Anchorhead

I do. It took me a few months to let myself acknowledge it, but yes. It’s an adult take on the Star Wars universe. It’s obviously much darker and violent, but it’s also much deeper. It’s not a feel good story, but it moves me more than Star Wars.

To me, that makes perfect sense. I’m not the 15-year-old I was in 1977, so a darker, more cerebral film should move me now. As an adult, I understand the cost and seriousness of this story the same way I understood rescuing the princess and flying an X-wing when I was a kid.

I’ll go one step further and say that the prologue of Rogue One is one of my favorite parts of the film. There is a darkness and seriousness that really speaks to me. Perfect in every way; acting, cinematography, story, music, etc.

For the record; It’s possible that decades of Lucas’ tampering and suppressing the 1977 film have finally taken their toll. Truth be told, I probably threw my hands up over it 10 years ago. Lucas won. I don’t have the desire for Star Wars 77 that I once had. The fact that Rogue One is nearly free of all things Saga makes it even easier to connect.

If Disney ever releases the 1977 film properly, I’ll buy it and watch it for sure. If they don’t, that’s fine too. I have the NPR for that story.

Can’t find this if it’s already been posted. I thought this was interesting and I caught most if not all of the cues and callbacks he discusses.

https://youtu.be/SGVqPP-52No

Again, I think the separation of this film from The Saga is one of my favorite things about it. I cringe for a second at the Evazon and 3PO cameos because they’re totally unnecessary. Beyond that, this is my favorite film in the franchise. By far. Last night was my tenth viewing total (three theater, seven home).

As I did with Star Wars in 1977, I’m listening to the score almost daily. Fantastic work.

oojason said:

^ from https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsLeaks/comments/66plp5/just_sayin/

I didn’t realise the resemblance to Old Republic Jedi symbol - whether intentional, accidental, coincidental or just seeing things where there is nothing to see…

I think it’s intentional. I noticed it - http://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1066021 - but was\am unfamiliar with that part of the franchise.

SilverWook said:

Lucky gal!

https://ischool.sjsu.edu/people/community-profile/where-are-they-now
Pity she didn’t steal it. 😉

Best part is her excitement at the significance;
"She’s pictured, right, holding reel three of the original Star Wars, “with no edits made by Lucas,” she squeals, “this is where Han shot first!!!” "

Lord Haseo said:
Honestly I can’t wrap my brain around this way of thinking even if I were omniscient.

I’ll try not to take that personally.

yotsuya said:
I have never seen anything about TESB that made it not fit with Star Wars…

I didn’t say it didn’t fit. In fact, I specifically said I see where it was in line with the original. The story, in whatever way it’s written to clarify the in-story passage of time, doesn’t interest me, nor do the characters at that point in their lives. Well made for sure and far more often than not it’s shown to be the high water mark of the franchise.

yotsuya said:
I can see if you find the story less enthralling than ANH…but your stated reasons for not liking TESB are pretty weak.

With regard to my opinion, those two statements are one and the same. I find the story & characters less enthralling than Star Wars, so I don’t care for the movie. People’s opinions are not strong, weak, right, or wrong.

The Last Jedi may end up being more of the same. We may be catching up with our new heroes a few years after we last saw them. If that’s the case and Rey is a departure from what I found so interesting about her in TFA, I might feel the same about it as I did about TESB.

Lord Haseo said:

Anchorhead said:
Everything comes across as a bit too much.

The only thing that I can think of is the space slug but aside from that the story telling, character portrayals, themes etc. were elevated as any continuation should.

No arguments here. Fact is, I never wanted a continuation or any character growth. As I sat in the theater every week in 1977, Star Wars was perfect. It had a beginning, a middle , and an end. I never once gave any thought to a continuation of the story. It only makes sense that the continuation (eventually) disappointed me. It’s the same reason I’ve never seen the sequels to ALIEN, Jaws, or Back To The Future. Those weren’t stories that needed to be continued. They were closed when I walked out of the theater.

Rogue One, on the other hand, also works as a stand-alone. It’s familiar, but it doesn’t change the 1977 characters. When I’m watching it, I imagine Luke and Co showing up in the Death Star and Yavin only a couple of weeks later. I didn’t expect that emotion, but it’s been a really nice surprise. For me, the two films fit together perfectly.

In the interest of “getting it”, the disappointment you feel with Rogue One is the same disappointment I’ve been feeling for 37 years.

Alderaan said:
Something can be different and try new things and still be in the same spirit as the original. The Empire Strikes Back fits that category. It was Star Wars, but it was more Star Wars

Lord Haseo said:
Anchorhead would disagree with you on the ESB thing.

I do. For me, The Empire Strikes Back may have been in the spirit of Star Wars77, but it was too polished. Everything comes across as a bit too much. Han is even cooler (but lacking the edge that made him interesting in Star Wars77), the princess was even tougher, Luke was nothing like the farm boy we’d met before, and Vader went from military henchman answering to several others to now answering to no one and all but running the Empire single-handed. The focus moved away from the story-driven and onto popularity-driven.

It still fits with the original, but it doesn’t move me enough to own or even watch it.
For me, Rogue One is the installment that best fits with Star Wars77.

That would be a good idea.

SilverWook said:

Reminds me of this, which I scanned out of a magazine ten years(!) ago, so it’s a bit late to go back and fix what I lost from the spine crease in the middle. 😉

Who is the character talking to Khambatta? Looks familiar.

Anjohan said:
it might be time to put our egos and judgements to the side, and accept the fact that there are kids out there who - for them - the Prequels are just as important for them as the OT may be for you. Do they not deserve the chance to walk down memory lane with stories and references from their favorite moments?

Our egos and judgements? When did you decide you could speak for the entire board? The people who want the 1977 film properly released have never made any serious suggestions that fans of the prequels should be denied the films they like. Which, by the way, isn’t an issue. The prequels are readily available in several formats.

Michael Murphey - Wildfire

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Last Jedi.

Having been able to deep-dive Rogue One since its home release, I’ve realized I don’t really care about the ST as much as I did two years ago. I enjoyed the first hour of The Force Awakens very much, as well as the last five minutes. The rest, however, didn’t move me strongly one way or another nor has it aged as well as I’d hoped.

In the end, I really only care about Rey and Chewie. The acting was strong with Finn and Poe, but they’re secondary for me. Kylo, Snoke, & Co are just filler (to me). Having long since been worn out on the fimilial tone of the franchise from ROTJ on, Han and the Princess having a son was of little interest to me.

Truth be told, Rogue One is the second Star Wars film I’ve always wanted. It works perfectly with the only Star Wars film I’ve ever loved, so it’s only fitting. It’s visual separation from the franchise - title cards for planets & locations, no opening crawl, and its serious tone all help strengthen that bond for me. I’m on a staycation this week using up some vacation days I’ll otherwise lose, so my three (and counting) viewings have had a nice feeling of escape.

No doubt, I’ll be seeing The Last Jedi the day it opens. However, I won’t be terribly disappointed if it turns out to be less than stellar. The trailer released today was good as a teaser. No spoilers and just enough to pique interest. I will say though, the teaser one-sheet is fantastic. Best Star Wars one-sheet in a very long time. I like that the illustration of the saber energy matches the stone engraving that someone uncovers in the teaser. Maybe it’s a hint of some soon-to-be-revived ancient order of good.

Watched the DVD and was reminded of how much I love this film and story. For me, a true breath of fresh air after decades of contamination. I like the title cards on locations, I like the lack of a crawl, and I like the cast of new characters. Excellent acting, directing, and cinematography. I also LOVE the score. Outstanding job on how it works with, as well as continues, Williams’ 1977 masterpiece. Again, I’ve been waiting on this for 40 years.

I’ll be watching it again in about an hour.

Edit

And THAT, is how you cast and direct a child actor. Beau Gadsdon, playing young Jyn, is outstanding.

Alright, I cracked. I’ll start digital-only next time. Watching it today.

I’ve put on my Stormtrooper socks for the occasion. No, I’m not kidding.

In case anyone is interested:
http://www.stance.com/rogue-one/M545D16ROG.html#start=1

They have a bunch of Star Wars socks.
http://www.stance.com/star-wars-socks/

Back on topic; I haven’t purchased the film yet. I need to remedy that asap. I’ve become so accustomed to everything being advertised and teased months in advance, I didn’t really pay attention to the actual day. I’ll order it today and watch it this weekend. I’m only going with digital now.

Generation X checking in; Get off of my lawn!

Waiting on installments for two graphic novels I’m following so I decided to go on a tangent and start something I skipped a few years ago.

Really digging it so far. Much more of a secret agent/espionage story than a super hero crime fighter. It’s his post-Nightwing story. DC Just announced they’re going to transition this into his reemergence as Nightwing in a few months. I will have caught up by then.

Anyway, the story is a nice change of pace. Great work by Seeley and Janin.

imperialscum said:

SilverWook said:

Play nice, kids.

There was only one “kid” not playing nice this time.

He wasn’t asking for your opinion.

I love our old Death Star. Someone else around here has all the old icon-sized character portraits in their signature. Man, we’ve come a long way. What’s it been, fifteen years or more?

TV’s Frink said:
To clarify, I don’t really care about the deleted scenes that much, never have for any movie other than from a curiosity standpoint. It’s not like I’m going to go back six months later and watch four deleted scenes again.

That’s it for me also. It’s a rare day indeed when I watch any special features, particularly behind-the-scenes stuff. It takes away the magic for me. I never listen to commentary tracks either, for the same reason. I sometimes watch deleted scenes but they’re far from a priority. I certainly wouldn’t make a purchase based on them.

Truth be told, Rogue One will most likely be the first film where I purchase digital-only. I’ve all but cut cable completely and in doing so, I put an Apple TV on all three TVs in the house. With the exception of local stations for news & weather (soon to be via digital antenna), I watch all entertainment via Apple TV apps (Netflix, HBO, etc) or my ripped DVDs.

After ripping them, they sit in a hall closet unused. I have a DVD\Blu-ray set-up but I seldom use it for anything other than my box set of the Batman TV show. This past Christmas I even made the digital jump on Charlie Brown, Rudolph, and Frosty. The dust on those DVDs is now fourteen months old.

I used to worry about not having a permanent copy of all the films that are really important to me. I made peace with that several years ago when I realized that modern technology has made it so that I’m never without them. In fact, I just bought a new iPad last week and an hour after I set it up and restored from the cloud, it was an exact duplicate content-wise as the one previous.

Star Jedi is the font. It’s available from just about any font site you choose. Bring it into Photoshop or Illustrator and you can make any of those at any resolution you need. Those exaggerated ascenders, legs, terminals, etc will be the shift keys

Tyrphanax said:

Mary Tyler Moore - 80

Man, even I knew who she was and she was off TV long before I was conscious.

Absolutely impossible to quantify the enormous effect that show had on forming who I am today. As a kid, I never missed an episode. The family gathered in front of the set every week and watched every episode.

Even as an eight-year-old boy I was heavily influenced. There is no doubt about it, that show formed what I became with regard to conversational style, comedic influence & timing, and how to understand intelligent interaction. It lauded inclusion and understanding and it championed a woman as the lead.

More importantly, that leading role wasn’t in a sad sack, trying to find a man, or clumsy damsel-in-distress way. It championed her as a strong, cerebral, honest, true to herself woman. She was successful because of who she was, not in spite of who she was. The show as a whole was my role model as a kid and has remained so to this day.

I suspect I reference it here at work probably twenty times a year. Sometimes with a sharp comeback to a tiresome coworker, sometimes with reference to wishing for a bottle of whiskey in my desk drawer a la Mr. Grant, but usually with my Mary Richards over-the-head wave to coworkers as I pass them in the hall.

We’ve lost a ton of greats the past year or so, but to me this is the one that is most depressing.

https://vimeo.com/176333906

I always knew it wasn’t the equatorial trench, but I never gave any thought to which of the other trenches or which direction.

JawsTDS said:

I like it. I also like them staying with their minimalist take on the teaser. Red logo, white copy for the title. No complaints here.