My friends and I saw the new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, opening day, opening show. And you know what? I was very disappointed! After all the hype, it just didn't deliver the way it should have. Here's why:
First of all, a little background for those who don't know: there is (or, in light of this film, was) a consistent timeline for the Star Wars saga. The films gave rise to a galaxy of books about the Star Wars characters, and the history of their worlds. It's called The Expanded Universe. Within the context of TEU, there is both a consistent history and an applied continuity for the characters, planets, people, and even the multitudes of species. The chronology has been consistent, and all the movies, books, and even cartoons have abided by it. But no longer. The Force Awakens movie doesn't conform to this canon at all. Director J. J. Abrams has thrown the entire timeline into the toilet and announced that he will not abide by it at all!
The Expanded Universe has a plethora of terrific characters and terrifying weapons that Abrams could have tapped for his film, and for the life of me, I cannot figure out why he didn't want to use them. There was Mara Jade, an imperial assassin who reformed and became the wife of Luke Skywalker. Or how about grand Admiral Thrawn, an Empire officer who was a tactical genius and made Grand Moff Tarkin look like a schoolyard bully by comparison. The Ssi-Ruv aliens whose technology sucked the souls from people and used them to power their spacecraft. The Sun Crusher, a tiny spacecraft which caused stars to explode. The Galaxy Gun, an artillery piece which could hit a target parsecs distant. The list goes on and on, and yet Abrams rejected all of this.
Then there's the fact that the Force Awakens movie posed more questions than it answered. Why do Rey and Fin have neither family nor friends? How could both of them wield a lightsaber with no training? If Fin was assigned to sanitation duty, how could he possibly know the planetary weapon's weak spot? If the weapon's force-beam travels through hyperspace, how could it have been visible in another planet's atmosphere? Why do the Stormtroopers have different armor? Why aren't the stormtroopers clones? Why did Luke Skywalker fail to train other Jedi Knights like himself (in the books he did so, successfully)? Why does Kylo Ren not resemble his parents at all? If the New Republic usurped the Empire, why is there a separate force called the Resistance; shouldn't the X-Wings be part of the New Republic Fleet? None of this makes any sense at all!
It just staggers me that such talented people like J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan could take on the Star Wars franchise and produce a film of such utter claptrap. Within the context of the Expanded Universe they had over twenty-five thousand (25,000!) years of history and continuity with which to make something good, and they threw it all away. The Force Awakens is ersatz junk.
To any and all Star Wars fans: Save Your Money!
Friday, December 18, 2015
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Art & the Classroom
Today is the last day of an art class that I signed up for back in September. It's been a hell of a ride, for I entered this class with very few expectations because, quite frankly, my drawing skills have never been good. Except for a small amount of cartooning ability, I've never been able to draw much of anything.
This was also my first time in a classroom as a student in nearly three years. After several years as the teacher it was quite an education to be behind a desk again. Each time the instructor did something or demonstrated a skill to a class I kept thinking to myself, 'If it was me, I would have done it differently.' I suppose that's inevitable for any teacher when watching another practitioner of the craft. We all have different styles of running a classroom, and no two teachers are the same, just as no two people are the same.
So what did I learn? Well, I learned that three-dimensional art is a lot harder than I'd first believed. Making the object appear real enough to pluck off the paper is tough, and I've also discovered that creating a straight line on the paper is not always the best thing to do. There are curved lines, vanishing points, foreground, backgrounds, slugh points, and lots of other variables which all converge to make the picture.
I've also learned that the instructor of this class has a lot to learn. Thus far I've caught him ignoring pupils, not giving praise, passing over chatterboxes that I would have silenced, talking to the board instead of the students, giving complicated directions without realizing it, and doing things quickly that should have been given incrementally to help slower students (such as myself). I've also learned that while he is an artist in his own right, he's not very learned in certain areas. I myself prowl through the commercial galleries and have love of surreal, cartoon, and fantasy art. My own computer is chock-full of jpegs of Angus McKie, Stu Sheppard, Rowena, James Warhola, R. Crumb, and Michael Whelan. The instructor knows Frank Frazetta, but not much else.
Still, he and I have had some great conversations about art, and I've enjoyed talking about the subject with him. He was also tickled to have another teacher in his class, and numerous times when he's left the room for one reason or another he has quipped, "Take over for me." So, that's what I've done. When he's out I've moved around the room, praising those who deserve it, or chatting up one student or another. Their reactions have moved from surprise to outright thanks for having been noticed. When the instructor has returned, he seems oblivious to the happy discourse going on in his room.
My own artistic skills have gotten better, and hopefully I'll be able to take what I've learned into my own classes at some near date. However, I'll be doing so on my own terms, not his. But then, I suppose everyone does that. It's the nature of art everywhere.
This was also my first time in a classroom as a student in nearly three years. After several years as the teacher it was quite an education to be behind a desk again. Each time the instructor did something or demonstrated a skill to a class I kept thinking to myself, 'If it was me, I would have done it differently.' I suppose that's inevitable for any teacher when watching another practitioner of the craft. We all have different styles of running a classroom, and no two teachers are the same, just as no two people are the same.
So what did I learn? Well, I learned that three-dimensional art is a lot harder than I'd first believed. Making the object appear real enough to pluck off the paper is tough, and I've also discovered that creating a straight line on the paper is not always the best thing to do. There are curved lines, vanishing points, foreground, backgrounds, slugh points, and lots of other variables which all converge to make the picture.
I've also learned that the instructor of this class has a lot to learn. Thus far I've caught him ignoring pupils, not giving praise, passing over chatterboxes that I would have silenced, talking to the board instead of the students, giving complicated directions without realizing it, and doing things quickly that should have been given incrementally to help slower students (such as myself). I've also learned that while he is an artist in his own right, he's not very learned in certain areas. I myself prowl through the commercial galleries and have love of surreal, cartoon, and fantasy art. My own computer is chock-full of jpegs of Angus McKie, Stu Sheppard, Rowena, James Warhola, R. Crumb, and Michael Whelan. The instructor knows Frank Frazetta, but not much else.
Still, he and I have had some great conversations about art, and I've enjoyed talking about the subject with him. He was also tickled to have another teacher in his class, and numerous times when he's left the room for one reason or another he has quipped, "Take over for me." So, that's what I've done. When he's out I've moved around the room, praising those who deserve it, or chatting up one student or another. Their reactions have moved from surprise to outright thanks for having been noticed. When the instructor has returned, he seems oblivious to the happy discourse going on in his room.
My own artistic skills have gotten better, and hopefully I'll be able to take what I've learned into my own classes at some near date. However, I'll be doing so on my own terms, not his. But then, I suppose everyone does that. It's the nature of art everywhere.
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