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Star Wars: The Last Jedi Official Teaser

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Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
How many trailers did TFA get before release?

Because I kinda like not knowing anything at this point. I've gotten a small, small taste of what it will look like, and maybe that's enough. Should be fun stepping into the theater for a new SW movie knowing virtually nothing. Especially if it's going to be one of the good ones, which seems likely here.

Two teasers and a trailer, I believe.
 
So how similar you guys think this is gonna be to ESB? Part of me wants the sequel trilogy to keep with the whole "ring theory" of Lucas' movies.

I think TFA was was way too reminiscent of ANH, but I don't disagree with it following the same general pattern as that movie. Phantom Menace did the same thing but was a bit more subtle about it. I also understand the need to give people a nostalgia blanket, I just think the execution sacrificed a lot of potential creativity for TFA, and as the years go on I worry TFA won't be remembered as a great movie in its own right like ANH is. Maybe I'd have been satisfied if they'd thought up something better than StarKiller base and if Jakku wasn't Tatooine 2.

Remix.

Rehash/retread carry with them inherently negative connotations that remix doesn't, which is why I think that specific term is being used here. The whole point of bringing it up isn't to complain about originality (again), it's to counter the shallowness of criticisms lobbed against the film, i.e: "It's just a dickless remake of A New Hope" This is showing that not only is it not that, but even if you wanted to focus your critical lens in that direction, it's a lot more accurate to say the film is essentially the ENTIRE ORIGINAL TRILOGY in one movie, as opposed to simply a remake of the first film. We're not bringing it up to shit on how "unoriginal" it is, we're bringing it up to point out that "It's just ANH but dickless" is a really superficial read.

I don't think it's just the recycling of basic "tropes" (ugh) or even standard monomyth shit, (although that, by nature, is going to come into play) but I think there was actually a conscious decision to break down the best parts of the classic Star Wars Trilogy, and apply them as needed to the telling of Rey's story. I can absolutely see Abrams/Kasdan doing that, especially since Kasdan wrote 2/3rds of it. I don't think that's a stretch, especially considering the primary creative force behind its making.



Johnson actually gave a pretty elegant answer to this during Celebration, I think the clip was on MTV News? Something like that.

But basically, by necessity it's going to lend itself to ESB comparisons because it's a 2nd act film. But Johnson apparently didn't pattern the film after ESB. Superficially, this is the "hero goes and trains" part of the myth, so that's going to be a similarity. But the way that happens, and the way all the other events of the film unfold, will likely be pretty different.

I think it will be similar in so much that it's the film where the hero undergoes training under an elder mentor on a secluded planet, and it's the one where the good guys get their asses hand to them (frustrating as that will be to watch, since it's unlikely the objective of the space battle will be retreat as in ESB).

Beyond that? I expect a vastly different film in terms of particular pacing and actual story beats. For a start, Rey is with Luke from, well, the start. Whatever space battle we get is likely to come more towards the middle of the film. Our party is split up into at least three rather than two, and it is looking probable that Ahch-To will get attacked - the empire never came knocking on Dagobah.
 
Remix.

Rehash/retread carry with them inherently negative connotations that remix doesn't, which is why I think that specific term is being used here. The whole point of bringing it up isn't to complain about originality (again), it's to counter the shallowness of criticisms lobbed against the film, i.e: "It's just a dickless remake of A New Hope" This is showing that not only is it not that, but even if you wanted to focus your critical lens in that direction, it's a lot more accurate to say the film is essentially the ENTIRE ORIGINAL TRILOGY in one movie, as opposed to simply a remake of the first film. We're not bringing it up to shit on how "unoriginal" it is, we're bringing it up to point out that "It's just ANH but dickless" is a really superficial read.

I can roll with this Bobby.

I still think Star Wars does repeat tropes but they're tropes in other things too. Like sneaking around enemy locations is just a general trope in these sorts of things and I don't mind SW doing that. Not every inch of a movie is going to be something nobody's seen before.

But I largely agree with the remix idea. Still felt like a new movie to me, but I can understand that opinion much, much easier than writing it off as a remake or retread.
 

Surfinn

Member
What's interesting is that Rian seems to be using the "bones" of ESB.. But I think it will venture into uncharted territory.

Funny thing is.. There will be an army of RLM idiots who will cry foul in that it "copies" ESB due to surface similarities.

I have a feeling TLJ will be the best film in the trilogy.. And not because of ESB.
 

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
What's interesting is that Rian seems to be using the "bones" of ESB.. But I think it will venture into uncharted territory.

Funny thing is.. There will be an army of RLM idiots who will cry foul in that it "copies" ESB due to surface similarities.

I have a feeling TLJ will be the best film in the trilogy.. And not because of ESB.

RLM liked TFA so ...
 
You know, they ironically became what they hated. Both in their prequel review and their TFA they criticize the creator's impulse to include things just because fanboys demand them rather than because they enhance the story. So, if they now write their creative product in a different way than they want to because thats what fans want and expect, and they cave into that demand despite it not being what they want to do creatively...

Well, that's just like poetry, isn't it?

MikeStoklasaNodding.gif
 

Boem

Member
I don't really mind or care if RLM likes or dislikes certain movies. My dislike for RLM comes more from:

- their insistence that Disney just repeats the same old stuff, followed by all their followers just repeating their same old jokes over and over

- their very questionable (at best) attitudes towards casting women or minorities in these things, as seen in their 'Sensitive Joss Whedon' SJW rants in some of their videos and especially those gaming livestreams.

I used to like their bad movie marathon vids but I've turned on them hard after sitting through just a bit too much of that nonsense.
 

DeanBDean

Member
But yeah Boyega basically sweats the entire movie.

This is actually intentional. It is a difficult task to light black and white people together, because less light reflects off darker skin. One of the common tricks to get around this is to have a higher than usual amount of sweat on the black actors' faces. You see it in quite a few movies actually.
 

Boem

Member
This is actually intentional. It is a difficult task to light black and white people together, because less light reflects of darker skin. One of the common tricks to get around this is to have a higher than usual amount of sweat on the black actors' faces. You see it in quite a few movies actually.

Wow, honestly never heard this before. Weird.

I have read some stuff from Donald Glover on his work on Atlanta, and how - given that the cast is mostly black - he really got to play with the lighting in ways that makes dark skin specifically really beautiful. That was an insightful interview for me. It's the first time I ever really thought about differences in lighting for different skintones.
 

Big Nikus

Member
This is actually intentional. It is a difficult task to light black and white people together, because less light reflects off darker skin. One of the common tricks to get around this is to have a higher than usual amount of sweat on the black actors' faces. You see it in quite a few movies actually.

The more you know.
 

Surfinn

Member
I don't really mind or care if RLM likes or dislikes certain movies. My dislike for RLM comes more from:

- their insistence that Disney just repeats the same old stuff, followed by all their followers just repeating their same old jokes over and over

- their very questionable (at best) attitudes towards casting women or minorities in these things, as seen in their 'Sensitive Joss Whedon' SJW rants in some of their videos and especially those gaming livestreams.

I used to like their bad movie marathon vids but I've turned on them hard after sitting through just a bit too much of that nonsense.
This is why I dislike them. I don't care if they love or hate a film. There's virtually no substance and they regularly generate sideeyes from me with their undertones.

The blatant irony of the "endless trash" gif
 
This is why I dislike them. I don't care if they love or hate a film. There's virtually no substance and they regularly generate sideeyes from me with their undertones.

For the most part RLM isn't really the problem. I think their videos of watching legitimately terrible movies are hysterical. It's the folks who back behind their prequel analysis, uninterested if someone else has a different opinion or doesn't quite dislike them on the same level that annoys me to no end. They make me laugh sometimes, and that's alright by me.

I mostly like the prequels while acknowledging some of the criticism, but finding some of it to be bottom of the barrel nitpickery.
 
- their insistence that Disney just repeats the same old stuff, followed by all their followers just repeating their same old jokes over and over

They've pretty much hit that Smodcast style call-and-response plateau with their fandom. It's interesting to pop into the threads that show up here when they drop a new video to watch fans get in line to parrot back the selected catchphrase from the episode as they wait for the animated gif of choice to be generated.

Sometimes in this cheerful cycle of affirmation-through-repetition, a very obvious thing (that sometimes isn't even a punchline or a catchphrase) is added to the one-sided back & forth, with the phrase "mind blown" attached to it like one of those bright orange stickers you see slapped to the steaks that are about 48 hours from becoming dogfood.

They put in more effort than they need to on this plateau, honestly. The content has slipped, yeah, and their weaknesses have long been exposed through that grind. But they're still better than a lot of others in that particular game. It's a racket, but it's not a bad one. There are much, much worse means of engaging they could be pursuing instead.

I mean, they could be pouring about 10k words a day into the multiple little boxes brought up by selecting "Post Reply" on the off-topic side of a Gaming Forum for the edification of tens of people. For free.
 

DeanBDean

Member
For the most part RLM isn't really the problem. I think their videos of watching legitimately terrible movies are hysterical. It's the folks who back behind their prequel analysis, uninterested if someone else has a different opinion or doesn't quite dislike them on the same level that annoys me to no end. They make me laugh sometimes, and that's alright by me.

I mostly like the prequels while acknowledging some of the criticism, but finding some of it to be bottom of the barrel nitpickery.

I think their prequel and Crystal Skull reviews do bring up a lot of good points, especially about discussing the core of what made the original Star Wars and Indy movies resonate. They don't say this explicitly (I don't think), but in my opinion the big core issue with the prequels was that Lucas wanted to make them about the dark political descent of democracy into dictatorship, while using the narrative framework of the hero's myth. That and Lucas thought it would be a good idea to make Anakin Skywalker a child murderer.

But their Baby's Day Out review is one of the most hilarious reviews I've ever seen. I watch it every couple of months at least.
 
Ya know, I don't care about this angst with Luke and gray Jedi/end of the Jedi stuff. I just want to see Luke happily reunited with Leia at some point during the Last Jedi, that's all I want. :(

I'd love that, but I think we'd be lucky to get force ghost Anakin let alone an actual real living form of him. Not sure how they'd even explain that one.

If Lucas was making the new movies something like Obi Wan, Yoda, or Anakin coming back in physical form *could* have happened as crazy as that would be. Because if you read the Annotated Screenplays and other quotes from Lucas, he never intended Jedi who are able to disappear and become one with the Force yet remain conscious to become literal ghosts. There is an old note/alternate script regarding Obi Wan's possible physical return where Lucas says Obi Wan is not actually dead but "in another dimension" or alternate area of the galaxy. Lucas still hung on to that at least partly because I remember listening to the DVD commentary for one of the prequels (was probably the commentary for RoTS but maybe I'm wrong, might have been TPM or AoTC's commentary) and I forget the scene or the comment but at one point Lucas is talking about Obi Wan sacrificing himself in ANH and says "...and when Obi Wan died, well...Obi Wan's not really dead but..." Also, originally Obi Wan was going to come back after Yoda passes into the Force because originally the way Lucas was going to have it work was that only one Jedi could be living consciously within the Force at a time. Whenever someone else disappeared into the Force that person would basically automatically displace the current person and back then back from the Force into physical form. Lucas also admitted he regretted not having Qui Gon disappear as that really messes with the continuity of the fact that living on in the Force is not supposed to be literal death and what was the point of Qui Gon teaching Yoda how to physically disappear if he didn't disappear himself right after Maul struck his fatal blow?

Also in the annotated screenplay for RoTJ according to Lucas's notes, when Vader kills the Emperor, he was supposed to really die after finishing his farewell to Luke, but Yoda who had been watching decided to reward Anakin for turning back and reached from beyond the Force and saved him. It all boils down to Yoda's chat in RoTS when Anakin tells Yoda he's having premonitions of someone he cares about dying (Padme) and Yoda tells Anakin not to worry because even if this person he cares about dies, they won't be in pain anymore because they won't exist anymore but otherwise....that is that. This is part of of what finally drives Anakin over the edge because obviously he just can't accept what Yoda said and plays right into Palpatine's line about there being a way to manipulate the Force into keeping people alive. Which it turns out oops, Palps admits he doesn't even really know how to do right after Anakin kills Mace and swears his allegiance to him.

Now I want to watch RoTS again, so underrated and my favorite next to ESB. TPM and AoTC obviously had some film breaking flaws but RoTS was firing on all cylinders (now if only Disney would edit out Vader's terrible noooooo and have James Earl Jones re-record that with something more neutral like a pained sound of anguish).
 
Just rewatched the teaser. Everything is so damn on point. The red font, the dark version of Luke's theme .. climaxing with what looks like a space clusterfuck more than a battle.

I was so ready for something from this film that my major reaction was pure excitement and fulfilment, but have you actually taken in the tone of this thing?

It's unrelentingly ominous. I think it (the teaser) might be the darkest, grimmest thing I will see all year. This film is coming for us.

Edit: And by counterpoint, I completely forgot how incredible it is to hear Luke's voice again! It's fucken Luke!
 

Surfinn

Member
Just rewatched the teaser. Everything is so damn on point. The red font, the dark version of Luke's theme .. climaxing with what looks like a space clusterfuck instead of a battle.

I was so ready for something from this film that my major reaction was pure excitement and fulfilment, but have you actually taken in the tone of this thing?

It's unrelentingly ominous. I think it (the teaser) might be the darkest, grimmest thing I will see all year. This film is coming for us.
Yup. This film is going to be a relentless assault. Emotional intensity is gunna be crazy.
 
If you look at the events of the film, the argument of it as a distillation of the entire OT rather than a retread or whatever of ANH holds up a lot better and makes the film a lot more interesting I think.
 
If you look at the events of the film, the argument of it as a distillation of the entire OT rather than a retread or whatever of ANH holds up a lot better and makes the film a lot more interesting I think.

It is, and it still takes its own unique spin on these things I feel. The Kylo and Han scene on the bridge for example reminds me of the catwalk portion of the Luke and Vader confrontation on Bespin, but it's not the same thing.

I think this is a better way to go about it instead of calling it a lazy rehash. It's definitely not lazy as it still does these things differently and feels calculated in that way.

I was so ready for something from this film that my major reaction was pure excitement and fulfilment, but have you actually taken in the tone of this thing?

Yeah. Being the middle point of the trilogy, it's just naturally gonna get dark. At the panel Rian flat out said "things get dire." They have to, that's how basic storytelling works.

Something else I love, you mentioned the red font but I'll take it a step further-- there are certain visuals released so far that sync up so beautifully. Like how the teaser poster has a white and red color scheme, and Crait has the white surface but the soil under the actual surface is red.
 

Surfinn

Member
Now I wanna scour TFA and look for hints and clues as to where TLJ is gong.

No problem, it's been fun and it's always nice to have a good ol' super geeky civil discussion.
For sure. In short, you think Luke would be able to sense her existence from birth, I don't. It will be interesting to see how they handle it, regardless of if she's Luke's or not. I think we can both agree that Luke felt the awakening though.
 

Boem

Member
I mean, they could be pouring about 10k words a day into the multiple little boxes brought up by selecting "Post Reply" on the off-topic side of a Gaming Forum for the edification of tens of people. For free.

You'll be fine.

Han-Leia-Hug.jpeg


Any day now those Disney checks will start coming in.
 

Guy.brush

Member
Didn't they like ST: Beyond? That movie was absolute trash. I couldn't believe what my eyes were subjected to

  • The ridiculous problems with scale again.
    The nebula seemingly eating itself in a matter of minutes with all the instability, yet it is a cosmic phenomenon that is so vast in size nobody has yet moved beyond it.
  • Having like a few dozen henchman on the planet and then later the Enterprise literally surfs a wave of what looks like a million drone fighters with 2 pilots each.
  • The Fast and the Furious motorcycle stunts confusing the whole base of the bad guy.
  • The ridiculous over the topness of all physics. How bad guy's boarding spike pierces the Enterprise and bad guy appears with what looks like the force of 100g and later it turns out he is human.
  • Wasting Idris Elba
  • The ridiculous "lets hide the bad guy's spaceship under a holographic blanket, he won't notice its absense at all right next to his base that he has resided in for hundreds of years.
  • To the spaceships seemingly being made out of Invincium in one scene so they can bounce against hard rock mountain tops no problem and then Kirk shooting out the bridge front window with a hand phaser.
  • The stupid climax with the glass cube delivery system on Yorktown base.
  • Pretty much all the Scotty alone with sexy woman scenes.
  • the rehash of Captain vs Admiral Kirk
  • If bad guy owns a million drone ships eating through any kind of matter/structure with ease, why does he need that small nano "person killing" ring of death on top?
RLM is a joke if they liked that I am sorry.
 

Jacce

Banned
RLM needs to fuck off and craw back under the rock they came from once they started to push the Rey "Mary Sue" sexist bullshit.
 
It is, and it still takes its own unique spin on these things I feel. The Kylo and Han scene on the bridge for example reminds me of the catwalk portion of the Luke and Vader confrontation on Bespin, but it's not the same thing.

I think this is a better way to go about it instead of calling it a lazy rehash. It's definitely not lazy as it still does these things differently and feels calculated in that way.

I must admit, TFA trying to sort of encapsulate the whole trilogy feels like both a strength and weakness when put into that lens. Because it at once explains how the film does so much, but also why it maybe does too much, in trying to put it in every thing that its creators felt were part of a 'Star Wars movie'.

This in particular I feel is part of what explains Rey's sheer aptitude, because the film expects her to tick off some of the boxes that Luke did across an entire trilogy, in one film. She goes through being a talented pilot (Luke in ANH), learning to use and apply force powers (Luke in ESB), and winning a lightsaber duel over a dark side opponent (Luke in ROTJ) in the same movie we meet her, where Luke had that built up over three, and half a decade IRL. It creates an unusual pacing vs what many have come to expect.
 
RLM needs to fuck off and craw back under the rock they came from once they started to push the Rey "Mary Sue" sexist bullshit.

When did they push that? In the TFA and R1 reviews they seemed to really like Rey. Are you sure you're not confusing them with Max Landis?
 

Sephzilla

Member
RLM needs to fuck off and craw back under the rock they came from once they started to push the Rey "Mary Sue" sexist bullshit.

i'm pretty sure you're confusing RLM with someone else cuz I don't remember RLM really pushing that much at all (in fact they liked TFA)
 
It is, and it still takes its own unique spin on these things I feel. The Kylo and Han scene on the bridge for example reminds me of the catwalk portion of the Luke and Vader confrontation on Bespin, but it's not the same thing.

I think this is a better way to go about it instead of calling it a lazy rehash. It's definitely not lazy as it still does these things differently and feels calculated in that way.



Yeah. Being the middle point of the trilogy, it's just naturally gonna get dark. At the panel Rian flat out said "things get dire." They have to, that's how basic storytelling works.

Something else I love, you mentioned the red font but I'll take it a step further-- there are certain visuals released so far that sync up so beautifully. Like how the teaser poster has a white and red color scheme, and Crait has the white surface but the soil under the actual surface is red.

I thought the most interesting parts were how the characters were set up to evoke the OT cast but they differ in meaningful ways, especially their choices. Kylo Ren is has an obvious connection to Darth Vader but his choices are different. When presented with the chance to kill his son, Vader chooses redemption. When Kylo confronts his father, he kills him and wraps himself in the Dark Side. People seem to link Kylo and Han with Vader and Obi Wan (if you're looking for ANH parallels) but I think it's much closer to Vader and Luke's confrontation especially when you look at TFA as trying to capture the essence of the entire OT.

Obviously we'll have to wait until the whole trilogy is out to really look at these things but I see some interesting places they can go. Even if I'm eventually proven wrong, it's fun to think about where things are going.
 

JimiNutz

Banned
I re-watched TFA last night and had almost forgotten that the entire senate/Republic were wiped out were they not?

If that is the case then surely there will be bitter fighting due to a huge power vacuum? The First Order and Resistance also took heavy losses during the destruction of Starkiller Base and if TLJ takes place almost immediately after TFA then I imagine that much of the galaxy will be in chaos and disarray?
 

jett

D-Member
So how is this movie going to handle the opening crawl considering it takes place right after TFA anyway? It can't just summarize TFA, can it.
 

Kyoufu

Member
So how is this movie going to handle the opening crawl considering it takes place right after TFA anyway? It can't just summarize TFA, can it.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....

EPISODE VIII
THE LAST JEDI

After finding Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi,
Rey has regretted her decision to not join Kylo Ren because she's sleeping on some hard ass rocks which are killing her back.
It's a nightmare. Her only hope is Skywalker's training to overcome such uncomfortable bedding.
 

Surfinn

Member
So what did RLM do to russle your jimmies this time, guys?
It's russle your jimmies code for "concerned about their racist, sexist, and generally bigoted undertones?" Cuz if so I think we should all be russled.

It's concerning as hell when people make bullshit excuses for them because one guy made funny videos about the prequels a decade ago
 
I re-watched TFA last night and had almost forgotten that the entire senate/Republic were wiped out were they not?

If that is the case then surely there will be bitter fighting due to a huge power vacuum? The First Order and Resistance also took heavy losses during the destruction of Starkiller Base and if TLJ takes place almost immediately after TFA then I imagine that much of the galaxy will be in chaos and disarray?

One of the more frustrating points of TFA. It's unclear just what kind of redundancies the Republic has in place or if this means the First Order will steamroll the galaxy to set themselves up in the dominant position for the rest of the trilogy.
 

JB1981

Member
So how is this movie going to handle the opening crawl considering it takes place right after TFA anyway? It can't just summarize TFA, can it.

I predict this movie will begin with the incident at the Jedi school, not sure how the crawl will go
 
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