Considering our ADD society’s constant demand for getting what’s new new NEW, it shouldn’t be all that surprising that, a mere handful of days following the release of the latest Star Wars film, there’s already rumors about what’s coming up in the nextStar Wars film…
For those who have seen the film or, like me, have read the plentiful spoilers out there (as the saying goes, you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting ’em), this apparently includes a certain actor/character who…well…you thought might be done based on what happens in this film.
So what to make of the fact that Ms. Kennedy says the entire cast will return?
Was Ms. Kennedy simply trying not to be spoilery regarding the fate of this certain character in the freshly released film (the interview presented might well have been made shortly before the formal release of the film)? Maybe said character will return like some of the others in the original three Star Wars films, ie as ghostly presences? Or is it possible that the character’s fate wasn’t quite as permanent as the viewers thought?
I lean towards the later.
Which brings me to the next point: I know what you’re thinking, did he fire five shots or…
No, wait.
You’re thinking: Ok Mr. Smartypants, you’ve written over and over and over again about how much you don’t like Star Wars all that much and how when you were a young kid you went into the theaters to see the original 1977 Star Wars and walked out wondering what all the hype was about and blah blah blah.
So why do you keep commenting on it?
Frankly, the fact that Star Wars never floated my boat doesn’t mean that I’m not interested in the series and its world wide reaction. The fact is I’m a science fiction fan. I write science fiction novels. I LOVE science fiction.
And while I will wait to see the latest Star Wars feature when it hits home video (again, based on what I’ve read and the fact that this movie appears to be a homage/remake of the original Star Wars makes me even less interested in seeing it right now), I nonetheless will eventually see it.
I’m always hoping a sci-fi work –any sci-fi work- will knock my socks off. Star Wars and its various sequels and prequels never quite did it for me but I’m always curious -in a professional way- about what sort of stories/movies draw people in and I’m certainly willing to give the film a look.
Eventually.
In the meantime, those who like/love the film, I’m happy for you. Really. Clearly there are very many of you out there and while the film hasn’t been universally loved, there are plenty who do like it.
I hope when I get around to seeing it I won’t regret the time spent doing so.
Which in some ways is not all that different from your typical reaction to the works of J. J. Abrams. I actually admire the man quite a bit: He knows how to create something that, while you’re watching it, is compelling and interesting. But after the fact, when you stop to think about what you’ve just seen, doubts form and secondary opinions pop up.
Will this happen for Star Wars VII? It happened, after all, with the “prequels”. There was plenty of good cheer and great critical ratings until the warm glow of nostalgia lifted and people got a better look at the product.
By the way, I’m as prone to changing my mind as the next person. I enjoyed Star Trek: Into Darkness when I caught it in the theaters but after thinking about it for a bit, realized the film was very flawed.
We’ll see what happens.
What else is there to talk about?
Politics?
Yesterday we had the 1,993,320,123,432th GOP debate and, like all the others, I dutifully avoided it as best I could. Of course afterwards all those news stations (why, WHY!?!) had their anchors/analysts go over who did what and to whom and, like some morbid all enveloping black hole I couldn’t help but be sucked in.
It appears, at least to my eyes and based on what little was highlighted, that I didn’t miss all that much. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I wouldn’t vote for this version of the Republican Party if my life depended on it (check this chilling article by William Saletan which posits this question: Who would you elect President if your only choices are Trump, Cruz, or Carson?). The latest debate -what little I saw of it- didn’t change my mind in that respect.
So forget Star Wars and forget Politics. How about…
I’ve gone down this road before a few times but, like the self-driving car articles I so dearly love, this is rapidly becoming an issue I’m also intrigued with.
I’ve written about this before so excuse me while I (briefly) repeat myself: When I was young, I had no interest in sports at all. Let me be clear: AT ALL.
I was forced to play games I didn’t care to play (usually soccer…why the hell couldn’t you use your hands?!?). TV was very limited back then and where I was there wasn’t a whole lot of sports aired on it.
Things changed back in/around 1984. I started watching -and admiring- football, specifically the incredible talents of one Dan Marino. He almost single handedly got me interested in football in general and the Dolphins specifically.
But I didn’t stop there and eventually became a full fledged sports fanatic. I not only watched football, but also basketball, baseball, and hockey. This all ended the year after I watched almost every single game of the 2003 World Series winning season the Marlins played. I realized I was extremely lucky to see a team go from game one to winning the series and the likelihood of repeating this was very slim.
I also realized I had wasted waaaay too much time before the TV seeing this.
So I cut back dramatically. In more recent times the most sports I’ve followed were probably the LeBron James Heat, but I only watched some of those games and more closely followed the playoffs.
Though it all, my favorite sport to watch remained football, in spite of the fact that since Marino retired the Dolphins haven’t done much of anything.
Having said that, I agree with Mr. Costa: Football is at heart a game that destroys not only the athlete’s body, but also, and more frighteningly, his mind. Yes, some people come out of the game better but at this point I feel that even those who most want football to prosper cannot with a straight face say that it is a “safe” sport to play.
True, basketball, baseball, and hockey wear down athletes’ bodies as well, but the fact is that these sports don’t feature what is the staple of football: Athletes running at full speed into each other.
It happens now and again in basketball. It happens now and again in baseball. It may happen a little more frequently in hockey.
But the reality is that every play in football involves athletes running into each other at top speeds. While a well-toned body may be able to absorb the hits, there is no training or helmet padding great enough to protect a person’s brain.
I’m not going to lie: I still love watching football. But as each new study on brain trauma resulting from playing in the sport is released and the reality of what playing the game does to the athletes’ bodies is understood, I don’t know how much longer it can exist.
Last night was the premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and I was curious to see how the exclusive crowds reacted to the premiere. It would appear they left mostly happy:
So for all those looking forward to the film’s formal release tomorrow (it is being released on Wednesday, right?) looks like you’ll like what you’ll see.
It’s just about here and we’re way beyond fever pitch. In a few short days, the latest Star Wars film is released and I…
…Well, I’ll pretty much ignore it.
Don’t get me wrong: If you love Star Wars and are rabid to see this latest film, then by all means do so (yeah, like you need my permission!).
And when you do, I sincerely hope you have an absolute blast. In this life, one needs to get their pleasures as they come and if Star Wars scratches that itch, then more power (and fun!) to you.
If you’re new to this blog and haven’t read some of my posts regarding the phenomena that is Star Wars, the above should clue you in on the fact that no, I’m not a fan of Star Wars.
I stumbled upon this article by Todd Leopold for CNN and it contains many of the same feelings I have regarding the movie, though Mr. Leopold goes one step too far in condemning the whole franchise:
I think Mr. Leopold was acting like a big jerk way back when he yelled out Spoilers to the crowds waiting for the next showing of the just released The Empire Strikes Back. First, its just plain rude. Secondly, if he didn’t care for the franchise to begin with, why did he bother to go see the sequel?
Like Mr. Leopold, I was of the right age (I was 11, he 12) at the time of the original release of Star Wars and, like him, the film simply didn’t turn me on like it did so many others. However, unlike Mr. Leopold I was so unimpressed with Star Wars that I skipped The Empire Strikes Back when it was released to theaters and only saw it years afterwards when it aired on TV.
But, again: While Star Wars and the films that followed it didn’t particularly rock my boat, at this point in my life I don’t feel the need to berate people who do love this work. After all, there are things I love dearly that others wouldn’t (I’m looking at you, Supernova).
Having said all that, what does irk me about Star Wars fans and may explain -to some degree anyway- why the whole Star Wars thing never really appealed to me is explained beautifully in this very positive article by Forrest Wickman for Slate.com:
Let me be very clear here: the above article DOES NOT in any way/shape/form tear down the original 1977 Star Wars film and instead heaps praise on how the film was the ultimate pastiche, masterfully borrowing so many elements from so many different films (various westerns to Flash Gordon to The Hidden Fortress to The Dam Busters) to create its own experience.
Interestingly, this may be the very reason why I’ve been so (ahem) lukewarm to Star Wars. It’s because even as a young child seeing the film I recognized so many of these elements (the western influences, Flash Gordon, War films) and therefore couldn’t “see” the film as being an original work.
In some ways this reminds me of my equally muted feelings towards the Kill Bill movies. While technically these movies, like Star Wars, are very well done, they are as much a pastiche as Star Wars. With Kill Bill, director/writer Quentin Tarantino attempts to create a Kung Fu version of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and to my mind, why would I want to see a “homage” to that superb film when I can see the original?
So too it is with the original 1977 Star Wars. Why would I be interested in seeing this (admittedly well done) pastiche when I can watch the better, IMHO, works that it took from?
Again, this is just my subjective opinion and, again, I absolutely do not begrudge everyone’s desire to catch the latest Star Wars film (and films) when they are released to theaters.
While I may not have jumped aboard that particular cultural train, I recognize I’m among the very, very few.
As an author, if there is one thing I can appreciate is the desire to “surprise” your audience with your new work(s). You spend considerable time coming up with your story and massaging it until it is worth releasing and the very last thing you want is someone to post spoilery information about what you’ve done and render you work pointless.
Fortunately, as an author who works alone I am a self-contained unit. Whatever scenarios and stories I come up with reside in my head and, unless I get hacked, my computer. Until my latest work is officially released, no one other than I know what I’m up to. At this point, I’ve finished the second full draft of my latest novel and, apart from this one hint I offered a little while back, at least with regard to when the story takes place, you have no idea what awaits you.
Because creating a movie involves many, many people both in front of and behind the cameras, the possibility of leaks is a very real one.
A while back a very early draft of the script to Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie, The Hateful 8, was leaked to the internet and Mr. Tarantino, overcome with anger, stated he would abandon the film entirely. He eventually changed his mind and the film will be released this December, but I totally get where he’s coming from.
Again: When you create a story, you want viewers/readers/what-have-you coming into your story knowing the bare minimum. You want to surprise, shock, amuse, etc. them with what goes on. How can you do that if they already know what they’re in for?
Unfortunately, because of the internet and the ability to instantly “talk” to the world at large, spoilers are becoming a big problem in the movie industry. I recall when The Dark Knight Rises was in the process of being filmed and, when exterior shots were taken, people on the streets who happened to be close by produced videos of what was going on. On the very day scenes involving Batman fighting Bane or Catwoman riding around on a Bat-Cycle were shot, the world at large was able to see what was going on.
Let me repeat and emphasize this: The world got to see scenes from a movie many months away from being released, much less finished, the same day they were being filmed!!!
Which brings us to the latest bit of spoilery territory.
Perhaps the most anticipated film of December (maybe even of this year) is the latest Star Wars feature. Director J. J. Abrams and company have been extra careful in trying to keep the movie’s plot under wraps and, to my eyes, have been for the most part successful.
But spoilers come in all shapes and forms and someone at a Walmart in Iowa accidentally displayed for sale some Star Wars action figures tied to this film. These figures, including that of the female character Rey, had potentially spoilery information. A photograph of the toy was taken and released on the internet and…
For those who don’t know, big stores like Walmart, Target, Costco, etc. etc. receive merchandise sometimes a week or two before its “official” release date. They hold this material and, on the date said merchandise is to be released, it is pulled out of their warehouse section and put up for sale.
As you can see from the article above, sometimes errors are made.
I’ve experienced the early release of materials before, though nothing quite as “exciting” as this.
A few years back (try to contain your excitement when you read this awe-inspiring story) I wandered into my local Costco and found the first BluRay release copy of the classic Bruce Lee film Enter The Dragon for sale. I wound up buying it and smiled while I did, knowing that the BluRay edition wasn’t scheduled to be released until the following week and someone at Costco had mistakenly put it on sale early.
I’ll give you a few minutes to catch your breath after reading such an earth shattering story.
All jokes aside, I can’t fault Disney/Lucasfilms for being upset that a potential spoiler has found its way into general release before the film. But neither can I fault those who posted pictures of the toy on the internet -they did legally buy the items, though it was mistakenly put on sale too early- nor the staff of the Walmart, who probably committed what was ultimately a very innocent mistake.
Just goes to show…there are many, many ways to spoil a story.
A few days back Disney released the first full trailer for the new Star Wars film. Notably absent from it was Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker.
At the time, I wrote that his absence made me wonder whether the movie’s big surprise would be that Luke Skywalker is evil. (You can read the full post here)
Since then and a few days ago, I linked up to another article, this one arguing that Luke Skywalker is not evil and offering as evidence his clothing (or at least the clothing we’ve seen him in in a couple of leaked photographs…you can read that post here).
Now comes this article, by Rob Conery and for Huffington Post, which goes into great, great detail on why my original thought, that Luke was going to be revealed as “evil” is indeed what we’re getting in the new Star Wars film:
So much reading about a movie I’m at best only mildly interested in…
Which means I’ve gotta give the folks behind it a hell of a lot of credit: They’ve managed to get people talking about this new Star Wars film and it would not surprise me at all that whatever is revealed vis a vis Luke Skywalker, the one’s who will benefit the most from this speculation are the studios.
Yesterday, during the Monday Night Football game, Disney released the official trailer for Star Wars Episode VII – The Force Awakens. If you’re one of the very few out there who haven’t yet seen it, here it is…
Not too bad, right? Some of the special effects shots are impressive although the story/character stuff, to my eyes, hints at a Star Wars for this particular generation, one that’s inspired more by The Hunger Games than the original Star Wars. Then again, maybe I’m seeing more into this than there is.
I’ve noted before my curious feelings regarding Star Wars. To know me, you would figure I’d be a fanatic of the series. I was 11 years old when the original Star Wars was released way back in 1977. Before -and after!- the movie’s release I was a big fan of all things sci-fi. I loved the original Star Trek. I caught every science fictional show or cartoon I could on TV or at the movies. I loved reading science fictional stories both in novel and comic book form.
And when Star Wars was released, like so many others my age, I was dying to get into the theater to see it. I did so, perhaps in the first week or so of its release and to this day I remember the energy within that filled-to-the-brim theater. The theater was teeming with with boys (for the most part) not all that much older than me. When the movie began, they screamed and clapped and loved every single second…
…while for the life of me I couldn’t –still can’t– understand what it was that appealed to them.
As Star Wars played out, I found myself curiously detached from the experience. While others were going out of their minds, I was unimpressed. Sure, the movie’s effects were quite stunning, but the story didn’t engage me. In fact, I found the whole thing rather…dull. Toward the end, when we see Darth Vader flying away in his crippled fighter, a scene designed to clearly set up a sequel, I finally had some emotions regarding the film: I was livid.
How could the film’s makers (George Lucas was yet to become a household name) have the balls to make a movie yet clearly set up a sequel?
Bear in mind, back in 1977 movie sequels were an incredible rarity. Other than the James Bond movies, there were very, very few sequels or series of movies. Therefore 11 year old me expected a movie to be self-contained and, at the very least -and again, this was in my mind- not make reference to a continuation that may never happen.
So I walked out of the theater feeling rather odd. Everyone around me loved Star Wars just as clearly as I did not. And, being a sci-fi fan, I just couldn’t understand what it was I missed.
I would go on to catch the film again a month or so later when I took my sister to see it. That experience proved to be a repeat of my first experience. Filled theater, high energy, audience love.
And then there was me, still not feeling it.
Now please, don’t take my feelings regarding Star Wars as some kind of put down of everyone else’s. My personal opinions aren’t any more “right” than the vast majority of people out there who obviously loved the film,
The bottom line is that Star Wars simply wasn’t my cup of tea even though, perplexingly, by all rights it should have been.
So unimpressed with Star Wars was I that I skipped the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, when it hit theaters. The first time I saw it was when it aired on TV some time later. As for Return of the Jedi, I caught that one in the theaters and found it to be a more entertaining experience though I felt Harrison Ford looked pained being in this film. By that time he was quite the rising star and perhaps wanted to put these movies behind him. Who knows.
I didn’t think all that much of the Star Wars prequels, none of which I saw in theaters, but in this respect my opinion probably falls in line with most others.
Which brings us back to Star Wars VII and its trailer.
Is it just me or does it seem obvious who the “big bad” is?
Used to be old time murder mystery films/TV shows would show us a hand holding a gun or some such to hide who the killer was. In those instances the killer was obviously someone else in the film, someone we knew, and the shock of that realization was kept from us by showing a hand or feet or a back and not showing us the killer’s face until the very end.
So with this Star Wars VII trailer we see a villain who wears a mask (hiding his/her face) and also speaks with a distorted voice. The voice thing is particularly intriguing: Here we have a villain we may know just by their non-distorted speech.
Add to the fact this villain carries around Darth Vader’s nearly melted mask and clearly has some kind of affinity for him.
By the way, which of the characters from the original trilogy don’t we see in this commercial? Why…Luke Skywalker.
….Hmmmmm….
Is that the big reveal?
That Luke Skywalker is the movie’s villain?
Could these films, therefore, be something of a repeat of the original Star Wars trilogy but instead of a Darth Vader going from evil to, by the end, good, we have Luke Skywalker starting out as bad and, by the end, becoming good? Following the path of his father?
It would be a gutsy thing to do, I suppose, given the way things were left in Return of the Jedi.
I suppose we’ll see in December.
UPDATE: I’ve read that Luke Skywalker’s role in this film is very limited and that the sequels to this film are meant to focus more on him. Even if Luke isn’t the badguy presented in the trailers, he might still be the big bad of the series of movies that follows…or not.
For a movie/set of movies I’ve noted weren’t my cup of tea, its annoying how much I’m thinking about them! Just goes to show: The power of advertising is mighty indeed!
