SFdebris

I thought he did a review of Into Darkness but not the standard Star Trek movie fare?

Death is a companion. We should cherish Death as we cherish Life.

He did give his brief thoughts about it back in 2013, but that's it.

Children of Dievas - my webcomic about the Northern Crusades

The Empire Strikes Back

The battle of Hoth was a great day for the Imperial Army, but a debacle for the Imperial Navy. Veers and the AT-ATs wiped out grounds forces and invaded Echo Base. The Navy though? They couldn't catch any of the transports as they escaped the planet, then failed for like half a movie to catch the Falcon.

Also, I'm pretty sure the C in C-3PO stands for "cock-block."

edited 31st Mar '18 3:32:37 PM by WillKeaton

And I agree with Sf Debris: the "special editions" are terrible because Lucas fixed the movies until he broke them.

• Han Not Shooting First - Star Wars was the film that all parents played on the VCR as a treat for parties and/or well behaved kids. The idea that some crappy CGI can fix what was never broken is risible.

• A lot of scenes were clearly removed to make the films flow, the extra scenes with Biggs, Jaba et. al. just slow down the narrative.
  • Crappy 90's CGI does not help. The computer power just wasn't there to make objects look like they belong.

• A lot of the background scenes in A New Hope are trite. I'm sure he wanted to add more critters but he slows down the movie to show his new CGI ones that just look fake.
  • CGI Jaba was horrid.
  • The new Boba Fett voice - ugh. The actor is a nice guy but his reads....suck. The voice for Fett does not match the body language.

All this set the stage for the bad of the prequels: George fell in love with CGI and forgot how to make an actual movie.

As the owner of a $1,000 laptop I can't be "Arrg! CGI BAD! MODELS GOOD!" *grunt*

No, the Marvel Cinematic Universe wouldn't have been possible even in The '90s, the SFX just wouldn't be up to the challenge. Ditto Lord Ofthe Rings - the movie was only possible animated/anime or with lots of CGI integrated into the movie.

Say what you will about The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi - at least they were about characters and not how much crap Lucas Film can fit on the screen.

When I was in the theater watching The Phantom Menace and latter Attach of the Clones - nobody clapped or cheered. They were just another summer movie (I saw Revenge of the Sith via a battle buddies thumb drive when I was in the Army) and I was underwhelmed.

Contrast The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi -people clapped, gasped and even laughed at the one iconic Luke scene (no spoilers).

And yes, the new films did use CGI - they had to for some scenes, but they were smart enough to keep the film moving and use it to enhance the film.

When Spielberg removed the guns from the Federal Agents in ET, he left the original film on the DVD so that people could make their own choices.

When Anno made his Rebuild Of Evangelion series, he didn't pull the original series and manga from the shelves.

Lucas goofed when he thought that he could screw with something iconic and noone would notice. He also fell in love with CGI to the detriment of filmmaking - he let is love of the process cloud the making of the film.

Not unlike a young Jedi....

All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be a case on The First 48

Quite frankly there's been a reappraisal of the prequels lately and the Last Jedi being so godawful was the reason for that. Ultimately it actually repeats the prequel's mistake of focusing too much on surface details and looking good over actually being a story - while lacking the superior worldbuilding and strong overall story of the prequels.

"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"

Frankly I think Last Jedi was better then all of the prequels. I can see why it was divisive but I don't think anything it it was as bad as Obi-Wan and Anakin's back and fourth routine, the badly written empire takeover, or the entirety of Attack of The Clones.

METAL GEAR!?

"I hate sand. You. you're not like sand."

X_X

"I love the water".

METAL GEAR!?

I love democracy.

Bite my shiny metal ass.

I mean, say what you like about a lot of the dialogue in those movies (a lot of it was shite) but at least they weren't idiot plots.

Also, even if we were to dismiss the empire takeover as bad (which I don't, and personally I think the politics of the prequels actually hold up really well), it makes a hell of a lot more sense than the First Order's takeover of the galaxy.

edited 2nd Apr '18 8:07:56 AM by Sigilbreaker26

"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"

Eh, yeah they were idiot plots. Palpatine was transparently evil all the way through and the whole galaxy was incredibly stupid to accept the clone army. If you've watched the Plinkett videos on the prequel trilogy you might agree with the 10 ways he listed to easily stop it.

Also yeah the First Order takeover is stupid. However, they don't go into exhausting detail and show us just how stupid it is.

edited 2nd Apr '18 8:15:13 AM by Wildcard

METAL GEAR!?

Palpatine is only transparently evil to the audience because we get to see things the galaxy doesn't, and in the face of the CIS rebellion the clone army was really the only feasable option. A lot of the surrounding details in the worldbuilding help flesh out his plans, while surrounding detail about the new continuity only make the first order dumber (looking at you, Battlefront 2).

edited 2nd Apr '18 8:19:37 AM by Sigilbreaker26

"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"

Yes, but only because the movies were so bad they need books to fix Lucas's writing. Lets face it, nearly everything released in the 2000s, (aside from online Flash games) having to do with Star Wars were better or at least better written than the three actual movies. If he wrote them better we wouldn't need an explanation. Plus the idea that they had no united army was stupid too.

To keep it on topic I haven't watched his Empire review yet, does he talk about Harrison Ford wanting to get killed off?

edited 2nd Apr '18 8:23:49 AM by Wildcard

METAL GEAR!?

We... we didn't need an explanation. We got the broad strokes in the film, everything we needed, outside material just fleshed it out.

We got significantly more understanding of what the fuck is going on in the prequels than in the new trilogy.

As for your argument "why do they have no united army" that problem is significantly worse in the new one because they also have no united army (just the tiny amount of forces that is the resistance) and the old republic had been more or less coasting on not having an army without serious existential problems until the existance of the CIS forced their hand. But now that everyone knows "not having an army = bad idea" why do they repeat the mistake?

edited 2nd Apr '18 8:27:13 AM by Sigilbreaker26

"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"

We did actually. Factually, we aren't told or even given the broad strokes about General Grevious until well into the third movie to name but one example. We aren't told what Count Dooku's position is among the Confederacy, what the CIS wants, why the Trade Federation's standing army is not destroyed in between movies, etc..etc...

Yeah the First Order is too high in power. However fanbodys of the Old Empire are far easier to understand. We get broad strokes in the film, unlike in the prequel trilogy were we are just expected to care about things we are and aren't told about.

Your last paragraph is fair though. But considering they had the Jedi army and the huge amount of power they had the clones didn't seem necessary either. Especially with how often we see Jedi doing nothing.

edited 2nd Apr '18 8:31:49 AM by Wildcard

METAL GEAR!?

LOL

"Well we have an army for an organisation that never had an army ordered by a conveniently dead man the guy we're going to war with admits having been close to and cloned from the DNA of his henchman. So, like I don't think we should investigate this further or ask any more questions. And be surprised when they gun us all down."

"Should we question why the guys we want to go to war with are obsessed with trying to murder the one Senator who is voting against going to war with them? You'd think they'd be all for someone sabotaging our war efforts."

Let's not forget "So someone paid enough to make a galaxy spanning empire and no one question where the credits came from, who could afford to pay that, or if the new head of government whose election coincides closely with this transaction might be related."

One thing the PT thought us is that they may have space wizard, but no investigative journalists.

edited 2nd Apr '18 11:47:21 AM by Ghilz

The resurgence of the prequels are mostly do to the big thing it did well, world building. ST has forgotten entirely about world building to the point where the world makes absolutely zero sense and only gets more nonsensical when you get into the new canon and its utter lack of sensible world building as well.

Nobody actually thought anything through in ST leaving everything a blistering mess, in PT however holy crap do things line up almost to its detriment but it allowed Clone Wars and such which made the PT movies come out better for it.

Nah, it didn't do world building well, it just did it a lot. Compared to the minimalist OT and ST, the PT does a ton of world building, it's just almost all bad, with the worst of it parts that actively weaken the world building of Star Wars. To be frank, I don't think they would have so causally destroyed the New Jedi Order, if the Prequels hadn't so thoroughly wrecked the Jedi as a concept.

The "resurgence" is a mix of contrarians that love the Prequels because they are hated, people that will hate anything new over anything older now giving the prequels a pass, and people with bad taste that always loved the prequels, but now feel comfortable saying so because of the presence of the other two groups.

Way-to-not come off defensive.

For the record, I had the conventional dislike of the prequels after hitting adulthood. I still don't think they're great films. But the failures of the ST have caused me to appreciate the benefits of the PT, not just the worldbuilding ^note for example, compare how the Republic is sunk by entrenched special interests, too-powerful corporations and a gradual decay of democracy in the PT to the vague "rich people are evil" message thrown about in TLJ but also the three film-structure which the ST has completely botched and finally, how the PT had a strong unifying presence - sure, George Lucas needed to listen to people more and he did go overboard in a lot of respects, but the ST is sunk by the opposite problem, a man being tied to four horses and ripped apart.

"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"

While it may manage to botch it worse in with episode IX, the prequels did a three film structure terribly with an entire movie wasted, leading to the relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan being effectively non-existent. There are three relationships that it was critical for the prequels to build to be successful, Anakin and Padme, Anakin and Obi-Wan, and Anakin and Palpatine, of these only the last was developed as it needed to be. The second is there if you take into account the Clone Wars series released after the fact, and the first isn't there at all.

I actually think the PT would improve immensely if you cut out The Phantom Menace entirely. It would still by one bad film and one decent film, but as bad as Aot C can get, at least it has a point.

edited 2nd Apr '18 1:56:22 PM by BigMadDraco

Which would have a lot more meaning if it wasn't "Aha but no! An Evil space Wizard did it all from behind the scenes and the too powerful corporation were as dupe as everyone else!"

I'd disagree with that. Palpatine and Anakin's relation is poorly developped. They have like, 4 meaningful scenes together? And the first two have a jarring jump

TPM:

Palpatine: "We'll keep an eye on you as you grow up. Wink wink nudge nudge ImNotEvil"

AOTC:

Anakin: "Man Palpatine, I love how those time you (Offscreen) gave me advice and were sort of like a father figure when I grew up. Your advise that's helped me out of so many nonspecific and (offscreen) binds. You know, all that stuff that was never depicted on screen but is why I trust you implicitly more than I do my own master"

Hows about you all take this discussion to the Star Wars General, if you plan on continuing it.

Said space wizard did nothing wizardly to do anything, literally the first time you see him use anything is with Mace Windu at the end of the third movie.

Doctor Who: Aliens of London

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