Honest, I Don't Live In My Parent's Basement
posted by Tygrrius @ 12:01 AM
A few months ago, I read an interesting interview with Michael Thau, by Dharmesh over at Superman Cinema. One of Dharmesh's comments has been in the back of my mind ever since.
He watches the first Superman movie only once a year. Every December 24 at 3:35 PM, to be exact. The timing is so that he'll be done in time for Christmas Eve dinner around 6 PM. Limiting his viewing of Superman to once a year is to sustain the magic by not completely memorizing the entire movie, he says.
He touches on an issue that all of us franchise fans face, whether we're talking about the Superman, Star Wars, or Star Trek movies. We love watching these movies so much that we, of course, tend to watch them often. Dare I say, far too often?
I probably watch The Wrath of Khan, The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars, Superman, The Voyage Home, The Undiscovered Country, Return of the Jedi, and Superman II three or four times a year each. I just love these movies, so it's hard to resist indulging in them whenever possible.
While they still have their magic, it is true that my experience is never quite as fun as when I do take a bit more time off between viewings. I think it was Harve Bennett who mentioned that if you eat turkey every day, Thanksgiving doesn't seem so special anymore.
With that in mind, I decided to make a year-long schedule for the movies of The Film Frontier's key franchises, to make my watching them feel like events again. By a sheer stroke of genius, I mean, pure coincidence, each movie weekend occurs just before anticipated publication dates of this blog.
That way, if I don't have an idea for Proverbial Galaxies on a given weekend, I can always just write about whichever movie is on the schedule. You see, I not only offer little resistance to temptation, but I am also quite lazy, uh, busy so it's nice to have a fall-back plan.
So, here's my movie-watching schedule. Just in case you want to play along at home.
May 25, 2007
Star Wars (1977) [Unaltered]
June 4, 2007
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) [Director’s]
Weekend of June 22
Superman (1978) [Theatrical]
Weekend of July 6
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Weekend of July 27
Star Wars: Episode V-The Empire Strikes Back (1980) [Unaltered]
Weekend of August 3
Superman II (1981) [Theatrical]
[I'll probably watch this one out of sequence, though, as I've not yet reviewed the Special Edition DVD. Depends on whether or not my procrastination holds out until August.]
Weekend of August 17
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) [Director’s]
Weekend of August 31
Star Wars: Episode VI-Return of the Jedi (1983) [Unaltered]
Weekend of September 14
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
Weekend of September 28
Superman III (1983)
Weekend of October 12
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Weekend of October 26
Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace (1999) [Extended]
Weekend of November 9
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Weekend of November 23
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Weekend of December 7
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
Weekend of December 21
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) [Director’s]
Weekend of January 4, 2008
Star Wars: Episode II-Attack of the Clones (2002) [Extended]
Weekend of January 18
Star Trek Generations (1994)
Weekend of February 1
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (2006)
Weekend of February 15
Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003-2005)
Weekend of February 29
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Weekend of March 14
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Weekend of March 28
Star Wars: Episode III-Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Weekend of April 11
Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
[I plan to be "sick" and unable to watch movies this weekend. Otherwise, I might really get sick.]
Weekend of April 25
Superman Returns (2006)
Weekend of May 9
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
I will tell you right now, though, that I don't have the willpower of Dharmesh. The first time a friend or family member wants to watch one of these movies out of schedule, you can bet I'll cave in. Or if a Special Extendo Ultra Director's Cut is released of one of my favorites, yeah, I'm not waiting til the scheduled date to watch it.
On the other hand, this schedule is a bit optimistic in that real life has a way of interfering with such plans. That's one of the reasons I generally chose to schedule by weekend rather than specific date and time.
Though I was tempted to schedule Superman for 3:35 PM on Christmas Eve, just to see what it was like.
He watches the first Superman movie only once a year. Every December 24 at 3:35 PM, to be exact. The timing is so that he'll be done in time for Christmas Eve dinner around 6 PM. Limiting his viewing of Superman to once a year is to sustain the magic by not completely memorizing the entire movie, he says.
He touches on an issue that all of us franchise fans face, whether we're talking about the Superman, Star Wars, or Star Trek movies. We love watching these movies so much that we, of course, tend to watch them often. Dare I say, far too often?
I probably watch The Wrath of Khan, The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars, Superman, The Voyage Home, The Undiscovered Country, Return of the Jedi, and Superman II three or four times a year each. I just love these movies, so it's hard to resist indulging in them whenever possible.
While they still have their magic, it is true that my experience is never quite as fun as when I do take a bit more time off between viewings. I think it was Harve Bennett who mentioned that if you eat turkey every day, Thanksgiving doesn't seem so special anymore.
With that in mind, I decided to make a year-long schedule for the movies of The Film Frontier's key franchises, to make my watching them feel like events again. By a sheer stroke of genius, I mean, pure coincidence, each movie weekend occurs just before anticipated publication dates of this blog.
That way, if I don't have an idea for Proverbial Galaxies on a given weekend, I can always just write about whichever movie is on the schedule. You see, I not only offer little resistance to temptation, but I am also quite lazy, uh, busy so it's nice to have a fall-back plan.
So, here's my movie-watching schedule. Just in case you want to play along at home.
May 25, 2007
Star Wars (1977) [Unaltered]
June 4, 2007
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) [Director’s]
Weekend of June 22
Superman (1978) [Theatrical]
Weekend of July 6
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Weekend of July 27
Star Wars: Episode V-The Empire Strikes Back (1980) [Unaltered]
Weekend of August 3
Superman II (1981) [Theatrical]
[I'll probably watch this one out of sequence, though, as I've not yet reviewed the Special Edition DVD. Depends on whether or not my procrastination holds out until August.]
Weekend of August 17
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) [Director’s]
Weekend of August 31
Star Wars: Episode VI-Return of the Jedi (1983) [Unaltered]
Weekend of September 14
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
Weekend of September 28
Superman III (1983)
Weekend of October 12
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Weekend of October 26
Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace (1999) [Extended]
Weekend of November 9
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Weekend of November 23
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Weekend of December 7
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
Weekend of December 21
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) [Director’s]
Weekend of January 4, 2008
Star Wars: Episode II-Attack of the Clones (2002) [Extended]
Weekend of January 18
Star Trek Generations (1994)
Weekend of February 1
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (2006)
Weekend of February 15
Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003-2005)
Weekend of February 29
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Weekend of March 14
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Weekend of March 28
Star Wars: Episode III-Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Weekend of April 11
Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
[I plan to be "sick" and unable to watch movies this weekend. Otherwise, I might really get sick.]
Weekend of April 25
Superman Returns (2006)
Weekend of May 9
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
I will tell you right now, though, that I don't have the willpower of Dharmesh. The first time a friend or family member wants to watch one of these movies out of schedule, you can bet I'll cave in. Or if a Special Extendo Ultra Director's Cut is released of one of my favorites, yeah, I'm not waiting til the scheduled date to watch it.
On the other hand, this schedule is a bit optimistic in that real life has a way of interfering with such plans. That's one of the reasons I generally chose to schedule by weekend rather than specific date and time.
Though I was tempted to schedule Superman for 3:35 PM on Christmas Eve, just to see what it was like.
3 Comments:
On May 14, 2007 7:30 PM,
JediSheltie said…
Wow, that seems like work. I already regret missing enough television as it is, (which is, admittedly, completely screwed up) but this would only make it worse.
On May 15, 2007 5:21 AM,
Tygrrius said…
As we so often do, we come at this from opposite angles. For me, the only work here is trying not to watch them more often than this. Current television usually bores me.
For one thing, I can't stand commercials. That's right, I watch the Super Bowl for the game.
And another thing, most of today's shows are story-arc based rather than truly episodic. And that's fine, but I don't like having to wait between episode after episode. I lose my interest. I prefer my TV and movie time sans interruptions.
TV on DVD is ideal for people like me, actually. But even on DVD, I still tend to watch the old shows, Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, Buck Rogers, etc. more often than the newer ones.
I have been watching Firefly on DVD lately, though - a series that was cancelled before I'd even heard of it. Such is the price I pay, I suppose.
And while Firefly has been great so far, I still find myself tending to favor watching a Trek episode when I have a spare 50 minutes versus even this.
I'm just glad to be living in a time where you can essentially program your own schedules rather than being forced to watch stuff as the TV stations choose to dole it out.
On May 15, 2007 7:26 PM,
JediSheltie said…
Superbowl? What's that?
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