ForceCast.net: Listener Mailbag: January 27, 2012

Listener Mailbag: January 27, 2012

Posted by Eric on January 27, 2012 at 11:44 AM CST

The latest edition of the mailbag features thoughts on Lucas-bashing, Star Wars in 3D, and Riff Tamson's secret identity!

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Hey ForceCast,

Just chiming in with my 2 cents on the whole Star Wars in 3D viability...

When Star Wars on Blu-ray was announced at CV I knew then I wanted to upgrade my home theater system to full HD, BUT once they announced Star Wars would be coming in 3D I also wanted to ensure that I had a 3D-capable TV to fully enjoy the possible home releases of Star Wars in 3D.

As my girlfriend says: "What you wont do for Star Wars!" But more than that, I was simply sold on 3D with the release of Avatar back in 2009.

To me, this is the quintessential 3D film, and it sets the standard high for theatrical 3D releases. Unfortunately, due to an exclusivity contract with Panasonic, this film has yet to be released for the home 3D Blu-ray market. So I wait...

However, there are some VERY worthy runners-up for the home 3D Blu-ray market:
Tron
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
Bolt
How To Train Your Dragon
Resident Evil
Captain America
Thor
Christmas Carol

In my opinion, when 3D is done correctly it adds a whole other level for a movie experience. It immerses you in the film like nothing else and it's MORE than just watching a movie, it actively makes YOU a part of the movie. It draws you in and you can't wait to see that next 3D effect.

One of the coolest experiences I've seen with 3D is in a nature documentary produced by IMAX and narrated by Jim Carrey called "Under The Sea." This film is amazing! The hook for me was when a fish slowly turns and as he turns, he slowly moves out of the screen towards you, so close that you could touch him with your hands it seems.

Every family member I've shown this film to during the holiday season has been sold on 3D! It is truly an amazing experience! This makes me excited to see how such an effect can be incorporated into a blockbuster movie!

Soooo...how do I feel Star Wars will fare in 3D?

I think it's going to be amazing! This is Lucasfilm we're talking about, not a cut-rate FX house. They have been known for their quality for years now and I'm sure they won't let us down. They have supervised this conversion and I am excited to see what they've done here with Episode I. I'm VERY certain George wouldn't let it out the door if it wasn't up to his standards.

However, what I do wonder is whether or not the Prequel haters or the casual fans will want to go see it...that's the unknown. But it is exciting to know that a new generation of kids will get to experience Star Wars and get hooked on the films!

I for one will be there on opening day and subsequent days after, not only to see Star Wars: The Phantom Menace in 3D but it's enough of a treat to see Star Wars back up on the big screen..."the way it was meant to be seen!"

Hope to see you all on Feb 10!

MTFBWY

Will from Newfoundland, Canada

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Hello Jason and Jimmy Mac,
I've been a huge fan of Star Wars since 1990 when I saw the 1st film Star Wars Episode 4 A New Hope on a VHS tape and I've loved all the films and The Clone Wars TV series ever since. I've been a loyal supporter of George Lucas since the very beginning. What makes me mad sometimes is you hear all of these so-called fans who claim to be Star Wars fans but say not-so-nice things about GL -- that he ruined the series with the Special Editions and the Prequel films, or he won't release the original versions of the films on Blu-Ray, and other not-so-nice things. Star Wars would not be the success it is today without GL, period, end of story.
Take Care Jason and Jimmy Mac, love the ForceCast and as always May The Force Be With You.
Sincerely,
Faithful ForceCast listener Kenny Kraly Jr. From Ohio

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I saw Zack's heartfelt defense of fandom against alleged fans whose primary source of fun appears to be bashing George Lucas for things they don't like; and am proud of him. Part of what inspired him was Kyle Newman's observation that people who only liked Star Wars: A New Hope "give Star Wars an 'F'". Having been the one who inspired that comment, I feel compelled to say something about the real haters who drove George Lucas to retirement.

First of all, I never said I gave Star Wars an "F": Kyle Newman said that. I accepted my banishment from fandom quietly and am content to be a "Star Wars Sympathizer," as those who heard the ForceCast episode may recall. Secondly: well, have you ever been a mother? You may not like listening to squalling all night, or the toys all over the floor, or the smell of soiled diapers, and you may complain about them. But that doesn't mean you don't love your baby. I don't like everything about Star Wars, but there are a lot more things I do like: the characters, the lovely people who have played the characters, the fans, the stories' effect on the fans, what the fans have achieved because of the stories; and the list goes on. Some may have been classed me as a "hater", but what mother has ever let memories of croup and temper tantrums keep her from being proud of the man or woman her baby grew to become?

I read the January 17, 2012, New York Times article, and what struck me was which haters actually did antagonize George Lucas to the point of retirement. Although he says he was fed up with the griping of those who objected to this and that about the Star Wars films, he had been hearing that drivel for thirty years now. It wasn't until the major studios couldn't be bothered to so much as look at his historical film about real people and real events that he decided he had had enough. And I don't blame him! Motion picture executives may regard his work as cinematic junk food, but, if nothing else, you'd think they'd remember that junk food sells. And Red Tails is not junk food. I am disappointed in those who snubbed its early screenings. The industry deserves better. George Lucas deserves better � Good Grief! The Tuskegee Airmen deserve better! Even people who don't like everything about the Lucas oeuvre can't deny his visual sense, his recognition of excellence in new technologies, his understanding of what the public wants to enjoy. To have less-successful people belittle those recognized (and rewarded) achievements is a monumental insult. I suspect one reason for the industry's contempt may be that Lucasfilm has been linked so long with the fantastic. But now, when it makes a film about reality, the industry's attitude is just as contemptible. Apparently, nothing would have satisfied them. Their scorn was intractable, and undeserved. Does not that make them the real haters?

It's about time someone helped the Tuskegee Airmen Go For Broke (so to speak). What an honor that the one moved to do so should be someone of the statue of George Lucas! The best pushback against the REAL haters would be to help give Red Tails all the success it deserves! I may have been accused of giving Star Wars an "F", but I give George Lucas an "A"

Sarah, The Crazy Old Aunt in the Attic

FYI: Go for Broke! (1951) is a film about the Japanese-American troops in World War II:
http://www.imdb.com/rg/s/1/title/tt0043590/

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Dear Jason and Jimmy, and all the ForceCast listeners.

I've been a loyal listener to the ForceCast and Clone Wars roundtable for about three years now, but I have been a Star Wars fan since birth; I cannot remember my first time watching Star Wars, and I seem to have always intuitively known that Star Wars came first, Empire Strikes Back came second, and Return of the Jedi was last. Star Wars is ingrained in my culture as a person, and it's the mythology of my personality.

When I was 9 years old, I was PSYCHED for Episode I, and I was not disappointed. The podrace, the submarine, the lightsaber climax, even Jar Jar at the time. Episode II was an even stronger dose of the mythology I craved: realizing that clones would become stormtroopers for the first time and seeing Anakin's whole arm chopped off must have affected 12-year-old me as much as any kid who saw Empire back in the day. When 15-year-old me saw Episode III, I was stunned. I stayed up late afterward, pacing around my room, mind racing about what I'd just seen: the abandonment of Jedi principals to end the Clone Wars, Order 66, and especially the fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan, with the same
color lightsabers no less - and the significance of such details was not lost on me! I began to notice countless instances of events and dialogue repeating and reversing throughout the entire series.

After repeated viewings, (over 500 times!) I noticed that the two trilogies are essentially the opposite each other, yet manage to complement each other perfectly. I-III is a myth of societal downfall into imperialism centering on the tragic figure of Anakin. IV-VI is an epic of the rise against oppression centering on the heroic figure of Luke. The six movies together tell a tale of fall and redemption, one trilogy for the fall, one for the redemption. The two trilogies mirror
each other, and echo within themselves. There are parallels with Star Wars to everything from the Bible to Harry Potter to The Odyssey to Lord of the Rings and well beyond, and I have come to understand why everything in the prequels was the way it was, complaints of hater-fans be damned - and it's these very "fans" that roll their eyes right away whenever I try to explain this. Some of the acting and dialog in the prequels was hammy I can concede, but that comes nowhere close to sullying my holistic vision of Star Wars.

I do love the original trilogy more than the prequel trilogy, but more importantly I don't hate any of it. I have heard you guys talking on the show about George Lucas and Star Wars haters who call themselves fans, AKA the comments section anywhere, AKA the "george-lucas-raped-my-childhood" people. (Which I agree is an incredible miscarriage of the word.) I've even met a live-in-the-flesh Return of the Jedi denier -- "except for the first half", he said. So the Muppets of Jabba's palace and Boba Fett's punk-ending didn't kill your fandom, but Ewoks and Akbar did? That's why you deny yourself the rest of the story you love so much? Really? Haters will love to claim "gaping plot-holes" that have escaped my notice every time. Plotholes like, "why didn't the populace of the galaxy react to the sudden appearance of a clone army?" Well 'it's not a part of the dang movie' is a good answer. 'Maybe you can learn more about the clones on the Clone Wars show' is a better answer, but oh no, they can't watch the Clone Wars show. They've never watched it because it sucks, and they know it sucks because they've never seen it before.

This negativity is overwhelming and frustrating, and the Star Wars fan community is becoming alarmingly divisive and self destructive, like a Jedi on his way to the Dark Side. I think this is a result of over-expectant fans in '99 '02 and '05, typically ones who had to wait much longer for new Star Wars films than I did, and who were sorely and extremely disappointed with them not only because the films weren't quite what they wanted them to be, but more importantly because the significance of why the story happens the way it does is lost on most hater-fans, who may have dismissed the new trilogy as early as the first Neimoidian on-screen.

My point is this: I see two places for Star Wars' spot on the map in the future: As the most spectacular and innovative film saga of all time, or the most spectacular and innovative film of 1977. It all depends on whether the GL- and prequel- bashers can eventually forget what they're so angry about, and if the public eventually recognizes George Lucas rightfully as the godfather of modern mythology and film sciences -- and not just some lucky cash-grabber who didn't know what
he was doing, as the popular image unfortunately seems to have become. It feels good to have all that out my system. I love the show you guys put on, thanks so much for everything and keep up the good work!

May the force be with you,
"Darth" William Smith of Olympia, WA

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Jason,

I think Riff Tamson is Mr. Jaws from the Pink Panther show...not Jabberjaw.

Love the podcasts!

Tom (not Tom Kane)
Overland Park, KS

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Thanks to all of this week's mailbag contributors! Keep your emails coming to forcecast@forcecast.net.

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