It seems like years ago I first heard about this love letter to the Star Wars saga. Perhaps that's because it was years ago. Fanboys has been sitting on a shelf for I don't know how long, but now, it's finally seeing the light of day.
In Fanboys, a pack of rabid Star Wars fans (and childhood friends) take a road trip to the Skywalker Ranch when they learn that one of their own is dying of cancer. Their mission? To steal a copy of Phantom Menace before it's scheduled release date, and set up a private screening as a treat for their dying frined.
The title Fanboys couldn't be anymore prophetic. This is a film for Star Wars fans made by Star Wars fans, and while the movie is incredibly earnest in its approach, it could have been so much more.
The cast is likable enough, most notably up and coming funny man Dan Fogler who provides the film with some of its biggest laughs. Kristen Bell is charming as every geek's biggest fantasy, and when she's given the opportunity to don Princess Leia's famed Return of the Jedi garb, she makes the most of it.
To be honest, I thought Fanboys would be sharper. The Star Wars mythology has been played with numerous times to stronger effect by the likes of Seth MacFarlane and Kevin Smith. Hell, even Lost took some clever potshots at George Lucas's iconic universe this season. Here, most of the jokes are fairly obvious. There are a couple of wonderful bits including a verbal battle between Star Wars fans and Trekkies, and a hilarious sequence in which our fearless heros hallucinate while by a campfire. The plot structure is fairly dull though. It almost plays like a tame version of that Tenacious D movie from a few years back. In the end, the so called plot is a simplistic device created to let the lead characters talk about Star Wars for ninety minutes. Don't get me wrong. I love Star Wars, but I was hoping for a little more ingenuity here.
Strangely, Fanboys finds it's main characters at a curious crossroad at the end of their journey, and at one point towards the end of the film, one character asks another what they'll do if the Phantom Menace doesn't meet their hefty expectations. As a huge fan of Star Wars and as someone who knows all too well the dangers of hefty expectations, I found myself smiling at this all too familiar scenario. I wish there were more honest moments like that throughout the film. In the end, my hefty expectations got the best of me where Fanboys was concerned. No, I wasn't as disappointed by this as I was by Phantom Menace, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't expect a little bit more.
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