Hot Cinema Opinions

A few announcements were made yesterday in regard to some high-profile films that are slated for release in the next few years, and I have what may turn out to be surprising views on said announcements.

 

We will start with the one that doesn’t really do anything for me.  Disney announced the official subtitle of the upcoming J.J. Abrams’ directed Star Wars film.  It is to be called The Force Awakens.  The Internet went crazy yesterday with opinions about the title, with one website going so far as to rank the Star Wars subtitles by greatness.  That seems a little ridiculous, but I love lists, so why not.  It seems like most people are aligning themselves against the subtitle, citing the Force as something that doesn’t nap, but I really don’t think you can judge a film based on its subtitle.  That is just my opinion though.

 

If the release of a subtitle has fans in this much of an uproar, I dread what is going to happen if the teaser trailer doesn’t meet the standards that moviegoers are expecting.  There may be rioting in the streets.  Suicide by light saber will become a thing.  The first trailer is expected to be released in December, probably with the next Hobbit film, and a full-length trailer will likely be linked with the release of The Avengers next year.

 

Next up was the revelation that Pixar would be releasing a fourth installment in the Toy Story franchise.  With such a successful trilogy of films that not only put Pixar on the map, but helped solidify their reputation as one of the greatest animated studios of all time, I’m actually a little disappointed in this news.  While I am a staunch supporter of Pixar and the Toy Story films, the trilogy ended perfectly and closed the chapter on Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the gang.  I’m sure they could come up with another 10 stories about toys coming to life when humans aren’t around, but releasing another movie in the series just doesn’t seem necessary.  Go out on a high note and only use the characters in TV shorts and Christmas-specials.

 

The final interesting bit was the official synopsis and cast for Quintin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight.  The plot sounds like a mashup of Tarantino style and Agatha Christie mystery.  The press release from the Weinstein Company is as follows:

 

In The Hateful Eight, set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape.  The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), race toward the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice.  Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a black former Union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), a Southern renegade who claims to be the town’s new sheriff.

 

Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren, and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie’s Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass.  When they arrive at Minnie’s they are greeted not by the proprietor, but by four unfamiliar faces, Bob (Demian Bichir), who’s taking care of Minnie’s while she’s visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), cowpuncher Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), and Confederate general Sanford Smithers (Bruce Dern).  As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all.

 

If you know anything about the history of this movie, you will be aware that the original script was leaked online and Tarantino claimed he would never go on to make the film.  There was some lawsuit threats made, but ultimately Tarantino backed down and decided to go ahead with the film anyway, making some changes to the story.

 

I like the sound of this movie and am a fan in general of Tarantino, but I wish Tarantino had actually stuck to his guns and shelved the picture for all time, or at least a decade or so.  The reason I support not making the movie is that I wanted Tarantino to teach the Internet a lesson in civility.  Not everything that is available should be put online.  By not making the picture and denying the public what sounds like an interesting concept for a Western movie, Tarantino could have communicated to the world that it is not okay to make scripts not yet in production available for viewing online.  I know that in the digital world we live in nothing is safe, but I also think we have reached an extremen point in society where every film news article has to start with Spoiler Alert.  It has become quite annoying.