NFBisms

In a movie where Luke Skywalker of all people is presented as a jaded cynic - I don’t think Holdo is supposed to be perceived as in the right over Poe, fwiw.

Poe is a brash hotshot, sure, but don’t overthink it - Holdo as a leader definitely made huge mistakes. Everyone is at fault for what happens, but that’s partly why TLJ is so good to me. It’s been said to death, but the movie proposes this question specifically about what defines a hero, and Holdo isn’t exempt from that scrutiny imo.

Work in Progress

With Spider-Man PS4 and Into the Spider-Verse coming out, as well as a general revival of interest in the webslinger since Homecoming, I decided to revisit my least favorite Spider-Man movie, The Amazing Spider-Man 2. There’s a bunch of issues with the film, but the biggest thing that sticks out to me is how manufactured and commercial the whole thing feels, right down to Andrew Garfield being more of a model/pretty boy instead of the iconic character.

It just doesn’t feel like Spider-Man, despite some of the most faithful characteristics of the character finally being on the screen. He finally cracks wise, finally uses his intelligence to try to solve problems, etc. The package it’s delivered in is just so bad that he comes off worse than he ever has. The elements are all there to make a good Spider-Man movie, but it’s so muddled by everything else.

There’s a parents subplot, a romantic subplot, a life/death/friendship thing with Harry, Aunt May and her nursing thing, set up for S6, and it’s not put together coherently. I honed in on what the movie had that was closest to the essence of the character: his heroism and responsibility. Get rid of everything else (especially anything having to do with his parents) and just make the movie about his struggle between his personal life and his responsibilities as someone trying to be a hero. That’s pure Spider-Man.

To present my edit, I doubled down a couple things I had always associated with Spider-Man: New York City and his 1967 cartoon. Specifically, the genre of jazz music as the soundtrack to Spider-Man’s misadventures.

The syncopated rhythmic music used in that original cartoon isn’t a far cry from the iconic urban jungle’s own typical association with a jazz soundtrack. The 2008 Spectacular Spider-Man (the best Spider-Man show everyone watch it) even has its own jazz-inspired score. There’s something that feels more friendly neighborhood and derivative of NYC by having Spider-Man and jazz come together.

So this edit seeks to make TASM2 its own standalone Spider-Man movie, scored with its own style of jazz.

The movie opens with Norman talking to Harry about their disease, and giving him his research as he dies.
The credits begin as Spider-Man chases down the Russians hijacking the Oscorp truck and the scene ends when Spidey manages to get all the plutonium and is hit in the back with a police car.
Transitions from there to a montage of Peter/Spider-Man’s day-to-day, dealing with Jameson and the bad press.
Peter hears about Norman’s death, is triggered to think about his Uncle Ben, and checks on Gwen. He is probably reminiscing the consequences of him being so close to her with his dangerous occupation.
Alexei is broken out of jail and rampages as the Rhino while graduation starts. Peter is running late to graduation on his way to confront Alexei.
Spider-Man steps in for the kid and him and Rhino begin to fight before we cut back to the graduation walk. Peter is assumed to have defeated Rhino and is late. (Cut the kiss).
Peter and Gwen kind of break up.
Peter and Gwen angst a bit.
Max is pushed around on his way to work and his obsession with SM is introduced while with Gwen in the elevator, just before he becomes Electro.
Harry is in a meeting with the rest of Oscorp’s board now that he’s CEO, meets Felicia and is notified that Peter has arrived to check on his friend.
They hang out a bit.
Cut to Electro coming out into the world/Times Square.
Spider-Man shows up to fight him.
After Electro is defeated, Harry in his dad’s office hears the news and discovers something in is dad’s research.
Aunt May tries to get into Peter’s room to wake him up, while Peter is covered in soot and is still dressed as Spidey.
Gwen remembers Max from the elevator.
Peter swings around as Spider-Man a bit, saves a bus, and comes back home to modify his webshooters to work against Electro (without a YouTube video).
Harry calls him the next day and Peter goes to OsCorp.
Harry tells Peter about his disease and that he needs Spider-Man’s blood.
Gwen finds out Max’s accident wasn’t an accident and is hunted by OsCorp security.
Peter runs into her and they hide in the closest. (No kiss)
Peter helps her escape and she talks to Harry in the elevator.
Spider-Man stops some bullies from harassing the kid from the beginning of the movie.
Harry goes home, wakes up to Spider-Man telling him he can’t have his blood. Harry throws a tantrum.
Peter is devastated by not being able to help his friend and takes it out on his room.
Peter goes to Gwen at her Oxford interview and tells her about his dilemma. He learns Gwen will move.
Harry is kicked out of OsCorp after he learns the truth of what his dad’s board did to Max and others.
Peter angsts after he learns Gwen is moving away and Aunt May tells him about how she got over Ben’s death but will never forget him. Peter hears Gwen’s voicemail and picks her up at the bridge.
Harry breaks into Ravencroft to team up with Electro. They come back to OsCorp and Electro gets access to the grid.
Peter and Gwen take on Electro and win. (No planes or hospital subplot)
Harry forces Menken to bring him to special projects. He becomes the Goblin.
Goblin shows up where Peter and Gwen are.
Goblin vs Spider-Man.
Gwen dies.
Funeral/Cemetary scenes.
The End.

There are a bunch of cuts I didn’t mention, (that list was just the basic structure), but most of the edits toned down Garfield’s hyperactive mannerisms, and made him more mild mannered as opposed to suave and charming. Additionally, Spider-Man still cracks wise, but he isn’t a jackass. I wanted to maintain a sense of earnestness in Spider-Man and Peter, and there’s more heart to the character now as opposed to before. He came off as kind of goofy douchey type with a chip on his shoulder in the original, as opposed to a loveable everyman trying his best to be a hero.

I mean, in a universe where there are a ton of different alien species, Lando of all people being open to all of it makes a lot of sense.

hey confession time im not white are there any other non-white guys here

I mean, if you know it doesn’t apply to you, I wouldn’t be offended by it.

shit article tho

It’s an incredibly annoying movie to watch over and over again.

I’m at this point where I consistently fall asleep and wake up at the same exact points in the movie every time and I can literally just use it as the perfect power nap timer.

i remember being fresh faced and excited about editing it

EDIT: oh right and the scene right after is Obi-Wan landing on Utapau

Right after the Confronting the Chancellor deleted scene. You helped me place it there when I was testing early versions of my edit lol!

This is probably bad for my health, but I’m also interested!

Tobar said:

https://ewedit.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/aiw-payoff_1_sheet-lg.jpg

This poster is much better tbh

It was, but I took it down after I decided to update the edit. I don’t think the quality the new version is rendered in is worth putting up on MySpleen right now. I’ll put it out in full HD when I have the time.

I also actually haven’t touched the movie in a month, while I was every day before, even after having some version out. So I’m confident that the one I’ve been sending out since Feb 20th is the final version.

It’s pretty much done. PM me for a link.

The Mentor on Vimeo is pretty good.

I feel like Space Whales worked for me as well as they did because their intro seemed like such a useless episode, that no one would ever let you forget about as an example of the show’s low points. I would have forgotten about the episode had it not been the poster boy for the “too much filler” criticism. To see them play a pivotal part of the story’s conclusion was a lot of fun.

As for the Ezra and Ahsoka being around during the OT; I’m fine with it because Ezra and Thrawn are pretty much M.I.A in a part of the universe literally called the Unknown Regions. They might as well not exist because they’ve essentially been taken out of the known galaxy, uncharted space, and presumably without a way to get back.

Ahsoka is a little harder to get around, but they’ll probably explain it.

How do we feel about this when it comes to fish men?

I am a little disappointed Grinding Nemo won Best Picture and about Baby Driver, but Deakins winning as well as Coco winning makes me alright with how it turned out.

I was thinking about those exact ones lol.

hey man anime can be fucking cool dont hate

edit: Most of it is garbage to be fair. Or I’m just trash enough to enjoy some of it.

If I can explain why I left the scene in for New Canon Cut - that edit’s main goals were to age Anakin up and portray him as an experienced and trusted Jedi general. Leaving in that scene was a decision made towards a more subliminal end rather than plot or pacing end. Seeing him alongside Windu and the other masters just further suggests that he has rank among them. Don’t forget I also cut Anakin saying “yes, master” in response to his orders, so Anakin just coldly looks at Windu before walking off, openly demonstrating that he disapproves. The subsequent scene with Anakin and Palpatine is also then edited to make Anakin the one to take the reigns in the conversation. So even if he doesn’t go to the Chancellor on his own accord, Anakin is still proactive and assertive in guiding his fate. (shameless plug: new version on gdrive hmu for link)

I don’t think it’s something LoE needs though, to be honest.

If you were to use both scenes like I did, I just cut out “I sense a plot to destroy the Jedi” in the first, earlier deleted OB1/MW/Y scene, and then cut after that point in the war room scene. “The dark side of the force surrounds the chancellor” is vague enough for early on in the film, but once all the gears have been working in Palpatine’s favor at this halfway point, I think the more solid “plot to destroy the Jedi” being recognized is fine. It’s almost too late by this point anyway.

Still a rough draft for sure, a lot of it is experimentation.

EDIT: also lol @Owen being Anakin’s biological brother. He’d be like 10. I just thought saying “stepbrother” was a bit too stiff

To be honest, not really. Anakin is too much of a whiny brat towards the start of that one, and I use audio from it towards the end of this cut. (Obi-Wan suggesting Anakin’s knighting)

EDIT: btw making cutlists is such a process and not fun at all but i do need to explain some choices i make because they’re probably unpopular at first glance

colorgrade: http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/131932/

So, for those of you who have kept up with my RotS edit, this is my episode II!

Obviously, I’m partial to the interpretation of Anakin Skywalker as described to us by Ben Kenobi in the OT and presented to us in the 2008 Clone Wars series, so to fill in the blanks between TPM and TCW/RotSNCC, this edit of AotC aims to lighten Anakin and Obi-Wan’s relationship, and make Anakin Skywalker a more genuinely likeable person. While the prequels are incongruous in a lot of ways with the OT, I believe the characterizations and arcs should stay consistent across all canon.

The approach here is a little different than in the New Canon Cut for RotS. Anakin won’t be a decorated general or that mature. In fact, my AotC kind of aims to age Anakin down a bit, a tad closer to the sweet boy Ani we met in TPM. That’s not to say he will be annoying, but what I did here was make Anakin more willing to be a student. Theatrical Anakin is in a hurry to grow up, and thus tries to act like it to the point he sounds whiny, immature, and entitled. Obi-Wan is pretty much done with his shit, and thinks Anakin is a bit of a trouble student. Anakin in my AotC is reframed as more or less a good student with a bit of a playful, rebellious edge; he knows and embraces his place as still just a padawan and Obi-Wan is more seemingly fond of him, trusting him much more.

I think there’s a contrast between that young student and the decorated general in my RotS that just makes the fall in RotS more tragic. The trajectory is now set up where Anakin’s arc is more or less him on his way to growing into being like Luke by the end of ROTJ (maybe even better), but he ultimately fails to grapple with his attachments and passions.

In that vein, Anakin is much more mellow and less cold in this edit. Specifically in the scenes where he’s interrogating, Anakin doesn’t become intense or irate. He’s patient with Watto, softer with Zam, and I’ve removed his coldness towards his step-family.

I’ve tried to make Anakin and Padme’s romance a lot less creepy and weird. Anakin not being obssessed with her from the jump was a good place to start with that. Anakin here has a little crush, sure, but he doesn’t talk to Obi-Wan about dreaming about her, flirt awkwardly, promise to find her assassins obsessively, or anxiously jump to conclusions about her forgetting him completely. The scene where he talks about his dreams about his mother with Obi-Wan ends with Anakin nodding in agreement to “dreams pass in time” instead of him shifting the conversation to dreaming about Padme and defending her even if he hasn’t seen her in 10 years. It feels more like Anakin is here to do his job for an old friend, rather than primarily try to score some points towards getting laid. His crush is tertiary to his duty as a Jedi, and as a friend.

Padme falling for Anakin is more straightforward and streamlined. They don’t bicker, and there are no real barriers to hurdle in terms of her being comfortable with how she knew him then and now. Anakin is just more boyishly charming in my cut. He confidently chuckles as she does instead of doing his “grown more beautiful for a senator” thing, and I’ve moved up the “if you’ll excuse me” to replace him imperatively telling her to “stay here” after Obi-Wan jumps out the window. The traces of creepy are all replaced with an Anakin straddling the line between boy next door and charming rebel.

I used Octorox’s and Hal’s edits as my base. PM for first version, and I’ll add a full cutlist later. Feedback would be cool. There’s a lot more to the edit than what I described.

There’s a higher quality, better edited version sitting un rendered for right now, I just don’t have time for anything anymore man…

The few tweaks include audio level fixes for two or three of the added audio bits, timing fix with “There’s no time…” earlier on in the film, and just three more different cuts in the beginning, middle, and end:

• Faster R2 vs Buzz Droid
• “Anakin I am on your side” replacing “We are at war, Anakin.”
• “You’re too late” audio left out at the end

Then I think I can finally put this project to bed. I just need to find time to finalize it. I’ve been jumping a little too eagerly to do that the past 7 times and people have been left with less than perfect versions. This time, I won’t put it out unless I’m sure this is it, even if the changes this time are minimal.

That’s probably when I’ll even bother with FE.org, reddit, cover art, and blu ray stuff. By then, I want to have a “New Canon Cut” Trilogy done. I haven’t made a thread for it yet, but I’ve been working my way through AotC whenever I can. It’ll be in the same spirit as this edit.

No one is real anyway. We’re all in a simulation.

DrDre said:

DominicCobb said:

DrDre said:

DominicCobb said:

DrDre said:

DominicCobb said:

Collipso said:

DominicCobb said:

Collipso said:

Still talking about Luke, I’ll try to clear things up a little bit. I don’t really have a problem with Luke not living up to be the legend he was made out to be. I just don’t understand, for example, how did the legend originate. Like I said in a previous post, his victories were mostly personal and (should be) unknown to the rest of the galaxy, except for destroying the first Death Star. But I can see how a myth or some mystery feeling would grow around him, given that most people probably thought that the mysterious nature of his activities and his sad devotion to an ancient religion were suspicious and weird. And mysterious and wizardry. Anyway.

I don’t get why the tales of his bravery wouldn’t spread and balloon. And he had more victories than we saw in the films.

What tales of bravery? How he led the defense of Echo Base in Hoth and failed miserably? Or how he disappeared only to show up without a hand? Granted, Han Solo’s rescue is a big deal and was probably one of the greatest displays of Luke being a hero, but so what? The clone wars is full of badass moments and missions. Moreso than Han’s rescue. Then Luke basically defected in Endor, and I think the other rebels that didn’t know of his whereabouts were quite suspicious. And then he suddenly comes back! He’d eventually tell Han and Leia what happened, sure, but how the events in the Death Star II eventually led up to a legend is beyond me.

What clone wars moments? There’s only the battle of Geonosis, Coruscant and Utapau.

What I really have a problem with is how he died and ultimately failed his goal, failed his whole purpose in the original trilogy, which was to rebuild the Jedi Order. That makes him a failure imo. Not only that but the movie also makes him betray his character arc in the scene with Kylo with unconvincing explanation as to why, and also present him as some sort of fool for making the exact same mistake that his mentors did years before, mistakes that he was aware were made. And what pisses me off is that all of this happened just so that Rey could have the exact same journey as Luke, specially now that we have the exact same scenario we had in the original movies.

Luke didn’t fail, though. His goal was to become a Jedi (check) and to pass on what he learned (check). He will not be the last Jedi, and Rey won’t be a Jedi like him.

He did fail. Yes, becoming a Jedi was one of his goals, and he achieved that, but at the moment Darth Vader destroyed his beliefs, expectations, values, ideas of his purpose and the reason why he was fighting, his purpose and he himself became much bigger than just becoming a Jedi because his dad was one.

Do you think he passed on what he learned? Not to Rey, I don’t think. She has the books, but that’s about it. He taught her nothing, and the movie made that very clear. She might become a Jedi still, but not from or because of Luke.

Not only did he not teach her nothing, I don’t think he’s done teaching her. And yes, she is going to be a Jedi because of Luke, not just because of the few lessons he taught her, but because he inspired her (and the rest of the galaxy).

Anyway, after RotJ he built a Jedi Order that lasted for probably some 3-5 years, only for it to be destroyed. Another failure. And then he died. His death scene was pretty badass and beautiful, I’ll give you that, and it showed how awesome Luke Skywalker can be. But he still failed. I’m making it sound like that’s the problem - that he failed - but no. The problem is that he died a failure. It served no purpose, it just pissed on his character. Everything he tried to accomplish, accomplished and built was either destroyed or killed, including Luke himself.

He could have just… survived. Been able to go on, to teach a new generation, to learn from his failures rather than to die as one. But that was not allowed.

Did we even watch the same movie? The idea that Luke died a failure… clearly that was not what happened.

Mmm, let me see. Luke was instrumental in bringing peace and justice back to the galaxy. He wanted to train a new generation of Jedi. He made a mistake, and ended up failing his students, and by running away rather than fix that mistake, he allowed a second darkness to take over the galaxy. He is partly responsible for that. Luke’s legacy is one of failure. While he has provided hope for a future generation, it is now up to the next generation to fix his mess. Luke is like a guy with huge debts, who after refusing to pay them, dies just after providing his heirs the hope of paying off those debts in time. That is not a legacy of success in any shape or form.

If you choose to interpret it that (wrong) way that’s your prerogative. But the film (and it’s ending especially) is explicitly about the success of Luke’s legacy, and how that has inspired the galaxy.

No, the film is explicit in the success of Luke’s effort to inspire hope in a terrible situation he was party responsible for. This does not create a legacy of success, it creates a glimmer of hope in a legacy of failure.

If a police force sit on their behinds, and allow a group of criminals to go on a killing spree, they have failed in their duties, even if they belatedly see the error of their ways, and attempt to bring them to justice, or more accurately inspire others to do it for them.

I don’t really think it’s fair to blame the rise of the First Order on Luke.

And the films don’t even really suggest that. The point is that the dark side always comes back. You can’t always stop it from rearing it’s ugly head, what’s important is that there’s hope you can defeat it once again.

The majority of the responsibility isn’t on Luke. However, it is the responsibility of a Jedi to guard peace and justice. The dark side can always come back, but it is a Jedi´s responsibility to prevent that from happening, or if it manages to rise again, do everything in his or her power to defeat it. Luke didn´t live up to that responsibility.

I thought it was to use the Force for knowledge and defense never for attack…

Besides, Jedi or not, I think it would be out of character for Luke post-ROTJ to wage a war just because of visions. That’s what screwed him over in ESB and in the fleeting moments he saw what Ben could become. His arc in the OT was to become less about looking to the future (horizon) and “rushing into battle.”

Once I get around to finishing my new desktop, I’ll upload a much better version.

The quality of this one honestly kind of sucks because of the limited resources. I just put it out as closure for the time being (at least for the rest of the year). I didn’t want the only version of the edit out there to be one I didn’t stand by anymore. Putting something out - even if it isn’t amazing quality - I felt was a good way to put it behind me for now, otherwise I wouldn’t stop thinking about it.

I’m going to be so busy working/interning/studying for quite a bit going forward - and working on/rendering it takes up a good chunk of my time and headspace. I won’t lie, this project has kind of been a distraction lol.