Bet our grandchildren would dig hanging out in this galaxy. I mentioned it to my wife and she was like, “um, no” but hey, I think it looks cool. Probably it is cost prohibitive for families, I didn’t dig too deep into it to know for sure. Anybody seen projected pricing on this?
More research needed.
Meanwhile, I’m having The Mandalorian withdrawals. Got to wait for another season, but haven’t really been back to Disney+ since the first season concluded.
No, George Lucas is not coming back to Star Wars
Hearing a few rumors that George Lucas might be back in some capacity? I’m not buying it. He’s been pretty consistently retired from Star Wars since the sale to Disney. Sure, he’ll drop by the set or offer some creative office time to espouse some of his creator wisdom, they’ll bow to him and/or pat him on the head, and then do whatever the heck they want. I’m not even sure George Lucas back doing anything except if he is behind the director’s chair, is newsworthy. That isn’t meant as disrespectful, he’ll always be credited for his genius creation, but it’s in different creative hands now. Star Wars fans need to accept that and move on from Lucas.
Unless he says he’s written a new script and is directing a new Star Wars movie. Then somebody can pinch me and we’ll talk about it.
There is a reason I try not to give too much bandwidth to rumors, because they are worth clicks and quick eyeball traffic, but it’s generally wiser to just focus on what we know, not what we don’t.
As seen at the beginning of Star Wars, the most profitable movie of all time, the title card will no longer hold relevance soon. Disney is removing “FOX” from 20th Century Fox.
Disney is dropping the Fox name from its 20th Century Fox brand, renaming the longtime studio as just 20th Century Studios. Its art house production company, Fox Searchlight, will now be known as Searchlight Pictures.
After Disney bought Fox, the name’s fate was just one of many question marks. How much of the 20th Century Fox movies will end up in Disney+ and what will go into the infamous Big D vault?
This name change seems to be a departure from what Disney CEO Bob Iger said back in August 2019:
“The company itself will be The Walt Disney Co., but there will still be companies, especially on the movie side, with the Fox name,” Iger said during the meeting, which Disney live-streamed. “We will continue to make movies under the Fox brand and Fox Searchlight brand. And FX, which isn’t Fox, but sounds like it will keep its name.”
As much as I’d like to move onto many other films, the movie blogs I’m following are still posting reviews and talking Star Wars. They are drawing me back in.
So, who buys this rumor from an inside source that says Disney’s Lucasfilm wants George Lucas back?
the studio want him back, but want him to work in a more official capacity and more “on the record” this time around. It’s likely this new role will give Lucas significant creative control over the direction of the newer Star Wars films that he oversees, unlike his work on Rise of Skywalker, which Lucas allegedly did as a favor to director J. J. Abrams.
The headline is a bit misleading — imagine the clickbait. It actually is believable that they would give George Lucas some sort of pat on the head consultant role, but it’s obvious by their actions they have no interest in paying attention to any of his creative ideas unless he steps back up and gets in the director chair.
Which, if you watch this video with Mark Hamill’s award ceremony, he’s blatantly dismissive about ever coming back: “No, I’m out of the game.”
At the end of this speech you can fast forward to 2:50 and see Lucas reaction to making more movies
Our favorite stormtrooper renegade, John Boyega, is in a wee bit of a dustup over joking around on social media. Come on, Finn, you know you can’t make any sexual jokes about co-stars characters. This is DISNEY Star Wars, man, the house that Mickey built. Keep those pipe laying comments in the trench for Wedge to navigate and shoot down the Death Star target.
Sorry, I laughed. I’m not really much of a Star Wars fan any more. Haven’t been for years. I did enjoy The Mandalorian and am eager for season two, but theater-wise it’s just been a run of too many so-so to bad movies for me to get all that excited about the feature films any more.
People, we had George Lucas make three more Star Wars films not that long ago. Two of the three were awful. I don’t think Lucas, as great as he was when all cylinders were firing and he wanted to make great movies, has any heart left for it any more. I mean that with all due respect. He’s rich and retired, and wants to stay that way.
If I were him, I’d have no interest in any sort of complimentary consulting role at Lucasfilms. That’s sounds like a good excuse to use his name for promotional purposes. He’s much smarter than that.
Now, we just have to hope younger people will take the torch and make more stories like The Mandalorian.
More Reviews by Others
Just putting the newest reviews I’ve read here, rather than separating by recommended and not recommended.
And in this Corner: “The movie is not as bad as critics have made it out to be. It is certainly not good, but it is also not the worst “Star Wars” movie”
Anthony Herring / Byte: “…when the film works, it truly excels, but when it doesn’t work, it really, really does not.”
Cole Mushel / The C Word: “I’m going to say that I like this movie, I don’t love it, I don’t even think it’s that great, but I like it. I think I mostly like it because at the end of the day it’s a Star Wars.”
Emerald / My Turn To Talk: “I found the ending neither hopeful nor satisfying, but the stuff that came before it was enjoyable enough.”
Ginger Movie Reviews: “To be the final movie in the Star Wars story, it was held to a very high standard. It did not disappoint me.”
Maria Copeland: “…wasn’t a brilliant film, but it succeeded where it most mattered..”
mrushing02: “To my utter surprise, I liked it, from start to finish. It did something I never expected it to be able to, it not only made me like The Force Awakens more, it actually utilized plot elements from The Last Jedi in a way that almost redeemed them in my eyes. It also found a way to bring the Skywalker Saga to a satisfactory close for me.”
Patrick Why / The Ebert Test: “…does leave a bit of a bad taste due to its almost algorithmic hitting of beats, tying up of loose ends and resolving of call-backs.”
Plenty of Popcorn: “…is definitely worth watching with a friend or two who can interject with outlandish, inappropriately-timed fan theories.”
Riley’s Ramblings: “Actually most things, it wasn’t a bad movie, except for the issues with Kylo Ren and Rey”
Son of Freedom: “While JJ Abrams did pull off a miraculous feat, everything about this trilogy was so haphazard and random that it’s hard to care. The film is too rushed. The characters spend too much time yelling at each other. The jokes rarely land. The retcons and MacGuffins are dumb.” (ed. this is one funny well-written review. Nicely done!)
Stroke of Genius: “I can say I was happy with the way they landed the plane. As for suspicions and reports about various forms of clunkiness in the process well, that’s kinda how these things go. Life and art imitate each other, you know.”
The Bad Movie Marathon: “This film is a mess, and I could probably roll with that more if it wasn’t for the fact that a lot of the reason for that is that it backpedalled on TLJ, for better or – more often – for worse.”
The Genre Freak: “In his desperation to please the wide berth of Star Wars fans, JJ Abrams has made a movie that’s both narratively flawed and just honestly soulless.”
The Movie Vampire (3.5/5): “…as easy as it is to pick holes in certain elements of the movie, but pros outweigh the cons in a pretty big way for me. This is the first time we’ve really seen the cast of the new trilogy working together on a mission and the adventure elements here really delivered for me.”
The Nerdy Critique: “I did enjoy it. But if you start to think about it even the slightest, it crumbles to the ground in a heap”
Want to read 65+ more reviews by others? Check out this post and this one.
Coffee with Kenobi: United Airlines bought a commercial spot that runs starting on Thanksgiving.
Chris Smith on a fan who noticed a link between The Mandalorian and Rise of Skywalker.
The script almost leaked out thanks to an unnamed actor leaving it under their bed and it being sold on eBay. Glad to hear Disney got it back so it wasn’t spoiled. Thanks David Gonzales:
Speaking of the script, before ever putting pen to paper, J.J Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy and Chris Terrio had a “long meeting” with George Lucas to get his thoughts on what Rise of Skywalker should/could be.
Mike Fleming / Deadline reports Colin Trevorrow is donating his residuals from his work on the film to the Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice, a British center in Berkshire.
Eric Ital covers the Twitterverse universally negative reaction to Stormtroopers with jetpacks.
Carrie Fisher passed away before this film started shooting, however there was some unused footage in Episode VII that JJ Abrams intends to use in this one:
“We realised we could not possibly tell the end of these nine films without Leia. We realised that we had footage from Episode VII, and we could use it in a new way.”
Here are The Rise of Skywalker official trailers starting with the teaser:
Star Wars; The Rise of Skywalker teaser
Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker final trailer OFFICIAL
My Anticipation for this Film
I’ve held off on talking much about Star Wars to date, but now is as good a place as any to share my take on the franchise up to this point in time. The Mandalorian is the most excitement I’ve had for Star Wars in a long time. I feel like Jon Favreau has at least a pulse on what old school Star Wars is about. Disney Star Wars with some very small exceptions (like The Mandalorian) has not excited me.
A special look at Star Wars through the years
When growing up, Star Wars was my favorite science fiction fantasy adventure. I had the figures, followed the comic book (yes, there was one of them) and was all-in for the original trilogy. I was also excited when George Lucas announced he was making more, but a bit disappointed in them being prequels instead of a continuing adventure.
Apparently, when Lucas sold Star Wars to Disney he had scripts or at least treatments for a new trilogy beyond Return of the Jedi and Disney shelved his ideas in favor of their own. Maybe we’ll never know if Lucas’ films would have been better than Disney’s, but I can always dream that we’ll get another George Lucas Star Wars. Doubtful, yes, but nothing wrong with dreaming.
Interestingly, I’ve not rewatched any of George Lucas’ prequels and hope to do that before seeing The Rise of Skywalker next month. I’ve seen the original trilogy several times, including recently. Those three movies are the best of the best again and only brief flashes of what those were I’ve seen in the Disney Star Wars movies. Moreso with The Mandalorian, which has some real good momentum going so far. I’ve always thought a movie on bounty hunters would be an exciting idea.
I was less excited about the adventures of Han Solo and, while I’ve seen that movie it wasn’t as interesting to me as The Mandalorian.
So, with that understood, I’m currently a lukewarm Star Wars fan. Not for many years, really, have I been a diehard fan of the franchise. I’m a fan of The Mandalorian and the original trilogy and some of what was done in the prequels. I really need to revisit the Disney Star Wars movie (one is on Disney+, the other on Netflix) prior to seeing The Rise of Skywalker, to be able to process my feelings on those and to rate and write a proper review.
As of this writing, I have fairly low expectations for The Rise of Skywalker wrapping up the series in any super satisfying manner. In my mind it was already wrapped up good with Return of the Jedi ad everything since has pretty much felt like a money grab more than necessary extension of the original trilogy.
Now, they are just wrapping up the last two movies in the franchise. Am I looking forward to it? A little bit, yes. but not going to wait in any long lines for it and am not even sure if I’ll preorder tickets, so that might mean I won’t be one of the very, very first moviegoers to see it.
Am OK with that.
Between now and next month when it’s released my excitement could increase. It probably will naturally as more is learned, but for now I’m going to see it as soon as I can when it opens like any other movie.. Honestly, I was more excited to see another Rambo and Terminator movie this year then am looking forward to seeing this film. Doctor Sleep ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ has been the highlight sequel for me in 2019 so far. Can this be better?
Will soon find out.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens in theaters wide on December 20, 2019.
The Mandalorian is transporting baby Yoda (not really Yoda, but sure looks like him) and runs into Jawas scavenging his spaceship. Trapped on the planet, he is offered a plan to recover the parts, but it’s not without risk.
Almost as amazing an episode as the first — further proof that we are (finally!) returning to familiar waters that we love — it’s awesome seeing characters being explored from — or at least strongly inspired by (in the case of the “child” — the original Star Wars. Also, this episode is shorter, clocking in at 33 minutes compared to 40 minutes for the first. Some others commenting on the length saying that it was too short.
Reviews By Others
Warning: the links that follow may contain significant SPOILERS. They are here to see what others think of the episode after you’ve watched once, twice or more.
CJ / But Why Tho (10/10): ” After an outstanding pilot episode, the second episode of The Mandalorian, “Chapter 2: The Child,” made its debut on Disney+ and it manages to live up to the sci-fi/Western aesthetic that the series has embraced so far.”
C.T Grey: “Another thing that I started to wonder, while I watched this excellent episode was that doesn’t parked ships in the desert command some sort of respect. Do not touch me, kind of thing or does the Jawas simply not care?”
Talking Films: “I am fascinated to see what the next couple of episodes will reveal as well in terms of the main character’s intentions with the asset.”
Jason Ward: “All I know is Star Wars: The Mandalorian’s second chapter was really badass.”
Ricardo (9.3/10): “My only problem is that the episode was shorter, and I could’ve sworn that they said that the episodes were an hour long. Overall, this was a great episode. Also, I love baby Yoda, and I would do anything to protect it.”
Tyler Hersko (Grade: C+): “…has the potential to deliver on the gritty, morally grey action its prerelease publicity machine promised. It’s just a shame to see the flagship Disney+ series kill much of its momentum so early in the season.”
Nerdrotic (7/10): Vlog, on the long side (52 minutes!), but has some good commentary if you want to watch/listen to it in the background.
A Middle-Aged Geek: ““The Child” is yet another variation on the ‘bandits with a baby’ premise of 1936’s classic western, “Three Godfathers.” The tale of non-paternal guys being saddled with an infant is a very old story loosely re-adapted many times, as seen in the popular 1987 comedy “Three Men and a Baby””
How are you liking The Mandalorian series so far, we’re only 20% in (2 episodes of 10 total for the first season)? What do you think of Episode 2, Chapter 2 “The Child”? Use the comments below.
As of 11/12/2019 5:30am PST (GMT-8) Disney+ is now live on Roku. Yes, of course, there are errors, and the service is responding slow at times due to overwhelming traffic.
Disney+ is now available on ROKU, just search for it — as of 11/12/2019 5:30am PST (GMT-8)
To find it, just conduct a search for “Disney” and it’s there on ROKU.
Just search on ROKU and you’ll see the new Disney Plus streaming channel
If you haven’t signed up for a Disney+ streaming account, you’ll need to get that handled.
It’s a seamless process and it seems to use the account information associated with your ROKU account.
The main splash screen divides up the content by home company: Disney, PIXAR, Marvel, Star Wars (!!!) and National Geographic. There isn’t a FOX category.
The main home welcome screen for the Disney+ streaming service at launch
The Star Wars Mandalorian from the outside screen would only result in “Error. Sorry something went wrong. Please try again later” message.
I was successful playing the first episode once I got on the welcome screen.
There is an opening Cantina scene where the bounter hunter enters, somebody spilled his drink, and he goes off. Love it!!
Don’t ever mess with a bounter hunter’s drink in the Cantina!
Play something else. Star Wars IV: A New Hope.
There are extras included!
Including deleted scenes like the Cantina Rough Cut. Pretty trippy watching this in black and white.
I’ll keep updating this post throughout the day with more pictures and information. Just getting this out there now to alert others. Go check it out.
Others talking about Disney+
Am a strong believer in reading before writing. so thus am spreading the link love around below:
Disney in 2018 claimed 40% of gross ticket sales in North America, expected to rise to 50%
Cue Darth Vader evil empire music.
When Walt Disney bought 21st Century Fox for $7.3 billion this past spring, that included the rights to hundreds of older 20th Century Fox movies. One theory about classic Fox movies going into the Vault is that the company wants consumers to subscribe to its new streaming service, Disney+, while another theory is that Disney simply wants the maximum number of eyeballs on its big franchises, like the Marvel movies or Star Wars.
Recently, I proposed shrinking the theatrical window from the current 90 days to 30 days. In that same post, I suggested that theaters should be showing more older movies than they are so that moviegoers could see movies on the big screen that they might have missed and/or want to see again.
It turns out that Disney, after the purchase of 20th Century Fox, is putting more movies in their “vault” thus leaving them unavailable to smaller theaters and even some larger theater chains.
Uh oh.
Maybe I need to rethink shrinking our collection of physical media movies? That is the one way to protect a movie collection from some crypt of Disney movie horror. Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse poised to protect Diehard from being seen on the big screen with fistfuls of wet spaghetti.
Ok, so I’m sort of joking. This Disney vault does concern me, somewhat. Especially if it’s anything like the Universal music vault which had a fire and master music recordings were forever lost.
When a fire blazed through part of the backlot of Universal Studios Hollywood a little more than 11 years ago, it took with it the music equivalent of a presidential library.
Hopefully the master film in Disney’s vault will be guarded with more regard than the music that in 2008 became cinders and ash.
