Star Wars Discussion Thread v. Rise of Skywalker / Mandalorian (merged)

[Phoenix87x]

I'm rewatching all of the Skywalker saga movies in advance of Rise of Skywalker.

Working my way through The Phantom Menace now. It's been perhaps a decade since I've watched it last and my thoughts haven't really changed. Jar Jar is annoying. Jake Lloyd was not a very good child actor. Too much CGI (which was good for the time, but of course hasn't aged well). But the my main frustration is that it seems like it could have been such a better movie with some relatively minor tweaks. Make Jar Jar not so annoying and cut down his lines, use practical effects instead of CGI more, and rewrite and handful of clunky dialog spots, and you would go from having an OK to bad movie to having a pretty good movie.

Oh, and what a waste it was killing off Darth Maul in Ep. 1.

Totally agree about Maul. I would have rather him have gotten wounded, but was able to make an escape.

And perhaps Obi now is more focused on tracking down the one who killed his master, neglecting Anakin's training. Setting up some future conflict between them. There's a lot of cool things they could have done.

[lonestar]

I'm doing the same thing, worked through TPM and AOTC yesterday, and I agree on all your points, as well as I'd add to eliminate all of Anakin's cheesy ass one liners, especially in the last battle when he's piloting the ship. I cringed at every one of them.

It's also nice on the rewatch knowing I can fast forward through all the Anakin/Padme scenes in AOTC to avoid the vomit inducing acting. Really makes the film better!!

[Phoenix87x]

Episode II is absolutely where I wish there would have been a different director for the Anakin/Padme scenes.

[gmillerdrake]

Oh, and what a waste it was killing off Darth Maul in Ep. 1.

Well technically he didn't die.....being that the Clone Wars series is considered cannon.


But I do agree it was a waste of a cool character that could have been explored more in depth. They did the same thing with General Grevious. Quick exit in the movies but explored him more in the Clone Wars.

[faizoff]

now with Disney+ I will have to check out Clone Wars and Rebels. Been meaning to check them out for a while but never got the chance.

[gmillerdrake]

I'm doing the same thing

The kiddos and I are about to embark on the same refresh. I really dislike TPM and AOTC. ROTS is pretty good....then from then on I'm golden with the saga.

[lordxizor]

now with Disney+ I will have to check out Clone Wars and Rebels. Been meaning to check them out for a while but never got the chance.

Yeah, me too.

[gmillerdrake]

now with Disney+ I will have to check out Clone Wars and Rebels. Been meaning to check them out for a while but never got the chance.

Yeah, me too.

You guys will enjoy it. We've already watched the first five episodes of The Clone Wars again. I absolutely LOVE seeing Anakin in action in the series. They do a great job in showing his gradual walk towards the dark side.....and, demonstrate on many occasions how powerful a Jedi he was/is.

Rebels is really good as well.

[faizoff]

I remember watching the Clone Wars animated movie and not really getting into it much, it's probably why I didn't check out the cartoon series earlier.

[gmillerdrake]

I remember watching the Clone Wars animated movie and not really getting into it much, it's probably why I didn't check out the cartoon series earlier.

The series is much more 'adult' that you'd think. Enough so to where my kids the first time we watched it lost interest because there were many episodes where it was dialogue and story driven....no saber fights or action.

[kaos2900]

I've watched the prequels and I'm including Rogue One in the re-watch as well for this weekend. Also watching clone wars with the kids. Almost through season 4 and then on to Rebels. I'd say 80% of Clone Wars is amazing with only a handful of duds.

Also, if it hasn't been mentioned all of the Star Wars films on Disney+ are in 4K HDR with Dolby Atmos.

[kaos2900]

Also another note on Clone Wars for first time watchers, a lot of the episodes in the first 2-3 seasons were not released in chronological order so be sure to watch it in the "right" order.

https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-the-clone-wars-chronological-episodeorder

[gmillerdrake]

I'd say 80% of Clone Wars is amazing with only a handful of duds.

I'd agree with this estimate. Good thing is episodes are like 20 minutes long so the duds just fade into the rest of the story.

[bosk1]

With all due respect to whoever compiled that Clone Wars list, there is no way I am doing that.  That is WAY too much to keep track of as I move through the episodes.  I'll just move through them on whatever order D+ has them in.

[kaos2900]

With all due respect to whoever compiled that Clone Wars list, there is no way I am doing that.  That is WAY too much to keep track of as I move through the episodes.  I'll just move through them on whatever order D+ has them in.

To me it was totally worth it. It is very glaring how out of order they are. We're talking characters dying and then showing up in later episodes.

[MinistroRaven]

Good 2nd EP. That little Yoda has me intrigued, why is he so powerful? And why have any of the force sensitives sensed his power?

[faizoff]

Amazing second episode, I'm loving the feel of these episodes, simple story with one or two side quests while deepening the intrigue. Can't wait for the next one.

[lonestar]

Agreed on all counts, they're really on point with every aspect of this show. Star Wars done right.


I also want to go on record as saying that in due time, I think Yoda-ish baby will be cuter than Baby Groot. He/she is just too damn adorable.

[Phoenix87x]

Liked the 1st episode better, but this one was good as well.

[gmillerdrake]

Good 2nd EP. That little Yoda has me intrigued, why is he so powerful? And why have any of the force sensitives sensed his power?

Wouldn’t it have something to do with there just aren’t many Force sensitives remaining at that period of time?

And it appeared that Baby Yoda was trying to heal that wound also.....which would be a new ‘force’ power?

[Adami]

As interesting as lil yoda is, I hope it isn’t the main focus of the show. I’m really digging it, largely because it’s unrelated to jedis and sith and Skywalkers and such. So if it becomes mostly jedi/force focused, or that’s the only thing people care about, I’d consider it a waste of a great space western.

[gmillerdrake]

Was trying to compare how ‘old’ the Baby Yoda would be if it was human. So, I assigned Yoda dying at the age of 100 in human years. He was 900 years old (or so) when he died.

I divided 900/50= 18  (we know this Baby Yoda is 50ish in Yoda years) then divided 100/18 and got 5.55555......

So, with that rudimentary math I’m thinking Baby Yoda is equivalent to a 5 1/2 year old human kid?

Seem reasonable?

[gmillerdrake]

As interesting as lil yoda is, I hope it isn’t the main focus of the show. I’m really digging it, largely because it’s unrelated to jedis and sith and Skywalkers and such. So if it becomes mostly jedi/force focused, or that’s the only thing people care about, I’d consider it a waste of a great space western.

My speculation at this point is that he turns lil Yoda over....collects his reward....comes to be revealed to him ‘what’ lil Yoda is.....then he sets out to rescue him back.

[lordxizor]

My Thoughts On Attack of the Clones:

This one is by far the worst Star Wars move to date. It's inexplicable how Padme could fall for Anakin, he's creepy and weird. I'm amazed George Lucas managed to get married if that's how he sees flirting and romance. This one is plagued by excessive CGI. I don't think there's more than a couple scenes that aren't completely done on green screens. There seems to be little real stuff at all in the sets. I could go on and on about too much CGI, but Ill stop there. I never felt anything positive about Count Dooku. I really wish they hadn't killed off Darth Maul and had used him in place of Dooku in Eps 2 and 3.

The one thing I think was a pretty good twist was that the storm troopers were originally on the good side. That's about all I got for positives in this one. I can still enjoy it because its Star Wars, but otherwise it's pretty bad.

[Cool Chris]

The best thing I can say about AotC is that I totally enjoyed it in the theater. After the completely underwhelming TPM (in fairness my expectations were unnecessarily high, and I knew most of the story going in), knowing less about AotC (I even avoided most of the trailer/promo material) and lowered expectations, it was a much more enjoyable experience. The Padme/Anakin part is the worst aspect of the story, and GL is find of saying he don't know how to write that kind of material. I think that goes back to American Graffiti and him struggling with the Ron Howard/Cindy Williams story. AotC is a good story (aside from PAdme/Anakin, it just could be told better.

[Phoenix87x]

I agree with you guys and as far as Episode II goes:

A) Lucas understands nothing about dating or relationships. And this led to some of the most contrived, unrealistic, cringe love story scenes I have ever seen.
 
B) Phantom menace has CGI issues, but Episode II goes completely mental with entirely 100% green screen rooms that look like shit.

C) Dooku is a stupid name for a villain. I would have preferred Maul 100% as the continuing villain. I like Lee as an actor, but he wasn't given much to do.

D) On a positive note, I originally did like the Obi-wan detective aspect where he's investigating and following clues on his own.

**All that being said, I have watched AtoC in its entirety maybe twice in my lifetime. Its just does nothing for me, and Lucas should have had a different director handle the "love" scenes or any human to human interaction for that matter.

[lordxizor]

The best thing I can say about AotC is that I totally enjoyed it in the theater.

I did too. I'm sure I saw it two or three times in the theater and it was a good time. It wasn't until future viewings at home that I realized how bad it really was. Same with TPM too.

D) On a positive note, I originally did like the Obi-wan detective aspect where he's investigating and following clues on his own.

Good point. This was a nice subplot.

Overall. I'd say the basic plot of AOTC wasn't bad. The execution was just bad. Kind of like TPM I guess.

[lordxizor]

I won't say a whole lot about Revenge of the Sith. It suffers from some of the same problems as the first two: bad acting and dialog, and too much CGI. But it's by far the best of the prequel movies.

[lordxizor]

A New Hope: I love this movie. Probably my favorite of all time. It never gets old. I haven't ever watched the Bluray version, which I'm assuming is what's on Disney+ and it looks great!

Some dumb observations that I haven't thought about much before:
Why didn't they stop and change ships when they knew the Empire was tracking the Falcon?
Why is Luke, a kid who just showed up, leading one of the torpedo runs down the trench?
Why did they all fly around shooting at stuff in the Death Star battle? Just go straight to the exhaust port and everyone launch torpedoes at it until one goes in. Fly straight down from above toward it!
Greedo shooting first is "macklunky" - That's going to be my new stand-in phrase for bullshit

[Cool Chris]

I've gotten a few SW Christmas Special videos pop up in my YT feed recently. Which got me thinking.... has anyone here actually seen that all the way through? I haven't. I was born in 76, so have the vaguest of memories of TESB being released, and of course by the time of RotJ I was fully immersed on the SW universe. I had the toys, VHS tapes, Halloween costumes... I don't think I was even aware of the Holiday Special till many, many years later.

[Phoenix87x]

I've only seen bits and pieces. its utterly mental 

[bosk1]

Amazing second episode, I'm loving the feel of these episodes, simple story with one or two side quests while deepening the intrigue. Can't wait for the next one.

Just getting that much interaction inside and outside a sandcrawler was a win of the highest order.  The fact that the rest of the episode had anything even resembling "good" just felt like gravy. 

I was really confused about the cave/battle sequence at first though.  But that was totally on me.  I didn't get that he was going after an actual egg.  I thought that when the jawas demanded the egg that they wanted him to give up baby yoda's egg shaped hover-bassinette.  I couldn't for the life of me figure out why Mando was going off into a cave that was obviously hazardous. 

I've gotten a few SW Christmas Special videos pop up in my YT feed recently. Which got me thinking.... has anyone here actually seen that all the way through?

I know I did as a kid, but I don't have a crystal clear recollection of the plot or most of the scenes.  It didn't strike me as being "bad" or hokey at the time.  But that was largely because of my age at the time it came out.

[Orbert]

At the time, it wasn't bad or hokey.  It was a holiday variety special, which was a very common thing at the time.  Star Wars was popular with young and old alike, so it was inevitable.  Dated as hell now, but completely acceptable entertainment at the time.

[Samsara]

Watched both episodes of the Mandalorian on Friday night. Great stuff. Love the gritty cinematography and obviously the reveal was pretty bad ass. Felt like Rogue One a little mixed with an old Western. I dug it. Looking forward to the next episode.

[lordxizor]

As I've been finishing up the original trilogy after watching the prequel trilogy two things really stood out to me:

1) I know the original movies have been cleaned up a little bit over the years, but the special effects using physical models have stood up way better over time than the CGI in the prequels.
2) The jokes/one-liners/quips in the original trilogy almost all hit the mark and are funny, or at least fitting to the moment and character. I can't say the same for those same types of things in the prequels. They largely miss the mark and feel completely forced to me.