Everybody's talking 'bout Star Wars. Which, is, you know, to be expected. Either because it's an attractive topic for those looking for a few clicks or because it's just in the air.
Put me down for that last one. Even though I Am doing a boicott of the last movie on account of Disney Copyright bullshit, I would not pretend to say I won't TALK about it. I read things. I...I've already been spoiled, as you'd expect.
One thing that came up is a Cracked article calling out Obi Wan and Yoda for trying to get Luke to kill his own father unknowingly. And the first thing that reminded me is Wanted.
Wanted is based on a comic by Mark Millar, in that it has the same title as it. The book is intrinsically drenched in comic book references and told of a world where supervillains secretly ruled the world, whereas the movie is about a guy who joins an order of assassins and can shoot bullets in an arc, probably because suits thought comic book shit wouldn't connect with audiences.
Or is that the reason? As much of as a "child's perception of mature" as Millar's overall aproach to stories can come in, I do believe that maybe Wanted's dropping the comic book super hero conventions of it's source material does not owe entirely to the financial cold feet companies USED to get when considering Men-In-Tights-And-Capes antics, but rather, to a change of medium.
Much like Watchmen, a through skewering of comic conventions since mostly abandoned would not have proven a wise course for Wanted The Movie, creatively. A change of medium required a change of target to skewer, and it is my theory that the target in Wanted's case was the Star Wars series.
Oh, sure, the threads that initially tie both stories can be surmised to be the result of these being common, studied tropes that Hollywood now has down to a science. Both start with a guy who's down on his luck, Luke because he's living in a rural desert and yearns for something more, typical teenager, stuff while Wanted Man has more adult problems such medical problems, cheating girlfriends, and having a job typing stuff.
Both characters eventually are roped into the knowledge that they are more than the total losers they thought they where, as they discover that through their paternal lineage they have earned great abilities and a great destiny. In Luke's case, he is the son of a great Jedi, of an ancient order of mystic space knights who follow an unseen, mysterious...THING known as the Force, and inherits his father's weapon. In Wanted, James McCavoy discovers his father was part of an order of superpowered assassins that kill targets given to them by a Loom of fate, which is implied to be all wise despite, you know, being a loom.
So far, this is all Hero's Journey shit. You can't pin it on Wanted for following a formula!
But then it goes deeper. Both Luke and McCavoy-Man have an antagonist, in the form of a man who killed their father. This man, in both instances, turns out to have been his father all along.
This is where both stories diverge. Where Luke goes on to face a conflict and eventually redeem his father not through martial might but through the power of love, Wanted's hero winds up killing his, and then immediately being jumped by the people who had pretended to lead him out of the doldrums.
The Fraternity of Assassins turns out to have been corrupt all along, with it's leader, the mentorly Morgan Freeman(is there any other kind?), revealing that he had stopped listening the the Loom of Fate because it started saying that He and his assassin buddies had to die. James McCavoy kills most of them, Angelina Jolie kills herself to end the others. A smug James McCavoy sends us out of the movie by asking what we've done with our lives. Uh...not joined a cult that tricked me into killing my father, McAvoy. Uh...writing a lot.
So this movie may kind of have been secretly brilliant. It takes the most famous adventure story series and hangs it out to dry, exposing the idea of a Star Wars' hero's journey that is flawed and guided by lies told by trustworthy elderly men. In this one, "The Force" wanted to get rid of the very guys who used it, which, as you may know, is a personal theory of mine.
It would not surprise me of the man who considers Lois Lane not Superman's Jane Porter, but Superman's Cheetah, that he wanted to take such an approach to Star Wars. But if my theory is theory is correct, then it's a reference that flew too subtle for most audiences. You can't parody a space opera without the space part, you goof! But the timelines certainly add up. This movie was released 2 years after Revenge of the Sith, which is enough time for Millar to sit down and think about Star Wars enough to wind up deconstructing it to shit and for that idea to somehow saunter into cinemas.
Or, you know, maybe I'm sleep deprived and everyone is talking about Star Wars too much. I'll let you decide.
 |
| Google Image search, do your magicks! |
Put me down for that last one. Even though I Am doing a boicott of the last movie on account of Disney Copyright bullshit, I would not pretend to say I won't TALK about it. I read things. I...I've already been spoiled, as you'd expect.
One thing that came up is a Cracked article calling out Obi Wan and Yoda for trying to get Luke to kill his own father unknowingly. And the first thing that reminded me is Wanted.
Wanted is based on a comic by Mark Millar, in that it has the same title as it. The book is intrinsically drenched in comic book references and told of a world where supervillains secretly ruled the world, whereas the movie is about a guy who joins an order of assassins and can shoot bullets in an arc, probably because suits thought comic book shit wouldn't connect with audiences.
 |
| HISTORY PROVING YOU WRONG, COMING THROUGH! |
Much like Watchmen, a through skewering of comic conventions since mostly abandoned would not have proven a wise course for Wanted The Movie, creatively. A change of medium required a change of target to skewer, and it is my theory that the target in Wanted's case was the Star Wars series.
Oh, sure, the threads that initially tie both stories can be surmised to be the result of these being common, studied tropes that Hollywood now has down to a science. Both start with a guy who's down on his luck, Luke because he's living in a rural desert and yearns for something more, typical teenager, stuff while Wanted Man has more adult problems such medical problems, cheating girlfriends, and having a job typing stuff.
 |
| This guy was supposed to play Eminem playing a Supervillain. |
So far, this is all Hero's Journey shit. You can't pin it on Wanted for following a formula!
But then it goes deeper. Both Luke and McCavoy-Man have an antagonist, in the form of a man who killed their father. This man, in both instances, turns out to have been his father all along.
This is where both stories diverge. Where Luke goes on to face a conflict and eventually redeem his father not through martial might but through the power of love, Wanted's hero winds up killing his, and then immediately being jumped by the people who had pretended to lead him out of the doldrums.
The Fraternity of Assassins turns out to have been corrupt all along, with it's leader, the mentorly Morgan Freeman(is there any other kind?), revealing that he had stopped listening the the Loom of Fate because it started saying that He and his assassin buddies had to die. James McCavoy kills most of them, Angelina Jolie kills herself to end the others. A smug James McCavoy sends us out of the movie by asking what we've done with our lives. Uh...not joined a cult that tricked me into killing my father, McAvoy. Uh...writing a lot.
 |
| Getting by, you know. Trying to build an arcade cabinet, not letting Chris Pratt and Common play me like a chump. |
It would not surprise me of the man who considers Lois Lane not Superman's Jane Porter, but Superman's Cheetah, that he wanted to take such an approach to Star Wars. But if my theory is theory is correct, then it's a reference that flew too subtle for most audiences. You can't parody a space opera without the space part, you goof! But the timelines certainly add up. This movie was released 2 years after Revenge of the Sith, which is enough time for Millar to sit down and think about Star Wars enough to wind up deconstructing it to shit and for that idea to somehow saunter into cinemas.
Or, you know, maybe I'm sleep deprived and everyone is talking about Star Wars too much. I'll let you decide.
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