Tag Archives: Star Wars
Movies in Bed: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Post by Mark T. Locker.
Guess what’s out on video?!? Or, I guess in this decade I should say: guess what’s now available from iTunes?!? That’s right! The newest Star Wars movie, the one intended to get the bad taste of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones out of our collective mouths. Seeing as the big-screen release grossed over 2 billion dollars (!) I’d say that it was successful.
I’m inclined to agree. If there is a chance you actually haven’t seen The Force Awakens and you enjoyed the original trilogy, there is no good reason not to watch the movie. It honors the spirit of the original without relying too heavily on them to carry it forward. One of the biggest complaints against George Lucas is that in his later work he let CGIs do all the heavy lifting, even egregiously adding computer-generated parts into the original movies, something nobody was asking for and few likely approved of. J.J. Abrams went back to the series’ roots, insisting on building sets for everything, including the massive Millennium Falcon. Despite the improvements in CGI technology, nothing can beat the real thing.
The story is set some years after Return of the Jedi, and focuses on a disenchanted Stormtrooper named Finn, a junk scavenger named Rey and an adorable but not annoying droid named BB-8 which they turned into the greatest toy ever. The new baddie, Kylo Ren and his pals have a giant laser they want to use to destroy everything. The story is a little too much like the plot of A New Hope but if that’s the worst thing about this movie, then that’s saying a lot. Now that it’s on DVD you will have the luxury of watching it from the comfort of your own bed, and if you fall asleep in your popcorn no one will know but you.
Movies in Bed: Star Wars is baaaack!
Post by Mark T. Locker.
If you or a loved one is a fan of any or all of the Star Wars universe, chances are you have been following the events that have begun since Disney acquired the franchise in 2012. Of course, there are a whole bunch of new movies coming out which is a great way to make a zillion dollars for the company. Seriously, they could have a movie about Han and Leia enjoying a quiet domestic life and it would make $100 million. But now there is another addition to the Star Wars universe. The Disney Channel has begun airing a new series called Star Wars: Rebels which is a computer-animated cartoon series, reminiscent of the Clone Wars cartoons. This one is set after the Revenge of the Sith and before the original movies, A New Hope. The first episode is called Sparks of Rebellion. This series promises to tell the story of what happens between when the Empire takes over the galaxy, or universe, or whatever, and when the Rebel Alliance fights back.
You get to meet a bunch of new droids, aliens, and humanoids. I’ll bet you that there will be a whole mess of new toys coming out soon, probably just in time for Christmas. It airs at 9 pm, which is good as it is clearly aimed at older viewers. One character mentions kicking someone’s a—and there is no shortage of killing. It’s interesting to see these cartoons which are actually way more violent than the first three movies ever were; everything there was mostly theatrical. I think this cartoon shows promise and is definitely a good time-filler while we await the next Star Wars movie, but is definitely geared toward kids who are a bit older.
