REVIEW: Avatar

It's been almost a decade since the biggest blockbuster in history came out, and I finally got around to seeing it.  I felt like the only person on the planet that hadn't seen it, with everyone rushing out to see the technical mastery of director James Cameron and how the movie incorporated 3D.  I also feel like the only person on the planet who thought Inception was 'meh.'  Sometimes, I have learned, I stand alone.

Cameron had a definite vision for this movie, and he has been pushing the boundaries of special effects and environment his entire career.  He doesn't seem to be able to give something less than 100%, and Avatar was his biggest masterpiece.  The visual world that he created was imaginative beyond compare.  The contrast of light and colours on the fictional planet of Pandora was glorious eye candy.  That being said, I didn't see this film in theatres.  I didn't see it in 3D.  I saw it on a laptop screen, and the CGI was obvious in some of the actions of the alien species, the Na'vi. That's minor, because when it came out it was without any contemporaries.  It was a massive hit, got nine Oscar nominations, three wins, and made $2.78 billion worldwide.  I cannot see it getting dethroned any time in the near future, so it's status as a mega-hit will remain.

But...

This is an example of insanely simplistic storytelling.  Yes, it blew minds and people ranted and raved, but the actual tale that's being told is incredibly generic, and the entire plot of the film (which means the film itself) had no reason to exist (I'll expand on this a bit later).  If you doubt me about the poor quality of its story, look at what happened when the film was no longer in theatres.  I don't know of anyone that owns a copy of Avatar.  I am never talking to friends of mine who are parents who excitedly tell me that they just showed their child Avatar for the first time.  Once the glamour of the film is pulled away, the ground breaking use of 3D, there isn't much left to excite people.  This is the biggest movie of modern cinema, and it didn't take long for it to stop being talked about.

This movie is easily the biggest 'white saviour' movie that has been told.  If that term is new to you, it refers to the fact that the problems of a different group of people are overcome by a white guy (seldom a female).  Not only is the main character, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) able to prove his worth to the Na'vi, it is him who ultimately has the courage and determination to lead them to victory when they are unable to do it themselves.  Movies like this should have gone extinct a long time ago, and yet they still happen.

Normally by this point in a review I would have said at least something about the plot of the movie I am reviewing.  Notice how I haven't done that yet?  It's because the plot has no reason to exist, and that's not based off of my interpretation, it is based off of the script.  Humans have a program where they take highly educated people with PhDs and essentially get them to drive around Na'vi bodies, which they call avatars.  They use 50% DNA from the human and 50% DNA from a Na'vi to create a creature that has a biological connection to its operator.  The human then goes in a pod and is able to bring the Na'vi body to life and control everything it does.  Because this program needs highly educated people who have trained for years on Na'vi culture and language (as well as it taking five years for those people to get to the planet), I assumed that all of this effort was for humans to infiltrate the Na'vi.  Why else would they have such an elaborate program?

Well, my friends, this isn't the case.  We learn quickly that the Na'vi know that the people coming to them aren't native to the planet, as they refer to them as 'sky people.'  "Okay," I thought, "obviously the humans have gone through all of this work because the Na'vi will have their minds blown if they saw someone in human form approaching them."  Not the case at all.  At the end they are presented both the human driver and their avatar they don't even do a double take.  In fact, they are so comfortable with it that I assume they must have known the entire time.  The fact that the human has been controlling the avatar is laid in front of them, and it is clear they aren't surprised by this.  There is no actual reason presented in the film why it is they have to resort to using avatars when they could just meet with the Na'vi in person.

The movie's entire plot is useless.  It is about a far-fetched program that would be costly as heck, take almost a decade to train and re-locate someone to drive an avatar, and is is inefficient as feeding unleaded gasoline to a mule to get him to go faster.  We are never given any reason why this entire avatar initiative is required, and people could have been meeting with the Na'vi in jeans and a tank top the entire time.

Add on to this the lack of subtlety in the film, and we aren't really looking at something that should have been nominated for a best picture Oscar.  The humans want something that they can't have because the Na'vi are situated on it, and it is called, 'unobtainium.'  Seriously, that is what it's called.  It has the poetic sting of a Limerick scrawled on the bathroom stall at a run down truck stop.  The main villain is a hard core military man who is about as cartoony caricature as you can get.  Seeing him walk around with his chest puffed out made me smirk almost every time I saw him.

Luckily there are a few things that are present to try and save the film.  The world that is created is absolutely beautiful.  The experience, even when not seen in 3D, is incredibly immersive.  There was such imagination and artistry that were poured into the film that it almost makes up for its flaws.  The action is well directed and well paced, which isn't a surprise since it's James Cameron.  It's just too bad the plot literally makes it so that the plot doesn't need to exist, and actually shouldn't exist.

It can be said that Cameron also had a very simplistic story in Titanic, and that would be true.  However, with Titanic we were given leads that were likeable.  While the story may have also had a cartoony villain in Billy Zane's character, the core of the tale was nice enough that it wasn't insulting. James Cameron is undeniably one of the most talented directors ever from a technical standpoint.  He can create content that relocates the theatre audience and places them in brilliantly created environments.  Storytelling, though, is not his strong suit.  I believe that he has story ideas that would cause him to create the next two Avatar films that are going to come out, but I don't believe they are guaranteed to be good.

Rating - 2.5 out of 3 stars

REVIEW: Santa Claws

Children are interesting creatures.  They can sit through a feature length film, blissfully unaware of the fact that what they are watching is, in reality, slowly ripping apart their parents from within.  Yes, there may be shiny objects or cute, fuzzy animals on the screen.  These can be enough to capture the attention of a youngling, bringing them into some sort of odd state of curious entertainment arousal while the fix they are seeking is poison to any caregiver within twenty five feet.  While they giggle, we, the dying, cough and pray that it will mercifully be all over soon.

Kids can like crap.  It has always been that way, and it will never change.  Revisiting many of my childhood favourites has taught me that when it came to quality entertainment, I was as dumb as a strudel.  Because of this, movies like Santa Claws get made.  Brought to us by the mock-buster behemoth The Asylum, the cinematic goo that is hacked up onto the screen is a contagion meant to annihilate any mature, sentient being.

The movie is about a bunch of talking kittens, who end up causing Santa to have an allergic reaction which takes him out, leaving them to win the day and deliver all of the toys.  I'm not sure why this and a few other movies (if I am remembering them right) treat Santa the same as a pirate captain on an island fortress.  Just like that island pirate captain, whoever is able to defeat him gets to be in charge.  For some reason, this power structure also applies to Saint Nick.  Whatever person, or kitten, can neutralize him can have his job.

In this film, there are two adults that are jerks.  One is a mother, and the other is a neighbour who is infatuated with Santa and is a total creep.  Speaking of creeps, have you ever taken a second to really think about Santa Claus?  Let's face it, he is a creepy, bearded stranger that we have heard about through word of mouth, never hearing directly from someone who has seen him and lived to tell the tale, much like Keyser Soze.  He sneaks up on your household using silent transport before breaking into your home to pass judgement on your innocent little children, laughing with joy the entire time.  He will also eat any food you happen to leave out.

There is really not much interesting that happens in this movie.  Because it is made by The Asylum, the special effects are horrendous.  While that works to their favour in creature features, is is merely a contagious rash in Santa Claws.  Because of their low budget, we really only see the cats mouths 'moving' while they talk at the beginning of the film and then for a few times at the end.  Ninety eight percent of their dialogue happens when they are either off screen or are seen from an angle that would not show their mouth.

That's all of the actual film criticism I am going to give to this 'movie.'

I believe that too often studios are fine making children's movies that aren't great.  Well, maybe they don't need to be 'great,' but at least the people making the film should strive to make a good product.  The fact that some of these films are aimed at children intentionally keep from being polished isn't right.  Just because your children may not understand at this moment that the people making it didn't care about them, they will quickly learn it years later when they seek out that movie they enjoyed in their youth.  Children shouldn't be treated like idiots just because others can get away with it.  They should be treated with respect, and those creating the content should at least have some minimal desire that these children will still enjoy that film years later, creating an experience that will live in proper nostalgia for their lives.

Rating - 0.5 out of 4 stars

REVIEW: Leave No Trace

One of the great, quiet films of 2018 is Leave No Trace, a very emotional father-daughter movie.  For any of you who get teared up when watching movies about the bond between a parent and their child, this one may choke you up.  Director Debra Granik works through the entire film to build in the audience an understanding of the key relationship, both the positives and the negatives that flow from it.

The film is about Will (Ben Foster) and his daughter, Tom (Thomasin McKenzie), who live in the forest together.  For the most part they exist off of what the land has to offer, but they do venture into town to get supplies when needed.  To get money, Will would visit the hospital to get his prescribed medicine as a military veteran, and then sell it.  Their existence is peaceful and serene, much like the beautiful forest that surrounds them.  The tension that looms over them is that of being discovered, and Will works to make sure Tom can hide her tracks and flea if needed.  Of course, they do get found and brought back into society.  Will is set up with a job, but Ben Foster's face shows that this type of living is painful for him.  The temptation to return to the forest never leaves.

One of the really nice elements of this film is the incorporation of the landscape.  Our characters are put against a number of backdrops, and Granik does a wonderful job of having them weave directly into their location.  We see how where they are affects them mentally and emotionally, and the world around them is always dynamic and working with them to tell the story.

Three times throughout the film, pets are introduced to Tom.  The first time it happened, I wondered if Granik was trying to say something.  When it happened two more times, it was apparent that she is making a point about both Tom and Will.  While it is the father's responsibility to take care of his daughter, the use of the animals shows us that their relationship is not what it should be.  Will isn't like a domesticated animal, but one meant to be in the wild, and his handler (Tom) must come to make some major decisions.  I could be way off in my interpretation here.

I always knew Ben Foster was talented, but had never heard of Thomasin McKenzie before.  This is a young lady who was thrown in a movie with a veteran actor and charged to be the lead.  McKenzie was able to show so many different sides and emotions.  Her character was written to experience almost all of the feelings a human could go through, and not a single one feels forced.  She is a talent that has a great deal of potential, and I am sure she has an incredible future ahead of her.

In a way this is a coming of age story, but the reality of the relationship Tom has with her father makes it deal with very mature themes as well.  She is turning into an adult, but I think she eventually realizes that she was already the adult.  The emotions that are cultivated throughout the film make it a rich experience, and there is a universal message in here that I believe goes beyond just the parental relationship.

Rating - 3.5 stars out of 4

They Aren't the Best Movies of the Year, But They're Still Pretty Darned Good

On The Movie Breakdown podcast that I co-host with Christopher Spicer we recorded our annual 'best of the year' episode.  Many amazing films were talked about, but there just wasn't enough time to mention everything.  There were so many wonderful flicks that came out in 2018, and while many didn't make my top ten or my honourable mentions list, they still need to get some shine.  So, here are some of the movies from this year that I still believe need to be seen.

Set It Up - For fans of romantic comedies, times have been dire.  In the past few decades there have been a few decent entries into the genre, but much of it has been generic and lifeless.  Recently we have been seeing some fresh air pumped in, and Claire Scanlon's Set It Up is the kind of formulaic story that will warm the hearts of romantic comedy lovers.  There are many cliches in this film, but it never feels like it is relying on them, and more-so paying homage to many of the tropes.

This is the equivalent of comfortable, old slippers that have a way to make you happy so easily. The chemistry between leads Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell is incredibly natural and charming.  These are characters that we enjoy being around, and we root for their inevitable love.  This movie breaks down no barriers, but it does remind us of the type of energy that can exist in this well-worn format.

To All The Boys I've Loved Before - This is another rom-com, but also in a coming of age tale.  Our protagonist Lara Jean (Lana Condor) has written and kept love letters for every boy she's had interest in.  Things do poorly for her when her sister sends the letters out to all of the boys who never knew she had these feelings.  There sure is some awkwardness, but there is a lot of sweet moments and humour.

Helping out the movie is the performance of Noah Centineo as Peter, a jock who pretends to date Lara Jean for a few reasons.  Centineo (who was also in this year's Sierra Burgess is a Loser) has a kind down to earth charisma that keeps him from being the typical dumb guy.  We know that they are destined to be with each other, and the moments they share convince us that we want them to be together.  Lana Condor proved she's got a bright future, and Noah Centineo has me convinced that there are great things in store for him.

Steel Rain - Do you remember the days of Cold War intrigue movies?  Do you remember when the fate of the world was at stake?  Possible nuclear war?  These movies are long gone, but this Korean film, like Set It Up, is a dip back into a genre that was once great.  Woo-seok Yang builds a story about an international incident between the two Koreas that has a chance to bring about nuclear holocaust.

It may not be the tightest film in the world, not needing to be the two hours and nineteen minutes that it is, but it is still very thrilling.  It is both a race against the clock movie and an action film.  The action sequences are spaced far apart, but they have great build up and are choreographed expertly.  There is one fight in particular in a hospital that had me begging for it to last longer.  This is a film that reminds us of a movie type that is long gone, but that can still be thrilling.

Isle of Dogs - Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs is a lovely tale.  It is an adventure, as some of his films are, and has an innocence, as almost all of his films have.  Dogs have been kicked out of Japan, sent to an island where a young boy travels to find his former companion.  There are many characters packed into this film, and the voice work fits perfectly with the world and the tone of the story.  Over the years, Anderson has created casts of ever increasing size and talent, and Isle of Dogs is one of the best lineups he's had.

There is a magic in both the animation style and the flat, matter of fact delivery of the actor's lines.  Anderson always creates such imaginative worlds, and of this I am a huge fan.  For those who have been in love with his films throughout his career, I can say with confidence that this movie will bring much joy.

The Endless - Of all of the films I am writing about, this one is the one that really feels like an independent film.  I am not sure about its budget, but I can guess that it's not much.  Money doesn't matter when you've got a great concept, though.  Directors and lead actors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead tell a tale of two brothers who escaped a doomsday cult as children, only to return as adults.

In a mind-screwing way, they begin to tease the audience with the reality in this film.  Before long, the two brothers are trapped in a supernatural, time warp.  Did all of it make sense?  Nope.  It really didn't need to.  Why should I understand things when the main characters don't have a clue as to what's happening?  The film has some great scenes, including an Easter egg for the few people who saw Resolution (an independent film that Chris and I reviewed in our first year of podcasting).  If the idea of psychological sci-fi sounds good to you, do yourself a favour and check this movie out/

Hearts Beat Loud - Chris' favourite movie of the year was A Star Is Born, and back in 2014 I was all doe eyed about Begin Again.  The similarity?  They are both about the artistic process, something which hits both of us personally.  While I haven't been able to see A Star is Born, I have seen Hearts Beat Loud, a terrific story about a father and daughter who enjoy jamming together.

It is a single parent tale, and the father is played by Nick Offerman in a standout performance.  To be honest, Offerman just doesn't have a huge range with his delivery.  His voice is fairly monotone, but that doesn't stop him one bit from giving as much emotion as anyone else.  I have enjoyed him as a comedian, and he has won me over as a multi-dimensional talent that can tackle many different roles.  This is a daddy-daughter film that will surely hit parents as there is such honest sweetness between Offerman and his daughter, played wonderfully by Kiersey Clemons.

The Domestics - I can't tell you how I found out about this film.  What corner of the internet I was travelling when I came across The Domestics is unknown, but this little film needed to get a mention. It is a post apocalyptic world, and a couple sets out on a journey.  What makes this film insane is that there are roving bands of baddies, all with different gimmicks.  Essentially, this is The Road meets The Warriors, and how the heck could that be bad?

The lunacy of this film had me from the beginning, and it really does have some interesting scenes.  Chris and I have crowed on and on about John Wick, and for fans of that film we get the concierge from The Continental in a small role.  There is a lot of creativity in this film, pumped full of some thrills and action as well.  There may be some unoriginal elements in this film, but if madness in the wasteland is up your alley, this movie needs to be seen.

NOTE: The Endless did make my honourable mentions list, but I forgot about that when I wrote this post.

REVIEW: BlacKkKlansman

Spike Lee has been around for a while, and through his career he has been able to reach an iconic status.  He has been extremely prolific over the years and has created some classic films.  Like every director, not all of his movies have been successes.  His last commercial hit was in 2006 with Inside Man, and he is back as strong as ever with BlacKkKlansman, which has made just shy of $90 million world wide.

Personally, I think the reason why this film has been such a hit is because of the passion that he has poured into it.  This is Spike Lee at his best, pushing and poking the audience in many different ways to get a reaction.  Some people may be rubbed the wrong way by some of Lee's movies (as they may well be with BlacKkKlansman), but he isn't out to please with some of his films.  He is an instigator and he wants you to think both about what you are seeing as well as how you are reacting.

In this film, we follow Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) as he becomes the first black man to serve as a police officer in the town of Colorado Springs in the 1970s.  He does not have a glorious beginning to his career, but through his ambition he soon gets undercover work infiltrating a rally held by a black civil rights activist who preaches revolution.  For his next investigation he responds to a recruitment ad in the newspaper for Ku Klux Klan members.  Over the phone, Stallworth pretends to be a white supremacist, gaining a chance to meet the Klan in person.  Obviously because of his race he is unable to do that part, and relies on the help of fellow detective Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) to fill in for the face to face time.  As the investigation continues, Stallworth is on the over the phone persona, while Zimmerman does the in person work.

The process that the two detectives go through to gain membership into the KKK pushes both Zimmerman, who is Jewish, and Stallworth.  Spike Lee keeps us from seeing the personal effects that being in the orbit of such toxic people would create.  The two are professions, and, for the most part, able to keep the investigation all business.  There are a few times that we do see the characters crack slightly, and the power that those scenes bring is subtle yet powerful.

John David Washington's portrayal as Stallworth is exceptional.  A lot of the larger emotions that he goes through are all internal, so the audience relies on a nuanced performance to understand the protagonist.  Nearing the end of the film, we do see the emotional side to Stallworth, and Lee makes sure those moments have maximum impact.  Like the build up to a good final confrontation in an action film, the emotions of Stallworth are teased to lead towards the payoff.

Spike Lee uses this film to look at both black radicalism as well as white radicalism.  While he is investigating both, he is far from putting both on par with each other.  One was born from the other, its existence solely a reaction to the devastation and societal oppression formed through the idea of white power.  I did get a feeling in one scene that Lee was putting the two beside each other to show that in some regards they may actually have some similarities.  Was that actually what Spike Lee was getting at?  I don't know.  As I said, he is an instigator, and he wants his audience to think about his content in numerous different ways.

BlacKkKlansman is a powerful film, that delivers both tension and comedy while looking at a true story.  There are some obvious dramatic interpretations added to the tale of Ron Stallworth, but the fact that a black man won his way into the Ku Klux Klan is a tremendous story.  Lee takes the concept and adds some richness, bringing us through the journey of Stallworth from investigating his own race, to pretending to be the worst of another race.  Other than a few small directorial choices of style that didn't quite work for me, this is a strong film that sadly ties to the present.  Racism will always be in our landscape.  It's the sad truth of the world we inhabit, and we probably won't evolve past that.  As long as we continue having artist like Spike Lee digging into this topic in intelligent ways, the idea of combatting racism will be impossible to forget.

Rating - 3.5 out of 4 stars

REVIEW: Searching

To be honest, Aneesh Chaganty's Searching should not have worked.  It is a film ensconced in a gimmick, and gimmicks are barely enough to carry 1980s professional wrestlers, let alone wide release movies.  The movie is told through what is happening on a computer screen, with only a few moments where it rely's on footage that would be from a television broadcast.  Such a method should burry a movie in a hole of limitations, but Chaganty shows that he not only can manage the gimmick, but actually use it to enhance the story telling.

Searching follows David Kim (John Cho) as he tries to find out what happened to his daughter, Margot (Michelle La) when she mysteriously goes missing.  What we see is the screens of the computers that he uses to try and unravel not just her disappearance, but the daily life that she lived.  With David tragically losing his wife recently, he learns that his grief has kept him blind to the needs of his daughter.

This realization is well told through what we see.  Chaganty makes every move of a cursor link us to what is going through David's mind.  I really wouldn't have thought that this was possible, but it was through hesitations, deleting words in texts, and rapid clicking that give us an insight into the feelings of our protagonist.  We can understand what is going on, and tension is built through this as well.

Cho's performance in Searching is what really bridges this backdrop of technology with the viewing audience.  He has always been a very good talent, but this may be his best work.  The majority of what we see is digitized, and the humanity that he is able to put into the film is needed for this entire project to work.  Without a good performance from Cho, we are at best amused by watching a well done gimmick.  With the powerful acting of Cho, we feel the tension, the hope, and the desperation.

A lot of what we see in Searching is very clever use of technology in a way that makes sense to the audience.  This isn't someone who can hack into the national defence grid with an off the shelf laptop (as seems to be the case in many technology based films).  This is a person who uses actual methods that are realistic to the types of computers he is using.  You may be thinking, 'well, of course that would be the case,' but so many movies are unrealistic in their portrayal of what computers do and how people use them.  Often they can either magically do something, or oddly be unable to do another.  The fact that everything that we see happen is true to real life adds a lot to the film.

I often get upset when people say that there are rules to art.  There are some things that people say should never happen, and they instantly dismiss movies when they tread into those forbidden areas.  As much as I try not to be that person, it is easy to go down that road.  However, the most important thing is that we all need to be open minded when we watch something, willing to have our expectations changed by what we are witnessing.  Ultimately, I believe that pretty much anything can actually work in a movie.  There are those things that should be stayed away from as a general rule because they almost always lead to failure.  That doesn't mean that the right people with the right idea can't make them succeed.  This is the case with Searching.  It really should not have worked.  Not only did Aneesh Chaganty pull it off, but he was actually able to make the film stronger through the format he chose.  As much as I didn't think I would say this, Searching needed to be done in this format to have the powerful impact that it wields.

Rating - 3.5 out of 4 stars

Solo: A Star Wars Story - Watering Down Something Amazing

I finally got around to seeing Solo: A Star Wars Story, a movie that managed to do the unimaginable.  Not only did this film not make tons of money, it is the first Star Wars film to be a box office bomb.  It is also the first Star Wars movie that I haven't seen in theatre, and I'm fine with that.

Overall, I thought Solo was decent enough.  Its cast was well selected, and the action was well shot.  I felt as though the viewing time passed by at a quick pace, which is always important for a film that is two hours and fifteen minutes.  There were a few smaller problems that I had with the film, such as a dreaded (and seemingly large) marauder turning out to be a child, and a number of call backs that weren't needed.  Ultimately, though, I was left wondering if I really even wanted this story to be told.  The answer is 'no.'  While I enjoyed the film, this wasn't anything that I was longing to see, and it sort of felt as though the effort was about making money instead of coming about because someone had a killer idea that needed to be pushed forward.

There is one issue with the film that I really did not like.  It is pretty much the same problem as when George Lucas decided to mess with his movie and make it so that bounty hunter Greedo shot at Han Solo in A New Hope, meaning that Han naturally had to shoot back and kill him.  Lucas saw that Solo became a hero, and why would a hero essentially murder someone, such as how it was portrayed in the theatrical release of the first Star Wars film?  Han Solo was then watered down.  The same happens in Solo.  Director Ron Howard and script writers Jonathan and Lawrence Kasdan craft a tale where Han Solo is what the audience would want him to be at the end of the movie, and that is altruistic.

There are three big emotional moments in the final minutes of A New Hope that made it the classic that it became.  One was when Luke Skywalker turned off the targeting computer in his X-Wing and relied on using the force.  Another was when he blew up the Death Star.  The biggest emotional moment, at least to me, is when Han Solo shows up at the very last second and saves Luke from Darth Vader.

The reason why this moment is so key to the movie is because it is a transformation moment for Han Solo.  We need to put our love of the iconic character aside and remember that in the beginning he was a cold-hearted career criminal.  He had no care for anything other than his own safety and making money.  Life and other people meant nothing to him.  By having a scene where he murdered Greedo, the audience is shown that Han Solo has no moral compass, and will stop at nothing to save his own skin.

As bad as all of that makes Han Solo sound, it is the only way to get the maximum impact for the finale.  There are characteristics to Han that we as the audience enjoy and appreciate, and while watching the film we are thinking, 'I wish he was a good guy.'  George Lucas expertly threaded the needle, giving us someone who wasn't redeemable, but also someone that we desperately wanted to cheer for.

When he shows up and takes out Darth Vader, the moment is truly significant because of just how egocentric and unethical Han Solo was.  By taking away the scene with Greedo, Lucas diluted the villainy of Han Solo.  By creating an origin story where in the end Han Solo is only interested in doing the right thing we are losing out on the punching effect that his transformation would hold.

There is a very good reason why Han Solo was as brutal and criminal as Lucas first had him portrayed, and that reason is so we would cheer when he, for the first time, made a choice that didn't put himself first.  Some folk may seem that the softening of his character makes it easier for kids, but I think there is something powerful in explaining to a young person that even someone as morally lost as Han Solo could still become reformed.  Han Solo was a smuggler, cheat, and murderer, and by George Lucas originally portraying him that way led to one of the best character turns in cinematic history.