joefavs

Don’t think anyone’s posted this yet. Here’s a video from that Force for Change thing where they contact donors and Harrison Ford surprises them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mjYjMxZJCg

This is probably the happiest I’ve ever seen Harrison. I now believe his TFA enthusiasm isn’t just about finally getting to die. He seems to genuinely be having a blast.

A.) George Lucas has been saying that since he finished ROTS. This is nothing new, someone just decided to ask him again this week.
B.) People here are pricks to people with different opinions. People on other forums are pricks to people with our opinions. The internet is full of pricks and the only way to avoid it is to find your own group of pricks or to not have opinions.
C.) As for as “us” driving George away, it goes both ways. Look no farther than the whole theatrical restoration issue that this entire place is built around to see how he set himself up for this kind of reaction.
D.) Really, what the hell are you doing here? If you’re familiar enough with this place to know that we’re who you’re angry with, you must know that no one here is going to care.
E.) This “if you’re not on board with absolutely everything Lucas does you’re the problem” mentality is complete bullshit. Yes, he started it. Yes, we’re indebted to him for the whole thing. No, that doesn’t give him infallibility in perpetuity for all matters Star Wars related. It’s bigger than any one person by now and he’s displayed time and again that he’s out of touch with a huge segment of his fanbase. Against all expectations, he had the grace three years ago to pass the torch and walk away. Star Wars was not wrenched from him; he gave it up, whether his cheering section realizes it or not.
F.) Christ, I was just defending the guy in another thread a few hours ago and I thought I was flustered about that. Thanks for reminding me that I’m with the right group of pricks.

Jeez, I’m glad you guys aren’t running the show at Lucasfilm. Creating an alternate timeline where SW and ESB are the only things that count would be insane. You don’t just hit the reset button after one subpar installment. Making good movies from now on is the thing to do, not trying to fix what happened thirty years ago. I’m against redoing the prequels for the same reason. “Move forward” should be the mantra (but not like, always literally, because I want to see stuff set all over the timeline).

I also don’t understand this attitude that a lot of people have that Return of the Jedi is some kind of deal-breaker. Yeah, it’s worse than the first two (if Star Wars and Empire are A’s, I give Jedi a B minus). But so what? Does it really only take one misfire for something like this to be over? What if Empire sucked and Jedi was a return to form? Would everyone have bailed on the series before finding out? I understand that it doesn’t seem like it because it’s been the end point for decades, but the fact is it’s just one middling entry in a series with high highs and low lows. Such a thing as “minor Star Wars” can exist without sinking the franchise.

^Yeah, the AV Club is the other internet place I hang out at, so I’ve been following their stuff all week. A ton of prequel apologetics in the articles themselves, but the comments sections are refreshingly unwilling to buy it.

I love the exchange between Han and Finn. There’s a couple shots of the Falcon I’m not sure about, though. I saw the footage from the new Jakku Star Tours sequence earlier in the week and the Falcon did some really awkward things that I’d hoped were just for the ride, but the way it moves here has got me wondering about the film. Hopefully it only looks weird because of how it’s cut.

EDIT: Not news, but I just came across this TFA poster by Phil Noto (if that name doesn’t ring a bell, he’s done a ton of comics; as far as Star Wars goes, he illustrated three of the Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens books, did the cover for Shattered Empire no. 1, and is currently doing the art for the Chewbacca comic miniseries). I think his style is too sketchy for an official poster, but I’ve got to say I think his composition and color palette beat the pants off of the one we actually got. Basically this but done by someone like Struzan would be the poster in my ideal world.

How bout that Finn teaser?

Anchorhead said:

His poor relationship with the fan base is all his own fault.

When a film maker changes a beloved scene of a beloved character, receives worldwide backlash over it, then decides to change it even further, and finally goes so far as to market & sell a T-shirt making fun of those very fans - he deserves all the vitriol the world can send his way.

Eh, I’m not willing to go that far. I have serious problems with what he’s done with his franchise for the past twenty years or so, but he’s still a human being who seems to want to do good based on how he’s been spending his Disney money. I think he’s really actually kind of nuts and I sort of feel sorry for the guy. Even if he was ultimately in the wrong (which he was), I don’t think anyone deserves the kind of unrelenting abuse he’s been on the receiving end of for decades just for fucking up a movie.

To be fair, “Jar Jar is his favorite character” is a huge mischaracterization of what he actually said on the writer’s part. In the video the exchange actually goes like this:

Interviewer: “If you could be any Star Wars character, who would you be?”
George: (clearly exasperated) “I don’t know. I like all the characters. Jar Jar Binks.”

He goes on to get himself all flustered about how much he hates being criticized and it’s really cringe-y. Completely aside from the franchise, I think it’ll probably good for his mental health to be out of the public eye.

George being weird about the new movie and angry about Star Wars in general: http://www.wired.com/2015/11/george-lucas-jar-jar-video/?mbid=social_fb

I really hope that once all the dust has settled he’ll mellow out and have a real conversation with JJ about TFA on camera or in print. I’m really curious about how he’ll respond to the actual movie itself.

Huh, I just set about looking for an ISO of this because a couple friends and I did a double feature of the Rifftrax version with Barbarella around last Christmas that we’d like to repeat and I thought I could probably do better than the crappy avi we watched last time. I had no idea it was actually THE day.

Anyway, I ended up going with the Gormaanda hybrid.

towne32 said:

From Empire Magazine:

“It was quite an unusual situation,” Serkis tells us in the new issue of Empire. “I worked specifically with Domhnall Gleeson and with Adam Driver. My first day was basically standing on a 25-foot podium doing Lord Snoke without the faintest idea what he looked like… or in fact who he was! I was very high up, totally on my own, away from everybody else, but acting with them.”

This is purely based on some kind of subconscious free association process in my own addled brain rather than facts or evidence, but when I read that I immediately thought he must be some kind of serpentine creature reared up vertically like a cobra. The first place my mind went was to this:

and after that, to this:

I’m probably just conflating this new info with the early concept art where he had a snake head, but who knows.

Also, here’s the actual soundtrack art:

I’ll certainly be watching the Despecialized Editions, because I watch those all the damn time anyway. If any friends are willing to do a boozy marathon of the entire saga, I’ll do the 2011 Blu-rays as well, but I don’t want to watch the prequels by myself and if I’m not watching those there’s no reason to watch the Special Editions of the originals.

I’d have to look at it again, but I don’t think the soft focus that I’m talking about is limited to the wipes. It’s most prominent starting with the scene in the shuttle when they sneak by the Executor up through some point in the speeder bike chase, though I think it comes back a few times during all the Ewok stuff. Again, I’d need to see it again, but I also remember that the shots with Vader and Piett on the bridge aren’t affected, but the Tyderium cockpit and the exterior space shots are. It almost looks like a different source.

^I think that’s the most likely option for Billie.

You know, I’ve always wondered about that section in the middle of the ROTJ blu ray where everything goes soft. Do we know what the reason is for that? Releasing a transfer that’s literally out of focus seems too careless even for Lucasfilm.

Anchorhead said:

I’ll admit to not following theory threads too closely, but is it possible she’s Leia’s daughter from the start of the film, presented as a regular character? Not every Star Wars character has to be some long lost, hidden, unknown, secret, O.M.G. reveal.

The only theory I’ve seen about her anywhere is that she’s young Leia in a flashback, which she actually denied in an interview a couple months ago, so it’s not really a huge revelation that that isn’t true. I think she certainly could be Leia’s daughter. She’s the same age as Daisy Ridley though, so if she is then I think it’s unlikely that Rey is also. I also have this weird feeling that even if Billie Lourd is Leia’s kid she isn’t Han’s. If Han is in fact out of the picture, maybe Leia is/was involved with that Major Ematt guy who was in all the Journey to the Force Awakens books.

Variety confirms that the music in the second TV spot is indeed from the new Williams score! http://variety.com/2015/film/news/star-wars-the-force-awakens-footage-han-solo-gun-rey-lightsaber-1201639818/

I’m also seeing that one of the Entertainment Weekly articles confirmed a final running time of 135 minutes, but I’m not sure which one. Ten minutes longer than I’d like, but ten minutes shorter than the estimates I was seeing a month or so ago, so I guess I’m happy.

EDIT: Billie Lourd is in the war room shot, by the way:

EW article on Hux and Starkiller Base with a lot if interesting little bits http://www.ew.com/article/2015/11/13/star-wars-starkiller-base-general-hux?hootPostID=2e25dce99e219a1c5784bb8680d772d0

Cell-phone-camera-pointed-at-TV video of a teaser that ran on Disney XD in the UK with a lot of new footage and our first lines from Hux and Poe, let’s hope a proper video shows up soon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-J1a4J7xNc

Rey running in the Falcon’s corridor and yelling at BB-8 gave me a big goofy smile.

Fang Zei said:

Could this be the first bit of John Williams’ score that we’ve heard, or am I just crazy?

I’ve been really worried about the music since I can’t think of a Williams score I really love since Jurassic Park, but if this is it I’m completely on board. There’s a really nice Tchaikovsky thing going on with that first theme (I’m guessing Rey’s).

I thought Jurassic World was fine. Nothing special, but it delivered what it needed to. I don’t think Trevorrow is a particularly bad director, I just think he’s a really boring one. Anyone could have made World, there was no flair. I’m sure the LFL brain trust will have more to do with the actual story than Trevorrow by the time we get to IX, but I’d hoped someone with a little more spark would land this thing.

I also really hated Safety Not Guaranteed, but my beef was with the screenplay and Trevorrow only directed, so I’m not holding it against him.

Promo for a behind the scenes thing on the Disney Channel with a few new shots. It’s the simplest thing, but I love the hell out of the Falcon approaching the planet (Takodana?).

EDIT: look sharp, EW is teasing an article about Snoke that will hit today.

I assumed that Kasdan would bow out as soon as it was announced that Johnson would be writing VIII. His writing the Solo anthology movie is a nice unexpected bonus, as far as I’m concerned. I don’t know if I agree that his exit doesn’t bode well for Han’s chances of survival, but it certainly doesn’t help either.

luckydube56 said:

JCM said:

http://screenrant.com/star-wars-7-force-awakens-simon-pegg-genuinely-magical/

Was listening to the Far, Far, Away Podcast this morning and Simon is taking a hit for his comments about the Prequels but the man speaks the truth.

I mean, I accept the Prequels on their own terms. They exist, I don’t want them written out of history. But they are not good movies. TPM was maybe one of the worst movie-going experiences I have ever had in my nearly 40 years. I wonder if this is maybe a generational thing. Gen X loved the OT because it spoke to them and Millennials (not all of them, but a lot) are more apt to like the PT.

What I cannot abide by is the fact that the OT that we are forced to live with in the public domain now is not recognizable to what I grew up with. If I can be forgiving to the PT and say “let 'em live” then we should at least have the OT available to us as they were originally released and not retroactively changed to fit the PT (or other whims). Even if it makes for an uneven viewing experience, that’s fine. They don’t all have to fit together and make sense. They can exist together in the same family without all having to agree with each other as long as they agree with each other among themselves, PT, OT and now ST, respectively.

Yeah. In my mind the PT exists as history with just the facts.

Obi Wan and Liam Neeson find Anakin as a child
Raise him up to be jedi
He is extremely adept in Force powers
He is generally a good guy
Falls in love with Padme
Then tragedy befalls him and he goes ape shit
Emperor gets hold of him and seals his fate.

All the details in between are irrelevant in my galaxy view. The nuances dont matter as that stuff exists in the movies and sucks.

I had the thought the other day that the prequels would be a lot more palatable as a comic. Same stuff happens, it’s still canon, but no one has to act, characters don’t need to blend into CGI sets, and you never hear anyone say “Dooku” out loud. It’s all just this weird Adventures of Young Obi-Wan Kenobi serial that technically counts but no one cares much to talk about. That’s sort of how I’ve chosen to remember it.

Harrison on Han http://www.ew.com/article/2015/11/11/harrison-ford-is-han-solo

A writeup detailing what to expect from the EW issue: http://www.ew.com/article/2015/11/11/star-wars-force-awakens-ew-cover
Doubt we’ll get anything of substance in the Luke article, but I’m interested to see how J.J. talks about Starkiller Base, given that they’re coming right out and calling it a Death Star on the cover. The stuff about Maz Kanata’s background should be interesting, too.