Disco_Lobot

Anjohan said:

ray_afraid said:

Anjohan said:

ray_afraid said:

Anjohan said:

the prequels, do they really deserve to be forgotten acts of the past?

Yes.

But can you say the same about this statement: 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?

Sure they do. But the movies have no real cultural or historical impact. If you like em cause ya grew up with em, that’s fine. Reminiscing on things we loved as kids can be fun. But the PT did nothing to earn a positive place in the collective conscious.
They really are just some dumb movies.

But is this a fact, or is this just a popular opinion?

Because you see, according to moviemakers and American moviemaking businesses, the prequels are in fact historically and culturally important, as they broke new ground for visual effects and and digital moviemaking.

So actually what you are saying is incorrect, but your opinion is commonly shared. So you are basing your reasons on what you deem factually correct, when in fact - it should be known - that it is just an opinion. By no factual means are they not historically or culturally important.

I think that within the effects industry they may be important… however, the PT is clearly not a popular culture landmark like the OT was. The kids I know who grew up in that timeframe seem much more attached to Harry Potter and/or the LOTR films.

If I had to pick one set of films that is the pop culture landmark from that era it would probably be the LOTR films.

Obviously people will perceive different things, but from what I’ve seen the PT is mostly remembered for being disappointing.

I initially thought TFA was great and ranked it even with, if not above, ROTJ. However it has not completely held up over time and I now have it slotted in solidly at #5. It’s clearly worse than the OT and Rogue One, but also clearly better than the PT.

I don’t have a huge problem with the rehash of story beats from the OT, but Starkiller base was a terrible decision - it was idiotic nonsense and quite frankly lazy writing. SKB is basically the Ewoks of TFA, not enough to ruin the film, but definitely a flaw.

I enjoyed some of the new characters. Kylo Ren was pretty awesome and I’m definitely intrigued to see where they go with him. Rey was a bit of a blank slate, but also very well acted and I enjoyed the character overall. Finn was very well acted, but I did think his “turn” was kind of ridiculous. He doesn’t want to kill villagers, but shortly later he has no compunction about mowing down Stormtroopers? People who were indoctrinated just like him. I didn’t hate the character, but I feel he could have been executed better. Phasma was minor character - but the scene with her lowering the shield was stupid and lame. Kind of hard to take her seriously after that.

I think TFA could have used 15-20 minutes of additional footage to flesh things out a bit more. The situation in the galaxy is not well explained and seems very thin. The film also could have used some more world building.

I know I listed a lot of critiques, but I did really enjoy the film. It was well made, well acted and it hit the right tone. Honestly I’m fairly happy with what we got given that JJ Abrahms was directing. I was fairly worried after seeing those awful Star Trek films, but TFA was much better than many of his previous efforts (and it’s clear he “gets” Star Wars much more than Star Trek).

While I don’t think TFA is a great film I do think it is a very good film and it’s definitely entertaining. If the Last Jedi ends up being great (which I think there’s a good chance of; Rian Johnson is IMO much more likely to produce something great than JJ ever was) then TFA may move up a bit (although I doubt it will ever pass ROTJ… but it may get back to the same level).

Overall as someone born in 1976 I’m pretty happy with what we’ve seen from Disney so far.

I’d be pretty surprised if Disney signed any sort of agreement restricting what they can do when they were ponying up 4 billion dollars.

I do think that we should not expect any sort of OT/PT re-releases until after May 2020 when all of the distribution rights (except for ANH) revert back to Disney

1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. Rogue One
3. A New Hope (Rogue One and ANH are very close for me)
4. Return of the Jedi
5. The Force Awakens
6. Clone Wars Micro Series
7. Revenge of the Sith (this one fluctuates… sometimes I feel it’s the worst SW film even though it’s the most watchable of the PT because they Anakin’s “turn” is completely ridiculous and that’s the most important part of the PT)
8. The Phantom Menace
9. Attack of the Clones (This movie literally makes zero sense - the plot is full of nonsensical contradictions and coincidences)

I will say that I’ve tried to like the PT, but I just find them mediocre. I don’t think they are horrible dreck like say Jupiter Ascending, but they are definitely mediocre.

DuracellEnergizer said:

Anchorhead said:

I also LOVE the score.

Agreed. That so many find it underwhelming perplexes me.

Knee-jerk reaction (No John Williams - must be bad!!!)

“Your father would be proud” is some of the best SW music ever.

I’m an orginal trilogy fan who saw TESB and ROTJ in the theaters (born in 1976, so a bit too young for ANH) and I loved Rogue One. I feel like they finally made a great Star Wars film again. Interestingly enough all my buddies who are around the same age feel the same. This is easily the best SW film made since ROTJ and possibly the best since TESB (I’ll have to wait a year or so to see where it really falls in for me).

I do like TFA, but it has moved down for me on repeated watchings. I initially had TFA about equal to ROTJ (if not higher), but now it’s fallen in squarely behind the OT and Rogue One. I still think TFA is a good movie (and better than the PT… it may be derivative, but at least it’s well made, acted and entertaining).

Rogue One has only moved up for me on multiple re-watchings. I’ve always enjoyed the characters - they are different (more subtle and the characterizations are more realstic than most other Star Wars films) so I don’t really understand that critique and I actually enjoyed all the different scenes/planets in the first act from my first viewing.

Chirrut is an awesome character - better than all the Jedi in the PT put together… .in fact he’s much more like how I always imagined the Prequel era Jedi to be when you here Obi-Wan’s dialogue in the OT.

The CGI characters didn’t bother me, although I did feel there was a little something off about Leia. Tarkin I feel looks great and I never noticed anything off. Interestingly enough, I know quite a few more casual fans who saw the film (none of them knew Cushing had passed away) and they were all blown away when I explained to them that Tarkin was a CGI character from the OT. I think the fact that we all go in already knowing characters are CGI can impact how we perceive them.

The 3rd act of the film is one of the best in the entire Star Wars saga - just great action and awesome effects. The space battle is the first one I’ve seen that is even in the ballpark of being as good as ROTJ (I still give ROTJ a lot of credit since that was optically composited in the early 80s and STILL looks so good). The vader scene at the end is of course awesome.

I didn’t particularly need to see C3PO and R2D2, but thankfully silly nostalgia items like that were kept to a minimum.

I loved Rogue One and as someone who grew up playing with Kenner action figures and later playing X-wing and Tie-Fighter this is the kind of SW film I’ve always wanted to see.