Movies you just saw

[ACamp1900]

Have you watched any of the prequels recently? The dialogue is so SO bad. At least if you turn your brain off you can just enjoy the spectacle of the Disney trilogy. The prequels seem like an alien tried to write a movie mimicking the way humans speak. Also every non action scene is just shot reverse shot of conversations in front of bad green screens.

No I get it,… it needed someone else having creative say,… but the potential was there oh well

 

[IrishLion]

Indiana Jones it was long but okay

Saw the new Indiana Jones movie. Was fine, not awful, not great.


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Is it at least better than “Crystal Skull”?

I felt personally offended by Crystal Skull for how bad it was.

 

[ulukinatme]

Have you watched any of the prequels recently? The dialogue is so SO bad. At least if you turn your brain off you can just enjoy the spectacle of the Disney trilogy. The prequels seem like an alien tried to write a movie mimicking the way humans speak. Also every non action scene is just shot reverse shot of conversations in front of bad green screens.

No way. Last Jedi is unforgiveable. The prequels weren't great, but Johnson really screwed up the last trilogy bad...real bad. Abrams setup a bunch of arcs and characters in the first movie. All Johnson had to do was build on that so that the 3rd movie could conclude the series. Instead he destroyed the angle with Rey's past by saying "Your parents were nobodies." Then he killed Snoke, who was always meant to be the final obstacle for Rey. The main antagonist couldn't be Kylo Ren, they teased his redemption right from the start. Rey needed an established baddie to face in the final story, and with no established baddie what was Abrams' only choice? He had to resurrect one for the final film since there wasn't enough time to build a new character. That's how we wound up with Palpatine.

It was really stupid work on the writers' and Johnson's part. It's a lesson to Disney in how NOT to create a trilogy. You just don't switch writers and directors back and forth like that, you need one cohesive vision. You can't just make it up as you go, and you need someone who is familiar with the source material. The whole "space chase" sub plot of Last Jedi was pretty damn stupid too, I've never seen in a Star Wars movie, game, etc where fuel is suddenly a short term concern. If I recall the sub light ion engines run on hypermatter, but there were also gases and liquid fuels required for hyperspace travel. The ships in Last Jedi were hitting empty way too fast given what we've seen in past material. More than anything it made for a stupid story. Why is the First Order's massively large ships running at full fuel capacity when smaller, more efficient ships are tapping out? Logically makes no sense. The worst were the bombers that were dropping bombs in space...when has gravity ever worked in space?! In every movie, game, book I've ever seen the B-Wings and Y-Wings have used Space Bombs which are still projectiles fired with propulsion, although Space Bombs are typically slower than a Proton or Concussive Missile. You don't drop bombs on top of ships in space. Not only does it go against physics, it goes against every convention established in past Star Wars content.

I agree that the dialogue in the prequels is pretty bad, but fortunately it's not all the dialogue. The main story is still decent in the prequels and they tie in well to the original movies. With the Disney movies...it's just really hard to find a lot of redeeming qualities. Force Awakens I thought was decent. Last Jedi was complete garbage. Rise of Skywalker probably would have been better, but they had to spend a lot of the movie retconning Johnsons screw ups like resurrecting Palpatine, giving Rey a background, fixing Luke's ending, etc. It made for a lot of bloat unfortunately.

 

[ACamp1900]

Is it at least better than “Crystal Skull”?

I felt personally offended by Crystal Skull for how bad it was.

I’m still looking for the perfect puppy to scissor kick in the face over that one

 

[Sea Turtle]

Is it at least better than “Crystal Skull”?

I felt personally offended by Crystal Skull for how bad it was.

It's bad. It's real bad.

The first half of Crystal skull was fine. When they get to Peru, it falls apart. Actually, the point where Indy says 'part time' is the exact moment it falls apart.

 

[Bishop2b5]

We've ALL seen some ridiculously bad films. I understand an indie film with rookies making it being bad, but major studios with big name directors, huge budgets, experienced writers, stars, and often as not, successful franchises behind them, and they STILL put out an embarrassingly bad piece of garbage. How? How does someone during the pre-production or story writing stage not realize "Hey guys! We're just making a complete disaster of a shitshow film here that's going to insult our target audience and be embarrassing for all of us to have been associated with?"

 

[ulukinatme]

We've ALL seen some ridiculously bad films. I understand an indie film with rookies making it being bad, but major studios with big name directors, huge budgets, experienced writers, stars, and often as not, successful franchises behind them, and they STILL put out an embarrassingly bad piece of garbage. How? How does someone during the pre-production or story writing stage not realize "Hey guys! We're just making a complete disaster of a shitshow film here that's going to insult our target audience and be embarrassing for all of us to have been associated with?"

Disney.
That seems to be one of the common denominators.

 

[greyhammer90]

No way. Last Jedi is unforgiveable. The prequels weren't great, but Johnson really screwed up the last trilogy bad...real bad. Abrams setup a bunch of arcs and characters in the first movie. All Johnson had to do was build on that so that the 3rd movie could conclude the series. Instead he destroyed the angle with Rey's past by saying "Your parents were nobodies." Then he killed Snoke, who was always meant to be the final obstacle for Rey. The main antagonist couldn't be Kylo Ren, they teased his redemption right from the start. Rey needed an established baddie to face in the final story, and with no established baddie what was Abrams' only choice? He had to resurrect one for the final film since there wasn't enough time to build a new character. That's how we wound up with Palpatine.

It was really stupid work on the writers' and Johnson's part. It's a lesson to Disney in how NOT to create a trilogy. You just don't switch writers and directors back and forth like that, you need one cohesive vision. You can't just make it up as you go, and you need someone who is familiar with the source material. The whole "space chase" sub plot of Last Jedi was pretty damn stupid too, I've never seen in a Star Wars movie, game, etc where fuel is suddenly a short term concern. If I recall the sub light ion engines run on hypermatter, but there were also gases and liquid fuels required for hyperspace travel. The ships in Last Jedi were hitting empty way too fast given what we've seen in past material. More than anything it made for a stupid story. Why is the First Order's massively large ships running at full fuel capacity when smaller, more efficient ships are tapping out? Logically makes no sense. The worst were the bombers that were dropping bombs in space...when has gravity ever worked in space?! In every movie, game, book I've ever seen the B-Wings and Y-Wings have used Space Bombs which are still projectiles fired with propulsion, although Space Bombs are typically slower than a Proton or Concussive Missile. You don't drop bombs on top of ships in space. Not only does it go against physics, it goes against every convention established in past Star Wars content.

I agree that the dialogue in the prequels is pretty bad, but fortunately it's not all the dialogue. The main story is still decent in the prequels and they tie in well to the original movies. With the Disney movies...it's just really hard to find a lot of redeeming qualities. Force Awakens I thought was decent. Last Jedi was complete garbage. Rise of Skywalker probably would have been better, but they had to spend a lot of the movie retconning Johnsons screw ups like resurrecting Palpatine, giving Rey a background, fixing Luke's ending, etc. It made for a lot of bloat unfortunately.

An alternate take that I'll share here since I don't have the energy and since you clearly like youtube film criticism. Not saying LJ is good, it's just middling. Pretending that the story had nowhere to go afterwards isn't true no matter how many times Rich Evans insists it is.:

 

[Blazers46]

Watched Mario with the kids. It was decent 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[GATTACA!]

An alternate take that I'll share here since I don't have the energy and since you clearly like youtube film criticism. Not saying LJ is good, it's just middling. Pretending that the story had nowhere to go afterwards isn't true no matter how many times Rich Evans insists it is.:

Criticizing Rich Evans is ban worthy.

 

[zelezo vlk]

It's bad. It's real bad.

The first half of Crystal skull was fine. When they get to Peru, it falls apart. Actually, the point where Indy says 'part time' is the exact moment it falls apart.

I can tell that someone else watches Red Letter Media


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[Sea Turtle]

I can tell that someone else watches Red Letter Media


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😉

 

[greyhammer90]

Criticizing Rich Evans is ban worthy.

I like RLM as much as the next guy but people parroting their really lazy criticism of TLJ gets so damn old. Those videos, especially the first one, are really well done. I'd highly recommend them for good background info even if they won't change your mind.

 

[GATTACA!]

I like RLM as much as the next guy but people parroting their really lazy criticism of TLJ gets so damn old. Those videos, especially the first one, are really well done. I'd highly recommend them for good background info even if they won't change your mind.

I'll watch them when I get a chance. RLM doesn't really even hate TLJ that much though. They didn't like it but they even said in their RoS review that TLJ was the best of the three. Which I strongly disagree with.

 

[ulukinatme]

An alternate take that I'll share here since I don't have the energy and since you clearly like youtube film criticism. Not saying LJ is good, it's just middling. Pretending that the story had nowhere to go afterwards isn't true no matter how many times Rich Evans insists it is.:

You're quite wrong. I can't say I knew who Rich Evans was until I looked it up. I watched the Red Letter Media reviews of the prequels back in the day cause I had a lot of down time for YouTube at my old job and they were funny. I don't typically watch serious reviews of movies though, and I haven't seen anything regarding the Disney trilogy (Or really any movies. I tend to hate critics).

When I saw Last Jedi for the first time with my buddies they had already seen it and refused to divulge any details or opinions, they wanted me to go in with a blank slate. After the first viewing I was pretty perplexed on a number of things they did in the movie, but I decided to go back with my wife and watch it again closer. Following the 2nd viewing I left rather disappointed and had compiled a list of items that were bullshit, some of which I included up above. I gave Johnson the benefit of the doubt on a few things at first, like the Snoke death, but when I later saw Rise of Skywalker I realized what a power vacuum it left in the trilogy for the finale. That made me more pissed about Last Jedi's choices. While I didn't care for the Palpatine explanation at first, it was the logical move given the absence of a villain for the finale. Imagine if in Back to the Future II they had Doc and Marty killed off the first Tannen so there was never a Biff or Mad Dog villain for the 3rd film, or if in the Lord of the Rings they destroyed Sauron in The Two Towers with no replacement antagonist for the finale. It just doesn't work. You can try and build up a replacement, but it's going to fall a bit flat in the end. Why should we care/hate some guy that we're just being introduced at the finish line? Why are they going to be powerful enough to take on our main character and provide a reasonable challenge for them?

I'll checkout the videos since you asked, but they're going to be hard pressed to change my mind on this topic. My opinion is my own on this matter. While I don't think Abrams would have created a classic trilogy that stands the test of time if he was in charge of all three films, I do think they would have fit together more cohesively and he wouldn't have needed to do so much clean up in the final film. Obviously I'm not alone in my Last Jedi opinion. Critics liked it, but users gave it really poor scores on Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB, pretty much across the board. I always trust the user scores more, the masses have spoken.

 

[ulukinatme]

I'll watch them when I get a chance. RLM doesn't really even hate TLJ that much though. They didn't like it but they even said in their RoS review that TLJ was the best of the three. Which I strongly disagree with.

That's some stupid shit there. None of those movies are masterpieces by any stretch, but Force Awakens has to be the best of the three.

 

[ACamp1900]

That's some stupid shit there. None of those movies are masterpieces by any stretch, but Force Awakens has to be the best of the three.

TLJ basically made me quit watching movies,… I’ve never gotten fully back into it. Just a terrible experience and a terrible movie. I can’t really articulate fully on a message board how much I loathe that movie

 

[ulukinatme]

TLJ basically made me quit watching movies,… I’ve never gotten fully back into it. Just a terrible experience and a terrible movie. I can’t really articulate fully on a message board how much I loathe that movie

I think I've seen two films in theatre since then: Toy Story 4 with the kids, which was pretty bad, and the Whale because someone suggested it. I wasn't gonna give a dime for Rise of Skywalker after the previous movie, so I watched it at my sister-in-law's house when it was streaming

 

[GATTACA!]

Following the 2nd viewing I left rather disappointed and had compiled a list of items that were bullshit, some of which I included up above. I gave Johnson the benefit of the doubt on a few things at first, like the Snoke death, but when I later saw Rise of Skywalker I realized what a power vacuum it left in the trilogy for the finale. That made me more pissed about Last Jedi's choices. While I didn't care for the Palpatine explanation at first, it was the logical move given the absence of a villain for the finale. Imagine if in Back to the Future II they had Doc and Marty killed off the first Tannen so there was never a Biff or Mad Dog villain for the 3rd film, or if in the Lord of the Rings they destroyed Sauron in The Two Towers with no replacement antagonist for the finale. It just doesn't work. You can try and build up a replacement, but it's going to fall a bit flat in the end. Why should we care/hate some guy that we're just being introduced at the finish line? Why are they going to be powerful enough to take on our main character and provide a reasonable challenge for them?

The thing is it could have worked. Snoke was very bland, this is partially Johnson's fault, but he wasn't some amazing antagonist I was necessarily sad to see go. If Johnson would have actually followed through with what he set up in TLJ, Rey turning to the dark side and joining Kylo as the new emperor and empress of the First Order could have been compelling. And would have actually been a unique dynamic for Star Wars. What if Luke had succumbed to the dark side's temptations? Then maybe you have Rey going too far pushing Kylo to realize the error of his ways and his redemption is stopping the monster he created.

But he chickened out and left the middle most crucial segment of a trilogy back at the status quo in the end. Was that his call or Disney balking at the idea of their girl power Marry Sue turning into an evil murderer? Who knows.

 

[GATTACA!]

That's some stupid shit there. None of those movies are masterpieces by any stretch, but Force Awakens has to be the best of the three.

Tbf it was during their RoS review and I don't think any of them had sat down and recently rewatched the first two beforehand. Watching back all three reviews they all gave TFA the most praise in the moment.

 

[ulukinatme]

The thing is it could have worked. Snoke was very bland, this is partially Johnson's fault, but he wasn't some amazing antagonist I was necessarily sad to see go. If Johnson would have actually followed through with what he set up in TLJ, Rey turning to the dark side and joining Kylo as the new emperor and empress of the First Order could have been compelling. And would have actually been a unique dynamic for Star Wars. What if Luke had succumbed to the dark side's temptations? Then maybe you have Rey going too far pushing Kylo to realize the error of his ways and his redemption is stopping the monster he created.

But he chickened out and left the middle most crucial segment of a trilogy back at the status quo in the end. Was that his call or Disney balking at the idea of their girl power Marry Sue turning into an evil murderer? Who knows.

Absolutely, Snoke was pretty bland, but killing him wasn't the answer either.

The Rey/Kylo Dark side thing could have been compelling, yes, but then you've got two antagonists and who to face them? Finn? No way he takes either of them solo, and he gets turned to paste against both of them. Poe didn't have the ability to fight on the ground. Maybe Luke turns them back in the end if he isn't killed off, but otherwise I don't see how that evil Rey/Kylo angle plays out. The Kylo redemption arc was always meant to happen, although Rey joining the dark side in place of Kylo could have been an interesting twist.

 

[GATTACA!]

Absolutely, Snoke was pretty bland, but killing him wasn't the answer either.

The Rey/Kylo Dark side thing could have been compelling, yes, but then you've got two antagonists and who to face them? Finn? No way he takes either of them solo, and he gets turned to paste against both of them. Poe didn't have the ability to fight on the ground. Maybe Luke turns them back in the end if he isn't killed off, but otherwise I don't see how that evil Rey/Kylo angle plays out. The Kylo redemption arc was always meant to happen, although Rey joining the dark side in place of Kylo could have been an interesting twist.

Kylo already was on the dark side. In my mind it's Rey joining him and then they go scorched earth trying to root out the last of the resistance. The combined forced of Luke/Leia/Poe/Finn are just enough to keep themselves one step ahead.

Along the way Kylo sees Rey becoming more and more evil. I'd have Leia pull off the Holdo maneuver in sacrifice. Gives it meaning because it's a character we actually care about. I also obviously wouldn't kill Luke in TLJ. Gives Luke the chance to redeem himself as a failed teacher. Maybe there's a showdown between him and Kylo and Luke shows him mercy when he has him beaten.

All of that combines to convince Kylo he has to turn back to the light side. So your final battle is Rey vs Kylo but they're flipped side from where they started.

 

[ulukinatme]

Kylo already was on the dark side. In my mind it's Rey joining him and then they go scorched earth trying to root out the last of the resistance. The combined forced of Luke/Leia/Poe/Finn are just enough to keep themselves one step ahead.

Along the way Kylo sees Rey becoming more and more evil. I'd have Leia pull off the Holdo maneuver in sacrifice. Gives it meaning because it's a character we actually care about. I also obviously wouldn't kill Luke in TLJ. Gives Luke the chance to redeem himself as a failed teacher. Maybe there's a showdown between him and Kylo and Luke shows him mercy when he has him beaten.

All of that combines to convince Kylo he has to turn back to the light side. So your final battle is Rey vs Kylo but they're flipped side from where they started.

That could work. I could see it being better than what we got, but then again it basically reverses a lot of bad decisions in Last Jedi to make the final movie and the trilogy as a whole better. Rey could still be a Palpatine, which would explain the fall to the dark side, and you wouldn't need to bring the old man back. Then again, you could leave them completely unrelated and come up with a different reason she falls since there's already complaints that everyone in the universe is related...usually to a Skywalker.

 

[IrishLion]

I'll die on the hill that Rey as a "nobody" was the only appropriate way to bring closure to the Skywalker saga. The Force was rebooting itself, as the "Chosen One" prophecy had been fulfilled, so you needed to sever ties with Luke, deal with Ben's conflicting nature (which could have been the entirety of the third movie in the new trilogy, with good enough writing and a dark enough turn from Kylo-Ren as Supreme Leader), and then let Rey do her thing as she goes off into the sunset to form a new Jedi order with no known Sith practitioners remaining after Ben dies/converts.

It would have made sense for the long-established lore (though a bit messy with Ben still hanging around), and Disney would have been free to build something new from the ground up whenever they wanted to, with a new batch of heroes and bad guys on what would essentially be a clean slate. Any future IP could have briefly referenced "Rey, the one who restored the Order" in passing to justify pretty much any story they might come up with. All you have to know is that someone named Rey created a new Jedi Order, and then [THING] happened, resulting in the newest movie/show/book/game.

Instead, she's a Palpatine, so now there is always a thread back to the previous films and the Skywalkers, which wasn't necessary. It takes just one writer getting a greenlight from Disney for Rey Palpatine to go on a rampage, or to be cloned (again?) against her will, or for someone to create a new Sith Palpatine from her DNA, or some such bullshit. Shouldn't have even opened that window, imo.

 

[ACamp1900]

I didn’t mind moving on from the original characters,… they obviously had to do it,… it was HOW they did it. Luke and Han, after saving the galaxy and being these great heroes basically created a worse disaster, shrugged, and walked away and just let millions more die as result of their direct actions,… wtf? The greatest film heroes of that generation get done like that!? It still feels like a purposeful ‘fuck you’ to the original fans

 

[IrishLion]

I didn’t mind moving on from the original characters,… they obviously had to do it,… it was HOW they did it. Luke and Han, after saving the galaxy and being these great heroes basically created a worse disaster, shrugged, and walked away,… wtf? The greatest film heroes of that generation get done like that!? It still feels like a purposeful ‘fuck you’ to the original fans

Idk, Han was always presented as the "unwilling" hero, and it was in his nature to not stick around somewhere very long. It would be totally believable to me that he skipped town after the events of the OT, regardless of the context.

As for Luke, he went from "whiny teenager with a bad attitude" to "stoic Jedi taking things VERY seriously" pretty quickly. I could also see him hiding out in a hovel in some distant corner of the galaxy, the way Yoda did, to avoid fucking things up further after it didn't go well.

I don't agree with the story beats... but that's not to say they were totally out of character. People romanticize Luke, but the guy was never the heroic, warm personality that some seem to think he should have been. He was always flawed.

 

[ACamp1900]

Idk, Han was always presented as the "unwilling" hero, and it was in his nature to not stick around somewhere very long. It would be totally believable to me that he skipped town after the events of the OT, regardless of the context.

As for Luke, he went from "whiny teenager with a bad attitude" to "stoic Jedi taking things VERY seriously" pretty quickly. I could also see him hiding out in a hovel in some distant corner of the galaxy, the way Yoda did, to avoid fucking things up further after it didn't go well.

I don't agree with the story beats... but that's not to say they were totally out of character. People romanticize Luke, but the guy was never the heroic, warm personality that some seem to think he should have been. He was always flawed.

Wrong

 

[ulukinatme]

I didn’t mind moving on from the original characters,… they obviously had to do it,… it was HOW they did it. Luke and Han, after saving the galaxy and being these great heroes basically created a worse disaster, shrugged, and walked away and just let millions more die as result of their direct actions,… wtf? The greatest film heroes of that generation get done like that!? It still feels like a purposeful ‘fuck you’ to the original fans

Yup. Saved the galaxy a few times, and now they're reclusive exiles basically doing their own thing and not concerned with the safety of everyone. Han at least jumped back into the fight when called on. What they did with Luke was pretty bad, he was always the optimistic hopeful one. Instead he's sulking on an island and gets a somewhat lame ending that's not worthy of his character.

 

[Irish#1]

I didn’t mind moving on from the original characters,… they obviously had to do it,… it was HOW they did it. Luke and Han, after saving the galaxy and being these great heroes basically created a worse disaster, shrugged, and walked away and just let millions more die as result of their direct actions,… wtf? The greatest film heroes of that generation get done like that!? It still feels like a purposeful ‘fuck you’ to the original fans

If you just remember that it’s all just a made up story for entertainment you might sleep better at night. 😜

 

[ACamp1900]

If you just remember that it’s all just a made up story for entertainment you might sleep better at night. 😜

You don’t know that for certain,……..