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D-Ray Kenobi

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Posts posted by D-Ray Kenobi

  1. Who's been?

    Tell me everything there is to know, me and the wife are going to the one in Florida in a few weeks. I'm not even planning on going to much of anything else at Disney at all, I'm living in Batuu for the day.

  2. Latest epiphany on this: I really don't care anymore.

    I've got a few wrinkles and have a little less energy amongst other things, but it doesn't matter. I can still do all the same stuff I want, just in different and some better ways. I've still got a head like I'm in my early twenties, but have the resources of someone in their mid thirties.

    So hell yeah, let's go to Galaxy's Edge and Burning Man in 2020. We won't be able to forever.

  3. I think reaching out to anyone under the context of having a lot of friends in common is a great idea. It's a much better head start with a grounds for commonality than trying to kickstart anything out of Tindr or whatever.

     

    There's two things I'd suggest:

    First, you seem to have an idea built in your head that she's out of your league. Maybe others might disagree, but I think "leagues" don't even exist. It's this shared narrative that a lot of people have bought into as if it's some sort of hierarchy or caste system. Things like that only exist when people say that they do, and nobody has to. If you like a person and they like you, that's all that matters. If you continue to think that way, you'll just self-sabotage yourself with doubt and hesitation.

    Second, in any direction that a relationship may go, treat her well and be transparent and honest. Maybe she's smoking hot, but after a few dates you might theoretically decide that her personality isn't for you and you want to break it off. Part of that honesty and transparency is telling a lady that it isn't going to work out and being upfront as opposed to just dropping everything and ghosting her. I know a ton of single women who have had that happen to them, and every time it's just gut wrenching and heartbreaking for them. They end up questioning themselves and finding every possible fault that the guy might have found in them. It's just not cool.

    Most of all, just be yourself and be thoughtful and honest. It seems like most aren't. Heaven help anyone who plays the dating game these days. Things have changes so much even in just the past ten years where it just seems like it has become so soul-sucking and brutal.

  4. As far as some of those points go, I think it was a really bad narrative decision for JJ to bring Palpatine back.

    I get that they wanted a big character to tie things back into both previous trilogies. It might have worked, but they handwaved everything away about how he survived and why he mattered. Even the big fleet that he brings out makes no damn sense whatsoever. Who built that? How long was it hiding under the dirt? Why didn't he use the mini Death Star tech on OT era Star Destroyers? It's just so convoluted and lazy.

    Also, Palpatine has no ties whatsoever to anyone. Rey being his granddaughter is totally shoehorned in and was not earned in any capacity. He has absolutely no relation whatsoever to Kylo, other than being his grandpa's master. And that's barely even touched on at all.

     

    I'll never understand why JJ and Terrio didn't bring in Anakin's ghost as that big tie-in instead of Palpatine. It would have made so much sense for Kylo to be able to relate to the guy he's idolized for years, and Rey might have been able to have some really great dialogue where her mentor's dad. Plus Hayden has barely aged. It just makes too much sense.

  5. Personally I'm overall happy with the Disney output on Star Wars.

     

    I've been putting thought into this since I saw Rise of Skywalker. I think Disney has been moderately successful with Star Wars in spite of itself.

     

    They gave JJ and Rian a lot of creative freedom, when benefitted each trilogy film individually. But like I said, the baton-passing really hurt it as a full trilogy. I really wish they'd entrusted Gareth Edwards and Miller / Lord with the same respect. Rogue One was a miracle, and it still feels like there were at least the ingredients for Solo to have been better than it was.

     

    As of today, I'd probably say the best thing they've done is a tie between The Last Jedi and The Mandalorian. And probably because they trusted solid visionaries like Rian and Favreau / Filloni to just go and do their thing.

     

    I'm not really ready to join the chorus of finding someone new to replace Kennedy, but I don't think it's a stretch to think that she's starting to get herself on thin ice.

  6. I will not deny that fandom can be mean and spiteful, believes they have some kind of ownership over that of which they are fans, and worst of all can be self-consuming.

     

    I will put forth if Star Wars sucks or was ruined, that is not of the fans. As much as fans (toxic or otherwise) like to believe they could write one, make one, act in one, whatever the job is, unless they literally did one or more of those things then they had no hand in what Star Wars was or became. A critic does not make a thing horrible, they could be ***holes about something being horrible however. Lastly, if any Star Wars was literally written by reddit poll, as has been suggested, then even that is not on the fans... who is the more foolish? The fool or the fool that follows him?

    You're kidding, right? Much of the fandom is absolutely beyond toxic. Some of these ****heads literally chased Kelly Marie Tran off of social media and into therapy. Her basically disappearing into the scenery in Rise of Skywalker is totally Disney caving to those bottom dwellers.

  7. After letting this sink in for a while, I think I finally came to a conclusion on my own feelings on all of this.

    Each of these new movies in the sequel trilogy are great on their own. They've got gorgeous cinematography, solid acting, a great cast, are written well, and have all of the technicals heavily in their favor. Except they're fantastic stand-alone stories that make for a mess of a long narrative in the overall trilogy.

     

    It sucks because in the last decade we've been trained to expect a cohesive long-running narrative in the Marvel movies. For whatever reason, Disney seems to have micromanaged this trilogy or have kept Kennedy on a short leash here and the series has suffered for it. I don't think it's as horrible as some of the Fandom Menace is trying to paint it up as, but it's so clear how many plot threads were left abandoned or changed halfway through.

     

    I still love each of these individually, The Last Jedi most of all. It's just such a shame that the third part that could have redeemed the whole thing caved to toxic fanboys instead of sticking with both JJ and Rian's guns and made it such a mess. Disney's strength is clearly in these standalone stories set deeper in the universe like Rogue One or The Mandalorian, hopefully this will make them retreat safely into that territory in the future.

  8. In the end, I feel like anyone's enjoyment out of this is defines by either how broad or narrow their definitions of what is legitimate in Star Wars. I grew up loving the games and the comics and the lore just as much as the OT.

     

    I feel like this is open to a lot of interpretation.

     

    Solo was full of things that screamed Star Wars, especially to a child of the 90's like me (seriously, Teras Kasi of all things), but it was not a good movie.

  9. 1. Empire Strikes Back

    2. Last Jedi

    3. New Hope

    * Rogue One

    4. Return of the Jedi

    5. The Force Awakens

    6. Revenge of the Sith

    7. Rise of Skywalker

    *Solo

    8. Phantom Menace

    9. Attack of the Clones

     

    If you had asked me as recently as five years ago for this same list, I would have ranked Attack of the Clones way higher. But I watched it recently on Disney+, and geez has the nostalgia worn off on that. I think I had just been fond of it for so long because it released at a really fun point for me and I attended the Celebration event for that movie. But it held up like a house of cards, literally the only thing watchable about any of that was Ewan McGregor.

  10. I'm going to need a good while to process this. This movie is a mess, but it still manages to be pretty good and be a decent finale in spite of itself.

     

    I think it reminds me mostly of the second and third Hobbit movies. Peter Jackson was the best person to do those movies and certainly had all of the experience in the world to make them great, but he didn't have nearly as much time to do all of his homework and prepare for it like had with Lord of the Rings. I feel like that's pretty much what happened to J.J. Abrams here. He came in on this relatively late in the game after Colin Trevorrow left, just barely over two years before the movie was set to release.

     

    That really shows, because the script is a mess. It really could have used another draft or two to not make the first half such a head-spinning rush of information and events. So many things blew through in the first few acts that I felt like I could barely breathe. For instance, those moments with Rey training should have had way more impact, but we rush through things like that at such a breakneck speed that it's difficult to really let them soak in at all.

     

    It sort of feels like the second half of the movie did get that revised draft. Once Rey decides to go back to Luke's island planet, things finally slow down and become easier to keep up with. At that point, things start to wind themselves down and aren't necessarily just about chasing the next Macguffin down because of reasons. Then we can finally spend actual time understanding what the characters are thinking instead of just trying to keep up with them running from one planet and set piece to the next. It almost even becomes an entirely different movie at that point, at least one that's far better than the weird mashup of Abrams and Bay in the first half.

     

    I don't have a problem with what happens in the movie like a lot of fanboys seem to. I think Kylo's story has a fitting end, I think Rey's lineage makes narrative sense, and I love the little strokes like Finn probably being a future Jedi. What they managed to do with Carrie is damn well near a miracle. You could tell they shaped the dialogue around what little footage they could use of her, but it worked well enough. Even though much of it is rushed, there are also a ton of fun moments in there with the characters ribbing each other or just having fun. You can tell JJ loves that part of the originals, and he's so good at making those little moments himself.

     

    There was also a ton in the last act or two that worked really well. That payoff with Lando coming in with a fleet was awesome, the force trickery with Rey and Ben was great, and man is Adam Driver so ridiculously good. It's such a shame that we didn't get much more time with Ben instead of Kylo. Just his body language when he's fighting the Knights of Ren conveys so much. He's obviously his dad's kid when he's joking around and taunting them during that fight.

     

    The one thing that should infuriate me but doesn't is Rey's moment where the film earns the title. In theory, I'd so badly want the ghosts of all of the Jedi to actually appear instead of just getting sent to voice mail. But realistically, I know that would have been way overkill and the Harry Potter comparisons would have been endless. I suppose it's just maddening that the one area where JJ showed some fanservice restraint is the one area that could have potentially been the best spot for it.

     

    This movie came very close to being a disaster, but the last few acts managed to redeem it. I do hope Disney takes a lot of the critique of it to heart and improves from here with where they'll take things in the future.

  11. Eh, kinda.

    It doesn't rely super heavily on the comic, but there's usually some quick exposition for the things that it references. If you are familiar with the comic, there's a lot of payoff in some of the themes and easter eggs, but it isn't really necessary for the overall plot.

    My wife doesn't care anything about the comic, but she still enjoyed the hell out of the show.

  12.  

    I'd be willing to put good money on Lady Trieu being Ozymandias's daughter.

     

     

    You son of a bitch.

     

    That was totally a lucky guess based on some breadcrumbs I picked up.

     

    Around three or four episodes in, you could tell how the show was planting seeds for future reveals. This was one I started to pick up on. Her wanting to establish a legacy, buying up that family farm, cloning her mom but only hinting about her dad. I thought maybe that statue might be him, but I didn't think the show would be crazy enough to go there.

     

    If HBO wants to do more of this, I hope they go with the connected anthology route like Fargo has done. There's not much sense in having this story continued, but there's tons of other Watchmen stories in this universe that would be fun to do if they were just as smart as this was. Maybe bring in a different top-tier showrunner each season and let them have at it.

  13. Dave Filoni directed The Clone Wars movie. The only movie rated worse than TPM. He has written and directed most of the animated series. The strong point of those is the storytelling over a period of time. So I have no problem giving him a trilogy to helm. Direct? No. But he can set the stage for future projects.

    It's really misleading to even call that a movie. They basically re-packaged the three episode pilot arc as a film, it was never meant to be screened in that way.

     

    Filoni has a habit of doing stand-alone episodes in the first season of his shows before he really starts exploring the deeper narratives. He did the same thing in Clone Wars and Rebels. Clone Wars was a real mess in the first season, it did a lot of adventure-of-the-week episodes with some really cringey humor. But it got real deep and then really dark very quickly. Rebels sort of did the same thing, but you could tell he'd learned his lessons the first time around.

     

    I liked what he did in his episodes of Mandalorian. You can tell it was a first time live action director, but I think it's safe to say he's well on his way.

  14. It's the same kind of deus ex machina as Doctor Strange in Avengers Endgame. The all-knowing character knows what has to happen and how it has to happen, but if he tells other characters or the audience what that is, it won't happen.

    We'll see how they wrap everything up in the last episode, but I feel like there was a lot that was planted that will pay off. Walking on water, all the eggs, making waffles, making sure he got captured. It's just nice that he exploded some bigoted heads on the way though.

  15. I suspect it's a validation thing.

    News, politics, and entertainment has turned into such a team sport in the past decade. In the same way that Taylor Swift has an army of fans defending everything she does, politicians and activists have drone armies just the same.

  16. Answer The Call was fun, but it was very forgettable fun. The leads in it actually did a good job to save it from totally being trash. McCarthy was a little too over the top, but Wiig and McKinnon killed with what lackluster material they had to work with.

     

    I'm super interested in what Jason Reitman is doing with this. He obviously will have no apologies for both going with his indie-talkie vibe or taking it to an entirely new space. Going a totally different direction with it makes me totally in.

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