Disney Takes on Star Wars

After having a Star Wars marathon today, I began become excited for the next trilogy that will be brought to us by Disney. But then is thought, "Should I really be excited?"

The original trilogy is highly respected and beloved by sci-fi fans the world around. And the second, while still an important part of the Star Wars saga, is mostly ridiculed and condemned by fans and critics. So will the next chapter of Star Wars continue down the same slippery slope to film infamy? Will it shortly end up in the $5 dollar movie bin at Wal-Mart with all of the rest of the ambitious but failed movies? That's what I'm dying to find out.

The first trilogy was wildly successful because of its special effects and narrative that was literally out of this world. (Spoiler)

At a time when we were just exploring space travel and recently landed on the moon, people's imaginations were running wild and these movies captivated audiences. The lasers and lightsabers were every boys dream and a Jedi was what they aspired to be.

As the original Star Wars generation reached adulthood and began having children a new trilogy was released. This, a prequel, followed young Vader (Anakin Skywalker) and his journey to the dark side. These movies were released after the internet boom when technology was advancing exponentially. These movies were seemingly targeting a younger, new crowd instead of the older longtime fans. There is a general consensus that these movies were now where near as good as the originals. Many people, myself included don't even bother watching them when doing a marathon. Whether its the actors, the sfx's, the story or the overall feel of the movies, "true fans" grimace at the mention of them.

Then that leaves Disney, the new trilogy and Episode 7. J.J. Abrams who is an award winning producer, writer and director believes he is the man for the job. He has has a lot of success with the new Star Trek movies and wants to continue that with Star Wars. In my humble opinion I'm not sure thats what he'll find. The problem: Disney. Disney has a way of taking something great and making it something else. Maybe not necessarily bad, but just not what it was. Disney's demographic is more of an adolescent one and their movies are too 'shiny' and too fairytale looking for this type of film. I think to find success, a company with experience in more gritty and adult looking movies would need to take the reigns. If the movies and stories become too childish then I believe they will ultimately fail. With that said, if J.J. Abrams and keep creative control and pay close attention to the writing and casting, the saga may still have a breath of life.

Super Bowl Commercial

Seeing that the Super Bowl is this evening, I thought that I would write about a commercial. Some of the Super Bowl commercials are usually the best commercials of the year. I think they are sort of expected to seeing that the average cost of a 30-second ad during the 2013 Super Bowl costs approximately $3.8 million.

One of the best commercials that I have ever seen made its debut during the 2011 Super Bowl. It was titled "The Force" and it was a Volkswagen commercial for the new 2012 Volkswagen Passat. The commercial shows a little boy, dressed in a Darth Vader costume, pretending to use the force. The boy attempts to use the force on a stair master, a dog, a washing machine and a baby doll. The boy's father then pulls into the driveway with his 2012 Passat. The little boy rushes out and tries to use the force on the new car. All of a sudden the car turns on and the boy seems shocked. The commercial then shows that the father turned the engine on remotely using his keys. Even though the little boy was wearing a Darth Vader mask, you could still see how stunned and surprised he was.

The reason why I love this commercial is because it is a Star Wars parody. There are no words and it is a very simple commercial but it advertises the product very well. I also really enjoy how throughout the entire commercial, the Star Wars music is playing in the background. "The Force" is a great commercial that I can watch over and over and still laugh at the end.