Continued from yesterday.

I sat in the darkened theater in 1999, surrounded by other Star Wars fans (and their loved ones they dragged to the opening showing), and watched my beloved sci-fi/fantasy universe crumble. In a word, this latest movie, The Phantom Menace, the first prequel to the original story, absolutely SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKED.

At the end of the movie, I sat there among a few hundred folks, and thought, Oh my God. That was awful.

But a woman in the seat right in front of me exclaimed in happiness, “It was just like the first movies!” This exactly opposite reaction from someone threw me off a few moments. How could anyone like that crap? How could they liken it to the first movies?

I went back and watched the movie again a week later, in hopes that maybe I just missed things, or wasn’t in the right frame of mind the first time I saw it. Nope. It still SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKED.

I’ve seen bits and pieces of it again since the theatrical release (I’ve not rented it or in any way paid money or wasted otherwise useful time on it) and I still totally hate the movie. I went to see the prequel-sequel movies Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005) totally out of a sense of completion rather than out of a desire to see the rest of the story. The story didn’t get any better. George Lucas can’t and shouldn’t be allowed to write a script. He’s got great ideas for a story, but his scripting is atrocious.

By this time in my life, I had two children – sons whom I expect to grow up into fine geeks like myself. My 8 year old is currently all into Star Wars, but unfortunately for me, the Star Wars story has progressed further than I’m up on, and in directions I’m no longer interested in following.

The story for Star Wars has gotten so damnably complicated with the prequel trilogy and the Clone Wars storyline. Good guys are bad guys (Rebel Alliance – Separatists), bad guys are good guys (stormtroopers – clone troopers), plots are backwards (Darth Vader returns to being Anakin Skywalker – Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader), and the story is riddled with plot holes and canon inconsistency. George Lucas has thoroughly muddied up the Star Wars saga between the generations.

Right now, for my sons, the story of Star Wars comes from The Clone Wars. The characters and plots they know come from that one animated movie, which is based on and takes place between Episodes II and III. It’s very strange to say this, but this mixing up of the saga story has really put a generational gap in the series.

I’ve learned most of the names and characters and technology and mythology of the latest incarnations of the Star Wars tale, but they aren’t mine. Contemporary Star Wars is not my Nostalgic Star Wars. There is a strong boundary between the SW I grew up loving and playing and the version my kids are growing up loving and playing. To make it even odder, I have a great repulsion for the most recent SW compared to the great reverence for the old SW.

So, I guess my relationship with Star Wars can be summed up as “love/hate.” But I had to write all the above and previous before I could actually come to see this as it is.

Bullgrit

I was 10 years old when Star Wars was released to theaters in 1977. I was thrilled, enchanted, and excited. Although the movie itself was great, I think what really, truly hooked me was the toys. Being able to play with the characters and ships from the movie was a big part of what pushed Star Wars from very cool movie to cultural phenomenon.

Then The Empire Strikes Back came out in 1980 (I was 13). More movie greatness and even more toys. The regular characters came with new costumes, and there were all new characters — my favorite being Boba Fett, which I had to order by sending in proofs of purchase from other toys. This movie not only built on what we had seen and learned about the Star Wars Universe in the first movie (which became known as Episode IV, A New Hope, instead of just Star Wars), but it ended with an obvious to-be-continued plot.

Then came the final movie, Return of the Jedi, in 1983 (I was 16). This was my favorite of the three movies — I loved the emotional battle between Luke and the Emperor and Darth Vader in the second Death Star’s throne room. Vader: “Sister! So, you have a twin sister. . . . If you will not turn to the dark side, then perhaps she will.”

Around this time (mid 80s) I read Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, the first non-movie Star Wars novel (published 1978), and the Han Solo Adventures trilogy of novels (published 1979). I was totally steeped in the Star Wars mythology. Through the 1990s I read another dozen of the then expanding list of Star Wars Universe novels: the Thrawn trilogy, the Black Fleet Crises trilogy, some of the X-Wing series, and a few more individual novels.

By the late 90s, I had watched or read pretty much everything there was to watch or read about Star Wars. I was not a fanatic about Star Wars, but I was a true fan. I wasn’t reading the books to keep up with the latest in the ST Universe, I just really liked the stories — they had some great authors. The fact that these great stories were continuing with the characters and universe and mythology that I’d originally come to love at age 10 was just icing on the cake.

But the number of new books coming out each following year was increasing faster than my ability or desire to read them all. But I was still very well versed in the core of the SW Universe. I loved talking about the stories, the characters, the technology, the mythology, and the little bits of trivia with other like-minded SW geeks.

Then, in 1999, the next Star Wars movie came out — a prequel to the first three movies. I was extremely excited. I was then working with a bunch of other Star Wars fans (well, 3 of the 6 of us) and we were all excited to see the movie.

To be continued. . .

Bullgrit

Viewed: Theater

I saw this opening weekend, but I’m just now getting around to commenting on it — surely you don’t wait for my review/comments before going to see a movie. In a broad stroke: I loved it.

I even think the movie is better than the graphic novel. The movie cut out all the extraneous stuff, condensed the stories to their essences, and wrapped up the ending in a much more logical way. Nothing necessary is missing from the movie, and a lot of the unnecessary from the novel was wisely left out.

The actors were spot on, near perfect choices (although movie Dreiberg is in better physical shape than novel, retired hero Dreiberg), and their performances were damn good and accurate, too. I actually came to like The Comedian, even though he’s still a very bad man. I liked Rorschach a lot in the book, but I absolutely loved him in the movie.

Other than the cut out bits (thank goodness), the movie is pretty close to being a frame-by-frame duplicate of the graphic novel panels. What may look like something gratuitous or meaningless to a watcher who hasn’t read the novel, is a pretty cool and honorable image taken right from the pages.

I went back a week later and watched this movie a second time. The second time felt a little long in places, but I didn’t feel that the first time. I can’t think of anything bad in this movie. And the only things different from the book are better in the movie.

I’ll buy this on DVD when it comes out. And that’s saying something, because I only have about a dozen movies on DVD. I don’t buy movies unless they really strike a cord with me and I want to see them again and again.

Bullgrit

Viewed: DVD

After the Star Wars prequels, I lost a lot of interest (maybe all interest) in any Star Wars story taking place in the pre-New Hope time. George Lucas just so terribly screwed up the story and characters and well, everything, that watching the movies actively annoys me. Yes, I really dislike the three prequel movies that much.

I’ve mentioned that Calfgrit8 has seen A New Hope with me — we still need to see Empire and Jedi — and recently he asked to see Clone Wars. “My friends have seen it,” he told me.

So I rented it and watched it Saturday night. I wanted to see if it was suitable for an 8-year-old. I sat at my computer with my headphones, after everyone else was asleep, and I watched this movie. I determined that the content was okay for Calfgrit8 to see.

Probably 70% of the movie time is showing warfare, but the only deaths are robots and faceless clone troopers. There’s no blood and guts.

But, there’s also no attachment for me. It didn’t move me at all. It was just a lifeless, shell of a film, to me. In fact, after watching the first 30 minutes (out of 98 total minutes), I started fast forwarding. I’d fast forward a couple minutes, watch a minute, then fast forward several minutes, watch a minute, then skip to the next chapter, watch a minute, etc.

So Sunday afternoon, while Calfgrit4 took his midday nap, Calfgrit8 and I watched this movie together. For me, watching this was like watching the boys’ What’s New Scooby Doo videos — nothing of interest to me whatsoever. But for CG8, he loved it. He *loved* it. I can see why he loved it, and I figured he would judging from the bits I watched the night before.

I’m glad he got to see it. I’m glad he enjoyed it. And I’m glad I was with him when he experienced it. But it showed that prequel Star Wars is completely dead to me. The only emotion it got out of me was . . . well, I don’t think it got any emotion out of me.

There were many parts that had me rolling my eyes — the clone troopers leaving cover to charge into the robot army and fight literally muzzle to muzzle; the battle robots having vocal personalities that were stupid for comic relief; Anakin Skywalker being so damned aggressive and ornery, yet so highly thought of among the Jedi masters; a very young padawan learner being so powerful in the force — that I wanted to shoot the computer monitor and TV screen with a blaster.

Basically, this movie is purely for Star Wars fans under 12 years old. If that was the intention for the film, (and I suspect it was), then it is successful at hitting it target.

Bullgrit