It's the buildings more than anything. I have often wondered if there's a not-insignificant number of people in the approvals process who (in addition to not caring) genuinely can't see it. Like it's hard to articulate but it's either instantly apparent or all of it washes over you.
My wife and I used to joke about how his split-second horrified reaction was low-key the most "real" thing that happens in any Star Wars movie.
Which is more a response to the article than your very correct point which also could have been helped by sticking to the standard three year release gaps between episodes.
...PT rehab blossomed slowly over a decade of GL simply forcing it through because that's what he wanted SW to be at the time (bless him). Risk-averse Disney might not fully embrace the ST again until it's a nostalgia object but GL saw the future and already put in that work before PT nostalgia hit.
I feel like most discourse-in-hindsight also ignores TCW being considered by many (most?) people over 20 at the time as GL stubbornly doubling down on something pop culture/older fans were sick of. The CW movie initially even hurt the "redemption" people thought ROTS provided...
I discovered SW in like 89/90 through hand-me-downs from my older sister when it was DEAD. I was obsessed but didn't have a single conversation about SW with ANYONE until like 1995. I was shocked to learn even then that people were insufferable freaks about whatever the most recent thing was.
The trailer opens on a widescreen TV showing CGI Jabba with the VO "For an entire generation, people have experienced Star Wars the only way it's been possible". Then Ben lets it rip with the classic Krayt Dragon call as an X-Wing explodes out of the TV with the thickest matte lines you ever saw.
I should clarify I am not a TROS-hater and this is more of an observation than a declaration.
"Disney I will never forgive you for not making the next Ben Solo movie and I will also never forgive you for making the previous Ben Solo movie". Once a month. Forever.
Me listening to this episode and thinking ahead a couple years to what kinds of doors are in TPM:
I think about Ben Mendelsohn's character and ultimate fate every single time I read the news.
I like ALL of it to varying degrees and I have the exact proper expectations for endless output in a 50-year-franchise. But I know the difference between a new Wiki paragraph and a new piece of finely crafted work that'll haunt me forever. The Kennedy Administration gave me that every couple years.
Having an in-house lore squad plus 3/4 of Earth being semi-knowledgable SW dorks meant you could open a random page of KK's Rolodex and mix those folks up into something that is recognizably SW and also a "real movie". The KK era broke LFL wide open and I don't want a return to pre-2012 insularity.
"A CommTech chip reader in every classroom" sounds like a good platform position.
That's my experience with my dad. I still (barely) communicate with him but he went from Rush to Fox my whole life and he's let the mask slip more as he gets older. This crap is ALWAYS on unless he's watching his one movie a day. It pains me at random moments but some people are just like that.
Besides, everybody knows Phase 3 was Bend-Ems and that comic where Boba Fett was mad at the fake Sammy Petrillo Boba Fett.
I think it's important, after a year of massive protests, plummeting GOP approval, electoral wins and numerous successful lawsuits, that Democratic leaders recognize what Americans really crave: the symbolic appearance of congenial propriety while we wait for a bunch of Republicans to turn good.
I'm not holding my breath but grand juries have been on a little bit of a roll lately?
Just endless cycles for smart writers to draw from and viewers to internalize. I sincerely hope audiences are taking notes of the meanings behind things and not just Rick Dalton-ing at reading the name Sienar.
Chuck Schumer being my really underwhelming commencement speaker and then the economy collapsing a few months later initiated a Hell loop that has persisted for my entire adult life.
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Easter Bunny?
Project 2026 is a 1986 Sears Wish Book.
Thank you.
This has been made available, so for purposes of commenting on Bari Weiss's decision to spike the story, here's a live-post of that segment.
It begins with a "you may recall" summary of the deportation to el Salvador. Describes the admin's claim that it could deport the men without due process
"We will make new kinds of planes. Like the world has never seen. Powerful planes with guns. I call them fighter planes. They'll fight each other in the sky. Like dogs."
Overall, this big @nytimes.com investigation identified $500m+ that was donated to Trump-backed groups AFTER the election from 346 donors.
It found that more than half of the donors have benefited in some way from actions by Trump or his administration. (gift link)
As much as they obviously feel like the family-friendly distillation of Cameron's whole deal up to this point, I feel like these movies are also probably the most direct cinematic descendants to the prequels. Tone, production methodology, design sensibility, dialogue, messaging, etc.
Like even if we took what she said at face value as being the reason, it's necessary to run because the typical CBS viewer hasn't been online all year learning this stuff. To quote a different network: "If you haven't seen it, it's new to you!"
If being a duly elected congressperson adds no "value" to a country, would could? Worth noting so many campaigns of fear and hatred come from outside of communities, as if they count on ignorance and a lack of personal contact. It usually falls apart upon humanizing direct experience.