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LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} (lnxw48a1@nu.federati.net)'s status on Sunday, 10-Jun-2018 18:48:05 UTC LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} I should try to see the #Star_Wars movie "Solo" if I can find lang=EN + subtitles in ES instead of lang=ES. -
Algernon Whistlewright (whistlewright@gnusocial.no)'s status on Sunday, 10-Jun-2018 19:03:37 UTC Algernon Whistlewright @lnxw48a1 I will admit to enjoying Rouge One but The Force Awakens was so awful that I doubt that I will ever watch a Star Wars movie again. As a matter of fact I am starting to believe that Lucas should have stopped after the very first movie and never made another one. -
LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} (lnxw48a1@nu.federati.net)'s status on Sunday, 10-Jun-2018 19:23:34 UTC LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} @whistlewright You know, that's funny. I keep listening to people tell me how wonderful the original trilogy was, but I saw #Star_Wars:Ep4 in theaters in the 1970s and didn't see another until the 1990s. I thought SW:Ep5 was terrible. I thought SW:Ep6 was okay, but still worse than Ep4. So I had reduced expectations of the prequels because I thought the 2nd and 3rd movies were not as good as people say. -
Algernon Whistlewright (whistlewright@gnusocial.no)'s status on Sunday, 10-Jun-2018 19:31:08 UTC Algernon Whistlewright @lnxw48a1 The only good one was the first one in 1977. The rest of them were, in the words of Yoghurt in Spaceballs, "the pursuit of more money." (Truth be told Star Wars was really just a retelling of a couple of really cool Japanese Samurai stories that had been retold by Hollywood in old westerns. But who wants my post-modernist deconstruction.) -
LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} (lnxw48a1@nu.federati.net)'s status on Sunday, 10-Jun-2018 19:31:44 UTC LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} @whistlewright By those standards, the new movies have not been as disappointing as people claim (if only because they've mostly been rehashing the same stories from Eps 4-6 with different characters). SW:TFA was the worst of the new movies, at or below the level of the prequels. It had too many peripheral stories that merely distracted from the main story. Having a sudden hook at the end to connect it to the main series felt evil and manipulative. -
Algernon Whistlewright (whistlewright@gnusocial.no)'s status on Sunday, 10-Jun-2018 19:34:39 UTC Algernon Whistlewright @lnxw48a1 So did you just beat me at my own game? Damn, let me hang my head in shame now. -
LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} (lnxw48a1@nu.federati.net)'s status on Sunday, 10-Jun-2018 19:36:23 UTC LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} @lnxw48a1 @whistlewright The truth is, most of the movies I watch these days are just to give me something in common with the kids, a shared topic of interest and discussion. Otherwise, I wouldn't go to a theater at all. -
Algernon Whistlewright (whistlewright@gnusocial.no)'s status on Sunday, 10-Jun-2018 19:40:52 UTC Algernon Whistlewright @lnxw48a1 I hear you. Once a month some group shows old movies in the theatre on a Sunday afternoon. I am talking O L D movies, Casablanca, Sininging in the Rain, All about Eve, etc. Those are the only movies I go to see. I have not seen a "new" movie in the theatre since maybe The King's Speech a couple of years ago. -
Algernon Whistlewright (whistlewright@gnusocial.no)'s status on Sunday, 10-Jun-2018 19:42:13 UTC Algernon Whistlewright @lnxw48a1 Hah! Shows my memory... King's Speech was eight years ago! -
Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Sunday, 10-Jun-2018 23:13:47 UTC Strypey @whistlewright @lnxw48a1 You know that Lucas didn't make either of those films, right? He'd already sold the company and moved to a farm by the time #TFA went into production. I thought exactly the opposite about those two movies. No accounting for taste I guess ...
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Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Sunday, 10-Jun-2018 23:14:14 UTC Strypey -
James D Morgan (ke5mkt@mastodon.xyz)'s status on Sunday, 10-Jun-2018 23:16:16 UTC James D Morgan @strypey @lnxw48a1 @whistlewright Ep5? Which one was Ep 5
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Algernon Whistlewright (whistlewright@gnusocial.no)'s status on Sunday, 10-Jun-2018 23:18:17 UTC Algernon Whistlewright ok here I am... which one was Ep5? -
Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Sunday, 10-Jun-2018 23:22:40 UTC Strypey -
Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Sunday, 10-Jun-2018 23:23:03 UTC Strypey -
Algernon Whistlewright (whistlewright@gnusocial.no)'s status on Sunday, 10-Jun-2018 23:23:10 UTC Algernon Whistlewright That one Empire Strikes Back, right? I really feel that Star Wars is a complete movie in and of itself and didn't need sequels. @lnxw48a1 is right. The first was ok but the quality of the story dropped after that. Empire wasn't as bad as Return of the Jedi which wasn't as bad as the prequels which weren't as bad as The Force Awakens. TFA was just a rehash of every Star Wars trope ever created and crammed into a very long and incredibly boring movie (to me, I see that you liked it) -
Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Sunday, 10-Jun-2018 23:48:45 UTC Strypey @whistlewright @lnxw48a1 if you don't care about the characters, and/ or you don't find the idea of a rebellion against a fascist Empire compelling, and/or you don't find the idea of having to defeat the dark side of yourself before you can defeat the fascists without becoming one (or something worse) then *shrug* you're not going to enjoy #StarWars. No big deal. But some of us love it, and we care about the stories being told well, and the character arcs being respected.
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Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Sunday, 10-Jun-2018 23:51:40 UTC Strypey @whistlewright @lnxw48a1 #TFA wasn't everything it could have been, for reasons I went into here. But it was much better than the prequels in terms of a) relatable characters, b) narrative focus, c) a sense of fun, which the prequels totally lacked, but tried to make up for with ill-fitting bathos and slapstick
https://mastodon.nzoss.nz/@strypey/100157341854096764 -
Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Sunday, 10-Jun-2018 23:56:59 UTC Strypey @whistlewright @lnxw48a1 oh and d) effects that don't make the film look like someone else playing a video game and making you watch, and e) a director that knows how to direct actors. Lucas got some of the best actors in the business, and somehow managed to draw out some of the worst acting of their careers. In contrast, JJ Abrams took a bunch of unknowns (and Harrison Ford), and managed to put compelling performances on the screen.
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Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Monday, 11-Jun-2018 00:00:17 UTC Strypey @whistlewright @lnxw48a1 Here's an exercise; watch the first 5 minutes of each film. Do you know who the heroes are? Who the villains are? What's at stake? Did it involve boring exposition over a cup of tea, or compelling action that pulled you right into the universe? Yes, I'm obsessive about this shit. I'm also a writer (see: https://strypey.dreamwidth.org/), and I'm intrigued by what does and doesn't work in narrative.
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LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} (lnxw48a1@nu.federati.net)'s status on Monday, 11-Jun-2018 00:50:47 UTC LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} @strypey @whistlewright I enjoy #Star_Wars. That's why I'm willing to see Solo. But some of the movies were not as good (Empire Strikes Back among them). I find "first trilogy" worship puzzling when Ep 5 was so far inferior ... maybe even sub-prequel level. -
The Human (blort@social.tchncs.de)'s status on Monday, 11-Jun-2018 03:07:18 UTC The Human ¡buena idea!
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Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Monday, 11-Jun-2018 06:11:13 UTC Strypey @lnxw48a1 maybe you missed that post, but I asked you why you were disappointed with Ep 5.? Here's what I liked about. 1) it wasn't just a lazy retread of #1. The whole plot had totally different set pieces than #ANH, giving us Luke and Han as battle-hardened buddies, a ground battle in the snow, a slightly demented hermit living in a swamp, a floating mining city, and the big reveal that the villian was not just impersonal evil personified, but related to the hero.
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Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Monday, 11-Jun-2018 06:14:52 UTC Strypey @lnxw48a1 Luke losing his hand was crucial to setting up the resolution in Ep 6, in that it helped Luke understand a little of what his father has been through, instead of just seeing him as a psychopathic droid, as his costume initially suggests in Ep 4. 2) the story ended in a dark place, with Luke nursing his wounds (both physical and emotional), and the rebels on the run. Yet somehow it also ends on a note of cautious optimism, (totally unlike the ending of #AvengersInfinityWars)
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Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Monday, 11-Jun-2018 06:24:35 UTC Strypey @lnxw48a1 3) Yoda. Yoda could have been a #JarJarBinks. The *exact* same dialogue, delivered in a hammy "meesa so sorry" way, along with the limits of using a puppet to play a live-action character, could have been painfully cheesy. For me, as an adult, as much as when I saw it as a child, Yoda is perfectly pitched. Neither a retread of uber-zen Obiwan, nor a jarring parody that can't be taken seriously in the role of the challenging mentor, which is essential to 'hero's journey' stories.
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Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Monday, 11-Jun-2018 06:28:15 UTC Strypey @lnxw48a1 4) Lando. With Luke and Han all buddy, buddy, and Luke going off to Degobah for most of the film anyway, the character tricycle that make Ep 4 so dynamic is missing a wheel. Lando fills this vacuum beautifully. I can *feel* from the tension between him and Han that they have a complicated back story, without pages of exposition dialogue giving me any more than the #CliffNotes of the #Solo story. The scenes with all three of them zing.
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Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Monday, 11-Jun-2018 06:31:29 UTC Strypey @lnxw48a1 the second film in a trilogy, a bit like a band's second album, is always the most challenging. There are huge expectations to meet, the story can no longer coast on the novelty of its premises and the world it introduces, and it has to try to tell a narratively satisfying story in itself, while still setting the stage and building the tension for part 3. IMHO #StarWars Ep 5 does this better than most.
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LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} (lnxw48a1@nu.federati.net)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Jun-2018 22:48:34 UTC LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} @strypey First of all, the things I read in the late #1970s tended to the view that there had been on big story, with had grown so large as it was fleshed out that it was partitioned into three parts. Each of those three parts then grew during the fleshing out process and was in turn trifurcated. Finally, the 4th of 9 was turned into a major motion picture.
So given this, one might expect some unity of vision and unity of story line, but there are jarring discontinuities as one goes from movie to movie throughout the series. For this reason, Ep 5 really feels out of place. -
LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} (lnxw48a1@nu.federati.net)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Jun-2018 23:01:07 UTC LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} ... ONE big story -
Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Jun-2018 01:30:24 UTC Strypey @lnxw48a1 I think we can assume that 1-6 were mostly true to George's original vision, since he was still in control of LF through them all. But I suspect that his vision for 7-9 was more akin to what we saw in the novels set in the post-6 "New Republic" period, and we know that all of this was completely thrown out of canon when Disney acquired LF. As I said in earlier rant, they tried to skip 7-9 and go straight to 10-12 without anyone noticing.
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Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Jun-2018 01:35:01 UTC Strypey @lnxw48a1 In fact, I'm going to come right out and claim that #TheForceAwakens is actually Ep 10, and #TheLastJedi is actually Ep 11, regardless of how Disney numbers them.
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Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Jun-2018 01:36:56 UTC Strypey @lnxw48a1 Maybe one day we'll get to see the real 7-9 stories as anthology prequels films, once the CGI gets good enough to digital clones to stand-in for the original characters, or even with new actors. I found Alden Ehrenreich and Donald Glover pretty convincing as Han and Lando in #Solo (wouldn't have even noticed the new Chewie if I didn't already know it was a new actor).
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