While that’s not exactly the truth about how it went down, that title does reflect a bit of how I feel now that we’ve completed watching Return of the Jedi, and thus the original trilogy.

I definitely didn’t force my kids to watch these movies. They’ve been asking (and at times whining) to see them. I do think that I didn’t hold out as . . . → Read More: Star Wars Conundrum: Original Trilogy Reflection]]> Maybe I should have called this series of posts “Force Fed”.

While that’s not exactly the truth about how it went down, that title does reflect a bit of how I feel now that we’ve completed watching Return of the Jedi, and thus the original trilogy.

I definitely didn’t force my kids to watch these movies. They’ve been asking (and at times whining) to see them. I do think that I didn’t hold out as long as I should have, though. As I had originally expected, they don’t have the attention span at this age to make it through a 2 hour movie and understand what they’re watching. I should have waited another year, maybe two. By the end of the film, both kids were sort of glazed over and not really seeing what they were watching.

Of course, it’s always difficult for me to gauge my kids’ engagement with a film on the first viewing. They don’t react much. They’ll say they liked it, but that’s about as much as you get out of them for a while. They need time to process it. Eventually, if they’re into it, they’ll start incorporating scenes or lines or characters into their playing. That’s happened to a very small degree with Star Wars so far – which, truthfully, depresses me a bit. But that’s really my issue, not theirs.

I want their reactions to be like mine were, and that’s honestly never going to happen. It’s an unrealistic expectation to place on them. What hooked me initially into Star Wars when I was 7 years old was the action – the pace, the scope, its fantastical nature – and of course the visuals. The action was what drew me to the story, which I also appreciated at the time, but action is an integral part of what I’m looking for in Star Wars. My kids are girls. Whether it’s genetic or nurture, they’re not nearly as impressed by action as I am. They, like my wife, seem to get overwhelmed and can’t really follow the plot of an action scene. To them it’s just a lot of stuff going on on-screen – cool looking perhaps, but unimportant to the story beyond its outcome, and thus unworthy of as much attention as an emotionally laden dialogue scene. Age may be a factor in this as well, but I’m willing to bet that if I plopped a boy the same age as my daughters in front of these films he’d be looking for the nearest lightsaber and blaster.

(As an aside, there’s something to be said here about the poor quality (or at least poor handling) of action scenes in general in contemporary movies that supports the “it’s not important” viewpoint – I’m looking at you, Mr. Bay – but maybe that’s a different post.)

My kids like these movies mostly because I like them and it’s something we can share. They latch on to parts of them – they like Yoda, Leia (her hair especially is of great interest), and the scene where the Ewok steals a speeder bike, for example – but there’s no real engagement with the story. That’s not too unusual for them, though. The only movie we’ve seen that I can honestly say they’ve been engaged with at all levels is The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe – and it’s more than probable that the engagement there is because my wife read them all the Narnia books and explained them painstakingly over the course of months prior to watching first the ’70s BBC version and then the newer film. They knew those stories well – the filmed versions just gave them something a little more concrete to picture. Even with that, though, it’s the smaller, more easily digested action scenes they enjoy more.

To throw a movie full of action at them, whose story they have not yet internalized, and expecting them to come out all excited is unfair – especially expecting them to sit through it all at one sitting.

So now I’m back to the conundrum I mentioned the last time… do I move on to The Phantom Menace, and plan to spend the $45 to take them to the 3D release next month? It’s arguably the ‘kid-friendliest’ of the films, so they might engage with it more. Maybe I should show it to them in segments first? Or maybe we need a break, and I should see the 3D version alone (that would be depressing). I don’t know. I’m sure you’ll all hear what I decide on that in a future post.

Turning away from my kids and toward the movie for a second, here’s something that for some reason I never considered before in all the times I watched Return of the Jedi…

When Luke finally takes a swipe at the Emperor with his lightsaber and is blocked by Vader – what is Vader’s motivation there? Is he really, as it appears, trying to protect his Master, or is he trying to protect Luke from taking his first major step on the journey to the Dark Side? We’ve seen in earlier scenes that his allegiance seems to be wavering, and his compassion for his son growing. Perhaps this block is really his first – perhaps tentative – step to saving his son.

It disappoints me that I never considered that before. I’m going to have to take a hit on my Geek Card for that one.

I think I’ve got it figured out.

We’ve now seen A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back a couple of times. There is some question in their minds as to whether Vader was being truthful when he said . . . → Read More: Star Wars Conundrum: Sorted]]> I wrote before about the problem I have with showing my daughters the Star Wars series (well, some of them). It’s difficult to decide what order to show them which versions of the films, and how quickly.

I think I’ve got it figured out.

We’ve now seen A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back a couple of times. There is some question in their minds as to whether Vader was being truthful when he said he was Luke’s father. I’m going to play that up for a little while, and then we’ll move on to Return of the Jedi. It’s just the most natural progression, and I can’t keep a lid on this Vader thing forever. Someone (my mother) will spill the beans and verify the parentage and the entire history if she gets the chance.

This works out well enough, I think, time-wise. The Phantom Menace will be released in 3D in the theaters in February, and I plan to take the kids. The only real question there is whether they’ll be able to sit through the whole thing. That’s a long film for elementary age kids.

They tend to do better if they know the story ahead of time, so I may show it to them on DVD first. Still debating whether that’s a good move. I guess that’s my new conundrum.

After that, I think we’ll take a breather. There’s no immediate need to go into Attack of the Clones or Revenge of the Sith. I think they need a few more years under their belts before we go there. At least, that’s the current thinking.

In related news: I love this ad for the new 3D release.

I’ve enjoyed almost all the Brisk animated commercials. I’m glad to see them bring that back. THAT’S BRISK, BABY!

I have no idea how the actual game experience will be for “The Old Republic” – all I know is that these cinematics look Awesome, with a capital “AWE”. There are three now, that I’m aware of. “Deceived”, “Hope”, and “Return”.

Here’s everything I know about the story these trailers introduce:

A few things came to my attention today that I just couldn’t wait to pass on.

First of all, as you undoubtedly know, Watchmen opened today. No surprise there. But did you know these stats?

First, the basics: as I said back in August…

As most people know already, there are two Star Wars TV shows in the works, one live action and one . . . → Read More: Star Wars: Clone Wars videos (and an Obi-Wan debate settled)]]> I just recently found out that two of my brothers-in-law didn’t know anything about the new Clone Wars movie or the TV series it’s setting up. This post is for them…. but there’s a nice treat at the end for those who know all the rest.

First, the basics: as I said back in August…

As most people know already, there are two Star Wars TV shows in the works, one live action and one computer animated. The latter of those is much closer to completion, and it’s release is still over a year out. But on the official Star Wars website, they’ve released a trailer for the “Clone Wars” show, and it blows me away. This series looks like it will be awesome. It covers, as the name implies, the Clone Wars, which begin at the end of Episode II: Attack of the Clones and end in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. There was a short cartoon series run on the Cartoon Network (approximately 5 minute episodes totalling 2 hours), that covered some of that war, and this series will fill in the gaps.

Here’s the “Sneak Peek” trailer I was referring to:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/TK3JCmMN5mQ" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Then, in February, Lucasfilm announced that they would be releasing an animated theatrical movie to kick-off the animated TV series. At the time, I said:

To be honest, it’ll be a little weird to see an animated Star Wars on the big screen, and it’s a bit of an odd idea to launch a TV show with a theatrical pilot (though there will be a TV pilot, too), but if any franchise can pull that off, it’d be Star Wars.

The theatrical release will be on August 15th, followed by the TV debut on Cartoon Network (and TNT) in the fall.

Here’s the trailer for the movie (notice, some of the shots are the same, but there’s some cool new stuff) [edit: if the video below is "no longer available" click here to see it - embedding is apparently blocked on all versions of this one]:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/xboEibLVZPE" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

The thing about Jabba’s son… I’m trying not to think about it… but it looks awesome. The fluidity of the movement is amazing. Those lightsaber battles are going to be great.

The new young girl they focus on in the trailers is called Ahsoka, and she’ll be Anakin’s padawan (apprentice).

The movie premieres on August 15th. It should come as no surprise that I’ll be seeing this in the theater (it’s the last of my “essentials” group this year.)

Now… on to the Obi-Wan debate.

The best lightsaber battle ever was against Darth Maul in Episode I: The Phantom Menace. (For my money, it was worth sitting through Jar-Jar to get to that.) One of the frequent nitpicks of that sequence, though, is that Obi-Wan didn’t use his force speed power to quickly go through the laser gates, thereby catching up with Qui-Gon and probably preventing his death. Why wouldn’t he do that? The beginning of the movie established that particular power when they escaped from the destroyer droids. Why not use it now in this critical moment battling the Sith?

At last, we know the answer!

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/t3dI-ghYimg" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

That settles it for me. Totally plausible.

Catch the trailer for the August 15th Clone Wars movie. This debuted with Speed Racer tonight.

This.

Looks.

Awesome.

Click through and watch it.