I figure TCW and Mando discussions can stay in their own threads.
So last night I had a rare opportunity to introduce an adult to SW for the first time. I've been dating a gal for close to 6 months now who had never watched a single SW movie ever. She was born in 82, graduated high school in 2000, and told me that when her entire high school went insane with excitement over the upcoming release of "a new SW movie" (TPM obviously) she thought that everybody's behavior was so silly that she refused to see the movie on principle (phew, dodged a bullet there!) and never gave the series a chance since, lol.
She mentioned all that early on in our dating after visiting my house and seeing my framed posters, memorabilia, and whatnot.
So last night was the big night where I sit her down and pop in 4K77.
It was very interesting to watch someone watch SW for the first time completely cold with the sole (albeit quite significant) exception of her being familiar with "Luke I am your father" and the fact that it was Darth Vader who said it. But other than that she knew nothing. Didn't know who R2 and 3PO were, didn't know who Princess Leia was. Or Chewbacca or Han freaking Solo. She knew Luke and Vader and that's it. And to my pleasant surprise she got quite enjoyed it, even with the dated effects and slower pace of the first third of the movie (droids walking around the desert, Luke on the farm, etc.)
About halfway in I told her "just so you know you're scoring major points with me right now" to which she replied "hey I'm actually getting pretty sucked in, I like it!"
Though she did say "but if you and I have kids together let's not name any of them after fictional characters okay" (knowing that my son is named Luke, lol.)
Hearing her reactions to certain things did remind me of a number of oddities that I've long taken for granted (like how every other alien's face looks like genitilia or anuses, lol.) But she found it all to be quite exciting, funny, and intense, all in the right places. It was nice to see things like the Jawas and trash compactor being kind of freaky to brand new eyes. Han did come across as a bit of a coward to her until he came back at the end. And speaking of that she had no idea what was going on in that particular moment, lol. And I do remember way back when I saw SW for the first time as a kid being a bit confused as to why the TIE Fighter next to Vader suddenly disintegrated while Vader was firing at Luke.
For the hundred times I've seen SW since my eye always gravitates toward that TIE as I anticipate it blowing up. But the way that shot is staged for a new person your eye wants to fixate on Vader and the lasers coming from his ship. Han's laser blast is quite easy to miss making it seem like something quite bizarre happened instead. I was expecting her to stand up and cheer when Han saved the day only to have her say "What just happened? Did Luke use the Force? What is going on???" lol
Ah well. Maybe she'll appreciate that moment more on the next viewing, lol. But when all was said and done I got an "okay that was good. I get it now" from her so tonight we'll be catching Empire on the big screen before theaters go away forever.
She's the Black Widow! Watch out!!!
