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If you'd have asked me in 1995 "If and when a new Star Wars movie ever comes out, would you go see it in the cinema or wait for it on VHS or DVD?" I'd say "Are you crazy?!?!? CINEMA!!!"
But I was burned so badly by Episode I that I didn't bother seeing the next two in the cinema. The second I watched as quickly as possible, but the third took me a few years to catch up on, and admittedly it wasn't as bad as the second.
And yet now I'm back in the same situation again. Of course I'm excited. But will it burn out after one movie? With Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit? Nope, six movies in, and I still plan to see the third Hobbit movie in the cinema (though 3D Imax HFR format helps swing me on that one). The Matrix? Yeah, even after the second was a drop off after the first, I still went to see the third in the cinema.
So THIS movie, sure. No brainer. I just want to know if I'll be excited three years from now.
Funny thing is one of the first internet uproars is from those who are actually quite ignorant about star wars history. Who the hell are these people complaining about a black stormtrooper?
You'd think people would have got this out of their system after the complaints when Stringer Bell starred in Thor.
To put on the continuity cap for a moment, a black trooper is totally unremarkable. The video games may not be canon anymore, but it's established in some of the Battlefront and Force Unleashed that the storm troopers gained more clone templates and drafted regular humans after the rise of the Empire.
From a purely canon perspective, last I checked, Lucas never re voiced all the stormtroopers from the original triligy, so having non Jango cloned troopers is well established.
I spent such a big portion of my life where Star Wars was a major portion of my media consumption. Probably ages 11-15. It started in 1995 when they released that new line of Star Wars action figures. That along with the beginning of novels was a big push to revitalize the brand after lying dormant for 10 years. Prior to that, Star Wars was a neat thing but just something where I played with my older brother's toys and couldn't really recall the movies all that well.
I spent those fives years hunting down the toys, playing X-Wing vs TIE Fighter, playing the CCG, reading the books, then lining up for the Special Editions, etc. I dropped that shit like the bad habit it was, about 10 minutes into Episode I like to many others!
Aside from begrudgingly going to see the other 2 prequels in the cinema, I didn't touch anything Star Wars for a solid decade until I started playing the X-Wing Miniatures Game competitively. It's a great game and it being classic Star Wars was just icing on the cake.
Having a kid who is now watching these movies for the first time, wide-eyed and loving them, is an absolute trip. I gave her a selection of my old action figures so we have something to play with. We watch the Star Wars: Rebels cartoon now. JJ Abrams looks like he could do great things with the Star Wars universe. Heck even TIE Fighter is back on GoG. It is definitely Star Wars season.
PEW PEW PEW!
Star Wars was a fascinating set of movies from a previous era. It was something that, as much as we obsessed over it, was not continuing forward in any meaningful way. There was very little to be had, so any excitement we had was focused deeply on the narrow slice of that universe we'd been able to see. It was a story that had begun and ended in medias res.
I remember not quite understanding that Episode IV was the first movie. I actually saw V first. So, when I saw IV, and it started in the middle of things, I just assumed that I could eventually see III.
Interestingly, games were the same way to me. Quest for Glory IV was the first Q4G I ever played. I loved it, and bought I the day I saw it in a store (no way to get it online: there wasn't really a modern Internet yet). But II and III? Unobtainable. Lost games to lost ages. I played a lot of sequels to games that themselves were entirely unavailable to me at the time.
When I was older, I heard rumors of "Final Fantasy 2 and 3" on the NES. More lost games.
There was a strong narrative in my childhood not of discovering media, but re-discovering media in fragmented form.
Some day, "idiot somewhere says dumb thing" will no longer be a news story. I guess we are not there yet.
I'm kind of annoyed by the new lightsaber. It looks cool but it also just looks like a good way to stab yourself in the leg. It probably would have been a better design to just have folding guards made of lightsaber-resistant metal but I guess that wouldn't look as cool for the toys.
I'm reminded of the handful of people who were inexplicably upset when Rue from The Hunger Games was depicted as a young black girl, despite the book literally describing her as such.
I am not on the lightsaber complainer bandwagon, but I did groan just a *tiny* bit before taking a step back and waiting to see how it is all used in the context of the movie. The only reason for my groan is that it reminded me of the prequels, which were a lightsaber gimmick bonanza, at the absolute worst time to remind me of the prequels.
They easily could have fucked it up. They should be proud. Have you seen the George Lucas spoof cut?
The reason they didn't get through was the arrival of shielded Droidekas, and they needed the sabers to protect themselves from the high powered blasters. Cutting and bouncing blasts at the same time wasn't an option.
That being said, the cross-guards on the saber pictured in the trailer still strike me as stupid, unless they're planning on reintroducing 'saber-proof metals to the canon. The whole point of quillons on a sword is to protect the wielder's hand. Unless the metal is 'saber-proof, one good slash down the blade of that thing is going to lop those right off, and probably take the wielder's hand with it.
Also, having some kind of hand protection is a good idea as losing a hand seems to run in the Skywalker family. Though those hands were not lost due to lightsaber design flaws.
Jedi also have preternatural reflexes.
It's not hard to imagine those little bits being used with quick hand movements as weapons, or else to catch an incoming blade directly and then lever the main blade into the opponent.
I can come up with dozens of movie-canonical uses that make perfect sense in context.
Also, where are your complaints about Darth Maul and his "likely-to-cut-one's-own-arm-off" design?
Think of the most basic scenario. The two sabers hit each other and are crossed. In that extremely common position you can step forward into your opponent and attempt to stab them with the light-guard while using the main part of the saber to block them from chopping you.
Of course, in this position you would also want to turn off the side of the guard facing towards yourself. Also, why make it a tiny little light-knife? Just have it be a full-length lightsaber. Block your opponent with the main blade. Then just activate the second perpendicular blade, and they are dead.
(That's how the Culture does it. Knife Missiles!)