I’m watching the Disney remake of West Side Story by Steven Spielberg. I’m liking it so far, but there are an awful lot of lens flares. Like a JJ Abrams film.
The young leads are lovely young people, i’m trying to understand why other than being an unnecessary remake this bombed so hard and lost like a hundred million dollars.
I need to rewatch everything he did and see his latest film Belle. It seems like it been ages since he directed Mirai which is the last one of his films i watched.
I still haven’t seen Boy and the Beast, but i recommend Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars.
also waiting for some of Shinkai Makoto’s films to be reissued on blu so they aren’t a million dollars to purchase. also for his new film to be released.
The creative spark, and life of Star Wars is George Lucas. I think Disney Star Wars is Star Wars in name only. Its creatively bankrupt, has nothing to say and completely uncreative. A bunch of noise and explosions and special effects. It’s exactly what Star Wars would have been if it was a Hollywood product.
Largely a complaint aimed at the sequel trilogy and JJ Abrams.
They got away with it in force awakens by making a fun movie after the execrable prequels, we thought it was a return to the good old star wars movies. Then we saw how they treated the legacy characters. Luke Skywalker a worthless maguffin. JJ was the absolute worst choice. Ruined the lore, and any potential for any more movies with these characters in the Saga.
Tom Veitch. Writer of Dark Empire and Tales of the Jedi. Creator of Nomi Sunrider and Ulic Qel Droma, and Exar Kun. The Double lightsaber. first to resurrect Emperor Palpatine and Boba Fett.
The first to write about Knights during the old republic, to portray Leia as a Jedi. To show Luke struggling with his father’s legacy post Return of the Jedi. Basically anything Lucas or Disney did he already did it better.
I loved Dark Empire. and Tales of the Jedi. I miss him already.
I wanted to see George continue Luke’s story. I’m not at all interested in midichlorians. Or continuing anything from the prequels. Now we’ll never get the canon story of how Luke ended up after ROTJ.
Its like Bond just getting his license to kill and then we never get to see anymore movies.
I think it awesome that some people do love the prequels though more power to them. I wanted more swashbuckling adventure mixed with the spiritual aspects of the force and teaching the next generation of Jedi.
Maybe Lucas would have had all of these elements in his script but we will never know.
a spinoff describing the first force shamans who communicated with the Whills would be far out, like really weird. But maybe they could do history of the Jedi Bendu and the Bogan who became the Sith. and the first war between the Jedi and the Sith.
Yeah just waiting for G-Kids to put out a Blu-Ray and hoping it isn’t another anime i’ll never be able to see because its only available as a streaming thing under a subscription service. It happens far too often these days.
Edit:
I watched The Kings Man. The first half was really trashy and i literally almost turned it off, first half is like one of the worst movies ever. Second half much more somber and then leads into the absurd ending. But it was a huge improvement over the first half of the movie. But it didn’t feel like a Kingsman movie, it wasn’t nearly as fun and over the top or stylish. I honestly would have wanted my money back if i hadn’t seen it for free on HBO, if i had seen it in the theater.
I also rented Eternals and man it was a slow to develop movie, i enjoyed the ending but the setup to get there was slow. But i can see the eternally boring thing people were saying. For an MCU movie it just isn’t a joy to watch more like a homework assignment. But the standout character for me was Phastos i liked him.
They were done around the same time as the Indiana Jones remasters. Which is funny considering it was almost a decade ago.
But they sat on these for years. Star Wars coming to 4K disc in the maclunkey edit in 2020, and Indiana Jones in 2021.
Reliance did the scans for Star Wars formerly Lowry. and Pacific Title did Indiana Jones.
Luke’s sacrifice in Last Jedi is beautiful as is his letting go of his fear. The scene where he fades into the force facing a rising sun is palpable.
And its all undone in Rise of Skywalker by bringing him back to lift the X-wing in an unnecessary scene.
Rey already had the training she needed watching Luke fail according to Last Jedi, but all of a sudden we need Leia to train her. Leia suddenly a Jedi Master who never was even a Jedi Knight.
These movies don’t work in sequence.
I wish the films weren’t so rushed and they had more time to develop the screenplays. I like Rey, Poe and Finn, and Rose but the characters could have had more depth to them. Finn in particular the whole plot with him being a former Stormtrooper and force sensitive just seemed to be mentioned in ROS but nothing was done with it.
Rose is basically cut out of the film for no reason in ROS. A lot of the more interesting threads from Last Jedi weren’t followed through on as if ROS was a sequel to Force Awakens in a duology. Kylo reforged mask is like JJ saying i’m undoing everything you did Rian.
And honestly the new characters seem more like cliche archetypes/ redoes of some of the OT heroes. Something new needed to be added other than nostalgia and the familiar.
There is a US NTSC letterbox set from 1992 but far less common. Its not rare either. But back then everyone wanted full screen tapes.
I have this set of the letterbox tapes and they come from the same video master as the Japanese Special Collection, the same as the US first issue widescreen laserdisc releases. With the same misframed image to fit the Japanese subtitles which aren’t on the video but they never corrected them.
Jedi is the worst effected. And it wasn’t corrected until the remastered THX releases which began with the definitive laserdisc collection and faces laserdisc, and also the widescreen tapes.
i’m interested in how one restores a 16mm print.
I always wanted to try a single episode of Star Blazers to see if it was possible to do the show in HD.
Gumby ought to be interesting.
I guess i was expecting more swashbuckling action Anakin following Obi Wan on a damn fool idealistic crusade.
Yoda being Obi Wan’s teacher, Leia’s mom dying on Alderaan when Leia was like 5 years old or something. Owen Lars being Obi Wan’s brother.
Luke’s father being a good friend and a great pilot. And i mean in the films not having to go to other media to get that characterization, like the Clone Wars.
Showing the actual clone war on screen, the purge of the Jedi by Vader. All the things hinted at during the filming of the OT.
I have no problem if its prequel fanfiction for the prequel fans. They get to see Hayden as Anakin/Vader again, and Ewan as Obi Wan. And hopefully its a better handling of those characters than what the sequels did the OT characters. Of course it could be garbage. But i’m cautiously optimistic and i am not a huge prequel person.
I think Disney Lucasfilm is giving the fans what they think they want, I.E. Boba Fett and Young Luke Skywalker. But nothing they do seems to not get the ire of fans. Either its too different like last jedi or too fanservicey.
Honestly i admire Rian he said its about the story not about the fans. Once you get to making shows or movies off a fan wishlist, what is the point. You aren’t telling a story you are checking off boxes. Last Jedi is the sole thing they’ve done that is interesting to me, in terms of character.
Which version the British or American. Both are overrated.
I haven’t watched Wolf Children in years. I’m waiting for Mamoru Hosoda’s latest film Belle to be released.
Loved Girl who Leapt through time, loved summer wars. Mirai was an enjoyable film. Never saw boy and the beast yet.
RIP Robert Blalack. ILM effects artist who worked on Star Wars. Was one of the Founders of ILM.
We’re slowly losing everyone who worked on this film and still the original is buried, its sickening.
Maybe he only watched the 1997 Special Edition on 35mm and never saw the incredibly awful 2004 DVD one can hope. Its worse it has that new Emperor scene and Boba Fett redubbed by Jango Fett. But the 97 still has worse replacement shots than the original lead up to cloud city, and alert my star destroyer to prepare for my arrival and Jerjerrod. Even if it had the Original Emperor and Jason Wingreen. If only they restored the picture did a cleaned up multi track digital mix, removed matte lines. Fix the Speeder transparency.
I even hate the zoomed in Falcon Cockpit shots. For every beautiful original effect cleaned up there is a nonsense cgi test shot that sticks out like a sore thumb.
They were using these as a place to learn new tools and create a toolbox to make the prequels. Its hideous to think they defaced the original. and even cut up the negative. And didn’t create a restored original first and the special edition second as an alternative cut.
He is incredibly busy so much so he hasn’t been able to direct any of the Disney plus shows. I doubt this trilogy ever happens, or not at least until Knives out 3 is released.
Its about as certain as episodes X, XI and XII. and i’d bet more on that happening than Rian’s trilogy.
Its hard to believe Doug Trumbull passed away, and right when they are restoring his original work for the new version of the directors cut of Star Trek The Motion Picture. It sucks.
He asked Paramount to dig out his original 65mm negative of the effects of Star Trek. But he isn’t going to be around to finally see his vision realized.
I don’t think this plot line mentioned in the originals was revisited.
Kersh was given final cut and Lucas had promised him it would be his movie. He went back on that with the Special Edition. Lucas made a similar promise to Marquand. But he was more amenable because he felt it was Lucas universe and he ought to make the film the way Lucas wanted. Of course he wasn’t alive to object to ROTJ Special Edition, but i doubt he would have minded. You are a director for hire when hired by Lucas, Lucas is the auteur. The only exception if Indiana Jones where it was co partnership with Spielberg, but it was never a suggestion that Lucas was backseat directing those, well at least the first 3, film 4 is arguable.
Its native, just like a decade old and done by Pacific Title.
Just like those Star Wars 4K discs were done around the same time by Reliance Mediaworks, AKA Lowry.
Have no idea why they sat on it for so long.
Must be a Lucasfilm thing.
Raiders was done in 2011-2012
Star Wars was done in 2012-2013.
Only for both to be released a near decade later.
The 4K is from the same master as the Blu-Ray. They didn’t do a rescan. And further clean up work was done on opticals, more dnr as well apparently but not in the whole picture. Its a mixed bag. Looks fine on a modern set but not how it looked in 1981.
He was nothing but generous and kind to me. Some of the moderation was welcome in my honest opinion, the site felt welcoming again.