Star Wars Anthology shit talk (Rogue One, Young Solo, TBD)

I made it through 2016 without once getting in a flame war over Trump. One day and I'm doing it over this crap. Truly, Star Wars fan service is my Trumpland.

I saw some facebook shenanigans regarding reviews. It's getting heated?

This was wonderful (h/t Eric H): http://letterboxd.com/keithuhlich/film/rogue-one-a-star-wars-story/

Richard Brody declaring Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith the best movies in the whole franchise ... because they're the dumbest ones, I guess.

imo that is a brave, hilarious stance and I applaud him

I rewatched the latter on television and the two things that really stood out were the inability to follow the action -- there's some really bizarre camera movement combined with computer animation that gives scenes this weird visual effect that's really ugly, and the acting is really hampered by a lack of direction or really weird direction. Every review of the time mentioned that

Grafting a two-pronged government coup conspiracy on to a franchise that started out as a love letter to pulp science fiction was a weird choice

I think I self-truncated: Every review mentioned that the constant use of green screen in lieu of more traditional sets disconnected the actors from context, which is a decent theory

yeah, one of the best observations from those redlettermedia videos were that the use of greenscreen meant that even though the digital sets were often huge the actors could only move like 20 feet in any direction, which is impossible to ignore once you see it and makes them feel weirdly claustrophobic

damn Eric how old is that ILX nickname of yours

also episodes 2 and 3 were shot digitally in just 1080p, which is ludicrously low-res compared to 35mm, so they're only going to look worse as time goes by

biggest example of CGI ruining the films is the Obi Wan fight w that CGI droid that is spinning like 4 lightsabers just inches from his face and Obi has the reaction of staring at a ping pong ball stuck to a wall. not to mention when he jumps on that lizard and the film momentarily turns from a 99% toy commercial to a 100% toy commercial.

i rewatched all of them this year. Empire is still the best by miles.

imo the admission that George Lucas really likes this film, along with the fact Star Wars was merchandised and marketed more than... hell, more than pretty much every franchise that had existed until Star Wars, makes me think that maybe this is what George Lucas wanted all along

the claims that a diverse cast is some sort of pandering to an international release schedule is some "film criticism was invented here and only exists here" garbage imo and it makes me want to read perspectives on film that aren't from americans/europeans

1. It sounds like he has mistaken "uncanny valley" nausea and discomfort with an actual moral opposition to something that he then does a poor job of defining (what is any of that besides the obvious trajectory or recording technology since the first wax cylinder with a dead guy's voice on it?)

2. which completes the Mouse House corporatization of Star Wars that began with last year's J.J. Abrams-helmed The Force Awakens.
Truly, no one is left who will protect our sacred texts from being desiccated by the makers of Frozen.

3. Another threshold: It seems that prosaic competence is the low bar most globalized Hollywood blockbusters must now clear.
You know who really knew how to throw together a hodgepodge of set pieces into a giant money machine, Cecil Blount DeMille.

weird I think my formatting tags warning ate my xpost warning

anyway massive xpost, that was a response to the link Alfred posted above.

the claims that a diverse cast is some sort of pandering to an international release schedule

tbh, this I regard as one of the few silver linings of Hollywood globalization

never doubted you for a minutre

damn Eric how old is that ILX nickname of yours

― Neanderthal, Wednesday, December 14, 2016

I quit this court!

re: "silver lining" of H'wood G'lization, I also agree that it is good when capitalism accidentally does something that makes the world better.

except don't all these new characters die? that's kind of a cop-out

disney are making a valuable contribution to society by showing that people of all races, creeds and colours die imo

We can only hope.

An Old Hope.

I heard they had a whole army of space folks consulting to ensure they represented space traditions as respectfully and accurately as possible.

Well that's the real trick, innit; we are all gunna die, just as long as our (onscreen) deaths have purpose or meaning and contribute to the Greater Good. Everybody rebel dies in a hail of blaster fire; not every rebel truly lives.

Well that's the real trick, innit

I see what you did

I see what you did

Well, I'm as human as the next man.

I'm sure this is canonically answered somewhere: did they ever get a refund?

On what? The deposit for the space station?

http://www.vulture.com/2016/12/star-wars-politics-violence.html

And that’s the heart of the problem in using Star Wars as a political metaphor: If you’re flying an X-wing, everything looks like a Death Star.

That’s why Star Wars has been used time and again to frame causes both Democratic (MoveOn.org co-opted “Save the Republic” from Revenge of the Sith in 2005) and Republican (Reagan first called the U.S.S.R. an “evil empire” in 1983, the same year Return of the Jedi was released).

If you’re flying an X-wing, everything looks like a Death Star.

koan

you ppl see this while a Warren Beatty film about Earth dies at the box office

I'm not seeing either of those turds fwiw

Rules Don't Apply is about Earth?! ... Makes sense.

ah yes, the other reason to always never 51 Morbius

Just wish he could keep his accent. Boba Fett's a Kiwi now, why can't we have Imperial Australians?

― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Friday, October 14, 2016

...

Jeeze. Come on mate. You'd prefer another target, a military target? In your own time.
Dantooine? Yeah, nah. Boys, when you're ready, have a lash.

― MatthewK, Friday, October 14, 2016

this still cracks me up btw

Wow, Warren Beatty Hollywood biopic not breaking out of the mid/high 50s on RT/MC responses.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiqPmsBYieA

Lol Morbs you are just parodying yourself now

https://twitter.com/TechnicallyRon/status/764025941051842560

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CzpEZJEXEAEvAI7.jpg

just back from seeing this - it is basically the most expensive fan-film ever made, but it hits almost all the right notes.

it's way more of a war movie than i was expecting. in fact, there are some rebel soldiers in straight-up vietnam-era combat gear, which kinda makes the climactic battle (which lasts for basically the whole third act!) feel a little bit too much like a kid smashing his toys together, paying no attention that some army men got mixed up with the x-wings. it's... distracting.

it manages to achieve one thing i thought was now next to impossible in one scene tho - it makes darth vader scary again. not for long, but for long enough to count.

my wife really liked it too, but as an orchestral perscussionist she was horrified by the timpani playing on the score - her old timpani teacher kurt played on the scores for the original trilogy and she says he'd be disgusted by the tinny sound on the new soundtrack. so be warned if you're a percussion nerd i guess?

is Jake in it

that is an awesomely nerdy complaint xp

of all the inevitable star wars nerd complaints about this movie i think that might be the most uniquely nerdy, yeah. she's a special lady alright

Enjoyed this more than Force Awakens, actually. Despite having an endpoint it has to reach, it felt less constrained plot-wise than TFA, which held so close to the plot of Star Wars. Vader was scary. The almost entirely non-Anglo crew of heroes were a delight to watch, and pretty charming. Liked the robot. Couldn't work out what anybody's names were, but that barely mattered. Some lovely visuals. Didn't notice the timpani. Mendelsohn occasionally sounded Australian, and the rest of the time as though he had a moth full of saliva he was just waiting to propel into somebody's face.

MOUTH full of saliva, the effects weren't THAT special.

since disney are committed to cranking out star wars side-movies i'd like to request that wen jiang and donnie yen get their own, please, cuz they were a total fuckin' treat

^^^^

couldn't believe how good the fx were of (SPOILER?) you know what and you know who. i mean legit could not get my head round it.

kinda ho hum for some of it but the final half hour; peak Star Wars, as good as the series has ever been IMO. and the final few scenes.. holy shit did i love that stuff.

coulda lived without punn-y Darth ("don't choke now" or whatever he said) but that's just nitpicking.

are we not bothering with a spoiler-y thread for this film?

wait you mean they DO blow up the death star?!?