Fanboys can be seen as a guilty pleasure movie. It has limited appeal and can’t be defended on any aesthetic grounds but it amused me in parts. Maybe because I grew up on the Star Wars movies it entertained me in a way it probably wouldn’t for non Star Wars fans. Having said that this is the kind of movie that is forgotten almost as soon as it is over. I don’t think I would want to see it again.
Set in 1999, the basic plot involves a group of geeks who are obsessed with Star Wars but are so impatient about wanting to see the anticipated release of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace that they hatch a scheme to see an early print of the movie. When the gang finds out that Linus (Chris Marquette) has cancer, Eric (Sam Huntington), Hutch (Dan Fogler), and Windows (Jay Baruchel) embark on a mission traveling from Ohio to the Skywalker Ranch in California to steal a workprint of the movie and watch it.
On the journey they take a few detours to Iowa where they confront Star Trek fans, known as Trekkers or Trekkies, who are honoring Capt. Kirk’s birthplace. They also run into Harry Knowles, of Ain’t It Cool News, in Texas who supplies them with plans to break into Skywalker Ranch. During this road trip there are funny cameo appearances by William Shatner and Kevin Smith among others but the filmmakers missed out by not including George Lucas.
Having Kevin Smith appear leaves us wondering what the result might have been had he had creative input in Fanboys. The movie lacks the raunchy humor Smith is known for but it desperately needs his wit and attitude. The jokes are slight and silly but they have no sting. The filmmakers had the perfect opportunity to satirize the obsession of Star Wars fandom but they are too caught up in embracing the cliché that all Star Wars fans are a bunch of losers without girlfriends who live with their parents. That theory would be fine if writers, Ernest Cline and Adam Goldberg, and director Kyle Newman had the nerve to make fun of that behavior but they don’t. The idea of embracing fandom worked well in Galaxy Quest but that movie captured a sense of charm and wonder towards fandom. In Fanboys it’s just a series of in jokes and lame gags trying to masquerade a thinly developed road movie. Even the subplot about the friend having cancer is handled perfunctorily. An added love story comes in as an afterthought. Overall, the acting is poor. Granted, you don’t expect great acting in a movie like this but Galaxy Quest had numerous terrific performances in a similar genre. But there were wonderful actors in that and Fanboys has mostly unknowns who do nothing to distinguish themselves.
When The Phantom Menace opened in theaters, my friends and I were among the many legions of fans that waited in line for the midnight showing on opening night. Like most everyone else I thought the movie was disappointing but I still have a clear memory of the anticipatory excitement of that shared experience the movies are so great at giving us. Its too bad Fanboys didn’t have the nerve to either capture that experience or make fun of that behavior.