Jump to content

Star Wars IX The Rise of Skywalker (JJ Abrams 2019)


Jay

Recommended Posts

On ‎9‎/‎9‎/‎2017 at 3:15 PM, Stefancos said:

Its a bad, boring, joyless film.

 

Bad? Granted, some scenes in particular, like Jedi Rocks, and a few of the Ewok scenes, can be reasonably described as bad, but definitely not so for the film as a whole.

 

Boring? Yes, the film has its stale moments, particularly during the second act, but the space battle towards the end and the pivotal duel between Vader and Luke are both quite thrilling.

 

Joyless? Not at all. It's the most lighthearted and carefree of the original episodes. Yes, it may be the least preferred of the OT, but it's a fine film with a good deal of both humor and pure emotion, and much better than most of the trash that's out nowadays.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

41 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

Also, the Emperor is awesome.

 

Yes - the whole last third of the movie is still golden.  It's just a slog from Dagobah to the treehouse, alleviated only momentarily by the jaunty Rebel Fleet music interspersed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some very carefully chosen words from Johnson here, about Episode IX!

 

"It was never in the plan for me to direct Episode IX, so I don't know what's gonna happen with it. I'm not sure what's gonna happen. For me, I was entirely focused on Episode VIII, and having this experience. And now I'm just thinking about putting the movie out there and seeing how audiences respond to it. So no, I'm not really thinking about that right now."

 

Sounds a lot like a person who has first right of refusal and hasn't made up their mind, if you ask me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If Rian didn't want to do it and had turned down the offer, that is not the answer he'd be giving! Sounds like something his publicist/agent wrote.

 

He's probably still in negotiations, with delaying the film's release a likely sticking point. From Disney's perspective, it's not easy to push back shooting dates once you've locked in actors, locations and crew. From Rian's perspective, he doesn't want to rush writing and directing a film of such importance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

57 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

It really isn't very good.

 

When you compare it to the cinematic masterpieces that are ANH and ESB, perhaps so. But when you look at it as what the filmmakers' always intended for it to be, a fun, escapist sci-fi romp, it succeeds with flying colors.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

43 minutes ago, crumbs said:

Some very carefully chosen words from Johnson here, about Episode IX!

 

"It was never in the plan for me to direct Episode IX, so I don't know what's gonna happen with it. I'm not sure what's gonna happen. For me, I was entirely focused on Episode VIII, and having this experience. And now I'm just thinking about putting the movie out there and seeing how audiences respond to it. So no, I'm not really thinking about that right now."

 

Sounds a lot like a person who has first right of refusal and hasn't made up their mind, if you ask me.

 

Slash Film has gone with a rather misleading headline for this:

 

‘Star Wars Episode 9’: Rian Johnson Takes Himself Out of the Running (For Now)

 

That's not what I took from the quote at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

49 minutes ago, Jay said:

Maybe the reason JJ Abrams hasn't directed another film since TFA is because he knew Trevorrow would fail and he wants to take over on Ep 9

 

Please God no. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What do you do with a huge movie like this when it's finished 3 months in advance of release.  I still don't trust them not to tinker, and we all know what happens to the music when you tinker in the edit room!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Disco Stu said:

What do you do with a huge movie like this when it's finished 3 months in advance of release.  I still don't trust them not to tinker, and we all know what happens to the music when you tinker in the edit room!

 

It gets better exponentially?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, TheUlyssesian said:

Come on. You guys loved it just because of Leia in a bikini.

 

At the time, yes. I still like the idea of her being imprisoned in chains to an alien slug while wearing a drape. But as I got older, Carrie Fisher stopped looking as good to me in that movie. She lost so much weight, I'm assuming to appear in a bikini, that she ended up looking too skinny and sickly. She looks better in everything else in that era. The photo shoots done before and after the actual filming are superior spank material.

 

c1b12b1b9be96ba3357da72ee494941e--leia-s

 

Healthy! Curves!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, SafeUnderHill said:

Are these digs recorded anywhere that I can see?

 

Almost anytime he's performed Scherzo for X-Wings live. Probably in one of the Film Nights available on-demand on WCRB's website?

 

Just this past weekend in Nashville, JW mentioned that he enjoys performing the piece to help ease "a composer's wounded ego," after lamenting the cue being buried in the film's mix.

 

1 hour ago, SafeUnderHill said:

Also, have we heard the alternate versions of these pieces that you said were re-written?

 

This is the music JW composed for the Parade Grounds scene, which transitions into the mostly unused alternate of Torn Apart at 0:55 (they actually used about 10 seconds of this alternate in the final film). This is the alternate of the Jakku Village sequence, which was partially used in the film. This was speculated as an alternate for Jedi Steps, but hearing it again I'm not really convinced.

 

Credit to @Fal for these clips, as he discovered them. Plenty more here, including alternates of Rey Meets BB-8, unused music for Finn's fight with the Stormtrooper and some unknown march music. Hard to believe writing like this is sitting on the cutting room floor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Jay said:

 

 

Ouch.

Quote

In any case, here's what you might have heard as the X-Wings flies through the trenches

 

He's humble enough to accept he's just one part of this giant machine called Star Wars, but you can tell he's at least a little bitter about it.  All we can do is hope that Rian treats the music with a little more reverence (doubtful).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

He's humble enough to accept he's just one part of this giant machine called Star Wars, but you can tell he's at least a little bitter about it.  All we can do is hope that Rian treats the music with a little more reverence (doubtful).

 

He didn't come across as bitter at all!  Sometimes naked works on a screen can take on a meaning of your own interpretation, it helps to hear his actual voice, like in the downloadable recording of said concert.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Jay said:

 

He didn't come across as bitter at all!  Sometimes naked works on a screen can take on a meaning of your own interpretation, it helps to hear his actual voice, like in the downloadable recording of said concert.

 

Fair enough.  And honestly, at 85 after 60+ years in the industry he's had all manner of horrible things done to his music to get a film out the door and I could see him being relatively sanguine about it all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He kind of refers to it jokingly, but the fact that he repeatedly brings it up every time he plays the piece in concert would indicate it's a sore point.

 

His description about having "a wounded ego" over the sound mix was very telling in the Nashville concert.

 

Makes you wonder if the piece suffered not only from the low mix but also editing -- is it possible Scherzo for X-Wings was once meant to exist in its entirety in the film? It gets, what, 40 truncated seconds in the final cut?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yea, I definitely wonder about that.  I think the OST track is a true album-only concert arrangement, but I do think the actual film cue was probably originally longer than the FYC track

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, crumbs said:

He kind of refers to it jokingly, but the fact that he repeatedly brings it up every time he plays the piece in concert would indicate it's a sore point.

 

I wouldn't read anything into him repeating it.  For every piece, he uses the same light anecdote every time he plays it.  "This is what I say about Scherzo for X-Wings."  "I tell this story about Schindler's List."  Etc etc,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

It's definitely obvious that the climactic battles (Rey v. Ren on the ground, Poe v. everybody else in the air) were the most dramatically changed over the course of post-production.

 

I think the whole of the time spent on Starkiller went through massive changes 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well he's clearly very proud of the piece, which is sadly reserved for people who buy the OST or see it live in concert. You sure as hell ain't hearing it by watching the film (unlike basically any cue from the original Star Wars).

 

Watching this just reminds me of how poorly his score was treated in the mix. The Bombing Run is one of the highlights of the score and it's inaudible over all the ludicrously loud sound effects that add nothing to the excitement or momentum of the sequence:

 

Even the prequel scores were treated better with all JW's trademark fanfares and flourishes, probably in no small part to Lucas and Wannberg being stronger during mixing sessions.

 

7 minutes ago, Jay said:

A recording session leak for this score would be one of the most fun leaks to dig through I can think of

 

They had, what, 400+ takes all up? The volume of music is enormous, allowing for multiple takes, inserts and revisions. The session leaks would have to be well over 6 hours.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

J.J. Abrams, who launched a new era of Star Wars with The Force Awakens in 2015, is returning to complete the sequel trilogy as writer and director of Star Wars: Episode IX. Abrams will co-write the film with Chris Terrio. Star Wars: Episode IX will be produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Michelle Rejwan, Abrams, Bad Robot, and Lucasfilm.

“With The Force Awakens, J.J. delivered everything we could have possibly hoped for, and I am so excited that he is coming back to close out this trilogy,” said Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy.

 

I guess Jack Thorne isn't contributing anymore?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.