icemann on 29/12/2019 at 10:30
I have spoken
Renzatic on 29/12/2019 at 10:49
: pours out a 40oz :
Sulphur on 1/1/2020 at 14:15
I just saw this new Return of the Jedi-defeating film trilogy conclusion thing. Y'know, when I was a youngling less cynical teenage person, I liked JJ Abrams' brand of things. Alias was my introduction to the man, and I remember being enthralled with how restless and momentum-driven it was - things kept happening, and it didn't care if you were moored in its plot or not, it just went after the next bit of story with relentless verve, no matter how bonkers and ridiculous it was. I tapped out of it after a single season.
I suppose it's appropriate that this concluding episode IX, like its counterparts III and part VI before it, was ridiculous and stupid and bombastic. And, like them, ultimately a missed opportunity. While I was glaring at the guy in the theatre next to me who was snoring over his plate of nachos (he probably didn't notice because 3D glasses make me look like a slightly unhinged Stevie Wonder searching for a piano to annoy people with), the word that kept going round and round in my head was 'archaeology'. Not because I wanted to hit him on the head with a trowel (I did), but because it redoubles on the efforts of The Farce Awokens to dig up, homage, and retread everything from the original trilogy. It felt like a remix that didn't do anything except swap sections of the original around without any clear point to make. Well, it did make some - namely, it reverses course on one of Rian's mistakes and brings back the question of who Rey's parents are, which was an important part of VII. But it also thinks just about all of The Last Jedi was a mistake, and spends precious time undoing its developments by announcing how they were all mistakes to the camera instead of finding the confidence to carry its own voice.
What a waste.
One of the things about the original trilogy was that it had a clear through-line in its inspirations and its adaptation of the hero's journey. This trilogy lacks that clarity and simplicity of vision, and suffers greatly for it. If only it had a strong sense of purpose and character, and a journey that really challenged all of that. But now, with all this to-ing and fro-ing for no point in particular - all of the points this movie ends with were already made in part VII! It's spectacle for the sake of, banter for the sake of, revisiting for the sake of, for the sake of -- what? I think the answer is, 'the fans', and that's the most damning part of it. All this archaeology, this excavating, this exhuming, not to cast the past in a new light and to say something about it, but to merely brush the dust off the bones and wheel out the display case.
Laugh's on us. We're the ones who paid for the museum tour.
icemann on 2/1/2020 at 02:16
Too true.
Force Awakens - A New Hope
The Last Jedi - Rian Johnson was supposed to go Empire Strikes Back style here, but instead did a big FUCK YOU NERDS to everyone.
Rise of Skywalker - Return of the Jedi
First and last movies felt like heavily inspired versions of their corresponding movies, but done more poorly with less fleshed out characters. The prequels for all the hate they get, did things their own way.
zombe on 2/1/2020 at 09:43
One moment in the Mandalorian described all of the new Star Wars for me: when some stormtroopers were target practicing out of boredom and consistently kept missing the stationary target a few meters away.
All of Star Wars is just aimless pandering by whatever cook is in the kitchen at any given time. There is nothing there.
icemann on 9/1/2020 at 14:12
[video=youtube;F574Z59IEkk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F574Z59IEkk[/video]
An interesting discussion on whether the prequels are better than the new trilogy. His point that the prequels for all their faults had a clear plan to them under one person, where as the new trilogy was just done to revitalize the franchise and make money with no clear plan in mind, I completely agree with.
And it's all about what the final movie in the trilogy left you feeling. The prequels end with a satisfying conclusion and completes Anakin's fall. The originals ended with the final battle against the empire. The new trilogy final movie is all over the place, with a unsatisfying ending.
Starker on 10/1/2020 at 14:13
Which conclusion to the prequels was the satisfying one? The long drawn-out terrible CGI fight where Obi-Wan has the high ground cause Anakin just murdered a bunch of children with very little prompting or reason? The one where newly minted Darth Vader waddles about and screams "Nooooooooo!"? The one where Yoda and Obi-Wan decide to just give up and hide for 20 years?
Also, all over the place like the blend of slapstick and tragedy and the completely nonsensical character interactions in Revenge of the Sith?
heywood on 10/1/2020 at 17:13
Yeah, but RotS didn't make me cringe as many times as any of the films in the new trilogy.
The prequels had a purpose and a relatively consistent vision behind them. Lucas certainly made some big mistakes, but he filled in the back story of Star Wars in a way that supports the original trilogy. Like the originals, you can watch Ep 1-3 back to back like chapters of a book and there is continuity in character development. The new trilogy should have had the overarching plot of the three episodes along with the stories of the key characters all worked out in advance, rather than seeing different creative visions clash from one episode to the next.
As it ended up, I don't think the Ep 7-9 trilogy is worth a re-watch, ever. I'm not even sure how I should re-watch it, skip Ep 8 or not? The prequels I don't mind re-watching when my kids ask for it. I still cringe when Jar Jar is introduced in Ep 1, and during the whole battle with Dooku at the end of Ep 2. But most of the rest of the flaws I can overlook.
Starker on 10/1/2020 at 19:54
True, there were not as many cringeworthy scenes, but that's mainly because it was so boring.
When it did have cringe, though, it went full out:
[video=youtube;vtjfWvWowgM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtjfWvWowgM[/video]
Pyrian on 10/1/2020 at 22:13
The prequel trilogy is cringefest on a truly epic scale. Of all the things to try and hold it over anything... That's perhaps the least justifiable. It did have a more consistent vision than either of the other trilogies (e.g. it's painfully obvious that the Skywalker family ties were added in per-movie in the original trilogy), buuuut that vision was kinda pathetic, so... Nor did the prequels end in a place that cleanly supports the original trilogy, in many respects (e.g. Leah remembering her mom).