Yet Another Cycling Forum
Off Topic => The Pub => Arts and Entertainment => Topic started by: madcow on 13 December, 2015, 04:05:25 pm
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The Hollywood hype machinery is working overtime for the next episode of Star Wars and as usual the BBC are not slow on getting in on the act ,with Star Wars themed programmes popping up all over the schedules.
So, although I was around when the whole saga started ,I have to confess that I have never sat through the complete showing of any of the Star Wars films.
I have always held the view that it appealed to the sort of people who bought toys but never took them out of the packaging or displayed similar traits. Anyone else care to join the "I've never watched Star Wars " club?
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The Hollywood hype machinery is working overtime for the next episode of Star Wars and as usual the BBC are not slow on getting in on the act ,with Star Wars themed programmes popping up all over the schedules.
So, although I was around when the whole saga started ,I have to confess that I have never sat through the complete showing of any of the Star Wars films.
I have always held the view that it appealed to the sort of people who bought toys but never took them out of the packaging or displayed similar traits. Anyone else care to join the "I've never watched Star Wars " club?
As a 12 (or so) year old, weaned on Star Trek, I was mortified when me and my mates went to the cinema see This New Thing, The Future, the opening shot of which (the starlight sky) caused all of us to spontaneously, and unanimously call out "Space!"
We didn't need to follow it up with "The final frontier".
The entire cinema got the message.
I've not given Star Wars the time of day since, as it is a weak sham that has sucked in (and made) millions.....
ETA: Soddin' 'ell! Curmudgeonly at 12. Is that a record? ;)
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I'm a child of the 80s, where Star Wars was ubiquitous and ordinary and just part of how the world worked. As such, while avoiding it was simply impractical, I've never seen the need to get excited about it (beyond wondering whether that Mary Poppins song with the riff from the Imperial March was supposed to show that she was evil).
Anyway, Star Wars isn't science fiction. It primarily exists as a means to sell toys, and as a source of cultural references.
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Anyway, Star Wars isn't science fiction. It primarily exists as a means to sell toys, and as a source of cultural references.
What's your definition? :)
I've seen 'em all. As someone in the target age-range, the first one blew my mind at the cinema. (how many films can people still remember the walk home, bending their dad's ear with all the best bits??)
Of course it's LOTS more fun to be cynical. For some; such an attitude seems rather sad (in the original meaning) to me.
Of course I'm not a blinkered fan-boy; parts I-III were mostly rubbish (apart from that first hilarious Yoda fight :D ). As a result I am completely unmoved by the hype around the newest one, but if it gets the right reviews ... yeah, I might pay $8 to see it.
But I'll almost certainly wait to see it for free.
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I resigned from this club in October after 38 years happy membership. I have also never seen the Godfather or Rocky, all these are good bankers in the film version of 'Humiliation', not having the Star Wars trilogy to play anymore is a disadvantage.
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Anyway, Star Wars isn't science fiction. It primarily exists as a means to sell toys, and as a source of cultural references.
What's your definition? :)
Fairly vague, but standard fantasy set in a universe with advanced technology doesn't qualify.
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I have also never seen the Godfather or Rocky
I've never seen any of these. I deliberately avoid films about Men In Suits because I can't tell the characters apart, and Rocky is AIUI an endless series of films about a guy training for a boxing fight (presumably a new, even more important, boxing fight each film), which sounds incredibly dull.
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I saw the original when I was at university. I think I preferred Grease as a schlockfest, and have never watched any sequel. Films that stick in the mind from then are 'The Driver' and the later Clint Eastwood Dirty Harrys.
I'm of a generation that grew up watching 'The Crimson Pirate' on telly at Christmas.
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I saw the first 2 in the cinema when they came out, but have only seen snatches of the others when they've been on other people's TVs at Xmas . Even as an early teen I thought 2001 better.
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I saw the original when I was at university. I think I preferred Grease as a schlockfest, and have never watched any sequel.
Do NOT watch the sequel to Grease. :hand:
(Except POSSIBLY if you are a fan of the young Michelle Feipfer ... )
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I'm of the age were Star Wars are a big part of my childhood (ironically, I couldn't have been old enough to see the movie on first release). I had the comics, the books, the everything, and my big unfilled dream was to have the giant Millennium Falcon that my friend Neil had. I was so jealous. He had all the toys. And yes we played with them, though I always had to be Chewbacca to his Han Solo.
We've just watched the original three movies and they're unpretentious hokey fun. Even the Ewoks weren't as bad as I remembered. The plotting is ropy and the story rudimentary, but the casting was excellent and together it just worked as an enjoying romp across the galaxy.
I've no wish to ever see the latter three movies again, they were just awful.
I find the entire it's not real science fiction tedious. I'm not sure there's a council to decide such things. I don't care about genre. Tell a good story and why worry about whether or not fit such-and-such arbitrary definition. I never sure why people need to define themselves by what they read and watch (or rather what they pointedly don't read and watch).
I've got tickets to see the new one after Christmas and I'm quite looking forward to it.
I have, on the other hand, never managed to sit through all the Godfathers, find Rocky dull, and to be honest, find 2001 a bit of a long slog.
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The original trilogy is great, and not just because Harrison Ford is at the peak of his beauty. Episodes I-III vary from terrible to mediocre. If you've never seen them and you decide to watch them, watch them in machete order, which is IV, V, II, III, VI.
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I find the entire it's not real science fiction tedious. I'm not sure there's a council to decide such things. I don't care about genre. Tell a good story and why worry about whether or not fit such-and-such arbitrary definition. I never sure why people need to define themselves by what they read and watch (or rather what they pointedly don't read and watch).
I don't disagree. My point is merely that Star Wars is poor science fiction because it isn't science fiction, and lots of science fiction nerds (including, it seems, George Lucas) seem to miss that point. It's a fantasy romp, and the original film is decent enough at that. I also rather like the sets, props and effects. Not as clumsy or garish as CGI; elegant models for a more civilised age.
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The original trilogy is great, and not just because Harrison Ford is at the peak of his beauty.
Nahh, he gets better with age, even if the films he ends up in don't.
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I've managed to avoid watching all the Star Wars films and have no desire to change this. I do, however, remember having some of the little figurine things in the 1980s (the gold man and the little dalek type thingy - R2D2?). No idea why!
I've never seen any of the Godfathers or Rockies, either.
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Never seen any of them.
Was taken to see "The Day The Earth Stood Still" (1951) ;D
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They are kids films. I saw Star Wars in 1978 when I was 9. It was exhilarating. I still like the first one, and the next two.
I've been bought a ticket for the new one but I'll go without high expectations.
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I'm watching 'I' right now.
(or rather, it's on).
I can't remember seeing IV/V/VI at the pictures, but I did see I/II/III on the big screen.
We're going to see the new one in full IMAX glory.
I can't watch any of them now without seeing the story unfold in Lego. It seems weird seeing live people moving on the screen. I've spent literally days playing Lego Star Wars on Playstation. They're not days I regret.
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It's just a story about the radicalisation of religious extremism and their committing mass murder.
;)
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They are kids films. I saw Star Wars in 1978 when I was 9. It was exhilarating. I still like the first one, and the next two.
'Sabout it. I think I might have taken one or both of my kids to see one.
You remind me that I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey when it first came out. I was 15. Wikipedia says it was shown in Super Panavision 70, which I recall as a sort of surround screen. From the stalls, any character towards the edge of the screen developed a strangely pointy head.
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I'd not seen them until about a year ago when my (then) seven year old came back from a friend's house having seen one and wanting to see the rest. So we got them all on DVDs and watched them together. That's a chunk of my life I will never get back.
I have no desire to see the next one.
I should also add that I have yet to sit through a James Bond film....
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Try as I might, I cannot get excited about Star Wars. I've asked people who do, what it is about the films they like so much. I've yet to be persuaded by the answers, which tend to be along the lines of "a complete world", "a universal story" and "it made an impression on me when I saw it as a kid". This seems to me to apply to a whole host of other films too that seem not to generate so much excitement. And with the bonus of no annoying robots/aliens.
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Try as I might, I cannot get excited about Star Wars. I've asked people who do, what it is about the films they like so much. I've yet to be persuaded by the answers, which tend to be along the lines of "a complete world", "a universal story" and "it made an impression on me when I saw it as a kid". This seems to me to apply to a whole host of other films too that seem not to generate so much excitement. And with the bonus of no annoying robots/aliens.
In my youth it was Tolkien.
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I recall we went to see Star Wars from our student house because it was a George Lucas film. His 1973 American Graffiti had been a formative 'coming of age' movie, and featured Harrison Ford in an early role. It also introduced Ron Howard, who starred in 'Happy Days'.
There was a confluence between American Graffiti, an early soundtrack movie and 'Saturday Night Fever'. So seeing 'Star Wars' and 'Grease' was an extension from interest in those earlier films.
Star Wars spawned Battlestar Galactica on TV in the same way that Happy Days derived from American Graffiti.
Star Wars was also interesting for being shot by Gilbert Taylor, best known for his work on Doctor Strangelove.
http://www.theasc.com/magazine/feb06/taylor/page1.html
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Never watched any of:
Star Wars
Jaws
Mad Max
Harry Potter
(and a few other franchise films brands)
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Not as clumsy or garish as CGI; elegant models for a more civilised age.
:)
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Try as I might, I cannot get excited about Star Wars. I've asked people who do, what it is about the films they like so much. I've yet to be persuaded by the answers, which tend to be along the lines of "a complete world", "a universal story" and "it made an impression on me when I saw it as a kid". This seems to me to apply to a whole host of other films too that seem not to generate so much excitement. And with the bonus of no annoying robots/aliens.
Because there was no other kids sci-fi film that came anywhere close. The Biblical overtones, the tip of the hat to Nazi legend-making and imagery, plus the big scary deep-breathing monster black man.
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It's a Western, only with spaceships and frikkin' lasers instead of horses and .45s.
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There are elements of John Ford's work certainly, but the Death Star conference room was shot by the same bloke who did Doctor Strangelove. He preferred the latter.
(http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/4/4f/Conference_room1.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20130305230158)
(https://wondersinthedark.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/drstrangelove037-e1356056814924.jpg?w=500)
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I am reasonably sure that Mrs. Wow and I sat through a Rat Warts film when we hadn't been married very long. I don't recall much about it. I do remember the mass indignation of classes of children when I referred to a character by the name of Daft Ada.
I have never watched Star Trek, Coronation Street or a Harry Potter film. I did read a Harry Potter book once and thought that there was far too much of a similarity to Tolkien for me to think of many of the ideas as anything other than plagiarism.
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Tolkein was hardly an innocent when it came to lifting things wholesale from Norse mythology.
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I did read a Harry Potter book once and thought that there was far too much of a similarity to Tolkien for me to think of many of the ideas as anything other than plagiarism.
Blimey, that's a connection I'd never have made.
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It's a Western, only with spaceships and frikkin' lasers instead of horses and .45s.
With a hefty side order of Kurosawa's 'The Hidden Fortress'.
George Lucas has acknowledged heavy influence of The Hidden Fortress on Star Wars,[6] particularly in the technique of telling the story from the perspective of the film's lowliest characters, C-3PO and R2-D2.[7][8] Lucas's original plot outline for Star Wars also had a strong resemblance to the plot of The Hidden Fortress,[9] which would be reused for The Phantom Menace.
References:
[6] Kamiski, Michael (2007). The Secret History of Star Wars (http://www.legacybookspress.com/Books/The%20Secret%20History%20of%20Star%20Wars%20-%20Free%20Sample.pdf) (PDF). p. 48. Retrieved 2011-01-31.
[7] Star Wars DVD audio commentary
[8] Kamiski, Michael (2007). The Secret History of Star Wars (http://www.legacybookspress.com/Books/The%20Secret%20History%20of%20Star%20Wars%20-%20Free%20Sample.pdf) (PDF). p. 47. Retrieved 2011-01-31.
[9] Stempel, Tom; Dunne, Philip (2000). Framework: A History of Screenwriting in the American Film (3rd ed.). Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. p. 154 & 204. ISBN 0815606540. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hidden_Fortress
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I did read a Harry Potter book once and thought that there was far too much of a similarity to Tolkien for me to think of many of the ideas as anything other than plagiarism.
Blimey, that's a connection I'd never have made.
I thought the giant spiders were laughably similar.
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I've never read a Harry Potter book, because first there wasn't such a thing as Harry Potter, then one day I woke up and everyone was talking about Harry Potter like it had been around for ages. This was obviously a glitch in the matrix, or something, and I was cautious to avoid joining in on the basis that everyone who read Harry Potter might go blind, and that's just letting the triffids win.
Consequently I haven't seen any of the films, either.
I've done small doses of Tolkien, but I didn't inhale. I've heard it may be hobbit-forming. Sufficient to get Pterry's satire, which is the important thing.
Watching Star Trek is like masturbation: Nearly everyone does it, but many are too prudish to admit to it. It's far, far better than Coronation Street. Yes, even the Ferengi episodes of DS9.
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Watching Star Trek is like masturbation: Nearly everyone does it, but many are too prudish to admit to it. It's far, far better than Coronation Street. Yes, even the Ferengi episodes of DS9.
It has to be said that DS9 did at least try to flesh out the Ferengi and make them more than just the caricature that they were in TNG. Also, DS9 lifted the mask off the Federation, which in the original series and TNG could get a bit self-righteous, showing it to be more than willing to do some very dodgy stuff, up to an including attempted genocide. The Emissary part of Sisko's story arc was, IMHO, unnecessary, though.
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Well yes, but all the good stuff in later DS9 was just a pale imitation of Babylon 5.
The only thing that's come close has been the new Battlestar Galactica. (There, that's brought us full circle.)
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The original trilogy is great, and not just because Harrison Ford is at the peak of his beauty. Episodes I-III vary from terrible to mediocre. If you've never seen them and you decide to watch them, watch them in machete order, which is IV, V, II, III, VI.
I noticed you omitted I from the list. Good call.
I enjoyed 4, 5, 6 (for my *cough* birthday I got to watch the trilogy back-to-back in the local cinema, which was just awesome at the age of *cough*)
1 was dismal. So dismal I fell asleep while it was playing and when I woke up my first thought was "oh crap, it's still on". Thankfully it was on a DVD I rented so I could click the Stop button and salvage the evening. 2 was passable, I must admit I liked 3.
Haven't decided yet whether I'll watch 7.
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I was astounded when I moved to the UK and realized that a lot of people actually took Star Trek seriously.
I'm similarly astounded that someone can proclaim that Star Wars is not 'proper' sci-fi, but Star Trek is.
As for Episode 7, I'm obviously biased. We're having a cast & crew screening on Thursday and I'm stoked.
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Well yes, but all the good stuff in later DS9 was just a pale imitation of Babylon 5.
Babylon 5's a big pile of shit!
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They are kids films. I saw Star Wars in 1978 when I was 9. It was exhilarating. I still like the first one, and the next two.
This. The original trilogy was a massive part of my youth - I was 7 when Star Wars came out. I was an avid collector of the toys too. But then at some point in the mid-80s I discovered girls...
I watched Episodes I-III on DVD with my son when he was old enough for them but I probably wouldn't have bothered otherwise. I found them very clunky and quite dull. I probably won't bother going to the cinema to watch the new one but I will probably watch it when it comes on telly.
I was at a bit of a loose end yesterday afternoon so watched about an hour or so of Star Wars and really quite enjoyed it. I have no recollection of how I felt the first time I saw it, except for being terrified at the bit when they were in the garbage crusher, but I imagine I must have been pretty darn impressed. It has a lot to recommend it - as a kids' film. I'll have to watch the ending at some point - I vaguely recall the assault on the Death Star being pretty spectacular.
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Well yes, but all the good stuff in later DS9 was just a pale imitation of Babylon 5.
Babylon 5's a big pile of shit!
:o
BURN THE HERETIC!
Next you'll be claiming 'they' were right to cancel Firefly!
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I was going to write a provocative gripe about people who say they've not watched something to prove their intellectual superiority but then I remembered that I've not watched any Harry Potter and I'll happily tell people so (et voilà!). I too am not sure where it all came from, one day I walked out the door and everyone seemed to be clutching a copy of the tome. Who knew there was a latent tendency towards wizards. For reasons unknown I ended up trapped in a game of Harry Potter Trivial Pursuit (and I'm the sort of person who would rather bite off his own toes than play that game) at the weekend (at least it was in the pub and I could go to the bar often). I fear I didn't contribute much, but I was more than a little scared that some friend of a friend, an unassuming woman of middling age, knew every-bloody-thing about the books. It's was the sort of scary level of knowledge that had happily skipped over the borders of obsession and pitched camp. Had probably built a house.
I did sleep through large parts of the LoTR trilogy and never, ever felt the need to pick up a Tolkien book. I'd rather have my eyeballs kebabed than watch The Hobbit, even people who like that kind of schtick seemed to leave the cinema looking like they had just suffered a bodged prostate exam. Even the women. Wizards and magic never levitated my boat. I don't think I was good on sci-fi to be honest, I never really watched Star Trek. My wife once made me watch Voyager and DS9. Oh god, it was like a soap opera in space. I did love Firefly, which was inarguably a western in space, and should have run forever.
Possible a function of my childhood, where I preferred graphic novels. I'd eagerly await my copy of 2000AD and rustle up a few pennies sorting through the comics (oh we called them that back then, I'm not sure when they became graphic novels).
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Well yes, but all the good stuff in later DS9 was just a pale imitation of Babylon 5.
Babylon 5's a big pile of shit!
Get out!
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If you think Star Trek is like masturbation then you're not doing it right.
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Fell asleep watching Return of the Jedi (is that II?) chez Carol and Zoe circa 1988. Never watched more than a couple of minutes of any of them when they've been on the tellybox since.
There's too much rubbishy deus ex machina in science fiction for my liking. See also: Doctor Who and Barry Trotter. No real peril or tension because you know that the Sonic Screwdriver, patronus or The Force would be invoked to save protagonist at last moment.
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What you young people won't appreciate is that Star Wars was absolutely ground-breaking amazing eye candy when it came out.
Prior that, special-effects, particularly in space, consisted of wobbly cardboard on string. Star Wars was holy-mother-fucking-amazing. People who didn't give a shit about sci-fi, spacecraft or any of that crap queued round the block to see it.
The story is a straight poor ripoff of arthurian legends, with Obi-wan kenobi as Merlin. Luke even sticks his light sabre through stone and pulls it out fer pete's sakes.
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I still don't understand why they didn't call it Cool Hand, Luke instead of The Empire Strikes Back.
I love Star Wars but am under no illusions about it being any kind of masterpiece. Ditto with Harry Potter (both the books and the movies). And while I do count them as science fiction, it's definitely of the Space Opera rather than hard speculative fiction variety. They're just good fun as long as you don't take them too seriously.
On the subject of Space Westerns... I'm still not OK about Firefly.
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Well yes, but all the good stuff in later DS9 was just a pale imitation of Babylon 5.
Babylon 5's a big pile of shit!
Get out!
Oh, Wascally Weasel got there first. Never mind. I'm reasonably sure that - in spite of the name - Spaced wasn't sci-fi, either.
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The Stars Wars special effects (the models anyway) still look fantastic despite all the years that have passed.
I'm still not convinced that the best way to destroy a Death Star is to fly down a long, long channel lined with guns while being chased by enemy fighters.
I have watched Babylon 5. The bit in the middle with the Shadows is fine, either side it's the usual wishy-washy stuff that Star Trek used to pipe out. I liked the original Star Trek which was just banter between the bridge crew and Kirk's ongoing quest to snog all the woman in the universe.
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The special effects in 2001, made 10 years earlier, were pretty convincing even if there were fewer biplane dog fights in space and noisy lasers.
I do have a soft spot for existential science fiction (2001, Solaris, Silent Running, Moon, Gravity etc.) and have never been particularly drawn to Westerns, so perhaps not a surprise that I don't grok Star Wars.
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What you young people won't appreciate is that Star Wars was absolutely ground-breaking amazing eye candy when it came out.
Prior that, special-effects, particularly in space, consisted of wobbly cardboard on string. Star Wars was holy-mother-fucking-amazing. People who didn't give a shit about sci-fi, spacecraft or any of that crap queued round the block to see it.
The story is a straight poor ripoff of arthurian legends, with Obi-wan kenobi as Merlin. Luke even sticks his light sabre through stone and pulls it out fer pete's sakes.
Quite. I went to see it at the cinema as a kid. When the Destroyer appears overhead (sorry! Spoiler Alert!!!!), it was like nothing seen before.
That said, I prefer Dark Star, Silent Running, Solaris (up to a point. I have a quibble with the Director which takes a long time to explain).
And Original Star Trek is the ne plus ultra of Sci Fi. ;)
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Special effects quickly become tedious unless there's an interesting plot/storyline attached.
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The Stars Wars special effects (the models anyway) still look fantastic despite all the years that have passed.
Yes, it does still look great. It's just a shame they have diminished some scenes by layering on gratuitous CGI. It's really not an improvement.
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The Stars Wars special effects (the models anyway) still look fantastic despite all the years that have passed.
Yes, it does still look great. It's just a shame they have diminished some scenes by layering on gratuitous CGI. It's really not an improvement.
The CGI space battles are fine. Space battles are exactly the sort of thing that CGI does well[1].
The gratuitous pooing dinosaurs, not so much.
[1] I have a soft-spot for the Amiga-era CGI in the early seasons of Babylon 5. It's obviously CGI, but the attempt to get the physics right was, at the time, remarkable.
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Special effects quickly become tedious unless there's an interesting plot/storyline attached.
There's a lot of CGI in the yawnworthy racing interlude of Episode 1: Escape from Jar-Jar.
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The Stars Wars special effects (the models anyway) still look fantastic despite all the years that have passed.
Yes, it does still look great. It's just a shame they have diminished some scenes by layering on gratuitous CGI. It's really not an improvement.
You do have to wonder who sat the production meeting where they looked at those new special effects and thought 'yes, that's an improvement.'
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In 1988 we had a tour of the Paramount studios and got to see the models used in the original Star Wars (whatever number that was). As I recall they are surprisingly crude, not having the detail that most model makers strive for.
I've only seen the original when it was released. I very much enjoyed it.
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Much use was made of bits of old Rolls Royce Derwent engines from Gloster Meteors.
http://www.starwars.com/news/from-world-war-to-star-wars-the-meteor
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Well yes, but all the good stuff in later DS9 was just a pale imitation of Babylon 5.
Babylon 5's a big pile of shit!
Get out!
HOORAY!!
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As I recall they are surprisingly crude, not having the detail that most model makers strive for.
It highly depends on what they were used for. Most of the higher quality models were used at ILM and many of them are still at either the Skywalker Ranch or at our head office in Presidio. (And many of them on display around the hallways).
The ones used on the soundstages were most likely pretty crude compared to the one used for close-ups in the motion control rigs.
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I didn't start this thread to prove anything and I have been on this forum for long enough to realise that many of you are on a far higher intellectual level than yours truly.
But there seems to be some moral superiority emanating from those who do like Star Wars. The promotional blurb seems to consider that those who don't get SW are just plain daft and missing something , so if anything it was just to check that there are others who feel the opposite.
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there seems to be some moral superiority emanating from those who do like Star Wars.
Don't you mean the opposite?
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No , the emphasis is on it being the biggest selling, most loved , most enduring (number of episodes) of any film franchise. (I don't get that idea either. A theme maybe but a franchise?)
The implication is that those who are on the outside are in the minority.
According to one bit of Beeb blurb , the programme presenter will be the envy of us all as he interviews cast members and goes behind the scenes.
Not just Star wars fans but all of us .
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The implication is that those who are on the outside are in the minority.
According to one bit of Beeb blurb , the programme presenter will be the envy of us all as he interviews cast members and goes behind the scenes.
Not just Star wars fans but all of us .
Yeah, but that's the sort of overhyped rubbish marketing people come out with all the time. By no means Star Wars specific. You wouldn't bat an eyelid if they made that sort of comment about interviewing sportsballers or professional celebrities.
That said, Star Wars does fill the slightly bizarre role of being a token piece of nerd culture that non-nerds are expected to relate to. Which is why nerds in mainstream fiction tend to be obsessed with it.
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We took our 7-year-old son to The Empire Strikes Back when it first came out. It was his birthday. Afterwards he ate too much chocolate mousse, drank too much Pepsi and did a volcanic puke on the restaurant floor. Cost me 50,- fr. to pacify the waiter.
Wouldn't mind seeing them now, minus the puke.
Sad about the Meteors. Hope there are still a few in museums round the country. Too many lovely old planes were scrapped into extinction.
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No , the emphasis is on it being the biggest selling, most loved , most enduring (number of episodes) of any film franchise. (I don't get that idea either. A theme maybe but a franchise?)
The implication is that those who are on the outside are in the minority.
According to one bit of Beeb blurb , the programme presenter will be the envy of us all as he interviews cast members and goes behind the scenes.
Not just Star wars fans but all of us .
cf James Bond
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Most loved = best marketed.
Heard yest that Lego were in a nose-dive in the 80s or 90s until they tied up with Lucas & C° and produced SW-related kits.
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If we had to lose either Star Wars or Wallace and Gromit, I'd happily wave Skywalker et al goodbye.
In terms of a space film my favourite is 'The Right Stuff', still topical today, especially today.
Gordon Cooper: You boys know what makes this bird go up? FUNDING makes this bird go up.
Gus Grissom: He's right. No bucks, no Buck Rogers.
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cf James Bond
Fuck yeah.
I used to love James Bond films when I was a kid but as I've got older I've grown to realise how very truly cringingly awful most of them are - especially the Roger Moore era. From Russia With Love, Dr No and You Only Live Twice are good. OHMSS is under-rated, and The Living Daylights has the cello case chase. I quite liked the recent version of Casino Royale but Skyfall was woefully tedious.
Anyway, I suspect the main reason Star Wars gets so much hype is that the current generation of Media Big Cheeses are exactly the right age to have been fans first time around. It's a massive nostalgia trip.
That and the saturation marketing.
The release of the new film is a significant cultural/media event and there's no getting away from that, but I suspect that for the majority of people in the real world it's just not that big a deal. There's been very little talk in my office about it. I know one of my colleagues is keen to see it but he's a fantasy geek. And it's certainly not a hot topic at home - the 17yo is only half-interested at best.
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I'm looking forward to seeing it. I will tell anyone if they ask me what I'm doing on the 28th, otherwise I'm not doing their publicity for them. It's just a movie. Yeah, I'm curious whether it will be an entertaining space romp, a toe-curling disaster like the last trio, or just meh. It'll make a break from the Marvel movies (how fucking rich must Stan Lee be by now?) I'm eventually hoping that the film everything they have and are forced to buy the movie rights for Alice and Jess vs. Zombies.
I don't think I'm a proper nerd, I'd take Star Wars over 2001 any day.
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I'm seeing Episode 7 at 3.00am on the 17th at the IMAX.
I love Star Wars. That being said, I love the memory, not the reality.
I tried to watch Return of the Jedi last night and couldn't, as it was appalling.
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A year or two after SW appeared I watched one of the big NASA launches - first shuttle flight I think - on TV with the kids. Having grown up with during the progression from Mercury to the first Moon flights I was fascinated, and in suspense in case something went wrong, but their reaction was "yeah, so what?" No aliens, no shoot-em-ups. "It's dull."
Damn George Lucas.
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I didn't start this thread to prove anything and I have been on this forum for long enough to realise that many of you are on a far higher intellectual level than yours truly.
But there seems to be some moral superiority emanating from those who do like Star Wars. The promotional blurb seems to consider that those who don't get SW are just plain daft and missing something , so if anything it was just to check that there are others who feel the opposite.
You are so blind! You so do not understand! You weren't there at the beginning! You don't know how good it was, how important! This is it for you! This jumped-up firework display of a toy advert! People like you make me sick! What's wrong with you? Now, I don't care if you've saved up all your 50p's, take your pocket money and get out!
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In many ways Star Wars is like audax. For those who like it, we forget all the dull boring bits, and just relive the good memories. For those who don't like it, they've either never tried it, or tried it once and then gone WTF is this sh!t and then spent their time doing something else instead.
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The same applies to many things: religion, sex, war, billiards...
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In many ways Star Wars is like audax. For those who like it, we forget all the dull boring bits, and just relive the good memories. For those who don't like it, they've either never tried it, or tried it once and then gone WTF is this sh!t and then spent their time doing something else instead.
Except that every time you re-ride the calender event, the organizer has 'tweaked' the route and made it a little bit different (different in an BAAD way)
*of the very few rides where this has applied, I've simply taken my preferred alternative route. Free routing FTW
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Based on the early reviews I'm seeing, the new film sounds quite fun.
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I've never watched Star Wars.
I then went a married a massive science fiction fan who has been telling me I must watch them since the day she discovered I had never seen them. Mrs Trekker is a little older than me so remembers being wowed by the giant spaceship appearing overhead at the start of the first one (or is that the 4th one, I'm not sure) in 1977. There is a plastic (recent Chinese import, not an original) light sabre on our TV stand.
I know the basic premise and who Luke's father is (spoiler alert) but other than that I've never quite been interested enough.
I did buy a special edition box set (with assistance from this forum) for us to watch with the original unchanged versions included, as apparently I have to watch those as the bits George Lucas changed ruined the whole thing. That boxset is still sitting in it's plastic wrapper since I bought it in February.
I'm under instruction to go and watch the new one at some point after Christmas, and actually I think I'd quite like to see what the fuss is all about. The last five years have at least educated me in science fiction which is something I never quite got round to before. I think we'll have an episodes 4-6 marathon after boxing day in preparation.
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Based on the early reviews I'm seeing, the new film sounds quite fun.
Did we discover that George Lucas was the problem for 30 years?
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I might be wrong, but my impression is that early reviews tend to be positive. Then the public sees it. And then a refined sense of a blockbuster film's worth comes about.
I'm really looking forward to seeing the Force Awakens, regardless of whether it is good or not. I'll probably end up seeing it a couple of times in fact. Star Wars defined a disproportionate chunk of my childhood in the 80s.
I still can't hold a long tube shaped container without pretending it is a lightsaber. And generally if there is another bloke with a similar sized tube to hand we'll end up faux duelling and making fzwoo fzwoo noises.
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I still can't hold a long tube shaped container without pretending it is a lightsaber. And generally if there is another bloke with a similar sized tube to hand we'll end up faux duelling and making fzwoo fzwoo noises.
Careful, that was George Michael's downfall.
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This could equally be in the 'claim to fame' thread...
I watched the first Star Wars with Peter Jackson. We had to run from the cinema to the train station to make our train home*. We were 13 and so possibly the perfect age for Star Wars - it was huge and exciting, like nothing we'd ever seen before. You ought remember, back then, it was a monumental production - innovative and ground breaking in it's effects and production technology.
*Wellington to Paekakariki if you're interested in the details. He got off at Muri (now closed, one of the two stations that served Pukerua Bay back then) and I stayed on to get the bus from Paekak to Raumati. Some things, you don't need to know. It ruins the magic...
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That is well past tenuous. So you, in a small way, might be responsible for forming the impressionable mind of the young Peter Jackson, leading to him producing the abomination that is 'The Hobbit'?
Your soul is damned forever.
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It gets worse. We also watched the Ralph Bakshi version of 'Lord Of The Rings'. As I recall, he had no interest in LoTR before then. Animation, particularly stop-motion animation, was his interest.
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It gets worse. We also watched the Ralph Bakshi version of 'Lord Of The Rings'. As I recall, he had no interest in LoTR before then. Animation, particularly stop-motion animation, was his interest.
dammit man, you are brave
Saying such things on the internet. Your door is likely to be kicked in by black riders nerdy LOTR fans, screaming "You murdered Faramir".
I suggest warding your house with a boxed set of the Wheel of Time. Nothing more guaranteed to block a LOTR fan.
Edit, I'm wrong. Just wear a "Why didn't they fly to Mordor on eagles?" T-shirt. That will make a LOTR sob.
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And a LoTR/Star Wars link is Anthony Daniels. Legolas to Legsotin.
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Well we've just booked tickets to see it on my birthday :thumbsup:
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I have tickets for five minutes past midnight this evening.
I shall post about it (spoiler free) on a separate thread later on.
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Today I have never watched Star Wars.
Tomorrow I will have watched Star Wars.
I haven't a scooby doo what it's about except light sabres, space stuff etc. I'm just going with the flow if not the force.
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I watched it on an ipad on my desk whilst I was doing something else.
Meh.
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I watched it on an ipad on my desk whilst I was doing something else.
;D
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I watched it on an ipad on my desk whilst I was doing something else.
Meh.
Still buttsore, eh?
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I watched it on an ipad on my desk whilst I was doing something else.
Meh.
Still buttsore, eh?
Right, deleted my posts and put him on ignore which is what I should have done to start with.
Apologies for the mess...
You won't be able to read this because you've got me on ignore......but its a real shame you deleted all your posts from the thread in question.
Loads of people said it was their favourite ever thread.
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Went to a 3am showing. Other than a handful of girls, it was pretty much a total sausagefest, approx 98% male audience, so again, very similar to audax.
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I watched it on an ipad on my desk whilst I was doing something else.
Meh.
Still buttsore, eh?
Right, deleted my posts and put him on ignore which is what I should have done to start with.
Apologies for the mess...
You won't be able to read this because you've got me on ignore......but its a real shame you deleted all your posts from the thread in question.
Loads of people said it was their favourite ever thread.
Yet, you're the one that more than 2 years later, that brings it up in an irrelevant thread...
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Went to a 3am showing. Other than a handful of girls, it was pretty much a total sausagefest, approx 98% male audience, so again, very similar to audax.
Because it was 3 a.m.?
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Same time as 300km audaxes start
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it was pretty much a total sausagefest, approx 98% male audience
A total what?? Are you sure it was the real thing and not a "Hollywood" version with a subtly different title?
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I watched it on an ipad on my desk whilst I was doing something else.
Meh.
Still buttsore, eh?
Right, deleted my posts and put him on ignore which is what I should have done to start with.
Apologies for the mess...
You won't be able to read this because you've got me on ignore......but its a real shame you deleted all your posts from the thread in question.
Loads of people said it was their favourite ever thread.
Yet, you're the one that more than 2 years later, that brings it up in an irrelevant thread...
See Citoyen's post above to understand why
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See Citoyen's post above to understand why
I really shouldn't encourage you, but as callbacks go, it was a good one.
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Is this a YACF vendetta? Not exactly 'The Godfather' is it..
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It gets worse. We also watched the Ralph Bakshi version of 'Lord Of The Rings'. As I recall, he had no interest in LoTR before then. Animation, particularly stop-motion animation, was his interest.
Apparently Bakshi was interested in Tolkien before producing his animated version, but you'd never have guessed. A truly agonising film, and I say that having watched it with members of the Taruithorn Smial of the Tolkien Society.
Jackson's LOTR, by contrast, is full of evidence that he consulted closely with the mainstream of hobbit-heads. Mrcharly couldn't be more wrong. The sets, costumes, and pointy ears are all perfectly in line with how Tolkien illustrators (it's a career) had been working1. And the scale and focus of the storytelling was just how the fans would have wanted it. The films are far too long, but the real fans of course didn't mind.
And once the films came out the people who enjoyed them are now the real fans. There's a very little bit more room for snobbery among Tolkien nuts, about the books and the other books and the Silmarillion and the Christopher Tolkien editions of JRR Tolkien's papers and so on, than there is for snobbery about the original Star Wars trilogy, but it shouldn't be indulged.
The Hobbit films, though: I went to see the first one on Boxing Day, and came out of the cinema in about the second week of January...
1. Tolkien was a fairly competent illustrator, in a stylised way, but his own pictures aren't what the fans are used to, and so Jackson doesn't go that way.
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I have no complaints about the sets or costumes.
I have plenty of complaints about the gratuitous massive extending of the story, adding in ridiculous story arcs (elf falls in love with dwarf, dwarf dies, elf pines). Etc, etc, etc. Rubbish, bollocks padding and distortion.
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I read Andrew's quote to mean that Jackson had no interest in what Dr Davis is wont to call "Hobbity-nonse" until being dragged to the flicks at a tender age.
My chum Esquire once opined that the LOTR films would have been better if the book had never been written.
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It often surprises me that we have to scratch around for fiction, when the actual history is so interesting. An example would be Thorkell the Tall, a member of an elite warrior band, who changes sides between the Saxons and Danes a couple of times, and whose daughter 'Edith the Fair' becomes the 'wife' of Harold Godwinson and perhaps founds the shrine at Walsingham.
Arguing about the film treatment of fiction strikes me as odd.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorkell_the_Tall
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2015/06/26/was-walsingham-founded-by-the-last-queen-of-anglo-saxon-england/
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I am disappointed that she was Edith rather than Matilda.
(http://legslarry.org.uk/BikeStull/coat_48.png)
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I liked the Rotoscoping of Bakshi's version. I was very surprised, though, when we were left high and dry in the middle of the story.
The artwork didn't bother me. Since Tolkien plagiarised almost everything from William Morris, who was consciously writing in the manner of saga and romance anyway, staying faithful to old lightfingers' vision is of low importance for me.
And, yes, that does make me one step more snooty than the most obsessive Tolkien snob, but I really don't care. At least Morris was happy to dwell in the imagined realms of Norse mythology, and not try to bend everything to an Inklings-eye view of Christianity. There. I said it.
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I read Andrew's quote to mean that Jackson had no interest in what Dr Davis is wont to call "Hobbity-nonse" until being dragged to the flicks at a tender age.
Yes, that's what I meant though I do acknowledge the ambiguity.
Jackson was, at that point, interested in the work Ray Harryhausen, Willis O'Brien et al. So for hobbity-nonse, you could read 'Sinbad-ness' or 'cyclops-obsurdity'. Outside of stop motion animation, James Bond films were of interest. Literature wise, I recall he read Forest J Ackerman and various film and fantasy type mags.
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I liked the Rotoscoping of Bakshi's version. I was very surprised, though, when we were left high and dry in the middle of the story.
I once worked on a book about the history of animation with a chapter on Ralph Bakshi, and it went into some depth about the story behind the making of LotR. I don't recall much of the detail now but I remember finding it fascinating. I think the reason it was cut short was essentially that he went massively over budget and the studio refused to give him any more money.
I remember quite liking the film as a kid, even though it was messy and confusing. Rotoscoping is still a pretty darn cool technique when done well, though CGI is no doubt cheaper and easier these days.
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Star Wars has been re-imagined as an Icelandic Saga, so you we can access the plot without straying into the second Millennium.
https://tattuinardoelasaga.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/tattuinardoela-saga-if-star-wars-were-an-icelandic-saga/
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VG. Of course, Tolkien would have known of that manuscript, and published the first English translation into metrical verse, too.
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Star Wars has been re-imagined as an Icelandic Saga, so you we can access the plot without straying into the second Millennium.
https://tattuinardoelasaga.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/tattuinardoela-saga-if-star-wars-were-an-icelandic-saga/
Damn. That's blown Dr Larrington's next book project out of the water ;)
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I see Zoe Williams has succumbed to the Dark Side, and done a Star Wars piece in the Guardian.
Nonetheless, in the quiddity of the Jedi you can see a director who was alive to the change in the political culture and its profound but rarely discussed shifts. If only Lucas could have carried on for ever, we might have been able to carry on using this franchise to plot the changing century. I get the sense with JJ Abrams that he’s mainly interested in people jumping off vehicles that are still moving.
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/dec/17/why-star-wars-is-a-political-force-to-be-reckoned-with
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I see Zoe Williams has succumbed to the Dark Side, and done a Star Wars piece in the Guardian.
Bearing in mind that the piece deals with revisionism, it's funny that 'Star Wars' is consistently referred to throughout as 'A New Hope' - wonder if Zoe originally wrote it that way or if it's a case of hypercorrection by the subs.
'A New Hope' is a terrible name for any film, never mind an action adventure in space. I can't imagine how excited the 7yo me would have been to see it if they'd called it that when it first came out.
At least it's not referred to in the piece as 'Star Wars Epidode IV: A New Hope', which for sheer syllable count alone is even worse.
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It's probably more the case that if you were ten when the first prequel came out, and the first film was renamed, you'll now be 25. 'Star Wars' to them means the franchise, while to me it's Reagan's Strategic Defence Initiative.
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I remember as a kid wondering whether Regan was planning to build a Death Star.
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I remember as a kid wondering whether Regan was planning to build a Death Star.
it would certainly have brightened up the plot of 'The Sweeney'.
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It's probably more the case that if you were ten when the first prequel came out, and the first film was renamed, you'll now be 25. 'Star Wars' to them means the franchise, while to me it's Reagan's Strategic Defence Initiative.
Zoe Williams is only a few months younger than me (somewhat older than 25). I bet you any money she doesn't think of that film as 'A New Hope'.
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Edit: Glitch in the matrix
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I remember as a kid wondering whether Regan was planning to build a Death Star.
it would certainly have brightened up the plot of 'The Sweeney'.
Darth Vader: Impressive. Most impressive. Obi-Wan has taught you well. You have controlled your fear. Now, release your anger. Only your hatred can destroy me.
Jack Regan: Shut it, you slag!
George Carter: Don't, guv! 'e's not worth it!
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Death Star! On my salary, your 'aving a larf!
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And the famously deleted Death Star canteen scene:
Vader: Crrrch! Who are you?
Regan: We're the sweeney, son, and we haven't had any dinner yet!
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;D
(Kim: stay away from the search engine - you still won't find any of this funny!)
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The Washington Post has a short video of 'Star Wars' as it might have been made by Ken Burns. Think 'The World at War' meets BBC4.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2015/12/18/star-wars-if-it-were-directed-by-ken-burns/
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And the famously deleted Death Star canteen scene:
Vader: Crrrch! Who are you?
Regan: We're the sweeney, son, and we haven't had any dinner yet!
Ah, but of course, that's not the only Death Star canteen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv5iEK-IEzw) scene...
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Watched the Force Awakens this morning. Grinned all the way through, as did my 9yr old.
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Watched it today. Grinned too. :D I'd suggest it could also be known as:
Now That's What I Call Space Rock! Part 94
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Reminiscences
Lucas Does Spielberg
Space Nazis
Commies in Space
I Think We've Been Here Before
Space Power Enters Cinema Terra Reaffirming Engine
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And the famously deleted Death Star canteen scene:
Vader: Crrrch! Who are you?
Regan: We're the sweeney, son, and we haven't had any dinner yet!
Ah, but of course, that's not the only Death Star canteen[/url url] scene...
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv5iEK-IEzw)
I prefer the Death Star toilet scene
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj_58p90CME
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And the great revelation: Princess Leia and Han Solo have a child, and that child is
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Had there been no Star Wars we would never have have been subjected to Sarah Brightman singing "I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper". Think on that, fanboiz, before telling us how marvellous it is :demon:
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She'd have only gone and lost it to a Hobbit instead.
Which scans better, starship trooper or hobbit? Tough call...
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Was it just me, or did anyone else here Chewbacca enunciate "I don't know" when asked a question in the new film?
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Had there been no Star Wars we would never have have been subjected to Sarah Brightman singing "I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper". Think on that, fanboiz, before telling us how marvellous it is :demon:
And no 'Can You Feel the Force?' by The Real Thing. A sort of Blakes 7 version of Earth Wind and Fire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEDboC4mBYk