STAR WARS (untagged spoilers, yo)

[Mazamaxe]

Carrie Fisher's daughter to play Young Princess Leia:
http://hollywoodlife.com/2014/06/30/...s-episode-vii/

I hope that's not true.

[CousinMerl]

If it's flashbacks we're talking about, it'll be a first for Star Wars (the movie saga, at least).

[King of Infinite Space]

Well, seems Kevin Smith had some good things to say about the production of this new film:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...s-9576664.html

[CousinMerl]

[Mazamaxe]

After hard thinking I have decided that to me the best Star Wars movie is the first one (episode IV). The other two (episodes V & VI) are of course second and third best for me.

[CousinMerl]

The Empire Strikes Back Uncut

[pax]

My favourite Star Wars film is ROTJ. Even though the ewoks are a weak point, the Palpatine-Vader-Luke scenes more than make up for it.
I think one thing that would be really awesome is if they included Galen Marek in one of these new films.

[OldSchoolerSimpsons]

My favourite Star Wars film is ROTJ. Even though the ewoks are a weak point, the Palpatine-Vader-Luke scenes more than makes up for it.

Yes! Return Of The Jedi is my second favorite!
It's very underrated and Luke's fight with the monster down in the hole is my favorite scene from the whole franchise. I just love it!

[ThatsAPaddlin]

Goddamnit, no.

I = A New Hope
II = The Empire Strikes Back
III = Return of the Jedi

Fuck the prequels. They are just bad fanfic. And fuck anything Lucas later digitally added to the films. I respect the Star Wars Holiday Special more than the Phantom fucking Menace.

[LukeMM95]

I respect the Star Wars Holiday Special more than the Phantom fucking Menace.

Uh, really. I mean Phantom Menace isn't a good movie but it's still watchable which is more than I can say for the Holiday Special.

I also only consider the original trilogy canon though. These new films will have to be REALLY have impressive in order for me to change my mind and I doubt they will.

In order of greatness:
1) Empire Strikes Back
2) Star Wars (I'm not calling it A New Hope)
3) Return of the Jedi

[CousinMerl]

I'm gonna go against the flow (the prequel haters) and admit that I don't hate the the PT and consider all six films canon. I'd also much rather watch Episode I than the Holiday Special; it has problems like the rest of the prequels, but I honestly don't think it's such a horrible film; I never could bring myself to hate it (or the other prequels for that matter) and after a recent rewatch, I'd say it's an entertaining fantasy adventure with some good visuals and action.

So yeah, I wouldn't go out and say "fuck the prequels"; I acknowledge that they have several issues but I don't agree about them being the total shitfests the haters make them out to be.

[LukeMM95]

I grew up with the prequels and I used to consider all six films canon too. As I grew older though, I began to realize that there was something off about the prequels. The Phantom Menace and especially Attack of the Clones, just became so dull to me. I still saw some merits in Revenge of the Sith though. Then I saw the Red Letter Media reviews and any appreciation I had for the prequels disappeared. Sure they have flashy visuals and some creative action scenes but all that doesn't matter if the films themselves are completely devoid of good characters and writing. They're soulless movies and when you think about it, quite pointless. I mean we really didn't need a back story for Darth Vader. He was a better character when his past was left to our imagination.

[OldSchoolerSimpsons]

Completely disagree @LukeMassMurderer95, I think they gave a really fascinating look into his backstory and I didn't want it left to my imagination. Somebody becomes that evil for a reason and I think Revenge Of The Sith did a great job at convincing how someone who was all good in his heart became a hateful maniac. Attack Of The Clones wasn't that bad, it was just filled with annoying filler, like Anakin and Padme in their "paradise" or whatever the fuck you call it. The only movie which played absolutely no value to the series (except for that famous Yoda-quote) was The Phantom Menace.

[LukeMM95]

Watch the Red Letter Media reviews @GhoulSpookerSnospisEht

They'll explain the prequels problems far better than I can. Also they're hilarious (I'm actually watching the episode 3 review as I type this)

[Captain Squid]

Red Letter Media fucking sucks.

As a piece of mock film critique, they're sophomoric and moronic. I assume the point was to make fun of actual YouTube film critiques. As an actual critique, they're just so god damn bad. I still don't get why people point to them rather than forming their own complaints about the prequels. So many liberties are taken with the critique, rather than making a decent argument, the guy uses smear tactics, blanket statements, and honestly some really bizarre ways to back up his arguments. Like the questioning five different people who are actually his friends in on the joke.

[LukeMM95]

Red Letter Media fucking sucks.

As a piece of mock film critique, they're sophomoric and moronic. I assume the point was to make fun of actual YouTube film critiques. As an actual critique, they're just so god damn bad. I still don't get why people point to them rather than forming their own complaints about the prequels. So many liberties are taken with the critique, rather than making a decent argument, the guy uses smear tactics, blanket statements, and honestly some really bizarre ways to back up his arguments. Like the questioning five different people who are actually his friends in on the joke.

To each their own. I personally love the Red Letter Media team and have been a huge fan of theirs ever since I first saw the Phantom Menace review. While there have been a few times where I've disagreed with them (They praised the Avengers, a movie I really didn't care for), most of the time, I think they're right on the money. I love their review style and they're hilarious to boot.

Their humour is very tongue-in-cheek but their opinions are genuine. The Plinkett reviews were originally just Mike Stoklasa's way of expressing how he felt about the Star Trek: next generation movies and later the Star Wars prequels. He used the Plinkett character to add humour to the reviews and stop them from sounding boring. And I've never had a problem with this. It all comes across as very smart and well backed up. He makes a point about how a certain scene is poorly written and I can't for the life of me think of a counter argument. The part at the beginning of the Phantom Menace review where he asks his friends to describe certain characters may not have been the most reliable method for a real response but it was a good way to make the audience think about the questions themselves. I honestly can't give a good description of Qui-Gon and Padme and even if you did have an answer, he explained later in his review how these characters are completely flat and how all their actions make no sense.

Could you go into more detail on these so called "Bizarre ways to back up his arguments", because it made perfect sense to me?

[pax]

The only good parts of ROTS were the final battle and Ewan McGregor. Ian Mcdiarmid was also excellent. Everything else was shit. Attack of The Clones was a complete bore. The final battle of The Phantom Menace made no sense. Why the hell didn't Darth Maul finish off Obi-Wan?

[Captain Squid]

I honestly can't give a good description of Qui-Gon and Padme and even if you did have an answer, he explained later in his review how these characters are completely flat and how all their actions make no sense.

Could you go into more detail on these so called "Bizarre ways to back up his arguments", because it made perfect sense to me?

That was one of my major issues with the videos, because it is very easy to describe these characters and their actions do make sense. Qui-Gon was fatherly, strong, brave, headstrong (defying the council), patient, calm (dealing with the podrace bets), faithful. Dude is pretty much the most OT Jedi of the PT saga, and ended up being the Jedi to train Yoda and Obi-Wan post-PT era.

Padme in TPM, I'll admit, is a weak character, mainly because she is undercover as a handmaiden for most of the film. Still, I'd classify her as inexperienced, headstrong (like Qui-Gon, which lead to them not agreeing on things throughout the film, an aspect they could have played up more), naive, mysterious (recall that when TPM premiered Padme and Queen Amidala were marketed as two different characters, much like Palpatine and Sidious - a nice bit of mirroring and playing up "The Phantom Menace" theme of duel natures).

As far as the bizarre methods of criticism, he relied heavily on nitpicking with no real depth to what he was saying. He describes characters with a single line as "boring", when really they're only there to do a single action of hailing another ship. I have no clue how this is "boring". It's like me saying that the Rebel pilots in ANH's briefing room are boring. A minute into the movie, he says he is "bored already". Of what? I was at TPM on premiere night and it was fucking exciting to see the ship flying towards the space station. All new ship designs and characters, regardless of what people thought of the rest of the film, the first minute was not boring. I might as well call Return of the Jedi's intro boring because hey, it is the exact same intro as TPM. Shuttle flying toward space station, no-name characters getting permission to land.

His arguments that there is no clear villain or main character confuses the hell out of me. ANH began with the droids and it isn't until 20 minutes in that we meet Luke, yet I'm not scratching my head and hating on the movie because they didn't point out who the main character is. In fact, even ANH focuses on several main characters, there are more than one: the droids (first scene), Leia (first human to appear), Luke (not until 20 mins in), Han. Really, TPM - like ANH - is an ensemble film with Luke being the focus of ANH and Qui-Gon being the focus of TPM.

As far as the villain, for starters the movie is called "The Phantom Menace" for a reason. The threat is supposed to be veiled, but we the viewer and those in touch with the OT know that the Emperor aka Darth Sidious is the puppet master pulling the strings. Sidious is the villian, Maul is his apprentice, and the Trade Federation are the pawns. It's so easy to comprehend, yet RLM plays it off like its some sort of indecipherable puzzle.

He'll also post questions and proclaim there is no answer, when the answer is very clear. He'll also purposefully twist what the film clearly lays out and blames the film for his own mistakes:

Plinkett: "So the Jedis are there to do what exactly? According to the opening title crawl, it was to settle a dispute over the taxation of trade routes. So what makes the Jedi Knights experts in intergalactic trade laws."

The opening crawl states that they were sent to "settle the conflict." The problem is not the taxes but the blockade, again as stated in the opening crawl. The situation had switched to the blockade, stating that the Chancellor sent the Jedi in secret because the Republic was useless and just "endlessly debates" without resolving "this alarming chain of events" (the blockade).

But nope, Plinkett is happy to believe what he wants to believe in order to make him sound like the smart one and the movie sounding like the one being confusing.

If I ever had to debate any form of media with somebody like the RLM guy, I'd walk away. Because people like him, parody or not, just want to get under your skin and twist the facts of the argument. Much like most of the people in the Simpsons R&R threads now that I think about it, lol

[CousinMerl]

Never could bring myself to watch the RLM Plinkett prequel reviews; I remember started watching the first but it was essentially the same old bitching and moaning how the prequels are boring and uninteresting, the stories are complicated, the characters are bad and completely flat, nothing makes sense etc. in an somewhat new, annoying coat so I couldn't finish it or even bother with the others (In all fairness, he makes himself sound dumb and dense but then again, I suppose a lot of it supposed to be a spoof).

I'd rather watch critical reviews by an unbiased non-hater who doesn't act like a king snark and make a farce of it all (oh, and good post above @Captain Squid).

[CousinMerl]

Episode VII gets it's title:

https://twitter.com/OfficialWars/sta...402560/photo/1

[Sniper Squirrel]

Yeah, kind of a stupid title

[Johnny Deformed]

I think it's alright. In the past only the second and third films of each trilogy have had a "something of the something" title and personally I don't think it's any cheesier than say, A New Hope.

[steamed_hamms]

every star wars movie has a stupid title, we'll get used to it

[Noroomatthe Innmate No. 2]

yeah stupid titles are kind of their thing

[Steve]

The Force Awakens is fine. "Attack of the Clones" and "The Phantom Menace" are way cheesier-sounding. I'm just glad they finally announced the title.

[LukeMM95]

every star wars movie has a stupid title, we'll get used to it

Come on, "The Empire Strikes Back" is a pretty cool sounding title.

[Kaine]

Not a great name but not that bad either.

[King of Infinite Space]

It's at least better than Star Wars Episode VII: We're Doing This For the Money

[CousinMerl]

Come on, "The Empire Strikes Back" is a pretty cool sounding title.

It's as silly and pulp serial sounding as the others (which kinda is the point).

[ThatsAPaddlin]

As far as titles go, "Attack of the Clones" is straight up 60's B movie level.

The Star Wars Rebels movie was actually really good! If you like the expanded universe stuff/don't mind CGI, check it out. Rebels takes place five years before "A New Hope", and the TV show has been great so far.

"The Force Awakens" should open like this: