That said, I segue into the relevant point of this
post. From a movie critique perspective,
this guy made a top-notch (remember, I said 70 minutes!) effort; funny in
spots, coherent on the whole. The points
he made critiquing, however, make a great lesson for prospective writers and
demonstrate how things could get off the rails.
It is directed at movies, but can easily be applicable to writing,
especially in our relevant genres.
(Language warning)
Part 1 – Characters: Relatable
and help the audience through the story, faced with an obstacle and the drama
it creates. I love the test comparing
characters between Star Wars: A New Hope and Phantom Menace without mentioning appearance,
costume or their role in the movie to a person who has never seen Star
Wars. How applicable is that writing,
especially a first novel!
The following parts just increase the goodness.
Part 2 – The Story:
Compared to the simplicity and awesomeness of the Star Wars opening
scene, how can you argue with the guy?
Homage to the classic adventure serials compared to, well, whatever the
heck the new stuff was about. Keep the
story simple enough from getting too complicated and losing the audience.
Part 3 – The Story (continued): Still trying to get to the plot.... Who’s
doing what, where and why? The dizzying
issues with connecting characters and what goes on in this movie is examined. How does this apply to writing? Pretty straight forward.
Part 4 – The Story (continued): Picking apart the whole invasion of Naboo and
escape from planet boring. Writers
should take into account the leaps of logic and how this applies to the plot and
effect on their writing.
Part 5 – The Story (continued): Breaks down the Qui-Gon Jin and Anakin characters
and how his actions apply to the plot.
Part 6 – The Story (continued): So we go back to Naboo, which is a war zone,
and yeah, we brought the kid with us. Oh
yeah, no plan either, but the blockade is gone – yeah! Compares the Luke v. Vader arc to the Jedi v.
Darth Maul and the depth involved in the first, the lack of it in the latter.
Part 7 – The Ending “Multiplification” Effect: How the plots get too complicated and
confusing = distracting. Focus the plot
and keep the story focused or you end up with (in the case of the Phantom
Menace) what the reviewer calls “The worst case of cinematic blue balls in
history.” The case is made for external reviews, which could be paralleled with
Beta readers.
Pure gold as a movie review and critique. Absolutely brilliant advice for genre writers to help keep things from spinning and spiraling out of control.
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