There is a moment in The Last Jedi that evokes the famous Battle of Hoth: the pursued, outnumbered rebels, in the temporary shelter of their fortress; the gleaming, mechanized army of the New Order; the battle lines drawn across the snow. You recognize the battle about to be commenced, and you can’t help but feel…
Tag: star wars
The Reepicheep Syndrome
It happens in fiction. A character strides through scene after scene, endlessly impressive to his fellow characters and obviously beloved of his author. He is invariably showered with attention and almost always with praise – except from the audience. The audience can only watch, baffled and annoyed. This character is the author’s pet: The author…
We Might Have Guessed
If you listen to critics of the arts, teachers of the arts, and even a fair number of actual artists, you will hear many praises of and exhortations to realism. If you examine art, you will find that many people have been wildly successful while showing a flagrant disregard for realism. A prime example of…
Black, White, & Gray
Since its release, Rogue One has been proclaimed – and not only by Disney – to be a new kind of Star Wars movie. In various elaborations on this theme, all the usual suspects line up: gritty, realistic, complex, ambiguous. Rogue One mostly lives up to its billing, though in less than exemplary fashion. I…
Review: Rogue One
Rogue One needs no introduction, so I won’t make one. This review, however, requires an emphatic spoiler warning. So: spoilers SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILER ZONE. ABANDON HOPE, ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE. Now to the review. Rogue One is Disney’s first half-step beyond the traditional Star Wars trilogies. It’s a Star Wars story rather than an…