DominicCobb

DuracellEnergizer said:

I picked up a copy of the TFA novelization from my local library yesterday.

I read chapter 1 last night; it was wholly predictable and meh. I’ll find out if the story gets any more interesting further in later tonight.

Don’t you already know the story? I know you haven’t seen the film but if you know what happens I can see why it would be predictable.

I’m interested to hear how you take to the story from just the book. I haven’t read the book yet so I can’t attest to its quality, but I will say Star Wars is a franchise that works much better on the screen than the page.

Damn, Neg with the combo breaker on FRWL at number one (in fairness I was surprised to see so many put it at number one instead of Goldfinger).

moviefreakedmind said:

I will say that I really don’t understand the disdain for the World Is Not Enough. I know it isn’t great but I think it’s a well executed action movie; perhaps convoluted but I wouldn’t say it’s any more convoluted than Spectre.

No disdain from me. I rank it low but that doesn’t mean I don’t like it. It’s just on the lower end (also my bottom five or so are mostly ones that I’ve only seen once or twice and haven’t seen again just because I didn’t care for them as much, so they’re kind of in flux). I just find it kind of dull (and Christmas Jones suuuuucks).

NSFW pics and gifs are posted so rarely in this thread (never) that I forgot it was an NSFW thread.

Honestly I’m a little surprised DE hasn’t posted tities here until now.

Yeah, as I’ve learned in this past month, TPM seems to be regarded as the best of the PT round these parts. But I think the general consensus on the inter webs is that ROTS is superior (an opinion I share).

eiyosus said:

I felt this score was much more percussive than melodic. Much more so than the previous films. That was the first thing that struck me when skimming through the soundtrack the day before I saw the movie (didn’t want to hear too much, but couldn’t help myself). I don’t mean that there were more drums (although there were, I think), but that the other instruments also focused more on staccato rhythm.

Compare something like the asteroid chase in ESB to the Falcon chase in this and you can definitely hear the difference in approach. That’s probably why a lot of people thought it was less than stellar. Personally speaking, I also thought it was a bit of a let down, but I didn’t care all that much. It wasn’t an issue of the music being bad or uninspired, just that it’s hard to top the first two SW movies.

I do think on some of the action cues (particularly The Falcon) the music is more rhythmic than melodic. If I were to guess, this is just a sign of the times. Now that you can edit films on a computer, last minute nips and tucks are much more common, so Williams has composed music that can be more easily edited.

Most modern action scores are more rhythmic than melodic for this reason I think.

Hal 9000 said:

But seriously, I saw the film a third time this afternoon and finally feel ready to offer an informed opinion.
I really enjoyed it. The problems I had with it did not bother me upon repeat viewings. In this and other ways, it’s similar to Return of the Jedi. Both ape ANH somewhat, and I would have preferred them not to. But, TFA carries its flaws and holds up despite them, and its emotional beats resonated very well. Star Wars Episode VII is now a thing that exists, rather than a hypothetical full of infinite potential, and that reality bothered me a little at first. Seeing it for what it is, I think it’s a success.

Glad to see you enjoy it now Hal. I had a similar experience as you the first time, though not as extreme. It’s tough when you’ve anticipated it for so long, it’s literally impossible for it to live up to expectations (not just quality expectations, but content expectations, and sometimes this is for the better). Even though I kept telling this to myself going into it, it still nagged me a little while watching. I still loved the film the first time I saw it, but not even close to as much the other times I saw it.

It’s a funny thing when it’s an unseen film “full of infinite potential,” as you say. It can definitely be hard to reconcile when you finally see it. I remember when I first saw the film, and it gets to the scene with Lor San Tekka and Poe and it’s the first dialogue scene and I had this moment where I said to myself in my mind “oh my god, it’s just a movie isn’t it.” Before it exists it’s just a mystical unicorn. Part of the fun of Star Wars is the unknown, so, while finally figuring out what happens is obviously exciting, on some level it’s sad because that will never be a mystery anymore. But consciously we want to know everything. So the first time I saw it I had so many questions and consciously I was sort of like “come on, why didn’t they do this, why didn’t they do that,” but when I thought about it, what I wanted from Episode VII was too much for a single movie. Episode VII is the first of a trilogy and obviously there will be some mystery and obviously not everything will be explored in depth yet (I think part of the disconnect for me is that I saw the OT in one fell swoop rather than waited three years in between each). And that’s fine, and really it’s better this way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRzXsohrazc at about 1 minute. You’re welcome.

I’ve heard of a number of people who have been able to enjoy TFA as their first Star Wars film.

Any ranking of the Bond series is going to be controversial. WISNE is very low on my list, but we all have our biases.

1. From Russia With Love
2. Goldfinger
3. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
4. Skyfall
5. Casino Royale
6. The Spy Who Loved Me
7. The Living Daylights
8. Goldeneye
9. You Only Live Twice
10. Spectre
11. Thunderball
12. Diamonds Are Forever
13. Live And Let Die
14. Dr. No
15. For Your Eyes Only
16. License to Kill
17. Tomorrow Never Dies
18. A View To A Kill
19. The Man With The Golden Gun
20. Quantum of Solace
21. Die Another Day
22. Moonraker
23. The World Is Not Enough
24. Octopussy

Ronster said:

joefavs said:

I feel like those who are being super critical of the score either haven’t experienced as many repeat viewings as we who really dug the movie or else weren’t interested enough to really live with the soundtrack for a while after Disney put it on YouTube. Now that I’m very familiar with it, I realize there’s so much more going on than one viewing can convey. There are at least five new themes that I couldn’t get out of my head if I wanted to. It’s definitely a score that rewards continued listening.

Well I only saw the film once and the only music I could remember was the original Star Wars Fanfare at the Start on the opening crawl.

Good Music just does not work in the way that you need to continually listen to something to have to appreciate it.

If it is very good you will get the hook put in to you. You’ll be hooked on it.

Basically yeah I will watch it again at some point but not in the cinema. Home viewing to absorb the film better perhaps but I honestly can’t remember any music from the film at all.

Immediately catchy music can be good music but not all good music is immediately catchy. Film scores, much like other aspects of filmmaking (lighting, editing, etc.) work to improve the film primarily on a more subconscious. It is typically not until we see the film again (and we can pay less attention to what’s happening) that we appreciate these aspects more. The score to TFA certainly supports repeat viewings and there’s a rewarding complexity to it that wasn’t there in the PT.

Sure, when you got out of a prequel you might be humming a Duel of the Fates or a Across the Stars or a Battle of the Heroes. But that’s because Williams had to compensate for what wasn’t there. Why is it that Williams most epic theme from the PT came from its most boring film? Why is it that one of the best love themes ever composed for screen came from one of film’s all time worst romances? Why does the Battle of the Heroes theme play only once in ROTS when that conflict should have been throughout the film (hint, not Williams’s fault). Williams is supporting what’s on screen in TFA and for the first time in a long time what’s on screen is simply more interesting.

But yeah, catchiness means very little to me. My favorite albums weren’t my favorite albums upon first listen. I could recognize the music was good, but I couldn’t necessarily recall the songs right away. Sometimes I listen to pop music but it doesn’t usually sustain too many repeat listens. Similarly, ROTS was probably my favorite soundtrack when I was a kid but now I realize it’s just a collection of unnecessarily “epic” cues without any sort of thematic coherence (not to mention a good 40% of the music in that movie is tracked from the TPM and AOTC scores).

LexX said:

luckydube56 said:

How old is this ‘young’ Han Solo supposed to be?

As you may or may not know, he is supposed to appear in Rogue One

Thanks for spoilers.

Yeah, he did post in the wrong thread. But I don’t think that’s a spoiler because I’m almost positive it’s just a BS rumor.

Why do the prunefaces exist/look like the Emperor?

TavorX said:

Edit: I should make it clear that I’ve only seen TFA once.

Well there’s your problem.

SE. It’s supposed to be ridiculous, right? I’m sure there’s stuff there you could play with. Han v Greedo could be a shootout. Or Greedo could repeatedly shoot at Han and he keeps dodging.

Darth Muffy said:

Harmys Party Despecilized Editons.

That sounds like fun.

Bingowings said:

I too find the new themes (other than Rey’s which is rather like something out of John Ford Western) a bit uninspired.

All the films 1-6 had memorable themes you could hum or whistle after leaving the cinema.

I didn’t have one this time.

You’re probably right on immediate hummability, but for me that’s not the barometer of a good score. For me a good score has themes that develop and intertwine throughout the film and support what’s on screen. There’s a coherence and sophistication to the music in TFA that hasn’t been there in a SW score since, I would argue, 1980.

And I found the themes quite hummable after a couple good listens to the soundtrack.

I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever even seen the theatrical cut of T2.

John Doom said:

btw do you guys think that there should’ve been more scenes involving the Republic? I know there was one with Leia, but it was cut. Do you think more scenes would’ve improved TFA, adding to the background and making the Republic’s planet’s destruction more moving?

The planet’s destruction is problematic, though I don’t know if I’d add more scenes of the Republic. There’s two ways they could have done it, I guess. They could have had more scenes of the Republic which would have invested us more in its destruction(as the novelization does and an early cut possibly did), but it likely would have ruined the structure and pacing (not meeting Leia and the Resistance until after the battle on Takodana is perfect). However, taking those scenes out does make the destruction of the Hosnian system lose its power, certainly. They could have just done it like ANH. We don’t need the destruction of the planet to be emotionally moving, we need it to see the evil of the First Order and set up their threat. But the film tries to have it both ways, preserving the leaner structure while trying for that emotional power. What they should have done is removed the shots on the surface of Hosnian Prime and eased it on the tragic music (it’s probably the one spot in the score where Williams is compensating for what’s not in the film[like in the PT] rather than supporting what is).

John Doom said:
1st

For the record Doom, my response wasn’t so much jumping down your through yelling “how dare you” as it was honestly trying to understand how you could like one small part of the score and none of the rest of it.

Sounds (were) reasonable.

Yeah, it’s a shame they went with Emilia Clarke. Not only does she look very little like Linda Hamilton, she’s also just not a very good actress in my opinion. They really should have went with Brie Larson, who was the other one in the running. She looks more like Hamilton and is an amazing talent. Well, I guess it’s better for her she wasn’t in it.

Possessed said:

I’ve been on this site since 2009, but for some reason I don’t remember anything that happened here back then. I’m scared to look through my old posts, I was probably a dousher.

Well I’m not scared to look through your old posts…

Oh, lookee here, you were a dousher!

“I think Qui-Gon should be added to the end celebration in ROTJ alongside the other jedis there. He discovered skywalker and saw to it that he was trained, and he discovered how to return from the dead, so he should be allowed to stand there.”
http://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/347209

John Doom said:

DominicCobb said:

John Doom said:

DominicCobb said:

John Doom said:

I liked:
[…]
-the First Order’s (if brief) theme;

There were a lot of great themes in the film. This was the only one you liked??

Yep. Half of the themes were remakes of the older ones, while I didn’t find very moving the new ones.

Did you even listen to the soundtrack? I’m honestly having a hard time comprehending this.

Here are the new themes:
Rey’s theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65As1V0vQDM
Kylo Ren’s theme (at 4:20): https://youtu.be/y8ac1Qg-r-8?t=4m18s
Kylo Ren’s secondary theme (at 0:13): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUs88IY1A00
Finn’s theme (at 1:11): https://youtu.be/VLipUMfiiC8?t=1m
Poe Dameron’s theme (at 1:18): https://youtu.be/cHJrfB7VquM?t=1m14s
The Resistance’s theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueqKtype7Kk
The Jedi steps theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUBUlKgsNK8

Of those (brilliant) new themes, the only one that I think even vaguely sounds like a remake is Kylo Ren’s, but that makes sense narratively.

Seriously, the fact that you think not one of those is worth liking and you instead prefer a small bit at the start of the film that isn’t even a theme makes me think you are just being purposefully contrarian on this point.

Calm down, I didn’t say they’re not good, just that I didn’t find them very moving in the movie. Besides, when I said half of the themes are remakes of the older ones, I wasn’t referring to these tracks, but the other half used in the movie which actually were remakes of older tracks like the Force’s theme, Luke’s theme, Leia’s theme, and so on.
That bit I said I like wasn’t randomly chosen, it is used every time the First Order appears in the movie, so it’s kind of like a theme on its own, right?

Fair enough. I think you’re wrong about the new themes, but, if you disagree, I can’t really change your mind I guess.

As for the use of old themes, having seen the film 4 times and listened to the soundtrack many more times, I can say with some certainty that the older stuff makes up much less than half of the score (probably closer to 5-10% of it), and their usage is done purposefully (i.e. Leia and Han reunite and we hear their theme, Rebel fanfare when the Falcon returns, the main theme when something heroic happens). The Force theme is the most used of them all but it has always been the most used theme throughout all six films. If it hadn’t been used, there’d be a problem. Still, its usage is minor compared to new stuff like Rey’s theme.

As for the theme you picked, yeah it’s a pretty cool motif that obviously signifies the First Order. But it’s only used that once so it seems silly (to me at least) that you’d pick that as the only new theme you like over the numerous other themes that evolve and develop throughout the film.

T2 - A
T1 - A
T3 - C
TS - C

Haven’t seen Genisys. Looked like a piece of shit. Will probably catch it on TV.

Films are not shot in chronological order. She was great throughout.