Normally, I leave the parenting articles to Howie Balaban. However, it is my blog and I can write whatever I want (sorry Howie!). Plus, Howie is late (I know -- shocking!) with this week’s article, so I decided to write up a quick article about parenting.
Last night was a busy night for the Bacon family. The twins had their first semi-formal dance last night at North Park. They’re almost thirteen and I guess I should expect more of this from now on. Shopping for dresses was a trying experience for Wendy. Thank goodness that I really had no part with that mess. I’m not sure most of the dresses they liked would pass the Dad Test, though.
Also last night was the premiere of “Rogue One.” As a self-avowed Star Wars fan, I knew I was going to check out this film. Last year, I was supposed to attend “The Force Awakens” premiere at the Transit Drive-In. However, I was stuck in a hospital bed with a nasty case of pneumonia. This time, I was going on opening night (even if they really opened Thursday, it was still within 24-hours of opening.)
Corliss, our Thing 3, loves Star Wars. She and I have watched all the movies together. She was supposed to go with me to the premiere last year. She was bummed that we couldn’t go. After I felt better, I took her to the theater, just the two of us, to see it. This time, I promised her we would go see “Rogue One” on opening night. The weather almost killed that idea, but Star Wars prevailed.
We got to the theater on Transit and took our seats just as the first previews hit the screen. Here’s a note to the movie companies -- 15 minutes of previews is just too much. I don’t care how much excitement you pack into that 15 minutes; it just takes away from the feature. A couple previews would suffice. To be fair, the new Wolverine movie looks pretty awesome.
As for “Rogue One,” I won’t give away any spoilers, but I will tell you the same thing I told my Shenanigans partners when I got home. The movie was cheesy where it needed to be cheesy. It was action-packed at all the right moments. And we saw some old friends, even if it was only for a moment, and didn’t actually add anything to the plot. There were a couple of CGI characters that kind of detracted a little from the overall look of the picture, but added a much-needed continuity.
The end of the movie was a direct tie-in to the original 1977 film. The same filters must have been used, because the scenes were nearly flawless in their transition. In fact, the whole movie was filmed like it was done in 1976 rather than 2016. It was pretty cool to see. One of the things I liked best was, instead of trying put new technologies in the hands of characters, they make a great effort to make it look like it was a film made to match perfectly to the original. It was very well done.
Throughout the movie, Corliss would lean over and excitedly talk about certain scenes and how they connected to the rest of the original trilogy. She sees the bigger picture when watching the whole Star Wars franchise. She asks meaningful questions. During one scene, she asks if the reason Darth Vader is doing something is directly related to the injuries he suffered at the end of Episode 3.
It was a great father-daughter night. We got to spend some time together and got to see the movie we both wanted to see. After the movie, we went to grab some snacks to eat when we got home. Meanwhile, the twins were at their dance, and Wendy and Josephine had some one on one time with each other. They went out to eat with Wendy’s mom. When Corliss and I got home, the twins were back and the four of them were watching television together. It was a good night all around.
While watching the previews before the movie, Corliss leaned over and told me we had to go see “Logan” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” when they came out. Both are Marvel movies. That’s another franchise she loves. I call that a parenting win.
As a side note, there have been a lot of people trying to boycott the “Rogue One” movie because of some kind of overt or covert political messages. To you I say this: Instead of being offended by everything that doesn’t fit into your little world-view, try enjoying yourself a little bit. We’d all be a little better off if we were just a little less touchy and a lot more happy.
Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays. Happy New Year.
Craig Bacon will be taking the rest of the family to see “Rogue One” when/if it appears at the Palace in Lockport. We are a Star Wars family.