Good Music Friday – RATS RAWS Edition

If ever a week felt like ten thousand years AND the blink of an eye, this was it.
At least I felt like I aged ten thousand years.
But fuck the AARP.
In the week that was, I note that the Democrats have wet themselves because they won an outlier election and they believe its a bellweather of them turning Alabama blue, as if they’ll keep the seat when the term is done. Given the fact that Roy Moore came within a percentage point of winning despite literally every apparatus of the Democrats and the Republicans thrown against him, coupled with his complete lack of funding, spending, and apparently effort to win the damn thing, I’m guessing Doug Jones is a half-term curiosity.
In other news, FUCKING STARZ WAR I guess.
Its a funny thing about Star Wars – the first movie was a one-off; it clearly was never intended to be a trilogy. Lucas wanted to put a space opera on the screen similar to those of Flash Gordon and Buck Rodgers, but he wanted it to look plausible, and exiciting, and the whole point of the film was to create a special effects studio capable of making shit look real on screen, unlike anything that had come before.
And despite himself, he succeeded in borrowing simple yet primal tropes and providing an engaging story where the good guys win because they are the good guys, without question. It was a self-contained story that made great work in providing a larger world that was casually mentioned and interacted with yet didn’t get in the way of the story itself. The world of Star Wars in that first movie felt fantastic yet plausible; and perfectly lived in. Nothing was new or shiny or clearly just-fabricated for the movie. All the right things were worn, with a petina.
And most of all, the story was supposed to end when the credits rolled.
It was a taught yarn.
Then came sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, and it is one of the few sequels that hit its mark perfectly. It added depth to the previously established world without confounding it through subtlty and simplicity. It was still a world that felt lived in, and possessed a coherent internal story line that built upon what was established in the previous movie without getting carried away. It even contained one of the ultimate plot twists in modern cinema; no easy feat. But there was one problem with the movie — by this time, they knew this was now going to be a trilogy, and that they had to lay some pipe to get through Return of the Jedi. The ending of the second movie didn’t do the rest of the story justice, but it was clear there would be a third act.
Unfortunately, that’s where it all went off the rails, and Star Wars would never really be what it was again. The story of the Jedi was basically a mashup of the first two, with a worse plot twist and a lamer Death Star explosion.
AND THAT’S WHERE IT SHOULD HAVE ENDED.
Then the prequels happened, which were all simply an exercise in laying pipe through merchandising channels, chasing the same troupe of actors with some special effects technology through plot points with nary a story to be found anywhere in 360 minutes.
The prequels could have been compelling if the story came first, and if the entire slate were filmed in real life rather than in a computer.
But they weren’t, so it wasn’t.
AND THAT’S WHERE IT SHOULD HAVE ENDED.
Then Disney bought LucasFilm, and now we’ll get Star Wars movies of varying degrees of quality from here on to Doomsday. I liked The Force Awakens well enough, but it isn’t a great movie. I really enjoyed Rogue One, because despite its flaws, it’s the first one of the movies since Empire that felt lived in and plausible. And it was basically The Guns Of The Navarone set in the Star Wars universe.
Then I started hearing about this piece of shit sequel.
If the spoilers are true, and according to the reviews I’ve read today, they are, The Last Jedi is an exercise in CGI, carefully hitting plot points at the expense of an engaging story, and doing its damndest to nix what few virtues The Force Awakens possessed.
I will see it, likely this weekend because the Wife wants still wants to see despite the horrors that await, but I do so with muted enthusiasm.
BECAUSE THIS IS WHERE IT SHOULD HAVE ENDED.
Alas.
Okay, I’m out.
Have a great weekend, friends.

SONG SELECTION

Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)
Pissing Out The Poison: Singles & Other Swill
New Bomb Turks
Crypt Records | 1995