Star Wars [2]

bungobaggins wrote:Evolution of the composer's style was something I hadn't considered. The Star Wars fan in me overtook the learned musician.

It may be a pendulum swing rather than evolution: the Paper Chase I believe was his first film, highly lauded for it's score, but not a hummable melody anywhere.

I think I'm going to see it today!  

tell us what you think

Though I've now watched it for a second time (and enjoyed it even more) I stand by most of my original opinions-great fun, fantastic production values, and impressive acting by the new leads (if I'm honest I think the charisma of Boyega and Issac compensated somewhat for their underwritten characters), it's a hugely enjoyable sci-fi blockbuster that lays the foundations for future films very well, but not necessarily a classic Star Wars film that forges it own path very boldly.

It's arguably more of a combination remake/re-boot for the modern audiences than a true sequel to ROTJ in the style of the OT, and not perhaps the sequel some fans were waiting for (I loved the movie as it was...but for better or worse It felt like George Lucas's DNA was missing). I don't think it truly matches the magic of the OT, or has any particularly stand out sequences in comparison to the OT (even ROTJ had the hoverbike chase and Vader/Luke/Emperor confrontation) oddly enough, for a 135 minute film (and this is a first for a Star Wars film for me) I felt it was little rushed...I think an extended edition would fix most of the problems for me.

It's not the best film I have watched this year by any means, but for me personally it's certainly one of the funnest, my third favourite Star Wars film, and I'm sure I'll watch it many times again.

A promising, if flawed and 'safe' start.

7.5/10

I think I understand why they wanted a very kinetic, fast-paced film, but I agree that a little more room to breathe would have been nice.  But that's a pretty minor quibble for this kind of film. Good write-up, Malick!

Curious to see your thoughts as well, Forest.

From The Simpsons in 2009 (via Reddit):



This weekend's box office results:

Taking your children to see Alvin and The Chipmunks over Star Wars is just mean

@Eldo No way...

@malick I was wondering the other day how crestfallen some parents must have been if their children demanded to see Alvin and the Chipmunks over Star Wars.

halfwise wrote:

bungobaggins wrote:Evolution of the composer's style was something I hadn't considered. The Star Wars fan in me overtook the learned musician.

It may be a pendulum swing rather than evolution: the Paper Chase I believe was his first film, highly lauded for it's score, but not a hummable melody anywhere.

Here's something I learned by watching MST3K, his first movie was actually Daddy-O.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daddy-O

And, well, you don't see anyone analyzing that one. By evolution I don't think I meant that he's abandoned tuneful melodic writing altogether or has never ventured into anything different. Just look at Jaws (cellular motif) and Close Encounters (moments of aleatoric music, but also a beautifully simple theme).

I guess folks are just relieved that this new Star Wars film is not a big fat turkey hence all the 'phew its great' reviews. its probably more of a little Phoenix than a Turkey.

bungobaggins wrote:@Eldo No way...

@malick I was wondering the other day how crestfallen some parents must have been if their children demanded to see Alvin and the Chipmunks over Star Wars.

Crestfallen or depressed? When I think back on some of the dreck I forced my parents to sit through at the cinema when I was a kid I can't help but feel a little guilty/ sorry for them.

I like the idea of an eight year old child being thoroughly reluctant to see Star Wars, and then being embarrassed in the cinema as his/her 40 year old father goes nuts 'I'm not with him honest! He wanted to see this silly movie!'

Though judging by my second viewing it seems just as popular with the younger crowd as with us nostalgic/older viewers.

That last bit, Malickfan, sounded just like Petty does sometimes in the Who thread.

Eldorion wrote:

Bluebottle wrote:Yeah, that's sort of what I'm wondering. (All the while not having seen it. (Hey, as I said. I might very well think it's just as great as you guys. I just have a natural skepticism of anything this popular.)) Because Disney doing Star Wars doesn't seem to be a combination that would normally wow me. (Disney doing Star Wars sounds like a joke really.)

Hmm, yeah, I kinda agree with the hipster diagnosis. Disney has done a great job as a corporate caretaker for Pixar and Marvel without trampling on them artistically so that was never my worry about the sequel trilogy.  They've given a pretty good deal of autonomy to their recently acquired subsidiaries as far as I can tell.  Heck, with Pixar, they put John Lasseter in charge of their own in-house animation studios too.

Hey.. I'm critiquing a movie i haven't even seen. I guess at some point it has to move from a tendency to a diagnosis.

I hope you know I was mainly just teasing though.

{{{mainly }}}

I didn't go to see it.

Forest Shepherd wrote:I didn't go to see it.

{{{Hope nothing bad came up and/or that you're able to see it soon. }}}

I spiraled out of control, crashed and burned. The others went without me.

Maybe I'll just go see it by myself now, or something.

We're here for you if you ever want to talk, Forest.

Appreciate it. 

Today was really bad. But you can really tell that you've been having a terrible week if you think to yourself after a day like today was, "Well, at least I was too pre-occupied with all of this terrible fuckery to think about the horrible shit that's been occupying my spare thoughts all the other days."

When I'm down I sometimes think of how the Universe is finite, and will eventually implode on itself, leaving all human effort ultimately pointless.

Nah, I don't really do that.. I should though..

This is a terrible time of year for me. I just lose the will to get out of bed most of the time. Maybe its the weather, maybe its the 'jolly' holidays, maybe its my fucking thyroid. Who knows? I just know I hate Winter and cant wait for it to be Spring.

Hey all,

I went to see this on Saturday and just popped on to see what everyone else was thinking about it. Here are my thoughts:

Plot:

This is the bit I think most people have taken an issue with and either forgiven or torn apart. Basically, it is Episode 4 with some extra bits in it. The lonely desert person-found by legend-taken somewhere to make a difference-big bad super machine-seconds from disaster-trench run-saved may as well have been scenes taken from the original. They did, however, add enough other plot in for me to not make the whole thing feel monotonous.

The story around Ren, for example, was much deeper than anything we got about Vader who we knew nothing about. There is intrigue around the part Rey will have to play in the future. Finn's character has more depth than episode 4 Han Solo and will be interesting to see how all that plays out.

On the flip side, there was a lot that felt rushed. The Starkiller base seemed shoe-horned in to give the resistance something to do. I thought the 'final battle' sequence was actually quite unneeded and would have been better for me if they had rescued Rey and left a disabled base to be dealt with at a later point in time. There was also almost no reaction to the destruction of what I have now found out was the New Republic's current HQ and surrounding moons. Surely that should have had devastating consequences and was almost as underplayed as Chewie when he saw Leia for the first time after returning from Starkiller. This brings me on nicely to characters.

Characters:

Well, I am sure the majority of people now know that Han is dead and he was killed by his son which the film reveals to be Kylo Ren, the dude with the cool lightsaber. So, Han first. I thought he was very well played by Harrison Ford and that his death (even though I saw it coming as soon as he stepped out) was a great piece of the story, probably because it was sad to see such an iconic character killed off onscreen. I heard a few sympathetic noises when Chewie let out that scream which shows that it had some real emotional resonance with the audience and that can only be good. Carrie Fisher also did well in the brief scene that we see her feeling his death, very understated and I thought good acting by her.

So, to their son, Kylo. I found him a very interesting character torn between the light side and the dark. He is clearly trying to live up to his Grandfather (he said so!) and feels like he is coming up short while also feeling like he isn't truly supposed to be evil. Many people have talked about the battle with Rey at the end, my take on this is that a) he had been shot by Chewie's crossbow which they had made a point earlier with it obliterating everyone else b) he was clearly very emotional and unfocused c) he hadn't fought anybody with his power, probably ever (he betrayed and I imagine slaughtered the Jedi in training) and lastly d) he hasn't been fully trained either where we know Rey is handy with her stick after the Jakku scene. So, the outcome I think was fair. I can see his character becoming more ambiguous as the films move on until his arc concludes.

Rey. Great acting from Daisy. I thought she delivered her performance with a lot of feeling both through dialogue and her body. The character is also interesting and it seems like they are taking her down a path where she will be taking the mantle from Luke, but being more successful. In my opinion, she is directly related to him and he has been keeping an eye out for her emergence. Look forward to what her character will bring going forward.

Same with Finn, I think there is a lot of room for exploration of his character. He has a bit of Han Solo going on in that he keeps saying he wants to run, only turning round and coming back but also something extra tat being a former stormtrooper could bring. Boyega did a good job.

There were plenty of other characters, but those are the main ones for now.

Look and feel

Overall, I think they nailed it. The opening scene of the Star Destroyer outline launching the transports was very worthy of a Star Wars opening. There was a little of the feel of new Battlestar to the film... calling in airstrikes etc mixed with plenty of jaw dropping moments. Two of these that spring to mind are Kylo stopping the laser shot (how cool was that) and the x-wings coming over the lake (wow!).

The practical effects make this film for me and the only times it was jarring were the 2 CGI characters (Snoke was stupid and that orange Yoda thing was not far behind). The monster things in Han's freighter were also a little silly, but it was so fast that it didn't really make much difference.

I also loved the sword fights. Nice, wide angle shots showing what was going on in true Star Wars tradition. None of that jumping around, wobbly camera bullshit. Also, the fights felt brutal. Like people fighting with emotion instead of the clean, polished fighting of fully trained people from the prequels.

The scenery was great as always in Star Wars... hopefully no ridiculous planets will appear like Mustafa in Revenge of the Sith.

Overall, I thought it was a very solid, if not risky, film. I look forward to the next installment which I think will deviate from the standard format and give us something as new as can be expected in a universe as established as this one.

Lance!! Great to see you back- Figg been in fits wondering where you'd got to you know.

I still haven't seen it yet- my little brother did he said it was 'ok' Entertaining. He really liked seeing Han and Chewie again but said when it came back off his character to the new cast he was like 'oh yeah those guys' and whilst he thought they were ok, they weren't as good as the originals cast of characters.

tsk, tsk...I have to take issue with calling what Kylo Ren froze a laser shot rather than a blaster shot. Very different, indeed.

/http://www.wired.com/2012/05/star-wars-blaster-speed/