A long time ago in a galaxy far away
(aka London earlier this week)
So Star Wars is happening. All the old stars have been seen in London (minus Lando), and a photo released showing a read-through.
The inner 5 year old kid that saw the first film back in the 70's and fell in love with it forever is jumping with glee and excitement. But this is tempered by my inner 20-something which remembers the bitter disappointment of Episode 1 in 1999. I recall all too well the same sense of happiness and abandon, the hype that almost exploded as I sat in the cinema to the 20th century fox fanfare and blasting of the Star wars theme as the setup text scrolled up the screen. Followed by a 2 hour toy advert.
I am sure I am not the only one. The saving grace here. Lucas is not directing. And we will be following Luke, Han, Leia and Chewie.
I am a little concerned about the age of the principles, last time I went to the cinema there was an advert for Sky Movies with Harrison Ford and quite frankly it took me a moment or too to recognise him, and the last Indy movie, mixing the original heroes with new, younger, hipper versions was hardly a raging success.
But I retain hope, I am just going to make sure I don't sign up to the hype. I would rather expect the worst deliberately and then I cannot possibly be disappointed. TBH if JJ Abrahms brings the same thinking to this project as he did with Trek with long lingering starship porn shots, frenetic action and jumping from location to location... If he can manage this then I reckon it will be good.
One issue remains. That of diversity.
There has been some dark mutterings about the sidelining of women and people of colour. And as already noted Billy Dee Williams (Lando) is an obvious omission from the original series casting. Now I admit if they are about to canonise the expanded universe with the Solo kids, that's still 2 boys and 1 girl, so at this time I do not see a massive problem, there is room for additional characters in supporting roles and even expanded characters in the future (although I would have liked to see Mara Jade, its difficult without her convoluted back-story). Just because the announced group and first photo doesn't show a hoard of ladies and a rainbow of people does not necessarily mean that this will be the finished product, and looking at the heroes being established their ethnicity and sexes are already fairly set in stone. So why not await the finished article before trying to destroy it.
Most important in all this, do they still retain the services of the Henson Workshop?
So Star Wars is happening. All the old stars have been seen in London (minus Lando), and a photo released showing a read-through.
The inner 5 year old kid that saw the first film back in the 70's and fell in love with it forever is jumping with glee and excitement. But this is tempered by my inner 20-something which remembers the bitter disappointment of Episode 1 in 1999. I recall all too well the same sense of happiness and abandon, the hype that almost exploded as I sat in the cinema to the 20th century fox fanfare and blasting of the Star wars theme as the setup text scrolled up the screen. Followed by a 2 hour toy advert.
I am sure I am not the only one. The saving grace here. Lucas is not directing. And we will be following Luke, Han, Leia and Chewie.
I am a little concerned about the age of the principles, last time I went to the cinema there was an advert for Sky Movies with Harrison Ford and quite frankly it took me a moment or too to recognise him, and the last Indy movie, mixing the original heroes with new, younger, hipper versions was hardly a raging success.
But I retain hope, I am just going to make sure I don't sign up to the hype. I would rather expect the worst deliberately and then I cannot possibly be disappointed. TBH if JJ Abrahms brings the same thinking to this project as he did with Trek with long lingering starship porn shots, frenetic action and jumping from location to location... If he can manage this then I reckon it will be good.
One issue remains. That of diversity.
There has been some dark mutterings about the sidelining of women and people of colour. And as already noted Billy Dee Williams (Lando) is an obvious omission from the original series casting. Now I admit if they are about to canonise the expanded universe with the Solo kids, that's still 2 boys and 1 girl, so at this time I do not see a massive problem, there is room for additional characters in supporting roles and even expanded characters in the future (although I would have liked to see Mara Jade, its difficult without her convoluted back-story). Just because the announced group and first photo doesn't show a hoard of ladies and a rainbow of people does not necessarily mean that this will be the finished product, and looking at the heroes being established their ethnicity and sexes are already fairly set in stone. So why not await the finished article before trying to destroy it.
Most important in all this, do they still retain the services of the Henson Workshop?