Field Theory: The Force will be with you, always.
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Stewart, in reply to
That's quite a sizeable rat, drinking your coffee, Ben.
Not sure what weight the 'average' rat would be, but 1kg is a rat worthy of some respect. -
Ian Dalziel, in reply to
...but a 1kg is a rat worthy of some respect.
Wait till you meet the Capybaristas...
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"Blog" by Iva Blog
Wrong place right time:
The funk is strong with this one
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Sacha, in reply to
Capybaristas
zing
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TracyMac, in reply to
Perhaps for me it's exactly the fact it's a HERO myth (young clueless dude with unknown magical powers finds them and himself) that it bounced off me . I tend to find the whole trope tedious in the extreme, unless it's done well. Princess Leia is in there, but really, her big hero moment is when she strangles Jabba. Maybe she was actually an awesome politician and held the whole Rebel Alliance together - who knows?
Ok, great, it spawned off a whole huge amount of associated media and that's cool if you're into it. But in terms of actual inspiring-to-me scifi films, Bladerunner blew my socks off. It's not plot by the numbers, the "world" doesn't require people running around in monkey suits, and it has plenty to chew on in terms of the wider context of the story.
Because a story is simple and universal doesn't mean we all relate to or like that particular renderinng of it. There is plenty of trash I enjoyed reading and watching in my teens (Anne McCaffrey springs to mind) and I enjoy it as "comfort reads" from time to time still. But I don't expect anyone else will automatically have the same response and enjoyment of them as I did at the time (I wouldn't particularly recommend McCaffrey to a teenage girl now), and nor would I point to them as exemplars of deathless Art that must be experienced by everyone.
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BenWilson, in reply to
Princess Leia is in there, but really, her big hero moment is when she strangles Jabba. Maybe she was actually an awesome politician and held the whole Rebel Alliance together - who knows?
She's always in the thick of it, you can't accuse her of not pulling her action weight. She's the last one to leave the rebel base when Hoth is invaded, still barking evacuation instructions. She's on board the fleeing ship custodian of the stolen plans, defiant in the face of torture by Vader. She's in the rearguard battle on Cloud City, she's riding a speeder on Endor, shooting at Storm Troopers. She totally chokes out Jabba, and that's after staunching out the whole throne room dressed as a bounty hunter carrying a suicide bomb. Not to mention she has some of the best lines. She's a really big part of what made the first franchise hold together. However, yeah, the story is for kids.
But I totally agree on Blade Runner. It really stands the test of time. I saw it only last week and thought it hadn't aged at all. I think the total absence of spin-offs is cool too, it could so easily have been wrecked. Similarly with 2001: A Space Odyssey (except for the fact that 2001 has been and gone, and I still can't book a Pan Am flight to the moon. I can, however make video call from a flight, now). The idea that space exploration is probably going to mostly be done by robots is proving more true every day. HAL was probably miffed to have to waste all the payload carrying meatsacks.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
But I totally agree on Blade Runner. It really stands the test of time. I saw it only last week and thought it hadn’t aged at all.
Another production that's aged well is Max Headroom. Many of the phenomena depicted in the show have since come to pass, so what's still to eventuate? Live snuff, for one.
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Sacha, in reply to
total absence of spin-offs
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BenWilson, in reply to
O, by Toutatis! It better be good.
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Biobbs, in reply to
O, by Toutatis! It better be good.
I'd settle for just 'better than Prometheus'. Not holding my breath, though.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
But I totally agree on Blade Runner. It really stands the test of time. I saw it only last week and thought it hadn’t aged at all.
What happened to Blade Runner was a cinematic version of the old joke about the Velvet Underground and Nico. It tanked in 1982, but everyone who saw it went off and drew comic books, directed music videos and made more movies where the future was cluttered, wet and the neon was the only thing that (kinda) worked.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
The 1982 version was also heavily chopped by the studio execs. Hence the first of how many umpteens of director's cuts.
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BenWilson, in reply to
Yes, it's seldom a future of unlimited suburban sprawl.
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Tim Michie, in reply to
And then there's this.
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Rich Lock, in reply to
She's always in the thick of it, you can't accuse her of not pulling her action weight. She's the last one to leave the rebel base when Hoth is invaded, still barking evacuation instructions. She's on board the fleeing ship custodian of the stolen plans, defiant in the face of torture by Vader. She's in the rearguard battle on Cloud City, she's riding a speeder on Endor, shooting at Storm Troopers. She totally chokes out Jabba, and that's after staunching out the whole throne room dressed as a bounty hunter carrying a suicide bomb. Not to mention she has some of the best lines. She's a really big part of what made the first franchise hold together.
Not to mention that when she has a gun held to her entire planet ("You would prefer another target, a military target?"), she has the brass ovaries to stone-cold poker-faced lie right to the face of Governor Tarkin. And that's after torture by the freaky floating torture-droid thing in her cell block. Which she clearly was able to effectively resist.
I have lots to say about Star Wars, but must resist.
It's still of some relevance to the younger generations. My 4-year old daughter likes it, but doesn't love it: for her, it's just one of many, many options: Marvel Cinematic Universe, How to Train your Dragon, Frozen, Mary Poppins.
The fun for her seems to be in mixing them up. I usually end up playing George Banks or Anna to her Elsa, Toothless or Stormfly. Occasionally I manage to be Iron Man.
I've found the best way to watch any of them is an almost literal machete: We've watched the original Ep4 escape from the death star and subsequent attack dozens of times, but hardly any of the rest of the film (frankly, a lot of it is pretty dull, and I say that as a fan). There's only a few small parts of the prequels actually worth watching. For example, the Darth Maul/Qi Jonn/Obi-Wan fight at the end of Ep1. In the original cinematic release, it's intercut with the fucking abysmal climatic Trade Federation/Droid army fight ("this is neat!" "use-a da bomb-ba jar-jar" shudder), but it's actually pretty awesome if watched uninterrupted/uncut, and available in that form via Youtube.
That was the worst part of the prequels for me: If they'd been pure unadulterated crap, I'd have preferred that to what we got, which was flashes of enough really cool stuff, often in the background or as atmosphere, to show you how good it could have been, before dropping a huge steaming pile of something awful onto your lap.
And I'd recommend anyone jonesing for a Star Wars action hit to youtube the intro/cutscenes from 'the old republic' games. Far more energy and imagination than Lucas showed in almost all of the tired mess of the prequels
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mark taslov, in reply to
Nice Rich, your post reminded me of Casey Pugh’s Star Wars Uncut which was a bit of fun and I see that Empire Uncut has just been released:
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Rich Lock, in reply to
Nice. I tend to think Craig's comment....
It tanked in 1982, but everyone who saw it went off and drew comic books, directed music videos and made more movies
....could sorta be applied to 'Star Wars' as well, as that film shows. It inspired a lot of people to go off and dream up their own stuff set in that Universe. Most of the expanded universe stuff ranges over a full spectrum from 'meh' to 'embarrassingly bad', but still...
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We got scared and the reason we got scared is because we have kids now.
It's the same problem every generation seems to go through: How can I make sure that my children grow up with the same experiences I had?
Just re-reading the original blog again, more thoroughly - this is what I was getting at with my first post. I went through something like this when my daughter was two-three (you will play with the toolset..... No, the toolset... the toolset. Step away from the fish). However, my jedi mind tricks didn't work on her very well. I sort of came out the other side around the time she turned four. I'm actually really enjoying being along for the ride as she finds her own way. It's fun trying to find new stuff that we might all enjoy, and seeing it and the old stuff through new eyes.
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