TV/Movies Megathread

[celedhring]

He was a broken down piece of meat.  It made him sympathetic.  It humanized him.

OK, but that is not what Raz is talking about.

I think it's pretty germane. Evil characters in the original trilogy wear masks because it prevents us from empathizing with them, it makes them non-human. Heroes would look to us a bit less heroic if they killed fellow human beings, instead of faceless stormtroopers. That's the reason, and not setting up a mystery around their identities. When Vader's helmet is removed, he becomes human again and that's the point of that scene.

Even military equipment gets that treatment: AT-ATs and TIE fighters look nothing like current military materiel; yet X-Wings and Y-Wings do resemble fighter planes.

[celedhring]

Little talk about Back To Future Day, by the way. I distinctly remember that the "To Be Continued" tacked at the ending of the first one were some of the first English words I learnt. I asked my parents what that meant, and they told me they were making a new one. I went crazy with joy.

[Josquius]

Wouldn't it be cool if someday a movie trailer were to show lots of scenes of the main bad guy. ... only for the film to come along and it to turn out he is just some random cool looking henchman killed in the first act.
Now that's how trailers should be done.

Not in the first act, but Darth Maul was basically that. There was a lot of hype about him pre-Ep. I, and then he had only a few short appearances before the big fight scene in which he dies is hurt.

I think the problem there is that he WAS actually the main bad guy.... the film just didn't do much with him and instead concentrated on crap.

[Eddie Teach]

I thought Palpatine was the main bad guy. Been a while since I saw the prequels though, he may not have been in that one. 

[Syt]

The bad guys were the Trade Federation under Nute Gunray (with inspiration from Darth Sidious). Darth Maul was just the enforcer brought in when the Trade Federation was unable to deal with the united power that is Jedi, their adolescent queen, the leftovers of Naboo military, and the Gungan militia.

[Berkut]

Man, I would love to go see the new Star Wars with all you dumbasses.

That would be pretty awesome.

edit: Until one of you started spoilering TWD during the pre-views, anyway.

Is there a legit IMAX in Rochester?  The closest ones to me are Albany and Syracuse, but they're both the mediocre half assed versions.  I'm watching it in 2d opening night, but I'd like to catch it in 3d in full IMAX glory at some point.

There is an iMax in Rochester, but I don't know if it is "legit" or half asses. What is the difference?

[Josephus]

Boba Fett only became popular cause he made a great toy.

I didn't know who he was till I a friend showed a little statue of the guy he bought.  He has like one line and dies humorously when the sand worm eats him.

They're saying he didn't die.

[Josephus]

I dunno.  He didn't make that much of an impression on me.  He first appears in a scene wearing a goofy helmet in a whole room full of people in wearing goofy helmets.  The guy I noticed was the lizard guy.  But it's just my opinion and I'm only basing what I said earlier because he seems like basic story telling.  If you introduce something  (like a villain who wears a mask), there should be some pay off.  It's not a hard and fast rule, but a good rule in general.  I have no idea if George Lucas ever heard of Chekhov's gun.  I don't reach a lot of Star Wars stuff so I don't know if he planned for Darth Vader to be Luke's father in the first film or not.  It just makes sense from a dramatic stand point.

the lizard guy was Bossak (or somehting like that). Again I only know these characters names cause I was 12 at the time and had all the fucking toys. Snaggletooth anyone?

[Malthus]

Will we get the full Jar Jar Binks legacy story in the new movie? 

[Syt]

the lizard guy was Bossak (or somehting like that). Again I only know these characters names cause I was 12 at the time and had all the fucking toys. Snaggletooth anyone?

Bossk. And yeah, Snaggletooth. Not as bad a name as Yak Face or Prune Face, though.

Footnote about Bossk: he's wearing a real life high pressure flight suit that was also used on old Doctor Who:



https://www.google.at/search?q=High-Altitude+Windak+Pressure+Suit+(1962)&safe=active&rlz=1C1GGGE_en-gbAT478AT478&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAWoVChMIkvvCw5HWyAIVAp9yCh3FXwpA&biw=1680&bih=965

In the movies you can see a few other characters wearing similar suits. The old movies are full of repurposed stuff like that (like the guns, for example).

[viper37]

I'm glad that Languish knowledge of the French Canadian dialect is improving.
West Montreal will have a subtitled version, hopefully.

The movies are presented in their original english version in may theaters in and around Montreal.  One theater in Quebec city (Ste-Foy) has movies in their original version, not all of them though, only the very big blockbusters.
The Gatineau area most likely has some theaters presenting original versions of movies, elsewhere, I don't know.  It was tried here once, but they didn't really advertize it, so it wasn't a success.  Anyway, with a 99% French population, the odds that some lunatic would prefer to watch his movies and tv shows in english are pretty small

Original trilogy only has a standard French dub, the new trilogy probably has a Québec dub. Viper probably knows.

1st movie has standard French dub, i.e. Dark Vador.  2nd&3rd were dubbed in Quebec and use the proper "Darth" title.  I don't know if the blu-ray dedid the dubbing for the 1st, it would surprise me.

[Duque de Bragança]

I'm glad that Languish knowledge of the French Canadian dialect is improving.
West Montreal will have a subtitled version, hopefully.

The movies are presented in their original english version in may theaters in and around Montreal.  One theater in Quebec city (Ste-Foy) has movies in their original version, not all of them though, only the very big blockbusters.
The Gatineau area most likely has some theaters presenting original versions of movies, elsewhere, I don't know.  It was tried here once, but they didn't really advertize it, so it wasn't a success.  Anyway, with a 99% French population, the odds that some lunatic would prefer to watch his movies and tv shows in english are pretty small

Original trilogy only has a standard French dub, the new trilogy probably has a Québec dub. Viper probably knows.

1st movie has standard French dub, i.e. Dark Vador.  2nd&3rd were dubbed in Quebec and use the proper "Darth" title.  I don't know if the blu-ray dedid the dubbing for the 1st, it would surprise me.

Actually, subtitling for very big blockbusters does not make much sense since they appeal to the lowest common denominator most of the time. Now for art house cinema it's different.

Darth is indeed the proper title, but it was probably changed for lip sync reasons. That's dubbing constraints for you, they adapted more back then and dubbing was not as bad as it is today.

[Syt]

German dubbing up to the early 80s was pretty good - they picked voices they tought fit the actors (even if their original voice was different - Martin Scorsese hand picked the German voice for Robert De Niro which is now very iconic), and wouldn't shy away from changing dialogue to make movies more palatable for Germans, to the point where some early Bud Spencer/Terrence Hill movies had at first gritty spaghetti western dubbing and later more comedic dubbing. There's also a fair amount of very memorable voices from that era. It also leads to some weirdness, where Arnie and Sly Stallone have the same voice actor. Or Kirk, Connery's Bond and the narrator on Pink Panther cartoons all sound the same.

In the past 10, 20 years the trend has gone towards finding voices that sound similar to the original, and to have the dialogue as close to the original as possible. It feels to me highly stilted, and listening to a movie trailer in German gives me the acoustic equivalent to the uncanny valley.

[Queequeg]

This is 30 (?) years later from last.

OK, then how do you end up with storm troopers and Tie fighters after the Empire has been defeated?  And Jedis only a distant memory?

It's an empire.  You didn't really think a talking lobster and some teddy bears could take out an entire galactic empire?

And TBH The Galactic Republic wasn't a stable, competent government when it had been in power for thousands of years.  It's actually kind of bizarre that Lucas thinks democracy would matter on a galactic scale across dozens of species with wildly different cultures and ways of thinking, both culturally and biologically.  If it weren't for the fact that the Emperor is a murderous fanatic corrupted by Cosmic Objectivism I don't think it would even be up for debate which system was superior. 

[viper37]

Actually, dubbing for very big blockbusters does not make much sense since they appeal to the lowest common denominator most of the time. Now for art house cinema it's different.

It makes sense when 3/4 of your population does not understand english

French speakers keep saying they want to see movies in English, but the reality is, even if you're bilingual, chances are you'll want to hit the theaters with friends that are not, so you'll have to watch the movie in French.  I solved the problem by buying the tickets for myself and going alone, most of the time. Only excetpion is Star Wars where we'll be 12.

Darth is indeed the proper title, but it was probably changed for lip sync reasons. That's dubbing constraints for you, they adapted more back then and dubbing was not as bad as it is today.

Dark or Dart would be pretty similar
Back in these days, especially in Europe, there was this tendancy to translate proper nouns and I suspect that's what happenned.  By the time of the 2nd movie it was so popular that they probably changed it for Quebec.