Other sites are saying this video is 50 minutes of Force Awakens content. It’s not. The first 26 minutes deals with Star Wars; the rest deals with FXPhD courses. But 26 minutes of interviews with the effects team on the new movie is still pretty great. Featured in the above video is a breakdown of…
Some of this is spoiler-ish, but not really. There’s no “death of a major character”-level clanger in the following text. Read on, if you’re game… We’ve now lived with The Force Awakens for just over a month. Ordinarily, we’d be talking about preparations for the next film, with a script yet to be written. Not…
It looks like Christmas-time Star Wars is here to stay. Episode VIII, to be written and directed by Rian Johnson, has been delayed by seven months, accommodating rewrites which will apparently place a greater emphasis on the new characters from The Force Awakens. This also gives more breathing room to the franchise, giving a full…
The Force is strong with this one. I’ve written a couple of articles now about the critical, commercial and general response to The Force Awakens. No matter which way you slice it, this movie seems to be connecting in a way we haven’t seen since Star Wars was at its peak, when the original trilogy…
There’s often talk about separating the Star Wars movies into three tiers, where you end up with a relative, coarse-grain ranking of the seven films: mid-range, better and worse. Or perhaps we should call them “the good, the bad and the ugly”. As a stroke of luck, my academic background is in computer science, with…
I was going to write a review of The Force Awakens, and I may still get around to doing that, perhaps once it comes to DVD/Blu-ray. But right now, I’d like to address this strange idea in fan circles that the film is both critically on the wane and about to face a backlash amongst…
I was planning on writing a proper spoiler-free review of The Force Awakens today. I can’t do it—not before at least a second viewing. So instead, here are my spoiler-free impromptu ramblings. Star Wars has finally grown up with us. It feels a bit like the rebooted Battlestar Galactica in that it’s recognisably the same…
Update: Metacritic seems to have settled at 81, keeping it in the category of “Universal acclaim”, while Rotten Tomatoes rates the film “Certified fresh” and currently has it sitting at 95%. Meanwhile, the AFI has named The Force Awakens one of the 10 most outstanding movies of 2015. Stripping away the hype, it seems we’re still…
Are you ready to see what people thought of The Force Awakens? Quite simply: This is the STAR WARS movie you're looking for. #TheForceAwakens — Glenn Whipp (@GlennWhipp) December 15, 2015 Not going to say much till I see it again but rest assured THE FORCE AWAKENS is the best STAR WARS since 1983…maybe 1980.…
More new music by John Williams plus a glimpse of a scene between Rey and BB-8 can be found here: Tomorrow at 12:30 PM Sydney time, watch the red carpet premiere of The Force Awakens at StarWars.com! And then, Wednesday evening, we’ll give a spoiler-free rundown of what critics have to say about the next…
In a Rolling Stone compilation piece, we learn the following from Kathleen Kennedy: We had discussions based off of George’s treatments, and then when J.J. and Larry came into the process, there were new ideas being discussed, which is normally what would happen in a development process. We didn’t have a script, we didn’t have…
With under five days to go until The Force Awakens opens in Australia, here’s what’s happening… First up, here’s an IMAX featurette: Secondly, while organising theatre for the military, Adam Driver was asked by a soldier if The Force Awakens is better than the prequels. His answer? “Fuck yeah!” (And though not related to Star…
Are you ready for even more great moments from The Force Awakens? Well, here’s the Chinese trailer: Meanwhile, J.J. Abrams has revealed that both Rey and Finn (or, at least, the concepts behind their characters) were two things that survived from the Michael Arndt draft. You can read more at io9. From Variety we learn that…
Here are two new TV spots. Enjoy!
It’s now eight days until France sees The Force Awakens and nine days until Australia sees it. First up, here’s a new TV spot: And here’s a new Disney XD featurette: Next up, here are some quotes from director J.J. Abrams on midi-chlorians and the Force: I’m not someone who quite understands the science of…
Star Wars Always 