NeverarGreat

Jay said:

Thread cleaned. Two entire irrelevant pages wiped. Please stay on topic, thanks.

Let the past die. Kill it.

The most satisfying aspect to the trilogy for me is the energy of this new cast. Finn and Poe escaping the Star Destroyer was more triumphant than anything in the prequels.

The most disappointing aspect for me is the rushed carelessness of the plot, and I see no indication that the storytelling will get tighter in the last act.

It’s more a critique of capitalism than the companies themselves.

Jeebus said:

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/11/goldman-asks-is-curing-patients-a-sustainable-business-model.html

Y’know, that’s a really good point. It’s almost as if… oh damn, I lost my train of thought. Oh well.

https://i.imgur.com/XUIaXAB.gifv

Looks like Frink needs extra strength Dooku memes.

Since the idea of the base charging their weapon is the ‘ticking clock’ for the final act of TFA, I don’t think the weapon can be eliminated without negatively impacting the film. So with this in mind, and considering the idea of having the Star Destroyers attack the Hosnian system, the only way I can see it working is that the Starkiller is targeting the Resistance base like in the original cut.

I imagine the sequence of events to be as follows:
Snoke’s first scene is moved to after Maz’s castle, and Hux advocates a strike on the Republic. Snoke sends him to oversee preparations for the Star Destroyer incursion.
After the Han/Leia talk, Rey is interrogated by Ren and she sees his vision of the weapon in operation.
Directly after this, Hux makes his speech, leaving out the part about the ‘fierce machine’ bringing an end to the Republic and the fleet. Intercut with this are snippets of the Mega Destroyer incursion and the destruction of the capitol city, with a desperate defense by the republic bombers and the sacrifice of Rose’s sister.

Yep, I think some version of that has the most promise.

Now you’re thinking like a public servant.

Good ideas here, and thanks for the big write-up RL. Since I’m considering removing the incursion on the Resistance base entirely, that opens up the footage for such an attack on Hosnian Prime. It would also be a good opportunity to establish Rose’s sister and her sacrifice, foreshadowing Rose’s inclusion in the plot of TLJ. However, it might be beyond my abilities to essentially generate an entirely new scene, however cool it would be to see. I’ll keep it in mind, since it would solve a lot of issues going forward.

As for the look of the base being too much like a weapon, yeah that’s a problem. Since there’s a huge trench along the equator covered in metal panels, I could remove some of the panels and add flashes of light from them, as if they were docking bays where these Star Destroyers were being constructed. The giant gun-looking thing could be constantly venting smoke and lit from within with an orange light, as if it were just a vent or smokestack for these massive metalworks. Ironically that would allow me to revert back to the original shot of the smoking gun barrel in the X-wing approach.

http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/A-Collaborative-Star-Wars-Saga-Edit/id/60169/page/4#1195189

This thread got me thinking about another angle for the Starlight project.

I was playing with the idea of having Rey see bits of the Starkiller firing which happen later in the movie as a way of linking the Starkiller to Ren’s ambition to be more like Vader, but it could also serve the purpose of revealing the true capabilities of Starkiller Base. Basically, for the first half of the movie Starkiller is established to be merely a way for the First Order to create its starships. This could be visually communicated by having a bunch of Star Destroyers issuing forth from the big circular opening. Only after Rey’s interrogation and Ren’s vision is it known that the base can also be used as a weapon.

I guess I’m still trying to wrap my head around how you could possibly remove the Starkiller base weapon from the plot. The entire idea of the Resistance attacking the base is to destabilize the weapon and potentially destroy the planet, which makes sense if the weapon is the planet. But if the First Order merely has a base on the surface of an ice world, how would the planet be destroyed?

I was toying with the idea in my Starlight edit that the base could also be a Star Forge, using the energy of the sun to create fleets of Imperial vessels. Something like that would differentiate it from the Death Star and allow this idea of a base that builds starships:

The last of the Jedi has
vanished. In his absence,
a secret Imperial Order
has completed construction
of a fortress that can
devour entire stars.

Harnessing this power to
rebuild their once-mighty
starfleet, this emboldened
FIRST ORDER launches
a devastating attack on
the capitol planets of the
New Republic.

Escaping the destruction,
only one general salvages
a desperate RESISTANCE,
and sends a pilot in search
of the long-lost Jedi,
guardian of peace and
justice in the galaxy…

There would need to be a lot of changes to the Resistance briefing scene, where they talk about the hyperlighspeed weapon, and of course cutting the Hosnian destruction and every instance of the ‘weapon’ being recharged. Perhaps we see the sun getting drained again early in the movie, and this continues throughout with the implication that the First Order is constructing new ships inside the planet.

4,492 posts since 2012. A bit low compared to some, but they were quality posts.

joefavs said:

CarboniteSolo said:

There’s a rumor going around that there’s two more sequels to this. I don’t know what they have planned.

My understanding is that Ehrenreich and (maybe) Glover are signed on for two more movies, not necessarily direct sequels. I took that to mean maybe a Lando movie with Han in it or a Boba Fett movie with the two of them in it, as opposed to a straight up trilogy of Han movies.

That actually sounds like fun.
The Lando one, I mean.
As for the Boba Fett one, I’d rather see a movie about Obi-wan using the ghost of Qui-gon as a way of communicating his soup recipe to Yoda. The big payoff comes in Empire when Luke tastes it and realizes that Dagobats are no substitute for Womp Rats.

CarboniteSolo said:

There’s even a Jabba’s Palace playset I saw online. He does visit him, I guess this will be what Vader at the end of Rogue One is for Solo. I can see it happening, but probably a quick chat like, “Do not double cross me or lose my shipments, or I will put a bounty on your head Solo.”. And maybe have Greedo standing next to him.

It’s great moviemaking because it references something we already know.

OutboundFlight said:

I agree SKB should just be a base. Perhaps we could edit the exterior shots to make it a plain planet (the scale is really off, fuel oslicator is seeable from space about the size of Texas but on ground it’s the size of a football stadium).

So in this version, how would the destruction of the Hosnian system be handled? Would it be removed entirely (with perhaps the Star Destroyer shots from Restructured and a few of those changs), and only established in the crawl for TLJ?

Strategically placed slow zooms and subtle pans can work wonders for some shots like this one.

DuracellEnergizer said:

I thought it was my job to post disturbing/perverted/juvenile/bordering-on-NSFW images.

Well shoot, I was doing it for free.

Sir Ridley said:

Tobar said:

It’s a nice moment but I’m in favor of cutting it. They were standing right by each other in the map scene and then the very next scene she’s wearing a new outfit, so time has passed. You’re telling me Poe wouldn’t seek out the girl that Finn just almost died trying to rescue? And to top it off he’s in the front of the crowd that sends off Rey as she leaves the base.

I understand that it’s something that Rian wanted to include to make up for one of Abrams many slips but it doesn’t make sense in context. It’s something that should have happened in TFA, even the novelization of TFA had them meet at this time:

“The map.” Rey could only stare in wonder as her eyes wandered over a shining, resplendent portrayal of a substantial portion of the galaxy. “It’s the whole map!”

“Artoo!” C-3PO’s tone was that of a proud relative complimenting a member of his family. “Artoo, you’ve done it!”

Cheers and spontaneous embraces filled the room with so much joy that no one paid any attention to who was hugging what representative of whichever species. Rey and Poe were not excluded, though their sudden, tight clinch of shared excitement led to a moment of mutual awkwardness.

“Uh, hi,” the pilot mumbled. “I’m Poe.”

She nodded slowly, searching his face and finding that she liked it. “I recognize the name. So you’re Poe. Poe Dameron, the X-wing pilot. I’m Rey.”

“I know.” He smiled back, a little more at ease. “Nice to meet you.”

Which is now non-canon and a really weird slip-up for the Story Group to make.

Huh, yeah, that is a bit weird. I wonder if the meeting could be edited into TFA instead.

Leia: “May the Force be with you.”
Rey: (enters Falcon)
Poe: “I’m Poe.”

This must be done.

DominicCobb said:

If you consider the prequels canon, Vader was a school shooter too, and a much bigger school at that.

A school whose teachers tried to murder the democratically elected leader of the Republic.
He was also doing all of this ostensibly to save the life of his wife and unborn child.

The situations are different. Sure we know Anakin was “a good friend,” but that then he was “seduced by the dark side of the Force.” On the other hand, we are told that Ben seemingly struggled with a darkness inside him from a young age (due to the “Vader in him”)

If Vader’s evil was transmitted genetically, Luke would have had a lot more of it than Ben.

…and was manipulated and seduced by Snoke specifically. So while Vader is implied to have turned because of a greedy quest for power,

And the whole Padme thing.

Ben is implied to have turned because he was exploited and possibly (in a way) brainwashed into doing so.

Ben also wanted to finish what Vader started, which I assume has something to do with this quest for power.

I’d honestly argue that Ben’s story is more tragic, and to see him die a full villain would just be plain sad.

They are both tragic for sure, but I was referring in Vader’s case to the classical definition of tragedy, where a great person makes an error of judgement and this has unforseen and calamitous effects.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy
“Aristotle wrote in his work Poetics that tragedy is characterised by seriousness and involves a great person who experiences a reversal of fortune (Peripeteia).”
“According to Aristotle, “The misfortune is brought about not by [general] vice or depravity, but by some [particular] error or frailty.””

Ben never has the chance to rise to greatness, so this definition doesn’t really apply. Of course it is still tragic in the general sense.

It also seems to me that the act of redemption is a return to the greatness already seen from a character. Since Ben doesn’t have this greatness, he cannot be redeemed. The only way forward is for him to commit to his dark path forever, or to grow enough that he understands the error of his ways.

darthrush said:

DominicCobb said:

Vader was a much worse person.

What feels so odd is that even though this point holds absolutely true upon objective analysis, I can’t help but on an emotional level, feel that the redemption of Kylo would feel incredibly jarring and not right.

I attribute this mainly to the fact that within the OT, (not counting dead children from some awful prequel movies) we only see Vader murder random people who we never know all that much about. In Rogue One, it’s a dynamic of him just being a “badass”. Kylo Ren on the other hand murdered Han Solo. It just sits differently for some reason.

I think what makes Vader so much more redeemable is that he was once a definitively good person for many years of his adult life, even if you consider the prequels canon. He was a Jedi Knight acting in ways that he believed were to safeguard the Republic, the legitimate government of the galaxy. The fact that he fell so far was the tragedy.

Kylo on the other hand is portrayed as essentially a school shooter. It’s hard to feel sorry for someone like that.

But where are his welding goggles?!

^I remember seeing the third one with my girlfriend, who dozed off halfway through.

Coincidentally, I just finished watching the Appendices for the Hobbit trilogy (all 30 hours!), in preparation for my long-awaited 3-in-1 fanedit. It’s split between showing the art department’s dedication to making the most impressive sets and props ever seen, and showing how much of that effort was obscured with last-minute barrel chases and CGI rivers of gold.

darthrush said:

I just need episode 9 to really make it clear the effect that Luke had on the galaxy. If they are able to communicate the necessity of his sacrifice toward the eventual peace of the galaxy then that would help uplift his actions even more in TLJ.

I’m just happy that Episode 8 gave us one final performance by The Last Laser Master.

timdiggerm said:

You know what doesn’t suck about Canto Bight? The music. Just finally listened to the soundtrack, and that track is so good.

The score alone justifies Canto Bight for me.