Star Wars episode 7, first impressions

1st of Jan. 2016

So... I went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens today, with my whole family. Where do I even begin... Nice outing. It really was. My dad, my grandmother, my brother, my mother... We all went to see it together.

But I'm left not really sure what to think of it.

On the way back home in the car, my 100-year old grandmother explained it perfectly:

Grandmother: "It's, what, the second movie?"
Mom: "Seventh."
Grandmother: "Seventh? Well, they don't know what they're doing anymore."

The movie was amazing, there's no doubt about that. Maybe it's just that I'm tired of the world in general. I have really mixed feelings about it... Primarily, it felt to me like it was missing something. Hollow, somehow. Not completely, but... Probably the best I can pin down about my feelings about that right now is that the feeling I got from Lucas's six films was of something deeply mythological - resonant, on some other timeless level. He really went out of his way to study actual myths, to understand what makes stories work and why we tell stories. But The Force Returns really struck me, the whole way along, as being more a recycling of the topical 'symbols' and visual shorthand of Star Wars itself, rather than what made Star Wars tick underneath them. Rather than the deep, human archetypes, it felt to me as if it was just using bits of Star Wars... almost as if Star Wars had come first. (You know the way the ruins of Troy and Mesopotamia are layered one on top of the other? It feels like that. Build one on another on another... eventually the second most recent layer becomes the oldest thing people can think of.) I know this is effectively a 'fan movie, for fans', but... what I originally liked about Star Wars is the same stuff that made American Graffiti (which I still haven't completely watched through yet) and THX 1138 (which I've probably watched twice) what they were. Lucas has done an excellent job passing down Star Wars to the next set of hands, but... I feel kind of sad.

...And what were they doing with Kylo Ren? What the heck. Even from the first promo picture I saw in a magazine... Did they choose to make him that way on purpose? He is fangirlbait of the highest order. He is possibly the most purposefully "Draco in Leather Pants" character I've ever seen. Could they possibly have chosen, cast, or written a sweeter, sexier monster? Ugh. Ha ha... (sighing.) I'd normally find this funny, but I'm just too tired right now.

...And one last thing. The marketing thing of this whole... thing... It's really wearing me down. For weeks and weeks now almost every second or third ad I've seen on tv has been (or felt like it was) an onslaught of Star Wars. And the whole movie is set up to appeal in particular ways, the whole thing actually felt to me like an advertisement, itself. I feel similarly about it as I do or did about Frozen. I'd better cut myself off here or I'm going to go on some kind of rant. I don't have the energy for it.

All in all, I'm glad to have seen it and I'm even looking forward to the next one, which is kind of rare for me at this point.

My Little Guilt Trips

13th of June, 2015

Usually, out of necessity, I'm a pretty laid back person. There's a lot of stuff that just doesn't bother me. Especially now... I can't feel much of anything. I'd take pretty much anything life could throw at me now... But when it comes to living things that are under my care – living, feeling things, anything that is my responsibility, anything dependent on me... I can't handle it. This is the stuff that I take (very long) guilt trips over. This is the stuff that sticks and won't let go.

So, today I spent a portion of the evening on a massive guilt trip.

If anyone wants to follow me on this little trip...

Happy(?) New Year.

Happy?

The world didn't end. We weren't all wiped out by asteroids. We're all still alive, mostly.
WHY ARE WE CELEBRATING??



Goodbye 2015, although I'm not totally sure you ever happened...