Star Wars Over-Hyperdrive...

Now that Star Wars is a mere week away, it seems that the hype machine has kicked into overdrive even without George Lucas' minions doing a lot of work. Personally, I haven't seen the Star Wars trailers for weeks, and I haven't seen hide nor hair of the fabled Star Wars TV spots which are supposedly airing now (maybe they're only on US TV?). Regardless, the hype continues because of a deluge of early reviews, both positive and negative, regarding this film.

The interesting thing to me is that everyone seems so genuinely surprised at how mixed these reviews are. This is part of the Star Wars tradition. The critics trash the movie, the fans scream a collective "screw you!", everyone sees the movie a dozen times and Lucas makes a lot of money.

The complaints I've heard about the film are pretty bizarre, too. It plays young? Well, duh! The first three Star Wars movies (err...last three...whatever...) also skewed young, especially Jedi, and Lucas wants to keep it that way. We all became Star Wars fans more than two decades ago, when we ourselves were kids. Lucas already has us in his addictive Star Wars grip, he's going for the next generation of Star Wars fans now, and he'll get them. The film is way too CG? Hmmm... the way I see it, the film is probably pretty close to the leap in special effects technology that the first film was. Everyone was wowed by Star Wars when it came out twenty-two years ago, and the critics complained that it was all flash and no substance (and to a degree, they were right...Star Wars has never been about complex characters or huge epic storylines, it's about space battles and light sabre duels, and ultimately, having a good time). Even after all this time, Star Wars looks pretty freakin' amazing, and I suspect The Phantom Menace will be the same.

Imagine, if you will, that George Lucas has started a whole new way of filmmaking. Virtual sets, virtual actors, virtual crowds. We're all accustomed at this point to seeing static backgrounds in large epic movies. The backgrounds are cheap to make, and they generally look good. But do they reflect reality? Not really. If you take a look at any large landscape, there is an incredible amount of movement and detail to it (of course...it's reality!). Lucas is developing technologies which will allow filmmakers to repeat reality on the screen to such a degree, that it looks fake because it looks too real (if that makes any sense at all). As time goes on, we'll see Lucas' techniques copied and improved upon, in the same way that happened with the original Star Wars, to the point where it will all look "right". And when we go back and look at The Phantom Menace again twenty years from now, it will look somewhat primitive, but (and this is the phrase we'll use), "given the time it was made", it's still pretty impressive.

Now, I can't say that I'm defending the criticisms of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. I'm not. I haven't seen the film, and thus have no opinion of it. It just seems that the criticisms I've seen are pretty obvious backlashes at the film from people who are sick of the hype. I can't blame people for being tired of Star Wars this and Star Wars that, I can just say that people should view the movie as what it is. A movie. A Star Wars movie. And the first new Star Wars movie we've seen in about 16 years.

OK...onto Lucas' DVD answer. One quick comment about the possibility of Star Wars DVDs not arriving for another six or seven years. Lucas has been known to give misinformation before...primarily in an effort to get people to leave him alone. Personally, I'm less worried about the Star Wars DVDs then I am about the Indiana Jones trilogy. With the possibility of another Indy Jones being in the pipe (provided three VERY busy people's schedules can get together), it may be a while before we see Indy in all his DVD glory. I'm hoping for a theatrical re-release of the first three to whet people's appetites, then a video/DVD release of the remastered trilogy. I guess we'll all have to wait and see.

Last week's quote was answered correctly by Charles Key, and was of course from another classic sci-fi/action film, Terminator. At least this one is available on DVD.

Charles sent in another quote with his email, so I figured I'd use his quote this week. As usual, email me your guesses at ken@dvdfuture.com. Here's the quote:

Male: I'm John
Female: Oh, John. John who?
Male: John Cock...tos...ton.
Female: That's a beautiful name.
Male: It's Scotch/Romanian.
Female: That's an odd combination.
Male: So were my parents.

I'd also like to take the opportunity to welcome our new sponsor, Divadee.com to the page. I wish you guys all the best in success in the DVD market. Some people may take exception to adult material being available on DVD, but if you're gonna watch porn it might as well be good quality, right? Besides...nobody I know has never seen a porn film, so obviously there's a market for it. And we're all aware that adult films are what caused the VHS market to take off in the early eighties, so maybe the same thing will happen with DVD in the early 21st century? Who knows...sex...everyone does it, nobody talks about it. What a screwed up society we live in.

A last bit of news for the week, I see that the Back to the Future trilogy (including the Special Edition of BTTF part I) is back on the schedule at Universal. Bravo, guys! I hope we actually see this on DVD soon. My wife and I are huge fans of these films, and have been holding off on buying the VHS editions because we knew the DVD would be coming before long. Another quick note to Universal (and someone there must be reading, because I ended up on their mailing list...), great job on the Mummy! The film was a blast.

Until next time...go stand in line for Star Wars...or watch the Mummy instead...