Bingowings

Part of me wanted him to be that big and actually in the room. Darthzilla 😄

The plot is defined by the things that happen to the characters. The situations.
So a young restless person, living in a wilderness meets an older mentor figure and a separate possible love interest on a quest to deliver information to an underdog resistance movement. They enter a hub of illegal activity, a bar and get into trouble. A planet is destroyed by the antagonists with a super-weapon that becomes the final test for the plucky rebels. The main characters launch a rescue mission to save a female character being tortured by the antagonist for the information. The mentor is killed by the antagonist who has a close connection to him while the protagonist and his/her allies are unable to assist because of a large chasm obstacle. The weapon is destroyed but the principle antagonists have done damage and survived. The protagonist has been pointed onto a path where they will receive further instruction from another stronger tutor.
These are plot points.
The characters in TFA are new and interesting and played well and directed well but they are doing the same thing as the other characters in first film. It’s just too similar to be engaging to me.
Other plots could be used with these characters and set up two more films and be enjoying but new, that didn’t happen.
So while I wasn’t furious with the film as I was with TPM and while it’s a much better constructed film than any of the prequels I was indifferent to the finer qualities of the piece because the plot was just too familiar.

LuckyGungan2001 said:

Steven_TheFarce said:

Hey fellow galactians! I am Steven Hightower! Acclaimed professional film youtube reviewer. Here is my review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. My opinion is not only clamored for, but asked for too.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/d93SbwRBUJY

Did anyone actually watch this? 'Twas beautiful…

It was posted before and it’s also not funny so unearned appalling bad taste.

LuckyGungan2001 said:

What is the most dissapointing film?

Prometheus

All I know is Bob Peck turned into a tree in my universe.

Luke’s hologram message to Jabba could be replaced by Mark Hamill’s Sprint pitch from The Simpsons, so he is really just spamming Jabba.

It’s a thing and it now has a name : http://mandelaeffect.com/berenstein-or-berenstain-bears

adywan said:

I’ve seen a few people now claim that the prequels were better than TFA because “at least they were original”. But were they?

As we all know Star Wars (1977) wasn’t exactly original either (Dune, Flash Gordon, Hidden Fortress, Dune, 633 Squadron, The Searchers, Dune etc). The difference is nobody had seen that compendium on screen before.

TPM too was a mash up, when it worked it was a mash up of Ben Hur and War and Peace, Not so much so when it was a bunch of guys sitting in chairs or a bunch of puppets, CGI and costumes sitting in the same senate pod slightly rotated a few thousand times.

Similar concept but different mix.
And it’s the second most disappointing film in my life.

TFA is exactly the same plot as ANH if I want to see that film again I can watch the original…or Star Trek (2009) from the same director.

If you read my posts about TFA I am very critical of it and prefer ROTJ despite my problems with that film. I’m just pointing out that we don’t really know what Sith/Jedi/Etc training actually means so the Force users in TFA may be able to do things that the Jedi and Sith couldn’t do without having their level of training.

Seeing as I’ve seen the first film in excess of 300 times seeing it remade was bound to leave me a bit cold.
I want another story set in that universe not the same story with the characters shuffled around.

I use onedrive. Or whatever they are calling Skydrive these days.

TV’s Frink said:

The prequels sucked. There’s no way to possibly argue they are good or well-made, even if you don’t think they sucked.

The things I like about the prequels are the basic plot points. Palpatine working two sides of a war to his advantage is a bit sophisticated for that sort of film.
The characters were badly defined, the scripts were lousy, the performances and direction clunky and wooden.
With this new film everything is in reverse. The acting is great, the characters are interesting and we’ll directed but what they are doing is so familiar it’s not engaging. For all it’s flaws, and there are many, ROTS felt more like Star Wars to me. All they had to do was write an original plot or mix it up a bit more and TFA would have been perfect. As it stands I’m surprised how ambivalent I feel towards it.

I don’t know if you are familiar with the sitcom Allo Allo but there are plenty of resistance jokes there and in Top Secret!

Running a Galactic Government without Jedi to scare detractors seems to be difficult. The old republic fell to pieces when the Sith offered to get rid of the Jedi. The Empire needed to iron fist everyone into staying in line. Presumably the New Republic and the remains of the Empire were too evenly matched at the end of the Civil War for either side to win or hold dominance. They both consolidated their positions and became superpowers of a divided galaxy. Both sides use ships based on older designs but clearly updated and the resistance aren’t meant to be the main fleet of the Republic. They are an insurgence within First Order territory funded by the Republic with rather implausible deniablity

As for the training thing. We don’t really see training from a martial arts perspective in any film.
You see the kids and Luke playing dangerous swingball with laserswords, we see Luke running around with Yoda lecturing to him and we see Yoda guiding a rock levitation exercise. The Cave etc
But the Force abilities these characters have seem to come naturally.
Luke can pull the saber from the snow without being trained by Ben. Luke is shown the concept of using his Jedi foresight to pop the first Death Star but he doesn’t get actual targeting lessons.
Maybe the training is more about controlling the path to expanding one’s natural expansion of powers.
Palpatine and Qui-Gom offered new ‘training’ to fully trained Jedi. So maybe it’s sort of like anger management with magic rather than actual Kung Fu lessons. In this case both Rey and Ren may be strong enough to be able to do these tricks naturally but lack sufficient guidance to focus and control their abilities using their emotions (either by controlling them or indulging them).

Whatever Ady does someone will adapt to fit with the new films or vice versa.

nightstalkerpoet said:

–side note: why B-B-8. Every time a character says it, it throws off the cadence of their speech.
Say AB8 and BB8 out loud to yourself and you’ll hear what I mean, how the BB is jarring to say.

Presumably the BB is because he looks like a beachball and the 8 because he looks like an 8.

Hooray!

It might be possible to use films like Judge Dredd and Dune, maybe even Exorcist 2 to pad out Max Von Sydow’s disappointingly small part.

RE: The thread title : “look at the size of that thing”

The YouTube versions are down are these available anywhere else?

Looking forward to a TFA installment. Please say it will happen.

pat man said:

Bingowings said:

Not seen this before, sorry if it’s been posted elsewhere : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w8Z0UOXVaY

That was a very funny video, however it does make you wonder if people who are deaf can miss read what you say.

Have you seen the other Star Wars ones they’ve done?

Yeah they are funny too.

Pontius Pilate says :

He has a wife you know… you know what she’s called…?

Alec Guinness on Michael Parkinson moaning about the script.