actually it was the success of star wars that alerted studio heads to the notion that there was a sizable film audience for science fiction, so this movie with its huge effects budget was actually a product of bandwagoning. alien, battlestar galactica... i think they even made a buck rogers, lol.

alien the cream of the crop of course. i mean the original. not a huge fan of the sequels... except for the prison planet one.

Yeah, it was definitely a post-Star Wars thing, but didn't seem to realise quite what made it such a success.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Battlestar Galactica, The Black Hale, Battle Beyond the Stars. I couldn't get enough of that stuff as a kid.

And yeah, also a fan of Alien 3. Not many people like it. It's definitely the odd one out in the franchise. Although I saw it again quite recently and it wasn't as good as I remembered. By the same token, I could never stand Aliens until I saw that again, too, and enjoyed it a lot more.

the... well star trek vs wars is an old debate at this point, but trek was never gonna be star wars... they’re trying to make them similar now, but the original trek was never about mystical hocus pocus. it was about human values in a rational universe when one is presented with the unknown. it’s for imaginative adults (hence kirk fucks a lot in the early series).

in fact one of the trek movies presents “god” as a monster imprisoned at the center of the universe. whereas star wars is really about... magic, and levitation, and noble bloodlines, etc. they’re really incompatible.

even in proximal thematic areas like the vulcan mind meld (a kind of telepathy) the stuff is presented more as almost a dangerous medical procedure than the stuff of “the force”.

star wars is more for children and it gave them the idea that they could control the physical universe with their sheer willpower. who wouldn’t love that? so the right competition for them is maybe harry potter.

im afraid to rewatch alien 3 now...

The jedi stuff was never the main draw of star wars, at least for me. It was characters like Han Solo, Chewbacca, Tusken Raiders, Vader. I know DV had the force but in the 1st couple of films anyway, he was more just a really great villain. It was the Death Star, AT-ATs, Imperial Cruisers and obviously the Millennium Falcon. Essentially it was just really really cool in a way that I don't think any sf film had ever been before. The further it went down the Jedi path, the worse it got.

aaaaaah you liked the action and effects. yeah. pew-pew-pew.... that was the fun part but not the reason it stuck i think. battlestar galactica had the fighters shooting out of the launchers but who remembers it?



(i do. but that’s all i remember.)

the fun fast-moving part of star wars comes from lucas’s love of fast objects and i think it was go-cart races? you can see a lot of that on thx-1138.

see: https://youtu.be/6yd0w23Xkl0

but it was a dismal tale and so it’s his least popular movie, although i like it better than the rest.

in american graffiti i think they do drag races but i don’t remember that movie very well.

all that came from his love of serials, flash gordon, buck rogers, etc., which he was trying to reboot.

oh! flash gordon probably the first post-wars bandwagon, and i like that movie even better now. so campy and absurd, and the best soundtrack.

the mysticism and shit is what gave star wars enduring value though, to the point that it’s become almost a new age religion in our day. someone once added me to my high school’s mailing list and i snooped cuz i snoop and people would encourage each other in tough times with shit expressions like “may the force be with you.” im not kidding.

i believed in “the force” once upon a time. fuck yeah. who here has not tried to levitate shit? (there is no trying.)

the myth part was actually great though, originally. the ruin is not that it went “deeper” later, but that they tried to “explain” it, and things became a real massive turd. may the midichlorians infect you.

for that though i think that kung-fu was better. i need to watch that show some day as a grownup. it will probably be shit, ha ha ha.

The action and effects obviously played a part but for me it was the great characters, the design, the fact that Star Wars especially had a real sense of humour. The mysticism may have given it the scope for more sequels and prequels but I was always far more into Boba Fett, the battle on Hoth and "let the wookie win" than Yoda, all the stuff on Dagobah and "may the force be with you".

slightly related to this space cowboy theme— did you ever watch joss whedon’s “firefly”? the tv show not the movie [though i think the movie was called “serenity”]

from all you say, i think it’s right up your alley, even if other whedon work might not be.

I've not seen Firefly but I watched Serenity and couldn't get into it, although you're right, it does tick a lot of the boxes I like about the original Star Wars.

Firefly is enjoyable. I'm not going to say it deserves the obsessive levels of fandom like some people give it but it's a fun watch. It's only one season long and there's the added bonus of watching Kaylee *rubs thighs*

serenity was... not a great standalone movie. i hope you put it out of your mind.

serenity was a way to deliver the show’s final episode to fans after its early cancellation. it wasn’t a great episode nor a great way to do it, but it was something.

the tv series however was very funny and had everything you want, including boba fett, plus many many many let the wookie win moments.

yeah, whedon is a big fan of all that hahaha, and was not afraid to let it show.


kaylee was a sweet kid, and a nice pal, but inara + saffron.... hnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggg

Finally watched Suspiria 2018.

So, first off, I’m a huge fan of the original, which is one of the best horror movies of all time.

Secondly, this pays homage to the original but is actually WAY MORE FUCKED THE FUCK UP HOLY SHIT.

I watched it in 3 installments, because it’s fucking really long. I may have lost the thread of the story just a bit (there are some implicit elements that I might not have picked up on) but I am not watching it again. It. Is. Super. Fucking. Fucked. Up. And. Upsetting. Holy. McWow.

That said, it’s pretty good.

Tip: don’t eat while watching from the midpoint on. You’re welcome.

Tbf, I wouldn't kick any of them out of bed

haaaahaaahaaaaahaaaa

And now we're all going to the special hell.

Watched a documentary called Mole Man, about an autistic savant who built a huge above and underground warren. Interesting.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7441338/

Aliens

Just watched the trailer through your link and am totally intrigued. Where did you watch this? Is it streaming somewhere or did you have to rent?

hahahaha

dammit, this is making me wanna watch all over again. it’s been a while...

1931's Frankenstein.


Perhaps one of the original movies adapted from a book that took creative freedoms with the source materials for the sake of simply creating a movie monster?