OT: Let's talk about movies and TV - Part XXII

[Draft]

I hope the rest of this season picks up, the show is so dull these last couple seasons. I feel like they can't write a character that doesn't **** or fight.

Man, talk about a dull season opener.

The show died with Littlefinger, change my mind.

 

[DesmondDekker]

Weren’t the episodes supposed to be longer than 50 minutes!?

 

[OldCraig71]

GOT was underwhelming, to say the least.

 

[LyricalLyricist]

Weren’t the episodes supposed to be longer than 50 minutes!?

Not all.

Episode/Time
1 54 min
2 58 min
3 82 min
4 78 min
5 80 min
6 80 min

 

[DesmondDekker]

Not all.

Episode/Time
1 54 min
2 58 min
3 82 min
4 78 min
5 80 min
6 80 min

Aaah, that explains it. Thanks !

 

[Kimota]

And the Kingslayer shows up. Oh baby!

 

[HerculePoirot]

I didn't expect much action so not disappointed.

 

[OneSharpMarble]

Man, talk about a dull season opener.

The show died with Littlefinger, change my mind.

They killed him off because they had no idea how to write a character with any sort of depth. The show is now just good vs evil and the token nudity. It's all so incredibly lazy.

 

[Andrei79]

They killed him off because they had no idea how to write a character with any sort of depth. The show is now just good vs evil and the token nudity. It's all so incredibly lazy.

I've tempered my expectations quite a bit since season 6. I'm just enjoying the fan service and action now. And the amazing score and cinematography. I'll get my writing fix from GRRM, who's recently said WoW is advancing quite well lately.

 

[Mrb1p]

Yeah not the best opener

 

[LyricalLyricist]

Man, talk about a dull season opener.

The show died with Littlefinger, change my mind.

If he’s really dead. Some say maybe not.

 

[Deebs]

Good start to the season tonight. Thought the Jon Snow is heir to the throne moment would be bigger but nevertheless... nice to have it back

 

[Draft]

If he’s really dead. Some say maybe not.

One of the more intriguing theories. Doesn't look like the writers have it in them to follow a complex plot line considering there's only one season.... And we've already gone through an episode that really didn't bring much to the table.

 

[NobleSix]

This episode served its purpose in reuniting characters and educating characters on important information that, although the audience already knows, the characters themselves do not. There was a tonne of new information revealed at the end of season 7 that needed to be addressed to its characters in this season, because this new information will be key to the events of this final season. It served its purpose IMO, and its exactly the kind of episode that I knew it would be. Although the episode wasn't action packed, or even very plot heavy, it will age better once the season is over and the entire season is viewed as a whole, and not by single episodes.

This is why binge watching entire seasons at one's own leisure is infinitely better than watching them through a serialized, week-to-week format.

If I didn't fear spoilers so much, I would honestly wait until the end of the season and watch it all at once.

 

[NobleSix]

Just an idea, but I think like the “good” Force ghosts, Palpatine may had found a way to continue on as some sort of ghost/presence as well. I think Snoke may had been a character possessed by Palpatine and now that the physical body is dead, he moves on to the next.

Just saying this since Johnson just killed Snoke off and I’m guessing this threw a whole wrench into the trilogy plans. I don’t know if Lucasfilm mapped it out the way Marvel did with their MCU.

In one of the recent novels it was explained that Jedi force ghosts live on in another plane of existence after death, and can communicate with the living through the force. It was also explained that when Sith die, their souls are connected to the place where they died. So, in a matter of speaking, Sith ghosts 'haunt' the places where they died.

This explains the Death Star 2 wreckage on Endor that we see and the end of the trailer, and the Emporer's laugh as the shot cuts to black. The Emporer will almost certainly be a force ghost in Episode 9, and should have some connection to Snoke.

Also, no, Lucasfilm did not map out the sequel trilogy like Marvel has done with the MCU. Before making episode 7, JJ Abrams created a trilogy outline that included plot points, characters, and themes that all tied into an overarching plot for the entire trilogy. However, when Rian Johnson was given episode 9, he was also given the ability to do whatever he wanted. So, instead of following the outline that JJ wrote, he threw it all in the garbage and made his own thing. Something that was a tremendous mistake, as it left Episode 9, the most important episode in the trilogy, with almost nowhere to go and nothing to build on.

Episode 9 is bringing back the Emporer as a villain because as it stands right now, the trilogy doesn't have a main villain. The biggest villain in the trilogy right now is Hux (lol). Since Kylo Ren will most likely be redeemed at the end of the film by returning to the Light (as the film's title suggests), he cannot be made the main villain, nor should he be. Because of this, JJ Abrams had two choices going into episode 9: 1) Create an entirely new main villain that audiences know next to nothing about, has not been established, and that has very little connection to the saga, or 2) bring back an old villain that has already been established in an attempt to fill the void created by Rian Johnson and his terrible decisions with episode 8.

So, instead of developing Snoke into a formidable and solid villain in episode 8, leading up to his defeat in episode 9, we now have to retread an old villain to shoe-horn into that role.

Are we seeing a Death Star on a sea? How the **** did it crash on a sea? The Return's one should have crashed in a forest. Even in a New Hope, I don't believe there was something that looked like a sea on Yavin IV.
Why is there a "Tie Fighter", alone, flying at a low altitude and Rey is there, also alone, waiting.

*sigh*

I'm already getting mad and the movie hasn't came out yet lol.

I share your frustration. Episode 8 was a disaster in itself, and in terms of its place in the trilogy.

Star Wars has an odd relationship with reality. It is a fantasy epic, with science fiction elements, but I wouldn't classify it as science fiction. Sometimes you just have to (begrudgingly) accept that Star Wars just isn't going to make sense. Take that ridiculous Mary Poppins Leia scene in episode 8. She should have been dead, and the rest of the crew should have been dead too the moment she opened the bridge door to get back into the ship. Its frustrating, but its the path they've chosen to go down I suppose.

As far as your questions, what we see at the end of the trailer is the wreckage of the second death star. As far how it got there, scroll down and see what I wrote in response to sandviper. Why is there a tie fighter flying alone at low altitude at Rey standing in the middle of nowhere? Who knows to be honest. That whole scene was pretty silly IMO, but no more silly than the entire final battle in Episode 8 that made no logical sense whatsoever. I'm at the point where i've accepted that these new films will be showing us things that look cool, rather than things that make sense... unfortunately.

I’ll just have to assume they’ll explain everything, lol.

If that was the second Death Star, the forest would be flattened as a big chunk of the station hitting the planet would be an extinction level event. Of course, doesn’t explain how they were partying it up at the end of RoTJ unless you got chunks of space station floating around in orbit and it smashed into the planet after the Rebellian left. Hopefully this means no more Ewoks...

The solo Tie Fighter I can only assume is Kylo. Obviously, his hubris is getting the best of him as it would be easier to just shoot Rey than to try to run her over.

I have enjoyed the new trilogy but they are dipping back into the well too much with old characters and centering the story around Luke somehow. I really liked Po as a character as well as Finn, but I think they wasted opportunities. I don’t find Rey particularly interesting.

Anyhow, this movie should close out the Skywalker story. If they continue with new stories, hopefully they can do it right with new characters.

The wreckage of the second Death Star most likely orbited Endor for years, before eventually being pulled to its surface by the planet's gravity. On that, you're most likely right about. However, I do think that the impact of the wreckage did have a cataclysmic effect on Endor. From the shots in the trailer, the planet looks nothing like the lush, colorful, and radiant planet seen in Episode 6. In the trailer, its dark, void of any trees and showing only dying grass, with dark clouds and harsh winds. I'd assume that the planet is still recovering from the impact of the wreckage. Should it have almost completley destroyed the entire planet? Yes, most likely. But again.. star wars logic.

I'm also not so sure the pilot of the Tie Silencer is Kylo. The ship itself looks completely different than the one Kylo used in Episode 8, and the editing makes a concerted effort to only show the hands of the pilot, suggesting that the pilot of the craft is supposed to be a mystery. Having Kylo pilot the ship wouldn't be much of a mystery. On that I could be wrong though, since that's just my analysis of the scene, and these new films aren't particularly known for their tremendous writing.

 

[LyricalLyricist]

This episode served its purpose in reuniting characters and educating characters on important information that, although the audience already knows, the characters themselves do not. There was a tonne of new information revealed at the end of season 7 that needed to be addressed to its characters in this season, because this new information will be key to the events of this final season. It served its purpose IMO, and its exactly the kind of episode that I knew it would be. Although the episode wasn't action packed, or even very plot heavy, it will age better once the season is over and the entire season is viewed as a whole, and not by single episodes.

This is why binge watching entire seasons at one's own leisure is infinitely better than watching them through a serialized, week-to-week format.

If I didn't fear spoilers so much, I would honestly wait until the end of the season and watch it all at once.

Unfortunately, this is the case. They are fast tracking some reunions and loose ends before getting into it. I thought there would've been a little more doom and gloom aspect given how season 7 ended but it seemed calm for now.

 

[groovejuice]

GOT was underwhelming, to say the least.

Just reintroducing characters and setting the table for what's to come. I expect fireworks soon.

 

[Intangir]

I watched the GOT opener tonight and it wasn't bad, but quite lacking in depth as was symptomatic of GOT seasons 6 and 7, or ever since they stopped directly sourcing from the book.

I swear, ever since the end of the third season the show's been going downhill, and the last two seasons especially the narration and choice of sequences was downright bad and predictable by the standards set with the first few seasons.

To illustrate that point, out of all examples I could think of, the whole Jon Snow thing (I'll call it that since I don't want to spoil people who might not have watched that part yet) at the beginning of the sixth season is the worst, and was an absolute doozy of a moment made even more awkward by the huge amount of time allotted to it, the choice of focus and the cheesy acting (and directing of actors foremost). With a few cutbacks to action on other parts of the world and less emphasis (and close-ups) on Jon Snow's face / less time given for the discussion of his friends, perhaps even by letting the fans speculate over the course of an episode more, the resolution of the situation would have felt less forced, with a better, more climactic ending to the problem. Inversely, the penultimate episode of the sixth season was pretty good, with the fancy special effects playing out the chaos of a battlefield extremely well, so it's not like the GOT cinematography team can't still make tremendously entertaining stuff.

Anyways, I might b**** and moan about the series right now, but the first through three seasons were absolute magic (especially the first, with Sean ''I die in a lot of movies'' Bean to anchor the show and provide tremendous momentum both as a lead and as a drama proponent later) and some of the very best entertainment I'd ever seen on the small screen, with great storytelling, subtlety, sobriety and taste in special effects, awesome dialogue, deep and colourful characters, complex world-building, human morality depicted in compelling ''tones of grey'' (because f*** that book series), quality acting, realism, an almost ''organic'' feel to the action, nary a bad scene, and every moment, every word important in some way.

As is expected, the follow-up to a great opening act is hard to make and often ends up a flawed continuation to a great story, but a continuation nonetheless, and one I'm grateful for even though it's not as good as it used to be.

I apologize for the long-windedness.

 

[GoodKiwi]

I see the GoT fiesta has begun.

Would you please try and keep spoilers down to a minimum or utilize spoiler tags for those of us who aren't going to watch the show for a while longer?

 

[Kimota]

Speaking of Thrones, the meeting between Dany and Sam was a holly crap moment. Actor John Bradley must have been happy as f*** that they gave him this much meat. Happy go lucky Sam is OK for a while but for once they gave him something to work with.

 

[sandviper]

I see the GoT fiesta has begun.

Would you please try and keep spoilers down to a minimum or utilize spoiler tags for those of us who aren't going to watch the show for a while longer?

Yeah, I forgot it started so spoiler tags please, lol. I don’t want to stop any discussion of course, but I think a few would appreciate spoiler tags for at least a couple days after each Sunday.

@NobleSix - Thanks for your detailed opinion and theories. Interesting about Sith ghosts and the haunting aspect. I never watched anything or read much outside of the established movie canon so I never considered that.

I do have some hope JJ will wrap up the trilogy nicely. I know he has his detractors but I generally like his style. At the very least, he injects a good amount of energy into his action sequences, even though it’s usually more flash than substance.

I know teasers and trailers are meant to hype things but while many shots didn’t seem logical and make much sense, again, I have to assume they’ll explain it. Perhaps it won’t be satisfactory but I doubt it’ll be completely out of the blue.

 

[DangerDave]

Just a necessary set up episode.

The dragon scene was sort of bootleg. This show is at its best when it focus' on the gritty elements rather than the fantasy elements. I know it's fan service but with how quickly they need to wrap things up, it's a little alarming that theirs so much of this sort of filler.