Tag: #StarWars

  • Personal Review: Raiders of the Lost Ark (Part 2)

    This will be a series, as I showed this movie to my daughter for the first time over the weekend, and I will share her reactions to it.

    Raiders of the Lost Ark is my favorite action movie, in case you missed that from yesterday. This weekend, we decided it was time to watch the movie with my daughter. She is six and a half, which was about the age that I first saw Raiders. I had a few reservations about showing the film to her, and was also curious how she would react to a movie that has no CGI in it.

    Now, we are a nerdy, sci-fi/fantasy media devouring family. We have a video of our daughter at about six months old, totally mesmerized by the opening of Doctor Who, so we started early with this kid. She has watched all the Star Wars movies, all the Marvel Movies, the Batman movies (1989 to 1997,) she saw the new Star Trek, and Star Trek II. I feel that we have done a good job of allowing her to see movies that we feel inspire her imagination, and, with the exception of the Batman movies, show that doing the right thing is the right thing to do.

    About a year ago, at the start of the pandemic, I showed the kid the first ten minutes of Raiders, more or less to gage here temperature on the film. She wasn’t too impressed. I just chalked it up to that not everything I like the kid will like. Then over the weekend, as we were trying to find a movie to watch, the kid brought up that Raiders was my favorite movie, and she wanted to watch it. (I do have a Raiders poster in the office, and I own an Indiana Jones Fedora, but I’m not obsessed or anything.)

    This time around, she got into it pretty quickly, though she did think Indy had a lasso, and not a bullwhip. Some of the reservations I had were about the amount of violence in the movie. Unlike all the other action movies we had shown her where the violence is bloodless, characters in Raiders bleed when shot and punched. I would say that Spielberg’s Nazi rule was in full effect with my kid. As Spielberg said, no one feels bad if a Nazi gets hurt or killed. As for the stuntman/practical effects, she was totally on board; from the snakes, to the plane, to the truck scene, she was all in. I won’t lie, that did make me feel good that my kid hasn’t been warped by CGI.

    And then the melting face part came. As the scene started and the Angel of Death appeared, my kid didn’t make a sound. Nazis get shot by God lightening, she was silent. Faces melt and heads explode – she didn’t even cover her eyes. I thought, oh well, this must look fake to her. When I was a kid, it scared me shitless. My kid sat silent all the way to the end. When the credits started to roll, she looked at me and asked, “They just put it in a box and stored it away?” I seemed to remember asking my brothers the same question. Before I could answer that question, she added, “I don’t want to go to bed. The melting faces scared me.”

    Score one for the old special effects.

  • The Mandalorian Season 2 Finale (Stupid Fanboys!, Not a Review)

    CLEARLY!!! THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS!!!

    I have stated many times before that I dislike fanboys. (Oh, you know who I am talking about.) But I would also like to add that I have a new level disgust with a new emerging fanboy; The Middle-Aged Fanboy.

    Let me tell you a story.

    This past Friday was the Season 2 finale of The Mandalorian. My wife works, I take care of the kid, so we don’t watch the episode when it debuts early in the morning. We check it out after the kid goes to bed at night. This means that on Fridays, the wife and I try very hard to stay off social media for even the hint of a spoiler. All was going well this Friday.

    Then, a good friend of ours birthday was on this Friday, and his wife organized a huge Zoom group to wish him happy birthday. The group was made up of theatre professionals, and tech people. A strange grouping, but we all get along well, as we are all sci-fi nerds; STAR WARS, Dr WHO, STAR TREK, you name it.

    So, as we are chatting, our birthday friend tells us that his wife surprised him with a PS5 as a gift. Then another person, and I won’t call him a friend, then said, “Was it as big a surprise as Luke Skywalker on The Mandalorian?”

    The chat exploded into two camps, those that had seen the episode and those that hadn’t, but on the whole, everyone booed that guy.

    He spoiled it. He ruined all the fun, and he knew it. That was the point; the make people upset, and miss out on the fun. And that was executed by that annoying middle-aged fanboy. Yes, that guy who’s only argument is that, “It wasn’t as good as the original.” Well, no shit. Nothing is ever going to make you feel like the eight-year-old again, so please stop punishing the rest of us for your sad realization.

    Now, the realization that I had after I watched the episode was that so many people working on the production of The Mandalorian did a great job at keeping this secret. Think of all the crew, and editors, and production assistants. They all knew that they had something fun under their hats and they kept it quiet. I appreciate all their hard work on that.

  • Oops… No Writing Yesterday

    I didn’t meet my goal yesterday, which was writing. I was able to journal, but I didn’t complete a blog, nor did I work on any fiction.

    But I spent a huge amount of time with my kid. We made chicken stock in the morning, and read books together in the afternoon. We were able to go to the playground, and draw pictures together while drinking hot chocolate. In the evening, we made dinner, and watched “Star Wars.” It was a very fulfilling day.

    Being locked at home al the time, I get in my head that I should be making huge strides, and racking up enormous word counts daily. And maybe I should if I want to have a career.

    But I don’t want to miss this time with my daughter. I mean, I’m teaching her to read. Helping her sound out words and become confident with her ability to learn. It really is a gift to be with her at this time, and to learn how learning works.

  • The Child and The Mandalorian

    I feel the need to talk about Baby Yoda. Only because everyone else is.

    And when I say Baby Yoda, it’s really The Mandalorian I want to talk about.

    (I don’t think this is a review of the show, but more of expression of my reaction to the show.)

    Watching The Mandalorian reminds me of watching Kung-Fu, or The Fugitive, or even The Hulk, as a kid. Those were shows where the hero traveled from town to town getting in adventures, only to have to move on to the next town, leaving his new friends behind. All of these shows were fun, offered some basic morality lesson which reinforced society’s sense of making things right.

    I do like the decision to release new episodes on Friday. That also makes me feel a little like a kid again; waiting to get home to watch the new show. Having all weekend to talk to my friends about it. X-Files was like that. (Game of Thrones I thought used Sunday nights well to it’s story telling. For most adults, Sunday night comes with the dread feeling of having to go back to work. Dread of coming events drove that show.)

    And then there is Baby Yoda. Or as I just found out, is called “The Child” by Disney when describing the show. It is kind of like icing on the Star Wars cake. I really don’t feel the need to pile on, as others have done a much better job than me talking about him.

    What I will say is that the to characters really aren’t very original. It the “Man with No Name” protecting a baby, and did we all not see it coming. Yet, here we and we pretty much love it. And that is what makes me say that there is nothing wrong with just being entertaining from time to time.

  • New Star Wars Trailer

    My kid is crazy into Star Wars right now. I hope it lasts the rest of her life, but I will take the enjoyment that we are both getting out of the movies. And books. And cartoons. And TV shows. And all of the other things that Disney wants to release.

    Just as it happens, last night I was watching a documentary on the making of the original trilogy, so seeing he new trailer this morning just made everything come full circle. And here I am, watching this new trailer that seems to be an attempt to tie all 9 movies together as one giant narrative. Regardless of how the last movie is, and it doesn’t really matter – we will all go and see it – there are now nine movies telling a story that everyone can’t seem to get enough of.

    Why do I keep coming back to Star Wars? Empire Strikes Back was the first movie I ever saw in the theatre at five years old. I can still remember the excitement and fear, and thrill of sitting in a packed theatre with my dad and brothers, sharing that experience of witnessing that movie. What I took away from that movie, and still take away from it, is that you always go to bat for your friends, and you have to face your fears.

    Loyalty and courage.

    And here is the new Star Wars trailer…