Star Wars Episode VII

"Unlucky 13 wrote:

I'm extremely fortunate that my wife was already almost as big a geek about these things as I am when we met. 14 years together has deepened the bond, but she already loved most of it. We have about a 80% overlap in taste, so things go well most of the time.

We've been getting our two girls (6 and 4) into it all as well. We haven't taken them to a non-animated/Disney movie at the cinema yet, but I'm thinking probably next year. We're all pumped to go watch Incredibles 2 though. My wife introduced me to the original, and its always been a family favorite.

not sure I would have married my wife 17 years ago if she wasn't a fan of these kinds of movies. while she doesn't obsess like me, she enjoys seeing them in theatre.

I forgot to mention Jurassic Park- I'm a huge fan of that franchise as well! The first of the new series they made a few years ago was amazing- who would have ever though we could witness a T-Rex and a raptor duke it out with a super-hybrid? Just the technology alone to make that stuff come to life nerds me out in spectacular ways.

The Matrix- that's another series that sort of started all this amazing new tech. I can still remember the 1st time I saw Keanu Reeves dodge bullets or actually flew away......<poof> mind-blowing.

"KeyFin wrote:

I forgot to mention Jurassic Park- I'm a huge fan of that franchise as well! The first of the new series they made a few years ago was amazing- who would have ever though we could witness a T-Rex and a raptor duke it out with a super-hybrid? Just the technology alone to make that stuff come to life nerds me out in spectacular ways.

The Matrix- that's another series that sort of started all this amazing new tech. I can still remember the 1st time I saw Keanu Reeves dodge bullets or actually flew away......<poof> mind-blowing.

I read Jurassic Park back in 1991, and thought to myself that if they could make it into a movie, it would be the most amazing thing ever. And they delivered. The first one was spot on, and terrific. The second and third ones got corny, but I did like Jurassic World a lot. Not looking forward to the new one as much.

Have you seen the Animatrix? A collection of animated shorts based in the Matrix universe, some approved as official canon, or at least in the spirit of the movies. Its excellent. I would love, love to see a prequel based on some of that work, and then other stories from the universe fleshing it all out and giving more background details than we got.

"Unlucky 13 wrote:

I read Jurassic Park back in 1991, and thought to myself that if they could make it into a movie, it would be the most amazing thing ever. And they delivered. The first one was spot on, and terrific. The second and third ones got corny, but I did like Jurassic World a lot. Not looking forward to the new one as much.

Have you seen the Animatrix? A collection of animated shorts based in the Matrix universe, some approved as official canon, or at least in the spirit of the movies. Its excellent. I would love, love to see a prequel based on some of that work, and then other stories from the universe fleshing it all out and giving more background details than we got.

I haven't seen it but I will check it out. The new Jurassic World series is better than the original in my opinion just because of what technology allows. It loosely continues off the old series and the first one is my favorite- they essentially start making bigger, meaner alpha predators by splicing DNA because it brings in more park revenue. Their latest creation escapes though and then all hell breaks loose...that's just in the first few minutes of the movie. The dino vs dino fight scenes are spectacular throughout.

Edit- oh, I just re-read and you already saw the first new one. duh!

The 2nd movie is also very good but it lost a little of its charm...definitely worth seeing though. And then the 3rd one comes out later this week.

"KeyFin wrote:

I haven't seen it but I will check it out. The new Jurassic World series is better than the original in my opinion just because of what technology allows. It loosely continues off the old series and the first one is my favorite- they essentially start making bigger, meaner alpha predators by splicing DNA because it brings in more park revenue. Their latest creation escapes though and then all hell breaks loose...that's just in the first few minutes of the movie. The dino vs dino fight scenes are spectacular throughout.

Edit- oh, I just re-read and you already saw the first new one. duh!

The 2nd movie is also very good but it lost a little of its charm...definitely worth seeing though. And then the 3rd one comes out later this week.

The one that just came out yesterday is just the second film in the new trilogy right?

"Destroyer wrote:

The one that just came out yesterday is just the second film in the new trilogy right?

Yup, it's the 2nd one. My kid went to see it and said it was really good- almost as good as the 1st one. The media is trashing it for a weak story line but it really comes down to big dinosaurs wrecking cities and each other- do you want to see that or not? So I'm definitely going to see it soon. =)

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/star-wars-billy-dee-williams-returning-for-episode/1100-6460281/

Billy Dee Williams is rumored to be reprising his role of Lando in Episode 9. No word on how large or small a part.

Apparently, due to less than expected ticket sales and some of the fan backlash, they might not make a sequel to Solo, be it direct focusing on Han, or indirect focusing on another character like Qi'ra. Given the ending, that seems shocking. Perhaps we'll eventually get another movie set in that time frame before Episode 4 that will tell more of the stories.

https://geektyrant.com/news/carrie-fishers-brother-talks-about-the-unused-footage-of-her-that-will-be-included-in-star-wars-episode-ix

Carrie Fisher's family has given the green light, and there will be a lot of unused footage reworked to have her play a solid part in Episode 9.

"Destroyer wrote:

Solo was just as good if not better than Rogue One.

Just saw Solo last night and I really enjoyed it....right up until the very end where I was extremely disappointed. Darth Maul would have been dead already for at least 10 years.

*sighs*

"The_Dark_Knight wrote:

Just saw Solo last night and I really enjoyed it....right up until the very end where I was extremely disappointed. Darth Maul would have been dead already for at least 10 years.

*sighs*

Apparently, because the cartoons are canon, he was somehow saved after being cut in half, and is now part cyborg. Dont ask me how or why, because I dont know.

"Unlucky 13 wrote:

Apparently, because the cartoons are canon, he was somehow saved after being cut in half, and is now part cyborg. Dont ask me how or why, because I dont know.

So if you didn’t watch the cartoons, you’re lost. I just hate continuity conflicts in film...especially when it’s not explained

"The_Dark_Knight wrote:

So if you didn’t watch the cartoons, you’re lost. I just hate continuity conflicts in film...especially when it’s not explained

Yeah, I had to read up on it and get the outline of the story. Apparently, the director thought it would be a cool idea to throw in, because the movie took place in a previously unexplored part of time between Episodes 3 & 4, and could have allowed for something else to fill that time period with before we meet Luke and Leia. However, with the movie not making as much money as Disney wanted it to, who knows what will happen now. They've already scrapped the Boba Fet movie to do a show on their upcoming streaming service instead.

Just saw Solo myself and it was ... aggressively alright.

The Darth Maul thing didn't make any sense. I actually watched the cartoons (I'm a SW nerd, sue me) so I knew the whole bit about him still being alive (though it was kind of a dumb idea to start with, the cartoons did some fun stuff with it). Still, it just felt more jarring and confusing than anything else. Even knowing he was alive and coming it was just kind of like ... why?

I mean, they seemed to clearly want to set this up for a sequel, but this was supposed to be a standalone story, so ..... Fucking weird.

There were lots of jarring moments too. Like when the pirate queen took off her helmet and just stood there for a minute. Like, am I supposed to know you? Who the TF are you? Oh, I guess I'm just supposed to be surprised it's a girl and not some super scarred warlord I guess? The start of the film on Corellia was a mess but it picked up fairly well from there.

I dunno - it was enjoyable, but I am not disappointed to have missed it in the theater. Easily the weakest of the post-prequel movies. I probably enjoyed it more as a world-building movie than for it's plot or acting.

The Last Jedi ruled.

"GARDENHEAD wrote:

The Last Jedi ruled.

I've watched it three or four times now. Its very good. It's really unfortunate that the troll campaign against it got so much press. Really looking forward to Episode 9 later this year.

"GARDENHEAD wrote:

The Last Jedi ruled.

No.

Rewatched it quite a few now, and it was excellent. Not a perfect movie, but none of them are. I feel it does an excellent job of recapturing much of the original film's mojo however.

Cinematically, it was gorgeous. Some of the shots and scenes are incredible from a visual perspective. The hyperspace attack was crazy gorgeous. The shots on Crait were stunning. The initial assault on the dreadnaught was full of fantastic visuals.

Loved the parallelism of the movie as well, the development of Kylo and Rey and how it hearkened back to the original movies without following them as by the book as TFA.

The humor I thought was mostly on point and placed well, from Luke's milk scene, to the porgs annoying Chewie.

Most the criticism I find completely overwrought. Like I said, there are definitely some valid issues. Canto Bight was a little preachy and overly direct and didn't really need to be as long as it was - it jars the pacing. The dreadnaught scene at the start was maybe a little to emotionally intense for being so early among others (though as a WW2 nerd I appreciated the scene as a callback to the old bomber fleet raids over Germany).

Otherwise, most criticism falls into nitpicking, which frankly can be done for any of the movies.

I'd still probably say Empire as my favorite, but Ill be damned if TLJ isn't right behind.

I'm utterly mystified. Honestly. TLJ ranks dead last for Star Wars movies for me, and at least one huge Star Wars fan colleague sitting opposite me, with a Darth Vader image for his permanent desktop wallpaper - and a Kylo Ren bobble head type toy on his desk.

It almost doesn't count as a Star Wars movie.

I agree that the cinematography was, for the most part, brilliant. Can't fault it at all. Don't want to. It was beautifully shot.

The problems, for me, are with the story itself as part of the Star Wars saga. I won't go on a rant here and list the details because it's already been covered by many others all over the place. I'll just state that as a piece of story-telling it sucks. Even from the previous movie to TLJ there are inconsistencies and changes that are clearly a result of one writer/team taking things in a different direction to the previous writer/team. You just can't do that sort of thing and expect the story to come out okay. For me, whether in games or movies or TV shows the story and writing are paramount. Tell me a good story, put together well, and I'll likely be a happy man and forgive other consistencies and changes. However, do a bad job, and you'll ruin the whole thing, no matter how pretty it might be.

I was already not super happy with TFA as a follow up to the original trilogy. I felt it was too repetitive of the original movie and the writers missed massive opportunities to do something really good with the epic saga that is Star Wars. But, when in TLJ they took what had been established in TFA and flushed it down the toilet, establishing almost nothing in its place, it was a disaster. It was just all over the place, and didn't/doesn't feel like there was/is any real continuity or direction. In some ways that can even be seen at the level of cinematography where, for some bizarre reason, Star Wars introduced one single visual gag - the spaceship/iron moment. That's just inconsistent visual story telling. Never has Star Wars utilised visual gags - the sort of thing you might get in a spoof show or parody. What's it doing there? It breaks the fourth wall for the viewer, it pulls you out of the universe you're supposed to be immersed in.

The whole thing seemed to be a Star Wars movie made by people who liked the idea of Star Wars, but have rejected more traditional story telling. Gone is the classical hero saga/storyline. Instead we get a sort of slice-of-life Jedi drama. Or worse, a story set a long time ago, on a Jersey shore far far away.

Star Wars isn't supposed to be about exploring the existentialist/nihilist struggles of a force sensitive being. It's a fantasy adventure/epic. It's essentially a unique retelling the same story/stories told for all time. Not a deconstruction of that story or a place for social commentary.

Look, if a writer/director wants to try that, then fine. Make a new, 'A Star Wars Story' movie, and see how it goes. You can have full creative control over every aspect of the story and it might actually work really well. What you don't do is take an ongoing plotline and sage, and run it off in a completely different direction. It's like reading through the Fellowship of the Ring, then the Two Towers, and then, in the Return of the King Frodo says decides to pack it in, tosses the ring away and decides to explore middle earth by himself. Gollum overthrows Sauron, Sam dies somewhere in the middle, and then it looks like we're going to get an inside look into the family lives of goblins.

Who said what now?

No thanks. And that's why I'm not interested in the last movie. Not unless something changes.

Rogue One. That was the best of the new Star Wars movies. The true sequel/prequel. That's the sort of movie the sequels should have been, just set afterwards. Really, really enjoyed that movie. It felt like a Star Wars movie in how it was shot, drew you in, honoured/stayed faithful to the story. Excellent story-telling and creativity. That's the sort of thing they should do.

"Galant wrote:

I'm utterly mystified. Honestly. TLJ ranks dead last for Star Wars movies for me, and at least one huge Star Wars fan colleague sitting opposite me, with a Darth Vader image for his permanent desktop wallpaper - and a Kylo Ren bobble head type toy on his desk.

It almost doesn't count as a Star Wars movie.

I agree that the cinematography was, for the most part, brilliant. Can't fault it at all. Don't want to. It was beautifully shot.

The problems, for me, are with the story itself as part of the Star Wars saga. I won't go on a rant here and list the details because it's already been covered by many others all over the place. I'll just state that as a piece of story-telling it sucks. Even from the previous movie to TLJ there are inconsistencies and changes that are clearly a result of one writer/team taking things in a different direction to the previous writer/team. You just can't do that sort of thing and expect the story to come out okay. For me, whether in games or movies or TV shows the story and writing are paramount. Tell me a good story, put together well, and I'll likely be a happy man and forgive other consistencies and changes. However, do a bad job, and you'll ruin the whole thing, no matter how pretty it might be.

I was already not super happy with TFA as a follow up to the original trilogy. I felt it was too repetitive of the original movie and the writers missed massive opportunities to do something really good with the epic saga that is Star Wars. But, when in TLJ they took what had been established in TFA and flushed it down the toilet, establishing almost nothing in its place, it was a disaster. It was just all over the place, and didn't/doesn't feel like there was/is any real continuity or direction. In some ways that can even be seen at the level of cinematography where, for some bizarre reason, Star Wars introduced one single visual gag - the spaceship/iron moment. That's just inconsistent visual story telling. Never has Star Wars utilised visual gags - the sort of thing you might get in a spoof show or parody. What's it doing there? It breaks the fourth wall for the viewer, it pulls you out of the universe you're supposed to be immersed in.

The whole thing seemed to be a Star Wars movie made by people who liked the idea of Star Wars, but have rejected more traditional story telling. Gone is the classical hero saga/storyline. Instead we get a sort of slice-of-life Jedi drama. Or worse, a story set a long time ago, on a Jersey shore far far away.

Star Wars isn't supposed to be about exploring the existentialist/nihilist struggles of a force sensitive being. It's a fantasy adventure/epic. It's essentially a unique retelling the same story/stories told for all time. Not a deconstruction of that story or a place for social commentary.

Look, if a writer/director wants to try that, then fine. Make a new, 'A Star Wars Story' movie, and see how it goes. You can have full creative control over every aspect of the story and it might actually work really well. What you don't do is take an ongoing plotline and sage, and run it off in a completely different direction. It's like reading through the Fellowship of the Ring, then the Two Towers, and then, in the Return of the King Frodo says decides to pack it in, tosses the ring away and decides to explore middle earth by himself. Gollum overthrows Sauron, Sam dies somewhere in the middle, and then it looks like we're going to get an inside look into the family lives of goblins.

Who said what now?

No thanks. And that's why I'm not interested in the last movie. Not unless something changes.

Rogue One. That was the best of the new Star Wars movies. The true sequel/prequel. That's the sort of movie the sequels should have been, just set afterwards. Really, really enjoyed that movie. It felt like a Star Wars movie in how it was shot, drew you in, honoured/stayed faithful to the story. Excellent story-telling and creativity. That's the sort of thing they should do.

I hate Rogue One so much. It is like someone jizzed Star Wars on the screen and forgot to write a movie with characters.
No one makes any sense. The movie wa shot with, "this will be cool." Mentality.

It is hard for me to call it a movie, let alone a real Star Wars movie. It is more like a poorly done fan film.

I was so happy the movie was over so the torture would stop. It is pure and uttermost garbage in the highest order. @182 Rouge One and it's stupid message of hope that comes out of no where, its lack of characters where the only interesting one is a robot, for having a cool awesome Darth Vader scene that if you think about it for just a second is extremely stupid.
Rogue One is everything wrong with the Disney Star Wars franchise

"Dol-Fan Dupree wrote:

I hate Rogue One so much. It is like someone jizzed Star Wars on the screen and forgot to write a movie with characters.
No one makes any sense. The movie wa shot with, "this will be cool." Mentality.

It is hard for me to call it a movie, let alone a real Star Wars movie. It is more like a poorly done fan film.

I was so happy the movie was over so the torture would stop. It is pure and uttermost garbage in the highest order. @182 Rouge One and it's stupid message of hope that comes out of no where, its lack of characters where the only interesting one is a robot, for having a cool awesome Darth Vader scene that if you think about it for just a second is extremely stupid.
Rogue One is everything wrong with the Disney Star Wars franchise

If you wouldn't mind clarifying something, are you saying you did or didn't like Rogue One? It's just a bit unclear.

:D

"Galant wrote:

If you wouldn't mind clarifying something, are you saying you did or didn't like Rogue One? It's just a bit unclear.

:D

Yup. Hated it so much.

LOL you guys. I enjoyed them all! Honestly, I like every Star Wars movie, from 1-8, plus Rogue One and Solo. Some of them are 6s and some are 10s, but they're all enjoyable. Not all of them went in the direction that I would have liked, but thats still ok.

"Galant wrote:

I'm utterly mystified. Honestly. TLJ ranks dead last for Star Wars movies for me, and at least one huge Star Wars fan colleague sitting opposite me, with a Darth Vader image for his permanent desktop wallpaper - and a Kylo Ren bobble head type toy on his desk.

It almost doesn't count as a Star Wars movie.

I agree that the cinematography was, for the most part, brilliant. Can't fault it at all. Don't want to. It was beautifully shot.

The problems, for me, are with the story itself as part of the Star Wars saga. I won't go on a rant here and list the details because it's already been covered by many others all over the place. I'll just state that as a piece of story-telling it sucks. Even from the previous movie to TLJ there are inconsistencies and changes that are clearly a result of one writer/team taking things in a different direction to the previous writer/team. You just can't do that sort of thing and expect the story to come out okay. For me, whether in games or movies or TV shows the story and writing are paramount. Tell me a good story, put together well, and I'll likely be a happy man and forgive other consistencies and changes. However, do a bad job, and you'll ruin the whole thing, no matter how pretty it might be.

I was already not super happy with TFA as a follow up to the original trilogy. I felt it was too repetitive of the original movie and the writers missed massive opportunities to do something really good with the epic saga that is Star Wars. But, when in TLJ they took what had been established in TFA and flushed it down the toilet, establishing almost nothing in its place, it was a disaster. It was just all over the place, and didn't/doesn't feel like there was/is any real continuity or direction. In some ways that can even be seen at the level of cinematography where, for some bizarre reason, Star Wars introduced one single visual gag - the spaceship/iron moment. That's just inconsistent visual story telling. Never has Star Wars utilised visual gags - the sort of thing you might get in a spoof show or parody. What's it doing there? It breaks the fourth wall for the viewer, it pulls you out of the universe you're supposed to be immersed in.

The whole thing seemed to be a Star Wars movie made by people who liked the idea of Star Wars, but have rejected more traditional story telling. Gone is the classical hero saga/storyline. Instead we get a sort of slice-of-life Jedi drama. Or worse, a story set a long time ago, on a Jersey shore far far away.

Star Wars isn't supposed to be about exploring the existentialist/nihilist struggles of a force sensitive being. It's a fantasy adventure/epic. It's essentially a unique retelling the same story/stories told for all time. Not a deconstruction of that story or a place for social commentary.

Look, if a writer/director wants to try that, then fine. Make a new, 'A Star Wars Story' movie, and see how it goes. You can have full creative control over every aspect of the story and it might actually work really well. What you don't do is take an ongoing plotline and sage, and run it off in a completely different direction. It's like reading through the Fellowship of the Ring, then the Two Towers, and then, in the Return of the King Frodo says decides to pack it in, tosses the ring away and decides to explore middle earth by himself. Gollum overthrows Sauron, Sam dies somewhere in the middle, and then it looks like we're going to get an inside look into the family lives of goblins.

Who said what now?

No thanks. And that's why I'm not interested in the last movie. Not unless something changes.

Rogue One. That was the best of the new Star Wars movies. The true sequel/prequel. That's the sort of movie the sequels should have been, just set afterwards. Really, really enjoyed that movie. It felt like a Star Wars movie in how it was shot, drew you in, honoured/stayed faithful to the story. Excellent story-telling and creativity. That's the sort of thing they should do.

I respect the opinion, but to me it's extremely overwrought.

Sure, they could have done the "predictable" thing and made Snoke's background a huge thing, or made Rey the daughter of Luke/ObiWan/Leia/etc. Frankly, that would have been fine, but it was the lazy and boring choice, just as it was kind of lazy/boring (though fine!) of JJ to basically make TFA a rewrite of the original movie. Yeah, the iron thing was kinda kitschy, but I found it mildly amusing, it certainly didn't detract anything or pull me out of anything - it was just a screen reset device, no more or less harmful or harmless than JJs flares for instance. And I mean, kitschy silly shit like that is literally all over the SW movies. Think for instance of the squealing pig guard in Return of the Jedi getting sucked up by the rancor like a noodle.

If you didn't want a more existential look at the force and just a generic space hero story than I guess I can see the issues, though you have Rey to fulfill the heroes journey. The problem many seem to have is relinquishing the story from Leia/Luke (and Han to a lesser extent), but that's what it was always going to be. I thought it was an interesting and bold choice to make Luke an Obi Wan like hermit. As for social commentary, that has never been absent from the SW universe, from the questions about droids (segregation), slavery, etc. Not to mention the whole "authoritarian government/fascist dictatorships are terrible" that was the whole movie.

Rogue One was fun, but it was pure fan service more than a serious movie and had a lot of glaring issues.

Hey, different strokes I guess. I absolutely loved the take on things, was happy to see a bit of a mixup, especially after the paint by numbers TFA.