I know that as editors, canon doesn’t matter, and we can do whatever we want. But “whatever we want” ideally shouldn’t include Jar Jar being an evil Sith mastermind. That idea is dumb, it always has been dumb, and I don’t understand why some people unironically vouch for it.
Is anyone unironically vouching for it though?
I wouldn’t have cared if Rey was the cured love-child of Ahsoka Tano and Jar-Jar Binks as long as she got a consistent and well-written arc.
It’s also weird how the spinning A-wing goes from clockwise to counterclockwise as it hits the window.
Came across this old reddit post that compares the leaked TFA call sheet with the theatrical film.
The early cut was basically a different film: longer, less derivative, juicier and more fleshed out.
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsLeaks/comments/3y1rw8/what_got_cut_call_sheet_leaks_vs_the_film/I’m starting to see a pattern here, JJ.
Fascinating.
Though I doubt that this material would have made the film more sensible.
I like Time Bandits, though to be honest I feel like all of his films have a strange off-putting style.
I was just watching an episode of The Flash with a guest appearance by Mark Hamill and he says ‘I am your father’.
Rey is already a Palpatine now so all we need is for the ghost of Luke to show up in the final confrontation of TROS to really confuse everyone. I wonder if we can get audio for the other Jedi all claiming that they are actually her father. Then Maury steps into the throne room.
That it’s the SE Sarlac really burns.
It’s about the friends we made along the way.
Yeah, that wouldn’t be released even if such a thing was ever filmed and finished, which it wasn’t.
My head cannon is that ESB is accidentally more accurate than the rest of Star Wars, Nolan’s Interstellar-style. Time might pass differently on the surface of different planets versus space?
You’re exactly right. I would go as far to say that it isn’t even accidental.
I wouldn’t go with an Interstellar explanation with it. Maybe Dagobah has a weird relationship to the Force that drives the flow of time in a different manner than the rest of the universe?
Invoking Interstellar implies to me that it was Luke’s training which was dilated in time since the time dilation of Interstellar happened mostly on the water planet, but in this case it would be as Duracell said and be the dilation of time on the Falcon as it traveled at near-light speed. For a normal observer such as Luke or Vader, the events of the film would take place over many weeks while Han and Leia would experience only a few days.
The dagger is the least of the movie’s problems.
I’d actually argue that their connection until the Throne Room is much less problematic than either of the other part 2 romances in the Saga.
Can you elaborate on this? I kind of understand your point with Anakin and Padme, but is Han and Leia seriously worse than Reylo?
In totality, the Reylo dynamic is more toxic than Han/Leia, but they really run in opposite directions. Han/Leia starts out with a bit of earnest attraction in Star Wars, then devolves in Empire to a toxic relationship by two domineering personalities. By the end this is revealed as a mask for their genuine affection for each other.
Rey/Kylo stars out as toxic as they come, with Kylo wanting Rey for his power fantasy and Rey using Kylo’s power against him, taking it into herself and becoming his opposite. In TLJ this relationship is explored, and Rey believes that their connection means that they can be reconciled. However by the end the Yin/Yang of this relationship is revealed. Each is incomplete without the other, yet their values are also irreconcilable due to the nature of their power (darkness rises, and light to meet it). The implication is that neither can change without destroying the balance between them, and this forces them into a stalemate by the end of the film and Rey decisively rejects Kylo’s call to the darkness.
Of course TROS craps all over this nuanced view of their relationship by simply making them a ‘Dyad’, whatever that means. Kylo could always turn to the light without affecting their balance of power, apparently, which places the fault for their toxic relationship entirely at Kylo’s feet. So with TROS Reylo is definitely more toxic than Han/Leia, but I think there was potential in the final installment for an exploration of their relationship which would have lead to a satisfying synthesis of the Yin/Yang power dynamic while also not excusing Kylo’s genuinely bad behavior.
TL;DR: You’re right that Han/Leia was better but I like pretending that TROS was actually an entirely different and better movie.
Pretty sure that neither Kylo nor Rey care for the Force Skype at the beginning, but by the middle of the film there is the beginning of a real romantic connection. Of course Kylo goes back to negging by the end of the film which causes Rey’s rejection but that’s not really what’s happening during the majority of their connection.
I’d actually argue that their connection until the Throne Room is much less problematic than either of the other part 2 romances in the Saga.
Harrison was right to want his character dead by the end of ROTJ.
Exactly. Harrison’s ideas of where the character should go have merit. If only Hamill’s ideas had been listened to as as well.
*had been listened to by JJ Abrams, who introduced the Luke abandoning the galaxy in shame plotline.
JJ started it, yes, but it was Rian who took the ball and ran with it. Hamill definitely didn’t want things to go they way they did in TLJ. JJ’s mystery box COULD have been opened in a more appropriate way.
How? By going against everything set up in the prior film? By having a primary hero not grow or develop over 30 years? By sidelining the new characters to have Luke take over the story again?
The only other interesting choice would’ve been for Luke to be revealed the puppet master behind Snoke.
Well Hamill himself said that a more appropriate reason for him going into exile would be the tragic death of his child. There are many other ways as well, such as an accidental death of one of his students, the turn of many of his students to the Dark Side that he could do nothing to prevent, a failure in training Leia which almost led to her death, his wife leaving him due to him prioritizing the Jedi school and refusing to return even after he left it to a next-in-command, Luke losing a battle to Snoke himself…
There are many ways in which Luke could have been on that island which didn’t have him fail at a test which he overcame years earlier. I get that Rian might have been going for the idea that just because someone succeeds once does not mean they will forever and this amplifies his wretchedness, but it comes at the cost of the simplicity of mythic storytelling. I think Rian was trying to say something subtle like this, but for many it ended up being too clever by half.
^It even gets darker over time.
Frankly, they should’ve both just let Hamill and Ford et al. decide their characters’ fates.
Well, yes and no.
Yes, if you’re going for unchanging characters since the actors have inhabited these roles for years and know a whole lot about what makes these characters tick.
No, if you’re going for a continuation of a character arc like Hermit Luke. In this case it’s important for the writers to know what they’re doing.
Not at all. Harrison Ford, for example, wanted Han to die.
Does anyone think Han as Rebellion General was peak Solo?
Do they love him for his role as lapsed Smuggler?
Is he at all iconic as a failed father?
Harrison was right to want his character dead by the end of ROTJ.
Frankly, they should’ve both just let Hamill and Ford et al. decide their characters’ fates.
Well, yes and no.
Yes, if you’re going for unchanging characters since the actors have inhabited these roles for years and know a whole lot about what makes these characters tick.
No, if you’re going for a continuation of a character arc like Hermit Luke. In this case it’s important for the writers to know what they’re doing.
That last one tho…right in the uncanny valley.
Subtitles for a mute, invisible character that none of the other characters know is there. He introduces himself as such in the first scene of TPM, and dies of an invisible head explosion during the final scene of TROS, which is explained by a second character who comments on this and then explains how he was also there the whole time but didn’t choose to speak.
Qui-gon doesn’t need subtitles.
That’s a really cool idea! I’d be down with any edit that did that.
It has promise. I really like the ‘For Skywalker’ bits. It is a bit hard to make out what’s going on at first though, perhaps it would be better if a couple of the lines came through louder and clearer along with the more random chatter. It might also be worth muting Poe’s final ‘look at this’ to make room for the new lines. I really like the final bit of ‘standing by’ right before Lando’s laugh since it sounds like it’s coming from a radio, the voices could definitely use more distortion along those lines.
Dunking on the later Potter films isn’t unpopular at all. It’s widely accepted that the series peaked with 3.
However, though 3 is definitely a favorite of mine, I consider The Half Blood Prince to be just as good for completely different reasons. This is the rare time where I genuinely enjoy the dark, murky, and at times sickeningly green/brown color palette because it is appropriate for the darkness of the story being told. The Half Blood Prince isn’t supposed to be pleasant. However, there is a stark filigree beauty in the almost monochrome depiction of the Hogwarts castle and the exquisite details of the crystal cave. It evokes repulsion and enchantment in equal measure, and it is alone among Potter films in this regard.