October 14, 2008
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Rough Landing, Holly!
3 day weekends are always good. What’s cool is that Japan is rather keen on them, you can usually expect one to roll around about once a month. This past Monday was taiiku no hi (that’s basically “physical education day.”) In spite of the name it isn’t required you to spend the day playing sports or working out or anything. Instead Holly came down from Shizuoka for her first Nagoya-region trip since she returned on JET. As we’d been batting the idea of a Star Wars marathon around for some time now it seemed only appro po, in light of Holly’s Star Wars fandom, to kick it off during her visit. In fact, much of the past weekend ended up being Star Wars-themed, though we still threw in the obligatory karaoke on Saturday afternoon.
We kicked off in chronological order with The Phantom Menace. I’m pretty insistent, when it comes to watching the Star Wars saga, on starting with the prequels and seeing the story play out chronologically. I really like Revenge of the Sith but it would be super-depressing to end on. It’s far more uplifting to see Episode III then jump right into A New Hope and let everything come full circle. Anyway, after 3 hours of karaoke and all the travel involved Episode I was all we had time for. Since the last train had departed by then Sarv, Holly and I crashed at Matt and Dani’s place. Matt had 2 weddings the next day and Holly had to return to her hostel in Nagoya so Sarv and I set off for my place, in Ena. Holly joined us later that morning and we kicked off a new chapter of our Star Wars RPG, albeit sans Calex. That evening we were joined by Matt, Dani and Jen (a new Toki JET) for Attack of the Clones. Again we were left with very little time before the ridiculously early last train so Episode II and a little of Volume 1 of the Clone Wars cartoon was all we could fit in. Episodes III. IV, V and VI to go, possibly after the Clone Wars cartoons.
Star Wars. It’s a big thing for me, a pretty important part of who I am. As I’ve sat here typing I can’t help but imagine all the derision directed at the Prequel Trilogy and feel pretty sad. Basically I am a Star Wars fan. Not of the OT, not of the PT. I am just a Star Wars fan and ya know something; I love Star Wars movies. All of them. We only got in Episodes I and II over the past weekend, popularly regarded as the weakest Star Wars movies. For much of them we got the banter going, giving the films’ faults the what-for, when it hit me; I don’t like that. I don’t wanna be that guy. I never have. Sarv and I kicked off in harmless fashion, delighting in the presence of Neimoidians, and throughout the films we got in several affectionate jibes at the dialogue and writing, not to mention a few venomous jibes at Jar Jar Binks. It was all good fun. I don’t really like sitting in silence through movies and enjoy the social element of sharing a film with friends. But some way through Episode II I just started to feel…. unpleasant. Deriving affectionate and accepting fun-making out of something you genuinely love is one thing but the tone became pretty derisive at times and it troubled me. Troubled me pretty deeply, actually. Star Wars is very important to me and, whilst I am aware of the flaws and rant about what I consider creative errors at times, I still love the Star Wars movies. All of them. I’ll always make fun, I’ll always have things to say about the directions taken in some of the movies, but I’ll always love them as a whole and I never want to forget that.
This same weekend I finally got hold of The Force Unleashed. It’s been great fun to play, albeit not quite the experience I’d hoped for. Essentially it’s a linear action-adventure when I’d been hoping for a free-roamer the scope of Grand Theft Auto. Hoping for a more open-ended action role-play style game. Whats more some of the enemies are unbelievably annoying and the game occasionally becomes platformer-like, which does not sit well with me (I am not a fan of platformers and strongly dislike them in 3-D.) So, admittedly, I am a little disappointed. However I must stress this game is still immense fun. The Force powers at your disposal work perfectly, you can be hugely creative and knowing how and when to use which power is a big element in game play. A sustained blast of Force Lightning is a joy to behold! Playing the first level, stepping off a shuttle as Darth Vader and Force Choking, Force Throwing and lightsabering your way through scores of Wookiees had me geeking out pretty spectacularly. The Force Unleashed is not unlike the movies really; it`s flawed, it doesn`t quite live up to all it promises and not everything is done exactly how you’d like. But it’s still extremely enjoyable, so long as you let yourself enjoy it!
Incidentally, I still hate Jar Jar and Ewoks. OK, that’s all. Laters! “It never used to hurt before. It isn’t funny anymore. Feeling so alone now, funny how you wish someway you could die at the hospital…”
Comments (11)
I don’t think anyone was laying into the movies half as seriously as you seem to think. It was all in good affection, I’m sure.
Sad to hear that the game isn’t quite what we were expecting/hoping for, but it still sounds pretty awesome. How far have you gotten?
Clone armeeeh?
I totally agree re star wars fandom. So much so that the banking clan will sign your treaty. It was the most fun I have had in a while watching the prequels with a bunch of fans and being able to joke pretty much the whole way through without people going “SHHHH!!! I’m watching the movie” maybe we went a bit too far. I know for sure we wont when the originals come around. There just so good that there isn’t much to poke fun at. the downside is the lack of great sources of comedy (no not jar jar) like Neimoidians!!
Also good upside to playing the RPG at your place was that we got to see your cool new illustrations. They are indeed awesome as the emperor has foreseen. If you do get around to drawing Orialla I’d be eager to see it. As a side note she still has a blue saber and will probably keep it in her new status as a dark jedi. the blue is best - we all sense it…
@the_greatest_pip - @sarven - I enjoyed most of our banter. “Clone Armeeehh?” and Neimoidians and taking swipes at Jar Jar. Like I say, I don`t wanna sit in silence and considering the role Star Wars has played in all our friendships it wouldn`t be fun not to take delight in all those little things. But I also enjoy the Star Wars movies seriously. Even amidst the less-than-stellar dialogue and poor creative decisions there is still a very moving story going on, pure and powerful in its themes. Sometimes I wanted to enjoy that. You know something? I actually like the scene where Anakin confesses to Padme. Sure, he`s moody and angsty and the acting is a little weak but…. I like it. The acting in Star Wars is rarely that good. But acting has never been the point. The Battle of Geonosis and everything after, I really like. I really enjoy it. It was mainly during Geonosis that I started to feel like a lot of negativity was being thrown out for the sake of it. I forget who said what and I may have even done some of it myself…. I just know it got me down and hindered my enjoyment of something that always brings me a lot of enjoyment. Sarv mentioned the OT there and, whilst the OT is less flawed than the PT, it still has its flaws. On the whole I don`t think it`s fair to say OT>PT. I think the OT is stronger on average, but I still rate Episode 3 with Episode 5 as my faves. After that I enjoy Ep. 2 and Ep. 6 about the same too with Ep. 4 just after them and Ep. 1 in last place.
Guess all I`m saying is that I don`t wanna lose Star Wars. I don`t wanna become so cynical that I can`t enjoy them anymore. I certainly still wanna get in all our in-jokes and references and impressions. I just don`t wanna be picking holes unnecessarily. I don`t wanna be cynical and jaded about Star Wars cos the joy of Star Wars is its purity. Its themes. Its impact on the imagination.
i was never a fan of jar jar, but i liked the ewoks because of their booby traps. i’ve always liked the cool little engineering or architectural tricks like that. trip wires, secret passages… wonderful.
i just sent you an e-mail asking if you’d been drawing and i swear i hadn’t been here before that! i hope you post them…
i’ve always liked the free-roam games. did you ever play the old king’s quest games? oh, they’re ancient, but they were so awesome. i lived in the kingdom of daventry before i discovered the kingdom of hyrule. =)
glad you guys had a good weekend! those books are looking awfully lonely on your little shelf there… j/k.
you’re a geek.. hey! who doesn’t love geeks? stupid people. that’s what i say. geeks forever! xoxoxo
Dave did you see Jar Jar in carbonite in the game? Also did you take a look at both endings? God I love that Sith Stalker armor. Very cool that you get to wear it as a costume.
I liked it. Not my fav, but I thought it was decent enough to get me through the whole thing.
Haven’t picked up the Force Unleashed as I’m waiting for LittleBigPlanet. However, I can relate to what you said concerning the criticism of films you actually like… I seem to remember Sarven being a rather active critic of certain zombie movies, which set me on edge quite a bit…! So basically the moral here is it’s Sarven’s fault.
Star Wars used to be a HUGE thing for me in my younger years, so much so that my younger brother and I would set up a “family fun center” that really never seated more than just the two of us. We would then proceed to watch Episodes IV-VI, one right after the other, no bathroom breaks. With the bladders of a 6 and 10-year old, that is DEFINITELY not easy to accomplish, but since it shut us up for a good half a day, our parents couldn’t have cared less about what we did.
That said, thanks for dropping by my place! Hopefully you’ll come back again soon, and maybe even leave a comment for me to read!
I fully agree that sometimes we need the help of those around us to motivate us to do something, but in the end it remains that it’s WE who must make the movement to better ourselves. I apologize if my writing sounded harsh, but one can only wade through the comments of “I just give up” for so long.
And yes, vidjagames. The epic totem of my childhood, one of the pillars of my life. I could discuss all day on the subject with you, so by all means drop me a note sometime when a particular game peaks your interest!
@theender1 - It’s my second play-through. Dark Side ending this time to get that bad-ass Stalker Armour. And yeah, I saw Jar Jar in Carbonite! Ehhhhhhxcellent
Yeah, i thought about getitng a PS3 for the force unleashed. But as per usual, I was too cheap and resisted the urge.
…Then ended up spending all my spare money on a new computer
I seem to remember us talking about this same thing.. Star Wars and the criticism of it. I think we all love it. i mean, if we didnt why the hell would we watch the movies over and over agin? Why would we all have lightsabers? Why would we keep doing eccuring inside jokes about quotes?
Anyways, reading your posts I got the urge to reply, heres i order..
Its written ‘A propos’.
I need to crash to your place and Play TFU. It will be our new Oblivion
I enjoy poking fun at something I love, and I think the fact that we can do it whilst still loving the film attests to the depth of our feelings for it. Of course, it might have been sweet if the SW 1-3 films had been an epic masterpiece like LOTR (though i still poke fun at the few silly things in it), but they arent. So instead of just having to watch through some silly parts in silence and gaman-suru my enjoyment goes up if I can throw a few comments and just laugh at some of the weaker parts. For me, waching that anakin confession, without at least commenting with a ‘you are softer than sand, milady’ is painful and somewhat dampens my enjoyment of that part of the film.
All this talk about creative error, has left me i the obligation of a reply reminicent of my stay last summer…
‘Your mom’s a creative error!’