The beginning was very rushed. It was the definition of getting through the notions. The bigger flaw, however, was the lack of team building. The team lacked chemistry and comradeship. This was especially baffling, when they were forced into arguments, which fell flat due to this. Like when Jyn was being told off after the failed mission. I can't remember the exact details now, I know I have a few posts somewhere where I explained this in detail, but I still remember how weird it was. They tried to pull off a scene, where someone is arguing with his fellow comrade, or even friend, but we have seen no such relationships blossoming, because everyone was just running from scene to scene.
I know we can't expect a build-up like we had in Dirty Dozen, but you really need some feel-good, down to earth scenes between the characters, where they can bond. So when they argue or eventually die, it feels so much more impactful.
Daisy Ridley reveals that the rumored theory before the movie dropped was in fact true.
Rey was originally a Kenobi, but changed last minute to be a Palpatine.
I don't know. I actually think having her be the descendant of the villain is more interesting and (slightly) less predictable. They just handled it in a really clunky manner. It explained why she was drawn to the dark side of the Force when Luke was training her during her weekend-long Jedi training excursion. It was painfully obvious they were figuring this whole trilogy out as they went along, though. Just flying by the seat of their pants with a multi-billion-dollar franchise. It's absolutely dumbfounding that they didn't have the overall story arc even loosely planned out prior to the first movie hitting theaters. I hope they learned some valuable lessons, but they made their money anyway, so maybe not. Having said all that, they were still better than the prequels.
Holy shit. They are both so bad. And you can see the badness of it in decision making...
They are *actually shooting the movie* and JJ doesn't know who her fucking parents are all he knows is that it's gotta be secretly some other character that we know for the sake of having the twist. Not only was it not built fro the start is never meant to mean anything at all.
If Rey had actually turned to the dark side and Kylo Ren turned to the light and then they killed each other and restored balance to the force, that would have been kind of cool and unexpected.
Breaking: Things could have been different!
I saw one post about how the reveal was done while Adam Driver was masked because they still didn't know even then so it was a ADR line added in later. Sure it's a great story like the one about what David Prowse said one set vs. what was recorded later but not nearly as iconic.
Had a dream about this movie as I was scrolling through some production art work earlier this week and I really really hate the fact that the Knights of Ren were so underused in these movies. Why not have them be a steady antagonist or loyal to Palpatine and axe the Sith Troopers etc. or incorporate them more into the story of the movie where Rey accidently kills one of them in the desert and not Chewie? Lots of possibilities with those imho pretty cool characters that could have given the movie a more cohesive feel, a grittier atmosphere and most importantly tighten things up with less characters.
Woahh.. This thread. Really reinforces my stand when I first saw Phantom Menace wayyy back in the theater. The Jedi seemed like complete assholes and every time Qui-Gon or Anakin saw anything in a different light, you got those robotic answers from the council. Eh, I'm a Sith fan anyway.
Also this about TLJ.
I'll go down with the ship when it comes to TLJ. But instead, we got Rey Starwars that DID make a yellow saber indicating change, but it was too late and completely empty.
The more I think of it, I think that TROS may be the worst Star Wars movie. Usually AOTC is my go-to to name as a bad SW movie, but at least Ewan McGregor somewhat salvaged the movie with his terrific performance as Obi-Wan Kenob and the clone factory planet was really cool. TROS was just DOA. It was such a joyless, anticlimactic, unimaginative tired film that was bad enough, but it also torpedoed the third trilogy, whose first two movies were pretty good, IMHO.
(just realizing I should be posting this re-watching of the movies in this thread instead of the other)
The Phantom Menace -- uh... the VFX. Digital on digital was fine but when the real assets interacted with the digital is was a Jar-Jarring... but I still generally like the story.
Attack Of The Clones -- same thing but with worse dialogue...
Revenge Of The Sith -- vfx integration was a tiny bit better and an overall better movie than the first two; quite liked the combat overall too...
Solo: A Star Wars Story -- best vfx of the bunch so far and best writing too... It can stand alone without needing the prequels but giving that extra depth is nice (this is to say, one of the main points of my still liking the SW universe is the diversity in its world-building). I'd like another Qi'ra story... and to explain the surviving Maul (I get that it's it's explained elsewhere but I'm just trying to play along with the movies).
Last edited by MrLobster; 12-27-2020 at 01:40 AM.
I actually thought Solo wasn't that bad.
Solo is pretty decent for what it is and if it weren't tied to SW I'd guess it could become a little cult classic. For me it captures the space-western aesthetic pretty much perfectly as does The Mandalorian in certain episodes. I'm pretty sure we will get to see some live action Maul in the future, now that they are throwing all this stuff at us and I would be down for a Solo 2. Really loved some of the creature design here as well as the the train heist scene with these pirates and I'm a sucker for Woody Harrelson.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story -- vfx were mostly well done with one major exception... cartoon Tarkin did not look good. While better than the prequels I did get a strong Revenge Of The Sith vibe vibe from the tone. Not a bad thing. Loved Vader at the end staring at the Corvette...
This is now a thread about all of the Star Wars movies: past, present and future. I'll probably lock all of the other Star Wars movie threads so all chatter can coalesce here.
A New Hope -- OG fx still are quite good but the digital assets and the real assets integration had issues (and while I like the additional world-building with old and new we still could have lived without it). I almost want them to "reskin" the OG fx to make them Solo levels with the new footage. Heaven help me... but I'd probably re-buy them again (the six of them) if that happened in a non-terrible way (fifth times a charm.... I've never owned the initial VHS release but from the black box on forward I've had versions). Still a better story than Attack Of The Clones.
we downloaded harmy's "despecialized" editions that use various sources to make the highest-quality version of the film WITHOUT all the extra bullshit. they look & sound fantastic, and while there's an occasionally jarring transition, it's still preferable to seeing all that terrible CGI and the unnecessary additions.
The Empire Strikes Back -- it was only really the painted backgrounds that stood out for me, the rest holds up well. So let's talk about Yoda... the same sort of attitude he has from the prequels but the, uhm, we'll call it playfulness during the first meeting seems way out of left field. Maybe a bit was showing when he was talking to the younglings about how careless Obi Wan was for losing a planet... but overall, seemed like being relatively alone on Dagobah let mister Master Jedi go a bit loopy. It also occurred to me that Hayden Christensen and Mark Hamill do have enough facial similarities to make the father/son thing work... I wonder how long casting took before going with Hayden. And what's with Skywalker's and "Nooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!" (hot take from 2005). Tonally, it stands alone from the rest... and I like it that way.
Last edited by MrLobster; 01-01-2021 at 02:29 AM.
Yoda's "loopy" behavior when he first met Luke on Dagobah was a test. It was a facade that he put on to test Luke's patience and also see how the "real" Luke would behave BEFORE he realized he was in the presence of a Jedi knight (probably both to hide/protect his own identity, as well as evaluate Luke). Once he reveals himself, he drops the goofy or "loopy" act and becomes more serious. But yes, being exiled alone on a swamp planet could affect your sanity over time, too.
For some reason I usually rewatch star wars around new years. Last year I watched all nine movies. This year I think I will stick to the OT. After last year's watch I remembered really finding the added cgi terrible. I wanted to watch the movies the way I remembered them and I then tried to look for dvd/blurays of them. Star Wars fans already know this but somehow all this info has eluded me over the years. There are no original copies available. I ended up finding the despecialized editions as well as the grindhouse editions which are scans of 35mm prints that have not been cleaned up. I think I'm going to watch those this year just for fun.
I want to see the 4k77 and 4k83 but I also want to wait on 4k80. It's also not so easy finding these things as the official copies available are much too large for my shitty computer to handle. I'm not the first to notice but it makes 0 sense to not have these out on blu ray. I own the vhs of the OT from the 90s and that's probably the last time I actually watched the non bastardized versions.
Last edited by burnmotherfucker!; 11-16-2021 at 07:32 AM. Reason: grammar
Return Of The Jedi -- lots of assets integration issues... and while the matte art is great it still doesn't look like it belongs (kind of like using Star Wars figures with G.I. Joe vehicles... just not quite right). The movie feels like a nice hopeful ending and has elements from the prequels and A New Hope rolled into it; making it and the previous movies feel more familiar/comfortable. A neat trick considering the order of filming... But I will say, you can basically start at watching Rogue One and not feel like you've missed too much... but I like the depth.