Many years ago, I wrote a series of blog entries entitled All The Times I've Bought Star Wars, which details, well, all the times I've bought Star Wars on home media. I figured it was finally time to add a couple new chapters, focusing on the Blu-Rays, and this new Disney era. So here we go now with the Disney era.
It was on a chilly autumn day in 2012. I was just lounging at home, after work,
watching some mindless daytime television, when my computer beeped with a
Facebook message. I took a look to see
it was from a work contact. The message
read, “Disney just bought Star Wars. Episode
VII in 2015.”
I began googling in earnest, and soon learned the
complete details. Yup, George Lucas had
decided to retire, and sold his company Lucasfilm to Disney for around $4
billion. Legendary producer Kathleen
Kennedy had just been hired on as the new president of Lucasfilm. The crown jewel in the Lucasfilm empire is,
of course, Star Wars, and Disney
announced their first Lucasfilm production would be Episode VII in 2015.
I whipped out my phone and texted the news to my best
friend and huge Star Wars fan. “Disney just bought Star Wars. Episode VII in 2015.”
And we are now in the midst of the new Disney era of Star Wars. Of course, Disney made some controversial
moves in the beginning. Right away, they
canceled the beloved animated series The
Clone Wars to make way for their new animated TV productions. But, they are starting to come around, as The Clone Wars will soon be coming back
for a final, loose-end-tying-up season.
But, of course, people were thrilled for the new
movies. George Lucas was long considered
the prime factor for the disappointing prequels (even though I liked them), and
it was felt some new blood and a new perspective on the saga would make Star Wars great again. Well, looks like that’s not the case, as most
of 2018 was filled with fan vitriol towards The
Last Jedi and a series of hot takes as to why Solo under-performed. As I
blogged many years ago, it seems that the curse of the nerd is to love the
things you hate and hate the things you love.
The Disney era began in December of 2015, when Star Wars: The Force Awakens hit
theatres, and we were introduced to our new heroes Rey, Finn, BB-88, and new
villain Kylo Ren. Yes, as expected, it
made all the money and people were thrilled to see Han Solo and Princess Leia
back for one last hurrah. And, I’m not
too proud to admit that when Luke made his return at the end of the film, I
cried nostalgic tears of joy. Oh, I’m
not talking about a single manly tear.
I’m talking full-on ugly crying.
So when it came time to snatch up The Force Awakens on Blu-Ray, I went the same route I did the box
set of the six film saga: I pre-ordered
it on Amazon as soon as I was able to. This
time, though, I sprung for the same-day shipping. The fun thing is, when you do that, there’s
always a good chance you’ll get it early.
It happened to me! Amazon
delivered it to me the Thursday before the Tuesday it officially came out.
And its initial release was a pretty good set. You get the usual assortment of deleted
scenes and featurettes all delving into the making of the film. You also get Secrets of the Force Awakens: A Cinematic Journey. What’s become a highlight of the Disney
Blu-Rays is how they produce feature-length documentaries chronicling the
making of the film. They even go so far
as to premiere them at film festivals.
However, you do not get a running commentary with
director JJ Abrams. For that, you’ll
need to buy the 3D edition, which came out in the fall of 2016. Disney got a lot of crap for doing a
double-dip so soon after the initial home media release. And it must have stung, because they haven’t
attempted it again. I didn’t spring for
the 3D edition, despite the Abrams running commentary, and a few more deleted
scenes and featurettes.
The Disney trilogy continued in 2017 with Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Hoo, boy, did The Last Jedi polarize fans.
Not since the prequels has then been such a large outpouring of
bitterness towards a Star Wars film. I don’t think Disney’s hurting, though. The
Last Jedi still set records at the box office, the critics loved it, and
it’s the number two best-selling Blu-Ray of 2018. It was number one for the longest time, but I
see that Black Panther just surpassed
it.
I wasn’t able to pre-order this one Amazon. As has been reported on several of my home
theatre forums, Disney and Amazon are having some kind of spat. The end result is you can’t pre-order Disney
films on Amazon anymore, and when you try to order it on the day of release,
there’s a good chance it’ll end up back-ordered.
Luckily, at work, I’m on the morning shift now, and St.
Albert is just a 45-minute drive away.
So, if there is a Blu-Ray that I’m dying to get my hands on, I’ll make a
quick trip into town after work. That’s
not what I did with The Last Jedi,
though. When the day came, we were hit
with a spring snowstorm. As much as I
love Star Wars, I wasn’t going to
brave a blizzard. So I just ran across
the street to Shoppers Drug Mart. The
clerk was still unpacking the cases and setting up the standee when I came in to
buy it. Used my Shoppers points to get it
half-price, too.
It comes with the standard assortment of bonus
features. Deleted scenes, featurettes, a
running commentary with director Rian Johnson, and our feature-length
documentary The Director and the Jedi.
When Disney first announced their plans for Star Wars, they decided to do a lot more
than just a sequel trilogy. As Kennedy
described it, they were starting to think about the Star Wars universe as “a setting, rather than a saga.” And thus, the Star Wars Stories, which would be single, standalone films
highlighting some of the ancillary tales that have grown out of the saga.
The first was Rogue
One, all about the Rebellion’s operation to steal the plans to the Death
Star. It came out in the holiday season
of 2016, and was another huge hit. We
followed Jyn Erso, the daughter of the creator of the Death Star’s weapons
systems, and how she’s drafted into the Rebellion to assist with the
cause.
It hit Blu-Ray in the spring of 2017, and that’s a
situation where I ran into the city straight after work to pick it up. You get the featurettes and the deleted
scenes. For some reason, the Star Wars Stories aren’t worthy of
feature-length documentaries. I would
have also liked it if we got the trailers, which got some flak for being 90%
footage that didn’t make it into the film.
And the latest Star
Wars Story is the latest addition to my collection. Solo,
which tells us the secret origins of Han Solo.
I just finished writing up my Fishing in the Discount Bin entry on Solo, and as I said there, I think its
much-documented under-performance had to do with the fact that the secret
origin of Han Solo was pretty low on the list of Star Wars Stories that people wanted. Anyway, I still enjoyed it, and found it
good, but not great.
That was another quick-trip-into-the-city-after-work
acquisition, and it was worth it. Again,
just some featurettes and deleted scenes.
No feature-length documentary. No
running commentary, either. Something
tells me the Star Wars Stories didn’t
get their running commentaries due to their much-documented production woes and
director swap-outs.
And while this is the end of the list for now, we know
this isn’t the end of the Disney era for Star
Wars. Episode IX is now in production, to bring that trilogy to a
close. When this era began, I read a
leaked copy of Disney’s initial Star Wars
plan, and it calls for at least a third Star
Wars Story. I know people have
longed for a Boba Fett film for as long as I’ve known Star Wars fans, and a Star
Wars Story about Obi-Wan Kenobi and his lost years between Episodes III and IV is also high in demand.
On top of that, Last Jedi director
Rian Johnson is developing a new Star
Wars trilogy, and the creators of Game
of Thrones have also been tapped to develop a new cinematic Star Wars Saga.
The Disney era of Star
Wars has only just begun, so I’ll have many more chapters to write in the
future.
Many years ago, I wrote a series of blog entries called All The Times I’ve Bought Star Wars, of
which this is a continuation. The
previous chapters:
Episode I: The Saga Begins – Why I’m writing this
Episode III: Greedo Shoots First – Special Editions on VHS
Episode V: Cutting Edge in 1993 – The Original Theatrical Editions on DVD
Episode VI: Episode I Twice – Buying the prequels
Episode VII: Expanded Universe – Various Star
Wars-related titles I’d accumulated
Episode VIII: Train Him I Cannot. He Is Too Old
– Anticipating buying it again in the future
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