Films The Official bit-tech Movie Thread - What have you seen lately?

Finally watched Star Wars Ep. VII yesterday.

In preparation I have been rewatching the original, JarJar-less trilogy (Harmy's Despecialized editions) over the last few weeks.
I've thought about it for a while, and for some reason I can't quite explain Force Awakens doesn't feel like a Star Wars movie.
The costumes are there and the space ships are there and even some of the original actors, but it doesn't feel right. I don't think JJ Abrams' style of directing fits the series and I wish I knew more about editing so I could describe exactly why the pacing, cutting between scenes and even the type of shots just felt off. (And yes, I know, the new movies are supposed to be different directors' interpretations of the franchise. Still don't like it.)

So, to sum up the film itself:
The first half of the movie was nice, the second part not so much. Kylo Ren is

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the dumbest, least threatening bad guy I've seen in a long time -- some edgy rebellious teenager, really?

. Some lines referencing the original films made me cringe because they felt unnatural. Harrison Ford constantly looks like he doesn't want to be there.
Rey and Fin are pretty fun characters, though the almost superhero-like speed at which they seem to learn new skills

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like swordfighting

was a bit jarring. If the film had taken a slower pace to develop their personalities more they might have even been interesting.

It misses a lot of the charm and adventure of the originals. Only

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C3PO popping into view during a conversation

actually made me laugh out loud.

All in all:
6.5/10. "It's ok."

 

Rogue One

Pretty much Star Wars fanservice: the movie; with a dash of Marvel.
I found it to be more entertaining in general than Force Awakens, though the characters here are completely devoid of any personality or character arc.
The movie really suffers from all the fanservice they've tried to cram in - though maybe I'm just not the target audience, people who grew up with the original trilogy. The cameo of

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C3PO and R2D2

was completely unnecessary and even a bit jarring.

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CGI Peter Cushing

is crap and should've been written out (or been there as a hologram or something), but of course

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Grand Moff Tarkin

had to be included because fanservice.

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CGI Leia

at the end is even worse (not helped by her single cringeworthy line of dialog) but, of course, fanservice.
The action scenes are pretty good.
Overall it's well made, not particularly well written.

7/10

EDIT: Mike Stoklasa from redlettermedia sums it up perfectly when he calls Rogue One the best Star Wars fan film ever made.

 

Blood Father - 6.5/10

Nothing really bad, just nothing remarkable either. The story's pretty meh, the acting decent.
Mel Gibson still has the mad glitter in the eye when he wants to.

 

Power Rangers: Bleurgh

Can't even be bothered to write more about the movie than the above: It's a terrible mess, but not one of the good kind.

 

Ok, I don't usually bite, and I doubt you're actually interested enough to care, but it's been a while since I chatted about these films, so I'm happy to take this up on behalf of whoever cares...

How many times have you watched the others, that were made over 30 years ago? You refer to pacing and cutting between scenes, which suggests you know them fairly well. I can asssure you TFA does feel like a Star Wars movie... because it is a Star Wars movie, so it has to The clues are, well, everywhere. Just watch it another 10-1000 times over the next 30 years and it will feel as much a part of the saga as the others. You can't expect a brand new, non-George Lucas produced, film, that you've only seen once, to feel like the others straight away. Treat it like the others - time, repeated viewings, and probably most importantly, completion of the trilogy, are your solution here.

I think they're going for something a bit deeper than 'generic scary bad guy' with Kylo Ren, in the same way that the whole saga is a bit deeper than 'generic good vs. evil tale'. The character is deluded, conflicted and vulnerable.

What are you basing this on? I really think you're projecting here, because I think he's really good, and I've not come across any well-reasoned criticism of his performance. On countless occasions I hear how much of a professional attitude Harrison Ford has towards his work. There's no 'phoning in' going on here. There's perhaps a misconception that Harrison Ford doesn't like Star Wars. But whether he does or he doesn't, he doesn't let anyone down in TFA.

Finn was

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'raised to do one thing' by the First Order, and Rey has spent most of her life fending for herself in the harsh climate of Jakku - I think you're over-selling how hard it is to defend yourself with a stick. Plus, Finn gets his ass handed to him by the TR8R stormtrooper when he first uses the lightsabre, and then gets comatosed by Kylo Ren. Rey only fares better because she's the heir to the Skywalker crown, allied by the Force.

Neither of them display any great skill in waving the thing around if you re-watch those scenes.

So the main character goes from small girl who

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loses her Dad, twice, to the Empire, the first time leading to an adolescence of butthurt and self-preservation, and the second time leading to her sacrificing herself for the sake of the Rebellion and to fulfil her father's own sacrifice

, and you say there's no character arc? Harsh.


FWIW, I enjoyed them both more on subsequent viewings.

 

I admit I haven't watched the original trilogy that many times, but I watched all three in the 2 weeks before I watched Force Awakens so they were pretty fresh in my memory and I did feel like there was a significant difference. I'm probably being overly critical though. It's only natural a film made today, for today's audiences, isn't shot, cut and paced the same way as one made 34-40 years ago.
The originals for example showed great restraint in the use of handheld shots, dutch angles, and overall visual noise, while the Force Awakens is almost the exact opposite (like a lot of modern movies). To me these (antiquated?) technical aspects might just be more important to the whole Star Wars experience than to you.

I didn't find Kylo Ren's character to be that much deeper than a 'generic scary bad guy' TBH. He's just 'sad' in addition to 'bad'.

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Just like Darth Vader actually [within the context of the original 3 movies], the fact that he suddenly (seems to) show some remorse out of nowhere doesn't make him a nuanced character. Having a character suddenly say "I'm so conflicted" to build tension in the plot doesn't give them a well-rounded, human personality.

Perhaps I should watch the movie again, maybe there's more to it. This was my first impression.

I dunno, it just felt like that to me. Not sure what exactly you imply with 'projecting' though. Maybe it was because of a few (IMO) out of place references to the originals that fell flat, probably because I'm not a die-hard Star Wars fan. As was maybe clear from my Rogue One post, I'm not a fan of fanservice in general. When others clap at a cameo, I often cringe. I'm not fun at parties.

Fair enough.

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I also remember Kylo Ren being badly hurt by Chewbacca's crossbow now, which could explain why Finn and Rey aren't immediately cut into bits.

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I skimmed through the movie and I guess she does have a classic, though basic, "want-need" arc, so maybe I was indeed being overly harsh. The first half starts when she's captured by the rebels and wants to find her father and ends when he dies. The second half starts at Cassian's rather incoherent monologue (even after watching the part 4 times) that blindly following orders is good because it's for the greater good or something, when Jyn realises her destiny (her 'need') is to get back at the empire. This obviously ends when she herself dies.
Throughout the movie, what does she learn about herself though? How does her character evolve?

And just FYI, I really don't mean to come across as some kind of movie snob, "Star Wars hater", contrarian or whatever. 6.5 and 7 are decent scores, I mostly enjoyed these movies. It's just easier to detail what I didn't like.

 

The new Star Wars movies have a lot to do:

1) Be exciting, dynamic modern movies for newcomers to the franchise. They achieved that, one need only look at the box office.
2) Transpose the "feeling" of the originals to a modern context, which couldn't be achieved through like for like shots as we've had decades of blockbusters since then. They achieved that.
3) Cleanse our palettes of the prequels and, given neither of you mentioned them, they achieved that too.

Nothing in a subjective medium is perfect, but they did what they were designed to do and did it well - Doosa not-a you think so, 'lil Annie?

 

I thought the same after seeing the movie, he's supposed to...evolve in the future movies I guess.

 

The thing is, a lot of people, through the internet mostly, are more aware of how stories are written nowadays and certain 'rules' for making a good story, hence Pliqu's reference to character arc. But I think there's a danger of misusing those rules and insisting that every film has to follow them.

Look at the characters in the original Star Wars. None of them went through much of a 'character arc' during that movie. Same goes for many other films I'm sure, such as Raiders of the Lost Ark. Minimal character development, but fantastic movies.

 

I thought it was a much more interesting dynamic than the usual Big Bad. Let me put it like this...

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Snoke warned Kylo that he had never faced such a test in squaring off against his father - Did he pass or fail that test? Same goes for Han Solo - Who won?

 

I guess we're gonna see some serious timelapse in VIII. In the time it will take Luke to train his new padawan, Ren will become Vader II

 

For me, most films are defined by their main villian, if there's no threat there isn't any drama. Ren was a poor villian, the only one I can think of in recent viewing that was worse was Enchantress from Suicide Squad. It didn't help that you also had someone who couldn't act with some quite frankly shockingly bad CGI thrown into the mix as well.

Ultron was a big disappointment from Avengers 2 as well.

 

Since I am not sure if I posted my opinion on the following, here goes:

Doctor Strange - Iron Man on Acid/10
It's not bad, it's not great... it just is. It's also trippy as anything.

Rogue One - 7.5/10
It's good, if somewhat unspectacular. That said, I am probably not the right target audience, what with me not being a huge SW fan, etc.

Passengers - 6/10
It's not that it's bad. It's not. The concept is great. The story is OK. It's more that I couldn't detach Jennifer Lawrence from this, which killed it a bit for me.
That, and the worts ending possible.

 

I've only seen half of it - it really didn't hold my interest, and I have been bothered to watch the rest of it.

I'm not a massive SW fan, but I thought it was very good, aside from the ropey CG character cameos.

It wasn't bad, and I'd agree on the score, but I'd argue that any other ending would have been a bit too twee.

 

Ghost in the Shell - 7/10

A bit flakey in places, but still the Robocop / Blade Runner mashup the original anime was.

 

My consensus is that you could switch off in the last 5-10 minutes anywhere, and the ending would be better. The last 2 minutes are terrible.

 

Get Out - 8.5/10

Excellent little story with a great mix of reality, black comedy and horror. Loads of unexpected twists that had the whole cinema laughing and even cheering at one point!

 

Power Rangers - 8/10

Cheesy. Cheesy cheesy. Giant robots, giant monsters, explosions. Pretty good if you ask me. Hell of a nostalgia trip.

 

Not a film... but:

Department Q: the Keeper of Lost Causes [Kvinden i buret] - Scandiwegian slow-burner/10

 

Doctor Strange - Not everything makes sense/10

IMO a thoroughly unnecessary [in the wider MCU scheme of things] MCU movie. Sure it was pretty in places but imo there were better ways of introducing Strange to the MCU.