Tag Archives: Star Wars

Star Wars: The Best is Yet to Come

WARNING: This essay includes an open discussion of spoilers. If you haven’t seen the movie and don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read this.

I have now seen The Force Awakens twice. I am relieved to say that this isn’t rebooted, dark and gritty Star Wars. This is Star Wars at its best. It’s the same feeling I get when watching the original trilogy AND the prequels. It’s fun, it’s fast, it’s exciting. There’s humor and warmth as well as stirring emotional scenes and deep moral lessons to contemplate. The action sequences are high-flying and thrilling. It flows with the rest of the saga like a river…but that’s still partly pending resolution of how we got from the happily-ever-after in Return of the Jedi to something-is-very-wrong-and-needs-to-be-set-right on Jakku.

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Star Wars: Ranking the Originals

Earlier this week, I ranked the prequels from worst to best. Today, on Star Wars Day itself, I am ranking the original trilogy. It is hard for me to not consider each of these movies superior to the prequels in almost every way. In fact, in our most recent episode of the Geekopolis Podcast, my brother Leonard and I discuss why we feel that way. I think a lot of it has to do with the generation I come from. It is almost impossible for me to take a step back and objectively look at all the Star Wars movies and find a way to say that any of the prequels are better than any of the originals.

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Star Wars: Ranking the Prequels

This is Star Wars week on the site, which means I am writing about nothing but Star Wars. I thought it would be fun, as we look ahead to the new movie this Friday, to look back on the previous six movies. Today, I am looking at the prequels and rating each of them. Wednesday, I will be looking at the original trilogy, and will rate each of those. At the end of that post, I will list each of the movies in order according to my rankings. I am making no promises that these will be at all unbiased, but I will do what I can. I will be ranking them from worst to best, although with the prequels, maybe I should rank them best to worst, to switch it up. Too late, I already established they would be worst to best. So, let’s get started.

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Star Wars – Old vs. New

I was born in the early 80s and went through my teenage years in the 90s. I experienced Star Wars as a kid on VHS. No special editions, no question about who shot first. It was just pure, unadulterated Star Wars. In a lot of ways it was glorious. Except for the small square TV and the Panavision that made the picture fit in your square screen by cutting out all the stuff on the sides. It’s not important, right? Plus, the picture quality kind of sucked after we watched each tape more than once. On a couple of the episodes, the tape was so worn out it was almost unwatchable. Almost, but we tried anyway. This was back when it was just Star Wars. Not “A New Hope,” just Star Wars. That is how I spent most of my childhood. That is how I always remember Star Wars.

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10 Geeky Ways to Get Into the Holiday Spirit

(I’m writing my Christmas post now because my next post is most likely to be my reaction to The Force Awakens)

This is a bit of my OCD talking: I’m a skeptic when it comes to mixing sci-fi and fantasy with Christmas. I was raised in a family where the religious side of Christmas was always observed, and I’ve continued that in my adult life. Mixing Christmas with Disney princesses or superheroes or so forth can make me a little uncomfortable. Holiday specials featuring these characters can get a little on the cheesy side so I tend to avoid those. Storm troopers in Santa hats? I’ll have to tell you no. If we’re talking fan art, I might be a little more receptive. Yes, I believe that Christmas is “magical,” but I don’t like to mix it with other people’s definitions of that magic. Christmas should be about Christmas! I’m not a total purist, I’m just really picky.

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My Reaction to Star Wars Land

When I was a kid, my favorite part of Disneyland was Tomorrowland. If someone asked what my favorite land was, I wouldn’t even hesitate. To be honest, there was really only one reason. I never liked the rockets that spun around in a circle, Space Mountain always made me a little sick afterwards, Autopia was ok if you liked the smell of exhaust, the Monorail was cool looking but pretty boring to ride, and the Submarines looked like an old, cheap swimming pool. The one reason I loved Tomorrowland was Star Tours. The first time i went on that ride, I was hooked. It was like being in the Star Wars movies, and that was awesome. It wasn’t just the ride, either, but the whole queue leading up to the ride. You got to see C3PO and R2D2 up close and other droids. You got to see travel ads for different Star Wars locations. Then there was the safety presentation at the beginning of the ride. It was all pretty magical to this little kid. I remember thinking that someone should make a whole theme park just based on Star Wars. I would love it. Of course, this was probably never going to happen.

This was during the time between Return of the Jedi and the prequels, when there was little hope of “more” Star Wars. There was no announcement of the prequels coming and it seemed that Star Wars was going to be a cult classic that would always be popular amongst a certain crowd, and not much more. No one was going to build a them park out of that. Fast forward a few years, and we have Phantom Menace, and Star Wars is opened up to a whole new generation, and it begins its journey from just a super successful, quirky trilogy, to a mega franchise consisting of 7 films (soon to be 8) counting the Clone Wars feature-length film and two super successful animated series. It has become one the most recognizable brands in the world, on a level that rivals Disney in its own right. As all of this was happening, I thought maybe someone somewhere would finally build my Star Wars theme park, but it again looked like nothing was going to happen there.

Then, the historic day when George made a deal with the Mouse for the purchase of Lucasfilms, including the rights to Star Wars. The day Princess Leia became a Disney Princess. A lot of folks were unsure about what this would mean for the beloved franchise. A lot of people may have even been upset. I hoped it would mean that we would see a larger Star Wars presence in the parks. Well, one park in particular, Disneyland. I never go to Orlando, so I don’t really care as much about Disney World. Disney was quick to announce that they would be making a new trilogy of films that would serve as episodes VII, VIII, and IX. Then they announced they would be doing a bunch of stand alone films as well, and everyone got excited. I waited, hoping that somehow the Star Wars presence would increase in Disneyland.

I always thought it would be nice to redo Tomorrowland, give it a better theme, an updated theme. When Disney bought Lucasfilms, I thought Star Wars might be a great overall theme for Tomorrowland. My brighter was quick to point out that it wouldn’t really work since Tomorrowland is all about, well, tomorrow, and Star Wars happens “long ago.” This is why we’re not really on speaking terms. Ok, we are, and he was right, so maybe Tomorrowland won’t work for Star Wars, but what other land would it fit in? Frontierland? Maybe Adventureland? I mean, there isn’t really any room to add a land, is there? It looked like if Disney were to ever do something as big as a whole land devoted to Star Wars, it would have to happen in Florida, and not in Anaheim.

Leading up to this last D23 expo, though, rumors began to circulate that there may indeed be a Star Wars Land coming, or something Star Wars related. Some rumors said it would replace Tomorrowland, except for Space Mountain, others said it would take up the Toon Town space and a little bit more. And it could have turned out that none of it was true. Then on Saturday, the news broke from the D23 Expo and these images started circulating Twitter feeds everywhere:

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Star Wars Land was coming to Disneyland and Disney World. It will be the largest single land expansion in the history of either park at 14 acres each, and looking at the concept art, it looks glorious. Each land will ave a cantina, I’m sure lots of retail space and great food and two new attractions. One of the attractions will put the riders in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon in the middle of a battle between the First Order and the Resistance. I don’t even care about the second part of that sentence. The first part is all I need. Take my money now, Disney, just take it now.

When I first read the news, the little kid inside of me (the part my wife says I listen to more often than I should) almost fainted with excitement. I could barely contain my inner child, he was so giddy. My childhood dream was becoming a reality, and it looks incredible. This means, in a few years, I will be able to go with my nearly teenage son to southern California and between Disneyland and Universal Studios, we will be able to visit the worlds of Star Wars and Harry Potter. That will be awesome. I can’t wait. They have yet to release a lot of details, like where exactly Star Wars Land will be within the park, or when they plan to have it completed, so I am sure we will be hearing more about it as it develops.

What did you think of the big Star Wars Land announcements from D23? Were you excited as well? Share your thoughts in the comments below, or feel free to send me an email directly at [email protected].

How do you like your Star Wars?

One of the scary things about moving to college was finding out that not everyone else likes Star Wars the way I do.  I once mentioned in passing to a geeky roommate that I loved “all six” Star Wars films, and she immediately went into a rant about how “lame” the prequels are. Time went on, and the more I got into online fandom, the more I realized that there were lots of other people with that point of view. It was frustrating because Star Wars was one of the parts of my life that I felt I at least had figured out.

One disturbing trend I have seen in fan culture is that fans judge each other based on which media in a franchise they enjoy the most: e.g. which books or comics you read or which storyline you accept, what video games, and so forth. And this is perfectly natural behavior. In Star Wars the media issue is only getting more complicated because the Lucasfilm Story Group has relabeled most of the old Expanded Universe as “Legends” to make way for new “canon” comics, novels, etc.,.  With so much to pick and choose from, why are we so upset that people choose differently from us?   The parts of the fandom we engage in are the parts that we understand: if another fan enjoys the same things as we do, then we’ll understand them too, right?  Well, I think that people–and fandoms–are far more complicated than that.

Would any of you believe me? Via memegenerator.net

Would any of you believe me?
Via memegenerator.net

The Star Wars prequels are an interesting case because people automatically tear them down.  They cite the same reasons–excessive use of CGI, poor acting, a terrible script and storyline, and so on–to argue that the prequels are inferior to the Original trilogy. Zod and the Star Wars Guru pointed out in an episode of Point It at the Deck that people have gotten so used to citing these reasons that they don’t even look into seeing what the problem actually is. And it doesn’t help that the Internet has no filters for bias or ignorance and no safety restraints for expressions of hate.  If you have watched the prequels at all, you should know that hate is not a good thing.

Jar-Jar Binks is the most popular scapegoat.  But meesa think that there’s nothing wrong with Jar-Jar.  When The Phantom Menace came out, I had a collectible cup lid with a Jar-Jar action figure on the top. I took him with me everywhere and he was best friends with one of my cousin’s toys.  Whereas he “ruined the childhood” of many original trilogy fans, he made one of my childhood summers very memorable.  You say I am biased because I was eight years old when The Phantom Menace came out, so the marketing ploy worked.  This might be true.  Does it matter that I am not bothered by Jar-Jar? No, because Jar-Jar made Star Wars a meaningful experience for me as a child the way Han Solo and Chewbacca made it for the older fans who look down on the prequels.  I see that what makes fandom important to the individual is the personal meaning.  If people think the meaning that they derive from a certain medium is being attacked by something else, they will retaliate.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/c2/ad/11/c2ad113e97b21ee75206e5e5460c6d09.jpg

A Jar-Jar Binks cup lid made my childhood much sweeter. Via Pinterest

Now that I am older, I know that the prequels aren’t perfect films.  But guess what? neither are the originals!  Very few movies are perfect by whatever standard.  Point it at the Deck also noted that the complaints people make today about the Prequels as far as acting and critical value are the same that used to be levied at the Original Trilogy.

There is nothing wrong with the different technology used in the different trilogies.   My friends on Far Far Away Radio mention that both used the most state-of-the-art special effects for the time in which they were made.  Episode VII will be using the best of both, and frankly I am more excited for the eye candy than for the “practical effects” that J.J. Abrams keeps harping on about.

To be honest, I find the “special editions” of the original trilogy irritating and unnecessary. No, I don’t need a tour of Mos Eisley, and no, I don’t care for the bigger explosions, and no, I don’t want to see the entire galaxy partying after the Battle of Endor.  But if the “special editions” are canon and in the most circulation, it’s not worth getting upset over.

Also, did I mention I find all of the Star Wars films funny? My edit/captions

The prequels also make the story of the original trilogy funnier
My edit/captions

The fan likes Star Wars for different reasons than their peers.  I never really liked the original trilogy at the outset, to be honest.  When The Phantom Menace came out on VHS, I thought it was its own story and treated it as such.  When I was older and wiser I learned to appreciate the larger story.  I still prefer the visual style of the prequel trilogy: the architecture of Coruscant and Naboo and also Trisha Biggar’s luscious costume designs never fail to amaze me.  While other fans are gaga for Han and Chewie and Boba Fett, I was never attached to them. Ewan McGregor is a thousand times more my Obi-wan Kenobi than Sir Alec Guinness.  I know that Anakin and Padme had a flawed relationship, but I find hope in the fact that something good came out of it in the end.  It was “all six films” of Star Wars that brought me meaning and enjoyment when I was in middle school and high school.  That isn’t any different than a fan who enjoyed the original trilogy during the same phase of life.

In the end, I am glad that I had my “faith” in Star Wars tested because I learned some very valuable lessons. I learned that fandom is what you make it. I learned to put up with people of differing opinions while keeping my own. Being ashamed of something you love is a choice. You don’t need to be. I like the Star Wars prequels, and I have nothing to be ashamed of.

Go further:

Far Far Away Radio

Practical Effects

The Star Wars Prequels

The Resolute: Why are we still apologizing for the Prequels? 

Point it At the Deck

Order of the Star Wars Guru

Strong Female Heroines and Why They’re Awesome

I’m the new blogger for the Geeky Mormon.  My name is Elizabeth but you may call me Lizy. I will answer to Liz.  Some people are picky about being classified as either a geek or a nerd, but I will answer to either.

Female characters, especially strong ones, are definitely a reason that I enjoy sci-fi and fantasy.  I don’t mind identifying myself with the girl who needs to get rescued, but I have always been interested in heroines who take care of themselves, fight their own battles alongside the boys, and sometimes even get to do a bit of the rescuing.  The heroines who really catch my attention are a little of both. Below are just some of my observations and thoughts on what makes a strong female heroine, based on about a year’s worth of writing, research, and observation.

The point of fantasy is that you can identify with the character in some way and because of that experience what the character is going through.The first Marvel movie I ever saw and enjoyed was Captain America: The First Avenger.  While I primarily liked the film because I could relate to the underdog Steve Rogers, I was in awe of Agent Peggy Carter.  She was smart, beautiful and absolutely fearless. She took absolutely no nonsense from any of the other guys, but she not only liked Steve but she believed in him.  (As a side note, I have not been able to watch the Agent Carter TV show yet but I want to very badly). That is the kind of person I felt like I could emulate.

Is it too much to say that I think Agent Carter is the reason I'm a Marvel fan? Via boingboing.net

Is it too much to say that I think Agent Carter is the reason I’m a Marvel fan?
Via boingboing.net

Sometimes I am less interested in the female leads and more in the fantasy elements or the story.  But that being said I am still excited for Captain Marvel, because we will get all of that and a female lead too.

One of the first Star Wars characters I loved was Queen Amidala.  As a little girl I loved her wardrobe in The Phantom Menace and I spent many happy hours pouring over the pictures of her dresses in the visual dictionary.  And in addition to that, she fought for the freedom of her people. When I got older, I discovered the original trilogy.  I liked Princess Leia a lot, and I still like her a lot.  She didn’t have the visual glitter of the Queen, but she spoke her mind and carried a blaster. I wanted to be tough like that when I was a kid.  It was when I was older that I came to appreciate her tender side as well.

This is one of my first real heroines Via digitalspy.co.uk

This is one of my first real heroines
Via digitalspy.co.uk

Years later, I found out that a lot of people didn’t like Padme Amidala because it was clearly a bad idea for her to pursue a relationship with Anakin Skywalker, and then it didn’t make sense for her to die in Revenge of the Sith. I liked Padme too much as a character to let these things get in the way of liking her.  But I have thought about these issues a lot.  People don’t like having to identify with female characters who make decisions differently from the way they would, especially when it comes to love.  But Padme’s failure, to me, makes her all the more human and relatable.  As far as Anakin is concerned, she had a fatal blind spot, but his decisions were not her fault.  And when a heroine fails, sometimes something good comes out of it.  Usually this means she is able to get up again and confront the problem, but in Padme’s case it meant that her love for Anakin lived on through Luke.

And then there are the people who think falling in love is absolutely demeaning for a female character to experience.  I could not disagree with this more. If the love story is relevant to the plot and it strengthens both characters, then it can be a good thing. It is natural and human to fall in love. In all honesty, I was not thrilled that Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow tried to pursue a romance with Bruce Banner/the Hulk in The Avengers: Age of Ultron. But the online backlash against the love plot was ridiculous. I do not think that having Natasha fall in love was completely demeaning. I make missteps in my love life too sometimes. And it made sense in context of the larger theme that Joss Whedon was trying to get across.

The fact that Natasha was sterilized in the Red Room is a symptom of her much bigger problem: she was created to be an assassin in both mind and body, to the exclusion of all else. She has her worst fears, and she has a dark side I can scarcely begin to imagine. What makes her more interesting is the way she copes with her darkness, by being the auntie to Clint Barton’s kids, by being compassionate to people in need, by protecting those who are weaker than herself, and by relying on her quiet, inner strength.  I like Natasha a lot more now than I did three years ago. And while I’m upset about her pursuing Bruce I can at least forgive her for that.  What matters is that he is a well-rounded character.

Via theworkprint.com

I like Natasha because she has a very human side. Via theworkprint.com

The matter of the strong female heroine is only an issue of gender to a point: it is about the development of character and how that influences how gender is represented.  This is important because the media has a huge influence on individuals as well as cultures.  But all heroines are not alike and should not be expected to conform to some invisible standard. We can allow our heroines to be human just as much as the men.  Isn’t that what makes these stories great, by seeing the characters we sympathize with have human experiences?

Read More:

A Fandom of Her Own: Women of Today’s Sci-fi/Fantasy Franchises (Capstone paper)

Women of Science Fiction and Fantasy : Salt Lake Comic Con 2014 Panel

The Strong Feminism behind Black Widow, and why the critiques don’t stand up by Alyssa Rosenburg for the Washington Post

 

The Best Star Wars Trailer Out There

We live in a pretty interesting time. Movie trailers are almost as anticipated as the films they represent. Thanks to the magic of the internet, we are able to watch them over and over and over. We can sit and pick them apart and try to figure out what each little image means and try to glean as much as we can from just over a minute of film footage. It’s really a lot of fun. This kind of thing is magnified when the movie is a major title like Star Wars or Avengers. Fans of either franchise will spend hours trying to piece together a 2 hour plus film just from 30 seconds of footage. It’s always fun to see how accurate we usually aren’t when it comes to these things.

One thing that has come out of our instant and continuous access to movie trailers is the art form of mocking these big time trailers. After the latest Star Wars trailer dropped, we saw numerous versions of it on YouTube. Some of them were pretty creative and clever. Others were just kind of lame. If you have been scouring the internet to find the best version of the latest Star Wars  trailer, let me help you out. I have found it. This is it. It is the best Star Wars trailer out there. It may even be better than the actual Star Wars trailer. This particular video comes to us from Mashable, and it is just incredible. Why? Because, well, just watch and see.

There is nothing more fun, or cuter than hearing little kids dub these trailers. As a dad, stuff like this always hits me right in the feels. I can’t listen to these kids reading these lines without a smile coming to my face. What a brilliant idea. Plus, little kids love hearing other little kids, so this makes the trailer that much more accessible for little ones. They will be more excited about it than the original, just because it is little kids like them. What’s even better than the kids reading the lines is when the kids do the sound effects too. That is just brilliant.

So, if you’re having a bad day, and you need a pick me up, watch this trailer a half-dozen times. In fact, i challenge you to watch this video and not have a smile on your face by the end. And, if you need even more convincing, let me introduce you to the same folks doing the Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer. 100 % guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Check it out:

There you have it. Hopefully, tonight, I have spread a little joy in the world via some pretty geeky movies, and some kids.

What is your favorite version of the Star Wars trailer? Let me know in the comments. We always love hearing from you.

To Infinity and Beyond…3.0

If your house is anything like our house, then the above trailer is a pretty big announcement. My boys are huge Disney Infinity fans. We bought 2.0 for them recently, and it is slowly winning them over from Skylanders. They enjoy the levels in the plates, but they also enjoy just playing in the Toy Box where they can build and do anything they want, and they don’t have to worry about bad guys or dying or any of that. They also like Star Wars quite a bit, so this makes the new version of the game even more exciting for them.

I’ll admit, I don’t totally get Disney Infinity, but I am learning more and more about it. One of the things I don’t like about it, at least for 2.0, is that the characters only work in specific play sets and the Toy Box. So, I can’t play Captain America in the Spider-Man play set, only in the Avengers plates. The only way I can team Cap up with Spidey is in the Toy Box, which is completely unstructured, unless you structure it. If I purchase the Disney Original characters that have come out with 2.0 like Baymax or Donald Duck, they only work in the Toy Box. So what’s the point in leveling them up and adding skills to their skill trees? With 2.0 Disney only released Marvel play sets.

With 3.0, they will be releasing 2 (soon to be 3) Star Wars play sets and 1 Disney play set (Inside Out) and 1 Marvel play set (which has yet to be announced, but I am pretty positive it will be Age of Ultron), so there will be some playable, structured content outside of Star Wars. In addition to that, the Toy Box will feature two new games that will be structured. One is an action adventure game called “Toy Box Take Over.” The other will be a kart racing game caller “Toy Box Speedway.” I picture the second one being similar to a Mario Kart type game, but featuring any and all of the characters that have been released on 1.0, 2.0, 3.0. That sounds epic, and like hours of family fun. Of course, Mario Kart is one of those family games that everyone knows and loves. Luckily, families could still access this game if they wanted to. Families could always use Gamulator for this. Hopefully, that will give families even more fun games to play together.

The new content in the previews looks pretty amazing, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it and to play it with the kids. Or to play it after the kids go to bed. I am hoping that the additional content they are adding will be a big improvement over what we got with 2.0, and I am pretty excited that it is another way I can share my childhood geekiness with my own kids. There is no release date yet for the game, but it should be sometime this fall.

What do you think? Will you be rushing out to buy this game when it hits the stores? Or will you wait and see if it is any good? Let me know in the comments.