A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

The 2019 "Multi-Screen Edition" reissue sports new slipcover/jewel box art based on Drew Struzan's 2005 theatrical release poster. © 2019 Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) As part of the pre-release marketing blitz ahead of the December 20 premiere of J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Buena Vista Home Entertainment reissued all 10 of Lucasfilm Ltd.'s live-action Star Wars feature films, including the existing Skywalker Saga Episodes and the two A Star Wars anthology films ( Rogue One and Solo ) on DVD and Blu-ray in late September. Dubbed the "Multi-Screen Edition" because each disc comes with an insert that contains the code for a streamable/downloadable copy, this 2019 rerelease marks the first time that The Walt Disney Company's home media distributor offers the first six Star Wars movies made during the George Lucas era at Lucasfilm (another Disney subsidiary.) Publicity photo depicting eight of the 1...

Promotional illustration depicting the cover art for eight of 10 Buena Vista Home Entertainment's 2019 "Multi-Screen Edition" Star Wars Blu-ray/Digital Copy sets. © 2019 Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Hello, everybody, and welcome once again to another installment of Bloggin' On , my blog-within-a-blog where I step out of my reviewer/political commentator role and just talk about...stuff. It's Sunday, December 8, and there are only 17 (or 16, depending on how you view December 24) shopping days till Christmas. (For what it's worth, I'm good as far as that goes; I finished my Christmas shopping last week.) Right now it's early afternoon in my corner of Florida. I have not ventured outside today, but according to my weather app, the temperature is a mild 79℉ (26℃) under sunny skies. This is the warmest it's been here for a few days, and if I were the outdoorsy sort I would be out walking or, at the very least, sitting o...

General Grievous is one of the several villainous "tools" used by Darth Sidious in his quest to destroy the Jedi Order in the waning days of the Republic. Photo Credit: © 2018 Hasbro, Inc. and Lucasfilm Ltd.. (LFL)  The Black Series When Hasbro introduced its ongoing The Black Series  (TBS)  collection of Star Wars toys in 2013, I was up to my forehead in the duties of being a caregiver to my ill parent. Even though I shopped online for new books, home media editions of movies I'd missed during their theatrical runs, music, and the occasional computer game, I didn't look for Star Wars collectibles of any sort. I had to choose my purchases carefully, and at the time I thought that spending $15 or more on Star Wars figures, vehicles, and other Hasbro products was a bit unseemly given my circumstances. I found out about the TBS line roughly around the time that Lucasfilm was getting ready to release Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015. I saw some of the 3.75-in ...

The November 1977 issue of Star Wars Poster Monthly revealed - vaguely - how Vader became a cyborg. © 1977 Paradise Press and 20th Century Fox Film Corporation On Quora, someone asks: Prior to  Star Wars: Episode III  was there ever a canonical explanation for the appearance of Darth Vader? My reply: As early as late 1977, George Lucas allowed Lucasfilm, through the official  Star Wars Poster Monthly  magazine, to reveal tantalizing bits of the Dark Lord of the Sith’s backstory. In an article titled  Darth Vader Lives,  (Issue #2. November 1977) author John May based his work on some of the information that had been already published about Vader in publicity materials (movie lobby cards, collectors’ movie programs, and the photo inserts in the  Star Wars  novelization), plus a Rolling Stone magazine interview with George Lucas. Readers were told that Vader had trained as a Jedi Knight under Obi-Wan Kenobi’s tutelage but had turn...

The evil Lord Darth Vader, the Sith identity assumed by Anakin Skywalker after his fall to the Dark Side. © 1980 Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) How did Anakin Skywalker come up with the name Darth Vader? Actually, Anakin didn’t come up with his Sith persona’s  nom de guerre;  it was chosen for him by his new Master, Sheev Palpatine, Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic and soon-to-be Emperor of the First Galactic Empire. This bit of business occurs in Act III of  Star Wars - Episode III: Revenge of the Sith  after Palpatine, the recently-revealed Sith Lord, has killed three of the Jedi Order’s most experienced Masters in a one-sided clash of lightsabers in his Senate Office suite and manipulated a conflicted Anakin into helping him kill a fourth, senior Jedi Master Mace Windu. MACE raises his sword to kill the CHANCELLOR. ANAKIN: (continuing) He must live . . . PALPATINE: Please don't, please don't . . . ANAKIN: I need him . . . PALPATINE: Please ...

Do you think Mace Windu is alive? Let’s see: When we last saw Mace Windu in 2005’s  Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith , his lightsaber hand had been amputated at the wrist, Darth Sidious was shocking him with Force lightning, and he was plummeting down from a skyscraper on Coruscant, courtesy of a mighty Force shove by the aforementioned Darth Sidious. Now, I know that  Star Wars  is a space fantasy. I also understand that the amputation of his hand was not fatal; lightsabers cauterize wounds, so Mace would not have bled out from that injury. Still, it’s not likely that Mace could have survived the double-whammy of being electrocuted  and  pushed off a high building that’s at least two miles high. In the 14 years that have elapsed since  Revenge of the Sith,  Mace Windu has only appeared in books, comics, and one TV series set between  Star Wars Episode II  and  Episode III.  Samuel L. Jackson reprised ...

Photo Credit: Gofigureactionfigures.com. (C) 2008 Hasbro, Inc. and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  In 2008, three years after the premiere of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Hasbro released a series of multi-figure sets called Battle Packs. Similar in concept to the Cinema Scenes from Kenner/Hasbro’s The Power of the Force 2 and Star Wars: Episode I lines and the later Star Wars Saga collection’s Screen Scenes, the Battle Packs in the Star Wars Legacy line blended multiple figures and a photorealistic backdrop to recreate scenes from the Star Wars movie series, The   major difference between the Star Wars Legacy sets and their precursors from older product lines is that they featured more than three action figures per set.   The average number of figures per set was four, although some, including Clone Attack on Coruscant, came with five action figures and their accessories. Hasbro produced 16 “wide release” Battle Packs and two “exclusive” sets between 2...

Cover art by Steven D. Anderson. (C) 2005 Del Rey Books and Lucasfilm Ltd.  One of the more challenging aspects Star Wars fans face when they read any of the “expanded universe” novels set in the Prequel Era is dealing with the fact that the characters from the films have their destinies set in stone. Most of them, especially those that have followed George Lucas’ space-fantasy saga since the first Episode premiered in 1977, are keenly aware that the Galactic Republic depicted in the Prequel years is being transformed into the Galactic Empire, that the once-unassuming and politically unassailable Palpatine of Naboo is the mysterious Sith Lord known as Darth Sidious, and that the brash and headstrong Anakin Skywalker will turn his back on his fellow Jedi Knights and every good thing he stands for and become the infamous Darth Vader. These broad strokes on this huge celluloid and literary canvas have, of course, been visible for over 40 years, but there are still plenty of l...

Jacket design by David Stevenson. (C) 2005 Del Rey/Ballantine Books and Lucasfilm Ltd.  Pros:  Vivid descriptions, crisp writing, good characterizations Cons:  None A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights…. Now the Jedi are all but extinct. -- Obi-Wan Kenobi to Luke Skywalker, Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope There is still good in him. -- Padme Amidala to Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith According to the Star Wars timeline, there’s a gap of either 18 or 19 years between the cataclysmic fall of the Republic and the now-legendary Battle of Yavin that ended with the destruction of the Empire’s first Death Star. That gives Lucasfilm Ltd and many Star Wars authors a lot of creative wiggle room to bridge the two film trilogies with Expanded Universe novels and a television series set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hop...