Star Wars Episode II - A New Thread

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

^ This makes sense. I don’t know if we’re gonna get any useful information one way or the other from Disney’s cold steel trap about the production hassles behind their movies, but I’ll bet top dollar that much of SW8 was Rian Johnson wanting a simpler narrative than JJ introduced, while Kathleen Kennedy didn’t know what we wanted but it wasn’t quite whatever Johnson originally started out with.

[Chuckman]

JJ is a self indulgent writer and likes to make movies that are about themselves in a navel-gazing way that doesn’t turn out as smart as he thinks they do. Unfortunately this long awaited sequel trilogy has been stamped with that. He’s slated to direct IX, right?

[DarkBluePhoenix]

JJ is a self indulgent writer and likes to make movies that are about themselves in a navel-gazing way that doesn’t turn out as smart as he thinks they do. Unfortunately this long awaited sequel trilogy has been stamped with that. He’s slated to direct IX, right?

Unfortunately yes, which means we'll get more unanswered questions for the sake of it, loads of lens flare, and a fast paced story with multiple story lines with little to no substance to it. But, considering how VII was a remake of IV, I would suspect that that IX will look and feel similar to VI, because JJ likes taking other plots, adding some sfx to polish it up, and then calling it orginial, and I'm getting this from ST:ID, where he basically remade Wrath of Khan as well. JJ's problem is he thinks he's smarter than he actually is, calling VII an homage, where parts of it are shot for shot remakes.

I don’t know if we’re gonna get any useful information one way or the other from Disney’s cold steel trap about the production hassles behind their movies, but I’ll bet top dollar that much of SW8 was Rian Johnson wanting a simpler narrative than JJ introduced, while Kathleen Kennedy didn’t know what we wanted but it wasn’t quite whatever Johnson originally started out with.

Kennedy knew what she wanted. She wanted JJ to direct which is why he'll be back for IX, and why VIII feels like two or three scripts slammed together, taking what could have been a simple story (which seems taken from BSG) and split the storylines so convolutedly, it really does bring down the film overall. After thinking about it further, this movie has far more story lines than what previous films have had, which makes the movie hard to watch.

[Chuckman]

The annoying thing about Into Darkness is that he thought the stupid reversals are clever. (Spock yells Khan in this one!) It’s like a a movie that’s self-referencing and trying to make artistic comments on Star Trek made by someone who’s only watched YouTube highlights of Star Trek and doesn’t even know the context of the Khan yell. (In TWOK Kirk (not Shatner, mind) was overacting to trick Khan by manipulating his ego)

A great many people remarked that it seemed that JJ wasn’t that interested in Trek and was using those films to audition for Star Wars. It turns out he’s actually a shallow filmmaker who confuses complexity for depth and ‘darkness’ for maturity. Like many mediocre modern filmmakers, JJ knows all the right tools to use in a blockbuster but he doesn’t know why they work or how to assemble the parts into something more meaningful than callbacks to other movies.

As somebody who enjoys callbacks and references it only becomes more insufferable when they’re not done well. A movie that is basically a shot by shot remake of another movie with slight alterations can actually be clever; I’d point you to my writings on Terminator 2 to highlight how effective this can be.

Hopefully Johnson breaks from that with his trilogy. I really wish they’d done a new trilogy with new characters set a million years in the future with the only original SW references being a crashed Millenium Falcon hiding a macguffin or something.

[DarkBluePhoenix]

^ Chuckman, do you have a link for those thoughts on T2? I'm curious to see what you wrote.

Who doesn't like callbacks to other movies in a franchise, its always fun to fit in references to other things that make people think "hey, I remember that" and I don't disagree that shot for shot remakes can work, but they have to be done properly like you said, which VII was not. It was a poorly paced film with some very weak callbacks like discount Yoda (Maz whatever), discount Tatooine, and the Death Star on steroids. I mean, the battle scenes were fantastic, but they were cut between so fast, it wasn't really substantial, more of "look, space battle happening here."

Well, Johnson still has to deal with Kennedy's oversight/iron grip on the direction things go in the films, so his trilogy may not be as great as it could be.

[Chuckman]

post/759320/Terminator-Genisys-2015/#759320

I was mainly thinking of the discussion in this thread but I don't know if I touched on the "rehash" aspect of Teminator 2 explicitly or just referred to it in my other arguments.

The short version is that T2 not-so-subtly repeats a bunch of set pieces and scenes from T1 in a new way that builds on a theme of inevitability and repetition and feeds into the finale where the Teminator becomes a Christ figure.

If JJ wanted to rehash A New Hope and he had some fucking balls he'd have the New Republic building their own Death Star or something but chose instead to highlight that he has no idea how space works.

If they didn't do an amazing job casting these movies, and if the actors didn't give it their all, the'd be as universally reviled as the prequels. The filmmaking and acting are on a much higher plane than the writing, one of the reasons why is feels like the somehow mixed ESB with TPM while retaining flavors of both.

If TPM had a brash and commanding Anakin, a vulnerable but dedicated and assertive Amidala, Mace Windu actually acting the way he does/is described in all the other media instead of Lucas refusing to give SLJ any direction other than "act like a Jedi", etc. it would probably feel about the same as TFA. TLJ is a bit better than that, but it's like the whole movie is trying to be the fourth prequel but someone keeps dragging it back into the light.

[chazthesilencer]

I can see that TLJ is good for the Star Wars franchise going forward, it just wasn’t a satisfying cinema experience. I walked out feeling unentertained and with a numb backside. Oy, this was long.

> The phrase “Snuff out” was used twice in relatively quick succession (Hux then Snoke, I think) at the start. Just bugged me a little, that.

> I wonder, would a CGI-

Surprise Cameo  SPOILER: Show

Yoda not have been a better option? He’s a glowy, blue ghost now; a real-life special effect essentially.
I suppose it doesn’t matter, but I wish his whole head hadn’t moved when his lips did. He looked like a…well… muppet.

> Those red samurais standing at the back of Snoke’s audience chamber looked small and silly, and they sure do suck at their one job.

Luke  SPOILER: Show

Luke becoming one with the Force is the perfect ending for him, but the execution was weak.

Agreed.
I thought I saw a tiny black speck in the centre of the sun* as the music welled, I figured a ship was approaching, then – wait, what? What just happened?
Wow.
I should have been moved.
I wasn't.

*Yeah, I know you shouldn’t look into the eye of the sun, but that’s where the fun is.

[Cybermat47]

> Those red samurais standing at the back of Snoke’s audience chamber looked small and silly, and they sure do suck at their one job.

To be fair, at least they tried doing their job. The most that Darth Sidious’ Royal Guards ever did was pointing their sticks at Yoda, before being slammed into the wall.

[Chuckman]

Turns out it is time for the jedi to end.

[silvermoonlight]

Turns out it is time for the jedi to end.

I watched that the other day, there was a lot of things in there I have never thought about in terms of Jedi, though I do feel that the male dominated part is not the Jedi's fault as it a much deeper symptom of Hollywood movies themselves, which other media has picked up on. As in any mayor franchise this can been seen and its only now that people are becoming very self aware of it and how problematic it can be.

[Chuckman]

The video applies the Jedi concepts more broadly to American culture but the Jedi stuff also says a great deal about George Lucas.

He's weird.

[silvermoonlight]

The video applies the Jedi concepts more broadly to American culture but the Jedi stuff also says a great deal about George Lucas.

He's weird.

I've always imagined Lucus as the type of writer who changes his mind last minute and I always felt really uncomfortable about how Anakin and Padme relationship was done like in that he is just a kid when he meets her and she's in her teens and it just feels really off, like I've always wondered what the hell was going through Lucus's head at the time and if it was a case that no one dared call him out on the production team to say hey this might make you look creepy and weird...but then this is the guy who had the Luke and Leia kissing despite that there brother and sister..

[Cybermat47]

I've always imagined Lucus as the type of writer who changes his mind last minute and I always felt really uncomfortable about how Anakin and Padme relationship was done like in that he is just a kid when he meets her and she's in her teens and it just feels really off, like I've always wondered what the hell was going through Lucus's head at the time and if it was a case that no one dared call him out on the production team to say hey this might make you look creepy and weird...but then this is the guy who had the Luke and Leia kissing despite that there brother and sister..

Personally, I think that the romance between Anakin and Padmé is acceptable, because it only really begins when they’re both consenting adults. When they first met each other, when he was 9 and she was 14, their relationship seemed to be more like that of friends. The “are you an Angel” line could just be a reference to the fact that she’s in much better condition than anyone else on Tatooine (or perhaps he could sense her AT field?).

As for the Luke and Leia kiss, Lucas hadn’t actually made them siblings at that point. It was planned to introduce Luke’s sister as a brand new character in ROTJ, but I guess that they realised that introducing such an important character in the final film would be a bad idea, so they just made Leia, who had already been established, his sister.

[MuscleRobo]

There was a big leak of Lego sets for the upcoming year and included were the Han Solo sets. Most interesting information is that, spoiler just to be safe

SPOILER: Show

The Falcon is missing it's iconic split near the front. Looks more like triangle on top of a circle.

I'm amazed with how often we get trailer analysis and what not these toy leaks are usually ignored.

[Chuckman]

I thought that was

SPOILER: Show

some kind of clamp or docking device. Maybe in the new canon something in there has been stripped out to make it faster?

[::KL7::]

I enjoyed the movie, especially the beginning and end, everything in between just sort of fell flat for me..I liked Finn and Poe's character in TFA but they seemed to be just there in this one.

Spoiler Time

SPOILER: Show

I thought the whole fight between Kylo ren and Luke was pretty bad ass, the part that got to me was how they handled Lukes death. I had no problem with him dying but I thought I'd feel something more than confusion and feeling like thats it?

Another thing that bugged me was seeing Snoke in gold robes, not sure why it just seemed weird to me.

I also get the feeling Phasma isnt dead and will probably turn to the side of good in the last movie..was hoping for more of a story line with her but like with Finn and Poe, she was just there..

[Cybermat47]

I thought that was

SPOILER: Show

some kind of clamp or docking device. Maybe in the new canon something in there has been stripped out to make it faster?

I reckon it’s a clamp for shipping containers. After all, the Falcon is a modified YT-1300 light freighter. It would make sense for the shipping container clamp to be removed by Han, to make it faster, and better for blockade-running with shipments of spice (the SW equivalent of drugs. Han Solo is literally a drug smuggler).

In Star Wars Rebels we see a YT-2400 carrying shipping containers on the bottom of the hull (pictured below), so if it was a shipping container clamp that Han removed, the Falcon can presumably still carry cargo, but trades some capacity for speed. I’m hoping that this (or somethimg similar) is the case. I like the idea of Han personalising the Falcon for himself. Plus, it gives some extra meaning to Lando’s “what have you done to my ship?!” line in ESB.

[Chuckman]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9-pTStLGGo

Rogue One Honest Trailer.

Normally I wouldn't bother posting something like this, but it points out there are a lot of missing scenes from the trailer that are absent from the movie. Is there any chance we'll ever see them?

[Sachi]

So, does the Millenium Falcon modification mean that the Millenium Falcon seen in ROTS is no longer the actual Millenium Falcon?

SPOILER: Show

[Chuckman]

SPOILER: Show

The claw-ish thingy on the front always made me think it was supposed to grip things and push them around. I don't now if it makes sense for a space forklift to have interstellar flight capability, though. Pushing cargo in space probably makes more sense than pulling it, I suppose. Easier to maneuver it, right?