So I read somewhere that #TheLastJedi is released in China on 5th January and this is a market where it’s predecessor #TheForceAwakens did not really take off.

Unsure if that is true, though what I do know is that whilst as a Historical Original Trilogy Fan I only went once to the cinema to see The Force Awakens, I have already been twice to see The Last Jedi & am considering further trips.

This is important psychology at play because The Force Awakens came with much nostalgia & feel good sentiment from original trilogy fan’s the World over and whilst it might have a big numbers box office crown, many such as myself stayed away in terms of repeat trips preferring to wait for Now & Sky & Amazon to have it available.  Its Box office despite the psychology of being top COULD have been far higher.

Those disappointed at episode VII have also likely now stayed away from the Cinema for episode VIII preferring to wait for other distribution formats/broadcasts and when they do see it, they will likely kick themselves wishing they had seen it at the Cinema.

Having also seen it in 3D and 2D I must admit that like many a movie I have persevered with 3D against my own reviews & personal judgement & eyesight, that usually ultimately says that 3D has been great & fantastic for some Cartoon’s, though for the most part is more than the brain can handle for big budget live action busy fast paced films and you actually take in far more and have a better environmental experience in 2D viewings sessions without the distraction.  I beyond summertime sunglasses am not a glasses person, and suspect that 3D is popular in those sectors of the population already constantly living with augmented eyesight etc.  I also suspect that it is an un-noted bias from those folks and the reason why 3D TV never really took off, you can well imagine a lab full of glasses wearing professor styled boffins scratching there heads and wondering why everyone doesn’t want  to buy into the instant intelligence psychology associated with glasses.

So detractors of The Last Jedi threw there dummy out of the pram and a new complaint I recently saw was that Luke’s expected Brightest of the Light side goodness forever life arc has been ruined, again this seems for myself a nonsense, and the related film section actually showed the same event “through the eyes/narrative” of two people, so that is an excellent way of showing differences between people, society etc. & letting audience make there own conclusions.

So finally I can turn to China question?

What do I know of China?  Well I grew up in 1970’s when Martial Arts from Asia really took off as did Bruce Lee’s Legend.  I also watched a couple of Chinese shows that were broadcast in the UK, one was dubbed and called Monkey or Monkey Magic and was based in ancient Chinese folklore gods.  The other I always remembered as Liang Shan Po (something like that) though was called The Water Margin and was just EPIC, another related show I just remembered was Kung Fu although that was all American.

So I loved those Chinese Shows and of course many Martial Arts Epics have been created over the years, what I have noticed is that I viewed some recent Big Epic Chinese style movies on Netflix and other stream services and they are suggested to not appeal to Western Box Office, that is wrong in so many ways because unfortunately Western Box Office has gone all Trend with Big Budget & nothing else, most of those big budgets are lousy & rubbish bereft of story and pure indulgence to “gamer generation FX heads”.

So in my view having seen The Last Jedi twice already and having been a fan of many works coming out of Asia, I think The Last Jedi can do far better than The Force Awakens in China and the Asian Market in general. When you strip down to basics of storytelling styles & choreography of action, it could well be suggested or complained by Westerners that the film was made to Chinese specification or design, the only thing perhaps missing is martial arts, though the drawback is of course the alleged poor performance of The Force Awakens.

Given the recent last years opening of a Disney Park in China, one can well imagine multiple Movies in the pipeline designed for China’s taste buds, I saw a recent comment that Pixar Coco is doing big business in China & that is probably because the South American legend utilised also exists in Chinese form, as do many other such Legends. So The Last Jedi has all the ingredients for big success and China perhaps also lacks the earlier generation buy-in to the franchise that is responsible for upsetting some loud minority groups within the fandom.

Time will tell of course, though given all the negative contrived nonsense hype surrounding one of the best movies of the year it would be fantastic to see the movie go passed its predecessor, especially as that now seems so poor in comparison.

Thank you for reading, God Bless & Be Well!

P.S. My own research into World myths & histories has again & again demonstrated almost identical stories, designs & craft & art appearing around the globe completely independently of outside influence in multiple cultures & prior to Global shipping and so on, hence many scholars scratching heads seeking to find or identify missing links and conspiracy obsessives wanting to claim Alien responsibility, the idea of basic planetary evolution and environmental habitats in nature is far to simple, why go with easy when you can invent entire establishments & science in the pretence that it all means anything in the greater scheme of life the universe & everything.

Yes seeking to find the appropriate words, to express a given scenario is not always of course easy, if you are not someone who has maintained a quality standard of writing or language usage and meaning and all that jazz.

So what feelings & why?

Well I just Listened to a Podcast from Rian Johnson in which he basically stated that the script for Episode VIII had been handed in some 18 months prior to scheduled filming and that brings about multiple mental contusions as to what came first.  All though that does not really matter in the greater scheme of things, I am reminded of the Writing Course I signed up too take part in and indeed some aspects of the related conversations.

Even though I had shared what for many people was a high drama, high tragedy story; in terms of the Skype  “conversations” that I had with my designated “Mastermind Grouping” one of the earliest things that I can remember myself saying was that any book I wrote would likely have to contain Humour, unfortunately it can often only be to the External Observer “the humour” of some situations & scenario’s seen in “hindsight” that enables any of us to go through our own brand of therapy in relation to such circumstances, I did not really explain myself to that effect, though it did I felt confuse the peoples on the call somewhat.

I say that of course because having seen Episode VII and Episode VIII, you perhaps see a difference in how JJ approached Star Wars in perhaps somewhat overwhelmed tentative delicate  fashion, putting in a couple of “going through the pain barrier” of breaking Star Wars rules / cannon moments, whilst Rian has effectively gone the whole hog perhaps driving a truck through the so-called “straight jackets” imposed by intransigent Sacred Realm “Cannons” of how Star Wars must Appear & Be and so on. A cannon in that respect being some alleged rule that is not allowed to be broken, whereas Rian has expanded into the let us be FLEXIBLE about this, mind-set, realising that at some age or developmental stage, you can still be concurrent and adhere in Spiritual Fashion to cannon and ideologies without being overly Dogmatic Intransigent about such things.

Interpretation & meaning perhaps being everything.

The reason for my wittering’s is because even though little direct contact has existed between myself & the writers/creators etc. (At least from my side of the knowledge / awareness table), I do feel quite strongly defensive over this particular episode in a somewhat unexpected fashion of the Film abiding by or adhering or being in Alignment with many of the ideas, thoughts, feelings and actions that I myself laid out as a kind of FRAMEWORK.

So what was the over-arching framework involved?

Well Archetypes work for a reason because we all grow up around people who are acting, behaving within archetypes & stereotypes of one sort or another, and typically within our own lives we often want to sort wheat from chaff, good & bad and so on.

For myself a simple way to gain pattern & cycle recognition is to see the transfers between realms, can I identify Character Correlations within this movie, to characters within other spheres; TV; books ;theatre; game; and yes I can, not that you need to as The Star Wars Realm has a finger in every pie anyway, though as an exercise it can be fun. simply create a list that says name comic film book TV theatre and see if you can identify strong cross-over threads.

The Strength of Star Wars historically for myself was part & parcel of having Strong Identifiable Correlates that you could not quite put your finger on, similar though not the same, because each actor is also bringing part of themselves to the role, hence some thinking in terms of this is Harrison Ford being Harrison Ford in Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Bladerunner etc.  Whilst others throw how they believe themselves to be, into the background , the differing acting styles & threads debate.

Can you ever truly not be who you are unless it is a fine performance demonstrating otherwise.

Many actors/actresses relish “getting away with” behaviours in performance that outside of such realms & arenas they know would be potentially frowned upon or heavily debated as to merits and so on. How do you get inside a role.

So yes, I still clearly love the Star Wars Realm and that is somewhat strange given all the meditation I have done, reasoning coming up in the next paragraph or two perhaps.

Yes Christmas is almost upon us and I must admit to not having really invested in “Special Days” since taking up mediation, in the sense that we live in an invented World and every “special day” in the calendar is also invented and so on and I wanted to see how many “Special Days” I could extricate myself from, unwanted threads & other peoples stuff etc. and in fact apart from doing good Christmas for my daughter and immediate family and Birthday’s I have cut huge amounts of unwanted history nonsenses from my own life.  I myself did of course years ago, join Facebook during its relative infancy and all these million & one International special days all started appearing, International Day for Toe Nail Clipping etc.  In fact cutting out & reducing Facebook usage & friends (not real friends just mostly Farmville (The Game) acquaintances  & strangers) was a lifesaver in many ways, whilst Facebook has gone from strength to strength, I myself have zero regrets about “getting out” partly because I could see where it was headed and partly because I was seemingly experiencing the ill-effects long before they came up for popular complaint & debate. The issue is ALWAYS one of lowest common denominator topics & subjects & behaviours that I myself felt were more like “dragging you down” traps, than preferable lifestyle choices & options, some folks make themselves successful or simply comfortable & settled at such things, though it was not the appropriate choice & option for myself.

So I cut & reduced all the nonsense special days and junk time wasting activites from my life and also due to working life commitments & timetables found it quite easy to stop watching huge amounts of TV/FILM because all the best stuff was on when I was working, (this was prior to the days of IPLAYERS & STREAMING SERVICES, and that was also actually prior to taking up meditation technology, so yes I isolated myself in almost all directions, mostly focussing on immediate needs and then when I finally did take up meditation found that I had already done rather large proportion of many of the kinds of recommendations being made.

Yes I can go on and on in super boring Mr bland fashion.

Anyway meanwhile, I recently replaced my banking card after having difficulties for a couple of weeks, it worked fine on the payment scans though struggled with some ATM’s so I ordered a replacement to be on the safe side and then received messages saying we are sending you out another, I received a new card and began using it and then received a new message, we are replacing the replacement, What, so I make a phone call, and any time I have to phone my bank becomes a pass the parcel merry go round of switching to the someone who is going to transfer you to the someone who … if it were a rare occurrence (which it is in terms of how often I contact my bank) that would be fine, though every time I contact the bank this happens & suggests some lack or coordination & choreography as to how the banking world operates.

you walk into a Bank & it is all tidy smart & square and clean and projecting of a Quality Image, now imagine the image that comes to mind when you make a call to the bank and always get played the merry go round – all you can ever imagine is that they must exist in some funfair mad house and what have you.

Anyway I started writing with the best of intentions and then all that stuff happened.

Thank you for reading, god Bless and be well!

Previously on my Blog:

I said that I may well give a review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Now:

My Review: Putting The Magic Back Where It Belongs

That is it that is the review! Deal with it, have a spittle effected complaints & drama session, get it out of your system, etc.

So why is Rian Johnson A Genius?

Well I cannot speak for Rian in particular, though I certainly know enough about my own life story and history and indeed the varied connectivity of Star Wars Threads that run concurrently throughout that time period.

I can cast my mind back to being a little older than a toddler perhaps of primary school age and the adults taking myself, brother and some other children to the cinema to see Star Wars and indeed the surrounding news on TV and the kind of lift off effect that Star Wars had in the school playground with us kids, whether we were 7, 8, 9, 10 etc. Running around the yard playing Star Wars somehow managed parity with previously popular Soldiering War type Games (Same Game New Name I can perhaps say with a grin) that is when we were not charging across the yard playing bulldog or playing football and various other school yard games that are probably all banned now due to Health & Safety Mafias. And yes I even got to see Darth Vader in the Flesh during his stint as the Green Cross Code Man when he visited school and lifted a number of us up, sitting on his hands, we did not care for the green spandex costume or probably the road safety message so much, as the fact it was Darth Vader.

So as I grew older I stayed a Star Wars Fan at age 10, 20, 30, 40 and so on, and throughout that time period owned Video’s and DVD’s and so on, even investing in the Computer Games when they came along.  I also as an enthusiast sought background knowledge about its creator George Lucas and The Stars, Harrison Ford was still appearing in other popular movies though Mark Hamill & Carrie Fisher all but disappeared (at least it seemed that way to us UK audiences, who perhaps had occasional sightings on Christmas shows on one of the 4 available channels etc.).

So George Lucas said his inspiration for Star Wars was the classic black & white Flash Gordon type shows of his childhood, and I loved repeat showing of those shows here in the UK when they were on during my own childhood, so have some knowledge of what he spoke and the next weeks exciting episode cliff hangars etc.

So where did Star Wars go wrong? I do not necessarily think that Star Wars went wrong so much as the Fan bases & society in general did, as to how life was to go in this direction, and as you grow older, much of the childhood magic is lost as the demands of many Establishment institutions or Empire’s demand that this is how Society must operate and be and so on and this is your place within it (if you accept external demands & pressures), at some point along the line your childhood innocence and love of the Magic of Disney or Lucasfilm gets squeezed out of you as you go through various expectation manglers, school, college, various jobs, and yet you still cling to some of those childhood heroes & heroines as an escapism  At some point you can potentially become akin to the Dark side type characters and not be at ease with your new identity, or indeed not be fully happy with being a member of the rebel alliance, if all that they live for is being broke & against all and anyone in position of power, or wealth and so on etc.

So anyway for myself “The Last Jedi” puts the Magic back into Star Wars for a new generation of young fans, and perhaps reignites the spark for older fans who have lost there way, the tells are quite easy, which characters do you most identify with or behave like?

Whilst reviewers understand the duality of debate and gave the film exceptionally high ratings, that I must state I personally agree with, for myself the film hits the mark across so many audience demographics & on so many differing levels that I genuinely cannot understand much of the negatives coming from some sections of the Fan Bases.

All I can perhaps say is that is bringing a kind of balance to the ever so many differing Fan Kingdom Groups that exist, be they Original Movie Fans or Prequal Fans or Computer Game Fans or Comic Book Fans, they are all effectively complaining about issues related to the lack of representation for there own gang or grouping (at least it seems that way to myself) each wanting there faction to dominate a monster franchise that this movie demonstrates is big enough for everyone & does in its own way represent everyone.

If you want to experience a rollercoaster movie that is also a masterclass in storytelling that will keep you glued to the screen throughout then The Last Jedi is your movie.  The Film-craft & workmanship & costumes & music is an amazing blend from all the films contributors, yes some say what about the hammy script & you have to ask, when did any of these POP CULTURE movies not have trashy dialogue and so on.  My complaint for example of the dentist chair scene in episode VII was because it was out of keeping with the “Overall” presentation of the entire movie.  In VIII you would not feel that the scene was out of place, because a far greater representation is given to such Humour and whilst you might think this aint gonna work, in the overall scheme of the movie everything works because everything keeps coming at you sideways, the humans, the drama, the pace and interweaving of stories and the number of cul-de-sacs or slight of hand feigns you are given will make you dizzy in a fantastically good way.

I have written on this blog historically regarding ideas as to smoke & mirrors & misdirection and this film is a masterclass in such techniques, hence perhaps so many fans dazed & confused & unable to reconcile how they are supposed to now feel about there passion for Star Wars and the pre-existing expectation they had when they entered the auditorium, as to how they feel when they leave.

I myself am sure I could easily watch a multitude of repeat viewings of the film & walk out on each occasion thinking on something I missed in a previous viewing, from start to finish the journey you are taken on is jam packed filled with adventure, excitement, one liners, funny looking aliens, silly humours and the list is endlessly mindboggling.

So Rian Johnson is an absolute Genius, as are his star performers and the crew he assembled around himself whether Disney or Lucasfilm and his own long time collaborators to make this production.

The underlying message & theme is often one of LIGHTEN UP, though clearly some fan quarters struggle with that basic hidden message or maybe that is a message for myself, if you cannot take your own advice then whose can you take & follow.

So another song from an earlier generation was Michael Jackson’s SMOOTH CRIMINAL and I have a strange feeling that the song is a secret anthem in Rian Johnson’s collection, yes he boasts of Mountain Goats & other more internationally obscure cults groups we’ve never heard of though that is what he is, a smooth criminal that I am sure many of us do not mind having been hit by.

An ancient tanoy announcement gag remodelled

the Movie arriving at auditoriums 3, 4, 5, 6 is coming in sideways & you will outright love it or be glued solidly to the screen for a 2 and a half hour rollercoaster journey before pretending otherwise less parts of your own ego think less of you.

Thank you for reading, God Bless and Be Well!

So today I shall be taking my booked in advance place at the local cinema multiplex to view the next instalment of Star Wars, and I find myself somewhat at a loose end.

Due to Christmas Timetable Scheduling, I worked earlier yesterday evening than a normal nightshift and I got home early and watched Lord Sugar’s “The Apprentice” interview episode, the would be apprentices having gone through a series of week to week activities to weed out the unlucky, the misfortunate, and just bad salespeople & so on; in honesty in watching such series you do come to see that a certain level of randomness can exist as to your prospect & fortunes whether regarded as experienced or a rookie. Throughout the series so far we have seen poor candidates lead winning teams & good candidates losing, though clearly if you follow the winner takes all attitude, then like any football fan will tell you, a win is a win irrespective of the circumstances that led to a given statistic in the end of time library of statistics. Whilst we of a generation care & are still upset that Argentine Footballer Maradona handballed a winning goal that knocked England out of a World Cup the actual statistic will just be listed as a goal that was given, allowed & 1 among several goals (even though it changed the course of the game).

Hence many believing that the modern Logical Statistical Method Can do know wrong, though we all know otherwise do we not?

Yes I am hyper excited for this eighth instalment of Star Wars due to my own personal experience in the run up to Episode VII, I took part in the Write Well creative writing course from Learning strategies and was perhaps not on the ball at that time as to what was occurring or taking place, maybe the Course was to get multiple peoples & persons into some greater level of awareness & enlightenment and synchronicity and so on.

Though I typically felt it appropriate to share my Great Ormond Street Story and the course continued with other contributors and everyone kind of went there separate ways. A year or to later, Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens is released and it kind of felt that it contained “aspects of my story” in truth when you have done long periods of meditation and indeed several of the kinds of courses I have done in recent years during my isolationist approach to life, you come to see things in very differing fashion whereby the higher level of meditation you go and the more flexibility you have in making ever more refined distinctions between modalities and building blocks or jigsaw pieces you do come to see that many aspects of popular movies (Not just the Star Wars series) contain very many one size fits all relatable identifiers – by that I mean you can watch a character & identify with the character or the situation or the scenario and so on.

So I was wow & awed by Episode VII The Force Awaken’s and JJ Abrams work in rebooting the Series and typically taking it back to its grass roots, those FUN kind of ancient Black & White Flash Gordon type adventures that used to be shown, where each episode would involve hero to the rescue against mad emperor type individuals and a clash would occur & chase sequences and they would end with some inescapable doom scenario & the next week’s beginning was always a show you how the hero escaped on this occasion, hanging from branches & hidden ledges or bumping into allies and so on, a vast reservoir of get out of jail free cards existed or were formulated for those shows and they were also quite cheap in production design & craft & often very Theatrically Costumed.  That leads myself into one of my main or FEW gripes or complaints about Episode VII.

I thought I may well write a review of VIII after seeing what Rian Johnson has done with the Star Wars Realm, yes I have seen the trailers & loved them, especially Luke telling Rey To Breath (because all is context) as it may give anyone desperate with an unconscious relative in hospital, or some such a possible hope or idea. Though anyway though early reviews keep harking to “it will not be what you expect etc.”.  That makes assumption that I have any expectation, though to be honest after joining Twitter and following Mark Hamill and some other Celebrity and indeed Director Rian Johnson, I began on occasion interacting with them and yes when he Mark Hammill had a fund raiser for #GOSH it felt appropriate to share the story.  A couple of days earlier the Royal Princes had actually visited the set and are said to have filmed some scenes, though rumour mills are unsure if they survived the editing process.

Anyway I was a newbie to Twitter and the seeming ways of how people interact & connect and who is following who and so on, though some strange occurrences did occur, for example, I posted various images that I mocked up as to my historical study into Tarot and Dowsing Rods and so on. Explaining how I had Created a Fish (for example).

So this went on for some period of time whilst they were actually in production of Episode VIII, and I perhaps got somewhat over enthusiastic as many a Fan of any number of productions might claim to be.  And indeed it was actually fun due to my other activity of monitoring for synchronicity and forthcoming sporting results and so on (another aspect that features in the movie).

So the images above are ones that I typically posted, I did quite a few including some with my little keyring lightsaber

and as you can see my Jedi Dalek was a creative masterpiece.  So anyway several months down the line the Movie Posters starting appearing and I could not help to think or feel that they may have used my contribution & explanation as a starting point template, what more could anyone want etc.  So that just got my enthusiasm up to these guys can do no wrong etc.  I will of course on seeing the movie probably twig any gripes quite early on if I have any.

What were my Gripes with VII: The Force Awakens?

Complaints not necessarily  in any order of merit

Kylo Ren having a temper tantrum rage & trashing the dashboards or consoles and so on, yes it broke the pre-existing Expectation barrier (a good thing) & seized peoples minds into this Star Wars is something differing & new, though it is a kind of acting out violence that some people will find all too easily to copy. Was there no other way?

The second Complaint was Captain Phasma’s Costume – for myself it was out of keeping with  the Star Wars realm costumes, yes it harked back to the Theatrical Costumes of ancient Black & White Shows, though that is part of the point, when movies went into Colour they actually abandoned many Theatrical Stagey styles & toned things down for the Cinema / TV audiences, bright colours in a Theatre or Stadium (Pop Stars Etc) makes sense, though in a modern movie?  My negative view on an otherwise excellent Warcraft was the usage of Theatrical Stage Play style Costumes, maybe it is “in vogue” in getting people to twig that all are actors & actresses, though Science (at least in the UK) dominates most peoples mind sets to the exclusion of broader shapes & forms of reality, teachings etc.

The Third Complaint I may not have high lighted previously was the Scene where Rey was captured and in a dentist like chair, where she attempted to use her force powers on a Storm Trooper (said to have been Bond Actor Daniel Craig), the whole scene seemed overly comical joke, never necesarily a good idea to alienate hard core fans who such things might upset, even if they do need to loosen up.

The fourth I think was perhaps part & parcel of three, where maybe the Filming sequences for the story were out of showing order (often the case) and nerves of you can do know right or wrong were at play, so the younger Finn & Rey actors at times, seemed overly  wooden in there roles, I had a connection fail to being able to relate to them – lack of empathy perhaps I do not know.

Having said that about the film I could then say well if we are doing percentages that leaves us with 96% that is good about the film, hence many teachers & masters especially in relation to meditation reminding us to focus on the positives, however small, grown those out & balloon them etc.

What else, well I have stayed & contributed quite a lot at Guardian online, especially at Cartoon Corner however the constant negative I find, is that when Politics always features people named David and all you read is hate David blah blah, you tend to catch a bad dose simply through name sharing, many contributors do not give a damn about offending others, hence all hiding behind pseudonyms and what not.

So the option is of course carry on & getting dragged further down into unhelpful vibes thoughts & feelings, or adopt a position of giving self respect & dignity to myself through simply walking away.

The artists & indeed contributors “get paid” for there contributions though I doubt they hang on the every word of the people commenting on the threads for there postings, because the threads are full of, in many a case people I would call extremists usually seeking to seize the article in the name of there cult group or whatever.

I will likely continue to monitor though unsure as to commenting given the constant nonsense that I do not want need or require in my life. I could comment, without reading the contribution of others, though likewise people often want to respond to myself where I do not always want to be directly responded to.  So that would simply leave myself having to rush back to monitor responses, I had to report a couple recently for bad language or racism, and whilst they were blocked out once I reported them, it kind of makes you think that not enough self restraint is on offer from many commentators. Some folks do GET what I am suggesting or about in terms of identify the money in communication and indeed potentially go of & write other articles accordingly, though likewise, I have had more independent FUN on Twitter than I have within other media empires and so on.

Anyway I hope that my expectations for a fantastic The Last Jedi Movie are not dashed upon the rocks so to speak, and that I might even come back here and write another review, like they need one from myself.

So we are in the “Year in Review” season and of course I can claim to have had highs & lows just as everyone does, though I really do need to reclaim my own attention for things of my own passions rather than much of the cry-wolf materials that are forever keeping the media merry-go-rounds going round.

Thank you for reading, God Bless and Be Well 🙂