Movie Reviews 2.0

Watched "Krampus" yesterday.
Really entertaining horror/comedy about a disastrous family get-together during the christmas holidays. So disastrous in fact it summons Santa's sinister buddy Krampus who seeks to punish the ones who've lost the jolly spirit of christmas. It mostly strikes a very nice balance between dark comedy and old fashioned creature horror, but whereas the family drama was executed damn near perfectly, the horror-focused second act definitely could have been a little tighter. I guess they did everything they could with the PG 13 rating. It also sags a little during in the middle. Still, it's a spirited and charming little nod to classic Joe Dante movies like Gremlins and Small Soldiers, complete with animated gingerbread men, murderous toys and evil elves.
 
I watched Self / less with Ryan Reynolds. Genuinely good movie, really enjoyed that one. Although the reviews have been less favorable, but IMDBs 6.5 seems like a decent and accurate rating for the movie. I'd have given it around a 7.
 
I am surprised at how many plot points and events it borrows from the original trilogy. Almost seems like a rehash.
I've not seen it yet, but I got that feeling from the trailers. There's a lot of the visual language from earlier films that showed up in the trailers, and certain scenes and concepts seemed much closer to being cribbed than just sharing the properties of the universe. I worry a little, since this single episode of a new trilogy mined more than one movie to fill the trailer.
Let's hope Abrams finds a way to elaborate on things more than what he managed with the second movie of his previous rebooted franchise, which I did not view as a particularly successful re-imagining of an original concept or really advancing the reboot series on its own merits.
 
I am surprised at how many plot points and events it borrows from the original trilogy. Almost seems like a rehash.

That was the only low point for me but it was easily outweighed by the sheer brilliance of every other aspect of the film. It stands right up there with the original trilogy in every way IMO. It's as if the prequel trilogy never happened!
 
Just say after Episode 6 ;)

By the way, I am more excited about the new Star Trek than the new Star Wars. I like the actors and glad to see they all return. Story seems better already than part II as well.
 
Just saw force awakens

If you've read the books most is taken from that. In the books han and leia have twins and then a third child. The male twin goes evil after time walking to see his grandfather as Darth vader. In this one their son talks to his grandfathers burned remains and mask and is being trained by some evil dude that looks a bit like golem.



Oh and there is a girl who was abandoned on a planet that finds a droid (sound fimilar ) that has directions to luke. Oh yea and she finds Anakin and Luke's blue light saber and has visions of being left behind , and the future (which happens to be the island luke is on.

Oh yea and while luke took forever to even wiggle a light saber this girl is able to call the light saber to her over powering Kylo's call to the light saber and of course defeat a Sith
 
Oh yea and while luke took forever to even wiggle a light saber this girl is able to call the light saber to her over powering Kylo's call to the light saber and of course defeat a Sith

To be fair, she was pretty good at hand to hand combat before obtaining the light sabre,

For me, it beat expectations by a mile; Almost as good as A New Hope.

Cheers
 
"Fan service". Lucas effectively said that recently in relation to the film, and I felt it many times while watching it. However, on balance after watching it, I'm OK with it as it set up the new cast quite effectively (although, ultimately you wonder what Fin's role is going to be). While the trailers had already set the tone to matching in the original trilogy, in terms of locations and "sounds", what struck me half way through this, in a positive way, was how amusing the film was. Certainly going to go back to the cinema to watch again.
 
To be fair, she was pretty good at hand to hand combat before obtaining the light sabre,

For me, it beat expectations by a mile; Almost as good as A New Hope.

Cheers

why cause she beat up two random scrubs ? Its not like she wiped the floor with them either , they gave her trouble .

Also we see her left on the planet at what 5 maybe 7 tops. So how many years of training would she have had yet she mastered a mind trick and was able to out force wrestle ben for the light saber .

I just think it was lazy writing that kinda ruined that part of the movie. It think it would have been far better for her to put up a decent fight and while the world is exploding Chewie coming in with the falcon to get her and Finn and run off

I had fun with it , but it could have been better. I think as Dave said its a lot of fan service .
 
I saw it yesterday and was entertained. I thought they did a good job with it.

I'm thinking Rey is a daughter of Luke. I've not read anything whether that's possible or not, but imo it's the only way some of the things make sense here.

I think the new super weapon would have been quite devastating even without the blast, I mean it did extinguish the sun of the system where it was used and it would suck for someone to extinguish your sun :)

Kylo Ren should probably just keep that mask on... Every time he takes it off, he seems to fall apart and perhaps even channeling a little bit of Hayden Christensen :)
 
Why do the rebels never simply take over the deadly weapons like the death stars? Imagine what they could do with the deadly weapons against the empire if they took control of them instead of blowing them up.
 
So, why is the CGI in TFA so terrible? Every single CGI shot looked fake as hell. Gotta say it, Episode I was much better in the VFX department.
 
SW:TFA
Liked it, really became the cycle/rhythm thing that happens in all Star Wars.

My thoughts below.

Fin is like the new Han. Rey the new Anakin. Poe?

Rey was clearly identified as a force user. So perhaps she was left on the planet to grow up with no attachments.

Kylo if I understood the dialogue he was getting weird under Han and Leia so they sent him to Luke to get trained and he failed and fully became the dark side.

He left because he failed and it seems to fall in line that Jedi who have attachments or love tend to be seduced by the dark side. Hence why I think Rey was left to survive on her own.

How Rey is so powerful is very similar to how Anakin was. She was likely identified early on because she was born from the Force. Luke probably has a pretty good idea of who she is. We will know more next episode.

OR

Rey is Luke's daughter. And he messed around and said shit that was a mistake, messed up Kylos training and realized all was bad because he was distracted so to save something or anything left, he fled.
 
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Lol I think you need to compare the two again.
I have. The technology is superior in the latest film no doubt but it seems to me that VFX artists no longer check if their creations match reality and instead just assume that whatever the computer spews out is good enough.


Much more convincing that the high-end videogame look of TFA.
 
I have. The technology is superior in the latest film no doubt but it seems to me that VFX artists no longer check if their creations match reality and instead just assume that whatever the computer spews out is good enough.


Much more convincing that the high-end videogame look of TFA.
That may have been an JJ Abrams call.
 
SW:TFA
Rey was clearly identified as a force user. So perhaps she was left on the planet to grow up with no attachments.

Kylo if I understood the dialogue he was getting weird under Han and Leia so they sent him to Luke to get trained and he failed and fully became the dark side.

He left because he failed and it seems to fall in line that Jedi who have attachments or love tend to be seduced by the dark side. Hence why I think Rey was left to survive on her own.

How Rey is so powerful is very similar to how Anakin was. She was likely identified early on because she was born from the Force. Luke probably has a pretty good idea of who she is. We will know more next episode.

OR

Rey is Luke's daughter. And he messed around and said shit that was a mistake, messed up Kylos training and realized all was bad because he was distracted so to save something or anything left, he fled.


33 seconds in.

I think this is Luke speaking to Rey, it wasn't on this movie so perhaps it's in the next. I think it could be him saying it to her on the island or a flashback of when she was just a small child...
I do not see her being something else than a Skywalker and I think it's more likely she is Luke's instead of Leia's, but some waiting in front of us is :)
 
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