All Things Star Wars

[Takhisis]

Don't you have to pay for the Netflix-by-mail service?

 

[Synobun]

I am going to see the film when it's on Netflix-by-mail. I'm not going to see it in the theaters. It's the first one I've skipped in theaters since I was 12 and sold candy for $0.25 a piece to pay for the tickets. I'm kind of bummed but I felt like I wasted money on the last one and don't want to do that again.

It's worth seeing.

 

[Laurana Kanan]

Again, Utah establishing itself as one of the top nerd/geek meccas in the USA. From the article's subhead - "7 of the top 40 theater locations for the opening of the “Star Wars” finale were Megaplex Theatres in Utah." My theater came in at #6 in the nation!

There wasn't alot of interest in my circle this time around, however. In the past, around a dozen or so families, including mine, would rent out the VIP theater the week after a SW premiere. Only three of the usuals were interesting in even seeing TROS, so we ended up booking 4/5 (16) of the IMAX luxury seats at a showing the day after Christmas. Surprisingly, only around 1/3 of the theater was full at the showing and no one had reserved the other four luxury seats. My theater may have been in the top 10, but it doesn't appear that was a high bar to reach.

I'm pretty burned out discussing TROS & ST on other forums, but in short, the two most salient questions/points to me:

1. Was TROS a satisfactory ending to the 'Skywalker Saga'? No. And, it didn't even feel like a satisfactory ending to the ST. Honestly, it was better than I expected and I generally liked many of the concepts as it had a very Dark Empire vibe. It unfortunately tried to do, introduce, and correct way too much in a single film, which caused severe story and pacing problems. If you believe the most recent leaks, the blame falls mostly on Disney execs incl. Iger, though I think JJ deserves a little of the blame as well, which leads to my second point.
2. Who is really to blame for this mess of a trilogy? In my mind there's really only one major culprit and that's RJ and that horrendous movie TLJ. I'm not going to re-state everything I hated about him and that movie other than to say that the disregard shown to the story elements set up in TFA and to the overall aesthetic and mythos of the SW universe went a long way towards causing the current divisions in the fandom and resulted in a disjointed and ultimately unsatisfying conclusion to both this trilogy and the saga as a whole.

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I'm surprised no one has mentioned the ending of The Mandalorian. It was infinitely more satisfying than anything I watched of the ST. I mean that ending where Moff Gideon reveals he's in possession of the

Spoiler :

Darksaber

was pure gold among so many other easter eggs and revelations. The only thing that kind of bugged me, though, is how clueless everyone seems to be about the Force. I mean it's only been 5 years since ROTJ and 30 since Order 66. It seems an awfully short time for knowledge of the Jedi (the most visible of force users), and the Force as a concept to have faded from memory. Especially, for well-traveled individuals like Din Djarin, Carasynthia Dune, Kuill, Greef Karga, and others who would likely be aware of such things.

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One final thing concerning the PT. I really enjoy TV/Movie OSTs and I love John Williams, but honestly other than Rey's theme there really wasn't anything that stood out or was memorable to me. However, I just picked up a good copy of the RO Extended OST, which included this gem that I had only heard as part of the FYC arrangement.

Michael Giacchino really knocked it out of the park with the RO OST!

 

[JohannaK]

Seeing TRoS is only worth your money in a packed theater full of fans, so you can chart their reaction and your own against the spectacular level of absurdity on screen.

I will say one thing though: that I get and it's perfectly fine that people hate TLJ even if I really dont understand it, but if they are extending their hate to Rian Johnson, it's probably their fault and not Rian Johnson's. There is something wrong with such passionate hate for a person over a movie.

 

[Laurana Kanan]

There's something inherently wrong when an individual's ego is so outsized that they can contentedly disregard the feelings and insult the persona of those they disagree with based on an ignorance of the motivations and circumstance behind said feelings. It's almost always better to simply acknowledge the differing viewpoint, respectfully disagree, and leave it at that.

 

[Synobun]

Seeing TRoS is only worth your money in a packed theater full of fans, so you can chart their reaction and your own against the spectacular level of absurdity on screen.

I don't know if I agree with this. The theater I was in was dead silent for the entire movie. The only shared reactions were between me and my friend, and even then it was just looks of incredulousness at certain story decisions.

 

[Laurana Kanan]

The next Star Wars film saga to be set during the High Republic era! via makingstarwars.net

Project Luminous...

...rumored only, not officially confirmed, but I've been hearing about Luminous for several weeks now from multiple sources.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Don't you have to pay for the Netflix-by-mail service?

Huge difference between my $10/mo subscription to a service I already have and which gives me a lot of other movies to choose from and $50+ for a ticket to one movie in particular. If I really wanted to, I could get that cost closer to $30 but that would mean no snacks, food or premium seats which is part and parcel of why I go to the theater to begin with. If I'm paying for cheap tickets on a second-rate screen with no snacks then I might as well watch it on my nice TV at home.

I feel like this is obvious though. Maybe ticket prices down south are drastically different.

 

[Synobun]

Huge difference between my $10/mo subscription to a service I already have and which gives me a lot of other movies to choose from and $50+ for a ticket to one movie in particular. If I really wanted to, I could get that cost closer to $30 but that would mean no snacks, food or premium seats which is part and parcel of why I go to the theater to begin with. If I'm paying for cheap tickets on a second-rate screen with no snacks then I might as well watch it on my nice TV at home.

I feel like this is obvious though. Maybe ticket prices down south are drastically different.

Takh saw it for like $2.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

If I was willing to drive way out of my way, I might be able to catch a screening for a few bucks at a second-run theater in a few months. But by then the movie is on DVD and as I said, those theaters are not nearly as nice and I'd rather watch it at home. $50 movies are extremely expensive but so long as the overall experience is good, I don't mind. It becomes an event, if that makes sense. However, it makes me extremely sensitive to movie selection. I came out of TLJ actively mad and I don't want to risk that again. I've gotten from you all that I probably won't actively hate it, but I'm not entirely convinced. And in any case, we ended up spending the money we had budgeted to see a movie on a nice dinner instead.

 

[JohannaK]

What? $50+? $30? What?

What world is this where a ticket costs more than 10€? Yeah, no, I dont think I would ever in my whole life watch a movie in theaters if I had to pay such prices for the privilege. Maybe I would make an exception for like a restored 70mm roadshow 2OOI or Lawrence of Arabia or something like that. Maybe once or twice a year.

Holy smokes. I absolutely love movies, and I am studying cinematography, but I would not even consider watching 99.9% of movies for such prices. I'd wait for the DVD.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Mind you, that is specifically for the premium seats. So if the movie is released in IMAX and/or 3D, that's how I'm going to see it. There are literal premium seat options (like recliners and seats where they bring you food and drinks) to choose from as well and they are often packaged with the premium screen format. That's also for 2 tickets and includes at least a small popcorn and 2 sodas.

Like I said, it becomes an experience at that price point. I could get 2 tickets for $30, maybe even $20 for a weird showing time. But again at some point I think, I have a really great TV and a comfy couch and unlimited snacks at home so if the rest of the experience isn't premium, I don't even want to bother going to the theater and paying that much. There have been a few movies we have gone to see that were at the $30 mark but those were movies we really wanted to see and were not offered in the premium format to begin with.

As TV's have gotten so much bigger and nicer, the gap between the quality of a movie at a standard theater and what you can get at home has really narrowed. So now I only go to a theater if I'm highly motivated or if the theater offers a spectacle (IMAX, 3D, whatever) that I can't replicate at home. But the price point for that experience is high enough that I'm pretty discriminatory and unfortunately this is the first star wars movie that didn't make my cut.

And I am truly sad about that, as weird as it is.

 

[JohannaK]

There's something inherently wrong when an individual's ego is so outsized that they can contentedly disregard the feelings and insult the persona of those they disagree with based on an ignorance of the motivations and circumstance behind said feelings. It's almost always better to simply acknowledge the differing viewpoint, respectfully disagree, and leave it at that.

Yeah, I respectfully disagree with you over TLJ, but at least to me hating the person who made it for making it doesnt seem like the healthiest thing.

True, I dont know why you hate him. Maybe you know him or have interacted with him and it turns out he's a total prick. Certainly he hasnt been a cuddly bear to TLJ haters on social media, but hating is a word that puts me on alert. Call me an old fashioned Jedi if you will.

 

[Takhisis]

Huge difference between my $10/mo subscription to a service I already have and which gives me a lot of other movies to choose from and $50+ for a ticket to one movie in particular. If I really wanted to, I could get that cost closer to $30 but that would mean no snacks, food or premium seats which is part and parcel of why I go to the theater to begin with. If I'm paying for cheap tickets on a second-rate screen with no snacks then I might as well watch it on my nice TV at home.

I feel like this is obvious though. Maybe ticket prices down south are drastically different.

Takh saw it for like $2.

180 pesos at an exchange rate of ~82-to-1, to be precise. I'm not going to pay a hotel fare for a film; I'm still effectively on a student budget.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

180 pesos at an exchange rate of ~82-to-1, to be precise. I'm not going to pay a hotel fare for a film; I'm still effectively on a student budget.

Even when I was on a student budget I was the same though. I saw less movies overall and the few I went to consumed a much larger chunk of my entertainment budget. For me it's as much about viewing preferences as cost. I would budget and plan around going to a nice movie and didn't go very often specifically because I preferred a spectacle over an ordinary screening.

 

[Synobun]

Even when I was on a student budget I was the same though. I saw less movies overall and the few I went to consumed a much larger chunk of my entertainment budget. For me it's as much about viewing preferences as cost. I would budget and plan around going to a nice movie and didn't go very often specifically because I preferred a spectacle over an ordinary screening.

The Costco here in Seattle sells ticket packs to Regal for less than $20 for 2. Anything similar there?

It's for normal screens AFAIK... but reserved seating. And the seating is recliners.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

The Costco here in Seattle sells ticket packs to Regal for less than $20 for 2. Anything similar there?

It's for normal screens AFAIK... but reserved seating. And the seating is recliners.

I don't know, I don't have a Costco membership and have only been inside their stores twice. We also have a theater in walking distance and that's always going to be our go-to regardless of the availability of deals for other screens.

Anyways back to Star Wars.

Do you guys prefer the more plain styling of the spaceships in the old movies versus the new ones? I feel that with the newest movies that some of the spaceships are now super visually busy. Then again, Star Wars practically invented greeble so the ships have always been busy.

Queen Amadala's cruiser really stuck out as a visually clean and aesthetically pleasing design. Same with the Naboo fighters. But now you have X-wings with little mini wings that open on the main S-Foils and it's a bit much. Come to think of it, the prequel movies had a cleaner/smoother design aesthetic for the spaceships than either the original or new trilogies. The ships and vehicles had curves and rounded edges and less greebling compared to the ships and vehilces of the other trilogies.

 

[Synobun]

I don't know if they're busy, but the changes feel unnecessary and for the sake of change. Which is kind of silly since I liked the new TIE Fighter in The Mandalorian.

In a sense I like the close-ups of the big Star Destroyers. I don't like the substance surrounding those close-ups. The whole bombing thing in TLJ was... not great.

Spoiler End of TRoS :

The big reveal of the galaxy's fleet was a nice novelty but stupid when you think about it. I think this would go against Hobbs' feelings about the ship designs being busy; if anything, they avoided detail in that scene. Probably to reduce costs.

I still think the ship design and choreography of Episode 3 and Rogue One are the gold standard for live action thus far. The design in Episode 1 was really good too.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Thank you x1,000,000 for spoilering stuff. Like with The Expanse, I'll come back to these posts when I see it but that's months in the future unfortunately.

I don't know if they're busy, but the changes feel unnecessary and for the sake of change. Which is kind of silly since I liked the new TIE Fighter in The Mandalorian.

In a sense I like the close-ups of the big Star Destroyers. I don't like the substance surrounding those close-ups. The whole bombing thing in TLJ was... not great.

So Star Wars is science fiction in only the most loose sense of the word science. I never expect it to be plausbile but I do expect it be somewhat self-consistent and logical. So the old X-Wings have S-Foils that open up to an attack position because that makes the more maneuverable. Makes sense, even if it is silly for a space ship. But the mini-wings on the new X-Wing S-Foils just felt silly. I don't know, but they missed the mark. They didn't really seem to me to indicate that they would actually make the ship more manueverable and they never mention them or their purpose on screen. This is extremely subjective though and I don't really knock the new movies too hard for it. I thought overall they still looked good and had a pleasing aesthetic but they weren't my favorite.

The bombing scene did not bother me at all! Hahaha I know it should infuriate me but I absolutely didn't care about it and thought it was a cool scene even if nonsensical. Now I kind of want to go back to my old posts and see if I always had that opinion or if that has changed over time and with re-watches.

 

[Takhisis]

Spoiler End of TRoS :

The big reveal of the galaxy's fleet was a nice novelty but stupid when you think about it. I think this would go against Hobbs' feelings about the ship designs being busy; if anything, they avoided detail in that scene. Probably to reduce costs.

Spoiler :

Given how the fleet just suddenly materialises, it's almost as if they'd had the power to crush the First Order all along. It's almost as if they'd run out of ideas and wanted to ‘homage’ the ending of ANH where Han comes in at the right moment.