Tuesday 30 June 2015

Fanboys Review



SPOILER ALERT

Click here to go to my previous review of V for Vendetta

As a remedy for the dark and horrific films of It and Misery, I thought it would be a good idea to watch a comedy.  This is where I found Fanboys, which I thought would be some hilarious comic relief.  I have never been more wrong.

What’s it about: Fanboys is set in 1998 and to celebrate the premiere of Star Wars ‘the Phantom Menace,’ four Star Wars fanboys and one fangirl travel from their homes in Ohio to San Francisco  to break into Skywalker Ranch to steal and watch ‘the Phantom Menace’ before it’s released to the public.

The Good: The film was funny in a very few places and did produce one or two genuine laughs.  I liked how the film’s beginning parodied the opening crawl of the Star Wars films.  I also liked how at the film’s conclusion, where the protagonists are sitting down to watch the film and one of them asks “what if it sucks?” Nice bit of dramatic irony there.


The Bad: I really hated the characters.  Granted they were all nerds, but they were all immature, annoying and irresponsible.  However, what annoyed me the most was how elitist they all were. The protagonists are all avid Star Wars fans, but they absolutely despise Star Trek.  This evolves into a subplot that involve the Star Wars fanboys feuding with Star Trel fanboys.  This subplot did nothing at all for the film, except showcase how obnoxious and arrogant some nerds can be.  

The character of “Hutch” epitomised this arrogance and obnoxiousness, as he generally starts most of the film’s confrontations.  The film also fails massively as a comedy.  Much of the humour is overly-reliant on references to Star Wars/Trek and science-fiction in general, as well as countless cameos by famous Star Wars/Trek actors.  If you aren’t a science-fiction aficionado, then the majority of this humour would go right over your head.  The humour also felt very forced too.  The opening crawl was funny at first, but soon got boring.  There is another scene where the fanboys mooney their rivals, as they drive away from them, which I found a very juvenile and immature attempt at humour that wouldn’t appeal to people over a certain maturity age.


The Ugly: The mooneying wasn’t too pleasant to see.

Rating: Alright

Originally, I was going to rate this film as ‘shit,’ but I felt that that was being overly harsh, so I settled on alright instead.  The film is funny at times, but I would recommend only watching it, if you’re a Star Wars Fanboy.  If you’re hoping to lose yourself in a hilarious comedy, then pick another film.

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