Status Updates From Harlan Ellison's Watching

Just read Ellison's review of the original Star Wars, and it's fun to think how on-the-nose he was about most of his observations. It being a western, dressed up in the guise of science fiction, about its influences in Flash Gordon; the works. What was most entertaining about his review was "the dispensers of mass information" all proclaiming in unison that "entertainment is back", like it's year of our lord 2025.

The more I read Ellison's reviews, the more I don't like them. He's very clear about exactly what he wants a review to sound like at the start of the book and he wasn't lying. That just so happens to be listing out a bunch of names and shoving a really acute kind of pedigree for film knowledge down your throat. It's disingenuous to say that that's all he does, but at times it certainly feels like it.

I've gotten to the part where this book just becomes a bunch of reviews for films I've never seen, and I feel this might put me off going further. I really wished it was more of those essays on review-writing and critique, with which it had so entertainingly started. If nothing else, I've got more movies to watch, I guess.