STAR WARS - POD RACE

In what two ways are the narrative and characters typical of the AA genre?

This clip is typical of the action and adventure genre because firstly, there is lots of speed and motion. The antagonist, Skywalker, is in a pod race against the antagonist which is some form of alien. The two characters move at incredible speed in their so-called “pods” and do some incredibly fast manoeuvres as they whiz past us. This creates a lot of motion and also a lot of speed which is very intense and exciting to watch. All of this speed and motion also creates a sense of jeopardy and suspense.

Jeopardy and suspense is created as both racers encounter a lot of near-misses during their race, for example, they race through a very thin canyon and seem like their are constantly in danger of crashing into the hard walls of the canyon which surround them. This is a very restrictive environment so the slightest error of judgement could send any racer crashing to their death. They also fly very close to the ground and it seems that if they fly any lower, they will crash.  Towards the end of the race, the villain crashes and part of his ship explodes in a spectacular fashion, which would almost certainly kill somebody if they were standing directly next to it.

The characters are also typical of the AA genre. Anakin, the protagonist, is very brave and heroic, taking many risks and never backing down in the entire duration of the race. He also wins the race at the end, so there is a happy ending, which is also typical of many films in the AA genre. As he wins, he presented in a very heroic fashion with crowds cheering for him and lifting him up into the air as they are so delighted that he was won the race, and hasn’t died at the age of ten.

The antagonists are extremely typical of the AA genre as they are all rather obnoxious looking creatures, with snarly facial expressions and dirty horrible outfits. They also tend to cheat in the race and will do anything they can to win, even if it is completely  morally incorrect. They also tend to end up getting themselves in a fix which is impossible to get out of, and consequently crashing as a result of their mindless stupidity.

CAMERAWORK & MISE–EN-SCENE

In this scene, the camerawork is also typical of the action and adventure genre. There are a large amount of Point of View shots which quite literally put you in the driving seat, and give you a great sense of the speed in which they are travelling. It allows us to experience the race through the competitors’ eyes which makes everything feel a great deal more realistic and thrilling, as the audience feels like they too are participating in the race.

There are also a lot of tracking shots, which keep the audience alongside the race, and allow them to spectate the action. This also gives us a sense of speed as we are aware of how fast both racers are moving in relation to the background, which adds to the sense of suspense and jeopardy as the audience realises that a crash at this speed would be rather serious.

There is a great deal of mise-en-scene in this extract, which adds to the authenticity of the scene. The location was filmed in Africa, with lots of interesting rock formations and desert locations. These, combined with a very elaborate set, make this feel like it really is taking place on another planet. Lots of odd looking structures and alien-like machines are all over the place, which makes the scene feel very authentic.

Many strange aliens and creatures are present both in the crowds of spectators, and also racing in pods. They often have oddly coloured skin, usually being a turquoise colour. They have very interesting features, for example, some aliens my look relatively normal except for the fact that they have the nose of an anteater, or there is even a two-headed alien which commentates on the race.

The human-looking characters, along with the aliens all wear robes which seem rather out of date considering the technology that the characters are all using. This adds to the feeling of us being on a different planet where things are not the same as they are on Earth. There are incredibly large numbers of background characters in the crowds, and whether or not they look like a human or an alien, it adds to the feeling of this being an important event that excites thousands and thousands of beings.