With just over 100 days to The Force Awakens, here's my list of things to take away from the book that might "hint" at what could have an impact on the movie.
(I mean, come on, everyone is making a list. Why can't I?)
Oh, and there will be spoilers so read at your own risk.
It's been well over a month since Celebration, so some of these thoughts may be incomplete or out of order, but I'll try to keep them in order as best as I can.
"Chewie..."
I didn't have plans on staying overnight for Opening Ceremonies, but it probably would have been cool to have been In The Room (more on being "In The Room" later) when Oscar, Daisy, and John were introduced to Star Wars fans, and BB-8 was rolled out. However, for sheer audience reaction and vibe, I think being in the Digital Stage was just fine and only just a little less equal to what fans experienced in the Celebration Stage. Watch that trailer with thousands of people around you was an experience your not likely to get even if you go to a midnight screening on opening night! The gasps, the cheers, it was thrilling! Then coming home and watching Reaction videos was fun too. :)
Since James Arnold Taylor was the host of the Celebration Stage, I was one of the many disappointed fans to see that guy from Entertainment Weekly hosting the ceremonies. This was a new adventure we were going into, and having a familiar face like JAT lead us toward it would have been more reassuring that this complete stranger.
One of IGN's editors from the UK affiliate said he was surprised to see Keira Knightley playing the Daisy Ridley role, which is exactly what I was thinking when she came out on stage! I don't know if it was her smile or haircut or what, but she looked a lot like Keira. If the theories on who she is playing are correct, casting Daisy was an extraordinary game of connect-the-dots.
I think all the air was sucked out of the room in that beat before Harrison spoke when Han and Chewie appeared on screen, then blasted out in a cacophony of joy after he said, "We're home."
The First Order
If I had a plan after Opening Ceremonies I don't remember what it was, because as we rode the escalator down from the 3rd floor (watching the trailer again on our phones) I noticed a sign that said "The Force Awakens Archive Room 208." My eyes bulged. Wait, what's this? I don't remember seeing this in the program or on the app! Should I go see it? How can I pass this up? Will this spoil things for me? Do I care?
Apparently not, because I got into what was then an incredibly short line, that would later in the week evolve into a multi-hour wait. I think I was one of the first 10 or 20 people into the display and even though there wasn't a whole lot in there I spent more time than I expected to be in there and not enough, if that makes sense. I missed the details on Fin's concept art with his costume, and probably should have looked a little closer at the X-wing and Falcon models, but I was really intrigued with the flame-trooper and new snowtrooper costumes. I didn't get his name, but the movie's costume master was in there and I got to talk to him for a minute or two about the flame-trooper. He kinda indicated that they had a near-accident with them one time, but they weren't a problem overall. I tried to start a conversation about the historical use flame-throwers in war, that it was a dangerous occupation, but I think he misinterpreted that as me talking about the movie or Star Wars Universe or something.
There was a wait before they opened the exhibit, so like you do at Star Wars conventions you just start talking about Star Wars while you wait. We were watching the trailer on our phones, of course, and breaking it down. Pointing out the crashed X-wing in the opening shot, the TIE fighter chasing down Rey and Fin (and BB-8), all that fun stuff. Trailer watching was a fun past-time while waiting in line, whether it was for TFA, Rebels, or Battlefront.
Also while waiting in line for that exhibit, I spotted Dave Filoni without his hat going backstage for something (I think it was during that line). Director Kyle Newman (minus wife Jaimie King) and Rebel Force Radio contributor and Ralph McQuarrie acolyte Paul Bateman tried to "do you know who we are" their way into the exhibit early, but the staff wasn't having it, so they had to get in line like everyone else. That being said, I think they were like only 20 people behind me.
Speaking of lines...
I wanted to go back up to the Digital Stage to see the Restored music for The Empire Strikes Back, but I had time to kill, so I went down to the food-trucks outside the convention center to get lunch. I don't think any of the offerings were any good for you, but if you made careful selections and didn't mind the prices, the food was pretty good!
I had already heard David Collins' presentation on the missing music from Empire on the Star Wars Oxygen podcast several months ago, but seeing it synced-up with the film was pretty entertaining.
The Untold Clone Wars presentation was next, but even though I wanted to stay for that they cleared out the room and made us wait in line again. Turned out that that wasn't much of a problem since I still got a good seat to see Dave Filoni and Pablo Hidalgo talk Clone Wars. Side note: I think either Pablo or Dave were at the vast majority of the panels that I attended. They were everywhere!
There were a lot of interesting stories planned for the future of Clone Wars, so I'm hoping they turn up in other forms of media like comics or novels like the forthcoming Dark Disciple. That was an 8-episode arch! That would have been a third of an entire season! Could the fans take that much Ventress and Voss? There was a gal at the panel with Ventress' new haircut, so Dave gave her a poster of the book cover and promised to sign it after the panel, which was pretty cool. I haven't watched the Bad Batch episodes at starwars.com, yet, but those looked interesting. I thought the Padmé pin-up on the gunship was a funny idea, but I had a feeling that a lot of female fans wouldn't be too pleased with it.
They had a small clip with Ahsoka where we got to see what things were like for her after she left the Temple. Pablo and Dave also mentioned that there were stories that were in the works that would take place after Order 66, which would have been great to see.
I don't think I had anything planned after that. The friends I was with were planning on seeing the movies in the evening, so I had time to kill, so I checked out the autograph hall. I really wasn't planning on getting my autograph from Ashley Eckstein on that first day, but the line for tickets was relatively short, her price was fairly cheap, and her line seemed... not bad. She was there for a short window of time that first day, so I decided to take the opportunity while I had it. Turns out that a line that looked short was about 90 minutes long! I don't know if it was just Ashley being talkative with fans (actually, I think it was the fans that were being more talkative with her) or the VIP pass-holders who got to cut in line (that was frustrating, especially when the line was moving), but that was long.
On the plus side, I spotted frostbit_sky and got to meet her for the first time. She and helplessdancer were the only two people I knew going that I had never met before so it was cool to finally meet both of them this time around. And neither meetings were planned, either! Stephanie was in Ashley's autograph line, and I spotted Bria walking over to the convention center the morning of day 4. Short chats with both of them, but it was cool to finally meet them none-the-less.
One of my few regrets was with Ashley's autograph. I got it personalized to show that I didn't intend to sell it (that's one of those ethical things I feel I need on any autographs I get from someone face-to-face), but I couldn't think of any additional phrase or greeting she could have added to it that would have been appropriate. I should have thought of "Kevin, May the Force Be with You, Ashley" but that didn't pop into my head in time. It's a picture of Ahsoka deflecting a stun-blast while being chased by clones, and I couldn't think of something that would fit with the picture, so it's simply, "To Kevin, Ashley Eckstein Ahsoka Tano" signed with that big A she uses for Ashley and Ahsoka.
Then it was TPM and AOTC in 3D with a big audience which was pretty cool. You know those signs that laid out the rules for treating cosplayers with the headline "Cosplay is Not Consent" that were displayed throughout the convention? Well, as Anakin strokes Padmé's arm and leans in to kiss her, someone should out "Cosplay is not consent!" Which got a good laugh and seemed to break the tension regarding those sometimes cringe-worthy scenes. At least I felt more relaxed having that small bit of humor in my mind during those scenes.
I had to go deep into a couple of these months before finding my first entries, so I think one of my New Year's resolutions will be to post more entries and more entries earlier in the month.
Another resolution will have to be to cut back on the impulse video game buying. I've played some really good games this year, but I've played a lot of video games this year. I need to focus on completing more and not just getting games because I want to see what the fuss is all about. And cut back on the browser-based gaming, too. Maybe read more as well.
I also didn't get out to see many movies this year, either. I can blame some of that on the video games, too. Too much "at home" entertainment is available at my fingertips, I need to get out more.
It will end on a positive note, not a negative note as many are fearing/expecting. I'm not going to say exactly what I mean by "positive" just yet, but I'll let you know what I thought would happen after the season finale in two weeks.
By the way, this week's episode didn't improve my opinion of Tarkin one bit. If things do go negative, I hope it just gives me one more reason to cheer at Tarkin's death during the destruction of the Death Star.
I don't know how many times I watched Yahoo's exclusive trailer for the season 5 finale arc last night, but I have the feeling that those may be emotionally difficult to watch. Kudos go to whoever cut that trailer, because it looked amazing! Definitely an arc that should be seen in a theater
I'm not one to rank lightsaber duels (although I will defend Luke vs Vader 1 to my dying days as the best), but the Savage/Sidious/Maul battle we saw this morning on The Clone Wars ranks right up there.
If I learned anything from this morning's episode of The Clone Wars it's that Obi-Wan is a buzz-kill.
Okay, maybe I already knew that, but when a story about a young Yoda is about to be told, and all he can say is, "That will have to wait until later," then Obi's ranking on the party-pooper scale definitely moves up a point or two.
I'm posting this here mainly because I can't watch it straight through, so I'm putting it somewhere for easy access, but it has some good questions, especially the first one where a reporter asks Dave will his role expand with George's retirement.
Again, nothing really new to report here because there haven't been any significant changes. The new commentary features cast-members Ewan, Hayden, Natalie, Christopher, Jimmy, and Sam, and crew-members Rob, Roger, John, and Rick (maybe too much Rick) plus a little bit of George. The quality, thanks to the format and HD-TV, is fantastic, of course. I noticed tears on Hayden's face a couple of times that I hadn't noticed before, which I forgot to mention in my comments about the AOTC disc. I also noticed two small scars on the left side of Anakin's face that I don't think are new, but they stood out a little more for me this time around.
AOTC and ROTS are the episodes in the saga I've seen the least, which is a shame because the opening battle in ROTS is arguably the most exciting opening sequence in the entire saga. That battle is so huge, so dense, that I was tempted to freeze-frame and start counting the number of Republic and Separatist ships on the screen!
But on a side note, after watching those two films one day after the other, I can probably start recognizing certain elements of each film in The Clone Wars television series. The clones' armor, the coloring on the ship, those two scars on Anakin's face, and little things like that.
And now I realize that I don't have a ROTS related userpic. I should remedy that at some point.
The second bonus disk focused on the Original Trilogy, and while it was filled with stuff, I don't think it was quite as interesting as the first disk. That being said, if I gave disk 1 an A, I'd give disk 2 an A-.
I really should be taking notes, but there are a few things that really stood out for me. One was part of a vignette on Artoo, where in Ewan talks about the droid and his daughter's love for the plucky little astromech. She cried herself to sleep one night because she missed him so much! It includes a brief clip of Ewan and his little girl dueling with lightsabers on the Geonosian Arena set.
You may have heard that the Empire portion of the disk features the Boba Fett cartoon that was featured during the infamous Holiday Special, which was pretty cool since I don't think I've seen it since the very original airing. I try to avoid anything Holiday Special related.
Another thing which I think was also featured in the Empire Strikes Back portion of the disk was George talking about the Force. It is not during an interview, but during a writers meeting for the Clone Wars. George explains and almost sermonizes about the Force to Dave Filoni and the writers, including (I think) his daughter Katie. Outside the occasional russle of papers and scratching of pens, the room is entirely silent as George explains how The Force works beyond it being an energy field that surrounds us and binds the galaxy together.
One last thing I just remembered is a group of deleted scenes of Rebel pilots during the Battle of Endor. In it the director feeds the actors lines which they repeat, which looks pretty silly after awhile. Besides a Sullustan and a Mon Cal, there were also suppose to be two female pilots. One of the women looked to be in her twenties and the other looked to be alot more grandmotherly! Both seemed to have issues with their delivery (you can almost see them thinking, "What the hell am I saying?"), but don't be surpised to see Rebel-grandma pop-up on youtube.com some day soon.
Not including a one-hour interruption for The Clone Wars, I spent over five hours looking at everything featured on blu-ray Bonus Disk #1 of the Complete Collection last night, which focused on the Prequel Trilogy films. There was alot to look at and watch.
I'm not going to go into great detail, but I was pleasantly surprised with all the new behind-the-scenes video, far more than I expected, although I tried to keep my mind free of expectations going into this. The deleted scenes weren't very polished, and featured alot of animatics. Blended into some of the video vignettes describing blue-screen acting, creatures, characters, and such, were a surprising number of bloopers! One of my favorites, although not part of the deleted scenes, was when Padmé puts Threepio's coverings on him while Anakin is out searching for his mother. Natalie puts his facemask on him and says something like, "There, just right." Anthony Daniels tilts his head slightly and the mask starts to slip off. "Not quite," he responds, and the crew laughs. There are a few involving Hayden and Ewan that are pretty amusing, too.
Some time today I'm going to immerse myself into the Original Trilogy bonus disk, and should have more on that in the future.
I think the gal who voiced Kalifa, Gwendoline Yeo, on tonight's first episode of Clone Wars also voiced the Consort in Mass Effect. It sure sounded like her!
I downloaded and played the demos for Dragon Age 2 and Lego Star Wars 3 Tuesday, and I have a few thoughts on them.
The Lego Star Wars game is based around the Clone Wars, and the two chapters featured in the demo were from two of the Malevolence episodes in season 2 (I think). The first one I played was the episodes were Padmé stumbles into a trap, gets pulled aboard the sinking Seppie ship and the boys have to go rescue her. Like the previous Lego games, you have to go looking around for objects to destroy and move to solve puzzles, which is always fun, though slightly frustrating at times. One of the small issues I have with the game is that when pressing the button usually used to block bullets/lasers with your lightsaber, you're also targetting a spot where you can throw your lightsaber. Now, I'm not sure if deflecting laser-blasts is in the default set up (I only played through it once) but that was a little annoying. One of the cool aspects is that you can switch not just between characters on screen, but you can also switch from one scene (Anakin and Padmé on the bridge) to another (Obi-Wan and Threepio trying to escape from Grevious).
The other chapter you get to play as Plo Koon, flying his Jedi-Starfighter, and destroying Malevolence. The flight controls are bad, which is unfortunately typical of this series. This was also the chapter where, after Plo docks to activate or deactivate something by hand (I wasn't paying that much of attention), he needs to use an "explosive" weapon in order to get to a computer outlet to do what he needs to do, and for the life of me I couldn't find the weapon I needed, so I got out of the demo, a tad disappointed. That said, I'm definitely buying the game when it comes out. Was there any question that I wouldn't? :)
The Dragon Age 2 demo was pretty cool, but had one major flaw. I think it takes place during the events of DA:O, during which you play the male or female version of a character named Wolfe (or was it Hawke? Probably Wolfe because I'm guessing there'd be a lot of Lady Hawkes :p) in one of three different classes: Mage, Warrior, and some other class I couldn't quite make out, although I decided to start with the female Warrior right away, so I didn't look too hard. A cut-scene starts the demo. Some PO'd woman is looking for the "Champion" (that would be you!), and she wants some dwarf to tell her where the Champion is. "What do you know about the Champion?" he asks, then we cut to a scene where you and your sister take on a horde of darkspawn and defeat them rather easily. Apparently, according to the dwarf, this is just a legend, and he proceeds to tell the "real" story.
Now cut to you, your mother, brother, and sister, running from your darkspawn over-runned home. During your exodus, you decide on where to go next, take on more darkspawn, and run into a paranoid Templar and his wife. He eventually promises not to kill the Mage in your party until you're all out of trouble. Then more darkspawn come along, including this big, human ram-like creature that handed my ass to me and my entire party. Apparently the skills I had in the legend part of the story aren't the same as I have now.
Here is where I have a problem with all the RPG elements of the game. Basically the print on the screen is so small that I can barely read it, or even make out what I'm doing, or trying to do. Am I drinking a healing potion or throwing a ball of fire? I'm thinking getting a bigger TV, but will I still have to sit two feet away from the screen to play this game? This is the one major failing I have with Bioware's games: reading the fine print.
Maybe I'll get an HDTV for myself for my birthday. I still have to do my taxes, so maybe my refund will go to that.
Big Bang Theory: Why does it not surprise me that Penny has Sheldon's mom on speed-dial? I get where they were going with the Bollywood number, but it just didn't work for me.
Wipeout: I should have watched more of it. That second to the last obstacle was new and looked kinda tough.
Perfect Couples: There's a reason this thing is a mid-season replacement, because it sure as heck ain't going to get a full season. It's only a tad funny, none of the actors are appealing (although I'm pretty sure Olivia Munn is going to get more work.). It kinda looks like it's trying so hard to be original and clever that it's not original or clever. Yawn.
CSI: It was good to hear and see Gil Grissom again and to learn more about the character's backstory (we finally meet his mom!) with him barely being on the show. Good work by Jorja Fox during this episode, but why does Marlee Matlin always have to play a woman with a stick up her ass? She was very bitchy in this episode (no surprise being that Gil's wife (Jorja) was suspecting that Gil's ex (Marlee) was a murder), but still!
Tonight, Smallville FINALLY returns and more Clone Wars!
