Showing posts with label Movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Movies. Show all posts

Legal Ownership of an Artistic Property Does Not Grant Creative Ownership

The last few years have brought about many revivals and reboots of "intellectual properties" (IPs), such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Superman, Ghostbusters, and even She-Ra where the new creative teams have obvious philosophical/moral problems or disagreements with the original artwork. 

While it may be legally and financially fine, commentating on another artists work while simultaneously appropriating their original ideas is morally wrong, just as a rich man who bought a culturally significant piece of art and then lit it on fire would rightly be judged harshly. 

Let's take a look on why these "re-imagining" of properties, by other artists who have vastly different values and philosophies to the original works, is problematic.

Star Wars


With Star Wars: The Last Jedi Rian Johnson gave commentary on his apparent philosophical disagreement with relying on your own moral judgement and rather elevating the importance of submitting to legal authority. Also, suggesting it is better to bully and humiliate your enemies rather than to win them to your side with love and understanding. Rian banishes the Black and Asian characters to a pointless side story of failures and mistakes and instead focuses on a cowardly version of Luke Skywalker and developing a romance between the white female lead and the white villain who tortured her, killed her new friend (Han Solo), and repeatedly tried to kill her, just days earlier. That Johnson also made time to present the two female leaders of the rebellion as needlessly dictatorial and cruel to their comrade, and leader of their x-wing squadron so as to drive home the idea that it is more important to follow orders than save the lives of everyone aboard the ship is impressively "deconstructionist" of the humanist values of the original trilogy of films.

Star Trek

With Star Trek it has been Alex Kurtzman's disagreement with the original Star Trek concepts of intellectual and moral inspection by placing complex characters in unique situations to illustrate something about the human condition. Instead he seems to think that shouting, shooting, drinking, and stabbing are much cooler and less boring than all that silly science stuff. Like Johnson, Kurtzman constantly betrays the fact he, and his writers, have made almost zero effort to become familiar with the source material, with almost every episode of Star Trek: Picard misunderstanding a vital part of how the Star Trek universe works, and/or the history of the societies and characters in that universe. This laziness of something so easily correctable, and yet central to the very premise, betrays a disdain for the source material, as well as the audience.

Superman

 

With Superman, Zack Snyder it is rejection of the irony of a god-like being of physical perfection being an alien from another planet who must hide his true identity to save the ones he loves. Instead, Snyder's vision is of a pouting sullen god who sacrifices his own father to hide his true identity, and who gives into despair and violence when presented with a difficult moral dilemma. Snyder's Superman is a beautiful body and god-like powers, instead of a complex individual who must balance saving his friends and family while also protecting his city and adopted home planet.

Ghostbusters

With Ghostbusters it was less of a philosophical difference with the original work as a lazy retelling of the story with different gendered actors while squandering any interesting commentary on how a female perspective might have given the characters a different approach to their work. Was hiring a beautiful male idiot as their secretary, instead of the highly qualified, intelligent, and attractive female secretary of the original movie some statement on the sexism of the first movie having only male ghost busters? A more coherent script (supposedly a better draft exists before director, Paul Feig, altered the story). 

Feig also chose not to have the female cast play the same characters from the original, instead, he had similar characters who just happened to be female. There was the loudmouth, the bumbling fool, the nerd, and the um... Black character? That these were not the same characters from the original, but completely new characters, made the choice to have (Black actor) Leslie Jones' character the only non-scientist of the group problematic, if not racist. Why are the races of the characters considered vital, but the genders are not? If there was no connection to the original movie, and the point of the movie was to make some statement about gender equality, an entirely original Specter Hunters movie would have been a more honest artistic statement. It is hard to defend the reason this movie was titled, Ghostbusters, except to sell Ghostbusters merchandise.

She-Ra

With She-Ra it was Noelle Stevenson's philosophical/moral disagreement with the portrayal of the original She-Ra as a 1980's personification of the perfect physical specimen of feminine beauty - big hair, short skirt, and high heels included. Instead her She-Ra was a flat chested teen with huge biceps. While the criticism that She-Ra's depiction of idealized female beauty was problematic is a perfectly valid argument (the same might also be said for He-Man, She-Ra's male counterpart), hijacking the original intellectual property to commentate on a moral/philosophical issue an artist has with the original work is inherently problematic. A more honest commentary would be to create a similar hero, perhaps named Her-Za, who embodied Stevenson's ideas about female power and served as a commentary and counter-argument to She-Ra's problematic ideas about the same topic. 

Michelangelo's David


Imagine if I had a philosophical issue with the depiction of idealized male beauty in Michelangelo's David and instead of making my own statue illustrating the love-handles that any normal man's body would have, I made the same statue and called it a "long lost Michelangelo artwork" called David in Repose. Now even if I conceded, when pressed, that it wasn't actually a work of Michelangelo, but still marketed my statue to the general public as a Michelangelo sculpture I think it is pretty obvious that this would be immoral. Is it illegal? No. Michelangelo isn't around to sue me for it, but people would be understandably upset if they felt my work was dishonest and even that it may be insulting to Michelangelo. 

The same can be said of the intellectual properties in popular culture that are given over to new artists to take a revisionist approach or antithetical philosophical direction. Commentary and critique of an artwork is inherently dishonest when presented under the "brand" or "IP" of the original work. While it may be perfectly legal to do so, it is morally wrong for another artist to usurp a body of work they did not create to deliver their own opposing views on the art. Not only is this dishonest in the way my example of the "new" David statue would be above, but it also stifles the creativity of a new artist to force them to work under the brand name of another artist's work.

Conclusion

It is perfectly fine for George Lucas to revise and re-edit his own works as much as he wants. While it may be upsetting to fans and historians, it is not an immoral decision. Star Wars was his creation. He can do with it whatever he wants. It is NOT the same thing for Rian Johnson to fundamentally alter the character of Luke Skywalker in order to tell his own story and deliver his own philosophical views on the futility of listening to the Force, especially when this is in direct opposition to the presented views in Lucas' original works. 

It may be legally acceptable, but it should not be tolerated from an artistic and moral view. There is nothing stopping Johnson from making his own Space Battles movie about a mystical group of Gradzi warriors who use the mystical Anti-Entropy energy, and plasma blades, to fight the evil Interstellar Empire. The fact that it is more difficult to attract an audience to a new IP is not an excuse to commit the artistic forgery, and bait-and-switch marketing, of the companies and creators who attempt a "deconstruction" of another artist's works while selling it under the same name as the original.













Rey Could Have Jedi Heratige - Even If Her Parents Are "Nobodies"

There is a misconception I keep hearing from people on podcasts about what exactly we learned about Rey's parents in the last two Star Wars movies. Many people seem to think we were shown that Rey's parents were "nobody".  What we ACTUALLY were shown is that Rey thinks they are nobody, (I would argue she fears they are nobody) and she thinks this means she is a nobody.

 

Her whole life she avoided leaving Jakku because she was in denial that they were really dead. She hoped that they were actually hero's of the rebellion or x-wing pilots, instead of just junk traders. That for her to be anything special her parents had to be heroes who - any day now! - would come rescue her from her difficult life on Jakku.

However the truth seems obvious to other Force-sensitives as Maz and Kylo both immediately see that she was trying to run from the truth of her parents failure and death. Even when she found Luke and convinced him to teach her about the Force she couldn't resist going into the cave on Ahch-To to ask the mirror to show her parents to her, alive and well and presumably trying their best to find their way back to her! Or not. The mirror actually showed her the truth - they were dead, only existing as shadows haunting her memories.

It wasn't until Kylo and then he tried to manipulate her using her fears about what her parent's failures meant about herself that she was finally able to see the truth: it doesn't matter who her parents are, she is who she is regardless. It doesn't matter who they were, she is a powerful focused Jedi.

However.

This does NOT mean she is not related to someone from the original trilogy.
While it is important for Rey's development to face her deepest fears about her parent's, it is also important that there be a reason for Rey to be so powerful with the Force. Rey could be related to a Jedi AND her parents still be "nobodies".

 It is NOT important for Rey to be related to a Jedi for her to be important. Plenty of Star Wars heroes are not related to Jedi and that is fine. However, it IS important that there be a good explanation for why she is so powerful. We know why Kylo is so powerful: he is the grandson of Anakin. There should be a reason for Rey as well. If she has Jedi (or Sith) genes that would explain things.

It seems reasonable that Jedi are admonished to not have romantic relationships because children born to Jedi parents can become very powerful Force-users - like Luke, Kylo, and Rey. (I guess you could also call Anakin the son of a Force-user as his "father" WAS the Force.) These Force users could bring imbalance (or balance) to the Force.

I would argue that having at least one of Rey's grandparents be a Jedi is the most consistent, satisfying, and poetic way to resolve her origins. How great would it be to have either Obi-Wan or Palpatine be Rey's grandparent? If J.J. Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy are determined to not please fans then they should at least just have some random Jedi who we have never met before be Rey's grandparent. Either that or ret-con the whole "junk trader" thing and make her father Ezra. SOMETHING interesting. A "shock" reveal or "twist" ending does not make a good story if it doesn't make any sense. 

My favorite idea is to have her grandfather be Obi-Wan. The whole Star Wars saga has been about Anakin and Obi-Wan. I believe it would be best to continue to use these two, and their families, as our eyes into this universe. Much like how the Cesars are often used as the focus in stories about Roman history (a lot of which has inspired the Star Wars universe).

So how could Obi-Wan be Rey's grandparent with all we have seen and know from the Star Wars movies so far? I'd thought you'd never ask!

Example: An Interesting Origin Story for Rey

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Obi-Wan Kenobi fell in love with A'Dina, a Tusken woman he met on Tatooine. The couple soon had a son, Qui-Gen, but A'Dina was killed by a rival Tusken gang when the boy was very young. Obi-Wan tried to raise him on his own, but his grief led Obi-Wan to neglect his son who quickly grew to hate his father. Qui-Gen finally ran away from ome the day he learned Obi-Wan could have killed Darth Vader (and saved so many lives!), but instead choose to leave Vader burning in agony on Mustafar. Qui-Gen had learned just enough about the Force to hide himself from Obi-Wan and left Tatooine; never to return.

Qui-Gen eventually fell into drugs and crime and ended up as a junk trader on Jakku, where he married a fellow junk trader, Seltena, and they eventually also had a child together. Qui-Gen taught her the ways of the Force, and was frightened with her skills and abilities. She was able to channel the Force so intensely that it caused her pain and injury. To protect her, Gen helped her create a block in her mind to suppress her powers until she was stronger. 

Gen's addition to drugs led him to take a job protecting a drug lord, and Seltena insisted on coming with him. They paid Unkar to watch her while they were away, intending to return soon. Tragically, they were both killed when Seltena's covert operations for the Rebels was uncovered by an Empire operative, and they never saw their daughter again. Unkar heard about their death, yet didn't inform Rey; instead keeping her with him to slave away in his shop. Eventually he told her the truth, but she couldn't accept it and still believed her parents would be coming for her someday. 

Luke had learned of Qui-Gen when he recovered Obi-Wan's journal on Tatooine. After the victory over the Empire, Luke searched for Obi-Wan's son and learned that Qui-Gen had been living on Jakku. He asked Lor San Tekka for help to find him, but their searching came up empty. Some years later, Lor discovered that Qui-Gen was dead and possibly had a child who was powerful in the Force. He told Luke, but after Kylo's betrayal Luke was done training Jedi and went into exile rather continuing the searching for the child. However, Lor continued looking for the child and eventually found Rey. He then watched over her, much like how Obi-Wan watched over Luke: from afar. Unfortunately, unlike Obi-Wan, Lor was killed before he had the chance to tell Rey about her father and grand-father when Kylo arrived on Jakku looking for information about where Luke was hiding.

 

The Next Star Wars Movie

This would leave a few people who still know the truth. Either Kylo could have found information about Rey in Lor's belongings, BB-8 could have this information from the chip Poe got from Lor, or Luke could have realized who Rey was before he died (and confirmed it through his connection to the Force, talking to Yoda, or speaking with Obi-Wan's Force-ghost).

Hopefully Abrams and Kennedy will allow something like this to be the "true" story in the Star Wars universe. While telling a good story doesn't mean always mean pleasing the reader, there are so many stories in the Star Wars universe that having the attitude of "NO! Star Wars is OURS, we bought it and we will only tell the stories WE want!" is really boring. If you want to tell an "original" story, don't set it in an established universe that someone else (Lucas) thought up. If you are going to tell a Star Wars story it has to make sense in context of other stories in the universe. Otherwise there is no point in calling it "Star Wars."

I don't have any faith in Abrams or Kennedy to give us a satisfying ending to Rey's story. The last two Star Wars movies have relied so much on teasing and then "subverting" (i.e. disappointing) fan's expectations that I don't have any faith that they know how to tell a solid and satisfying story that makes sense in the context of Star Wars' own universe. Too bad Disney doesn't own another company *cough* MARVEL *cough* who knows how to do this very effectively they could get some tips from!

Somehow It was Worse than I Imagined

Post-Rise of Skywalker Update - March 2025

We now know Rey is the daughter of Palpatine's (unknown) son who left her on Jakku to protect her from Palpatine tracking her down. (Surely they didn't intend to abandon her, so something else must have happened to make them leave her there.) Great summary here: https://screenrant.com/star-wars-9-rey-backstory-parents-palpatine-future/

Rise of Skywalker mundanely did not address the fact that in the previous film Kylo purposefully preyed on Rey's fears  that her parents were not important and that she was "nobody." A better choice would have been to lean into the "nobodies revelation" rather than a transparent back-peddling from The Last Jedi. Better to use those events to lead to uncovering Rey's heritage, rather than running away from them.

Abrams and Kennedy have severely damaged Star Wars. Who would have thought J.J. would screw up Star Wars worse than Lucas?!? Galactic incompetence. It seems that most people don't even like the decent Star Wars shows, like The Mandalorian and Asoka. I have no interest in seeing Andor, but people do seem to think that is a good one. The fact that there is no consequences for Kennedy losing billions of dollars for Disney reflects the Oligarchical Mindset of "No One in Power Can Ever Suffer Consequences" we are living in. However, I don't know that J.J. Abrams has recovered from the disaster.

Where do you go from here, Star Wars? Many people want to explore other sides of the Star Wars galaxy, others want to do a Rey movie. I think Star Wars stories not adjacent to Luke or Vader are pointless (if Rey had been better connected to the Skywalkers she would be included in this). I feel shows like Andor are simply relegating good sci-fi stories to "established IP" to avoid movie studios taking any risks. This has lead to a serious lack of artistic creativity in cinema blockbusters (e.g. the recent spat of MCU Multi-vers failures). The rise of A.I. (specifically the threat to artists and actors who are the live-blood of innovative movie making) threatens to keep us going down this dark path.

We all seem to be living the ending of a middle-movie of a trilogy. Hopefully the next one will have a happily ever after.