Relating to Characters: Part I
The premiere of The Rise of Skywalker (2019) nears. Scuttlebutt around plot leaks are discouraging. One of the scariest is that test audiences laughed at how easily Rey disposed of the Emperor. Sigh. Even if that’s not true, or it is true but has been corrected, I’m not expecting much. Disney’s Star Wars movies have featured an array of unrelatable one-dimensional characters. They have no depth and take no real journey (unless, like Rey, it’s to discover who they are). They’re flash and style with little substance. Just because these characters belong to an extraordinary sci-fantasy premise doesn’t mean they have to be unrelatable. You can create relatability in characters…
Respecting Quality
Note: The following contains spoilers for the entire Terminator franchise. There are six Terminator movies. In the first movie, The Terminator (1984), a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) – a cyborg – is sent back from the future to kill a woman, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), who’ll give birth to the saviour of humanity, John Connor, in a fight against the sentient artificial intelligence, Skynet, and the machines it commands. A resistance fighter, Reese (Michael Biehn) is sent back to protect Sarah, but inevitably she must fight for her own life. Sarah Connor’s transformation from terrified waitress to tough, hardened soldier in Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) is totally believable. The…