DominicCobb

darthrush said:

ZkinandBonez said:

Just throwing this out here;
maybe what he meant to say was “how he made a name for himself”.

Han was already a fairly well know smuggler by the time of ANH, so this film might revolve around some big event that makes him famous in the criminal underworld. My guess would be some expansion on the Kessel Run as it hasn’t made an actual appearance in the new canon yet.

I hope it’s this. I would hate it to be that Han Solo is just his nickname.

It doesn’t have to be a nickname. People change their name all the time. Sounds like the kind of thing a smuggler might do. shrug

ray_afraid said:

Handman said:

I thought Han was just beefing up his own reputation in the original movie to impress Ben and Luke, hence Ben’s amused eyebrow raise

That’s how I’ve always seen it. And still do.

I never saw it that way. shrug

Speaking of presidential primaries, I’m everyday more sure of the idea that we’ll see them for both parties in 2020.

Jeebus said:

Warbler said:

CatBus said:

The Internet is no place for such rational conclusions.

EDIT: Fo beat me to it.

Voting for Hillary was the best shot at defeating Trump.

In retrospect, perhaps it wasn’t. At least regarding the primaries.

Signs point to inconsiclusive on that front (though it seems the question will always linger).

One thing I think is probably for certain, Joe Biden would have whooped Trump’s ass. Shame.

Why do I even visit this site

Fang Zei said:

Lord Haseo said:

What are the specific points of contention that JJ and Kathleen had?

Maybe someone with more knowledge of this can speak to it, but there were rumors swirling during pre-production that JJ was going to leave the project because he and LFL weren’t seeing eye to eye.

As far as I know this had to do with the release date.

I’d be very interested to read a history of the production of Rogue One whenever LFL is willing to release that info. I’m not sure I completely buy the general idea of what caused the reshoots - LFL/Disney didn’t like that the movie was too weird or too un-Star Warsy or whatever so they hired Gilroy to replace Edwards. I think, more likely than not, the film simply wasn’t good, and Edwards knew it as much as Kennedy or anyone else. A lot of the changes were deep seeded character and plot things, so it’s probable that the main issue pre-reshoots was that the story wasn’t tracking. Edwards has worked with Gilroy on reshoots before so I think that was very much a collaborative process, and I’m pretty sure the only reason Gilroy directed anything at all was because Edwards simply didn’t have the time to direct all the reshoot material by himself. Now, is it possible that there was an attempt to make things “more Star Warsy”? Sure and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s why Desplat left, for instance. But I don’t think that was the primary goal and I don’t think it was really “made by a committee” other than the fact that a bunch of people sat down in a room and thought “how can we fix this story?”

@Density first of all yes I could tell you who directed every Marvel film off the top of my head because I’m dumb like that.

Second of all, I wrote that late at night so maybe my points weren’t entirely clear. The main thing is, there’s a big difference between a studio executive and a producer, the latter of which I consider filmmakers. Marvel movies are formulaic because of Kevin Feige and Marvel studios, not Disney. Again, it’s the delineation between studio and production company that goes back to my initial post. Marvel studios, the production company might have a prerogative to make everything follows a similar structure or style, but Disney studios doesn’t. What’s in their strategy is more “this Marvel movie on this date, and that one on this date.”

What I think is silly is the idea that Disney told LFL they needed another Death Star in TFA and such. I mean do we think Bob Iger or Alan Horn have any idea what a Ponda Baba is? Blame LFL, not Disney.

We both agree that there’s probably too much existing properties getting made. However, I tend to be of the mindset that if they’re bad, oh well I won’t watch, and, if they’re good, that’s awesome! There’s nothing inherently wrong with nostalgia or fan service, despite what many here seem to think (and no I’m NOT saying only people here).

Apologies for forgetting the obvious overall Disney strategy of “make everything a stale copy of something else.”

Yeah, of course they have a say in what stuff gets made, but they’re not really dealing with the intricacies of how, at least not for the most part. They have nothing to do with the fact that Marvel’s movies are to an extent formulaic, for instance. I mean seriously, what’s the prerogative for that? There’s literally no reason why a studio would want everyone of their movies to have the same plot, despite what many people here have convinced themselves. If two Marvel films have similar plots it’s because of lazy writers (or ones with not enough time), it’s not because some devious studio exec walked into the writer’s room and said hey make sure to copy the plot note for note or whatever.

All the studios have the same shit. Look at Fox’s recent and upcoming slate and you’ll find all the same stuff - sequels, reboots, adaptations, etc. You can cherry pick two recent “different” films to show their range, but you could just as easily point out X-Men: Apocalypse, one of the laziest superhero films I’ve seen recently that probably deserves the critique of “same old shit” more than any recent Marvel film; and then of course there’s Fant4stic which speaks for itself.

Disney’s obviously on a recent kick of remaking their animated classics because surprise! they make a lot of money. But they’re not all mindless fan service. Pete’s Dragon is very different from the original and also happened to be one of the best films last year.

As for the stupid South Park member berry bullshit, I don’t know what to say but that yeah people like seeing things they like? There’s nothing wrong with nostalgia if done properly. Obviously sometimes it works better than others but the idea that ~nostalgia~ is this brain numbing intoxicant that studio execs mix up and spit out to the mindless masses is just tiresome.

Basically, too long didn’t read version: ALL studios like using existing properties because they know people like them and will give moneys. The quality of the end product, however, is ultimately up to the filmmakers. If they can’t find a way to work with the nostalgia in a way that satisfies you, blame them.

joefavs said:

A few months ago I was talking about this at a bar with some friends, and we decided we’d like to see a Heart of Darkness riff about the droid who DID impersonate a deity, because there must have been one somewhere along the line if C-3PO’s programming specifically forbids it.

Sold

ray_afraid said:

Frinks got it right. Fans would have loved Ledger anyway because it was a great performance of a loved character. But the rest of the world (most people) went nuts over it because of his death after portraying such a dark character.

To a degree you’re probably right, but I’m certain it would have been a widely popular performance (and film) regardless. Because it was great. If it wasn’t great, no one would have cared.

Lord Haseo said:

Rehash:

• to talk over or discuss again

• to present or use again in another form without substantial change or improvement

You’re just describing Alderaan and impscum’s arguments.

The character and the performance would have been a hit regardless (perhaps even more so if he had another chance to play him).

You think people quote “why so serious?” and etc. just because Ledger died? That’s the only crazy thing I see.

Alderaan said:

DominicCobb said:

Walt Disney Pictures made Beauty and the Beast. Lucasfilm made TFA and RO. Walt Disney Studios distributed both. Maybe some day people will learn the difference (spoiler: they won’t).

Actually, if you had watched TFA and R1, which I’m sure you did, you could tell they were made by about 50 different executives, all with their own sometimes disparate ideas, crammed into 2 hours.

Which is how dysfunctional rehash movies get made.

The disparity between what you think you know and what you actually know is hilarious.

Walt Disney Pictures made Beauty and the Beast. Lucasfilm made TFA and RO. Walt Disney Studios distributed both. Maybe some day people will learn the difference (spoiler: they won’t).

ZkinandBonez said:

DominicCobb said:

I’ve been thinking about picking up any old EU book. What are people’s favorites beyond the obvious (Thrawn trilogy, Han Solo adventures)?

I really enjoyed Shadows of the Empire.

It’s not an overly elaborate EU story as it’s set between ESB and ROTJ, and it’s just one book so you won’t have to commit to a trilogy or a whole series.

I enjoyed that one, even though I thought Xizor and Rendar both sucked. It was fun.

joefavs said:

K. W. Jeter’s The Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy was pretty neat.

Is that a Boba Fett thing?

Also, anyone read the Jedi Academy books?

I don’t know much about the EU in general, but if I had to, from my limited understanding, pick the two biggest EU characters, it’d probably be Thrawn and Mara Jade. Which is to say nothing of their quality (in fact I’m halfway through HTTE and I don’t care much about either), but they just seem to be the ones most talked about or of most importance. I mean, she married Luke. That’s kind of a big deal.

darth_ender said:

I say this, not as a challenge, but as a genuine curiosity, but why do the things I mentioned not bother you? I love how you defend TFA, and it’s given me a greater appreciation of a movie that did let me down a bit. I’d love to read a good defense of TDK. Those confusing character motivations go beyond simple suspension of disbelief, and I can’t just buy the “Joker is crazy, so of course his plans don’t make sense” argument.

I tend to put a moratorium of voraciously defending movies after a bit. You might remember I was a pretty ardent defender of TDKR here when it came out, but after awhile I’d said everything that I could say and it was time to let the disses roll off. I’m already starting to lean off TFA defending. You can only argue the same things over and over so many times.

A lot of the things you mention are nitpicks which I am rarely bothered by in general. The perceived disconnect between Joker’s words and his actions are exactly that. Joker’s a liar. In the “dog chasing cars” moment, when Dent’s at his most vulnerable, the Joker’s manipulating him into doing what he wants. The Joker is a psychotic agent of chaos who wants to break down and expose the demented psychologies of everyone in Gotham and yeah, he’s crazy, but he’s definitely a schemer too.

A lot of ink has been spilt about the film and about the Joker specifically over the years, people talking a lot more about his motivations and the underlying philosophies of the film. Which is one of the reasons I don’t feel the need to spend time defending it - better writers than me already have.

TV’s Frink said:

DominicCobb said:

I will say though the suggesting that people only went crazy over Ledger’s performance because he died is BS of a magnitude I cannot abide.

It was a good performance.

People also overrated it. The reasons for that may be varied but I believe it mostly happened because he died, and if he hadn’t we wouldn’t have heard nearly as much about how great it was.

I think people rated it just fine, you just didn’t like it as much.

There was certainly some degree of attention to it because of his death, but if it wasn’t great, people wouldn’t have cared. Actors release movies posthumously all the time and people almost routinely never care.

At the time it might have been hard to tell because emotions were still high, but it’s now been almost 9 years since and the performance is still widely considered the best ever given in a comic book film. I think it’s pretty clear at this point the quality of it has little to do with the outside circumstances.

Also updated, now with more Lego

DominicCobb said:

The Dark Knight - A+
The Dark Knight Rises - A
Batman Begins - A-
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm - A-
The Lego Batman Movie - B+
Batman Returns - B
Batman - C+
Batman Forever - C-
Batman and Robin - F
Batman v Superman - F

I still haven’t seen the Adam West film in it’s entirety.

I mean, you guys are completely wrong but whatever.

I will say though the suggesting that people only went crazy over Ledger’s performance because he died is BS of a magnitude I cannot abide.

I think a lot of things fall under the umbrella of “dated.” The question is to what degree it matters. Some of the hair styles in Star Wars are dated but that ultimately doesn’t really affect much and certainly doesn’t make the film as a whole any less timeless.

Something like a “dated” mindset towards perversion could be a bit more of an issue.

I actually just watched The Quiet Man for the first time, and a lot of it is a product of its time and a product of the time it’s set in - the characters in general have a lot of different attitudes than we do currently and that’s okay because that’s the time it’s depicting. But a few moments are more definitely “dated.” In particular, the scene in which John Wayne forcibly and carelessly drags Maureen O’Hara for miles is played in the films for laughs and we aren’t supposed to think any less of Wayne’s character for it. But, watching it now, it’s just pretty fucked up, honestly and not very funny or endearing in the least bit.

As far as I know there have only been a couple legal kerfuffles with fan edits, and they’ve been sites that hosted them and nothing more than cease and desists.

As for downloading and watching a fan edit? As far as I know no one has ever gotten in trouble for that and I doubt anyone ever will, honestly (barring some drastic changes).

The people who get in real trouble for this sort of thing are just the people who rip movies (or worse - leak) and just upload them as is on the internet in large numbers. Off the top of my head though, in terms of the people downloading the stuff, I don’t know if anyone’s ever been punished worse than a fine (and again, this is in regards to plain old piracy).

Bottom line: don’t worry. You’ll be perfectly fine.

joefavs said:

At the risk of losing all credibility here, I could see myself accepting the Hayden version if they do something with ghost Hayden that doesn’t suck in the new movies. On a recent episode of Collider Jedi Council, they addressed the rumor that Yoda will appear as a ghost in The Last Jedi, and someone made a point that if Yoda does end up talking to Luke from beyond the grave onscreen, there’s nothing stopping Obi-Wan, Anakin, and (less likely) Qui-Gon. It’s a lot of "if"s, but IF they do bring in Anakin for TLJ, and IF they use Hayden, and IF his performance isn’t bad, and IF it feels earned in the context of the entire film, I would be open to including a post-2004 version of ROTJ in my complete saga watch-throughs.

There better be a good reason for it. That’s my mentality. I don’t inherently hate ghost Hayden, but I think in general ghost Anakin is a misguided concept. I’m not going to be completely close minded about it, but yeah, there better be a good reason for it.

Warbler said:

Frank your Majesty said:

Three logicians walk into a bar. The barman says, ‘Does everybody want a drink?’

The first logician says, ‘I don’t know.’

The second logician says, ‘I don’t know.’

The third logician says ‘Yes.’

I don’t get that one either.

Just use logic.

Jetrell Fo said:

DominicCobb said:

Jetrell Fo said:

^Ahhhh, okay.

Warbler said:

Alderaan said:

The CIA, FBI, and military are not going to share everything with Trump. They don’t trust him, and there’s no chance they shared everything with Obama or Bush or anyone else either.

I am pretty sure if he orders them to, they have to.

If that’s the case we should be getting full disclosure of UFO’s, Bigfoot, Area 51, and such any time now.

😉

Exactly the right company for the wiretap conspiracy.

Anyone posting in this thread that isn’t still pissed at their own party for letting Bernie Sanders be cheated out of the nomination by their own party is the right company.

😉

I’m afraid to say I don’t understand this post at all.