Fanboys feels like a disturbance in the Force
The Force is not strong with ‘Fanboys’’ familiar brand of geek culture comedy.
For a certain breed of dedicated, Jedi-robe-wearing, Boba Fett-imitating aficionados of George Lucas’s sci-fi franchise, Kyle Newman’s Fanboys is the most eagerly awaited film since Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. And we know how well that turned out.
Fanboys takes the 1999 release of Menace, the first new Star Wars film in 16 years, as a generational tipping point, particularly for four Lando-quoting friends in their early 20s during late 1998. When Linus (Chris Marquette) reveals he’s dying from terminal, unspecific cancer, the foursome road trip from Ohio to California, intent on breaking into Skywalker Ranch to see a rough cut of the film.
First scheduled for release in August 2007, Fanboys became an online cause celebre when the Weinstein Company reshot the film to cut out the downbeat cancer subplot. The fans struck back (in part by threatening to boycott last summer’s Superhero Movie) and the sickness storyline was restored. The cancer subplot unfortunately proves mawkish and contrived, but at least it helps justify behavior that would otherwise be illegal and stalkerish.