A long, long time ago… April 30, 2008
Posted by ghostof82 in : Film General , trackbackFunny thing happened yesterday. It was my nephew’s birthday, “the big one-two”, as he called it. Twelve years old. I remember back when I was twelve, I told him, when his Dad and I bunked off school one February afternoon back in 1978. If I remember rightly it was my birthday week and my Dad took us both to the Odeon cinema in town to see STAR WARS. The Odeon was one of those big old cinemas with a huge lobby and foyers and a fantastic large screen, with the seats for Screen One being the balcony seats (Screens Two and Three being in what used to be the stalls down below). It may not have had digital surround sound like multiplexes today have, but boy did that place have character. It was a Picture Palace, a Dream Theatre. It’s been a Bingo Hall for the last twenty years.
And yeah, I loved STAR WARS. The rest, as they say, is history.
On the subject of STAR WARS, anyone else seen the new issue of Empire with the pictures from the new CLONE WARS animated feature? Dear God, Lucas, give it a rest. I may be proved wrong but it looks just awful. Back in 1978 I was transported to another galaxy, with real actors, real sets, great miniature effects, and now it’s just a computer cartoon. It’s very sad, and STAR WARS’ place in cinematic history (hell, the version I loved back in 1978 doesn’t even exist anymore according to Lucas) is being repeatedly tarnished by its own creator. Very sad indeed.
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There is a sense of Lucas trying to wring every last drip out of the concept with the new Clone Wars, isn’t there? Still, I’m sure I will be handing over my cash faithfully when the time comes, hoping for a return to form. Partly this is due to being increasingly impressed with the sound work and editing done on the recent Wars films, and I’m hoping for more of the same this time around. But yes, very sad…