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Star Wars III

Brad Bowers

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,187
Yep, MK, I can't wait for this one. It looks to be a really fitting conclusion to the saga. I bought tickets for an 11:59 p.m. showing this Wednesday night, but won't have any trouble staying up late!

Brad
 

Brad Bowers

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,187
What a swell boss!

One report said that it will cost U.S. employers $627 million this Thursday and Friday due to Star Wars absenteeism.

Brad
 

zeus36

A-List Customer
Messages
392
Location
Ventura, California
I am predicting that this movie will break ALL box office records.

A co-worker got to see it two weeks ago at a private screening as his wife works in the entertainment industry-- he said it was the best one so far.

MK, I wish more bosses would let employees off. Way to go!
 

Biltmore Bob

Suspended
Messages
1,721
Location
Spring, Texas... Y'all...
After the Return of the Jedi my taste has soured for the Star Wars thing. I stood in the longest line in movie history (at least miny history) with my brother for the first Star Wars, in Cleveland, Ohio. I saw Jedi in Okinawa, when I was a Marine, in the early Eighties. That movie (Jedi) sucked royally.
I saw Raders of the Lost Ark, while attached to a Navy LHS, that's a ship, in Subic Bay, Phillipine Islands.
 

Doctor Strange

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,245
Location
Hudson Valley, NY
Excited? No. More like I feel an obligation to get it over with. And my teen kids are even less excited than I am! At least the reviews are heartening...

My observation, based on long participation in many other forums and personal experience, is that there is a particularly strong generational divide involved in how folks respond to Star Wars. People who first saw the films as children and have grown up with them have a very different response to folks who were older when they first encountered the films.

I had just graduated from college in 1977, and as a lifelong SF fan (I had watched Star Trek from the very first broadcast, 2001: A Space Odyssey had changed my life when I saw it in a theater during its original run, etc.), of course I loved it. But, with my double major in English and History, I had also already studied many ancient mythologies and literary plots/techniques (and I was a mega-movie buff too). I immediately recognized Star Wars as a brilliant synthesis of a lot of very old ideas, and old movie plots, dressed up with flashy new effects. I also seemed to be among the few to immediately realize that it was a fantasy film, not real SF (it takes place in the past - not a future extrapolated from our own technology - and despite its technological trappings, is really a story about warring wizards that depends on magic and not science)... But I still saw it multiple times and totally enjoyed myself. And when Empire came out, I was very impressed with how much deeper, grander, and more emotionally valid it was. (Also, I don't think younger folks can understand the stunning effect of Yoda in 1980 - the first movie nonhumanoid alien who was really believable!) But after Empire, it was all downhill...

So, while I admire and enjoy Star Wars, I have simply never adored it and revered it in the way that I see that folks younger than me do. The prequels have not been "events" for me, and Lucas's astoundingly clunky writing and indifferent direction of actors hasn't helped. (I recently showed my kids American Graffiti, to prove that Lucas once actually could direct actors well. What the heck happened?!?) But I am hopeful that this final film will be better... I'm just not planning on seeing it on opening weekend.

And BTW, I don't for a minute believe that this is the final film. George will change his mind yet again and let his chosen successors make the final sequel trilogy. To someone like me, who's been reading the trade press and SF movie press since before Star Wars (I simply will not call it "A New Hope"!) came out, I have heard George change his story so many times that nothing would surprise me. (E.g., I recall *before* he wanted to class up his image and claim that his inspiration came from the mythological stuides of Joseph Campbell, when it was clear that the Flash Gordon serials, The Wizard of Oz, The Adventures of Robin Hood, westerns, WWII war flicks, Asimov's Foundation series, and Jack Kirby/Stan Lee Marvel comics were his true touchstones!)

A very fascinating site on the inspirations for Star Wars:

http://www.jitterbug.com/origins/
 

Quigley Brown

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,745
Location
Des Moines, Iowa
and so on and so on

Now he'll have to remake the original just because the state-of-the-art computer animation in the new film will make the original look crude...
 

BellyTank

I'll Lock Up
...sounds like you ran over a Wookie back there on the expressway

He's already done that with the first few- added scenes and effects...

I saw Star Wars when I was 11 and it was pretty mind-blowing back then.
I guess when the later(earlier) trilogy came out, I was expecting more and they didn't deliver- so far. At least one of them was actually pretty bad.

George Lucas seems a little limited and samey- and I guess he's working within a world of his creation, so it has its limitations. He's been a little tied up with the Star Wars stuff over the last 30 years- I'd like to see if he can do anything else.... THX-1138 was interesting, 'Graffiti was fun...
I remain open minded and look forward to seeing it.
Might even stretch to seeing it at the theater...




B
T
 

Dalexs

Practically Family
Messages
569
Location
Just 'nath of Baston
MK said:
I think it is going to be so cool that I am declaring it a movie day at my office. I am letting my employees go to the movie Wednesday afternoon ....while on the clock.

Of course he left out that he is the only employee he has... ;)

But, I', looking forward to seeing it at some point. It looks like a well done effort to bring the saga full circle.

So much so that my 8yo spent his own money to buy the original trilogy on dvd this weekend.

My hope is that this movie makes up for the last two train wrecks he put out.

Dalexs (ducking for cover...)
 

Vladimir Berkov

One Too Many
Messages
1,291
Location
Austin, TX
No need to duck, Dalexs, as a hardcore fan of the series I agree that the first two prequels were mediocre at best. Particularly the Padme/Anakin "You are softer than sand" love angle.
 

SappySwami

Familiar Face
Messages
69
Location
San Francisco
I'm even reading Star Wars books in preparation for the movie! And it opens the day after my finals are done with. Obviously it's a sign.

At first I was only warm to it, hoping that if the trend of Ep. 1 being lame, and Ep. 2 being less lame (by the way, "You're not like sand" is my favorite line in a movie. What a pickup line!), that this one would be at least really less lame. But now I think it might be Return of the Jedi (my favorite one) minus the damn Ewoks. And since I rate the movies based on how well the lightsaber fights are, I think this one will be awesome.
 

Michaelson

One Too Many
Messages
1,840
Location
Tennessee
It was awful nice of George to hold the opening on my birthday, but he didn't have to go through all that bother just for me! ;)

I'll probably go see it after all the brew-ha-ha has died down. I'm sure I have all summer to catch it. I only saw the LAST one on DVD, totally missing it on the big screen.
I was there in the theater in 1977 too, and for each succeeding sequel, and was in my early 20's. I was very impressed, but like others, not to the point of dawning a storm trooper outfit and standing in the theater lines that followed for the past almost 30 years. That happened to me when Indy came out... :rolleyes: ;)
Regards! Michaelson
 

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