JCC Embrace The FU - Formerly the STAR WARS IS BAD thread

I don't know. I've read some contemporary reviews and essays that highlighted how corny and cheesy and old-fashioned everything was. They were not a majority, of course, but it's always been there, and same with the Indiana Jones saga. A throwback to how entertainment was two decades before... kind of like The Expendables. Oh no.

(And at the same time, if you try to modernize the humor, you get all the GET YOUR MARVEL OUT OF MY STAR WASR complaints, so.)

 

Single-post

 

For the record, I was fine with most of the humour. I can sort of see the Marvel comparisons in a few instances but overall I don't think it was quite the same.

 

Maybe a mod can fix, though not exactly mind-blowing spoilers.

 

Specifically in regards to the very first joke in the movie, people are all "I don't like that, it's too Marvel, too jokey!" when we literally have this as a template:



It's that, which is just a stalling tactic from a roguish pilot...

 

Good thing Juliet talked about it instead of hitting report, in a helpful manner, amirite?

Just got back from second screening. I do not know what it was - maybe it was that I had a Ready Player One trailer so I was like "ok well that is the most terrible thing ever" and was already settled into bleakness. Or maybe it's that the film has come at you from an angle you didn't expect and you have to be able to roll with the direction the plot takes to get stuff out of it.

Either way, I enjoyed it way more on the second viewing. Some parts, like

Spoiler

SPACE WITCH ****ING LEIA

will never be ok. And Rey's dialogue about Kylo Ren and the dark side if PURE PREQUEL BULL****. But, other things worked so much more. Vice Admiral Prequels and the subplots are still barking mad though.

IMPROVEMENTS/Things I Noticed This Time Around:

Spoiler

* Yoda looked cheap and sounded like he wasn't speaking Yodaspeak in the first viewing. I don't know why but this time I was like "oh, that's the ESB puppet, and that's how he spoke in ESB." I had to forget prequel Yoda, which was easily done. So, that scene worked well for me.

* Luke, during the face-off with Ren, does tellingly not disturb the salt crush to expose the red minerals beneath. Kylo does. You don't notice it at first but definitely did second time.

* Canto Bight is still prequels-esque, which is to say awful. The politics of it, which are just DBAB guidelines really, have the grace and subtlety of a Slowpoke thread about franchise villains.

* Vice Admiral Prequels' whole plan was basically dumb, because it was only there for an "a-ha!" moment.

JoinTheSchwarz - regarding the humour... disagree with you above. Yes, they've had their cringe worthy moments, but they were just that. Moments. This keeps going and going and going and going way past the point where it was too much. It's like when IATI is trying too hard, basically.

Spoiler

Holding for Hux. I'll keep holding. Yep, still holding. Yeah, I'm on hold. Holdin' holdin' holdin... or BB8 having to be the little boy sticking his fingers in the dykes, to repair Poe's ship... it was grating, overbearing, and terrible. The only line to me that really worked was "Where are you from, Rey?" "Nowhere." "No-one's from nowhere." "Jakku". "Ok, that pretty much is nowhere..."

Daisy Ridley/Rey continues to be a revelation as an actor and character, and I know there are men (HI RICHIE) who don't like female heroes because male genocide, but they're fools. She's easily the best protagonist of the three trilogies.

 

Spoiler

There were people here and in the world who thought Rey would be the granddaughter of Obi-Wan. To them we say:



It was a terrible idea and I'm glad they were wrong.

 

They should like it since they're always whining about too much nostalgia & fan-service, & calling for more originality. On the other hand they're 3 miserable cynical ****s.

I didn't even get a chance to post in it

Spoiler: Some thoughts on TLJ

After first viewing: was very unsure about it, bordering on disliking it. To me it was a case of the movie being too different to what I expected, & being in denial/mourning over Luke's fate at the end. After seeing it twice more I've done a 180 on this thing. I think it's astonishingly good. Some observations:

- Hamill was perfect as Luke & I've grown to appreciate his arc. Once more he saves the galaxy in the end.
- The idea of he & Ben Solo's past incident was a stroke of genius. Seen very differently from each other's viewpoint it really plays on the "truth from a certain pov" concept. Ben Solo caught his uncle moments from murdering him. Luke knows it's his fault that Ben believes that.
- The movie shook things up in the SW universe. Dispensing to some degree with the concept of inheritance & bloodlines. If the Force is everywhere & within every living thing why can't random nobodies be players in the Saga.
- Loved the Leia in space scene. Goes some way to dispelling the false movie myth that being in the vacuum of space means instant death. Also shows us what would logically happen when a person who is weightless in space reaches out with the Force & pulls a starship towards them. Great combination of science & movie lore, but it does expect people to figure that out. I've seen a lot of muppets scream "how the **** can Leia fly in space?" . It's a brilliant scene & probably J.Williams' best moment too.
- Yoda's physical appearance might not have been perfect but his scene was IMO. His dialogue & his lesson to Luke about the master-student role was one of the highlights of the movie. If only Luke had not cut himself off from the Force Yoda could've been there helping him years earlier.
- Holdo repeating the last words of the medical frigate captain before he died. "God speed Rebels". Although that phrase seems slightly anachronistic for the SW universe. Similar to Han's "I'll see you in hell". Perhaps in that sense it's an ESB homage.
- Kylo foreshadowing Luke's fate at the end of the movie. Telling Rey that if she were behind their Force projections it would cause a strain that would kill her.
- That Force projection idea is as brilliant as it is simple. Great idea.

 

Does anyone have any thoughts on the significance of...

Spoiler

...the gold die?

PS: can we do away with spoiler tags around 20 December?

 

Spoiler

carrie fisher in space was the best part of the movie

 

so have the boards been down all night ?

Mark Hamill was on the Graham Norton show last night , he was great , plenty of stories etc.

TLJ - I'd like to see it again , but I'm gonna find a cheap screening , its gotten too damn expensive here

 

My main issue with the film is

Spoiler

as many others have said, the Canto Bight part. And not because I don't like it or I think it's a prequel planet (I guess any world that's not a desert is one of those): I like the idea, I love the idea of seeing space Monte Carlo and finally seeing the lower classes of the galaxy, but I feel like that plot and the whole Supremacy plot should have been streamlined and perhaps turned into one. Canto Bight should have been more fleshed out, because it's an intriguing location that we barely see. As it stands, the movie has four acts, or maybe two second acts. I guess the script should have had another pass, probably also improved the mutiny plot... I don't know.

Spoiler

It's an existing Falcon prop, although redesigned.

 

I’m trying to give the film a five act structure in my head but in that structure the first two acts are a bit unclear. But I don’t see two second acts, I see two distinct climaxes or third acts. The film’s plotting doesn’t bother me both because the film moves briskly and the mechanisms of the plot don’t spin at the expense of the characters. It’s as if Rian watched Luke dangling at the bottom of Cloud City and asked, “How can I give every main character that moment?"

 

Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but...

Spoiler

If Admiral Laura Dern had just told Poe about their plan then they'd have got to the planet without a problem, more of the Resistance would've survived and Luke would probably still be alive, right? The only reason the First Order found about the transports was because Benecio Del Toro told them, isn't it? No Space Monte Carlo, no Del Toro, no exploding transports and ex Jedi Masters.

 

Yes all of the characters are fallible I’m glad you understand the film

 

Why won't the characters talk to each other though? There's no reason for that particular plan to not be divulged.

 

Poe asks why she’s keeping the cards close to her chest. And the answer’s in the opening scene.

 

Looks like fan disgruntlement is no match for a fully operational box office - second biggest Friday ever

 

The ability to destroy an audience approval score is insignificant next to the power of franchise inertia.

 

Spoiler

There were two die so I would say golden dice. Anyway, from what I've read/heard, those type of dice are used in the game Sabacc. Han won the Falcon from Lando fair and square supposedly in a game of Sabacc. Therefore, in my opinion, Han keeps the dice as a souvenir of his good fortune. The dice also represent a piece of Han and the Falcon. If I were a betting man, I'd put a good amount of money that we'll see them again this May.

I don't remember what Luke says to Leia word for word as he hands the "dice" to her, but from what I gather is he makes the statement that Han will always be with them and Kylo/Ben is lost and beyond saving. If was pretty much the opposite conversation Luke had with Leia before going to save their father.

 

Wow, not the same thing at all, imo. The Star Wars scene has Han trying to explain away why all the cameras are out in that sector of the detention block, and the humour comes from him inexpertly struggling to give a credible answer. The Imperial officer on the other end is unconvinced, having noticed Han's obvious lack of professionalism (and credible excuse). I find it quite believable and, if you've ever tried to cover-up something on the fly, horribly familiar.

The Last Jedi scene, on the other hand, comes straight out of some frat-boy comedy.

Spoiler

Hux, despite having risen to near the top of the First Order military structure, plays witless foil to Poe's cool-guy hero; he's facing off against an inferior enemy fleet, yet stops to let Poe make fun of him for a painfully long time with a terribly unfunny joke which I struggle to believe anyone I've ever met would fall for, let alone a military commander in a top position in a serious fighting force.

Hux is in no way a credible character, he's pretty much TLJ's equivalent of that awful sheriff from Live and Let Die. If he was a dim-witted minion on a backwater planet it might work, but as the leader of a major space-fleet I thought it was embarrassing.

I liked a lot of the humour in TLJ, but I thought that particular scene was just indefensible.

 

I had no problem with that joke. I've overheard too many conversations on airplane and traffic control radios that sounded a lot like that; it was totally credible to me.

 

Oh God, really?

That's... just depressing. And worrying.