I hereby declare sporadic blogging from now until the first of the year.
Dang, it was hot yesterday.
I wonder how many sad stories mall Santas have to hear.
DaughterGeeding asked me about this little blog yesterday because someone in public recognized me and I tried to explain it to her. The inquisitive seven-year-old asked in these exact words, “What encouraged you to do this?” I like the way she thinks and I can’t remember what I told her.
A friend recommended a place for me to visit and provided one bit of advice, “If you go, don’t rush.” I know he meant it for that particular place, but I really stopped and reflected on those words and thought how it applies to almost all of life.
It was only a half-day of school for our kids so I took them to see Star Wars yesterday afternoon. It was the first time for them to see any of the Star Wars movies inside a theater and it was a magical moment for me. There’s nothing like the silence in the movie theater when the Lucus Films logo appears, seeing “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….”, followed by the Star Wars logo and the thunderous John Williams music staring. To see them experience it for the first time meant a lot to me and I wonder if it will be an ingrained memory for them as it was for me.
DaughterGeeding doesn’t like theaters all that much. She’s got sensitive ears and the dark gets the best of her.
Watching it a second time made me like it more, but a lot of that might be because I was influenced by being with my family. It’s nice knowing what parts are coming up and seeing their reactions.
BoyGeeding sat next to me and DaughterGeeding sat next to her mother. There were a few moments when BoyGeeding was a bit scared and I’d put my hand on his knee, it was something my father used to do for me. A few times when I took my hand away he’d grab it and put it right back on his knee. My heart melted, it felt great knowing I was needed for comfort and protection.
I also enjoyed watching it a second time around because of all of your thoughts and analysis, it made it the experience richer.
Spoiler-full Star Wars thoughts:
“The greatest teacher, failure is.”
Before Luke fought Kylo Ren he called him, “Kid.” Upon further reflection, that’s a jab at Ren for killing Han. Han used to call Luke “Kid” and you can easily imagine Han calling Ren the same thing.
I guess Kylo Ren had to be shirtless to show his wounds but the waist of his pants was too darn high. I’m glad he destroyed that stupid mask.
Kylo Ren’s limp comes and goes, I think it’s supposed to be a permanent limp.
I heard porgs were added because there was an abundance of puffins on the island. I looked for all sorts of wildlife in the island scenes and I didn’t see anything that leads me to think they would have been a problem or if they left the porgs out. But they have grown on me and the kids loved them.
I still could have done without the Finn and Rose storyline.
When Luke was on the salt planet you can see he never left any footprints. It was also neat how the director toyed with our mind by showing us Rey observing a sunken X-Wing. We are all hopeful he was going to raise that thing out of the water like Yoda did to show him the power of the Force.
I understand it wouldn’t go with the plot of the movie or what they were trying to accomplish, but I think it would have been neat for Luke to have retreated to the forest moon of Endor and we’d get to see ewoks again.
We’re so used to Luke being the adventurous hopeful one it’s hard to accept he became Mr. Get Off My Lawn guy. An old man who has totally given up and full of regret. But he really was “The New Hope” (I know it’s “A New Hope). He always inspired hope of those around him.
Luke made sure his “ghost version” was clean cut and well groomed. I would have done the same if I could make a version of myself.
When Luke and Rey first start talking, he says something like, “What do you want me to do, face the entire First Order by myself with a laser sword?” And yet, he basically did just that.
Loved the dual sun callback.
Star Wars is really the story of the Millenium Falcon if you think about it. It seems to be the real hero in about everything.
The director really liked red. From Snoke’s guard to the red salt planet.
I didn’t pick up on it the first time but the second time I could see all the similarities to Empire with the white salt covered planet (Hoth), Luke training Rey (Yoda training Luke), the not so happy ending, the push-pull of Rey and Kylo Ren (Vader/Luke), Yoda bonking Luke on the head with his walking stick. Of course, there are other similarities to the other two original trilogy movies as well. It was just neat being able to pick up on them the second time around.
Voice acting has made Mark Hammil a better actor.
Not a fan of Laura Dern’s wardrobe, it was too much like an evening dress for commanding a battle.
The cinematography is really great, there are some potential iconic screen images.
All the family agreed that the movie was just too long.
The choice of the hyperspace kamikaze scene being silent scene was excellent.
Rey and Ren can use the Force to see each other when far apart but not their surroundings. There are all sorts of potential humor there. I can imagine a ‘Robot Chicken’ skit in which Ren “calls” Ray every time he takes a dump.
I never thought about Luke calling Kylo Ren “Kid” that was great line thinking about it now.
I think Chewbaca should have at least come up with the idea of warping a craft through a space station. He never got enough action for the big guy. So does this ruin future stories of Death Star threats? Just get their shields down and drive a space ship through it?
I never thought about Luke calling Kylo Ren “Kid” that was great line thinking about it now.
I think Chewbaca should have at least come up with the idea of warping a craft through a space station. He never got enough action for the big guy. So does this ruin future stories of Death Star threats? Just get their shields down and drive a space ship through it?
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
…and to the rest of the readers of this blog – Merry Christmas to you too.