Category Archives: Star Wars

Fun Times in Space Land

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I have a lot of hopes for The Force Awakens, as I imagine all of us do. I hope that the characters are done justice by the script, I hope that listening to the soundtrack will bring me to tears, I hope that BB-8 (oh, BB-8, rolly droid of my heart) is on screen for a significant portion of the film. But my biggest hope for TFA is quite simple.

I hope that The Force Awakens is fun.

Really, really fun.

As it is, I’m so hyped up for TFA that even if our worst nightmares come to pass and it is terrible (God forbid), I probably won’t notice for at least two months. I want The Force Awakens to be a movie I associate with the word “fun” long after the initial glow of “hooray a new Star Wars movie” fades.

Now, fun certainly isn’t necessary for a movie to be good or even enjoyable. The Hunger Games movies are good but not what I’d call a fun time. Grave of the Fireflies is brilliant but in many ways it is the opposite of a fun movie. I don’t want The Force Awakens to be a good, serious movie.

I want it to be a ridiculously fun space opera that makes me smile, even if some plot points are eye-rollingly silly, or if some lines are very easy to mock, or if it mixes up units of distance with units of time. I want to have a blast watching this movie again and again and again, for decades to come.

Star Wars has always been fun and I don’t want that to stop being the case.

The Force Awakens: A New Hope

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Star Wars was my life growing up.  I could quote all of the movies, and then one Christmas an aunt bought me Shards of Alderaan as a gift, and I realized there was an entire expanded universe out there for me to read.  And holy cow, did I read them.

I’ve talked about what it was like to grow up as a geeky teenage girl before, and therefore why it’s so important that Star Wars feature women.  At that point, Lucasfilm hadn’t yet been sold, and the prospect of Episode VII was still something that would never ever happen.

And yet, here we are.  We stand ten days away from Episode VII, which, to all appearances, features a lead female character.  It features an African-American actor as one of the leads, and a Hispanic actor, and Jessika Pava, the Hapa Pilot Queen of Bria’s Heart.  The commercials for tie-in products have featured girls challenging antiquated gender roles–one using that exact phrasing, mind you. The Campbell’s soup commercial for the Star Wars chicken noodle soup features a little boy and his two dads.  A Disneyworld commercial shows an adult African-American woman playing with a lightsaber.  This Halloween, I saw X-wing pilot uniforms for little girls.

Matthew made a compelling argument in his TFA hopes column that Star Wars has been a signpost for the way the movie industry moves.  If he’s right (and I see no reason to think he’s wrong), it’s a good time to be a Star Wars fan.

As most of you know, Shane and I had a Little Jedi (though my Imperial sympathizing husband might give her a different name) at the end of August.  She is a beautiful little girl who had a Wonder Woman onesie for Halloween, complete with shoes (with capes on the back).  My best friend cross-stitched the Avengers logo on a onesie for her.  Brian and Nanci bought her a BB-8 plushie.  Shane and I bought her a DC friends Golden Book.  One friend works at the Marshall Space Center and sent NASA merch.  Another friend sent Superman and Batman bibs.  The very first thing I got for her–and the way we announced that we were expecting a little one–was a Green Lantern onesie.  Oh, and we’ve already shown Little Jedi her first episode of Star Trek.

This child is already close to peak geekiness, and she hasn’t even learned to crawl.

But as she gets bigger, she’s going to have options.  She doesn’t have to go hunting in the boys’ section for t-shirts with Green Lantern symbols.  There is an entire line of Star Wars clothing for girls, thanks to Her Universe. She will see girls playing with Star Wars toys on television.

So if there’s one thing that I hope for out of TFA (other than a really awesome Star Wars movie), it’s that I hope that the incredible combined media power of Disney, Lucasfilm, and the Star Wars franchise continues to have an impact on the way our society sees girls, women, and their interests.

My little Jedi deserves that.

Star Wars: Only Sith Deal in Absolutes

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My feelings on Star Wars are often complicated. So much of my love for the series is tied up in what we don’t strictly have any longer in canon. Like the rest of us, I started with this series in the films but I did so in the early 90s. This was at a time before the remastered editions in 1995, before the special editions in 1997. Star Wars was something that I watched on television, typically about once a year around Thanksgiving. They were shown in marathons and I remember them being hosted by Billy Dee Williams.

All that is to say that Star Wars was one of those films that I appreciated in the same kind of way you enjoy holiday films. As I got older and the films became more available, they came to mean different things to me. When I was very young, I enjoyed them because they were just cool! Laser swords! Blaster pistols!

I was eight when the THX editions were released, and this is where I really got my connection to the series. I saved every penny I could find to scrape together the $30 it cost to buy the box set. Here, it began to mean something different to me. Instead of just being entranced by the spectacle of it, I enjoyed the story: a young man achieves a destiny he never knew about growing up, fulfilling the same kind of dream that many have at that age.

As a teenager and adult, I still enjoy the films but, again, in a different way. They’re fun and served as a wonderful base from which to build a deep setting with so much potential that was capitalized on by authors like Timothy Zahn and Mike Stackpole.  All that having been said, I have developed some nit-picky things over time about it that I will soundly admit are very particular. Twenty years of MST3K will do that to a guy.

There is one issue I have with the films, though, that I think is truly legitimate.

So, coming to the theme that all of us are pursuing in the time up to the release of The Force Awakens, what do I hope for in the new films?

Star Wars, especially the original trilogy, watches like an anti-Imperial piece of propaganda. Everything in those films is portrayed in black and white, all good or all evil and the only in-between is really Han in the first film and he still manages to overcome his mercenary nature and become a permanent fixture of the good side.

What I want is nuance.

The lower down the scale of power someone is, the closer to their communities they will be. Leadership of the Empire is oppressive and evil, but the employees of the Empire are people. There were accountants and cooks and maintenance workers on the Death Star who likely had no idea that there was a plan to fire on Alderaan. In a setting where the market is at least partially a command economy, the best work that many people will be able to hope for is with the government. People are what make up the parts of the Empire that civilians are going to interact with every day, and individual people will be good or bad. It can’t have been all evil or the Alliance to Restore the Republic would have been made up of more than a handful of worlds.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; The Empire was an oppressive regime, but it kept the lights on, the economy was stable, and trade was safe from pirates. Some people have to have been content with it. The universe as we knew it in the prequel films was one that showed us a setting where things worked, but honestly, not well. The Republic was trapped in gridlock, the will of the government was carried out by a non-governmental, quasi-religious order based on a group of people with a genetic quirk and no civilian oversight. At some point, I will have a whole rant about the ridiculously poor management and rule of the Old Republic, but now isn’t the time for that. The important thing here is that any organization that is looking to restore the Republic exactly as it was is looking through the rosiest of tinted glasses.

We’re going into a whole new series here. The expanded universe may have been relegated to a wholly separate canon, but instead of seeing it as a loss, we should look at it as an opportunity for more shades of gray in the primary continuity, where we have heroes that are more torn over their actions and have to question the methods or motivations of their leaders.

Nuance, subtlety, depth. That’s what I hope for. Star Wars has been a film series meant for younger demographics, not solely, but it’s always been a focus. I want a more adult series. Not to say that I don’t want there to also be films that are fairly lighthearted like what we have had before, but Disney is making more than just numbered films and I hope that they take advantage of it. They’ve proven that they can have a variety of tones across a single setting with the Marvel Cinematic Universe; now, I just want that applied here, also.  At the risk of being accused of advocating for gritty, grim-dark realism, some entries could use some grime.

I got into Star Wars as a child, but I grew up. I just want to see Star Wars do the same.

Quick and Dirty Impressions: Jakku Spy and Google Cardboard Drops you in the GFFA

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A little earlier this week, I got a nifty surprise courtesy of Lucasfilm and Verizon: a set of four Star Wars-themed Google Cardboard viewers. I’ve been reading about this initiative from Google for a while. The Virtual Reality scene seems poised to explode, with development initiatives such as Occulus VR and Samsung Gear VR aiming to bring the science fiction future we’ve been dreaming about since Tron to your home.

Kylo, BB-8, Stormtrooper, and Artoo designs

Kylo, BB-8, Stormtrooper, and Artoo designs

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Star Wars: Industry Prophet

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My hopes for The Force Awakens are somewhat broader than simply hoping the film is entertaining, or that it ushers in a new era of quality Star Wars live-action content the likes of which hasn’t been seen since 1980. Each Star Wars film, good or bad, has had a considerable impact on not only the pop culture conversation, but on the disposition and direction of the film industry itself. The idea that The Force Awakens will be no different seems a foregone conclusion. My hope, then, is that the resulting shift is a positive one.

Look out New Hollywood, the Stormtroopers are coming!

New Hollywood was NOT trampled under the jackboots of the Stormtroopers, despite what some critics and historians claim.

Even claiming the Star Wars films were responsible for those shifts in the industry is an oversimplification. The first Star Wars film, in 1977, is often cited as the death knell of the “New Hollywood” era, a period auterists tend to look on as a golden age of cinema, when filmmakers were given the creative freedom to realize their artistic visions without much, if any, studio oversight. Easy Rider, The French Connection, Taxi Driver — even films such as The Exorcist and The Godfather are considered part of this wave of unbridled creativity and artistic freedom. And then, if you believe certain critics, Star Wars came along — a big-budget, crowd-pleasing “popcorn” film of dubious artistic merit — made a ton of money, and ruined everything for the “serious” filmmakers.

Films like William Friedkin's The French Connection were an example of studios' "hands off" policy during the '70s. [20th Century Fox]

Films like William Friedkin’s The French Connection were an example of studios’ “hands off” policy during the ’70s. [20th Century Fox]

This is, of course, not precisely fair. The shift away from “New Hollywood” and complete creative control from filmmakers was already well under way by the time Star Wars came along. Disastrous productions like Apocalypse Now, and self-indulgent bloated flops like Heaven’s Gate were the primary catalysts for a re-establishment of studio control. Huge moneymakers like Jaws, Grease, even Rocky, helped pave the way for the era of the “blockbuster”. And the then-unheard of practice of wide-release — that is, releasing a film simultaneously in theatres across the county — standard practice today, of course, was not pioneered by Star Wars or even Jaws, but by The Godfather.

Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather pioneered the now-standard practice of wide release. [Paramount]

Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather pioneered the now-standard practice of wide release. [Paramount]

It may be more fair, then, to look at a new Star Wars film (or, perhaps more practically, a new Star Wars trilogy) as less the direct catalyst for a shift in the industry, but more as a signpost, an indication of which way the wind is blowing. Computer-generated special effects were not exactly new when The Phantom Menace came along; morphing effects had long been used in films like Terminator 2 and Star Trek VI; Jurassic Park, Jumanji, and Dragonheart all featured computer-generated creatures; and even Independence Day, praised for it’s realistic practical effects, utilized computers to generate the F-18 Hornets, missiles, debris, and other elements. Indeed, digital effects had already been introduced into the Star Wars universe by way of the Special Editions. The CGI effects in The Phantom Menace were undoubtedly more numerous (and more noticeable) than in any film that had come before, but films like Titanic, The Matrix, and The Mummy were already proving that more complicated effects could be created using computers. If The Phantom Menace hadn’t pushed the proliferation of CGI forward, something else would have.

We

We have Jar-Jar to thank for The Lord of the Rings. Kinda.

So, what are my hopes for The Force Awakens? My hope for The Force Awakens is that it gives me hope for the industry as a whole. Studio films are becoming larger and more unwieldy as time goes on. Blockbusters are all the studios are producing nowadays, at the expense of low or even medium-budget films. Most key, quality has been replaced by spectacle, nuance by noise, character by destruction. Now, a shift away from this is an unrealistic expectation to place on a well-known, highly-anticipated franchise film with a huge special effects budget and owned by one of the largest companies on the planet.

Films like Man of Steel and Star Trek Into Darkness (pictured) proved that bigger isn't always better. [Paramount]

Films like Man of Steel and Star Trek Into Darkness (pictured) proved that bigger isn’t always better. [Paramount]

But what if Kasdan and Abrams bring nuance and character back to the blockbuster? What if the change in the air predicted by and reflected in this film is of a smaller and more manageable scale for big-budget studio extravaganzas? I’m not expecting Star Wars to make studio heads suddenly start pouring their resources into smaller films — how could I, since Star Wars is, at this point, as big as it gets (and is primed to make truckloads of money)? If anything, The Force Awakens would seem primed to reinforce what studio heads already believe — that bigger is better, and original scripts are a loser’s game.

IS an awakening coming?

IS an awakening coming?

But what if there’s a sign, a hint woven into the fabric of the film, a quality to the movie’s texture — something, anything that might indicate this industry is stepping back from the abyss it finds itself teetering at the edge of? I’m grasping at straws, I’m well aware. But the industry can’t sustain this “bigger is better” business model for much longer. The bubble is going to pop. I’m not claiming the “death of cinema” is on it’s way, but a change is coming. Realistically, it has to be. And what if The Force Awakens is, in some small way, a harbinger of that change?

Star Wars has always been a signpost of things to come. My hope for this film, in a nutshell, is that the signs are good ones.

I’m Terrified to Watch The Force Awakens

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star-wars-force-awakens-official-posterI love Star Wars. I really really really love Star Wars. And I love a lot of Star Wars. I may have some kneejerk bad reactions to some aspects of it but I’m really easy to please when it comes to reading a new book or experiencing something new. If it’s Star Wars, if it feels like Star Wars, and if I enjoy it, I’m happy. I also unabashedly love the Prequels. If you want to see me go from 0 to 100, just suggest in my presence that they should be skipped when showing someone the movies for the first time. Those movies, just like the Original Trilogy, were a huge part of my childhood and I can’t imagine loving Star Wars without them.

And that’s where the fear comes in. I am terrified to watch The Force Awakens because of the very slim chance that I won’t love it.

Yoda kinda nailed it with his whole “truly wonderful the mind of a child” comment in Attack of the Clones. Kids don’t overanalyze films like Star Wars and they probably don’t spend months and months before the release hearing little tidbits and piecing together parts in their minds. I was 9, 12, and 15 years old respectively when the Prequel films came out and I instantly fell in love with each of them. Part of that had to do with being so young and having zero expectations about what I’d see in each movie. (Well, I knew that Anakin was going to fall to the Dark Side and I was pretty sure that everyone was going to die in Revenge of the Sith. Went two-for-two on those revolutionary predictions.) As so many others before me have noted, none of us know what to expect from these films. For the first time since 1977, we’re all going in blind for a brand new Star Wars story that could take us anywhere.

But what if I don’t like it? What if I have to change my standard “I love all of the Star Wars movies!” to “I love most of the Star Wars movies!”? What if I fall to the dark side and become the thing in fandom I hate most: someone who focuses more energy on something they don’t like instead of what they love?

Okay so that last one’s never going to happen. I can at least take solace in the fact that the chances of me becoming one of those people are approximately 3720 to 1. I’ll probably at least somewhat like it. Probably. Hopefully. Is this what a preemptive crisis of faith feels like? I think this is what one feels like. I don’t like this feeling. Someone take it away. And take this fear I have of not loving The Force Awakens with it!

But I digress because, as our editors here are sure to soon tell me, that’s not the point of this series. We’re supposed to be talking about what our hopes are for The Force Awakens and not our somewhat irrational fears. The good news is that the movie is already delivering from the trailers alone. We’re getting kickass female leads, X-Wing battles, blazing lightsabers, and the return of Leia Organa. In fact, they’ve already gone one further and given me Jessika Pava who shall now be referred to as the Hapa Pilot Queen of My Heart. Add in a very impressive cast and crew and all the signs point towards this being another awesome peace of the Star Wars puzzle. So, at the end of the day, what’s my hope for Episode VII?

Please, sweet baby Yoda, just let me love this Star Wars movie as much as the rest.

Review: Star Wars #13

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Vader Down continues this week as Jason Aaron and Mike Deodato take over again and oh my word, this issue is fun!  Despite the lovely cover by Mark Brooks, there’s not much of Leia or Vader in this issue.  Instead, it focuses mostly on Dr. Aphra and the Murder Bots versus Han Solo and Chewbacca.  The stakes?  Luke Skywalker and Artoo.

The entire issue is just delightful.  At times, it’s actually incredibly funny despite the decidedly unfunny circumstances but it still works.  We get BeeTee versus Artoo! (And you thought Artoo and Chopper were different…)  We get Chewbacca versus Triple Zero… aka a protocol droid that he doesn’t feel obliged to not rip apart!  And finally, we get Han Solo versus Dr. Aphra which is everything I ever wanted but never knew to ask for despite us as readers being told that she’s a dark mirror version of Indiana Jones from the start.

Star Wars #13 is a bit of a change from the rest of the Vader Down event so far.  It’s a nice breather from being terrified of Vader (although the next issue promises to do that again.)  While some more uptight readers may be put off by some of the humor that verges a little more on slapstick, I found it refreshing and just plain fun.  When else are you going to get to see Chewie go after a droid and [REDACTED]?  Aaron even nails the essence of Han Solo when he makes an ever so slight miscalculation while being so smug and certain.

I also have to take a moment and take Deodato for not only rocking the hell out of this book so far but for also drawing Aphra wearing that rad jacket that Adi Granov used for the cover of Darth Vader #3. It’s finally in the book!

Just like Marvel promised us, Vader Down continues to be an awesome crossover event and definitely one that you should be picking up.

Review: Shattered Empire

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shatteredempire1Shattered Empire by Greg Rucka and Marco Checchetto (with additional art by Angel Unzueta and Emilio Laiso) was a heck of a lot of things. The comic contribution to the Journey to The Force Awakens, Shattered Empire takes place in the weeks following the Battle of Endor and lets readers see what the galaxy is like through the eyes of A-Wing pilot Shara Bey.

At New York Comic Con this year, Greg Rucka revealed that his original pitch didn’t actually involve Han, Luke, and Leia and he asked to rewrite his outline once he saw the Phil Noto teaser image that went on to serve as the cover for the first issue. After hearing this, it wasn’t terribly surprising that Shara had a chance to work with each of our favorite heroes in turn. Given how much I liked her though, I would love to have seen whatever his original pitch was just for kicks.

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Review: Darth Vader #13

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Look, let’s be honest: Vader Down is essentially Jason Aaron and Kieron Gillen sitting across a table from each other while grinning diabolically and going “Oh, you had your artist draw Vader doing that cool thing? JUST WATCH WHAT I’M GOING TO HAVE MY ARTIST DRAW!” Alternatively, just imagine this as a Pokemon fight with Larroca and Dedato as the Pokemon and Aaron and Gillen as the trainers.  (I should probably admit that I never played Pokemon or watched it or… this metaphor has gotten away from me.)  (Ten thousand bonus points go to the first person to photoshop this.)

Point is, Vader Down continuing to be an awesome crossover event with the release of Darth Vader #13 by Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca.  As you may have guessed from the opener, this comic is filled with plenty of instances of Vader being badass.  Moments like these really emphasize why people are scared of the Dark Lord of the Sith.  Of course, it wouldn’t be a Vader issue if we didn’t get more of Dr. Aphra and the Murder Bots.  They have some particularly fun parts in this issue that I won’t spoil for you.

One of the best moments in the comic was when Gillen got to play with characters he previously hasn’t been able to: Han and Leia.  Their disagreement about whether to go after Vader or to send a rescue mission for Luke really just nails the essence of who they are especially in these early months after the Battle of Yavin.  Leia is focused on the Alliance’s mission and vengeance for her people while Han’s more concerned about this farmboy he’s taking a liking to.

Oh yeah.  And did I mention all those glorious pages of Vader just stomping all over everyone?  Because those were pretty great.

Review: Chewbacca #4

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It’s been two weeks which must mean it’s time for the release of Chewbacca #4 by Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto!  (On a personal note, I’d like to add that both gentlemen are incredibly nice and I’m thrilled to have had the chance to meet them at Third Eye Comics the other weekend.)

Like I said last time, this book is tricky to discuss on an issue by issue basis so we’re just going to dive straight into some assorted observations.

  • Joe Caramanga has got to be having fun lettering all of Chewie’s speech.
  • Yay for the inclusion of Scout Troopers and an AT-ST!
  • Again, the use of a character with a disability is deftly handled and feels very realistic for this galaxy.  Really smart addition by Duggan.
  • Chewbacca’s disguise is brilliant and everything I never knew I wanted until now.
  • Zarro and Chewie’s plans really have an incredibly way of going wrong.  I’m impressed.
  • The poor droid!
  • The inclusion of a shistavanen in this book has been neat!  It’s nice to see artists/writers go a little further out of the usual alien box.
  • Phil Noto’s art is another wow.

Going by the end of the issue and the preview for the final issue, Chewbacca and Zarro are certainly going to have a hell of a time getting out of this mess!