Reassurance lines.
It’not going to happen / I won’t let that happen / Don’t blame yourself / It’s not your fault / Everything is going to be alright
It’s my job to protect you / I can take care of myself / I promise….. /
Conflict creation lines
We don’t need him/her / I always work alone don’t trust him/her / Get lost / We have everyone we need / I don’t need your charity.
Just another rookie trying to make a name for himself/herself / You don’t tow the line / Why do we need these amateurs?
Do these lines seem familiar to your? They should. These are some examples of lines which we have been bombarded with over the years when we go to watch movies. A regurgitation of the scripts which are supposed to bring the same effects time and time again.
Moral supremacy, Moral teachings, and conflict. No movie can exist without them (or so we are told).
The Star Wars franchise continues on with another installment to add to the ever increasing collection of offshoots from the original trilogy.I have just emerged from my local cinema after being treated to ‘Solo’ which tells the story of Hans Solo(aka Harrison Ford), in his youth before the days of Princess Leia and Luke. It was not my choice to watch this, but my wife wanted to see it, so hence my participation.
What really struck me about this movie was how alien life and distant planets, the whole shebang, seems to echo American portrayal of life. We had: the car chase, the cockiness of the ‘about to die hero’, the party with black alien female jazz singer, the card game, the den of criminals, the evil overlord, the girl hiding a dark secret, the gun battles where they stand feet apart blasting each other and only the bad guys are killed, the robot(cum black woman with attitude), the western gunslinger stand off, multiple betrayals, humans with super-human abilities, and pain thresholds.
I am exhausted just thinking about all of this. Couple all of this with the ‘cliches’ listed above, and we have another ‘predictable’ movie made to generate cash, and seemingly nothing else. The action is for the most part fast and furious, (sorry F&F franchise for borrowing your cliche)and entertaining, but the story, the lame regurgitation of typical dialogue, predictable plot, tried and trusted models, provided me with opportunity to predict many parts in the story before they happened, much to my wife’s annoyance(I didn’t want to go. Remember?)
I am not writing a review, as this article is more of another reflection on overkill. Suggestions to continue the saga could be:
Leia- As a child she has this overwhelming urge to be a princess (even before she finds out she is one), so becomes a temper tantrum throwing brat. After being visited by a strange presence she is told of her true identity, and goes on to ….
Chewbacca – From his youth as a circus act, to being stolen away, and forced to dismember people for entertainment….
Yoda- who took a powerful drug which rendered his speech unintelligable….
Maybe C3PO, and R2D2 will also have their own spin offs. Maybe they could reinvent that classic comedy duo of Morcambe & Wise, where R2D2 could be Ernie Wise(short, fat, but without the hairy legs), and C3PO, Eric Morcambe of wise-cracking fame.
The possibilities to drain cash from a seemingly senseless public(I include myself in that under duress) are endless.
