I’m old enough to recall when Trekkie fell out of favor as the preferred term. (Some media began using it in a mocking fashion by the end of the '70’s.) Amazing nobody ever coined a one word phrase for SW fans.
I believe that word is “humans.”
All fine and good, unless you’re a Wookiee! 😛
I’m old enough to recall when Trekkie fell out of favor as the preferred term. (Some media began using it in a mocking fashion by the end of the '70’s.) Amazing nobody ever coined a one word phrase for SW fans.
I’m pretty sure that was a post in support of chyron rather than a shot at him.
This.
Ok then. Just erring on the side of caution.
One never knows when a fire is going to start in this thread. 😉
Does Mel Brooks know?
Even if you discount all the stuff about abortion, Mike Pence is a massive dick. And a weirdo. For God’s sake, he calls his wife “Mother.”
Heaven forbid! Probably watches MLP too!
Not saying he’s a stellar individual, but come on!
As we have MLP fans around here, that could be misinterpreted as a cheap shot at a forum member.
I’m still struggling with my antipathy for the Last Jedi. I enjoyed it on the surface. I enjoyed it’s set pieces. I enjoyed some of the twists. Yet, I can’t shake my deeper sense, that TLJ has severely undermined the mythology, by deconstructing Star Wars.
Then I read this article:
“Deconstructing Star Wars and 'The Last Jedi: Understanding how the new movie went off the rails.”
http://www.weeklystandard.com/deconstructing-star-wars-and-the-last-jedi/article/2011020
I think this article describes many of my own feelings with regards to TLJ. In order to understand the film, I asked myself three simple questions: what? how? and why?
What does TLJ do exactly in my view? My answer is, that it attempts to deconstruct Star Wars, it’s myth, and legends, and replace it with a postmodernist point of view. The film to an extend recognizes myth and legend have a function, but at the same time makes it clear that they are not real. This view point is examplified in the final minutes of the film, where Luke faces off against the FO alone. The event is presented as a source of inspiration to the galaxy, and children in particular, but ultimately it’s all an illusion. The Star Wars mythology has become self-aware. In doing so Star Wars stops being a modern myth.
How does it do this? It does this by recycling many of the OT story threads, and set pieces, and placing them in a postmodern context. In broad strokes it tells the same story as TESB with some ROTJ thrown in the mix. As a Star Wars film it’s highly self-referential, characteristic of ‘postmodern’ writing. It’s the OT, but without what it considers to be mythological constraints. It replaces the heroes journey with anybody can be a hero. While on the surface this idea might seem appealing, it’s the implementation of this idea, that’s problematic in my view. Rey doesn’t choose to become a hero. The responsibility is thrust upon her by the Force. Darkness rises and light to meet it, says Snoke. Rey’s character doesn’t need to learn, progress, and struggle with temptation, because she apparently is the chosen representative of the light side of the Force.
Why does it do this? Here’s where the real crux is in my view. It does this without real purpose, meaning it doesn’t do this to tell an original story. TLJ sets the Star Wars universe back three decades. Luke’s act of defiance at the end of the film, while more symbolic, mirrors his heroic act at the end of ANH. The destruction of the first Death Star lit the fire that would destroy the Empire. Another Empire has to be beaten by a struggling rebellion, and another fallen Jedi apprentice has be be conquered by a new hope. We’re narratively right back to square one, which seems completely at odds with the idea, that TLJ puts the franchise in a new direction.
Wow, this is a great article. It makes me angry and sad all over again for what has transpired in TLJ but it is also great being able to read something that so soundly articulates many of the things I find wrong with the movie. Your comments above are also very much on point and a great way to analyse such matters. Nearly every time you post in here about TLJ I am amazed at how well your view on matters lines up with my own.
I think the post-modern view itself is very relevant to TLJ and the below video does a great job on explaining why. I watched it a few weeks back and was amazed at how much sense this bloke makes and helped me also realise why I really don’t like the new ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ show. Not a Trekkie myself but I do love the original movies (really don’t like the new JJ ones though, the first one was barely acceptable and the rest are garbage) and am quite enjoying my first watch through of The Next Generation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FZKlUa7MzQ&t - note: if hearing the term “Mary-Sue” triggers you, maybe give this video a miss 😉
Val
cough Trekker cough 😛
Let’s hope! : )
Threepio and Artoo being at the Rebel base makes sense if Bail Organa is there. There’s nothing to contradict them not having been to the Yavin system before.
Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba being on Jedha was pushing it. Had they simply been in the foreground or background of a crowd scene instead of calling attention to them would have been better.Exactly, and the same goes for R2 and 3PO. Calling attention to then is just a distraction from the plot to say, “Remember these guys?” I don’t mind Easter eggs, I just don’t like it when films stop in order to draw my attention to things that are exciting purely because they were in other, better films.
The movie didn’t stop. We saw the droids for a few seconds as the Rebels left for Scarif. It was a welcomed sight and made sense they’d be there. It’s not like we followed them on a side adventure.
Anyone else think we might get a Droids movie someday? There isn’t the wiggle room there once was for Threepio and Artoo to have solo adventures between the trilogies, but maybe we’ll find out what the red arm thing in TFA was about.
TLJ crossed $600 million domestic this weekend. And among the Disney accountants there was much rejoicing.
And Jumanji seems to be an unstoppable juggernaut. Not even a patriotic war movie could unseat it this weekend. Sony is probably lining up twenty sequels as we speak.
Threepio and Artoo being at the Rebel base makes sense if Bail Organa is there. There’s nothing to contradict them not having been to the Yavin system before.
Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba being on Jedha was pushing it. Had they simply been in the foreground or background of a crowd scene instead of calling attention to them would have been better.
I guess Lucas was checking off boxes back in the 80’s too?
I never even noticed this trio of ladies in the briefing scene before. They look like they stopped by from a World War One movie being filmed next door…
JEDIT:And never noticed the female B-Wing(?) pilot on the left either!
Nor this other woman standing behind Ackbar…
And just when you thought there was only one black guy on Jabba’s payroll. 😉
A clean desk is a sure sign of a dirty mind!
And where the heck are all the photos of family and loved ones? Even fictional presidents have photos behind the desk.
Also, I didn’t know Trumpy collected POGS…
TDTCC will be screened eventually, but you have a while to wait. 2024 to be exact.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Clown_Cried
I doubt any unseen Kevin Spacey footage will ever see the light of day.
I have one nitpick: how the hell can that little credit card thing be called a “data tape”?
The data on Scarif was stored on tape. Ostensibly, the Empire doesn’t know precisely what kind of media the rebels “burned” the stolen plans to.
Same way people say people call using a digital camcorder “filming”. 😉
The real question is how long can Trumpy go without playing golf?
He’s never gotten it. He thinks the entire universe spins around him.
Since the WH janitorial staff is taking a vacation until the shutdown is over, Trumpy will clog the Oval Office crapper for sure. 😉
Is it a ploy to avoid residual payments to colorists?
IIRC, the movie adaptation got reprinted so many times in different formats that money became a thorny issue with the original creative team on the comic.
I have a paperback version of the movie adaptation inexplicably printed in black and white. Later SW Marvel paperbacks were in color though.
You can’t discount the Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers influence on Star Wars. Damsels in distress were pretty much it for women characters. Later incarnations of both in the wake of Star Wars’ success rectified that of course.
They went up toe 35 cents at one point and I think they were 75 cents at the end of the run. It’s been said Star Wars saved Marvel at a time when superhero comics were in a bit of a sales slump.
I’m fearful of handling my original issues too much these days. Why they can’t keep the original colors in the reprints I have no idea. Would be nice to see them beyond the limitations of cheap newsprint.
The recolored CGI enhanced versions of the movie adaptation from a few years back are an abomination worse than the Special Editions.
I was still rocking with my Motorola flip phone as a backup to my blackberry style phone until they killed off 2G networks. Almost bought a dead one on Ebay to replace the cracked casing when they pulled the plug. Tracfone sent me a LG flipper as a free replacement, but I can’t do the one handed Captain Kirk Communicator Flip™ with it. I’ve heard of a similar model to my old phone that adds a touchscreen, but it only seems to have materialized in Europe. I’m lousy with touchscreens, but can cope if I use a stylus.
My main phone is losing signal way too often these days, and not just in the cellular black hole that seems to hover over my house. Old and new flippers never had this problem. I’d be content with just a flipper except texting is a pain in the ass without a full keypad.
Rian just posted this series of images on twitter a few hours ago.
I’m betting Pablo or someone in the story group handed him those books when he was writing the script. The handling of the Force in the film always sounded very accurate and informed from an EU perspective to me. Though I never got around to reading those specific books(THE SACRED TEXTS).
I’d like to see the “Legends” banner replaced with one that says “the SACRED TEXTS”
They could do a store display with the books in a replica of that tree? 😛
In those days when the only way to get a dose of Star Wars was to go to the theater, the Marvel book was my lifeline. They are the reason I have a certain meat eating space rabbit living with me. 😉
I don’t think there ever was a dedicated comic book shop local to me back then, (I never actually visited one until the 80’s) so the spinner rack at the local drugstore or Kmart was about the only place to find them. Sometimes I couldn’t find them at all. No idea if they sold out or stores were fickle in what they stocked. I’m sure Marvel and DC had more monthly titles than could fit on the rack.
The only downside of the collected editions is you don’t get the ads of the era, (especially for now really tacky dated SW merchandise) or the Star Words letter column. It was an interesting snapshot of the early fandom, with arguments about whether Leia should choose Luke or Han, when was Vader coming back, could Vader ever team up with Dr. Doom, etc. Also some kvetching when Carmine Infantino took over drawing our heroes. It was almost as crazy as this place gets. 😛
I’ve seen feature films use DV camcorders for certain sequences. Kung Pow shot a night scene on DV because the budget had run dry when they needed to bridge some deleted sequences the MPAA would not relent on to avoid an R rating. Team America shot DV in and around Washington DC monuments apparently without a permit.
Once you know what DV outputted to 35mm looks like you can spot it a mile away.