Day 242 of the challenge! Fanboys is an exploration of everything toxic and wrong in geek culture. Plus, not that funny.
You'd think I'd be all over a movie so heavily ingrained with Star Wars references and visuals (Fanboys has plenty of wipe transitions and iconic Star Wars sound effects sprinkled throughout it's running time), but no amount of reverence for my favorite franchise can hide how mean spirited and straight up ugly Fanboys actually is.
Before I go any further, I understand that everything in Fanboys is presented as a parody (and maybe a few years ago, it might have been seen as that), but living in a post The Last Jedi world (and post Gamergate too for that matter), the movie ends up feeling all too real. At times, watching Fanboys felt more like watching an in depth documentary on current events than a geek satire.
Constant sexual harassment and gatekeeping of the one female geek in the movie? Hilarious! Hazing and violently assaulting geeks with different tastes or fandoms? Comedy gold! At least that's how the film tries to sell all these deep seated issues, issues that have only gotten worse with geek subculture's rise from niche to mainstream. Plus, there's a fair share of homophobic jokes that have definitely not aged well. As for the non-problematic humor and jokes, they all fall flat. I don't think I laughed a single time watching this.
On the more positive side of things, there are plenty of prominent cameos that made me smile wide, and Kristen Bell and Seth Rogen are always a pleasure to watch. But as hard as I tried to enjoy this film ( I REALLY tried), I just couldn't get behind it, despite the obvious love the cast and crew had for Star Wars.