Star Wars 7: Why The Jedi As Myth Makes Sense

A good witch or wizard needs a trusty pet, and for Harry Potter, Hedwig the Owl went above and beyond the call of duty. The bird's dedication to the boy wizard made her a hit with fans, and broke their hearts when she sacrificed her life to protect Harry in The Deathly Hallows . A righteous death for the boy she loved should have been expected. In the books, Hedwig takes her name from a medieval witch or wizard. But in the real world, Hedwig is the patron saint of orphaned and abandoned children - making her the perfect guardian for the movie's h

In the Marvel comic book universe, Thanos is considered to be one of the major villains, though perhaps not quite top-tier. Visually-speaking, he’s a bit derivative of Jack Kirby’s Darkseid from the New Gods of the DC Universe. Thanos’ creator, Jim Starlin, admitted as much in an intervi

There's plenty of symbolism in this sci-fi series, but younger fans probably missed one clever reference. When Neo has gone as far down the rabbit hole as possible, and is fleeing from enemy agents, he makes a strange demand of his operator outside of the system: "Mr. Wizard, get me the hell out of here!" The line is lifted from an old cartoon series starring Tooter Turtle, whose adventures in different time periods would always go source wrong - only his friend, Mr. Wizard could save the day. Apparently the show also existed in The Matrix 's artificial reality. Either that, or Keanu Reeves felt a kinship with the monotone tur

While the main villain of The Avengers was Loki and the main threat was an alien army called the Chitauri , the threat behind those threats was a cosmic force of evil known as Thanos (or, conversely, The Mad Titan). Of course, you would only know that if you stuck around for the mid-credits sequence and had a firm grasp of the Marvel comic book unive

Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens hits theaters on December 18th, 2015, followed by Rogue One: A Star Wars Story on December 16th, 2016, Star Wars: Episode VIII on May 26th, 2017, and the Han Solo Star Wars Anthology film on May 25th, 2018. Star Wars: Episode IX is expected to reach theaters in 2019, followed by the third Star Wars Anthology film in 2

The Force Awakens picks up 30 years after Return of the Jedi , meaning that some time has passed since we've seen old friends like Han and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) - but seemingly not enough time for their exploits to have become myths that people doubt ever happened . It reads as an oversight on Abrams' part, but is there a reasonable explanation for how this happened? There just might

Most fans of The Wachowski's game-changing sci-fi series know that The Matrix 's plot forms a perfect circle: the hotel and room 303 where the movie begins is also the same place where Neo becomes "The One." But fans probably missed an even bigger example. The first movie ended with a serious phone call, as Neo told the Machines that he planned on freeing human

In 1986, Steve Jobs purchased the Computer Graphics Division from George Lucas's Lucasfilm and established the independent company we now know to be Pixar. In honor of the man who also founded Apple, Pixar has included references to the tech company or Jobs himself in a number of films. Most notably, the titular robotic hero of Wall-E makes the recognizable Mac startup chime when he's done charging, and Apple products like computers and iPods are shown throughout Toy Story 3 . Finally, after passing away in 2011, the end credits of Brave featured a dedication to Jobs in memory of his contribution to Pixar. That last one may not necessarily be hidden, but it's worth mention

As shocking as this may be to read: not everyone who will see The Force Awakens is overtly familiar with the Star Wars mythos. Whether they're adults who never caught on, or children whose first real exposure to the franchise will be Episode VII , they'll need someone in the movie to act as their guide and ask the questions they're wondering about. Abrams would be unwise to just assume that everyone watching knows the story up to this point. This is very similar to how Luke was portrayed in the original film, as he - like everyone watching - had no idea what The Force was or how expansive the galactic war really was. He was that fish out of water character that was a conduit for the audience and allowed them to understand what was happening throughout the f

"There's a directorial flourish and then there's self-parody — and Abrams promises he's easing up on his signature stylistic tic of shining lights directly into anamorphic lenses to create flares. He could explain it away in the Star Trek films ("the future is so bright!") but admits he has no excuse for Super 8. He recalled how one shot in Star Trek Into Darkness was so overrun by lens flare his wife shouted that she couldn't see Alice Eve. He made an effort to tone it down for The Force Awakens, and when he spotted his lighting crew bringing large spotlights onto the set he would joke "these aren't the flares you're looking f