Tag: Star Wars
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THE LAST JEDI Was A Star Wars Fan’s Star Wars Film… Until It Wasn’t
“[The Last Jedi] was the first time I’d seen a Star Wars film that had clearly been made by someone who loved the series as much as, and had thought about it as obsessively as, me.”
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Deathwatch: SHINOBU HASHIMOTO (1918-2018)
This prolific screenwriter collaborated with Akira Kurosawa through the most fruitful period of that director’s career; accidentally helped birth STAR WARS; and with RASHOMON, may have permanently redefined the concept and structure of narrative itself. This month we look at THE OUTRAGE (1964, an American remake of RASHOMON) and Masaki Kobayashi’s masterful 1962 film HARA…
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Rey Before Rey: Padmé Is the Protagonist of THE PHANTOM MENACE
Among many things, one area where The Phantom Menace falls behind the other Star Wars films is its lack of a clear hero’s journey, driving the narrative as Luke’s drives Star Wars and Rey’s drives The Force Awakens. Fans like myself have debated Episode I’s weird plot — and its issues — for years, and one question that comes up…
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Deathwatch: CARRIE FISHER (1956-2016)
With The Last Jedi in theatres, and by way of commemorating the one-year anniversary of her death, we look at the life and career of the indomitable Carrie Fisher, with side-trips to Postcards From The Edge and Wishful Drinking.
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The Toy Report: 2017
I don’t think I’ve enjoyed collecting this much in over a decade. I may honestly have taken it a bit too far; new job, new outlook on life, living high on the hog and buying every goddamn thing I set my eyes on. I cancelled a few pre-orders; re-sold a few things that showed up…
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Why Rey
“I didn’t know there was this much green in the whole galaxy.” I take inordinate ownership of Rey. Not ownership in the “I made her” sense, but rather, in that she is my representative in the Star Wars universe. I don’t know if it’s true that when I was a kid, I dreamed of a female Jedi, following…
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Destroy All Monsters: All Monsters Destroyed
“All Monsters Destroyed?” Well no, of course not. I wish the things that became the common themes in my weekly column at Screen Anarchy over the course of the past 4+ years could be called “resolved” — but really, they’ve just become part and parcel of the fabric of our conversations around pop culture in ever-increasing…
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Destroy All Monsters: General Leia Is STAR WARS’ No-Win Scenario
Two weeks ago, Disney took the unprecedented step of announcing that, in spite of their recent resurrection of Peter Cushing for CGI Frankentarkin in Rogue One and in the wake of the tragic passing of Carrie Fisher, that they would not be digitally animating a General Leia for the forthcoming Star Wars: Episode IX. (Fisher…
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Destroy All Monsters: The Meme-ification of ROGUE ONE
I’m consistently fascinated by how pop cultural mega-properties take hold in the discourse of the group they are ostensibly created for, the fans. There’s an interesting cycle created here.