Star Wars: Episode IX - THE RISE OF SKYWALKER

[xipotec]

Okay confession time. Since Disney+ debuted I've been pulling a "JAWS" by going through the entire SW Saga as a lead in to TROS. I've been kind of bouncing around though since I started by sampling the OT to see what additional changes were made and to soak in the awesome color correction and 4K HDR. And I love that when you finish one movie D+ immediately suggests playing the next one in the series.

And believe it or not I though TFA plays very well immediately after ROTJ. I know people don't like the "Ducktroopers" but seeing them storming Jakku immediately after the dopey Endor Troopers really made them out to be quite the badasses. I didn't watch too much of TFA though because I decided to pause and revisit the PT.

Man....

TPM is still dopey fun but AOTC and ROTS are just excruciating to sit through. About halfway through AOTC I was even starting to just get soured on SW period. I can't believe the power that movie has to just suck all the joy out of liking the Saga. I started rethinking my whole life, lol. ROTS was marginally better but at least the shadowy cinematography allowed the cool HDR to pop. But ROTS's end to end low res computer backgrounds are just so bad and don't sync up with the aesthetic of the OT or ST at all.

I do admit to getting sucked into ROTS once Anakin went to Mustafar and the narrative shifted to Obi-Wan's point of view. From that point on the movie was pretty enjoyable (pity it ends with the one/two punch of losing the will to live and "Noooo.") But Obi-Wan carrying the third act of a crappy film does bode well for his D+ series.

Then after ROTS I immediately watched Solo and was surprised at how well it played right after the PT. If you were to watch them in chronological order for the first time holy crap does the quality skyrocket once Solo begins. The instant chemistry he has with Q'ira is off the charts after 14 hours of Anakin/Padme, lol. And him sneaking into the shadows with her on Corellia does kind of echo Anakin and Padme sneaking into the shadows when she announces her pregnancy. And then you've got Han jumping into the stolen speeder which echoes Anakin in the yellow AOTC speeder. Han really kind of plays like a replacement Anakin if you hadn't seen the OT and didn't know better.

Forturnately the soul sucking drain of AOTC/ROTS was immediately undone as I settled into Solo so I'm glad that good SW still trumps all as we're seeing right now with Mando.

Welcome back to reality.....


Sent from the inside of a giant slug in outer space.....

 

[abake]

Okay I watched the clip.

I think they were going for "They have a cave troll" but it didn't help that they had three dorks all repeating the same line, lol.

If the scene is fun I'm sure it'll be fine but if the entire film is a disaster then this will just be another example.

Probably not a good idea to release a "silly" jetpack clip the same week we're all buzzing on a dozen flying Mandalorian badasses.

That's the exact same vibe I got.

 

[pixletwin]

Reputable sources, Youtube is as reliable at FOX.



Sent from the inside of a giant slug in outer space.....

Hello Greedo is the only place I go to for masked commentary.

 

[xipotec]

Yeah, I recently discovered Winston Churchill, and Generals MacArthur and Patton and Rommel and Montgomery and de Gaulle actually existed. It was apparently some kind of battle against this guy named Hitler (I think I got that name right?) and involving some guy named Stalin. I always thought the rise of that evil Empire, and the people who defeated it, were myths.

Fog of War? More like Fog of Idiocy.

Anybody who doesn't know the names Vader and Skywalker as real figures - and been fully aware of them just 30 years after the galaxy-wide war ended (with the restoration of freedom no less) - is an in-universe moron.

You need to talk to some normal people.

Half the people I deal with on a daily basis have no idea what country our soldiers have been or are currently in.

Hell , I bet half cannot tell you who was Axis and who was Allies in the greatest war our planet has seen. Now if I just hung with my regular friends and not the public at large, I would feel the same as you.

Luke was the ONLY known Jedi, and only know by a select few. After the Empire fell, I am sure what happened there was told by word of mouth, which gets more and more corrupted over time.

TLJ was keeping that idea going, but symbolically having Luke face down the entire FO with just his ?laser sword?.....cementing the myth, and inspiring people to rise up against the new oppressive regimen. That how this will all end, with all the galaxy, finding its balls and fighting back against the FO.

The point being, Rey and Kylo cannot save the galaxy themselves.....they have to be icons to inspire freedom.



Sent from the inside of a giant slug in outer space.....

 

[abake]

Here here, hating on the ST in now ?in? . I knew that would be a thing when it was announced Disney would buy it.

I rewatched TLJ last night and still like it alot. There is alot of failure in it as well, but the Luke/Rey/Kylo stuff is pretty damn good. I think there is a bigger picture going ok in that film than people realize. Especially the dynamic between Rey and Kylo, something big is going on between them, bigger than people think or are ready for.

Some people will never get past the lightsaber throw or the milk scene to appreciate that part of the story. Thats one of Rian?s BIG mistakes. He injected levity and comedy in a place where alot of fans just didnt want it. And he lost them. Had he replaced those with a scene or two of Luke seeing Kylo?s dark side come out in his training, and you might have alot of fans enjoying TLJ more.

Now the whole Canto scenes are a waste of film, introducing a character no one needed. That was clearly pandering to the Asian audiences.....


Sent from the inside of a giant slug in outer space.....

Despite my utter disdain for TLJ, it does have some very intriguing moments, Rey and Kylo's relationship dynamics is certainly one of them. Unfortunately (for me) it all gets lost in a mediocre story and some very bad character choices.

 

[xipotec]

So these galactic hicks didn't notice all the brutal stormtroopers suddenly occupying their hundreds/thousands of dusty home planets (like even backwater Tatooine) and weren't curious about the people who got somehow rid of those stormtroopers? I mean the sense you get is that maybe thousands of worlds/systems fell under the grip of the Empire. Right?

This isn't a situation of "hey I live in rural Kansas and wasn't aware a world war was going on" - that celebration Lucas added at the end of the ROTJ special edition (yes, horrible I know) certainly seems to suggest that a whole hell of a lot of people were aware of what happened and were mighty happy about it.

With talk of Iraq, you seem to be missing the scale/scope of what happened in the OT. Or did you always view it as this sort of skirmish involving a few dozen worlds, ignored or not known by the vast majority of the galaxy's occupants?



I can find you adults right now that have no clue who the current president is. And that's quite a feat, right?

And those names I listed were in action 75 years ago. The time gap we're talking about here - 30 years ago - would mean the equivalent of a total war all across the globe claiming millions of lives taking place in 1990. That few have heard of to a point where they think it's... a myth??



This is part of the point I'm making - the Empire was defeated and freedom restored to the galaxy. The yoke of terror and oppression was lifted after a long war, but... ummm... 90% of the galactic population weren't even aware the war was going on (WTF was the point of the rebellion then???,) had barely heard of Vader or the Empire, and in hindsight, weren't even sure the war was even real.

And presumably the new galactic leaders, savoring that new freedom, did nothing to express gratitude to the brave people who had achieved so much and ensured they were promptly forgotten. To a point where a person born only TEN YEARS after the DSII explosion - Rey - believes it was all a myth? "All of it..."

I can't believe people are defending this idiocy. It renders pretty much pointless (or at least a storm in a teacup) the whole story of the OT, right?

Two words, CORE WORLDS.

This has been stated a bunch of times. The outlying worlds were like the old west of America, while the Civil War was raging in the east.

Some guy living on the frontier has no stake in the Civil War until it effected him in some way.



Sent from the inside of a giant slug in outer space.....

 

[xipotec]

What if there is some crazy *** war happening right now in a far off galaxy and we are caught in the middle and don?t know it.

Just be sure to have your towel.


Sent from the inside of a giant slug in outer space.....

 

[xipotec]

Oh I'm with you and what did the Hoth rebels do while the ATATs took a week to walk the 20 miles from drop-off to the rebel base...

All I'm saying is it's weird to have characters go "wtf - jetpacks?!" when it's been at least 30 years both in-universe and in our years since we all first saw jetpacks.

Not if they personally had never seen one?

Hell, I know hovercraft exist, but never seen one? I am sure I would have a cool WTF face on......now if they were shooting at me? Damn WTF would definitely be my reaction.


Sent from the inside of a giant slug in outer space.....

 

[xipotec]

Horses galloping along the outside of a star destroyer hull carrying people without breathers of any kind is a teeny step further out.

I can't believe the visual I just described. Jaannnnnahh!!!!!!!


This is to help Wor-gar with how to embrace Jannah...

No its not...see my sig, which serves to remind all of the fact we didnt question all the dumb crap in ESB as kids.

We are more jaded and like to pick everything apart now.


Sent from the inside of a giant slug in outer space.....

 

[a-dev]

But you most certainly didn't send that or any of your posts from the inside of a giant slug in outer space. I therefore conclude that you are a liar and are untrustworthy.

 

[Prime Clone]

Jetpack Troopers are new (for the First Order, at least) even if jetpacks are not.

Sure, they might have Spacetroopers, but that's different to "flying".

So I don't have a problem with it. The Three Stooges dialogue, on the other hand...

Also, maybe those bikes don't have repulsorlift because they need to be "grounded" to launch the troopers.

 

[Ropen]

Did anyone ever watch the Netflix special the Toys that made us, Star wars section?? lololol whyyyy


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[zeiss]

EPISODE 9 is gonna be a train wreck. It looks terrible.

If they being the Emperor back then they just crapped on the entire story of the OT.

I think that ship has already sailed with making the peace earned by the OT heroes being incredibly shortlived and giving them incredibly depressing lives. At this point, there wasn?t much of a victory at all in ROTJ.

 

[loki2371]

"They Fly now!?" Man, the Disney story group sucks... They can't even follow along with what they themselves declare as canon.

Good article explaining the sad attempt of Disney to keep their own SW canon accurate..

https://www.jeditemplearchives.com/...-proves-disney-star-wars-canon-means-nothing/

 

[Prime Clone]

The thing about canon is, directors can override it anytime they like - especially someone with the clout of Abrams.

That's why Lucas always considered the EU a separate universe.

 

[Khev]

Next clip:

"They have blasters now??"

 

[TaliBane]

You need to talk to some normal people.

Half the people I deal with on a daily basis have no idea what country our soldiers have been or are currently in.

Hell , I bet half cannot tell you who was Axis and who was Allies in the greatest war our planet has seen. Now if I just hung with my regular friends and not the public at large, I would feel the same as you.

Luke was the ONLY known Jedi, and only know by a select few. After the Empire fell, I am sure what happened there was told by word of mouth, which gets more and more corrupted over time.

TLJ was keeping that idea going, but symbolically having Luke face down the entire FO with just his ?laser sword?.....cementing the myth, and inspiring people to rise up against the new oppressive regimen. That how this will all end, with all the galaxy, finding its balls and fighting back against the FO.

The point being, Rey and Kylo cannot save the galaxy themselves.....they have to be icons to inspire freedom.



Sent from the inside of a giant slug in outer space.....

30 years though. WWII ended 75 years ago.

And the way I always saw it, the Empire was everywhere in OT, or was soon to be (that was the way it was presented) - not even the Nazis and the Imperial Japanese combined were that, or even close. The American heartland was never in danger, neither was probably over half the world's population and half the world's landmass. Star Wars took that basic scenario and massively upped the stakes - to an entire galaxy at threat.

The example of Luke and his laser sword is the joke in this though. My guess is the "he wasn't actually there" would have been the thing that endured, not the "he stood against the entire FO" (mostly because he didn't.)

You deal with normal people so you know: People remember that kind of **** - the guy who didn't actually show up. The guy who sent the hologram instead. Clever, yes, but not exactly brave - and not something that any normal person could emulate. Now showing up and actually fighting, being there in the flesh, side by side with others - that's an act that can inspire anyone, broom or no broom.

Two words, CORE WORLDS.

This has been stated a bunch of times. The outlying worlds were like the old west of America, while the Civil War was raging in the east.

Some guy living on the frontier has no stake in the Civil War until it effected him in some way.



Sent from the inside of a giant slug in outer space.....

Two words, NO STAKES.

If 90% of the galaxy didn't care or didn't notice that teeny rebellion or the teeny Empire, it was kind of a waste of time. Maybe not their time in-universe (I'm sure 100 people rebelling against their local lord was worth it,) but of my time as a movie viewer.

For my mythic fantasy dollar, I want to see an Empire that has the entire galaxy in its iron grip taken down by underdogs. If most of the people of this story world haven't even heard of this rebellion, let alone the evil force they are fighting against - PASS.

This is the thing you're not seeing - is that it undercuts the enjoyment of the OT. The story's scale and importance. They didn't liberate the galaxy, they liberated... the inner core worlds.

Inner worlds, outer worlds, core worlds - sounds like a bunch of Hidalgo-Chee-LFL-rubber-stamped crap to me. The kind of third tier creative enterprise that fills those "source books" and such. Talk about an outlying world.

Not if they personally had never seen one?

Hell, I know hovercraft exist, but never seen one? I am sure I would have a cool WTF face on......now if they were shooting at me? Damn WTF would definitely be my reaction.


Sent from the inside of a giant slug in outer space.....

Finn was trained a stormtrooper, or was supposed to have been one (or stormtrooper janitor - some crap.) And Poe is a hotshot resistance pilot, or is supposed to be one. Never seen (or, apparently, heard of) a jetpack technology that has existed for at least 60 years? It's the "now" part of "they fly now" that infers that they believe this is a new technology.

No its not...see my sig, which serves to remind all of the fact we didnt question all the dumb crap in ESB as kids.

We are more jaded and like to pick everything apart now.


Sent from the inside of a giant slug in outer space.....

It's not that we are more jaded - I see this same comment over and over (along with the bots, neckbeards, misogynists and the "fans were bitterly divided over ESB in 1980" lies.) It's that ESB worked as a culturally resonant, deeply felt narrative whereas TLJ did not. Dumb crap ceases to be noticeable when you are swept up in a powerful narrative. A slow motion bumper chase, antagonists as stupid comic relief and actual fighting soldiers getting humiliated by triggered lady folk in evening gowns are not great inclusions for an immersive Joseph Campbell journey. Know what I mean?

 

[Prime Clone]

And the way I always saw it, the Empire was everywhere in OT, or was soon to be

Actually there were some backwaters it didn't bother with, like Tatooine!

Never seen (or, apparently, heard of) a jetpack technology that has existed for at least 60 years?

As noted above it's the Jetpack Troopers who are new, not the jetpacks themselves.

 

[TaliBane]

As noted above it's the Jetpack Troopers who are new, not the jetpacks themselves.

But that's like saying there are helicopters then being genuinely shocked that there are police helicopters, isn't it?

And the guy who was the basis for decades of white-armored troopers used one SIXTY years earlier. Jango's the OG of jetpack troopers.

 

[Prime Clone]

But that's like saying there are helicopters then being genuinely shocked that there are police helicopters, isn't it?

And the guy who was the basis for decades of white-armored troopers used one SIXTY years earlier. Jango's the OG of jetpack troopers.

Maybe "They fly now!?" should be "They've got jetpacks now!?" The technology ain't new, the mass deployment is.