The Force Awakens

[Father Bubba]

Well, Dudes, I just bought my ticket to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens next Thursday night. This'll be my first time seeing Star Wars in theaters, and im stoked. And since its the premiere, it should be good times. Lotta fans gonna be in costume, im sure. I'd wear my Darth Vader helmet, but I don't think masks are allowed. Anyways, any of you other Dudes going to see it?

[Reverend Al]

I was there in May of 1977 to see Star Wars before it was known as Episode IV:  A New Hope.  I immediately became a fan and knew during that first viewing that it would be a "game changer" in the movie industry, but had no clue it would become the phenomenon it has become.  And I saw The Empire Strikes Back when it was released in 1980, and Return of the Jedi in 1983.  In fact, when Return of the Jedi was released one of the local theaters ran A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back first, so I saw all three of the Original Trilogy movies back-to-back in a theater long before George Lucas fucked them up with his various Not-So-Special-Editions.  That was a long day, but it was worth it.

I still haven't seen The Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones in a theater because I'd heard from friends that they were pretty bad, but I did watch them both when they made their way to cable/satellite TV, and I did see Revenge of the Sith in the theater.  I was initially disappointed by them, but have since come to accept them for what they are.  And, of course, I have all six on DVD and have seen Star Wars (Episode IV, A New Hope, whateveryouwanttocallit) so many times that I lost count long ago.

I was planning to wait until the crowds had died down a bit before going to see The Force Awakens because I have back problems and sitting in a theater for 2+ hours these days is sometimes difficult.  But my best friend, who I've known for more than 40 years and is also a fan, called to tell me he'd gotten tickets for us for the 8:00 p.m. showing on the 17th.  And, just in case we couldn't make it on the 17th for whatever reason, he also got tickets for the 7:00 p.m. showing on the 18th.  So much for waiting until the crowds die down; I guess I'll just have to wash down my pain meds with a few Caucasians. 

[BikerDude]

I'm with the rev.
Saw the first (I won't call it the 4th) and had no expectations.
I dug it. I thought it went downhill after that personally.
I didn't dig the muppets which lets face it, that's what yodda is.

I saw the first of the newer ones in theater and it was barely OK.
Not in the same league as the original.
Tried to watch the second newer one and just about fell asleep.

I'm really hoping this isn't going to be Iron Man in space.
Just all effects. 77 they didn't have the technology.
Maybe that is why they had to draw you in with story and characters.
Just a thought.

[Reverend Al]

I'm really hoping this isn't going to be Iron Man in space.
Just all effects. 77 they didn't have the technology...

That was George Lucas' justification for the Not-So-Special-Editions.  He said the technology didn't exist in 1976-83 for him to make the movies he wanted to make, but since special effects technology had improved (much of which his in-house effects company Industrial Light and Magic was responsible for) he could go back and finally make the Star Wars movies the way he had initially intended.  To paraphrase from the other major sci-fi franchise, "Just because we can do a thing, it does not necessarily mean we must do that thing."  (Star Trek VI:  The Undiscovered Country)  Can you tell I'm not a fan of his tinkering? 

From what I've read here and there The Force Awakens will have some CG effects, but J.J. Abrams wanted to use practical effects as much as possible so it allegedly won't be the CG crapfest that movies like Iron Man and the Prequel Trilogy movies were.

...Maybe that is why they had to draw you in with story and characters.
Just a thought.

I think it's similar to the way Steven Spielberg talks about making his movie Jaws (1975).  Because the mechanical shark didn't work the way they had expected it to, it forced him to get more creative and, in the end, he says the finished movie was much better than he had initially intended it to be.  George Lucas was in the same position--the technology didn't exist for him to make the movies he wanted to make, so it forced him to get more creative as well.

Also, when he was making the Original Trilogy Star Wars movies he was still young and idealistic, he had friends that he respected and relied on to help him "fine tune" the script, and he was invested in telling those stories.  But by the time he got around to making the Prequel Trilogy movies he was older, he'd been through a rather nasty divorce, most of his professional life had revolved around Star Wars regardless of the other movies he made (which weren't nearly as successful), and those people he had relied on earlier weren't involved.  I think, and this is pure conjecture on my part, that a large part of the reason he made the Prequel Trilogy movies was so the fans would stop asking him when he was going to make more Star Wars movies, not because he really wanted to.  And by then he had surrounded himself, either intentionally or unintentionally, with people who wouldn't or couldn't stand up to him and say "No George, that's a bad idea."

Anyway, I suppose my point is that limitations and restrictions are often a blessing in disguise.  George Lucas is a creative guy, but giving him free reign can be the same as giving him enough rope to hang himself with.

[jgiffin]

I'm psyched to see it but will probably wait a month or so and go in the daytime. Movies are so much more enjoyable without that guy constantly crinkling Twizzlers wrapper or that chick you can hear chewing popcorn with her mouth open from three rows back.

I'll second the emphasis on character and story over BOOM CRASH BANG EFFECTS. Vader was onscreen for 12 minutes in the original. But those 12 minutes mattered. Jaws? It was only onscreen 4 minutes. You can set the tone and create an atmosphere without constantly blowing shit up.

[BikerDude]

The initial reviews are positive but since it's only premiered to Hollywood VIP's that was inevitable but still.
http://variety.com/2015/film/news/star-wars-force-awakens-reviews-premiere-reactions-1201661338/

The fact that it's J.J. Abrams is encouraging.
He does generally strike a nice balance.
The newest Star Treks were both very good IMO.

I'm tentatively planning on going to see the new one Friday.
I'm hoping a Matinee might not be as crowded.
My kids want to see it so I'm making it a special occasion thing.
It would be nice if it was something as memorable as seeing the original was back in the day. A landmark.
But no movies have that sort of thing any more.
Younger generations have no idea how much less things like Movies and Music mean today. I guess I'm an old bastard now but who would have thought that rock and roll would have died when once upon a time bands flew into town on a jumbo jet with their band name on the side like air force one and they toured the country like a viking invasion. They lived in fucking castles on the french riviera. We fucking lived for rock and roll. Now? These damn kids mostly just seem to tweet each other.
Sad. Very Sad. These kids these days Ha?
I guess the fact that they aren't stoned all the time could be construed as a positive though.

I'm sounding like Tommy Saxondale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5eEqbdXoLQ

[jgiffin]

It would be nice if it was something as memorable as seeing the original was back in the day. A landmark.
But no movies have that sort of thing any more.
Younger generations have no idea how much less things like Movies and Music mean today.

I'm with you but, be careful, you never know what kids will end up finding memorable. Sometimes it's the little moments they find special. Or experiences they somehow meld with. My guess is a 10 year old won't care how much money Star Wars makes its opening weekend. It will be something about a droid, or a hero, a villain, or a cool starship...or maybe going out for pizza afterwards or the way you spoke like Yoda throughout the whole day.

May the force be with you.

[Reverend Al]

...It would be nice if it was something as memorable as seeing the original was back in the day. A landmark.
But no movies have that sort of thing any more.
Younger generations have no idea how much less things like Movies and Music mean today...

On one hand, I agree with what jgiffin wrote above; you never know what will be memorable to kids (or adults, for that matter).  Hell, if the movie studios could figure that out every movie would be a success to some degree.

On the other hand, I also agree with you BikerDude--it seems the only impact a movie can have these days is to set a new box office record.  I'm sure that's been said before; I can imagine someone seeing, say, The Wizard of Oz for the first time in 1939, or 2001:  A Space Odyssey for the first time in 1968, and walking out of the theater with their mind blown thinking movies can't possibly get better than, or have an impact like, what they've just seen.  And then something like Star Wars comes along in 1977 and proves them wrong.  I don't know what the next big "thing" will be--3D without the need for glasses, I suppose--but surely it's out there somewhere waiting for someone to discover it.

I sincerely hope the predictions that everything will soon be streamed to everyone's home televisions, and that movie theaters will be a thing of the past, don't come true.  Despite all of the inconsiderate assholes who don't know how to behave in a theater these days, I still enjoy seeing movies on the big screen as they were intended to be seen.

[BikerDude]

...It would be nice if it was something as memorable as seeing the original was back in the day. A landmark.
But no movies have that sort of thing any more.
Younger generations have no idea how much less things like Movies and Music mean today...

On one hand, I agree with what jgiffin wrote above; you never know what will be memorable to kids (or adults, for that matter).  Hell, if the movie studios could figure that out every movie would be a success to some degree.

On the other hand, I also agree with you BikerDude--it seems the only impact a movie can have these days is to set a new box office record.  I'm sure that's been said before; I can imagine someone seeing, say, The Wizard of Oz for the first time in 1939, or 2001:  A Space Odyssey for the first time in 1968, and walking out of the theater with their mind blown thinking movies can't possibly get better than, or have an impact like, what they've just seen.  And then something like Star Wars comes along in 1977 and proves them wrong.  I don't know what the next big "thing" will be--3D without the need for glasses, I suppose--but surely it's out there somewhere waiting for someone to discover it.

I sincerely hope the predictions that everything will soon be streamed to everyone's home televisions, and that movie theaters will be a thing of the past, don't come true.  Despite all of the inconsiderate assholes who don't know how to behave in a theater these days, I still enjoy seeing movies on the big screen as they were intended to be seen.

Well I agree that my kids are capable of finding things memorable of course. And I'd say that the special moments with we parents and other loved ones is unchanged from what it ever was.
But it's just that finding anything media related (movies music etc) memorable seems to be more or less impossible or at least greatly impaired.
And to the Rev's point I don't think it has to do with the quality of the material.
I think you could come out with something really ground breaking and it would sell like crazy but when it gets filed away in the attic of memories I don't think it takes on the same level of meaning.
I would speculate that it is the prevalence of such a huge amount of content available to kids.
Kids can watch stuff directly meant for them specifically 24 hours a day if they want.
When I was a child I got around 3 hours of kids programming once a week on Saturday morning.
It's like if you let a kid eat candy all day it stops being a special treat. I think the same holds true with intellectual candy.
And by the way I believe the same holds true for adults. It used to be that if you were gonna watch TV between 5 and 7 when I was a kid you were watching the news. Period. The networks were obliged to provide x number of hours devoted to news. That was the deal made by the federal communications commission way back in the day that allowed the networks to use the airwaves for free. Today the news has to compete with the Jersey Shore for ratings.
Is it any wonder that news as we used to know it is a thing of the past and they just tell people what they want to hear?
"News O tainment"? And that's what people expect and what they choose?

Streaming?
I hope movies and movie theaters survive but I sincerely hope it drastically changes the face of TV.
I'd like to go into a menu and choose what I want to watch when I want to watch it. (Yeah I know this sort of makes me a hypocrite in regard to the earlier scree.)
I hope that once the constraints of having 24 hours of content for a given day goes away that the amount of available shows goes way way up. So I don't have to twiddle around through 500 channels of mostly nothing to find something that I won't mind watching. With around 4 hours a week of what I really want to watch.

I'm a crotchety old bastard but if you squint real hard I might make sense from time to time.

[DigitalBuddha]

The dark side of The Force...

Darkness worshed over the dude: Darker than a black steers tookis on a moonless prairie night!

[Reverend Al]

Saw it last night, liked it, and I'm looking forward to seeing it again.  And again.  And maybe again before it's released on DVD/Blu-Ray, at which point I'll probably watch it several times.  And I'm looking forward to Episodes VIII and IX.  And probably the stand-alone movies. 

[jgiffin]

Wow, that's quite an endorsement, Al.

What format did you see it in? Any recommendation on whether its worth the premium for IMAX or 3-D? Or is good ole 2-D the way to go?

[Reverend Al]

I saw it in 2D; I'm not a fan of 3D, and don't feel the need to spend the extra bones, or clams, or whatever, for IMAX.  Also, I've read only a small percentage of the movie was actually filmed in the IMAX format.  But I've heard from members on other forums I frequent that the IMAX version was wonderful, so I'd say it's a matter of personal preference.

Despite my endorsement, the movie is not perfect story-wise and quite a few die-hard Star Wars fans actually hate it almost as much as they hate Jar Jar Binks.  Of course, I can't go into any detail on that without revealing some major spoilers so, even though I liked it, I'd have to say people need to see it and decide for themselves how it ranks among the other movies in the franchise.

[BikerDude]

I thought it was great!
I'd say it's the first good Star Wars since the original trilogy and IMO it's better than at least one of those.

There is a BIG plot twist. HUGE.
It's very similar to New Hope (otherwise known as number 4 or just Star Wars to many)
Although the new baddie is not as good as Vader IMO.

[Reverend Al]