Movie Review: Fanboys (2009)

In 1998, a group of friends from Ohio decide to travel across the country to California, to infiltrate Skywalker Ranch and steal an advance copy of Star Wars - Episode I, The Phantom Menace.

An interesting enough premise with a few good moments is only half-heartedly developed. Several ideas are seemingly haphazardly floated and left hanging: there are unexplained fractured friendship side-stories; a terminal sickness that gets really slipshod treatment; and a stunted-growth-of-Star-Wars-fans theme that never goes anywhere.

Instead Fanboys presents unnecessarily elongated Star Wars versus Star Trek juvenile antics, a police car chase scene and a rough-biker bar scene that both seem to be included out of someone's idea of necessity; and a break-and-enter at Skywalker Ranch that can never find the proper balance between action and laughs, although the recreation of the garbage compactor scene from Episode IV is the best moment in the film. In general, most of the jokes and attempts at humour in Fanboys are rudimentary at best.

Director Kyle Newman offers little flair to the proceedings. The Grade B- cast struggle against the limp material generally to no avail. Sam Huntington, Chris Marquette, Dan Fogler and Jay Baruchel will hope that Fanboys does not represent any sort of career highlight. Kristen Bell is sadly underused and deserves better future opportunities. There are dozens of cameos by actors with connections to the Star Wars universe, doubtless to keep fans of the franchise occupied as the general tedium unfolds.

Fanboys has good intentions; unfortunately, the Force was not strong with this one.







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