Star Wars: The Thread Strikes Back

[Reply #480 on:]

That's fair. I was mostly referring to the sequences of C3P0 and R2D2 being herded by the Jawas, I find those to be very dull and dragged out, but I can see how the technology and set design being impressive for the time would make them more forgiving. Very little time is actually spent with Luke on the farm.

[Reply #481 on:]

Oh, there's plenty of padding in the original trilogy (like, as you pointed, when the whole movie just stops for the ewoks in episode 6), but I never remember them feeling like they went for a million years in the way I did with the prequels.

[Reply #482 on:]

Oh of course, I wasn't trying to compare them to the prequels. Just reinforcing that the new one is probably the most tightly paced of them all.

[Reply #483 on:]

The Force Awakens

An Old Hope

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Wow, and I thought Jurassic World was desperate to remind you of its decades-older predecessor.  “Desperate” might not be the right word for The Force Awakens, as it retreads antecedent imagery with far more self-assurance than Jurassic World, but it is, as others have noted, heavily borrowed from A New Hope with some elements of The Empire Strikes back thrown in for good measure.

Like ANH, TFA’s plot is relatively simple and straightforward.  Unlike ANH, however, the major motivation for the plot in the second two acts doesn’t seem to be revealed until well into the second act.  Maybe I’m not remembering the sequence of events correctly, but the final battle seemed a bit rushed.  The first act was all about getting the droid with the goods, then the new terror weapon is revealed, and the entire first act was almost entirely meaningless.  It established the characters pretty well, but only when R2-D2 decided to make an appearance does it have any relevance to the story.

The characters

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I did like the characters overall.  Fin was the one who was and should have been the most interesting.  He was fun to watch, and I enjoyed the actor’s chemistry with Ray, Poe, Han, and Chewie.  I would’ve expected a man who’d spent his entire life training to be a Stormtrooper to be a bit less comfortable in dealing with people who weren’t other Stormtroopers or other bad guys, but he seemed natural in the Star Wars universe.  I do like the idea of a soldier questioning his loyalties and ultimately abandoning a principle he no longer believes in, but didn’t he also say he worked in sanitation on the not-Death Star?  What was he doing on a space Higgins boat raiding Jekku?  Was it Jekku?  Whatever the not-Tatooine-because-this-movie-is-completely-different-from-ANH planet was.  I could be mistaken, but didn’t they mention that Stormtroopers were raised to be Stormtroopers since the time they were babies?  That enervates his turn somewhat by removing the choice he made in the first place to become a Stormtrooper.

Kylo Ren was also interesting.  I was expecting a villain more like those in OT and even the prequels: someone who, despite the Dark Side’s apparent boner for anger and aggression, seems to keep his wits about him and remain cool and collected.  Watching Rylo Ken go Keith Moon on his computer and his apparently beloved torture chamber (ESB much?) with a lightsaber was excellent.  That he didn’t have all his shit together in terms of his role in the Galaxy and the First Order was also unique.  Previous villains have all pretty much been right all the time.  A bad guy that makes mistakes and isn’t treated with the kind of boot licking deference Vader got in ESB onward felt fresh.  I should have realized earlier that the foreshadowing of conflict within O-Ren Ishi would signal what I presume is his inevitable, permanent 360-degree turn back to the Dark Side.  I had thought it was odd the conflict would be played up so heavy handedly.  Once he said he didn’t know if he had the strength to do what he needed to do, I knew what was going to happen.  I also read that spoiler though, so maybe I wouldn’t have seen it coming if the Internet weren’t full of dickholes.

Speaking of Han Solo, this was not one of Harrison Ford’s best performances.  I wouldn’t have expected a sobbing meltdown in his confrontation with his son, but only Ben seemed to be emoting at all.  Han just looked kind of annoyed and disappointed.  For that reason I didn’t feel much when their confrontation was over.  I didn’t feel much for any of them in the aftermath.

I also never really got much of a bond between Rae and Han, and I think that would have been central to the end of the movie (the same could be said for Leia and Han, but they had a well established backstory).  I would blame Harrison Ford’s flat delivery, but I guess in the narrative he traded in his father figure corduroys for his red striped renegade loner pants.  Maybe their relationship is intentionally one-sided for story purposes, but it also raises the question of whether she is a strong female character.  She is self-sufficient, technically proficient, and by no means a shrinking violet, so she has all the moves of a strong female character, but does she make any moves that influence the plot?  She decides to stay with the Rebellion...sorry, “Resistance” (because this movie is totally different).  She decides to resist and escape the...uh, First...oh fuck it, the Empire.  Oh, and she decides to kick Cy-lo Gren’s caped butt in what is probably my second favorite lightsaber fight in the series.  There was also the motif of hand-taking that was briefly established and then abandoned...ah, forget it.

Technical and artistic aspects

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The movie was visually stunning and well executed throughout.  Where the prequels were flat, boring talkies combined with messes of action we were supposed to care about, Abrams does a great job in directing our sense of caring through both calm and chaos.  One moment that stands out in my mind was in the battle of the dried apple head lady’s (the one with Prof. Trelawney’s glasses) cantina...or just “bar” because differences.  The camera follows the aerial battle as it swoops down toward the ground.  As the fighters rocket off into the distance, the camera continues down smoothly and follows the action on the ground.  The lightsaber fight I mentioned was also well shot.  It borrowed heavily the atmosphere of ESB’s duel, and the inclusion of the organic destruction of the surrounding trees gave it weight where smoke-filled pipes and spark-emitting space stuff just didn’t.  I was sure at one point KYlo Shen would end up under a tree he’d accidentally cut down.  Sadly that remains firmly in my mind’s re-write of the prequels.

The CGI game is on point as well.  BB-8 was a bit kawaii but remained endearing.  Poe’s friendship with the droid was more Phantom Menace than ANH/ESB, and my cynical side suspects that was to drive sales of BB-8 merchandise.  Emperor Snuke, or whatever his name was, didn’t look great, but I’m reminded that he was just a hologram in this movie.  Maybe he’ll look better in Episode VIII.  Ooh, and Skylark Wren’s Force powers looked great.  Catching the blaster bolt in the opening scene, for example, was outstanding.  I had opined that a master Jedi wouldn’t even need to use a lightsaber to fight and that the Yoda fights in AOTC and ROTS would have been so much more in character if he’d used the Force to deflect lightsabers and blaster blasts, and the bit in the desert felt like that.  The more subtle moves like Force Stun™, Force Chloroform™, and Force Torture™ also hearken back to the original trilogy.  They aren’t flashy, SFX-driven nonsense like Force Lightning™ became in the prequels.  They were simple tricks that allowed the actors to act and the audience to fill in the gaps.

I have seen a number of complaints here about the music or apparent lack thereof.  I mostly noticed the score was during some of the character cues.  I’ve heard there is a school of thought that music is a crutch for bad direction, but I doubt that was the case here nor was it the case throughout much of the previous movies, “Duel of the Fates” notwithstanding.  Certainly nothing from this movie’s score struck me as instantly iconic as the Imperial March or even a more latent classic like the Asteroid Field or Yoda’s Theme.  I recall the music cue when Rey is using the Force during her lightsaber fight.  I remember thinking her eyes would open and the music would swell, and it did when they did, but it wasn’t the familiar “My ally is the Force” theme.  Maybe that makes sense though.  She’s really just improvising her Force powers at this point, and maybe they’re saving the full reveal for when she develops her powers in earnest.

The end

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The end of the movie was kind of disappointing as others have also mentioned.  Withholding Luke as long as they did only to end it like they did was stupid.  For a movie that borrowed so flipping much from ANH, they couldn’t save borrowing the appearance of the Jedi Master for the next one?  My cynicism alarm went off for this too.  They had to have Mark Hamil in the credits, didn’t they?  The whole ending brings the tightly paced movie to a crashing halt long before the end credits roll.  The movie really should have ended with Leia and Rae hugging and Fin being carted off on a stretcher.  Unlike ANH, everyone knows the story will continue and that the next chapter will probably be the darkest.  It’s okay to end it on a somber, understated note.

So, where do I stand on this movie?  I liked it.  I really did.  I would jettison everything in the entire prequel trilogy for this one film.  A lot of my criticism could be boiled down to not being what I expected, but those variances aren’t necessarily bad.  It could also be that, when it comes right down to it, Star Wars movies can only be stuff we’ve seen before.  Yeah, I have a lot of great ideas too.  No, the books aren’t great ideas.  Too drastic a change would be foreign to the Star Wars movie experience.  And that’s yet another possible interpretation of the same-but-different nature of this movie: maybe it’s preparing the series for a larger departure from the norm.  It’s established that the canon can be presented in the new, faster, grittier way (PG-13 for better reason I think than Revenge of the Sith) so that new stories with the new feel are not such a jarring transition.

But the script uses the word “Sith” so I award it -10 points.  It’s not as grievous a sin as “midichlorians”, but we were so close to ignoring prequel canon entirely in this movie.

[Reply #484 on:]

[Reply #485 on:]

I was expecting that to link to Rick Astley. Or dickbutt. Or John Cena.

How disappointing.

[Reply #486 on:]

Medicore.

6/10

[Reply #487 on:]

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Maybe he's the good guy but the galaxy has gone bad.

[Barry White]  Hey, baby -- what's a guy like you doing in a galaxy like this?


As far as many of you being annoyed when

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R2D2 came out of low power mode... when it happened I assumed without the slightest hesitation that Luke had either done that through the Force, or, less likely, that he had previously foreseen the moment and had programmed him to power up at that time.

Speaking of which, though I didn't fixate on the credits, I did see Kenny Baker listed

[Reply #488 on:]

I've never really been a Star Wars fan.  They were just entertaining films, I guess.  I do like the whole spare opera aspect, the grand adventure and mesmerising visuals.  And the new film delivers on those notes.  I will definitely be seeing Episode VIII.

As long as the acting is good, the characters' motivations are understandable and the plot is coherent, then I don't want to nitpick about details.

So instead, I will focus on technical details.  It was very lovely to see some actual locations again.  And a lot of different ones at that.  Costumes too were excellent too.  The real distinction between the New Order (I believe I can say that without spoiler tags), the Resistance (that too) and everyone else were apparent in their clothing alone.  Moreover, each character's costumes fitted them appropriately.

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Although, Luke's robe bothered me.  Yes yes, I know the prequels established that Jedis wear robes.  But he is on a deserted island.  He doesn't need to hide from anyone?  He could wear speedos and no one would know.  Right right, movie logic and reveal.  But he could have swirled in a chair.

Then - of course - there is the music.  John Williams again delivers.  Reintroduction of classic themes as well as giving the new characters new themes.

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The Imperial March only appeared during the brief shot of Vader's helmet.  The New Order had a similar but distinct theme.

Although, I fear he may have delivered a bit too much.  Playing Luke's theme when Rey turns on the lightsabre for the first time?  How clearly does the film have to say Rey is Luke's daughter without actually saying it?

But my favourite aspect of the movie was the lack of references to the prequel trilogy.  It's like Episode 1, 2 and 3 didn't happen or at least they can be ignored.  And that's good.

8/10 Will watch the next one.

[Reply #489 on:]

First Order

FTFY

[Reply #490 on:]

I've never really been a Star Wars fan.

You're a bad man, and you should feel bad.  

Then - of course - there is the music.  John Williams again delivers.  Reintroduction of classic themes as well as giving the new characters new themes.

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The Imperial March only appeared during the brief shot of Vader's helmet.  The New Order had a similar but distinct theme.

Although, I fear he may have delivered a bit too much.  Playing Luke's theme when Rey turns on the lightsabre for the first time?  How clearly does the film have to say Rey is Luke's daughter without actually saying it?

I'm also one of the few people who liked the score.  It seemed a good match to the film:  not too heavy-handed, not too subtle.

As far as

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Luke's Theme playing with the presentation of his lightsabre, it seemed a reasonable and natural callback given the importance of the artefact and, to me, was not overtly stating Rae's lineage.

Regarding the artefact itself, it didn't look anything like Luke's lightsabre to me.  Yes, I know that Return of the Jedi had Vader commenting on Luke's improvements to it, but it looked polished and shiny and brand new and had all sorts of knobs and doodads on it.  Unlike nearly everything else in the Star Wars films, it didn't look used and worn.  To be fair, the only lightsabre I've seen up close and personal was Vader's, also from ROTJ.  And it was clean, but obviously used.

As long as the acting is good, the characters' motivations are understandable and the plot is coherent, then I don't want to nitpick about details.

A lot of people have commented negatively upon the acting of

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Ford, especially in his scene with Ben.  The common criticism seems to be a perceived wooden, unemotive acting as the climax of the scene approached.  But remember, his character is a no-nonsense, hard-bitten man who has witnessed (and in some cases caused) a great deal of death and destruction, some of it in-your-face personal.  He's fought in wars.  He's been hunted and on the run for years at a time and captured by the criminal underworld and tortured by the government.  He lost his son to the enemy, and it's reasonable to presume that he blamed himself for it.  And just minutes prior, he had his heart ripped out yet again during a horribly bittersweet encounter with the love of his life, who he had fights with and who had ultimately rejected him because (it was implied) he was incapable of changing his ways.

When he approached Ben, it is obvious that he was grimly steeling himself against yet another bitter disappointment, and had probably resigned himself to the likelihood of rejection, or even death.  And he simply didn't give a damn any more.

OF COURSE he had a mostly wooden expression and a distant look in his eyes: he had given up even before he set foot on the bridge.

And regarding the costumes,

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The fact that Luke wore a roughspun hooded cloak seemed to me nothing more than a deliberate parallel to Luke's first encounter with Obi-Wan.

The only part of the movie that broke my suspension of disbelief was

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the atrocious physical appearance of Snoke, at least as projected.  It's almost as though JJ was deep into the casting process and when he decided upon Serkis, he imported baggage from Lord of the Rings.  It was fucking awful.  I would have greatly preferred Serkis as himself, with suitable makeup, à la the hooded, pale, seemingly frail Palpatine.

The film really could have used a few more minutes of very subtle development of a certain character to make them more believable.  Maybe those scenes existed but were cut for time and/or they seemed heavy-handed when reviewed during editing.

9/10  I loved it, but it could have been (nearly) perfect.

[Reply #491 on:]

Tachy:

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I thought it was Luke's first lightsaber, the one Obi-Wan gave him in ANH.  That would also explain why Kylo claimed it belonged to him: it was built by his grandfather.  Luke's lightsaber in ROTJ was more like Obi-Wan's in ANH.

And I would have bought Han having no hope for Ben if there was more to it.  If Han was sacrificing himself to allow or force the others to escape, a la Obi-Wan, it would have made sense thematically.  What he was saying wasn't wry or glib like it had been when we'd seen him in bad situations in the past.  The words seemed to be those of a man who was making an emotional plea.

Han did have a few good moments.  He and Chewie interacting with the gangsters was pretty good.  That felt like pretty natural Star Wars humor and he was his older old self.  His interactions with the other characters struck me as wooden, but maybe that was him playing the tired old pirate.

Svip:

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It almost completely ignores the prequel continuity.  Someone, I think the bar lady, mentioned the Sith.  It was expounded on in Star Wars fiction, but it is a prequel concept.

[Reply #492 on:]

Svip:

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It almost completely ignores the prequel continuity.  Someone, I think the bar lady, mentioned the Sith.  It was expounded on in Star Wars fiction, but it is a prequel concept.

(We are discussing the term, 'Sith', I do not feel that is a spoiler in itself.)

The term 'Sith' is more a way to describe practitioners on the Dark Side, as a comparison to Jedi.  That's OK.  Darth Vader was always referred to - and not even directly as such - a fallen Jedi in the original trilogy.  For them to call themselves Sith seem fair.  While the term was introduced in to the films in the prequels, I am not fully convinced they are themselves a prequel concept, i.e. whether some Expanded Universe had not already covered this.

The real problem Star Wars has is that Episode V remains a film in the saga.  That is a near perfect film (not in Star Wars scale, but just as films go), and they are never going to top it.

I often hard pressed to say whether I prefer 4 over 5.  Because I actually like 4 more as an adventure and as a Star Wars film in general, but 5 is just so excellent as a film... in general.  I would definitely place Episode VII in a solid third.  Definitely better than Episode VI.

[Reply #493 on:]

It's not just Dark Side users of the Force.  There were Dark Side users in the original movies, but they weren't Sith until the Sith were given a name and a nature in the prequels.  In the OT there are only two bad Jedi because there are only four Jedi left in the galaxy, two of them happen to be good.  In the prequels there must be two of them and only two of them because of the plot-convenient Sith rule.

I did have to look up the term on one of the Star Wars wikis because I got into an argument about whether or not it was one of Lucas' own ideas.  The first appearance of the word "Sith" is Phantom Menace.  Star Wars and the EU are celebrations of retconning, but I'm having a difficult time finding any indication bad Jedi were anything other than bad Jedi in any Star Wars fiction until TPM.

So if we use it to talk about bad Jedi, fine.  If a cannon character in a cannon work uses it, we really have to take it at its unfortunate cannon meaning.

[Reply #494 on:]

Can I just point out that hating on the prequels to the point where even using the term "Sith" is sinful is downright petty.

[Reply #495 on:]

Tachy:

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I thought it was Luke's first lightsaber, the one Obi-Wan gave him in ANH.  That would also explain why Kylo claimed it belonged to him: it was built by his grandfather.  Luke's lightsaber in ROTJ was more like Obi-Wan's in ANH.

Yes, it is

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I am also assuming that it is Luke's first, and it is heavily modified from the time he first received it.

*   Tachy searches *

Whelp, your memory is correct, and mine had somehow slurred "I see you have constructed a new lightsaber" into "I see you have made improvements". ASSuming this isn't simply another of Lucas' foul edits!

Original lightsabre:


Luke's lightsabre in ROTJ, held by Vader:

And while digging up the first image I stumbled across that terrible scene in the newest Ep IV with the banana slug young Jabba the Hut.  I need eye bleach.  Or... the painstakingly restored version

[Reply #496 on:]

Can I just point out that hating on the prequels to the point where even using the term "Sith" is sinful is downright petty.

Can I just say that I agree?  My argument was that the usage of the term 'Sith' in Episode VII is completely acceptable.  I was merely curious whether it was a Prequel term or an EU term.  But regardless of which it is (Prequel apparently), its usage in Episode VII is fine.  For me at least.

But my point was more that the term 'Sith' is not so much associated with the Prequels as other things from the Prequels are.  Like, you know, midi-chlorians.

[Reply #497 on:]

Doesn't the movie simply being titled Episode VII acknowledge that the prequels are canon by default?

[Reply #498 on:]

No matter how hard everyone tries, you cannot make the prequels non-canon.

In other SW news, I have obtained all 5 seasons of The Clone Wars to absorb into my mind. Since that show is canon too, it feels right to catch up on it (it can't be as bad as the prequels, surely? ).

[Reply #499 on:]

Doesn't the movie simply being titled Episode VII acknowledge that the prequels are canon by default?

True.  This is partly why I don't describe myself as a Star Wars fan.  Because then I don't have to after rationalise each movie, character decision, plot device and whatnot.  I run a Futurama wiki, and even that isn't trivial.  Just imagine being an editor on Wookiepedia.  Woosh.

I like the original trilogy and I like this new one.  And I don't like the prequels.  Moreover, it seems to me that - beyond the term 'Sith' - nothing from the prequels were borrowed over in this one.

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The concept of Jedi training (although not shown, but mentioned) remains closer to the original trilogy's concept (of a personal trainer) than the prequels' Jedi Academy where children are swinging lightsabres right next to one another.

You can argue that all that is forgotten now, but the fact that the author of this movie decided to further concepts from the original trilogy rather than the prequels suggest a conscience decision by the creators behind this one:  To ignore the prequels as much as possible.

[Reply #500 on:]

Well, I decided to go take another look at the movie, so I caught another matinee.  Despite enduring a more crowded theater than a week ago and a painfully bad Zootopia trailer, the movie itself had not lost its luster.  I had resolved to pay attention this time around to the score and to Harrison Ford's performance.

The score I kind of gave up on once I realized it was a natural fit for the film.  There were no set pieces that stood out as iconically as the OT themes, though what I will call "Adagio for Starkiller" was pretty good and very poignantly used.  I like Rey's theme as well.  It was not used as much as I think it could have been because it was subordinate to the Force Theme, almost quite literally in the lightsaber duel.  It has a great deal of potential for more dramatic arrangement as the music during the duel demonstrated.

Ford's acting still seemed a bit wooden, but this was in contrast to the many more animated characters around him.  It wasn't bad though and probably appropriate.  I remarked that Han's relationship with Rey didn't seem very real, but really it was more that it was one sided.  She more clearly thinks of him as a father figure than he thinks of her as a daughter figure.  That made her reaction at the bridge more appropriate and sympathetic.  I still think the bridge scene was the weakest part of Ford's performance.  That scene itself is fantastic in every other way though, and I'd rather have it be underplayed than risk overdoing it.

[Reply #501 on:]

George Lucas is not pleased with the new movie.  By the way, that interview is hilarious.  Lucas compares his selling of the rights to the Star Wars franchise, as selling his children to white slave owners.

The man is so incredibly out of touch, it's mind-boggling.

[Reply #502 on:]

Lucas can go cram his stupid midi-Chlorians up his Jar-Jar for all I care.

He should pay for "Phantom Edit" re-edits of Eps II and III out of his own pocket as down-payment on his penance for smothering the life out of his own creation in such a horrible manner.

[Reply #503 on:]

It's like poetry. It rhymes.

[Reply #504 on:]

It's so dense. Every single image has so many things going on.

[Reply #505 on:]

Speaking of the Phantom Edits, there's a newer edit of the prequels known as "Anti-Cheese Edits" and they're rather good, taking away things that are generally eye-roll worthy. My favourite thing about them is that the aliens speak in an alien language, taking away the terrible Asian stereotypes in the Phantom Menace, and reducing the annoying noises out of Jar Jar's mouth, as well as reducing his role drastically. They'e on YouTube for anyone interested.

A list of all the things that didn't make the final cut of the Anti Cheese editions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJG50U2YZhE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3XBjE3b228

[Reply #506 on:]

Thanks so much!  It took days to d/l the DeSpecialized edition of Ep IV (and it's excellent, btw) and I've been somewhat reluctant to finish watching the original trilogy because that would lead me back... to the prequels.  Just reviewing that one scene in Ep III as LeiaPadme77 suggested left me feeling like

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when Palpatine mentioned the M-word.  I'm not certain I could survive M-word + Jar-Jar + Bantha crap.  Hopefully the Anti-Cheese Edits will reduce the pain to a tolerable level.

[Reply #507 on:]

The story that underpins The Force Awakens is a lazy (purposeful) rehash of A New Hope, but the film is quite entertaining in spite of this. It it tightly paced, looks great, and has some humor to it.  I enjoyed all the new characters introduced here and I'm looking forward to see what is done with them in the future films. That is more than I can say about any of the characters in the prequels. I give it a 7/10 after one viewing.

Those anti-cheese edition videos were a nice reminder of how bad Episode I & II are without having to rewatch them. Thanks for the link!

[Reply #508 on:]

It took you days, Tachyon? Did you try to find one that was between 2-4GB or did you download one of the huge >10GB ones?

I downloaded one with all three of the Despecialized movies, each about 3GBs, and that took only a couple hours. They do indeed look awesome.

[Reply #509 on:]

It took you days, Tachyon? Did you try to find one that was between 2-4GB or did you download one of the huge >10GB ones?

I'm watching on a nice 55-inch, and I plan to go much larger in the future.  The main reason it took days is because I manually selected each segment, due to me not having a CAPTCHA bot.  The final Ep IV file was [* Tachy looks...] 19.2GB.  And it was Fucking Awesome^TM.

Colour me not surprised that Lucas ignored DeSpecialized as he had commented before that he didn't care what fans did with his story or films, so long as they didn't charge for it.  I am a little surprised with the Evil Mouse Empire staying hands-off, though.

I'm going to watch Eps V and VI tonight and tomorrow, and will noodle around for the Anti Cheese.

Would you like me to rip some 32kbit mp3s of To Pimp A Butterfly for you, to save you download time?

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Just kidding, Josh

[Reply #510 on:]

Segments? Captcha? Are you saying you direct downloaded 19GB worth of files from a download website instead of just torrenting it all at once from any one of the major torrent websites that it's available on in a variety of file sizes? I'm sorry to hear that, Tachy!

Also, obviously you're joking, but I imagine the differences between audio and video compression would make for an interesting discussion. I'm not particularly well-versed in the technical details of either process, but from what I understand the loss from audio compression is exponentially more noticeable than video compression the smaller you get, proportionally that is (so for example, the difference between a well-compressed 5GB video file and a 10GB one is going to be less noticeable to the human eye on a home-sized screen than the difference between a 50MB and 100MB audio file would be to the human ear through normal quality headphones). That said, I've still been known to listen to very compressed audio files in lieu of giant lossless ones that won't allow me to fit a lot of music on my listening device.

Generally I keep movie files I get between 3 and 4 GB so they will fit on a standard external drive. I've watched countless movies in that file size in 720 or 1080p on a >40" TV that looked great, at least as good if not far better than the quality on my HD cable or streaming on Netflix.

[Reply #511 on:]

The only torrent site I found it on was invite-only.  Regarding audio compression, There is a huge difference between, say, 96k and 160k.  If I have limited space, I'll make due with fewer files, though of higher quality.

One reason I wanted the much larger DeSpecialized file was to get the 5.1 DTS-HD-MA soundtrack along with the excellent video.  Doing A/B tests on my TV between the DVD and blu-ray versions of Episode I (yes, it's cheesy but the source is high-quality and they were carefully mastered), the DVD video looks fine, but the blu-ray is clearly superior.

[Reply #512 on:]

More reference to the prequels being canon, taken from The Force Awakens visual dictionary:

"Phasma’s armour is coated in salvaged chromium from a Naboo yacht once owned by Emperor Palpatine. Its polished finish helps reflect harmful radiation, but it serves primarily as a symbol of past power."

[Reply #513 on:]

First of all, that or any Star Wars book doesn't matter.  Only the movies matter.  Second, I didn't say the prequels weren't canon, just that they are bad canon.  Ignoring them is the best course of action, and incorporating bad ideas, regardless of the source, is a bad idea.

Incidentally, I discovered "Lord of the Sith" appears in the transcript of Star Wars: The Adventures of Luke Starkiller as taken from the “Journal of the Whills”, but it also "Sith" seems to appear in other early writings as some sort of pirate or Imperial Pinkerton.  Whether either of these instances were contemporaneous with car salesman C3P0 or amphibious Han Solo is irrelevant, however, given my previously stated dogma that things not in the movies don't matter.

[Reply #514 on:]

Speaking of the Phantom Edits, there's a newer edit of the prequels known as "Anti-Cheese Edits"

I watched the Anti-Cheese edit of Episode I, and it was excellent.  Nearly all of the things about Ep I that grated against my nerves were removed, without negatively impacting the story.  It was *fun* to watch!

I imagine that the one annoying piece of cheese (to me) left in was because it is an element supporting the storyline.

It will be most interesting to see how he managed to remove the M-word reference in Palpatine's heart-to-heart talk with Anakin in Ep III, but I am absolutely watching the other two anti-cheese edits!  Probably after I finish watching the ep V and ep VI DeSpecialized editions.

* Tachy  is a happy boy

I would put this in the Funny Pictures thread with heavy spoiler warnings, but surely some poor virgin would find a way to view it accidentally and curse my name for the rest of eternity (Along with all of the other people who are cursing my name for all eternity).

So I'll put it here.  Super-duper spoiler for the end of The Force Awakens!  Do not look. May cause cancer.

OK, th people who have already watched Force Awakens can look, now.  It gave me a chuckle.

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[Reply #515 on:]

Speaking of spoiler related pictures, this added a bit of depth to what I had previously attributed to the inaccuracy of Chewy's bow.

[Reply #516 on:]

So I saw the film again the other day and I thought I might enjoy it less, because the awe would wear off, or I would know where it was going... Nope. Enjoyed it just as much as the first time. Say whatever you will, the film (to me) completely succeeds in making me want to watch it again and again. I've come away from watching certain films thinking "wow, that might have been the very best film I've ever seen in my life" and not felt any real desire to watch them ever again.

The one thing that did change the second time through was that I did appreciate the music a little more and I've warmed to it. I think basically I was spoilt by several of the trailers that featured such stirring music that having other music seemed out of place. The trailer music worked very well to make the images appear beautiful - and the images remained there in the film, but the music seemed less so - partly because it has to fit a whole-narrative score, not a hotchpotch of shots. Ah well.

Rey's Theme is definitely building on me. I initially thought the score was devoid of any memorable themes but I was wrong.

On the subject of the trailer music - the one used for the Comic Con promo, which of course is not by John Williams at all, is from In The Shadow of the Moon, just in case anybody hasn't been aware of this for the last 6 months or so... Just to say though, In The Shadow of the Moon is extremely worth watching, if folk haven't done so yet.

[Reply #517 on:]

I've not seen it a second time, yet, But Leiapadme77 saw it again and commented on the voices she heard while watching

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Rey's Force vision the second time, and I actually got chills reading her description.  Just in case anyone is saving themselves for future viewings, I'll double-secret spoiler it

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In addition to the indistinct speech of Yoda and Luke's anguished scream of "Nooooo" when he learned Vader was his father, she says she heard two things from Ob-Wan.  The first is older Obi-Wan (Alec Guinness) shouting "Rey!", and the second is younger Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) saying, softly, "These are your first steps, Rey...".

I'm too much of a cheapskate to pay for another theatre ticket, so I'll just suck it up and wait for the blu-ray.  Hopefully it will come out before Episode VIII is released

[Reply #518 on:]

About that.

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I read about them on-line after watching the film the first time, so I listened extra hard the second time - didn't really hear them the first time, still didn't hear quite all of them, apart from the "steps" line. Cool though.

There are websites out there detailing all the celebrity cameos, which makes a second viewing quite adventurous. As for one example:

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Daniel Craig - you won't spot him, as it were, but strain your ears and you can hear his voice through his accent as he taunts Rey... that scavenger scum...

And on the subject of cameos and denials.

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So that's Daniel Craig and Ewan McGreggor who both played down reports that they'd be in the film - Craig flat-out denied it after Simon Pegg outed him, while McGreggor pretended to speculate about whether they'd ever ask him about it (maybe they genuinely hadn't at the time, his role could have been added quite late on of course). So it's cool they're there. What's disappointing is that Denis Lawson (Wedge) stated that he rejected an offer to be in the film because he'd find the process boring. And it turns out he was being absolutely serious.

Another thought strikes me about Snoke and why I'm disappointed that he's CGI.

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Unless the whole projection is just that, a projection, and Snoke actually appears very different in reality, then unfortunately any up-close interaction between the main characters and him later in the films (face-to-face, duels etc) will be them interacting with pure CGI. Christopher Lee's head digitally pasted atop a stunt performer duelling with thin air that's filled with Yoda in post-production proves that this is entirely doable, but will, I feel, grate with the emphasis of trying to make everything as practical-based as possible.

[Reply #519 on:]

Regarding Snoke:

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Remember this is Andy Serkis we're dealing with here. The guy has given some of the most acclaimed CGI performances in live action films. Did anyone actually question the authenticity of his performance in LoTR, for example? I'm sure he'll make it work.

What I want to know is if he's a giant monster or if that hologram's being a deceptive bugger.