Star Wars Megathread

Tanmann wrote:The sad thing is, I'm still a bit of a sucker for its viscera. For the hope it might be good, or at least exciting. Or at least might salvage something from the wreckage that was The Last Jedi.
I thought it'd be easy to remain disinterested and not care enough to see the new film. I thought I had no reason to care anymore. But I have a feeling it's going to be difficult for me this Christmas not succumbing to the curiosity to see it.

I’m experiencing that too, though it’s a case of me trying to snap to reality and realise that the film will likely be a stab to the gut if I do see it.

Bernard Marx wrote:I’m experiencing that too, though it’s a case of me trying to snap to reality and realise that the film will likely be a stab to the gut if I do see it.

I came out The Last Jedi believing there was nothing really to care about anymore. There seemed to be a complete abuse of narrative progression, suggesting the story was going nowhere, anything could happen at random now and so any events pretty much had no meaning anymore.

The premature death of Snoke made clear there was no attempt to even justify why the Galactic Empire was a thing again, and so they were just there for the sake of aping the iconography of Star Wars, and to be the whipping boy of the makers' idea of 'straw Nazis'. So if the empire could just be back like their last defeat meant nothing, why should I care about the fight to defeat them again?

And in a way the ending note, where the chances for the resistance couldn't be lower against such a titanic force as the Empire.... it's almost like the stakes are so ridiculously high, there's no real point in investing in them. We've seen nothing from the resistance in the previous film to suggest they have the capacity to turn things around in an intelligent, logical, progressive way. So if they do turn things around, it'll be by the power of random nonsense and Mary Sue magic powers.

Maybe that's the problem. The trailer reminds me there were consequences and loose threads to The Last Jedi, with the resistance reduced to that small band of stragglers. Like David versus Goliath. Or indeed like Bettan and her few surviving Thals against the Daleks.

I keep forgetting The Last Jedi was not a reasonable film when it came to our expectations, and since Disney have doubled down in their arrogance, there's no reason Rise of Skywalker should be either. There was a great film they could've made out of the new Star Wars saga. There still is. But everything about the Disney machine suggests we won't get it, and it would just make a fool out of us for reasonably expecting one.

On a sidenote, I’d noticed that some discussion concerning Game of Thrones season 8 had ended up on this thread. For anyone who’s interested, here’s a brilliant video that cathartically tears episode 5 to shreads and outlines how the season completely undermines the overarching narrative and ruins every single character to some capacity (though the video may be rather lengthy to some, at 2 hours and 37 minutes):
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7K0KaEYX41c&t=3030s

Some of it feels like it's strongly sucking me in again.

The sight of Rose however was a sobering 'oh yeah, actually this one's probably going to be unpleasant too.'

I’m not falling for this shit. Everything about this trailer is a depressing attempt to pander to an apathetic fanbase, with fuck all in the way of originality or integrity behind it. Why does Abrams have this bizarre obsession of throwing as much shit into the frame as possible (e.g. the moronic quantities of Star Destroyers- bigger is not always better, JJ)? And the rebels using bloody horses on a spacecraft is clearly JJ referencing that fucking awful casino subplot from The Last Jedi, in a deliberate attempt to piss off fans. Such an attempt within a trailer that tries to appease fans simultaneously served as emblematic of the philosophical hypocrisy of Disney’s Star Wars- “Let the past die”, so they say, all whilst relying on nostalgia. C-3PO’s declaration of ‘taking one last look at my friends’ seems inserted in order to elicit an emotional reaction from the trailer’s audience, yet completely fucks up when one considers that he’s had no interactions with anyone in frame barring Chewbacca and R2-D2. And why is Rey training rigorously after kicking the shit out of Kylo twice already?

Yeah- I’m not seeing this in cinemas. Those twats aren’t getting any of my money for this rubbish.

Bernard Marx wrote: And why is Rey training rigorously after kicking the shit out of Kylo twice already?

To justify using the deleted scenes from Force Awakens that they've lumped into this one to give Carrie something to do.

I'll still probably see it out of force of habit. A positive thing about this is that I'm wanting to see it not wanting to hate it. There's signs of a decent movie lying around in there, but after the massive awfulness that is The Last Jedi, even if this movie is excellent, there's going to be shortcomings such as building up from the events of The Last Jedi or The Emperor somehow stupidly coming back from the dead (Council of Geeks excellently put out a recent video that perfectly expresses my annoyance at Emperor Palpatine coming back). But, it could be like Revenge of the Sith (still my favourite Star Wars movie) where it could mostly ignore the shortcomings of the previous two movies, while standing on its own as a competent story (although in the case of ROTS, it also had the excellent Clone Wars show that helped make the movie better, whilst the New trilogy has nothing).

Still think that Finn should have been the next Jedi instead of Rei though. There's far more potential with a rebel Stormtrooper becoming his own and using the Force as opposed to Rei being Luke Skywalker 2.0.

Trailer looks good, but it will take a fucking miracle to repair the trilogy after Last Jedi, and I doubt that a fanwank remake will do it this time.

That said - I don't follow the cynicism that this film will be terrible, it will probably be decent enough.

It just reminds me as to what a missed opportunity Last Jedi was. What a trailer:



All they had to do was follow that. Nothing special or innovative needed in the writing, just a solid original plot and some great action and cinematography. Any half competent writer could have delivered and it could still have been a fantastic Star Wars film.

Yet the film feels like a parody of what the trailer implied. Rian delivered a film that subverted only our expectations of it actually being good.

It's just depressing how much interest and excitement has been revoked from the franchise now.

TiberiusDidNothingWrong wrote:Trailer looks good, but it will take a fucking miracle to repair the trilogy after Last Jedi, and I doubt that a fanwank remake will do it this time.

That said - I don't follow the cynicism that this film will be terrible, it will probably be decent enough.

It just reminds me as to what a missed opportunity Last Jedi was. What a trailer:



All they had to do was follow that. Nothing special or innovative needed in the writing, just a solid original plot and some great action and cinematography. Any half competent writer could have delivered and it could still have been a fantastic Star Wars film.

Yet the film feels like a parody of what the trailer implied. Rian delivered a film that subverted only our expectations of a good film.

It's just depressing how much interest and excitement has been revoked from the franchise now.

I think this is a large part of the reason why I am expecting it to be awful. The film has to follow a pile of shite like The Last Jedi, and Abrams has frequently alluded to backtracking in an attempt to please all of fandom. As a result, the film isn’t going to follow naturally from the prior films in the trilogy, yet the trailer still trivialises some of The Last Jedi’s worst attributes (as with the horses on the ship, Rey’s apparent lack of weakness, logic defying narrative progression through Palpatine’s emergence, etc). I just get a schizophrenic vibe from the trailer and the film’s production- and narrative and tonal schizophrenia were amongst the worst facets of the previous film. That, coupled with the arrogant and dismissive attitude of Disney and Lucasfilm concerning critically discerning fans even now, doesn’t indicate that the film will bode well. I just don’t see how, regardless of Abrams’ intention, the film can be remotely coherent with the rest of the trilogy considering how badly it’s fucked up so far.

As acknowledged by Giraffe, regardless of the faults of the prequel trilogy, they weren’t completely severed by so many narrative plot threads gone wrong (hence why Revenge of the Sith succeeded in the eyes of quite a few fans). This film has so much riding on it, and it’s being helmed by Abrams- a writer/director renowned for not being able to provide satisfactory conclusions to overarching stories. I can’t be inherently optimistic, as everything is against this film being satisfactory on any level.

I must say I was never the biggest fan of Star Wars, but I do sympathise with its fans hugely. They are going through the same thing I am with DW, a great work of fiction that was originally for everyone, being twisted and ruined by a toxic agenda.

One of my all time fave youtubers is That Star Wars Girl. She is so gorgeous, and funny and likable and I respect how she has stood up for her favourite franchise, unlike certain other sell out fans I could name. If only there were more That Star Wars Girls in DW fandom.

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/nov/30/rian-johnson-trolling-ive-had-slightly-more-than-most-people

I couldn't even bring myself to read this, but it looks like Johnson is playing the victim yet again. Bizarrely, the Graun thinks "boldly updating" is an apt description for hijacking a beloved film franchise and turning it into an anti-male propaganda vehicle.

ClockworkOcean wrote:https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/nov/30/rian-johnson-trolling-ive-had-slightly-more-than-most-people

I couldn't even bring myself to read this, but it looks like Johnson is playing the victim yet again. Bizarrely, the Graun thinks "boldly updating" is an apt description for hijacking a beloved film franchise and turning it into an anti-male propaganda vehicle.

He has to be amongst the most insecure filmmakers currently working based on his complete lack of ability to take even the slightest hint of criticism. Perhaps it’s as simple as his scripts being indulgent and pompous shite lacking in any narrative cohesion?

And is The Guardian still defending The Last Jedi even now? It’s been two years since release, and even most who seemed to enjoy it at the time have come to regard it as rubbish over time and reflection, hence the comparative lack of hype or excitement for episode 9. It feels like an upcoming non-event at this point, much like NuWho series 12.

Star Wars Actor Billy Dee Williams Reveals Gender Fluidity in New Interview

Williams also praised Donald Glover, who portrayed a young Lando Calrissian in Solo: A Star Wars Story, and who had known since he read the script that Lando was a pansexual character, something that Jonathan Kasdan, Solo's writer, confirmed.

https://www.cbr.com/star-wars-actor-billy-dee-williams-reveals-gender-fluidity/

I really do think the robot romance in Solo was the daftest thing ever. She was more annoying than Jar-jar binks.... maybe...

Yes the robot was pretty bad. I tried to like her at the time and I don't recall why, nonetheless I cringed at every scene.

On the other topic: I don't see why being a bit of a fanny now and again means you can't be a man.

Nm looks like the BDW thing was made up. Classic NuMedia.

Star Wars Episode IX reviews thus far:
54% on Metacritic, 56% on Rotten Tomatoes, 3/5 from Empire Magazine, 3/5 from The Guardian.

Given that the media have been completely unwilling to criticise the new trilogy and have been constantly lambasting the fans as opposed to the creative choices made in the recent films to this point, these review scores are devastating. Let’s hope NuWho series 12 receives a similar response too.

Such a shame that the release of new Star Wars movie no longer feels like a big event.

Apparently Rise of Skywalker got big midnight queues last night.

.....Why?

Tanmann wrote:Apparently Rise of Skywalker got big midnight queues last night.

.....Why?

Look forward to the inevitable drop in box office intake by the next week. I’ve heard nought but awful things about the film from most sources I’ve encountered.

6.8 on IMDB at the moment. There would have to be a really dramatic increase for the film to be on par with the originals which are 8.6, 8.7 and 8.3 respectively.

I saw it this afternoon.

God what an awful, indefensible movie. Your blinders must be firmly attached to enjoy this one, fortunatly not a lot of the known shills are taking the money from the mouse under the table for this.

This is a film that aims for everyone and satisfies noone. The plot is literally the worst Playstation One cut scene speed-run you have ever watched. The humour is the same as Last Jedi and just as awful. And JJ clearly doesn't understand the themes between Rey and Ben that Rian established in the previous movie, it's like he doesn't even want to explore it beyond moments of exposition and getting Ben from A to B with a built-in quickfire excuse for him to turn to the light side.

I thought the use of Carrie was inappropriate and awkwardly delivered, especially near the end of her use in the story. She literally dies just to call her son from work. It's hilarious.