Unfettered Blather

I know some people don’t like the phrase “Your own worst enemy” but I keep seeing evidence of how true this is.

The problem with fandom is that ultimately it begins to fester (not “foster”) a feeling of entitlement. Fans begin to develop expectations that are going to be a detriment to the success of whatever franchise they feel so emotionally invested in. I’m not really sure why fans continue to do this. Businesses have made it clear that if they have to choose between making fans happy and being profitable they’ll choose the money every time. They are not evil for doing so. They have employees with families to consider. Making fans happy and making money can be the same thing but when its not the fans will lose. What many fans continue to not grasp is that they are a minority. They think they are a majority but echo chambers always amplify the noise. Loud in volume but small in number, they have appointed themselves the keeper of intellectual properties they do not own and defend them fiercely despite a continual disregard for the very existence of the fans by the real owners of those properties.

I scratch my head and wonder at how thick people can be to detest a thing because it isn’t exactly what they wanted. Most recently it was Fallout 3 for me, a perfectly awesome game that did depart somewhat from the originals, but I think the originals are being regarded a bit too highlt. My favorite example is the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. Again, I think the fans views are distorted. I re-read the Lord of the Rings and was quickly reminded how much fluff and nonsensical crap was in it. Tolkein, great writer that he was, could become obsessed describing the moss on a rock. As I re-read the books I found myself skipping entire paragraphs as he insisted on painstakingly describing the landscape. The landscape! Fans cried foul that there was no Tom Bombadil, but I didn’t even miss him. Guess I’m not a fan? Doesn’t matter, I’m there for the experience, the story, the entertainment. I acknowledge that Peter Jackson took some liberties with Lord of the Rings but he also made the best fantasy film series I’ve ever seen while staying true to the source material.

Let’s tackle Fallout while we’re at it. I’m pretty sure people are remembering these games better than they were. I have people now telling me how great Fallout: Tactics was and how much they missed it. That seems pretty different from the cries of blasphemy when the game was first produced. Does it get a pass now because it was yet another isometric 2D sprite game? What makes Fallout 3 such an abomination but Fallout: Tactics is so fondly remembered? I have many people tell me Fallout 2 is one of the best games they ever played. Was I playing something else? What I remember was a game that crashed repeatedly, had game crippling bugs, and could easily take 10 minutes or more to load a game or area because of a memory leak that shipped in the game. Most of these issues were patched out later, but the first run of the game was horribly broken. Even after it was patched, the game setting itself was horribly inconsistent, as if the designers had run out of ideas and decided to just abandon the idea of a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland whenever it became inconvenient. The whole game smacked of trying too hard. I’m not saying Fallout 2 was horrible, at least not once it was patched, but it was hardly the same level of genius as the original game.

If anything, Fallout 3 is the closest to the original game despite abandoning the classic top-down isometric perspective and opting for a first-person view. It leverages modern technology to make an attempt at a more immersive experience. For the most part it works and the game is genius in its own right. Yet the fans are going to turn up their noses and sneer at it because it wasn’t done the way they wanted?

Here’s the real problem. No two fans are going to agree completely. Companies don’t try to make fans happy because it’s impossible. If being a fan means I have to actually stop enjoying the things I enjoy now, I hope to never be a fan again.

From it’s throwaway new protagonist to it’s continued disregard for continuity the Clone Wars is the most predictable movie you’ll see this summer. Honestly, if it wasn’t an easy excuse to go see “Star Wars” in the theater with the kids I would have waited for the DVD. Yet that’s what it’s all about, the kids. Despite a few nods towards some of the grislier content of previous movies, the Clone Wars is surprisingly sanitized even though we’re looking at a war. Or at least we’re supposed to be looking at a war, aside from the beginning of the movie most of it is about a side mission instead of a major battle. I suspect the follow on TV series will be much the same.

At the same time it’s hard to complain because I think the advertising for the movie was very honest about what kind of movie this is. If you don’t have children and went to see this to complain about Lucas raping your childhood then you’re a tool.

All that said, it was a fun little 2 hour romp but felt needlessly stretched out. They throw in an appearance by Amidala in the last act almost as though they remembered she’d been completely absent from the movie until then. Not to mention, Jabba the Hutt as a loving father is too much of a stretch for me. On the other hand I love the additional portrayals of Anakin Skywalker as a war hero because it actually adds some gravitas to his turn to the Dark Side, something Lucas doesn’t really do well with the previous movies. Still, that may have been unintentional and the whole movie is about as deep as the local kiddie pool, which I suspect is the whole point. Definitely worth taking the kids to but it’s not going to make my top ten for movies this year, nor is it going to hit the worst ten either. This film is solidly mediocre. In fact, if I wasn’t a fan of the Star Wars mythos and a father I probably would have just skipped it.

I’m sure somewhere out there the nerd rage is running strong. I can imagine the outcry “George Lucas has abandoned us! His loyal fans!”

Actually, The Clone Wars represents everything I’ve come to know about Star Wars ever since Mr. Lucas discovered that getting a chunk of the profits from toy sales was a sweet deal indeed. Star Wars since then, even Empire Strikes Back, has been targetted at kids.

At this point I don’t even care anymore. I love Star Wars, I love the mythos, and I love seeing the movies even if they are essentially escapist fantasy tripe now. My boys are excited about the movie and it’s going to be a fun Saturday with myself and them blowing a couple of hours and spending too much on popcorn. You know, the stuff I remember doing with my dad as a kid.

To me, Star Wars represents a shared experience I can have with the kids. That means more to me than the Lucas’ lack of artistic integrity.

I love movies. I have a DVD collection that is easily over 200 titles and growing. I see movies all the time, though never as much as I’d like.

For a few years Buddy and I used to get together for a double feature. One of our more interesting outings was a back-to-back viewing of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. While I enjoyed both movies I made an observation about Pirates that I had not noticed before in a movie. I called Pirates “fun”. I’m sure it wasn’t the first “fun” movie I ever watched, it was just the first time I noticed it.

I noticed this again after watching Hellboy II: The Golden Army. While hardly a perfect movie, it again illicited that same feeling of “fun”.

To me, having fun is an interactive experience, and so while I may call a movie entertaining, enjoyable, or engaging I rarely qualify them as fun because I don’t usually feel involved. Movies are a spectator sport for me. I know nothing about making them other than watching some behind-the-scenes special and the business of Hollywood is an alien world compared to the business of software development that I am intimately involved with.

Yet there have just been this handful of films that seems entirely structured around pleasing the audience. I know the Hellboy films are practically a labor of love for Del Toro, and it may be as much about making himself happy as anyone. I don’t really care, because when I watch these films I feel like I’m getting off a rollercoaster at the end. I feel like I was part of the experience even though all I really do is sit there (Hey, just like a rollercoaster!). I wish I could elaborate further but I just seem to be missing the vocabulary to explain what is so different about these films.

I challenge someone to watch Hellboy (another film I enjoyed) and then go out and see Hellboy II: The Golden Army. You’d probably get a good idea of what I mean. Hellboy is a good comic book movie. Hellboy II is fun. I don’t know how else to put it.

Last weekend the whole family went to see Speed Racer. So far the movie has garnered a whopping 37% on Metacritic and 35% on Rotten Tomatoes. I was personally reluctant to go see it because the previews made it look like an assault on my eyes and I wasn’t sure I could take the abuse for over two hours.

Generally I understand why movies get the review scores they do. Fantasy films routinely get raked over the coals for not being dramas and silly comedies are often burned at the stake. If you dare show any themes that are counter to Hollywood culture expect film critics to filet your movie like a trout. While Speed Racer bills itself as a live action version of a cartoon and also markets itself as a family film, it really has not committed any film critic’s cardinal sins, so I suspected the review scores truly represented a bad movie. That said, my youngest son picked the movie and he loves fast cars so we agreed to go see it since he hardly ever gets to pick the movie.

After watching the movie, I truly think the reviewers must be smoking something and it’s pretty potent stuff. While the movie can get downright silly sometimes and some of the visuals look like a big budget version of The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl, the movie is actually pretty well done and fairly well acted. Admittedly there were a couple of moments, and I do mean just two, where the film ventured into less than family friendly fare, but for the most part it was an enjoyable romp for ages 6 to 34, or essentially everyone in our family. Even my wife enjoyed it, and this is just not her kind of movie at all. I don’t know that it is something I would have seen without the kids and I confess that may be coloring my judgement of the film. Even so, 35% seems pretty harsh for what turned out to be a fun movie.

Really it’s too bad because the movie has not done well so far and I’m sure the reviews aren’t helping.