Star Wars Discussion Thread

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TCTTS
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Wow. So Episode IX, the Star Wars live-action show, AND Star Wars Land all within like a two month window? That's insane.
Brian Earl Spilner
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I went on Extra Terror-estrial around age 9 or so and it scared the bejesus outta me.
Brian Earl Spilner
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fig96
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double aught said:

CJS4715 said:

Prepare for the absolute brutality of Florida humidity - September can absolutely suck balls. But, ya know what, it's a lot better than August heat + crowds.
Well I had to tote my almost four year old around Universal for four days last month, and I was drenched pretty much the entire time. So I'm hoping this will be a little better.

But I know I won't be able to carry her forever, so I wouldn't have traded it for the world.
Went right after Labor Day a few years ago and the lines were almost non-existent, it was glorious. Planning with my brother on when we're taking his boys (now 3 1/2 and 5 1/2) to Star Wars Land.
FL_Ag1998
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Brian Earl Spilner said:

Yep.

I went to Disneyland at 5 years old and have been a huge Disney fanboy ever since. Haven't been back to Orlando since around 2003, so I'm excited.

Sadly Star Wars Land won't be open, but I'm looking forward to Pandora. Have heard nothing but great things about it so far.


Just a few tips from a resident annual passholder, for the Star Tours ride at Hollywood Studios don't bother wasting a FastPass standby line for that ride never lasts longer than 20 minutes. Save your Fastpass for Tower of Terror, Aerosmith ride, or one of the two new rides in Toy Story Land. And if you can, ride the Star Tours ride more than once, since the actual scenes in the ride will likely be different each time.

For Pandora World in Animal Kingdom, definitely take the kids at night when everything is lit up and eat at The Cantina they have in Pandora world. Have a really cool "alien" take on their food and you can pre-order it on pear phone app and then just hit "I'm here" when you actually get to the restaurant ready to eat.

Liquid Wrench
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Quote:

Aerosmith ride
Never heard of this, but I just had some freakish vision of Steven Tyler's lips and scarves hitting you in the face along the ride.
Cinco Ranch Aggie
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ChiliBeans said:


Quote:

Aerosmith ride
Never heard of this, but I just had some freakish vision of Steven Tyler's lips and scarves hitting you in the face along the ride.
Rock and Roller Coaster. It is a blast.
Brian Earl Spilner
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Got our fastpasses for exactly those. RnR coaster, ToT, and the Slinky Dog ride.

And yeah, I actually told my brother we need to do Star Tours more than once. Lines shouldn't be too bad in mid-September.
The Collective
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Brian Earl Spilner said:

Got our fastpasses for exactly those. RnR coaster, ToT, and the Slinky Dog ride.

And yeah, I actually told my brother we need to do Star Tours more than once. Lines shouldn't be too bad in mid-September.


We were there in late April, and the standby time for Star Tours would fluctuate from 5 to 20 minutes. 5 minutes is kind of the default low time, so that means you are getting right on the ride. My son and I did it 4-5 times. We got the pod race one the first 2 times we did it, and I thought it was some kind of prequel curse following me around.
Farmer1906
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I think I rode Star Tours 4-5 times in a row without waiting one evening. They have several different versions so you'll likely not get repeats or at least not many.
Urban Ag
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We were at Hollywood studios later in the evening and it started pouring rain. They closed almost all the rides but Star Tours stayed open since its indoors. My wife and I took our older boy, 6 at the time, on it 14 times in a row. After about the sixth time I bowed out and had beers at the Indiana Jones adult refreshment kiosk. We could literally get off the ride and just run right back to the front of the line. It was great. Pretty sure we saw every scenario available at the time.
Fat Bib Fortuna
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My junior year at A&M (95) went to Disney with my brother, sister in law and parents. It had poured rain and we went on Star Tours twice. Second time just me and my dad, who at age 47 said "let's not put the seatbelts on and see how cool it is." I agreed cuz my dad is awesome. But before it started up we got a canned video of 3PO saying "Oh my it appears soe of our passengers are not following correct safety protocol."
AliasMan02
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Had to share this killer art from Fantasy Flight's new RPG preview.

The Clone Wars is what the prequels should have been. I hope in the Kenobi movie we at least get a flashback to a live action scene like this.




https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/8/10/rise-of-the-separatists/
AliasMan02
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Finally picking this up for the single player and will give multiplayer a spin.
double aught
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Thanks for the info. Downloading now. Can't pass it up for nine bucks, especially with a campaign.
Render
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Where's the good part in this game

Ea: it's in the loot crates
Ag Since 83
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Couple thoughts on John Williams without derailing the Episode IX thread again:

1. How has he not gotten a lifetime achievement award from the Academy?

2. Friend and I got tickets to the John Williams 40th anniversary show at the Hollywood Bowl first weekend in September
Brian Earl Spilner
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1. He will be. *Yoda voice*

2. One of the things I'd like to do before I die. (Fingers crossed he shows up at Celebration 2019?)
twilly
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I saw JW at the Hollywood Bowl last September when the Ags were at UCLA. Two things:

1. It truly was one of the best experiences in my life to hear JW lead an orchestra playing the Star Wars theme and Imperial March. An absolute must if you get the chance.

2. I had a much better time at the concert than I had at the game.
Brian Earl Spilner
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This is a good (albeit long) watch.

The Collective
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And. Here. We. Go.
Saul Goodman
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That was good - thanks for sharing.
bangobango
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At the risk of being shouted down for responding to the video (don't read if you don't want to read more criticism from me for TLJ)

I have only watched half of the linked video at this point, but my initial thoughts -

I don't disagree with him on everything, I enjoyed some aspects of the film. I actually kind of liked what they were doing with Luke's character. The problem is, there is no follow-through on the themes, and there are way too many "Ah-ha!" set-ups that weren't worth the pay-off. Holdo is a good example. Yeah, I understand why that character cannot be Akbar (sidenote - I think most wanted Akbar to do the kamikaze bit, not necessarily completely replace Holdo), but the entire plot device is ridiculous. In any military organization, flat-out mutiny is punishable by death. That's a pretty big stretch of the imagination that this guy is just glossing over. I also think it would have gone over better if, rightly or wrongly, it didn't have the feeling to a lot of people of being lectured to about toxic masculinity.

Second, as I said, I liked where they were going with Luke's character. I thought the concept of the Jedi needing to die was an interesting idea and I was excited to see where they were going to go with it. But it doesn't go anywhere. I mean, Rey goes straight for the dark side, but then turns down Ren when he asks her to join him. To have her accept that invitation would have been cool and interesting and would have made sense in the context of where they were setting things up to that point. But they chicken out. Ending the Jedi order would have been cool as well. I personally think the Jedi are boring. I like the light saber battles, but I think the doctrine of the Jedi makes me want to take a nap and I was not a big fan of how they were portrayed in the prequels. But they chicken out of going anywhere with it. Yoda burns down the temple, but "ah-ha!" Rey stole the books. Luke doesn't want to use the force anymore, but "ah-ha!" then he uses the force and saves the resistance (but "ah-ha!" he's not really there, it was all just a projection and now he dies, "ah-ha!" again).

Why did he change his mind? B/c of nostalgia for the good old days? Why set things up to go this way and then back out of it at the end. There was a great philosophical question that was set-up in the first part of that movie - Can somebody justify the existence of the Jedi order? But they never go anywhere with it. They never explain why the Jedi should stay around, even though they seem to make a really compelling argument for why it should end.

Yes, Abrams put Johnson in a tough spot, and to be honest, I think TLJ greatly detracts from the Force Awakens. I think a lot less of that movie now than I did before seeing TLJ. What was the theme of this movie? Rian Johnson wanted to make it layered and deep, but it just comes out as a shallow mess. All of the big moments of the movie, all those gotchas he tried to throw in there just feel fake and not really earned at all. The interesting questions and dilemmas that are raised are never really addressed and answered, they're just glossed over and forgotten in order to get to the next beat of the big blockbuster movie.

In the end, the movie felt to me, and I think to a lot of other people, as a stark criticism of the original trilogy - that the simple stories of good and evil, of a heroic male figure, of redemption, that all that was for simple people and a simple time. There is some nihilism in TLJ and it doesn't fit the franchise and it's executed in such a amateurish way that it comes across as insulting rather than thought provoking.
Dro07
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45 min on why he loved it... sounds excessive
Brian Earl Spilner
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Quote:

To have her accept that invitation would have been cool and interesting and would have made sense in the context of where they were setting things up to that point. But they chicken out.
I agree on this point. I think a cool (and truly subversive) ending would've been to have her join him, and for the entire Crait sequence, you think she's really turned. But maybe at the very end, they make it clear that her intentions are to turn Kylo slowly towards the light.

Maybe she communes with Luke and he's the only person in the galaxy who knows her true intentions.
Dekker_Lentz
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Brian Earl Spilner said:

This is a good (albeit long) watch.



Thank you for posting this, it was a very interesting watch and raised a lot of good points.

Couple of interesting points/thoughts:

1. It seems like a lot of people who liked TLJ dislike Rogue One. I find this pretty interesting, I personally think Rogue One is the best of the Disney Star Wars movies, but I think I am guilty of hand-waving a lot of its issues, because it fits better into my construction of Star Wars than TLJ.

2. The argument about having to explain why Luke was on the island was very persuasive to me. Which he seems to tie back into a general point I agree with. Episode 7 is pretty much directly responsible for most of the flaws in Episode 8. Too many mystery boxes to resolve.

3. Casino Planet needing to be re-edited is an interesting take. I don't know enough about film to make an informed opinion, but I hadn't considered it. Also had not considered needing the Casino Planet to break up the Rebel Ship/Luke's Island plot lines. That was interesting. I can get behind that the Casino Planet was conceptually good, but mis-executed.

4. Luke's Death. I liked the way he laid out his argument.

5. Snoke. This is the argument that drives me the most nuts, but it goes back into the Mystery Box problem. I can't wrap my mind about the idea that the character who corrupted the Child of Leia/Han who was being trained by Luke is irrelevant or uninteresting. This ties into what I have come to accept is my misunderstanding of the Rule of Two. To me at least, the Rule of Two is simply that for the Dark Side to function that needs to be a clear leader and clear successor in training. It is not a concrete rule that there should only be two Sith Lords at a Time. The Prequels themselves and the Clone Wars Cartoon have multiple Dark Jedi/Sith running around at the same time. I mean Dooku and Maul were both Palpatine's apprentice at the same time.

6. Jedi Bloodlines. I agree that TLJ sets up the construction that Jedi Bloodlines matter or at least matter to Rey, but I don't think this is a particular problem in Star Wars. Birthright Jedi seems to be huge bone of contention in the fandom, but I think this isn't really a problem. The Prequels/Clone Wars/Rebels/Expanded Universe have plenty of Force Users running around that don't belong to "bloodlines". I think the Expanded Universe even addresses that heredity isn't always a perfect indicator of force abilities. I get the line in Return of the Jedi and midi-chlorians, but I am not sure it needed to be solved.

Point 5/6 leads me to the thing that really struck home about this video. I think how people feel about TLJ directly relates to how they feel about which "rules" of Star Wars need to be fixed.

I really need to watch TLJ again, maybe with a more open mind.
Urban Ag
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Man, it's really time to move on. Eight months later and someone goes to all that trouble to explain why they like TLJ. This is being so over-thought to the point of absurdity.

What Johnson did with Luke's character and/or not playing by "the Star Wars rules" is not why I found TLJ to be an extremely mediocre film. I found it solidly mediocre because the plot is boring and uninspired, the characters (for the most part) are uninteresting and undeveloped, and tone teeters on being too preachy. Further, for me anyway, it's irritating to create so much intrigue and interest over Snoke, Luke's saber, Maz, Phasma, etc, to have these characters and plot devices turn out to be meaningless and/or discarded.

It's just not a good film. And no amount of arguing different perspectives is going to change that.

AliasMan02
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Brian Earl Spilner said:

Quote:

To have her accept that invitation would have been cool and interesting and would have made sense in the context of where they were setting things up to that point. But they chicken out.
I agree on this point. I think a cool (and truly subversive) ending would've been to have her join him, and for the entire Crait sequence, you think she's really turned. But maybe at the very end, they make it clear that her intentions are to turn Kylo slowly towards the light.

Maybe she communes with Luke and he's the only person in the galaxy who knows her true intentions.


So basically she's Brad from We've Never Been Licked?

That would give Poe the role of Cyanide, I guess.
Brian Earl Spilner
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Quote:

It's just not a good film. And no amount of arguing different perspectives is going to change that.
In your opinion.
The Collective
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Urban Ag said:

It's just not a good film. And no amount of arguing different perspectives is going to change that.





Well, not really, just wanted to use this gif.
Urban Ag
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Brian Earl Spilner said:

Quote:

It's just not a good film. And no amount of arguing different perspectives is going to change that.
In your opinion.
of course. It's my opinion. I don't think I'm in the minority here, but it's still just an opinion.
bangobango
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Time will not be kind to TLJ.
Brian Earl Spilner
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Ep 9 will be a major factor in what the legacy of TLJ will be.
TCTTS
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I appreciate certain points made in the video, but he does get a decent amount of fans' complaints wrong. In particular...

- Canto Blight didn't suck because of the pacing. No editing could fix it. Canto Bight sucked because it played and looked like something directly out of the prequels, no one gives a sh*t about freeing make-believe, CGI animals (I'll re-iterate that they needed to free the children instead), and it was straight up preposterous that the "only" code breaker in the galaxy who could help them was the guy with the rose pin... until the only *other* guy in the galaxy who could help them happened to then be in jail with them. I couldn't believe that was an actual plot point.

- Same with the whole Holdo thing. I didn't dislike her because I didn't get the point of her, or misunderstood the message/dynamic, or wanted Ackbar in the role instead. I disliked her because the toxic masculinity message was so incredibly on the nose. I don't even disagree with the message itself, it's just how self-righteous and condescending that whole character and plot-line came across. I like Poe coming to that realization and the result of his arc in general, but that was just the most frustrating and pretentious way to get him there.

Which leads to my biggest problem with the movie, something I haven't really been able to articulate until now...

The entire movie is rooted in INACTION.

The second act of any movie - and thus the second act of any trilogy - is almost always where the bulk of the action takes place. It's the fun and games, where the big car chase takes place, etc. It's the "promise of the premise" and where the movie really happens. And yet, so many storylines in TLJ are about NOT taking action or NOT advancing...

- Rey basically reaches a stalemate with Luke, who simply wants to *exist*, to NOT help, NOT train, NOT fight, etc. And even when he finally does decide to "fight"... he doesn't, and instead does the whole hologram projection thing.

- Poe is lectured over and over and over again to NOT take action, to NOT be the hero.

- The Resistance's entire strategy is to STALL, just out of range of the The First Order. To NOT go anywhere and to literally WAIT them out.

- Finn's initial impulse is yet again to RETREAT. Granted, he finally has something to fight for by the end, but getting him to that point was dependent on the worst plot-line of the movie.

- Rose's infamous spiel toward the end is of course to NOT fight, but to love.

- Even Kylo is so focused on "killing the past" that he, too, is seemingly incapable of advancing or evolving.

And look, again, in a vacuum, I'm not against any of these messages/themes/arcs. I get where the characters are coming from, and I get what Johnson was trying to say/do. On a certain level, it all makes sense. But what it boils down to is simple... "inaction" should straight up NOT be the major theme of a Star Wars movie, and the second one in a trilogy at that. That's why even though most of it checks out logically, none of it checks out viscerally. It was one of the rare times I've sat in a theater and understood - and even respected - nearly all of the choices made, but simply didn't connect to any of it emotionally or cinematically. Because inaction is basically the antithesis of what cinema is.

And yes, I fully agree that Abrams and TFA are the root of many of TLJ's problems. I've been arguing that point since day one. But there had to have been a better, more progressive way to address those issues than what Johnson ultimately came up with. The video did a great job of explaining why Luke's situation/arc basically had to be what it was, and I agree for the most part, but to then root every other story line in that same, stale, inaction was not a wise choice, IMO. It's as simple as that.
Rex Racer
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That might be the best explanation of what is wrong with TLJ I have ever read. Nicely done!
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