Hal gets it. Changing anakin’s Force Ghost changes his story and negates the fact that “there [was] still good in him”. That “good” was that Anakin Skywalker was still there, buried deep down inside the monstrous Vader and trying to get out.
It’s a great time to be a Star Wars fan. Just two years ago, my list would’ve only included three films. Now it has five!
My rankings are a mixture of how much I personally enjoy each film combined with how good it is on a more objective, critical level. But mostly it’s just how much I enjoy them.
It’s funny, I used to be a die hard “ESB is the best ever, bar none!” kinda guy. But as I’ve gotten older I’ve really come to appreciate the true, unbridled greatness of the original film (it was always my second place anyway). And I’m now at a point where I just honestly can’t decide which one I prefer. I love them both.
Also, Rogue One has moved up the list with repeat viewings. I really liked it from day one, but I initially felt the characters were bland and held it back. Whereas TFA’s biggest strength is its great characters. So initially I had those swapped. But on repeat viewings Rogue One’s issues melted into the background whereas the problems with story in TFA become more glaring. Even so, I’m amazed that there are now TWO new Star Wars movies that I rank higher tha ROTJ. After the prequels I figured there’d never be a new Star Wars movie I liked.
But rankings aside, I love all five movies. Even ROTJ, easily the weakest of the bunch overall, has a rip-roaring (if not totally logical) opening act and has a wonderful third act that feels like the perfect end to the OT (and served as a template for how to edit the third act of R1…)
So does anyone have any solid info about how much of the film was shot on 70mm IMAX film? Also, has anyone found a list of which imax theaters in the U.S. will be showing what version? I found a list naming the 10 theaters that will show it on true imax film projection, but there’s a full sized imax laser that is SO much closer to me. As much as I’d love to see it on imax film (like I did for TFA) I’d be happy to settle on the imax laser experience if I know I’m getting the full image (some imax laser shows open up to the full frame equaling the 70mm film projection, while others only open up to the same size image as “liemax” digital shows which are still cropped vertically compared to 70mm imax film. The parts shot on 35mm will always be shown in scope, no matter which theater you’re in).
I saw Dunkirk on the full size imax laser and as much as it pains me to admit (because I’m a big nerd who loves the actual medium of film), I’d have a hard time telling the difference between it and imax film. It was really good.
Looks like somebody in the design department really liked the old x-wing and TIE fighter video games…
TIE Avenger:
Lucas was an artist who became a businessman though.
I would say PT is a strong evidence of contrary. Even though PT sucked and was receiving lots of criticism since TPM, he was making what he wanted and not what audience wanted/expected. He could make films about Anakin/Vader being likeable badass, which is what most of people would love/expect to see, but instead he followed his own unpopular story where Anakin/Vader was an annoying whiner.
He still signed off on the biggest avalanche of merchandising rivaling even the OT for Phantom Menace. A good portion of it being crap that gathered dust on shelves for years. Would 1970’s George have allowed this to be made?
Probably?
I’m no bond expert. Why weren’t those two films included in the set?
Cool, thank you. If I want to produce a disc that will play in my blu ray player on my tv, will the blu ray folder work or does it have to be an ISO?
So I’m finally getting some of red menace’s Godzilla projects that I’ve been meaning to for a while. His Godzilla 1985 reconstruction also includes separate MKV’s of the theatrical trailer and the music video. I’d like to create a Blu-ray Disc that contains the complete movie along with the trailer and music video. I don’t care about being fancy with menus or chapter stops. I’d be perfectly happy if it would just play the movie followed but the bonus features.
I’m capable of remuxing an MKV into a blu ray iso with ts_muxer, but I’ve never tried to make one ISO out of three separate mkv’s… is this even possible?
Thanks!
I don’t know the story, but I love that picture! Those speeders are so late 70’s/early 80’s in their design. It’s fantastic!
I don’t know how backed up he is, but maybe try contacting poita. He certainly has the ability to scan it. And if he can’t help I’m sure he could probably point you in the direction of someone who can.
I understand your complaint of lack of character development. It’s why I keep describing Dunkirk as less of a movie and more of a historical experience or reenactment. It didn’t tell a story so much as show you in as real a way as it could what it was like to be one of those soldiers, one of those civilians, or one of those pilots. And at that, I think it wholly succeeds.
You mean did I jump from the gun shots? Many times. I think there were two that genuinely caught me off guard and made me jump. The others I KNEW they were coming, but they were such loud, sharp cracks that they STILL made me jump. It was such a tense movie.
DUNKIRK - in IMAX laser at the Texas State History Museum in Austin.
Wow! This felt less like a movie and more like a historical experience. Despite the massive scale of the evacuation, it felt very personal and gave you true insight into what it must have been like to be a soldier on that beach, a spitfire pilot, and a civilian in one of the rescue boats. It all looked and felt so real.
I had the good fortune to see this in a massive IMAX laser theater, which is one of only two ways you could see the entire 1.43:1 image of the film (the other way being actual IMAX 70mm film). It disappoints me that so few theaters are available to show this film in its proper format because it was VERY impressive. And the VAST majority of the film was shot on IMAX film and therefore filled the entire screen. In fact, so much of the film was in true IMAX it felt kind of pointless for the few shots here and there that were in scope. I actually wish that they had abandoned the changing aspect ratio for this film. I understand that some shots may have needed to be shot on 35mm for technical or budgetary reasons, but I would’ve preferred them to be filmed at academy ratio (1.37:1) and then very modestly cropped vertically to fit the IMAX 1.43:1 screen. Then, while you’d still notice the slight drop in image clarity in the occasional 35mm segments, you would at least maintain the entire giant screen being filled with the image instead of reverting to this narrow band of the scope image across the center of this massive screen. Of course, choosing that method would’ve resulted in a lower quality image for all the non “true” IMAX theaters.
Now I have to spent a minute talking about the aerial sequences. They used real WW2 Spitfires, Me109’s, and He111’s for most of the shots, and it was AWESOME seeing these beautiful antique warbirds on this massive format! Spitfires are my single favorite airplane (I gave a little internal cheer when one character has a line about the spitfire being the greatest plane ever built). I was incredibly blessed to see four of them fly in person at the Duxford air show several years ago and flying one myself is a top-of-the-bucket-list goal I’ve had for years and hope to achieve some day. The way Nolan presents the aircraft and pilots is magnificent. Even with over a decade working in aviation and a lifetime pouring over books, visiting museums, and attending air shows; I’ve never felt like I had a better sense of what it was REALLY like to be a ww2 fighter pilot as I did after watching this film. Sure there’s some leeway given for artistic license (that one spitfire sure had an awful lot of ammo, and man could it glide a long long way…). But the actual job of being a fighter pilot, flying the plane, navigating, managing the systems and the fuel, all while strategizing with your wingmen and then actually having to fight and defend yourself are presented in truly magnificent fashion. I particularly loved the scene where he had to manually pump his landing gear down. Most people don’t even know you can do that. But even modern jet liners have ways to manually pump or crank the landing gear down if the normal system fails. And it’s usually just as much of a pain the rear as it was in that spitfire.
Tl;dr -
if you have any interest in WW2 history GO SEE THIS MOVIE
If you have any interest in WW2 aviation, or really any interest in aerial combat GO SEE THIS MOVIE
If you have any interest in history and learning about the harrowing experiences of others GO SEE THIS MOVIE
And see it at the biggest, best theater you can get to. I didn’t mention it before, but the sound design is also SUPERB.
If you have the chance to see this on IMAX 70mm or laser, DONT MISS IT!!!
I don’t wish to get into a long debate, I write the following just because I want to clarify my earlier statement and hopefully eliminate possible confusion.
For the sake of the example, let’s just assume that Anakin survived the end of RotJ for a minute so that this can be more easily applied to Anakin Skywalker or Ben Solo.
I’ve no doubt that either character would, or should be held accountable in a court of law. And they would likely be punished quite harshly. But judicial process and punishment, in this case, is an entirely different and separate thing than the forgiveness or redemption of which I refer (and I thought other posters referred to as well).
Personal forgiveness is all about the person(s) wronged by or in some other way affected by the bad choices made by Anakin or Ben. Personal forgiveness is about an individual coming to terms with the previous bad actions/choices made by Anakin/Ben and choosing to not hold it against them going forward. This forgiveness thus opens the door to things like Luke possibly getting to have a meaningful relationship with his father, or Leia a renewed relationship with her son. It can also allow things like surviving victims the ability to cope and move forward with their lives without the unbearable burden of suffering, resentment, or hate.
Spiritual redemption (which is CLEARLY what Lucas had in mind for Anakin) is all about a change of heart which results in a change in action. Anakin’s killing the emperor was NOT his act of redemption, it was a physical work that was a RESULT of his repentant heart. No amount of good works can “cancel out” the bad things these characters have done. It’s about them forsaking evil and the dark side, and embracing the light. And yes their actions going forward will reflect that change and likely directly oppose the types of actions they took before the change. But the actions themselves are not, and do not create, the redemption. That is a direct result of a change of heart from evil to good.
For all his faults, anakin’s spiritual redemption is one thing George got absolutely right (in spite of pushback it seems) and I would HATE to see that screwed with in the sequels. Anakin’s ghost should not be conflicted because he changed in his heart and turned away from the dark side forever in that moment.
Then a lot of people don’t understand forgiveness and redemption.
Hal 9000 gets it.
I’m not about to jump to the conclusion that it actually means ANYTHING. But it’s kinda cool that the big SDCC Star Wars figure display by hasbro leaves out the stupid chi rock in front of R2’s hiding spot…
JEDIT: blargh. Rebelscum’s image galleries make it impossible to post an image here using my iPad… the pics of R2 I’m referring to are towards the end of the second gallery in the links below.
And a couple galleries of the pretty awesome display they built:
http://www.rebelscum.com/2017-San-Diego-Comic-Con/San-Diego-Comic-Con-2017-Hasbro-Star-Wars-Wed/
http://www.rebelscum.com/2017-San-Diego-Comic-Con/San-Diego-Comic-Con-2017-Star-Wars-Hasbro-Friday/
Id love to check this out, as well as all your other projects. I just now discovered how many you’ve done! Sent you a pm.
Episode 6 is up. Not sure where episode5 is… I liked this one. But chewie’s hands look super creepy…
The first one was kinda lame. The second one was pretty good, and actually provided a payoff for watching the first. Hope they continue to improve, they might end up being something special.
Most of the bandai stuff has been out in Japan for a while, but has only started hitting North America in the last few months. For a long time Revell of Germany had exclusive rights in most of the world, which excluded the retail sale of bandai kits pretty much anywhere outside Japan. Bluefin worked out a deal to distribute the bandai kits in North America (and maybe elsewhere?) last year. Which is good b/c they are VASTLY superior to the Revell products.
In the last two or three months I’ve seen Bandai kits in my local hobby lobby and my local comic shop, both in plentiful quantities. So it looks like bluefin got a pretty liberal distribution deal.
And bandai is still making kits for Japan. They’ve got an epic 1/72 ANH “master grade” Millennium Falcon that just came out. It’s $400 but it’s INSANE. And it comes with a lighting kit.
Actually, bandai has made a TON of OT kits. They’ve also made some Rogue One kits and even “figure” kits. Not all of them are available in North America yet, but many are. And the ones that aren’t are pretty easy to find for import.
Everything pictured is a bandai model kit (though it’s not everything they’ve made):
Oh man, joefavs, that’s the Bandai 1/144 TFA Falcon model. I’ve been salivating over all the bandai kits since they came out…
It’s too bad you’re not gonna paint it. If you’re unsure about how to do it, there are many tutorials on YouTube. The falcon painting instructionals by fitchenfoo in particular are very very helpful.
I visit several collector sites where I often see people lament the fact that they can’t have the replica they really want b/c the best option is a model kit and they aren’t any good at painting. I find it frustrating because it’s really not that hard and now with YouTube, there are SO many resources to teach you how. It doesn’t take a ton of skill to do a respectable job. It just takes a little practice and mostly time and patience.
Oh man, I’ve been in such a good Star Wars mood the last few months that I was actually softening a little in my heart on my stance against the prequels. I was even vaguely considering watching them again at some point, maybe as part of my pre-TLJ marathon. Then you had to go and post pictures of the things I had completely forgotten. (Seriously, I totally forgot everything about that awful droid factory scene).
Thank you for saving me from myself.
And prequels, I have a song dedicated just to you…
Never again, prequels. Never again.
There’s lots of people here (I think) who are die hard OOT fans but still really like or even love TFA and R1. I’m one of them.
As for the Han movie, I’ll treat it just like I did those two: hopeful, but with very little real expectation. I’ll judge it when I actually watch it. But, just like the previous two, the official trailers may increase or decrease my pre-screening excitement.
Her weakness is very explicitly her naivete.
This is not a weakness in the film. It could have been, but it wasn’t. When she goes to the front, she is told she cannot cross No Man’s Land. She doesn’t understand the kind of modern artillery firepower she is up against. She does it anyway and succeeds. She’s told there is a gas that can end civilization and kill millions of people. She has probably never encountered something like that before. She walks right into a cloud of it and lives anyway.
At no point did her naivety cost her anything. It was a nice storyline that I was digging, but it was never a weakness.
Like Superman, her weakness is mental, not physical.
Not sure what else to say here, other than to reiterate that she’s not supposed to be threatened like a normal person is threatened by violence, she’s above that. It’s her childlike sense of good and evil that gets her into trouble. For example, if she wasn’t hellbent on destroying Ares at the gala she and Steve might have been able to thwart the gas attack. That gas attack costs her a great deal. Then, her insistence on killing Ares instead of helping Steve and friends stop the plane put the entire armistice at risk.
Not to mention it cost her Steve himself, her first love.
