Star Wars Saturday: The Force Awakens Teaser 2

Thursday was a big day for Star Wars fans. The send official teaser for Star Was: The Force Awakens premiered at Star Wars Celebration 2015 and promptly took over the internet. Tears of joy and hoots of happiness were mediated by hip affected posturing about restrained disinterest. If you haven’t seen it, or want to watch it again, I won’t waste any more of your time.

At the celebration, director JJ Abrams talked about his vision for the look and feel of the movie:

One of the things I love so much about the original trilogy was that sense of everything being real and weathered and lived-in and used. It was a world of underdogs; you just felt you were fighting against an enemy that was bigger and larger. To me, the look and feel of that technology being anything but pristine or brand-new, was really important. There needs to be a contrast.^tor.com

All that’s portrayed in an elegant, civilized way with the opening shot.

If you’re the kind of person that enjoys over analyzing these things frame by frame, head over to /Film where Russ Fischer has isolated fifty images and talked about what they depict and what they might mean.

Depending on your sensitivity level, both of those links can be said to contain spoilers. But this is Star Wars, Disney and Lucasfilm aren’t going to let anything major slip.

There is one thing I’m super excited about that’s not a spoiler at all. The rolling droid, BB-8, is a practical effect. They considered going CGI, but opted to just build it instead. BB-8 rolled out during a panel at the celebration. I’m glad the journalists’ mouths were hanging open, too.

It’s going to be a long wait until December 18th. There will be many challenges. People, perhaps even your friends, will try to curb your enthusiasm. Roll right over that curb and tell them firmly:

 

Star Wars Saturday: Special Edition Posters LEGO-ized

Next weekend is the Star Wars Celebration convention in Anaheim, California. I won’t be going. But I will be enjoying all of the news, photos, and special merch coming out of it…vicariously…through the Internet.

So here’s the first installment of that vicarious enjoyment, coming in the form of LEGO versions of the Star Wars Special Edition posters. Enjoy!

Star Wars Saturday: Disney/Pixar’s ‘X-Wings’

It seems like, in our combinatory culture, every few months something gets made/mashed/revised that shows up like a present with my name on the tag. Here’s the latest. Our toddler has been obsessed with Lightning McQueen, Mater, Dusty, and friends for months. Matchbox-style Cars cars, Duplo Cars and Planes sets, Cars underwear. I have long been obsessed with Star Wars: Original Flavor. My husband won my hand in marriage by winning Star Wars Trivial Pursuit (I’m simplifying…a little.) So Big Bee Studio has mashed up the two for a wonderful little parody of the overdone series of anthropomorphic vehicle films aimed at increasingly younger audiences.

The trailer is so well done, I’m afraid to show it to my toddler. What if ze can’t accept that it doesn’t exist? What then? There is only one answer: make it a reality. And there’s no conceivable reason why not. Disney now owns both Pixar and Star Wars, so there’s nothing to stand in their way. Except decency, maybe, but that always loses out to moneymaking. And I know at least one toddler who would happily line Disney’s pockets with the parents’ hard earned cash if this came to be.

Star Wars Saturday: An Awesome 80’s Anime-Style Fan Film

The newly release fan short “Star Wars: Tie Fighter” is a joy to watch. It exhibits a clear affection and devotion to Star Wars while giving it a completely new style.

Four years in the making, Paul Johnson re-imagines a Rebel Alliance/Empire space battle from the perspective of the Empire’s Tie Fighters in the style of 80’s anime. To place us firmly in the Star Wars Universe we know, Johnson has used sound effects we easily recognize–droid beeps, lazer fire, the hum of the inside of a Star Destroyer and patter of Stormtrooper boots. However the John Williams score has been replaced by a rock score that gives a grin-inducing vitality to the fan film. The animation is superbly done and evocative of an anime style now out of use.

Enjoy it now!

Star Wars Saturday: First Official LGBT Character Coming Out in April

It seems like the Star Wars Universe should be far more diverse than it really is. Its storytelling spans many generations, vast planets with a wide variety of alien species, and many different lifestyles. And yet, in some ways, I can find more diversity in my own Midwest hometown–namely, different racial, gender, and sexuality representations. Consider my beloved Star Wars: Original Trilogy: 1 major female character (white, hetero), 2 minor female characters (white, 1 hetero, 1 sexuality unknown), 1 borderline minor/major black character (male, hetero). The rest? White, male, presumably hetero though their sexuality is generally not depicted. George Lucas wasn’t very good at addressing issues of race, gender, and sexuality. In fact, many of the aliens in both the original and prequel films appear to be poorly masked ethnic stereotypes. For more on this, check out The Five Most Racist Star Wars Characters. But Disney has been making efforts to diversify the representation in their Star Wars productions. Not only have they chosen to add more major female and non-white characters, they now officially have their first LGBT character.

Of course, it isn’t in a movie. Disney is still Disney, so they’re dipping their toes in the water before committing. (Which seems a little absurd. Willow and Tara were a thing on Buffy the Vampire Slayer more than 15 years ago, and this past week’s The Flash directly addressed the police captain’s same-sex fiance as family for hospital visitation purposes.) The character is in the upcoming novel by Paul S. Kemp called Star Wars: Lords of the Sith. From Penguin Random House’s description of the character via NPR:

Moff Delian Mors is a supporting character in Star Wars: Lords of the Sith. She was a promising officer of the Empire, who was assigned to an undesirable post at the far end of the galaxy. At nearly the same point in her life, her wife was killed in a transport accident, and the weight of these burdens led to Delian becoming lax in her duties, and left her personal life in disarray. The events of Star Wars: Lords of the Sith occur a few years after her loss.

The good: a female Moff. Not the first certainly, but still some female representation. Also, a lesbian, which is wonderful. The bad: she’s only a supporting character and the relationship is in the past tense since the wife is dead. Any depictions of their love or affection for each other will be in flashbacks.

Apparently she isn’t the first gay character, just the first “official” one. I don’t really claim to understand what makes official canon and what doesn’t these days. I know that Disney cut ties with the extended universe stuff, of which the previous example is certainly a part. In Karen Traviss’ Legacy of the Force two male Mandalorians married.

There are loads of wonderful diverse changes happening in Geek World, and by and large diversification is paying dividends in higher box office and book sales. Star Wars has been behind on this for a long time, but we’re seeing the right steps for a new direction.

Star Wars Saturday: Marvel’s Star Wars #3 Review

Jason Aaron keeps the climax going at hyperspeed in the third issue of Star Wars, which hit shelves on Tuesday. We left our heroes in dire circumstances. Han and Leia were attempting to stay alive in the Walker, waiting for Luke to get to them for some back up fire and hoping they’d reach C-3PO and a working Millenium Falcon. 3PO, meanwhile, was being taken by planet scavengers from a still non-functional Falcon. Chewbacca’s whereabouts are unknown.

This issue closes out the series’ opening adventure with . Our heroes, against tremendous odds, get out with their skins. That’s not a spoiler–everyone clearly survives to live The Empire Strikes Back. The issue does present some crucial aspects. This arc has made Vader all the more aware of Luke and his fledgling Force powers. Additionally, we have a wonderful little moment that cements the growing romance between Han and Leia. Finally, the final pages tease upcoming story in an enticing visual hook. 

Aaron and Cassaday have done a tremendous job bringing this familiar world to life on the page. The story arc has been fun, exciting, significant to the characters’ development, artfully executed. If you haven’t picked up the series yet, I highly recommend doing so.

If you have read the first two issues, you’ve likely already got this under your belt. For more specific, spoilery info, check out Comicbook.com’s article on easter eggs and references in the issue.

 

Star Wars Saturday: ‘Lego Star Wars Droid Tales’

It’s the conceit of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead–take a familiar story (Hamlet) and retell it from the perspective of characters of lesser import (Rosencrantz & Guildenstern) to offer dramatic irony and humor. This idea has been reused many times over, including in the Star Wars Universe with the comic series Tag and Bink Were Here.

Now Disney is offering up Lego-style animated retelling of all 6 episodes of Star Wars from the perspective of C-3PO and R2-D2. The series will consist of 5 episodes 22-minutes in length airing on DisneyXD in the weeks leading up to The Force Awakens’s release.

Lego has a fantastic track record through games and The Lego Movie of turning up the funny on well-known narratives and characters. I look forward to seeing this re-envisioning of the Star Wars Saga as we amp up the marketing and anticipation for The Force Awakens.

 

Star Wars Saturday: How Padme Really Died

The Revenge of the Sith seemed like a relatively worthy film compared to the other two prequels, that is until the final scene of Padme dying of a broken heart and the newly anointed Darth Vader crying out in (cheesy) agony.

How I felt after hearing the “broken heart” diagnosis.

Padme died of a broken heart…really?

Lame sauce, Lucas.

Well, no. She didn’t. According to Joseph Tavano on RetroZap.com, I failed to put the pieces together to unearth the real source of her death.

Tavano argues that Palpatine killed her using a trick he learned from his master to siphon her life Force vampire-style and feed it to Anakin to allow him to live, albeit now as Darth Vader in a walking life-support suit. He goes step-by-step through the reasoning for this conclusion.

The full argument, which is worth reading for Star Wars fans who were disappointed by the hokey notion of her dying of a broken heart, can be found here.

But Tavano also comes back to defend this film as a classic, while I see the failure to make her death clear in the film just one of the ways that the prequels were confused messes of film-making.

While Tavano’s reasoning is sound, and I absolutely believe he’s right, the work he has to do to uncover this truth is outlandish. If Lucas had this source for her death in mind, it should have been a riveting emotional reveal. If we had simply gotten a few intercut shots of Palpatine concentrating and clearly siphoning her life Force out and rerouting it to Anakin, we would have been easily overwhelmed by the tension of the moment and the dramatic irony that the Jedi don’t know enough to save her PLUS the dramatic irony of Palpatine lying to Anakin that the blame for her death fell to him. Instead we’re left with the sentimental notion of dying of a broken heart and some cheesy screaming from Vader. It is an obvious mark of poor film-making, a missed opportunity for cinematic emotional impact.

Star Wars Saturday: Comic Review of Star Wars #2

Jason Aaron increases the action in the second issue of Star Wars, which hit shelves on Tuesday. We left our heroes in a bit of a lurch. Han and Leia were taking charge of an Imperial Walker to break out of the facility, C3PO was dealing with scavengers dismantling the Millenium Falcon, and Luke was about to confront the murderer of Obi-Wan Kenobi and, supposedly, Luke’s father–Darth Vader.

As these scenes reopen, the focus is on Luke and Vader and the dramatic irony is prevalent. Neither knows yet who the other is, but Vader begins to put together clues while Luke struggles with his amateurish Force powers. Our hero of Yavin finds himself in the midst of a messy situation he made for himself as the slaves he freed in the previous issue enter the fray.

As the story moves from Luke to Han and Leia in the AT-AT to 3PO on the Falcon, the characters strive to overcome their individual struggles and make it off the planet alive, but they find a mixture of successes and failures. As Luke, Han, Leia, and Artoo makes steps towards the Falcon, 3PO suffers a sizable setback to their ultimate escape.

The writing and interactions of characters continue to be spot on. Han and Leia’s fighting and veiled flirting blends with the action surrounding them. The illusion of this being an actual movie grows with each page’s panels, influenced heavily by the speed of action. John Cassaday’s art continues to wonderfully evoke the actor’s emotional nuances. When he cannot show a face, as in the case of Vader, he uses shadow to fill in emotional content.

With our heroes’ backs up against the wall, the story’s tension is high. I can’t wait to see how they get their hinneys out of this sling.

 

Star Wars Sunday: Comic Review of Star Wars #1

As I reflected upon a couple weeks ago, Marvel has rebooted the Star Wars comic as part of the new Disney-owned Star Wars push for more material. This glut of new Star Wars could be disastrous, maybe, milking the franchise until its dry and ready to be sent out to pasture, but, really, if the prequels didn’t already destroy the brand, could be nothing will. And, to Disney’s credit, the material they’ve been putting out has been high quality and true to the nature of the original trilogy. Case in point: the rebooted comic series written by Jason Aaron and illustrated by John Cassaday.

I finally got to read Issue #1 the other day, and I was pleased with it on more than one level. Let me count the ways I adored it:

1. I already knew from preview pages and previous experience with Cassaday’s work that I would love the art, but I was not prepared for the many details within that love. Art so evocative of the actors that particular glances pulled me back to a single original trilogy moment: “Who’s scruffy-looking?” Art so detailed that it’s clear this is Luke pre-Mark Hamill’s motorcycle accident. But this isn’t some hyper-realistic art style (like Alex Ross). Cassaday has a realism within his comic-booky line art. 
2. The plot is caper-based, meaning that each one of this ragtag bunch of misfits has his or her moment. The roles are clear, the characteristics of each are prominent. It even begins to show how they develop between the films of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.
3. Luke deals with the growing pains of force powers in believable and endearing ways. He takes risks he probably ought not to. He hears echoes of Ben in his head, sometimes just flashbacks, sometimes new communications.
4. Han and Leia have a romantically charged hallway moment!
5. The more C-3PO states he has a “good feeling about this,” the more the dramatic tension rises to see just what all will go wrong. And plenty does. These rebel heroes have quite the pit to dig themselves out of after this opening issue. I’m excited to see how they pull it off.
6. The issue could only be improved with a well-curated John Williams playlist to match its action. I challenge one of you to make it. Link in the comments.

Issue #2 arrives next week. Here’s a preview: linked for your spoiler preferences.