The serial killer jokes are preemptive self-deprecation to defuse any responses along the lines of, "what kind of guy spends so long making YouTube videos about movies he doesn't like?" But they are too much. -- stammerI think that's about it. A ("You'd have to be a creepy loser dude to care this much about the star wars movies"). Plus, he might just find it kind of funny in a "This is making people uncomfortable, therefore it's funny" type of thing. Just look at Tom Green, for example. A lot of people find that kind of humor really funny.
...
Maybe the whole serial killer schtick is like Punk Rock fashion. You do "crazy crazy shit" like dye your hair, tattoos and make your own leather jacket with metal studs so it'll never be accepted by the mainstream (heh). He just wants to stay underground, man. -- amuseDetachment
JB: Das Foot had the potential to be a total disaster because there were a lot of cooks in the kitchen during the brainstorming session. For a 48 Hour Film Project, you have two days to write, shoot, and edit a project. You draw your genre out of a hat and we got horror. The other guidelines for the competition were so vague that it was difficult to narrow down what exactly we should do. My initial goal was to make something that would just irritate and confuse everyone in the theater. I didn't care about following the rules; I just wanted to fuck with people. The movie ended up being a hybrid of everyone's ideas, which could have been a mess, but somehow it seemed to work. It barely qualifies as a horror film, but the theater went nuts for it. I've never had something publicly screened get that great of a reaction. My intentions to just irritate the audience were undermined, but hearing all that laughter made it worth it.posted by delmoi at 6:31 AM on April 4, 2010
Star Wars (Or, A New Hope for you pedants.)
Yes, the dialogue is often shabby, but the overall structuring of the story is amazingly well-crafted.
A vast number of overlapping story arcs are tightly controlled, and I don't know of another series of six movies that tell the story of a single character.
he modulated each installment according to his original outline
Clones is campy as all hell, but that's not a criticism, that's just an observation
me: "When they released his movie in IMAX format, they went back to the original digital source files and rerendered the entire movie into the larger format, and even reframed the movie into IMAX screen shape (rather than letterboxing the theatrical ratio format onto the large IMAX screen). And it was BEEEEEAUTIFUL!You will note, I didn't once say anything about the movie being quality. I only said that when they made the IMAX print, they actually did it right. Nobody else has done that, not that I've seen. Especially with the introduction of FauxMAX: now they're going to be lazier than ever with their IMAX conversions.
"
Bonzai: You can wrap a bag of manure in the most beautiful wrapping paper possible but it's still gonna smell like shit.
Each video features the voiceover of Mr. Plinkett. Sounding like a weird sexist nerd serial killer, Plinkett’s crazed mumblings are mixed with creepy asides and visual gags that give you something to laugh at while the video makes a larger point. I ought to stress now that this is not politically correct humor. RedLetterMedia explains in an e-mail, “When I did the first review, the Star Trek: Generations one, I started to record it in my normal voice and it was just horrible and dull. So I decided to do it in character to make it more palatable, especially since my goal wasn’t to just give a cursory review, but rather to get really detailed. It is a massive amount of pointless nerd deconstruction so there has to be a ‘wink wink’ element to it. If you didn’t have some kind of humor with the material you’d come off as either someone with no life at all (which is true in my case) or someone who’s a big armchair critic that thinks he knows everything. The character adds a certain level of irony and fun to it . . . it goes back again to short films I used to make with my friend Rich, who has only ever portrayed Mr. Plinkett in the films. He does the voice as well, but I do it in the reviews.”*posted by hippybear at 1:11 PM on April 4, 2010 [7 favorites]
The love story, though, is more complicated than people give it credit for. I get a hoot out of the laughable fireplace scene, the Sound of Music roll in the hay, and the "sand" line every time -- but there's another thing going on here: Anakin has a selfish, twisted idea of what love is, and these romanticized notions are all based on grasping and attachments that will make him turn to the Dark Side. You're welcome to laugh at it (and I do) but I think you're also meant to understand that his love may not be the real thing.But what's in it for Padme? Why would this accomplished, adult woman be interested in all that teenage Emo bullshit? It was totally inexplicable. I think because Lucas clearly doesn't understand woman's desires at all. I mean some women go for that, I guess. Maybe she was insecure somehow and wanted the security of someone obsessed with her? Or perhaps she could have been sick of the constrains that she's under and sees Anaken as an escape.
So Rory, the love story is too childish but the politics are too adult? Compared to what?The problem isn't that they were too complicated, it was that they were too boring for kids to follow. As a bonus, they were also boring to adults.
Heh.I am a nineteen-year-old guy dealing with nineteen-year-old girls at the moment, and so I feel like I have particular current wisdom regarding what makes romance powerful.--RoryThis is the most hilarious bit of wisdom to spring forth from any review or commentary about that review that I have read here recently. Yes, being nineteen tends to lend that special perspective that eludes those younger or older, and that is why nineteen is widely known as the classical age of romance. -- solipsophistocracy
my thing is that much of the criticism, taken to incredibly silly levels, is made by adults who saw the originals when they were kids and can't understand why, as adults, they can't engage with the prequels in the same way, although they are now adults and the films are still being targeted toward children.Eh, frankly I think that's just bunch of Post-hoc rationalization on Lucas' behalf. No one ever said anything about Star Wars being "Kids Films" before the prequels came out and everyone hated them. I mean, maybe they were but it wasn't something they ever explicitized. Plus, if you look at Pixar movies, adults love them, "engage" with them fully. Adults love Harry Potter. It's obviously possible to make kids books that adults obviously enjoy. Kids love Avatar, and so do grownups.
Man, Adam, you have a gift for just being consistently the least pleasant person on this site. My hat tips to you. -- Rory MarinichYou have a gift for being one of the least self-reflective people on the site.
It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.Opening crawl for The Phantom Menace:
During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.
Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy...
Hey kids! Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute.So in Star Wars, it's all pretty clear: there's a civil war, the rebels have just stolen the plans to the Death Star, and the empire's chasing them. In The Phantom Menace, I'm bored by the beginning of the first paragraph. A dispute about taxation doesn't sound like it'd really cause turmoil. A kerfuffle, maybe some kvetching, but turmoil? Kids love policy disputes, though, so I'm sure they're happy.
Hoping to resolve the matter with a blockade of deadly battleships, the greedy Trade Federation has stopped all shipping to the small planet of Naboo.
While the congress of the Republic endlessly debates this alarming chain of events, the Supreme Chancellor has secretly dispatched two Jedi Knights, the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy, to settle the conflict....
I have no idea what happens in the end (aside from the Darth Vader thing, natch).
I wonder what the DVD sales are like now? I bet the old school trilogy sales top the prequels by a long way.
I'm not sure the backlash matters or even if it was very large. Clearly a lot of people went to see the film.You can't hate something without seeing it. I mean, I saw the film. I had actually tried to avoid absolutely any spoilers whatsoever. I saw it on one of the first few days it opened. I was totally excited. And totally disappointed.
I saw it TWICE in the theater and I definitely consider myself part of the backlash. I wonder what the DVD sales are like now? I bet the old school trilogy sales top the prequels by a long way.How often do you see people dressed as storm troupers?
Sure. You said any backlash indicates Lucas failed in whatever he was trying to do with movie. My point is that, according to the box office, a lot of people went to see the movie, so there doesn't seem to have been much of a backlash.The problem with that statement is that it makes no sense. The fact that people paid to see it doesn't mean they liked it. I paid to see it, and I didn't like it. So did lots of other people in this thread. I mean, how could their even possibly be a huge backlash without a huge box office?
Kallay- Did Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) supervise the digital re-processing into IMAX?posted by hippybear at 11:58 PM on April 4, 2010
Ward- Well, we had the initial tests. Then we had scheduled check-ins with them as they proceeded along, and then we took a look at the final film. Yes, Industrial Light & Magic worked very closely with them.
...
Kallay- Did the magicians at ILM do any tinkering to the original footage to make it look good in the larger format?
Ward- No. We handed over the files to the IMAX guys, and they worked together on the DMR process to make it look as great as it does.
« Older The New York Times has published an informative gr... | Ever wonder how the classic B... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by item at 12:54 AM on April 4, 2010 [6 favorites]