MuckRaker96 said:

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Are you Karl Urban?

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Nope.

Cause if I was I'd be chasing Asgardian tail and smiting mythical creatures with Vietnam era American weaponry instead of disucssing SW for seven years on TA.

And apparently Des and Troy were modified on Asgard as each 30 round magazine appeared to hold about 250 cartridges. But no need to pick apart a great movie.

RIP

The new Mandalorian BTS episode today is fascinating stuff. I knew a bit about how it was filmed, but watching / hearing them discuss it is ****ing amazing.

Happy 43rd birthday!



Happy 37th birthday!



Happy 2nd birthday!

Over the weekend, I finally decided to rewatch TROS for the first time, and while not as bad as it was on first viewing, I was both incredibly numb to and disengaged from the whole thing, yet it was somehow still more shocking to me this go-around how unbelievably underwhelming this final installment ended up being.

The only goods things I have to say are 1) Daisy Ridley is incredible and gives it her all, despite the subpar writing, and 2) the Kijimi sequence really stood out to me as exceptional this time around. Everything about it, from the Zorii and Babu intros, to the banter, to the C-3PO stuff, to even the Rey/Kylo Force fight, is all really well done and has such a great, focused, coherent energy the rest of the movie lacks. Not to mention, the funny parts are genuinely funny. It's the one chunk of the movie that just works.

But man, never mind all the obvious flaws like the overall storytelling, Rey Palpatine, etc, it's the Leia stuff, I think, that played even worse this time and might very well be as bad as anything in the prequels. It's just sooooo forced and obvious and distracting and pointless, and quite literally cripples the entire movie. I honestly can't figure out how they ever thought that was a good idea. In fact, I still don't understand why the plan was always to make Episode IX "Leia's movie" in the first place. Why was it so imperative that she be the last man standing, so to speak? VII was Han's movie/death, as it should have been, but even on a macro level, at the planning stages, VIII should have been "Leia's movie," then IX, of course, should have been saved for Luke's movie/death. Still, when Fisher died, they still had an entire year before VIII's release to change course/figure something out, and the solution was so obvious. Change it to have Leia be the one to go kamikaze and pull the "Holdo maneuver," and then have Luke utterly drained at the end of the movie, just like he is, but NOT dead. Leave it on that cliffhanger and then bring him back alive in IX for one last go, even if in a relatively limited capacity. But no, they decided to keep VIII as is for some reason, force Leia into IX in the most awkward way imaginable, and then have her unceremoniously die for reasons I still don't quite understand.

It will never not baffle me as to the decisions that were made from day one on the sequel trilogy, all the way through end. It's just so mind-numbingly frustrating how much they managed to screw it all up.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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Reminder that Kylo claimed Rey's parents were filthy junk traders who sold her for drinking money, and also claims to have never lied to her.

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I really wanted them to stick to that. You could have made it work without having her be someone's kid.

I assume that Kennedy wanted Leia to be the most important, and therefore last one to die, of the original trio. It fits with pretty much all of her public decisions and statements.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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Reminder that Kylo claimed Rey's parents were filthy junk traders who sold her for drinking money, and also claims to have never lied to her.

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Maybe that's what Kylo believed to be true. It's possible he was repeating what he was told about her by Snoke.

For all the complaints I have about TROS, Leia is not one of them. I thought they handled her story amazingly well, considering the circumstances.

Were the reasons for her death muddled? Yeah, a bit. But emotionally, it was pitch perfect. It was the moment that hit me the hardest in the entire trilogy, actually.

In fact, I never even questioned the "reasons" for her death, in the moment. I just knew she sacrificed herself to save her son, and it just worked for me. And Chewie's reaction to her death, ugh. And I love the fact that R2 is there with her as she dies.

Honestly was so much better than Luke's death. For that one, all I could think was..."Why did this kill him?"

Finally knocked out all four episodes so far of Disney Gallery on The Mandalorian and you guys were right. Absolutely fantastic stuff. Especially episodes two (Legacy) and four (Technology). I've said this multiple times already, but it was really hammered home in the Technology episode: the volume tech feels like a monumental industry shift nearly as groundbreaking as the effects work in Jurassic Park. It really will change everything. It also makes me want to go back and watch all of The Mandalorian, now knowing what I know. Can't wait for the second half of the season.

Other than first seeing the Brachiosaurus in the meadow when I saw Jurassic Park in a night-before sneak peek in the summer of 1993, I have never been more dazzled by technology for entertainment than by the LED studio they've done for Mando. I had my wife and 8 year old daughters watch it with me on Monday, and none of them are anywhere near my level of fascination with entertainment, but they were all just blown away by what we were seeing.

I really have enjoyed Carl Weathers more than anyone else on these docs. He is a sharp, well-spoken guy.

I loved Gina Carano's kind words towards Weathers, and how flattered he was.

MuckRaker96 said:

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I really have enjoyed Carl Weathers more than anyone else on these docs. He is a sharp, well-spoken guy.

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NSFW language

ABATTBQ11 said:

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I like Mandolorian, but it blows my mind that no one recognizes the force despite it taking place not long after the fall of the Empire. I mean the Jedi were around in huge numbers and leading the clone armies like what, 25 years prior? How is it this huge mystery?

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That has been a problem with the star wars timeline since the originals.

Luke is 19 in A New Hope and yet everyone acts like Jedi's disappeared hundreds of years ago.

ABATTBQ11 said:

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I like Mandolorian, but it blows my mind that no one recognizes the force despite it taking place not long after the fall of the Empire. I mean the Jedi were around in huge numbers and leading the clone armies like what, 25 years prior? How is it this huge mystery?

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This doesn't bother me. The universe is a huge place and you still have backwater planets that may have never seen one. And you had an entire generation of people that grew up hearing about it but never experiencing it. Things easily become myth in that regard. Plus, who knows what people have been taught in schools post-Jedi Order. The Empire may have influenced the educational system to the point that they simply bury history. We've done it IRL so no reason not to think it would happen here.

The Empire probably did a really good job of erasing knowledge about the Jedi. Even on the Death Star the younger officers were skeptical of Vader and his "sorcerer's ways," but Tarkin was well aware of the Jedi and the Force.

I am curious what the people in Mos Eisley thought when Obi-Wan lit up his saber and cut down some jabronis. The only thing Tatooine probably knew about Jedi was some vague story of sand people getting cut to shreds. Jabba the Hutt obviously knew what they were, but he's been alive a looong time.