, as an adult, still get some more deeper layers out of it than just the basic themes and some neat action?
Solo, for me, is the one movie of the Disney-SW-era and the first film since ROTJ in the universe where I can answer every question with a resounding yes. It is the first of all Star Wars movies since ROTJ to take characters, confidently place them in a story that is both accessible but has some layers, and put them in situations that let´s them grow and evolve in a natural, not overly plot-related way.
In this sense, whoever made the call to choose a script that has a very clear arch with relatable character- and narrative goals, made the right decision for me. Over all, Star Wars has always been incredibly simple in its basic plot-outline. Solo strikes a good balance by having a story that is immediately accesible to viewers of basically all ages with clear stations and dangers - it´s always clear what everyone has to do and why and why the main badguy is a threat to them - while also letting its characters enough time to breathe, to interact. There does not have to be non-stop-action if no one cares about the characters. As the movie shows admirably, by establishing the goals of everyone early on and test their values instead of just throwing nonsense-obstacles in their way, it is quite more engaging than just a barrage of lasers and explosions.
Solo plays out very traditional in technical regard, with central setpieces that obviously draw from a plethora of Westerns. It features a competently helmed, non-excessive train-heist, a smokey mine-setting and the traditional high-noonish space of transformation, the desert. Even the camera often pays homage to Westerns of old and new, using wide-shots and close-ups of eyes and blasters in reference to these movies. The film itself is held in a muddy brown-grey in a lot of places, which surely is a point to be concerned about for some, but for me, as it clearly references the well-worn rust and dust of the western and it contrasts it with bright colors and vistas enough to make it both feel incredibly lived in and exciting, it works incredibly well. This is the look I love for Star Wars.
But as written before, characters come first, and Solo has fascinating ones in spades, the highlight being Han himself. But to highlight the main-cast: Qi´ra is mysterious and competent, yet you can always feel a sense of doubt in herself and that she may have gone in a few darker places than Han can understand. Beckett, too, is rogue-ish and charming, but he never let´s there be any doubt that his survival alone is the one thing he cares about most. It´s not that he is without emotion, but his allegiance is to himself. Han juxtaposes both beautifully: not the most competent yet not without some clear merits, he is the green-horn of the bunch, someone who has gone on a dark path outside the law who still apparantly clings to the idea that everything can be as it was if everyone tries hard enough. What makes this all so great is the thematic unity of it all. These characters, while outwardly reading like clichees, aka "femme fatale","gruff mentor" and "rookie in over his head", all fall into place beautifully because they ask the same thematic question in the movie without outright stating it: Can we choose to be better than this world shapes us to be? Will we choose kindness and hope or selfishness and cynicism? Solo has some brilliant, subtle solutions for all these answers and comes to a conclusion with its trifecta of characters that is both uplifting and bitter at the same time. It does not try to cheapen its characters and world by giving easy answers and devolving someone into a mustache-twirling evil-does who was evil all along, no, everything is handled with grace and thematic confidence. This is why I would rate this movie as the best of the Disney-bunch: it has a thematic vision that is always clear yet developed and nuanced beautifully, it takes its audience seriously and rewards it for paying attention. All of that is packed in a shell of a fast-moving, yet comprehensible (and funny!) space-western that does not overstay its welcome.
So in the end, this may seem odd enough when talking about a movie with a prominent directorial change, but this movie feels like somebody´s vision. I now know Han even better without having to change my concept of the character. Nothing here feels out of line with him, nothing like a rewrite of what this rogue-ish oddball was in the orginal trilogy and beyond. All of that is delivered while it enrichens the world of Star Wars and the themes Han Solo had to deal with and has to deal with in the Original Trilogy. It harkens back to the central themes of hope, resistance and the difficulty of choosing good in the face of evil. This is what a Spinoff should do!
Sidenote: The chemistry between Han and Chewie is handled wonderfully as well, it is understated and classy. The movie knows, too, to be funny when it needs to lighten up the mood a bit, without resorting to quips and oneliners. Star Wars in the OT always was funny when it wanted to be without outright stating it, there were blink-and-you-miss-it-lines that did not need a hint with the camera or other audience-cues. If you liked the style of humor that the original and Empire had, especially Han´s remarks, you´ll like this, too.
The Terror: Come and Get Me (2019)
The Terror: Infamy continues to rush through its final stretch
When I started this season, I liked the slow pace of the show. I liked how it seemed to ramp up to something meaningful, something congruent in its storytelling. When episode 4 rolled its credits, I was completely on board with the show, it felt like a natural evolution of the story, a mid-season-stinger to set up the progression of the show. Episodes 5 and 6 deepened the mythology and while they made some very apparent logistical and narrative shortcuts, it still felt like this story was going somewhere, be it with its main and its secondary characters. Alas, it never did. Now, after three frustratingly paced and narratively jumbled episodes in a row, Terror: Infamy simply cannot make up for all its squandered potential with just one final episode.
The season´s demise lies within the incomprehensible descision to constantly change location while the B-stories get resolved like marks on a checklist. The whole camp-storyline, beautifully set up over the first four episodes, gets treated like an afterhtought and is never allowed after episode 5 to even build something akin to atmosphere again. It degenerates to a cardboard-background. Same with the characters´ stories there: Amy, Bowen, Ken and their struggle? Resolved in a rush without thought and clear narrative motives and logic. No stop is made to even take the time to look at what the characters are feeling, a severe violation of the premise of a character-driven horror-drama.
Chester´s war-story? Same thing. Storlylines get introduced and discontinued as the show pleases, without any sensible pacing. It´s so plot- instead of character-driven it begs the question if the writers had to finish the last stretch of the series under severe timeconstraints. Stopping and slowing down to see a transition of the lives of the Nakayamas and how they react to their new-old surroundings? Nope, there has to be an excruciating timejump. Setting up Yuko´s powers resonably well enough to just flip everything on its head in three episodes so that no clear rule is discernable anymore? Sure thing. Introducing a whole new swath of characters the viewer isn´t having time to care about? That as well.
Why Infamy started to rush so much in its last episodes is beyond me. The strength of the more than solid setup, a very enjoyable middle, interesting characters -even though their stories get woefully undercooked endings, it seems- and the strength of the performances still make it a decent watch, despite the narrrative cohesion completely going all over the place.
In the end, it´s still not bad, never will be. It has too many qualities to show for, too many memorable moments to remember . Yet in its final stretch, it has become clear that the beautiful mess of The Terror: Infamy is more mess than beauty.
The Terror: Taizo (2019)
A somewhat predictable twist leaves room for the final episodes to shine
The Terror: Infamy has been quite a different show than its preceeding season, but it had made that abundantly clear from the beginning. While the thematic similarity of a struggle for survival in harsh conditions and the lengths humans can go to -both in idealistic and deeply selfish ways- in order to endure such hardship is shared by both, it was always evident that Infamy is aiming for a tale about family and loss where Terror 1 was aiming at human hybris and the extents of solidarity.
As such, it was not hard to predict the seemingly main-twist of the series and how the haunting of the yurei relates to the Nakayamas and Chester in particular. Infamy´s bigger achievement is thus not really how it handles its narrative turns, but how it presents the story and characters in such a way that it remains interesting even when the story lacks a bit of flourishes so far. Presentation is key here and Infamy has been quite excellent in this regard, this episode being a prime example for this. In a weird way, this episode encapsulates all that is great and not-so-great about this season.
First of all, the performances are once again astounding throughout. In particular Kiki Sukezane and Natsuki Kunimoto, which the episode focuses heavily on, bring equally vulnerable and haunting performances and play off each other extremely well. Derek Mio, who has grown on me as the both short-tempered and contemplative Chester who cannot quite balance both sides, delivers one of his strongest moments in the series yet. Still,Shingo Usami as the gruff, proud, yet immensely vulnerable Henry remains the stand-out for me and steals the episode in the quiet moments. This cast is simply remarkable. All around, Infamy lives and dies with its characters and they are three-dimensional and definitely interesting enough to follow throughout.
Secondly, the production-design was once again on point for most of the time and far above typical horror-shows with narrow corridors and virtually no usage of bright colors and wide spaces. Not only has this episode a remarkable depiction of a more supernatural plane, it also uses subtle yet effective camera-techniques to instill a sense of unease. Every setting, every interior and exterior oozes care and attenton to detail, it does not feel at all like these are simply sets in a studio. Only when it leans into CGI too heavily, some cracks start to show. In two instances in this episode, the otherwise flawlessly realistic design of the show get bogged down in a.) a very obvious CGI-background and b.) some weird-looking fire-textures. It´s not the biggest point of criticism, but in a show so intent on showing "realistic-looking horror" with otherwise outstanding designs, it shatters the illusion a bit (the first season had the same problem a couple times and it´s probably related to budget).
However, all this would still leave this episode as a high point of Infamy if it were not for the biggest blunder of the season which drags it down from great to simply good for me: it rushes through its plot without leaving much room to breathe for the undoubtedly interesting characters or its narrative per se. For instance, the cliffhanger of last episode does not remotely get resolved as of now, emotional moments get cut short to rapidly move on to the next plot-point and character-confrontations are thus sometimes left feeling contrived or simply out of the blue. Derek Mio could have had one of the most emotional moments of the show, but a quick cut ruins the atmosphere. The major plot-twist is made too predictable because the series never took time to set up hints at other solutions, thus attentive viewers probably figured out the twist long before the show presents it as shocking. A confrontation between Chester´s mom and another mother has been set up, but is now amped up seemingly disproportionately, making it look contrived. The army-storyline and the NoNo-Boys-storyline, too, get shifted in and out of focus as the plot demands it, they don´t flow organically.
In a twisted way, Infamy is way too content to move on while its characters want to linger. It is a beautiful mess of great parts that do not come together as of now to form a truly coherent whole. However, with four episodes to go and the predictable twist out of the way, Infamy finally has cleared the table to move into truly unique territory and to come into its own. It is time for it to become a great show instead of a good one.