I have not watched the latest changes Mr. Lucas has made to the movies. I’m not sure I could handle them in my weakened condition!

Happy Surprises

• The complete missing scene of Luke viewing the space battle over Tatooine and telling his friends about it at Tosche Station. This scene with Luke’s friend Biggs was in the comics and story book version when I was a kid and I’ve only seen brief clips of it in documentaries and other extras over the years.
• The animated segment from the Star Wars Holiday Special is included as part of Boba Fett’s costume prototype in the Episode V Collection. The animation is low budget and has some odd character designs but shouldn’t be missed.
• Inclusion of some classic fan films in the Spoofs video including Star Wars Gangsta Rap SE and Troops.
• Several appearances of Star Wars in 70s and early 80s TV shows, including a song and dance number from the Donny & Marie show with Donny and Marie as Luke and Leia (strangely prophetic!), and Mark Hamill on The Muppet Show.
• I really enjoyed all of Dennis Muren‘s special effects commentary in the Interviews sections.
• There are some original episode documentaries that I’m sure were broadcast on television soon after the movies came out. I don’t quite remember seeing them but I got a warm fuzzy feeling while watching them. They’re an interesting contrast to many “making of” segments these days which often is more about selling you on seeing the movie than how the movie was really created.

Onto critiques and other observations…

Some Critiques

• This is not a complete collection of all Star Wars material. There are deleted scenes and documentaries which can be found in some of the previous DVD releases which didn’t make it into the Blu-ray collection. In particular, I was missing some Episode II scenes of Padme and Anakin which were on the DVD releases.
• Pre-vis techniques maybe was instrumental in the development of the prequels but they make for really crappy outakes. Somehow, hand sketched drawings, toy models and even stock footage are easier to look at than low-rez, mostly static SD video graphics.
• The Spoofs video could’ve used fewer SNL and Spike commercials and a few more fan films.
• The Archives need an alphabetical index or some alternative view by topic. The only way to find everything seems to be to dive down by episode and bonus material type (collection, interviews, deleted scenes and concept art). It would be nice to check out all the ships, costumes, planets, etc. at one time.

Other Observations

• A PowerBook Duo with Duo Dock can be seen on George Lucas’ desk while he is talking about writing Episode I. Neat!
• Unlike many Blu-ray menus, the text and graphics are of high contrast and of sufficient size to be visible on my 27″ TV in my bedroom from a distance. Most Blu-ray movie menus seem to be authored on a 30″ monitor, frequently have poor contrast or selection indication of menu items and appear never to be tested on anything smaller than a 46″ TV from seven feet away.
• “Quilting bee” was frequently used to describe the model construction process where modelers are switched around so that boredom or a particular crafting style doesn’t set in. Not being exposed to quilting or knitting, I never would have thought of such a term to describe such a methodology.

For all those people thinking of skipping the Blu-ray edition because of the further changes to the films, you should look past that and enjoy not only a great set of movies but also a treasury of information on moviemaking!

However, Moonraker holds a special place for me. I was a bit young and afraid of Darth Vader when Star Wars first came out so I missed it’s initial run in the theaters. Instead, I got to see all of the pretenders to the throne that came afterwards: Battlestar Galactica, Black Hole, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Battle Beyond the Stars and of course Moonraker. Don’t get me wrong. I love all these films and think they range from ok to modern classics but I’m pretty sure none would’ve made it to the theater without the success of Star Wars.

Moonraker was my introduction to James Bond. While The Talk Show pulls apart the lapses in logic compared to earlier Bond movies, to me as a child it was insane fun. Sure, as an adult I can wonder why would a mock funeral be staged just to kill James Bond and why his gondola becomes a hover craft, but as a kid it was just one insane techno-action sequence after another. A boat with mines and a hang glider for escapes? Yes! Fighting on a runaway cable car? Yes! Escaping death by rocket exhaust? Yes! Marines fighting in space with lasers? Yes! Exploding bolas? I had never seen regular bolas let alone ones that wrap around and explode. Yes!

Now, on reflecting on the movie, maybe it was all too much, but for a 6 year old at the time, it was pretty damn cool. The combination of gadgets, action and sci-fi was great. Does a kid care that elaborate assassination attempts during a funeral procession, while skeet shooting or getting pushed out of an airplane made no sense? Not really. I just took it for granted that was how things work in the James Bond universe. I didn’t see For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy had no impact on me (I think I blocked it out it was so unmemorable) when I saw it during summer camp several years later. Moonraker had cemented itself as my archetype of Bond for years to come and gave me inspiration of what to do with my many space shuttle plastic models beside launch them into space and deploy satellites. But that’s another story.

If you’ve not yet seen the Battlestar Galactica mid-season cliffhanger “Revelations”, you’re missing out. While not the most emotionally moving episode nor the most action packed, it does reveal a lot to the show’s characters as the clandestine final four of five cylons are brought out to the open. The results range from shocking to devastating to the Galactica crew. More importantly, its final minutes hit hard with an unexpected final revelation.

Spoilers after the jump…

Not only does the Galactica fleet learn the location of Earth due to the final four of five and not only does the fleet make it to Earth but we actually get a glimpse of the homeworld in the concluding minutes. To be honest, there was only a couple of ways this could’ve played out: Galactica is taking place in pre-historic times or it’s taking place at some point in the future. Anything else just wouldn’t work. Right now it looks like a “Planet of the Apes” twist has been added as the Galactica and Cylon main characters head down to check out Earth only to be greeted by bombed out rubble and radiation. Zing!

The characters were pretty depressed and quiet in reaction to all this but I wouldn’t have minded someone pounding their fist into the ground crying, “You maniacs! You blew it up!”

Thinking of Planet of the Apes reminds me of Power Records from my childhood. Power Records were great… the 1970s was not the best time for animated superheroes… Super Friends, BatMan and maybe the Fantastic Four with HERBIE. Power Records filled the gap until the 1980s revitalized the genre. Power Records came in both 33RPM records generally standalone and 45RPM records bundled with an original or adapted comic. I had a decent collection of records with representatives of the classics: Six Million Dollar Man, Space: 1999, Star Trek, G.I. Joe, some superheroes and Beneath the Planet of the Apes. I knew the story of Beneath the Planet of the Apes long before I saw the movie. I was a bit disappointed that the movie ended with a fade to white and not with the Earth pulling and Alderaan. The back cover of the Apes series had an ape pointing at the reader like Uncle Sam with the text “Power Books & Records wants you to… Go Ape!” Cute.

I also had The Incredible Hulk at Bay which was okay but actually a little light on the Hulk action. The only thing the Hulk punches is a wall and the main villains end up knocking each other out! A little weak but I guess it needed to send some kind of positive message to kids. The Hulk at Bay story featured The Abomination as one of the villains. Unlike the movie version, the classic comic Abomination was distinctly reptilian, though from the previews it seems like the movie version has its own disturbing features.

Unlike Iron Man, I have mixed feelings from the previews of The Incredible Hulk movie. On one hand, I’m glad that it recalls themes from the TV series and features adversaries from the comic book. On the other hand, the Hulk if fundamentally challenging in the need to balance the tormented Banner with the enraged Hulk. It’s also difficult to make a realistic Hulk: even if the CGI were a real model of what a Hulk would look like, I think the human mind would still reject it at some level from not quite being able to relate such a creature to the real world. In any case there’s little chance I’ll make it to a theater so I’ll have to wait for it to arrive on disc from Netflix.

As a kid, I loved the idea of Iron Man. He was like a pocket version of the giant Japanese robot toys I collected. While it would be great to have a giant robot and fight against giant monsters, it just seemed more practical to have a briefcase with power suit easily on hand. I mean, I could never hope to have a Mazinger or a Combattra in my closet… but IronMan armor could work! Yes, it would fit right next to my t-shirts and Luke Skywalker Dagobah fatigues. I would pour over the Marvel Universe entries for IronMan and all the other powered armor heroes and villians: Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man, Guardsmen and so on. My quest for fictional stats would even spill over to ever loosely associated tech like the Avenger’s Quinjet, Ultron and Alpha Flight’s Guardian. When I wasn’t reading about Iron Man, my Mego and Secret Wars series figures got a lot of use, right up there with Spidey.

Still, for some reason, I never invested in really collecting any of the Iron Man comics. I had several issues when I was young… evidenced by ballpoint pen outlines on the covers and the usual wear-and-tear of a heavily read comic. I picked up various annuals that featured Iron Man and special issues like the premier of the silver-and-red armor. Through chance contest winnings, I’ve ended up with more Blue Devil and Power Pack comics than I ever had of Iron Man. Maybe I just couldn’t fit in another title during those formative years when I was collecting Micronauts and Star Wars on a regular basis and starting to pull in the Spidey titles of the day. Maybe in my later years there was always some special or other series of the moment that grabbed my attend more than then ol’ Shellhead.

Someday I might get around to picking up some issues or starting a collection–if I can get past Stark’s role in Civil War and what’s followed. Until then, I always have my fond memories from childhood and the new found joy that the latest movie incarnation has provided.

WonderCon has become mostly a TV and movie panel show for me while I concentrate on shopping and autographs at Comic-Con. Compared with the insane lines at Comic-Con, it’s relatively easy to get a good seat and see actors, writers and directors of current and upcoming genre shows. This year had well known television shows and movies like Get Smart, X-Files 2 and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles represented. Actors and creators like Steve Carell, David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Chris Carter and Anne Hathaway took the time to show up and answer audience questions. It was a nice, relaxing weekend.

Pictures from the panels and the exhibit hall are available for your enjoyment.