Pages Tagged “Star Wars”
Reviews
- Solo: A Star Wars Story ★★★☆☆ Solo isn’t high art, and it’s got some rough edges, but it’s a fun ride.
- Star Wars: Andor - Season One ★★★★☆ A more serious take on Star Wars, with a bit more personal scope showing how oppression grinds people down, and what sacrifices rebellion can require.
- Star Wars: Attack of the Clones ★★★☆☆ I think it’s the weakest of the prequels and of the six that George Lucas was actually involved in.
- Star Wars: Dark Forces (Remastered) - First Impressions ★★★★☆ The remastered Dark Forces is the game you remember playing back in the day, not the game you actually played.
- Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett ★★★☆☆ The flashbacks were great! But I couldn’t get into the present-day story.
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi ★★★★☆ The performances are way better than most of the prequel trilogy, and the story is the first theatrical Star Wars to break new ground in ages.
- Star Wars: The Phantom Menace ★★★★☆ Better than I remember. It’s well constructed, and there are incredible subtleties and thematic elements hidden among the flashy (and cheesy) A-plot.
Blog Posts
- The Phantom Clones
Letâs just say the kid was not impressed with Attack of the Clones. To be honest, I think itâs the weakest of the prequels and of the six that George Lucas was actually involved in. The Phantom Menace is better than I remember. Itâs well constructed, and there are incredible subtleties and thematic elements hidden […]
- New Year’s Eve: 2019 vs 2020
Stay safe tonight.
- Jedi Blocks
Apparently Mojang hired Anakin Skywalker to write the captions for block descriptions in Minecraft Earth.
- Street (TIE) Fighters
I always think these markings look like TIE Fighters.
- The Rise of Skywalker vs. the Other Star Wars Sequels (spoilers)
I saw The Rise of Skywalker last week, and I’ve had some thoughts bouncing around in my head for a while. I think it’s been long enough. So, to start with, let’s look at the major themes of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. The Force Awakens: There will always be a new generation of fascists, […]
- Artoo Has Been In Low Power Mode
Sign spotted near LAX. Update: Replaced with a clearer photo. The original one was backlit during late afternoon.
- Doom and Gloom are Not Enough
Doom and gloom alone aren’t enough to help us deal with climate change, or any of the other problems we face. Fear sustained turns to despair, and to inaction – because why bother? We have to celebrate successes to keep hope alive so we can keep going. We do need to know what we’re up […]
- Cloud City Princess Leia Hairstyle
May the Fourth Be With You! @CasualCosplayKatie: Easiest #princessleiahair by a long shot. Now with full ‘bound outfit (even if I’m not bound anywhere today)!
- R2-D2 is looking extra boxy
Not quite Minecraft IRL
- Going Somewhere, Solo?
Another building under (severe) renovation near LAX. The Solo movie posters are still up on this side of the construction wall, more than a month later, though the posters around the corner were replaced with ads for Mamma Mia today. Update (Monday): The posters on this site were replaced over the weekend. Still, it was […]
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi Thoughts – It’s Complicated.
I’ve seen The Last Jedi twice now. I’m still not sure how I’d rank it, but the performances are way better than most of the prequel trilogy, and the story is the first theatrical Star Wars to break new ground in ages. I’ll admit there’s a lot of stuff that happened that I didn’t like, […]
- Rogue One (Star Wars) and Imperial IT (SPOILERS!)
Spoilery thoughts on Star Wars’ IT practices and where the Rogue One characters actually find the Death Star plans.
- I Hope They Don’t Mean the Pizzas!
I do like their pizza and their movie quote habit, but this one might not have been the best choice for a place that serves food ð
- Still amused whenever I pull Order 66
- Why Kilgrave’s Power is Scarier than a Jedi Mind Trick
It’s not just that Kilgrave’s a sociopath and Jedi are compassionate. The Sith aren’t known for mercy, but Force users’ mind control has limits.
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Finally. It should have gone to bed earlier.)
Let’s face it: This is the first live-action Star Wars movie in ten years, and it reunites the original cast on screen for the first time in thirty. Nobody really cares what it’s called: it could be “Star Wars VII: The Search for More Money” and those of us who grew up on the original […]
- Order 66, Extra Crispy
Appropriately, the kiddo was wearing his Darth Vader shirt.
- After the Crunch: Rubble and…Ewoks?
I’ve been watching the Century/Aviation bridge demolition with some interest. The southern rise is down to a single wall, with some interesting graffiti.
- Empire Strikes Back (Hoth) Leia Hairstyle
Katie decided to go with an Empire Strikes Back Leia hairstyle this year.
- Death Star Window
Partway down the central escalator at the San Diego Convention center, you can look down the long cylindrical skylight that makes up the roof of the lobby, rings forming the appearance of concentric circles. Years ago, a friend of mine referred to it as the Death Star Cannon shot, and it’s a popular one to […]
- Party like itâs 1977â¦
Believe it or not, the record player is new. It turns out there’s a whole subset of the toy market for retro toys. It’s a bit different under the hood – I’ve had to fix it once already, and it’s actually chip-driven, not classic music box works. I figure it’s probably cheaper these days to […]
- May the Fourth Be With You
- Can It Make .5 Past Lightspeed?
I saw a car with the license plate “KESEL RN” or possibly “KESSL RN” – either way, I want to know how many parsecs it can make the trip in.
- Star Wars Director – A Close Second
I was kind of hoping Disney would pick Joss Whedon to direct the next Star Wars movie just to watch fans’ heads explode. But going with the guy who rebooted Star Trek? That’s what I call a close second. J.J. Abrams Will Reportedly Direct the Next Star Wars Movie Originally posted on Google+
- How The Hobbit Will (and Won’t) be Like the Star Wars Prequels
A visionary director returns to his high-profile trilogy years later with a prequel in which some of the same characters establish key elements of the original backstory. Hmm….
- The Saga and the Franchise
I suppose it’s silly, but after thinking about it for a bit, what really bothers me about the Lucasfilm/Disney deal is that by continuing the movie series with Episodes 7-9, they are undermining the distinction between the Star Wars saga and the Star Wars franchise. Originally posted on Facebook
- Boba’s Long-Lost Cousin?
I keep passing this sign on the way home from work on nights that I take the 405. After a lifetime of Star Wars, my brain really wants to rearrange the double letters.
- Comic-Con: Down the Barrel
Comic-Con International sold out this weekend. The convention isn’t until July, which makes the January sell-out surprising enough…but tickets didn’t even go on sale until this past Saturday, and were all gone by the end of the day! In past years, tickets haven’t been a problem. This year, they’ve become as hard to get as […]
- Links! Alarms, Ghosts of History, Firefly Trek, WW2 Star Wars & More
Hazards of too many alarms; Merging historical and modern photos; Computer lightning safety; Allergies, Star Wars as World War II; Firefly as Star Trek, SMBC’s Logogeneplex.
- Spaceballs: The Beer
The latest seasonal beer at Oggi’s* is The Schwartz, a Belgian IPA. And just in case the “May the Schwartz Be With You” tagline wasn’t clear enough…well, check out the poster: Sorry about the image quality. I wasn’t sampling the brew, it’s just the phone camera in low lighting. *Oggi’s (pronounced OH-jeez) is a chain […]
- Star Wars Band Names
Take the name of a real band and alter it to make it a Star Wars reference.
- Droidmark
I wonder if Lucasfilm will try to assert trademark over the Motorola/Verizon Droid?
- Star Wars Holiday: So Bad It’s Worse
XKCD on the Star Wars Holiday Special True. Absolutely true. Update: It’s true. All of it.
- Lol Lol Binks
Jar-Jar Binks speaks LOLCat – or rather LOLcats speak Gungan. — (Katie on rewatching Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace)
- Star Wars Disaster Movie
Is that the one in which millions of voices suddenly cry out in terror, and are suddenly silenced?
- Rewatching Star Wars: A New Hope
We watched Star Wars last night, the DVD version. It’s been about four years since I last saw it. When Revenge of the Sith came out, we came home and immediately re-watched A New Hope, then caught the next two films over the following week or so. It’s been long enough that memories have blurred, […]
- Strange Sights of Comic-Con
Stormtrooper Elvis meets Sauron, free hugs, the human bulletin board, a crowd of women all wearing the same red dress, and more.
- Dear George: Why I’m not buying the Star Wars Limited Edition DVDs
I already own the DVD edition of Star Wars, and what I want from the theatrical edition is the original substance *with* the remastering you did in 1997.
- Yoda’s World
I’m officially declaring this week Photoblog Catch-Up Week, since I’ve got such a backlog of photos I’ve been meaning to post. First up: Unfortunately this isn’t particularly near the Hobbit Center in Laguna Beach. It is, however, in Lake Forest, the city known for its Middle-Earth street names. The pairing with the Plaza Suites sign […]
- Darth Burgers
You may recall that Burger King had a marketing tie-in with Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. You may also recall that the movie came out last May. It seems that the Dark Side continues to dominate the destiny of at least one Burger King franchise. This picture was taken today (January 1, […]
- News from Comic Con 2005
Jedi costumes, Fellowship! The Musical, Jim Henson 50th Anniversary, Groo vs. Conan and a ton of movie previews: Serenity, Mirrormask, HP4, Fountain & more.
- Grievous Entrance
We went to see Howl’s Moving Castle (Miyazaki’s latest, excellent as always) tonight, and as we walked past the Oakley store, I suddenly realized: that’s why General Grievous looked familiar! Though Katie pointed out, it also looks rather like the Omni-Droid.
- Jedi vs. Sith, Order vs. Chaos
I was thinking about Star Wars, the “bringing balance to the Force” prophecy, and RPG character alignments, and realized that while you can neatly map the Jedi and Sith to good and evil (Anakin’s confusion notwithstanding), you can’t map them so neatly to order and chaos. The Sith are a chaotic organization. They thrive on […]
- Revenge of the Sith: Decisions That Almost Changed Everything
If these Star Wars characters had made some minor choices differently, they could have changed the course of history. Also: thoughts on viewing order.
- Princess Leia, Pole Dancer
Don’t tell me you aren’t thinking it. (From the new Star Wars “Unleashed” statuette line.)
- More Targeted Advertising
While catching up with IMDB info on the various actors in Revenge of the Sith, I noticed an appropriate set of ads on Ewan McGregor’s profile: For those who haven’t heard of it, Ewan is the male lead in The Island. (At the moment, Natalie Portman gets a Windows XP ad, and Hayden Christensen gets… […]
- Alternate title?
Spotted on a movie theater marquee: STAR WARS EPISODE III THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN Sorry, no photo, though if it’s still there the next time I drive by, I might be able to get one.
- The Star Wars Audience
I don’t know if it was the show time we picked or just a matter of who sits where in the theater (we were about halfway back), but the largest demographic group in the audience when we watched Revenge of the Sith was not teenage boys, thirty-something men, families with kids, or twenty-something couples, though […]
- Star Wars: Meditations on the Sarlacc pit
A collection of comments, thoughts and images, some highly spoilerish and not all of them canon. 1. I framed through the end of the Vader vs. Obi-Wan battle in A New Hope after being a bit confused by it last night. Watch closely, and you’ll notice two things. First, Vader’s lightsaber appears to go through […]
- Star Wars – Third time’s the charm
We went out to see Star Wars: Episode III last night. And for once, we weren’t disappointed. This is the kind of movie the last two should have been. There was a feeling of urgency throughout this movie that wasn’t present until the first battle of the clone army in Attack of the Clones. A […]
- Darth Vader, 419 Scammer
I had set this spam sample aside without really looking at it back at the end of March. As I checked the folder this morning, the scammer’s supposed name jumped out at me. VADER DARTH CO-OPERATIVE BANK PLC UNIVERSITY BRANCH, GROVE HOUSE OXFORD ROAD MANCHESTER UK I AM WRITING TO LET YOU KNOW HOW I […]
- Star Wars Classical
I woke up this morning to the music from Episode III playing on the clock radio. What’s odd is that I recognized it immediately despite the facts that I had not listened to the soundtrack, and the section I heard was all new music. None of the recurring themes from the other films was present, […]
- If you’re not with me…
Regarding the furor over Revenge of the Sith/Post-9/11 parallels: Get over yourselves. You know, I could see parallels in Star Wars: Episode II and post-9/11 America. Palpatine’s emergency powers = PATRIOT Act. Militarization in response to the separatist movement = attacking Afghanistan and rattling sabers at Iraq. And there are conspiracy theorists who think that […]
- Star Wars Prequels…Overdone CGI-fests? Nope!
Pixar has shown over and over again that you can make a CGI movie with heart. It’s time to stop blaming the Star Wars prequels’ problems on the effects.
- April 1 Roundup
Collecting some good April Fools jokes: NPR: New England Suffers Maple Woes Water on Mars (via the Esoteric Science Research Center) Star Wars Holiday Special released on DVD (via Slashdot) My own Googolplex Theaters Other round-ups at CNET, at Slashdot, at Urgo, and at Wikipedia
- Sci-Firewire
You know how you see some numbers in one context so often that you think of that meaning when you see them somewhere else? Seriously: If you’ve spent a lot of time on the web and you notice the clock reading 4:04, or a price coming up as $4.04, etc., chances are you find it […]
- Revise and Rewrite
Yes, Star Wars has changed again [archive.org]. Looking at the comparisons, it seems most of the changes really have just been cleanup. They finally fixed the compositing in the Rancor pit, for instance. And some of the Special Edition bits that didn’t work quite right, like the Jabba scene in A New Hope, have been […]
- Anonymous Coward Strikes Back
From an anonymous Slashdot post: I heard Episode 3 is going to be teh sith.
- Audio-video evil
When I lived with my family, we used to have just the right type of TV/cable box connection for a really neat trick. My sister and I discovered by accident that, by leaving the TV on channel 4 instead of 3 when switching to cable, we could get the picture from whatever channel was on […]