This article brings out the positives quite well, I thought.
https://www.theatlantic.com/enterta...wars-episode-viii/548402/?utm_source=quartzfb
https://www.theatlantic.com/enterta...wars-episode-viii/548402/?utm_source=quartzfb
Film Star Wars: Episode VIII
- Thread starter Someone
- Start date
Spoilers in it, obv.
Rose and Paige actresses aren't Chinese, they're Viet, Chinese hate Vietnamese as much as they hate Japanese. They're also kinda racist, photoshoped Finn out of TFA's poster last time. Making Rose kisse Finn, I can tell, isn't a good idea.
If Hollywood want Chinese bucks, they' need to do the research again.
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Isn't most of China totally indifferent to Star Wars anyway?
Relatively - The Force Awakens did $124m over there, whereas Fate of the Furious made $392m.
Am I the only one who finds in-depth discussions of the plot of a kids movie a little odd? It’s not as though plot has been a real strength of any Star Wars movie ever. It’s all basic good vs evil fairytale shenanigans, with all the hackneyed plot contrivances you’d expect from the genre. Nobody ever watched a Star Wars movie for the plot. At least nobody should have. What you hope for is an hour or two of generic but exciting space opera. Which is what this delivered in spades. It looked absolutely gorgeous too. All of which more than makes up for whatever issues anyone might have with plot. IMO anyway.
Yeah it's actually a bit strange now you mention it. The original fans of the franchise have grown up I suppose.
Or not.
Good point.
Sure, and following the exploits of a bunch of millionaires playing a game you played at school is the hallmark of maturity.
Exactly my thoughts. Let’s be honest the original trilogy was hardly high brow writing.
I thoroughly enjoyed every ridiculous moment of this film, it was ace.
Of course it is. It’s tremendously immature. But only truly if you throw gigantic strops whenever we lose a game, or (more accurately) when we win a game, but the manager doesn’t utilise your favourite player in the way you’d like.
@Ubik @squiggle Looks like I was dead wrong about online fan reaction tbf. It’s been utterly cringeworthy for a completely different reason. No less hilarious though.
I thought it was miles better than the last one. Full of flaws and way too long but genuinely fun in places, and the meta-anti-nostalgia narrative was a lovely resonant touch for me. These films are for kids. All kids. Modern kids. And they should continue being for kids, rather then endlessly keep jerking off the same early middle aged white man children.
I read somewhere that they have a quota on foreign movie they show in their cinema, and having chinese faces, or filmed in china, or having some chinese actors plays a part often part of the deal. They even slyly want a chinese movie corp logo displayed on the opening screen even when they have little to do with the movie. Fan bing bing in xmen, transformer in shanghai, it's all due to china market.
"Good, Good. Let the hate flow through you."That video is depressing. In this mass produced modern cinema there will be few characters as iconic and culturally significant as Luke, Leia and Han, I would have preferred a different direction for them in the new films.
Seems irrational to be so attached to fictional characters, but wouldn't change it, storytelling is in our blood as a species. I read a lot of the EU books in my teens, grew out of it but 20 years later I still care too much about their story. Seeing those 3 fail so badly had me feeling like a teen again.
Seems irrational to be so attached to fictional characters, but wouldn't change it, storytelling is in our blood as a species. I read a lot of the EU books in my teens, grew out of it but 20 years later I still care too much about their story. Seeing those 3 fail so badly had me feeling like a teen again.
I reckon you can overthink this stuff. And it'd be beyond tiring. It'd be dull and useless. That story's been told.
Long story short, the above bolded part is spot on. The movie plays like a second draft. There are 'key moments' that don't play to universal appeal because they didn't set them up correctly.
Yes. Most of Asia, actually. Japan is the only country where the SW franchise performs in line with industry metrics. SW's performance in China, Korea, etc. has a slight to moderate to even heavy dip as opposed to other 'blockbuster' franchises. It's kind of interesting if you see it on a graph. It's like, what exactly is the reason for this?
Only thirty-four* 'foreign' films are allowed to be released in each calendar year. A film whose budget exceeds a certain amount of Chinese-finance, or having a certain amount of scenes filmed on Chinese soil can count as a 'domestic' production. Neither of your examples - fan bing bing/transformers shanghai - has to do with that particular technical aspect though; those were just purely marketability things. (With regards to the TF example, IIRC something like 60% of the scenes have to be filmed on Chinese soil for it to count as domestic.)
*if you think about it, it's a tiny tiny number. Basically the entire thirty-four are taken up by the biggest Hollywood releases of the year.
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We're on the same page, though I would defend anyone's right to criticise it. Some criticisms are certainly more constructive and worthy than other. Indeed, some are straying worryingly close to blatant sexism and racism.
That there's nobody more conservative than a hardcore star wars fan...
It was dull the first time.
Agreed. I read earlier someone complaining about how all the "diversity" was against Star Wars' Anglo Saxon roots or something... It takes a lot to see that in a film that stole half of its story from japan.
Making a movie for kids doesn’t excuse them from being shit. Surely making a good movie that has cohesive storytelling, believable acting/characters and passable dialogue are minimum requirements, no matter what audience it’s aimed at. I was a kid when the prequels came out, and I disliked them almost as much as I do now. The endless political garbage and senate meetings was surely not meant for kids, or adults for that matter. It was just shite, plain and simple. There are many things that are also as equally shite in TLJ, and you don’t have to be an adult to spot them either.
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And a 9 year old Anakin blowing up the trade flagship was a level of Mary Sue that even Rey can not match. Suspension of disbelief overload.
Just remembering that scene made me cringe.
Even if you reduce expectations to these levels I still feel the film came up short.
Yes, there was lots of fun stuff there, but at its runtime and with the absolute dirge that the middle section was I'd really struggle to call that film exciting. It felt like a Guardians of the Galaxy film (which is a franchise which does what you're talking about quite well) slapped with a Star Wars badge, sprinkled with an ill earned sense of self-entitlement and stretched out to breaking point.
Dunno about diversity but it definitely had the ugliest cast of any Star Wars film. Close ups of Emo Rens boils and pasty belly were not welcome, and that rebel woman who looked like big bird had a schnozz that could duel a lightsabre.
Guardians of the Galaxy is great though. For a kids film. So I’ve no problem with the comparison. Plus this movie does still have something unique and Star Warsy about it, that sets it apart from most other movies of this ilk. Even if it is just because its pushing nostalgia buttons in my subconcscious. I didn’t find it stretched at all fwiw. Considering how incredibly long it was I felt it rattled along nicely.
One thing (which was obvious before but even more so with this thread) is you cant please everybody.
This thread has had posts saying the casino stuff sucked to it being good.
Its had part about Reys parents being disappointing because it didnt match theories or excellent because ... it didnt match theories
Same with Snoke.
Some people liked the new character so are happy with the direction whilst some dont like the new characters so are unhappy with the focus on it.
It really is a whole new level of mixed in this thread.
I really liked the movie. The one scene i still dont like is the Leia one (and only cos it looked like amateur footage compared to everything else which looked spectacular)
This thread has had posts saying the casino stuff sucked to it being good.
Its had part about Reys parents being disappointing because it didnt match theories or excellent because ... it didnt match theories
Same with Snoke.
Some people liked the new character so are happy with the direction whilst some dont like the new characters so are unhappy with the focus on it.
It really is a whole new level of mixed in this thread.
I really liked the movie. The one scene i still dont like is the Leia one (and only cos it looked like amateur footage compared to everything else which looked spectacular)
Given the mixed opinions on this and the arguments made I'm still confused why this place loved Rogue One. Now there was a ridiculous film.
I did roll my eyes at times with this but it redeemed itself as a blockbuster spectacle sufficiently gor me.
I did roll my eyes at times with this but it redeemed itself as a blockbuster spectacle sufficiently gor me.
Oh yeah, that's not a dig, I like Guardians of the Galaxy, but it has pretty much perfected that sort of lighthearted action film in space thing. Star Wars has always had its lighthearted moments and its side characters that serve no purpose other than being cute, but there does seem to be a particular Disney marvelesque action/humour hybrid style which this film (and TFA) imported wholesale which just left it feeling like an poor imitation of a film series that had done it before and better.
I guess the big issue was that it led to a film that just didn't know what it wanted to be. The humour often felt forced (the iron gag) and, worse, occasionally ruined the tension of scenes.
I also fundamentally don't believe that you didn't get a bit bored during the Rey and Luke training sequences and god knows how long we spent on that casino romp that fundamentally had no bearing on the film whatsoever.
I don't know, my criticism of TFA was its lack willingness to take risks so it's good to see it move away from that. I'm slightly more worried if its just moving towards the Disney superhero film formula, but I think my biggest criticisms of it are simply that I just don't think it was a very good film, Star Wars or no. You think differently, and I'm happy for you and a bit jealous, god knows I want to like these films.
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I wonder how it would have fared without harrison ford playing han solo .Or even without the Han Solo character altogether and just relied on Luke Skywalker
The central theme of each set of films is that a special child will either save or feck up the galaxy. But now some wooden actress with no training (acting or force), from ordinary parentage, can just run amok and do whatever she likes.
I'm sure next we'll see her training hundreds of broom-wielding kids with cheap rings to blow up star destroyers.
I'm sure next we'll see her training hundreds of broom-wielding kids with cheap rings to blow up star destroyers.
So now I'm wondering if Anakin wasn't actually force conceived but it was some dirty Sith or jedi git force projecting himself into his mum.
Trilogy under SJW Disney continues to be a major shitshow. The long list of plot holes, stupid plot lines and inconsistencies in terms of character abilities and personalities continues from TFA.
The only people who like it are probably those who have never seen the originals or have never invested in EU properly.
The only people who like it are probably those who have never seen the originals or have never invested in EU properly.
Parts I really didn't like:
- Leia floating back to her ship through space... So much cringe but also what purpose does she serve? They should have let her die. This was probably the worst.
- The amount of times there was a coincidentally perfect timing of events that lead to them just about being saved. All movies use this, but they went a bit overboard.
- Rosie flying into Finn's ship to "save" him. Likelier outcome would've been they both blow up, not a ship perfectly hitting the other one so he comes out unscathed and she can just about kiss him before passing out. Come on.
- Snoke being pretty underwhelming and getting killed so easily just because he was savoring the moment of Rey dying so wasn't aware of anything. If it was some random, ok, but this guy is supposed to be one of the main bad guys? Also didn't really explain anything about him.
- That brief bit of comedy with the fighter pilot and the first order commander guy over the phone. Felt out of place and too forced.
I think just a glance at this thread would prove you wrong. However, you're probably too busy creating online polls, reminiscing about the time Lando introduced Luke to hot chocolate in the expanded universe (true story) or worrying that this trilogy might finish without a kid going 'yippeee!' before growing up to kill a school full of children to save a romance less believable than Screech and Lisa's on/off relationship in Saved by The Bell.
I agree with all of what you said, except the last one. I felt some of the humour in the film was out of place and detracted from the situations in which it was used. In this instance though, I felt it worked. Poe Dameron is a cocky git, he needed to buy time.