Pieter Boelen

Oooh, I like that! Thank you very much for that one. Hopefully that's true; does make a lot of sense and also gives it a good reason to reappear more often in the sequel. Only remembering the main theme seems like quite a normal thing to me. And it far, FAR beats remembering not even the main theme. I wonder how many notes people would have remembered from Raiders of the Lost Ark the very first time after seeing it.

Indeed Black Panther really stood out to me in that film; in a very positive way. There was a lot of innovation and clever thought to l put into it; but not at the cost of emotion and proper orchestral power at points. It was an effective mix, I reckon. The main 'complaints' I'd have about it are that while the highlights are really high, a lot of the stuff in-between didn't strike me as particularly interesting. And the theme introduced in "Glory to Bast" and featuring again in "Spaceship Bugatti" is the best of the bunch, but woefully underused. Hopefully it'll return in full force for the sequel!

Switch between funny and serious can indeed often work wonders. I was more referring to tonal differences between "quality" and "stupid crap". Of course I admit that's highly subjective, but for example Hagrid putting a fork in somebody else's hand in Goblet of Fire was not funny to me. It was stupid, embarrassing and, really, painful to watch. It also didn't fit at all with my view of Hagrid as an intimidating giant on the outside with a kind heart of gold on the inside. Instead, he comes across as literally painfully clumsy and that, for me, detracts from his character.

As far as I'm concerned, it took the book I liked best, ignored the crap out of both that and the book previous two movies and threw a wrench in the series from which it never really recovered. The first two films were tonally quite consistent. The others are literally all over the place; not just between films, but within the same film as well. The highs might've been higher in Azkaban and after, but holy crap the lows are LOW!

Ah, gotcha! And yep, I fully agree.

Which translates as: "any movie that looks like it was filmed in the real world is for kids". That... is completely... NUTTY! I remember reading an ancient review of the 1962 version of Mutiny on the Bounty. It complained that the movie looked too 'picture perfect'. Except I've been in that sort of areas of the world and it pretty much looks on reality how it looks in the film. So this isn't even a truly new development. Though it did get ridiculously more pronounced. I also believe there is something dangerous about it. It makes people who don't get out much believe that the world is a depressing place. At the same time people who do get out much might start believing that the drama from those dark films is only a film reality but doesn't really occur in that brighter-looking real world. And in both cases, people get a skewed vision of reality. I originally thought the original Adventures of Robin Hood would be quite the happy-go-lucky movie. Yet when I watched it, I was quite surprised by how much true darkness they did actually still mentioned or even showed. It's still on the whole an upbeat adventure; but I wouldn't say it's a kid's movie. Not at all!

I honestly believe the guy had the right idea. Final result might've been flawed, but I don't believe he's got much to apologize for at all. Alternative would've been unoriginal committee-made movies over and over. I liked to think he tried to steer away from that. For some reason I read that to mean as if Stargate wasn't very good either. But I'd say that is actually pretty excellent; and better than most movies coming out these days! Because I have yet to see a truly dark and dreary Star Wars film that doesn't have anything to like about it. (Also... I hope that day never comes!)

So then why didn't he just postpone and make the movie he actually wanted to make a bit later...?

Top bad Rowling didn't quite succeed in the script writing business. Sometimes authors CAN write good scripts. C.S. Forester's "Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N." seemed like a pretty darn great adaption of his books. And he did that himself. Modern Movie Syndrome. Really, it sucks. It isn't even realistic, like people claim is the reason for it. I believe instead it makes it easier for CGI to blend in. Convincing CGI in bright locations is more difficult to do than in the dark.

Nothing. Still.... I'd be completely game for a greater variety in material. After all, why not?

The sequel movies are flawed. For certain. I sincerely doubt any reasonable person would argue that. In which ways they're flawed differs from person to person. Just like it differs from movie to movie. And just like the prequels and the originals all had their flaws too. Certainly the reason for the sequels existing at all is more financially motivated than artistic. And of course marketing is generally manipulative and dishonest too. I certainly have zero doubt about any of that. That being said, I believe that within the constraints set by the Disney executives, the movie makers have been trying to do their best. And given the profits made and number of people talking about them, there must be many people out there (myself included) who get enjoyment out of them. So claiming these movies have no right to exist, for me, crosses the line where I believe it is not a reasonable opinion to have. Sure, you're still allowed to have that opinion. I'm certainly not able to force you to change your mind anyway. I will always believe it is unreasonable. What that says about you and about me is not for me to decide. It says something. And who knows... maybe what it says is that I misunderstood something in what is going on here. I like to think so.

Like John Williams does, you mean? If David Arnold ever did anything other than his pop beginning, his film scores, that Olympics theme and some TV shows these days, then I never heard of it. Would be happy to find out there is more though! The guy does good work.

Has he done any concert works that ARE based on his film scores??? All I know is "Parade of the Athletes" from the (2012?) London Olympics. It can be found on a CD named "A Symphony of British Music". Not sure if that counts, but it seemed worth mentioning just in case.

Sarcasm? Thank you!

I'm not convinced the movie was sending that message there at all. As far as I'm concerned, it showed two realistically imperfect characters make a bigger mess than needed through bad communication, which is unfortunately very, VERY common in real life too. On the other hand, there is a time and place to question orders. "In the middle of a high-stress life-and-death emergency situation" is not one of them. Last month I took my parents out sailing. I have plenty of experience. They do not. We very nearly crashed in the middle of a very important commercial waterway. Why? Because my father took his own initiative, despite having zero clue about potential consequences. It hadn't even occurred to me that he might do what he did; until it was too late. He behaved like a loose cannon. I managed to save the situation, even though it had suddenly and very unexpectedly turned very dangerous. The situation was perfectly safe before he did that. It would have stayed perfectly safe if he had accepted his place and blindly followed my orders. Suffice it to say, I was NOT happy with him. And the whole debacle ended up needlessly damaging my boat; as I found out later. This is not a movie or other made up situation I'm talking about. This happened for real. Isn't it amazing that you get the luxury to choose yourself where you want the story to end for you? And that other people can make their own different choice if they so wish? And that nobody is being forced one way or another?

I agree that the sequel trilogy undid the happy ending of RotJ. Literally the next movie in the series shows that the bad guys were NOT defeated and, oh, all the characters we knew and loved ended up alone and very unhappy. That is something I do not like about TFA at all. And it results from the apparent desire to make it another soft reboot. To give new fans what the old ones got with ANH and somehow keep the old fans from getting too unhappy either. I honestly don't get why certain fans got so worked up about TLJ and not about TFA. And I also agree... TLJ could've been better still. The way I see it, TFA was disappointing because it tried to cater to old fans while making brand new ones too. And TLJ suffered because it was trying to turn the story in a fresh new direction while still keeping the fans happy. Neither truly succeeded on all parts and the attempt to balance conflicting goals keeps the movies from being too far one way or another. And so they become a bit average. Not bad at all, certainly enjoyable and absolutely far from perfect. And if I'm being very honest, that's nothing new for this series. And that is fine.

I'm perfectly fine with getting more new Star Wars content. It's a world that lends itself to infinitely more stories. Some might be good, some less so, but I see no reason why the James Bond approach would be invalid here. Also, I think Rian Johnson DID try to give the fans what they needed. Whether he succeeded is a different story. But he sure didn't much care about giving them what they wanted. And I respect that. I have less respect for what I've seen of the JJ approach, which does seem to focus much more on what the fans want. On the side, I think where Disney might want more movies for the sake of more money, I get the impression that the filmmakers are fans themselves and very simply want their chance to make a STAR WARS movie of their own. Pretty sure that's what happened with Kevin Feige getting a Star Wars movie. I imagine him going to KK and mentioning that he'd like to do one of those too. Surely, as much as you might like it, doing superheroes over and over must get tiring after a while and you'll crave something different. Then when the same parent company happens to have another IP that you've always been excited about around, you'd be crazy NOT to want to try that too. Just trying to see the movie makers as genuine human beings too. Just like you and me. After all, were you a filmmaker who got into it because of Star Wars, would you not relish the chance?

Everyone can say 'no' for everything. Being in a position to force a 'no' is a different story.

In my experience, excepting actual life-and-death situations, pretty much all people would benefit from having their decisions challenged. Unfortunately far from all people genuinely welcome that and I strongly suspect that truly most people don't. Even if and when they pretend otherwise. Maybe if a challenge is presented in exactly the right way at exactly the right time, people MAY perhaps accept it. But even then, that's hardly a guarantee. And as soon as there's even the slightest hint of conflict, the most common response from people is to go into defense mode and the second that happens, the message is already lost. That means the only method seems to be tremendous subtlety combined with even more random chance. What I just described is extremely common. So I suspect that, while unfortunate, Lucas isn't exactly an exception.

Haha; well, nothing wrong with that, is there? That's quite the fun and catchy melody.

Haven't a clue about the specifics in this case, but I believe one person CAN make that much difference.

Don't even understand the commercial, but yep; that sounded pretty good!

The increasing use of the term "Holiday" in the US is obviously showing support for the emerging Pastafarian religion: https://pastafarians.org.au/pastafarianism/holidays/

But John Williams still gets hired. And James Newton Howard. And John Powell. As far as I'm concerned, David Arnold fits right in. Does he even get to use his sound on these TV shows?

Are those composers somehow not good people to work together with for directors/producers? Is there some sort of social/political component, I wonder?