aTmAg said:

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wesag said:

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That scene was awesome.

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That scene was horrible. I felt bad for Harrison Ford for having to do it.

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It was badass. Eff all you haters man.

That monster was great. Adult or not.

I liked the movie. Just can't compare to Star Wars ANH.

CJS4715 said:

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I just avoid imax 3d. Cinemark XD usually ofees 2D, so that's good enough for me.

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BCS Cinemark thankfully splits their XD screen between 2D and 3D showings, for those of us who hate 3D.

GiveEmHellBill said:

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CJS4715 said:

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I just avoid imax 3d. Cinemark XD usually ofees 2D, so that's good enough for me.

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BCS Cinemark thankfully splits their XD screen between 2D and 3D showings, for those of us who hate 3D.

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That's becoming increasingly rare. So many theatres only use their highest quality projection for 3D and the 2D gets what's left. Really sucks for those of us that appreciate high quality projection. 3D ain't it.

aTmAg said:

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wesag said:

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That scene was awesome.

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That scene was horrible. I felt bad for Harrison Ford for having to do it.

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The worst part about that (for me), was the wasting of the two amazing actors from "The Raid" movies. Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian, such amazing fighters in both Raid movies, were cast and I was thinking that they would be absolute badasses. But they were cast as Kanjiklub gang members and didn't really do anything except die unspectacularly. Just wasted that potential on a scene that had no purpose in the film.

Man I enjoyed their deaths. I could watch that scene again and again.

Meh is very much a critique.

Zombie Jon Snow said:

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I never see any movies in 3D any more. Hate it. Does nothing to add to my enjoyment of any movie.

I purposefully find regular showings.

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I took a bunch of 12 year old boys to see it 3D thinking they'd care. I was wrong.

VanZandt92 said:

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Meh is very much a critique.

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Yeah, it's really not.

VanZandt92 said:

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Meh is very much a critique.

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I'm not seeing the connection to the guys from "The Raid" and Rogue One. TFA sure, general Star Wars thread sure.

jabberwalkie09 said:

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VanZandt92 said:

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Meh is very much a critique.

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I'm not seeing the connection to the guys from "The Raid" and Rogue One. TFA sure, general Star Wars thread sure.

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I wasn't the one who said that.

jabberwalkie09 said:

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VanZandt92 said:

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Meh is very much a critique.

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I'm not seeing the connection to the guys from "The Raid" and Rogue One. TFA sure, general Star Wars thread sure.

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It will go past 400 million domestic today and should be at 800 million WW by the end of the long weekend. China opens on the 6th, how it does there might be the difference in whether it gets to a billion.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=starwars2016.htm

Just FYI, as a reminder, spoilers are fair game in the main SW thread starting tomorrow.

Is this a warning or a "on your marks" type of thing?

Becuase if it is a warning, you posted it on the wrong thread

I'm saying we can take this conversation to the main thread.

Should we make a new thread for the new year, the way some other forums do? *** 2017 Star Wars Films Discussion ***? For TV shows we do new threads each season.

Just a thought.

Star Wars can not be restrained by simple calendar resets

I just saw it today!

I thought it was great.

Having skimmed through the thread, most seems to be said, apart from the nerd grumble below.

The ending was shocking and moving; I really didn't expect all the characters to get wiped out, but it fit the odds of what they were trying to do. I cared about a good many of the the new characters, so you really felt bad when they went down. Jeyn and Cassiand E-2so, etc. And that was the real surprise. Once they started getting killed, you were no longer sure when it would stop. The end on the beach surprised--you really expected a scene more like the end of Force Awakens, but nooo. (the scene echoed [recent ancient world movie--removed name] Stunning.

(I had studiously avoided any spoilers or chat since the trailers, as since you "know" the end, it was all the more important not to know specifics---boy am I glad I did --would never heave expected what happened to them -- it hit all the harder for it.)

It really captured the grit and cost and sacrifice of civil war. And what carnage and loss! A whole temple city, two Star Destroyers with most of their crews, the records data fortress base with probably everyone including all the good guys, various Rebel ships, including the Calamari flagship. Just very different in tone. Agree with those that are putting it up toward Empire and ANH itself, but I always thought Sith was rather good of the prequels too.


The one major nerd grumble was the handling of the space battle. I thought you might see a bit of what didn't in ROTJ, but it was kind of static, though with beuatiful scenery and scale. Those two Star Destroyers just seemed to sit there, they were not even visibly firing their waist guns much. And the way they wouldn't give each other some room. Even when the right flank ship was disabled, the Star Destroyer to port wouldn't open the range. (Of course that "mistake" was necessary for what followed, but it came off as flatfooted.)

That said, I can also explain it in my mind to restore suspension of disbelief: the Star Destroyers were totally powered down, caught absolutely stone cold by the Rebel arrival. What we were seeing is they were unready to accelerate and maneuver right off the bat.

Vader was great, and used just enough to not steal the show, and yet definitely return to the fore. That fight in the corridor--Vader full unleashed. And his Star Destroyer Devastator arriving and crunching the ship---a contrast to the other two. The Tantive IV blockade runner making is appearance, and you knew where you now were. ;-)

Speaking of Star Destroyers, I also wonder about the one over Jedha. It just moved off and left without helping to quell the uprising breaking out against the garrison right below it. It seemed odd.

But really loved the movie. And the cgi Tarkin worked great, imo. It was better that they tried and put him on the scene, as it really added continuity. Love the way he usurped credit for the project---it adds another dimension to why Leia spoke to him as she did when brought onboard in ANH---he is a very unscrupulous character.

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Speaking of Star Destroyers, I also wonder about the one over Jedha. It just moved off and left without helping to quell the uprising breaking out against the garrison right below it. It seemed odd.

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I'm pretty sure it was ordered to pull out to clear the area for the impending Death Star demonstration.

Yup. The Death Star was just there to enforce order as the empire collected the crystal. Once they had it all, the ship left and Tarkin had the city destroyed.

Just passed Civil War for #2 domestic box office.

1. Finding Dory
2. R1
3. Civil War

Disney is making so much money it's silly.

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Speaking of Star Destroyers, I also wonder about the one over Jedha. It just moved off and left without helping to quell the uprising breaking out against the garrison right below it. It seemed odd.

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H6RBW:
I'm pretty sure it was ordered to pull out to clear the area for the impending Death Star demonstration.A

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H6RBW and Aggie Journalist,

You are right on reflection. The gap between the events is long enough I didn't make the direct connection. Of Course the SD may have been in communication with the approaching Death Star and even knew what it was going to do. Should have thought of that. In the movie, the interval is long enough before the physical arrival, that it didn't seem connected. I completely missed the sinister connection its departure could mean. Like when about to "glass" a place.

And on reflection, here's an interesting further thought--- could that SD have been Vader's own Devastator overseeing the kyber extraction? You will notice it seems conveniently associated in close proximity with the Death Star later. Though certainly moving around since Vader is at Mustafar in mid-movie.

Aside: I noticed the earlier debate on the kyber crystals -- even aside from EU, some old fanzines had made clear that light sabres had to be constructed with some unique materials. A rare crystal made sense. What was new was never dreamed that the Death Star main battery was a glorified use of the same, but makes sense -- as if kyber is the `uranium' of that universe. Also really loved the retroactive explanation for so acute a design weakness. It wasn't necessary, but was a very nice touch, and explained why the Empire wanted the plans back, as it was hard to imagine they didn't have a copy. (Even with Scariff gone, Death Star II seems to prove they did have, naturally.) [At the time of seeing ANH just as plausible as they didn't think the plans had yet reached anyone capable of dissecting them---which is just what we saw in the movie. So its really an alternate explanation, not a needed one.]

Saw it yesterday and enjoyed it more than tFA.

The ending was perfect.

Liked it a lot.
Small moments that bothered me:
-One Star Destroyer shot that looked like an unfinished plastic model
-Darth Vader making a cheesy pun. His humor has been dark and menacing, not cheesy.

Small moments that really worked:
-Killing the informant. Redux of Han shoots first... establishes the character for sure. This guy is ruthless and can't afford to leave loose ends
-Snapping the data card to the belt. You know what I mean.

I thought the opening scene at the farm worked REALLY well, but after that it lost momentum on creating emotional connections to the characters. Forest Whitaker felt like they rewrote him so much that he probably should have been taken out entirely. Make the blind guy and his compadre the ones who rescued Jyn, then let Cassion or whatever his name was represent the ruthless faction of the rebel alliance. Doing that probably gives you more time to let people connect with 5 characters (the robot, who was excellent being the fifth) instead of wasting several plot elements on someone whose dramatic death comes across as a "well, ok" moment.

All that really gets to my main problem, which was that the characters didn't do much for me. I'm not a professional movie watcher so I don't know why and maybe future viewings will change my mind. TFA, for all of its faults, did a wonderful job of creating characters that people love.

Good on Disney for having the guts to trim all the loose ends. Satisfying ending. Great action scenes. Lots of variety there. The robot was very funny, which the movie needed. Loved the last Vader scene, which is good because the first one ended on such a jarringly wrong note.

Tarkin cgi... I dunno. It didn't look terrible, but it didn't look great and made some of the scenes feel awkward. It'll be interesting to see how it looks in the living room. Same with Carrie, I suspect she'll have a lot more of that "pops out of the screen effect" like the Hobbits at the ceremony at Minis Tirith.

After one viewing and no passage of time, I rate this very highly on plot but lower on pure enjoyment. Slotting it slightly below TFA (IV, V, VI, TFA, R1, gap, III, gap, I/II), but with a high probability that it will move up a spot or two. It's a better movie than TFA but not near as much fun, IMO.

As for viewing order, I don't think you can put it before IV. Star Wars HAS to start with the scroll, the theme, and the Star Destroyer shot. End of story. But for more reasons: you should be drawn into the universe and the rebellion and discover the Death Star with Luke. You should be introduced to Vader on the Tantive IV. You should learn about the Force from old Ben Kenobi, not a blind guy's inexplicable abilities. You need Han Solo to show you the adventure and seedy romanticism of the universe.

So... overall good, and the more I think about it the more I like it.

Small moments that really worked:

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-Killing the informant. Redux of Han shoots first... establishes the character for sure. This guy is ruthless and can't afford to leave loose ends

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Yes, but that is an example where the "fast-cutting" so prevalent today (its worse in Star Trek) is counter-productive. I didn't realize Cassian HAD shot him till this thread. I thought he had been nailed by an outside bolt, and then, as Cassian starts to climb, since no further shots came at him, jumped to the next retroactive conclusion: he shot himself because he no longer could fly. No one with me knew Cassian had killed him either, and suicide seemed to fit his fretting.

Fortunately Cassian's later speech still made clear his character, so didn't miss the point that sure would have made.

On Vader's pun --- I think that is being pushed too hard --- I haven't see quoted "I am altering the deal. Pray that I don't alter it any further" and "Perhaps you feel you are being treated unfairly?" Both of those memorable and rather in the ballpark.

One other thing about the choking scene with Krennic: did you notice they captured Vader's earlier more red lenses, faithful to ANH? :-)

(I am two thirds through the whole thread, so forgive if it was mentioned in the last ten pages or so.)