lovelikewinter

GlastoEls said:

SilverWook said:

Don’t forget Kenner brought back the toys in 1995, a full two years before the SE’s. Sure, Luke and the gang looked like they’d been hanging out on Eternia, but damn it was good to see Star Wars toys on the shelves again!
We also had the stuffed to the gills soundtrack anthology, and the (not so) Definitive Collection Laserdisc box set in 1993. I don’t think there ever was a time that the OT was out of print on home video in the 80’s or 90’s.

I’d say 91-95 was a fun, ‘pure’ time for those reasons - Zahn, new Kenner Eternia figures, soundtrack CDs, VHS sets…

Before the Dark Times. Before the Special Editons and the Prequels.

Mike O said:

Wazzles said:

Mike O said:

J0E said:

Mike O said:

Possessed said:

Personally my friends and I didn’t like the first Hobbit movie, so I’m honestly amazed the sequels got made.

I am like the lone apologist for those films.

I picked up the Extended Cut DVD’s the other day from Walmart and I just got through the first one last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. I haven’t gotten through the entire trilogy yet, but if the next two movies are as good as the first, I’ll put them on par with the LOTR Trilogy.

They aren’t as good as LOTr, I freely admit that. They have lots of problems, and there are huge chunks of them that you could cut out. But the accusation that they’re as bad as the Star Wars prequels is frankly just insane. The casting alone puts them head and shoulders above.

They have some of the same issues, being prequels and all, but their major faults are being terrible adaptations of the book.

I think part of them are terrific adaptations of the book; the first hour or so of the first movie is almost word-for-word. The stuff they added in that’s actually in Tolkien is pretty good; the Dol Goldur stuff, etc. The material they just added to pad things out like the inter-species romance, not so much.

It should have been two two hour movies or one 4 hour movie. They padded it out with appendices to try and increase the franchise at the expense of quality. I still prefer the Rankin Bass animated version.

Mrebo said:

The heckler’s veto is a thing, but there is no desire to make your job difficult, Wook.

A question nagging me, maybe somebody noticed/remembers: did Luke already have his exposed robotic hand in a flashback standing over Kylo? As a Force projection, did Luke have the robot hand or flesh?

He had the exposed robo-hand in the flashback. In the projection, he had either the same glove he wore throughout the movie or a close looking one. It was more brown than black.

SilverWook said:

Patrick Stewart should have to forfeit his knighthood or something just for doing a voice in that.

And don’t forget Angry Birds. 😉

When there was the “Oscars so white” controversy and Will Smith not getting nominated came up: I was telling people that Wild Wild West and the movie he did with his kid was the reason he never deserves one. Some things are unforgivable.

Don’t forget the mouthbreathers have to find some way to entertain their screw-trophies so they take them to garbage like Jumanji.*

Like my terrible cousin who got knocked up at 19 and had a shotgun wedding but still preaches how holy she is and won’t say a word to me because I’m tainted with the gay. Not anyone else’s family.

DominicCobb said:

And likable characters and good pacing and better production values and more interesting themes and better music and

I’ve always said the TFA’s biggest triumph is making me care about Rey, Kylo, Poe and BB8. Heck even Finn.

Collipso said:

yotsuya said:

Collipso said:

TV’s Frink said:

Mrebo said:

NeverarGreat said:

Random refrigerator thought, but when did the Resistance come into possession of a bombing fleet? Was it before or after the attack on Starkiller Base, where the entire mission was to hit a large, stationary target with as many bombs as possible? Leia refers to the bombing fleet as if it’s a treasured part of the Resistance, and there are dedicated Resistance crews and everything.

For that matter, when did they get that cruiser and those support ships and their crews? Did they just happen to arrive right after the events of TFA? It’s heavily implied that all of the Resistance attack ships are devoted to the Starkiller assault, and they bemoan that they have no chance without the Republic fleet (which is comprised mostly of capital ships). If they had a massive cruiser the whole time, the Leia would surely have used it to match FO forces at the Takodana battle instead of arriving later in a dinky transport.

I wish I could turn my brain off and enjoy this movie, but it feels like I’m supposed to question these things based on TLJ’s technical plot that draws attention to just this sort of thing.

It’s like the reason people want to know who Snoke is. It’s not because Snoke must be so important in his own right. We want to know how the galaxy-wide celebrations (is that heretical to say here?) at the end of ROTJ gave way to…a new Empire(?) with limitless resources. We assume it’s because of Snoke. And so we want to know how it happened.

Who was the Emperor? How did the Empire get how it was in the OT? The OT didn’t answer these questions and people aren’t complaining about that now.

I don’t think it’s fair to compare those two situations because there were no previously established realities for the situation in the galaxy to challenge. The way it went with TFA is as if TPM was the last Star Wars movie everyone saw and then they make ANH. People would go “wtf? what happened to the republic? to the separatists? what’s this empire?”

We had a established world: the empire has fallen, republic established. TFA tried to push the ANH situation down our throats but the world building wasn’t good enough - they didn’t give us any reasons or didn’t explain what is the first order or what was the republic or how we went from RotJ to the same ANH scenario. That’s what the movie doesn’t explain. It’s not about giving Snoke’s backstory I don’t think (even though that would be interesting once you realise he’s a sith and by the end of RotJ the sith were extinct), but it’s about what happened to the galaxy to get to the point where it was in TFA.

edit: Sorry, this was a really hard post to understand, sorry if it made no sense, it was badly written and not well thought out.

I think, again, that the problem with TLJ lies with TFA. It isn’t as good as some like to think. The crawl is one of the worst offenders. It doesn’t lay out the situation in the galaxy like the others. It just fails and then the movie fails in other ways and ends in a bad spot. I still consider TFA to be the worst of the films to date. It is the only one I have never truly enjoyed.

I’ve been criticizing TFA since day 1. Even TLJ Luke is TFA’s fault to an extent. It’s only better than TPM for me.

Really, those piles of garbage AOTC and ROTS are worse? TFA at least had a good script and acting.

I caught it in IMAX and there are some shots that are absolutely gorgeous to me like Paige’s death on the bomber and seeing Phasma’s eye out of the cracked helmet.

I can ignore the ones I don’t like ie The Prequels. If Lucasfilm would just release the OOT, I wouldn’t give a crap about whatever changes they make to the SEs.

Ryan said:

One thing I didn’t like was you have Return of the Jedi. And then a couple of movies later you have The Last Jedi with apparently Luke being the last Jedi. It kind of makes the “Return” rather pointless.

Return of the Jedi= Vader turning back to the light.

TV’s Frink said:

Warbler said:

TV’s Frink said:

I will never understand how gurgling noises and putting your hands up to your throat/chest area could be considered “going to sleep.” You clearly sleep differently than pretty much any other person.

I never said I thought they were going to sleep. I do not think they were going to sleep.

Sorry, it was Mrebo who said it.

So if you don’t think their choking, what’s your alternate explanation?

Luke choked them, but he didn’t kill them. They were choked until they were unconscious.

SilverWook said:

Again, Palpatine was the front, the mask. We don’t know how the history books in the GFFA refer to him. On the flip side of the coin, we don’t even know if Vader’s true identity is widely known.

I doubt we’ll ever see a young Anakin ghost, but a hologram isn’t out of the question.

Vader’s identity is widely known. Everyone knows Luke and Leia are his kids. A First Order sympathizer leaked the information.

SilverWook said:

Handman said:

SilverWook said:

Handman said:

lovelikewinter said:

Does the Darth Sidous reference annoy anyone else? I wonder if there is a take with Mark Hamill saying “The Emperor” instead.

It annoys me too.

Where Sith are concerned does one refer to them by their public disguise name, their true Sith name, or the title they bestowed upon themselves as they crushed the galaxy for two decades? Luke calling him the Emperor now that he’s dead and gone would be honoring a despot.

It’s a prequel reference, and I don’t like those. The line would have made just as much sense without it. Also who told Luke? It’s weird coming out of his mouth.

Luke probably sifted through a lot of records on Coruscant after the war. Who told him about the first Jedi temple on Ahch-To?

I’d have rather he said Palpatine. However, I’m thankful we didn’t get Hayden Christensen in this, so he’s not going to be in the Trilogy unless JJ pulls a 180 on his ideas of the Prequels.

yhwx said:

Can Disney control ticket prices?

They can wrangle a bigger cut of the box office from the theaters, for example Disney gets something like 60% of the ticket sales for the Last Jedi the first few weeks. Its why concessions are so expensive: that’s how the theaters make money.

Does the Darth Sidous reference annoy anyone else? I wonder if there is a take with Mark Hamill saying “The Emperor” instead.

With the rocks, Luke’s problem was lack of belief in himself. Rey might not have that issue.

DrDre said:

Matt.F said:

DrDre said:
Star Wars universe Wonder Woman, having discovered insta-Force.

Sorry Frink I didn’t mean to open up old wounds and rekindle the Mary Sue debate, I myself was responding to Dre’s comment above. That comment launched it. I don’t like the Mary Sue stuff, I think its tedious and it is emboldening a certain section of fandom that I would rather not embolden.

Yeah, Wonder Woman is a DC super hero. I could hardly call her Superman, since she is…a woman. I don’t like my Star Wars protagonists to be super heroes, who like Spider-Man, who was bitten by a radio-active spider, instantly gets super human powers. I call that insta-Force. I want my Star Wars protagonists to work for it, and struggle. It has nothing to do with her being a woman. That’s something you brought into the discussion.

I want to go with your Spider-Man analogy. Peter Parker did get powers, but he had to learn a hard lesson to understand the responsibility that comes with it. Rey has the power, but not the understanding.

I wonder if that was what Leia’s role in IX would have been. She is trying to teach Poe about it, citing that the bomber pilots who died destroying the dreadnaught were dead heroes: not leaders. She is trying to teach him to look beyond the battle and be a leader and her successor. Leia can do the same for Rey, and be the parent figure she so desperately wants (a mother instead of the father).

In The Last Jedi- Rey isn’t the main character: Kylo Ren/Ben Solo is and Luke is a close second. Its that relationship and the fall out that fuels the plot.

I took my little cousin to see TLJ last night. I offered to take him to the multiplex a half hour away, but he wanted to go to the little single screen theater in town. I hate that place so much. The seats are uncomfortable, so I was in pain at the end. The movie started 20 minutes late. The left side of the screen was tinted green, like when Luke’s saber was on it had no white core. On top of it the image was so dim and blurry, so you know these bastards were trying to save money with the projection bulbs. It was like a fucking VHS tape blown up on screen. If he hadn’t been there, I would have walked out. I didn’t enjoy the movie at all, I wanted it to end.

Going to try to go see it in a decent theater again. I really want to to wash the taste of this awful showing out of my memory.

I took advantage of Barnes and Noble’s 40% off Criterion blu-rays and an additional 25% off coupon to get The Hidden Fortress. I’ve never seen it, but as its listed as an inspiration for Star Wars so I guess I should.

I went to get a new calendar today and the Go! store at the mall had everything 50% off. They actually had a 3.75 inch Old Luke figure (I haven’t seen any around here) and I got it for $4.99 so I’m pretty happy.

The only thing I can think of for the 40th 4K rumor being true is Disney buying 20th Century Fox pushed any release back until the deal is done.

Dat_SW_Guy said:

No spoilers here but, TLJ is a movie you have to watch 2 times to truly get immersed into it.

That has been the way for all the Star Wars movies for me. The first time I’m trying to take it all in and follow the plot, the second time I can enjoy the details.

SilverWook said:

one69chev said:

Projected 68% percent drop in movie ticket sales this weekend; that is Batman vs Superman territory. TFA dropped 39% from its first weekend to its second. We can speculate over the ‘real’ review numbers, but box office numbers will generally indicate how the movie going public really feels about a movie; case in point, The Justice League which will most likely finish its box office run with less than $700 million worldwide.

Most hardcore fans have seen the film, and Christmas being on a Monday this year means one last full weekend of shopping madness. Also, this is the third SW flick we’ve had since 2015. Arguably there was a lot of pent up demand when TFA came out.

I’m old enough to remember when the holiday season was a terrible time to open a non holiday film/non kid’s movie.

At least the Jumanji remake didn’t beat it. That would have been embarrassing. 😉

There is a noticeable uptick in people traveling this Christmas, the best its been since 2006, so less time for the theaters.

As long as The Last Jedi beats Beauty and the Beast I will be ok. I fucking hate Emma Watson and I cannot abide her movie being no 1.

Anakin Starkiller said:

It fails as a prediction as well. Like I said, if Lucasfilm did want to kill Leia before IX, they would’ve done it in VIII. They could’ve easily had her not float back to the ship from the vaccum of space, and the plot wouldn’t suffer. All my other critisisms are also things I don’t think they’ll do.

You couldn’t do that without changing large amounts of the story. They would have to rethink it and reshoot most of the Raddus and Crait scenes and it would have pushed the movie back a year at least.