Okay – Heresy Alert – IOTW Report

Okay – Heresy Alert

Monday, 14 December 2015, 20:07 BFH Uncategorized 113

I’ll say it. And I’m sure I’ll be crucified.

I was a teen when the first Star Wars came out and I still don’t get it.

I’m not going to say anyone else isn’t entitled to love the franchise, I know it’s very popular. But is there anyone else out there that is totally unmoved by them?

 

113 Comments on Okay – Heresy Alert

  4. I watched it like 35 years ago and clips from the one with the pod racers. My kids got Lego sets for birthdays of Star Wars that I donated to the church after going unopened for a year. I had a lightsaber as a we lad in the 70s, it was a flashlight with a wiffle ball bat on it that made breathing noises. My brother hit me with it and my old man threw it in the trash. That’s all I got.

  5. I have no interest in this franchise. The best of the lot was “Empire Strikes Back” then the series went backwards going from bad to worse to unwatchable.

    I lost all interest in Stars after the 2nd prequel and have no interest in wasting any more time watching another Star Wars movie – even if it free. I just don’t care.

    I have no interest in Star Trek movies or TV series either. Another franchise that has run out of steam.

    I guess I’m franchise curmudgeon – Never watched a Twilight or Hunger Game movie, little interest in Marvel or DC comic movies and I’ll probably give up on James Bond after Daniel Craig.

    Most pop culture strikes me now as empty, shallow and devoid of meaning. It’s all sugar cereal that will leave you hunger and crashed after the initial sucrose rush.

  6. I don’t care anything about the Star Wars movies including the original. I was about 15 when the first one came out and everyone at school was talking about it. We lived about 40 miles from the nearest theater and my parents didn’t waste money (as they saw it) on things like that. I wasn’t one of the cool kids, and in hindsight I thank my parents for that.

    I only watched one of them all the way through and that was because I took my nephew to one in the 90’s and didn’t want to walk out in the middle of it while he was enjoying it. And I never cared anything about Star Trek either.

  7. I was sixteen when that movie came out.Inwas more stoked about driving to the theatre and home again.

    When you’re motoring around at the wheel of a real car for the first time, X-wings and Land Speeders suddenly lose their allure.

  12. I was an adult when the first one came out. I saw it. That was the last
    Movie I saw in a movie theater.

    It’s amazing the mileage they got out of it.

    I think there was one or two more.

  13. I remember being blown away by the effects in the first one. I have not seen the others. I’m planning to see this, at Imax if it it’s released to that chain, primarily for the effects. Interstellar and Gravity were both Imax released and were stunning. I suspect the new film will be amazing.

  14. Never liked or understood the popularity of Star Wars. It’s special effects Kabuki theater without the singing and dancing – makes no sense.
    Star Trek on the other hand, is my favorite sci-fi brand.

  20. Yawn, not interested. It was interesting back then only because it had the latest special effects. Now those effects are a dime a down. Prefer something with a little more story to it and not so lame. I also fully expect a lot of disappointed people when they discover the ton of political correctness that is probably going to be front and center in this latest crapfest. Gee, I bet there will even be the first gay main character in this one.

  22. Wasn’t it just last week that Obama honored George Lucas with the Medal of Arts for his courage and bravery in releasing “Attack of the Clones” saying, “It took a lot of chutzpah to release a film with dialogue so bad that neither Samuel L. Jackson or Natalie Portman could salvage it.” Adding, “And what about that an insipid romance between Anakin and Padmé . . .? Wow! Courage to the tenth degree!”

    Also: Someone needs a copy-editor . . . but I digress.

    Love you Fur, fat fingers and all!

  29. I’ve never seen any of them. I had to google the original release date to figure out what I was doing back then. 1977, I had a 340 Mopar that was turning mid 11’s in the quarter mile and all I did was wrench, race, and chase tail.

  36. Okay, I was 14 when the first one came out. No cable TV then, no internet, too young to get a job, so no cash, girls were all prudes anyhow, and my parents were Nazis. By comparison, it seemed like an escape.

    The Empire Strikes Back is just a great, fun fucking movie. Mostly because Lucas took a pass on directing it. And writing it. He handed it off to a few creative Jews (Lawrence Kasden and Irving Kirschner) and it doesn’t have a dull moment.

    The third one had the teddy bears with the frozen faces. But Princess Leia’s stripper outfit ALMOST made up for it. And I was in college, so we smuggled some beers into the theater and made an afternoon of it.

    Then, they took a long-ass break from making them. I got married to a hot Italian (with a nerdy streak herself) and we partied. And then we bred.

    And just as the next three Star Wars movies started to appear, our like-minded, normal enough, but just sorta nerdy spawn needed us to drive them to and pay for their era of Star Wars movies.

    And it was an awesome bonding experience for the four of us.

    So yeah, I’m a Star Wars fan. It ain’t like I’ve bought tickets already or that I’m waiting outside the theater wearing Depends and sleeping in the elements to be first, but now that my kids are both drinking age, I’m thinking the four of us take Uber to a bar, throw a few back, and check out the show.

    Admit it. Sounds like fun, don’t it?

  37. I equate Star Wars movies to the rocky franchise. let me explain….

    In Rocky and Rocky II, Balboa was semi-retarded. In Rocky III and IV, he miraculously became a deep thinker and articulate. Rocky V he regressed back into his mentally challenged state.

    When you look at the timeline of the STar Wars franchise, it is much of the same but instead of mental retardation it was the technology and Jedi fighting skills which sucked in episodes 4-6 in comparison to that of episodes 1-3. So basically in the land of Star wars, they regressed into a semi-retarded world.

  41. The eight of us (Mom, Dad, and me and my five siblings) paid and went into the theatre.

    After about five minutes, my Mom left in disgust and went out to the station wagon to read her Harlequin Romance novels.

    So we sat through it, twice.

    So you’re not the only one.

  43. I liked the first two Star Wars movies – haven’t seen any after that. The original Star Trek tv show does it for me – I never get tired of them. The first few Star Trek movies were really good too. My brother’s family wanted to geek at the Star Wars store outside of Star Tours in Cal. Disneyland for an hour it seemed – I just wanted to get the hell out of there – nerd overload lol.

  45. I was 12, I was awestruck by the (at the time) cutting edge effects. I’m 50 now and no longer fall for the same effects and cool star-ships. The franchise was forever damaged by the utterly stupid character Jar Jar and (dare I say it) even worse acting in the 1, 2 and 3 movies. I don’t have high hopes for the newest movie and frankly I’ll be waiting for the rental.

  47. I saw the first one in the theater when I was a kid. Watched the second one when it came out. Was disappointed by the third one. Got the original set on VHS and watched them one time. Then lucas lost his mind and I lost interest after that. Haven’t been back since. Now that lucas is a big mouth left wing douchebag I won’t ever give another penny to anything he ever does. Likewise with disney.

  48. I thought it was a fun movie series, at least the first three from the 70s and 80s. The original Star Wars was quite original indeed. The prequel series has been tiresome and tedious. I don’t get the people who make a quasi-religion out of it. I think that takes a serious degree of major dorkitude to get that worked up over any of the shit that Hollywood produces now.

  49. I stand by Kat Timpf’s statement of not wanting to see “nerds poking each other with their nerd sticks”, though I doubt I’ll get the same death threats from angry dorks that she did 🙂 That, and the “Let’s make it a SJW’s dream and cast a black guy in a lead role because that’ll be cool!” crap that JJ Abrams was talking pretty much seals the fate of me ever bothering to watch the new ones.

    I was 4 when the first one came out, was a total geek for all things Star Wars when I was a kid seeing the trilogy, then puberty kicked in a bit later and pretty much made me lose all interest shortly afterward. Everyone I grew up with is pretty much ready to explode waiting for this to come out, and I think they’re confounded by how I simply don’t care.

    Funny thing for me with nostalgia, I always find that there’s so much less lustre seeing something again after many years, and that’s why I don’t care about revisiting Star Wars or most of what I loved as a kid. I’d rather still remember it for the awe and wonder it brought me then vs. the “WTF is with these shitty effects? I can see the strings!” moments I get when I see the Sci Fi stuff I loved 30+ years ago.

  52. I’ll be the contrarian. I saw the first one in theatres when I was seven…I loved it. I saw Empire on opening day. The prequels sucked for the most part. Once you study Joseph Campbell’s works on the power of myth and hero ethos, the first movie really comes alive. It’s a story which has been told and retold countless times in countless cultures around the world…there is something about it which taps into the stories of quest, redemption, heroics, betrayal, etc. which have been foundational in our humanity.

    This episode of Joe and Buzz speaks for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n491e3WFMSk.

    I have tickets for opening night to share it with my two young boys.

    Oh, if you get a chance, the Clone Wars cartoon series was really good…it got seriously dark as it went along, I had to watch all the episodes ahead of time before letting my boys watch it. The writing was very good and the Mortis episodes in season 3 were fantastic.

  53. “Give me an old John Wayne western.” This is essentially what Star Wars is – a western set in space in the future. Young hero looking for his identity. Amoral sidekick who turns out to have redeemable qualities. A couple of other sidekicks who are amusing and frequently clueless or incompetent, but advance the plot when necessary. An evil character with a lot of fungible (and disposable) henchmen. Grizzled old man dispensing his wisdom. Love interest in a dangerous situation (and that runs dangerously close to incest in the first 3 films). Good versus evil with very little ambiguity.

    These aren’t particularly complicated plots, and the stories are told with lots of well done special effects. The original three films were entertaining, and the second set of films was nothing more than the backstories of characters the audience apparently wanted to see more of – primarily Darth Vader. The dialogue was hackneyed at times, none of the actors put in Oscar worthy performances, and some of the characters were cringe worthy (as annoying as Jar Jar Binks was, the Ewoks were like lemon juice on a third degree burn).

    But if I’m going to spend hard earned money at a theater, I want to be entertained – and the Star Wars films did this. The special effects were great (and groundbreaking in the original), and all six films were nothing more than escapist entertainment. But that’s what I generally want in a film I plan to see in the theater, and that’s what the Star Wars franchise typically delivers.

  54. Oh come on, you guys!

    Star Wars is pure nostalgia for me. My 2 best friends and I would dress up as Han, Luke and Leia. We built blasters out of electrical tape, cardboard and paint. Then, we go play in the woods and track down the stormtrooper landing party (my friends’ 2 brothers). Blam!! Blam!! We’d write “deleted” scenes from the movie and then act them out. I had the collectible Star Wars cards and all the posters and used them as reference to draw me and my friends into the picture. These were my first attempts at drawing something that wasn’t a horse. The last drive in movie I have ever been to for a showing of Star Wars, the last theatre it was at before it left town- the stormtroopers and “the good guys” (even though we were girls) sitting on the hood of a station wagon reciting the movie line by line.

    The Star Wars out there now has been hijacked by the millennial geeks who go to every comic convention in costume. It’s not a lifestyle, people. For us, it was imagination…and we grew up!

    I will see the movie sometime. Not sure when though. I have theories.

  55. The other thing that is funny is when other people edit the first films and do a MUCH better job at creating interesting movies than Lucas did. There is “The Phantom Edit” and the “No Cheeze” edits. Both remove JarJar and create much more tension.

    The entire Reddit thread on JarJar being a Sith Master and Lucas chickening out of following through after such blasted reviews of The Phantom Menace is an outstanding theory.

  59. In college a guy I knew loaned me the box set because he couldn’t believe I’d never seen them–and they sat in my hallway closet until I graduated. I ended up seeing him a few years after graduation and passed them back to him–at least I think so because I no longer have them.

    However, I have a 12 year old who is in love with Star Wars and he cannot comprehend how I don’t care about those movies. Gah!!!

  62. I saw the 1st movie in Hicksville LI NY on an IMAX theatre (yes, theatre!) I was stoned along with the rest of my friends. Not many of the audience weren’t. The best part of the movie was 1) it was funny and 2) the aerial raid on the Death Star was like a 2D roller coaster ride. The next 2 movies were very fun to watch but didn’t have the fun-loving punch and freshness of the first. But that’s expected.

  63. There was a 2 DVD set of the “original” Clone Wars animated series with a completely different animation and artwork style. It is really interesting to see different takes on the characters.

  67. I liked the first 3 okay, but not enough to watch them a second time. I saw the first prequel with Jar-Jar Binks and wondered what George Lucas was smoking when he came up with…THAT. Haven’t seen one since and don’t plan to.

  69. Hahaha! Would it help if I told you I just spent 20 minutes re-racking my Olympic plates and cast iron dumbbells after someone in the house forgot common courtesy and left them in a pile after their workout was done? Not cool, not cool.

  71. I only remember liking the Cantina scene. I was 9 at the time and liked the music. I really enjoy Star Trek, but never got into Star Wars. I think the ‘Princess Leia Slave Girl” scene freaked my adolescent sensibilities out when I saw Return of the Jedi. I couldn’t understand why she was in a bikini and a leash. I don’t want to have to explain it to my kids today.

    I will not be seeing the movie at the theater, and I don’t know if I’ll watch it on dvd. Too many other interesting movies I haven’t watched yet on Netflix.

  74. Yea well I bet they were taking selfies of themselves and forgot. Fucking next gen, we are in trouble. I posted here before about some dumb ass and his wife, dumbbell disco trainers (Fucking Cross Fit)’ taking several selfies with guess who in the back ground. I’m not that sharp but I’m not stupid. The old dinasour in the back ground. All fun and games until the old fuck squeezes your head until it pops like a zit. Yea they erased them. I’m not fitting well into the new gym rules.

  75. Awesome. Get this, one of my friends asked me where I was working out as a possible location for a business meeting where we could hit the gym and kill 2 birds as it were…great guy…I said I’d built my own gym…he foolishly suggested that would be great and I should figure-out what workout we should do…hahahaha…(evil laughter)…I have a serious suffer-fest planned for tomorrow night. I’m glad I don’t have to drive home after.

    It’s FairPlay turnaround…he’s a world class/renown climber and has smoked me in previous workouts…nothing better than deep water free-soloing over the north Pacific…it’s cold anytime of year.

  76. When “Star Wars” was in its first theatrical release, I saw it 17 1/2 times. I showed up early at one screening but the female usher let me in early half way through the movie and then I sat through the entire film again.

    I still have all my Star Wars toys BigFurHat. How ’bout you visit and I’ll show you my collection! You’ll “get it” then. ?

  77. It’s just fu*kin’ Space Wizards. Always was. The tragedy is that people way over the age of twelve live their lives for this sh*t. They spend the kids’ college money on pricey grown-up toys and tell everyone that they live by the Jedi code or whateverthefu*kit’scalled.

    No wonder we get a complete idiot elected for president. Twice.

  80. I’m not a sci-fi or a fantasy guy, in fact I’m not much for movies. I like Clint Eastwood ok, John Wayne is good. A few (very few) comedies. I’ve walked out of more movies than I’ve seen.

  81. I’m from Baltimore originally. I was in the army stationed in Virginia and would visit my grandparents every weekend in Baltimore.

    Saturday Night Fever had just opened in the theater by their house.

    I went to see it but little did I know the single theater of my childhood had been changed to a two theater complex. I walked in and thought I was watching previews of miniature space toys flying over sand. After 15 minutes and the preview hadn’t ended I went out to ask the usher wtf.

    He pointed me to the other theater where Saturday Night Fever was playing. I looked back at the other theater and saw it was Star Wars. I walked in and caught the opening credits with Travolta carrying the paint can down the street to the Bee Gees song.

    That’s all I’ve ever seen of Star Wars, except for previews. I’ve often thought of seeing them all in order, but I’ve been busy for the past 30-some years.

  82. I saw the last 20 minutes of The Black Hole a few months ago as well, and thought “Boy, we sure were easily impressed back then!” after seeing the special effects once more. That, and all the robots that had me googly-eyed as a kid were now just..well…kind of lame looking. Nothing really stands the test of time in cinema for Sci-Fi without having to really remember the limitations of when it was made, eh?

    I grasp that each successive decade of movies has greatly improved effects, but man, sometimes it’s such a letdown when you see things that have been off your radar for at least 3 decades!

  83. Just go and watch episode 4 (A New Hope) (the original Star Wars) and the Empire Strikes Back. They alone are fantastic, and well worth watching. (Remember, most of the special effects were literally created by Lucasfilm).

  86. Me! Just had this conversation this weekend. I saw the original as a teen and for some reason I never embraced it. I guess after witnessing the landing on the moon 8 years earlier, space sci-fi movies were left lacking.

  88. The thing I appreciated most about the second film?

    The equipment, weapons and ships were dirty like they were actually used and not just drawn in a studio or made yesterday. Also, things broke down. A lot. Like real life.

  92. When the first SW came out, I was struggling with three jobs trying my damnedest to keep the wolf away from the door.
    My first daughter had been born 3 mo premature and had spent 3 months in intensive care. I was denied any gubberment help due to earning too much money the previous year, somebody please explain that to me. I hadn’t worked in 3 months, the economy was in the tank and we were destitute. I was a V/Nam vet, probably suffering from PTSD, didn’t matter, was a healthy white man with an education, go suffer quietly. That was the first time ever and the last time I looked to my taxes being used to help the person who paid them.
    With her birth I took on the debt a nice house would cost.
    So, no, SWs holds no special place in my heart, hell, we had 3 channels on TV, a TV my ‘rents gave us, it didn’t matter, who had time to watch?
    “The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity – even under the most difficult circumstances to add a deeper meaning to his life.” – Victor Franki

  93. Never seen any of them. By 1978 I was working, raising a family, drinking, acting the fool, and didn’t go to movies.

    Besides, who could afford it? Carter was busy destroying the economy.

  96. If you want to see a really old Sci-Fi film that isn’t a disappointment like “The Black Hole”, try watching “Forbidden Planet” (1956).. Made sixty years ago, and it still holds up.

    P.S. – It even has a younger Leslie Nielsen, before he did comedic roles. And Anne Francis – Va-Va-VOOM!

    🙂

  102. I saw the original and wasn’t impressed. The fans are scary. Many are very bright, but many come across as developmentally disabled and very lax in the fashion/hygiene department.

  103. Check out George Pal’s take on “War of the Worlds:” also check “When Worlds Collide,” “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” “Earth vs the Flying Saucers,” and “Invaders from Mars.” Needless to say, the originals, not the remakes.

  106. One can never have too much geek in one’s posts. To illustrate this, not only was Robby the Robot in “Forbidden Planet” and “Lost in Space”, he also starred in many other movies and TV shows and commercials over the decades, all the way up to and including “The Big Bang Theory”. In 2004 he was inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame.

    ?

  110. Count me in on that group that is not impressed. I went to see the original when it came out and am still not moved. The first one is the only movie of the genre I’ve seen. The Day The Earth Stood Still… yes, yes, yes, when I know it’s on, I watch it.

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