Movies you've just watched

[Sinful]

Second is in some ways the most tolerable (comparatively speaking) but also has some of the worst moments. The Anakin/Padme romance is the scene that I fell asleep in theaters and had to be woken up by my Dad after it was over.

I really enjoy the Obi-wan & related scenes in Episode 2. My favourite thing about the prequels. Too bad those romance scenes had to be in the way.

[WelshMegalodon]

Not only are the prequels inferior films to the original trilogy, you really shouldn't consider them "canon" because they're chock full of things that contradict events in the original trilogy. Trekkies were able to take a stand and declare Star Trek V non-canon, why are Star Wars fans slaves to Lucas' bizarre whims?

Canon isn't even the issue. You won't believe how many fans absolutely get off on dismissing canon as pointless and deriding canon-conscious fans for caring so much about fictional universes. While the devoted Expanded Universe (now Legends) audience is not without some presence, the majority of Star Wars fans hate canon. They promote the universe as one of the few remaining pick-and-choose universes, ignoring that the franchise's adherence to a single canon is (or was, rather) one of the things that set it apart from Marvel/DC/Doctor Who/whatever.

I think we've already covered the reasons for people defending the Prequels here. The hate surrounding them is, to an extent, overblown. People are tired of seeing complaints about them. The children who grew up with them are now adults. And perhaps more importantly, there's been this despicable tendency within fandoms to promote the ideal of loving everything not judging anyone for liking garbage, because ACCEPTANCE, GUYS!!! (See TVTropes and all the horror stories around it for why this is a terrible idea.)

There do appear to be some that insist on Lucas' contributions being more legitimate, or Star Wars being a visual medium, but excuses like those are flimsy at best. What I wrote above explains Prequel apologists better than anything to do with blind loyalty to Lucas.

[Zen]

"All movie discussions eventually reduce down to a Star Wars debate"; discuss

In all seriousness, we all know this to be true, if we have but a modicum of observational ability. The real question then becomes "why?"

I believe I have said here already, that for me, Star Wars, or to be specific the inspiration that animates Star Wars, exists primarily in the first (no, its not the fourth), the FIRST Star Wars film.
Once this is understood, all other "yes but is it Star Wars" arguments relating to the other cash grabs can be seen for what they are; Pointless"
Pointless, simply because that initial inspiration, exhausted and finding itself wasted and ill-used by its unworthy host (Lucas) simply . . . left.
Exit Lucas the holder of Excalibur, enter the blind, fumbling shadow Lucas.

Its very old tale chaps and your subconscious recognises it as such. Hence the inevitable and ongoing search for the lost Grail (Star Wars discussion).

[boagman]

Instead of watching the prequels, just enjoy these instead.

Goddamn fuckin straight. IDGAF about Star Wars and I was still dying. YEEEAAA BOYEEEEEE

Oh, my word. Imagine my disappointment when Episode 4 (of 5) doesn't broadcast in the US due to some kind of copyright infringement. I watched 1-3 and loved them (the dance wars/music do go on too long, but that's picking nits...), and I *can* watch 5...but I don't want to watch that one until I see 4. They are very, very funny, though. Gotta give 'em a ton of credit.

[BIL]

Hmm, I'm in Britlandshire and getting blocked too. This Dailymotion link works for me:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3pug4s

Lemme know if that blocks you too, and I'll rip+ul it somewhere else. As the young folks say,

Spoiler

[xxx1993]

Assassin's Creed and the climax of Rogue One.

[Opus131]

I did make it through ep III yesterday which is a little more tolerable than the first two, but still pretty godawful. Never again.

I don't know why people consider III to be more tolerable than the first two (some people actually rate it as 'decent' believe it or not). For me it was absolutely awful - in many ways I consider it the worst of the three. There's so much more that's offensive about it because the developments are more critical than 2 and 3.

Indeed. I happen to think the first one was the best (despite Jar Jar and the annoying kid from hell) if only because it kinda operated like a real movie. Lucas stopped making an effort in the other two, in a vein similar to the Matrix sequels.

[Opus131]

- Decent action/fighting
- Yoda vs. Emperor was actually pretty cool

Have to disagree, especially with Yoda fighting, which was probably one of the most cringe worthy things i've ever seen.

[lilmanjs]

The Thin Man
I will for some reason always love the entire series, but they showed the first movie on TCM and I got to remember how good the movie actually was. A guy gets killed, people are paid to keep saying they are seeing him around and more people dying. A good mystery movie from the 1930s.

[Mischief Maker]

Instead of watching the prequels, just enjoy these instead.

Goddamn fuckin straight. IDGAF about Star Wars and I was still dying. YEEEAAA BOYEEEEEE

Oh, my word. Imagine my disappointment when Episode 4 (of 5) doesn't broadcast in the US due to some kind of copyright infringement. I watched 1-3 and loved them (the dance wars/music do go on too long, but that's picking nits...), and I *can* watch 5...but I don't want to watch that one until I see 4. They are very, very funny, though. Gotta give 'em a ton of credit.

If it's any consolation, episode 4 is the weakest of the bunch.

[Skykid]

I did make it through ep III yesterday which is a little more tolerable than the first two, but still pretty godawful. Never again.

I don't know why people consider III to be more tolerable than the first two (some people actually rate it as 'decent' believe it or not). For me it was absolutely awful - in many ways I consider it the worst of the three. There's so much more that's offensive about it because the developments are more critical than 2 and 3.

Indeed. I happen to think the first one was the best (despite Jar Jar and the annoying kid from hell) if only because it kinda operated like a real movie. Lucas stopped making an effort in the other two, in a vein similar to the Matrix sequels.

I'm of a very similar thinking here.

As atrocious as the first is, with its incomprehensible political themed storyline and JJ Bink's, midichlorians and shitty child actors, it's also the only one with a reasonably decent adversary, a fairly respectable lightsaber fight, actual location shooting rather than the entirety being green screened, some actual puppet work, Liam Neeson (marginally respectable casting) and the podrace, which as an interim set piece is actually fairly well executed and recalls the 80s 'event sequences' fairly well.

Apart from that it's a turd of a movie, but it doesn't have Hayden Christensen ruining the party in every scene and the love story calamity is yet to exist.

Complete balls as EPI is, there's some horrific things to come - unforgivable matters of failed filmmaking and general audience communication that make them marginally more abhorrent. I honestly think III's shit the bed mess from one scene to the next is the perfect lowest rung finale - its unnecessary action sequences are parody, its screenplay and directorial execution are as far off the mark as the prequels get, and its critical narrative junctures are so heinously fucked it doesn't bear thinking about.

Something like that anyway.

[JBC]

I do agree that the pod racing scene is still pretty cool. It's got a real sense of speed to it. It's not enough to save the movie, but it's fun.

[GaijinPunch]

- Decent action/fighting
- Yoda vs. Emperor was actually pretty cool

Have to disagree, especially with Yoda fighting, which was probably one of the most cringe worthy things i've ever seen.

Well you actually just said that Episode I operated like a real movie, so...

[GaijinPunch]

And on this note...

Finally went to see Rogue One. Took the little guy b/c "It's Star Wars". Definitely not for the younger kids. Obviously the tone, but also just the fact there's quite a bit of dialogue going on. I was also distracted with some shit news earlier in the day. Even so, I somehow was able to enjoy it, although it had a few flaws. Forgivable though... I'm glad they realized they could kinda do their own thing, and did.

[soprano1]

Dumbo (1941)
What a trippy movie!

[Opus131]

- Decent action/fighting
- Yoda vs. Emperor was actually pretty cool

Have to disagree, especially with Yoda fighting, which was probably one of the most cringe worthy things i've ever seen.

Well you actually just said that Episode I operated like a real movie, so...

I meant relative to the rest.

[GaijinPunch]

It's still the most convoluted out of the three. I just found out who the Phantom Menace actually was not long ago... don't even see the main character for what... the first half of the movie almost?

[Squire Grooktook]

Yeah, I'm surprised Skykid agrees with that. Particularly:

it's also the only one with a reasonably decent adversary

Who? As far as I remember, Maul is a ghost who says and does literally nothing the entire movie and only shows up for a sword fight at the end.

I can't disagree with the podrace or Liam Neeson, but the rest of the pro's are just aesthetics that don't assuage the sheer mind boggling nonsense of its wannabe-political soap opera and complete absence of a protagonist or plot arc. It doesn't have the sheer embarrassment of 2, but at least I had a vague idea of who was fighting who and why in that one. I think EP1 is highest on the "wtf did I just watch" scale, personally.

That may or may not make it the worst, though.

[GaijinPunch]

I would have taken back every bad thing I said about all of them if we got those Natalie Portman beaver shots we were all hoping for. Alas, Lucas is a fucking idiot.

[Opus131]

Tits only work if the film is fun schlock. Portman isn't even that great looking.

[kaicooper]

watched these:

The Accountant .. one of the worst movies..it started well..strong..deep then
magic happnes..trying to be like J.Bourn and failed and becomes worthless

Dangal..one of the strongest and best Indian movie ever..just watch it
Aamer khan proves he's the best

Blade Runner: Final Cut .. for second time..this movie is MASTERPIECE

[GaijinPunch]

Tits only work if the film is fun schlock. Portman isn't even that great looking.

who said anything about tits?

[Durandal]

saw Rogue One, thought it was alright, better than EPVII on virtue of not leaving me (as) puzzled over several inconsistencies and plot holes while being able to stand out on its own save for the few shoe-horned in fanservice scenes

So SPOILEARSISRAELIOPS

I liked most of the setpieces, although the first half tends to move from location to location way too quickly which is rather disorienting for the viewer.
Nonetheless we're introduced to Jyn Erso, a boring tough action lady with a strong attachment to her father. She doesn't really have much of a personality, going from generic loner to generic driving force of justice after seeing a message where it's revealed that papa worked on the Death Star and put a weak spot in there for Luke to blow up because he has a conscience.
She was rescued as a child by some dude called Saw Guerrera who's made out to be a bigger deal than he actually is, as he's hunted by the Rebels for being too much of a extremist before he kind of resigns to his fate around the end of the first half by dying in a shockwave and is never mentioned again.

It's nice that we're seeing more to the Rebels other than just good guyz vs the bad guyz through Rebels having to do bad things to get by (even though the Empire is still portrayed as some force of nature bent on conquering everything without remorse because lol), although I expected them to be fighting for their fucking lives. Stormtroopers are still presented as useless cannon fodder for the Rebels to decimate, before even more reinforcements and heavy armor come in wrecking shit and the Rebels become too tired and make heroic sacrifices. It can be forgiven for the protagonists, but amongst the entire spectrum of Star Wars Warriors, Stormtroopers must be the lowest of the low, which makes them seem incredibly nonthreatening despite being the dominant force in the galaxy. No wonder they had to build a Death Star to keep up their threat level.

Which reminds me, why was it so important that the Rebels had to assassinate Galen Erso again? I guess the Rebels didn't know what the Death Star was all about in the first place, only that it was some evil shit Galen was working on, but his death would have not achieved anything really. Even so, they're placing a large amount of effort into killing some guy whose actual contributions to the Empire are vague, let alone how the Empire would proceed without him. And that's not even counting the possibility that there may be many more researchers making doomsday weapons for the Empire! So yeah, it feels more of an excuse for drama to happen.

Somewhere in the desert city we also meet with blind monk staff fighter and heavy weapons guy, who just kinda get involved with the main protagonists during the fighting against Stormtroopers and decide to stick around because they don't really have anywhere else to go it seems, though it ends up feeling out of place in a 'X and Y joined your party!' kind of fashion. They aren't that integral to the plot aside from being able to kill Stormtroopers, and feel rather detached from the rest of the cast, but I did like the bantering between them. I liked them, though I'm sure Disney just needed something to appeal to Chinese audiences.

As this is a prequel of some sorts, now-dead actors like Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher (soon) were 'revived' through the power of CGI. Uncanny Valley doesn't even begin to describe the results. You can see the animators tried to replicate subtle human movement and facial changes, but any attempts at doing so look stiff, robotic and artificial. Their portrayals looked a bit too perfect, whereas it's mistakes and imperfections that make human beings. I guess one approach to this is to use CGI as little as possible, but the final shot of young Leia appearing for approximately ten seconds was already enough to undermine any emotion in the scene. It's just that the question of 'is this even real?' takes a larger priority in your mind over everything else currently happening on screen, like seeing someone who you can't determine at first glance whether that person is a male or female and you can't help but keep looking at that person before you can come to a conclusion.

I can't really bring myself to care about someone other than K, the pilot, and the Chinese duo. Though Krennic was an okay villain on his own. It's just that everyone else seems to be preoccupied with other things to really care, and I did expect more in terms of character interactions for a movie which wouldn't rely on existing characters. Honestly, the movie lacks a sense of camaraderie. There's some here and there, but it's mostly between duos/trios (and some background Rebel cannon fodder) rather than the entire cast of good guys. When they're all heading towards the tropical planet in what essentially amounts to a suicide mission, I'd expect to see some goodbyes and last regrets. Instead it didn't feel like a suicide mission it all. Rather, everyone slowly comes to a realization that there's no escape and then spoilers the Death Star kills everyone on the planet. I'm not saying that it came out of nowhere, but rather that it could have used a better set-up to be more effective. Throw in some optimism or dread beforehand to make reality hit harder when it does come around. Everyone on the planet should have been scrambling for their lives or at least shown accepting their fate like Jyn and Cassian did when the Death Star hit, something most movies do with scenes of a nuclear bomb dropping on a highly populated city or something.

Rogue One does tie in neatly with ANH, as the weak spot in the Death Star was explained well enough, how the Rebels got the hands on the plans, and why the Rogue One crew never appeared in the sequels. I'm pretty sure it ends right at the beginning of ANH, when Leia gets the Death Star plans at the end and then gives them to R2D2 while Darth Vader & Co. are still chasing her since the end of Rogue One. There are still some forced fanservice scenes here and there, like a shot of C3PO and R2D2 appearing for no reason as they see the Rogue One ship take off, and Krennic seeking an audience with Darth Vader which has no relevance to the plot at all other than to have a scene of Darth Vader coming out of his fridge. It makes sense why Darth Vader would be present at the final battle, but other than that most callbacks in the movie are uncalled for and just there to stroke the boners of fanboys.

The music, composed by Michael Giacchino rather than John Williams, sounds rather forgettable. Whenever the music plays, it sounds like it's about to play a classic Star Wars tune, but then it doesn't, and whatever else is playing is nowhere as memorable. As if the score is there to just to set a mood rather than tell its own story alongside the movie itself. Most of the new setpieces are fine too, although it's becoming rather obvious they're still adhering to one-line descriptions for each planet (this is the desert city planet, this is the tropical planet, this is the northern english farmland planet etc.). Must every city setting have a shot of the city being very crowded and busy? The rest of the film looked alright, though I still felt like getting teased when Cassian takes off his jacket which reveals an outfit very similar to that of Kyle Katarn's normal getup, I swear he's imitating his fucking voice too. They might as well have casted a space Asian in the lead role called Jan rather than Jyn while they were at it (in fact I'd have preferred that).

But as a whole, the movie was alright. It did manage to stand out on its own by going in its own direction (even if the execution leaves something to be desired) while managing to flesh out the universe some more (I guess Kyber Krystals are a thing now?), and I wouldn't mind seeing more SW movies like this.

[neorichieb1971]

SW is so good at being SW it seems, that all fans went straight to Facebook and worshipped it on day 1.

The fact is, in all 3 original movies you really felt a threat of the dark side and the storm troopers and the good guys got into pickles you couldn't see them getting out of.


In the latest SW movies, you don't even see "near misses" on the good guys. But everytime the good guy shoots its clinically perfect every time. No matter how many bad guys turn up just keep shooting and they will keep falling. Without a believable threat the audience turns off, and thats what happens to me watching these movies. I can't give a movie a high score if I don't believe in what I am seeing.

[Sinful]

saw Rogue One, thought it was alright, better than EPVII on virtue of not leaving me (as) puzzled over several inconsistencies and plot holes while being able to stand out on its own save for the few shoe-horned in fanservice scenes

So SPOILEARSISRAELIOPS

I liked most of the setpieces, although the first half tends to move from location to location way too quickly which is rather disorienting for the viewer.
Nonetheless we're introduced to Jyn Erso, a boring tough action lady with a strong attachment to her father. She doesn't really have much of a personality, going from generic loner to generic driving force of justice after seeing a message where it's revealed that papa worked on the Death Star and put a weak spot in there for Luke to blow up because he has a conscience.
She was rescued as a child by some dude called Saw Guerrera who's made out to be a bigger deal than he actually is, as he's hunted by the Rebels for being too much of a extremist before he kind of resigns to his fate around the end of the first half by dying in a shockwave and is never mentioned again.

It's nice that we're seeing more to the Rebels other than just good guyz vs the bad guyz through Rebels having to do bad things to get by (even though the Empire is still portrayed as some force of nature bent on conquering everything without remorse because lol), although I expected them to be fighting for their fucking lives. Stormtroopers are still presented as useless cannon fodder for the Rebels to decimate, before even more reinforcements and heavy armor come in wrecking shit and the Rebels become too tired and make heroic sacrifices. It can be forgiven for the protagonists, but amongst the entire spectrum of Star Wars Warriors, Stormtroopers must be the lowest of the low, which makes them seem incredibly nonthreatening despite being the dominant force in the galaxy. No wonder they had to build a Death Star to keep up their threat level.

Which reminds me, why was it so important that the Rebels had to assassinate Galen Erso again? I guess the Rebels didn't know what the Death Star was all about in the first place, only that it was some evil shit Galen was working on, but his death would have not achieved anything really. Even so, they're placing a large amount of effort into killing some guy whose actual contributions to the Empire are vague, let alone how the Empire would proceed without him. And that's not even counting the possibility that there may be many more researchers making doomsday weapons for the Empire! So yeah, it feels more of an excuse for drama to happen.

Somewhere in the desert city we also meet with blind monk staff fighter and heavy weapons guy, who just kinda get involved with the main protagonists during the fighting against Stormtroopers and decide to stick around because they don't really have anywhere else to go it seems, though it ends up feeling out of place in a 'X and Y joined your party!' kind of fashion. They aren't that integral to the plot aside from being able to kill Stormtroopers, and feel rather detached from the rest of the cast, but I did like the bantering between them. I liked them, though I'm sure Disney just needed something to appeal to Chinese audiences.

As this is a prequel of some sorts, now-dead actors like Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher (soon) were 'revived' through the power of CGI. Uncanny Valley doesn't even begin to describe the results. You can see the animators tried to replicate subtle human movement and facial changes, but any attempts at doing so look stiff, robotic and artificial. Their portrayals looked a bit too perfect, whereas it's mistakes and imperfections that make human beings. I guess one approach to this is to use CGI as little as possible, but the final shot of young Leia appearing for approximately ten seconds was already enough to undermine any emotion in the scene. It's just that the question of 'is this even real?' takes a larger priority in your mind over everything else currently happening on screen, like seeing someone who you can't determine at first glance whether that person is a male or female and you can't help but keep looking at that person before you can come to a conclusion.

I can't really bring myself to care about someone other than K, the pilot, and the Chinese duo. Though Krennic was an okay villain on his own. It's just that everyone else seems to be preoccupied with other things to really care, and I did expect more in terms of character interactions for a movie which wouldn't rely on existing characters. Honestly, the movie lacks a sense of camaraderie. There's some here and there, but it's mostly between duos/trios (and some background Rebel cannon fodder) rather than the entire cast of good guys. When they're all heading towards the tropical planet in what essentially amounts to a suicide mission, I'd expect to see some goodbyes and last regrets. Instead it didn't feel like a suicide mission it all. Rather, everyone slowly comes to a realization that there's no escape and then spoilers the Death Star kills everyone on the planet. I'm not saying that it came out of nowhere, but rather that it could have used a better set-up to be more effective. Throw in some optimism or dread beforehand to make reality hit harder when it does come around. Everyone on the planet should have been scrambling for their lives or at least shown accepting their fate like Jyn and Cassian did when the Death Star hit, something most movies do with scenes of a nuclear bomb dropping on a highly populated city or something.

Rogue One does tie in neatly with ANH, as the weak spot in the Death Star was explained well enough, how the Rebels got the hands on the plans, and why the Rogue One crew never appeared in the sequels. I'm pretty sure it ends right at the beginning of ANH, when Leia gets the Death Star plans at the end and then gives them to R2D2 while Darth Vader & Co. are still chasing her since the end of Rogue One. There are still some forced fanservice scenes here and there, like a shot of C3PO and R2D2 appearing for no reason as they see the Rogue One ship take off, and Krennic seeking an audience with Darth Vader which has no relevance to the plot at all other than to have a scene of Darth Vader coming out of his fridge. It makes sense why Darth Vader would be present at the final battle, but other than that most callbacks in the movie are uncalled for and just there to stroke the boners of fanboys.

The music, composed by Michael Giacchino rather than John Williams, sounds rather forgettable. Whenever the music plays, it sounds like it's about to play a classic Star Wars tune, but then it doesn't, and whatever else is playing is nowhere as memorable. As if the score is there to just to set a mood rather than tell its own story alongside the movie itself. Most of the new setpieces are fine too, although it's becoming rather obvious they're still adhering to one-line descriptions for each planet (this is the desert city planet, this is the tropical planet, this is the northern english farmland planet etc.). Must every city setting have a shot of the city being very crowded and busy? The rest of the film looked alright, though I still felt like getting teased when Cassian takes off his jacket which reveals an outfit very similar to that of Kyle Katarn's normal getup, I swear he's imitating his fucking voice too. They might as well have casted a space Asian in the lead role called Jan rather than Jyn while they were at it (in fact I'd have preferred that).

But as a whole, the movie was alright. It did manage to stand out on its own by going in its own direction (even if the execution leaves something to be desired) while managing to flesh out the universe some more (I guess Kyber Krystals are a thing now?), and I don't seeing more SW movies like this.

But that ending did actually come out of nowhere since that wasn't the original planned ending for Rogue One. That's why it didn't have a better setup.

And there's a typo in your in final line. Do you mean you don't mind seeing more Star Wars like this?

[neorichieb1971]

Was nobody haunted by the fact 10's of rebels got the force of Darth Vadar with the fear of God in their eyes, and then 5 seconds later you see Leia with the Death Star plans in her hands with a big smile on her face?

Sorry, but I don't buy it. That would be like celebrating winning the lottery 10 seconds after finding out your family were serial killed.

[Durandal]

Meant to say I wouldn't mind seeing more movies like this. Will edit.

Though I should probably rephrase that while hitting the DEATH STAR EVERYTHING button did come out of nowhere, I didn't really mind it considering everyone's roles in the play already came to an end. Their character arcs were complete by that point, so wiping the slate clean with a Death Star blast didn't bother me as much. They could've probably escaped and lived happily ever after, but then you have to explain why they don't come back in SW movies taking place after Rogue One (which is probably why they went ahead with this ending). Disney changing the ending halfway through production does make a lot of sense for the lack of setup.

[atheistgod1999]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSaaa_OBkzw

[GaijinPunch]

Was nobody haunted by the fact 10's of rebels got the force of Darth Vadar with the fear of God in their eyes, and then 5 seconds later you see Leia with the Death Star plans in her hands with a big smile on her face?

Sorry, but I don't buy it. That would be like celebrating winning the lottery 10 seconds after finding out your family were serial killed.

No. They got away w/ the plans, and Leia really didn't see what went down in that corridor. She doesn't have X-ray vision, AFAIK.

[Some-Mist]

saw la la land and it didn't really live up to my expectation. as the movie progressed it got much better and ended up being a real tearjerker, but I was bored and felt unfulfilled based on the first 30 minutes.
the trailer(s) really made it seem out there, but it ended up being far more literal than what I would have assumed.

the music was great - especially the jazz instrumentals - but I probably wouldn't watch it again.

should have seen rogue one, but going to probably watch that and/or bad santa 2 based on other means of watching ^_^