Chen G.
-
Posts
9,822 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
4
Posts posted by Chen G.
-
-
Not a very enthusiastic review from the perpetual Star Wars fan, Chris Hartwell:
And this is the guy that gave Attack of the Clones a 4/5!
-
44 minutes ago, Blumenkohl said:
No sense arguing with fools.
Well, there’s a way to aid in the development of an engaging discussion...
-
2 minutes ago, DominicCobb said:
Saw the film, really liked the music. There’s some modern stuff in there but it seems to fit well with the mostly orchestral score. Good to hear the spinoffs moving slightly away from the strict Williams style.
I liked the Han theme, but it was hard to keep track of it (though it was usually easy assume when it was playing). I guess this is one of the downsides of having so many themes, the main one isn’t majorly prominent (I can see why Powell would want to work in some of his own thematic material too), though it is of course in there quite a bit.
One thing that was really interesting was how Powell handled the old Williams material. He wasn’t just referencing themes or motifs, but specific film cues (temp love?). I caught the Asteroid Field and Here They Come (obviously), a track with the Death Star motif (the specific one of which I’m forgetting), and I think the Battle of Crait? And that was all in one sequence. For the most part though the quotes were done sparingly and fittingly (more so than Giacchino, I think).
Stuff like Battle of Crait would probably be the result of temp-track emulation because it has no bearing on this fiilm. But we knew going in that the Asteroid Field was going to be a thing: was it used anywhere near asteroids, though?
-
-
Hell, films can have the odd out-of-focus shots and go as far as to win "Best Cinematography". Braveheart did, and so did other films guilty of the same.
What matters is the overall impression, not literally every single frame or shot.
But internet pseudo film criticism has, among other things, a tendency to blow such issues completely out of proportions...
-
1 hour ago, Mr. Breathmask said:
Most of the action scenes (and there are a lot of them) I just felt I had to sit through.
How many were there?
-
Any usual instrumental choices to note?
-
47 minutes ago, Thor said:
I can understand someone not liking it for a myriad of reasons (not enough mythological stuff, being too "light" etc.), but boring?!?
Its actually a claim I've heard being thrown around quite a big in the online amateur "critic" community.
-
Given how green some of the locations are, they don't look terribly lush. The slightly desaturated look is an unfortunate earmark of films made in the early to mid ninties.
Its part of what I appreciate about Braveheart: its so friggin green!
-
Jurassic Park does have something of washed-out palette, but in terms of actually directing the camerawork, its aces. Big, spectacular dinusaurs framed from the perspective of the human characters a) creates a sense of scale; b) adds to the immersive quality of the film; c) allows for motivated "Spielberg" reveals, such as when the reveal of the T-Rex' features is being delayed by reason of the characters' (and, by extension, the camera's) view being obstructed by branches, the rain on the windows, etc. This allows you to introduce a gradual (and therefore dramatic) reveal, as is wont to happen on Spielberg films, without it feeling contrived.
That's what I mean about the visuals serving the story, rather than being beautiful just for the sake of being beautiful.
-
Yeah, but the sheer beauty of the visuals is secondary to their narrative utility. Unless, of course, we aren't watching a strictly narrative work.
We sadly have no shortage of preety if not outright gorgeous looking movies that range from the "okay" through the "meh" to the "empty": because the beauty of their shots and the way they are composed is not narrativelly-motivated. Prometheus being a good example; a lot of people (myself included) aren't crazy about Interstellar, either; Hell, The Last Jedi had very nice visuals (minus the odd bad CG), but left a lot of people (again, myself included) kind of cold.
-
11 hours ago, JoeinAR said:
You are amatuer. Storytelling can be done through visual style.
Storytelling in film is, usually, done primarily visually. Its a visual medium.
But its mostly done through composition, light, camera placement and movement, mise-en-scene set dressing, etc...
9 hours ago, crocodile said:The Lost World: Jurassic Park.[...]The film itself, while far from perfect, actually gets better with age for some reason.
Having not seen it in years and possesing but a faint memory of it, rewatching it was nice. Its not great, but I like it fine. More than fine, actually.
-
I can't believe it: it is there!
Oh well, I get to keep all my organs and limbs!
-
In fact, in the liner notes Williams calls it the "Rebel spaceship fanfare" in reference specifically to that ship, although he does use it later in the film as well. It is used a bit with the Millennium Falcon - once when it enters the Death Star, and again as it leaves it. More than scoring the Falcon, I believe Williams wanted to:
Not make the boarding of the Death Star too forboding by preceding it with triumphant music.
Book-ending the sequence, the results of which would come to serve the Rebellion.
By the time Empire Strikes Back came around, the term "Rebel Fanfare" stuck, and it is used quite consistently with the rebellion. The most uncharacteristic uses come from Sailbarge assault and the attack on the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi, where it is less a result of an intentional thematic reference and more the result of Williams lifting wholesale pieces of earlier compositions. This is also why, again uncharacteristically, the underlying accompaniment figure occurs in those places separately to the actual fanfare (this is the so-called "action ostinato").
Outside of the end-credits, its not really used the prequels except an odd statement that R2D2 merits. So yes, I would say the choice to often (but not always) apply it to the Falcon in the sequel scores is incongorous with the rest of the series, but not completely out-of-character, both in terms of previous applications of this motif and in Williams general approach to using leitmotives.
-
On 5/22/2018 at 4:50 AM, Fal said:
Well, unreleased on CD.
Provided I understood your point, what would you like for the piece? My left arm? My right leg? My anus? Liver? All of the above?
-
-
Yeah, it’s funny how themes can spoil the film (think Yoda’s in The Last Jedi).
Although it’s not quite a spoiler here because it’s one of Williams’ more narratively undefined themes.
-
So I’m told.
Its kinda thematically appropriate and kind of isn’t.
-
5 minutes ago, PrayodiBA said:
A New Hope's Darth Vader/Imperial's theme/motif also appears
Neat. Is it used any differently to the Imperial March?
-
Besides Han’s theme, I’m really curious which old themes are in this. So we have:
Luke’s (Star Wars) Theme;
Rebel Fanfare;
Spaceship battle motif;
The Imperial March;
SpoilerDuel of the Fates;
not a leitmotif, but the Asteroid Field is in there, too.
What else?
-
-
Darth Maul looks best when he's severed in to two.
Its Indiana Jones returning to a forth installment (given that one accepts that such an installment ever took place) all over again!
-
Possibly. Isn't all academia just that?
Still, I think the discussion that developed is a valuable one. That's why I "Like" @Falstaft's comments, even if I don't necessarily agree with his thesis on the matter: at least its interesting, and constructive to a meaningful (and potentially mutually insightfull) discussion, which is what an online board is all about.
Its certainly much more engaging than me saying something and people just agreeing, or vice versa.
And, again, whatever you want to call it: its a very nice tune!
-
8 minutes ago, JoeinAR said:
The Matrix has a visual style that is really dated. TPM looks particularly weird with its half sets.
Again, issues of production value. NOT of storytelling.
Solo: A Star Wars Story (Ron Howard 2018)
in General Discussion
Posted
Not Chris. He's a legit film-school professor, and he's a huge fan of the recent Star Wars films. The Last Jedi was his 5th favorite film last year.
That's not to say that he is to be taken as a gospel. His tastes are not entirely mainstream (like I said, he gave Attack of the Clones 4/5), but his opinion is a nice reference.