Fanboys (2009)

As some of you may be aware, the original version of Fanboys revolved around a group of four friends who happen to be lifelong Star Wars fanboys, one of which has terminal cancer and won’t make it to the premiere of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. With this, they decide to roadtrip to Skywalker Ranch, break in, and watch an early version of the film. In traditional Hollywood fashion, The Weinsteins thought the whole cancer element of the story wouldn’t sell, shelved the movie for a couple of years, and decided they were going to rip this part out and just make it about these geeks that think it’d be cool to break into the Star Wars Mecca that is Skywalker Ranch just because. Well, the true Star Wars fanboys revolted in the only way they knew how, with online rants on blogs and online petitions, of which I signed many! The crazy as hell Weinsteins relented and decided to keep the film as is, well with the exception of some additional reshoots thanks to an INCREASE in budget. George Lucas himself, for the first time that I’m aware, gave his stamp of approval for a non-Star Wars film to use actual sound effects and score elements as well as many props from the films. This added an element of realism to the film that made it that more effective in bringing me, as a fan, back to the excitement and anticipation that was the years, months, days and even hours leading up to what should have been one of the greatest moments of my life. There were moments in the film that were so great that they actually gave me the chills and made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, such as the scenes at the end where the gang (well, most of it), after camping out the night before in front of the theater, are sitting in their seats along with the rest of the rabid Star Wars fanboys, most in full costume ranging from the commonplace Princess Leias to the less common Tuscan Raiders and Imperial Guards, as the famous Twentieth Century Fox logo and theme song come to the big screen. It was this moment that was captured perfectly, showing the pure joy on the theater occupants’ faces that gave me chills as I reflected back on having that same look on my face and emotion flowing as the same logo and theme song appeared on the screen and I knew I was about to witness a new Star Wars film. Ultimately, Phantom Menace became a huge letdown, but that didn’t matter at the time. I actually watched it three or four times in the theater that same day because my friends and I had waited in line overnight weeks before to pre-order tickets so we got tickets to multiple shows throughout the day. We all just assumed it was going to be awesome. I mean, it was Star Wars for crying out loud. WHO KNEW!?!?!?

Anyway, back to Fanboys…

The film was a mixed bag in my opinion. Like I mentioned, there were moments of perfection as a fanboy myself that allowed me to relive the great moments in my own life that led up the release of the film, the great use of terminology, sound effects, and props that show that the director and writers were true fanboys as well, all of the cool cameos and of course Kristen Bell in Slave Leia garb! However, there were some ridiculously stupid moments as well, like Ethan Suplee as Harry Knowles and Seth Rogen as a Trekkie. You’ll understand what I’m talking about if you see this so I’ll leave it at that. The scenes involving these actors, both who I normally like, just seemed out of place in the context of the film. The problem I had with Rogen was that he just seemed like Seth Rogen with prosthetics to make him look like a geeky Trekkie. I think it would have been much better to get someone that already looked the part to play that role, but I’m nitpicking at this point. Speaking of cameos, there were some great ones but I won’t spoil them for you because they were good and I want you to get the same spoiler free reactions that I did. In conclusion, it was an average buddy movie made better by all the Star Wars and Star Trek references, so it gets a 6.5/10 from me and a ‘Recommended’ for those of you that are either admitted or closet fanboys of either the Star Wars or Star Trek franchises.