TV/Movies Megathread

[KRonn]

I liked the Star Wars trailer. I love the SW series, and so looking forward to this movie.   

[Valmy]

I don't mind the Jedi still being the stuff of legends 30 years after A New Hope, the problem is the prequels, where there's Jedi all over the place and in a very public position, and by the time of the Empire everybody has forgotten them...

Hey! 18 years have passed. But maybe because of relativity 200 years have passed on Coruscant where only 18 years passes on Tatooine or something.

[Syt]

I'm curious about what happened in the past 30 years, though. The trailer looked somewhat bleak and dark. Was there a period of peace followed by the rise of the First Order? Has there been a 30 year war ravaging the galaxy? In the grim dark future past in a galaxy far, far away there is only war?

[Berkut]

I'm curious about what happened in the past 30 years, though. The trailer looked somewhat bleak and dark. Was there a period of peace followed by the rise of the First Order? Has there been a 30 year war ravaging the galaxy? In the grim dark future past in a galaxy far, far away there is only war?

No kidding. If the result of Eps 4/5/6 is that the galaxy is worse off than before, then what was the point? Hell, the entire story arc there is the triumph of real good over real evil, if the net result is no real change for most people, what exactly was the point?

[Syt]

Well, a common mythological motif is the alternation between good and evil, light and dark, war and peace, winter and summer etc. So the events of Ep. VI could have been just a step in the cycle.

Or, on a bigger and rather depressing scale, maybe "a thousand generations of peace and justice" are replaced by "a thousand generations of war and suffering" which were ushered in by Palpatine ("I will finish what you've begun.").

[celedhring]

I'm curious about what happened in the past 30 years, though. The trailer looked somewhat bleak and dark. Was there a period of peace followed by the rise of the First Order? Has there been a 30 year war ravaging the galaxy? In the grim dark future past in a galaxy far, far away there is only war?

No kidding. If the result of Eps 4/5/6 is that the galaxy is worse off than before, then what was the point? Hell, the entire story arc there is the triumph of real good over real evil, if the net result is no real change for most people, what exactly was the point?

I hope it's just that the Imperial remnants rally around that new mask dude and become a threat again, rather than 30 years of civil war. That, as you say, would render the original trilogy rather pointless.

[Valmy]

Well it wouldn't be the first time Star Wars bungled its central mythological arc.

[Eddie Teach]

I meant the other kids' angst, not Carl's.  His all, "oh, I see you had the girl with you...I'll just go mope with the wolves/zombies...fuck survival".

I think that's less about the girl and more "your dad killed my dad". But yeah, it's another example of how the Alexandrians have been relatively sheltered up til now.

[Savonarola]

Three's a Crowd (1927)

Harry Langdon's notorious box office bomb; this deals with a man who wants a wife and family.  Everything seems to work out for him (I guess) when a pregnant girl ends up on his doorstep, but will her husband be back?

Langdon obviously wants to be Chaplin here (he wrote and directed the film as well) and lays the pathos on with a trowel.  Unfortunately he forgot to put in more than a couple gag sequences.  This film would have worked better if Langdon had kept his director, Frank Capra.  With the bizarre dream sequences and stylized settings this film would have also worked better if FW Murnau had directed it.  As it is the film is something of an expressionist nightmare comedy-drama; it really doesn't work.

One thing that struck me is how brilliant Chaplin's ending sequences are.  Even though life has laid him low (except in "The Gold Rush"), the Tramp walks off into the sunset ready to face a new adventure.  It give the audience hope.  Langdon ends his film with a gag; one that drives home that there's no tomorrow for him and he's trapped in his lonely, miserable existence.

[celedhring]

Well it wouldn't be the first time Star Wars bungled its central mythological arc.

Well, the prequels are terrible but at least the story they aim to tell is coherent; the rise, fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker.

Actually one of the things I'm most intrigued about is how they go from there in the new trilogy, since the prior 6 movies are so well closed-off.

[Berkut]

I like reading this thread, but I am way behind on TWD.

Could those who want to talk about the TWD plot maybe open up a separate thread, so we don't stumble on spoilers when some people post plot details but do NOT use the spoiler tag?

[Valmy]

Well it wouldn't be the first time Star Wars bungled its central mythological arc.

Well, the prequels are terrible but at least the story they aim to tell is coherent; the rise, fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker.

Actually one of the things I'm most intrigued about is how they go from there in the new trilogy, since the prior 6 movies are so well closed-off.

The prequels were coherent but they undermined many of the themes from the original trilogy. This new trilogy might also be coherent by itself but still mess around with the original mythology.

[The Minsky Moment]

Is that a Death Star? Did they build another damn Death Star?

Third time's the charm?

A massive planet-sized planet destroyer is an idea that can never die.

[celedhring]

Well it wouldn't be the first time Star Wars bungled its central mythological arc.

Well, the prequels are terrible but at least the story they aim to tell is coherent; the rise, fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker.

Actually one of the things I'm most intrigued about is how they go from there in the new trilogy, since the prior 6 movies are so well closed-off.

The prequels were coherent but they undermined many of the themes from the original trilogy. This new trilogy might also be coherent by itself but still mess around with the original mythology.

Nah, the arc of the prequels complemented itself well with the originals. Anakin Skywalker is prophesied to be the one that will save the galaxy but falls to the dark side; then his son - fruit of the love that brought upon Anakin's downfall - delivers that promise and redeems his father while saving the galaxy. It works well. What happened is that the movies themselves were crap.

[The Minsky Moment]

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?