Blarghagh

I would hire a lot of assassins and have every one here killed.

I dunno, the writer and director duo's biggest credit is Sinister.

...With unlimited resources, there's nothing stopping you from pouring it all into virtual reality research, and let everyone live in their own simulated version of whatever nice place they want to live in.

Lame one here due to scheduling conflicts. Celebrating with my family tomorrow and the inlaws the day after.

I don't know. Force Awakens has flaws but on the most part it has characters who for the most part have at least a little personality, clear stakes and goals and some nifty action sequences fueled by some character motivation and especially how it echoes a lot of the original movie to appeal to people's nostalgia. It's not hard to see why it's well-liked. Comparing to The Phantom Menace as a trilogy starter, I can't say that movie had any of those things. In Force Awakens, the lead is Rey. I mean, I can't even tell who the lead is supposed to be in Phantom Menace. It's not Obi-Wan, he gets left behind most of the film. It's not Padmé or the Queen, who are treated as seperate characters and we barely get to know. It's definitely not Anakin, he doesn't even appear until halfway through. In Force Awakens, we know what will happen if they don't blow up Death Star 3.0 - Leia and the Resistance dies. What happens if the Trade Federation wins in Phantom Menace? During the lightsaber battle in Force Awakens, they're fighting for survival and revenge. In Phantom Menace, they're fighting because Darth Maul... is there, I guess? As simple and one note as the personalities in Force Awakens are (Finn the coward with a conscience, Poe the snarky pilot with something to prove, Kylo Ren the insecure emo Sith Lord wannabe) at least they are personalities, even when not counting the always crowd-pleasing Han Solo. What's Qui-Gonn's personality in Phantom Menace? Stoic? Obi-Wan's also kindof... stoic. Padmé is stoic and the queen even moreso. The Jedi council? All stoic. The only really memorable personality in Phantom Menace is Jar Jar... that's not really great. Like I said, I have a fondness for Phantom Menace mostly because of the great design work of a space fantasy adventure, but I can see why people would gravitate towards this one moreso than Phantom Menace, at least. Anyway, crowd-pleasing doesn't exactly make a good film. Millions apparently loved Jurassic World. Hell, I'm one of them*, thoroughly enjoyed that dinosaur romp - probably enjoyed that film on a visceral "fun" level more than any other film this year. Doesn't mean it's a quality story. *Don't judge me. Jurassic Park is MY Star Wars. It's the first movie I ever saw in theatres, the first time a movie completely blew me away and it's tailor made to my childhood obsession with dinosaurs. It's a perfect storm of elements that I love. What is essentially a light action-remix full of nostalgia and silly but awesome moments is right up my alley, especially in a time when even superhero movies are sometimes gloomy, humorless affairs that take themselves too seriously (I'm looking at you, Man of Steel). I cheered when the old T-Rex from the original movie showed up and kicked ass and I'm not ashamed of it.

How are Bruce's ex-girlfriend photos and name relevant the topic? I don't want to have to get out the pruning shears, please get on topic instead of dismantling another member's history like an old maid.

Yeah, with a thread about the general election still on the front page I'm going to consider this a duplicate thread and close it.

I've said this before, but despite it being the worst film among the prequels Phantom Menace is my favourite. One of the reasons is because it really captured the whole space fantasy aspect of Star Wars. Naboo is gorgeous, we got space chariot races, our heroes free slaves, save the queen and almost literally sword-fight a demon (oh man, it sounds so awesome, why is it sooo bad). Whereas the other two were more sci-fi war films set in the same world as Star Wars and not quite Space Fantasy.

I think he's excused more on the fact that movies that didn't break the rules were significantly worse. Abrams was lucky that Lucas spent the last two decades lowering expectations.

I braved the insanity today and it took me half an hour to find a parking spot so I could go get groceries. >_

Saw it again. You know, I kinda get people who think Rey terrible character but right now I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. I'm pretty sure she's got some kind of secret background or memory tampering to justify it: The fact that Kylo Ren taunts her about her loneliness and how she imagines a green island in a vast ocean (guess who we find in just such a place), and how Luke's lightsaber calls to her and triggers what could be visions or could be memories. The fact that they recorded Ewan McGregor calling her name... and that everyone seems to realize she's important despite her supposedly being a nobody. Kylo Ren doesn't just say she's strong in the Force, he specifically says that she's much stronger in the Force than she knows. The fact we have no idea who dumped her on Jakku and why, and that she uses a Jedi mind-trick despite nobody telling her that's even possible - how did she even know how to do that? She's got to have some serious built-in connection to this stuff. So thus far I'm perfectly willing to buy it for now - provided they explain it sufficiently in the upcoming sequels. If they don't, then she'll be a terrible character who can do everything right despite having no reason to. Right now I'm just not feeling that way. But maybe that's because I have a tiny crush on Daisy Ridley.

Painful indeed. Here's a hint for the members of this board: If you consider someone a troll, maybe you should also consider the rule about not feeding them.

We don't allow threads simply for advertising YouTube or Twitch channels.

I say that intepretation makes her even more annoying - now she keeps whining at you and she's not even right!

I'm with Fenix on this one. It took me at least two playthroughs to even start using Kreia because my first instinct was to simply skip everything she had to say because she was annoying and judgy and you could not get her to shut up, even by not taking her with you because half of what she has to say to you in the game she'll say through the force if she's not even there. Even then, she's frustrating because she's constantly talking about what gives you true strength (the grey path, so to speak) yet listening to her and pursuing influence with her weakens your character in the game. There's serious narrative dissonance between Kreia and the game mechanics. Even more annoyingly, if you don't pursue influence with Kreia, you get maybe half the story and that half doesn't make any sense without her input. Then there's the fact that there are scenarios where every available path has her chiding you. Like giving the homeless guy on Nar Shaddaa credits is bad, but being cruel is bad too, and those are the only options given... thanks for telling me I'm a jerk either way when I wanted to do neither. You're literally being railroaded for the sake of an NPC's aesops instead of actually roleplaying. Annoying hag. Well written annoying hag with incredible depth, but annoying hag nonetheless.

Hm. I was just linked to an article on Forbes' website and it didn't allow me access because I have an ad blocker. Shots ****ing fired, mate.

I think the real issue isn't really that people look younger per se, it's that they keep casting people with less flaws. Take Ghostbusters. Dan Arkroyd has a weird head, Bill Murray was balding and pockmarked, Ramis looks like a stuffy nerd. They weren't actually much older than people cast nowadays... but nowadays people their age have great hair and perfect skin. They lack grit and dirt and features of people who actually live instead of people who pretend to live for a living.

*shudders* Get it away, I'm getting post-traumatic flashbacks to the scene where he swings from vines with a bunch of monkeys! EDIT: Seriously though, when Last Crusade came out Ford was 50 and Connery was 60 (give or take a month or two). Ford looks significantly younger than his age.

But... your example of not casting people who look too young was Indiana Jones, starring Harrison Ford, the man who looks so much younger than his age that they cast a man only ten years his senior to play his elderly, stuffy father and nobody even noticed. That's the kind of mistake that can only come from someone so ancient and stuffy they can't remember what young people even look like... Not someone my age. In short - for my own faith in humankind, I've decided to not even believe you.

I have no idea why the First Order did anything.

I didn't mean that to be an insult. Just... you're obviously old. As for men following, the movie points out that the First Order has some clone armies and this specific one was brainwashed. Finn took off his helmet without orders and that was enough for him to be sent to "resocialisation". Who's following by choice? He doesn't need to inspire jack ****. It's more logical than Vader, who has been in office killing his underlings so long that he should have none left. We're talking about the army mechanics of Star Wars here.

While I feel like you're ridiculously overstating this and obviously bringing your own baggage of inferiority, I did watch Ghostbusters recently and realized there will never again be a movie cast quite like that. Yes, but my point was exactly that? He's Hitler Jugend. He's a fresh faced true believer for Snoke to use as he will, and he brought his own contigent of resoc'd space marines with him. He's not there to be a leader - he considers his troops to be self-sufficient which comes back to bite him in the butt when Finn betrays him. I've got no issues with either Hux or Kylo Ren's age, my issue with the villains is that Snoke didn't feel threatening. If Snoke felt threatening, they would have. Instead, Snoke is 100% reactionary and not a plot driving force in this movie.

I think you imposed that Tarkin/Vader dynamic upon it rather than it actually being there, because I felt this was far closer to Hitler Jugend than actual military leaders.

I love the effect Dawson Casting has had on cinema. Frat boys! Domnhall Gleeson and Adam Driver are both in their thirties.

Ain't that the truth. Citizen Kane is an important film in terms of the impact it had on film direction and cinematography, but boy is it a boring drag nowadays. The weird thing is, it's still John Williams making the music. But I felt it was more John Williams doing Harry Potter than John Williams doing Star Wars. Both are good, but very different.