D-Ray Kenobi

When it comes to the slow box office, I agree that Disney shot themselves in the foot.

They never should have expected this to be a blockbuster, as it's largely a meaningless but fun romp and has no large implications for the canon. Something in line with the lower-tier Marvel films like Ant-man or Doctor Strange is what should have been more realistic.

Also, it should have never been released in May. Not only are people overexposed to Star Wars, geeky audiences just got emotionally exhausted from Infinity War. They would have gotten far more bang for their buck if they released it in August and positioned it like Guardians of the Galaxy was back in 2014.

Oh, I forgot to mention a big one. It vexes me that they altered Han rescuing Chewie. Instead of being what gets him kicked out of the Imperial Navy, it's just another coincidence. The rescue of Chewbacca has long been a piece of Star Wars lore and should NOT have been changed. Because of that, the movie missed out big time on establishing just exactly why Chewbacca was so loyal to Han. Heck, the closest we get to it is when Han gives Chewie a weapon and then takes off on his own anyway on Kessel. Like Han could have stopped him.

 

It's Chewbacca that has the surprise return rescue against his own interests. That is backwards.

I'm as diehard as many of you, but not necessarily a purist. I don't think the two are mutual.

I'm fine with this kind of retconning. Chewie existing in some flavor of slavery to Han never felt quite right. The two of them becoming bros because they're BFF's that watch each others backs just comes across as a way better relationship dynamic.

After the firing of Lord and Miller, I fully expected this to be a trainwreck. Alden Ehrenreich seemed like a terrible casting choice, the tone seemed way off, and there didn't seem much a point to the entire concept of the movie anyways.

I was so pleasantly surprised to actually love the hell out of this.

Ron Howard pulled off a minor miracle to save the movie, Ehrenreich managed to be Han without just doing a Harrison impression, and while it was mainly a fun scoundrel adventure, the overall story had a bit of a message and point buried in there. This was also the most "Star Warsy" movie that Disney has done yet. Not only was the tone and vibe so closely matched to the OT, it was so insanely full of easter eggs, callbacks, and references that thrilled me to death.

I felt like the first few acts of the movie moved a little slow and weren't shot very well, but once Han joins the Empire, things seriously move into gear and it becomes almost a totally different thing. I could kind of get the impression of which parts were relics of Lord and Miller's version, but most of this felt like a great 80's or 90's adventure movie that was right out of Ron Howard's wheelhouse. So many little details and story beats reminded me of Willow, and I loved the very subtle references to even Indiana Jones movies too.

The main standout is freaking Donald Glover. Holy Hell, does he steal the entire movie. He imitates Billy Dee just enough to make you believe he's the same character, but still manages to put his own Childish Gambino charm on him too.

I had a few problems with some random things like Paul Bettany's gangster character feeling out of place and that certain otherwise amazing cameo just being setup for things down the road, but overall I felt like this was a killer fun Star Wars adventure. For me, it's easily better than Rogue One.

So, isn't Nightly technically twenty years old in the upcoming year or so?

I really wanted to like this movie. I loved the idea of the book, but hated how it was written. It just felt like a seventh grade was handed a great concept for a literature class project and rushed it in a week.

I'd hoped Spielberg would fix it's problems, and he did fix many of them, but the source material is just so weak that not even he could fix all of the issues. It's just all style with no substance.

6. Jedi Finn. I'm sure people would HATE this. But what made him defy his programming/indoctrination? What led him to help on Jakku and brought him to Rey. What lets him pick up skills like gunning and piloting with relative ease. The Force is strong with Finn, so I say double down on it and make him Rey's first student... not that Rey is a master by any means-- just that they are figuring it out together.

 

I would love this. Whether it be through the Force or not, Finn has already proven himself to be a capable badass. His Vegas side quest in TLJ was fun, but mostly expendable. I want to see him really play into things in a more major way.

I'm no Rian or JJ, but if I was tasked with an outline, here's the main points I'd hit on.

• Time Jump - This would allow for some natural plot progression, but would also be a sensible and respectful way to explain why Leia isn't around anymore. Perhaps the Rebellion has built up a little more strength and Rey has started to train a padawan or two.
  
• Rey - I think her story from here is the most interesting plotline that could be explored. Now she really is the last Jedi and is the last student of Luke who hasn't turned. That's pretty heavy for a twenty year old kid to deal with, she'll have to fight with herself over not making the same mistakes Luke did. Does she start training young Jedi like Luke did? Does she want to re-establish the Jedi Order of old or start her own new thing?
  
• Force Ghosts - Luke's arc is more or less resolved, but he obviously can't leave Rey on her own. She only has a few days worth of training and some old books. Even if she's going to define what Jedi are for a new generation, she's going to need some pointers and advice every now and then. She will only have heard of Yoda's name in passing, so I don't see much point in having him come around for her, especially since he got such a great curtain call in VIII. But I do see a lot of value in bringing Anakin in to speak with her. Luke's dad and Ben's grandpa is someone who could do a lot to help and give insight. Plus, it would be a huge way to give him further resolution and atone for his mistakes in what will most likely be the last Skywalker saga film.
  
• War Resolution - The Resistance / Rebellion can't ever be at OT levels of strength again. Not when all that was left was a dozen or so people on board the Falcon. If this is the last saga film, the whole evil empire / space nazi organization has to be completely wiped out to not allow for loose ends. I think the best way to deal with this is not through all out war, but through things like guerrilla ops and double agents. That would allow for something way different than just another attack on a superweapon or capital ship.
  
• Skywalker Family - I am personally still not 100% convinced that Rey isn't a Skywalker of some sort. I think it's still entirely possible that Kylo and Snoke were lying to her. I get that there's a lot of suggestion that Rey and Kylo have a thing going on there, but it's no more suggestive than things were for Luke and Leia in Empire. I still think it's entirely possible that they're siblings or cousins. Even if they aren't related, I still think there's a lot of room for Rey to take the last name of Skywalker either by ending up with a redeemed Ben, or just adopting the name in general to carry it on in honor of her adopted family.

I caught a few minor to medium spoilers, and then some somewhat big ones that could just as easily be true or made up.

Disney has done an amazing job to keep it as tight as they have, but I'm going dark until I see it Thursday night.

That one episode with Alara going through the holodeck simulator was really similar to the TNG episode where Dr. Crusher gets stuck in the spacetime bubble, but other than that I've thought they've been pretty original so far.

I have been absolutely loving it. It was poorly marketed as a whacky parody of TNG, but it is in every way a spiritual successor.

It has a lot of goofball humor that sometimes misses, but it really feels like it's not trying that hard to be funny very often. Which, in a weird way, works well. The first act or two usually has a handful of jokes and gags, but when it gets to the great TNG style SciFi plots, those usually get dropped pretty quickly. I know others feel differently, but I personally think it's walking that tightrope pretty darn well.

I've got three different elevator pitches:

Birth of the Jedi - This would deal with the very beginning of religion in a very early Star Wars universe that would be in their version of the Industrial Revolution, with none of the same technology present. The first episode would deal with a Cain and Abel type feud with two brothers that would become the Jedi and Sith. Each would bring along cult members, build temples, and then destroy one another in the last episode.

Lost Galaxy - A ship full of explorers is tired of the drama of home and leaves the Star Wars galaxy to find habitable planets on an entirely different galaxy. A crew of scoundrels, ex-Imperials, and a force sensitive crew member or two come to visit new worlds to find that they're entirely outmatched by a galaxy that employs bio-tech and other things completely unseen in other Star Wars films.

Not So Long Ago - Set thousands of years ahead of the Skywalker saga, the galaxy has finally been at peace for a long time. The religion of Jedi and Sith has also been extinct for years. A warring civilization descends, and everyone in the galaxy is out of their league since they've been complacent for so long. Our protagonists finds that that they have powers that could be a weapon against the aliens, but they're agnostic and don't even believe the Jedi ever even existed.

I really hate to say it, but I've kind of stopped paying attention to it at this point.

Once political players saw that they could weaponize the social movement of these accusations, the meaningfulness of them has kind of been swept away. I've seen more than enough of my share here in this embarrassing state. It's all just become ammunition in the minds of many and nothing more.

My wife and I had a dumb idea for years for a movie remake of Smokey and the Bandit with Matthew Mcconaughey, Reece Witherspoon, and John Goodman in the main roles. I think the time for those kind of movie remakes has passed and all three of those actors are too big for that kind of thing now.

It might could still work as a fun half hour network TV show now. If they did Rush Hour and Lethal Weapon, might as well give it a shot too.

My ranking for anything like this changes all the time, but this is how I'd put it today:

1. Guardians of the Galaxy
2. Iron Man 1
3. Thor: Ragnarok
4. Avengers 1
5. Spider-man: Homecoming
6. Doctor Strange
7. Captain America: Winter Soldier
8. Guardians Vol. 2
9. Captain America: First Avenger
10. Ant-Man
11. Thor 1
12. Iron Man 3
13. Captain America: Civil War
14. Thor: Dark World
15. Avengers: Age of Ultron
16. Iron Man 2
17. Incredible Hulk

I've gotta let it settle in, but I feel like Thor Ragnarok is in at least the top five for me now. That was the most batshit and badass thing I've ever seen.

I'm hopeful that the game support can turn around.

I've got Zelda and Mario Kart, but haven't been compelled to get anything else. Splatoon looks fun, but I haven't been able to pull the trigger on it. Mario Odyssey looks promising, I'll probably get it if the reviews look good.

Other than that, there's just not a lot out there. At least nothing comparable to what the PS4 / XBox has available.

Updates on both fronts:

Discovery - Now that they've settled into the overall story, the latest episodes have started to fit more into the Trek archetype and let the characters develop. The most recent one even had a bit of a self-contained plot, which was really encouraging. I'm not a fan of how cynical, dark and gritty it is, as that just feels counter-intuitive to the Trek ethos. I'm hopeful that once the "redemption" plotline develops, that should change.

Orville - I'm honestly starting to fall in love with it. It continues to tackle solid Sci Fi concepts and pose moral questions, and walks a tightrope of keeping a light and fun tone. The comedy stuff feels like a combination of The Office, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Galaxy Quest and it never really gets in the way of what are sometimes serious plot threads that are almost every bit as good as what Next Generation did in its prime. I really hope it gathers more of an audience and gets picked up for another season.

Other than the basic plot structure mimicking A New Hope, there is very little to fault The Force Awakens with. It hit the tone of the originals, avoided the trapping of the prequels, and still managed to do some great new original stuff.

The more that time has passed, the more I realize what a filmmaking miracle Kylo Ren really is. He's wonderfully written as a sympathetic villain, has great character design, and is artfully played by Adam Driver. I'm really looking forward to where his arc goes in the next two.

I want to see Rey and Kylo switch teams in the last act of VII. Rey gets tired of Luke's grouchy cynicism and Kylo gets pissed off that Snoke made him kill his dad. Have them both team up by meeting in the middle grey area in IX.

Hate to be one of these people who reply to a spoiler with a spoiler, but here we go.

Just got back from seeing it... thinking out loud...

 

 

IReally want to know how women react to it, and if they feel that the line between merely depicting a world where their roles are mostly terrible and reveling in it was crossed. During the really uncomfortable scene with Wallace and the just-born female replicant, I was looking around the theater to see how female audience members were reacting (there weren't any), and afterwards I was wondering if they'd ever considered a male aspect / factor in replicant infertility = Leto doing that scene with a male replicant instead. Probably not.

 

I loved it.

A few non-spoilery things first: I loved that the whole production design and the music held roots in the original, but felt free enough to expand upon it and go in a few different directions. Thirty years had passed for both us and this world, so it made sense that the look and feel should have progressed a fair amount. But it still felt entirely true to the original. Also I was blown away and how unapologetically "thinky" it was. It was almost like an arthouse film in how subdued and intentionally paced it was. Also, this was the best performance by Harrison Ford in years, and I swear someone needs a boot to the ass if Roger Deakins doesn't finally get an Oscar.

As for spoilery details:

I liked it. If I were a bigger Trekkie, I'd be annoyed by some of the minor retconning and such. But I'm okay with it if it's in service of making for a better show. It's really hard to say if I'm still going to feel the same since these first two episodes were basically an extended cold open for the whole show, but I'm totally interested in seeing where it goes.

Also: Not to stir the pot too much, but so far The Orville is a better Trek show.

Critic and preview screenings have started, and apparently it's mindblowing.

http://www.slashfilm.com/blade-runner-2049-early-buzz-this-is-the-sci-fi-masterpiece-fans-hoped-for/

I'm glad they pushed it to December beyond the creative reasons, Star Wars just feels more like a Holiday release at this point.

May would be fine for a spinoff, but at this point I love the idea of seeing one of the main installments the week before Christmas. It's fun being able to see it during the time off or with family.

I'd have preferred a more bold choice than a safe one, but it'll work.