I have taken an interest in the Star Wars franchise of entertainment.
In the 1980s, when I was a child, some nights my family would celebrate Star Wars by watching the trilogy of films, 1977, 1980, and 1983, and it was splendid. Star Wars (1977) was my favourite film.
My parents were kind enough to me to buy toys which accompanied the feature films, and some of my play involved making my own Star Wars scenes, in real life, often in the backyard of our bungalow home in good weather. It was marvellous.
I lived and breathed Star Wars (1977), after getting the 1987 ten-year anniversary television edition of it on VHS using our family VCR, watching the homemade tape many, many times. In 1997, when I was a college student, Star Wars (1977), now titled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, made its return to cinema for an additional run now known as the Special Edition, including much more material that Star Wars (1977) director George Lucas wanted to include to make the movie something closer to his initial concept for the film.
I saw the movie at a cinema in Kingston, Ontario, with other college students who were fans. It was an excellent evening.
I have also seen The Empire Strikes Back (1980) more than 5 times, as I have Return of the Jedi (1983). My passion for these two, while steeped in admiration, is not like the enthusiasm I had to watch Star Wars (1977) in childhood. The “trench run,” when Star Wars character Luke Skywalker, the aspiring “Jedi warrior,” brings his X-Wing space fighter to the villainous Death Star space station and tries to single-handedly destroy it.
It is a treat to mentally revisit the Star Wars movies. I hope you like the post, and of course you may follow my blog or leave a comment.
A Nightmare on Film Street is the name of a website devoted to horror films. For October 2023, A Nightmare on Film Street prepared a thirty-one-day horror challenge providing prompts for visitors to help them select horror films to watch. A new prompt, presented every day with different degrees of insight, encouraged participants to watch horror films and discuss them on social media. I needed to get a grip on my life, but, reasons. Things You Missed in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 – YouTube
There were prizes, as well, to make the challenge more immersive. The prizes included Blu-ray editions of films such as Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street. I participated in that contest, but didn’t win.
Freddy Krueger was my theme. For Halloween, the TV channel AMC was running “Fear Fest,” a horror film marathon.
The Fear Fest marathon surprised me that morning when I stumbled upon AMC’s broadcast presentation of the 1987 movie A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, directed by Chuck Russell. Despite the fact that Fantasy was evaluated M15+ in different territories of Australia, it was prohibited in Queensland by the then Bjelke-Petersen government, because of its medication content. To my delight, I got comfortable and settled in for having my morning coffee with the company of the film for thrills and other delights.
I am not a fan of A Nightmare on Elm Street. I have just jumped into the Nightmare on Film Street blog challenge for the first time.
Recently, I listened to Quentin Tarantino talk about A Nightmare on Elm Street 3. The first film in the series (A Nightmare on Elm Street) was better than this movie, according to Tarantino. He did point out that the casting of the actors is a little better now (in 1987 compared to 1984).
The film is bad because it isn’t as inventive as the original.
The 1986 Transformers movie holds cultural significance, marrying Japanese and American influences in a nostalgic sci-fi tale. Despite a box office failure, it gained a dedicated fanbase. The movie’s impact on pop culture is evident, as it paved the way for a series of successful spin-offs and prequels. Notably, Michael Bay’s 2007 rendition propelled the franchise to new heights.
Exploring why it is worth watching after all these years, opinions about the movie from different perspectives, and The moment we finally find our hero.
I was a child in 1986, young enough to believe in fantasy. I suspect the 1986 Transformers movie was available in a serial edit for Saturday morning television, as elements of the plot seem familiar to me.
History of Classic Transformers
In 1980, Takara made the “Diaclone” toy line in Japan as a unique sci-fi series of 1:60 scale figures, vehicles, and playsets. Microchange is a subline of Takara’s New Microman line of the mid-’80s, 3.75″ figures that were super-posable and cars and robots for use by them. They introduced robots ready to change into regular vehicles, electronic things, or weapons. Hasbro bought the Micro Change and Diaclone toys and partnered with Takara.
The TakaraTomy company makes toys in Japan. They are the maker of Transformers in Japan and plan a significant part of the design for Transformers toys. It has been a business partnership between Hasbro and Takara ever since.
Who was the very first Transformer? Primus is the divine force of the Transformers, an ancient and ethereal being that dates back to the universe’s beginning, a force for good that exists across multiple realities, and infinite alternate universes. It was Prima who was the first Transformer created by Primus, and he would later lead Thirteen.
The Thirteen were the Cybertronians made by Primus to battle Unicron. They were each given the ranking of Prime. Simon Furman further invented the Transformers’ origin independently.
Quintessons are a race of creatures being driven off by Sentinel Prime. They are the manifestations of Quintus Prime and rule their realm from the planet Quintessa.
Pre-1986
Tragically, the space transport Challenger crumbled 73 seconds after its send-off, killing each and every one of the seven space travelers. It has been suggested that those old enough to remember belong to Generation X (too old to be considered millennials). Would recollecting the 1986 Transformers feature also help confirm that I am part of Generation X?
The animated Transformers feature film was released on the big screen in 1986. It was in North America on August 8. It was co-created by Nelson Shin.
The screenplay was composed by Ron Friedman, who made Bionic Six. 7.2/10 on IMDb, The Transformers: The Movie is a story that heroic Autobots safeguard the world from Decepticons. Anger is raging between both factions, and that hatred has made them blind to a threat.
The Transformers: The Movie is the first Transformers feature, even though the live-action films get all the attention. The movie gained a cult following among genre fans despite being a box-office failure.
Compared with the TV series’ equivalent of 90 minutes, the film’s budget was six times higher at $6 million.
1986 Underdog Autobots
In The Transformers: The Movie, after a Decepticon assault devastates Autobot City, Optimus Prime wins a deadly one-on-one duel with Megatron, but sustains fatal injuries in the encounter. It was Megatron’s correct calculation that the Decepticon crew would not set off the automated defenses of Autobot City.
I’ve thought about how the story for The Transformers: The Movie fits a quest pattern.
Quest “Initiation”–The Decepticons conquer Cybertron, the home planet of the Transformers, in what was 2005. Thundercracker, Skywarp, Shrapnel, Kickback, Bombshell, and Megatron are jettisoned to conserve fuel, by several Decepticons, led by Starscream. The injured Decepticons are found by Unicron, a conscious planet.
In exchange for the destruction of the Matrix–which Megatron knows can destroy him–Unicron offers him a new body. He tells him Ultra Magnus has it.
Quest “Instructions”–On his deathbed, Optimus passes a power.
Quest “Journey”–Retaking the Decepticons, Galvatron drives to search out Ultra Magnus.
Quest “Confrontation”–The Autobots and Junkions head for Cybertron. The Autobots crash through Unicron and become disbanded. Dinobots, Decepticons, and Junkions continue to battle Unicron.
Daniel safeguards his dad Spike from Unicron.
Quest “Conquest”–Understanding this is the Autobot’s breaking point, the work changes Rodimus Prime, the Autobot pioneer. He is now an Autobot champion.
Quest “Return”–Rodimus throws Galvatron into space to obliterate Unicron, then escapes with the other Autobots.
Quest “Transformation”–With the Decepticons in chaos, the Autobots praise the conflict, and the retaking of their home planet, while Unicron’s head circles.
Screenplay Resolution
During the conquest, Galvatron acquires high ground. (Remind you of Ewan McGregor’s dialogue in Revenge of the Sith?)
The Matrix, realizing this is the Autobots’ darkest hour, transforms Hot Rod into Rodimus Prime. According to Hot Rod’s tech specs, he is an Autobot Cavalier, while Rodimus Prime is an Autobot Protector – unlike Optimus Prime, who is an Autobot Commander. While Unicron’s severed head orbits Cybertron, the Autobots celebrate both the war’s end and the retaking of Cybertron from the Decepticons.
As a screenplay, I find the action and story adequate, and I also think the voice acting is notable. It mostly deserves the 7.2 it has on IMDb, although that score is possibly a little generous.
With numbers as over-whelming as scenes, the Transformers surprisingly realistic film was delivered in 2007 and has gotten five blockbuster spin-offs and a prequel. Even those who don’t like the movie suggest the brand benefited from the film overall.
I agree that Michael Bay is a great movie director, whatever criticism is leveled at him, and his first Transformers film shows it. Shia LaBeouf played the leading role in the movie quite admirably as an up-and-comer, and Megan Fox is gorgeous and fun as the film’s leading actress. Bay had a $147 million budget in the US for the movie, and the box office was $4.8 billion.
Sadly, notwithstanding posting Autobot-sized numbers that followed – Fallen ($836M), Moon ($1.12B), Eradication ($1.1B), The Last Knight ($605M) – the films tumbled off a precipice. While he delighted in making them, Bay ought to have tapped out sooner.
Despite many calling the second movie the worst of the franchise, one Reddit user, chris95rx7500, claims it is still his favorite. Furthermore, he remarks, “if you didn’t like the movie, the toy line made up for it.”
Fans of Transformers tend to view the movies as relatively disposable since so many exist to date. The sixth film in the flagship series, and the seventh overall, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, is set for release on June 9, 2023.
Paramount Pictures
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Dedicated to a love of Star Wars, Celebration this month in Chicago flabbergasted fans. The assembly included panel discussions and all manner of Star Wars exhibits, and also celebrity appearances, a teaser for Episode IX, along with trailers for EA’s game Jedi: Fallen Order, The Clone Wars S7, and The Mandalorian. The celebration also took a look back at The Phantom Menace, embracing the sci-fi franchise once again.
I took in some of it owing to its availability on YouTube. Celebration, I recall, is nine years in the running, and in 2019 it highlights Episode IX. Celebration revealed the title of Episode IX, and a teaser trailer. There is excitement in the business sector of the entertainment industry, being the introduction of Disney+. Disney+ is making available animated features from Disney’s history of films, along with Marvel Cinema Universe titles from the last ten or eleven years, and the Star Wars films, of which by now there are several.
The reason I enjoy Star Wars is that when J. J. Abrams directed The Force Awakens, I felt the excitement that Star Wars was again back speaking to me. It seemed to again be a film series to be passionate about.
The response following Celebration did not completely line up with the positive outlook of the fortunate people who went to Celebration in person. While most everybody there loved what’s going on, some of the YouTube channels who discuss Star Wars have mixed feelings, to say the least. Geeks + Gamers criticized the teaser for Episode IX, The Quartering was dismissive, and a union of voices on the Internet ridiculed reactions that were exuberantly emotional. All that is best measured against the outpouring of support for the franchise.
It is almost as if there is a guilty conscience about being part of the Fandom Menace and hating The Last Jedi, but still wanting to see what Episode IX is about. I am sure the average fan does not feel this way. I waited for The Last Jedi to go to Netflix, but I enjoyed it.
The influence of Star Wars is hard to comprehend, but there is a war indeed between the feelings a fan has for Star Wars in the nineteen seventies and eighties, and equivalent satisfaction with the new trilogy, however much it taps into your experience of Star Wars and however deep it runs within you that the original films were perfect.
Rian Johnson directed The Last Jedi, and while that film was a commercial success, the popular response to the movie, as, for example, those voices on the Internet made known on Rotten Tomatoes, divided the fans.
None of this will be settled until December, but there will be a lot of excitement that grows this summer and fall. As is typical of hot takes, animosities, apprehension, and outrage for Star Wars will be evident in the backlash that is going, “to battle,” for whatever reasons.
Publishous this month presented the Where’d You Go writing prompt. Publishous is an 11,000-strong Medium newsletter which presents and highlights Christian writers who seek to make it, in the sense that they are writing because of the compulsion they feel to do so. Although I’m not a member of Publishous, I look over articles they present, which provide some inspiration to blog in light of their writing prompts.
I am also a volunteer at a cemetery, Maple Lawn Cemetery, and I am their SMM. You can find out more about us here: http://www.maplelawncemetery.org
Thank you, and please feel welcome to “like,” “follow,” and/or comment. All the best.
Bruce Wayne decided as a boy that he would honour the memory of his mother and father by inventing himself as Batman and challenging many criminals in Gotham City.
I watched Justice League when it went to Netflix this month and I enjoyed it. The camaraderie between the members of the Justice League comes off as solid and the plot of the film is enjoyable. It is curious to see Superman return to life.
Some of the cool moments from my life were opportunities to see films, in movie theaters. In 1989, cinema fans filled movie houses to see the DC superhero Batman on the silver screen.
Photographer:
Bruce Mars
I had a good time. Actor Michael Keaton’s role as Bruce Wayne, with its heroism, detachment from wealth, and indifference to romance makes the character of Batman a reinvention. I suppose Keaton was a surprise star turn, and the subplot of Gotham City TV news anchors unable to appear beautiful on television, owing to poison in beauty products deliverered by The Joker, is clever.
Jack Napier’s transition to The Joker is memorable. In other scenes from Batman, Billy Dee Williams of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and subsequently in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, appears as Harvey Dent.
The climactic confrontation of the film, at the Gotham City parade beneath a cathedral with the height of a skyscraper, is wonderful.
Photographer: Yi Ling Tan
When the creepy little video store in the shopping plaza near my home began renting to customers Batman, the store displayed tapes of the film like a phenomenon. Shelf after shelf were full of the Batman video. The format was VHS, the cassette for running a film with a VHS player.
I’d been to see it, but I wanted that VHS. Christmas came, and family placed hand-wrapped videotape-shaped objects under the holiday tree.
They were VHS tapes, but what titles were they? Us kids wouldn’t know until Christmas morning. At the appointed time, I opened mine, and to my delight, the tape inside was Batman.
As the family opened our presents, a second tape of Batman under the Christmas tree emerged. My mother’s brother and his wife had arranged for the gift of the movie Batman as well. Two VHS tapes of the same film–a double.
What did my dear mother decide, you might ask? This was a bummer. She would quietly return a copy of the film to its retail store.
As a twelve-year-old, the price of a brand-new edition of a blockbuster film must be extravagant, I reasoned. The VHS copy of Batman we had would belong to us all.
I suppose that taught me a lesson, like not to count your chickens before they hatch. It was as if my uncle and aunt had felt I deserved my own copy of Batman, and Santa Claus did not. The VHS tape of Batman was a gift, what I wanted and what I was losing.
In 1989, fate unfolded for Batman mobster Jack Napier. The criminal mastermind falls into a vat of burning acid. He loses the pigment of his skin and becomes molded with a permanent smile on his face.
I hadn’t earned my own copy of Batman, and I suppose the real lesson was that I should share. It is a state of becoming tantalized by the promise of something gold and being humbled by the requirement to give it up. Maybe we didn’t know that doubles of the Batman film were under the tree, but no contingency plan was in place.
I was cheesed.
Batman fans typically embrace the trilogy of Batman movies years later directed by Christopher Nolan, but I didn’t get interested in them.
You’re welcome to like, comment, or follow if my recollection of dealing with a hot trendy thing like the above resonates with you.
The Myth of the Independent Blogger and How I Learned to Love It 