Catallaxy Files

Australia's leading libertarian and centre-right blog

This is what’s wrong with the younger generation – and the ABC to boot.

67 comments

But it’s the Phantom Menace which I look back on most fondly.

Noooooooooooo.

I can understand political bias at the ABC, but to fondly remember the Phantom Menace?

Written by Sinclair Davidson

November 1st, 2012 at 5:03 pm

Posted in Libertarians don't live by argument alone

«
»

67 Responses to 'This is what’s wrong with the younger generation – and the ABC to boot.'

Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to 'This is what’s wrong with the younger generation – and the ABC to boot.'.

  1. And Alan Jones gets a negative mention, never let a sliming chance go by.

    Biota

    1 Nov 12 at 5:06 pm

  2. Yep, what a smartarse.

    I mean, who gives fuck [other than the soft-cocks in the coalition] what the abc thinks about anything.

    The S-F movie I want to see a sequel to is Forbidden Planet.

    cohenite

    1 Nov 12 at 5:28 pm

  3. In Hilary’s Global Village, there has to be a village idiot.

    Amfortas

    1 Nov 12 at 5:29 pm

  4. Pooh Bear would not approve.

    $4bn for a clapped-out 35 year old movie franchise seems like a hell of a deal for George Lucas.

    H B Bear

    1 Nov 12 at 5:39 pm

  5. My kids are right into Star Wars, but I’ve told them that Episodes I through III are rubbish and not worth watching. So far they’ve got the message :-)

    tbh

    1 Nov 12 at 6:23 pm

  6. Biota, The last Melbourne comedy festival show was on a few weeks ago. I cannot remember the joke, but there was one made that mentioned Alan Jones and UHT milk in the same breath. Obviously the author heard it too… and purloined it.

    Chistery

    1 Nov 12 at 6:25 pm

  7. Mind you, I’ve just seen The Star Wars Holiday Special for the first time and it made me re-evaluate The Phantom Menace. Things could have been a lot worse.

    Cold-Hands

    1 Nov 12 at 6:38 pm

  8. C-H, I remember seeing it as a kid and even in my innocence it was a WTF moment. You’re right, it could have been a *lot* worse.

    tbh

    1 Nov 12 at 6:43 pm

  9. It’s a pity Matrix never had any sequels.

    Fleeced

    1 Nov 12 at 6:54 pm

  10. The S-F movie I want to see a sequel to is Forbidden Planet.

    The Voyage of the Space Beagle, A. E. Van Vogt.

    Dead Soul

    1 Nov 12 at 7:02 pm

  11. They should get these guys to make the next movies – they’re much better than all the originals.

    I would hack at your neck with the thin bit until the blood flows accross the canteen floor

    .

    boy on a bike

    1 Nov 12 at 7:10 pm

  12. However, my own childhood experience of Star Wars began not in 1977 with its first film but in 1999 with the release of the most maligned of its prequels, The Phantom Menace. And you know what? For all the vitriol its name invites, that film blew my prepubescent mind.

    Fair enough.

    But he admits that, while he enjoyed the movies at the time, when bought the original three much later, he saw how much better they were.

    I bought a battered box set of the originals on VHS from a pawn shop sometime during high school, and I immediately recognised them as the more accomplished visions – ones that children and adults alike could enjoy.

    Yep, they were better. More than that, the original Star Wars in particular was groundbreaking in so many ways.

    It’s not clear if Lucas is pursuing obscure artistic goals such as clearly enunciating every aspect of the Star Wars mythology, or if he got too obsessed with the merchandising aspect, or whether he misunderstood the appeal of the original in that he thought it was a kids movie.

    I suspect all of these things are true.

    dd

    1 Nov 12 at 7:17 pm

  13. #boy on a bike: Brilliant stuff. Far better than Star Wars itself. There are dozens of such really funny parodies on you tube.

    Amfortas

    1 Nov 12 at 7:20 pm

  14. Far better than Star Wars itself.

    Um….. no.

    dd

    1 Nov 12 at 7:24 pm

  15. The Death Star canteen thing is Eddie Izzard. :)

    As for the yoof of today… they drive me insane. The crap grammar, the lack of punctuality, no clue on how to dress in an office.

    Regarding the House of Mouse buying out Lucas, like it could get any lower than Phantom Menace?

    nilk

    1 Nov 12 at 7:35 pm

  16. Meesa Jar Jar and meesa thinks that-a ABC have-a great-a programming and ex-squeeze-it taste in-a film-sy. Phantom Menace, best films of da series.

    William Blake

    1 Nov 12 at 7:41 pm

  17. Meesa Jar Jar and meesa thinks that-a ABC have-a great-a programming and ex-squeeze-it taste in-a film-sy. Phantom Menace, best films of da series.

    William Blake

    1 Nov 12 at 7:41 pm

  18. It’s a pity Matrix never had any sequels.

    So true.

    The Voyage of the Space Beagle, A. E. Van Vogt.

    I’ve often wondered how the Vogt would translate to the screen; I’d thought the Isher pair would be good.

    The Space Beagle; good luck with the castration motif; plenty of Aliens though.

    If we’re going to go authors what about the The Demon Princes series?

    cohenite

    1 Nov 12 at 8:15 pm

  19. All of the Star Wars movies were stupid.

    C.L.

    1 Nov 12 at 8:34 pm

  20. Some books by Joe Haldeman might be good on the screen. The Forever War?

    Dead Soul

    1 Nov 12 at 8:37 pm

  21. Haldeman is good but the time dilation effects of his best book would make it hard to establish a hero/heroine; it would have to be an ensemble effort.

    What is the general view on the latest Alien effort, Prometheus?

    cohenite

    1 Nov 12 at 9:02 pm

  22. Some books by Joe Haldeman might be good on the screen. The Forever War?

    too dated. It was fundamentally an anti-Vietnam thing.

    dd

    1 Nov 12 at 9:06 pm

  23. All of the Star Wars movies were stupid.

    You say this like you are an arbiter of good taste – but we already know you drink instant coffee. :)

    Sinclair Davidson

    1 Nov 12 at 9:07 pm

  24. Richard Morgan’s Takeshi Kovacs series.
    David Weber’s Honnor Harrington series.
    Any of Alistair Reynolds’ books.

    Sinclair Davidson

    1 Nov 12 at 9:11 pm

  25. I never saw the Star Wars movies in my youth – my interest in sci-fi never reaching beyond C.S. Lewis’s trilogy. My husband decided to enlighten me on one of our movie nights.

    I was stunned. They were so incredibly corny.

    Ellen of Tasmania

    1 Nov 12 at 9:15 pm

  26. I’ve told them that Episodes I through III are rubbish and not worth watching

    Problem with those movies was that unfortunately they were only adverts for video games, which is where the real money is.

    Nanuestalker

    1 Nov 12 at 9:24 pm

  27. I was stunned. They were so incredibly corny.

    Like most movies of the 1970s. Or the current day, for that matter.

    Mother Hubbard's Dog

    1 Nov 12 at 9:24 pm

  28. Eddie Izzard does a good routine on Star Wars.

    Death Star Canteen

    Splatacrobat

    1 Nov 12 at 9:25 pm

  29. Morgan’s and Weber’s series both feature an unsentimental view of genetic modification of humanity something which really tainted the Alien series especially when Ripley was modified by Alien genes.

    Weber’s series is possibly too complex for a movie[s] but Morgan offers much potential grunt for a S-F series.

    cohenite

    1 Nov 12 at 9:26 pm

  30. You say this like you are an arbiter of good taste – but we already know you drink instant coffee.

    Is there another kind?

    C.L.

    1 Nov 12 at 9:30 pm

  31. Geez Splat, you’re only 2 hours late to the party!

    boy on a bike

    1 Nov 12 at 9:31 pm

  32. Seriously, when you look at Alien and then see Star Wars. In the latter, the aliens are obviously from planet Sesame Street.

    Ripley versus Skywalker?

    Pffft.

    C.L.

    1 Nov 12 at 9:32 pm

  33. I was stunned. They were so incredibly corny.

    In what way?
    TThey’re good old fashioned adventure stories, if that’s what you mean.

    dd

    1 Nov 12 at 9:34 pm

  34. The Forever War was one of my favorites. Something similar is Scalzi’s Old Mans War. And The Last Colony.
    But if Hollywood does to either what they did to Starship Troopers, they can just sod off – I won’t be watching their butchery.

    Winston Smith

    1 Nov 12 at 9:36 pm

  35. Sure Alien is better than Star Wars. Aliens must the greatest SciFi movie ever (maybe Blade Runner).

    Ripley v Princess Leia.

    Sinclair Davidson

    1 Nov 12 at 9:38 pm

  36. Admittedly Alien and Aliens have held their age much better. But they were way too scary for kids.

    They’re scary as hell, both of them.

    dd

    1 Nov 12 at 9:38 pm

  37. Princess Leia.

    Please. She runs around wearing Danish pastries on her ears.

    Gab

    1 Nov 12 at 9:41 pm

  38. She runs around wearing Danish pastries on her ears.

    Gab – no.

    Sinclair Davidson

    1 Nov 12 at 9:46 pm

  39. Geez Splat, you’re only 2 hours late to the party!

    crap! Sorry I didn’t see your post. Work, kids, homework, housework all conspire to limit my Cat time so I usually scan through threads quickly. Seems you are an Izzard fan as well Boy?

    Splatacrobat

    1 Nov 12 at 9:48 pm

  40. But it’s the Phantom Menace which I look back on most fondly.

    When I read this I thought it was referring to The Phantom (ghost who walks… man who cannot die). That was kind of cool, yeah – I liked the comics when Iw as a kid too.

    But as for the Phantom Menace… I’d somehow erased that abomination of a prequel from my mind. Ditto the clone wars.

    But… Revenge of the Sith was really good and Return of the Jedi was shit. And, watching the original Star Wars again, he’s got one fair point. While it’s undoubtedly a masterpiece, C3PO is rather annoying. Pretty effeminate too – I’m amazed the gay lobby didn’t take offence at this pandering to ‘old poofter’ stereotypes.

    papachango

    1 Nov 12 at 9:49 pm

  41. Princess Leia and Jabba the Hutt; alien sex really hasn’t had a run in the cinema; even the 50′s paranoia efforts did not explore the subject.

    cohenite

    1 Nov 12 at 9:51 pm

  42. …both of them.

    Love for you for that, Dave. Reminded me of Humphrey Appleby drinking whiskey with some old college toffs and decrying the effects of Hacker’s education policy on English universities… “both of them.”

    There was no third movie in the series.

    Ripley, Hicks and Newt lived happily ever after.

    C.L.

    1 Nov 12 at 9:55 pm

  43. (*scrolls through thread, looks at spergs*)

    Is there anything more boring than Star Wars?

    Well, apart from Star Trek, that is.

    benson

    1 Nov 12 at 9:57 pm

  44. I understand that they are making “Caves of Steel” as a movie. I reckon Elijah Baley and R. Daneel will make a good duo – lots of nuance and [dare I say racist] issues to create onscreen tension.

    Other than that Larry Niven’s Crashlander series will come on screen – I know corny….

    Arnost

    1 Nov 12 at 9:57 pm

  45. Well, apart from Star Trek, that is.

    Boring?

    http://ultimate-wallpaper.com/media/wallpapers/photos/cache/1nn8PU_entwall_preview.jpg

    :)

    I love TNG and STV. Their vision of the future is often fascist but I wouldn;t say they were boring.

    C.L.

    1 Nov 12 at 10:05 pm

  46. Death Star Canteen

    Yeah not bad. But I prefer the story of Darth’s younger, not so successful brother, Chad Vader, Day shift manager.

    papachango

    1 Nov 12 at 10:10 pm

  47. alien sex really hasn’t had a run in the cinema; even the 50′s paranoia efforts did not explore the subject.

    How about Earth girls are easy

    Splatacrobat

    1 Nov 12 at 10:10 pm

  48. There was no third movie in the series.

    Exactly.

    dd

    1 Nov 12 at 10:11 pm

  49. Yeah not bad. But I prefer the story of Darth’s younger, not so successful brother, Chad Vader, Day shift manager.

    A blast from the past. I haven’t heard of Chad since the taxi driver incident.

    Amfortas

    1 Nov 12 at 10:12 pm

  50. And there was lots of good stuff in Pournelle’s Far / New Horizons series – the Sauron’s would make such a good enemy…

    Arnost

    1 Nov 12 at 10:15 pm

  51. Is there anything more boring than Star Wars?

    Well, apart from Star Trek, that is.

    I demand this Benson philistine be banned forthwith!

    Gab

    1 Nov 12 at 10:18 pm

  52. Saurons !!! Autocorrect run wild. [maybe there’s a story in that in how an iThing autocorrect change brought on WWIII… LOL!

    Arnost

    1 Nov 12 at 10:19 pm

  53. ”
    THIS IS THE VOICE OF THE MYSTERONS. WE KNOW THAT YOU CAN HEAR US EARTHMEN. OUR RETALIATION WILL BE SLOW, BUT NONETHELESS …”

    Since then, the Obama Family materialised.

    Amfortas

    1 Nov 12 at 10:27 pm

  54. Hee hee. I was never one for sci-fi or space opera, Gab.

    benson

    1 Nov 12 at 10:43 pm

  55. How about Earth girls are easy

    Yeah, the tongues have it.

    On reconsideration there probably has been a fair bit of the old out of this world dalliances going on, ranging from the get straight down to business of Species to the immacualte conception of Starman.

    cohenite

    1 Nov 12 at 10:58 pm

  56. All of the Star Wars movies were stupid.

    I saw CL dance for the devil! BURN HIM!

    Fleeced

    1 Nov 12 at 11:48 pm

  57. Sinc, I reckon John Carpenter’s The Thing sits alongside Blade Runner and the first two of the Alien fillums.

    Abu Chowdah

    2 Nov 12 at 3:06 am

  58. A recent good one is Sunshine. Imagine if you could get such direction and a cast to do some of the Iain M. Banks novels, or Reynolds’ first…

    Abu Chowdah

    2 Nov 12 at 3:07 am

  59. CL, DD, I have in my possession a 20th Anniversary Special Edition box set which has Alien 3 in it.
    Ripley gets laid by a Prison Planet doctor, Newt dies in her rescue pod and Hicks dies gloriously, finally redeeming himself in death. Oh, and the doc gets to do an autopsy on Newt. Excellent bit where he gets to use a bone saw on her sternum.
    Then there’s Alien Resurrection where the eeevvviiill military industrial complex make copies of Ripley from a spare vial of blood they had lying around. And she gets laid by an Alien, but very discretely and tastefully.

    Winston Smith

    2 Nov 12 at 3:56 am

  60. “I’m all covered in bees!”

    Yes, love my Izzard,

    Boy on a bike

    2 Nov 12 at 5:58 am

  61. Winston, Alien 3 isn’t bad as a standalone story, but CL already flagged the problem. Specifically, David Fincher, who hadn’t been involved in the first two, effectively re-wrote the ending of the second by having that soon after the credits roll, everyone but Ripley died of alien infections. In short, the third movie informs us that there was a missing final scene from the second.

    It might have seemed to him like merely a convenient trick to put Ripley into another adventure, but it totally screwed the integrity of the second movie. It turned it from an adventure quest to a horror-tragedy.

    This completely destroys the integrity and emotional tone of the second movie. Now sure there’s a role for movies with a sole survivor – Alien itself was such a movie and it rocked. But Aliens wasn’t. The bottom line is that, honestly, if Aliens had ended that way, in the movie itself, it would have sucked.

    Not content to try to re-write the far better, far more commercially successful Aliens as a tragedy, Fincher killed off the main character, Ripley, at the end, making any further continuation of the franchise extremely difficult. It was as if he attempted to destroy the franchise.

    oh but it’s not just me and CL that think this. The people involved in the making of Aliens hated it too, and hated what Fincher did with their story and their characters.

    A number of cast and crew associated with the series, including actor Michael Biehn, previous director James Cameron, and novelist Alan Dean Foster, expressed their frustration and disappointment with the film’s story. Cameron, in particular, regarded the decision to kill off the characters of Bishop, Newt, and Hicks as “a slap in the face” to him and to fans of the previous film. Biehn, upon learning of Hicks’ demise, demanded and received almost as much money for the use of his likeness in one scene as he had been paid for his role in Aliens.[25] Foster, who wrote the novelizations of the first two Alien films, called the death of Newt and Hicks “an obscenity”.[26]

    dd

    2 Nov 12 at 8:19 am

  62. and by the way, the audiences agreed as well. Word of mouth got around they stayed away.

    dd

    2 Nov 12 at 8:21 am

  63. A recent good one is Sunshine.

    It was rather crap, I thought. The last 20 minutes or so were directed and/or edited shockingly badly

    steve from brisbane

    2 Nov 12 at 8:26 am

  64. I have in my possession a 20th Anniversary Special Edition box set which has Alien 3 in it.

    I have a box set too. It includes four Alien movies, two Predator movies and the Alien v Predator movies. But as CL and DD have said there were only two Alien movies.

    Sinclair Davidson

    2 Nov 12 at 12:59 pm

  65. It was rather crap, I thought. The last 20 minutes or so were directed and/or edited shockingly badly

    Yes well your opinion isirreevant on such important matters. Fe fans of British SF writing it was like seeing a Reynolds novel featuring slower than speed of light space travel, etc. Loved it.

    Abu Chowdah

    2 Nov 12 at 5:22 pm

  66. Blade Runner is the best sci-fi I’ve seen and I think I’ve get every version of it there is to own (at present anyway). Great score too.

    Speaking of Star Wars send ups, I have much love for the melding of two my favourites, being Star Wars (of course) and Snatch.

    Enjoy:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vskHXtPuvBk

    tbh

    2 Nov 12 at 8:34 pm

  67. Enemy Mine. A grand film. A little like that movie about a Japanese and an American airmen on an island. But with the most heartwarming ending – the singing of the songline of the son of the alien-lizard fellow by the human. Far too few films today end on a high note of humanity.

    Amfortas

    2 Nov 12 at 9:37 pm

Leave a Reply