Fans Anticipate Opening Of 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'

Transcript

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

You can call it a sheer product of capitalism, or you can call it a contemporary version of Homer's "Iliad." Actually, people call the new "Star Wars" film both of those things in the comments on Linda Holmes' latest piece for npr.org. Linda's our pop culture blogger, and she's here to talk about this ridiculous pop culture moment that is "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." Hey, Linda.

LINDA HOLMES, BYLINE: Hey, Ari.

SHAPIRO: The movie opens tomorrow night. It has had bigger advance sales than any film in history. You've covered all kinds of pop culture for years. Can you compare this to any other pop-culture moment?

HOLMES: No, I really can't. You know, I thought about that today, and I think, although there have been things that are highly anticipated - the "Harry Potter" movies, "The Hunger Games" movies - nothing, for me, is like a new "Star Wars" movie.

SHAPIRO: What makes this unique?

HOLMES: Well, for one thing, these movies were so huge and so beloved. But also, this is the first one of these that has come out since we got social media in everyone's pop-culture lives. And I think that has made it a moment in which people share it and relate to it differently.

SHAPIRO: OK, you wrote a review of the film for your blog, Monkey See, on the NPR website. What is it like to write something knowing that thousands of people will do everything they can to avoid reading what you've written for fear of spoilers?

HOLMES: Right. It's never great to know people are going out of their way not to read, but you try to make it something that gives them what they do want, which is, should I be excited? Can I relax? Can I be glad this is going to come out? But they don't want to know anything. And as a critic, you know - people become critics because they like things, and you don't want to ruin it for anyone.

SHAPIRO: Right.

HOLMES: So it's a tense moment. But you do the best you can. That's all you can do.

SHAPIRO: NPR's Linda Holmes. Thanks, Linda.

HOLMES: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.