|
Post by nobodyschild on Jan 1, 2020 18:56:43 GMT
I’ve just recently seen the Rise of Skywalker, the conclusion to the Star Wars sequel trilogy. I am a huge Star Wars nerd and could talk all day about my thoughts on the new movies and just Star Wars in general, but here’s an interesting little tidbit of info about the new movie: Dhani Harrison has a cameo in it as a stormtrooper, credited as FN-0878 (a nod to his birthday). Now I will be rewatching it trying to figure out which one is “a little short to be a stormtrooper”. Turns out Dhani is also a huge Star Wars fan and has been all his life, here’s a super neat interview from starwars.com: www.starwars.com/news/it-had-such-an-impact-on-everything-dhani-harrison-talks-star-warsThe last thing I’ll say is if you didn’t like The Last Jedi, go see Rise of Skywalker. IMHO, Abrams is a nerd just like the rest of us, who knows his Star Wars (including old expanded universe stuff), and did the best he could to make amends to what the previous movie did. The result is a pretty darn good movie.
|
|
|
Post by Timeblue on Jan 1, 2020 19:46:26 GMT
Saw the film today, and enjoyed it immensely even though the critics don't like it (pah! critics schmitics...) Lots of loose ends were tied up and a few faces from the past make an appearance too.
|
|
|
Post by BSJ on Jan 1, 2020 20:20:58 GMT
Dave is a Star Wars nerd and enters all SW contests. A replica of the leather jacket Han Solo wears in Force Awakens was delivered Tuesday! Nicely made, he'll wear it out.
|
|
|
Post by Buttler on Jan 1, 2020 21:28:15 GMT
I haven't watched it yet, but I just finished watching "The Mandalorian".
Amazing.
|
|
|
Post by tremblinwilbury on Jan 1, 2020 22:12:35 GMT
I booked my ticket to see 'Rise' as soon as I could. I will admit I was nervous. What was it going to be like? Another 'turkey' like The Last Jedi? I was really looking forward to that one. Filming took place in a few places in Ireland - that made me very proud as the Skelligs were seen several times throughout the film. Sadly, that didn't make up for the mess that the film was. Anyway, "back to the story"... I thoroughly enjoyed 'Rise'. My favourite character? Poe - he has a nice line in dry wit Carrie, quite rightly, gets top billing.
|
|
|
Post by BIuebird on Jan 1, 2020 22:12:45 GMT
Mr. Bluebird and I just saw the film yesterday, and we really enjoyed it! Mr. Bluebird is the big SW fan, although I like it too. I didn't know about Dhani's cameo appearance, how cool is that? I will have to remember to try to figure out which storm trooper he is next time we watch the movie.
|
|
|
Post by nobodyschild on Jan 2, 2020 0:46:42 GMT
tremblinwilbury Poe is my favorite new character too! Kinda like the Han Solo type character. Ben/Kylo is very intriguing too and I really like what they did with his character at the end. {Spoiler} Yes! Ben finally gets to smile!! (And kiss Rey) I’m also glad this movie “fixed” Luke Skywalker. I was only seven or so when I saw the films for the first time, and Luke was the hero. By Return of the Jedi, he had matured and solidified himself as the Jedi hero I admired, especially in the final confrontation with Vader. In short, Luke was my hero since childhood, and I felt that episode 8 went very much against his character. (Mark Hamill disagreed with decisions made about his character in TLJ and I can see why...) Someone who would risk himself for his friends time and time again would not turn his back on the cause like that, and it’s pretty unrealistic that the guy who was confident (and successful) in being able to bring Vader back to the light side would try to kill his nephew, who was probably about only fifteen or so at the time and much less intimidating than Darth Vader. That was just not the Luke I knew and adored as a child, so I’m glad Rise of Skywalker set his character straight again. It was also nice to hear the voices of Hayden Christensen, Liam Neeson, Samuel L Jackson, etc, again...too bad they didn’t get back into costume and make an appearance as Force ghosts, but I suppose we can’t have it all. My only other complaints are that SO MANY things are CAPITALIZED in the OPENING CRAWL. That was excessive, and it still doesn’t feel right to have a Star Wars film start without the 20th Century Fox fanfare, which was a sound so long-associated with Star Wars for me that when I was a kid I literally thought it was the Lucasfilm theme, and got confused when I heard it at the beginning of another movie...those drums and horns literally meant Star Wars to me. But I guess now I’m just getting nit-picky. Overall I think it is the best of the sequel trilogy. Nothing beats the original three of course, and like those three were a product of their time so was this film: a fair amount of the scenes were filmed in dim light or in grey color schemes, it had darker themes, relied heavily on CGI, and was jam-packed with action, action, action. (Call me old-fashioned, but miniature models and miniature pyrotechnics are way better than CGI.) It followed the likes of Empire and Revenge of the Sith with its darker themes, which is fine, but even those movies had slower moments where you could take a step back from the action, breathe, and see some character development. I thought the plot was good, and it got closest to having the “feel” of a Star Wars film, though even the prequels had a different feel than the originals, so it’s kind of a hard thing to judge. There were plenty of little references in there for fans of the originals (including the prequels) and I felt like the Sith wayfinders were very in line with the Jedi holocrons from the old expanded universe books. The only other problem with the new trilogy is simply the principle of it—it effectively destroyed the happy ending Luke, Leia, and Han had at the end of ROTJ, but JJ even managed to smooth that over somewhat and tie up some loose ends. So, I’d have to disagree with the critics here: TLJ was not good (despite their good reviews of it—I think it may well have been worse than Phantom, but that’s a whole new discussion) and Rise was way better than critics are giving it credit. Oops, this post turned into an essay...
|
|
|
Post by Timeblue on Jan 2, 2020 9:41:20 GMT
tremblinwilbury Poe is my favorite new character too! Kinda like the Han Solo type character. Ben/Kylo is very intriguing too and I really like what they did with his character at the end. {Spoiler} Yes! Ben finally gets to smile!! (And kiss Rey) I’m also glad this movie “fixed” Luke Skywalker. I was only seven or so when I saw the films for the first time, and Luke was the hero. By Return of the Jedi, he had matured and solidified himself as the Jedi hero I admired, especially in the final confrontation with Vader. In short, Luke was my hero since childhood, and I felt that episode 8 went very much against his character. (Mark Hamill disagreed with decisions made about his character in TLJ and I can see why...) Someone who would risk himself for his friends time and time again would not turn his back on the cause like that, and it’s pretty unrealistic that the guy who was confident (and successful) in being able to bring Vader back to the light side would try to kill his nephew, who was probably about only fifteen or so at the time and much less intimidating than Darth Vader. That was just not the Luke I knew and adored as a child, so I’m glad Rise of Skywalker set his character straight again. It was also nice to hear the voices of Hayden Christensen, Liam Neeson, Samuel L Jackson, etc, again...too bad they didn’t get back into costume and make an appearance as Force ghosts, but I suppose we can’t have it all. My only other complaints are that SO MANY things are CAPITALIZED in the OPENING CRAWL. That was excessive, and it still doesn’t feel right to have a Star Wars film start without the 20th Century Fox fanfare, which was a sound so long-associated with Star Wars for me that when I was a kid I literally thought it was the Lucasfilm theme, and got confused when I heard it at the beginning of another movie...those drums and horns literally meant Star Wars to me. But I guess now I’m just getting nit-picky. Overall I think it is the best of the sequel trilogy. Nothing beats the original three of course, and like those three were a product of their time so was this film: a fair amount of the scenes were filmed in dim light or in grey color schemes, it had darker themes, relied heavily on CGI, and was jam-packed with action, action, action. (Call me old-fashioned, but miniature models and miniature pyrotechnics are way better than CGI.) It followed the likes of Empire and Revenge of the Sith with its darker themes, which is fine, but even those movies had slower moments where you could take a step back from the action, breathe, and see some character development. I thought the plot was good, and it got closest to having the “feel” of a Star Wars film, though even the prequels had a different feel than the originals, so it’s kind of a hard thing to judge. There were plenty of little references in there for fans of the originals (including the prequels) and I felt like the Sith wayfinders were very in line with the Jedi holocrons from the old expanded universe books. The only other problem with the new trilogy is simply the principle of it—it effectively destroyed the happy ending Luke, Leia, and Han had at the end of ROTJ, but JJ even managed to smooth that over somewhat and tie up some loose ends. So, I’d have to disagree with the critics here: TLJ was not good (despite their good reviews of it—I think it may well have been worse than Phantom, but that’s a whole new discussion) and Rise was way better than critics are giving it credit. Oops, this post turned into an essay... Now what does that remind you of?
|
|
|
Post by nobodyschild on Jan 2, 2020 19:48:50 GMT
I guess I may have given off a wrong impression. Whenever I hear it it still means Star Wars. (And if I hear it from another room, chances are I’ll be running into that room expecting to see a ship and a planet ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
|
|
|
Post by queenofthehours on Jan 6, 2020 19:05:22 GMT
I've not seen any of the new Star Wars movies yet. The last one I saw was Attack of the Clones at the cinema.
I used to be the biggest Star Wars geek at the end of the 90s but since the prequels my fan-girling has calmed. The fact that Disney bought the franchise and now includes it alongside Mickey doesn't sit right with me and I'm not a fan of the idea of rejecting the timeline built up by the books and comics over the years for a new one. However, the new films do look cool and I'll definitely get around to seeing them eventually. From what I've seen they seem better than the prequels, more in keeping with the traditional SW look and feel.
I still love Star Wars, it means so much to me and over Christmas I rooted around and found out all my old toys, figures, comics and novels. I even found an unused desk calendar from 1998!
|
|
|
Post by nobodyschild on Jan 7, 2020 5:51:42 GMT
Nothing beats the original trilogy. Although I don’t hate the prequels (I grew up with them at the same time as the originals but was brought up right and viewed the movies 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, with a frustratingly long week in between each) I can see their purpose in the franchise. They served to go back in the timeline and explain the backstory of Vader, so you could see how Luke’s father Anakin turned to the Sith. I can accept the new movies now, if only for the redemption in Rise, but I still don’t really think of them as Star Wars and view them as more of the old expanded universe, like the books, but in film format. They won’t ever be the Star Wars I grew up with—what good times those were, when my dad brought the first Star Wars home on a DVD rented from good old Blockbuster! On a side note...can’t believe kids younger than me are growing up watching the prequels first...and worse, the 2011 blue ray remasters of the originals. I did some fun research on the subject, but in short (er, probably long, but I’ll try to keep it short...I have homework to start...) I’m sure it’s no secret George Lucas has gone back in and edited the original films...obsessively. What’s a little more interesting, is how he seems to want to keep the original versions of the film from ever being seen. Seriously, he denied the film library of Congress a copy of the original master of Star Wars...and offered them a 1997 “doctored up” version instead. Now, I grew up on the 2004 versions. Not bad, but the Jabba scene in the first never made sense (because it wasn’t supposed to be there) and I didn’t realize until after watching the original 1980 version of Empire how much more of a mystery Vader’s claim of being Luke’s father was, because of the scene with the Emporer. We have the box set, which includes the 2004 remasters, and the original theatrical versions (the “GOUT” or “George’s Original Unaltered Trilogy” versions, as I’ve learned fans nicknamed them). We now mostly only watch the GOUTs, although they show up as a tiny rectangle on the screen, and are washed out looking, and grainy. (There are reasons for this—id assumed it was just because filming in 1977 was, well, washed out and grainy, but fans have other suspicions. Apparently filming was not as bad as I thought, here’s an article: savestarwars.com/gout.html ) For the most part, I’d say there’s no going back, flaws and all I love the theatrical versions of the movies. The only changes that I really like are the re-dubbing of Boba Fett’s voice to Temuera Morrison (Jango Fett from the prequels), the new victory celebration song at the close of Jedi, and editing in Hayden Christensen as Anakin’s Force ghost. But back on the topic of how the GOUT versions are lacking in quality...fans have taken matters into their own hands, and one such fan known as Harmy has created a “despecialized edition” of the original three Star Wars, as close to how you would experience them in theaters as possible. Basically, the GOUT versions but with corrected color palettes and sharpened quality, etc...I found it incredibly fascinating, here’s some videos:
|
|
|
Post by tremblinwilbury on Jan 7, 2020 8:41:20 GMT
The order in which the films are viewed makes a difference. I believe they need to be seen in order of their making... Episodes 4, 5 and 6, then 1, 2 and 3... lastly 7, 8 and then 9.
The 'big' revelation made to Luke in episode 5 ('Empire', in other words) is a shock and should be kept as such. George Lucas did himself (and us) no favours in revealing all at the end of episode 3. A decent director would have done a better job. Sadly, broadcasters screen them on telly in order - 1 to 8.
In the latest trilogy I loved episode 7 (The Force Awakens) and 9 (The Rise Of Skywalker) wasn't bad. The less said about the middle one of the three, the better
|
|
|
Post by BSJ on Jan 7, 2020 18:31:10 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Grroosss on Jan 7, 2020 19:14:05 GMT
...thus the only 100% correct answer to the “who shot first?” question... ...”George Lucas!”
|
|
|
Post by Timeblue on Jun 30, 2020 21:58:51 GMT
I saw 'Rogue One' for the first time last week and I have to say that in my opinion, it's the best of all the recent Star Wars movies from the last 20 years! Great story (It's a prequel to episode 4 (or the 1st film)) full of action and some old faces and characters.
|
|