"The Force Awakens" (with SPOILERS)

Good column from a couple days ago:

Admit it: 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' stinks -- and here's why

 

Terrible column. "The film stinks because it's surrounded by marketing. It was fun to watch, though!"

 

Yeah, I liked Star Wars back when it was pure, when they didn't make action figures of characters who appeared on screen for 5 seconds.

 

I don't know. Between the current blitz and all the shit they have planned for the next few years, there's a real possibility they'll overplay their hand.

 

Didn't realize until checking out IMDB that Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) played Captain Phasma. Though the voice did sound familiar ...

 

Not at all what he's saying.

He's right on point. A movie doesn't have to be good or aesthetically valuable to be popular or fun.
The original 'Star Wars' falls into that category. Maybe this one does, too; I haven't seen it.

Of course, I also say movies are entertainment, not art. If a movie is fun or entertaining, than it's good. There is no larger aesthetic value. It's a movie, and we need to move past the idea that all creative endeavors are art.

Anyway, the emphasis on mass appeal and the long-term marketing needs of the franchise limit how good the movie can be, how different or interesting it can be.

Good column.

 

Possibility?
I'd say they've been doing it for almost 40 years.

 

Yeah, but now they seem to be going even further overboard in order to compensate for all the goodwill Lucas squandered with the prequels and "remasters" and such.

 

It doesn't "stink." That's ridiculous.

 

It was terrible.

 

This line says it all about this guy

While it has been a complaint in this board that TFA borrows too much from the original, that's about it for his argument. He went into the movie dismissive of it, was already taking the hipster attitude of "if there's loads of merchandising, they sold out and I can't like it" and only went because he wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

I feel like he would rather have seen some indy film you never heard of that speaks to the feelings of people who are forced to live in a consumerism, sellout world.

 

No, it wasn't.