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The Saga Ends (*spoiler-free* discussion)


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The Saga Ends (*spoiler-free* discussion)
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Brad
Selfish Heathen
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
 
2019-11-29, 15:27

Thanks, chucker!
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Brad
Selfish Heathen
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
 
2019-11-29, 15:33

I kind of hate these OMG A.D.D. BING BANG BOOM HOLY SHIT CRAM ALL THE THINGS AS FAST AS POSSIBLE EVERYTHING MUST GO promos (ok boomer ), but this one I like. The music theme mashup honestly gave me chills.

Quote:
Originally Posted by chucker View Post

The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting.
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kscherer
Which way is up?
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
 
2019-11-29, 16:11

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad View Post
About the only exposure I've gotten is this big cardboard cutout of Rey with lights and sounds that motion-sensing activate and roar with the extending/activating light saber noise at some 200 decibels every time I walk by at my local Target.
Does your wife know about this?
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kscherer
Which way is up?
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
 
2019-11-29, 16:12

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad View Post
I kind of hate these OMG A.D.D. BING BANG BOOM HOLY SHIT CRAM ALL THE THINGS AS FAST AS POSSIBLE EVERYTHING MUST GO promos (ok boomer ), but this one I like. The music theme mashup honestly gave me chills.
Yep. Now if only the movie lives up to that!
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2019-11-29, 16:35

Not being on Twitter, I've mostly been seeing these during Jeopardy, which airs on our ABC affiliate here in town (ABC = Disney?), so that's where I've been seeing them the past couple of days. I've seen them on a couple of other channels to, but I can't remember which ones.

Yeah, they're all pretty quick-cut, jumbled and hard to tell anything from...which is probably on purpose. "Guys, do whatever you need to dress this turd up and make it look exciting and like something people will want to see...hell, make up stuff if you need to. Put in explosions, ships and other things that aren't even in the final movie...Rey in a hot tub, Chewie choking Lando (again), Threepio proclaiming his love for Poe, etc."

Last edited by psmith2.0 : 2019-11-29 at 19:06.
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chucker
 
Join Date: May 2004
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2019-11-29, 16:44

Quote:
Originally Posted by pscates2.0 View Post
(ABC = Disney?)
Yes. ESPN, too.
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2019-12-02, 11:44

Saw another new 15-second TV spot last night, with a couple of new scenes/footage. No idea what they are, just 1-2 seconds long.

I keep waiting to see/hear something that elicits a genuine "holy smokes, I need to set aside my doubt and reservations and see this thing ASAP".

I'll let you know when that happens...



I really hope that by staying spoiler-free, there will be something in this movie that truly rises above and makes these two previous entries seem worth it all. Tall order, I realize. Considering who's at the helm - both the movie itself, and the overall "vision" - I honestly, based on 2015, can't imagine this being anything other than a stylized, slightly-tweaked/updated retelling of ROTJ (Lando, Palpatine, desert floating skiffs, Death Star II, red-costumed bad guys and what appears to be three large battles - air, ground and dueling sabers - are all confirmed via the various trailers and TV promos). And I'm going to go ahead and guess/predict that Ewoks/Endor, Kylo "turning"/redeeming himself (a la Vader), Lando leading the fleet in the Falcon, Tattooine, a Fett/Slave I cameo/reference, a burping space animal of some sort, a big Rancor-like threat/obstacle that gets killed in a low-tech/clever way and Force ghosts (all of 'em that bear on this saga...Yoda, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Mace Windu and Luke and all making a smiling-at-Rey appearance just before the closing shot) will all factor in at some point.

Just watch.

On the bright side, soon this is all finally over as we know it. Whatever they do from here out, hopefully it's novel and unique and made by folks with a true love and appreciation for the material and who are interested in creating something more than tepid, unasked-for and lazy beat-by-beat remakes of movies that already exist. That would be a good start, because I'm pretty sure that if you polled 1,000,000 Star Wars fans back in 2014 about what they'd love to see, going forward, none of them would've described this pointless, derivative horseshit disguised as remakes or "soft reboots" of movies that got it right the first time, 3-4 decades ago. Disney/Lucasfilm had a half-dozen ways they could've gone, with or without the original cast involved, and they managed to make every wrong decision/choice imaginable instead. It'll take years for genuine, across-the-board interest in the property to bubble up and appear again. It just needs to go away for at least 5-6 years, and it'll take a different outlook/approach to recapture genuine fan interest via smart, original and well-made movies (just like how Joel Schumacher's day-glo "wacky sitcom" take on Batman led to a long dormancy of the live-action, theatrical version of the character, before someone else showed up with a new, original and well-written take on things). Abrams and Kennedy have proven themselves to be the Schumachers of Star Wars, minus the nipples/bulging cock, and now Lucasfilm needs to find their Christopher Nolan. And if that takes a few years, so be it. The worst thing they could do is rush some "oh, this is what we're really all about" Band-Aid nonsense to the multiplex in the next two years...nobody will care. Let people genuinely miss it - but keep the fires stoked via the TV projects and other media - and then come roaring back on the big screen with a superior, more satisfying take on the property.

This isn't rocket science. I don't know how so many successful, talented people - with such resources at their disposal - managed to do what they did. Who, exactly, were they making these things for? None of the stock, expected answers hold up. There's no rhyme or reason to any of it. When you make the prequels look like engaging, coherent and well-written fare, then you've truly screwed up somewhere.
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kscherer
Which way is up?
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
 
2019-12-02, 12:36

Quote:
Originally Posted by pscates2.0 View Post
I really hope that by staying spoiler-free, there will be something in this movie that truly rises above and makes these two previous entries seem worth it all. Tall order, I realize. Considering who's at the helm - both the movie itself, and the overall "vision" - I honestly, based on 2015, can't imagine this being anything other than a stylized, slightly-tweaked/updated retelling of ROTJ (Lando, Palpatine, desert floating skiffs, Death Star II, red-costumed bad guys and what appears to be three large battles - air, ground and dueling sabers - are all confirmed via the various trailers and TV promos). And I'm going to go ahead and guess/predict that Ewoks/Endor, Kylo "turning"/redeeming himself (a la Vader), Lando leading the fleet in the Falcon, Tattooine, a Fett/Slave I cameo/reference, a burping space animal of some sort, a big Rancor-like threat/obstacle that gets killed in a low-tech/clever way and Force ghosts (all of 'em that bear on this saga...Yoda, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Mace Windu and Luke and all making a smiling-at-Rey appearance just before the closing shot) will all factor in at some point.
This is where all my marbles have been bet. JJ Abrams only knows how to make what has already been made.
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2019-12-02, 13:04

And yet he does it worse than the thing he's aping. If there was a Lucas/Spielberg tribute band, Abrams would be the out-of-tune lead guitarist with two broken strings, still trying his best to play the familiar, classic licks and riffs (and mangling the entire gig in the process, to where everyone involved just comes off worse than they should).

How's that for an analogy?

I'm not even a Star Trek fan, but I checked out with this idiot back during that whole "Benedict Cabbagepatch isn't Khan" nonsense (when everyone knew otherwise). He thinks his "style"/approach - dangling, teasing, denying the obvious, etc. - is crafty filmmaking. It's just aggravating and frustrating. Especially when the payoff never really comes in a satisfying or sensible way. It's always something supremely goofy that seems written/tacked on at the 11th hour (you know, like Palpatine returning to Star Wars).

I know the cliché on him is "hack", but sometimes words mean things and I can't think of a more gainfully-employed, high-earning derivative hack than this guy. I'm sure he's a nice guy and all that, but we're not talking about that. He makes really weak, unsatisfying movies. They may dazzle you at first and tickle your fan-service spot in just the right way, but once you're able to remove yourself from all that and look at things objectively - the way I did with The Force Awakens about two months after its release - you just realize it's all a cheap parlor trick and hollow "pretend". That's why, from the get-go, I never wanted this doof in the mix. I knew what he was about, I've seen his other stuff and I just thought "no, this isn't the right guy, I don't care that he wears flannel shirts and glasses..." (that he didn't try to grow a beard was the biggest surprise of all). If you go back to those 2015 discussions leading up to TFA, everything I was concerned about came to be regarding him and the kind of job he'd do...wall-to-wall fan-service, nod/wink touches throughout, a rehash of something already done before, changing things just enough to be a little different/new at first glance, teasing/dangling a bunch of things and never really explaining or paying it off, etc.

So why would I - or anyone else, casual or serious fan alike - expect anything different, four years later? Did he suddenly learn to strike out and be his own man, and come up with something truly original that Spielberg or Lucas hasn't already done (well) before? I seriously doubt it. I wish they'd stuck with Colin Trevorrow on this, just so there might be the possibility of a different vision/approach to wrap this mess all up (although I wouldn't wish that impossible task on anyone). When I heard that Trevorrow was out and Abrams was assuming director/writing control of Episode IX, my heart sunk.

"Oh no...we're back where we started! He loused up the beginning, he's going to screw up the ending and he brought that little gnome Rian in to botch the middle...screw these people!". I want nothing more than to love Star Wars again...and they won't let me!

History is not going to judge these four years of Star Wars kindly. At all. Big picture, long term, they'll sit below the prequels in terms of storytelling, viewer satisfaction, writing, casting, plotting, etc.

Last edited by psmith2.0 : 2019-12-02 at 13:25.
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kscherer
Which way is up?
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
 
2019-12-02, 13:25

Excepting some of the in-between bits (especially Rogue One) history has not looked kindly on anything Star Wars since ROTJ. Seriously, 1-3 were money-makers, but critical acclaim was nonexistent. I don't really care what professional critics think, since they're mostly just over-paid shills who are afraid of manual labor, but the fan criticism has been overwhelmingly negative. The remakes of 4-6 have also been poorly received by most fans. Episodes 7-8 have not been well received. I mean, the whole thing has become an absolute mess!

Honestly, I hope Episode 9 can just be a fun, enjoyable movie. There is no way to "fix" this broken saga. Perhaps they can just tell a good story?

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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2019-12-02, 13:36

Ah, an optimist. *smack*



No, this is why I really only view the original trilogy as "the saga"...a solid beginning, amazing middle and satisfying end. That, to me, is the "Skywalker saga"...a naive farmboy, a struggling apprentice and a noble knight, who, along the way, saves his friends, defeats evil and redeems his father. Period, the end.

Lucas tried to reposition it all as "Vader's story", but that was only because he was making the prequels. I never bought into that, big picture (and the writing, casting, acting, visuals, etc. of those things certainly didn't help). To me, it was/is Luke's story. And it was told, across three really good movies that still hold up, and move me, to this day.

Everything since 1983, IMO, has just been an unasked-for, unnecessary misfire. I've seen them all, out of "duty", for lack of a better word, but I've not truly enjoyed a Star Wars movie, completely and fully without a dozen caveats or "yeah, but...", since ROTJ.

Last edited by psmith2.0 : 2019-12-02 at 13:48.
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kscherer
Which way is up?
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
 
2019-12-02, 14:12

Optimist? Yes, trying to be. Although my "optimism" is mostly reserved for the offshoots. The Mandalorian is very good. Rogue One was awesome. There is hope for those things. Episode 9? It might be visually appealing and fun, but I doubt they have the capacity to do what needs to be done. The Star Wars "saga" is fast becoming a diversity zoo rather than a good, wholesome story of good vs. evil. It is losing what made it good to begin with. It was a story told for the sake of telling a story. Like a good bedtime book your parents read to you. It was built to entertain and make us dream. Episode 8, more than all others, was not built to entertain or make anyone dream. It was just a festival of crap built to sell penguin toys.

Tying Episode 7 to Episode 9 through Episode 8 is an impossible task—at least it is if they want to finish the saga with any kind of continuity. I don't think that can be done. I sincerely believe that there are only two paths—no more, no less. Path 1) They try to piece it all together but fail miserably because the canon timeline is now so thoroughly screwed up it has become a hopeless task. Path 2) Deviate and just retell Episode 6.

I'm guessing that the second option is the way forward. Polish the turd, be done with it, and head off to new Star Wars playgrounds.

By the way, Rian Johnson has signed on for three of those.

- AppleNova is the best Mac-users forum on the internet. We are smart, educated, capable, and helpful. We are also loaded with smart-alecks! :)
- Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. (Mat 5:9)
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2019-12-02, 14:31

Rian Johnson probably would've/could've made a decent Star Wars movie had his primary goal/approach wasn't to "subvert expectations" and crap all over 40 years.

Hell, I could make a good SW movie if I knew the sandbox I was in and the established "rules" and how I needed to behave. Rian was the brat down the street who came over, uninvited, and kicked all the sand out, broke the toys, and then tried to convince us he was doing something cool that we should appreciate (if only we weren't such meanies and "haters"). He turned into a real hyper-defensive, snarky twat once it was clear folks weren't buying into his little $200M student film.

As for his assigned trilogy, I've honestly not heard a peep about that in some time. As long as he's not mangling the established trilogy/characters, he can make whatever he wants. I just think he wasn't the right person/tone for the all-important middle-installment.

He might've been a better fit for one of the standalone, anthology movies where you could maybe deviate a bit in tone/approach and you're not tied to seven previous movies? I've thought that for a while...he might've made a good Rogue One, especially on the darker aspects and the Vader stuff? But I swear, it's as though the man has never seen a Star Wars movie in 40 years and then magically just got handed the keys to an actual trilogy installment, based on...?

I'm telling you, in the coming years there will be a book (or documentary) about this period - from the $4B purchase to The Rise of Skywalker and any ensuing fallout/head-rolling/desk-clearing. And when it does, it'll be quite the read! Names will be named, we'll hear about all the goofy stuff that went on behind the scenes (my Abrams/Kennedy phone calls above may prove to be eerily prescient ), the firings, rewrites, fan backlash, casting woes, bad testings, the higher-ups demanding various reshoots, pushback from Hamill (he's contractually obligated to swallow it all, for now, but you know at some point he's going to get tired of squawking about the President on Twitter 24/7 and focus his ire elsewhere, and when he does it ain't gonna be pretty). You can tell he was thoroughly not on board with TLJ at all.

There's a montage on YouTube of all the times he's bit his tongue, been a bit passive-aggressive with his displeasure, stating his outright disagreement about how Luke has been handled, particularly in TLJ, etc. When the Disney shackles are finally off, he's gonna go nuts and go on some massive rants/tirades. He'll probably wind up getting the David Prowse treatment, and barred from the conventions, official appearances/PR, etc. Prowse merely pissed off Lucas. Can you imagine getting on the bad side of Disney?! Mickey don't play.

Last edited by psmith2.0 : 2019-12-02 at 14:53.
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kscherer
Which way is up?
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
 
2019-12-04, 11:41

Quote:
Originally Posted by pscates2.0 View Post
Rian Johnson probably would've/could've made a decent Star Wars movie had his primary goal/approach wasn't to "subvert expectations" and crap all over 40 years.
Well, considering that's what we got, it must have been his goal and so he never could possibly make a good Star Wars movie. It was entirely outside of his capacity. As much as he proclaimed his "love of Star Wars" what I saw from the movie was not love, but utter contempt. A director who is so easily swayed to take a dump on something he "loves" does not "love" that thing. Rather, he hates it! As does Kathleen Kennedy. (There must have been something about her relationship with George Lucas and Star Wars in general that lead her to make such a horrific mess as Episode 8.) The Last Jedi was more of a mocking-movie—like Space Balls—than it was an extension of a beloved story.

That Johnson is not visibly involved with Episode 9 gives me some hope (I would rather watch a remake of ROTJ than another mocking crap-fest!)

No, Rian Johnson had no genuine love for Star Wars at all. He hated it and worked overtime to tear it down.

- AppleNova is the best Mac-users forum on the internet. We are smart, educated, capable, and helpful. We are also loaded with smart-alecks! :)
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2019-12-04, 17:53

The marketing/hype is really ramping up. I'm seeing things about new footage/teasers (a new clip/view of Lando, Finn talking to Rey, etc.), there was some live press conference with the cast online, various cast members have seen the full movie last night (or the night before). So it is complete and ready to go.*

I imagine that final week will be insane!



*Rated PG-13, by the way. Since the other two were, no surprise here. It'll never be R, of course (don't want it to), but they're not going to go back to regular ol' PG at this point, not with all the people still left who need killing! "Science-fiction violence" (lightsaber fighting, folks getting plugged by blasters, ships blowing up with people inside them, stormtroopers falling off catwalks and Wilhelm-screaming, etc.).
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2019-12-05, 12:19

Regardless of how this movie does - I can honestly see it going either way at this point (wildly exceeding expectations and setting massive records, or an embarrassing wet fart/black eye for Disney that doesn't even win the weekend due to fan backlash/general disinterest), I wonder how all this plays with folks in the entertainment business?

Are actors more, or less, interested in signing on for a major role (especially if their presence is required for multiple movies) with the property at this point? I know everyone is supposed to put on their game face and cheer everything on in that community, but I wonder if the interest/enthusiasm is there for actors, writers and directors who've yet to be involved in any Star Wars project?

Does word get around in those circles about the firings, reshoots and other behind-the-scenes drama/politics to where many would go "if Disney/Kennedy came knocking, I'm not sure I'd be all that interested in being part of this."

Has being part of a Star Wars movie in the past been a blessing or a curse (I'm sure Hamill and the others have things to say about that)? And has that changed over the past five years?

There will always be hungry actors, directors (especially younger newcomers). They'd jump at the chance, I'm sure. But I wonder if these past 4-5 years have caused any more established talent (in front of or behind the camera) to shy away from any potential involvement in the franchise? It's something I've never really thought about, but with this trilogy ending and supposedly new stuff coming at some point, I wonder if "the sell" will be tougher or different than in previous years?

While Star Wars hasn't had quite the amazing pull/cast of the Marvel stuff (seriously, look up all the big names who've populated those movies the past decade, including many you'd never associate with such fare), would the Laura Derns, Benicio del Toros, etc. of the world sign on for any future installments? Might come down to who's writing/directing, like it would for other projects?

I just wonder if maybe the "shine" is off the property in any significant way, to where Disney/Lucasfilm may not get their first, or even second, choices in the future. Never really thought of all this from the "business" angle, just the fan side of things. And you know in those circles, more is talked about/known than outside...for all we know, the property may kinda be seen as "poison" at this point (or, at the very least, an unrewarding, unsatisfying project to attach yourself to) by those in the industry.

Who will be the next Boyega, Ridley and Driver to come on board? Probably younger, unknown actors we're not even aware of yet? I do think Star Wars works better going that route. That was certainly part of the charm/allure of the originals, in that nobody associated Hamill, Ford and Fisher with much else to where you were thinking of them in the context of other work, which may "break the spell" a bit? In other words, I don't ever want to see a Hanks, Jolie, Lawrence or Clooney turning up in one of these things. That would be a negative, IMO. And what known, established actors they do bring in can't be mega "A-list" types like above. So you go for the quirky, sideways casting (almost the Tarantino type of route...bring in a Greg Evigan or Jaleel White or some other out-of-left-field choice and put them in a new light, the way Travolta played a heroin-using hitman in Pulp Fiction, etc.). But I don't think you can, or should, ever go too big or "A list" with this property because it would take you out of it, I think. That's been the best part of this new cast...I'd never seen Attack the Block or Girls, so John Boyega and Adam Driver were totally new to me, as was Daisy Ridley. I'd seen Oscar Isaac in a Coen Brothers movie, but that was about it. So even though I wasn't bonkers about their characters/performances, they were easy to buy into/go with because this was the first thing I was really seeing them in, as was the case back in 1977 (Lucas didn't go with Lee Majors, Leif Garrett and Kristy McNichol, with Evel Knievel in the Obi-Wan role ). So I think that was a smart move, and probably done on purpose.

Now that this saga is winding down, where do they go...and who winds up signing on and getting involved? I'm curious to see in the coming years, the choices made. I'm sure they'll find room for some some mature, of-a-certain-age British theatre mainstays, as always. Those seem to work well for the heavies or for some grounding/gravitas. But everything else is pretty open-ended at this point. I'm genuinely excited by the possibility that I may get to love/look forward to Star Wars again, having gotten this horseshit and unrewarding slog out of the way.

Just interesting stuff to ponder as December 20 nears...

Last edited by psmith2.0 : 2019-12-05 at 12:38.
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kscherer
Which way is up?
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
 
2019-12-05, 12:28

Dirk Benedict?








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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2019-12-05, 12:41

Once I remembered his involvement in Battlestar Galactica* I changed it to Urkel. Being in a SW flick wouldn't be that much of an "out there" stretch for someone who starred in a TV version capitalizing on "all things space" in the late 70's.

*Can't believe I sat through that show, but, back then, that was pretty much all you had between 1977-1980, so you took what you could get...spaceships, lasers, robot-y things, pretty women, etc. Isn't like today, whippersnappers with 900 channels and 24/7 streaming in their pockets. We was desperate!!! With three channels (that went off the air come 1am or so), you made the most of it.

"I don't care that it sucks...it goes 'pew-pew-pew' and stuff blows up in space!"

My standards were appallingly low back then and H.R. Pufnstuf swinging a lightsaber would've guaranteed my butt on the couch.
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kscherer
Which way is up?
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
 
2019-12-05, 13:31

Yeah, right there with you. Just hit 50 on Tuesday, so I was "enjoying" the same weird TV shows every Wednesday evening at 7:00pm sharp and if you missed it you missed it and that's that!

"Go to bed without your dinner!" takes on a whole new meaning when you have to miss Battlestar Galactica or Star Trek. These young turds have no idea the suffering we went through!

Hell, I remember renting our very first VCR from a little rental joint in Idaho City (one of two pokey-ass grocery stores had started renting them in about 1982 or so) and can you guess what movie we rented? Here's a hint: "I find your lack of faith disturbing!" Now I can catch all that stuff on Netflix on Tuesday at 3:30am or Sunday at 9:36pm or whatever.

And Dirk Benedict? Yeah, Starbuck and Faceman. Wouldn't be a very good fit for Star Wars. Too many crossed universes. Dude can't be in all of them, and I should know—I saw all of them!

P.S. None of those shows "sucked" for me. I was thrilled to have that evening entertainment, especially during the winter. When we lived in Idaho City we were typically buried in snow by the middle of November and with early sunsets the TV was the place to be.

- AppleNova is the best Mac-users forum on the internet. We are smart, educated, capable, and helpful. We are also loaded with smart-alecks! :)
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Last edited by kscherer : 2019-12-05 at 13:46.
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2019-12-05, 13:46

Good times.

Off-topic (click to toggle):
I remember those years fondly, the whole VHS-renting on a Friday night (Blockbuster or otherwise), and just the whole novelty of it...being able to pause while peeing or making more popcorn, or rewinding to watch a cool scene again, etc. Unheard of! You'd see everyone in the county on a Friday or Saturday night at Blockbuster. Crushes formed, friendships made, you'd share tips or assessments, even to people you didn't know, looking at the box artwork/reading the back of the boxes for the plot (every horror/slasher movie had red lettering on a black background). Grab a candy bar, get your 2-3 rentals (knowing you had to have them back in a day or two, so no screwing around...movie-watching was serious business). You hunkered down and built your evening around it, with friends over, etc.

I remember watching Raising Arizona with a group of about 6-7 friends and realizing how strongly I felt myself attracted to one of the others in the room just because of how much she laughed at all the silliness and dialogue. It made her adorable and instantly appealing to me, that she found it as funny as I did (I think we were the only two who did). Crushed hard on that one, for several years, just over a goofy movie. Awesome, memorable times...long, long gone.
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kscherer
Which way is up?
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
 
2019-12-05, 14:26

Off topic:

Spoiler (click to toggle):
For us it was Sunday night movies. I seem to remember a VCR was about $10/night, and movies were between $2.99 and $4.99 depending on their popularity. We got to do it about once every 2 or 3 months, although my brother and I would save up (once he was old enough to drive) and we would run in and get a movie [Rated R ] when my parents were out of town. That was how I saw Alien and Terminator the first time. Our parents did not permit R-rated movies, so we had to sneak them.

- AppleNova is the best Mac-users forum on the internet. We are smart, educated, capable, and helpful. We are also loaded with smart-alecks! :)
- Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. (Mat 5:9)
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2019-12-06, 16:33

Wasn't sure where to put this - this thread or the Mandalorian one - but since it mostly pertains to The Rise of Skywalker...

My sister has been telling me all about The Mandalorian.

I'll absolutely eat my hat if that seventh episode, released December 18, doesn't pay off in the movie in some way.

- We know Palpatine is back, no surprise/spoiler...his voice (important later) is all over the trailers/TV spots

- We know that "Force ghost", at least in the movies, which is really all I consider, is a Jedi thing (Yoda tells Obi-Wan at the end of Revenge of the Sith about Qui-Gon having learned the "path to immortality", which I took to mean that it wasn't some longstanding, centuries-old Jedi trait? It's something relatively new that's been discovered by Qui-Gon 20 or so years prior to A New Hope? To my knowledge, it isn't something Sith do or know? If so, we've not seen it across five other movies, post ROTS timeline (Episodes 4-8), right?

- Maybe some species, like whatever Yoda is, it's learned in that time between ROTS and ROTJ are more powerful in that particular ability? Or just more powerful in the Force, period, by birth, right out of the gate? Why else would people be after a little baby if not for some sort of biological/DNA/blood/mojo type of reason?!?

- Baby Yoda is being sought by some not-quite-benevolent scientists/doctors(?) with (possible) Empire and/or Sith connections...is that what all you are gathering as you've watched? They are bad guys, right? It's not like the space Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders, I'm assuming? I mean, Werner Herzog doesn't quite give anyone the warm and fuzzies in anything he does...I doubt he's some humanitarian.

- The Mandalorian takes place after ROTJ and the Empire is either nonexistent or there are little low-key, loyal (or demented) factions still about (see previous entry)...you know, just like there are still a-hole Nazi twats (Twazis?) here on this planet, 70+ years after-the-fact.

- They're probably going to want to (and succeed in) experimenting on the little guy and that somehow ties into just how in the hell Palpatine, after falling down that shaft and "exploding"/evaporating, shows up in this movie. They've yet to show him in any of the trailers, teasers or TV/online promos, so he maybe be translucent and blue (red?) glowing and not truly "in the flesh"...there's a reason why he's not shown in any of the marketing/merchandising (to my knowledge). If he's all blue/red and glow-y, then that gives away something...the first Sith/non-Jedi to be able to do that whole Force ghost thing? Which would explain a few things, wouldn't it?

If these scientist/doctor types - since it's now established horseshit canon that the Force is biological and in one's blood and so forth - could've extracted some sort of Jedi/Yoda species/Force mojo from this cute little baby that is directly responsible for Palpatine's return/existence? My fear is that epiosode 7 of The Mandalorian reveals some kicker that pays off a couple of days later in The Rise of Skywalker, relating to Palpatine. And then the next, and final, episode of The Mandalorian, one week later (and 5-6 days after TROS has been out in the world) we see the heartbreaking result of it...little baby Yoda is dead (or permanently messed up) from whatever they did to him that allowed Palpatine to show up three decades later. The TV show may opt to end on a somber note, making everyone ponder that horrible price paid to allow Palpatine to show up and do whatever nonsense he does in Episode IX.

Again, I don't think anyone was expecting any sort of Force-related plotting in a TV show that had been positioned as nothing but "Wild West bad-ass/bounty hunter adventure" since it was first announced. When that little baby was revealed at the end of the first episode, that changed everything. We're never going to get away from the Force in any Star Wars project, and that's probably for the best. We don't have to have Sith, Jedi, Empire, Rebels, First Order, lightsabers, etc. but the Force is part of that universe. Literally.

They're gonna have to explain all this Palpatine business in some way that makes some level of sense and that can't be any more idiotic than some of the other things they've dangled out there since 2015. And it's just interesting to me that a TV show that is running/timed simultaneously in such a way is actually centered around some nefarious types wanting their hands on a certain species that has already shown its Force sensitivity/powers, even as an "infant" (which goes to the above, that maybe the Yoda species is learned to be blessed with a higher-than-average Force - I can't bring myself to say that "m" word - juice, and so...




I just find the timing of it all a little too cute and perfectly dovetailed.


PS - With the way the "Internet loses it" and "Twitter explodes" over some quasi-celebrity "accidentally" showing her tit on the red carpet, I can only imagine the meltdown to come if that cute little baby is hurt or misused in any way. After all, people - adults - openly wail and writhe on their basement floor on YouTube when too-stupid-to-be-alive-this-long characters finally bite it on The Walking Dead, so I don't even want to imagine the outcry/hysterics if...well, you know.

Last edited by psmith2.0 : 2019-12-06 at 17:09.
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Brad
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Join Date: May 2004
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2019-12-06, 17:08

Quote:
Originally Posted by pscates2.0 View Post
My sister has been telling me all about The Mandalorian.


Am I to understand the arrangement of the words in this particular statement to mean that you haven't started watching The Mandalorian yet?



After failing to avoid the Baby Yoda spoilers that rapidly flooded the internets, I finally caved around when the third episode released and have since caught up. Whether or not there's a tie-in to Rise of Skywalker, I would strongly recommend watching the show for yourself instead of getting the summary highlights from your sister. It doesn't feel very much like anything else we've seen in the Star Wars media empire before. Sure, the settings and species and technologies all absolutely hit those familiar Star Wars notes, but the music, writing, and general storytelling style are quite different. Some of the episode bits are slower than others, but overall it's been surprisingly competent and watchable.

But I guess I should take any further commentary into the other thread...

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kscherer
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2019-12-06, 17:17

If you're right and there is something to The Mandalorian tying into Episode 9, then I say kudos to Disney for developing that kind of forethought, and it gives me great hope for the future of the franchise. I would love to see the universe continue on with all sorts of crazy side-trips and character backstories that all play into the main Skywalker timeline in some form or another (one of the reasons I loved Rogue One so much was the way it set off the chase that was Episode 4's opening scene.)

Should little baby Yoda dude thing or whatever play a role in The Rise of Skywalker, then that makes watching and enjoying The Mandalorian all that much more fun and exciting. The show is great! Does that mean Episode 9 will be great, too? I hope so, but there is no guarantee. Still, if it adds something that helps fill the gaps—something that cannot possibly fit into the 2 hours or whatever of a feature film—and that something actually works, then it really does lift the weight from Abrams shoulders in fixing the broken thing. However—and this is important—Episode 9 has been in development for 2 years at least, and that makes the forethought required for The Mandalorian quite long indeed. Or, at least long enough that they had time to make some final cuts to TROS that make sense.

Either way, hype is building (I mean, Scates is commenting, again! ) which is both good and bad. If TROS turns out to be a great capstone on the Skywalker saga, then good for them. But if the movie cannot live up to the hype it could have long-ranging ramifications on the entire Star Wars property.

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kscherer
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2019-12-06, 17:24

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad View Post
Am I to understand the arrangement of the words in this particular statement to mean that you haven't started watching The Mandalorian yet?
Paul is resisting the urge to subscribe to the super-awesome Disney+. He is slowly losing the battle.

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Brad
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Join Date: May 2004
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2019-12-06, 17:28

I mean, if that's the case, Paulie, my boy… let a brotha' hook you up. I'm not sayin' anything, but maybe I'm sayin' something. I'll be watching for a PM if interested.

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kscherer
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2019-12-06, 17:38

Oh, dear. Watch out for RansomWare from this guy.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad View Post
But I guess I should take any further commentary into the other thread...
Yeah, don't make me ban you!

Last edited by kscherer : 2019-12-06 at 17:49.
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turtle
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Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2019-12-09, 15:30

Quote:
Walt Studios and The Epilepsy Foundation viewers that "the film contains several sequences with imagery and sustained flashing lights that may affect those with photosensitive epilepsy."

Disney isn't saying exactly what those sequences are, since the plot of the ninth and final movie in the Star Wars series is tightly guarded. But the Epilepsy Foundation offers numerous tips for those who are sensitive to lights, including asking a friend to see the film first and then attending with them, asking them to indicate scenes with flashing lights so the affected person can block his or her eyes.
Well this is interesting. If the effects are so over the top that it will trigger seizures then I'm not sure what to think of this one. I'm not epileptic, but that just screams of over-the-top-because-we-can effects.

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kscherer
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2019-12-09, 15:38

Nah, nothing new to see here. That warning is published by every studio any time there are sudden or flashing changes in light. It's a "protect our asses from lawsuits" thing that has been around for years. This is just getting attention because it's Star Wars. Epilepsy is a real thing and the industry knows that their movies can cause issues, so they all warn about it.

My son had epilepsy* and we only ever took him to one movie because the sudden flashes would set off seizures. In fact, we never watched TV in a dark room if he was in there with us. That Disney is warning is a good thing, but I don't think it says anything about the movie one way or the other. All Star Wars movies are filled with bright flashing images in sequences ranging from a few seconds to several minutes (opening scenes in Episode III, anyone? Ugh, that took way too long to tell us nothing! ) So, yeah, I won't read anything into that beyond standard fare litigation protection.

*I don't like to bring this up, and only do so because I have a great deal of experience with the topic.

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turtle
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2019-12-09, 15:41

I guess CYA makes sense.
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