I have an easier solution. The “prequels” are an abomination and should be ignored at all times in all ways.
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Congratulations, young Paduan. You have passed the test for discriminating bullshit narrative from something believable.
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hmm, good point. i had forgotten about that.
eh, i disagree. i think kenobi’s arc is the best thing about the prequels, and is worth keeping. it adds to what we learn and know from the original trilogy. but i agree there’s a lot that can be ignored.
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The plot of the prequel trilogy is pretty solid. It contradicts a fair amount from the EU, but the EU’s been completely binned anyway. I would say that the only real plot point that should have been excluded was the midichlorians, and that’s just because it’s trying to make a space opera into hard sci-fi.
The problem with the prequel trilogy is that it was just so horribly executed. Too much CG, lackluster performances, pacing and dialogue problems… George Lucas should have written the screenplays, passed them off to someone more competent at screenwriting to rewrite, and then stood back and watched someone else turn it into something better. Instead, he micromanaged things everything, even (especially) things he wasn’t very good at, and, well…
I mean, listen to The Saga Begins. Even as a parody song, the story is compelling. But when Weird Al can tell your story better in a few minutes than you can in a couple of hours… Yeah, that’s not the story’s fault.
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yeah, all true. lucas let his fear and aversion to the larger hollywood machine rule his decisions, i think, all to the detriment of the prequels. i mean, not all hollywood is great, but it’s not all terrible, either. he should have sketched out his original ideas and let someone else work with them and make them a reality. i also think that there was SO much expectation and pressure on everyone that people were afraid to say “no” to anything he said, which also was just a terrible environment to work in.
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Last master is all that counts for the Sith, so why not? The only real disagreement between the two sects is whether or not the “dark side” has more or less value than the “light side”. The force is indifferent and neutral, balance isn’t necessary unless you’re running a religious cult that requires a rival religious cult. At least in what is shown to us on the large and small screen, this is what I’ve learned, particularly from Rebels and it was touched on in TLJ.
Also, the alleged prequels are crap, shouldn’t have been made, and do a terrible job as backstory fillers. FFS, the most interesting character of the entire trilogy is on screen for about 5 minutes total before being cut in half. At some point, I rather expect Disney to attempt these movies again. With any luck, they won’t be a hot mess.
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I admit that McGregor gave possibly the only non-cringeworthy performance in all of the so-called prequels, but I’m afraid keeping it is not an option.
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nope, denied. so tired of arguing the prequels, been doing it since they came out. let’s move on.
Yes, let’s.
I saw a decent one and a great one this week.
First, Jessica Chastain, Sam Rockwell, and Michael Greyeyes as Sitting Bull in Woman Walks Ahead. A little heavy on the white savior complex a la Dances With Wolves, but good acting nonetheless.
The really powerful one, though, was Sweet Country, with Bryan Brown (Breaker Morant, F/X, The Good Wife), Sam Neill, and a great performance from newcomer Hamilton Morris. Not going to spoil this one, but I suggest you watch it when you can give it your undivided attention.
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Which oddly enough, came up in a Kevin Smith comic book.
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Phantom of the Paradise (1974) with William Finley, Paul Williams, Jessica Harper and Gerrit Graham
Brian De Palma’s Rocky Horror Picture Show predecessor, a comic/horror/musical re-telling of Phantom of the Opera, Faust, and one or two other hoary old chestnuts. But, it never took off like RHPS (except, to a certain extent, in Winnipeg, Guy Maddin’s stomping grounds). The tunes aren’t as immediately catchy (composer/star Paul Williams was obviously saving his more hooky material for the Carpenters and Bowie), it’s nowhere near as sexy (not that it seems to try), and most damningly, it fails to be liberatory. Sure, the forces of repression triumph at the end of Rocky Horror, but at least this is presented as tragedy. Phantom holds out no hope, showing contempt for the mass audience, and scarcely any affection for its leads. (One can hear this in “The Hell of It,” which plays over the end credits, a song which could be condemning almost anyone in the film.)
All that said, I still think it’s fairly great. The tunes mostly sink in eventually, the brilliant trickery of De Palma’s high-energy direction perfectly suits the over-stuffed story, and it can be quite funny too, especially Gerrit Graham as glam rocker Beef. And, if it’s overly cynical and nihilistic, well, it is supposed to be a horror movie, and even scarier, a portrait of the music industry.
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I keep hearing about this movie, I never knew it was Brian De Palma, though. It must be early. I think the earliest thing of his I saw was Blow-Out which seems later than '74.
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If you are a cinema geek it is worth seeing. The sets and costumes are fun enough on their own.
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Yeah, Blow Out was '81. When De Palma made PotP, he was just beginning to move from comedies into thriller/horror movies. If Blow Out really is the earliest De Palma you’ve seen, I strongly recommend you check out his '70s work. Sisters, Carrie, and The Fury are some of his best.
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yeah, I tend to weigh mis-en-scene pretty heavily
OK so I know Carrie but just from seeing it in bits and pieces on tv, and meta media clips and references. I liked what I saw but I never knew it was BDP, I guess I thought he was just getting started with the grimy-looking Blow-Out and then getting better money with Body Double as reflected in the production value and then on to Carlito’s Way.
Looks like I have a lot of catching up to do.
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Salome’s Last Dance (1988)
Starring: Imogen Millais-Scott, Glenda Jackson, Stratford Johns
Ken Russell’s version of Oscar Wilde’s 1891 play Salome, the story of Salome and her dance of the seven veils. Virtually all of the complete text of the one act play is included, Herod’s final speech is trimmed a bit, but in addition a framing story showing Wilde and his lover Bosie attending this secret performance of the banned play at an upscale brothel has been added. (It seems like every online reviewer refers to it as an all-male brothel when the dialogue quite clearly states otherwise. Besides, where did they think they got those scantily dressed women from?)
Other than the ultimately tasteless framing story, I think it’s fairly great, but admit that its appeal is probably limited to those who appreciate the original play and appreciate Russell’s frequently smutty irreverence. I especially enjoy Millais-Scott’s performance as Salome, a truly odd over-enunciated turn which somehow works. (Not-so-fun fact: A few weeks before filming she went practically completely blind due to illness, but carried on regardless. She never made another film, but I don’t know if that’s due to continuing health issues or Ken simply tanked her career.)
Joe Bob gives it three dildo spears up.
And here’s a copy of Wilde’s play, worth a glance simply for Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations:
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I saw this when I was in high school on satellite TV when we were house-sitting. It might’ve even been on the Playboy channel, or maybe just HBO, but I know I was watching the Playboy channel a lot.
I’m not sure if I understood that it was Wilde who was in the audience, although I had read Dorian Gray at that point for school. Even if I did know that Wilde was depicted, I didn’t know that it was his play. I also didn’t know (or at least retain) that it was at a brothel, it looked like an old manor house; which I guess it was anyhow.
I do remember liking it quite a bit; you know how I like sets and costumes.
I saw Marathon Man with Dustin Hoffman, Roy Schider, and Lawrence Olivier on TV last night. I knew it had a decent reputation and was pretty well-known when it came out. But, as cool as it was for the majority of it, certain key things in the third act just didn’t make sense. Too bad. I mostly liked it, though. It’s one of those “New York in the 70s was super fucked-up but the people and the city were still actually cool” movies; similar in a lot of ways to the original The Taking of Pelham 123, which is an excellent movie.
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Carrie is one of my favorite movies, which is weird because I do not like horror as a genre. But the cinematography in this movie is pure genius. And I really love the use of split screens.
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Body and Soul (1925)
Paul Robeson’s screen debut and one of the few remaining silent films from pioneering African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux. This film’s got the greater (or at least wider) reputation, but I very much preferred Micheaux’s earlier Within Our Gates, which is often claimed to be a response to Griffith’s Birth of a Nation. (As I recall, Micheaux denied this specific intent.)
To be fair, I should probably give BaS another chance sometime. On this first viewing, I watched it with Wycliffe Gordon’s musical accompaniment, which is quite good as music, but does tend to overwhelm the visuals, changing the film from a narrative to an artsy music video. Despite this, Robeson is good value even deprived of his voice.
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While it was somewhat gratifying seeing Tom Cruise die repeatedly, two things really stuck out in Edge of Tomorrow. First, there’s no chemistry between Blunt and Cruise, so toward the end of the movie, there’s a scene that’s awkward, at best. Second, the ending makes that other scene even ickier because a rotten movie trope is implied. Also, ending didn’t entirely make sense.
Final assessment: over-rated. (90% on Rotten Tomatoes? Srsly, now.)
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