Alas, May the 4th falls on a Sunday, when my library is closed. Good thing is, the first Saturday of May is also Free Comic Book Day, so my library still celebrated them both!
We had members of the Tampa Bay squad of the 501st show up during the morning to help promote the comic book giveaways!
There was a Lightsaber Training for families up in the meeting room on the second floor, but I don't have any pics of that to share.
So today, make sure to do your full-day binge-watch of the Skywalker Saga! Either that or pretend you did and prep for Cinco De Mayo tomorrow (owstophittingme).
Also, I need to get around to posting my long-overdue thoughts on Episodes VIII and IX of those movies. Perhaps during Memorial Day weekend when I've got time.
Due to Disney Plus, streaming services in dire need of fresh content, a growing comic book and print book industry of YA and adult materials, and an eager audience of Star Wars fandom spreading across three generations now, May the 4th is just about as official a national holiday as anything else.
It has helped somewhat during this pandemic to have our stories and our shows comfort us, to bring us light forth from the darkness.
From 42 years ago when I was seven years old sitting in the Clearwater Carib (thanks for the reminder, brother Phil) watching this mind-blowing movie Star Wars...
Photograph taken somewhere around that time period
...to watching the Official Final Episode IX Rise of Skywalker at the AMC Brandon multiplex...
Photograph taken somewhere around that time period
to considering whether or not to sign up for the Disney Plus streaming service for the hell of it because The Mandalorian has been must-see TV...
I WILL DIE FOR BABY YODA YOU NERF HERDERS
So in the meantime I'll wait a bit on posting my thoughts on the Rise of Skywalker movie and how I have to live with my guilt from here on out...
Wait. I never did a review of The Last Jedi did I? Slipped my schedule. I'll go back and review it ASAP.
THE LAST OFFICIAL TRAILER FOR THE FINAL STAR WARS CANON FILM OH MY GOD I HAVE FEELS
I WAS SEVEN YEARS OLD WHEN THIS STARTED I AM NOT READY TO END THIS JOURNEY I WANT TO BE THERE FOR THIS PLEASE GOD LET ME LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO ENJOY THIS (and also live long enough for the Marvel/DC/Star Trek/Star Wars/Doctor Who/Power Rangers/Voltron/Godzilla/Lord of the Rings/Game of Thrones/X-Files/West Wing crossover event once Disney buys up every geek property in the universe)
The actor who played Chewbacca in Star Wars, Peter Mayhew, recently passed away.
While I have a fondness for all the original characters, Chewie was kind of my guy. Oversized, covered with fur, goofy, unable to play chess...
When I was 7 or 8 years old I asked for a large Chewbacca action figure for Christmas. My parents may not have understood the request because I ended up with a fluffy teddy-bear Chewie. I wasn't entirely thrilled at the time, but Plush Chewie grew on me and so he was a regular bedtime companion until I was 12 or so. Afterwards he was pretty much on a book shelf for display and I admit I grew out of the idea of owning a doll like that. I can't recall when he ended up going to a donation store, or whatever else happened to him.
I miss the superhero roleplay. The team-ups. The power mixing. The costumes. The overall camp/seriousness of the eternal struggle of GOOD vs. EVIL.
The few MMOs in superhero genre don't cover the loss. Champions Online is just questionable gameplay and I could never get into the dynamics of it.
I've done other MMOs: Star Trek Online and Star Wars The Old Republic, but both of them don't provide much to free play.
I can't really get into the PvP games. It's the big reason why I didn't get Overwatch when it came out this month, although the buzz on it as a multiplayer makes it sound so tempting. Also, budget. I can't indulge right now... if ever.
This WILL HAVE SPOILERS. Although it's been two weekends now, let it go people, let it go... If you don't wanna read this, you don't have to.
Once you get past the thrill and enjoyment of there being another Star Wars movie, you can examine your feels and consider the actual merits and value of the movie.
In the good news category: The Force Awakens is a fun, well-crafted, well-acted piece of entertainment. In the bad news category: It's not a GREAT movie, mind you, nothing along the lines of MAD MAX FURY ROAD. Then again, few will be.
If I had to rank the movies this year by level of SHEER AWESOMENESS, it'd be Fury Road at the WITNESS IT level of YOU WILL ARRIVE IN VALHALLA SHINY AND CHROME, Force Awakens right behind it at the YES OMG IT'S GOOD, Age of Ultron about five or six levels below around Thank GOD Marvel Knows What It's Doing, Ant-Man in the middle of the pack at Exceeds Expectations, Jurassic World about twenty levels down around At Least There's a Dinosaur Battle, and Fantastic Four reboot in the trash-heap at Please Put 20th Century Fox Out of Our Misery.
Don't ask me how I feel about the Jem and the Holograms disaster. /cries
If you want me to go into greater details about what I liked and didn't like, here goes. (If you want someone else's view, I found this one, and John Scalzi's, and Flick Filosopher's view here, and maybe more)
Likes:
They did an incredible job casting the new lead actors/actresses. Daisy Ridley as Rey is a goddamn find: with only a handful of television and independent short film performances to her credit, she's tasked with being one of the primary characters in one of the largest film franchises of all time, and she hits a home run in her first big movie lead. She plays Rey with the right balance of pluck, wistfulness, smarts, emotional heft, and glee.
John Boyega I knew from the criminally undervalued Attack the Block movie (a cult classic that deserves more love and should get more play now that Boyega is a superstar), so when they cast him as the co-lead Finn I already knew they hired a quality actor and what to expect. He didn't disappoint, and even displayed some comic timing I wasn't expecting, which added to the movie's appeal.
Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron, the hotshot pilot of this new trilogy, impressed early on as a charismatic figure. Playing Poe as a confident veteran of an ongoing war, he interacts well with Finn during the first third of the film and provides a great way to re-introduce the audience to how the good guys - the Resistance - think and act. It's actually a problem the movie has when he disappears for most of the first and second acts of the story...
Adam Driver did excellent work as the saga's newest prominent villain Kylo Ren. Saddled with playing behind a mask for much of the movie, he does what he can with voice acting, and conveys the anger and arrogance of a Dark Force acolyte with exacting purpose. Once he does remove the mask, his angular yet oval face makes his villain appear boyish, almost innocent: except when the petulance kicks in, and when his fear gets the better of him...
BB-8. You keep forgetting that this machine is literally a film prop, just a remote-controlled droid, and yet it is so imbued with personality and care that you think the metal soccer ball is alive. It takes all the cuteness of R2-D2 and multiplies it by 100.
Just the way all three leads - Poe, Finn, Rey - play with BB-8 like kids believing the puppet is real and having fun doing so. The bit where Finn gets BB-8 to cover for him - and sharing a thumbs-up 'cause yeah dude - is both heartwarming and funny.
I liked the in-universe references to the previous movies. Building on its own history, this movie is filled with nods, homages, and nostalgic reminders. The opening world Jakku is littered with the debris of such history - Star Destroyers collapsed upon the sands like broken pyramids - signalling the passage of time and how events from the original trilogy are passing already into rust, dust, and legend.
Every re-introduction of a familiar face just makes the old veteran of the Star Wars - hooked since 1977 - like me break out with hoots and applause. Like the reuniting with old friends.
The characters are running from a wave of TIE fighters strafing the Jakku trading post. Finn (points to an off-camera spaceship): What about that ship? Rey: That one's garbage! (keeps running towards a shiny ship further away) Shiny ship gets blasted by the TIE fighters. Rey (shrugs): The garbage will do... Both characters start running towards the Millennium Falcon half-shrouded like an abandoned hunk of junk. (audiences start cheering when we see it)
Han: Chewie, we're home... Chewie: Rawwrrrr.
Chewie getting laughs every time he shrugs as Han digs himself into deeper holes dealing with space gangs.
Harrison Ford shifting the way Han Solo is played: no longer the cocky smuggler anti-hero, but now a Mentor figure to both Finn and Rey, becoming the Obi-Wan figure that Alec Guinness played in the first movie (there is some irony there). Playing father figure to the new leads in a way that humanizes Han even further and adds to the emotional nostalgia the film is already giving the audience.
The way Carrie Fisher - no, Leia - shakes her head seeing Han as they reunite when the Resistance shows up to fight the First Order on Maz Kanata's world.
Everyone knowing how a Sith / Dark Lord of the Force handles bad news. When Kylo throws a temper tantrum, he means it...
Two Stormtroopers patrolling a hallway come across Kylo throwing an epic conniption in a nearby room, and quietly turn around and walk away.
An overall upgrade to Stormtroopers, period. Jokingly considered bad shots the way they never hit our heroes, always used for cannon fodder, and eventually beaten by teddy bears, in this movie they're more formidable and thus memorable. In particular, the baton-wielding Trooper has become the One Scene Wonder of the movie, standing up to a lightsaber and winning that fight (until Han shows up with Chewie's bowcaster).
Rey confronting Kylo. First, in the woods as Kylo uses his experience with the Force to hunt, taunt, and capture Rey. Second, when Kylo tries to use his Force powers to mind-probe Rey, only to have Rey discover SHE has the Force and can use it to block his effort and read HIS mind. And Third...
...Rey uses her new-found link to the Force to summon Anakin/Luke's lightsaber to HER rather than let Kylo take it. This is a huge moment in the movie, arguably in modern cinema. The moment she grips that lightsaber and turns it on (with John Williams' epic score blaring a combination of Anakin and Luke's leitmotifs), it confirms that a woman CAN be the Hero of the Monomyth on her own terms.
Speaking of Rey using the Force, how she uses that new talent to Force Persuade a Stormtrooper - Ident JB-007 - to unlock her from the torture chair and leave the cell door open. Here's the thing: it takes three tries for her, it's not like she's just a brand-new person just mind-tricking everybody off the bat, she has to get a FEEL for how the Force works. Rey (thinking quickly): And you will drop your weapon. JB-007 (zoned out): AAaaaaannnnddd I will drop my weapon (does so).
And speaking about how the Force works, Finn gets it in his head during the rescue mission for Rey - as well as going off to blow up the Death Star 3.0 - that they can just rely on the Force to provide them with all the luck they need.
Han (remember, he started off not even believing in this stuff): THAT'S NOT HOW THE FORCE WORKS!
...and yet, all the plot points fall into place, so yeah, that IS how the Force works...
The final battle sequences, with all the fighting and the blowing up of things and good guys getting the shot in that takes out the Evil Empire First Order's superweapon, because that's what you do in a Star Wars movie, only this time there's no explosion it's just the planet-sized weapon turning into the star it just tried to consume, which is about five different kinds of symbolism there.
And the final scene. The poignant, painful expression on Rey's face as she holds up Anakin's lightsaber, offering it to the one person who can teach her the ways of the Force so Rey can become a Jedi... like her father... (yes, I believe that theory)
No Jar-Jar. Sorry, Ahmed Best, it's not you, it's how George wrote the guy.
Not-Likes:
The massive gap in the narrative when Poe drops off the screen. He'd been set up as a major character, desperate to rescue his droid and recover the map that leads to Luke Skywalker... and then he's seemingly killed off and disappeared, only to come back for the big rescue battle ending Part Two and opening Part Three of the movie. We find out from other sources that there's a reason he disappears, but we never see a good explanation in the movie and it's just this huge plot hole that needed filling.
All this build-up for Captain Phasma being a badass and... nothing. Even Riot Stormtrooper Guy does more and does more AWESOME stuff. All that happens to Phasma is getting dumped into a garbage compactor for Han's amusement.
It feels as though Maz was criminally underused.
Snoke is being set up as a Major Big Villain but comes across as a poorly rendered CGI cartoon version of the Emperor Darth Sidious. I don't really care what the big secret about him is going to be.
Not enough Rey.
Things I Can Live With, Because Yeah:
Biggest complaint I've heard from other people is how the plot recycles the Death Star as a MacGuffin-like target for the good guys to destroy. Thing is, as a student of history and with an awareness of tropes, I know this was unavoidable as a plot point. Remember: the Empire was a fantasy version of the Nazis (the uniforms alone are a huge freaking hint), and its offspring the First Order emulates that role. The whole "overwhelm, occupy, impose order" theme requires them to deploy massive weapons as a means of generating fear and cooperation, as well as let them wipe out massive opposition with a single blow. As a result, OF COURSE the First Order is going to build a planet-sized superweapon, it's what the Nazis would have done (and did, post-war discoveries showed how they kept building larger and more improbable weapons like super-tanks as though they were going to intimidate armies and nations into sh-ting their pants and surrendering).
Having Kylo Ren turn out to be a whiny, emo Darth. That's kind of the whole point about those who fall to the Dark Side of the Force. They are, when you take away their threatening names and metal masks, scarred children decimated by overhyped expectations and abandonment issues. Driven by personal fears of inadequacy and failure, they turn to anger to express themselves, letting that hate dominate their view and turn them into power-hungry control freaks bullying everybody else and yet who secretly write really bad poetry into a diary book while listening to British punk music. Having Kylo smash up every other chamber in fits of rage, make poorly thought-out temptations to Rey to turn her Dark Side to no avail, and turn on his own father makes perfect sense.
The confrontation between Han and his son Ben Solo, now Kylo Ren. I've seen criticisms online that the scene is dull, emotionally flat, boring. I didn't see that. The whole character arc for Han in this movie is the despair and regret he has of losing his son to the bad guys, and for Kylo the fear that he can never be as evil (and what he views as powerful) as Darth Vader. The scene on the chasm walkway where Han tries to talk sense to his son, where Kylo describes the emotional conflict he's feeling, and where Kylo proves to himself his final acceptance of the Dark Side by killing his own father, is actually pretty powerful, emotional stuff.
The way the movie ends, with Rey hiking up the island mountain into a sparse, open-air temple of Jedi solitude, finding Luke standing there overlooking the ocean view, and the wordless conclusion between them. It seems frustrating that the whole movie leads up to discovering where Luke fled, and then when found leaves us hanging without any kind of confirmation or confrontation between Luke and Rey (considering the theories floating out there). But upon further thought, the whole point of this movie is the emotional impact of everything: dialog and interaction are nice, but the mood and the awareness of the characters convey more weight. Leaving us with a vision of Rey and Luke standing there, still waiting for a decision to be made between them, hooking us for Episode VIII, was perhaps the best way to end this movie after all.
There. Got my feels said. Still in the mood to go see this movie again. I may go a total of five times, so I can equal my enthusiasm for Fury Road. That's another story...
Somewhere in my mind there is a seven year old boy sitting in a large rocking chair in a movie theater called a Bijou in downtown Clearwater Florida. Update 12/21/2019: Damn me for a fool, my brother Phil reminded me the place was called Carib Theater, closed down ages ago, WHY did I think it was called Bijou...?
It's late summer, just before school. Having taken care of a big event in our family's lives - moving into a new home - the parents relent and take their three youthful boys to see this movie everyone's been gabbing about called Star Wars. The lads are familiar with some elements of science fiction - we've seen this thing called Star Trek on the teevee once or twice - but all we knew about the movie was from an ad campaign that showed spaceships blowing up and robots running around.
And the previews for other movies wrap up, and the lights go down and the 20th Century Fox logo comes up with its fanfare, and then this comes up on the screen...
Okay... (now you know where I get the habit of writing ellipses at the end of sentences)
AND THEN BAM
AND THEN WHAM
And then this whole movie plays out an epic heroic journey of two droids struggling to deliver vital battle plans to a struggling resistance battling an evil galactic empire, drawing in a young farmboy, an aging mystic warrior with dark secrets, two space pirates piloting the coolest spaceship ever ("What a piece of junk!"), an action princess caught in the clutches of the evil empire, and about a billion human beings across the planet getting hooked on the whole damn thing.
It's archetypal, it's nostalgic, it's futuristic, it's action, it's space opera, it's primal emotional satisfaction. When Luke finishes that trench run and the Death Star blows up (oh shush I'm not spoiling a damn thing), the need among everyone in the audience to stand and cheer in victory is universal.
I never really grew up from that moment. My mom is probably thinking of suing George Lucas at some point for stunting my adult development.
So here I am, this week, it's a big week. It's one of those "I wanna stay alive to see this happen" moments. The next movie in the Star Wars space opera saga is coming to movie theaters.
The Force Awakens is the continuation of the proposed third trilogy of George Lucas' once-planned nine-movie saga covering the entire Star Wars history. There's a lot more that can be said about that, and you may have noticed on this blog a few entries about the movie coming out, but all that I can discuss later, after I see the movie this Friday.
The early, SPOILER-protected reviews are saying good things, enjoyable things. It's not like we should be expecting the next great Oscar-winning film - that's Fury Road, dammit - but for all intents it's going to be like what it was when I was seven and sitting in that big rocking chair geeking out to the Millennium Falcon jumping into hyperspace.
There's a real-working desk-sized BB-8 toy that can be remote-controlled by your tablet/smartphone.
There's a chance to buy your very own Harlan Ellison uh Lawrence Kasdan no no your very own Simon Pegg! Whadda you mean, he's not for sale...?
(takes his 50 p) (gets out, crying)
These are kind of the things I missed asking for Christmas back when I was eight years old (did get the action figures and the fluffy Chewie doll SHUT UP). It'll be a little embarrassing asking Santa for them at the age of 45 (okay so I haven't grown up THAT much...). And I hate to admit it, but the Saturnalia holidays is not up on toy-gifting (damn the harvest festive bacchanal nature of the Romans!).
So I would very much like... ahem, NEED... to buy these toys for meself. Thing is, I'm a little strapped for cash at the moment. And the Falcon set alone is around $140.
That's where you, the faithful seven readers of this blog, come in.
Can you all ask about 50,000 of your closest friends and co-workers and deep-pocket rich people around you to, you know, buy my ebooks?!?!?! The extra cash-flow from the sales should cover the purchase price of a life-size Jabba the Hutt sofa...
I don't think I can boot up a Kickstarter crowd-funding thing for this sort of project.
Sigh.
Update: Actually I *can* add a Donate button to a blog, but it would be a little too tacky. ...Except I'm begging for book sales in the first place! Well, as I argue to myself, selling the books is a fair form of exchange, me providing a service (book) and the buyer getting something of value. So that seems morally acceptable. ;)
That said, the Lego Millennium Falcon is now MINE. Yes, I indulged for myself this Saturnalia season. Getting it now means I won't miss out getting it when we get closer to the movie release in December, when all the stores are bound to run low on supplies of the cool toys.
I won't open it now. 1) I need to find a place to shelve it when finished and 2) It's 1300+ pieces! This thing is gonna take a WEEK to put together...
And this is a good year to be a Star Wars geek as this is happening:
Chewie, we're home...
And yes, with The Force Awakens movie coming out December, we are indeed home...
I want that toy. I really wanted a Falcon since I was kid, but the models were too big for the bookshelves in my room so I held back. NO MORE. I may be turning 45 this month, but with this series I am STILL that seven-year-old sitting in the Clearwater Bijou (sadly so long gone) watching the first movie A New Hope again and again...
Thank God for Deviant Art! (this was the kid-friendliest version I could find. The rest were Leia in her other costume... yeah, THAT costume...)
2) Is Disney buying up every geek-loved franchise out there? First it was Marvel... Now Star Wars... Oh dear God, RUN DOCTOR WHO RUN!
3) Will Disney make the planned sequels more akin to how they handled Pirates of the Caribbean - which were darker and edgier than most Disney-made films - or will they make 'em like their cable channel kid-friendly what-the-hell stuff?
4) And the most important question of all: will Mickey be tempted to the Dark Side by Darth Duck?
