Star Wars: You Must Be Over 18 (Midichlorians) To Enter

[Myrddin]

5 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

If you run into the same police officer in a big city like New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago over and over again… that seems weird and unbelievable unless the officer is following you for some reason.

Galaxy’s are bigger that cities… by a lot… outer rims of galaxies are much bigger than galactic cores in terms of space covered.  How the hell is Captain Carson… everywhere?

Carter is the new Wedge.

[Kalbear]

Yeah, I don't have a problem with running into the same people over and over again for the same reason I don't have a problem with fucking Lando Calrissian becoming a general of the Rebellion because...reasons. It is a big galaxy, but this is a heroic story. Star Wars always felt pretty small to me. 

[Ran]

1 hour ago, Kalnak the Magnificent said:

Ahsoka already was being played as super serene and chill and above it all.

You can be a serene warrior who just accepts that violence is the solution to all problems.

I don't know anything about her in The Mandalorian other than some brief clips of her fighting, which seems indicative of how she's portrayed -- a consummate warrior, a masterless ronin doing good by kicking ass.

[Kalbear]

Just now, Ran said:

You can be a serene warrior who just accepts that violence is the solution to all problems.

I don't know anything about her in The Mandalorian other than some brief clips of her fighting, which seems indicative of how she's portrayed -- a consummate warrior, a masterless ronin doing good by kicking ass.

Yeah, she wasn't about only solving things with violence there either. There's a whole scene with her and Luke that has her basically telling Luke that the Jedi thing isn't the only way, nor is violence:

There's also the way she deals with Grogu:

Anyway, at least on the live action violence hasn't been her solution to everything for a while, and she certainly doesn't seem to act like it. I'm not even sure that's the way she's been portrayed on this show either. 

[Corvinus85]

1 hour ago, Kalnak the Magnificent said:

Yeah, she wasn't about only solving things with violence there either. There's a whole scene with her and Luke that has her basically telling Luke that the Jedi thing isn't the only way, nor is violence:

There's also the way she deals with Grogu:

Anyway, at least on the live action violence hasn't been her solution to everything for a while, and she certainly doesn't seem to act like it. I'm not even sure that's the way she's been portrayed on this show either. 

But is her demeanor because she has been afraid all this time that she would follow in Anakin's path based on his training and legacy, and is overcompensating with the whole serene approach, not really being able to find true balance and becoming a complete Jedi.

[Kalbear]

28 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

But is her demeanor because she has been afraid all this time that she would follow in Anakin's path based on his training and legacy, and is overcompensating with the whole serene approach, not really being able to find true balance and becoming a complete Jedi.

Maybe! If it is, the show certainly hasn't made that clear in any way. And Rebels didn't really show that either. For Ahsoka the main conflict was her Jedi upbringing and her seeing the emotional and personal detachment that the Jedi had as part of their code which required incredibly horrible decisions to be made. To be fair we've not really seen Ahsoka much since she found out that Anakin became Vader, but we have basically no context on her feeling like she had to be extra careful not to go down Anakin's path. 

And at least so far we haven't really seen a change in her demeanor too, just her clothing. Like, the talking with the Purrgil thing - that's not particularly different than Ahsoka we've seen in the show, where she's spending a bunch of time deciphering a puzzle to find a map and she's trying to find the map in the first place so she can save Ezra, even knowing that it's a risk to bring back Thrawn too. The only vague hints we have are that she left Sabine - Sabine didn't leave her - and there was some Big Reasons for it. Maybe that'll get explained later and that's cool and all, but at least for now it's very vague and did not feel like a logical extension of where she was going and why. 

[hauberk]

2 hours ago, Kalnak the Magnificent said:

Yeah, she wasn't about only solving things with violence there either. There's a whole scene with her and Luke that has her basically telling Luke that the Jedi thing isn't the only way, nor is violence:

There's also the way she deals with Grogu:

Anyway, at least on the live action violence hasn't been her solution to everything for a while, and she certainly doesn't seem to act like it. I'm not even sure that's the way she's been portrayed on this show either. 

Perhaps less about violence as a solution and more coming to grips with her internal fears of succumbing to the Dark Side.  I felt like there was an extra bit of shine in the area of dialog where Anakin told her that she was everything that he could teach.  I had shades of the throne room duel from RotJ - "strike him down and take your place at my side".  

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

8 hours ago, IlyaP said:

Two words, courtesy of Clerks 2: Manakin Skywalker.

That's a bit harsh. Hayden was fine. 

5 hours ago, Werthead said:

Ta-two-oine, Tatooine Two (2).

It wasn't a very good pun, to be fair.

Ah. You're more clever than I am today. 

-

Episode 5:

I'll start with the bad:

The pacing of some of those scenes is just excruciating. I don't know if they're stretching out the scenes to meet a runtime requirement or not, but the editing could be snappier.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead. I'm a fan. Unapologetically. I've liked her in everything I've seen her in. I even liked her in Birds of Prey, which isn't a movie that made much of an impression on me otherwise. But I don't like her in this.

Whatever she's going for with Sindula, I'm not feeling it. And it isn't just her. The performances in this show thus far have been somewhat lackluster; which is probably contributing to the pacing issues.

The good:

Regarding Winstead, when she said "the line" at the end of the episode, I got some chills. That's the stuff, man!

Production values: Yeah. Definitely. Live action Ghost? Yes. Purrgil? Yes. Yes. I'm assuming this was all soundstage or volume filming and I gotta say, that seaside cliff looked damn good. Some really impressive visuals. 

I loved the flashback sequences. I could be cynical and dismiss it as nostalgia bait, but there are ways of doing nostalgia that can't just be reduced to callbacks and easter eggs, and I think this is it. This is nostalgia done right. This is something I could watch without having any awareness of Clone Wars or Rebels and I'd be drawn to it. 

-

On balance, I liked this episode. The series itself is OK. Not great; not terrible. 

According to IMDB, Wes Chatham will appear in upcoming episodes. Great. Hopefully he'll be crewing the Rocinante... 

[Werthead]

5 hours ago, Myrddin said:

Carter is the new Wedge.

It makes sense that Wedge turned up when he did in the films. He was part of that particular Rebel group that was on both Hoth and Endor and then part of the main fleet for the assault on the Death Star, and seemed to level up between films (a junior member of Red Squadron in the first film, then a senior member of Rogue Squadron in the second film, then commander of Red Squadron in the third). Him showing up in those roles was pretty logical. The films were pretty good at hinting at a much vaster number of people out there, and bringing different officers and personnel in film by film (so we don't even meet Mon Mothma until the third film). The OG OT generally sold the idea of a vast galaxy behind the curtain much better than later instalments.

Carson is a lower-ranking X-wing pilot, one of at this time presumably many, many thousands, so it's a bit more random that he's always the guy on the scene. Not too outrageous compared to other things in these stories though, and the actor is great fun so whatever. I can kinda see it that maybe he's a maverick pilot with a knack for breaking the rules, which might be why he's a junior rank despite his age and experience, so that's why Hera brings him on board and that's also why he's happy to link up with Mando. A stretch, not a big one.

Another question might what happened to Carson's wingmen, like Filoni himself (Trapper Wolf!).

1 hour ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

That's a bit harsh. Hayden was fine. 

Hayden has always been a decent actor. The other films he was in around Ep 2-3, he put in perfectly decent performances.

The reason he was a bit wooden and off in 2-3 is because George Lucas is not a very good director of actors (especially when they are reading his raw, unedited scripts that haven't been touched up). Portman, Jackson and McGregor are all excellent actors and they were all often wooden, uninspired and, at times, genuinely awful in the PT. McGregor's line reading of "I...can't bear to watch!" is one of the worst things I've ever seen in a film, and Jackson's whole "It's not in his character" stuff about Dooku in Clones was grating. The only actors who really sell the prequel trilogy scripts are Lee - because of his sheer class - and Neeson, who gets the sort-of zen but occasionally irritated angle the character required. And maybe McDiarmid in some of his better scenes, but he also fucking chews the scenery like a pantomime dame on other occasions (after being the saving grace of 1 and okay in 2, he does nearly derail 3 with his weaponised campiness).

The reason they didn't get the shit that Christensen did is because people knew their other work and knew they could act, but most of them hadn't seen Christensen in other stuff and just assumed he was shit. They assumed wrongly.

Quote

According to IMDB, Wes Chatham will appear in upcoming episodes. Great. Hopefully he'll be crewing the Rocinante... 

Apparently (unaired episode "leak" so definitely a spoiler and also possibly bullshit:

Spoiler

Chatham is a badass warrior who is Thrawn's right-hand man and bodyguard. Unclear if he was on the Chimera when it jumped or is native to the new galaxy.

Edited September 13 by Werthead

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

24 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Apparently (unaired episode "leak" so definitely a spoiler and also possibly bullshit:

  Reveal hidden contents

Chatham is a badass warrior who is Thrawn's right-hand man and bodyguard. Unclear if he was on the Chimera when it jumped or is native to the new galaxy.

I like my idea better.

Quote

Hayden has always been a decent actor. The other films he was in around Ep 2-3, he put in perfectly decent performances.

He was great in Shattered Glass. Jumper wasn't a particularly interesting film but he was pretty good in that too. 

[karaddin]

I'm actually hoping that this makes Ahsoka less zen - that she had essentially resigned herself to dying in this never ending fight and the zen state was reflecting her acceptance of that. The choice to live might relight some of the fire snips had.

[IlyaP]

2 hours ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

He was great in Shattered Glass. Jumper wasn't a particularly interesting film but he was pretty good in that too.

Shattered Glass was *terrific* and is still a terrific modern day horror story that also tells a terrific story about journalism. And also featured fellow Ahsoka actress Rosario Dawson! 

[IlyaP]

3 hours ago, Werthead said:

Hayden has always been a decent actor. The other films he was in around Ep 2-3, he put in perfectly decent performances.

The reason he was a bit wooden and off in 2-3 is because George Lucas is not a very good director of actors (especially when they are reading his raw, unedited scripts that haven't been touched up). Portman, Jackson and McGregor are all excellent actors and they were all often wooden, uninspired and, at times, genuinely awful in the PT. McGregor's line reading of "I...can't bear to watch!" is one of the worst things I've ever seen in a film, and Jackson's whole "It's not in his character" stuff about Dooku in Clones was grating. The only actors who really sell the prequel trilogy scripts are Lee - because of his sheer class - and Neeson, who gets the sort-of zen but occasionally irritated angle the character required. And maybe McDiarmid in some of his better scenes, but he also fucking chews the scenery like a pantomime dame on other occasions (after being the saving grace of 1 and okay in 2, he does nearly derail 3 with his weaponised campiness).

The reason they didn't get the shit that Christensen did is because people knew their other work and knew they could act, but most of them hadn't seen Christensen in other stuff and just assumed he was shit. They assumed wrongly.

...yeah, that's fair. I'm still irked we didn't get Leonardo DiCaprio as Anakin, as he would have absolutely killed in that role, and DiCaprio'd the hell out of it to make the best he could of Lucas' and Stoppard's scripts. 

That said, I really wish someone had given Hayden some elocution lessons, as the pitch and tone of his voice always struck me as rather flat compared to that of say, McGregor, Jackson, etc. It's like he played to a very specific, narrow bandwidth, a quasi James Dean-ish "yeah dude, it's allll chiiiilll" vibe, and any attempt to veer outside that came across as whiney and petulant. 

[Rubicante]

I’m also a bit confused as to what lesson Anakin was trying to teach Ahsoka.  Probably need to think about that more. 

It’s nice to see Hayden in both this show and the Obi-Wan series.  Like many people, I hated (and still do not like) AOTC and found him to be intolerable in that movie.  But I later came to realize Lucas just isn’t a great director or writer of dialogue, and is mostly to blame for that (with that being said, I’ll take a Lucas directed and dialogue written Star Wars movie over the overall travesty of the sequel trilogy any day).  Episode 3 I thought Hayden was fine in, aside from the first awkward scene between him and Padme in the apartment (“So love has blinded you?”).

You can tell Hayden is putting a lot of effort into these appearances.  Even when he was just in the Vader suit in Obi-Wan, I thought he did a good job with his overall movements and body language.  And he is so damn good with a lightsaber, as is McGregor.

Edited September 14 by Rubicante

[Kalbear]

29 minutes ago, IlyaP said:

That said, I really wish someone had given Hayden some elocution lessons, as the pitch and tone of his voice always struck me as rather flat compared to that of say, McGregor, Jackson, etc. It's like he played to a very specific, narrow bandwidth, a quasi James Dean-ish "yeah dude, it's allll chiiiilll" vibe, and any attempt to veer outside that came across as whiney and petulant. 

I'm almost positive that this is exactly how Lucas wanted him to sound.

[IlyaP]

1 hour ago, Kalnak the Magnificent said:

I'm almost positive that this is exactly how Lucas wanted him to sound.

Why Lucas gotta be like that? Why?!

[Jaxom 1974]

Was the lesson being taught by Anakin meant to be tied into the idea of the legacy of the line of Masters and Apprentices that she is within...? It was kinda referenced by Huyang in the earliest episodes and again by Anakin here...not sure the idea is fully formed in my head, but wanted to get it out...

[polishgenius]

7 hours ago, Werthead said:

The reason he was a bit wooden and off in 2-3 is because George Lucas is not a very good director of actors (especially when they are reading his raw, unedited scripts that haven't been touched up). Portman, Jackson and McGregor are all excellent actors and they were all often wooden, uninspired and, at times, genuinely awful in the PT. McGregor's line reading of "I...can't bear to watch!" is one of the worst things I've ever seen in a film, and Jackson's whole "It's not in his character" stuff about Dooku in Clones was grating.

 

He also had no earthly idea how to work with greenscreen, on an acting level. I've posted this before but McGregor's story about that is still wild.

 

 

[IlyaP]

13 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

 

He also had no earthly idea how to work with greenscreen, on an acting level. I've posted this before but McGregor's story about that is still wild.

 

 

Wait, so you're telling me that ALL OF THIS is green screen?!

 

 

They couldn't just do an outdoor shoot somewhere with sand? They were filming in Australia! There IS sand here! And flat areas WITH sand!

[Ran]

15 minutes ago, IlyaP said:

They couldn't just do an outdoor shoot somewhere with sand?

Those beautiful sunsets don't stick around for very long, and are hard to predict. You can wait for days to get just the right light for what you want, and then you get like 30 minutes to shoot it.

Edited September 14 by Ran