Curse You, Netflix

July 16, 2016


starwars

Confession time: I do not understand why Star Wars is such a big deal.

This is probably partly due to the fact that in general, I like fantasy a lot more than I like sci fi. But I love Edge of Tomorrow and Inception and The Martian, so inherent bias can’t be entirely to blame. Nope, I simply do not get the Star Wars phenomenon.

So when Netflix emailed me yesterday to say that they’d just added The Force Awakens, I figured, OK. Why not. Let’s try to figure out what all the fuss is about.

Except apparently, Netflix lied. At least, my TV couldn’t find it when I searched.

It was weirdly disappointing.

What about you? Are you a Stars Wars fan? Can you explain the hype?



8 Comments on ‘Curse You, Netflix’

  1. well, it isn’t really sci fi, aside from space ships and lasers, it really is fantasy. It’s space cowboys/Zorro and King Arthur/Samurai style escapism, set against an interplanetary backdrop. Big themes by numbers, the child who could save the world, the good wizard gone bad, the little guys versus the big bad, betrayal, redemption. All tried and tested many times over.

    But the one thing it really did add to the world of film was the idea of making swords glow as they were used. As far as iconography goes, that became massive. 🙂

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    1. So the glowing swords is the big draw? I feel I may need more than that. 😀

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  2. I loved the first three Star Wars movies, thought the second three were just okay and the new one? I liked it okay, but figured it was an age thing that it didn’t wow me. LOL It probably didn’t help that it took me a while to see it, so I’d heard lots of hype and love and what movie can live up to that?

    But I can still remember how it felt to see the very first movie the first time. My husband made me go and I didn’t want to. LOL And then I just got sucked in.

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    1. I totally agree on the hype thing. And I do wonder how much of the passion comes from the fact that people saw it during their formative years and developed an abiding, irrational love. I love stuff from childhood that is objectively terrible, so I get how that happens!

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  3. It’s on Netflix – found it last night, but I had to search. I loved it in the theatre and I’ll watch again. And it’s definitely more fantasy than science fiction, speaking as another fantasy reader.

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    1. I searched for Star Wars but I’ll try searching for Force Awakens. They might have indexed it wrong.

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  4. I got the notice from Netflix yesterday about episode 7 as well, although I’ve already seen the movie, so I didn’t try to load it. It loaded for me today though when I tested it.

    I have always been a Star Wars fan (since the first one in 1977). Episodes 4, 5, and 6 were probably the best, especially since George Lucas pulled off effects way ahead of their time. Episode 3 brought long-awaited answers about Darth Vader’s “accident” — spoiler alerts — (though Padme’s giving up on life was out of character for her), and episodes 1 and 3 had great music and acting by Liam Neeson (episode 1, where his death was clearly the beginning of the end) and Ewan McGregor. In spite of some good aspects about episode 7, I found something missing, and it seemed rushed. It reeked of “must haves” rather than originality and intensity of character. Compared to episode 4’s outstanding work in 1977 and episode 1 and 3’s spectacular battles, the recent episode 7 seemed very average. It would not have drawn my attention had it not been a part of the whole saga.

    P.S. I loved The Marian.

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    1. The Martian is AWESOME. The science is rock solid and it is surprisingly funny for what is essentially a disaster movie.

      I love me some Liam Neeson, too, so perhaps I should give this another go…

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