The new Star Wars trailer dropped online today, and my social media have been blowing up with a wide range of friends and acquaintances squeeing loudly about it (and a few grumbling). Some have been sobbing quietly in the corner.
Obviously, I’m excited to see this come Christmastime.
Star Wars has been a part of my life since the summer before my senior year in high school when I went to see the original at least 13 times in the theater. (Yes, I went to see it every weekend that summer, and I did eventually get to see it at the River Hills 70mm theater in Des Moines. This was before VCRs and before cable TV was common. I have no regrets.)
I have since seen every Star Wars movie in the theater – from the rather terrible The Phantom Menace (though it does have one of my favorite Star Wars lines ever in it: “I can only protect you princess; I cannot fight a war for you.”) to the brilliant Rogue One (that accepts that heroes in rebellions do bad things and realize they are bad).
A quick peek through my blog archives shows that I have mentioned Star Wars in one form or another more than 25 times since I moved the blog onto WordPress. (I have no way of searching the old hand-coded blog.)
Here are a few highlights:
- Memories of watching Star Wars in 1977
Includes reflections from NPR’s Giles Snyder and podcaster Brian Ibbott. - Four Rules To Make Star Wars Great Again
A great short video full of advice to J.J. Abrams. - Disney buys LucasFilm, now owns Star Wars – Is that really such a bad thing?
All in all, I think Disney has handled Star Wars at least as well if not better than George Lucas did post original trilogy. - Star Wars Episode II – Attack of the Clones as a tribute to the films of Ridley Scott
This is quite possibly the geekiest think I’ve ever written – calling out every possible reference to the films of Ridley Scott from Attack of the Clones, my favorite of the prequel trilogy.