The current snapshot below looks more red than blue. Perhaps it will get its last blue pop next week based on the biggest ever opening day for a movie, Star Wars 7.
In fact I went and saw it with my wife last night (spoiler alert). In my opinion, this was a tie for the worst episode with the one that had the Ewok creatures in it and in fact the Ewok version might have been better on several fronts. Episode 7 did not live up to the hype even though there was certainly a pent up demand for it. It was basically the Windows 8 of Star Wars releases.
I came away with the following thoughts:
- The girl was just OK, but I did not fall in love with her character. Maybe I'm just getting old but I don't recall her character's name. Or perhaps it just wasn't that memorable a performance. Remember how the real Star Wars episodes built Luke's character, trained him as a Jedi, etc.? Well, what's her name in the current film had no inkling about the force at all until suddenly she closed her eyes and concentrated - twice - and then she was a better light saber fighter than the bad guy. That is pathetic story telling and does not nearly live up to the level of quality that Lucas delivered.
- There were several male leads, none of whom showed much leadership and most of whom died in the film. "Fin" I thought was boring and inconsistent (coward one seconds, hero the next). Old Harrison Ford is still OK to watch as Han Solo but Old Leia looked like she could hardly open her mouth to speak. It's sad to look at her now and contemplate what time does to people. Chewbaca actually looked better than Leia. He has aged well!
- I was not frightened by the bad guy. When he took off his helmet I thought that his ears were going to be used to levitate him off the ground like dumbo. But no, nothing that cool. Sadly, I have already forgotten his character's name too. Would I ever forget the name of Darth Vader? I think not. I'd be too scared to.
- There were no new concepts or special effects. The big bad planet killer was just a larger version of the death star. Why couldn't they think of something novel? Heck even the Ewok episode introduced the cool hover bikes. Version 7 was nothing more than a B+ sequel and now that people are seeing the movie I bet that Star Wars branded product sales fall far short of expectations. Episode 7 will cause a lot of brand damage to the Star Wars empire. I think looking back from the future people will be saying that they should have named it "Star Wars 7:The short sellers awaken".
DIS has been added to my list of shorts that Cramer has issued a "buy" on recently along with COST. I'm long KMI, CHK, and even MU and GRPN based on his recent "sell" recs.
ReplyDeleteI really like your analysis and enjoy your blog by the way.
I'm not sure that MU is done falling yet but it is likely working on wave 5 down. Still, it could be just 3 of 5 down at this point with a bottom in the 11-12 range not at all out of the question. When it does bottom, the LIKELY bounce target is already set to be $19.
ReplyDeleteDon't gamble more than you can afford to lose, stay off margin, buy the 3 wave dip and set stops just below your buy point and you will be OK.