Star Wars Fans

[steve_bank]

On cable the entire set of movies plays periodically. On a given day or week Star Wars is playing somewhere on cable.

Have you tired of the original 3 movies?

 

[Tom Sawyer]

I don’t know how one could tire of them.

They are eminently rewatchable.

 

[Goodchild]

I would honestly rather rewatch Solo right now. I've just seen the original trilogy so many times and I really liked Solo. In that vein, I'd really like to see more NFU Star Wars films.

 

[Underseer]

I would have been around 9 years old when I saw the original in a Tokyo theater. It was in English with Japanese subtitles. Like every other nerd of my age, it blew me away, and Star Wars fandom consumed my life for many years. Once the movies were released on VHS, I rewatched them endlessly.

Then the DVD technology was announced. Long before the format was released, I was very interested in it because it represented a huge leap forward in home theater, and the tech on desktop computers would have to improve a lot to handle playing DVDs. I was fanatically devoted to the format long before it came out. I don't think I've ever anticipated a new technology that much.

There were a lot of people involved in hammering out the DVD standard because nobody wanted to suffer through another format war (except Circuit City, who ultimately destroyed themselves trying to offer a terrible competing format).

During that time, George Lucas tried to get the relevant committee to make THX standard for all DVDs. If that decision had been made, George Lucas would have received royalties from every DVD disc and player made. The committee rejected his proposal and did not make THX a requirement. Lucas threw a hissy fit, and then announced that he would not be releasing any of his movies on the new format.

At first I was devastated.

Over time, I learned to live without Star Wars.

A video rental store near me had DVDs for rent right away, so I had access to just about every new movie released on the format back in the day when there weren't that many movies available. I eagerly watched as many as I could. Every VHS cassette that I owned gathered dust and didn't get watched again. I resented George Lucas. He was clearly trying to damage the entire format by refusing to release his movies.

By the time Lucas started allowing his movies to appear on DVD, I didn't care anymore. I was used to not watching the movies.

Eventually, I was at my brother's house and decided to watch his copy of the original 1977 movie. I was horrified to discover that it wasn't as good as I remembered. My opinion of the movie stayed the same from the age 9 until whatever time Lucas started having a hissy fit with the standards committee.

If you think about it, tha'ts not normal. Opinions about a movie should change as you age, but my opinion didn't change at all until I stopped watching it, after which it changed a lot.

The only thing I can figure is that by watching those movies so regularly, I had somehow caused my opinion of the movies to remain static from childhood straight into adulthood, a time that otherwise involved great change.

Anyway, when I stopped watching for years then came back, suddenly I couldn't help noticing how horrifyingly awful the dialog was. I could clearly see the imitation of Kurosawa and the very rigid use of Joseph Campbell's monomyth. The themes were incoherent to the point where I wonder if he even thought about themes while making those movies, or if everything he did focused on narrative, pacing, and slavish devotion to the most literal possible interpretation of the monomyth.

Mind you, by the time all of this happened, it was long after the huge disappointment of the prequel trilogy.

Thank goodness for the current trilogy. I feel like a 9 year old again, the themes aren't incoherent and self-contradicting, the dialog isn't as awful, they correct several problematic themes of the original (e.g. elitism), but it still has good pacing, nice narrative flow, and excellent action. The current trilogy is pretty much my favorite incarnation of Star Wars; everything that made JJ Abrams wrong for Star Trek made him right for a director/producer of Star Wars if you ask me.

 

[James Brown]

I've gotten into fierce arguments with other people about this, so I'm looking for more input.

It comes down to what I remember vs what other people say really happened.

Turn on any DVD or even VHS cassette of Star Wars (the first movie released in 1977) and the first words you'll see in the opening crawl are "EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE" or something similar.

But I too was 9 years old in 1977, and I saw Star Wars in the theater, and there was no mention of a fourth episode. The opening scene was just "STAR WARS". I distinctly recall the odd numbering of movies didn't occur until The Empire Strikes Back, in which the opening crawl displayed "EPISODE V". I remember movie critics having to explain why the second Star Wars movie was labeled number five. It was only then that the notion of three trilogies was floated. My schoolmates and I debated endlessly about how the first and third trilogy would play out. We even spun silly theories such as the children of Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher playing the kids of Han Solo and Leia Organa.

But like I said, people have sworn up and down that in May of 1977, audiences everywhere saw "EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE" and no on batted an eye. Which makes zero sense to me. Star Wars was the first Star Wars movie, and no one--George Lucas included--knew that it was going to be the smash hit that it was. Reportedly he rewrote plot points on the theory that the first movie would be a dud and no more would ever be made.

So am I completely out of my head? Please explain why the first major movie created by a guy almost no one had heard of would begin calling itself Episode IV.

 

[DrZoidberg]

On cable the entire set of movies plays periodically. On a given day or week Star Wars is playing somewhere on cable.

Have you tired of the original 3 movies?

I'm a Star Wars fan. Darth Vader is my spirit animal. With my ex I used to don the helmet and send her selfies whenever she was late to coming to my place. Never got old. I have the dialogue memorised in the first three movies, even in the alien languages, and R2D's beeps. The George Lucas CGI updates re-releases is a trauma that I'm still in therapy to over-come. I'm fine with the prequels. Yes, I think they're shitty. But I like that George Lucas takes risks. He's not interested in fan service. Which is brave and cool. But didn't work out this time around.

I'm also fine with Disney taking over the franchise. The Force awakens was the lamest and laziest fan service product ever devised. But it's fine, since the prequells were zero fan service. Rogue One was finally a decent Star Wars movie since Return of the Jedi. I have not seen last Jedi yet. Nor Solo. I'm a Star Wars fan who is not in a hurry.

 

[thebeave]

I've gotten into fierce arguments with other people about this, so I'm looking for more input.

It comes down to what I remember vs what other people say really happened.

Turn on any DVD or even VHS cassette of Star Wars (the first movie released in 1977) and the first words you'll see in the opening crawl are "EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE" or something similar.

But I too was 9 years old in 1977, and I saw Star Wars in the theater, and there was no mention of a fourth episode. The opening scene was just "STAR WARS". I distinctly recall the odd numbering of movies didn't occur until The Empire Strikes Back, in which the opening crawl displayed "EPISODE V". I remember movie critics having to explain why the second Star Wars movie was labeled number five. It was only then that the notion of three trilogies was floated. My schoolmates and I debated endlessly about how the first and third trilogy would play out. We even spun silly theories such as the children of Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher playing the kids of Han Solo and Leia Organa.

But like I said, people have sworn up and down that in May of 1977, audiences everywhere saw "EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE" and no on batted an eye. Which makes zero sense to me. Star Wars was the first Star Wars movie, and no one--George Lucas included--knew that it was going to be the smash hit that it was. Reportedly he rewrote plot points on the theory that the first movie would be a dud and no more would ever be made.

So am I completely out of my head? Please explain why the first major movie created by a guy almost no one had heard of would begin calling itself Episode IV.

You are right. There was no Episode IV on the opening crawl in the original release in May 1977. However, I remember hearing shortly after the release of SW that George Lucas had in mind a nine episode series (though it wasn't fully fleshed out at that time), and he decided to start with the fourth, as it seemed like the "most filmable" episode at the time, IIRC. Of course, when it became a huge hit, he realized he could continue the saga, so he began numbering the episodes. I remember hearing a lot of things about the series very early on that seemed to have panned out, weirdly enough. I also remember hearing a rumor that Darth Vader wore a mask because he was severely injured from contact with molten lava. Not sure where I heard that...must have been a fan magazine or something as this was long before the WWW days.

There are a lot of documentaries about the early scripts of Star Wars. Han Solo was supposed to be some sort of reptilian at one time, and Luke's last name was Starkiller instead of Skywalker. Also, I think Luke was supposed to be a dwarf once too. Its all very weird.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Perhaps overexposure due to decades of time passing since its release. I'd say the same would be true of any movie I've seen that many times like Airplane. I was born the year it came out, so my exposure to the movies is via the USA network when they'd do a trilogy run, which was like Christmas! These days, the special effects which helped carry a relatively weak plot are hardly the magical effects they once were, so that does steal a bit of the magic.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

I got tired of them. Not sure exactly why, though. Maybe it's because there isn't a lot that can be done with the universe, and it's just a basic good/evil story.

 

[Underseer]

I've gotten into fierce arguments with other people about this, so I'm looking for more input.

It comes down to what I remember vs what other people say really happened.

Turn on any DVD or even VHS cassette of Star Wars (the first movie released in 1977) and the first words you'll see in the opening crawl are "EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE" or something similar.

But I too was 9 years old in 1977, and I saw Star Wars in the theater, and there was no mention of a fourth episode. The opening scene was just "STAR WARS". I distinctly recall the odd numbering of movies didn't occur until The Empire Strikes Back, in which the opening crawl displayed "EPISODE V". I remember movie critics having to explain why the second Star Wars movie was labeled number five. It was only then that the notion of three trilogies was floated. My schoolmates and I debated endlessly about how the first and third trilogy would play out. We even spun silly theories such as the children of Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher playing the kids of Han Solo and Leia Organa.

But like I said, people have sworn up and down that in May of 1977, audiences everywhere saw "EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE" and no on batted an eye. Which makes zero sense to me. Star Wars was the first Star Wars movie, and no one--George Lucas included--knew that it was going to be the smash hit that it was. Reportedly he rewrote plot points on the theory that the first movie would be a dud and no more would ever be made.

So am I completely out of my head? Please explain why the first major movie created by a guy almost no one had heard of would begin calling itself Episode IV.

You are right. There was no Episode IV on the opening crawl in the original release in May 1977. However, I remember hearing shortly after the release of SW that George Lucas had in mind a nine episode series (though it wasn't fully fleshed out at that time), and he decided to start with the fourth, as it seemed like the "most filmable" episode at the time, IIRC. Of course, when it became a huge hit, he realized he could continue the saga, so he began numbering the episodes. I remember hearing a lot of things about the series very early on that seemed to have panned out, weirdly enough. I also remember hearing a rumor that Darth Vader wore a mask because he was severely injured from contact with molten lava. Not sure where I heard that...must have been a fan magazine or something as this was long before the WWW days.

There are a lot of documentaries about the early scripts of Star Wars. Han Solo was supposed to be some sort of reptilian at one time, and Luke's last name was Starkiller instead of Skywalker. Also, I think Luke was supposed to be a dwarf once too. Its all very weird.

This is also what I heard.

But to be honest, 1977 was a long time ago, and my memory is not to be trusted. Can anyone cite a source? What does WIkipedia say?

 

[Underseer]

I got tired of them. Not sure exactly why, though. Maybe it's because there isn't a lot that can be done with the universe, and it's just a basic good/evil story.

I think part of the problem is that Lucas kept demanding that the Extended Universe follow the pattern of the Campbell monomyth as slavishly and literally as he did, when the monomyth is really meant to be a general guide not a list of hard rules, and many of the elements can be metaphorical.

For me, this lead to a certain amount of formulaic samey-ness in the Extended Universe, including increasingly absurd superweapons.

Although Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic found some pretty inventive ways to follow the formula but still offer something fresh.

 

[DrZoidberg]

Here's a Star Wars pet peeve I have. The ultimate symbol of empire evil is the faceless killers called Stormtroopers. Well... they would be if they could hit anything. Anyhoo... the fact that they all look the same creates a bone chilling effect every time they appear. It's cinematically effective. Why oh why do they keep changing the Stormtrooper look? It's increadibly annoying. It takes away from the anti-Nazi/anti-Fascist message of the franchise.

I understand it from a merchandising point of view. They get to sell more merch this way. Still annoying.

Has this annoyed anybody else?

 

[James Brown]

 

[Sarpedon]

Well, the in universe explanation is that it's the same troopers wearing different armor adapted to what they are doing. Presumably the sand troopers would have had not only the pad, but maybe a small cooling unit, perhaps within that big backpack they had.

As for why the troopers change between the original series and the new one is that its been 40 years and military hardware and styling tend to change over time.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

If all the Stormtroopers oppressing your planet look the same, does it really matter if a another division of Stormtroopers oppressing a planet 800 lightyears away have a different look? Galaxies are big fucking places.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Not that much of a Star Wars fan. Star Wars was actually pretty juvenile sci-fi. Jar Jar Binks jumped the shark big time.

 

[ZiprHead]

Well, the in universe explanation is that it's the same troopers wearing different armor adapted to what they are doing. Presumably the sand troopers would have had not only the pad, but maybe a small cooling unit, perhaps within that big backpack they had.

As for why the troopers change between the original series and the new one is that its been 40 years and military hardware and styling tend to change over time.

My brother was in-country in the middle east three months before he got his sand BDUs. First three months wearing his forest greens. Never underestimate the power of bureaucracy.

 

[DrZoidberg]

As for why the troopers change between the original series and the new one is that its been 40 years and military hardware and styling tend to change over time.

Meh... If I wanted realism I wouldn't watch space opera at all. The evil light sabers are red while the good guys are blue or green. That only makes sense cinematically, because it's more effective on the screen. So when it came to lightsabers realism suddenly wasn't top priority. Nah... I think messing with the stormtroppers was just a bad decision. What the stormtroopers represent is so powerful, that seeing them come in ranks is powerful. Messing with a tried and tested recipe is always risky. I don't think it worked for the new stormtroopers.

 

[steve_bank]

Every year an amatueur group puts on scifi eposodes outside ina park. Last summer they did the entire dialogue of the first movie. FoFive or six actors and a couple of musians. Simple costumes and props. R2D2 used a slide wgistle for sound weffects.

About 150 adducts and kids.

It was hilarious. Watching the movie it can be hard to be up the subtle humor and camp tongue in cheek.

He said he used the cowboy movies and serials he watched as a kid for inspiration.

 

[Shake]

If all the Stormtroopers oppressing your planet look the same, does it really matter if a another division of Stormtroopers oppressing a planet 800 lightyears away have a different look? Galaxies are big fucking places.

Not when you have ships which can travel through hyperspace.