Quintus

Superhero flicks are single-handedly keeping theatre chains going whilst simultaneously killing cinema. Just got to hope the fad does in the end pass, but I think there's still quite a few years left to go, especially with all this infinite multiverse bollocks they've conveniently thought up. Normy cinemagoers (buffs) basically got to wait till today's teenage boys grow up to be grumpy disenfranchised old men. 
 
I personally am absolutely sick to death of the sight and sound of superhero stuff, it all bores me to tears. I actually like the genre, but come the fuck on. 
 
Another downside is... the genuinely ambitious projects, such as The Batman... I tar with the same brush, I bundle them all up together and instantly dismiss anything new featuring lycra and capes. I avoid the ones that are actually worth giving a chance because of association. That, plus I'm also just really tired of Batman reboots. 

No, and Jackson has reiterated that the theatricals are the preferred versions more than once. I agree with him, especially in regards to the the first film. 
 
I own the 4K EEs (Apple streaming), and I thoroughly enjoy a great deal of the additional content (certain parts I even consider essential), but on balance I still think the original cuts are the best overall presentation of the story in cinematic form. Those "essential" moments I refer to... they're really just indulges, when it boils down to it. Years later, The Hobbit movies would be entirely designed around such indulgent excesses. To their detriment. 

Haven Holiday clubs and gift shops have really gone downhill since then. 

In the mid eighties when he was visiting Wales he stayed in a four berth static caravan and he had a Yamaha keyboard plugged in just to keep him going in case he had any cool ideas.

Superhero flicks are single-handedly keeping theatre chains going whilst simultaneously killing cinema. Just got to hope the fad does in the end pass, but I think there's still quite a few years left to go, especially with all this infinite multiverse bollocks they've conveniently thought up. Normy cinemagoers (buffs) basically got to wait till today's teenage boys grow up to be grumpy disenfranchised old men. 
 
I personally am absolutely sick to death of the sight and sound of superhero stuff, it all bores me to tears. I actually like the genre, but come the fuck on. 
 
Another downside is... the genuinely ambitious projects, such as The Batman... I tar with the same brush, I bundle them all up together and instantly dismiss anything new featuring lycra and capes. I avoid the ones that are actually worth giving a chance because of association. That, plus I'm also just really tired of Batman reboots. 

There is even footage of this:
 

I finally got around to installing the necessary prerequisites (CEMU Emulator) and setting everything just right to play Breath of the Wild on my PC, blown up on a 65" C1 OLED displaying at 4k but internally rendering at 5k. It is indeed a spellbinding, if not stupendously flawless (as they say), adventure. It looks beautiful, even by today's standards. Visually almost timeless, quite possibly. So I've been chilling in the evenings, slowly making my way through the game. It's a very relaxing pastime, chipping away at the serenely paced central quest line and experimenting with the world's delightful systems. I'm enjoying it a lot. 
 
 

These kind of comparisons (the most common nauseating one being with JW) are what piss me off about Gia, or more particularly, his fans. It just seems like the vast majority of listeners are cloth eared. 
 
Bernard Herrmann, sheesus give me strength 

I finally got around to installing the necessary prerequisites (CEMU Emulator) and setting everything just right to play Breath of the Wild on my PC, blown up on a 65" C1 OLED displaying at 4k but internally rendering at 5k. It is indeed a spellbinding, if not stupendously flawless (as they say), adventure. It looks beautiful, even by today's standards. Visually almost timeless, quite possibly. So I've been chilling in the evenings, slowly making my way through the game. It's a very relaxing pastime, chipping away at the serenely paced central quest line and experimenting with the world's delightful systems. I'm enjoying it a lot. 
 
 

These kind of comparisons (the most common nauseating one being with JW) are what piss me off about Gia, or more particularly, his fans. It just seems like the vast majority of listeners are cloth eared. 
 
Bernard Herrmann, sheesus give me strength 

Hi 

Story wise, Knights of the Old Republic was probably the most convincing Star Wars expansion, with a legitimately ESB rivalling plot twist to boot - no mean feat, remarkably so considering it's a video game. 
 
But yeah, one inseparable component of Star Wars discussion and debate is that the god tier fanboys simply cannot handle the criticism - serious and jocular, and generally struggle to be tolerant of dissenting views and opinions, however idle, often preferring to block it out by surrounding themselves with other like-minded gush pansies. It's always been like that since the internet really took off in tandem with the ongoing almighty blunder of the prequel trilogy, which was being laid bare in the old IRC chat rooms of the late 90s and early 2000s. Some of those places were jealousy exclusive at the time, where the extent of the damage was being assessed. 
 
Even I was in denial, right at the beginning. But then I got real. 

I doubt younger members will fully appreciate my rather wistful point, but Star Wars originally held an almost supernaturally mystical status when it was part of the past classics pantheon of western cinema, an untouched one-off of a legendary trilogy, eminently looked back on as being the predominant science fiction phenomenon of the Reagan era. There were no sequels and none were ever really expected; and the fans, casuals and die-hards alike, were actually fine with that - it allowed the Luke Skywalker saga to "bed-in" and become entrenched as a major nostalgic mainstay of popular culture at the time and for almost fifteen years after: it was always just Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and people would rewatch them over and over like Bond movies, like Bridge Over the River Kwai and The Great Escape. That's why they became endlessly quotable and constantly referenced everywhere. The Star Wars trilogy was a sacrosanct icon of American cinema, locked in time. 
 
Nowadays it's treated like the latest Assassin's Creed instalment, watered down to the point where the extraordinary "magic" has all but evaporated and been replaced with curdled cow's milk, to be forcibly twisted from the teat on demand, ready for the next "audience engagement". 
 
Disclosure: I really liked The Mandalorian overall, but that doesn't mean I don't also lament the changing and diminishing of Star Wars as a part of the untouched lexicon of exceptional cultural highlights. 
 
I sound like a jaded old superfan here, but the irony of my remarks is that I didn't even bother to watch it (the trilogy) till my late teens (the 90s), and whilst I enjoyed a short fad of personal fandom, I was never that into it after. Yet I had always appreciated its status and its impact. It makes me feel a little sad to see it's ongoing basardisation now, and this latest spin off may as well have been produced by Ubisoft. 
 
But I'm sure it'll be "fine". Though something else, something of abstract significance, shall nevertheless be lost. I guess time moves on. 

The squeeze-through area loading transition animation where Obi Wan leaves the desert biome for the internal cave section. Probably a side quest. 

I doubt younger members will fully appreciate my rather wistful point, but Star Wars originally held an almost supernaturally mystical status when it was part of the past classics pantheon of western cinema, an untouched one-off of a legendary trilogy, eminently looked back on as being the predominant science fiction phenomenon of the Reagan era. There were no sequels and none were ever really expected; and the fans, casuals and die-hards alike, were actually fine with that - it allowed the Luke Skywalker saga to "bed-in" and become entrenched as a major nostalgic mainstay of popular culture at the time and for almost fifteen years after: it was always just Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and people would rewatch them over and over like Bond movies, like Bridge Over the River Kwai and The Great Escape. That's why they became endlessly quotable and constantly referenced everywhere. The Star Wars trilogy was a sacrosanct icon of American cinema, locked in time. 
 
Nowadays it's treated like the latest Assassin's Creed instalment, watered down to the point where the extraordinary "magic" has all but evaporated and been replaced with curdled cow's milk, to be forcibly twisted from the teat on demand, ready for the next "audience engagement". 
 
Disclosure: I really liked The Mandalorian overall, but that doesn't mean I don't also lament the changing and diminishing of Star Wars as a part of the untouched lexicon of exceptional cultural highlights. 
 
I sound like a jaded old superfan here, but the irony of my remarks is that I didn't even bother to watch it (the trilogy) till my late teens (the 90s), and whilst I enjoyed a short fad of personal fandom, I was never that into it after. Yet I had always appreciated its status and its impact. It makes me feel a little sad to see it's ongoing basardisation now, and this latest spin off may as well have been produced by Ubisoft. 
 
But I'm sure it'll be "fine". Though something else, something of abstract significance, shall nevertheless be lost. I guess time moves on. 

I had originally meant to write this fairly long tirade in The Book of Boba Fett thread, but it also applies here, I think.
 
Stories and universes like Lord of the Rings and Dune, beyond their bare plot mechanics, take indeed their power and appeal from the details. The world building and its inner coherence are more important than the plot itself, and serve to inform and sustain the story in such an integral way, that the whole construct would collapse without that conceptual backbone. In many ways, the world-building IS the story, so there are no extraneous details that exist solely to fatten the universe without any real purpose beyond giving a simulacrum of complexity.
 
Now, I don't see Star Wars in the same light as those two universes. Star Wars was never about world-building. It was never about a fully fleshed out universe, coherent in its rules and concepts, without which the whole illusion would collapse. No, I've always seen Star Wars as a much more impressionistic creation. The background details don't really matter on their own. They only matter when matched with the main story to form a unified and inseparable illusion. A mythical, archetypical story, yes,  told many times before, but blended in with such a wide array of aesthetical influences to create a considerably original whole. 
 
Star Wars is much more about what is implied, but never stated, about the surrounding universe, than about outright explaining it and filling every possible narrative gap. The universe around Star Wars is the background for the main story, it gives it color and identity, but it never was the main story itself, it never was the crucial backbone for the narrative. That's one the reasons why JW's musical approach worked so well for those movies, it blended the story and the background, but never in a literal way, never in a constricting way, it never locked our imagination into a single option. By not being descriptive, by not being literal, the music made all those narrative gaps feel alive and fertile ground for our own imagination to do the bulk of the filling of the background details.
 
I don't want to see the interior of a Sarlaac. I don't want to know the inner workings of Tusken culture. I don't want to know how Stormtroopers train. I didn't even want to know how the Clone Wars actually happened. Those sort of lore-filling details are fine on the back of the packaging of an action figure, or in a trading card or even in a Video Game. Once you make them happen in live-action, it's like suddenly they actually become real and much harder to ignore. And they subsequently change the way one is able to experience those original films. It taints them. It constricts the imagination.
 
I equate Star Wars almost to a Bizantine or Roman mosaic. When seen as a whole, it looks marvelous:
 

 
But if I isolate and zoom in on some of its tiles, the effect is totally lost
 

 
Like I said, Star Wars always felt much more impressionist to me. The details don't matter. The overall effect is paramount. Focusing on the details is actually detrimental to the whole experience and effect.
 
These TV shows are giving us tiles, not mosaics
 

I'd normally agree with you. But considering how trashy most modern trailers are (cough Amazon's LOTR cough), I honestly think this is as good as it gets for classic franchise trailer music these days.

I hate when they "trailerize" JW's music. It's so tasteless. The prequels did use his music quite well in the trailers without any need to "make it more epic and stuff"

I doubt younger members will fully appreciate my rather wistful point, but Star Wars originally held an almost supernaturally mystical status when it was part of the past classics pantheon of western cinema, an untouched one-off of a legendary trilogy, eminently looked back on as being the predominant science fiction phenomenon of the Reagan era. There were no sequels and none were ever really expected; and the fans, casuals and die-hards alike, were actually fine with that - it allowed the Luke Skywalker saga to "bed-in" and become entrenched as a major nostalgic mainstay of popular culture at the time and for almost fifteen years after: it was always just Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and people would rewatch them over and over like Bond movies, like Bridge Over the River Kwai and The Great Escape. That's why they became endlessly quotable and constantly referenced everywhere. The Star Wars trilogy was a sacrosanct icon of American cinema, locked in time. 
 
Nowadays it's treated like the latest Assassin's Creed instalment, watered down to the point where the extraordinary "magic" has all but evaporated and been replaced with curdled cow's milk, to be forcibly twisted from the teat on demand, ready for the next "audience engagement". 
 
Disclosure: I really liked The Mandalorian overall, but that doesn't mean I don't also lament the changing and diminishing of Star Wars as a part of the untouched lexicon of exceptional cultural highlights. 
 
I sound like a jaded old superfan here, but the irony of my remarks is that I didn't even bother to watch it (the trilogy) till my late teens (the 90s), and whilst I enjoyed a short fad of personal fandom, I was never that into it after. Yet I had always appreciated its status and its impact. It makes me feel a little sad to see it's ongoing basardisation now, and this latest spin off may as well have been produced by Ubisoft. 
 
But I'm sure it'll be "fine". Though something else, something of abstract significance, shall nevertheless be lost. I guess time moves on. 

I doubt younger members will fully appreciate my rather wistful point, but Star Wars originally held an almost supernaturally mystical status when it was part of the past classics pantheon of western cinema, an untouched one-off of a legendary trilogy, eminently looked back on as being the predominant science fiction phenomenon of the Reagan era. There were no sequels and none were ever really expected; and the fans, casuals and die-hards alike, were actually fine with that - it allowed the Luke Skywalker saga to "bed-in" and become entrenched as a major nostalgic mainstay of popular culture at the time and for almost fifteen years after: it was always just Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and people would rewatch them over and over like Bond movies, like Bridge Over the River Kwai and The Great Escape. That's why they became endlessly quotable and constantly referenced everywhere. The Star Wars trilogy was a sacrosanct icon of American cinema, locked in time. 
 
Nowadays it's treated like the latest Assassin's Creed instalment, watered down to the point where the extraordinary "magic" has all but evaporated and been replaced with curdled cow's milk, to be forcibly twisted from the teat on demand, ready for the next "audience engagement". 
 
Disclosure: I really liked The Mandalorian overall, but that doesn't mean I don't also lament the changing and diminishing of Star Wars as a part of the untouched lexicon of exceptional cultural highlights. 
 
I sound like a jaded old superfan here, but the irony of my remarks is that I didn't even bother to watch it (the trilogy) till my late teens (the 90s), and whilst I enjoyed a short fad of personal fandom, I was never that into it after. Yet I had always appreciated its status and its impact. It makes me feel a little sad to see it's ongoing basardisation now, and this latest spin off may as well have been produced by Ubisoft. 
 
But I'm sure it'll be "fine". Though something else, something of abstract significance, shall nevertheless be lost. I guess time moves on. 

I doubt younger members will fully appreciate my rather wistful point, but Star Wars originally held an almost supernaturally mystical status when it was part of the past classics pantheon of western cinema, an untouched one-off of a legendary trilogy, eminently looked back on as being the predominant science fiction phenomenon of the Reagan era. There were no sequels and none were ever really expected; and the fans, casuals and die-hards alike, were actually fine with that - it allowed the Luke Skywalker saga to "bed-in" and become entrenched as a major nostalgic mainstay of popular culture at the time and for almost fifteen years after: it was always just Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and people would rewatch them over and over like Bond movies, like Bridge Over the River Kwai and The Great Escape. That's why they became endlessly quotable and constantly referenced everywhere. The Star Wars trilogy was a sacrosanct icon of American cinema, locked in time. 
 
Nowadays it's treated like the latest Assassin's Creed instalment, watered down to the point where the extraordinary "magic" has all but evaporated and been replaced with curdled cow's milk, to be forcibly twisted from the teat on demand, ready for the next "audience engagement". 
 
Disclosure: I really liked The Mandalorian overall, but that doesn't mean I don't also lament the changing and diminishing of Star Wars as a part of the untouched lexicon of exceptional cultural highlights. 
 
I sound like a jaded old superfan here, but the irony of my remarks is that I didn't even bother to watch it (the trilogy) till my late teens (the 90s), and whilst I enjoyed a short fad of personal fandom, I was never that into it after. Yet I had always appreciated its status and its impact. It makes me feel a little sad to see it's ongoing basardisation now, and this latest spin off may as well have been produced by Ubisoft. 
 
But I'm sure it'll be "fine". Though something else, something of abstract significance, shall nevertheless be lost. I guess time moves on. 

I doubt younger members will fully appreciate my rather wistful point, but Star Wars originally held an almost supernaturally mystical status when it was part of the past classics pantheon of western cinema, an untouched one-off of a legendary trilogy, eminently looked back on as being the predominant science fiction phenomenon of the Reagan era. There were no sequels and none were ever really expected; and the fans, casuals and die-hards alike, were actually fine with that - it allowed the Luke Skywalker saga to "bed-in" and become entrenched as a major nostalgic mainstay of popular culture at the time and for almost fifteen years after: it was always just Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and people would rewatch them over and over like Bond movies, like Bridge Over the River Kwai and The Great Escape. That's why they became endlessly quotable and constantly referenced everywhere. The Star Wars trilogy was a sacrosanct icon of American cinema, locked in time. 
 
Nowadays it's treated like the latest Assassin's Creed instalment, watered down to the point where the extraordinary "magic" has all but evaporated and been replaced with curdled cow's milk, to be forcibly twisted from the teat on demand, ready for the next "audience engagement". 
 
Disclosure: I really liked The Mandalorian overall, but that doesn't mean I don't also lament the changing and diminishing of Star Wars as a part of the untouched lexicon of exceptional cultural highlights. 
 
I sound like a jaded old superfan here, but the irony of my remarks is that I didn't even bother to watch it (the trilogy) till my late teens (the 90s), and whilst I enjoyed a short fad of personal fandom, I was never that into it after. Yet I had always appreciated its status and its impact. It makes me feel a little sad to see it's ongoing basardisation now, and this latest spin off may as well have been produced by Ubisoft. 
 
But I'm sure it'll be "fine". Though something else, something of abstract significance, shall nevertheless be lost. I guess time moves on.