fmalover

fmalover said:

My Sequel Trilogy would have been something like this:

Episode VII: The New Republic is seemingly thriving, however there is no new Jedi Order, and Luke Skywalker has exiled himself, Leia is now Chancellor of the Republic but finds herself weighted down by the world of politics and Han died some time prior to the movie (Harrison Ford has never been enthusiastic about SW so I would leave him alone). I would have kept the Imperial Remnant title from the EU as it makes a hell of a lot more sense than the First Order, and would have portrayed them as a shadowy organisation that unlike it’s predecessor the Empire, which fought using total war, they resort to more subtle tactics, such as guerrilla warfare, espionage, deception, infiltration through senators that are still secretly loyal to the Empire, conquering seemingly unimportant worlds, using unused experimental imperial technology, and while they would use old imperial Star Destroyers as mobile bases, their main base of operations would be in the Unknown Regions. They would be lead by the Knights of Ren, who are what I would call Force supremacists, as they believe that Force wielders are inherently superior to others and should rule over everyone. Originally being students in Luke’s fledgling Jedi academy, their belief of the strong ruling over the weak is what drove them to crush the new Jedi Order before it could truly blossom and subsequently join the Imperial Remnant. Kylo Ren in this version is unrelated to the Skywalker family, he’s just a promising student with a lust for power who went renegade alongside others, and Kylo Ren is his name for real. Second to the Knights of Ren in terms of command would be a council of former imperial military leaders and senators. Rey would be a nobody and nowhere near as OP in the Force, but is fully aware of her Force sensitivity and that’s what drives her to seek out Luke, to gain a better understanding, and she’s been gathering information on Luke’s whereabouts. That’s how she meets Chewbacca, now captain of the Millennium Falcon and Poe Dameron, his copilot and Finn, first mate and renegade stormtrooper. Finn defected from the IR because he couldn’t stand the suffering he inflicted when raiding worlds and kidnapping people to be used as slave labour, and has since decided to right the wrongs of his past with helping Chewie and Poe. Throughout their journey they uncover the IR secret plan to restore the Empire, and halfway through the movie Rey meets Luke, who is pretty much the same as in TLJ, a bitter disillusioned hermit who wants no further part in the conflicts of the Galaxy, but nevertheless agrees to train Rey as she’s driven by a desire to use her power responsibly, but the training is cut short when Kylo arrives after sensing her presence and offers to teach Rey true power, being impressed by her raw potential, and proceeds to kill Luke as a display of power, yet Rey still turns him down and flees. Now guided by Luke’s Force Ghost, Rey is determined to protect the Galaxy against the growing threat of the IR.

Whew, that’s a lot of text, I think I will use different posts for episodes VIII and IX.

I still haven’t come up with any ideas for episodes VIII and IX, but at the risk of appearing needy, I would like to read some feedback on my proposed episode VII.

verycoolemily said:

manwithblaster said:

The last movie I watched was Jumper (2008). I mostly watched it because I wanted to see some movies with Hayden Christensen and it’s one of his better known ones. I actually liked it a lot better than I thought I would and I was surprised to see Samuel L. Jackson in it too.

During this last year in quarantine, I decided to watch all of Hayden’s movies. Very interesting journey seeing his rapid rise and just as a rapid fall from prominence. Jumper is definitely one of the better ones. A little longer than it needed to be, but nothing a motivated fan editor couldn’t fix. I often wonder if he and Samuel L Jackson got along, if they reminisced about their time together on Star Wars.

I’ll also say my other other take away from Haydenfest, as I called it, is that our boy is on the rise again! It’s a little funny (naked brag alert), but when I finished his films I said he was on the rise and predicted he would be working on bigger projects soon and then within a week, it was announced he would be on Kenobi.

If anyone is interested in seeing more Hayden, I definitely recommend his 3 most recent. Little Italy is a soft little rom-com directed by Don Petrie, who directed Mystic Pizza in the 80s. This movie may be set in the same universe and while it’s definitely not as known or beloved as it’s 80s forbearer, I think in many ways it’s the superior film.

First Kill is billed as a thriller starring him and Bruce Willis and well, I’ll be honest that’s some dishonest marketing, Bruce Willis is barely in the film. HOWEVER, it’s one of my favorite Hayden flicks, gripping as hell, sneaks up on you. Hayden’s true co-star, I forget his name, but it’s the guy who played Renly Baratheon on Game of Thrones. He’s excellent in this, well worth checking out.

The Last Man is his most recent film, I’ll be honest, it’s real slow and real weird but features great performances from Hayden and co-star Harvey Keital (random, but related: it’s Harvey Keita’s birthday today!) and if you’re looking for something with a nice dark slow burn, it’s a great watch

Actually I think the runtime for Jumper is just fine.

JadedSkywalker said:

Alien 3 sucks but i doubt that is a controversial or unpopular opinion. Aliens is also so vastly overrated its incredible. Alien is a better film in nearly every way. Its real science fiction, its a thriller, its horror. Its not a schlocky action flick.

I agree. Everywhere I look Aliens is praised as one of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time, like it’s some sort of high art, but I find to be a pretty generic movie where a handful of marines go up against a swarm of giant dumb bugs led by an even bigger less dumb bug, and the ending is pretty much the same as in the first movie, only more bombastic.

Frankly all the praise the movie gets baffles me.

JackNapier said:

The film Much Ado About Nothing the 1993 version is a great adaptation. I highly recommend it.

I remember watching glimpses of that movie when I was a kid, and for whatever reason Robert Sean Leonard is what I remember the most about it. Over the years I’ve read that Keanu Reeves is the weakest link in terms of acting.

Anybody?

I have been looking for Akū Daisakusen Srungle, an obscure Japanese animé series from the 1980s.

When I was a little kid I recall watching a handful of episodes on a local TV channel. About twenty five years later I finally came across a YouTube channel that uploaded all 64 episodes with the caveat that they didn’t have subtitles, but the channel was taken down.

Is there a place where I can find the complete series with English subtitles?

My Sequel Trilogy would have been something like this:

Episode VII: The New Republic is seemingly thriving, however there is no new Jedi Order, and Luke Skywalker has exiled himself, Leia is now Chancellor of the Republic but finds herself weighted down by the world of politics and Han died some time prior to the movie (Harrison Ford has never been enthusiastic about SW so I would leave him alone). I would have kept the Imperial Remnant title from the EU as it makes a hell of a lot more sense than the First Order, and would have portrayed them as a shadowy organisation that unlike it’s predecessor the Empire, which fought using total war, they resort to more subtle tactics, such as guerrilla warfare, espionage, deception, infiltration through senators that are still secretly loyal to the Empire, conquering seemingly unimportant worlds, using unused experimental imperial technology, and while they would use old imperial Star Destroyers as mobile bases, their main base of operations would be in the Unknown Regions. They would be lead by the Knights of Ren, who are what I would call Force supremacists, as they believe that Force wielders are inherently superior to others and should rule over everyone. Originally being students in Luke’s fledgling Jedi academy, their belief of the strong ruling over the weak is what drove them to crush the new Jedi Order before it could truly blossom and subsequently join the Imperial Remnant. Kylo Ren in this version is unrelated to the Skywalker family, he’s just a promising student with a lust for power who went renegade alongside others, and Kylo Ren is his name for real. Second to the Knights of Ren in terms of command would be a council of former imperial military leaders and senators. Rey would be a nobody and nowhere near as OP in the Force, but is fully aware of her Force sensitivity and that’s what drives her to seek out Luke, to gain a better understanding, and she’s been gathering information on Luke’s whereabouts. That’s how she meets Chewbacca, now captain of the Millennium Falcon and Poe Dameron, his copilot and Finn, first mate and renegade stormtrooper. Finn defected from the IR because he couldn’t stand the suffering he inflicted when raiding worlds and kidnapping people to be used as slave labour, and has since decided to right the wrongs of his past with helping Chewie and Poe. Throughout their journey they uncover the IR secret plan to restore the Empire, and halfway through the movie Rey meets Luke, who is pretty much the same as in TLJ, a bitter disillusioned hermit who wants no further part in the conflicts of the Galaxy, but nevertheless agrees to train Rey as she’s driven by a desire to use her power responsibly, but the training is cut short when Kylo arrives after sensing her presence and offers to teach Rey true power, being impressed by her raw potential, and proceeds to kill Luke as a display of power, yet Rey still turns him down and flees. Now guided by Luke’s Force Ghost, Rey is determined to protect the Galaxy against the growing threat of the IR.

Whew, that’s a lot of text, I think I will use different posts for episodes VIII and IX.

Once Upon a Time in America (1984), directed by Sergio Leone.

An OK movie, however I found Ennio Morricone’s overtly sentimental score at odds with with a story that centers around Prohibition era hoodlums.

All I can say about Helen McCrory’s death is: poor Damian.

Come to think of it, I don’t know of any multimedia project that has come close to what Lucasfilm did with SotE.

Jurassic Park. It’s the movie that ignited my love for movies.

Fun fact: when I was a little kid I used to think all movies were directed by Steven Spielberg.

It’s basically the whole power must be used responsibly thing.

Not the first time I’ve heard about it, but yes, I’m a huge fan of the idea of the Force being inherently evil, which would explain why dark side powers are much more awesome than light side powers.

The SotE multimedia project holds a special place in my heart, because up until then I wasn’t really interested in Star Wars, and only had a passing familiarity with the franchise, and when my dad bought me an N64 console SotE was amongst the games he purchased, and the N64 was my first proper introduction to SW.

Because of the limitations inherent to the N64 console, they used slideshow images for the cutscenes whilst the PC version used CGI animated shorts with voice acting. I must say that the N64 slides have aged much better than the PC cinematics.

The score by Joel McNeely is awesome, especially because it captures the essence of SW without imitating John Williams. I read that McNeely himself was unhappy with the score, but I still hope he gets another chance at doing more SW music.

I’ve never read the book nor the comic book miniseries.

Over the years I have read that one of the biggest complaints fans have with the movie Alien 3 is killing the characters of Newt and Hicks in the very beginning of the movie, but after watching Aliens I must ask what exactly was so memorable about Newt and Hicks.

Hicks is a by-the-numbers military character, and Newt is an orphaned girl upon whom Ripley projects her maternal instincts, and judging by the outrage it’s like they were nuanced, profound well written characters that are essential to the story.

Snoke is nothing but another one of Abrams’ empty mystery boxes, and Johnson saw right through it.

I’ve noticed that many of the flaws in the ST were set up by Abrams, yet I hardly ever see any criticism directed at him.

Last night I saw Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy.

Todd Phillips took a hell of a lot of inspiration from that movie when he made Joker, and I think the reason this masterpiece was a commercial failure was because it was way ahead of its time.

RoccondilRinon said:

I haven’t seen either of them, but I’m inclined to judge things on their own merits, not by association. Some creative people can create both brilliant and terrible works (or, to put it in terms of general opinion, well- and poorly-received ones). Tom Hooper made both Les Misérables and Cats. Largely the same team made the first season of Game of Thrones as the last. For that matter, both George Lucas and J.J. Abrams made Star Wars movies that were generally loved and generally panned.

Exactly. I have enjoyed most movies by Alfonso Cuarón, but one particular movie of his did nothing for me, Children of Men. Does that mean I should invalidate his entire filmography because of that one movie I didn’t like? Hell, no.

I am fed up with this relentless fixation on 1980s pop culture.

I don’t know about a 35mm scan of Song of the South, only a 16mm scan available on myspleen.

I’m 1.70 m tall, and for the metric illiterates that’s 5’7.

I wish I was at least 1.93 m/6’4, but sadly I realized that I wasn’t going to grow much taller as relatives on both sides of my family are on the short side.

I knew quite a lot about the historical events the film is based on from watching an E! True Hollywood Story on Roman Polanski many years ago, and even when the movie “went off to the rails” from the true story, I was far too bored to care.

Side note on Roman Polanski: undoubtedly great filmmaker, he can go fuck himself as a human being and those who stand by him should be ashamed of themselves. Learn to separate the art from the artist.

I recently watched the movie Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, Tarantino’s latest movie, and felt like I wasted three hours of my life.

Seriously I don’t get the heaps of praise. Absolutely nothing happens in the movie, yet everywhere it’s being hailed as Tarantino’s most mature movie to date. This is no doubt one of the most boring movies I’ve ever seen.

The key difference between IG-88/Bossk and Boba Fett is that nobody praises them as badasses in the same way they do Boba Fett despite doing nothing.

Strip away all the supplementary material, and judging him exclusively on the movies, I must say Boba Fett is amongst the most overrated characters in Star Wars.

The only thing he has going for him is the undeniably cool looking suit of armour. Apart from that he does absolutely nothing noteworthy, and in TESB they only call him “bounty hunter”, just to show how little Lucas thought about him.

I sincerely don’t understand why he’s so popular with fans as he’s pretty much a nothing character.