Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[theinevitable]

New Star Wars is great. Unlike the "new 3," had moments that felt really human. Great new characters. Captures the feel of the originals in just the right way.

[pmcd9]

New Star Wars is great. Unlike the "new 3," had moments that felt really human. Great new characters. Captures the feel of the originals in just the right way.

That's great to hear. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

[theinevitable]

A lot of my friends didn't like it. But I liked it enough that I would be happy to see it again. Who knows.

[lprkn]

I watched it twice. There are a couple moments here and there where it doesn't quite work, but they are few and far between, and it's a great movie overall.

[pmcd9]

The more I think about it the less I like the new Star Wars. It almost felt like a remake of the original Star Wars.

[Carlos del Vaca]

It did feel like a remake in a lot of ways. But it was fun nonetheless. Only one plot point I had a real problem with.

[pmcd9]

Only one plot point I had a real problem with.

And what would that be?

[robocop]

Anomalisa (2015) split my face down the seam. I will never experience anything like that again. Kaufman is a treasure.

Room (2015) - I cracked three teeth from anxious bruxism during one particular scene. Only film I found to be more tense last year was...

...Sicario (2015), which literally had me on the edge of my seat with my heart echoing in my ears for the entire runtime. Fascinating and gutting.

[Carlos del Vaca]

And what would that be?

Um, what's the spoiler policy for this thread?

[Carlos del Vaca]

OK, highlight to view:
When they go down to Starkiller Base, nab Capt. Phasma, Finn points a blaster at her and says "Lower the shields," and she does it pretty much right away. Given that the base was seemingly impervious with the shields up, and given what happens to people in the First Order who fuck shit up, I'm pretty sure she'd be all "Fuck you, you'll just have to shoot me." Instead she goes "Fine, but you'll never get away with this!" a bit too readily, IMO.

[pmcd9]

I thought that too.

[theinevitable]

It mostly just bothered me that despite being in AN ENTIRE GALAXY everyone is always related, and always run into each other.

Sometimes I go to THE MALL and don't run into someone I know. How likely is it that if I landed a spaceship on another planet (in the future when we live on other planets) I'd run into someone I know? It feels like a pretty big deal that I run into people I know on the street in New York.

But overall, I loved it. I really liked that they captured the visual feel of the originals. I hope the further episodes do not so closely mimic the older ones, but I get why they did that on this one.

[robocop]

Coincidence and chance meetings have been a part of the Star Wars universe since the originals, I feel like. To me, the new one felt like a completely different series. An entertaining and fun film with an almost photocopy plot as episode iv, but not entirely a Star Wars film. I felt the same about Jabrams Jabrams Abrams' Star Trek films. Entertaining, but doesn't really feel like Star Trek.

The Force Awakens has odd pacing, some huge story/structure issues, and some (I thought) poorly cut action scenes. That said, I enjoyed it. The original 6 films did have much calmer, slower, talkier sections, and a lot more cheesy new age spirituality.

[Carlos del Vaca]

My assumption WRT chance meetings has always been that The Force is leading people where they need to go.

[theinevitable]

That is a good POV, I just wish they were introducing more new characters. I would love to see people being wrapped into the story that give hints of what life is like in the rest of the galaxy. The suggestion in TFA that the younger characters thought that the Jedi, Luke etc were all a myth was awesome and I want them to build on that.
This makes me think that maybe the reason I loved this movie so much and that a lot of the criticisms don't bother me is that I just want more and more worldbuilding. Variations on the original trilogy with new characters and interesting planets and space ships sounds pretty good.


Speaking of which, almost done re-watching Eric Rohmer's "Six Moral Tales." Roger Ebert called the last two some of the best movies he has ever seen, so I feel a little less like a weirdo now. In each movie a guy is tempted to stray from his lady and in the end has to decide-- do I go for it or not?
In between there are a lot of great little conversations, nice shots of Paris, tons of beautiful 1960s women, etc.

My favorite, though, might be the first. The Bakery Girl of Monceau. Searching the streets of Paris for his ideal woman, a student stops in at the same bakery every day to get his lunch. He starts flirting with the cute girl behind the counter, and considers "settling" for her. But will he? 15 minutes, charming, wonderful. The later films in the series are feature-length and might be "better" but take themselves way more seriously.