What Wednesday #28
Today I watch the best Star Wars movie in 37 years, the samurai James Bond, and yet another terrible video game movie. Plus, a RTJ Christmas surprise.
What Wednesday is where I talk about what I’m watching, reading, playing, etc, because for some reason I think you’ll find that interesting. If you have recommendations, I’d love to hear them :)
What I’m Watching: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Theaters, RT 85%)
You don’t need me to tell you what Rogue One is about. Disney has done a perfectly good job of that already. Before I get to what I thought of it, a little background on myself is needed. Like every other nerd born after the 60s, I grew up loving Star Wars. But unlike most, I loved everything around the movies more than the movies themselves. From classic games like Jedi Knight and Tie Fighter, to the endless numbers of books, I preferred the way they filled in the details around the corners of the movies, making it seem more like a living, breathing world. As a taste, here’s part of my vast childhood collection of Star Wars books:
So yeah, 7 year old me has been waiting for someone to finally look outside the family drama between the Skywalker clan. All that to say, I might be a little biased, but I freakin’ loved this movie. Not because it’s perfect (it starts slow, many of the characters aren’t developed well enough, etc.), but because finally, FINALLY someone is trying something different with Star Wars. After last year’s great but also dreadfully predictable Force Awakens, I was so hyped for what seemed like a fresh breath of air with Rogue One.
I think it strikes the perfect balance of dark, but not too dark. Unlike so many blockbuster that unsuccessfully try to ape the self-serious darkness of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight movies (*cough*Zach Snyder and Man of Steel*cough*), Rogue One earns its darker take on Star Wars by establishing its own style and dropping in a good amount of fun and humor along the way (the robot steals the show, but Donnie Yen as a blind swordsman is pretty good too).
It also helps that the movie is easily the most visually striking Star Wars movie ever made. The director, Gareth Edwards, successfully carried over from Godzilla his ability to get fresh looks out of established visual universes. The shot of a Star Destroyer coming into the light from behind the construction of the Death Star alone is more visually interesting than anything in the more conventionally shot Force Awakens. His action scenes were also exhilarating: I let out an audible gasp of glee when hundreds of Tie Fighters came streaming out the belly of a Star Destroyer in the final battle.
So yeah, I loved this movie. But I’m also squarely in the target audience. You’ll probably enjoy it, but maybe not to my fanatic extreme (Yavin 4! Y-Wings! Original Death Star buttons!). If Disney continues to be happy taking risks with the Star Wars side stories, I’ll continue happily enjoying them more than the main story. I can only take so many family space operas. It’s a giant, wonderful universe. Let’s get crazy with it.
What I’m Also Watching: Zatoichi (Criterion)
Speaking of blind swordsmen, the original ocularly challenged martial artist can be found in this long running Japanese samurai series, Zatoichi. Think James Bond, if he was a reserved traveling masseur/swordsman from 1830s feudal Japan. A Christmas gift from my incredibly generous in-laws, this incredible box set from Criterion packages 25 of the 26 original films, dating from ’62 to ‘73.
I’m just starting to get into Japanese samurai movies — coincidentally, the master of which, Akira Kurosawa, George Lucas borrowed heavily from for Star Wars — and I figured I’d check out one of the genre’s longest running and popular examples. One movie in, and I’m already itching to go through the other 24. It’s definitely slow moving, with sparse sword fighting action so far, but the mood and evocative style is addicting.
I mean, just look at this gorgeous box art. The packaging is a work of art in its own right:
What I Wish I Didn’t Watch: Assassin’s Creed (Theaters, RT 19%)
The less I say about this one, the better. Wait until it’s free and you’ve seen literally every other movie in existence. (Ok, it wasn’t quite that bad. But yeeeesh. At this rate I don’t think I’ll see a good videogame movie in my lifetime.)
What I’m Hearing: Run The Jewels, RTJ3 (Apple Music, Spotify)
If you’re offended by “gangsta” rap in all its vulgar, profane glory, you can stop reading now. That means you, mom.
Ok, everybody left cool? Run the Jewels is a rap duo consisting of El-P, a well known and respected underground rap producer, and Killer Mike, a terrific MC out of Atlanta that rose to fame with the help of fellow Atlanta legends OutKast. El-P produces beats that sound from the year 2040, while Killer Mike might have my favorite sounding voice in rap. Together, they’re one of those perfect combos that you didn’t see coming until they teamed up. Killer Mike’s last solo album, R.A.P. Music, was his first produced by El-P and it ended up being one of the best rap albums this decade. They joined up to form Run the Jewels not long after and haven’t slowed down since.
These guys are incredibly smart, well read with high political IQs — Killer Mike often appears on CNN as a guest commentator, and he campaigned hard for Bernie Sanders — but their music is often crassly vulgar to an extreme degree. There’s a straight line from the controversially explicit absurdity of The 2 Live Crew to the futuristic polish these guys dress that same absurdity up in. Cutting social critiques live alongside crude sexual puns, propelled along by some of the angriest, glitchiest beats outside of a Death Grips record.
In a surprise move — revealed in this wonderfully absurd Portlandia sketch — they dropped their third album, RTJ3, on Christmas Eve. And what a gift it is. I listened to the whole thing once through on a decent car surround system and when the first beat dropped, I got huge goosebumps that didn’t go away for 3 straight tracks, then briefly dropped off on track 4, but shot right back up when Danny Brown(!) jumped on track 5. It doesn’t really let up much after that.
Like the best gangsta rap (man, I hate that phrase), Run the Jewels is at its strongest when the beats are fierce and the rhymes are angry and braggadocios, which this album brings in spades. As Ta-Nehisi Coates eloquently points out here, gangsta rap was often used as a way for inner city kids to feel control among the uncontrollable streets. It made you feel invincible in places that you were anything but. I doubt RTJ would describe their style as gangsta, but it at least has the same effect: pumping you up beyond belief. I definitely let out some audible woos as I was listening by myself driving up I-95, which I’m sure is the least gangsta thing to do, but I was so pumped I couldn’t contain my dorky self.
I’ve only listened to it the one time so far (it’s not exactly family friendly Christmas music), but I think it might be a half step behind the near perfection of RTJ2 — the verses aren’t quite as cutting and memorable on first listen, and some of the beats wear out their welcome a little too quickly. But that could always change as I rock out to it over and over again at the start of the new year. Give it a listen if you don’t mind reading curses in cursive.
