The Force Awakens

[82_28]

I maybe already posted this, but for good measure and a good laugh:

[Elvis]

The soundtrack was a very huge part of the original Star Wars movies. A person should try watching them with different music playing in the background, and see if they feel that same sense of awe.

Years ago I shot a bunch of silent Super8 film on a crab boat in Alaska, forty minutes of raw footage. It was interesting to watch, but, with no sound, one's attention wandered. So I played The Empire Strikes Back soundtrack LP along with the film -- instant epic.

[Nordic]

Just watched the trailer. I smiled. Looks PG..."pretty good." Myself I kind of like the relatively plain-looking actors for this; I weary of all the "beautiful" people in movies.

I think that's why the recent On the Road movie failed: they cast these very pretty young men and women who you'd expect to see in fashion magazines but who are about as Beat as Beaver Cleaver. They needed Eddie but picked Wally. (Anyone not familiar with Leave It to Beaver should go on over to YouTube and check it out.)

Anyway, when is the big day? 82, let's get a plan operational. I'm slowing working on a voice-changer for my Supreme Edition™ Darth Vader Helmet. I'll take it off when the movie starts, of course, both for the people behind me and the fact that you can't see a blasted thing with that thing on.

I'm not talking about beautiful people. Just interesting ones. These people don't look remotely interesting.

[Luther Blissett]

…

…

What on earth is happening in this…outtake(?)?

I had the opposite reaction as you, Nordic, to John Boyega and Daisy Ridley. From the first shot in the first trailer of Finn bolting up panicked and sweaty on Jakku to Rey's perceived toughness, I'm excited for these two. I had just watched Hayden Christiansen practice auto-erotic asphyxiation in Kevin Kline's closet in Life As A House in 2001 and was not excited for him to play Vader…I definitely didn't think he had the chops for it. While that film was passable I just didn't like him in it, and not for any kind of prudish reason.

Have you seen Attack the Block? I haven't but heard good things.

[brekin]

Just watched the trailer. I smiled. Looks PG..."pretty good." Myself I kind of like the relatively plain-looking actors for this; I weary of all the "beautiful" people in movies.

I think that's why the recent On the Road movie failed: they cast these very pretty young men and women who you'd expect to see in fashion magazines but who are about as Beat as Beaver Cleaver. They needed Eddie but picked Wally. (Anyone not familiar with Leave It to Beaver should go on over to YouTube and check it out.)

Anyway, when is the big day? 82, let's get a plan operational. I'm slowing working on a voice-changer for my Supreme Edition™ Darth Vader Helmet. I'll take it off when the movie starts, of course, both for the people behind me and the fact that you can't see a blasted thing with that thing on.

I'm not talking about beautiful people. Just interesting ones. These people don't look remotely interesting.

Yes, the latest OTR was an extended GAP commercial. Pretty/hunky people exuding no charisma or depth, it felt like it was a documentary about hipsters killing time between cattle call auditions in their apartments in Williamsburg NYC. I got a 1/3 of the way through. But at least it was James Franco and Johnny Depp free.

I don't think there was one shot in the Star Wars trailer that micro-piqued my interest at all. It felt like the cut screens for a derivative video game about the movie, not the movie itself. It seems with casting/story line/effects there's just too much that can't be left to chance anymore because Star Wars has solidified into its own institution. Seems they are stuck in a spot where they need to keep the old magic alive and evolve, how do you draw new blood to the franchise without alienating the fundamentalists? Hard to do, so I think they are just playing it safe and with their base self perpetuating the dream, anyways, through their own constant pageantry and merchandising rituals they really don't need to do much but make sure they show every 2 minutes either a wookie, light saber, android, storm trooper, etc

Star Wars is basically the sci fi Rocky Horror Picture Show for many and a hobby religion for others. At this point in the game I think most of the pieces are paradoxically both sacrosanct and interchangeable. Fans/believers will debate slight modifications to a light saber on one hand for ever, but since they have no real control over any of it, in the end they have to bow to whatever creeps out of Industrial light and magic.

[82_28]

During our recess, I got to thinking what sticks out most about the excitement of Star Wars and how it has held on for so long. The one moment in the "canon" has to be, has to be the light saber fight in Cloud City and the visceral pain and sorrow of Luke getting his hand chopped off and then told that Vader is his father while meanwhile Han gets frozen in carbonite while Leia tells him that she loves him and Han says "I know" and then gets frozen. Great spacing and storytelling. Great SFX.

It has to be one of the most memorable moments not just in watching any old movie but maybe of all time in real life because it really did affect us in a certain way.

I have yet to be in a movie theater where people cheer -- RE Vader turning from the Dark Side and tossing the emperor off the railing or whatever it was while he was torturing Luke and chose love instead. When that happened the huge theater I was in stood to its feet and screamed in happiness. I hate to say it, but at least as a little boy the original trilogy was probably one of the best stories ever told.

[8bitagent]

Hate to say it, but I'm super excited for The Force Awakens especially after the new trailer.

[82_28]

I spawned a link here I guess way back in 2011:

http://rigorousintuition.ca/board2/view ... =8&t=30745

That the "genius" of Star Wars came from Lucas' wife Marcia.

[jingofever]

John Simon is still alive at ninety years. He wins.

[82_28]

That's hilarious, jingo. I guess he did win as they say. Maybe Star Wars causes awful cancer?

[jingofever]

Darth Jar Jar. And here.

[82_28]

That's great, Jingo! I just might have to watch the prequels again from a "different point of view" as the ghostly Obi Wan on Degobah might say. . .

[brekin]

Interviewer: Well, it comes through in the trailers. I remember waking up on Black Friday last year, my wife shoving her iPhone in my sleeping face. I heard the music and shot awake—I felt that excitement.

JJ: That’s great. What I’m excited about is that the movie itself feels like those teasers and not like the movie is one thing and the teasers are something else.

http://www.wired.com/2015/11/star-wars- ... interview/

Ooh, this could be bad. I sincerely hope, the trailers are one thing and the movie is another. To paraphrase Mark Twain, like one is a lightning bug and the other will be lightning.

[Luther Blissett]

How incredible would it be if they're just like a storyless 3-hour action sequence? It would be ludicrous. Transformers will then truly become the United States' greatest export.

[Joao]

Some of my excitement for this movie has been restored after hearing the idea that Spoiler:Kylo Ren is Luke Skywalker. There's reasonable evidence against, too, but I find the idea very fun. More info here.

Still, trying to keep my expectations low so that I can hopefully enjoy at least some of it and not be too critical.