Star Wars 9

[Totenkindly]

I routinely get spoilered by headlines now in random news feeds, within a day or two of a TV show or film release, because some idiot jammed it into a headline. It's like you need to act like you're sequestered for jury duty or something...

 

[???]

I hope this is like all the other movies where the Sith are passionate/bipolar and evil and the Jedi are dispassionate/monks and good; and hopefully good wins out in the end because good always beats evil, of course. And of course it's always better than evil for some reason. I just realized I hate Star Wars...lol.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I posted my thoughts elsewhere. I'll add that it looks like a lot of the leaks are correct, which means that story-wise this will be a bit of a mess. Probably better screenwriting hands are needed to land the plane. Oof. But there's things in this trailer that look promising.

I don't really let my opinion on these things be influenced by those of others; after seeing the massive revisionism in certain quarters towards the prequels in recent years, I can't say that it's something I should concern myself with too much. I still can't see why anyone would think TFA is a better movie than TLJ. /shrug

Yup, the MTV generation. I think the Boomers were "nostalgic" where we are more outward-directed at the overwhelming amount of cultural kitsch... TV, music, art, movies, comics, it just goes on and on at least with with onset of cable and CDs and home video players and then the Internet.

When I was in high school. MTV barely played videos; it was mostly reality TV shows. That era was really the peak of reality TV; there were a bunch of thankfully now forgotten shows like The Apprentice. Perhaps the threat of streaming helped put an end to it.

You might have been able to catch some videos on MTV in those days if you got up at 5 AM, but that would be about it. TRL might perhaps have still been around as well, but they wouldn't have had any artists on I would have been interested in.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

I posted my thoughts elsewhere. I'll add that it looks like a lot of the leaks are correct, which means that story-wise this will be a bit of a mess. Probably better screenwriting hands are needed to land the plane. Oof. But there's things in this trailer that look promising.

I don't really let my opinion on these things be influenced by those of others; after seeing the massive revisionism in certain quarters towards the prequels in recent years, I can't say that it's something I should concern myself with too much. I still can't see why anyone would think TFA is a better movie than TLJ. /shrug



When I was in high school. MTV barely played videos; it was mostly reality TV shows. That era was really the peak of reality TV; there were a bunch of thankfully now forgotten shows like The Apprentice. Perhaps the threat of streaming helped put an end to it.

You might have been able to catch some videos on MTV in those days if you got up at 5 AM, but that would be about it. TRL might perhaps have still been around as well, but they wouldn't have had any artists on I would have been interested in.

They had some good late night shows like alternative nation and 120 minutes where they would actually showcase a lot of lesser known bands alongside the big hitters like Nirvana and Soundgarden. I discovered quite a few that way because this was really before music streaming made it easy to hear stuff from left field. I miss that era of MTV.

And for a bit at least, I remember MTV2 would play some more obscure Brit bands like Clinic, that otherwise didn’t get a ton of airplay in the states. But I think even MTV2 eventually just played repeats of all the popular reality series from the main network

MTV generally went downhill after the mid 90s. For a bit I preferred VH1 because they were still playing videos but then they went in the same direction with reality stuff. But I liked their documentary style stuff like behind the music, while it lasted.

 

[Totenkindly]

I don't really let my opinion on these things be influenced by those of others; after seeing the massive revisionism in certain quarters towards the prequels in recent years, I can't say that it's something I should concern myself with too much. I still can't see why anyone would think TFA is a better movie than TLJ. /shrug

Because there was an actual story, even if much of it was recycled? Versus just 4-5 "moments" but all the connecting thread was shit inside the film + to any other film in the series? Which is what a story is -- the overarching connection between plot points?

It's not like either film is a hill worth dying on, though.

Maybe now that this "trilogy" is out of the way, they can move on and do something unique.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

^^TLJ felt like if Star Wars had been a TV series and someone made a fan edit stitching together several episodes into a feature length film. Like, oh, remember the episode where they had to go to the casino planet and free the animals from the capitalists? Oh and here's the season finale where they have a battle on salt world. It just had a kind of disjointedness about it, kinda like Star Trek Generations (a film that feels like a few interesting ideas and themes thrown together in hopes that a fully realized story might emerge; the whole was lesser than the sum of the parts with Generations and TLJ). It's a middling film for me, not worse than the prequels, but nowhere near as great as the OT and Rogue One. TFA was a forgettable rehash but it still had something resembling a structured story with 3 acts. Often, less is more, particularly with a genre like space opera. I'm not saying it needs to be an exact replica of what came before, but there's also no need to reinvent the wheel. Do it new, but at the same time there's a certain formula that's gonna work.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

I kind of wish Disney had never decided to do a new trilogy and instead just focused on standalone anthology films. Though the timing was right, considering how Hamill, Ford and Fisher weren't getting any younger. But then another part of me wishes I lived in an alternate universe where Lucas had instead made a sequel trilogy in the 90s and put off doing the prequels.

 

[Totenkindly]

I wish they just handed it off to BioWare.

The games have typically had more interesting and complex storylines than anything I have seen in the films.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

I liked the Rise of the Empire storyline from the old school Battlefront II (2005) where they followed the 501st legion from Geonosis up to the battle of Hoth. I'd always hoped for a film or series set right inbetween the two trilogies. I guess Rebels kind of did that, but I would've liked something from the imperials' perspective. Rogue One sorta got that right with Jyn Erso's dad and Krennic. We see they're not all a bunch of brainless space Nazis, some are just trying to survive in the new order or make a name for themselves. This is why I think anthology films are a good idea, because they don't have to be constrained by the skywalker saga and can pretty much go in any direction, whether they want to do gritty space drama or lighthearted romps. And you can do more in the grey morality zone than is really allowed in the good vs evil framework of the trilogies.

And a political intrigue sort of series set in the SW universe would be really cool. Lucas tried to do the political drama in Prequels but it fell flat. But I think it could succeed if done well. Think West Wing and House of cards set in space. Maybe D&D are actually good people to be doing a new SW project, since they do good in adaptations.

 

[The Cat]

I actually wouldnt mind a netflix streaming Star Wars Series. I think I would have enjoyed the Rebels fleeing the First Order more with a seasonal arc. I feel like Poe, Finn and Laura Dern got not left out. But there story felt shoe horned in soley for Hey so Rey is not here but...STAKES! Oh theyre high! Look that ship just ran out of gas and BOOM. all those people we havent met or seen gone. wow loss. But a 24 episode season where you go on the ships, see them trying to survive, how they tried to get away; and Im just gonna say it. The parts of the First Order who have a problem with how awful their side is, I mean we're supposed to believe that Finn defected and he's like the ONLY one who has issues with Commander Red and the blow up brigade? I think not.

 

[Totenkindly]

Meh. D&D only do good in actual adaptations where they have a detailed storyline to crib off. (So they are organizing and summarizing detail, rather than creating it). If you give them a timeline sheet, which is just high-level plot points, they aren't creative enough to flesh in authentic details themselves; they're high concept guys. I would like to say this makes them good showrunners rather than show writers... except when they were showrunners, they also wrote some things and messed up the time needed to tell the story effectively and weren't coherent all the time when on their own devices.

Essentially you need writers who actually can work in the weeds.

That definitely was a better part of Rogue One, to see how things work on a non-high-concept level. There's a whole lot going on with building a death star, and the granular level is the individual people who are not cookie-cutter fascists or whatever they are portrayed as. It's more interesting to see how average or even well-meaning people can get sucked into these broad regime initiatives. One's own morality might not function well in an atmosphere espousing a different ethical philosophy, so how do you operate in that environment?

I remember also liking that they allowed some of the characters to be more skeevy without getting gratuitous (like shooting your own guy in the back so he won't be captured and spill the plan). It was a more complex moral choice, a darker one.

I dunno, I think the standalones failed (Rogue One did okay) because it was too much too fast, felt like a cash grab, and they were stories no one asked for. I mean, Solo wasn't as bad as everyone feared but it wasn't worth seeing either really. And it pretty much just consisted of plot points cribbed from Star Wars -- things we didn't need to know more about or see, it's all just back story. They could have been focusing on something else, or something really far away from the Skywalker period at least.

I will be really happy once the Skywalker thing is over. Like... I don't care. Let's do something else. it is such a rich historical world. It would be nice to see things besides jedi/sith, but you can even still do jedi/sith without making it a big universal good/evil battle, they can just be operating on a small personal scale / plotline.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Well I think they need to avoid doing too many origin stories standalones. Those just feel tedious and redundant. Rogue One worked because it didn't do that. And the cameos from important characters like Vader, Tarkin, Mon Mothma and Bail Organa didn't feel forced because they were key to the plot. But I really don't need an origins movie about how Dexter Jettster became a diner cook or why Dengar wears a mummy costume. I'd like standalones that feature new characters, and I don't mind them intertwining with key trilogy events, as long as it's not done just for the sake of having a few walk-on fanservice cameos. It's a pretty big galaxy so not everyone needs to know everyone else, not everyone needs to be related, not everyone needs to make an appearance in every little spinoff. I'm actually glad Snoke wasn't revealed to be Mace Windu or Jar Jar or something ridiculous like that.

 

[Totenkindly]

Well I think they need to avoid doing too many origin stories standalones. Those just feel tedious and redundant. Rogue One worked because it didn't do that. And the cameos from important characters like Vader, Tarkin, Mon Mothma and Bail Organa didn't feel forced because they were key to the plot. But I really don't need an origins movie about how Dexter Jettster became a diner cook or why Dengar wears a mummy costume. I'd like standalones that feature new characters, and I don't mind them intertwining with key trilogy events, as long as it's not done just for the sake of having a few walk-on fanservice cameos. It's a pretty big galaxy so not everyone needs to know everyone else, not everyone needs to be related, not everyone needs to make an appearance in every little spinoff.

Yes. Of course.

I'm actually glad Snoke wasn't revealed to be Mace Windu or Jar Jar or something ridiculous like that.

Not yet anyway.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Jesus, they would do that. Just to appease a few stupid fan theories. Ohhhhh maybe Snoke was a diner owner on Coruscant, and after Dexter ran him out of business with his superior banthaburgers, he turned to the dark side. Oh and also he's Mace Windu's cousin and his real name is Jeff Windu. Plus he attended boarding school with a young General Dodonna, where both attended a class taught by Sally Dooku. They got into all sorts of escapades with their friend Hermione Cloudskipper. Boss Nass was there too. His school nickname was Ass Boss, a detail that would haunt him when he was later nominated for a seat on the New republic supreme court.

 

[Totenkindly]

Yeah, they tried an impossible burger based on kelp from Kamino but it tasted like... kelp.
So then people would make jokes while eating it: "Kelp me! Kelp me!"
Not really the kind of publicity you want, running a Coruscant burger joint where the clientele is either crooked or savvy.

And Mace was like, "Why didn't you call it the m*therf*cking royal with cheese, Jeff? Now that's a name: The M*therF*cking Royal w/ Cheese."
But Snoke just wanted to sit on the crapper while cooking pop tarts. Well, you see how it worked out with him.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

plus the jedi doubled as health inspectors in the galaxy, explaining why obi-wan had such a close relationship with dexter.

 

[Population: 1]

Personally I think this trilogy should have been set to a smaller scale and not at least partially focused on a rehash of rebellion versus empire because been there done that. It should have focused on the OT characters at least initially and then slowly (you have three movies to work with) transitioned to the next generation. It should have dealt with a final resolution to the whole dark side light side dynamic and how Jedi/Sith or whatever fit into the framework of a new galactic age.

I think the real tragedy of the sequel trilogy is that it had characters that could have been compelling if someone had a cohesive vision for the trilogy and focused on the damn characters. It would have also helped to have had a company other than Disney running it. Disney is ultimately too focused on pushing the marketing of action figures etc etc. You know what ultimately sold Star Wars action figures to kids in the 70’s/80’s? Compelling characters. Concentrate on story and characters first and everything else will follow. Too many suits were involved here and they needed a director and a writer to helm the entire trilogy. None of this passing it off to the next guy that apparently has a completely different take on the franchise and characters than you do.

 

[The Cat]

Im tired of all these mother fucking snokes on the mother fucking star destroyer.

 

[The Cat]

Snokes on a Plane

 

[Population: 1]

Snokes on a Plane

Snoke is a terrible name for an imposing villain (turns out Snoke was probably apt because he was a joke of a villain, just like Kylo). Snoke is a name that always reminds me of a weasel like alien with a cocaine addiction.

Vader-Snoke. Vader-Snoke. Honestly one sounds like it demands respect. The other?

“Luke? Luke! We’ve got Snokes in the barn again. They’ll eat all the grain. Better set some traps.”