The Force Could Use Another Hour of Sleep

It’s a Heffalump kind of a day. Or maybe it’s a Mr. Snuffleupagus day.

What does that even mean? I’m moving mega slow this morning. I’m lumbering and logy. Why? I was up and out relatively late last night. Jen, Oni and I went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Yes. Again. The flick just blows me away. Mostly it’s Rey and the actress who plays her, Daisy Ridley. She brings tremendous depth to a character who could easily be played two dimensionally. She’s the real hero of the show.

I wish I’d had such strong celluloid champions when I was a kid. Nope, the only sci fi film with a woman as more than just a minor player was Barbarella. Yeah, a trippy sex farce.

It wasn’t until Ripley in1979’s Alien that we chicks got to be anything but ornaments and sex toys. Sheesh. I’m happy as hell that my grands get to see women on screen who are solid, capable and heroic. It’s about damn time.

Rey is a character for an age that is replacing feminism-as-a-movement with feminism-as-a-way-of-life.

YES! That quote is from a brill post up at The Atlantic—very much worth reading.

 This was my third time seeing it on the big screen. We saw The Force Awakens on the weekend before last, at one of those IMAX theaters. Yeah, the mammoth screen was awesome BUT there was no closed captioning. I knew this going in and thought No biggie, it’s an action movie. I won’t really miss the dialogue. Ah nope. The talking’s not a complete throw away. Also, without sound I ended up focusing on odd bits like, did ya notice how Leia moves her lips, how she speaks? Tiny, bird-like mouth movements, as though she had loose fitting dentures. Distracting from the main events, is what it was.

In any case, the one thing that bugged me last night, more than in past viewings, was General Leia’s pleas to Solo to bring back their son. She was so damn certain of boychik's inner conflict, that he could be persuaded to return from the Dark Side. I know, I know, it’s her child BUT, seriously now, she’s a fucking general. She's been 'round the block with the Dark Side before—has she not learned? Her utter conviction that her Ben’s really a good boy (despite all, extremely contrary, evidence) and will respond to a well placed word from his old Da, smacks of ridiculously hamhanded plot device.

Gee, we need to have one major character die in this. Who could we off? Ford doesn’t want to be in the next installment, we’ll get rid of him.

I wonder though, does motherhood destroy the ability to view your progeny realistically? After the kiddle pops out the chute, are new mother’s issued a pair of mondo blinders? Leia always seemed to have a totally solid grasp of reality. I’m pissed that she was turned into a My worlds destroying kid is really a peach sort of a mother.