towne32

TavorX said:

This is an official, rather botched, explanation of why R2D2 powered up.

I feel like they’re trying to avoid discussion of who Rey might be.

spaint said:

That’s actually an excellent idea.

I’d also consider deleting the Hosnian destruction entirely. It isn’t important for the plot (as far as I can remember) and the fact it can be seen from Takodana as well as the overall poor visuals of the destruction (it was made to look like the planets were all orbiting each other) really damaged my enjoyment of the movie.

I get what you’re saying. While it might be an okay idea for a standalone film, I have a feeling it will never mesh with VIII. Hopefully the Hosnian destruction is dealt with better in that one than it was in this.

SilverWook said:

And Duracell, if you haven’t seen the movie yet, posting in this thread could be misconstrued as trolling.

Thank you. I hope this applies to SmokingLizard as well.

I think Catbus and I gave the exact same opinions the last time this was asked a page or two back.

But I would strongly recommend the patched up version of the 2.0 WP that another user has made, to be used with the subtitle patch, over v1.0.

We will likely give the same opinions the next time it is asked as well. 😉

The only real problem with this patched WP, aside from some unoptimized color, is a bit of gate weave in a couple shots. But it beats the ‘GOUT-weave’ of v1.0. It’s one thing when the frame moves, it’s quite another when the blurry sarlacc moves while the rest of the frame stays still. And I say this with no disrespect to Harmy, as he obviously created the only watchable HD version of RoTJ ever made.

You can’t just go around posting spoiler threads like this.

CatBus said:

There are other projects that go to some lengths to re-create the colors of our VHS-tinted memories. This one comes to mind: http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/GOUT-EC-Edition-v2-RELEASED/id/15871

That thread is hilarious.

But I think what people are requesting in this case are colors similar to the ‘before’ pictures in that thread. 😛

Memorex said:

TheBardXWM said:

I hate to keep belaboring this question but where would you find such an HDTV version?

On a HD channel on tv? 😉 Recordings are all over the interwebs, google and you shall find.

To be fair, the release of 2011 BDs essentially erased the 2004 HD from the public interwebs. Pirates don’t generally care about anything but the latest, which is problematic for preservationists.

Smoking Lizard said:

towne32 said:

You still haven’t seen the film, right? So I can keep ignoring you? This film was absolutely nothing like TPM. Many, MANY of us were critical walking out of TPM. The people you see gushing in the videos after the premiere were selected because of their reactions. And I’ll bet many of them (the adults at least, such as Kevin Smith) still love the prequels today.

Understand, I am not criticizing the acting, the direction, the cinematography, the special effects, the editing, the audio mix, or the score.

I’m criticizing the story. One does not need to see a movie to know and comprehend its story.

All of these things together make the film what it is. The presentation of the story was nothing like ANH. Many of us wish something besides Starkiller was done. But I had other, more important, plot points in my mind while all that was going down in the film.

Your criticism popped up very early on when you read a bullet point list of steps that are similar to ANH. Yes, when it’s stated like that it sounds awful. But, aside from Starkiller, they felt like polite nods to 1977 while a new story was being told.

I suspect you may be looking back and judging TPM with a set of “after-the-fact” eyeglasses.

Of course? This is the case for every movie I’ve ever seen, though. TPM was disappointing at the time, but there were definitely things I enjoyed about it. If I were a bit younger, perhaps it would have been a ‘classic’ to me and my opinion would degenerate much more over time. In the years to come, I would say I became more critical of everything about the PT. At this point, I can watch them and see the few things that they did really well, and shake my head that it doesn’t matter when the end result is so bad.

Whereas TPM felt like a let down that ‘oh well, at least it has a few key moments that worked’. This felt like one of the first action adventure films in recent years with actual heart to it, with some definite flaws that could be tightened up. It will probably adjust in people’s rankings (most likely, from ranking right above Jedi to right under), but I suspect that its legacy will not be that it was a major misstep, but rather a return to glory that was just a bit too safe. The long term opinion is going to depend somewhat on what the next two films do, though.

Smoking Lizard said:

I suspect that “The Force Awakens” will follow the same path as “The Phantom Menace.”

When TPM opened, fans were raving, gushing, ranting about it. Fans were describing it as “awesome,” “amazing,” “sensational.” Some even saying, “Best movie EVER!” Fans everywhere were saying, “I loved it!”

Soon enough, though, the euphoria started to wear off and the fan base started to sober up. Hardened longtime fans had already taken to the Internet to point out the ridiculous nature of TPM’s plot elements: Jar Jar, 8-year-olds accidentally saving the day, midichlorians, the “convenient” coincidences, etc. These early bashers were initially met with ridicule and contempt. Supporters of the movie employed all sorts of logic fallacy to defend the movie: “Obviously you’re WRONG because the movie is making so much money!” When critics pointed out all the silliness, supporters were quick with ridiculous ad hoc reasoning to “explain” weaknesses of the film.

It was all initially fueled by hunger and nostalgia of the fans for more Star Wars movies. Fueled by the hope that Star Wars wasn’t over, that the franchise had a new future. More movies, more merchandise, more excitement, more fun.

But finally the honeymoon ended and the fan base completely came to their senses. They realized TPM is simply an awful movie that largely wrecked the franchise.

And so, rinse and repeat. Here we are today, with an equally bad movie. As critics point out the laughably ridiculous flaws, defenders rush in with contrived ad hoc reasoning to “explain it all away,” and, even better, launch all sorts of ad hominem attacks against the critics.

It’s just movie! The Force made it happen! It’s science fantasy, not science fiction! It’s Star Wars! Blah, blah, blah.

Sigh

You still haven’t seen the film, right? So I can keep ignoring you? This film was absolutely nothing like TPM. Many, MANY of us were critical walking out of TPM. The people you see gushing in the videos after the premiere were selected because of their reactions. And I’ll bet many of them (the adults at least, such as Kevin Smith) still love the prequels today.

I just love the fact that someone who has not seen the movie and therefore cannot have his own opinion on the movie is so dedicated to invalidating other people’s opinions. Critique something you haven’t seen all you want, but quit telling people they don’t know how they feel.

Mavimao said:

I’m sure his kid is dying to see it!

Maybe his kid will convince him to restore ESB first. 😛

I don’t think he was planning on seeing it unless people he trusts tell him it’s something really special.

But yes, I am curious too. For reasons I won’t go into, I could see him either being quite pleasantly surprised or he could absolutely hate it. 😃

It’s also possible that the scene just didn’t turn out well. People have been claiming that Lupita gave a bad performance, which is ridiculous. They could get her to re-record if needed. I think it’s much more likely that however Carrie performed the scene, it didn’t carry the necessary emotion for holding her brother’s lightsaber. Just speculation, of course.

But also, what would have happened with the lightsaber? Maz gives it to Finn, Finn has it in the battle, loses it, gets it back, gives it back to Maz. Maz gives it to Leia, somehow it gets back to Finn who loses it with Kylo? It’s not a baton. I’m just glad it wasn’t twirling in space after the crawl. I’m glad that rumor was nonsense.

That’s a really good theory. Rey seemed quite genuine when she said she thought Luke was a myth. But that puts us, perhaps, off the trail of what should be the obvious conclusion for the rest of the film (although we keep suspecting it, time and again).

She wasn’t kidding then, when she said “classified? Me too”. Classified even from herself? It also makes her reaction to Maz’s ‘take the damn saber’ bit even better.

Well. Time to watch the thing again with this in mind. 😃

DominicCobb said:

The scene where Kylo first hears about Rey had me asking questions. The officer mentions a girl and he quickly spins around and forces the officer over. Why the big reaction? Simple histrionics (he is in quite a mood in that scene)? Or does hearing about a hero girl light a spark in his mind (if Luke had a daughter, did he know)? The only thing that makes me doubt this is when he talks to Snoke about her (“she is strong in the force”) he doesn’t say anything about her possible parentage (maybe he knows something he doesn’t want Snoke to know?).

Yep. By the time he was interrogating her, I thought she would for sure recognize him once the mask comes off.

I would also recommend Hal9000’s ANH, which I’ve only just recently watched. It has very little of the Tatooine sillyness (really just one Ronto shot and the first Dewback). It’s based on Harmy’s 1997 version, though, so what you think of the color will depend on your opinion of that.

hydrospanner said:

woofermazing said:

I think you guys are mistaken about Rey being hidden from Ren. I think it’s more likely that Ren is the one who dumped her on Jakku. Ren was Lukes star pupil and likely successor to lead the new Jedi order. Then baby Skywalker is born and is a force prodigy. Ren is pissy about being cast aside and hooks up with Snoke. He’s ordered to wipe out the Jedi order and bring the Skywalker child to Snoke. He decides to kill her instead because he doesn’t want to be second fiddle again but can’t follow through, so instead ditches her on a random planet. She doesn’t remember any of this yet.

Kylo Rens reaction to hearing about the Jakku escape and fear when she starts to realize her force powers make no sense unless they have history, and his inferiority complex makes no sense unless he’s been cast aside before in favor of Rey. It also would completely ruin Luke’s character for me if he abandoned Rey to the same life he had been stuck in, and then gave up fighting for good.

I really like this as a possible explanation.

There’s also the novelization. When the lightsaber whizzes by Kylo and into Rey’s hand, he thinks “It is you”.

Warbler said:

btw anyone think it curious how similar the names of the bad guy and good girl are? Rey and Ren?

I noticed, too, when we started using Ren as shorthand here. But Ren is some kind of order that he belongs to (Knights of Ren), using the personal name Kylo. His real name, of course, is Ben.

REPORT-RoTJ-v2.0-WP

0:33:36

Some stabilization of 35mm needed. Also, glue frame present at the end.

Bosk said:

I think a lot of people are trying very hard to like the film after the prequels but I think on a few viewings at home and not on the big screen they will see all the faults in all their glory.

Perhaps they might be. Perhaps I am. Perhaps people are trying very, very hard to dislike the film also due to the prequels. Perhaps definitely the last one.

Hey, thanks for liking the idea. As I said, I think I’ll always enjoy the real cut for this film, but these things are fun anyway.

I think the execution of this idea is really going to depend on the bonus material we get. Using only the scenes we have, the best we would get from this idea is a compelling ‘draw’ where both sides sort of lose at the end. It will differentiate it from ANH, but that’s about it.

If we get anything more from Hosnian Prime, though, we will really be able to use the ending to put the Republic in a state of despair (that presumably it is indeed in), at the end of this film.

Anchorhead said:

brash_stryker said:

If they really had to have Starkiller base, I think the Resistance ought to have failed to destroy it (only disabled it). This would have subverted our expectations and made it less of a rehash of ANH/ROTJ. Also it would have made it much darker (Han died for nothing, and Luke is now the Last Hope for the galaxy, just as he was once the NEW Hope).

That would have been an excellent way to handle it.

I like the idea in theory. But I don’t want to see it next time. Maybe the destruction of the Hosnian system and Senate could have happened during the battle, because they failed to destroy it in time? Or, they did enough damage that the weapon destroyed itself when it fired and destroyed that system? A bittersweet victory. Edit: huh, that might actually be faneditable.

I’m really not opposed to the existence of the weapon itself in the film. I think, visually, it had a good look and I liked the fact that the battle in the woods was actually on the weapon. The events that occurred within the base were great, too. That it was even a converted planet was a neat idea. I just think the battle itself was a huge missed opportunity and the one point for me where the ‘throwbacks’ become a rehash. But I was much too concerned about Kylo and Rey’s confrontation to care about the air battle much.

When you first posted that, I didn’t know what Kylo’s theme was. So I went back and listened to it and, for me, (someone who is clueless when it comes to scores) no I did not detect similarities. I also think the music for Kylo’s battle was fantastic and suited him, but it didn’t strike me as a “theme” that could be easily reused, the way Rey’s is. It also isn’t explicitly called a theme on the soundtrack.

pat man said:

hydrospanner said:

Why were they able to see the Hosnian system get destroyed from Takodana? You’d think they’d be right on top of each other for that to make sense.

Was it just me or was the main planet we see get blown up in the Hosnian system Coruscant or a planet very similar?

Similar, perhaps. It’s Republic City on Hosnian Prime.

I think we booted the black stormtrooper critic out too early (or was that the other thread). Such light hearted topics today.

Warbler said:

spoiler warning
I think they made it too obvious what was going to happen to Han, at the time it happen. I was fairly certain what was going to happen about 30 seconds before it happened. I don’t understand how Rey could do so well against Kylo Ren in their fight when she supposedly hasn’t been trained at all. I realize you can argue that Kylo Ren hasn’t been fully trained yet, but he was at least somewhat trained. Rey should have been no match for him. In order to comply the rules, I will post more in the EP VIII thread.

Well, he was shot in the stomach by one of Chewie’s ridiculously powerful arrow bolt blaster things and was bleeding heavily from that.

Daisy Ridley’s performance I felt was a little bland, she’s charming but I didn’t feel much depth in her performance, didn’t like how she got so offended by Boyega grabbing her hand to get her away from the first order, overreaction much? Its bits like that that add fuel to the flames of those accusing JJ of pushing a femenist agenda in this film with Rey.

No need to get all anti-agenda-y, though I certainly don’t mind feminism in film. It was showing her lonerism and distrust, which is also the reason for the long hug when she realizes someone actually came back for her for once.

StardustCamellia said:

Who knows. I keep hearing there was stuff cut from this film due to runtime and to keep it tight. I hear we lost a couple of Maz Kanata bits because Nyong’o “wasn’t delivering” and we may have lost a scene with Luke (though, I’m a big, big fan of how they actually left us wanting more rather than breaking the tension with anything additional).

That’s surprising, she did a great job in the scenes she had. I heard one similar rumor that they cut the character completely due to her performance, but it seemed like a reactionary rumor based on her not being in the trailers. Really, I think the CG characters didn’t fit enough with their marketing, or they feared that a short glimpse would have people dreading another prequel type character. If anything was cut, I wonder if it wasn’t the visuals they were unhappy with rather than performance. They had forever to get better performances out of her, and we know she’s capable.