• '18 '17 '16 '15 Customizer

    Haven’t seen it yet, plan to this week sometime.

    However… calling it better than Force Awakens is not exactly high praise to me. Considering Force Awakens may be last on my list.


  • No kidding, Mr. Hoffman :)


    General, wasn’t the pleasant surprise appearance of your crush just computer trickery?
    Maybe you should invest in a hologram projector for your home so you can see her and her glorious buns any time you want  :lol:

  • '22 '20 '19 '18 '17 '16

    Ha, I could have gone without that cameo in the end, I was talking about bringing Peter Cushing back from the dead! I loved his scenes and could have seen a whole movie devoted to early Imperial career maneuvering and backstabbing.


  • :-)


  • @aequitas:

    ROGUE ONE over EP VII, Hands down!!

    That is SW as we know it!

    a must see.

    no intentional spoilers but you might piece some together with stuff I say

    This is most certainly not “SW as we know it.” It is a tremendously tonally uneven movie. My impression from the previews that there might have been something there before they “focus-grouped the shit out of it” was largely born out. I know this because the line from the trailer “I rebel” didn’t make the final cut. I can see why around the time of the highly publicized re-shoots they were talking about the movie “not feeling like Star Wars.” What was “focus-grouped out of it” was the highly cynical underlying story. The movie was also just full of the crap cinematic sensibilities of modern product cinema. Scope and shaky cam do not go together. Why film a movie in 2:35:1 only to fill it full of claustrophobic close-ups where you bounce the frame around?

    There is some neat stuff in there with regards the space battle but the use of actual footage from Star Wars was jarring as all get out. I find myself hard pressed to remember the names of any of the characters not the main girl. The script was not a mess but didn’t earn any of the emotional beats it aimed for and just sort of bumbled into something resembling a point and the whole thing is salvaged or more salved by the very end of the movie which keeps it from being an utter downer trip to the movies.


  • I don’t even remember the main girl’s name  :lol:

    Rey or something?  :lol:


  • Aside from the Essos of the new characters in this I’d have to look at a cast list to do more than be guessing at their names. I’m really curious what the movie looked like before the re-shoots or whatever they showed the earliest test audiences. The more I think about the script/screenplay the more I hate it.

  • '22 '20 '19 '18 '17 '16

    One snippet I’m curious about is the scene of Jyn being face-to-face with a TIE Fighter on the catwalk of the deflector array that was in the trailers but cut out of the film. Was it part of a possible getaway?

  • '18 '17 '16 '15 Customizer

    @General:

    One snippet I’m curious about is the scene of Jyn being face-to-face with a TIE Fighter on the catwalk of the deflector array that was in the trailers but cut out of the film. Was it part of a possible getaway?

    Still haven’t seen it, but…

    My brother mentioned this yesterday when I got his opinion on the movie. FWIW.

    He is a Donald Trump Huge Star Wars fan. Lives and breathes it you could say. His statement to me is that it was in his top 4 SW films thus far, but he needed to see it again to determine where he would put it.

    While I am not actively seeking out spoilers, I am not avoiding them either. I figure that I know the beginning and the end, so the middle is not going to be much of a surprise.

    I appreciate your detailed and critical take as always Frimmel.


  • What I’d compare it too is “Pearl Harbor” or “Titanic” only the first half isn’t quite as boring as either of those. You get to the big thing happening like the attack starting and the ship hitting the iceberg and the movie becomes much more interesting. I don’t care to see the whole thing again but I’d watch from just before they leave to steal the plans till the end again. The neat things are really neat and much of everything else is a pile of “meh.”

    I’d have liked it much better without the shaky-cam which I tend to think is a trait of directors who don’t actual believe in their material and as I think more about the tonal unevenness I’m inclined to pin that on a cynic trying to make a sort of traditional patriotic war movie and badly copying “Saving Private Ryan.” But he didn’t believe any of it. Maybe I’m trying to say the film was trying to be both “The Green Berets” and “Born of the Fourth of July.”

    And as I write that I find the idea coincides with my thoughts on Edwards’s “Godzilla” where I’d constantly get the idea that he’d made choices because they were cool without really understanding what made them cool.


  • Love it - especially 1st paragraph

  • '18 '17 '16 '15 Customizer

    @frimmel:

    What I’d compare it too is “Pearl Harbor” or “Titanic” only the first half isn’t quite as boring as either of those. You get to the big thing happening like the attack starting and the ship hitting the iceberg and the movie becomes much more interesting. I don’t care to see the whole thing again but I’d watch from just before they leave to steal the plans till the end again. The neat things are really neat and much of everything else is a pile of “meh.”

    That’s kinda funny because while decorating Christmas cookies with my wife last night, I put on Mr. Plinkett’s review of Titanic. Partially because I wanted to listen to something funny and intelligent, but also because I thought my wife would at least be interested since she loves the movie. It worked and she actually laughed throughout. Point being, it was about Titanic and he even mentions Pearl Harbor a few times.

    @frimmel:

    I’d have liked it much better without the shaky-cam which I tend to think is a trait of directors who don’t actual believe in their material and as I think more about the tonal unevenness I’m inclined to pin that on a cynic trying to make a sort of traditional patriotic war movie and badly copying “Saving Private Ryan.” But he didn’t believe any of it. Maybe I’m trying to say the film was trying to be both “The Green Berets” and “Born of the Fourth of July.”

    Did you ever watch Jason Bourne? As in the new one.

    I was interested to see if you would post about it back when it came out, knowing you are an anti-shaky cam guy as a general rule. You will absolutely flip your $h!t if you watch it. I walked right out of the theater less than 30 minutes in, it was so bad. Still haven’t seen the end.

    The plot was poor and derivative, the acting was uninspired, the characters were all re-hashes of previous versions. It did not hold my attention at all. The camera work and editing was so broken that it is the only film that has actually made my head hurt trying to follow it.


  • @LHoffman:

    @frimmel:

    I’d have liked it much better without the shaky-cam which I tend to think is a trait of directors who don’t actual believe in their material and as I think more about the tonal unevenness I’m inclined to pin that on a cynic trying to make a sort of traditional patriotic war movie and badly copying “Saving Private Ryan.” But he didn’t believe any of it. Maybe I’m trying to say the film was trying to be both “The Green Berets” and “Born of the Fourth of July.”

    Did you ever watch Jason Bourne? As in the new one.

    I was interested to see if you would post about it back when it came out, knowing you are an anti-shaky cam guy as a general rule. You will absolutely flip your $h!t if you watch it. I walked right out of the theater less than 30 minutes in, it was so bad. Still haven’t seen the end.

    The plot was poor and derivative, the acting was uninspired, the characters were all re-hashes of previous versions. It did not hold my attention at all. The camera work and editing was so broken that it is the only film that has actually made my head hurt trying to follow it.

    I skipped the last two Bourne movies. While I had originally been okay with the second even actually liking it on exit of the theater and I revisit the first with some regularity I was burnt out by the third and so have passed on them. I think Bourne Supremacy with a few exceptions gets shaky-cam and fast edits right.

    The film is very kinetic and driven and that’s on the shaky and editing. Supremacy does though use the wave the camera around on someone sitting still bouncy framing at points which I despise more than the more cinema verite and way they shoot action scenes shaky cam. I also think Supremacy pushes the whole thing about as far as it can go and Ultimatum tried to one up it and was practically unwatchable and where I really came to grips with the issues with the technique and the first movie I noticed the editing.

    So I didn’t see much need to take in the Renner one and this most recent one.

    Ultimatum and Quantum of Solace are really where my “crusade” against shaky-cam began.

  • '17 '16

    Khan you greedy bloodsucker, you’ve managed to hit just about everyone else, but like a poor marksman, you keep missing the target…

    Star Wars Rogue One was an excellent movie… I loved it from start to finish.  I must also admit I spent about half the film going “how the heck did they bring that dead guy back to be a major character”… I raced home and dug up everything I could find on that aspect… very interesting, and had me fooled.


  • After all, a big Puzzle is finally solved!

    Who in the whole Galaxy of Star Wars was constructing such a powerful Space-station Super weapon that some moisture Farmer boy could blow up by just hitting a whomprat-size-little-whole?

    Now we know. :-D


  • @Wolfshanze:

    Khan you greedy bloodsucker, you’ve managed to hit just about everyone else, but like a poor marksman, you keep missing the target…

    Star Wars Rogue One was an excellent movie… I loved it from start to finish.  I must also admit I spent about half the film going “how the heck did they bring that dead guy back to be a major character”… I raced home and dug up everything I could find on that aspect… very interesting, and had me fooled.

    I missed the target? Whether or not you enjoyed a movie and whether or not you love a movie are independent of whether or not that movie is any good. Sometimes they go together, loving it and it being good. Other times they do not. Rogue One is really a bit of a mess. And what everyone seems to love about Rogue One really bodes ill for the future of all these anthology films.

  • '17 '16

    @frimmel:

    I missed the target? Whether or not you enjoyed a movie and whether or not you love a movie are independent of whether or not that movie is any good. Sometimes they go together, loving it and it being good. Other times they do not. Rogue One is really a bit of a mess. And what everyone seems to love about Rogue One really bodes ill for the future of all these anthology films.

    [Sigh]… whether or not you missed the target, you certainly missed the reference…  :wink:

  • '17 '16

    @aequitas:

    After all, a big Puzzle is finally solved!

    Who in the whole Galaxy of Star Wars was constructing such a powerful Space-station Super weapon that some moisture Farmer boy could blow up by just hitting a whomprat-size-little-whole?

    Now we know. :-D

    Well i’ve known how for a very long time… unfortunately, Rogue One is obviously fake, because we all know I was the one who stole the plans in the PC Game Dark Forces.


  • @Wolfshanze:

    @frimmel:

    I missed the target? Whether or not you enjoyed a movie and whether or not you love a movie are independent of whether or not that movie is any good. Sometimes they go together, loving it and it being good. Other times they do not. Rogue One is really a bit of a mess. And what everyone seems to love about Rogue One really bodes ill for the future of all these anthology films.

    [Sigh]… whether or not you missed the target, you certainly missed the reference…  :wink:

    :roll: Did I miss it or just ignore it? That was so “not subtle” it didn’t deserve a pat on the back.

  • '17 '16 '15 '12

    dont you guys think that there is no such thing as “objectively good” as compared to “like it or not”? Boy do I think TFA is a pile of bantha p, but plenty people think otherwise.

    For me R1 was much more enjoyable, despite all the holes in it. I dont even want to think about the Empires general reaction ability. But who doesnt like the cameos, for example.

    As for the alternative ending, the trailers pretty much seem to hint at successfull escaping. Inevitably, there is critique for either ending. I am sure there is a huge part of the audience (myabe one that is used to it from mainstream US cinema) that is disappointed no hero manages it out alive.

    Had they made two movies out of it, diving deeper into characters, then the critique would be that it is overblown for business reasons.

    I think it can stand as a solid SW movie with memorable bits and some nice perks for the core fans.

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