The Truth About Star Wars and YOU

The Truth About Star Wars and YOU

The trailer for the newest entry into the Star wars universe, The Force Awakens, has now been released and I was floored by the amount of responses I saw within a short period of time. What really shocked me (yes, it still shocks me) was the negativity. Now granted, I may be bias as I am a HUGE Star Wars nerd; starting in 1978 when SW came to my local theater and at the tender age of 8, I was immediately hooked. I was instantly taken to a galaxy far, far away. 

This is where I start to speak the truth about Star Wars, so buckle up as we jump to light speed. It's gonna be a bumpy ride rides. 

My love for Star Wars is over 35 yrs long and tons and tons of money deep. From countless viewings, opening night toy runs, multiple copies of VHS, DVD's and Blu Rays purchases. Yes, I feel like I have a problem. What I don't have a problem with though; knowing that Star Wars is aimed at children. As I grew older, the series stayed aimed at the same audience. My inner child was still there but I started to see the writing on the wall.

Kids love this asshole

From Ewoks to Jar Jar Binks, all aimed for kids, not me. Light sabers, space ships, creatures...yep, all for kids...again, not me. We have to remember, we all fell in love with Star Wars as a child. I would love to be selfish and think "Lucas was making the movies for me"...but sadly, he wasn't. To me, this isn't negative...this is the charm of Star Wars.

When I became a father and The Phantom Menace came out, I immediately thought, "Midnight showing with my kids!!" Was I happy with that movie? It was ok (ok, my least favorite of the series)...it was not what I fell in love with but then it dawned on me, as my kids were asking for Jar Jar Binks toys...wait, this isn't MY Star Wars...its bigger than that. THEY loved it. Know why? Because they aren't a 26 yr old fanboy who grew up on it that shits on every possible flaw that we, as adults don't feel fits into OUR Star Wars memories. We have emotion attachment, based on various feelings we all had when we saw or had our 1st experience.  

The film and universe isn't for us...its for our kids!! Sitting and bitching about how the 90 sec teaser looks, is just silly. First, how can you judge anything in 90 secs...unless you're a guy getting your first experience of vagina, its hard to achieve pleasure in 90 secs. Well, even then, its one sided. In todays world, Disney knows YOU are going go see the movie, regardless of how much you bitch. Bitching does NOTHING. The flashy droid, the cool speeder...all aimed at kids. The new Light saber design? You guessed it...for toy sales. Once you start to accept it, its much easier to just relax and enjoy. 

Ok, maybe the lens flare is for me ;)

Will it be good? Who knows. Will I be there? Of course...with my wife and kids too. I will (probably) also buying toys I don't need and more Star Wars nonsense that will continue to clutter my house. I'm not saying we have to enjoy the thought of Jar Jar making decisions that could foil the galaxy or even the thought that Chewbacca needing to get home for Earth Day, we just have to realize, we are fans, but its our inner child that has a connection. Its time for a new generation to know what becoming a fan of the series is and making that connection. The series beginning to restart again makes me happy. Knowing we will see some of the main trilogy characters, again, makes me excited. JJ Abrams is a fanboy just like us...if anyone could make a fantastic film, it's him. Have faith boys and girls. 

Be more positive, be better for tomorrows fan...and may the force be with you.....always.

Star Wars - The Force Unleashed II review

Star Wars the Force Unleashed II Review

 by - John Cannon

In a galaxy long ago….ok let’s be real, it was this past week and it was at my nearest GameStop store. I had heard about the Force Unleashed II coming out a number of months ago and after becoming a fan of the first game I knew I had to acquire a copy of the sequel, STFU2. Now in reading a small bit of information regarding the new game I was intrigued as they said the game play and controls would overall be a lot easier to handle. I was pretty happy this as remembering back to the first one I usually had a hard time with the force grab and throw option as well as not having good force lightning.

So anyways, I got the call that they would have a midnight release of the game and while I had done them before I was too tired to attempt this one, so I opted to just go in the morning. I went the next day picked up my copy and threw it into my car to play at a later date. A couple days later I was talking with a friend who had picked the game up and was playing it and so I asked him what he thought about it. He told me the force throw and lightning were awesome, but the story line just seemed a bit weird. He explained a little bit of the story to me and I have to admit I was confused about it, so that sort of got me in gear to load it up and play it.

Once my PS3 (I only do PS3, sorry Xbox fans) loaded al the updates for the game I clicked on the start menu and began the journey.

Now as I played through the game I did realize that the game play was in fact much easier and in my opinion a bit more enjoyable than the first one. The force grab and throw was excellent and much more easier than before so I give the game designers kudos for that one. Plus the force lightning starts off kind of bleh, but once you upgrade it one its like the emperor himself is throwing lightning, very cool.

There are however a few things that I really didn’t enjoy about this game. One was the fact that it seemed much shorter than the first one, I mean a beat it within a few hours of game play and really didn’t have much of an effort beating it. So that was a bit disappointing in itself. Then you get to the story line and I know many a Star Wars fan who loves the story lines in the films and this was a severe let down. IT made no sense what so ever in relation to the first film and just when you think you begin to understand what is going on they change it and you’re confused all over again. While I am not a huge Star Wars “mark” I do enjoy seeing the classic characters like Yoda show up, yet he does nothing and you do nothing on his planet, a complete waste of time to see a vision that could have easily been a cut scene. Finally towards the end of the game it goes into some sort of weird outlook and you can no longer dash or move the camera around, it just didn’t make sense.

In playing and thinking about this game I would say go get it because its game play is excellent, just try not to focus on the story line to much.

Be safe and may the force be with you,

John Cannon