Posts Tagged ‘Star Wars Episode VII’
There are Star Wars: The Force Awakens Contrarians
I enjoyed Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and the movie has received much critical acclaim. Great! May they make all the money.
However, I also think it’s important that there are other voices out there. People who say “this stinks” or at least “this isn’t as good as everyone says it is”. Otherwise we’re all mindless drones bowing to our corporate overlords. Not to be over-dramatic about it. But it rarely ends well when EVERYBODY agrees.
Star Wars – Sand People (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Deutsch: „Star Wars”-Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
And OK, sure. It’s just a movie. It’s just Star Wars. But it’s also more than just Star Wars. It’s entertainment, it’s escapist, it’s fun, it’s all good… as long as we can see the flaws. Or as long as we aren’t blindly devoted to the blockbuster.
DaddyTips readers (and pretty much anyone who knows me) are well aware of my love for the Avengers movie. I am willing to acknowledge that there are parts of the film that aren’t perfect. It’s a thing that makes me happy, and I think those things are important. For example, I don’t believe in “guilty pleasures” unless your guilty pleasure is something you should feel guilty about doing, such as clubbing baby seals. Watching a movie that you know isn’t great but you like it anyway? Please. (I do not, for the record, put The Avengers movie in that category. At all. I’ve seen it more than ten times. I might watch it again today.) That being said, I have no problem with someone who doesn’t like the movie, be they a friend or a professional film critic. I enjoy reading/hearing a different point of view than mine. As long as they have more to say than just this:
This article from Vox, titled “Critics are going too easy on Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, written by David Roberts (whose bio says “I write about energy and climate change” — and Star Wars, apparently, which shows how big a deal this movie is, in case you hadn’t noticed), makes some good points, and also has links to other Vox articles that are worth reading, including one that supposedly explains what the heck The First Order is. (I haven’t read it yet, hence the “supposedly explains”. Keep in mind that I did see the movie, but I still don’t really know what The First Order is. For the record, it doesn’t really matter, except that it does. Which is basically my point. If that’s confusing, ask me and I’ll explain.)
Bottom line: you can like a movie and know that it’s flawed, you can dislike a movie and acknowledge what’s good about it, you can hate a movie that everyone says is great — you should make your own decisions. I’ll even go so far as to call this a DaddyTip. In what way? The tip is that you shouldn’t let your kids get sucked into the blind devotion of a movie. I’m not suggesting you hit them over the head with criticism either, especially if they’re young. But let them know that it’s OK if they don’t 100% LOVE every single minute of this new Star Wars movie even if their friends do, or any other piece of entertainment for that matter. Be clever. Be a contrarian. Look at things with a critical eye as well as the eye of a fan. Understand that entertainment is awesome, and that it’s fun to escape from reality. Just make sure that you don’t completely forget about reality when the movie is over.
Or join the crowd and love it. That’s also an option, and probably easier.
Being derivative is not some clever pomo statement — it’s just derivative.
Source: Critics are going too easy on Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Vox
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Star Wars Stuff To 3D Print
Remember when you had to go out and actually buy Star Wars toys? (Or any toys for that matter?) No more! Now you can 3D print all sorts of Star Wars stuff at home.
Provided you have a 3D printer of course.
ZDNet has a list of 20 Star Wars trinkets you can download and 3D print now. As in NOW. Immediately. (Again, assuming you have a 3D printer. If you don’t, you can’t.)
This one is our favorite.
Luke come over to the dual side. Together we will fill the universe with two colored objects.
Heh. It’s funny cuz it’s true.
I don’t know where this stuff falls in the realm of copyright, since these are all items that I could see being sold at ThinkGeek or any number of similar retailers. But that is not for us to decide. The full list has a bunch of extremely nifty items, so if you’ve got a 3D printer, odds are good that you’ll find something there that you want. With the new Star Wars movie now in theaters, it’d be fun to surprise the kids with something special that they can’t get in stores, like the Luke/Vader switch plate pictured above.
And of course, may the force be with you. Always.
Source: Star Wars Switch Cover Plate Episode 2: Attack of the Dual Extruders by Shapespeare – Thingiverse
H/T ZDNet
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Max Von Sydow Cast in Star Wars Episode VII
The cast for Star Wars Episode VII (I can almost write that without cringing — almost) has been announced. One of the merry band will be played by none other than Max Von Sydow.
I’m a big Max Von Sydow fan. Not a fanatic, but his presence in a film lends a certain something. This comment posted by Owmyback (great username) on io9 somewhat echoes my reaction:
Am I the only one who read this and was like “Max von Sydow is still alive?”
My thought was more along the lines of, “Max Von Sydow is still alive. Cool. And he’s going to be in the next Star Wars movie. Also cool.”
io9 commenter CindyLouCthulhu (again, great username) added the following:
The Seventh Seal must have been a true story. Dude clearly beat Death at chess.
Here is the rest of the cast that was announced today on StarWars.com:
Actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow will join the original stars of the saga, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker in the new film.
Peter Mayhew played/will continue to play Chewbacca, Kenny Baker was/is R2D2, and Anthony Daniels played/will play C3P0. Here’s a video interview of him for your viewing pleasure:
And just for yucks, a compilation of The Best of C3P0:
So? Are we excited? Do we care? Are we becoming overwhelmed by the amount of entertainment in the world today? The answer to all of these questions is… a little bit.
Star Wars Episode VII Cast Announced (io9)
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