Movies - General Discussion

[Cody_Russell]

My general thoughts about Star Wars:
- Episodes 4, 5, and 6. The original Star Wars trilogy is fantastic. Classic. Grew up with those movies with multiple re-watches. Can watch them any day and feel good about it.
- Episodes 1, 2, and 3. The prequels. I saw those movies at the right age where I still really like them. Yes, despite all of the flaws such as bad CGI, wooden acting, and campy dialogue. It makes up for those flaws with creativity. The movies don’t feel like they were made out of a corporate committee with Lucas directing and writing. The dialogue is so campy that most of the movies feel like a meme. There’s some entertainment to that. Again, seeing Episode 1 at a young age… it’s the right age where I can tolerate Jar Jar as being an acceptable Goofy-like character. I actually love Episode 3 because it’s so dark and has some of the greatest high stake moments in the saga. Evan McGregor is very likable as Obi-Wan.
- Episodes 7, 8, and 9. The sequels. I think these movies are aging poorly because they rely so heavily on memberberries. Nostalgia and such. Episode 7 was incredible on first watch, but then I realized there’s not much substance to it. Copy and paste of Episode 4. It’s a controversial opinion, but Episode 8 is my favorite of the sequels. It’s the one sequel that tried to do something different when it comes to the story. A lot of people hate it because of what they did to Luke, but it doesn’t bother me. It’s also the greatest Star Wars movie from a technical (cinematography, score, visuals, etc) perspective IMO. Rian Johnson deserves credit for that. I hated Episode 9… first movie that I can remember pissing me off in a movie theater. It’s so rushed, sloppy, and lacking when it comes to creativity. Bringing back Palpatine out of left field? Come on man. Kylo should have been the big bad of the trilogy… I feel like that’s how Rian Johnson set it up in Episode 8.
- The Clone Wars (Animated Series). Never watched, but I’ve heard that people like this series. I’m not that much into Star Wars to have any desire to watch this series.
- Rogue One/ Solo. Rogue One is decent. Solo is blah. No real desire to ever re-watch these movies.
- The Mandalorian / The Book of Boba Fett. I’m not as high on The Mandalorian as others. It’s entertaining, but mindless entertainment because the narrative is so mediocre. Some good episodes. Overall? Inferior when compared to most of the TV series that I watch. Such as try watching The Sopranos and The Mandalorian during the same time period. Clearly a difference when it comes to the narrative, writing, and character development 😅. Haven’t watched The Book of Boba Fett because I heard it’s mediocre.

What’d I miss?

[CGVT]

Then problem is people want to view them as high brow art, they are just popcorn movies. Enjoy them as such. The whole point of franchises like Star Wars and Indiana Jones was to bring the spirit of the old serials, low brow art. The people who looked at The Last Jedi and had a conniption about the film totally validates CGVT's view. Somehow over the last 30 years a large segment of people took to viewing Coming Book Guy as an aspirational character in the same way white collar stock bros saw Gordon Gekko or Jordan Belfort as heroes.

Disney is utilizing the franchise as it should. People spend money on the films and it drives sucscriptions to Disney+. Buying Lucasfilm at 4 billion was a tremendous bargain. Gotta provide content. I'll say this, those movies are a lot better use of time than the time wasted on a 4 month draft buildup. I will ride with Jar Jar Binks over the extremely hokey, three day draft coverage. That is TV at it's worst.

This ^^^^^

Overall, there is nothing wrong with the Star Wars movies. As you stated they are good popcorn movies. I find it comical how wrapped up some people get in the "Star Wars Universe" and how they over analyse everything related to these movies. They are just fucking movies. I feel the same way about the Lord of the Ring geeks.
It's just fucking entertainment. It ain't life and death.

[froot loops]

I anxiously awaited the LOTR movies because I read the books. The big thing back then was you really couldn't film a live action film of the books because of the daunting special effects. So I was really looking forward to the movies, I saw the first two in the theatres and loved them. I have never seen the rest other than at the gym when I'm on the treadmill, I don't know if I lost interest or what.

I did watch The Mandolorian, that shit was good.

[Marko69]

They are just fucking movies.

Well, they would’ve been if Han & Leia had gotten down to some serious business in Ewok Village!

Seriously though, for the older cunts, (consider myself in that bracket)…… I think maybe its just the change to the 1977 originals that got on my tits. Ben Kenobi arriving at that cantina place but there are dinosaurs walking about outside with stormtroopers on their backs. Fuck off with that “adding to the original” pish.
Do that, then we can kick back with our popcorn & relax!

[LightninBoy]

Then problem is people want to view them as high brow art, they are just popcorn movies.

The classic blockbusters manage to do both (not *high brow* art, but art at least). There's nothing wrong in expecting more than mindless entertainment from the Star War franchise, particularly when the original trilogy set the standard.

[froot loops]

When I worked on the Disney account, I would be amazed how big Star Wars weekends were down in Orlando. It happened right around this time. It was a pain in the ass because I normally parked in the Hollywood Studios backlot by the Tower of Terror, but for Star Wars weeks you had to park at Coronado Springs and bring the shuttle in. You had to plan accordingly to get to the airport at the end of the week. One time I did not and had to run through the airport to make a flight. The normal parking lot had a gigantic tent that had all kinds of mechandise that Star Wars fanatics would spend money on.

[LightninBoy]

My general thoughts about Star Wars:
- Episodes 1, 2, and 3. The prequels. I saw those movies at the right age where I still really like them. Yes, despite all of the flaws such as bad CGI, wooden acting, and campy dialogue. It makes up for those flaws with creativity. The movies don’t feel like they were made out of a corporate committee with Lucas directing and writing. The dialogue is so campy that most of the movies feel like a meme. There’s some entertainment to that. Again, seeing Episode 1 at a young age… it’s the right age where I can tolerate Jar Jar as being an acceptable Goofy-like character. I actually love Episode 3 because it’s so dark and has some of the greatest high stake moments in the saga. Evan McGregor is very likable as Obi-Wan.

The bold. Exactly. That's the charm of the prequels that many (myself included) missed until we saw the Disney trilogy.

[Marko69]

The classic blockbusters manage to do both (not *high brow* art, but art at least). There's nothing wrong in expecting more than mindless entertainment from the Star War franchise, particularly when the original trilogy set the standard.

No lie……. I fell asleep @ the cinema through Rogue One. I actually pissed myself off asking my son a ton of questions like…. “SO, who’s dads brothers cousin is he?”

[Marko69]

And those NFL draft shows must be soul destroying, FL if you’d rather watch Binks! Is there a more irritating bastard in all of space film history?

[froot loops]

The classic blockbusters manage to do both (not *high brow* art, but art at least). There's nothing wrong in expecting more than mindless entertainment from the Star War franchise, particularly when the original trilogy set the standard.

Truthfully, I think Lucas had a lot more to say in the prequels but he needed a DePalma to clean up the mess. By the time he got around to doing the second three, he was surrounded by yes man that could not afford to grab him by the lapels. The original trilogy has the major benefit of being the original and very few movies like it went before. It gets the benefit of the doubt for any of the Bad Mark Hamill moments or wooden Harrison Ford acting.

The main problem is the overaching story as set leaves very little chance for variation. One side.is good, the other side is bad. More importantly the fans kind of don't want you to stray from the basic binary framework. Once you tell the original trilogy there isn't anywhere else to go. That's why Lucas resisted efforts to do anything else after Jedi. That is unheard of today, it is probably a concept of the 90s that would be foreign to younger generations, now everything is IP and sequels.

[froot loops]

No lie……. I fell asleep @ the cinema through Rogue One. I actually pissed myself off asking my son a ton of questions like…. “SO, who’s dads brothers cousin is he?”

I do like Rogue One and find myself rewatching it when I see it on TV, it would have been an even better film if it didn't end with Vader and Lea. They should have just ended it with the last scene of Jyn Erso and Andor.

[froot loops]

The bold. Exactly. That's the charm of the prequels that many (myself included) missed until we saw the Disney trilogy.

The charm or harm of the last three is they also weren't written by a corporate committee. They basically gave each director autonomy on the story they had and reacted badly when the Comic Book Guy crowd got all up in arms about the Last Jedi. The result was some attempt at fan service to remedy it in the last one.

[Tom]

I really liked Rogue One. I felt like the prequel trilogy had a decent overall story they just needed better scripts and maybe less of Episode 1 (start later or merge it into Episode 2) and expand on Episode 3.

[froot loops]

Prequel stories are always a bad idea. They are limiting that you already know what happens. But then story of Darth Vader is compelling enough and the bones of good story are there. Big picture wise the prequels suffer from an abundance of resources whereas the original trilogy had to make do with the limiting technology at the time. The first three stories are tighter and the prequels suffer from bloat. That is to be expected and since turn of the century all popcorn movies suffer from bloat. There is no limiting canvas when it is all CGI.

Lucas is really, really trying to make a point about republics versus authoritarianism in the prequels but as a director he lacks the ability to show it without expository dialogue featuring two characters walking. The original trilogy is just a pastiche of old serials and Japanese movies. I'm not even sure there is an underlying theme other than the hero's journey and it's never too late for redemption.

[jaadam4]

I really liked Rogue One. I felt like the prequel trilogy had a decent overall story they just needed better scripts and maybe less of Episode 1 (start later or merge it into Episode 2) and expand on Episode 3.

I thought so too. It was done really well