The Last Jedi and The State of Star Wars

I recently wrote up a piece for Fandom which was actually positive of The Last Jedi. But I kept the scope limited and that was by no means a proper review. I didn't write a proper review because I was more confused than I came off in that piece. I stand by every word, but don't assume that because I liked what director Rian Johnson was going for that he actually succeeded.

The Last Jedi is a strange kind of movie for me. It's easy to praise a great movie and easy to mock a terrible one, it's much harder to review something that's in the middle. All around on an intellectual level I think The Last Jedi was doing the right thing. But in terms of execution? I don't want to watch this movie again.

Now because this is 2017 2018 and the entire universe has gone to shit, The Last Jedi has somehow ended up as yet another front of the endless culture wars that have taken over the entire internet. Men's "rights" "activists" recut the movie without women and random people on Twitter decided to share National Review articles to prove how I was wrong. (And if my take on Star Wars happens to put me on whatever side The National Review is not on, then all the better.) I care deeply about Star Wars but some care a lot more, I guess. It almost makes me want to like The Last Jedi more because a lot of the people who hate it are /r/KotakuInAction scum. But sadly, while those people are wrong, they're less wrong than they usually are. They just hate a mediocre movie for the wrong reasons.

The fact that The Last Jedi blew up into an exhausting GamerGate flamewar exactly the problem. Star Wars isn't fun anymore. It can't be. We won't let it be fun. I said that The Last Jedi might have given the series a chance to live again in my piece. A month later, I think I was wrong. Star Wars is dead and we killed it. Not just the fanboys who can't stand a female Jedi or losing Luke, but you and me. We all killed it. Disney makes The Force Awakens that is pure fanservice from top to bottom. Then we complain that it's too similar to the past. Then they make The Last Jedi which wants to radically remake the formula. Then fans hate it more. Star Wars is an unsolvable problem.

The Best Movies of 2017

I'm only twenty-seven (as of just this Thursday) and yet I feel like I've already seen everything. Actually I feel like I've seen everything three times. 2017 was the I finally had enough of blockbusters. There was a new Fast and Furious last year, there was a new Transformers, there was a new Pirates of the Caribbean. And I just couldn't. It was not mere dislike, dislike takes emotion and effort. I was done. I had nothing left to give for huge Hollywood franchises. When Justice League came out my disinterest was so severe I skipped an episode of The Drew Reviews, a really great movie podcast produced by two colleagues of mine. I didn't even have morbid curiosity left to give.

Now, in 2017 a lot of good things happened in movies. Horror has never received more prestige. Get Out is going to be nominated for Best Picture. You can't call that movie a "thriller" or "psychological drama" like people did with Silence of the Lambs or Black Swan. Get Out is a dirty horror movie and nothing else. Critics used to be ashamed of horror and that time has passed. Meanwhile people highlight Wonder Woman as this huge progressive moment against the Harvey Weinsteins of the world. But all it showed me is that women can star in movies as bland and pointless as the boys. Yet there were intense, truly unique stories that were written with female protagonists (and often made by female directors) that actually make use of that diversity. Forget Wonder Woman, try The Beguiled or The Shape of Water or Ingrid Goes West or Raw or mother! or Lady Bird. Women have a voice in this industry and it doesn't need to be packaged to appeal to male nerds.

Every year I think I get closer and closer to the pretentious art critic I mocked back in the early years of this blog. The problem isn't that I love artsy movies. As a matter of fact I have a severe upper-limit to how much artsy I can take, thus why I refuse to see A Ghost Story. I like low-brow trashy shit. It's just that the traditional blockbuster has become so stale and repetitive. There was a new Spider-Man this year! Hasn't there been enough fucking Spider-Man already? People complain about too many sequels and lack of ideas in Hollywood, then give mother! an F on Cinemascore. This year, I hope I didn't just talk the talk, I walked the walk. If your movie wasn't special in some way, I couldn't be bothered. So I don't want to see The Post or The Darkest Hour, more boilerplate Oscarbait just as I don't want to see The Mummy or Ghost in the Shell, more bad wanna-be cinematic universes. I didn't see any of those. I saw better movies.

Here are fifteen movies that actually were special in some way:

The Best Games of 2017 (That Aren't Super Mario Odyssey)

I'm going to start my discussion of the best games of 2017 by talking about a game that isn't on the list. It's a game that never really got close to being on the list. In fact it's a game I still have not finished despite three or four serious attempts to get invested in it. And that game is Guerilla Games' open world post-apocalyptic robot dinosaur adventure, Horizon Zero Dawn. Horizon Zero Dawn is not a bad game. In other years this completely solid, very competent title easily fits in a top ten. In a bad year, Horizon Zero Dawn might be Game of the Year. But in 2017, Horizon Zero Dawn is mediocre. I love that Horizon Zero Dawn was forgettable this year.

In 2017 real progress happened in the games industry. I don't mean the usual standards of progress such as frame rates or how many triangles an engine can shove into a single frame. 4K doesn't impress me and I don't believe in VR yet. I mean games have never been better than they were in 2017. Most years have maybe four or five truly great video games in them. 2017 had probably close to twenty. A few games disappointed like Star Wars Battlefront II or truly sucked like Sonic Forces. But for the most part last year, every game was good. Look at the disposable drivel that comes to your local movie theater every week. 2017's gaming didn't have its equivalent of Pitch Perfect 3 or that Jumanji sequel that nobody wanted. It only had Baby Driver. Every single day, more Baby Driver. Masterpiece after masterpiece.

I feel bad for 2018. I don't know when I'm ever going to find the time to play "new" games. It will take me a whole year just to catch up with all the great 2017 games I didn't play. Not least of which because I never managed to accrue enough capital to buy a Switch (besides video games 2017 sucked). I still want to play about a dozen games: Resident Evil VII, Gravity Rush 2, Snipperclips, Yakuza 0, Nioh, Hellblade, Mario + Rabbids, Rime... and of course, Super Mario Odyssey. And because Super Mario Odyssey is absent, this list is completely worthless and I don't know why you're reading. Maybe you just like me.

Anyway, here's a meaningless and incomplete list of twelve truly great games from the best year in gaming history: