Star Wars VII: We've Got Nothing (except stupid CGI tricks)

Koltar · December 24, 2015, 02:42:13 AM

Quote from: James Gillen;870396That would have been highly illogical.

JG

No - he could have done the part that Max Von Sydow did.....

- Ed C.

nDervish · December 24, 2015, 04:58:37 AM

Quote from: Simlasa;870363Having seen the thing I can't say what I would call out as 'spoilers'. I enjoyed it but at no point in the story was I surprised by anything that happened

I don't recall anything surprising either - and I hadn't seen any of the trailers other than the very first, nor followed any of the hype leading up to it. The movie itself telegraphs so much (largely by way of constantly rehashing scenes from earlier films) that I pretty much always knew what was coming.

Quote from: Simlasa;870363The obsession with 'spoilers' seems to have gotten a bit out of hand to where a person can't even review the damn thing without fear of being accused of 'ruining' it for the fans.

Totally agreed, and that's not limited to Force Awakens. I don't grok why people get so worked up about spoilers in general, but Star Wars took that and turned it up to somewhere past eleven.

Elfdart · December 24, 2015, 07:58:23 PM

I saw it Monday and it was worse than bad -it was really mediocre. Like watching a cover band going through your favorite band's hits but offering nothing new.

J.J. Abrams is the Pat Boone of cinema.

Just Another Snake Cult · December 24, 2015, 10:11:51 PM

Quote from: Elfdart;870473I saw it Monday and it was worse than bad -it was really mediocre. Like watching a cover band going through your favorite band's hits but offering nothing new.

I liked the movie -I've seen it twice- but let's be honest, Disney was playing it very safe with this movie and taking no chances. It was made by the type of studio executives who would have turned down the '77 Star Wars.

Simlasa · December 25, 2015, 11:20:03 AM

Guardians of the Galaxy remains my favorite Star Wars movie of recent years.

James Gillen · December 25, 2015, 04:02:15 PM

Quote from: Simlasa;870363Having seen the thing I can't say what I would call out as 'spoilers'. I enjoyed it but at no point in the story was I surprised by anything that happened and, IMO, it isn't the sort of movie that hinges on such things... the way something like Psycho or The Sixth Sense or Jacob's Ladder might.

The obsession with 'spoilers' seems to have gotten a bit out of hand to where a person can't even review the damn thing without fear of being accused of 'ruining' it for the fans.

I just had somebody on Facebook unfriend me for posting a bit praising Finn for not obeying orders. As though the concept of him as an ex-Stormtrooper who joins the good guys wasn't already in the previews.

JG

danbuter · December 25, 2015, 06:40:11 PM

I didn't watch a single preview, other than that very first one that Pundit was making fun of. I'm not sure why you guys can't understand why many people don't want to know anything before entering the theater.

Simlasa · December 25, 2015, 07:21:36 PM

There's a difference between "Don't tell me the ending" and:
"Don't tell ANYTHING!!!"
"Princess Leia wears a different hairdo."
"OMFG YOU RUINED IT!!!"

I didn't watch any previews either, nothing more than pictures I saw flashing around online and such. Story was still was utterly predictable... which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Koltar · December 26, 2015, 12:28:04 AM

Quote from: danbuter;870570I didn't watch a single preview, other than that very first one that Pundit was making fun of. I'm not sure why you guys can't understand why many people don't want to know anything before entering the theater.

Then you are very much OUT of the norm for most 'geeks' ore Star Wars fans.

There were at least 5 distinct trailers that appeared in either theaters or on TV between may of this year ad its premiere on December 17th.

ALL of those trailers were posted to Youtube at some point. (Heck, one person edited all of them together and it totaled 16 minute running time)

If you didn't pay attention to what was around you - then please don't blame other people for 'spoilers' who were paying attention.

Oh, and I'm a casual "Star Wars" fan everybody knows that I am more of a 'Star Trek' fan. I don't give a damn about any of the 'expanded universe' novels and their happy horsetrot...

- Ed C.

Skarg · December 26, 2015, 01:17:34 PM

Quote from: Just Another Snake Cult;870477I liked the movie -I've seen it twice- but let's be honest, Disney was playing it very safe with this movie and taking no chances. It was made by the type of studio executives who would have turned down the '77 Star Wars.

Was that being "safe"? To me, it was a huge disappointment how little they seemed to care about even trying to make any sense. So, safe only for people who don't notice how dumbed down it is. It makes the original film look like a masterpiece of making sense, in comparison. Massively mindless, even for a Star Wars film, is how I saw it.

Elfdart · December 26, 2015, 06:39:27 PM

Quote from: danbuter;870570I didn't watch a single preview, other than that very first one that Pundit was making fun of. I'm not sure why you guys can't understand why many people don't want to know anything before entering the theater.

You needn't worry: There are absolutely ZERO surprises in this film. If you watched ANH, you've already watched TFA, only done better with 1/35th the budget.

That's right, Disney spent over $350 million on this monument to mediocrity: more than all three Prequels combined*. Add in the costs of buying out George Lucas, and Disney has paid close to $5 billion just to slap Lucas' name, brand and IP on their own hackneyed, middling science fiction. It's basically John Carter, only with the Lucas paint job and hood ornament.

*What's really funny is that the Prequels, where everyone knew ahead of time what would happen, had more surprises than TFA.

Bradford C. Walker · December 27, 2015, 12:27:39 AM

Quote from: Elfdart;870661You needn't worry: There are absolutely ZERO surprises in this film. If you watched ANH, you've already watched TFA, only done better with 1/35th the budget.

That's right, Disney spent over $350 million on this monument to mediocrity: more than all three Prequels combined*. Add in the costs of buying out George Lucas, and Disney has paid close to $5 billion just to slap Lucas' name, brand and IP on their own hackneyed, middling science fiction. It's basically John Carter, only with the Lucas paint job and hood ornament.

*What's really funny is that the Prequels, where everyone knew ahead of time what would happen, had more surprises than TFA.

This.

It's mediocre overall. Individual elements work. Some work very well. But the bad elements are very bad, and none of it meshes that well. Writing is sloppy, unforgivably so given how little effort is necessary to fix many of the issues this film has (and how many outs they had to choose from), and that is why TFA is only better than the Prequels.

Justin Alexander · December 27, 2015, 02:42:23 AM

Quote from: Koltar;870589If you didn't pay attention to what was around you - then please don't blame other people for 'spoilers' who were paying attention.

I'm not sure you actually understand the concept of what a "spoiler" is, Koltar.

I mean, the entire script for the film leaked back in May. The fact that this information was "available" doesn't make it any less of a spoiler.

Quote from: Elfdart;870661That's right, Disney spent over $350 million on this monument to mediocrity: more than all three Prequels combined*.

The actual production budget was $200 million.

The total production budget of the prequels was $348 million ($115 million for TPM; $120 million for AOTC; $113 million for ROTS).

QuoteAdd in the costs of buying out George Lucas, and Disney has paid close to $5 billion just to slap Lucas' name, brand and IP on their own hackneyed, middling science fiction.

That's not how accounting works.

Endless Flight · December 27, 2015, 05:50:44 PM

Quote from: Elfdart;870661Add in the costs of buying out George Lucas, and Disney has paid close to $5 billion just to slap Lucas' name, brand and IP on their own hackneyed, middling science fiction. It's basically John Carter, only with the Lucas paint job and hood ornament.

*What's really funny is that the Prequels, where everyone knew ahead of time what would happen, had more surprises than TFA.

The movie is going to make $2B worldwide. They paid $200M to make it. That's quite a haul. That doesn't count all the merchandising. They might make what they paid for Lucasfilm after one movie.

J.J. Abrams recently said he wanted the story to be easy to follow for young children, which was one of the criticisms of the prequels, especially the Phantom Menace and it's taxation of trade routes.

Elfdart · December 27, 2015, 10:02:13 PM

Quote from: Justin Alexander;870702The actual production budget was $200 million.

The total production budget of the prequels was $348 million ($115 million for TPM; $120 million for AOTC; $113 million for ROTS).

Forbes and the NYT put the total budget for TFA as $350 million -the difference being marketing. Lucasfilm spent very little on marketing for the Prequels. The most heavily promoted (Episode I) had much less spent on promotion:

QuoteTo help cool the overheated expectations, the advertising budget for ''The Phantom Menace'' is less than $20 million, not much for a film with a budget of $115 million competing in the blockbuster sweepstakes.

My point still stands, even if the math is a little off.

Quote from: Endless Flight;870752The movie is going to make $2B worldwide. They paid $200M to make it. That's quite a haul. That doesn't count all the merchandising. They might make what they paid for Lucasfilm after one movie.

Let's say it makes $2.5 billion. With a total budget of $350 million you'll have roughly a payoff of 7.14-1. That's lower than TPM's payoff of 7.6-1. But then, none of the Star Wars movies had a payoff close to that of American Graffiti, which enjoyed a payoff of over 140-1.

QuoteJ.J. Abrams recently said he wanted the story to be easy to follow for young children, which was one of the criticisms of the prequels, especially the Phantom Menace and it's taxation of trade routes.

Kids had no problem following the story of The Phantom Menace, nor did any adults who weren't imbeciles. Only neckbeards and movie critics were confounded by the plot. As Mike Wong pointed out regarding the Red Letter Moron, another marvel of intellect who found the plot to a Saturday matinee movie too confusing:

QuoteJesus Fucking Christ, is this guy honestly that goddamned stupid? He can't understand the plot of a Star Wars film? We're not talking about "Rashomon" here, for fuck's sake. The plot is as linear as they come. If anything, the film tries too hard to fill in all the gaps. This guy must be a flaming retard.

Exactly.