Category Archives: Opinion

6 Dumb Aspects Of The Original Star Wars Trilogy You Forgot

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Via Cracked.com:

If you’re a human being living in the year 2015, you’re probably as excited as we are about Star Wars: The Force Awakens — or as we call it, Star Wars 4: George Lucas Was Doing His Dishes Thousands Of Miles Away. As fans, we demand that Disney give us the same fuzzy-feeling, space operatic awesomeness of the original trilogy, and less of the brain-numbing, toy-shilling, candy-colored fever dream that was the prequels. Give us art, not a lollipop that forces you to French-kiss Jar Jar Binks.

The weird thing about this is that George Lucas’ beloved OT was never meant to be seen as a great artistic achievement. Not until our collective nostalgic hive mind decided it had to be, anyway. In all of our fervor and excitement over Episode VII, we’ve forgotten that …

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Why ‘Rebels’ And ‘The Clone Wars’ Are The Best Star Wars Material In 30 Years

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Via Techtimes.com:

It’s been thirty years since Return of the Jedi came out. Thirty years since fans have seen anything genuinely good from the Star Wars franchise on the big screen. This Christmas looks to change that with the long-awaited release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which reunites the original trilogy characters and ushers in a new era for that galaxy far, far away.

But if you really think there hasn’t been any Star Wars worth watching in three decades, you’re dead wrong. The small screen has been home to some tremendous storytelling — and no, we’re not talking about the godawful Ewok movies.

Television gets compared to film all the time, but the truth is, TV’s episodic runtime allows it to explore more shades of its characters than a movie ever could. TV gives stories time to live and breathe and change — and the depth seen in the recent Star Wars TV shows rivals – or even bests – anything the franchise has ever produced.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars got off to a rough start, but it ultimately produced some genuinely compelling stories, consistently depicting fascinating characters. Star Wars Rebels is the new kid on the block — advancing the plot forward a good fifteen years to the earliest days of the Rebellion, and presenting a fun, motley crew of Empire-hating adventurers.

Why should you watch them?

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10 Reasons Why The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy Deserves Another Chance

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Via Metro.co.uk:
Not many film series have a following as die-hard as Star Wars.
From the thousands of fan websites to the millions who collects the toys, the many and varied costuming organisations worldwide to the TV audiences who watch the movies and new shows arriving each week, Star Wars has a broad demographic across ages, sexes and nationalities. And yet there seems to be an elephant (or should that be bantha?) in the room. The prequel trilogy.
Not since the launch of Star Trek: The Next Generation has a specific group of sci-fi fans been so divided.
Many love the prequel trilogy, while just as many wish they’d never been made.
Whichever way you look at it, the movies are not going away and with The Force Awakens just 147 days away perhaps it’s time to revisit The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith and here are 10 reasons why:

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13 Reasons Why Return of the Jedi Is The Greatest Star Wars Film

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Via Metro.co.uk:

Since 1977 the Star Wars galaxy has illuminated the big screen, breaking box office records wherever it went and making fans of millions worldwide.
The original trilogy of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are among the most beloved films in cinema history and while the prequels (The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith) had a harder time winning over the public don’t be fooled.
Those movies have a HUGE following that followed the saga into the animated series The Clone Wars, Rebels and now towards December and the start of the sequel trilogy with The Force Awakens.
But step back 32 years to May of 1983. The original trilogy is about to end with Return of the Jedi.
Star Wars has just been usurped as the biggest movie of all time by E.T., but despite this expectations for Jedi are enormous. And it opens HUGE, breaking the opening weekend record with ease and ending the year as 1983’s top grossing film with $252,583,617 in the bank.
So why would I make the bold statement that Jedi is the greatest of the six Star Wars films? In no particular order here’s a dozen reasons why:

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Star Wars Created The Most Magical Event Of Comic-Con

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Via Theverge.com:

On Friday night, Lucasfilm held its Comic-Con panel for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and it unquestionably stole the convention. Adam Driver and Gwendoline Christie talked about working on the movie for the first time, J.J. Abrams played a behind-the-scenes featurette, and Harrison Ford came out to riff and reminisce with Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher. It was basically the ultimate Star Wars event — and that was before Abrams announced that all 6,500 people in Hall H were then going to be attending a secret Star Wars concert with the San Diego Symphony orchestra. (Lightsabers were included.)

We were there for both events, and while it’s all good times for the faithful, it’s a slightly different proposition for people like us that are covering these things. We’re supposed to remain impartial — not only from promotional voodoo, but from the reality distortion field that comes with putting that many people that love one thing all in one place. But by the time fireworks began lighting up the sky, we couldn’t help it: we were swept up in the moment like everyone else.

We immediately began talking: how did this end up being good? Was there something legitimate about the experience, despite it being a massive promotional event designed to hype a movie that’s still five months away? And if that was true for the concert, what did it say about the “immersive experiences” and installations that make up the rest of Comic-Con’s promotional wonderland?

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Han Solo’s Spinoff Will Let Disney Keep The Original Star Wars Trilogy Alive

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Via Theverge.com:

Over the last few years we’ve gone from having no new Star Wars movies on the horizon to having six — three new numbered episodes in the upcoming trilogy, and three “Anthology” spinoff movies. The latest of these, confirmed yesterday ahead of this weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con, will star a young Han Solo, and will explain “how he became the smuggler, thief, and scoundrel whom Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi first encountered at Mos Eisley.”

As with the other Star Wars Anthology films announced so far — Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One and the as-yet untitled Boba Fett movie (which might currently be in production limbo) — the Solo-centric story mines the original Star Wars trilogy rather than the prequels for characters and setting. That’s surely for the best (nobody wants Jar Jar Binks Begins), but by using the new movies to fill in the gaps around the original trilogy, Disney is ensuring that it can keep the best of both worlds.

Spoiler warning: minor discussion of the new Star Wars comics ahead.

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10 Greatest Disturbances In The Force

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Via Whatculture.com:

Great epics have compelling internal and external conflicts, and in Star Wars the Force is an expository tool for both. Externally, the Force indiscriminately supports each side in the titular wars and is used to outsmart enemies and predict outcomes in battles, combat, and coercion. However, the most fundamental use of the Force involves an inner ability to sense disturbances which span the galaxy and affect every living thing.
As an internal process, the ability to sense disturbances illustrates Yoda’s teachings about energy over matter and how luminous beings exist within the Force and are aligned with it. Throughout the stories in Star Wars, disturbances are important for informing characters and affecting outcomes. Even though disturbances may not be as visually exciting as the practical powers applied in action sequences, they define and illustrate the Force’s connective properties.
There are two types of disturbances, those caused by catastrophes and those caused by the presence of a Force sensitive character, usually a powerful Jedi or Sith. The following examination ranks the ten most important disturbances in Star Wars.

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Why Star Wars Worked Better For Me On TV

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Via Moviepilot.com:

Well, guys sorry for the hiatus, but at least I mentioned about it earlier. So today, I was just sitting by and relaxing as I had just come back from a hectic trip all the way from Delhi. A lot of ideas were just flowing through my head and I decided to do something about Star Wars, because I have never actually shared my opinions of the franchise as a whole to anyone else, not because I was ashamed or anything but I never thought I needed to. So, I decided to write about Star Wars in some shape or form and when I thought about what I wanted to talk about, it hit me instantly. I think it goes without saying that Star Wars will go down in history as the most popular franchise ever, I mean good god. It was everywhere, is everywhere and will be everywhere.

I was born in India in 1997, so naturally I was introduced to Star Wars incredibly late in life, I saw the first Star Wars feature when I was in kindergarten, it was the second film in the prequel trilogy, that I barely remember and still don’t, it wasn’t until 7th grade that I saw the 1977 feature and then saw the rest of the original trilogy and prequel trilogy afterwards, as an avid film fan, I enjoyed the original trilogy, particularly the second and the third films (Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi), as such I really liked all three films and the prequel trilogy was not good, but they were not without their fair share of good moments particularly in Revenge of the Sith. But in all honesty, I never found myself attached to the films as many others were, it may be due to the fact that I never got the chance to experience the visuals back in 1977, because I had just seen films like Avatar before viewing this, or it could be that the acting was just not that good, or the script not very well written, I don’t know, but I never found the films to be as good as people made it out to be. So I always found myself as a liker not a lover.

But it wasn’t until I saw Clone Wars (the micro series, not the CG show) and Rebels that made me change my mind about it. I just found Star Wars to be my cup of tea, yes I am still not qualified to be considered a diehard fan, but still I loved these two shows so much, that I found myself indulging in the Star Wars mythos more than ever. So, here are five reasons why I believe Star Wars worked better for me on television.

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3 Things I learned Watching Star Wars for the First Time

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Via Moviepilot.com:
So after 20 years, I finally watched the original Star Wars trilogy along with Episode II for the first time! It’s not that I actively avoided seeing them; I just never got around to it (Please don’t stone me…). BUT I can finally say that I’ve seen the amazing-ness of Star Wars, and It really did live up to the hype! George Lucas and Co. created a spectacular universe full of memorable characters, awesome sets, and great stories.

What I like about Star Wars is that it does feel like episodes – not exactly like a TV show, but like an open universe. Each film tells a complete story in the context of a bigger world. Plots are resolved mostly in each film, but remain open for another story. After experiencing Star Wars for the first time, here’s 3 things I learned from it to apply to my film-making.

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The 12 Most Incompetent Imperial Officers In Star Wars

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Via io9.com:

You can’t swing a dead womprat on a Star Destroyer without hitting a terminated Imperial officer, Force-choked to death by Darth Vader for some failure or another. But who deserved their termination the most? These dozen would-be heroes of the Empire, that’s who.

1) Admiral Kendal Ozzel

Let’s start with the obvious: Admiral Ozzel, the fleet commander who messed up the Empire’s approach to Hoth, giving the Rebels warning and time to (mostly) escape. As Vader points out in Empire Strikes Back, Ozzel took the fleet out of lightspeed too close to Hoth, alerting the Rebels to their presence, and giving them time to put up their shields. Basically, Admiral Ozzel screwed up the job of parking his Star Destroyer. For that, along with a whole list of screw-ups chronicled in the old expanded universe, Vader offed him.

2) Mulchive Wermis

The colorfully named Wermis was captain of the first Star Destroyer seen in A New Hope, the one that captured Princess Leia’s ship. Under Wermis’ command, C-3PO and R2-D2 managed to escape in a pod with the Death Star plans which eventually led to the destruction of the Death Star, so that wasn’t particularly good for him. In the Dark Horse comics, Wermis was basically Vader’s chauffeur as he chased Luke, Leia and Han Solo around the galaxy, and Wermis managed to screw up capturing them on multiple occasions. As such, Vader would Force-choke him constantly. Still, he managed to survive to get demoted to a desk job, where he eventually had a heart attack.

3) General Nevar

This boob only managed to attain the rank of general because of nepotism. While chasing a potential Force-sensitive being to Hoth, his subordinates found traces of Rebel activity. Nevar thought this was so ridiculous that he deleted their reports. Seriously, here’s the quote: “Rebels on Hoth? All I have is your word for it? What could they be doing on such a worthless planet? I’m deleting your reports.” Of course, what his underlings had actually found was the earliest beginnings of the Hoth base as seen in The Empire Strikes Back. Apparently, Nevar was in the battle of Hoth, on the AT-AT that tripped on tow cables and was then shot in the neck by Wedge Antilles and blew up. Somehow Nevar survived that only to be assassinated by an unknown Imperial, mainly for being a boob.

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What Star Wars Fans Want from the New Films

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Via Geeksnack.com:

With recent rumors swirling about talks between Disney and Ewan McGregor, the Han Solo-Boba Fett meet and greet, and other little nuggets sliding out of LucasFilm’s hermetically sealed development group, fans, an always outspoken group, are clamoring for more input into the direction of the Star Wars Universe. It also seems like, to a degree, the desires of Star Wars fans are informing the development process. So what do Star Wars fans really want from the revised expanded universe? These are just a few of those desires.
Obi-Wan-ilogy

If the rumors have any shred of reality to them, Disney has been discussing terms with McGregor about the venerable Jedi Knight’s return to film—and not just a film, but three of them. Thanks to McGregor’s charming portrayal, the venerable Jedi has remained a fan favorite and was a bright spot in the otherwise less than stellar Star Wars Prequels. The Kenobi trilogy would likely focus on the Jedi’s activities prior to “A New Hope,” rather than his spectral post “Jedi” self.

More than a few superfans would love to see a special edition of the Star Wars Prequels. But contrary to Lucas’ controversially reconstructed original trilogy, the alternate prequels would ideally subtract some members of the cast, mainly Jar Jar. It would also serve it well to deemphasize and shorten the often interminable pod race, replace the emotively dead romance scenes between Anakin and Padme with an actual spark, and make Jake Lloyd less annoying and old enough to make sense as a love interest. Some of this has been done with the so-called “Phantom Edits,” but an official version would please many (except King George himself).

All Fett All the Time

Despite being a minor character with about 20 minutes of screen time and four lines of dialogue in the original trilogy, and a less-than-satisfying Prequel backstory (a clone? Really?), the enigmatic bounty hunter remains one of the most popular characters in the universe–minor or major. With a vast amount of fan fiction, (now) unofficial canonical comics and book-based storylines, everyone wants to see more of the man behind the mask. With the revelation of a Boba-based Star Wars “Anthology” film, Fett superfans will finally get their favorite bounty hunter en masse.

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I am going to buy so many of these Star Wars figures, but I don’t know why

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Via Theverge.com:

The next Disney Infinity game is the most exciting yet, and that all comes down to the fact that it will include the Star Wars universe. You’ll be able to explore iconic locations like Tatooine and Hoth, and in the game’s virtual toybox Luke Skywalker can play games alongside Black Widow and Wreck-it Ralph. It sounds like it could be a lot of fun, although previous games have been disappointing. But, if I’m being completely honest with myself, it’s not the game that has me excited.

I’m a 30-year-old father who can’t wait to buy some Star Wars toys.

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2015-06-05 14_46_32-I am going to buy so many of these Star Wars figures, but I don’t know why _ The

Want to understand Star Wars fans? Start here

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Via Newstatesman.com:
Trash-talking Star Wars is a favourite occupation of a certain class of cineaste. The accusations are familiar: it turned movies into amusement rides, brought to an end the auteurist experiment of the 1970s and ushered in our endless summer of blockbusters. Without it, Chris Taylor writes, “If we had summer blockbusters at all, they would be more disaster movies in the style of Jaws and less science-fiction or fantasy spectaculars. There would probably be no Star Trek on the big screen and certainly no Battlestar Galactica on the small one. It’s distinctly possible that 20th Century Fox would have gone bankrupt after 1977 . . . and Rupert Murdoch might not control it today.” So there you have it. Star Wars is responsible for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II and Rupert Murdoch. Is there no end to its evil?

This is the magic bullet theory of film history, the idea that but for one film we would all be sitting around watching John Cassavetes movies, rolling doobies, sticking it to the men in suits. The problem with this argument is that it gives Star Wars both too much credit and too little: too much as a harbinger of cinematic destiny and too little in terms of its qualities as a film. In reality, New Hollywood directors had been retooling old genres as blockbusters all decade long – The French Connection, The Exorcist, The Godfather. Martin Scorsese had been sniffing around Philip K Dick for years. Brian De Palma had his eye on a sci-fi property. Six months after Star Wars came out, Steven Spielberg released Close Encounters of the Third Kind, using its own version of the Dykstraflex cameras that George Lucas used to liberate the X-wings in Star Wars. Watching rapt in the front row were Ridley Scott, Robert Zemeckis, John Lasseter and James Cameron. Anyone who thinks that were it not for Lucas’s lightsabers the creator of The Terminator would have upped sticks and called it a day is dreaming.

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Which is More Technologically Advanced–Star Wars or Star Trek?

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Via Gizmodo.com:

Let’s compare the two, side-by-side.

Transportation

First up, we have Star Wars’ hyper engines that go through hyperspace compared to Star Trek’s warp drives that travel through normal space at FTL (“faster than light”) speeds. Technical data books indicate that the speeds and range of hyper drives are greater, however.

We have also repulsor craft that hover over the ground in the Empire, but not much is shown of Federation ground transport, although anti-grav units are used to move heavy objects. But the Federation has one edge: teleportation.

I’m going to consider them even here, based on having different advantages.

Energy Generation

Both empires seem to be able to produce unlimited power for their needs. The amount directed to any one use might be limited, but fuel seems to be endless. While the exact fuel for the Empire is unclear, it seems to be on-par with the Federation’s antimatter engines (although often at much larger scales, e.g. The Death Star).

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Cosmic Connections You Probably Never Noticed Between Hard Rock + Star Wars

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Via Vh1.com:

May marks the 38th anniversary of Star Wars opening in theaters and, upon immediate impact, conquering the entire universe. No aspect of existence has gone untouched by George Lucas’s empire (and rebels) and rock music ranks high among those elements profoundly caught up in all that derring-do going down a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

In honor of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Darth Vader, Han Solo, Chewbacca, the droids, et al initially hitting our galaxy with such apocalyptic impact, here are 38 connections—one for each year of the phenomenon (thus far)—that link Star Wars to rock-and-roll, and vice versa.

May the Force rock your Banthas off.

1. In concert, Metallica occasionally covers Darth Vader’s theme, “The Imperial March. The band even performed it in 1999 with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra during the live shows that became the 1999 album S&M (Symphony and Metallica). The song didn’t make the final cut, but a gnarly thirty-second snippet though has long existed as a leak online.

2. Upping the Metallica-Star Wars connection at Rock in Rio 2013, Kirk Hammett launched into a killer guitar solo that led to him playing the “Star Wars” opening theme, followed by a shredding take on “The Imperial March.”

3. Each Yuletide season, do you toss on the heart-warming toe-tapper, “R2D2, We Wish You a Merry Christmas”? If so, have you ever wondered who’s leading the children’s choir on that catchy chorus? Well… probably not. Nonetheless, it is fun to know that that song appears on 1980’s Christmas in the Stars: The Star Wars Christmas Album and that the vocalist in question is a young Jon Bon Jovi.

Christmas in the Stars is a holiday cash-in produced by Tony Bongiovi, who owned the legendary Power Station recording studio and also happened to be Jon’s cousin. Tony offered his up-and-coming rock singer relative some nifty exposure by inviting him to sing on the record, which hit bit and continues to sell to devotees. Tony also spared Jon the relative indignity of performing on “What Do You Get a Wookiee for Christmas (When He Already Has a Comb)?”

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