Category: star wars

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This morning in The Force Awakens: Bob Iger’s praise, London press

STILL-tfa-trailer3-bb8In an email to employees, Disney’s Bob Iger called The Force Awakens “one of the proudest and most exciting moments” in Disney history.

→ The BBC report and photos from The Force Awakens’ London premiere. Meanwhile, you can watch this morning’s the London press conference.

→ The Military Times profiles Adam Driver.

→ You won’t need to be a Star Wars expert to enjoy The Force Awakens, Bobby Roberts points out in The Portland Mercury.

→ Buzzfeed takes a look at J.J. Abrams’ previous movies, leading into some interesting casting bits on The Force Awakens

→ J.J. Abrams and Harrison Ford were on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert the other day, where we get ‘exclusive video’ of J.J. Abrams convincing Harrison Ford to return as Han Solo. Colbert is also pushing the hashtag #SpoilerSpoilers. (My favorite.)

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Roundup: The Force Awakens reviews

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The Force Awakens reviews came off embargo very early this morning, and there are a lot of them (I did one!) They are also, for the most part, overwhelmingly positive, and as of Wednesday afternoon the film is 94% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Here are a select few:

→ The prize for most innovative goes to Hannah Lodge at The Beat, which is helpfully divided to let you choose your own spoiler level. (It’s still not all that spoilery.)

→ io9’s Charlie Jane Anders has become one of my favorite reviewers, and her take on TFA is mostly positive – it passes her “grin test.”

→ I’m super jealous of Chris Taylor’s opening line at Mashable, if only because he said it better than I did. I could not pull off his Beatles references, though.

→ Our pal Bryan Young at Big Shiny Robot is a little more hesitant, particularly on the editing front.

→ Drew McWeeny at Hitfix praises how TFA grapples with the legacy both on and off screen.

→ The Guardian’s Jordan Hoffman is heavy on the detail – mainly of the Easter Egg variety, not so much the spoilers.

→ Devin Faraci of Birth. Movies. Death. calls The Force Awakens “the Star Wars movie for remix and remake culture,” a fair enough assessment. He’s cynical on a lot of things – that’s Faraci for you – but he’s also full of praise for the characters and the final saber battle.

→ Among a handful of not-so-positive reviews is Scott Mendelson at Forbes, who found the nostalgia a bit too overpowering, and the details not sketched in enough.

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Today in The Force Awakens: Making the AFI list, everybody sings

SS-tfa-trailer3-handsupThe Force Awakens is one of the American Film Institute’s Movies of the Year. Inside Out, Mad Max: Fury Road and The Martian were also honored.

→ For GQ, Oscar Isaac covers Bill Murray’s classic lounge-singer version of the Star Wars theme. With new words! Also singing: Everyone.

→ Alyssa Rosenberg at The Washington Post looks at how The Force Awakens plays into the ‘great cultural debates’ of our time.

→ Gizmodo takes a look at Star Wars merchandising in Hungary, which gets pretty damn weird. (Creamed corn? Chicken nuggets? Foie Gras?)

→ Rolling Stone posted their full interview with Harrison Ford; Greg Grunberg on getting his own action figure.

→ Quentin Tarantino has accused Disney of trying to strong-arm his latest movie, The Hateful Eight, out of ArcLight theaters with The Force Awakens.

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Review: The Force Awakens is everything I hoped it would be

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Let’s just cut to the chase: The Force Awakens is a pretty good Star Wars movie.

Some are saying great, but I’m not sure if a single viewing is enough. (And I don’t do rankings, because that’s tedious.) But the important thing, for our purposes, is that I enjoyed it.

Granted, I’m an easy mark for this one. I’ve been a Star Wars fan for both the special editions and the prequels – I waited in those lines. (Briefly.) But I never approached any of them with anything beyond idle curiosity. They were not a cornerstone of my personal fandom. The Force Awakens is the first brand-new Star Wars film that’s actually important to me. The first film where I was actually a little scared to watch, because what if I don’t like it?

In the theater, none of that mattered.

UPDATE: Please do not leave spoilers in the comments of the review. We have a special discussion post for that sort of thing!

Continue reading “Review: The Force Awakens is everything I hoped it would be”

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Today in The Force Awakens: $100M in presales alone

tfa-bb8-reyThe Force Awakens’ advance ticket sales have passed the $100 million mark in North America, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That’s at least four times as much as the previous record holder, The Dark Knight Rises.

Don’t forget that the reviews – including mine – will come off embargo tonight at 12:01 a.m. PST (3:01 a.m. EST.) Don’t worry too much, we’ve been asked not to reveal spoilers. (There’s always the Force Block browser extension if you’re paranoid.)

→ Official featurette on your new favorite droid, BB-8, and a Force for Change highlight reel.

→ Slightly more women than men have been talking about The Force Awakens on Facebook, and Rey is the character driving the most anticipation for the film, according to a new survey.

→ Oscar Isaac is GQ’s latest cover dude. Meanwhile, in the Miami New Times, he’s interviewed by his brother, Mike Hernandez.

→ Lupita Nyong’o tells Ellen DeGeneres how she didn’t know that she was auditioning for Star Wars.

→ In /Film’s full J.J. Abrams interview, the director talks about developing the film

→ What does comedian Bill Hader have to do with BB-8?

→ You’ll never guess what some of the internet’s most disgruntled Expanded Universe fans are threatening to do now! Oh wait, you totally will, because it’s utterly pointless and deranged. That Force Block thing is looking pretty good about now, yeah?

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Tonight in The Force Awakens: Red carpet shenanigans

mark-redcarpetI was only able to see about half the world premiere red carpet livestream, but I did catch the most magical part: Carrie Fisher interviewing Oscar Isaac. Or attempting to interview. Whatever it was, it was wonderful, and you can watch it on Youtube.

I wasn’t able to collect tweets, but here are some from The Hollywood Reporter, Jedi News and @bahnree. There are also pictures at Variety and The Wrap. (The best. Or maybe…)

UPDATE: Kathleen Kennedy’s speech inside the theater and some of the first reactions.

→ Kathleen Kennedy and J.J. Abrams talked to /Film on how they collaborated with Episode VIII writer/director Rian Johnson, and how IX director Colin Trevorrow will likely work in.

→ Wired takes a look at Sphero, and how exactly BB-8 was a boon for them.

→ Some great The Force Awakens fashions by designer Catherine Elhoffer. You may have seen them on the red carpet tonight!

→ Andy Serkis ‘confirms’ evil Jar Jar on Conan.

→ Korean boy band EXO has an (authorized) song called ‘Lightsaber’. We truly live in an age of wonders.

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Star Wars out this week: Some movie, I hear?

First and foremost, yes, we’re getting the first Star Wars movie in a decade this week – a lucky few (hundred? thousand?) tonight in Hollywood, and the rest of the world a few days later, depending on your location.

But for our purposes, let’s look at Wednesday first, which brings the Darth Vader Annual, Kanan #9, and the Legends Epic Collection: Infinities, because Marvel heard you’d like some alternate universe in your alternate universe.

Now Friday is when things get really interesting, as not only is there a movie, but a whole bunch of books as well. For fiction, there’s The Force Awakens novelization by Alan Dean Foster (eBook only – the hardcover isn’t out until January 5) and Before the Awakening by Greg Rucka. For reference, Pablo Hidalgo’s The Force Awakens Visual Dictionary, The Force Awakens Incredible Cross-Sections from Kemp Remillard and Jason Fry, and of course, The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

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This weekend in The Force Awakens: 60 Minutes extra, why Nyong’o chose to go CGI

tfa-60m-260 Minutes posted extra footage after tonight’s feature on The Force Awakens, including John Williams conducting some of the first music in the film, but we also get a glimpse of the scene with Rey, BB-8, Teedo and the luggabeast.

→ Lupita Nyong’o tells Buzzfeed why she chose to play a CGI character.

→ Rolling Stone shares a few things they learned about The Force Awakens that didn’t make the main article.

→ Spot the new stuff in today’s commercial.

→ Dan Mindel on the The Force Awakens cinematography, and how the film being pushed back turned out to be a positive.

→ Also: Another fun Carrie Fisher interview; Sisters and other films that have gone up against Star Wars.

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Today in The Force Awakens: The review embargo is in

tfa-kylo-finn-reyWe’ll be seeing the first The Force Awakens reviews on Wednesday, December 16th at 12:01am PST. Plan accordingly. In Hollywood, things are shaping up for the Monday premiere, which will have “Academy Award levels” of security and crowd control.

→ The Force Awakens will be featured on CBS’ 60 Minutes on Sunday, and in the preview video we get to hear some of John Williams’ new score.

→ Today’s best bet: Samuel L. Jackson and Gwendoline Christie chat for Interview magazine.

→ J.J. Abrams has more praise for coffee enthusiast Pablo Hidalgo from in the Toronto Sun. Elsewhere, he talks about The Raid stars with /Film.

→ Costume designer Michael Kaplan on Kylo Ren’s helmet for Time.

→ Vice News did a half-hour piece on Adam Driver’s Arts in the Armed Forces organization. (Guess what made the headlines?)

→ Also: Phasma and Rey action figures flying off the shelves, Lupita Nyong’o was on GMA this morning, and Anthony Breznican on Bobbajo.