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Post by Powerthirteen on Dec 20, 2015 22:35:55 GMT -5
You know what other movie really has no plot when you think about it? Star Wars: A New Hope.An old man takes a young man to a bar. Things take a turn. When a poor family tries to save a few dollars by buying technology on the black market, they get a lot more than they bargained for. You know, if you think about it, whoever made the faulty motivator that blew out on the R5 unit that Uncle Owen originally bought was, in fact, the most important person in galactic history. |
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Post by Return of the Thin Olive Duke on Dec 20, 2015 22:38:33 GMT -5
An old man takes a young man to a bar. Things take a turn. When a poor family tries to save a few dollars by buying technology on the black market, they get a lot more than they bargained for. That could be a Coen Brothers movie. |
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Post by Desert Dweller on Dec 20, 2015 22:59:23 GMT -5
I'be been thinking about it more today (i.e. day-dreaming about it in church like a hellion) and I realized why my favorite part of the movie was the very silly Rathtar-escape / gangster battle on Han's ship , which a lot of people really disliked. That for me was the part when it felt the most like things were happening in a real world, where things had moving parts and computers could break and fuses could blow and there were actual wires and dirt and rust (glorious rust!). I'm ok with most of Star Wars occuring in a gleaming fantasy universe, but sometimes I want to remember that it's real and have something look more Nostromo than Naboo Starfighter. I actually like that scene, too. It felt a lot closer to the spirit of the original Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back. One of my favorite gags in the franchise is how in Empire Strikes Back the Millennium Falcon just never works correctly. So, yeah, even though that scene is fairly pointless, I thought it was fun. Hey, I said my biggest quibble with the movie was that it had no plot. I also said I liked the movie. It feels like Star Wars. |
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Post by Return of the Thin Olive Duke on Dec 21, 2015 0:07:29 GMT -5
I'be been thinking about it more today (i.e. day-dreaming about it in church like a hellion) and I realized why my favorite part of the movie was the very silly Rathtar-escape / gangster battle on Han's ship , which a lot of people really disliked. That for me was the part when it felt the most like things were happening in a real world, where things had moving parts and computers could break and fuses could blow and there were actual wires and dirt and rust (glorious rust!). I'm ok with most of Star Wars occuring in a gleaming fantasy universe, but sometimes I want to remember that it's real and have something look more Nostromo than Naboo Starfighter. I actually like that scene, too. It felt a lot closer to the spirit of the original Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back. One of my favorite gags in the franchise is how in Empire Strikes Back the Millennium Falcon just never works correctly. So, yeah, even though that scene is fairly pointless, I thought it was fun. Hey, I said my biggest quibble with the movie was that it had no plot. I also said I liked the movie. It feels like Star Wars. I wouldn't say it had no plot. It has an excuse plot to get the characters into play. Without the plot, this really is just Act I. My overall impression of the film is that while it isn't perfect, this is nearly the best we could've had at this moment with the prequels still a recent memory, and that for all you could say about the film, it was neither boring nor stupid. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2015 0:11:26 GMT -5
An old man takes a young man to a bar. Things take a turn. When a poor family tries to save a few dollars by buying technology on the black market, they get a lot more than they bargained for. You know, if you think about it, whoever made the faulty motivator that blew out on the R5 unit that Uncle Owen originally bought was, in fact, the most important person in galactic history. I forget which source it's from, but as I recall, the R5 heard R2 complaining, and possibly saying something about "I need to go with them!", so the R5 faked a malfunction so they would take R2 instead. |
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Post by Powerthirteen on Dec 21, 2015 0:33:22 GMT -5
When a poor family tries to save a few dollars by buying technology on the black market, they get a lot more than they bargained for. You know, if you think about it, whoever made the faulty motivator that blew out on the R5 unit that Uncle Owen originally bought was, in fact, the most important person in galactic history. I forget which source it's from, but as I recall, the R5 heard R2 complaining, and possibly saying something about "I need to go with them!", so the R5 faked a malfunction so they would take R2 instead. Sure, and the beautiful blonde I pined for all through high school didn't reject me painfully, I decided we weren't a good fit on my own and moved on. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2015 0:46:05 GMT -5
When a poor family tries to save a few dollars by buying technology on the black market, they get a lot more than they bargained for. You know, if you think about it, whoever made the faulty motivator that blew out on the R5 unit that Uncle Owen originally bought was, in fact, the most important person in galactic history. I forget which source it's from, but as I recall, the R5 heard R2 complaining, and possibly saying something about "I need to go with them!", so the R5 faked a malfunction so they would take R2 instead. there was something EU where the R5 unit was actually a force sensitive droid and could feel that R2 needed to go to luke, so he sacrificed himself. |
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Post by Superb Owl 🦉 on Dec 21, 2015 8:36:54 GMT -5
I forget which source it's from, but as I recall, the R5 heard R2 complaining, and possibly saying something about "I need to go with them!", so the R5 faked a malfunction so they would take R2 instead. there was something EU where the R5 unit was actually a force sensitive droid and could feel that R2 needed to go to luke, so he sacrificed himself. Oh EU. Wasn't there also one of the novels where the villain was a force user with a cyborg implant that let him control droids? Why wouldn't Disney want their hands tied by such glorious nonsense? |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2015 9:18:43 GMT -5
there was something EU where the R5 unit was actually a force sensitive droid and could feel that R2 needed to go to luke, so he sacrificed himself. Oh EU. Wasn't there also one of the novels where the villain was a force user with a cyborg implant that let him control droids? Why wouldn't Disney want their hands tied by such glorious nonsense? they sure as hell borrowed from it for force awakens though. |
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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on Dec 21, 2015 11:18:48 GMT -5
they sure as hell borrowed from it for force awakens though. One wonders to the extent they borrowed from it versus they just did something similar; especially as there's no indication either Abrams or Kasdan are even familiar with the relevant post-ROTJ EU. (major spoilers within the tag below:) I mean, Han and Leia have a kid and that kid goes bad feels like kind of the obvious, indeed, inevitable way for a Star Wars sequel trilogy to play out if you follow the premise that Star Wars is fundamentally about family and therefore a whole lot of family betrayals. On the other hand Lucasfilm Story Group has people who weren't just familiar with the EU but used to work in it (Pablo Hidalgo and Leland Chee) and Dave Filoni, who runs Star Wars Rebels, is both conversant with it and not above working in winking references even now (the species name of the series regular Zeb, Lestat, is lifted from the EU) so I expect a lot of little EU touches in the background. For example apparently Kylo Ren's lightsaber is based on a design from the "Scourge of Malachor" era, which suggests that just possibly the old home of Trayus Academy may return to the canon in some form. |
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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on Dec 22, 2015 6:55:44 GMT -5
It's surprisingly difficult to find any post-film thoughts from Timothy Zahn online; it's quite possible he hasn't seen it yet (most recent activity I can find has him touring in Brazil.) He, for one, is all for any recognition his work could get (auto-translated from Portuguese:) |
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Post by Powerthirteen on Dec 22, 2015 12:28:12 GMT -5
Apropos of nothing, but Emo Kylo Ren on Twitter is knocking it way out of the park. twitter.com/KyloR3n |
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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on Dec 22, 2015 13:46:21 GMT -5
Apropos of nothing, but Emo Kylo Ren on Twitter is knocking it way out of the park. twitter.com/KyloR3nFun account, but, obviously, has spoilers about the character, FYI people. Anyway; I'm not wild about the new score overall, but Rey's Theme is delightfully understated: And this is a very nice bit for the finale: |
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Post by Lady Bones on Dec 23, 2015 23:32:27 GMT -5
I was quite fond of it.
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Post by Nudeviking on Dec 24, 2015 10:47:04 GMT -5
What a Star War! I might have to go see it again just to make sure it is as awesome as I think it is. I'm glad that they kind of pulled it back on zany sci-fi names and gave dudes regular people names like Ray and Finn and Kyle.
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heroboy
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Post by heroboy on Dec 29, 2015 12:51:17 GMT -5
HeroGal and I got out to go see Star wars at the Imax yesterday and I generally really enjoyed it. Definitely more than the prequels, not as much as the original trilogy, though it is doubtful anything would be able to match those three (not due to quality, but because of nostalgia). As Nudeviking stated though, I will have to give it another viewing to really get a good feeling on it.
My main problem was that there were way too many winks and nods to the originals. A couple I could handle, but at points it seemed every single scene was a reference to a scene from the original trilogy.
Also, the lack of the 20th Century fanfare at the beginning was a real jarring start to the movie. The fanfare alone basically kept me giddy through my first viewing of Phantom Menace.
Couple other thoughts:
This was probably Harrison Ford's best performance in decades.
The two trailers before the movie were (in order): Superman v Batman, and Captain America: Civil War. Even though DC has far and away the biggest superhero tandem, the Marvel trailer made the DC trailer look like crap. The MCU has gotten their thing down to a science.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2015 13:01:41 GMT -5
The two trailers before the movie were (in order): Superman v Batman, and Captain America: Civil War. Even though DC has far and away the biggest superhero tandem, the Marvel trailer made the DC trailer look like crap. The MCU has gotten their thing down to a science.
Ugh, yeah. I'm not really excited for either film, but I'm sorry, SvB:DoJ looks like a complete fucking mess. |
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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on Dec 29, 2015 19:55:01 GMT -5
Ugh, yeah. I'm not really excited for either film, but I'm sorry, SvB:DoJ looks like a complete fucking mess. I'm excited to see Civil War - it's certain to have a Rogue One trailer attached. |
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Post by Jean-Luc Lemur on Jan 1, 2016 12:14:54 GMT -5
Saw it yesterday and thought it was just about perfect for a Star Wars film. Nice showcase for Ford (really one of his best performances ever) and really, really loved Boyega—finally, in a movie about constant space war we get someone who’s actually kind of rattled by it.
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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on Jan 1, 2016 14:21:09 GMT -5
Yes, it's Yet Another Force Awakens Style trailer for the original trilogy, but this is actually a very nice Empire Strikes Back trailer:
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Post by Desert Dweller on Jan 2, 2016 5:56:57 GMT -5
That trailer captures some truly great moves by the Millennium Falcon. I feel like if it really were a copy of the Force Awakens trailer, there wouldn't have been any footage of the Emperor in it. Though, I like how it left out Yoda and didn't really reveal any of the plot.
I'm going to see Episode VII for a 3rd time tomorrow. (Er, later today. When did it get so late?) But, now I wish I were going to see Empire Strikes Back on the big screen instead. When the theatre company here opened the newest PLF screen several years ago, the film used for the grand opening was Empire Strikes Back. Tickets were around $40. I damn near paid it. I was broke at the time and I still almost paid it. They are opening a new PLF screen next year only a couple miles from my apartment. I swear, if they show Empire Strikes Back again, I am totally going. Even if it costs $40. And isn't even the original movie.
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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on Jan 2, 2016 11:59:33 GMT -5
That trailer captures some truly great moves by the Millennium Falcon. The shot of the Millennium Falcon wildly spinning beneath two Star Destroyers at 1:21 is my favourite shot of the ship, period. |
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Post by Superb Owl 🦉 on Jan 2, 2016 12:20:11 GMT -5
Pretty cool, now where's my late 70's style Force Awakens trailer?
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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on Jan 2, 2016 12:32:24 GMT -5
Superb Owl 🦉 Probably gonna have to wait until TFA is on Blu-Ray, when editors will have enough sources to construct their own trailers.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2016 13:35:51 GMT -5
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Post by The Thanksgiving Goblin. on Jan 3, 2016 14:22:24 GMT -5
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Post by Albert Fish Taco on Jan 3, 2016 15:00:22 GMT -5
Catching a 9 AM 3-D showing several weeks later was the way to go (only a half dozen people in the theater). I enjoyed it and basically agree with everything AA Dowd said at the Old Country. Mirroring Ep IV was a wise way to help it accomplish everything it needed to do to start off a new trilogy, everyone acquits themselves well and it was a pleasure to see Han Solo again. I don't think there was much about the movie to be spoiled if you've seen the original trilogy growing up and have a basic feel for its story beats. I was glad to see Oscar Isaac finally get a fun paycheck, and it was good to see a few familiar faces in random roles (such as Odda the Younger from The Last Kingdom, playing a different kind of shitheel).
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Post by Albert Fish Taco on Jan 3, 2016 15:08:38 GMT -5
Found this fascinating article on how Star Wars has been received in the post-USSR world - including factoids that there is a published hardback trilogy of novels called Red Padawan about Stalin teaming up with Vader to win World War II; the role of Star Wars iconography in Ukraine's Internet Party and also videos like this: : Stalin ordered all prints of the third part of Ivan The Terrible destroyed because Sergei Eisenstein had needlessly added in a Ewok-like band of Cossacks to help defeat the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. |
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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on Jan 3, 2016 15:45:58 GMT -5
it was good to see a few familiar faces in random roles (such as Odda the Younger from The Last Kingdom, playing a different kind of shitheel). I knew I recognised him from somewhere. I confused him with Burn Gorman, who's also well known for his terrible characters in costume TV garb. |
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Post by Superb Owl 🦉 on Jan 3, 2016 16:52:52 GMT -5
That was an enjoyable YouTube rabbit hole, although it's a pretty strong indictment of NuTrek that that one works as well as it does. |
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