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How ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’s’ Focus on Nostalgia Hurts its New Heroes

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How ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’s’ Focus on Nostalgia Hurts its New Heroes

With The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson managed to combine a healthy dose of respect for what came before with a firmer focus on the new characters, their wants and needs, and how the saga was going to continue to grow for a new generation of viewers. Rey (Daisy Ridley) clearly mirrors Luke (Mark Hamill) in many ways: She’s from a desert planet, she gets swept away by a plan to help save the universe via droid delivery, and she’s the Jedi of the new generation, destined to lead the charge in saving the galaxy and bringing balance to the Force.

But Rey isn’t Luke. For one, she was completely abandoned on her desert planet (Jakku) and left to live alone. She holds out hope that her parents left her for a good reason and will come back for her one day. Ridley imbues Rey with different qualities that set her apart from Luke and make her her own kind of hero.

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The Force Awakens gently eased old and new audiences back into Star Wars with a nostalgia-laden opening chapter that mostly just asked questions: What happened between Kylo (Adam Driver) and Luke? Why was Rey abandoned? Why did Luke leave everyone he cared about behind? And then of course, for some, there was the question of how Rey could be so powerful, a question that becomes much more pressing for some viewers when the power-wielder in question is female.

RELATED: ‘Star Wars’: The Best Acting Performances Across All 11 Movies

The Last Jedi isn’t interested in a rehashing of the original trilogy, and it’s so much better for it. It respects the figures of the past, but it firmly recognizes that this is a story about the new generation. With that, the story can now officially be about Rey, Finn (John Boyega), and Poe (Oscar Isaac), and Johnson places each character in a dichotomy of wants and needs that forces them to make choices about who they want to be. Our protagonist, Rey, is torn between the two opposing philosophies that give the film its thesis and its heart.

So, what is the hardest thing Rey can hear? Like anyone with an absentee parent, Rey wants a reason why. She wants to give meaning to all the years of pain and confusion. She wants her hope to have been for something. If she could find out that her parents were heroes who had no choice but to give her up, or that they’re still alive somewhere and that reconciliation is possible, she’d have nothing to struggle with and everything she’d always wanted.

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In a brilliant move that sets Rey’s story apart from Luke’s, opens up Star Wars for the new generation, and, most importantly, challenges Rey like no other answer could, The Last Jedi has Rey come to the realization that her parents are no one special, they are really, truly, never coming back, and there is no meaningful explanation of her years of loneliness. Sometimes people just leave.

The Last Jedi does Rey a great service by giving her the most personally challenging answer possible to the question of who she is. Because of this, she has the opportunity for growth and we can actually believe for a second that she might consider finding the belonging she’s sought in Kylo’s offer to join him. The fact that she doesn’t, that she chooses to continue in the face of this devastation, is what starts her on the next part of her journey.

The realization that Rey isn’t powerful because of her connection to some bloodline does something more than making her stand on her own in this story. The Last Jedi completely disrupts the mold that Star Wars had inevitably found itself in. The Empire Strikes Back‘s brilliant twist gave Luke the most personally difficult revelation he could hear, and in doing so turned Star Wars into a family story. The sequel trilogy doesn’t remove the Skywalkers, but it does revitalize the saga by giving it new blood.

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The years between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker were, in many ways, a great time to be a Star Wars fan. The Force Awakens had tee-ed up interesting questions, which The Last Jedi knocked out of the park with the best possible answers and set things up for what should have been a fantastic finale. What we got instead was extremely disheartening. The Rise of Skywalker displays an obsession with the past that not even The Force Awakens had. Almost immediately, the question of Rey’s identity is reopened. I expected to see the same young woman I’d been following for the past two movies; a little older, a little wiser, a little more confident, but still with things to learn. Instead, Rey has Leia (Carrie Fisher) keep custody of the lightsaber that called to her in The Force Awakens until she’s “earned it”.


Abrams retcons the brilliant reveal that The Last Jedi was building to. Rey’s parents weren’t nobodies: her father was a clone of Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), which the movie claims makes her the Emperor’s granddaughter (I’m no scientist, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how genetics work). Rey finds out that she’s related to a creepy old guy that she’s vaguely heard of before, and the work The Last Jedi did is undone with one ridiculously blue, awkwardly written scene. The Rise of Skywalker wants you to think that this is a twist on par with the reveal in The Empire Strikes Back. But in that movie, Luke knew Vader. That revelation had weight for the character. But these character motivations that should be the driving force of every good story are almost completely absent in The Rise of Skywalker.


Another thing The Rise of Skywalker wants to explore is Rey’s inclination toward the dark side. But the movie also thinks that any darkness Rey has is due to some unfortunate genetic circumstances and that all she has to do to overcome that is to… be more like Luke and Leia. The thing is, Rey already has darkness – real, compelling darkness – not of the lineage-related variety (“You don’t just have power, you have his power.” is an actual line said to Rey in the movie). She was abandoned by parents who didn’t care about her. She watched the father figure she’d always dreamed of get murdered right in front of her. She developed a relationship with Ben Solo, only to find that he had no intention of changing (yet). She’s burdened with being the last remaining Jedi and bears the weight of saving the galaxy on her shoulders. These are real things that are interesting to play. “The grandfather I never knew was really evil so I guess I am too” is… less so.

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The Rise of Skywalker could have continued to build on the ideas Yoda presents to Luke in The Last Jedi. Rey could have held her own amongst a bunch of legacy characters and been the “nobody” who saved the galaxy. Instead, she becomes a vessel for the most boring and uninspired kind of nostalgia. Rey takes on Palpatine, and The Rise of Skywalker seems to think that we’ll buy the stakes presented. But the shoehorned story about Rey battling an evil legacy is a cheap cover of what the filmmakers really want to do: make this story all about Luke Skywalker.

Rey defeats Palpatine by melting him with Luke and Leia’s lightsabers, killing herself in the process. It’s Ben Solo who cares enough to give his life to Rey. She comes back to life, and suddenly the power of the dyad, “a power like life itself”, isn’t enough to save Ben Solo (the actual remaining member of the family the movie is so obsessed with). So, what should have been an ending to Rey’s story becomes yet another ending to the Skywalker family’s story. Rey doesn’t learn how to be enough on her own, independent of any lineage. She doesn’t get to be with Ben, and her friendships and the themes of found family that Star Wars does so well are set aside in favor of fetch-quests and nostalgia worship.


The Rise of Skywalker ends with Rey flying to Tatooine, where Anakin (Hayden Christensen) and his mother lived as slaves, where he watched his mother die after brutal abduction and abuse, where Luke felt stuck and was only freed by the savage murder of his aunt and uncle, and where Leia spent a brief time as a sex slave. It’s here that Rey buries Luke and Leia’s lightsabers, giving a hollow, thoroughly dissatisfying ending to her story and that of the Skywalker family.

The scene is shot as if the audience is expected to be floored by how perfectly it wraps up the entire story. If you were happy with it, then great; write this article off as bitter nonsense and go give it another watch. But from a storytelling perspective, it just doesn’t work. It’s a hollow reference to a scene from the very beginning of Luke’s story, not Rey’s, and symbolically buries Star Wars in the Tatooine sand.

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Review: SAMARITAN, A Sly Stallone Superhero Stumble

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Review: SAMARITAN, A Sly Stallone Superhero Stumble

Hitting the three-quarter-century mark usually means a retirement home, a nursing facility, or if you’re lucky to be blessed with relatively good health and savings to match, living in a gated community in Arizona or Florida.

For Sylvester Stallone, however, it means something else entirely: starring in the first superhero-centered film of his decades-long career in the much-delayed Samaritan. Unfortunately for Stallone and the audience on the other side of the screen, the derivative, turgid, forgettable results won’t get mentioned in a career retrospective, let alone among the ever-expanding list of must-see entries in a genre already well past its peak.

For Stallone, however, it’s better late than never when it involves the superhero genre. Maybe in getting a taste of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) with his walk-on role in the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel several years ago, Stallone thought anything Marvel can do, I can do even better (or just as good in the nebulous definition of the word).

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The property Stallone and his team found for him, Samaritan, a little-known graphic novel released by a small, almost negligible, publisher, certainly takes advantage of Stallone’s brute-force physicality and his often underrated talent for near-monosyllabic brooding (e.g., the Rambo series), but too often gives him to little do or say as the lone super-powered survivor, the so-called “Samaritan” of the title, of a lifelong rivalry with his brother, “Nemesis.” Two brothers entered a fire-ravaged building and while both were presumed dead, one brother did survive (Stallone’s Joe Smith, a garbageman by day, an appliance repairman by night).

In the Granite City of screenwriter Bragi F. Schut (Escape Room, Season of the Witch), the United States, and presumably the rest of the world, teeters on economic and political collapse, with a recession spiraling into a depression, steady gigs difficult, if not impossible, to obtain, and the city’s neighborhoods rocked by crime and violence. No one’s safe, not even 13-year-old Sam (Javon Walker), Joe’s neighbor.

When he’s not dodging bullies connected to a gang, he’s falling under the undue influence of Cyrus (Pilou Asbæk), a low-rent gang leader with an outsized ego and the conviction that he and only he can take on Nemesis’s mantle and along with that mantle, a hammer “forged in hate,” to orchestrate a Bane-like plan to plunge the city into chaos and become a wealthy power-broker in the process.

Schut’s woefully underwritten script takes a clumsy, haphazard approach to world-building, relying on a two-minute animated sequence to open Samaritan while a naive, worshipful Sam narrates Samaritan and Nemesis’s supposedly tragic, Cain and Abel-inspired backstory. Schut and director Julius Avery (Overlord) clumsily attempt to contrast Sam’s childish belief in messiah-like, superheroic saviors stepping in to save humanity from itself and its own worst excesses, but following that path leads to authoritarianism and fascism (ideas better, more thoroughly explored in Watchmen and The Boys).

While Sam continues to think otherwise, Stallone’s superhero, 25 years past his last, fatal encounter with his presumably deceased brother, obviously believes superheroes are the problem and not the solution (a somewhat reasonable position), but as Samaritan tracks Joe and Sam’s friendship, Sam giving Joe the son he never had, Joe giving Sam the father he lost to street violence well before the film’s opening scene, it gets closer and closer to embracing, if not outright endorsing Sam’s power fantasies, right through a literally and figuratively explosive ending. Might, as always, wins regardless of how righteous or justified the underlying action.

It’s what superhero audiences want, apparently, and what Samaritan uncritically delivers via a woefully under-rendered finale involving not just unconvincing CGI fire effects, but a videogame cut-scene quality Stallone in a late-film flashback sequence that’s meant to be subversively revelatory, but will instead lead to unintentional laughter for anyone who’s managed to sit the entirety of Samaritan’s one-hour and 40-minute running time.

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Samaritan is now streaming worldwide on Prime Video.

Samaritan

Cast
  • Sylvester Stallone
  • Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton
  • Pilou Asbæk

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Matt Shakman Is In Talks To Direct ‘Fantastic Four’

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According to a new report, Wandavision’s Matt Shakman is in talks to direct the upcoming MCU project, Fantastic Four. Marvel Studios has been very hush-hush regarding Fantastic Four to the point where no official announcements have been made other than the film’s release date. No casting news or literally anything other than rumors has been released regarding the project. We know that Fantastic Four is slated for release on November 8th, 2024, and will be a part of Marvel’s Phase 6. There are also rumors that the cast of the new Fantastic Four will be announced at the D23 Expo on September 9th.

Fantastic Four is still over two years from release, and we assume we will hear more news about the project in the coming months. However, the idea of the Fantastic Four has already been introduced into the MCU. John Krasinski played Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The cameo was a huge deal for fans who have been waiting a long time for the Fantastic Four to enter the MCU. When Disney acquired Twenty Century Fox in 2019 we assumed that the Fox Marvel characters would eventually make their way into the MCU. It’s been 3 years and we already have had an X-Men and Fantastic Four cameo – even if they were from another universe.

Deadline is reporting that Wandavision’s Matt Shakman is in talks to direct Fantastic Four. Shakman served as the director for Wandavision and has had an extensive career. He directed two episodes of Game of Thrones and an episode of The Boys, and he had a long stint on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. There is nothing official yet, but Deadline’s sources say that Shakman is currently in talks for the job and things are headed in the right direction.

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To be honest, I was a bit more excited when Jon Watts was set to direct. I’m sure Shakman is a good director, but Watts proved he could handle a tentpole superhero film with Spider-Man: Homecoming. Wandavision was good, but Watts’ style would have been perfect for Fantastic Four. The film is probably one of the most anticipated films in Marvel’s upcoming slate films and they need to find the best person they can to direct. Is that Matt Shakman? It could be, but whoever takes the job must realize that Marvel has a lot riding on this movie. The other Fantastic Four films were awful and fans deserve better. Hopefully, Marvel knocks it out of the park as they usually do. You can see for yourself when Fantastic Four hits theaters on November 8th, 2024.

Film Synopsis: One of Marvel’s most iconic families makes it to the big screen: the Fantastic Four.

Source: Deadline

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Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase Star in ‘Zombie Town’ Mystery Teen Romancer (Exclusive)

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Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase have entered Zombie Town, a mystery teen romancer based on author R.L. Stine’s book of the same name.

The indie, now shooting in Ontario, also stars Henry Czerny and co-teen leads Marlon Kazadi and Madi Monroe. The ensemble cast includes Scott Thompson and Bruce McCulloch of the Canadian comedy show Kids in the Hall.

Canadian animator Peter Lepeniotis will direct Zombie Town. Stine’s kid’s book sees a quiet town upended when 12-year-old Mike and his friend, Karen, see a horror movie called Zombie Town and unexpectedly see the title characters leap off the screen and chase them through the theater.

Zombie Town will premiere in U.S. theaters before streaming on Hulu and then ABC Australia in 2023.

“We are delighted to bring the pages of R.L. Stine’s Zombie Town to the screen and equally thrilled to be working with such an exceptional cast and crew on this production. A three-time Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award winner with book sales of over $500 million, R.L. Stine has a phenomenal track record of crafting stories that engage and entertain audiences,” John Gillespie, Trimuse Entertainment founder and executive producer, said in a statement.

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Executive producers are Trimuse Entertainment, Toonz Media Group, Lookout Entertainment, Viva Pictures and Sons of Anarchy actor Kim Coates.  

Paco Alvarez and Mark Holdom of Trimuse negotiated the deal to acquire the rights to Stine’s Zombie Town book.

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