NFBisms

OutboundFlight said:

theprequelsrule said:

Hmm…the last 6 posts or so seem to suggest that Star Wars has become the brainless entertainment it’s critics always claimed it was.

And we fans are happy to settle for this now. Can’t wait for Michael Bay to direct the Sequel-Sequel Trilogy!

Here’s the thing: I would argue TROS isn’t mindless. That’s what makes it still “good” to me even if it’s throwing everything at the wall.

Rey in TFA was holding back. Finally she accepts her destiny and holds the lightsaber… and in TLJ we have nearly no conflict for her, with most the focus on Luke. In TROS, Rey is most certainly not a ”Mary Sue” or any other hateful term. Making her a Palpatine is so much better than no one because it gives her character something to struggle with. If she was just no one what would she do? Prove someone who comes from nothing can win? We’re all expecting that.

Poe was a fun “hero” character in TFA, where they didn’t have time to explore his character. In TLJ he becomes a fill-in for the audience to teach us “no no no daring plots are bad… forget about Starkiller Base which was just yesterday”. In TROS, we learn so much more about Poe. His relationships with the other characters are stand out, and we also learn an interesting nuanced backstory.

Finn was lots of fun in TFA but like Poe becomes a stand-in for “no no no heroism is bad forget about Holdo’s heroism an hour before”. In TROS we get to see Finn interact with other deserters. I would have preferred more time be spent here, but considering how much they had to fit in it’s good they at least introduced it.

Ben could never be the villain of the ST. I agree with TLJ it’s a really interesting idea to see Kylo do what Vader could not, but TFA had already established him as a joke and Crait isn’t flattering to him either. So there had to be some new big bad. What really impressed me with TROS was Ben’s early redemption. No need to waste the central drama around redoing ROTJ, they made it about if Rey could be turned, and with Ben already set to possibly fight an evil Rey I was emotionally invested in the conclusion.

So no, I don’t think Michael Bay directing TROS would have had the same result.

Everything you mention here about TROS is pretty shallow stuff, though. It pretty much conjured up these most basic, easily sympathisable character arcs/backgrounds - and just barely executed on them, as even you seem to acknowledge. These things can be in a Transformers movie. They are.

TLJ may not have garnered enough traditional “emotional investment” via character arcs and plot, but what it explored thematically and textually about Star Wars and its mythic qualities… That’s a much more interesting contribution to the saga than coming up with… more. More plot, more arcs, more, more. Just for the sake of what? A good story is in why it’s told not what happens in it. When you think about it otherwise, the only real reason to fill out these already archetypal characters with even more combinations of tropes, is to get an audience from the start of the movie to the end. Which is fine, but then why is it necessary? Being unnecessary isn’t even bad, but at that point it can and should be considered at the same level as a Transformers or Marvel film.

TLJ is the only sequel trilogy movie to justify its existence. Even a little. Even if you don’t like it. It’s actually about anything. It’s such a shame that TROS throws that all away for plot and sequence of eventful events. Maybe I’m just past the point of getting invested in a plotline. Idk. But I’d much rather have left a film with a story, than be swept up in moments that won’t stick outside of my engagement with it.

…

Anyway, I had fun with this movie. But it was pretty bad.

I like the 70’s spaghetti western feeling parts of the score a lot for this.

I’m waiting for episode 2 this Friday to make any stronger judgements about it, tho. It was honestly just fine for most of it, and the genuinely good wasn’t as good as it could’ve been.

I’ll try to get that back up soon

yeah, here are clips for reference:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN826cfl8Ms69sIKnZNy91pak3fE_M6R/view?usp=sharing

I also included how i got around the “Don’t lecture me, Obi-Wan” thing, but that’s not something I’d expect anyone to really want.

I think General Grevious and Bail using “General Skywalker” were the main usages in my edit, tho. I think the enemy general and a member of the general public acknowledging his rank and status does way more to age up Anakin than a clone trooper being formal.

I think only one clone says “General Skywalker” in my entire edit, and it was Temuera. And the Baker line I used wasn’t supposed to be a clone, anyway.

ok i tried to do it, using star wars revisited:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yyvEBmTmjtLDrvKjLj5BFlouKwlxz1n3/view?usp=sharing

just unnecessary in five different ways

I’ve honestly stayed partial to the Snoke = Plagueis theory since 2015, and Palpatine coming back does little to change my mind LOL

Plagueis found a way to cheat death like he wanted, finds/is found by the remnants of his former apprentice’s Empire, and assumes control of it, thinking himself obviously more powerful than his apprentice. But Palpatine from the grave somehow influences Ben to join the dark side and help Snoke, under the guise of being the whispers he hears of his grandfather. In TLJ, Ben, all according to Palps’ plan, betrayed Plagueis/Snoke, re-asserting Sidious’s dominance over his master.

With Ben’s faith in Vader restored, maybe whatever macguffin everyone is after in IX - Ben will have thought he was pursuing for himself/Vader - but will be revealed as what whatever Palps’ ghost wanted all along.

^I have looked at it, as well as many other edits when making this. The thing with my edit that’s different is that it isn’t just about cutting things out. I was adding to the film things that weren’t already there. I wanted Anakin and Obi-Wan to feel like three-dimensional, likable characters. Not just remove instances that make them inconsistent or a little dumb. That meant adding new/changing dialogue, rearranging the flow of conversations, etc.

Turning Anakin “wise” means more than just removing an “I sense Count Dooku” or cutting extraneous questions to Palpatine. I had to find ways to make him more assertive and suspicious, give him agency when the film itself - even with cuts - doesn’t do that.

I mean, I’ve had something finished for a while, so if anyone wants to watch my edit in a super compressed 720, they’ve just had to PM.

…

When I say I’ve given up, I just mean I don’t have time to export the edit in higher quality, and work out the extra kinks that are in it. All the source files are very, very disorganized spread across an old external drive and the hard drive of an older laptop. I think I’m even missing extensions I used on the Vegas I had installed on that laptop. Full disclosure, I was barely 19 when I started this project, so that might explain the organization as well as why I don’t have time now. Maybe I’ll get back to it one day.

Thanks man.

My “All Ezra All The Time: The Edit” idea was a joke, but I do think theme/pairing based edits of Rebels wouldn’t really work as well as they do in TCW edits. I think you would seriously have to keep all of the Ghost crew together to make a cohesive film imo. I think a movie should stand alone to some extent regardless of whether or not it’s a part of an overall franchise/series. Having one entire movie be about two members of an ensemble where the rest are pushed to the back/un-introduced is just off to me. It would have to be about the whole group together.

An easy small thing one could do to make Ezra a smaller part, if one really wanted to, is just have him be introduced AFTER the rest of the Ghost crew, with less focus on him after that introduction. That way, he doesn’t come off as the main character. He becomes a device for Kanan/Hera/Sabine/Zeb’s development as opposed to vice versa.

^I think the perfect edit would just be 2.5 hours of only Ezra, personally. Cut out every shot Ezra isn’t in, and put together the leftovers as a film. Would be awesome.

^i’ve absolutely given up*

*i mean. it’s done pretty much. i can and have been able to send it to people for the past year, it’s just not in HD or usable for editing in other edits. I don’t have the time to spend on finalizing it a neat, high quality package. it’ll forever be some MP4 on a google drive link.

i will also admit, I don’t even necessarily stand by all of my decisions any more, and I think a big part of my halted progress is that I just can’t sit through ROTS anymore without falling asleep. maybe the passion will come back when TCW does.

DominicCobb said:

JEDIT:

I remember an older version of the “New Canon Cut” of Ep 3 having ‘Luke and Leia’ playing over the birth of the twins and it sounded pretty rad.

Interesting.

So this is over a month late, but I just saw this, and I found the thing snooker is talking about here with the rescore/re-edit at the end of an old version of my RoTS edit.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bh7zY3rMogitaCDLZlFBkDGAZJbGi2WM/view?usp=sharing

I ended up not using it in New Canon Cut, because I didn’t think it meshed very well with the style/pacing of the rest of the film - but I think it could work in an edit that is paced and edited in this style.

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.

abandoned

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.