[Movies] Talk about the last movie you saw 2: Electric Threadaloo
- Thread starter Dave
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Yeah, but then I'd have to watch that movie. Like Twilight and the Hunger Games, it's on my "I Gotta Draw the Line Somewhere on the Maturity Scale" list.
And I mean, my Taylor Swift CD collection really skews me so very far towards preteen girl.
Bah, to hell with that. Embrace it, I say. That's what I do. I revel in my immaturity, and I think everyone should do the same. Come on! Embrace your preteen girl!
Wait hang on I should rephrase that.
I gotta say, I think @bhamv3's suggestion sounds much better. I'm gonna embrace my preteen girl.
Er, I mean my New Years Resolution is gonna be to listen to that sort of music.
figmentPez
Staff member
I'm surprised I had to do this, but FTFY
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Bright - I liked the trailer for this movie, and I think it lived up to it. This was a fantastic movie, and I loved it a lot. I want to see more in this universe.
You and I are in full agreement. What a piece of shit. Terrible acting and dialogue, ridiculous characters/creatures, stupid slapstick non-sense, "New and Improved" Jedi powers, whiny-bitch Luke, etc, etc, etc.
He was not nearly the whiny bitch in RotJ as he was in ANH or ESB. I expected a bit more growth of character. It was like they mashed up weird Yoda with whiny Luke from ANH to make a "mystic" kung-fu drunken-master mash-up. It was ridiculous.
It was a lot of the same problems with the prequels.
I watched Bright with zero expectations after the lashing it's been getting.
It was an entertaining, silly, shlocky Shadowrun knockoff and had I paid money to watch it in theaters, probably would have hated it, but I watched it with some friends in my living room and had a good time. It is unbelievably dumb, tropey, heavy-handed and everything else you can imagine. It is an insanely big budget (90 million! Holy fuck!) garbage B-movie barely better than turbo garbo like 90s VHS trash like Cyborg, Robot Jox and Arena and I can't wait for the sequel.
The opening quote made me laugh, the fuck, out loud it was so silly. How much money did Netflix shower on Will Smith to do this God damn movie?
It was an entertaining, silly, shlocky Shadowrun knockoff and had I paid money to watch it in theaters, probably would have hated it, but I watched it with some friends in my living room and had a good time. It is unbelievably dumb, tropey, heavy-handed and everything else you can imagine. It is an insanely big budget (90 million! Holy fuck!) garbage B-movie barely better than turbo garbo like 90s VHS trash like Cyborg, Robot Jox and Arena and I can't wait for the sequel.
The opening quote made me laugh, the fuck, out loud it was so silly. How much money did Netflix shower on Will Smith to do this God damn movie?
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fade
Staff member
The Last Jedi
Nope. That was slightly better than the phantom menace. Only slightly. Hell, even the phantom menace wasn't boring. That one had many boring parts. Tried too hard to connect to ESB and RotJ.
Neither Rey nor Snoke's stories were advanced. Oh and they overexplained everything.
Nope. That was slightly better than the phantom menace. Only slightly. Hell, even the phantom menace wasn't boring. That one had many boring parts. Tried too hard to connect to ESB and RotJ.
I get that they were going for theme of failure as a teacher, but both of Poe's plans just ended up getting a bunch of people unnecessarily killed with little achievement.
fade
Staff member
I know you're joking and all, but despite that, we learned absolutely nothing about him, other than what he looks like in gold lamé.
Maybe his backstory will be fleshed out in Solo.
That is Abram's fault for teasing it, not Johnson's fault for not delivering on the impossible. Remember, we learned nothing about the emperor in any of the original trilogy. It is simply not a necessary element of the story.
Personally, I liked the subversion of the rogue hero trope. The protagonists nearly drove the resistance to extinction and learned painfully from it all. None of that is wasted story.
fade
Staff member
Snoke was posed as a mystery. It was heavily implied his revelation would mean something. But even so, I'm not just talking about backstory. His character was set dressing. The Emperor had a personality and presence that made him a living character. Snoke was empty. Also, it wasn't just Abrams. It's the character design itself. If you give a character giant scars and draw camera attention to them, better fire that gun, Chekov. They told us in the original trilogy why Vader wore a suit by the second movie.
Now that I'm at a computer, let me type some specific things that bugged me
Now that I'm at a computer, let me type some specific things that bugged me
- runtime. Far too long, many scenes way dragged out needlessly
- poor acting. Rose and the Vice Admiral specifically. Luke, too, really.
- Rose. She spent half her screentime as an Author Avatar, moralizing about everything
- Copying. Okay, we get it. You liked the originals. Can the flight through the planet not look exactly like Lando's flight through DS2? Even the exit hole looked the same.
- Porgs.
- The whole Luke/Ben thing. That was just weird. Again, not saying I don't get what they were going for. Just seemed so uncharacteristic of Luke. So uncharacteristic that in-universe, R2D2 had to remind Luke how he acted in ANH.
- Pretty much the entire casino scene.
- The hacker existed only as an anti-Han. I get it, again. Hard to miss when they take it right down to the pallet of money boxes. Is it really necessary?
- The overexplanation of everything. From "It's salt!" to explaining the light speed tracking not once but twice. Within minutes of each other. Verbally explaining the rust bucket speeders. Verbally pointing out that they were literally recreating the trench run from ANH. Which of course fails, because holy crap we get it, this is the OT with everything failing, because apparently failure is such a great teacher that it's the only one we'll have for the entire runtime
- poor acting. Rose and the Vice Admiral specifically. Luke, too, really.
- Rose. She spent half her screentime as an Author Avatar, moralizing about everything
- Copying. Okay, we get it. You liked the originals. Can the flight through the planet not look exactly like Lando's flight through DS2? Even the exit hole looked the same.
- Porgs.
- The whole Luke/Ben thing. That was just weird. Again, not saying I don't get what they were going for. Just seemed so uncharacteristic of Luke. So uncharacteristic that in-universe, R2D2 had to remind Luke how he acted in ANH.
- Pretty much the entire casino scene.
- The hacker existed only as an anti-Han. I get it, again. Hard to miss when they take it right down to the pallet of money boxes. Is it really necessary?
- The overexplanation of everything. From "It's salt!" to explaining the light speed tracking not once but twice. Within minutes of each other. Verbally explaining the rust bucket speeders. Verbally pointing out that they were literally recreating the trench run from ANH. Which of course fails, because holy crap we get it, this is the OT with everything failing, because apparently failure is such a great teacher that it's the only one we'll have for the entire runtime
Bright
I sat down expecting this to be a bad movie. I was going to watch a bad movie and have fun with it.
I actually ended up liking it a hell of a lot. It is very much a genre film, and a good execution of a cop drama in a unique setting. The racial symbolism was a little heavy handed, but I was totally fine with it, I think it worked.
Totally fun movie to watch in your pajamas from the comfort of your couch.
I sat down expecting this to be a bad movie. I was going to watch a bad movie and have fun with it.
I actually ended up liking it a hell of a lot. It is very much a genre film, and a good execution of a cop drama in a unique setting. The racial symbolism was a little heavy handed, but I was totally fine with it, I think it worked.
Totally fun movie to watch in your pajamas from the comfort of your couch.
I agree on the scars etc., but again, that was Abrams, basically setting up the next director to fail. i utterly disagree on the emperor, though. His personality was "I am cocky and evil."
As for your other complaints. Some of them I agree with:
- runtime. I agree.
- Luke was great, so I don't agree on this one. Rose I had no problem with. The Vice Admiral maybe, but I think some of the problems were in the characterization, not the acting.
- Rose. *shrug* I viewed her character as one who moralizes.
- Copying. I'm okay with an homage.
- Porgs. They were overdone in a couple of scenes. Generally I liked them, especially knowing they were a solution to a puffin problem during filming.
- The whole Luke/Ben thing. Maybe. I definitely get the backlash on this. Even Hamill questioned the choices. But we only ever saw Luke as a soldier, never as a teacher or as an uncle. I can conceive of a character path where Luke has a moment of weakness. That said, it wasn't exactly earned. Those flashbacks were also an homage to a samurai film, I think.
- Pretty much the entire casino scene. Yeah, some if it was over the top. I was skeptical when their plan was to fly to another planet during the 18 hours they had before the entire resistance was doomed.
- The hacker existed only as an anti-Han. He wasn't an anti-Han, he was a straight up Lando.
- The overexplanation of everything. I personally need some of that stuff explained to me. I didn't know it was salt, for one!
- Luke was great, so I don't agree on this one. Rose I had no problem with. The Vice Admiral maybe, but I think some of the problems were in the characterization, not the acting.
- Rose. *shrug* I viewed her character as one who moralizes.
- Copying. I'm okay with an homage.
- Porgs. They were overdone in a couple of scenes. Generally I liked them, especially knowing they were a solution to a puffin problem during filming.
- The whole Luke/Ben thing. Maybe. I definitely get the backlash on this. Even Hamill questioned the choices. But we only ever saw Luke as a soldier, never as a teacher or as an uncle. I can conceive of a character path where Luke has a moment of weakness. That said, it wasn't exactly earned. Those flashbacks were also an homage to a samurai film, I think.
- Pretty much the entire casino scene. Yeah, some if it was over the top. I was skeptical when their plan was to fly to another planet during the 18 hours they had before the entire resistance was doomed.
- The hacker existed only as an anti-Han. He wasn't an anti-Han, he was a straight up Lando.
- The overexplanation of everything. I personally need some of that stuff explained to me. I didn't know it was salt, for one!
Oh, that's how they got the puffins out of scenes, just CGI'd over them? That's hilarious.
fade
Staff member
For the explanation stuff, the reason it's a problem is because the explanation doesn't matter or could be shown and not told. I was particularly bothered by the salt one because the soldier's interjection was an abrupt record scratch right in the middle of mounting tension, as are many infodumps. Did it matter that it was salt anyway? It had no bearing on the story, it just dragged out an already overlong moment and broke the tension. It's not to say none of this info needed to be provided to the audience. It just didn't need to be done so explicitly.
Here, I can make a crappy attempt to fix some of the infodumping. These aren't great mind you.
Instead of explaining the battering ram gun is a mini death star verbally, put a rock in their way and make it fire. Give it the distinctive dish laser with the converging beam. Also points out the danger explicitly. This is what Rogue One did.
If you want to explain the salt give it a story reason. Have something electronic go on the fritz and then say the salt plays hell with it.
Here, I can make a crappy attempt to fix some of the infodumping. These aren't great mind you.
Instead of explaining the battering ram gun is a mini death star verbally, put a rock in their way and make it fire. Give it the distinctive dish laser with the converging beam. Also points out the danger explicitly. This is what Rogue One did.
If you want to explain the salt give it a story reason. Have something electronic go on the fritz and then say the salt plays hell with it.
Yes, I agree about the Emperor. That's what we got. I also think it's more than what I got from Snoke.
So make the movie even longer instead of giving a 2-second throwaway line? Because I strongly feel the movie was too long as it is and will take the two seconds over adding another piece to the sequence of events. I know you're saying it's a crappy fix, but I'd argue it's not a fix at all, especially if it interrupts the scene more than the part you're saying interrupts the scene. You've got "show, don't tell" fighting "brevity is the soul of wit." Either they make the movie even longer and mess up the pacing, or they throw a line or two in there to say what they're going to say. A writer who tries to avoid all things at all times is one who doesn't finish a script. I'd also hardly call a single line per piece of information an infodump.
I say this as someone with mixed feelings about the movie that these are bizarre points to get stuck on when the other movies would also do shit like this. Why call it the forest moon of Endor when we can see it's a forest? Why have Lando say "this deal's getting worse all the time" when they could've just had him give a sour look and walk away? Would've gotten the same point across. It's a matter of narrative choice and that one person would do it differently doesn't make the other way inherently wrong.
But as I said in the spoiler thread--which I have no idea why this isn't happening there--with the prequels' existence, my scale of what's bad in a Star Wars movie is skewed. The porgs were no Jar Jar Binks. In a way, the prequels were the best thing that could have happened to any sequels.
As for Snoke
Apparently Abrams had no plan. Sounds just like Abrams. I think it's fitting that he'll be doing Episode IX. He left Johnston a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces, so Johnston ripped the pieces up, handed them back to Abrams, and went to go make his own puzzle.
Here’s the thing with the Emperor and why despite also having no depth or backstory (at least until the prequels where we get the latter) like Smoak, he works and Smoak doesn’t.
Star Wars dropped us in the middle of the story establishing the evil empire as the big bad. Empire come along and of course we get introduced to the Emperor, an empire has to have an emperor, it’s a logical progression.
With episode VII despite being “the next part of the story” really isn’t because major events clearly took place since Jedi. The first order is a nonsensical evil organization, that from what little there is to infer, came out of no where and effortlessly destroyed the New Republic so we could start back from square one and rehash the plots and themes of the original trilogy.
Smoak & the first order need an explanation, while the Emperor and the empire never did.
Star Wars dropped us in the middle of the story establishing the evil empire as the big bad. Empire come along and of course we get introduced to the Emperor, an empire has to have an emperor, it’s a logical progression.
With episode VII despite being “the next part of the story” really isn’t because major events clearly took place since Jedi. The first order is a nonsensical evil organization, that from what little there is to infer, came out of no where and effortlessly destroyed the New Republic so we could start back from square one and rehash the plots and themes of the original trilogy.
Smoak & the first order need an explanation, while the Emperor and the empire never did.
I agree. What I think is clear is that there was at least some measure of power vacuum after the fall of the Empire, with the New Republic forming as "official," while the First Order formed elsewhere in the galaxy, hence a (secretly Republic-funded) Resistance to undermine them. But having Snoke not only running this organization, not only financing them enough to make weapons dealers and salvagers rich, but also being a powerful Force-wielder, needs at least some tiny scrap of background. I mean, his head looks like a litesaber at least touched part of his skull. A throwaway line would do. There will probably be a Star Wars comic mini-series that gets into it, but like with the Matrix video games explaining plot holes in those movies, it's sloppy.
That said
The First Order is clearly too small to dominate a galaxy. By destroying the New Republic, they've opened up another power vacuum, and if Abrams and co follow through on what Johnston did, the galaxy should be in chaos as a dozen or more powerful figures or groups each try to stake claim in clusters of star systems.