Spoiler Dicussion of The Force Awakens

I still don't understand why if they were going to reboot the franchise will an obvious re-do they couldn't put it in a time where the memory of the Jedi and people like Hans Solo and Leia are a long distant memory and the current heroes and villains are great-great grandchildren of such famous people.

Quote: FrGamble

I still don't understand why if they were going to reboot the franchise will an obvious re-do they couldn't put it in a time where the memory of the Jedi and people like Hans Solo and Leia are a long distant memory and the current heroes and villains are great-great grandchildren of such famous people.

Harrison Ford has starred in two dozen movies that sold 10 million or more tickets. It is not clear how big this movie would have been without him.

millions
178 | 5/25/77 | Star Wars Fox
98 | 5/21/80 | The Empire Strikes Back Fox
94 | 5/25/83 | Return of the Jedi Fox
89 | 6/12/81 | Raiders of the Lost Ark Par.
63 | 12/18/15 | Star Wars: The Force Awakens BV <=========== In only 10 days
54 | 5/23/84 | Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
49 | 5/24/89 | Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Par.
44 | 8/6/93 | The Fugitive WB
44 | 5/22/08 | Indiana Jones and the Kingdom Crystal Skull
38 | 7/25/97 | Air Force One Sony
29 | 8/5/94 | Clear and Present Danger Par.
29 | 7/21/00 | What Lies Beneath DW
20 | 7/27/90 | Presumed Innocent WB
20 | 6/5/92 | Patriot Games Par.
19 | 2/8/85 | Witness Par.
16 | 12/23/88 | Working Girl Fox
16 | 6/12/98 | Six Days, Seven Nights BV
16 | 12/18/13 | Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues Par.
15 | 11/17/77 | Heroes Uni.
13 | 7/29/11 | Cowboys & Aliens Uni.
12 | 12/15/95 | Sabrina Par.
11 | 4/12/13 | 42 WB
11 | 6/25/82 | Blade Runner WB
10 | 7/12/91 | Regarding Henry Par.

I don't mind Harrison Ford but with a product like Star Wars with a following of young people who they must not have thought had ever seen Episode IV I think it would have made just as much.

Quote: FrGamble

I still don't understand why if they were going to reboot the franchise will an obvious re-do they couldn't put it in a time where the memory of the Jedi and people like Hans Solo and Leia are a long distant memory and the current heroes and villains are great-great grandchildren of such famous people.

<roll-eyes>

Because many of the actors from the original movie are still alive and very much loved by the fans. Ford, Fisher, Hamill, Mayhew, Baker (though he wasn't actually in the movie) and Daniels.

Quote: FrGamble

I don't mind Harrison Ford but with a product like Star Wars with a following of young people who they must not have thought had ever seen Episode IV I think it would have made just as much.

I don't know. These ticket sales are almost unprecedented. Classic movies like Gone with the Wind, The Ten Commandments, The Sound of Music, and Doctor Zhivago sold huge numbers of tickets, but since there few movie theaters, they were probably in the movies for years.

This film sold more tickets in one week than any film last year, and it is normal to leave a film in some theaters as long as 180 days (or at least 120 days). They have simply created an international obsession. I am not sure if you can make a formula for this. It would have been a big risk without the original actors.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) was made about two decades after Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and the latter was a very popular movie (#3 that year), but the newest Star Wars passed it in ticket sales in one week.

Quote: Pacomartin

This film sold more tickets in one week than any film last year, and it is normal to leave a film in some theaters as long as 180 days (or at least 120 days).

In 1965. my best friend in HS got a job
downtown in the best movie theater
as an usher. He was thrilled thinking
of all the movies he'd see.

The first week he was there, Sound of
Music started it's run. A year later it
was still there. He quit, he loathed that
movie, he'd seen it hundreds of times.
I bet he still gets nauseous to this day
every time he hears the opening song.

It was the only film that played there in
that year, that's how popular it was.

Quote: Pacomartin

I am not sure if you can make a formula for this.

How many fans can a franchise gather in 40 years?

But SW wasn't just the movies. The story on how FOX missed the boat on SW merchandising and how that made Lucas a fortune is well known. But what effect did it have on the fans? Further, what of all the books and videogames that eventually followed? What about re-mastering and re-releasing the original trilogy in theaters?

This is a franchise that keeps the fans well-supplied.

Quote:

It would have been a big risk without the original actors.

That helps. And as I said the fans really like them. Yet the other things that really helped were the Millennium Falcon, the X-Wings, the TIE-fighters, the Star Destroyers, and more so the old graphics for the gun sights in the TIEs and the Falcon. All the things Lucas did without in the prequels (though the prequels were doomed by the awful plots and story-telling).

BTW, did anyone notice the X-Wings were rather radically redesigned?

Fans of the old PC X-Wing vs TIE-fighter game might have thought Poe's X-Wing, seen close up near the beginning, looked more like a Z-95, until we see the four cannons and four engine exhausts.

Second viewing:

To begin with I did try a different, newer theater.

There are two big movie theater chains in Mexico: Cinepolis and Cinemex. Both offer pretty much the same product, that is a larger number of regular thaters anda smaller number of premium options (Cinepolis calls their VIP, Cinemex calls theirs Platino). I only go to premium theaters because 1) I rarely go to the movies and 2) as they're more expensive, parents are less likely to bring children along.

The basic setups are the same: soft, padded leather seats with deep recline, seat-side concession service. In both the seats are wide, have a swinging tray table and an arm-rest cup holder. The seats are arranged in pairs, with a small table and a lamp between adjoining seats.

I found the old Cinepolis theater's seat to be marginally more conformtable, though the ones at Cinemex are perfectly adequate (ie, you can sit still on them for the duration of the movie in perfect comfort). The only difference is price. Cinepolis charger 134 pesos (about $8) and Cinemex charges only 84 (about $5). Both have terrible coffee.

About the movie:

On the second viewing I found it easier to ignore the ripped-off plot and to concentrate on the new characters and the new situation. In particular, knowing Rey is the lead, I was more able to focus on her from start to finish. She makes a way better hero than Luke did in Ep. IV. Luke was rather adolescent at the start, immature, naïve and scared. He wants out of his uncle's farm, but when offered an out he backs out. Rey in contrast is self-sufficient and something of an idealist.

yesterday I came a crossover meme of Jean Luc Picard telling a Cardassian "There are four... FOUR!... Star Wars movies!!"

It took me a moment to realize why that was funny. I mean, of course there are four movies: the original trilogy and the reboot sequel to them. Then it hit me some people think the prequels are to be counted...


BTW, the more I think of it, the more I'm sure it would be a grave disservice to the story, the characters and Luke's good name if Rey turns out to be his daughter. The mental twists I can think of to justify Rey's abandonment, especially by Luke, are so twisty they make the Gordian Knot seem like a straight piece of string.

Quote: Nareed

yesterday I came a crossover meme of Jean Luc Picard telling a Cardassian "There are four... FOUR!... Star Wars movies!!"

I remember that scene. I remember what Jean Luc says to Number One afterwards, also.


A famous cameo.