Danny ChaiFirst, it is crazy how big a following jack.html has. It really pleased me to see the powerful affect it has on people in their thought pages. Dave “hates” it. Eddie is moved to update out of fear of it. Andrew was saddened by his re-placement in the hierarchy. It’s great. I’m really glad I thought up the idea of putting all those pages on one page.
Anyway, the randomest people follow it, and it’s a little disturbing. Anyway, this section is to say hello to Kemi, who reads these pages “religiously.” Hello, and I’m sure Dave et al say hello as well.
On Sunday night / Monday morning, at 2:30 AM, me, George and Lina went to Lyon’s. Kind of crazy, but I had a blast. I love George and Lina. I could not have asked for better little sibs, or friends, for that matter. I can’t think of anyone that doesn’t like George or Lina. What great people. Anyway, I had a really good time, so thanks, guys.
I was listening to the Rich Mullins tribute on the way to and from church on Sunday, and it just really moved me. The man was amazing. Anyway, he said something really interesting. About how we all want to be used by God. He says the thing is, that’s not a big deal, because God can use anyone. I mean, he used Nebuchadnezzar. So he says look in the Gospels at who God really needed. I mean, He didn’t need anyone, since someone else could have done it, but those people who played a really pivotal role in what he had to do. So there’s like Mary the mother of Jesus, Pontius Pilate, Judas, whoever nailed him to the cross. He named some others also. Anyway, the thing about all those people is, most of them really weren’t that good. But they were all pivotally used by God. So God can use anyone. The thing about 11 of the 12 disciples isn’t that he needed them, but that he wanted them. And the amazing thing for us isn’t that he can use us, but that he wants us. Wow.
So the rest of this entry will be about Star Wars. I’ll try and warn you with potential spoilers ahead of time, in a visible way, so as not to ruin it for you, a la Korean movie theaters.
So I went to see the movie at the best movie theater in the Bay Area, Century 22 (by the way Kevin, I was right, it is the last one down, not the middle one. I’m always right.) on Thursday night. It was seriously insane. I have never seen anything like it. Of course the line was huge, but my old drawmates were waiting in line, so I didn’t have to. There were tons of freaks there, some dressed up, many bringing light sabers, I saw one double sided light saber. It was just rowdy. We go inside, and it is rowdy; it’s crazy. People are just loud, there are beach balls going around (that’s one of the benefits of Century 22 – it’s huge so you can have stuff like this, beach ball action). It was electric. So many people that they actually brought a snack bar in the theater, in the front of the screen. They also made an announcement I never thought I’d hear in a movie theater: “Ladies and gentlemen, please do not use your light sabers to swing at the beach balls.” So yeah, it was crazy.
Anyway, I’ve seen many big movies on opening weekend at Century 22. The only movies I can think of that came close to this atmosphere was Jurassic Park, and Terminator 2 (which by the way, I saw with my dad). Both had the long lines and kind of electric atmosphere, but it was nothing like this. There are some crazy people out there. It’s fun.
Anyway, I hear that James Kung spent $100 buying an Obi Wan outfit. Crazy.
OK, first regarding George’s thoughts. I’m with you, for the most part, I hated the changes they made for the new versions of episodes IV – VI. Only several were good changes. The Death Star explosion was cool. Also, the scene where Han Solo chases some Storm Troopers, but then comes across a group of them and runs back, that was a good change that made a lot more sense. But most of them sucked. I was very angry about the changes to the music at the end of Return of the Jedi. Maybe because that was one of the first movies I saw in a theater, but I remember it very clearly, and very fondly, and the ending music in ROTJ was very cool. By the way, you know, most real fans don’t like ROTJ that much, but I always did. Maybe because the reasons they hated it – most notably the Ewoks, didn’t bother me at the age when I watched it. I still think it’s a good movie.
When Obi Wan says he doesn’t want to lose Luke like he did Vader, that’s no slip. He says in Star Wars that Vader was a disciple of his, but that he turned to the Dark Side and killed Luke’s father.
And George is right when he says the Force thing is really ambiguous. It’s like the most ambiguous thing in the world. Like, if you can do certain things, why not just do them all the time? Like Yoda just moves Luke’s X-Wing with the Force, and says something like objects only have size in your mind. So why the heck didn’t he just move the first or second Death Stars around? I’ll get more into this later.
Re: my 5/20 thoughts, Andrew Wong informs me:
I think “Captain Antilles” was the commander of the blockade runner that Leia is on in Episode IV. He probably met his end at the hands of Darth Vader with the capture of his ship and the princess. Star Wars fans hypothesize he may have been Wedge’s father or some other relative.
Thanks, Papa Wong. OK, interesting fact –
WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!
So in the Senate, the Queen (or was it her bodyguard?) calls for a vote of no confidence, and they later nominate several people, among them Senator Palpatine. Anyway, one of the people they nominate has a last name “Antilles.” Could it be? Wedge’s father? Crazy stuff.
END SPOILER
Actually, I think I’m gonna talk about the movie now so if you’ve yet to see it, you might just want to skip down to where I say it’s ok to read again.
So like I said, the Force is just totally random. So they can move things around, and as Qui-Gonn and Obi-Won fight the droids, they occasionally just use the Force to push them around. So why don’t they just do that for every single one? Random. The Force allows you to jump really high also. Like, Luke does this out of the carbon freezing thing in ESB. And it happens a lot in the fight scene with Darth Maul. Which by the way, was an absolutely incredible scene. A lot like Hong Kong movies, but if you look closely, it’s not like Qui-Gonn and Obi-Won are waiting and fighting him 1 on 1, but really are going at him both at one time, and he’s really taking them on. So it’s more like Jackie Chan than that poser Jet Li, the wuss forms champion. That line was for the benefit of Charlie Chang, who loves Jet Li, and almost certainly doesn’t read this page.
Anyway, so they can jump high, so like, duh, didn’t Maul know that Obi-Won was gonna jump at the end? Hello? Like this is some surprise? I don’t know, it’s just random.
And like, what you can and cannot see in the future is also totally random. Also, how come Qui-Gonn doesn’t just disappear? Huh? I thought all Jedi do that. Obi-Wan and Yoda did. Random.
You know, so Jedi training involves a lot of physical training, right? And they do some dope fighting. So like, was Yoda ever like that? Did he get like his own mini saber or something? And like, I’m looking at the people in the Jedi Council, and it’s like, there’s no way some of them are Jedi. Like that long neck guy. You’re telling me this guy is dope with a light saber? No way.
OK, so the movie. I’m not sure I like it, yet. I almost certainly have to see it again. But I’m hesitant about a lot. But the reason I say I’m not sure is because when I saw Star Wars again as an old person, like maybe late high school or something, I didn’t like it, and couldn’t remember why I did so much. But as I kept seeing it, I liked it more and more. I’m not exactly sure why, but I did. Anyway, the reasons why I didn’t like A New Hope at first is kind of similar to my feelings now toward Phantom Menace – it seemed really cheesy in places, and the rhythm seemed a bit off, so there were slow parts. So I think I need to see it again to be more certain of how I feel.
I do know for certain however, that I hate Jar Jar Binks. As has been said everywhere, Jar Jar Binks Jar Jar Stinks. It was just the most annoying character ever. Ugh, I can go on and on about it. First, I couldn’t understand what the heck he was saying. Eli said he understood about 50% of his lines. Frustrating. Second, nothing he did was funny. He was certainly meant to elicit laughs, but in our screening, there was only one scene in which he actually did. Third, one thing I hate about CGI effects is that it makes characters like overly flexible and rubbery. So like, it seems too bouncy and not “real,” more like cartoon physics. Does this make any sense? That’s why I hated the new Jabba the Hutt scene in the redone Episode IV, and that annoying singer scene in Episode VI. Too rubbery. So every single time Jar Jar Binks was on the screen, that’s what I felt – it was just hard to have a suspension of disbelief when it feels like you’re looking at a cartoon.
Of course, puppets are fake also, like that creature on Jabba in ROTJ. But they seem tangible, which lets you suspend your disbelief in other things.
Another feeling I got was that Episode I just had a different feel to it, like it wasn’t a Star Wars movie. It just didn’t feel like it. Of course, this is to be expected, since it’s been 15 years and none of the characters are (really) still there. But the whole feel was just different.
Another thing I felt is that humor was really missing from this. As I mentioned, Jar Jar Binks pretty much failed in comic relief – in my audience, people rarely responded. It was mostly lame. Maybe I’m the only one, but I found C3P0 amusing in the original trilogy. And Han Solo’s banter added some. Anyway, there was like no comic relief in Episode IV.
By the way, the music in this movie was incredible. Stay for the end credits. The music during those credits blew me away. I liked.
Anyway, everyone I saw it with liked it. I think I felt unsettled because in the end, it just raises a lot of questions. Because essentially, the movie is just a set up of everything that’s to come, and that’s the way it had to be. It’s the introduction, of how things that used to be changed. So who the heck are the Siths? How does Senator Palpatine moonlight as the evil Emperor? Is he a Sith? What the heck happens to everyone?
Hmm, I guess that wasn’t really that much thoughts on Star Wars. Oh well.