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Yeah my wife and I thought this was stupid, almost as dumb as the announcement they had for thanksgiving weekend "drinking and driving go together like peas and gauc"So apparently ADOT can't wait for Star Wars either.
Yeah my wife and I thought this was stupid, almost as dumb as the announcement they had for thanksgiving weekend "drinking and driving go together like peas and gauc"So apparently ADOT can't wait for Star Wars either.
Yeah saw that one too and thought it was stupid.Yeah my wife and I thought this was stupid, almost as dumb as the announcement they had for thanksgiving weekend "drinking and driving go together like peas and gauc"
Wait is theDaniel Craig being the mind controlled storm trooper real?
Wait is theDaniel Craig being the mind controlled storm trooper real?
I laughed harder at that part than i shoulda have
Not yet. They paid George Lucas $4 billion, so they have a ways to go before they make a profit.Disney be like
Not yet. They paid George Lucas $4 billion, so they have a ways to go before they make a profit.
You mean an 1/8 of it. If we want to be specific, you'd also subtract whatever they paid to make the film. But yes, in the next few weeks it could double.they've got back a quarter of that in a weekend granted that's not how this works but they're on a great start.
Wonder how TFA's legs will be. I'm betting 1 billion worldwide
Stealth edit
You mean an 1/8 of it. If we want to be specific, you'd also subtract whatever they paid to make the film. But yes, in the next few weeks it could double.
Not yet. They paid George Lucas $4 billion, so they have a ways to go before they make a profit.
It has been estimated that Star Wars has raked in somewhere around $38 billion from the first film’s release in May 1977 to Lucas’s handing of his company over in October 2012. At least $975 million of that has come from its myriad and copious merchandising, ranging from bed sheets to fruit snacks to the now-ubiquitous action figures and Lego sets.
What’s even more staggering is just how much more money the brand has made under Disney’s watchful eye; already, just three years after the deal, the company has made back all $4 billion of its investment – and The Force Awakens has yet to even hit theaters. This has been accomplished by expanding the Force-powered wares available (a trip to your local Target will yield at least a few Star Wars items in nearly every single department) and, much more significantly, by rewriting the marketing book in the build-up to Episode VII. The epitome of this approach was seen on September 4, 2015 – called “Force Friday” – when the first Force Awakens-related materials (from novels to toys to Halloween costumes) went on sale. The day essentially functioned as a Star Wars-only Black Friday.
Needless to say, Hollywood marketing will never be the same again.
You mean an 1/8 of it. If we want to be specific, you'd also subtract whatever they paid to make the film. But yes, in the next few weeks it could double.
http://screenrant.com/star-wars-biggest-changes-disney-movies-tv-comics/?view=all
Of course, this is simplified – and I'm wondering what the sources are – but it's not a stretch to say Disney is probably already profiting off TFA. They certainly will be by the end of its run, at any rate.
What will be interesting is how well-received the "Anthology" films are. Rogue One might be a hard sell to the general public: it won't have any of the established characters (or at least, very few of them, so far none going by the casting), and "prequel" is a dirty word in the land of Star Wars. People might be confused that the movie released a year after The Force Awakens isn't actually the sequel – that one arrives six months later (making May pretty much Disney-dominated from 2017 on out, what with Marvel always staking claim there). I'm also not sure how many folks really want to see the story of the stolen Death Star plans, if I'm being honest.
The anthology films focusing on Fett and Solo could be even dicier, too.
So, I saw the movie back on Friday. I really enjoyed it, and find a few of the criticisms floating around justified. Others, less so. The non-spoilery bits: the music fits within the SW universe, but is lacking a stand-out theme like Imperial March or Duel of the Fates to call its own. Ridley and Boyega have fantastic chemistry, with the former absolutely worthy of being the headliner here, and the latter riding the line between SW-funny and modern-movie-funny just right. Oscar Isaacs is good, but underused. Not as badly as Gwendoline Christie, though! While the chrome-dome stormtrooper captain is impressive, we just don't get enough of her. Driver is incredible as Ren: he's most definitely flawed, an interesting bad-guy in a way Marvel never seems to be able to muster for their cinema offerings. There is rage, there is intensity, and he's got the makings to stand alongside Vader and Maul when it comes to fan-favourite Sith lords. I really like the outfit they've chosen for him too: Vader looked like a robot, Maul had the robe, while Kylo is all verticality, with a stealthy, form-fitting outfit that makes him a much different shape to those that have come before.
As much as some people want to bemoan Abrams work – for seemingly no other reason than it being Abrams – this doesn't feel like his work. He's obviously put a lot of thought into making this feel like a Star Wars film, not just with the practical effects and series-traditional transitions, or the obvious blue and yellow text starting the film up, but in the look of the sets, and the shot compositions. Credit to the DoP and others involved in the process, of course, but it's impressive how little this feels like an Abrams film. Some of the aerial dogfights don't feel particularly Star Wars, but that's not really him so much as modern filmmaking. One interesting thing, though I wouldn't know if it was JJ's choice or Disney's: his Bad Robot branding shows up only after the credits. The start of the movie is pure, unadulterated Star Wars.
Criticisms? There were a few bits of clunky exposition. Leia at one point discusses multiple antagonists, and it came across very rigid to me, even as I was submerged in the universe, halfway through the movie. Domhnall Gleeson wasn't terribly convincing as a higher-up member of the First Order, seeming a little too snively and incompetent. Movies that only do subtitles when it's deemed convenient for the viewer are a pet peeve. The plot is thin, but when I think about it, so was A New Hope's. I've read a few reviews complaining about a general lack of character development, particularly for the antagonists, but that too could very well be applied to ANH. There's a trilogy coming, I've no doubt more will be covered.
BB-8 is adorable. With so much character from a little droid, I can't help but think the movie looked at Wall-E a lot to give us a computer we can love. I also appreciated all of the nods to the original trilogy. Some felt too on-the-nose: the X-Wing-down-a-corridor shot, for one. But others are fun little nods to what came before: the reveal of the Falcon is a good one, as is the discovery of a certain game once on board.
Alright, onto the spoilers:
Han, no! It was obviously going to happen – there was a mountain of foreshadowing, starting as far back as Han first seeing Leia again. It was shot wonderfully. I like the swapping of places in the dialogue here, with Ben tempted by the light side, not the dark. Of course, that could've just been him lying. But it's something that sparked some discussion amongst my friends post-credits.
I like how Kylo's origins were slowly revealed. And not in climactic, huge fights: each time, it'd be a new layer shown in dialogue. First, when he meets Max von Sydow's character, and there's mention of the Force being strong in his family. Over a few more scenes, we learn more about Ben. I love how we see him angry, destroying a room when things don't go his way. He has more power than we've seen before – see him holding that blaster shot – but seeing how volatile he is, it makes sense he's not a Sith Lord, but a self-proclaimed "Knight".
There were rumours of Snoke being gigantic, and I like that they were half-true. Sure, other actors had to talk up to him, but it's revealed he's simply a hologram, so we're still not sure of his exact size. He does have an unfortunate resemblance to one of the Orcs in the The Hobbit trilogy, though.
It's a little unbelievable Rey could hold her own against Ren in a lightsaber battle, even taking into account he was injured, and she's obviously experienced with her staff. But, if the major theory of her being Luke's daughter is true, then I'd be willing to overlook it. Luke won against overwhelming odds a few times in the original trilogy too!
The editing around the time of the base's destruction was a little too quick. We see Ren injured, and then Rey spotting the Falcon in time to get Finn and herself off the planet before it goes boom. How was Hux able to follow Snoke's orders and get Ren off as well, without them pretty much bumping into each other? Also, if Han and Chewy did toss Phasma into a trash compactor, even if she survived down there... she's pretty dead now, right?
Luke's reveal doesn't feel like a massive cliffhanger to me. I'm disappointed that's all we saw of him, and the scene went on a little too long sans dialog, but looking at the film on its own, it was a good way to wrap up. The goal first stated in the opening scrawl is complete: they've found him. It certainly isn't on the same level as the second Hobbit movie's cliffhanger ending, for example. What doesn't make sense, is R2's sudden powering on.
I always got a feeling that R2 was in some way in touch with the force. My assumption as such is that R2 felt the moment Rey and Luke met.
What doesn't make sense, is R2's sudden powering on.
SlipZtrEmIt's a little unbelievable Rey could hold her own against Ren in a lightsaber battle, even taking into account he was injured, and she's obviously experienced with her staff. But, if the major theory of her being Luke's daughter is true, then I'd be willing to overlook it. Luke won against overwhelming odds a few times in the original trilogy too!
Jar Jar Binks voiced by Jacques Villeneuve?Jark Jark
Very mixed feelings for me.
Finally the main villain gets his arse handed to him by a little girl who had never even SEEN a lightsaber never mind wielded one for the first half of the film with no training of any kind, completely undoing any kind of credibility he had for the entire first 2 hours of the film.
Very mixed feelings for me.
It felt like half reboot half sequel to me which was very weird and a little bit lazy.
The First order is just a reskinned Empire with a slightly different badge with zero explanation of the transition. It would have been better if they had just remained as the Empire with new leadership (The First order military officer uniforms also looked crap and very cheap)
Death planet (whatever you want to call it) was utterly ridiculous, apparently conceived and completed in less than 30 years and destroyed even easier than the death stars. But at least it gave Abrahms the excuse to gratuitously blow up a few planets for no good reason whatsoever which seems to be his thing (Romulus and Vulcan)
Finally the main villain (Kylo Ren) Trained in the dark side for years, for the entire film made to appear as a legitimate badass and successor to Vader.
In the last 10 minutes gets his arse handed to him by a little girl who had never even SEEN a lightsaber never mind wielded one for the first 9/10ths of the film with no training of any kind, completely undoing all the credibility he had built up in the first 2 hours of the film.
His legacy so far is he was a bit angry all the time, then stabbed an old man, and then got beaten up by a girl who didn't know what she was doing. That needs some major work for anyone to take him seriously again
In conclusion. To be fair, parts of it felts very Starwarsy, however many other parts where what the hell did I just watchy.
I enjoyed it a lot, despite having to watch it in 3D. Will watch it again in 2D later on in the run.
Bear in mind that when Kylo fights Rey, he had just murdered his father, taken a bowcaster bolt to the stomach, and had a fight with Finn who managed to get a hit or two on him. He's definitely not in the best shape. The whole point of the film was to show how Kylo isn't this fully fledged villain yet, but rather a young man who's full of doubt and confusion. His credibility as a villian is supposed to be called into question. He wants to play at being Vader but hasn't gone through the stuff Anakin did and he hasn't even completed his training yet. He doesn't know how to harness his anger properly unlike Vader who had this cool menace about him.
As for Rey, she lives in a post-ROTJ world where everyone knows what Luke got up to, what the force is, and what lightsabers are. Unlike Luke, who had to be introduced to what the force is, Rey probably has some faith in it after hearing about the events in the OT (and then the force is further corroborated by Han and Maz). So it makes sense for someone who can use the force and has belief in it to be able to pick things up quickly - she kinda embodies Yoda's "Do or do not, there is no try". Also Rey knows how to use a staff, and her moves with a saber had quite a few thrusts in them, more so than any other fight in the films. That's not to say I didn't find her a bit Mary Sue-ish, but it's the first in a trilogy so they have lots of space to develop her character.