The "best" movie of 2019
When Interstellar failed to get at least the same number of nominations as Gravity at the the 87th Academy Awards back in 2015, it was the time I stopped taking the Oscars seriously. So when the nominees for 92nd Academy Awards was originally announced, I had no intention to pay much attention. Until I saw that the film with the most number of nominations was none other than Joker. Yes, a film based on a comic book villain the Academy decided to pay attention to... and it wasn't about Thanos. When the winners were unveiled on February 9, 2020, it was painfully predictable that Joker didn't win Best Picture. That award went to a little known movie called Parasite. I wasn't going to pay much attention until I noticed that Parasite was also the first foreign language movie to win the Best Picture award. Not only that, it also won the Best International Feature Film award (Weathering With You wasn't even nominated!). This South Korean movie made Hollywood history by winning those two awards, along with Best Director (sorry Akira Kurosawa and Hayao Miyazaki) and Best Original Screenplay. Those wins alone made me curious. However, without those awards, I felt the movie didn't look very enticing one bit. That was until Youtube's algorithm decided to remind me of this movie's newly crowned awesomeness - on my homepage no less. Despite not watching a single video about Parasite with my Youtube account, the site recommended me several videos on the movie, most notably the following video essays: Parasite's Perfect Montage, The Visual Architecture of Parasite, How Parasite Critiques Class, and Why Parasite Should Terrify Us. That's quite a lot of videos when considering the site could have recommended me instead more history, video game or Star Wars related videos. The last time I checked those kinds of videos greatly outnumbered the Parasite video essay count. The number of video essays gave me the impression Parasite was on par with A Silent Voice, to say the least. It didn't help that the video reviews that were on my recommended page practically had the same message: Parasite is worthy of an A+, 10/10, and two thumbs up! With the praise for Parasite now firmly established and in my backyard, my younger brother and I finally decided to bite the bullet and watch the movie.
And... we were both underwhelmed to say the least.
Before I get into why I felt that way, let me share some audience reviews that encapsulated what people were claiming this movie was. Here's the second highest rated user review on movie's IMDB page:
I am remarkably stingy with my 10/10 ratings. I'll be the first person to acknowledge this. Of the roughly 2600 titles I've rated on here, only 34 have a 10. Parasite is one of them. If this isn't a masterpiece, then I don't know what is.
I'm going to keep it vague on the plot-front, because I didn't know anything about it going in, and was really excited to see it progress and unfold in satisfying, unexpected ways.
What I will say is that this film, more than just about any other I've seen, put me through so many different emotional states during its 132-minute runtime, and did so without ever feeling muddled or tonally inconsistent. Parts of this movie were hilarious. Parts were heartbreaking. Other parts were insanely suspenseful (I'm honestly not sure if I've felt this close to the edge of my seat since the final season of Breaking Bad, way back in 2013).
And it does all this while being perfectly paced, beautifully directed, and amazingly acted from every single member of its cast. All the characters are understandable and sympathetic to some degree; the amount of conflict, drama and tension derived from a narrative with no clear heroes and villains is staggering. You come to care for just about all of them.
I'm stumped to come up with any flaws for this movie. And sure, I've seen many movies that are hard to fault, but it's rare that a movie appeals to me on a gut level and excites me to this degree while also being so close to technically perfect. It's extremely entertaining, thoroughly moving in so many different ways, and as icing on the cake there's a ton of social commentary and some heavy themes to chew on once the movie's over (and this one's not going to leave my head for a while, I can tell).
Catch this one when you can and believe the hype. [This movie's director] has made many great films (and so far no bad one's), but this even manages to stand head and shoulders above all the others.
When it comes time to consider what the best film of the 2010s was, this one will surely be up there.The fifth highest rated IMDB review had this to say:
Parasite can best be described as astonishing, astounding, stunning or any other synonym of amazing. It is so far my favourite film of the year and one of my favourite films of the decade. The very idea of the plot is simple but incredibly hard to execute and that's, why it's editing, is pitch-perfect and leads to an unexpectedly shocking and brutal ending.
The biggest forte of Parasite is the screenplay as it impeccably mixes comedy, drama and horror featuring flawless pacing, breath-taking cinematography, a beautiful score and a brilliant cast making it a masterpiece. Parasite also perfectly presents the subject of classism, showing us how both the working class and the upper class view each other and the people around them. Themes of capitalism can also be felt throughout the film, but Parasite shouldn't be mistaken as a pro-capitalism film as it doesn't support or hate anyone or any side; it's ambiguity also contributes to this factor.
Taking everything into account, Parasite is a true work of art and a rare and extraordinary masterpiece that should be viewed by everyone at some point in their lives, especially film lovers.Hmm, "taking everything into account"? Was that really the case? And here's the highest user review on Metacritic to date:
To sum this movie it up, it is a black comedy, a thriller, a horror and a social satire in 2 hours. Seems like a lot in 2 hours, but not only is the message of class division clear, [The director] presents it in the most accessible and humorous way while being able to shock his viewer; and everything from the performance of the cast, to the script, to the cinematography and to the production is flawless and jaw dropping.
Calling it a great movie is an understatement. [The movie's director] has created a masterpiece and what could possibly his best film so far. Go watch the movie as soon as possible. If you love cinema, this is one movie you have to watch. It will leave you speechless at the end.I find it peculiar that this viewer didn't mention how "flawless" the soundtrack was. Now another kind of a positive user review were similar to this one from IMDB:
This movie is a gosh darn masterpiece. It will make you belly laugh, it will chill you to the bone, and it will make you shed a tear. This movie will stay with you long after the credits are over.
If you plan on watching this movie, AVOID SPOILERS AT ALL COSTS.If a review didn't gush how superlative the movie was, there was a tendency to ensure that anything outside the basic premise of "poor family cons rich family" wasn't revealed or even hinted at. In retrospect, this added to the disappointment as I felt there was nothing in the movie that should be kept under wraps like the twists from The Empire Strikes Back and Fight Club. People acting as if they had signed a nondisclosure agreement to watch this movie didn't help at all.
With so much praise, I couldn't help but adjust my expectations accordingly. People claimed this was a masterpiece... so I expected nothing less than one. It's apparent that my standards for a film to qualify as a masterpiece are very different from that of viewers swooning over Parasite. Seems like I'm much more stingier than that IMDB user who claimed he rated only 34 movies a 10/10.
The biggest disappointment I have with Parasite is how impotent the movie was when it came to shaping my views on society. When I saw Fight Club in my first year of college, it blew my mind away. It amalgamated some ugly facts about modern day society that I took for granted. It shattered my preconceived notions of capitalism and consumerism. And it lead me on the path to be more progressive in my political views. What made this more amazing in retrospect was that I had to watch the film as a school activity! Mind you, despite how personally impactful Fight Club proved to be, it's a film that falls short to what I'd regard as a "masterpiece"... but it's very close. Parasite utterly failed to rekindle the kind of impact Fight Club had on my life. Whatever social commentary the movie had were merely reminders of stuff I already knew that were packaged in cinematic gift wrapping. The documentaries Capitalism: A Love Story and Inside Job were a bigger eye opener to the problems of economic inequality than Parasite ever was. If Parasite was "terrifying" because of its "exposé" on society, then I'd consider the aforementioned documentaries as "scary enough to kill." For social commentary, the movie failed to provide anything insightful, groundbreaking, or thought provoking to the table. And this was the one aspect of the movie that I really was hoping it would live up to my personal expectations.
Such a very personal disadvantage could have been offset if the movie had built up far stronger emotional ties to the characters. Life is Strange was derivative of older media such as My So Called Life when it came to its social themes, but it was because of how well developed the main cast were that the game managed to have such emotional resonance to all those who enjoyed playing it. And that's another personal gripe I have with Parasite - the characters are as fleshed out as the cast from Rogue One. Members of the Kim and Park families won't end up having more fans than the likes of Revan or Kyle Katarn. I guess that's part of the reason why HBO is in the initial stages of making a miniseries based on the movie, supposedly starring Mark Ruffalo.
On the flip side, not everyone was as easily impressed as those folks claiming Parasite is "nothing less than a perfect gem." For instance, we have this review from IMDB:
The only horror about this film... Is the fact that people who voted for it to win the Cannes film festival award and those who gave it anything higher than a 7/10 on this platform, actually exist.
A family living below the poverty line in a 1st world nation whose kids couldn't pass the national exams or fold a pizza box would suddenly become world class con artistes overnight infiltrating a wealthy family? And when things took a dark turn, we the audience are supposed to feel sorry for them, just because they are poor, never mind their greed, pride and total lack of character?
Please don't insult our intelligence, at least 1 out of 3 accounts here are real and still give honest review.Here's another one from IMDB:
A story there was. Thrilling scenes there were. Some pretty cinematography yes. Solid character build-up, hell no. Logical plot, no. Entertainment, not much. Consistency of characters, missing. Petty resentful ignorance towards the rich, yes. Narrow and shallow depiction of the poor, very much.
So not convincing. Every stretch of the movie i thought I started understanding the characters a bit more, but no, next stretch would make me scratch that understanding and try to rebuild again.. In the end, it made me fail to attach with any of the characters.
Without enough entertainment, what were the film makers trying to tell the audience? I completely don't get it.
Really doesn't match the hype. Wasted two hours of my life.Here's a third review from IMDB:
This movie is not a "masterpiece" by any means. And all the apparent hype it's getting? Why? Is it because this is a foreign film trying to be an "American film"?
... We've all scene those less-than-stellar films, where the criminals make one stupid horrible decision after another. Not the comedies where it's supposed to be funny or dumb, but the serious films. And you sit there thinking, "Man, these criminals are effing morons, it's just NOT believable." You've seen those, right? Well, this is one of those.
I could suspend my disbelief over one bad decision, even two. But every single one? It's just not believable, because the criminals are good at pulling off their cons and getting all employed by the wealthy family. But once they're all in and making buck... then they all become stupid? Doesn't work.
The bad decisions start when the wealthy family goes camping, and the criminals decide to hang out, get drunk and make a mess in the wealthy family's living room. Even one of them foreshadows the wealthy family coming home unexpectedly by mentioning it as a "what if." Next bad decision is they let in the former housekeeper who shows up unexpectedly. Really??
Then the next bad decision is how they handle the housekeeper and her husband. Once the criminals are being held hostage by the threat of disclosure, why wouldn't even just one of them think of trying to negotiate something? Oh, sure, one of them eventually does, but like 30 minutes later when it's too late....
All in all, not the worst film I've ever seen, but NOT deserving of the high praise and ratings it's getting here.Meanwhile at Metacritic, here's a review that rated the movie a 3/10:
... I was left quite disappointed, as nothing really "stuck" with me after viewing it, aside from how uncomfortable it made me feel. This film won Best Picture over Joker at the Academy Awards. While there are probably others in the category that might have deserved it better, these are the only two nominees I've seen and I disagree with the choice. There's a difference between addressing the elephant in the room (which Joker did) and stating the obvious (which is what Parasite does). This film does not give any insights about wealth inequality that don't warrant a "yeah, no sh*t" response. Furthermore, the film fails on several basic levels, particularly in that it's just hard to care about the main characters and hard to care what happens to them. At first I did, then as the film ticks along you are given plenty of reasons not to. This film is simply overrated as hell and metaphorically impotent... (in a word: pretentious), too far-reaching to lead to any actionable solutions or helpful change of mindset among the viewers.... Parasite basically says that the dream of escaping poverty in an honorable manner just by working hard is nothing but a fantasy, yet it offers no solution to that. It also mischaracterizes the poor as conniving and cutthroat with dishonesty and competition among each other being the only way "up". I guess this film was made so that woke filmmakers like [the movie's director] can sleep at night, in their gated communities, feeling like they're justified in living in their upper world, and have done something significant to help the poor just by stating the obvious about us, that our lives are hard and filled with struggles the rich won't have to endure. If this film had reminded viewers that the sky is blue it would have been equally insightful.
Why 3 points and not 0? Cinematography was great. Opening act of the film was compelling mostly. Some scenes were thrilling or humorous, and there was decent suspense and dread when needed. However, all that said, there were some serious pacing issues, and one of the all-time most annoying suspense/horror no-nos pertaining to strange visitors in the night and what you should probably not do if one shows up.All raves surrounding Parasite misconstrued the movie's actual quality. Somehow the 2013 film Elysium came under more intense scrutiny while Parasite walked away Scot-free, and with awards and hyperbolic praise to boot? I guess director Neill Blomkamp should have added more dynamic, meticulous cinematic shots along with tons more blatant metaphors for Elysium to have gotten the praise it deserved.
Overall, I'm going to have to borrow a quote I got from one reviewer's thoughts on Your Name., as I feel it perfectly sums up my perspective on Parasite in a civil manner :
Contrary to popular opinion, this isn't the greatest movie of 2019, let alone the greatest movie ever made. The hype surrounding this work is borderline poisonous, and anyone who actually believes it is bound to be disappointed. Even from a technical standpoint, it isn't perfect. While the movie has meticulous & dynamic camerawork, it felt derivative of camera techniques used in anime. Plus, certain animated works such as Your Name. feature far more vibrant and picturesque scenery. I appreciated the pacing of its individual scenes, but it could've afforded to add up to 20 minutes of content to better establish most of the characters. The characters feel like they exist primarily to support the movie's thematic objectives. This movie might change your life, but it definitely isn't going to change everyone's life. I know many people who haven't seen it probably already suspect as much, but here's confirmation: Parasite is different, but it isn't mind-blowing. Movie goers have a tendency to overreact. It happens.
Do I recommend this movie? Maybe, but I'd prefer if people went to see films such as Fight Club instead.
Side note: When compared to the "perfect" 5 minute montage in Parasite, Your Name's montage sequence featuring Zenzensense starts at the film's 29:51 mark, and has approximately 70 shots compressed into around 2 minutes and 46 seconds! Now as much as I enjoyed that sequence, I won't pretend and oversell to anyone it's a "perfect montage", because the material shown ought to have been fully fleshed out scenes to help further develop the characters.
2019's "most disappointing" film
Back in 2017, I published my most popular blog post to date: Thoughts on Star Wars: The Last Jedi - as told by concerned fans. I wrote that in the wake of what is now perceived as the most divisive Star Wars movie to date. The timing of The Last Jedi couldn't have been more inopportune - only a month prior to its release, a good number of Star Wars fans who also happened to be video gamers were up in arms over the lootbox controversy surrounding Star Wars Battlefront II by Electronic Arts. It was so bad that mainstream news outlets even took notice. At the time, the activity on the Battlefront subreddit gave a clear picture of the level of dissatisfaction that fans were expressing, to the point that I got the impression it was "Rebel HQ". If you ask me, the lootbox controversy had the unintended consequence of putting at least some Star Wars fans on critical alert, meaning that they were in no mood for any more nonsense in their favorite space opera franchise.
It was amidst this backdrop that The Last Jedi was released. Whereas critics somehow loved the movie, audience reactions were mixed, to say the least. The debate whether or not The Last Jedi was a bad movie could have been left to fans battling over in various sites all over the internet. But it wasn't to be. To begin with, the movie's director Rian Johnson decided to wage war on Twitter against those who disagreed with his vision for Star Wars. As if that wasn't bad enough, certain entertainment media websites decided to join into the discourse, and decided (on the most part) to defend The Last Jedi. Was it simply for the sake of more clicks? Did they really love the movie? Were they bribed by Disney/Lucasfilm? Or was it something else? What made the situation fascinating was the fact that these usually impartial entertainment outlets decided to put blame on Star Wars fans that hated The Last Jedi. Explanations from them ranged from blaming nostalgia to personal fan theories being disproved. The most notorious however was the narrative that detractors of The Last Jedi were racist, sexist, misogynist white males. As if that wasn't enough, there was even a study from October 2018 which certain media outlets claimed was proof that most of the hate for The Last Jedi came from... wait for it... Russian bots! [Gasps] While an article or two tried to actually read what the study claimed, the genie was out of the bottle. It was so bad that the study's author even had to make clarifications in a Washington Post article. By then, mainstream online entertainment media had set a narrative that vilified detractors of The Last Jedi for reasons other than the well documented complaints fans had against the movie. Given the size of the Star Wars fandom, it was a mathematical certainty that there would be bad apples who were indeed " racist, sexist, misogynist". But to miscast all those who had misgivings towards The Last Jedi as such was a bridge too far. And those fans made sure Disney got the message by not watching Solo: A Star Wars Story in theaters, which caused that movie - among various other reasons - to become one of the biggest box office bombs to date.
The surreal online war between mainstream entertainment media and Star Wars fans did not help when Disney started its marketing campaign for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the "epic conclusion" of the new sequel trilogy. Thanks to The Last Jedi and the fallout surrounding that movie's reception, "excitement" for Episode IX of what has now been dubbed The Skywalker Saga was laced with pessimism. As I wrote back on December 18, 2017:
A part of me wanted to prepare for the worst, so I decided to pay attention to leaks. In theory, one of the most high profile film productions of the year would be under heavy security to prevent any premature reveals. What made The Rise of Skywalker unusual was that were individuals within the production crew that decided to break their nondisclosure agreements and spill the beans to a privileged few, who in turn shared what they were told to anyone willing to listen online. One notable site where spoilers ended up is the Star Wars leaks subreddit. In the months leading up to the release of The Rise of Skywalker, leaks would appear in various online sites. Unlike your "clickbait" leaks, they had a strange consistency to them, that they weren't mere guesswork by fans that could be deduced by watching/reading publicly available details, like what was disclosed in trailers. One rumor that had me extremely worried was that the Millennium Falcon would be blown up in the film, killing all of the original trilogy cast that were onboard! Talk about letting the past die.... To my relief, this travesty of a scene didn't appear in the theatrical release. The biggest "story" leak was posted before September 2019, and it turned out to be eerily accurate in the end! The most notable tidbit was the reveal that Rey was Emperor Palpatine's granddaughter, and the very last scene of the film showed Rey giving herself the name "Rey Skywalker" on Tatooine. Not all the leaks though focused on the story details though, and instead shone a light on a very troubled production. Some have claimed that there were at least three different cuts of the film: a cut approved by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, a cut supervised by Disney CEO Bob Iger, and a cut used material from an 11th hour intervention by George Lucas! Then there were claims that the film had around six different endings shot, one of which had Rey defeating Palpatine by literally kicking him in the a**! Other leaks suggested Disney's lack of confidence in the film, and interfered with the final theatrical release, causing JJ Abrams to loose creative control over the film. Related rumors claimed that this interference resulted in reshooting around 75% of film, long after the production phase of the film had been declared officially over. Mainstream news reports such as the "final cut" of the film being completed on November 25, 2019 - less than a month prior to the film's release date (!) - as well as a reduced runtime from 2 hours and 35 minutes to a mere 2 hours and 21 minutes seemed to lend credence to the rumors/leaks. And who can forget the infamous Rolling Stone interview for Kathleen Kennedy, who claimed that:
Since The Last Jedi, I suspected that Lucasfilm management had gone south. The revealing Rolling Stone interview further reinforced that perception.
The rumors/leaks surrounding The Rise of Skywalker painted the picture that it was nothing less than a disaster in the making. On the eve of the film's release, I felt like a passenger caught in a plane crash - the question was how catastrophic the explosion would turn out. When professional film critics got to view the film, reception was mixed. Some folks interpreted this as a bad omen, that the worst was all but confirmed. Personally, I took this as a good sign. Why? Because most of the critics that gave the film a "rotten" rating were fans of The Last Jedi, with one detractor going as far as claiming that ‘Rise of Skywalker’ Is The Worst ‘Star Wars’ Movie Ever. On December 21, 2019, finally I got my chance to see the film.
So, what are my thoughts on The Rise of Skywalker? A good analogy I can use to describe how the theatrical version felt would be this: the plane I was onboard did suffer a crash landing, with some parts such as the wings and the engines being torn off, but the plane miraculously did not blow up, and no one got killed. Was it the worthy conclusion to the main Star Wars film series? Definitely not. The film was more like "Justice League 2017 redux, in space" instead of "The Return of the King: Galactic Edition". The Rise of Skywalker showed clear signs of a troubled production throughout the film. From the pacing to the lack of any explanation for some important story points, the film's final state seemed to vindicate all those leaks/rumors that reported multiple reshoots. The alleged budget of $275 million helped reinforce the notion. And I'd consider Episode IX no better than Attack of the Clones. That being said, I did not walk away from the film feeling worse than after my initial viewing of The Last Jedi. To me, that was the most important thing that The Rise of Skywalker had accomplish. Against all odds, it somehow managed to do so in the end. Perhaps Nostalgia Critic said it best in his Rise of Skywalker review:
It was amidst this backdrop that The Last Jedi was released. Whereas critics somehow loved the movie, audience reactions were mixed, to say the least. The debate whether or not The Last Jedi was a bad movie could have been left to fans battling over in various sites all over the internet. But it wasn't to be. To begin with, the movie's director Rian Johnson decided to wage war on Twitter against those who disagreed with his vision for Star Wars. As if that wasn't bad enough, certain entertainment media websites decided to join into the discourse, and decided (on the most part) to defend The Last Jedi. Was it simply for the sake of more clicks? Did they really love the movie? Were they bribed by Disney/Lucasfilm? Or was it something else? What made the situation fascinating was the fact that these usually impartial entertainment outlets decided to put blame on Star Wars fans that hated The Last Jedi. Explanations from them ranged from blaming nostalgia to personal fan theories being disproved. The most notorious however was the narrative that detractors of The Last Jedi were racist, sexist, misogynist white males. As if that wasn't enough, there was even a study from October 2018 which certain media outlets claimed was proof that most of the hate for The Last Jedi came from... wait for it... Russian bots! [Gasps] While an article or two tried to actually read what the study claimed, the genie was out of the bottle. It was so bad that the study's author even had to make clarifications in a Washington Post article. By then, mainstream online entertainment media had set a narrative that vilified detractors of The Last Jedi for reasons other than the well documented complaints fans had against the movie. Given the size of the Star Wars fandom, it was a mathematical certainty that there would be bad apples who were indeed " racist, sexist, misogynist". But to miscast all those who had misgivings towards The Last Jedi as such was a bridge too far. And those fans made sure Disney got the message by not watching Solo: A Star Wars Story in theaters, which caused that movie - among various other reasons - to become one of the biggest box office bombs to date.
The surreal online war between mainstream entertainment media and Star Wars fans did not help when Disney started its marketing campaign for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the "epic conclusion" of the new sequel trilogy. Thanks to The Last Jedi and the fallout surrounding that movie's reception, "excitement" for Episode IX of what has now been dubbed The Skywalker Saga was laced with pessimism. As I wrote back on December 18, 2017:
Speaking of endings, with JJ Abrams' return to the final installment of the Sequel Trilogy, I'm concerned the odds are against his favor. With only 2 years left (instead of the 3 years we got with I-VI) and the writer of Batman v Superman as the co-writer of the film, JJ Abrams has to pull off nothing short of a miracle to get this trilogy, the lore, story threads and characters he built back on the right track and deliver at least a satisfying conclusion.Knowing the odds and after seeing the ruckus online, my expectations for Episode IX were at rock bottom. Such caution felt justified after seeing the disastrous finale for Game of Thrones, which turned out the way it did despite being postponed by an additional year! If Game of Thrones faced a terrible ending even after a one year delay, how much more would The Rise of Skywalker fare when it only got a 7 month reprieve? The wait for the film's release felt like a chore that I wanted to get over with immediately.
A part of me wanted to prepare for the worst, so I decided to pay attention to leaks. In theory, one of the most high profile film productions of the year would be under heavy security to prevent any premature reveals. What made The Rise of Skywalker unusual was that were individuals within the production crew that decided to break their nondisclosure agreements and spill the beans to a privileged few, who in turn shared what they were told to anyone willing to listen online. One notable site where spoilers ended up is the Star Wars leaks subreddit. In the months leading up to the release of The Rise of Skywalker, leaks would appear in various online sites. Unlike your "clickbait" leaks, they had a strange consistency to them, that they weren't mere guesswork by fans that could be deduced by watching/reading publicly available details, like what was disclosed in trailers. One rumor that had me extremely worried was that the Millennium Falcon would be blown up in the film, killing all of the original trilogy cast that were onboard! Talk about letting the past die.... To my relief, this travesty of a scene didn't appear in the theatrical release. The biggest "story" leak was posted before September 2019, and it turned out to be eerily accurate in the end! The most notable tidbit was the reveal that Rey was Emperor Palpatine's granddaughter, and the very last scene of the film showed Rey giving herself the name "Rey Skywalker" on Tatooine. Not all the leaks though focused on the story details though, and instead shone a light on a very troubled production. Some have claimed that there were at least three different cuts of the film: a cut approved by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, a cut supervised by Disney CEO Bob Iger, and a cut used material from an 11th hour intervention by George Lucas! Then there were claims that the film had around six different endings shot, one of which had Rey defeating Palpatine by literally kicking him in the a**! Other leaks suggested Disney's lack of confidence in the film, and interfered with the final theatrical release, causing JJ Abrams to loose creative control over the film. Related rumors claimed that this interference resulted in reshooting around 75% of film, long after the production phase of the film had been declared officially over. Mainstream news reports such as the "final cut" of the film being completed on November 25, 2019 - less than a month prior to the film's release date (!) - as well as a reduced runtime from 2 hours and 35 minutes to a mere 2 hours and 21 minutes seemed to lend credence to the rumors/leaks. And who can forget the infamous Rolling Stone interview for Kathleen Kennedy, who claimed that:
Every one of these movies is a particularly hard nut to crack. There’s no source material. We don’t have comic books. We don’t have 800-page novels. We don’t have anything other than passionate storytellers who get together and talk about what the next iteration might be. We go through a really normal development process that everybody else does.Huh. No source material?! Right...
Since The Last Jedi, I suspected that Lucasfilm management had gone south. The revealing Rolling Stone interview further reinforced that perception.
The rumors/leaks surrounding The Rise of Skywalker painted the picture that it was nothing less than a disaster in the making. On the eve of the film's release, I felt like a passenger caught in a plane crash - the question was how catastrophic the explosion would turn out. When professional film critics got to view the film, reception was mixed. Some folks interpreted this as a bad omen, that the worst was all but confirmed. Personally, I took this as a good sign. Why? Because most of the critics that gave the film a "rotten" rating were fans of The Last Jedi, with one detractor going as far as claiming that ‘Rise of Skywalker’ Is The Worst ‘Star Wars’ Movie Ever. On December 21, 2019, finally I got my chance to see the film.
So, what are my thoughts on The Rise of Skywalker? A good analogy I can use to describe how the theatrical version felt would be this: the plane I was onboard did suffer a crash landing, with some parts such as the wings and the engines being torn off, but the plane miraculously did not blow up, and no one got killed. Was it the worthy conclusion to the main Star Wars film series? Definitely not. The film was more like "Justice League 2017 redux, in space" instead of "The Return of the King: Galactic Edition". The Rise of Skywalker showed clear signs of a troubled production throughout the film. From the pacing to the lack of any explanation for some important story points, the film's final state seemed to vindicate all those leaks/rumors that reported multiple reshoots. The alleged budget of $275 million helped reinforce the notion. And I'd consider Episode IX no better than Attack of the Clones. That being said, I did not walk away from the film feeling worse than after my initial viewing of The Last Jedi. To me, that was the most important thing that The Rise of Skywalker had accomplish. Against all odds, it somehow managed to do so in the end. Perhaps Nostalgia Critic said it best in his Rise of Skywalker review:
I didn't hate this film by any means. It did give me some cool scenes. And honestly, it is nice to finally have some closure even if its not 100% satisfying. But that's kinda of the Star Wars we have now. Where in the past Star Wars seemed to bring fans together, whether for one reason or another, it now seems to leave them divided.If you consider The Last Jedi as the movie that did the most damage to the Star Wars brand, you'll probably like The Rise of Skywalker a little bit more. After all that, I can now walk away from Disney's Star Wars films... perhaps for good.
Finale
Parasite and The Rise of Skywalker illustrate two vastly different tales of how movie goers perceived the movies they went to see. On the one hand, we have a foreign language movie that general audiences weren't expecting and easily impressed critics and movie goers alike (well, most of them). On the other hand, we have the latest entry in what was once the largest entertainment brand in the world that had an insurmountable task to win back fans who lost interest in the series due to arguably the most divisive movie blockbuster in recent memory. 2019 was a year of great expectation for pop culture geeks like myself. It was the year when Avengers: Endgame, Game of Thrones: The Final Season, & Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker were going to bring down the curtain on their respective series. Yet, only one out of the three ended up being "not a disappointment". For pop culture geeks, it was really bad to see more than one of your favorite series crash and burn all in one year. While I have no quantifiable proof, I suspect this air of disappointment surrounding high profile releases in cinema and TV contributed immensely to Parasite's success. It was a different movie from your typical Hollywood blockbuster nowadays, and initially didn't had any built-in expectations that was demanded of big franchises such as the Marvel movies and Star Wars. Then there was the "timeliness" of the movie's release. With growing economic inequality being a major issue, the time was right for Parasite to be unleashed upon cinemas. As an article from the Washington Post stated:
While many of the movie’s details are specific to its South Korean setting, the core conflicts that animate it feel immediately relevant to any country grappling with income inequality. And one of the great strengths of “Parasite” is that Bong has created a cast of characters and a set of moral dilemmas that allow viewers to sympathize both with the Kims and with the Parks. Which is why plenty of Americans grabbed on to the movie as a symbol of class revolt...On that note, it seems that films such as Fight Club and Elysium were years ahead of their time. I also feel that Parasite benefited from being the new "it" movie of the year: if you want to be seen as culturally refined, you have to shout your praise of this movie on the highest mountaintop. It became trendy to one up the next guy's praise for this movie, so much so that it seems to have snowballed online. Folks craving for attention and recognition used Parasite as an easy way to gain likes, or at least have more visibility above the online pandemonium. Even Donald Trump criticized the movie for winning the best picture award! Ever since I got down to read dozens of Parasite reviews, I had a gut feeling that it was too good to be true. And it was. The success of Parasite would remind me of this simple fact: being different doesn't mean it's good, let alone great. Parasite is a movie that people oversold as if it was going to be as revolutionary and game changing as the likes of Jaws, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, The Matrix and The Dark Knight. It is not. Hell, even The Avengers was a bigger game changer to the landscape of Hollywood than Parasite will ever be.
Conversely, while Parasite was overvalued, The Rise of Skywalker was predicted to be a cinematic disaster. Back in 2015, on the eve of the premiere of The Force Awakens, if you asked me what were the two most anticipated films of the next five years, I would have easily said Star Wars: Episodes VIII and IX. Back then, the idea that a Star Wars film could somehow end up being worse than any of the Prequels didn't cross my mind. I assured myself that with extensive documentation posted on the internet - most notably the Mr. Plinkett reviews - filmmakers have an easier time to get things done right, and not screw up. Then The Last Jedi happened, dealing a mortal blow to Star Wars that negatively impacted fans everywhere. It resulted in a decline in toy sales along with a divided community, some of whom lost interest for Episode IX. That disinterest manifested in The Rise of Skywalker's box office dropping 19.4% from The Last Jedi's earnings - a 259 million dollar loss! I felt that it was a fool's errand to hope that The Rise of Skywalker would somehow be no worse than Revenge of the Sith, and somehow replicate that film's commercial and critical success. Alas, I was right. Episode IX finally provided the answer to the following question: What is the weakest JJ Abrams film? Yet somehow, it was not a total disaster. If it had been, a predicted box office projection of around $770 million should have been closer to reality. Still, The Rise of Skywalker's final box office tally and its reception merely solidified a new reality: Star Wars is no longer "the largest entertainment brand in the world". As described in a Forbes article:
Come what may, in 2019, Marvel is the unqualified ruler of blockbuster mountain, while Fast & Furious rules in China. Disney’s Star Wars may just be, especially without George Lucas’s involvement, just another very big franchise among other big brands.If you ask me, Star Wars right now is like the British Empire at the end of World War II - expansive, but no longer the greatest among its peers. With that comparison in mind, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is now the United States. How long will the MCU's dominance last? Stay tuned....
2019 turned out to be an interesting year for pop culture fans. In the end, I'd say that a little known film called Jojo Rabbit turned out to be far superior than either Parasite or The Rise of Skywalker.
