After watching TLJ quite a few times I must say I’m really excited about Rian Johnson’s SW trilogy, so much so that it’s what I’m looking forward to the most of the upcoming SW movies.
Hux clearly feared and respected Snoke, and it’s made clear from the start that he dislikes Ren with whom he has a bitter rivalry of sorts, which makes sense because Hux believes in discipline and wishes to impose order in the Galaxy, whilst Ren is a chaotic individual who frequently acts on impulse. I must say it would be pretty nice if the story of their conflicting personalities came to a head in episode IX, but I’m not holding my breath with Abrams back in the director’s chair.
Apart from James Bond, other movies that would come under Warner’s control are:
The Silence of the Lambs
The Terminator
Robocop franchise
Rocky franchise
Maybe that’s not enough and buying MGM is still not a very smart business move considering the company is said by many to be a mess.
If you guys didn’t notice, after Kylo Ren assumes the role of Supreme Leader, Hux becomes the voice of reason by telling him to ignore Luke and focus on wiping out what remains of the Resistance but it’s all for nothing as Ren is hell bent on getting even with his former master, and in the end Hux is clearly bitter about the FO being ruled by an hothead like Kylo Ren.
Since this thread is about Fox being bought by Disney I think on a related note I’d like to ask: Why hasn’t Time Warner bought Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer? It would make perfect sense since Warner owns MGM’s pre-1984 movie library save for the ones produced by United Artists through Turner. It would mean having all MGM movies under one roof, plus recently the only thing that’s keeping MGM afloat is the James Bond franchise. Warner would also be acquiring Orion Pictures movie library which is currently owned by MGM.
Honest trailers does The Last Jedi.
I chuckled.
Me too, although Screen Junkies didn’t seem to know how to tackle TLJ. The fact that everyone is excited about Mr. Copy-paste returning for episode IX baffles me. Seriously why is Abrams held in such high regard? I would really appreciate it if someone took the time to explain, because all he ever does recreate the pop culture he enjoyed in his youth, and people who are always ranting online about the lack of originality in Hollywood praise him as some sort of visionary. Bullshit!
Isn’t that what Lucas essentially did with American Graffiti, Star Wars and Raiders?
I’ve never seen American Graffiti so I can’t comment on that one. For me personally the best IJ is Temple of Doom, other than that I’ve always been indifferent towards the Indiana Jones series. The reason for the success of Star Wars was because it came out in the 1970s, a time marked by gritty movies like The Godfather, The Exorcist, Taxi Driver and The French Connection, and the fantasy/adventure genre was largely abandoned. Lucas made such a movie and added elements of sci-fi in the form of Space travel and futuristic technology. Making such a type of movie when its predecessors were largely failures or had a niche market at best was huge risk, even the very people involved in the making were certain Star Wars was going to be a failure that would go down in history as a cheesy b-movie that cost a fortune. The wide appeal and massive financial success came as a surprise and made many film studio execs realise that there was an untapped market.
All Abrams does is a copy-paste job of the pop culture of the 1980s at a time when that’s exactly what everyone else is doing it and the market has been exploited to death, yet he is still hailed as a genius. WTF?
Honest trailers does The Last Jedi.
I chuckled.
Me too, although Screen Junkies didn’t seem to know how to tackle TLJ. The fact that everyone is excited about Mr. Copy-paste returning for episode IX baffles me. Seriously why is Abrams held in such high regard? I would really appreciate it if someone took the time to explain, because all he ever does recreate the pop culture he enjoyed in his youth, and people who are always ranting online about the lack of originality in Hollywood praise him as some sort of visionary. Bullshit!
OK guys, saw the movie a few more times. Still love it to bits but now I notice the movie does indeed have one flaw: when Luke becomes one with the Force his prosthetic hand vanishes along with him. I think it should have remained in the physical realm and dropped.
Not that it matters now. My computer died yesterday and I will have to wait until next year to get a new one.
Anybody?
I went to the usual place and this regrade is nowhere to be found.
Unlike many of you here TFA has the opposite effect on me. I’ve rewatched the movie quite a few times to see if it was just a bad first impression but now I just can’t bear to watch a movie I so thoroughly dislike.
Yup, I even enjoyed the Canto Bight subplot, even though it adds nothing to the story, but IMO Canto Bight is more about the continued development of Finn as a person than about advancing the plot of the movie, because when we first meet Finn in TFA he’s pretty much a bufoon and a bit of a coward who knows very little beyond his Stormtrooper training, and in Canto Bight he learns a bit more about the Galaxy outside of the confines of the First Order, witnessing the luxury built on top of the misery of others, and we also meet DJ, a genuinely neutral character who takes no sides and only cooperates with either one when it suits him (fuck the Bendu), and is perhaps the most cynical character we’ve encountered yet in SW, which really piques my curiosity as to what made so cynical in the first place and made him decide the only thing worth looking out for is himself. In DJ we get a glimpse of what Finn might become if he continues to run and only care about his own survival. Finn ultimately rejects DJ’s bleak outlook due to the lack of moral fibre that comes with it as evidenced by his betrayal, preferring to fight for a worthy cause and even willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good (cue Hot Fuzz).
Obviously there is no right or wrong when it comes to opinions, but I find it strange that TLJ is your favorite with tfa being your least favorite.
It’s certainly a unique opinion.
So far I find myself being the only one who thoroughly dislikes TFA and absolutely loves TLJ, and I even went as far as to ask at TheStarWarsTrilogy boards if I am some sort of extraterrestrial being because of my unique views on both movies.
I think digital cameras were the least of AOTCs problems.
For sure, like 95% of the movie being CGI, Anakin being written as a bad apple from the start instead of a genuinely good man slowly being transformed by war, the aforementioned forced romance between Anakin and Padme and so on and so forth.
Shouldn’t Star Wars be rated above Empire if SW is currently your favorite of the OT?
I decided to rank TESB above SW on the basis that it’s a deeper, more character-driven story whereas the first SW is just fun adventure, as I felt ranking them based on subjective perceptions would be a little disingenous.
My current ranking:
The Last Jedi: Just perfect. Loved every second of it and wouldn’t change a thing.
The Empire Strikes Back: My favoutite of the OT when I was a kid.
Star Wars: In my adulthood it is now my favourite of the OT. The only things that stand out for me is why do the stormtroopers run away scared from Han and Chewie when they clearly outnumber them 5 to 2, and let’s face it, Obi-Wan vs. Vader is the least impressive lightsaber duel in the whole saga.
Return of the Jedi: This one surpassed TESB as my favourite one of the OT when I was a teenager, and if you ask me, I consider this one to be the pinnacle of traditional optical effects before the advent of CGI.
Revenge of the Sith: If not the best of the PT, then it most certainly is the one with the best ideas, and I personally consider Anakin/Vader vs. Obi-Wan to be the best lightsaber duel in the entire saga.
Rogue One: Although this movie tells a story we already know Gareth Edwards manages to do some pretty cool stuff within the limitations, with characters like Cassian Andor who do the Rebels dirty work.
Attack of the Clones: The first SW movie shot on digital cameras and because of it the movie has aged poorly. Current digital cameras look a lot better but I still prefer the look of film, but I digress. While I know many of you hate this part of the movie I absolutely loved watching Yoda fighting with a lightsaber and for me it was a great payoff after enduring the most forced romance in movie history.
The Phantom Menace: Apart from learning how Anakin became a Jedi and how Palpatine took his first step towards ruling the Galaxy this movie doesn’t really feed into the rest of the saga, and you can skip this movie altogether and you won’t really miss a thing, and frankly I didn’t like the lightsaber duel between Maul and Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan, way too choreographed, which Lucas noticed and thankfully loosened up a bit in the following two movies. Its only redeeming quality is that it was the only one of the PT which was shot on film.
The Force Awakens: How and why this movie is held in such high regard is beyond me, or J.J. Abrams for that matter. It’s nothing but a remake of the first SW movie. Abrams returning to direct Episode IX means TLJ will probably be the only good movie from the sequel trilogy, thus I’m not really looking forward to Ep. IX and will only go watch it at the cinemas to see how the story ends, which based on Abrams’ body of work will be a remake of ROTJ by my guess, as that is pretty much all he seems capable of doing, recreations of the pop culture he enjoyed in his childhood and teenage years.
I haven’t watched The Clone Wars so can’t comment on that one, and I would also like to post that I’ll pass on the Han Solo movie as I’m not really interested nor do I care what Han was up to before meeting Luke and Obi-Wan.
Finally I’d like to ask. Am I the only one ranking TFA dead last? Because this is my first post on this thread and have skipped the previous pages.
I’d like to request a colour regrade of the 2004 movie Layer Cake starring Daniel Craig. My main issue is that the movie has a pronounced blanket green tint that interferes with stuff that are coloured blue like blue police car lights which appear teal or Daniel Craig’s eyes which appear emerald green.
This topic will probably be deleted since there’s no project dicussion of any kind, but I feel this is the ideal place to post this so here I go.
As a film aficionado whose interest in the technical aspects of moviemaking has grown over the years and being a member of this forum for as long as I have been I’ve started to notice how many home media releases are so drastically different from their film print counterparts, from changes in colour timing to stuff like DNR and edge enhancement or the level of contrast which has been lowered or heightened to the point of crushed blacks.
What I find truly baffling is that we have reached a point in which home video can perfectly replicate the look of a film-projected image as shown by the many film scans that have either been released or are in progress by members of this online community, yet many blu-ray releases are still far from the original look of the movies presented, with revisionist colour timing, digital “clean-up” that wipes away the texture of surfaces which is most apparent in the actors’ faces looking like wax figures to oddly dim-lit looking images and so on and so forth. It’s gotten to a point where I have grown paranoid about home media and don’t know what to trust anymore, especially with much older movies like Ben-Hur or The Godfather, which I never saw in cinemas since those were well before I was born so for all I know 2001: A Space Odyssey had a bright green tint in the original 70mm film prints, and you don’t even have to that far back in time. For instance, from what I’ve gathered watching online photos of the many film cells of Interstellar it’s clear the movie has a cyan tint and higher contrast, yet the blu-ray presents us with a digital transfer that has a blanket yellow tint, a somewhat desaturated colour palette and lower contrast.
The people in charge of handling digital transfers of movies are supposed to be the best of the best yet we are still treated to several piss-poor transfers on our blu-ray discs, and many so-called amateurs on these boards have taken the time to correct the many issues they present, case in point: Neverar’s correction of the official Star Wars blu-ray which blows the official digital presentation out of the water, or the film scans of movies that despite a few scratches here and there still look way better than the official blu-ray discs.
Maybe I’m being too harsh on the people who work on official transfers as they still have deadlines to meet and sure they’ve a few things right like some of the early James Bond movies with Sean Connery, but the fact members of this forum have come up with improvements in their spare time that put their work to shame leaves me wondering.
Just needed to get that out of my chest, guys.
OK, I finally saw the remaining episodes and here’s my opinion of the series as a whole:
I think Star Wars Rebels was an overall OK series, but also very frustrating on a personal level to me because it was too risk averse many times, so much so that I think it’s a miracle Kanan died at all, with Filoni himself stating in a recent interview that Yoda telling Luke that he was the last of the Jedi was not the reason for his death, as if implying that if he wanted to he would’ve had Kanan be alive throughout the timeline of the OT. The one plot point that sticks out for me the most was Ezra’s dark tendencies in the first two seasons, which after the season 2 finale led me to believe that Ezra would be more enthralled in the dark side as season 3 progressed leading to some sort confrontation with Kanan but no, that plotline was solved instantly at the start of season 3, what a cop out. Another thing I disliked about season 3 was the Bendu, a character who claims to be in the middle of the light and dark side of the Force, yet only helps the good guys and in his one interaction with a bad guy he gives Thrawn yet another speech about how the bad guys will lose, in this case predicting Thrawn’s defeat, so much for neutrality.
Finally there’s Ahsoka, AKA the most shoehorned character in Star Wars history, being ever present in Filoni’s stories and still being alive even when it defies all logic and reason. Seriously, I know Filoni loves her and she’s his pet character but enough is enough, Ahsoka needs to die. Are you telling me that after escaping Malachor she just sat back and let the Rebellion take care of the Empire when a skilled and knowledgeable Force wielder such as herself would have come in handy say, helping Luke’s training to further hone his skills and such? COME ON!
The finale was alright save for the revelation that Hera gave birth to Kanan’s son. WTF? Kanan and Hera spent the whole series flirting but I got the impression that their onscreen kiss was their first and only moment of intimacy. Did Kanan use the Force from the afterlife to impregnate Hera? Cause that’s the only explanation that makes any sense, otherwise it seems they were having quickies throughout their many missions.Honestly at this point I’m kinda done with Filoni and his risk-averse kid-friendly stories where everything always turns out for the better to such a degree it’s a wonder the bad guys are successful at all.
I agree with this. I however did love some parts of the series. When they brought Vader into it they made him more of a badass when so much of the post PT books and stuff made him basically a wimp. Obi-Wan vs Maul was another high point: the duel was perfect. Brining Thrawn into it was great. I enjoyed how he played Phoenix Squad as chumps until Ezra HAD to win just because.
While I would have preferred the series to end with Ezra dying at the end I knew Filoni simply wouldn’t have the balls to do so given how safe the series played it throughout its entire run, but I’m OK with him being MIA. Thrawn on the other hand was wasted being in a kid’s show like Rebels since IMO he lends himself more to serious and mature storylines, him being outsmarted by a whiny teenager in a kid’s show felt wrong and out of place with his character, and while I know Timothy Zahn will never say anything publicly I’m pretty sure he’s deismayed at how they handled his creation in Rebels. As for Maul I expected him to be a more philosophical character whilst still adhering to his dark side teachings willing to help the Rebels out of pure hatred of the Emperor until his fragile alliance with them is ended due to his ruthless methods, kinda like a Force wielding Saw Gerrera, whilst continuing to manipulate Ezra into embracing the darkness within him, instead he was reduced to a Satruday morning cartoon villain still obsessed with picking a fight with Kenobi even though Kenobi himself clearly doesn’t give a fuck about Maul.
If there is one thing I’d love more than anything it’d be to watch TLJ projected on film, which sadly won’t happen because all cinemas here have replaced film projectors with digital projectors.
OK, I finally saw the remaining episodes and here’s my opinion of the series as a whole:
I think Star Wars Rebels was an overall OK series, but also very frustrating on a personal level to me because it was too risk averse many times, so much so that I think it’s a miracle Kanan died at all, with Filoni himself stating in a recent interview that Yoda telling Luke that he was the last of the Jedi was not the reason for his death, as if implying that if he wanted to he would’ve had Kanan be alive throughout the timeline of the OT. The one plot point that sticks out for me the most was Ezra’s dark tendencies in the first two seasons, which after the season 2 finale led me to believe that Ezra would be more enthralled in the dark side as season 3 progressed leading to some sort confrontation with Kanan but no, that plotline was solved instantly at the start of season 3, what a cop out. Another thing I disliked about season 3 was the Bendu, a character who claims to be in the middle of the light and dark side of the Force, yet only helps the good guys and in his one interaction with a bad guy he gives Thrawn yet another speech about how the bad guys will lose, in this case predicting Thrawn’s defeat, so much for neutrality.
Finally there’s Ahsoka, AKA the most shoehorned character in Star Wars history, being ever present in Filoni’s stories and still being alive even when it defies all logic and reason. Seriously, I know Filoni loves her and she’s his pet character but enough is enough, Ahsoka needs to die. Are you telling me that after escaping Malachor she just sat back and let the Rebellion take care of the Empire when a skilled and knowledgeable Force wielder such as herself would have come in handy say, helping Luke’s training to further hone his skills and such? COME ON!
The finale was alright save for the revelation that Hera gave birth to Kanan’s son. WTF? Kanan and Hera spent the whole series flirting but I got the impression that their onscreen kiss was their first and only moment of intimacy. Did Kanan use the Force from the afterlife to impregnate Hera? Cause that’s the only explanation that makes any sense, otherwise it seems they were having quickies throughout their many missions.
Honestly at this point I’m kinda done with Filoni and his risk-averse kid-friendly stories where everything always turns out for the better to such a degree it’s a wonder the bad guys are successful at all.
I have this totally bonkers wish of having Éric Serra doing SW music, which of course will never happen because he’s more synth/electronica oriented.
Considering the rules this forum has established in regards to owning the Despecialized Trilogy, I think it’s unwise to encourage this sort of thing.
It looks like the GoldenEye print is no longer on sale, which is a real shame. I can’t afford any of this and can only hope for someone to come across another 35mm print in good condition, scan and upload the movie.