Star Wars Episode VIII: A New Thread

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
monkeyskin said:
(This feels like a discussion of recent U2. I'd sooner have a mix of 9s and 3s on an album than all 6s.)

.
Click to expand...

And with episode 9 release now delayed from May 2019 to Dec 2019, it feels even more like a discussion of recent U2.

2020 it is
 
Last edited:
Bring back Ian McDiarmid - I like how he played Palpatine like an old queen in Sith and also the homoerotic overtones in the scenes with Anakin
 
Thoughts on the new trailer?



Definitely has me even more excited for the film. Lots of clear editing cuts to make some dramatic scenes appear, but probably are in completely different parts of the movie.
 
Giving away too much story, and don't really like the way it's cut. You can say what you want about the prequels but jesus those trailers and teasers were considerably better.

I'm already very pumped for the film but this hasn't added to that at all.
 
It just looks so frickin' boring, just like Episode 7. I'm open minded enough to wait until I see it and I certainly like Rian Johnson, but, well, yawn.

I'm glad Abrams is doing Episode 9 just because I want to see how he fares directing a Star Wars film where he can't just create a bunch of stupid "mystery boxes" to keep people interested. By that point, people will have answers or be expecting them, so it will have to rely solely on his own strengths as a storyteller and he's yet to do anything new in the Star Wars universe.
 
monkeyskin said:
But I won't get my hopes up as Disney won't just walk away from this franchise.
Click to expand...

It's so weird because the rest of the new canon is just kind of risky enough and exciting people whether it be comics, television episodes, etc.

But Disney clearly just wants to Marvel-ize the Star Wars films and turn it into something that nobody truly loves but is palatable for practically everybody because that's what makes them the most money.

And yeah, Rogue One actually took major storytelling risks and was the kind of story long-time fans had wanted to see on the screen for years (the sort of darker tale we saw in some comics/video games). People just look at the "elements" of that film and say it's derivative because Darth Vader and Death Star, etc. but if you're making that case then everything since A New Hope is just a pale imitation of what came before.

Meanwhile, Episode 7 was such a blatant imitation that it just went ahead and copied the plot elements just like the recent Ghostbusters remake. What was the fucking point?
 
BigMacPhisto said:
And yeah, Rogue One actually took major storytelling risks
Click to expand...

Such as? Killing off characters nobody cared about because they didn't bother to build them up to be anything other than cannon fodder doesn't count as a storytelling risk. There's a decided lack of exposition grounding the audience, but the stakes are low for fans because the results of the mission are a given from the beginning. There's a "grey," "hopeless" tone that's somewhat risky in the sense that it's a Star Wars property, but the storytelling itself doesn't risk anything other than alienating a few people by being a bummer. The plot is extremely predictable, none of its characters make a connection with the audience and the long-term impact of the story was already established by the existence of the following films. There's a blueprint here, it's just a war film's blueprint instead of A New Hope's blueprint (though, of course, it ends with a space battle and the need to disarm a piece of tech).

For such a "risky" film, it's telling that by far the most memorable and successful part of Rogue One is when the director furiously jerks off the audience with Darth Vader's final appearance. There were countless instances of fan pandering in Rogue One, which were stranger than TFA's instances of pandering because they didn't match the overall tone of the film.
 
Last edited:
So my inflatable Santa Yoda inexplicably died the other night.
Waiting for Force Ghost inflatable Santa Yoda to appear on my lawn.
 
LemonMelon said:
For such a "risky" film, it's telling that by far the most memorable and successful part of Rogue One is when the director furiously jerks off the audience with Darth Vader's final appearance. There were countless instances of fan pandering in Rogue One, which were stranger than TFA's instances of pandering because they didn't match the overall tone of the film.
Click to expand...

Worse than the Vader temper tantrum was how the end of Rogue didn't fit the beginning story line of New Hope (a new smooth segue way is surely what they were going for -- and failed). When Vader catches up and captures Leia in ANH, we are shown Leia acting incredulous insisting that she was on a diplomatic mission. How could this even be spoken with a straight face when she had just escaped from Vader with the plans?

Well, as dull and unnecessary as Rogue was, it was not quite the pure crap-fest that was TFA.

TFA awakens forever killed my interest in Star Wars. Beside the film being among the absolute worst I've ever seen, there just isn't anything interesting in the story to keep me interested.

Thanks Jar Jar Abrams.
 
I love going to the Star Wars message boards and realizing that they're just like us with the comments being very similar, except they talk about movies instead of music. :lol:
 
Baby it's a Star Wars Day
Baby let's go to the theater
Taking the character Rey
Where she's never been before

Baby it's a Star Wars Day (Star Wars Day!)
I hope Rey won't get murdered
Ahch-To is the place
Luke can teach her the Force
 
I'll have more to say at a later time, but I got that thrill and verve that I'm looking for from this series that Rogue One didn't give me. This was a great adventure flick. I am happy.
 
Seeing it on Sunday and definitely stoked. The overall reaction from audiences is surprisingly mixed, so this is surely going to go down as the most divisive Star Wars film ever made as a good chunk of people absolutely hated it. I went to IMDB for a laugh figuring this would be at #1 on the All-Time list and instead its score has already slipped under where Force Awakens ended. Meanwhile, the user responses on Rotten Tomatoes/Metacritic have been thoroughly mediocre.

Maybe giving an auteur the reins isn't the best idea for $$$.
 
Some comments on Reddit right now...

I think a lot of people don't realize that when they say they want something fresh and new, how much they really DON'T want that. This entire movie subverted the previous six films. It didn't follow the same formula throughout, and it was about many things, not just "get the bad guys!" I'm going to see it again because it's a lot to take in.

"I want something different!"
(gives them something different)
"They changed it, now it sucks!"
This is the ur-trope when it comes to sci-fi/fantasy/video game fans. We have always been like this, and we always will be.

I can't believe what babies these rabid fans are. Everyone bitched about TFA being a carbon copy of Episode 4. Now they give us something new, interesting, inventive and strange and you all complain that it's too weird and didn't feel like Star Wars. Any inclination I might've had to nitpick specific elements has been complete overridden by my need to defend the movie from this pack of comic book guy "worst. movie. ever." types

There's a ton of catch 22s we're seeing. Play it safe and you're just remaking the old movies. Pull off something new and you're ruining the series. Put in a twist and you're just going for cheap trope surprises. Make something subtle and you're just writing for critics. Make a joke and you're imitating marvel. Etc.


Reminds me of certain other online forums... :lol:
 
Last edited:
But is this film anything new? I read the Slant review a few hours back (which was positive 2.5/4) and they basically thought there wasn't much new here and that it ran too long. Salvaged by a couple great ideas and some neat set pieces near the end.

And then, most of the negative reviews on IMDB are actually complaining about too much fan service, rather than too much creativity. :crack:
 
Well, when I came out of the screening last night, I thought to myself that this was going to be a bit divisive among the fans out there. Seems to be heading that way, although maybe not to the extent I suspected it would… yet. I definitely felt The Force Awakens had a lot more of the 'fan service' aspect of things. This movie, while it did show some perhaps natural similarities to maybe Empire and ROTJ, seemed to be in a league of its own more than anything. The overall direction and some of the effects definitely seemed new from a SW perspective to me.

I wonder if some of the frustration just comes from a storyline standpoint? i.e, it wasn’t the direction they wanted for the characters, or it just didn’t hit home, etc. Agreed that it was on a long side, although it didn’t bother me at all. Most of that might’ve had to do with a plotline or two being less important than others, which therefore made it feel like a drag in some parts?

This Twitter feed is fun to read too from the fan base opinion standpoint... possible SPOILERS if you haven't seen the film yet, obviously.

https://twitter.com/ManaByte
 
It's not the newness of the story so much as the attitude it has about the mythology as a whole that is turning some fans off. It doesn't feel like a Star Wars film at times and appears to gleefully piss on its history on occasion.

Do I care? Noooooope. It's entertaining as fuck. It's surprising. The fundamental rush and sense of wonder that I want from a Star Wars film (and adventure films in general) was present. That's why critics loved this and fans didn't; on a broader level, the film is a big success, whereas it's miles away from being good fan service.
 
Jesus, the backlash to this film is only getting worse as the day goes on. The irony is that it's usually the other way around, the fan boys see the movie first and are most favorable and then the general public kind of brings in "reality" to the assessment table. I'll be curious to see what people who don't consider themselves big Star Wars fans happen to think about this picture in the ensuing weeks. It may very well be the one blockbuster that's polarized in an opposite fashion, beloved by critics, cinemaphiles, and, possibly, normies and hated by a good chunk of the fans.

You wonder how this will bode for the planned trilogy that Rian Johnson was supposed to helm. I can't imagine Disney is going to put all its Star Wars eggs in that basket if this is the sort of reaction he's receiving.


Series By Metacritic User Score/Rotten Tomatoes User Score:

The Empire Strikes Back - 9.0/97%
A New Hope - 8.7/96%
Return of the Jedi - 8.3/94%
Rogue One - 7.6/87%
Revenge of the Sith - 7.6/65%
The Force Awakens - 6.9/88%
The Phantom Menace - 6.0/59%
Attack of the Clones - 5.9/57%
The Last Jedi - 5.2/56%


Force Awakens and Sith basically swap places depending on the site. Everything else is uniform. Crazy that Attack of the Clones ultimately usurped The Phantom Menaces as the worst of the prequels.
 
Last edited:
fans are stupid

You have to wonder what would make them happy? Complain about TFA being no story and just a rehash of ANH

Yet it sounds like this movie kinda goes off in it's own direction. So what do we want? Something new, or just more member-berries?
 
Eh, I don't think the general fan base really complained about The Force Awakens. There's a small group of fans like myself and a wider swath of the general public that certainly thought it was too samey, but most people ate that shit up.

So, I'm really thinking what the critics are saying, that Rian Johnson reinvents Star Wars and does something daring, is what likely happens here. The sort of people whining that it's "too different" are the sort that just get excited by the 38 Marvel films adhering to the exact same model because it's comfortable. And that's not an opinion I really care about.



For what it's worth, Rotten Tomatoes attracts a larger and less discerning group to their user scores/user polls than Metacritic does, hence why the latter's base was harsher to The Force Awakens. So, if anything, I would expect the Metacritic user score to go up quite a bit once the non-fanboys have their say in the ensuing weeks.
 
LemonMelon said:
Laz is on board!
Click to expand...

I was literally stomping my feet and going all Ric Flair-style "WHOOOOOO!!" after the revelation of Luke's big stunt. The most baller move of the whole saga. This also had more good jokes than any other episode, though the Poe snark-talking to Kylo at the beginning was as awful as it was in TFA.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

O
Better late than never “they” say…
Replies
1
Views
277
Headache in a Suitcase
Headache in a Suitcase
cobl04
Kiss the Future documentary
Replies
11
Views
3K
MrsSpringsteen
MrsSpringsteen
N
NBA 2023-24 Thread
10 11 12
Replies
333
Views
10K
Headache in a Suitcase
Headache in a Suitcase
dan_smee
New Album Discussion 1 - Songs of..... - Unreasonable guitar album
60 61 62
Replies
2K
Views
100K
Achtung Ya'll
A
cobl04
Major League Cricket 2023 Thread I
Replies
12
Views
1K
cobl04
cobl04

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom