This review is so stupid. First of all, it’s almost two hours! Are you serious! I might as well watch the movie again. You know, I read a comment from somewhere before the film came out that said “Why even bother reviewing the film at all? What will any critic have to say about the film that will mean anything to anyone other than themselves?”. Well my opinion on TFA isn’t really going to change based on a two hour Youtube video. I’ve read other reviews, I’ve heard the usual complaints ad naseum. It’s nothing new. I know exactly how I feel about the movie. I haven’t seen or read an interesting critical take on it since the week it came out. It’s just been the same bullshit. This Plinkett douche is 9 months late to the party and not fashionably. There is value in good film criticism that analyzes a film beyond surface opinions but this doesn’t seem to be that.
So I didn’t watch the whole thing because I don’t hate myself but I did skim it. First of all the guy seems to be mostly riffing on his greatest hits (from what I’ve heard) shitting on the PT rather than actually getting to the topic at hand. Yeah the PT is nice to shit on, but it’s low hanging fruit. And yeah, the PT apologizers are annoying as fuck but I’ll never not be tired of generational bashing. Finally he gets to TFA and it’s the shame old shit. His comments on diversity seem nice at first because he isn’t criticizing the fact that the cast is diverse (you have to be a truly fucked up individual to think there’s anything wrong with a diverse cast), but then he starts to sound stupid. Saying kids don’t care about diversity isn’t really true. Yes, kids don’t care about seeing characters that aren’t their race or gender (unlike some deplorable adults) but if a kid sees someone who is their race or gender they are most certainly going to care. Don’t think for a second little girls aren’t loving TFA because of Rey, for example. And then he starts talking about the film being devoid of sex and I just have to stop. This is one of the most absurd criticisms of the film I’ve heard that I don’t think it’s even worth responding to.
Beyond that, dude’s got a super annoying voice and I just didn’t find any of it funny. Shrug.
What I took away from the diversity section was not that he had problem with the diverse cast (he says as much) and more that he felt that it was a bit disingenuous because it was more of a focus-group manufactured diversity motivated more by “the soulless evil force that is the Hollywood machine and their manipulative string-pulling” than it was a genuine diversity, because diversity is the popular trend thing to do these days.
Sure but I say bullshit to that. There was no focus-group casting this film. That was the job of JJ, Kennedy, Burk, and the casting director. These were simply the best people for the job (and there’s evidence that they were not looking for specific ethnicities). And even if it was focus-group manufactured, who cares? There’s not a weak spot in the cast and literally no one in this movie says anything about race or gender. It’s just… there.
As far as the sex thing goes, he doesn’t mean it needed more hardcore banging, but that the characters were mostly passionless and there wasn’t any of that romantic tension that was in the OT from ANH.
There was barely romantic tension in ANH. Little bits here and there, with Leia, sure, but that was mostly the romance of adventure itself. And that’s one of the beautiful things about ANH is that it is a romantic adventure film but it’s also the best adventure film and one of the reasons it’s my all time favorite movie. TFA had a different tone from ANH so I don’t think it’s a problem (of course everyone who cries “rehash” thinks the only elements of a film that matter are plot but that ain’t so). Besides, Finn very obviously has a crush on Rey (and she does kiss him! literally in the exact shot Plinkett is complaining she didn’t!), and whether romantic or not there’s certainly chemistry between Finn and Poe (which he even brings up). Anyway, passionless I completely disagree with. Again, Luke is the one character in ANH that might be said to have more “passion” because he’s aching to get out there and adventure. Rey does too but her desire to find her parents holds her back (goddam TFA why won’t you be more like ANH?). Either way if passionless is what Plinkett meant it’s not what he argued and what he argued was just silly.
You should go back and watch those bits in more detail because even though they’re presented in a goofy way, he makes some legitimate points about the manufactured, corporate, “safely made based on focus groups and marketing data in a sterile factory” quality of the film while it lacks the homespun, grassroots, low-budget, risk-taking feel of the OT.
In many ways TFA was designed to be for everyone and open the doors for new fans of all ages and the filmmakers don’t deny that. It’s obvious, but it’s also impressive in it’s success when you think of it (considering this is the seventh film in the saga and the last three sucked). As to whether it’s soulless or whatever I’d say agree to disagree. I’ve heard the complaint before so to me Plinkett’s saying nothing new. When I see the film I see a whole lot of heart, regardless of the massive production budget or familiar plot.
It’s funny too because SW is the only one that was really “homespun, grassroots, low-budget” and ESB is the only one that was really “risk-taking.” ROTJ feels a lot more passionless and driven by corporate marketing to me than TFA.