DominicCobb

Yeah pretty much. But if info comes out that implicates him bigly, things could change.

Warbler said:

DominicCobb said:

Now might be a good time to remember the Watergate scandal, wherein five men were arrested for breaking into the DNC headquarters in an attempt to obtain records and ultimately influence the election in favor of the president. While Nixon didn’t directly condone this specific action, he was in contact with the members of his election committee and was well aware that sabotaging, in general, was going on, and very much okay with it. Ultimately, though, his downfall came not because of the sabotaging, but because of the covering up of the sabotaging.

The parallels are to great to ignore. I remember reading All the President’s Men in high school and being appalled by the lengths these people went to influence the election in their favor. At the time I thought those days were behind us but it’s clear now that’s far from being the case.

If Trump doesn’t want to end up impeached or resigning, he should start getting honest about his Russian connection real fast. Either way, everybody needs to start accepting the fact that Russia is clearly trying to influence what’s happening in the US. We need to get our heads out of the “but where’s the evidence??” sand and start an investigation into this so we can find out what’s really going on once and for all.

With the fact that the Republicans control the House and Senate and may soon control the Supreme Court, I think impeachment is very unlikely.

I agree, but depending on what information comes out, they may not have a choice. If there comes a time when the public consensus is that Trump needs to be impeached, then GOP reps risk going against their constituents in a major way that would absolutely hurt them in upcoming elections if they refuse to do any hearings.

It’s probably important to remember too that many in the GOP hate the guy. A lot of them unendorsed him (briefly), and many have been publicly insulted by him. As long as a significant group can join together in solidarity against him, they shouldn’t have to worry too much about individual repercussions for party disloyalty.

Now might be a good time to remember the Watergate scandal, wherein five men were arrested for breaking into the DNC headquarters in an attempt to obtain records and ultimately influence the election in favor of the president. While Nixon didn’t directly condone this specific action, he was in contact with the members of his election committee and was well aware that sabotaging, in general, was going on, and very much okay with it. Ultimately, though, his downfall came not because of the sabotaging, but because of the covering up of the sabotaging.

The parallels are to great to ignore. I remember reading All the President’s Men in high school and being appalled by the lengths these people went to influence the election in their favor. At the time I thought those days were behind us but it’s clear now that’s far from being the case.

If Trump doesn’t want to end up impeached or resigning, he should start getting honest about his Russian connection real fast. Either way, everybody needs to start accepting the fact that Russia is clearly trying to influence what’s happening in the US. We need to get our heads out of the “but where’s the evidence??” sand and start an investigation into this so we can find out what’s really going on once and for all.

Because I am that crazy (and BORED)

Luke is a lone survivalist not subservient to his aunt or uncle

As I said above, Unkar Plutt was her guardian, so it wasn’t like she survived being a kid on a desert world all alone. Clearly she has been living at least a few years all by herself, but she is still constrained by her impoverished situation.

Luke steals R2 from a sand person on a bantha, who then just rides away

Equating Teedo with a Tusken is baffling. A Jawa would be the obvious parallel, in which case it’s a lot easier to see why he decides not to bother with Rey and BB-8 (who he was in the process of capturing, and Rey freed, not stole).

Luke can understand everything R2 says.

Rey, having lived much of her life independently and likely communicating with a variety of others in bartering situations, has learned droidspeak. Luke, who has lived a fairly isolated life on his farm, wouldn’t have needed to pick up this skill.

C-3PO is written out since he’s not needed to translate

This illustrates some key differences between the two films. ANH is a story partially told from the droids perspectives, which necessitates a duo with a translator. As well, the mission in which BB-8 finds himself in a small, covert one - there’d be no space on Poe’s X-Wing for a protocol droid.

R2 follows Luke around obediently instead of running away, and generally just thinks Luke’s awesome

This highlights another key difference. Luke is just an obstacle in the way of R2 finding Obi-Wan. Meanwhile, BB-8 needs someone like Rey to help him stay away from trouble while he waits for Poe. BB-8 is never “obedient” to Rey, and there’s nothing to suggest he thinks she’s awesome.

Luke tells Obi-Wan he’s a nobody. Didn’t even know the Force was real

And? I don’t get the point of this one. In the actual film, Luke has never heard of the Force before.

Obi-Wan hands Luke his father’s saber and then disappears from the movie, no training required

This kind of thing is where comparisons to ANH fall apart because the two films are simply too different. Obi-Wan serves a completely different function in that film than Maz does in TFA. The training one is a bit more debatable, but from what Maz says “Close your eyes. Feel it. The light. It’s always been there, it will guide you.” she does give Rey a way to tap into a potential that she has always had. Again, we’re getting into debate worthy territory, but I definitely think the film is implying that Rey is stronger in the Force than Luke was and thus why she is able to tap into it more quickly and easily.

Luke experiences a vision upon touching the saber for unexplained reasons. Magic lightsaber?

Yes. Lightsabers have always been connected to the Force (which makes them magic), and no more so than here. The vision was part of her call to the saber, the Force, Luke, and her destiny. None of it is spelled out nor should it be.

Luke enters the cantina and knocks down Ponda Baba and Dr. Evezan when they threaten him

Unlike Luke (who had never been to Mos Eisly), Rey frequented Niima outpost. As a lone scavenger, it is highly likely that this was far from her first altercation (and the fact that she carries the staff with her would imply as much).

Some stuff about Luke finding the Falcon with only Chewie inside and how they go and get Han or something

There’s really nothing to be said about this section because I don’t think it’s really criticizing anything and is really just bending over backwards to make the two stories fit together.

Luke fixes the Falcon’s malfunctions himself before Han can figure out what to do

Every time I see this complaint I wonder if people were paying attention. The Falcon has had a number of “upgrades” since Han last saw her, all of which Rey is familiar with (which makes sense, it being Plutt’s ship and her being good with tech stuff, she’s probably worked on it) and Han knows nothing about. One of those is a compressor which she bypasses. The comparison here makes little sense.

Han is so impressed with Luke, he offers him a permanent job

Let’s not forget Han does offer Luke a job in ANH, when he’s collecting his reward. In TFA it makes even more sense, Han getting older and all.

They sneak into the back door of the Death Star unnoticed, and somehow instantly find Leia’s cell

Well sneak makes sense they came out of light speed within the planet’s atmosphere. And they don’t ever find Rey’s cell, they just find Rey, sneaking around on the other side of the station. Just because it is tightly edited, doesn’t mean it was instant.

Luke uses the Jedi mind trick on the guards

I mean, I don’t really have any justification for this beyond Rey is clearly powerful in the Force in ways we haven’t seen before, and the Force is clearly acting through her in this scene (she doesn’t know how she did it). I’m not a fan of the scene honestly.

Leia says Luke is amazing and won’t stop talking about wanting to run away with him and devoting herself to him

Again, this is where comparisons fall apart. I can only assume this refers to Finn because of the running away with bit. But honestly, this behavior doesn’t describe Finn at all. He’s trying to run away yes, and asks Rey to come with him once (and doesn’t push it when she rejects). I guess Finn says Rey’s flying was amazing after they escape, but they’re complimenting each other in that scene for good reason.

Luke’s not interested, and says he just wants to be friends

This has nothing to do with anything in TFA.

Vader finds the heroes and Luke holds his own against him

Putting aside the obvious differences between Vader and Ren (one being a master of the dark side and the other being a much younger apprentice), do I need to repeat for the millionth time that Kylo was wounded or that Rey is alright skilled with melee weapons?

Luke force grabs his saber. This is the first time force grab is seen in the movie

Oh you mean like how Luke grabbing the saber in ESB is the first time in the films we see anyone use that power?

Meanwhile, Wedge leads a small squad to do a bombing run on the Death Star

The Wedge/Poe comparison is just silly. Poe is character introduced in the main crawl and is there throughout the film (not to mention he’s one hell of a pilot). Wedge is a terrible analog for Poe, he’s more like Snap Wexley. Also, small squad? It’s at least a size of the one in ANH if not bigger.

He easily hits the target without facing as much resistance, and the Death Star blows up

Except the X-Wings first run fails completely, and it isn’t until the heroes set off explosives from the inside that Poe can get in and do any real damage. They face about as much resistance from TIEs and turrets as the pilots in ANH did, minus Vader.

Luke is instantly selected to pilot a ship on a vital mission they’ve been waiting years to do

Which completely overlooks the fact the obvious fact that whole matter of the Force. Maybe if someone who wasn’t sensitive to the Force was in charge this logic would make sense, but for Leia the choice to send Rey is an obvious one.

So… yeah. Basically every point is misrepresenting the film in some way. That’s why I don’t like these videos.

Handman said:

DominicCobb said:

Handman said:

DominicCobb said:

Hal 9000 said:

Humorous comparison between Rey and Luke: https://youtu.be/PE2at2Wo9sU

I would love to see a video that similarly misconstrues and ignores from the other way around.

What was misconstrued or ignored?

Are you really going to make me go point by point?

I can’t make you do anything, really, I was just curious what was wrong with it. Point-by-point isn’t necessary, but if there’s like one or two main points then I’d be interested in reading them, since I thought it was pretty funny myself.

Well, I will say in general that this video is the nexus of the two main criticisms of the film - that it was too similar to ANH and that Rey is a (barf) Mary Sue - and in the process points out some flaws in the arguments for the former while also misrepresenting aspects of the latter to better conform to the both criticisms. Ultimately, like many critiques of TFA, it misses out on valuable details which counter both issues.

Basically I’ll just say that many things that are glossed over in that video extrapolate in ways that justify many of the things that people take issue with.

If I’m crazy enough I might post a full rebuttal later. If you want an example now I’d just say something like Rey raising herself vs. Luke being raised by his aunt and uncle glosses over that Unkar Plutt was her guardian so there was some help given, but also that that necessitated an independence at a young age which accounts for many of her skills that Luke did not have.

I didn’t find the video funny but I’ll admit videos that critique movies like this are a pet peeve of mine, regardless of how amusing they might be.

TV’s Frink said:

Fant-fi.

Fanta-sci

Handman said:

DominicCobb said:

Hal 9000 said:

Humorous comparison between Rey and Luke: https://youtu.be/PE2at2Wo9sU

I would love to see a video that similarly misconstrues and ignores from the other way around.

What was misconstrued or ignored?

Are you really going to make me go point by point?

suspiciouscoffee said:

flametitan said:

Lord Haseo said:

EDIT:

@flametitan

I don’t think there would be any family functions because Ben is going to prison if he turns back to the light. Just because he’s of the Skywalker bloodline doesn’t mean he can get away with multiple counts of murder and being part of a regime who destroyed an entire System. And that’s just what he’s done thus far. Imagine what that fucker is going to do next.

1. Star Wars is sci-fi

No.

In fairness, “sci-fi take on a fairy tale world” is not a terrible way to describe it.

Can we really call traditional blu-ray previous gen? Most people don’t have a 4K TV and even less have a 4K blu-ray player (surely why Disney hasn’t leapt at the opportunity yet).

I’d definitely be more interested in a rescore that tries to make the film sound less Star Warsy.

Weird, had to check to make sure you’re right because that’s not what I remember, but yes it’s there (but only for the same reason it’s there in Avengers - the film was still distributed by Disney).

That’s certainly possible. Either way, anyone who doesn’t think Disney will start doing 4K releases of their own at some point is just fooling themselves.

Also my main point ended up being that it’s important to remember that Disney released the Phase One box set even though they only originally distributed one of those films, which is promising for SW.

This admin is on really shaky ground. Little chance that either Flynn didn’t properly inform VP and POTUS on his call or that, if he really didn’t, VP and POTUS didn’t find that he lied until just now. With only a fraction of a fraction of an idea of any sort of intelligence security, it’s hard not to imagine that it’s only a matter of time before the Russian connection boils into a full blown, undeniable scandal. Then, of course, the question will be if the GOP has the integrity to investigate their own (signs point to no).

I don’t think Paramount has any hold on Iron Man. Universal has Hulk because they’ve had the rights to that character for decades (and thus why Marvel has little interest in standalone Hulks). Marvel never gave the rights for the Iron Man character to Paramount, they were always with Marvel Studios (and Iron Man 3 was the first Marvel film to only have the Marvel Studios logo). As for what sort of distribution rights Paramount still holds for the first two films, I couldn’t tell you. Anyway, whether Disney holds the distribution rights or not to those films hasn’t stopped them from packaging them along with their own in box sets (along with Universal’s Incredible Hulk), which should tell you that the kind of mixed rights distribution a Star Wars set would require isn’t impossible.

TV’s Frink said:

Jetrell Fo said:

We lost our first before our daughter was born

I’m sorry for your loss.

I am happy to see that you at least apologize to some people. It shows that you’re not as cold as you sometimes make yourself out to be.

😃

Only a matter of time before a Saturday Night Massacre.

stealthboy said:

DominicCobb said:

They really are not that much different.

You bite your tongue!!!

The 04 and 11 ROTJ I mean.

They really are not that much different.

Sougouk said:

Now Trump is entertaining Pretty Boy Justin Trudeau.

Or “now Trump is entertaining one of the last sane leaders in the western world.”

Tobar said:

The TFA theme wasn’t conducted by Williams this go around. He was busy with other parts of the score and entrusted it to a friend of his. Which is why it sounds so off. Here’s an article about it.

I think that’s only a part of it (important to note that Dudamel conducted the end credits too). It definitely sounds like certain elements are favored more in the TFA recording than in others, those this could easily come down to the mix as well. I would say it sounds “off” due to a number of factors, mostly the mixing, the different orchestra and everything that goes along with that (players, instruments), different recording techniques, and the simple fact that we got used to the other recordings (and especially the TPM one).

moviefreakedmind said:

I’m not defending pestering, obnoxious people; I just don’t want to be cavalier in calling things harassment.

I just don’t want to be cavalier when it comes to behaviors that could be harassment.

Warbler said:

DominicCobb said:

I guess it depends on the nature of the rejection and how “persistent” the asker is.

Just because there’s no direct physical or psychological harm doesn’t make it okay though. Harassment doesn’t require those things. Consistent unwanted advances would qualify.

Then I guess Han and even Lando harassed Leia, I guess Chachi harassed Joanie on Happy Days. I guess this is harassment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N9C2JS9mWc

Hitting on someone is not always harassment, and I never said it was. It’s just important to realize that it can be.

Warbler said:

DominicCobb said:

I don’t see any point in arguing this with you any further.

I’m sorry. I did not mean to upset you or offend you.

Trust me you really didn’t. Just sometimes you reach a point where an argument can only go in circles.

doubleofive said:

Mocata said:

The TFA Crawl colours and sound still feel weird to me. Maybe the typeface is slightly wrong?

TFA uses the same title font as A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. Return of the Jedi used a different font that they used throughout the prequels. The R’s are the biggest clues.

The color is fine. The theme recording does sound different.

As it should because it is a new recording unlike 2/3 of the PT crawls.

Flash Gordon?

Handman said:

I can’t recall a single movie using the internet in an effective way. Maybe Chef, or Frank, but they used it in a subdued way and it wasn’t the main focus.

The Social Network?

I will say the internet is inherently uncinematic, so in most cases it’s not worth the effort.

I did see a pretty great short film once that was all about it, though. Will have to look it up, can’t remember the title.