Topic: The Movie Thread

@Jaz007 Lightsabers are meant to be incredibly difficult to weild. There are intense gravitational effects of the blade's containment system. Thats why they are usually wielded by force users.

And yes. They were meant to look like sword fights.

@KALofKRYPTON Is that in the originals (I can't remember)? Because the prequels and new trilogy and everything else Star Wars makes them easy to wield, and by look I mean they are easy to wueld. I've never seen anyone have trouble. I mean, look at Finn. Him hitting Kylo was ridiculous though. And I think they were only meant to look like swordfights originally due to technological limitations.

@Jaz007 From the (admittedly now defunct) EU. They were meant to be almost impossible to construct due to the danger of acquiring and harnessing the kyber crystals, and the gravitational forces used to contain the blade made them unwieldy to most non force users as the expectation that the only weight is the hilt would usually end up with someone maiming themselves.

That's why most similar weapons not in force user hands are/were rarely a hilt and blade - rather a blade/beam between two points.

The Finn thing is pretty explainable, he is a trained Stormtrooper - and I don't think he (or Rey for that matter) uses the lightsaber particularly easily or one handed throughout TFA.

I don't think any non-force user character uses a lightsaber throughout the prequels.

It wasn't technical limitations that decided the format of lightsaber fights for the OT; "An elegant weapon, for a more civilised age" and all that. It was meant to be sword fighting in space; Errol Flynn high adventure with a bit of flare.

@KALofKRYPTON Han was still able to use one pretty easily in Empire Strikes Back though OH and Sabine in Rebels uses one pretty well too ans neither of them are force users

@FullbringIchigo Very briefly, also - isn't a weapons noob - isn't she a Mandalorian?

Just saw The Predator. When it first started, I thought it'd be one of those poorly-reviewed films that I'd end up liking, but it turned into a right mess by the end! It's tonally schizophrenic, the script is poorly written, there are too many characters (almost all of which suck), and the plot was terrible. And the constant flippant attitude toward murder rubbed me the wrong way. Things just kind of happen in the movie without rhyme or reason, with betrayals and reconciliations occurring because otherwise the plot would simply spin its wheels. The Predators (there are apparently a lot of these things) aren't intimidating at all. It feels like it's trying to be two or three different movies, and none of them are very good.

Good news, though: if you felt like hideous alien dogs that act like domesticated puppies were the missing element from previous Predator films, then you're in for a good time!

I mean, I had fun laughing at it. At least it's not boring like Prometheus was. I imagine I'd have been irritated if I was a Predator fan, though.

WB: The DC stuff isn't making us instant Avengers money...

Also WB: We'd better scrap the whole thing, or some of it, or most of it...

WB: And let Superman and Batman walk?

Also WB:... Yeah, yeah why not?

WB: What can we do to make instant Avengers money though?

Also WB: Deadshot spin off movie?

WB: YES!!!

FML. 😒

To be fair, the DCEU does have some fun projects on the horizon. The new Joker movie looks promising, and I'm very interested in the Birds of Prey movie they're putting together. I've only watched Wonder Woman of the DCEU movies, which was pretty bad, so I hope they're better than that at least.

@Tjuz WW was great I thought, apart from the ending.
I think it's fair to say at this point that Man of Steel is an underrated gem. BvS is unnecessarily messy, but mostly sorted with the blu ray version. Suicide Squad is very OK but suffers from being primarily a Will Smith film (as opposed to casting a lesser known actor and not anchoring the whole thing around them), and not using the reams of Joker material they shot... and recutting and reshooting to alter the tone.
Justice League is a sad shambles.

New Joker movie could be good. WW2 will probably be good, Shazam and Aquaman will both probably be good. Should all have happened before the big team up movie.

@KALofKRYPTON @Kidfried I think the only thing that saved Wonder Woman from being a terrible movie is the chemistry between Gal Gadot/Chris Pine. They were great together, and both showed off some fun comedic chops. The last third of the movie was offensively terrible though, and they really wasted David Thewlis' potential (to keep it as spoiler free as possible). It also felt very oddly paced to me, and I didn't really care about any of the characters. I definitely respect it for it's success and I'm happy a female superhero movie was able to perform so well both in the box office and among audiences' feelings towards the movie. I will just never see it as a good movie.

I was actually really excited for Suicide Squad before it came out, but it sounded like the best part of that movie was the impressively done marketing. That movie may be one of the best examples (in recent history anyway) of a movie with fantastic marketing but a bad critical response. I avoided it after that. I'm not all that excited for the upcoming Aquaman movie since I don't really like Jason Momoa, but I might be open to watching it if it ends up getting great reviews.

Coincidentally, it seems like they have announced some Birds of Prey casting about an hour ago. Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Jurnee Smollett-Bell are set to co-star with Margot Robbie. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is absolutely fantastic, so that's some very exciting casting imo. I also read that they have been considering Justina Machado as well for the final Birds of Prey member, and I would absolutely love it if she got the role too. She's great in One Day at a Time and Jane the Virgin. I'm not really familiar with Jurnee Smollett-Bell, only really with her brother Jussie on Empire, but it seems like this movie's cast is shaping up to be pretty great.

Just got back from My Neighbor Totoro, which is being shown in theaters again nationwide across the U.S. as part of 2018's "Ghibli Fest." The family came with, and everybody absolutely loved it. It's a beautiful film that keenly captures the wide-eyed sense of joy that often comes so naturally to young children, and the attention to detail in the animation is absolutely stunning. Anyway, this is one of my all-time favorite films and I'm really glad I got the opportunity to rewatch it in the theater, although hearing Lea Salonga mangle the opening song (we watched the Disney dub) only reminded me why I dislike her performances so much.

Didn't know about this until today but WB has fired both Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill. So are they going for a reboot? If so what does that mean for the current heroes like Wonder Woman and Aquaman?

Watched All the Money in the World last night. Although it is a good film I found it a bit too plodding in places. Michelle Williams and Christopher Plummer were outstanding in it, but I thought Mark Warlberg was a bit miscast in his role and I felt it needed someone who was slicker and a touch cooler.

What I found more interesting was this was the film that Plummer replaced Kevin Spacey with due to the allegations against the latter. That the film was already finished and Plummer only did his shots in about 10 days is a credit the film making that it wasn't a complete mess.

@WanderingBullet Yeah - WB don't really know either.

The current slate is set to continue - which doesn't actually change anything other than recasting Superman for the inevitable Supergirl cameo; Affleck was extremely likely to be recast for the solo Batman film anyway.

It's a bummer. But WB are awful... so.

@KALofKRYPTON For their sake, I hope Aquaman and Shazam are good. If not, RIP Worlds of DC.

@WanderingBullet @KALofKRYPTON I’ve actually been surprised at how Marvel/Disney has been able to keep the gang together for so long. The only casualty I see so far is Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye and they seem to have just written him out. I would like to see him return, but I have a feeling he won’t. But it’s hard to write out Superman and Batman out of the Justice League 😅. I suppose they can make it work since we’re all so accustomed to so many different Batman actors over the years. But can you imagine anyone other than Downey Jr. playing Iron Man? Or anyone other than Evans as Capt America?

@Th3solution I have a feeling that next year's Avengers movie would be Robert Downey Jr.'s and Chris Evans's last MCU movie.

@WanderingBullet @Th3solution That's the difference having a long term plan, open-minded execs, invested creators and robust contracting does for you.
Success breeds success after all, and any stumbles are absorbed and learned from. WB couldn't be more different in their handling of the DC slate.

Renner is due to show up again soon I think.

My guess is, with the Fox stable now accessible - we'll just see less and less of Iron Man and Cap etc. and/or they'll sign likeness contracts and be CG'd in for cameos.

Regarding DC/WB - I doubt very much that there will be another attempt at a team up film for at least a decade. WB seem happy enough to just funnel through anything that looks like it'll make a buck rather than maintaining any sort of shared universe particularly.

@Kidfried The reason why I like shared universe is because of crossovers and team ups.

@Kidfried I would tend to agree, but Marvel/Disney laid out such a clear blueprint for success - that it needn't be some sort of restrictive crutch. It should and could have for WB, been a brilliant creative and commercial success.