Category: Star Wars Musings

All posts relating to the Star Wars franchsise.

THE BITE COMMENTARIES #11 – The Force Undead

So, if all goes according to plan, today’s post should publish on the very same day that, ten years ago, the first Star Wars film of the Disney ownership era as well as the start of a new Star Wars sequel trilogy – The Force Awakens – hit movie theaters to usher in a new era of Star Wars that is new and different… although you wouldn’t have been able to tell from watching the movie.

At the time of release, people considered it to be a return to form after the polarizing prequels. For some, it felt like Star Wars again… for others, it felt too much like Star Wars; to the point of almost being a carbon copy of the original film from 1977.

And then The Last Jedi came along and pretty much shat the bed that The Force Awakens set with its dogged insistence in subverting your expectations; something that has become a meme over the years in and of itself. Regardless of your opinion on the film – and I’ve made my feelings perfectly clear – the fact is that the second chapter of the new trilogy was a divisive film and brought about an air of uncertainty among the Star Wars faithful. And then Solo came along… and finally, The Rise Of Skywalker ended the sequels and any subsequent hope for further annual Star Wars feature films, relegating the franchise to limited series runs on Disney+.

What began as a sign that things were going to be okay… turned out to be anything but… and when one revisits The Force Awakens ten years removed from its initial release, with all these other films out there and everything that has happened, is the movie as good as it was? Has it aged poorly? Was it ever that good to begin with?

The answer is… complicated.

Continue reading “THE BITE COMMENTARIES #11 – The Force Undead”

THE BITE COMMENTAIES #10 – Sith At 20

This past May marked the 20th anniversary of the third Star Wars prequel film, Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith, which finally paid off its long-running story of how Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker fell to the dark side and eventually became Darth Vader. And if you want to me to tell how I felt about the film at the time, I thought it was the only really good film out of the prequel since everyone died. And I wasn’t the only one who thought that because a bunch of people I went to see the film with thought it was the only really good prequel out of the bunch because everyone died.

Now we all know that statement is a bit of a fib. Not everyone died, obviously; this isn’t Rogue One, for cryin’ out loud. But the cast of characters that were introduced in prior prequel films were either killed off or cast aside to make way for the characters that people actually cared about to come along and have the adventures they had back in 77 and the circle would be complete or some deal like that.

Continue reading “THE BITE COMMENTAIES #10 – Sith At 20”

The Mandalorian Is The Reverse Turbo

In 1995, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie hit theaters; essentially a higher budget version of the Power Rangers television show with a much different tone from the usual fare. Two years later, the franchise got a second theatrical release – Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie. This was more in line with the television product and not quite as high end. Minus some bits where a bit more money was spent in places, it could have aired as an extended television episode.

That’s the same feeling I got with the recently announced Mandalorian & Grogu movie that’s due next year… which feels like an extended episode of the Mandalorian show that people really liked (and I was on board with too… until they brought in out-of-shape Boba Fett and CG Luke Skywalker into the mix.) Honestly, there’s nothing about the trailer that has me genuinely excited about this thing… which, I suppose, is par for the course with a modern Disney production.

There used to be a time when a new Star Wars movie felt like an event… something that got people excited to look forward to, even if the final product ended up being less than what came before. Now it’s just a thing that happens and everyone goes “meh.”

How did we get to that point?

Did That Kid Keep His Promise?

You probably all know the “urban legend” as it were of Sir Alec Guinness (the man who played Obi-Wan in old Star Wars) ran into a kid who told him that he saw Star Wars over 100 times and wanted an autograph… to which Guinness replied that he would give him one if the kid promised him that he would never watch Star Wars ever again.

According to his autobiography, A Positively Final Appearance, the kid would end up crying and the mother would scold Sir Alec for saying something so mean to a young child. However, this Buzzfeed thing, written by that same kid, told a different story in that he was happy to make that promise and for the most part, kept his word.

Your take as to which story is accurate, but remember one thing; sometimes, people embellish things to make them seem more than what they are. Also, how many kids saw Star Wars over a hundred times back in the day? He probably made a bunch of them promise him never to watch Star Wars again to varying degrees of success.

Revenge’s 20th… And Awakens’ 10th…

So I didn’t mention anything because I was busy with other stuff and unfortunately, the timing didn’t quite work out, but last month, Revenge Of The Sith – the third and final film in the Star Wars prequel trilogy – turned twenty years old. Some may recall that I did a musings on Attack Of The Clones when that film turned twenty… and I had intended to do the same for Revenge.

Alas, things went pear-shaped.

Things are going to be calming down in a couple days where I can just relax and take a pause from recovery periods and other things, so I may pull out my old DVD of Revenge and give it another watch. At some point, I’ll give the film a similar musings that I gave Clones and Jedi.

Meanwhile, in a few scant months, we’ll be celebrating (or condemning, depending on your mileage) the tenth anniversary of The Force Awakens – the seventh live-action Star Wars movie, the first film in the divisive Sequel Trilogy and also the first film of the Disney-era of Star Wars content creation. In all honesty, I have not watched that film in years… I want to say since it first came out, but I imagine that I did see give it one more watch before the final episode of the sequels. I actually remember liking that one, even if it felt like we’ve been here before. Of course, that was before all the content that came along and soured my taste for anything Star Wars… well, almost anything. Some of the comics and most of the video and computer games still hold up.

I’d imagine I’ll give that a watch and do a musings on that. Who knows what that will look like? Will it still be good or will the sins of what came afterwards color my perceptions a bit? All I know is that it gave us a meme (pictured above) and that’s what we’re basing a new set of films upon… which I have thoughts on as well, but I’m saving those for the back pocket.

Chapter 394,939 Of I Stopped Caring About Marvel Ages Ago (But Andor Is Good)

I’m going to spare you the usual rhetoric about how my interest in the Marvel movie stuff ended with Endgame. I’ve said that bit countless times and I don’t think I’m going to do much by repeating what’s been said before. I keep an eye on things, but nothing that outright piques my interest. Even the new Daredevil series – which I’ve heard good things about – didn’t really bat an eye.

However, someone sent me a digital gift card for Disney Plus recently as a “get well soon” gift. And look, I’m not going to lie. I’m still not a fan of the Disney Plus interface… but I’ll make use of it if someone is going to foot the bill in this case.

So rather than watch any of the new Marvel stuff, I’ve been rewatching old episodes of Home Improvement, the Tim Allen comedy series from the 90s. It was fun revisiting that show.

My brother also suggested that I’d give Andor a shot… and I caught the first three episodes of the show… and I actually enjoyed it… honestly, doing a prequel series to a Star Wars side story where the entire cast of that movie dies at the end (sorry if I spoiled the movie for everybody) seems like a bit of a silly thing, but goddamned if I wasn’t hooked on this show. Part of it has to do with the fact that, much like Rogue One, it doesn’t really on the usual Jedi/Sith stuff. This is more grounded stuff, depicting life under the Empire’s rule.

Three episodes in and this is a damned fine show… and not even by the lowly Star Wars standards of the modern product. I mean this is REALLY good stuff. So good that I’m almost tempted to give Rogue One another watch one of these days… now if that isn’t high praise, then I don’t know what is.

Remember Galactic Starcruiser? Neither Do I…

Source: https://www.thewrap.com/star-wars-hotel-disney-starcruiser-coverted-into-offices/

So once upon a time, Disney had a Star Wars-related attraction called Galactic Starcruiser, which is a Star Wars thing where you were on a star cruiser of some kind. It was a thing that opened back in 2022 and then stopped being a thing a few months later. The most I’ve heard about this thing were a couple bits here and there, but that’s about it.

Well, apparently, Disney has decided to convert the building that housed this Galactic Starcruiser thing into an office building for their theme park groups. I guess if you can’t entice enough people to spend money on your attraction, you shut down said attraction, let it fester for a couple years, and then turn it into more offices for your bureaucracy. At least you’ll have SOMEONE attending those buildings, if you’re the one footing the bill.

I wish I could share more emotion, but much like the Hunters game that’s getting shuttered, this was one of those things that I heard about once or twice and then never gave another thought again. It always sucks when one of these things gets shuttered, especially for those who went and had a good time there. Maybe there’ll be another one in the works somewhere down the line.

Is Galaxy’s Edge still a thing?

Star Wars Hunters To Get Mothballed In October

Source: https://starwarshunters.com/news/sunset-on-vespaara/

Remember that F2P game on Switch called Star Wars Hunter?

Neither do I.

Apparently, they’re sunsetting the servers in October, which means you have another online-only game that’s going the way of the doo-doo. This almost surprised me because, as I mentioned in a comment on the NintendoLife page that presented this piece of news, I had genuinely forgotten that this was even a thing that had existed and will soon cease to be.

But, yeah, I really never gave this one much thought. I don’t care for these free-2-play, spend real money for real good shit type of games of any sort and everything I’ve seen of Hunters looks like a poor man’s Battlefront game… which is funny once they released the Classic Collection and THAT ended up looking like a poor woman’s Battlefront game… which is why I refunded that stuff in the first place.

So the game launched in June 2024 and will die in October of this year, so a little over a year and a third. Is this a licensing issue or perhaps simply a matter of the game not quite attracting as large an audience as this sort of game should get to sustain a long lifespan of sorts? I neither know nor care.

Oh, well… another one bites the dust, I suppose.

It Took Them Six Years To Make A Rise Of Skywalker Comic Book

Source: https://bleedingcool.com/comics/star-wars-rise-of-skywalker-1-preview-reys-sith-showdown/

Yes, six years after the last Star Wars movie disappointed movie goers, Marvel is putting out a comic book adaptation. Why we needed six years for a comic that was just going to rehash old territory is beyond me, but there you go. I suppose this is their way of trying to make sense of what that movie was even supposed to be.

Too little, too late, I’m afraid.