Star Wars: The Force Awakens (12/18/15)

[Mad Old Lu]

It also seems like the younger generation take pleasure in simply being contrarian in order to come across as being unique or different. Especially with something popular, they may instantly dislike it just because it is so popular.

 

[karamazov80]

Kids are into Star Wars. My oldest is a Kindergartener and I have seen the kids dress up at schools for different occassions, and they wear backpacks and whatnot. However, I've actually seen more kids dressed like Darth Vaders and Luke Skywalkers than Kylo Rens and Reys. Two days ago, I was running through neighborhoods near my house, and some kids were selling lemonade. One boy was dressed up as Darth Vader!

But the thing is, as with the prequels, I suspect a lot of interest by kids is due to parents pushing Star Wars on them. If those movies had to stand alone on their own merits, they wouldn't be half as popular with kids as they are in my opinion. I showed my daughter this movie, but only because it was Star Wars. If it was random sci fi action movie by JJ Abrams, I doubt she would have seen it. Because of that, I'm not sure how much staying power these will have. Their impact is also a bit watered down by the TV series and spinoffs, and existence of the previous ones, etc. etc. on top of the stuff we were discussing above.

 

[K07]

Kids still love Star Wars. They have folders, lunchboxes, backpacks, keychains, talk about it at lunch, and make believe at recess. I have never had students that talked about Avatar. Ever. I have only had a number of students that talked about LotR or Star Trek. I work with 1st Graders for a point of reference.

 

[rushmore223]

Kids are into Star Wars. My oldest is a Kindergartener and I have seen the kids dress up at schools for different occassions, and they wear backpacks and whatnot. However, I've actually seen more kids dressed like Darth Vaders and Luke Skywalkers than Kylo Rens and Reys. Two days ago, I was running through neighborhoods near my house, and some kids were selling lemonade. One boy was dressed up as Darth Vader!

But the thing is, as with the prequels, I suspect a lot of interest by kids is due to parents pushing Star Wars on them. If those movies had to stand alone on their own merits, they wouldn't be half as popular with kids as they are in my opinion. I showed my daughter this movie, but only because it was Star Wars. If it was random sci fi action movie by JJ Abrams, I doubt she would have seen it. Because of that, I'm not sure how much staying power these will have. Their impact is also a bit watered down by the TV series and spinoffs, and existence of the previous ones, etc. etc. on top of the stuff we were discussing above.

Yeah, I'm actually quite blown away, in a good way, by the number of kids I see wearing Star Wars shirts, backpacks, and hats when I pick my daughter up from school everyday. I see some TFA, mostly BB-8 inspired clothing, but most of it, by a wide margin is OT stuff. On the other hand, I NEVER see Kids with PT related gear. I don't know if it is the kids choice, or the parents, but if it's the kids, it's a reassuring sign.

My Daughter asks to watch Star Wars often, when she does, it's either Empire or "the teddy bear one", as she refers to ROTJ. She has seen the PT, but never asks to watch that. She has seen TFA twice, once at the theater, once on video, but the OT is her go to choice, mostly cause she likes Luke.

My Daughter is 7 and in 2nd grade, by the way. She also loves BB-8 and Chewbacca.

 

[chewblacca]

Im a big Star Wars fan and I never pushed it on my kids but my oldest son loves Star Wars. He and I often go back and forth repeating lines from the movies as I'm driving. He loves Jedi's and lightsabers the most though. He had a birthday recently and it was Star Wars themed. Gave his friends mini lightsabers and they talked about Rebels and the space battles. These were nine and ten year olds.

 

[JAWS]

JJ on his best day doesn't reach Cameron on his worst.

Nothing JJ has created has blown me away.

Rey, Kylo Ren, and BB-8 were instant icons. Ask any random person on the street who the *main girl* was in the highest grossing film of all time and watch their eyes glaze over in confusion. Then ask them who the main villain was in the highest grossing movie of all time. The entire world saw Avatar. Three times each. And nobody retained ****. Not so with TFA my man.

While I don't believe it's fair to compare anything from Star Wars to anything else... It's Star Wars and it bound to become Iconic.

Having said that.. JJ's best is better then Cameron's worse.

If Cameron's worst is Avatar then I like TFA, the First Star Trek, and Mission Impossible III more. In fact I like those three more then Titanic, The Abyss, and True Lies.

T2 is better then those three though. Not that I am a huge T2 fan but I still like it.

T1 and ALIENS are some of the best the genre has too offer. JJ has a long way to go to achieve the quality of those Iconic films.

 

[karamazov80]

Yeah, I'm actually quite blown away, in a good way, by the number of kids I see wearing Star Wars shirts, backpacks, and hats when I pick my daughter up from school everyday. I see some TFA, mostly BB-8 inspired clothing, but most of it, by a wide margin is OT stuff. On the other hand, I NEVER see Kids with PT related gear. I don't know if it is the kids choice, or the parents, but if it's the kids, it's a reassuring sign.

My Daughter asks to watch Star Wars often, when she does, it's either Empire or "the teddy bear one", as she refers to ROTJ. She has seen the PT, but never asks to watch that. She has seen TFA twice, once at the theater, once on video, but the OT is her go to choice, mostly cause she likes Luke.

My Daughter is 7 and in 2nd grade, by the way. She also loves BB-8 and Chewbacca.

I'm curious about how well the prequels resonated with kids, because at the time, I wasn't following trends with kids. I have a 14 year old nephew, who is old enough to have been around for some of it, and I don't recall him having too much interest, though he had some toys.

My daughter's favorite is Rey, but if there were no female lead I'm sure it would be Princess Leia (who she loved when I showed her the originals last year). My 3 year old loves BB-8, but she hasn't been exposed to the originals at all really. And she has a very fleeting interest in things that goes from Disney to Muppets to BB-8 to Spongebob to Scooby Doo to Atom Ant (!), etc. depending on her mood

 

[a-dev]

Maybe Avatar would be more talked about today if Cameron had capitalised on its huge popularity in 2009 and got the sequels made sooner. I mean it'll have been almost 10 years when Avatar 2 comes out. That's a lot of time for people to just stop giving a ***t.

 

[bboy]

I'm curious about how well the prequels resonated with kids, because at the time, I wasn't following trends with kids. I have a 14 year old nephew, who is old enough to have been around for some of it, and I don't recall him having too much interest, though he had some toys.

My daughter's favorite is Rey, but if there were no female lead I'm sure it would be Princess Leia (who she loved when I showed her the originals last year). My 3 year old loves BB-8, but she hasn't been exposed to the originals at all really. And she has a very fleeting interest in things that goes from Disney to Muppets to BB-8 to Spongebob to Scooby Doo to Atom Ant (!), etc. depending on her mood

As a 23 year old I'm pretty sure kids loved them. Everybody had darth maul backpacks, lunchboxes, costumes.

 

[AIR]

I love this discussion. Very tame and no stupid arguments.

 

[karamazov80]

Maybe Avatar would be more talked about today if Cameron had capitalised on its huge popularity in 2009 and got the sequels made sooner. I mean it'll have been almost 10 years when Avatar 2 comes out. That's a lot of time for people to just stop giving a ***t.

Yeah, unless you're creating a truly revolutionary movie event like a Star Wars (and I'm not sure we'll ever have another one of those), you're going to have to keep something salient in the minds of its fans if you want a franchise/movie to really resonate.

With the Marvel movies, they keep pumping them out, and each one has its own merchandise line to go along with it. But if we just saw Iron Man and then nothing for 5 or 6 years, it wouldn't be remembered that well by most.

As a 23 year old I'm pretty sure kids loved them. Everybody had darth maul backpacks, lunchboxes, costumes.

I know the toys were hard to ignore in the stores. So of your cohort, do you see folks retaining an interest in those movies? Or were they forgotten as time went on?

 

[chewblacca]

Cameron is a creative guy, but some parts of Avatar had me shaking my head. The story is an off world adaptation of Dances with Wolves, and I'm sure someone could have come up with something better than unobtainium. The graphics was dazzling, and the action was great, the dialogue was ok, but Cameron was never that good with dialogue.

 

[Khev]

It also seems like the younger generation take pleasure in simply being contrarian in order to come across as being unique or different. Especially with something popular, they may instantly dislike it just because it is so popular.

This is correct. A number of people were trolling for attention in this thread pretty heavily because in their minds people liked the movie too much and they couldn't handle it. Star Wars is an evolving phenomenon because now it's old enough that for many people it's "their dad's" franchise, like Star Trek when we were kids (though my parents were never into it) or old comic books. I remember my grandfather telling me about old Superman comics he read back in the day and my father telling stories about him and his buddies in the college dorm having "Batman 66" parties where they'd all watch the series together in the lounge when it first aired as I'm sure many of you do as well with regard to your own parents/grandparents.

So for teenagers or internet contrarians Star Wars is now this thing that their parents or grandparents liked AND something that little kids are into. So where does that leave them? Go with the old folks and the kiddos and enjoy great entertainment or set themselves apart by trolling online discussions? Obviously many choose the latter.

 

[rushmore223]

Cameron is a creative guy, but some parts of Avatar had me shaking my head. The story is an off world adaptation of Dances with Wolves, and I'm sure someone could have come up with something better than unobtainium. The graphics was dazzling, and the action was great, the dialogue was ok, but Cameron was never that good with dialogue.

I think he was originally going to go with Hardtofindium.

 

[Khev]

My 9 year old daughter likes Star Wars (though she was definitely steered that way by me) and my 6 year old son loves it. Of course I made it easier for them by showing them the original theatrical OT and then bringing them to TFA. They did ask to watch the PT (since they were dying for more SW after the OT) and I begrudgingly allowed them but they never ask to revisit those (phew!) And I'm not one of those whiny parents that badmouths things I don't like to try and turn my kids off to them. I kept quiet about Jar Jar's antics and things and just let them have their own experience.

My daughter is really into TFA and my son also probably prefers TFA but the OT is right behind it (once again, an epic theatrical experience can really cement something.) Whenever the kids play dress up or Disney Infinity my daughter is ALWAYS Rey but my son alternates between Tatooine Luke, Boba Fett, a Stormtrooper or Kylo Ren. Obviously he's big into the bad guys but when it comes to "heroes" the OT trumps TFA for him. My son's name being Luke might have *some* thing to do with it, I don't know.

We were in town checking out some stores on main street and we walked into one of those fancy toy stores like "Imaginarium" or whatever. In the back of the store there was this big room where an entire line of kids were sitting down while a lady stood in front of this giant vinyl mural of this exact image:

The lady was telling all the kids the saga of Star Wars (kind of like 3PO in the ewok village.) I was all "whoa, what is THIS?" and Luke (wearing a vintage SW baseball cap) came and stood beside me. The lady said, "aha, another one, welcome. What's your name?" And of course my son told her and she started freaking out about "Luke Skywalker is finally here!" So he went and sat down with the kids and she resumed her story.

It turned out it was some kid's birthday party and we were totally crashing so once we figured that out we quietly backed out and went on our way. But yeah, SW is obviously still a really big deal with kids today.

 

[chewblacca]

My son can recite all of the dialogue from all of the lightsaber battles in star wars. I'll be driving in my car and all of a sudden I would hear, "You were the chosen one!" Come from the back of my car.

 

[IrishJedi]

My 13 year old son is pretty much growing up a huge Star Wars fan. My other 2 kids like it, but aren't really into the fandom of it like he is. He enjoys helping with Droid and Prop Building and even likes to help out at cons and shows now. He grew up with the PT, but now prefers the OT and TFA. I know this not because I steered him that way, but because it's usually TESB or ROTJ that he throws into the Blu-ray player. And he's a diehard Battlefront player.

His favorite SW things right now are AT-ATs and Kylo Ren.

 

[jye4ever]

More Cameron:

"If I could do the Alien Queen today with the techniques we used on Avatar, she’d be spectacular"

 

[karamazov80]

More Cameron:

"If I could do the Alien Queen today with the techniques we used on Avatar, she’d be spectacular"

He's morphing into George Lucameron. That son of a ***** better not **** with Aliens.

 

[IrishJedi]

Lucas, Cameron and Peter Jackson. 3 peas in a pod.