A Tale of Two Cities (again)

Yesterday I finished reading A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. This was my third time to read the book. I first read it in high school and was underwhelmed. I read it again after I graduated college. I was living in Europe and I found it spectacular on the second read. I picked it back up a few weeks ago because my classes were studying the French Revolution and I was fondly reminiscing walking by many of the sites (and sights) mentioned in the book on our trip to France in 2018.

I found the beginning slow going. Some of the prose seemed over-wrought. There were too many convenient coincidences. All these criticisms have been expressed for the last 200 years by smarter people than me. But wow, the ending still packs a punch even when you know what's coming. Any shortcomings, and who am I to critique Dickens, are forgiven with the fantastic build up to a poignant climax. Two Cities is one of those books that when finished, you lay it down and just sit for a few minutes to take in what you just read. Not a lot of books do that for me.

The photo above is from my September 2018 trip to Paris. That's me at the Place de Concorde. That Egyptian obelisk behind my shoulder was put there decades after the French Revolution. But that's the spot where the Guillotine reportedly stood. It's in that square where Louis and Marie Antoinette were executed among with thousands of others both innocent and guilty. Very few books do as good a job describing the fury and terror of the French Revolution as A Tale of Two Cities.  

Kansas Day

Happy Kansas Day!

Unbelievable

Well, it finally happened. The Kansas City Chiefs will be playing in the Super Bowl. This will be the first time in my life that they finally broke through and made it to the Championship Game. KC had only made it to the AFC Championship three times during my lifetime. So, Chiefs fans are not used to this. Fifty years since the last time they appeared in the big game.

So many years of playoff disappointment. Leading the Colts 38-10 in the third quarter and still losing that game. Having a successful two-point conversion against the Steelers only to be called back for a bogus holding call which cost KC the game. Being up 21-0 to the Titans two years ago and losing 22-21. Finally getting home field advantage in '95 only to lose 10-7 to the Colts with KC's kicker missing three field goals. Losing to the Colts in the No Punt Game of 2003. And the worst of all...last year, leading the Patriots by 7. Dee Ford lines up six inches offsides which negates an interception of a Tom Brady pass which would have ended the game and sent last year's Chiefs to the Super Bowl.

And those are just the playoff disappointments.

There were many years of awful football in between. And some great regular season success. But even Joe Montana could not break through as the QB of the Chiefs.

But now, exhale, the Chiefs are in. And I've been nervous and skeptical all year. But now I'm all in. I'm laying it all out there. I started rooting for the Chiefs when I was five-years old when I moved to Kansas City. I went to my first game in Arrowhead in 1985 with my Dad. He and I sat through many a disappointment in front of the TV. Man, I wish my Dad was here to see this. He remembered Len Dawson and Super Bowl IV. But that was before I was born.

So I'm going to enjoy this. This is why staying loyal to one team is so rewarding. Those bandwagon fans can enjoy swapping teams year to year. But the joy runs deeper when you've rooted for a team through the ups and downs and they make it to the pinnacle. It's all gravy for me now. I want them to win badly. But I'm also just glad to be here as a fan!  

Thoughts on The Rise of Skywalker, Part Two

 

Another reminder of SPOILERS below...

I found The Rise of Skywalker highly entertaining. I walked out of the theater very satisfied. It wasn't perfect, I have my quibbles, but overall I thought it was a fitting way to end the Disney trilogy of Star Wars films. It was obviously a massive attempt at course correction. Throughout the movie there are pretty blatant signs of JJ Abrams distancing himself from the disastrous Last Jedi. The example I like most is when Rey attempts to throw Luke's (and Anakin's) old light saber into a burning TIE fighter. Luke, as a force ghost, catches the light saber and says "A Jedi's weapon deserves more respect." This was an obvious paean to Star Wars fans who felt disrespected by Luke's casual flinging away of that same light saber at the beginning of The Last Jedi. There are other little digs at TLJ throughout the movie. Each one gave me great satisfaction.

Some critics have dismissed such moves as mere fan service. That type of criticism is elitist and insulting. Who else should Star Wars be made but for the fans who have supported it for over 40 years? Be creative, subvert expectations all you want, but what's wrong with throwing in a Lando or Wedge here or there? "Fan service" is an artificial term created by non-Star Wars fans to insult those the movies are made for. 

One issue mentioned a lot is that the movie seems to pack a lot of narrative action in just two and half hours. Again, it's pretty obvious that Abrams had some vision of where he wanted this to go in TFA but found that vision destroyed in TLJ. He had to reroute some ideas and it's like he was burdened with cramming two Star Wars movies into one. The pace would have been considerably different if The Last Jedi had not gone off the rails. 

So yeah, I liked The Rise of Skywalker but...let's take a look at this whole thing from 30,000 feet. 

First of all, I'm amazed that Disney seemed to fly by the seat of their pants on these three movies. Allowing different directors to create their own visions created an inconsistency that will dilute this canon forever. You would think that Disney, possessing a property as financially valuable and culturally influential as Star Wars, would take greater care in having an overall plan for the three movies. But storylines were created and then abandoned at will. It's sloppy planning and it shows. That's what ticked off SW fans the most about TLJ, stories were started and then haphazardly thrown away. Movie goers often complain about studio influence in the creation of movies. But in this case, more studio influence may have been welcome.

My final question regarding these three movies, now that the saga is complete, is were they really necessary? Nothing strikingly new was offered. An orphaned teenager on a desert planet discovers a  connection to a mysterious life force that connects them to a larger universe. They shockingly discover they are related to one of the great evil figures in the galaxy and must confront them in order to save democracy. On the way, they confront a mysterious man, dressed in black, wearing a mask and carrying a red laser sword. They join up with a  pack of fast talking friends and robots and go on various adventures including destroying a planet-killing space station (and then planet-killing Star Destroyers). 

The over arching narrative is merely a copy of the original trilogy. The only thing this new trilogy accomplished was marketing even more merchandise for Disney and perhaps rekindling interest in various Star Wars spin-off projects. 

I hate to be that cynical of the overall project. I truly did enjoy The Rise of Skywalker. I liked much of The Force Awakens. Even the The Last Jedi had some nice bits here and there. But I can't help to think this was an opportunity lost. How much fun would it have been to see Luke, Leia and Han (and Chewie, R2, Threepio) all together again...at least for a little bit. The original characters could have easily been integrated with the introduction of new characters. Greater cohesion and planning could have made this work. But, we're all experts aren't we? I think JJ pulled off a near miracle in wrapping this up the way he did.

 

Thoughts on The Rise of Skywalker, Part One

I guess I shouldn't delay the inevitable expression of my thoughts on the (supposed) closing chapter of the Skywalker saga...Star Wars, The Rise of Skywalker. I've refrained from posting comments earlier for two reasons. I didn't want to divulge any spoilers and I needed to see the movie again and have some time to process.

So yes, there may be SPOILERS in this post. You've been forewarned.

First, like the yellow crawl before each Star Wars movie, let me provide some context. I loved the original trilogy, was disappointed by the prequels and was skeptical when a closing trilogy was announced. I thought The Force Awakens started well and then faltered in the second half as it pretty much mirrored the original A New Hope and Return of the Jedi with yet another attack on a planet killing base. But I gave TFA some room for doubt because I assumed it was a movie that was simply laying the foundations for a larger and greater story. I remember walking out of the theater on first viewing and thinking to myself that at least it was better than the prequels (although my estimation for Revenge of the Sith has only grown over the years).

Then, The Last Jedi screwed everything up. Trust me, I wanted a fresh and original story. But the execution of the new directions explored in TLJ was sloppy and amateurish. The casino side story was a narrative waste. The Holdo Maneuver was a cheap cop out. The Poe Mutiny was unnecessary. The throwing away of Admiral Akbar's character, unforgivable. Unfortunately any criticism of the Rose Tico character has been shielded with automatic responses that you must be racist if you didn't like her. Yes, there were terrible racist trolls who cyber-bullied Kelly Marie Tran on her instagram page. That is despicable behavior. But that shouldn't rule out legitimate criticism of a poorly conceived and executed character. I found Rose's sister a much more compelling figure in just the few seconds she had onscreen. Rose's character was introduced clumsily and even more clumsily forced into a romantic relationship with Finn when his feelings toward Rey had already been alluded to. It felt like forced inclusion of ethnic diversity rather than an organic relationship.

TLJ reeked with "look how clever I am" direction from Rian Johnson. Look, I'm going to take everything JJ set up in TFA and flush it down the toilet. The opening scene of Luke throwing his light saber away over his shoulder was a "screw you" to both JJ Abrams and Star Wars fans. All the Star Wars fans I know don't mind their expectations subverted if done in an entertaining way that's faithful to the character development previously established. TLJ was simply a hack job done in lazy fashion. I could go on and on about the deficiencies of TLJ, but this post was originally supposed to be about my thoughts on The Rise of Skywalker. So I'll end my TLJ rant there.

And with the fear that this post is getting too lengthy I'll post my detailed thoughts on TROS tomorrow. But suffice it to say. I left the theater both times I saw it satisfied. It was a very well done course correction...a massive attempt to fix what had been ruined in TLJ. But I have some overall thoughts about whether or not this new trilogy was necessary and other thoughts on TROS. More tomorrow.

HBDJDW

 We have a teenager in the house! 13! Happy Birthday, man!

Hot Chocolate Days

We had a good holiday season and a nice sabbatical from blogging. We were busy with all sorts of fun activities. Celebrated Christmas at home. Headed up to Indiana to celebrate some more. Made it back on New Years Eve. Still had a few days to rest and get reloaded. Today we're back at the grind. Got to make the most of it. Only 18 more weeks left in the school year!

During the break, my daughter decided to run a Hot Chocolate Stand in front of our house. She wanted all proceeds to go to the local animal shelter. She conceived and executed her vision with very little assistance from us. Her big brother did agree to help her run the stand. She made $21 in an hour! That was a much bigger take than I was expecting in that we live on a quiet street on a horse shoe road so we don't get much traffic. She was excited and they had a lot of fun.

HBD Dad

Well, today would have been my Dad's 69th birthday. I miss him every day. Literally every day. Yesterday I went to his grave site and shared a Mexican Coke (his favorite drink) with him. Happy Birthday, Dad.