The Road to Episode Infinity: December 2016

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

100th Post

In October of 2012 it was announced that George Lucas had sold Lucasfilm to Disney. Shortly after that announcement, this blog was born.

Now it is December 2016, four years later, and 2 Disney Star Wars films have been released to the public. Oh, how far we've come.

In my 100^th blog post, I want to take a moment to reflect on all the ground I’ve covered so far in this blog. I have experimented with a lot of things that I'm proud of. I've tried Podcasting, Live-blogging, Video-blogging, and even some fan-fiction. I've had fun, but most importantly, I have brought together a community of people to discuss everything that is Star Wars.

Year 1: The Hidden History of Star Wars
In the first year of this blog, I focused on the “Hidden History” of Star Wars. All the little secrets behind the making of the films and the expanded universe.

-Crimson Empire - http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2013/12/crimson-empire.html
-Invasion - http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2014/01/invasi.html

-Legacy - http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2014/01/star-wars-legacy.html
-Vector - http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2014/02/star-wars-vector.html
-Legacy Volume 2 - http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2014/03/legacy-volume-2-death-of-dark-horse.html
-Infinities - http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2014/03/what-if.html

May the Fourth Specials
These May the 4^th Specials were the closest my blog ever got to fan fiction:

2013- Rewriting the Prequels
Episode I - The Saga Begins - http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2013/05/may-fourth-trilogy-re-written.html
Episode II - The Clone War - http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2013/05/may-mayo-be-with-you-episode-ii.html
Episode III - Rise of the Sith - http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2013/05/episode-iii-remake-rise-of-sith.html

2014- Recasting Star Wars

Prequel Trilogy 70s Casting - http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2014/05/recasting-trilogy.html
Original Trilogy 90s Casting - http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2014/05/recasting-star-wars-original-trilogy.html
Sequel Trilogy Casting- http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2014/05/recasting-trilogy.html

2015- Genre-Bending the Original Trilogy
Samurai New Hope- http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2015/05/a-new-hope-as-samurai-film.html
Western Empire Strikes Back - http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-empire-strikes-west.html
Pirate Return of the Jedi - http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2015/05/return-of-jedi-as-pirate-film.html

Star Wars vs. Star Trek
A Seven part series comparing the virtues of two Sci-Fi franchises, and what sets them apart.

Aliens & Robots - http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2014/06/star-wars-vs-star-trek-part-1-of-7.html
Human Characters- http://roadto7.blogspot.com/2014/06/star-wars-vs-star-trek-part-2-of-7.html

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

The Death of a Princess

Carrie Fisher is dead. I see a lot of people online not able to get past these four words. It’s obvious that Fisher meant a lot to generations of fandom. But why?

I’ve spent a lot of time on this blog writing about the hundreds of perfect things that the 1977 Star Wars movie got right, but I haven’t yet mentioned Leia.

Leia is called a Princess, but she is not a Disney Princess. She is smart, diplomatic, sexy and fierce. Leia was a strong female action hero, before that was even a thing, and she does it effortlessly. Fisher was able to be all these things, just by being herself.

Perhaps fandom took Leia for granted and perhaps now we are just realizing what a world without Carrie Fisher means. She is the first of the “Big Three” actors of the original trilogy that we have lost. Perhaps we assumed that since she was the youngest and female, she would be with us for a long time. Perhaps the world just wasn’t ready to lose her.

Fisher will return to big screens next winter with Episode VIII. We will witness her final portrayal of Princess Leia. As for Episode IX in 2019… there have been confirmations that Leia was supposed to be a part of this story. Perhaps, in this weird reality we now live in, Disney will find some way to resurrect Fisher’s likeness and wrap up Leia’s story in Episode IX. Perhaps not. Time will tell.

For now we can do nothing but brood and reflect and come to terms with hard truths. Carrie Fisher is dead.

Friday, December 16, 2016

One Man’s Review of Rogue One

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

This is my personal, initial, and early feelings after seeing “Rogue One” last night. I realize that my feelings can and will change on multiple viewings of the film and that other people are going to have different perspectives than me.

The Good

There is a lot to like in this movie. Rogue One, first and foremost, is an experiment. Disney is asking themselves: “How can we make a Star Wars film that doesn’t follow the normal rules of a Star Wars film”. Rogue One subtracts opening crawls and fancy transitions from the Star Wars formula and adds captions to show setting and flashback sequences. Let's be clear on this: I think experimentation is a good thing. This particular experiment both succeeded in some ways and failed in others.

One way it succeeded were the action sequences. The Battle of Scarif harkens beck to everything we loved about The Battle of Hoth and The Battle of Endor. The third act of the film, for me, was the act that screamed “This is Star Wars”!

The Bad

A lot of people are saying the tone of the movie is too dark. I disagree with this statement. I think the real problem stems from the characters. For a movie that is supposed to be about “Hope”, these characters don’t seem to have a lot of it.

To me, good Star Wars characters should be Memorable, Likable, and Iconic. I thought that Rey, Finn, and Poe were perfect examples of this type of character in The Force Awakens. The characters in Rogue One however are only semi-memorable, likable-enough and not-so-iconic. I doubt it’s the fault of the actors, but more likely the script they had to work from. The characters in this film seemed like they weren’t quite sure how they fit into the Star Wars universe. There seemed to be a lack of confidence in these characters. The notable exceptions to this is K-2SO and Krennic. I thought they were both- Memorable, Likable, and Iconic.

The Ugly

The worse part about Rogue One for me is that it sometimes falls into the same traps as the Prequels, especially in its dealings with classic trilogy storylines and characters. The question some people are asking is “What is the point”? and “Did this really need to be made”?

The plot of this entire film fits inside of the opening crawl to the original 1977 Star Wars film. At some points this film answers questions that weren’t even asked, such as, “How did Princess Leia end up with the Death Star plans”. Sometimes these answers seem to be excuses for the original trilogy, such as, “The Death Star was so venerable because it was purposely built that way,”

The additions of Vader and Leia (and Dr. Evazan / Ponda Baba) into this plot can be seen as gimmicky fan-service (which is sometimes okay).

Final Thoughts

I guess time will tell how significant and memorable Rogue One will be. I think Disney should continue to experiment in breaking from format. However, as a lifelong Star Wars fan I think I am always going to like the episodic format better than any prequels or break-from-format films. In short, Force Awakens, just feels more Star-Warsy to me than Rogue One does.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Digital Doubles!

In my past post I lamented a foreseeable future where original Star Wars actors could never return to Star Wars films because they were dying off.

How wrong I was.

Tonight we saw digital doubles of classic characters such as Grand Moff Tarkin and Princess Leia.

Peter Cushing, who portrays Grand Moff Tarkin in the 1977 film Star Wars, died in 1994. He was resurrected in 2016 by very convincing and expensive CGI animation. I guess I knew this is where film was heading eventually, but I didn't know it could be done right now, this effectively. Tarkin had a lot of screen time. How many millions were spent?

Another surprise we received at the closing seconds of the film was Princess Leia. I mean, this is the Carrie Fisher we all know and love, somehow resurrected from the grave... okay Carrie Fisher isn't dead, but you know what I mean.

I think I'll save my review for the film for a later date, but this one element is impressive, promising, and maybe a little worrying.

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Darth Vader Immortal

Darth Vader.

The most iconic movie villain of the 20^th century will return to our screens in one week. I have to admit that I’ve been trying to stay spoiler free with Rogue One, so I have no idea how much Vader will actually appear in the film. I think I only realized yesterday that James Earl Jones was returning for voice work. I mean, I assumed as much, but how much dialogue will Vader actually get in this film?

In Revenge of the Sith, Jones got to spout out three lines of dialogue- less than 30 words in total, something to do with Padme’s death.

I’m not ashamed to admit that in my personal head canon Hayden Christiansen’s Anakin Skywalker from the prequels (and the Vader at the end of Revenge of the Sith) has nothing to do with the Vader we saw in the Original Trilogy. What I mean to say is that, I accept the basic storyline of the prequels, I just can’t imagine that Christiansen’s whiny, bitchy Anakin is really inside of classic Star Wars Darth Vader. Something in my brain just does not allow this to be the case.

Therefore, for me (and probably other people) this is the first time we are getting real Darth Vader on screen since 1983. Hopefully they don’t screw up this time around.

More importantly this may be the last time that Vader is voiced by James Earl Jones, who is now 85.

There are going to be a lot of lasts in the next few years. Erik Bauersfield, who voiced Admiral Ackbar in Return of the Jedi, got to spout a few lines of dialogue in The Force Awakens. He passed away shortly after Episode VII released at the age of 93. Kenny Baker passed away a few months after Bauersfield at the age of 81. Frank Oz is now 72, so fans can only hope for a reappearance of Yoda in the next few years. John Williams is now 84, Peter Mayhew is 72 and Anthony Daniels is 70. How many more chances will we get to hear Daniels as C3-PO?

Still we have to remember that each reappearance of these characters by the original actor is a gift. If Lucas hadn’t have sold his company to Disney, we might have had to wait for Lucas (72) to pass away before being gifted more Star Wars films. And we probably wouldn’t have had another Harrison Ford Indiana Jones movie either. Harrison Ford (74) is planning on filming the Spielberg (69) directed film at some point in the next couple of years.

Of course there are the fans who could care less if we got more Yoda or 3-P0 or Ackbar or Vader in future Star Wars films. Some fans want new characters. Other fans are okay with characters being re-casted (such as Han and Lando for the 2018 film).

The uncertain thing about the future of Star Wars is that we don’t know which classic characters will be remembered and which characters will fade off into obscurity. Fandom is going to evolve. In 50 years from now, will people even remember Greedo or Admiral Ackbar or Jar Jar Binks? (Let’s hope Jar Jar Binks fades into obscurity)

Vader, though. Vader will be long remembered. Vader will be re-cast as a new voice actor long after James Earl Jones is gone. Darth Vader (like Bram Stoker’s Dracula) will haunt the dreams of children for generations to come. For our children and our children's children he will represent the power of the dark side.