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Arghhhh's Replies
I liked Thor Ragnarok - they've finally made a comic book movie that's like the comics; bright, ridiculous, OTT, cross over characters and a whole lot of weird - but fun - shit.
But you're right, we're living in the post plot age. So sad to see. Can't help but wonder if its smart phones killing our attention spans? But then that makes me sound like I'm 100 years old.
I suspect he has zero power... KK just wanted somebody technically professional to bring her vision of a vagina based caste system in space through to fruition.
Look at all the other directors/writers that got fired. And the reshoots on R1. RJ is just a patsy.
It does make you wonder how shit like this gets past the first draft never mind the finished film. Did they need to have bombs 'falling' in space? People say 'it's just a movie' or 'it's Sci Fi' so it gets a pass but that's just bullshit - I'm already having to suspend disbelief that this glowing rectangle showing flat images of famous people means anything at all so why the fuck should I have to create my own head cannon just to explain lazy writing?
Thanks
Now back to Rey. She's super duper shiny and flawless and beats Ren without much effort the first time they meet. Yeah yeah he was injured but from a story point of view it's still fucked as it totally destroys the emotive impact of them meeting again. How do you write that? How do you 'fix' it? Fucked if I know so I can see why RJ just dodged that bullet and just has Rey hanging around a bit. The matrix sequels had the same problem - they turned Neo into a god by the end of the first film so the following two were fucked.
I'm not defending RJ and you're right about TLJ but it's hard building something on rotten foundations. There's a big big difference between unanswered questions and threads left hanging to be expanded upon in a sequel and what we actually got, which was the *absence* of plot points. JJ didn't 'set up' anything, he just left big empty spaces in lore, world building and character development and crucially these empty spaces all belong in the story prior to VII not after it.
JJA essentially made part VIII not apparently giving a shit about how the fuck they'd fill in both the past and the future for the next film.
Yes, RJ could have done a better job (so could most of us here) but as a writer myself I know how hard it is to tell one story, never mind while simultaneously fixing the mistakes of somebody elses.
Look at somebody like Rey... when Luke meets Vader in Empire he gets destroyed. Vader doesn't even break a sweat; we think Luke is holding his own and then we learn Vader is just fucking with him. Vader is the master, Luke is the apprentice, and when the apprentice goes unprepared against the master he doesn't just get beaten, he gets humiliated. And by his father no less. Not only is this fantastic drama in itself it sets things up perfectly for when they meet again in Jedi - Luke is now stronger, he has completed his training, he beats Vader but in doing so almost loses himself and then ultimately triumphs over the emperor due to the love he holds for his Father. Star Wars gets a lot of shit (especially since the sequels!) for being a kids movie, for being about 'Space Wizards' but this story arc is timeless and is equal to anything from the greats, Sophocles would have given his left bollock to write something like this.
TBC...
I really doubt that. Pretty sure he got given an enormous cheque so they could use his name. Sure he wrote a few lines but that mess is pure JJA.
I haven't and I doubt I could watch it without punching the screen. It also sounds like a nice bit of marketing spin, a good bit of hockey charm for the plebs to lap up. In fact now that I think about it his entire 'mystery box' style is just marketing spin - it's not a flaw it's a feature it's *meant* to be retarded etc.
Got to hand it to the little fuck - he knows how to spin. He should be a politician really, that way he could only fuck up reality and not our childhood memories.
Yep - totally agree.
Absolutely. He's actually a genius when you think of it. He's got himself directing gigs despite having no discernible talent and ruined two of the best loved film franchises in history without harming his reputation. I genuinely think of him as a Frank Underwood type character, he's obviously a very skilled political operator and smart business man. Let's be honest, his success to talent ratio is off the fucking charts.
His manoeuvring with Star Wars is incredible: set up a story that goes nowhere, let RJ take the heat of the fans when the nonexisting story lines begin to show cracks, then step in as 'saviour'.
But it will be very interesting.... will he be forced to actually write an ending for once? But then there's talk of this other trilogy so maybe we can get some more 'mysteries' to be left open for that?
I'd love to see the fucker's chickens come home to roost but unfortunately I think too many people have invested too much effort in convincing themselves this new trilogy isn't shit already to let it fail. My prediction is that we will have more of the same:
A lazy rehash of the few Star Wars elements not all ready reheated
Lando and/or Wedge to make a heroic return before being promptly killed off
He'll Throw a bone to the Rey/snoke background issue with some clunky expository hand waving but actual satisfactory explanations will be non existent
And the rest will just be explosions, lens flare and noise.
The critics will love it. The fans will hate it but still watch it. Everyone else will go see it and forget about it. Salon will cream themselves as Rey becomes god empress of the known universe. It'll make Billions but only a fraction of what it would have done if it had actually been any good, and we'll be here fighting the good fight/arguing with strangers on the internet.
Can't wait!
Well tbf Looper was a big mess as well so maybe you're right about RJ.
Yes I am. That is kind of the point. RJ only had total control of a story already compromised by someone who actively dislikes stories and let me say this: the ending IS the story. If the ending is shit it's a bad story. If there's no ending then there is no story. And there is no story to TFA there's just stolen plot from ANH and then some TBC mystery box shit.
Rabbit hole? Don't insult Lewis Carol by associating him with this hack.
'Fun'. You can't even bring yourself to say 'good' because your conscience won't let you.
If it isn't a copy name me one other film (outside of remakes) that so closely follow another's story line & characters.
The new characters are awful. We have Rey who's a gender swapped Luke with super powers so ludicrous they ruin all dramatic tension and established mythos, Finn who's apparently a trained killer from birth but acts like he's auditioning for Bad Boys II, Ren whose annakin with none of the charm or, you know, explanations for why he's evil, some sorry CGI Yoda, and then Hux, who has all the menace of a perturbed red setter. Then there's the original cast, probably the best loved characters in history and they piss all over them.
The 'interesting story lines' are bollocks and would require RJ to come up with answers that satisfied 2 years of hype. Why bother threading that needle when the audience and critics didn't care about the gaping holes and contrivances of VII, Is it any wonder he just thought 'fuck it'?
Box office is no indicator of quality and it is clear anything would have raked in billions. TFA is unique in history as it had massive hype (thanks to the originals) but low expectations (thanks to the prequels).
JJAs Star Trek is as dumb as they come but crucially, it wasn't Star Trek. If you want to make a breezy space action film then go nuts! But fuck off with stealing the ideas of more talented people.
The guy is a parasite.
Well put! But it's actually worse than that... they went on the record, time and time again, saying this was going somewhere, that they had it all figured out.
Lying cunts.
But what surprised me isn't that they made it all up as they went along - that was pretty apparent in the 2nd season with the abrupt shift into sci fi - it was that they were made up for the ending was so bad. They should just have picked the best internet fan theories rather than the giant but-plug story line (which I presume was a deliberate fuck you to everyone who bothered to watch until the end).
Incorrect
Well at last we agree on something. There is plenty of misandry in the world... and the funny thing it's very often men who are the most guilty of that (just as women are entirely capable of misogyny).
But no, somehow I doubt that if Rey was Ray and everybody here still made the equally valid points about her/his absurd power growth (as people did about Anakin!) you'd claim misandry. You'd either be far more willing to accept the criticism (men are actually usually far happier criticising other men than women) or you'd fall back to the next line of defence that implies the people who disagree with you are morally inferior.
Does he change into a well written character?
(and does criticising a badly written male character make me a misandrist?)
"Pssst! Froggy... Rey is a Mary Sue".
My point is that if people, movie goers, fans, casuals, whoever (and critics - though their opinion holds as much water with me as a fork) were more discerning, more critical of VII we might have got a better part VIII. You're right, it was always guaranteed to make money but I found the critical/public reception to be insane - *especially* considering this was the 4th awful Star Wars film in a row.
And PS: Rey is a Mary Sue.