Category Archives: Opinion

Star Wars: Episode VIII – 8 Things That Definitely Shouldn’t Happen

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Via Whatculture.com:

The dust has finally settled on Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Yes, all the hype and fever have pretty much dispersed in their entirety, and now fans of George Lucas’ – ahem, Disney’s – epic space saga await the next Episode in the series – one that will hopefully deliver much of the originality that J.J. Abrams’s “reboot” failed to deliver in what was a throughly entertaining but all too familiar start to a brand new trilogy.
As such, the internet is now awash with theories, speculation and rumours regarding the upcoming sequel, which is set to be written and directed by Looper’s Rian Johnson. Fans have already begun to imagine what they’d like to see in Episode VIII; where Johnson – and Disney – should take the picture, and how, exactly, it should chart Rey’s journey.
When it comes to Star Wars: Episode VIII, fans and movie-goers have spent a lot of time talking about, discussing and praying for what they want and expect from the movie, though… but what about all the things that they don’t want to see? What about those inclusions, revelations and narrative beats that plainly shouldn’t end up in the picture?
Here, then, are 8 things that definitely shouldn’t happen in Star Wars: Episode VIII…

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Why Rogue One Is as Important to Star Wars as Episode VII

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Via io9.com:

The Force Awakens was a huge milestone: the first continuation of the Star Wars movie saga since 1983’s Return of the Jedi. But the upcoming Rogue One is just as important to the future of Star Wars, if not more so.

There’s a lot riding on Rogue One’s X-Wings. The first stand-alone story in Disney’s revitalized Star Wars movie machine, premiering on December 16, is going to be different from the other seven episodes in the franchise for a lot of reasons—and its success or failure could have a major, permanent impact on all Star Wars movies yet to come.

Minor spoilers ahead…

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Disney’s New Star Wars at Sea

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Via Yahoo.com:
Ever wanted to dress as your favorite Star Wars character all day and night and not once feel awkward? Yeah, me too! That’s why my intergalactic geek squealed when I found out I would be sailing with my family aboard the Disney Fantasy cruise ship, for the inaugural Star Wars Day at Sea. We were quick to pack all the standard travel essentials: light sabers, Darth Vader masks, and, of course, our Princess Leia buns.

Star Wars Day at Sea is a cosmic celebration scheduled on eight sailings of the Disney Fantasy this year. After five days of regular Disney cruising, we knew the force was awakened when the captain sounded the ship’s horn to the iconic tune of Darth Vader’s Imperial March.

My son, John, and daughter, Ava, loved roaming the ship as two Jedis searching for stormtroopers, Jawas, and Sand People. We even had a scheduled meet and greet with the Dark Side. (Just in case you didn’t know, meeting Darth Vader is a lot different from meeting Goofy; he’s tall, stoic, and ready to accuse you of being a traitor!) We thought we had overpacked costumes, but we realized it was just the opposite when we saw all the die-hard fans who had brought their A-games. It was hard to tell who was an official Star Wars character and who was a fellow cruiser. Here’s a hint: The official Chewbacca will have a Disney handler with him.

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‘Star Wars’ Fans Petition for George Lucas to Replace Colin Trevorrow on ‘Episode 9’

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Via Screencrush.com:

And in other, more humorous Star Wars news…Many fans were a bit disappointed with Lucasfilm’s decision to hire Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow to helm Episode 9, but perhaps starting a petition to have George Lucas replace him on the final film in the new trilogy is taking things a little too far. This is what you might call a severe overreaction.

There are good reasons to be unhappy or iffy about Trevorrow directing Episode 9: instead of hiring a woman or person of color, Lucasfilm went with yet another white dude — the director of Jurassic World, which was a very expensive, very good-looking B-movie at best (that’s not necessarily a knock).

There are also irrational reactions to Trevorrow’s hiring, like this Change.org petition started by Brazilian fan Yuri Luiz to campaign Lucasfilm to replace Trevorrow with…George Lucas. The same George Lucas who made the inarguably terrible prequel trilogy. The same George Lucas who went back and digitally tampered with the original trilogy, adding unnecessary CG and questionable editing to films that didn’t need to be futzed with in the first place. The same George Lucas who made sure that these digitally “enhanced” versions of the films would be the only ones available to purchase for the foreseeable future. Yes, that George Lucas.

The petition has a little over 12,600 supporters, and Luiz says that while he has no problem with Trevorrow, he feels the Jurassic World director is not the right person to helm a Star Wars sequel — which kind of sounds like he has problem with Trevorrow, to be honest.

All of this is pointless, of course, as Lucas has made it very clear that he’s finished with Star Wars (though that has not stopped him from having very strong opinions about his former franchise), and Lucasfilm is locked in with Trevorrow.

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2015-08-27 11_59_47-Star Wars radio dramatizations resurface in the latest Humble Bundle _ The Verge

What the Seven “Star Wars” Films Reveal About George Lucas

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Via Newyorker.com:

It’s nice to see George Lucas get a little love (as Bryan Curtis noted this week). Yet this retroactive recognition is nonetheless proof that a filmmaker can be both rich as Croesus and assured of a place in history while still remaining a misunderstood and unappreciated artist. Lucas’s great achievement isn’t the conception of the “Star Wars” saga, the inauguration of the franchise, or his consignment of it to Disney for cloning ad infinitum. Those are for the movie books, for the pundits who reduce movies to such sociological oxymorons as “collective imagination,” the cultural counterparts to industry analysts who talk only about box office. What endures for the critics and their lay associates, for aesthetes who live for the beauty and the pleasure of movies, is Lucas’s directing—of two films, “Attack of the Clones” and, especially, “Revenge of the Sith.” If Lucas had done nothing else in his life, he’d have an honored place in my personal pantheon for that work.

It’s easy for me to say so, because I only just saw those films now, after a few days of not-quite-binge-watching of the Blu-ray set of the series. I’m nearly a “Star Wars” newbie. Prior to viewing “The Force Awakens,” I had seen the first film in the series (the one belatedly renamed “A New Hope,” from 1977) some time in the nineteen-eighties, and none of the others. That’s because I was utterly underwhelmed by “A New Hope,” impressed solely by the world-making of the script—the delivery of a ready-made but minor mythology—but neither moved nor fascinated nor at all delighted by the filmmaking. Rather, I was shocked—that the director of “American Graffiti” could have constrained himself to create such a turgid, stilted, flat, and textureless movie. I wasn’t working as a film critic or journalist at the time (or when any of the subsequent five films came out). I went to the movies guided solely by pleasure, even curiosity, and nothing in the viewing of “A New Hope” induced me to catch up with the then-recent releases of “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi,” nor to follow along with the three prequels.

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‘Star Wars Battlefront’ Is Authentic And Epic

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Via Forbes.com:

Star Wars Battlefront has never looked so good. A more accurate description would be beautiful, something that can easily be lost on you amidst the frantic blaster fire, turbo-laser bombardments and massive AT-AT Walkers looming overhead. Add Y-Wing bombing runs and TIE Fighter flybys and its a miracle if you get the chew the scenery at all, especially since the scenery is more likely to chew you.

I played on Tatooine in a two player splitscreen survival mode shooting wave after wave of Stormtroopers that makes you feel like you can take on the Empire all on your own … well with a teammate that is …
The most epic and enthralling of the maps though was on Hoth with 40 players tearing apart an otherwise beautiful snowy landscape. The gameplay in either map was awesome, the weapons felt great, vehicles intuitive and AT-AT Walkers down right terrifying. They drop you into a multiplayer warzone where the action manages to never be very far away when you spawn but never too close either, that a very tricky balance.

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Star Wars Toys Are The Best Reason To Make The Movies

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Via Huffingtonpost.com:

Disney figures to bank so much money on Star Wars merchandise this year — maybe $5 billion in sales in the first year — that the company has gone so far as to brand the very day it shows us those toys. “Force Friday” is upon us, when, in the words of the Mouse, “new Star Wars themed merchandise and more will land in our galaxy.” This is to action figures what the Dec. 18 opening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens is to actual, uh, Star Wars movies.

The “unboxing” of the toys began earlier this week. Crammed under Christmas trees this year will be: a Jedi master lightsaber kit ($50), Chewbacca figurines ($20), a Nerf stormtrooper rifle ($40), tie-in sets from Micro Machines and Lego, and a fat-ass Millennium Falcon that’s going to cost parents $120 on the way to blowing their kids’ minds.

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13 Reasons Star Wars: A New Hope Is The Greatest Movie Ever Made

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Via Metro.co.uk:
Since it first arrived in UK cinemas back on 27th December 1977, Star Wars has been ever-present.
As much a part of the cultural fabric as iPhones, Pot Noodles, BMX’s and Ant and Dec, the characters and situations from a galaxy far, far away have seeped into every corner of society influencing cinema, inspiring numerous parodies and sketches and revolutionising what it means to be a blockbuster.
But what made this unlikely space fantasy such a life changing hit? Why did this medium budget, unassuming release from 20th Century Fox catch the imagination of kids of all ages across the planet, and how is it tightening its grip almost 40 years later?
Let’s take a look at 13 reasons why Star Wars (known since the late 70’s as A New Hope) can confidently claim to be the greatest movie ever made.

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Is A Classic Star Wars Character Being Digitally Resurrected For Rogue One?

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Via Entertainment.ie:

Digital resurrection in movies isn’t particularly new.

When Oliver Reed died during the filming of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, the director reused footage with the help of CGI to finish out his scenes. More recently, Arnold Schwarzenneger’s younger self was digitally interested into Terminator: Genisys for a key scene. There’s plenty more examples out there. Long story short – it’s been done.

With the flurry of news last week for Star Wars: Rogue One, the rumour mill has kicked up a notch. A report over the weekend suggests that Peter Cushing, who played Grand Moff Tarkin, will play a pivotal role in Star Wars: Rogue One. The film is set before the events of A New Hope, was released back in 1977. Cushing, however, passed away in 1994. There was a small scene in Revenge of the Sith where a younger actor played Tarkin for a few, brief moments. However, if the report is to be believed, Cushing’s character will feature more largely in the film.

There’s been no official confirmation whether there is correct or not. Moreover, the legality of the situation and how family will react if it’s true is also uncertain. JJ Abrams has been quite vocal about the fact that The Force Awakens will have significantly less CGI than the prequel trilogy and the sense is that Rogue One will be much more grimy and realistic than anything we’ve seen so far in the entire series.

So, does this legit? Not really, if we’re honest about it. Although Tarkin is a fantastic character and Cushing’s grave visage would suit perfectly with that more sinister world director Gareth Edwards is trying to make, the idea of CGI-created performance doesn’t sit well with us. For one, it’s a bit unsavoury to resurrect a dead actor and one that was so well-known. Two, anything we’ve seen of these CGI reconstructions never look right. And three, there’s a dearth of actors out there who could very easily play a younger Grand Moff Tarkin.

Off the top our heads? Benedict Cumberbatch. Eddie Redmayne. Tobias Menszies. Any thin English actor who’s got a stuffy voice and look mean, basically. There’s a better way of doing it than CGI, basically.

Let’s hope this isn’t true.

8 Unanswered Questions About Disneyland’s Star Wars Land

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Via Latimes.com:

Disney raised more questions than it answered at the D23 Expo with the announcement of plans to unveil Star Wars Lands at Disneyland in Anaheim and Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Fla.

Here’s what we know so far: The new 14-acre lands will each feature two attractions set in a remote frontier town on the outer rim of the “Star Wars” galaxy. No opening dates have been set for either the California or Florida projects. The Disneyland version will start construction in 2017 in the Big Thunder Ranch area of the park. A new “Star Wars” Season of the Force annual event will begin in 2016 in Tomorrowland.

Let’s take a closer look at the most glaring unanswered questions about the new Star Wars Land coming to Disneyland.

1. What attractions will be in Star Wars Land?

As you might expect, Disney is being vague about the details. And with plenty of time before the new land opens, plans can and likely will change.

On paper, the two unnamed attractions sound a whole lot like Star Tours.

The first ride promises a battle between the First Order and the Resistance. Without delving too deeply into “Star Wars” lore, the short description reveals one important take-away: The back story of the ride will be set in the world of the upcoming film trilogy rather than in any of the previous six films. Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger has been insistent that Walt Disney Imagineering focus “Star Wars” storytelling efforts on the future of the franchise rather than the past.
The second attraction will put visitors behind the controls of the Millennium Falcon. How a Millennium Falcon mission will be different from a flight aboard the Starspeeder 3000 spacecraft in Star Tours remains to be seen. Concept art of the new land shows a Millennium Falcon docked in front of towering buildings built into sheer cliffs.

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