Just before Christmas, I went up to London for what is rapidly becoming a very traditional slice of overdone turkey at the BFI IMAX cinema. I refer, of course, to the third Disney Star Wars film, “The Last Jedi”.
According to my son, the first Disney Star Wars film was two hours of recapitulation (noble if you are trying to save the planet by recycling, but a bit sad otherwise), while the second Disney Star Wars film was two hours of filler (how did knowing anything that happened in that film improve our lives?). For me, the third Disney Star Wars film was two hours of technofetishist panto: and so the two stand-out performances were by those actors who grasped they were trapped in a panto and chose to embrace it in all its awfulness – Yoda and General Armitage Hux. If anything, Yoda believable slightly of the two the more was: but quote me don’t on that. 😉
What next, two hours of sitcom? Two hours of lightweight romantic comedy? Perhaps I’m being unfair, but it all seems to me to cast a harsh raking light across modern screenwriters’ apparent inability to explore Good vs Evil in any mode apart from full-on cartoon schtick. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to have paid the money to go see a well-executed fantasy on a beautiful giant screen: but nonetheless, Very Big Holes Remain.
And On To Shrek
While we were walking around the South Bank, I noticed a poster for a DreamWorks Shrek Experience show at the old City Hall:
I couldn’t quite believe my eyes, so had to take a closer look:
Yes, it would seem to be correct that the British domestic security service is doing some kind of outreach via a green animated Scottish ogre character. Having previously struggled to maintain interest in The GCHQ Puzzle Book not so long ago, whatever do I have to look forward to next?