Star Wars: The Force Awakens (FULLY-SPOILED)

Doug: Time it is. Spoil you must.

Karen: Howdy folks. While Doug and his boys are going to see it today, and we'll hear from him soon, I've seen it twice now, and I want to chime in with some thoughts. 

First, I did enjoy it. I felt it was in the spirit of the original trilogy and was visually stunning, and thankfully did not have the synthetic, over-CGI look of the prequels. I am so glad they decided to film in real locations, and use film stock. The story also is much more personal and relatable than the whole trade guild mess from the prequels -as soon as the beginning crawl said, "Luke Skywalker has vanished" I felt like the story would be focused in the right direction.

The new young protagonists were interesting and likable, if still somewhat mysterious, I am assuming we will learn more about Rey's parentage in the next film. I am still wondering what made Finn break his conditioning and rebel -is there something going on here that will also be revealed?

I have to be honest and admit that the moments that brought me the greatest joy were those with cranky old Han Solo and Chewbacca. Seeing those two together again, and seeing the Millennium Falcon soaring across the screen, were enough to make me go home with warm fuzzies. I've been asking myself how much of my good will towards the film is due to nostalgia, and I'm sure that is a nice chunk of it. Perhaps with some time it will be more clear to me if I like The Force Awakens on its own merits or just because I get to see my childhood heroes in it. I think there's enough in the film to like it beyond the nostalgia factor -but let's not kid ourselves: it's a heavy factor.

Not that everything was perfect (none of the Star Wars films are). I felt there were too many call backs to the original films. Another Deathstar? Why? Even the movie seems to poke fun at this, when the Rebels are planning their attack and Han sort of sarcastically says something along the lines of "There's usually a way to blow these things up." We have a youngster on a desert planet who has a greater destiny. A robot carrying secret plans. A cantina with a bunch of strange-looking aliens. A character who leaves winds up coming back to help. The mentor to the younger characters dies...it just felt like there were too many parallels. It's obvious it was intentional but much like Superman Returns, it felt like overkill to me. 

I also have mixed feelings about Kylo Ren. Obviously he's not meant to be Darth Vader; by the time we first saw Vader, he had been in his position for a couple of decades and was largely in control of himself -his was a simmering anger that he was able to direct with a laser-like focus. Ren on the other hand is all angst and fury, confused as hell and perhaps even psychotic. While this comes across there are also some odd moments of humor, when he throws his tantrums, that make him far less menacing and more pathetic. I suppose the true villain here is the Emperor stand-in (another call back), Supreme Leader Snoke -a terrible name - who seems to be manipulating Ren. I wasn't surprised by the revelation that he was Han and Leia's son, but I do wish we'd had a little more build up to it. The way it was revealed seemed rather off-handed. 

I suppose Harrison Ford finally got the death scene he's been wanting since The Empire Strikes Back. No wonder he's been so happy to do all these TV shows and press junkets -he's finally free! Maybe I'm too hard on him. He seems like a decent guy, just not enamored with the whole 'Star Wars' life. In any case, I thought he did a great job in the film. He really brought back Han Solo -all the ego, the humor, and the subtlety too, he pulled it off. I was very happy to see Chewie get featured quite a bit. I just wish he'd had a scene with Leia after Han's death. I also wish Ford and Mark Hamill had gotten a scene together, but barring flashbacks, this appears unlikely.

Carrie Fisher didn't get a lot to do this time around -and Hamill even less! - but I'm sure we'll see more of them next time. There are still so many unanswered questions about what has happened between Return of the Jedi and this film. And why the heck do jedi always run off and go into hiding when they have a problem? Yoda and Obi-Wan did it, and now Luke is too? Geez guys, how about dealing with your problems?!

Despite any quibbles, I am excited to see where the story is going.

Buried Treasures: Star Wars - From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker

Karen: I didn't realize it had been just over a year -last November -since we last ran a Buried Treasure post. But categories never stay dead forever here, and with the new Star Wars film coming out in a few weeks, this seemed more than appropriate. I had rediscovered my copy of the Star Wars novelization last year but had just put it on the shelf until now. A little detective work tells me this is the second printing, which came out in May 1977 -and I do recall getting it not long before I saw the film, but as I have mentioned in the past around these parts, our town didn't actually get Star Wars until July 1977! So here I had this absolutely amazing book, chock full of photos and the entire story of the film, and it tortured me. Oh, how it tortured me. I did look at all of the pictures and read the captions -heck, I had been reading articles about "The Star Wars" in Starlog for a year or so, so I knew some of the details already. But somehow, I pulled together every ounce of willpower I had and did not read the novel until after I saw the film. And then I had questions. Like -how come we didn't see Luke go to Mos Eisley and meet Biggs in the film? We never saw Jabba in the movie. And so on. Of course, all those scenes that were cut have now been shown in out takes or, sadly in some cases (Jabba), reworked and put back in the films. But you get the idea. I have read that the novel was ghost-written by Alan Dean Foster from George Lucas' script and notes. Re-reading some scenes, it's interesting how they differ from the film - certainly, the dialog seems even worse in the book than the film, and that's saying something. Look, I love Star Wars, but dialog was never Lucas' strong suit.

Karen: If you have never seen this early movie tie-in, it's a beauty. I wish I could show you all of the color photo mid-section (16 pages of photos, as the cover says), but my poor copy is falling apart. I could barely hold it open to take a few pics. But it still looks great. It has photos of all the major characters along with brief bios. I like how Darth Vader is described as using his "extrasensory powers" to keep the Emperor in power -it's the Force, not ESP! Also, R2 and C3PO are called robots, not droids. I can just imagine some low-level copywriter going through all the notes from the studio  and trying to make it sound less weird. No one back then knew what the heck the Force or a Jedi was. Also interesting is that in the pages describing the production of the film, American Graffiti is referenced no less than four times. I know it was popular, but still! Then again, what else did Lucas have going for him at that point? Well, certainly he has a few other things on his resume now.

BAB Firsts (Doug's 1st 5X to Love Post): 5 Films to Love

This post was originally published on July 27 2009

I'd like to start a revolving series of posts where Karen and I shoot your way our opinions of multi-media pop culture. Today I'll start with five movies I really, really like -- they won't necessarily be my "top 5 of all time" or anything like that. But these are movies I'll stop and watch when I see them on the telly, or even fire up the DVD player with them on occasion. So, in no particular order...

1. Planet of the Apes, 1968.

I've previously discussed not only this film, but the entire franchise (though not in exhaustive detail -- you can see my musings here: http://bronzeagebabies.blogspot.com/2009/06/get-your-hands-off-me-you-damned-dirty.html). As I commented at the end of the aforementioned post, I caught a few of these films last weekend on the Fox Movie Channel; I also spied the Tim Burton remake on FX just last evening. I started to watch it, and while there is much to love about it (time has been kind in regard to special effects, make-up, etc.), the general story and execution just doesn't do it for me. I think, although grossly different from Pierre Boulle's novel, that the folks at 20th Century Fox created a classic, a masterpiece, back in '68. Heston's melodramatics, Roddy McDowell's coolness, and the emotional acting of Kim Hunter really carry the story -- a morality play in a time when apocalypse in one form or another was (or maybe should have been) on the movie-going public's minds. As I said earlier, Planet of the Apes had a tremendous sense of adventure and even scariness for me as a child that is still there, but to which has been added a sense of appreciation for the larger stereotypes, social mores, and general ecological warnings that have jumped to meet my adult mind.

2. Logan's Run, 1976.

I think I first saw this on network television in the late '70's, although it could have been a bit earlier on HBO. I've only seen the film all the way through once, but have often caught bits and pieces on the various cable movie channels. What I remember is that sense of futuristic wonder at the cityscape and the terror of the premise that everyone had to die at the age of 30. When I first saw the movie, that didn't seem so bad; at the ripe old age of 43, however...

I recall that Michael York as Logan-5 was just studly enough to carry his part, and his range of emotions was strong. Jenny Agutter was of course beautiful as the VERY scantily-clad Jessica-6, as was Farrah Fawcett (lord, how I loved Charlie's Angels!!) as Holly. The scenes in Washington DC evoked the ending of Planet of the Apes, and further cemented in my mind that we all could be going to hell sooner than later.

3. Jaws, 1975

Wow. I don't even care to swim all that much and this movie scared me to death. Perhaps my lasting memory of the movie comes from a trip to Florida when I was 12; trust me, I didn't venture too far out into the ocean! As the film was huge that summer of '75, the various companies that bring book orders into the schools filled it up with books about sharks, shark attacks, ocean adventures, etc. I bought a book called Sharks: Attacks on Man. I read it until the pages came out. I recall that there were some photos in that book, mostly of chewed-up surfboards and people with mouth-shaped stitches on their sides and appendages -- ugh...

Steven Spielberg just did a fantastic job with this film. The characterization is wonderful, and the suspense created by the score is virtually without peer. Think how long it is until you see the shark -- but you know, you just know that it is a beast to be reckoned with. Spielberg got more out of a few notes on a piano... The film also has its memorable one-liners, and my favorite is Martin Brody's subtle announcement that, "You're gonna need a bigger boat."

4. The Empire Strikes Back, 1980.

A few weeks ago Karen wrote of her love of Star Trek. For whatever reason, and I don't have a good excuse to offer, I never got into Star Trek. I can't figure out why -- it was syndicated on television when I was a kid, and while I loved reruns of Batman, Wild Wild West, and the various Japanese imports like Ultra Man and Space Giants, I never watched too much Star Trek. However, when Star Wars Episode Four: A New Hope came out I was hooked!!

The Empire Strikes Back is my favorite in the 6-film Star Wars franchise. From the opening scene with the AT-AT Walkers to the ending scenes on the Cloud City, the film is just a whirlwind of amazing sets, new machines and characters, and growing characterization. George Lucas really made the Star Wars Universe with this film. He showed that his story was an incredibly dense tale that really did occupy a galaxy far, far away. The film ended with a feeling of darkness that left this young viewer yearning for the next installment. Three years would be a long time to wait!

Just as a last note -- I am one who really didn't care for the additional footage that Lucas added to his first trilogy of films when they first were pressed onto DVDs. I felt in some way that it was unfair to those who'd seen the movies at the theater, and although they were released theatrically in their updated versions, it still just smacked of money-grubbing. They should have left it alone -- it certainly wasn't broke!

5. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is one of the "funnest" films I've ever seen! The chemistry between Paul Newman and Robert Redford is out of sight -- the banter, the physical acting, their facial expressions are just perfect. I know I've heard, as you perhaps have as well, that other actors at one time considered included Steve McQueen and Jack Lemmon. I think they made the right choices.

I think my favorite scene in the film is the battle to see who will become leader of the Hole in the Wall Gang -- just classic Newman! Of course the last scene is great, too -- that on-screen chemistry lasted 'til the end.

So that's five for now -- and I haven't even gotten to Rollerball, Animal House, or Caddyshack!

True or False: I Can't Stand Those Bloody Star Wars Prequels

 

 

When You Wish Upon A DeathStar...

Karen: This Tuesday came an announcement that shook all of geekdom: Disney bought Lucasfilm for $4 billion! Along with this announcement came the news that Disney plans to begin making new Star Wars films, with Star Wars 7 scheduled to be released in 2015.

So here's the question: what would you be interested in seeing in a new Star Wars film, or set of films? What era would you want to explore? Are there any particular characters you'd like to focus on? Or are you sick of the whole darn thing? Let's hear it.

Someone Stop George Lucas Before It's Too Late

Karen: Today yet another brand new, completely revised version of the Star Wars saga is hitting the shelves, and once again, Mr. Lucas has felt the need to change things. Now, people have been discussing these changes for weeks, but we haven't talked about it here at BAB. So let's lay it out there -what do you think about even more changes being made to these films?

Karen: I'll get things rolling by discussing a few of them. First off, we're getting a completely CGI Yoda in The Phantom Menace. Now this doesn't bother me, as 1) I think CGI Yoda looks better and 2) I will never watch that movie ever again. Honestly, I despise that film.

Karen: However, I do take great offense with his tinkering with Ben Kenobi's Krayt dragon impression in Star Wars (it's always going to be Star Wars to me, not A New Hope). He just sounds utterly ridiculous, and almost pornographic. Seriously, check it out if you haven't yet:



Karen: But the change that has drawn the most criticism is the "Nooo!" added to Vader's scene in Return of the Jedi, when he saves Luke. Horrible, and completely unnecessary. Plus, it sounds just like the "Nooo!" in Revenge of the Sith, which provoked laughter in the theater. Why George, why?

Karen: So far though, it doesn't sound as if there's anything as egregious as the "Greedo Shoots First" scene which was added a few versions back. That change affected the perception of Han Solo's character, but most of the new changes seem to be mainly in the area of special effects. But one does have to wonder why Lucas can't stop altering his films. It wouldn't bother me so much if he offered us the original, theatrical versions in a high quality format, but he seems determined to force all of the fans to buy his latest vision of his films. Ironic, since he once railed against the very things he is doing. Check out this link from Topless Robot. There are some great quotes there, including this one:

"American works of art belong to the American public; they are part of our cultural history. People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians" -George Lucas

Karen: So - what do you think of this new set of changes? Outraged? Indifferent?