Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi

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That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
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I had actually considered posting that particular MovieBob video when it first came out but ultimately didn't because, as has been noted, there's not much point in just posting videos and expecting them to do the heavy lifting for you. In any case, I would think that it being a relatively concise 13 minutes gives it an edge over some 40-minute roundtable discussion (and Bunker even posted at least one video that was about 60 minutes long).
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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0



What are your top 10... or even top 3 movie choices?
I've lived in the UK for the majority of my life, and resided in the Netherlands for over four years now. There's nothing close to the cultural status of Harry Potter and James Bond either place.

There's plenty of Star Wars fans here in the UK, not sure what he's talking about. The Force Awakens is the highest grossing film since 1989 in the UK according to wiki
Nobody's denying that the UK hasn't got its fair share of Star Wars fans as well. There's fans of Avatar too, another film that had a fun time at the box office. But the keyword is culture. There are a lot of films that have significantly broader prevalence in the UK and Europe as a whole than Avatar and Star Wars, in spite of what the box office numbers may try to tell you. Brand recognition, cultural impact, references - all elements you can touch and feel from experience of growing up or living in a nation/state for a long time.



Brand recognition, cultural impact, references - all elements you can touch and feel from experience of growing up or living in a nation/state for a long time.
i've lived in the UK all my life and have experienced all of those things here. If you haven't fair enough but you don't speak for the whole of the UK.

Here's an article explaining the impact Star Wars had here in the 70's and 80's:

It started in the funnies. On 8 February 1978 the first issue of Star Wars Weekly was released, reprinting the classic Marvel Comics adaptation of the film that had been released in the US in March 1977 and starting a run that would last 117 issues until May 1980. Backed by classic Marvel stories, the much-loved comic became a staple for the UK Star Wars fan, and for many the first introduction into the worlds of Star Wars. UK publisher Sphere released Alan Dean Foster’s novelization of the film and soon poster magazines, super-8 reels, Palitoy 12-back figures, posters, badges, and much, much more filled the shelves.

For UK fans there was something uniquely compelling about the film, beyond the magic that lit up the screen. Star Wars was largely filmed here, in the UK. A vast percentage of the actors were British and reading through magazines like the much-loved Star Wars cinema program, a black and white, color, and pink printed oblong magazine that revealed exciting scenes from the movie and most interestingly, profiles on the cast and the crew who made the film. We learned all about the legend of Peter Cushing, the chameleon-like acting skills of Sir Alec Guinness and the burgeoning careers of George Lucas, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and the daughter of an American sweetheart, Carrie Fisher. How else could I possibly remember that Harrison Ford was born on 13 July 1942 in Chicago and his first film was called Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round?

But what made the UK experience that different from those enjoyed by kids in America and elsewhere around the globe? Regional publishing and production differences — now a feature of more relevance to collectors than casual fans. For Kenner in the US, we had Palitoy here in the UK. Substitute Del Rey for Sphere and later Futura. The UK had a weekly, North America had a monthly (although the comic would on occasion change on and off from monthly to weekly publications until the Return of the Jedi weekly renumbered the run with a second 1st issue in 1983). There were regular segments on popular kids’ TV of the day. Magpie, Clapperboard, and Screen Test for the kids. Horizon for the adults — and for kids of all ages, Darth Vader himself, Dave Prowse (already a kids favorite as The Green Cross Code man) would often turn up on the best show of the ’70s, Tiswas, and take on another dark lord, the Phantom Flan-Flinger. Comedians of the day would take off Artoo and Threepio, most famously The Two Ronnies in a psychedelic sketch every bit as whacked out as anything Donny and Marie ever did. The popular weekly magazine Look-In would often feature Star Wars articles, as would sci-fi magazine Starburst, which was launched in November 1977 by Star Wars Weekly editor Dez Skinn. Even the TV listings magazines got in on the act. To celebrate the arrival of Star Wars on terrestrial network television in 1982, the TV Times ran a dozen pages of content, looking back at the phenomenon as well as running a comic strip prequel to the film. Everywhere you looked in the late the ’70s to the mid ’80s — magazines, comics, toy stores, even the sweet counter via Star Wars biscuits and regular Star Wars promotions on breakfast cereal — Star Wars was everywhere.

Of course, come the arrival and departure of Return of the Jedi and the projects that came in its wake — two Ewok movies and the Ewoks and Droids cartoon series — we would soon enter The Dark Times. But that’s a tale for another blog entry…

So despite being as American as apple pie, a concoction of the Western, buddy films, fairy tales, Japanese cinema and the ’70s itself, Star Wars fit as easily into the popular culture of the UK as it did in the US. Because, when it came down to the nuts and restraining bolts, Star Wars was a child of both the USA and the UK. American designed, British built.
http://www.starwars.com/news/star-wa...-70s-early-80s

Sounds like it was pretty dang big here in the 70's and 80's. And i can tell you it was no different in the late 90's/early-mid 00's among my age group. Collecting the stickers, regularly drawing Star Wars characters, buying figures, watching any shows with anything related to Star Wars, reading anything with anything related to Star Wars.






We've gone on holiday by mistake
I've lived in the UK for the majority of my life, and resided in the Netherlands for over four years now. There's nothing close to the cultural status of Harry Potter and James Bond either place.



Nobody's denying that the UK hasn't got its fair share of Star Wars fans as well. There's fans of Avatar too, another film that had a fun time at the box office. But the keyword is culture. There are a lot of films that have significantly broader prevalence in the UK and Europe as a whole than Avatar and Star Wars, in spite of what the box office numbers may try to tell you. Brand recognition, cultural impact, references - all elements you can touch and feel from experience of growing up or living in a nation/state for a long time.
Avatar doesn't even compare to Star Wars in terms of fanbase, in fact what fanbase does Avatar even have if any?
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Pretty weird that the majority of his first ten posts have been in the Star Wars thread despite him not liking Star Wars and apparently having never experienced Star Wars culturally.



i've lived in the UK all my life and have experienced all of those things here. If you haven't fair enough but you don't speak for the whole of the UK.

Here's an article explaining the impact Star Wars had here in the 70's and 80's:

Sounds like it was pretty dang big here in the 70's and 80's. And i can tell you it was no different in the late 90's/early-mid 00's among my age group. Collecting the stickers, regularly drawing Star Wars characters, buying figures, watching any shows with anything related to Star Wars, reading anything with anything related to Star Wars.
The holding point here is that you're circumscribing popular culture to the much narrower nerd culture. It's like saying American football boasts great interest in Europe because there's people playing American football over here, too. Surely because we've got leagues, teams, and people watching the sport, that means it's well-integrated into European culture, right? You say you grew up in the UK, so I'll spare us both the platitude of an answer. Also, ignoring the relativity aspect of it would be foolish - specifically: How does it contrast to the cultural kings of the applicable land? The all-too-evident answer is (again) that it falls very short. Here's where the comparison to Star Wars is particularly striking. You're overplaying its cultural impact, relevance and status in the UK, for whatever reason I'm struggling to understand. Nothing of what's written in the article, and none of the videos you've posted, back up the picture you're attempting to paint on the brand. (Let it be known: I was never expecting them to be able to do so, either.)

Just as an addition, Star Wars comes off as a brand without a filter - pumping out more rubble than likely any other franchise on the planet. But in doing so, culture, and interest for that matter, were never placed on the other side of the equation by default. Well-illustrated by a quote from the very article you shared: "Everywhere you looked in the late the ’70s to the mid ’80s — magazines, comics, toy stores, even the sweet counter via Star Wars biscuits and regular Star Wars promotions on breakfast cereal". Even breakfast cereal. This has nothing to do with interest or culture. This has all to do with a property that one would deduce as having lost its artistic integrity long ago, placing its sole focus on the monetary, until one day meeting the end.

Moreover, just to be perfectly clear, "Star Wars was everywhere" illustrates the experience of only a small fraction down the line. Hence the website on which the assertion was made. The 'Star Wars nerds' are the only ones actually saying "yes, it was" to that statement.



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
ok. Through all the words...
Then the Star Wars unnerds are the only ones actually saying "no, it was not."

How does marketing/merchandising not have everything to do with interest and culture? Were these products freely distributed to whoever raised a hand? Were cereals force-ably poured into the bowls of dissatisfied children? People were spending money to to take part in a developing trend, for whatever the individual's motive was, and they were happy to do it. Sure, you can argue that it was a shallow money grab for an empty "artless" product, but people still wanted to be part of the universe that product created. As for meeting its end, that has yet to happen even through the divided fan base from one movie to the next. Why? Because people still want to play a part in that culture. *edit* Sub-culture is probably more appropriate a term here.



Sounds like it was pretty dang big here in the 70's and 80's. And i can tell you it was no different in the late 90's/early-mid 00's among my age group. Collecting the stickers, regularly drawing Star Wars characters, buying figures, watching any shows with anything related to Star Wars, reading anything with anything related to Star Wars.
As a Brit, you speak for a really small minority here. this is true for literally nobody that I know or have ever known. Bravefart drew the best comparison to Star Wars' popularity outside USA: American football. the biggest sport in USA but no comparable following in other countries and on other continents. Baseball and basketball are not that great examples because they're often really big outside USA too.

Ask the average American about American footballers and teams they know, and I'm sure they'd be able to name quite a few even if they weren't interested in sports. ask the average European/African/Asian about American footballers and teams they know and you'd be lucky if they could tell you one or two even if they were interested in sports. Though generally people would be able to name a few more Star Wars characters than American footballers, the comparison in culture and following is really telling.



Hellloooo Cindy - Scary Movie (2000)
So I watched it for the first time last night and really need to vent. I think this is the right place..or not. Anyone can write an essay justifying and explaining the story, connecting the dots, justifying the character motivations, etc but no one can convince me that that mess was any good overall. I don’t even know what i watched to be frank. Chaos and bumbling on screen. The best parts were with Luke and Rey and they weren’t particular good. I wasn’t upset about Luke’s story and how his character was portrayed it had some depth to it....fine to have a spin on him but it needs to be done well and the film was not done well. Pacing, awkward childish dialogue and joking, relentless action that becomes became and lacks tension, coincidences, lack of depth generally. One or two of the manoverours in the film were about stalling and escaping. That’s how the movie felt, like it was constantly stalling. Did not feel like anything meaningful happened. The worst character... Poe. He is a fking annoying idiot who is not at all funny or....cool. How many allies are dead because of him. Disgrace.



You can't win an argument just by being right!
So I watched it for the first time last night and really need to vent. I think this is the right place..or not. Anyone can write an essay justifying and explaining the story, connecting the dots, justifying the character motivations, etc but no one can convince me that that mess was any good overall. I don’t even know what i watched to be frank. Chaos and bumbling on screen. The best parts were with Luke and Rey and they weren’t particular good. I wasn’t upset about Luke’s story and how his character was portrayed it had some depth to it....fine to have a spin on him but it needs to be done well and the film was not done well. Pacing, awkward childish dialogue and joking, relentless action that becomes became and lacks tension, coincidences, lack of depth generally. One or two of the manoverours in the film were about stalling and escaping. That’s how the movie felt, like it was constantly stalling. Did not feel like anything meaningful happened. The worst character... Poe. He is a fking annoying idiot who is not at all funny or....cool. How many allies are dead because of him. Disgrace.
Pretty much. I was so disinterested I cant even remember if I dozed off or not.



We've gone on holiday by mistake
The thread that never dies

Watching the golf yesterday (sue me) and I couldn't help but analogize JJ and Rian playing doubles. JJ hits a solid drive right down the fairway leaving Rian an easy approach to the green, Rian steps up and duck hooks it into the water, JJ is now has to take a penalty drop and attempt to salvage a par but it's looking like a bogey.



Watching Mark Hamill re: TLJ footage on YouTube for the first time. Oh my god. He looks stricken by what was done to Luke. It's kind of tough watching this.



Those scenes in TLJ...I don't think he was acting. He was devastated.



28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds


I agree, such a beautiful and touching love letter to the fanbase. But you know, haters gonna hate. The thought that anyone would not like this film is just discussing and lame. They must really hate strong women. You can feel the love tonight, I sure can. I agree on all points, please watch.
Meh.

He talks way to fast in this video and I disagree with a lot of what he says.

I was in the camp of Rey NOT being a Mary Sue in The Force Awakens, but after The Last Jedi, I am. The entire "new characters are Star Wars fans" is a big stretch in my opinion and actually does more harm to the films than good.
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bruh she literally made a Rebel action figure from scratch, if anything that's almost too-on-the-nose about the "characters = fans" subtext

Besides, "more harm than good"? As far as I can tell, the only harm it's doing is to the toxic fans that the series is implicitly criticising through Kylo Ren and Star Wars could ultimately do without those fans so I'm fine with it.