On 12/3/2019 at 6:05 PM, ScummyRebel said:

Maybe, maybe not. Saw an interview with the cast “show us your face of how you feel about the film.” Anthony Daniels was very telling. Like “what the frak” and then he said “after 40 years, THIS is how it ends?”

I am going in expecting TLJ level nonsense. Hopefully I am wrong.

If I’m not, at least we know. And hopefully Disney learns their lesson and starts making big screen stuff the way they’ve been doing small screen stuff (really enjoying the Mandalorian so far)

With trying to end a beloved, nine-film series and trying to tie up all the plots from the previous two movies (plus whatever else is introduced in this movie), I don't think it's realistic to expect the movie will be perfect and without flaws. I just hope it's entertaining. (For all the flaws the previous two movies had, they were mostly entertaining to me.)

On 12/3/2019 at 6:39 PM, martini74 said:

TLJ sucked. Not a single good point. I like Rogue One. Solo was a.fun hiest/crime movie.

TLJ wasn't my favorite, but it had some good moments. To me, Solo was an uninteresting, forgettable movie; but then, heist movies may just not be my thing (I didn't even know that was a genre until I heard people applying it to Solo).

On 12/4/2019 at 8:21 AM, TasteTheRainbow said:

Yup. If you all haven’t listened to Ryan Farmer’s rant about how great TLJ was then please do so immediately. It is objectively a great film.

O_o What standards does one use to "objectively" rate a movie? Even if such standards exist, one could argue that being "objectively great" is meaningless if people didn't like it.

On 12/4/2019 at 5:11 PM, ScummyRebel said:

Kylo turning on Snoke got ruined mere minutes after.

Personally, what irritated me was that Snoke's, "I'm describing what you're doing in a way that's vague enough that I can interpret it as applying to Rey while the audience knows it actually applies to me" was a bit eye-rolling. What happened afterwards that you felt ruined the moment?

On 12/5/2019 at 10:39 AM, Red Castle said:

Since it’s the end of the trilogy/saga, I think it’s intended to be as spoiler-free as possible.

only question you have to ask yourself is if you want to know how the story end or not.

Personally, I'm not really a "watch a story to find out what happens" person. I'm more of a "watch a story to experience a story told well" person. I mean, being the last movie in the saga, we already know with pretty decent confidence much of how it'll end. The First Order will be destroyed or otherwise neutralized as a threat. Kylo's going to experience some kind of redemption. Rey's going to influence the future of the Jedi. Finn's going to figure out this whole "being a good guy" thing. Poe's going to hop in an X-Wing and blow something up.

For me, the biggest surprise so far has been Phasma apparently not returning, as I felt Finn's story required one final confrontation with her.

I love the Sequel Trilogy and I'll be there opening night for sure.

1 hour ago, JJ48 said:

With trying to end a beloved, nine-film series and trying to tie up all the plots from the previous two movies (plus whatever else is introduced in this movie), I don't think it's realistic to expect the movie will be perfect and without flaws. I just hope it's entertaining. (For all the flaws the previous two movies had, they were mostly entertaining to me.)

Truth here. I don't expect it will be great, but like TFA , I expect to walk out of the movie content that it was entertaining.

1 hour ago, JJ48 said:

TLJ wasn't my favorite, but it had some good moments. To me, Solo was an uninteresting, forgettable movie; but then, heist movies may just not be my thing (I didn't even know that was a genre until I heard people applying it to Solo).

TLJ did have a few good points in a movie that I didn't like overall. Anyone that saws there wasn't a "single good point" is exaggerating. Solo is in my top 3 of best Star Wars movies, but I am a huge fan of heist movies. As is Rogue One , but then again, I am a huge fan of the Dirty Dozen , and those movies hit the marks I was looking for.

If you aren't a fan of the genres, it can be understandable that it may have missed the mark a bit.

1 hour ago, JJ48 said:

O_o What standards does one use to "objectively" rate a movie? Even if such standards exist, one could argue that being "objectively great" is meaningless if people didn't like it.

This is where Farmer's critique fell apart. You can talk about how well crafted a movie was, its pacing, its cinematography, its use of symbolism, etc., but if it misses its mark with its intended audience, its a failure.

If you go to the newest Transformers movie, and what you get is Citizen Kane except all the parts are played by giant robots, its a bad movie no matter how well crafted. Sometimes you just wanted to see giant robots punching each other.

Double post, see below 😄

I find it really funny that I seem to be a opposite of everyone's opinion so far. Like, almost everything from any of the movies that folks say they didn't like, I did, and importantly, vice versa. Come to think of it that's been kind of true of many of the film's. I feel like the list has evolved since the last movie came out though.

I find it interesting too that is seems, vaguely seems, that this phenomenon seems to exist between a lot of opposing groups too. I wonder what, if any, name that has in psychology/sociology.

Also, does anyone have the link for this rant in favor of tlj? A few folks had asked and I'm curious.

7 minutes ago, ForceSensitive said:

Also, does anyone have the link for this rant in favor of tlj? A few folks had asked and I'm curious.

IIRC it was an after-episode bit they did after one of the Mynock Squadron podcasts. I don't have the link as I stopped following them awhile back, but that should get you pointed in the direction.

Three generations of my family; my parents, myself and my girlfriend and my daughter will all be seeing it together over the Christmas holidays.

I will be seeing it but not opening weekend. I'm on a 2 week vacation during the Christmas and New Year weeks. I plan to see the film the Monday or Tuesday before Christmas, probably as a matinee.

When IX opens, I will be seeing . . . Cats, or Jumanji, or ANYTHING but this intergalactic dumpster fire. Won't pay to see it. Won't watch it for free. Won't watch a BOOTLEG for free.

The Rat has destroyed Star Wars and disrespected me and millions of others who were with the series from the very beginning. Disney Star Wars is not Star Wars. They won't get a penny from me, for anything, ever again.

34 minutes ago, Firebird TMK said:

When IX opens, I will be seeing . . . Cats, or Jumanji, or ANYTHING but this intergalactic dumpster fire. Won't pay to see it. Won't watch it for free. Won't watch a BOOTLEG for free.

The Rat has destroyed Star Wars and disrespected me and millions of others who were with the series from the very beginning. Disney Star Wars is not Star Wars. They won't get a penny from me, for anything, ever again.

Eh, I'll still take Disney's Star Wars over anything Lucas himself contributed since '83.

53 minutes ago, Firebird TMK said:

When IX opens, I will be seeing . . . Cats, or Jumanji, or ANYTHING but this intergalactic dumpster fire. Won't pay to see it. Won't watch it for free. Won't watch a BOOTLEG for free.

The Rat has destroyed Star Wars and disrespected me and millions of others who were with the series from the very beginning. Disney Star Wars is not Star Wars. They won't get a penny from me, for anything, ever again.

You’re not watching Mando and won’t ever watch it?

18 hours ago, dsul413 said:

You’re not watching Mando and won’t ever watch it?

When I play at my local gaming group, the fellow who runs it sometimes plays it. I'll watch it under those circumstances. As long as none of my money goes to the Rat.

Btw: recent reviews indicate that the writing quality of the show is rapidly deteriorating, with signs of wokeness infection. Somehow I'm not surprised.

19 hours ago, JJ48 said:

Eh, I'll still take Disney's Star Wars over anything Lucas himself contributed since '83.

Well, there's no arguing with taste. Enjoy.

On 12/3/2019 at 3:10 PM, SomeDudeWhoMostlyLurks said:

I don't know about this one. I enjoyed TFA, without much critical commentary. I defended TLJ warts and all, because I thought the underlying theme of the force trying something differently this time around was interesting. But.... returning Palpatine is comic-book brinkmanship at it's worst. I can't think of anything more fan-servicey than this.

Return of the Jedi had PERFECT closure.

- Destroying Sheev,

- Redeeming Anakin,

- Elevating Luke to Jedi - resisting the same failure that cursed his father and breaking the entire cycle in the process

..All in a single scene. Whatever else you want to hate about ROTJ (cough*murderbears*cough), that was a thematically perfect ending. PERFECT. I don't mind new threats growing from the ashes of the old. I don't even mind Luke's subsequent failure as a Jedi Master. But THIS undoes the entire purpose of Luke and Anakin's journeys.

This is like bringing Sauron back for Lord of the Rings Too: Electric Boogaloo.

Bad.

Bad.

Bad.

I don't even care if it is executed to cinematic perfection. It is thematically broken now, and I highly doubt there is any way to fix it. I've managed to fully avoid spoilers beyond the trailers, but I don't have good hope here.

It's too late for me. Dave Filoni is my master now.

Well stated.

Since Jar Jar Abrams has seen fit to undo RotJ and fulfill his destiny as the cinematic anti-Christ, he should also scrap the entire soundtrack and spare John Williams the humiliation of being associated with Episode Nein: The Demise of Soy-Walker. He can get ZZ Top instead. They already put out an album called "Recycler". And for Palp's theme, they can use, "Bringing in the Sheev".

Why is it the ones that have the least interesting things to say talk the most? Weird.

TLJ is basically the cilantro of Star Wars. You love it or hate it, and everyone who doesn't share your opinion is a genetic freak.

45 minutes ago, PhantomFO said:

TLJ is basically the cilantro of Star Wars. You love it or hate it, and everyone who doesn't share your opinion is a genetic freak.

I like cilantro!

I'd put it as TLJ is basically the surstromming of Star Wars.

I love cilantro, but I also know people who describes the flavor as being like soap. I recall reading how scientists may have actually found a gene which impacts how it tastes.

I also love TLJ, and probably put it in my top 3. It was an ambitious movie that really swung for the fences after the play-it-safe nature of The Force Awakens. Canto Bight was annoying, but that's the only part of the movie I didn't like.

I'm not seeing it opening day or that weekend, but only because I work and have family commitments. My brother and I will be going to see it Christmas night though and we are pretty excited. I've seen all the new movies in theaters except Solo (again due to work). I've found them all entertaining, despite some minor grievances and nit-picks.

In response to some of this conversation about the new movies and whether people like them or not, it all reminds me of a comment someone I knew in highschool made about a band we liked that had just released a new album. I can't even remember the name of the band anymore, but the comment has stuck with me - they made the comment that "the new album isn't real *band name*. It's different from their old stuff and they've changed". The big thing for me was that I didn't get why they just wanted the band to put out the same old stuff. Or why they thought their musical taste and what they defined as "real *band name* music" mattered more than allowing the band to evolve and develop themselves and change over time. It was an unrealistic expectation to think the band's music would never change or evolve over time.

I realize a movie franchise, especially one the size of Star Wars is a lot larger, more complex and more nuanced than a band releasing a new album, but the concept is the same. It's unrealistic to expect them to put out Star Wars movies that haven't grown and changed and evolved over the past 40+ years. We may not like all of the changes, but our like or dislike of those changes doesn't define what makes Star Wars "Star Wars" nor does it define the actors/directors/artists that create the movies. Over 40 years so much has changed technologically, socially, culturally, sometimes BECAUSE of Star Wars that it is just completely impractical to expect none of those changes will be reflected in the new material.

Personally, my biggest issue with any of the new movies is in The Force Awakens and is something which I don't think I've ever really seen mentioned anywhere. It has to do with the new threat they face. Not the First Order, but just that their super weapon is just a bigger badder Death Star. Not only was it bigger, but it could annihilate multiple planets at once from across the galaxy!!!! But here's the thing - their superweapon sucked up the energy of a star.... Why wasn't that just used as their method of destroying an entire solar system? If they had moved Starkiller base into the Hosnian system and started sucking up the energy of their Star how much more interesting would that have been? From a narrative perspective that is new, fresh and terrifying!! It's different from the previous movies and is menacing without becoming cartoonish. Poe's comment about "as long as the star has light, there's hope" suddenly takes on a deeper more meaningful tone. It sets up further story elements without just blowing everything up. Can you imagine the fallout from an entire populated solar system having it's star extinguished? From a story perspective it accomplishes the goal of weakening/taking out the New Republic, it establishes the First Order as a looming threat, it provides hooks and further story elements to be expanded on and it is something new that doesn't just recycle elements from previous movies. For me, that is the major thing that bugged me about the new movies, one of the weakest parts of the story and was a huge missed opportunity in my mind. But I got over it.

Are there things that bug me about the new movies? Sure. But there's nothing in them that ruin them being Star Wars for me. If someone doesn't like them, I can understand how disappointing that can feel, but it doesn't justify the hate and anger directed to people who do like the new movies or those that had a role in making them.

9 hours ago, Firebird TMK said:

When I play at my local gaming group, the fellow who runs it sometimes plays it. I'll watch it under those circumstances. As long as none of my money goes to the Rat.

Btw: recent reviews indicate that the writing quality of the show is rapidly deteriorating, with signs of wokeness infection. Somehow I'm not surprised.

It was all written before any of us ever saw it, and there is no quality difference between Episode 5 and Episode 2. That's just ridiculous. There is also nothing "woke" about The Mandalorian, its just a space western/samurai show.

15 hours ago, Firebird TMK said:

When I play at my local gaming group, the fellow who runs it sometimes plays it. I'll watch it under those circumstances. As long as none of my money goes to the Rat.

Btw: recent reviews indicate that the writing quality of the show is rapidly deteriorating, with signs of wokeness infection. Somehow I'm not surprised.

Ahahahahahaha!

Get a load of this guy, he thinks these shows are made week to week!!

Can y'all believe this?

Only Star Wars fans.

On 12/6/2019 at 7:31 PM, Koing907 said:

That was a lot of words for a "critic" to be pissy at fans, and call them pissy fans.

Probably gets paid by the paragraph 😂