Mini Movie Review

[Al Massey]

Apparently, this film is that good, it's on par with the originals and make it seem that the prequels never happened

 

I watched the remastered originals on Saturday.

I'm actually a little disappointed in the lightsabers scenes compared to the prequels lol

 

Han shooting first is a strange new twist that wasn't needed.

 

The extra add on graphics in some scenes make no real sense and seem added just for the sake of it.

 

 

And jar jar binks is a Sith Lord

[j_jza80]

Undoubtedly the worst bit of fiddling:

 

 

Far too OTT, you can tell that whole scene was just showing off with the technology they had at the time (1997 iirc). The irony is, that it now looks more dated and less realistic than the puppets, models etc in that scene, which predate it by 15 years.

 

Some of it works though, such as the backgrounds etc on Mos Eisley and Bespin, which were done subtly, and add some life to them.

[Scott]

I'm just back from seeing this and I'm absolutely buzzing. I'm absolutely over the moon at how good this film is.

 

The reason it's so good is that it's completely gone back to basics. No pretentious trying to be something it's not while losing all of the charm. I felt like a kid watching this film.

 

New order for me... 5, 4, 7, 6, 3, 2, 1......or dare I say it.... 5, 7, 4, 3, 2, 1. It really is that good!

 

If you liked the original Star Wars you really need to see this. Completely forget the previous 3! I cannot wait for the next instalment!

[Style]

I loved it, enjoyed watching it but it was all a bit predictable once the scene of the final battle was set. They may as well have just called the movie 'A New Hope Remastered'. You could pretty much match every old character to a new one. I was hoping they would've at least gone in a different direction with how the movie pans out

 

Bit of an embarrassing man crush on Kylo Ren. Thought he was pretty cool

[Scott]

I loved it, enjoyed watching it but it was all a bit predictable once the scene of the final battle was set. They may as well have just called the movie 'A New Hope Remastered'. You could pretty much match every old character to a new one. I was hoping they would've at least gone in a different direction with how the movie pans out

 

Bit of an embarrassing man crush on Kylo Ren. Thought he was pretty cool

 

I think it's genius what they have done to be honest. I think the similarities are completely deliberate, other than the new death star of course...... although that seems like a cop out it's pretty much what any super power would do.... bigger and better (I'm thinking about WW2 tanks here )

 

Back to the original point though. It's like reading between the lines of the Force, things repeat to retain balance. History isn't quite repeating itself but there are a lot of similarities and cycles going on. I guessed most of the plot before I even went to see the film so watching it unravel in front of me wasn't any particular surprise. The BEST thing IMO was the use of animatronics & puppets where possible, rather than the over-used CGI of the previous films & remastered versions. They really learned from that complete balls up. The action sequences were absolutely sublime IMO.

 

The film itself took me back to a kid. I was in awe and amazement at the stunning visuals of it all and seeing most of the original cast back in action was just brilliant. Solo's cheesy one liners were all there along with all the charm of the original movie. Exactly what was required IMO and I can't wait to see the next instalment.

 

However.... SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

 

 

 

 

Did I mention Spoilers?? STop reading!!

 

 

There were 2 things that didn't add up for me. One, Ren was very handy with the force. Taught by Luke himself, yet he was as handy with a light sabre as the Jedi from the original series. That didn't sit right with me at all. I know he was injured and I understand that his emotions were in turmoil but the fact that he could barely beat a no-body with a borrowed sabre and then a complete novice Jedi who touched one for the 2nd time didn't sit right with me. Secondly, I don't know if there's going to be a follow on from where the map came from but it seemed to pop out of nowhere. The map to where Luke is comes from the "Dark side" archives yet this random guy has a piece at the start of the film and R2D2 suddenly wakes up with the main piece at the end? It's either very lazy writing or there's going to be a bit of filling in at the end.

[Al Massey]

I think it's genius what they have done to be honest. I think the similarities are completely deliberate, other than the new death star of course...... although that seems like a cop out it's pretty much what any super power would do.... bigger and better (I'm thinking about WW2 tanks here )

 

Back to the original point though. It's like reading between the lines of the Force, things repeat to retain balance. History isn't quite repeating itself but there are a lot of similarities and cycles going on. I guessed most of the plot before I even went to see the film so watching it unravel in front of me wasn't any particular surprise. The BEST thing IMO was the use of animatronics & puppets where possible, rather than the over-used CGI of the previous films & remastered versions. They really learned from that complete balls up. The action sequences were absolutely sublime IMO.

 

The film itself took me back to a kid. I was in awe and amazement at the stunning visuals of it all and seeing most of the original cast back in action was just brilliant. Solo's cheesy one liners were all there along with all the charm of the original movie. Exactly what was required IMO and I can't wait to see the next instalment.

 

However.... SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

 

 

 

 

Did I mention Spoilers?? STop reading!!

 

 

There were 2 things that didn't add up for me. One, Ren was very handy with the force. Taught by Luke himself, yet he was as handy with a light sabre as the Jedi from the original series. That didn't sit right with me at all. I know he was injured and I understand that his emotions were in turmoil but the fact that he could barely beat a no-body with a borrowed sabre and then a complete novice Jedi who touched one for the 2nd time didn't sit right with me. Secondly, I don't know if there's going to be a follow on from where the map came from but it seemed to pop out of nowhere. The map to where Luke is comes from the "Dark side" archives yet this random guy has a piece at the start of the film and R2D2 suddenly wakes up with the main piece at the end? It's either very lazy writing or there's going to be a bit of filling in at the end.

 

The new Death Star was a farce.

How did that get built without being known?

How come the resistance is so small?

Yet there is a planet with downed galactic mega ships?

 

What has happened in the 30 ish years?

Yes the cast were good, the animatronics were amazing and less cgi was great.

 

But the story seemed a copy.

Was easy to follow and some places predict.

But was a great film.

 

Don't forget Luke wasn't a Jedi master so his skills and knowledge isn't exactly the best either.

Ren seemed like a spoilt brat, maybe that's why he is useless at saver fighting.

I have a feeling that the nobody ex storm trooper has the force.

 

I agree the whole map thing is strange.

It was explained at the beginning but very very briefly and not thoroughly.

And why did R2D2 just wake up?

I have a feeling he went into a deep sleep to process the map or details but they didn't explain it so was strange.

 

And the fact it's from unchartered space, so no one has any info of the area seems a bit odd.

 

Hopefully the next 2 will fill in gaps and explain more.

[Scott]

Remember the size of space though. It's not as if you could go around all the planets in the galaxy looking for new designs on planets lol. It could easily be built without any ones knowledge when you consider our galaxy alone has over 100 billion planets.

 

The way I understood the resistance was that they were no longer REALLY required thanks to the Republic being on side, hence the huge shock when they were all but wiped out (which should make the next offerings interesting, not sure how that's going to work).

 

Starships have been getting downed over the years of the movies, and throughout the books, so it's no surprise that there's a fair amount of junk. I'm guessing one of the wars were over that planet hence why there are a lot of them. It's likely a junk planet because of the resources solely from those ships.

 

The ex-storm trooper wasn't explained very well. Him having access to the force would explain a lot though. Having said that, the fact that they described mental checks etc suggests that there have been issues in the past with the troopers.

 

Anyway, over-analysing it all now. Need to try and switch off from it now so that I can just enjoy it again for what it was

[Al Massey]

Looking at that map which was unchartered space, it doesn't appear to be that big.

 

And considering many travel quite far and wide and the population of the planets, trade, salvage and bounty hunters it would seem quite easy.

 

Yeah it was different to the Death Star being built and would make it harder to locate, but hearing of something.

 

Considering the resistance and republic had been fighting the new "enemy" for all that time something must of been known.

[Swampy442]

Avengers - Age of Ultron.

Where do I start. Apart from Scarlett Johanssen in a skin tight cat suit again ( ) and the cameo from Paul Bettany, the best thing in it is James Spader as Ultron. The rest is an horrendous mess of a film.

 

Thats it really.

[wattwatt]

Just finished watching self/less.

 

Not a bad film to be fair, very well acted by Ryan Reynolds and the film kept me engrossed throughout I would 100% say it's worth a watch, specially as it was a film I hadn't heard off and just chucked on as it had Ryan as the lead role!

[Al Massey]

Just finished watching self/less.

 

Not a bad film to be fair, very well acted by Ryan Reynolds and the film kept me engrossed throughout I would 100% say it's worth a watch, specially as it was a film I hadn't heard off and just chucked on as it had Ryan as the lead role!

 

I bought this the other week, great film.

Done very well

[Admiral Donuts]

Anyone looking forward to Ip Man 3 in January?

[Al Massey]

Anyone looking forward to Ip Man 3 in January?

 

Never even heard of 1 or 2 :/

[Admiral Donuts]

Never even heard of 1 or 2 :/

 

Really?

 

Well if you like martial art films I highly recommend watching them.

[Scott]

Love Ip Man series, in fact I love anything with Donnie Yen in it. Dragon is my favourite though, outstanding movie.

 

[wattwatt]

Yeah ip man 3 should be pretty amazing!! It's not my normal type of film but being a film based on the teacher/master of Bruce lee I had to check it out!!

[Scott]

This is Dragon, it's amazing....

 

[video=youtube;0R1BafGi-gk]

[Kendo11]

I have to copy what I've said in the other thread and elsewhere and say Star Wars was as near to perfect (in my viewing opinion) that it could have been. I had goosebumps from the first minute until the last and absolutely loved it. As far as a cinema experience goes it's at the absolute top for me, the only other film that left me so awed at the end recently was Interstellar.

 

I'd honestly give it 9.5/10 easily. Going to see it again this week.

 

Also recently watched:

 

Chappie: very enjoyable actually and not as bad as some reviews made out I thought. Although there was a hint of recycled stuff from District 9.

 

Kill the messenger: loosely based on a little known true story about the CIAs involvement in the Contra rebels & drug supply and how the journalist exposing it had his life ruined by poking where he shouldn't have. Excellent serious role by Jeremy Renner.

 

To echo what Swampy said, I'd watch Scarlett present a tutorial on how paint dries any day of the week

[Scott]

Watched The Hateful Eight tonight. Honestly, don't bother. Not even the sterling performances could save this completely dire movie. How it's stretched out to almost 3 hours is beyond me, it drags on SO much and is almost entirely see through. I kept expecting an ace in the hole, a trick up the sleeve or some sort of mind altering revelation.... but it never came.

 

2 bob movie with a cracking cast.

 

Now for the Sherlock special.

[Kendo11]

Watched The Hateful Eight tonight. Honestly, don't bother. Not even the sterling performances could save this completely dire movie. How it's stretched out to almost 3 hours is beyond me, it drags on SO much and is almost entirely see through. I kept expecting an ace in the hole, a trick up the sleeve or some sort of mind altering revelation.... but it never came.

 

2 bob movie with a cracking cast.

 

Now for the Sherlock special.

Was tempted to see this over the weekend, that's made my mind up.

[ellis]

Some Christmas viewing:

1. St. Vincent (for probably the 4th time) - great film and one of Bill Murray's best performances to date. Watched it back to back with my other Bill Murray favourite, Stripes, which I just love for its 1981ness.

2. Southpaw - great film. Great performances throughout.

3. The Martian. As good as billed, was hooked from the start.

4. The Gift. A good watch with a great ending. Jason Bateman switches from his usual comedy role quite easily in this.

[Wez]

Watched The Hateful Eight tonight. blah blah blah.

 

Agreed, at 2hrs 45 mins a complete waste of time, the last 15 mins is slightly interesting

[Kendo11]

Film called Black Death is on BBC1 at 12. Looks half decent and Sean Bean is always watchable. Think I'll give it a go.

[Wez]

Went to see StarWars last night, would deff recommend it, great movie

[Kendo11]

Saw the final hunger games at the weekend.

 

I've enjoyed the series as a whole, Jennifer Laurence is a very good actress (see: Silver Linings Playbook) and she's done very well for herself from these.

 

This one was pretty average though to be honest, some very inventive (and decently violent) scenes but it could easily have been fit into the previous one. The plot twist was also pretty much telegraphed from the previous one also.

 

Decent but not one of those films I can say I'm happy that I forked out to watch at the cinema.