movies

[ghostrunner]

I thought I hadn't seen Silent Running, but it turned out it was The Indian Runner I hadn't seen. Of course I also hadn't seen Silent Running.

[Jocephus]

i saw cool runnings

[Leroy]

Cannonball run was pretty good.

[BottenFieldofDreams]

i saw cool runnings

Where do you stand on the Coach Candy is also a replicant debate?

[cardinalkarp]

Just bought Baby Driver in 4k, so gonna check that out tonight .

[wart57]

Logan's Run had some very good points to it....

[CardsofSTL]

i saw cool runnings

I love that movie. John Candy was my dude

[ghostrunner]

Just rewatched Force Awakens because I felt like it. I was worried my love for it was a product of nostalgia, but I'm more certain than ever it's the best movie after Empire.

Kind of faint praise in a way because I admire his ideas more than his work, but it's JJ Abrams best work that I've seen. Or it's just the most suited to his sensibility. There's all kinds of things that are unexplained that maybe a more curious filmmaker would try to address and explore, but doing so would make it something different than a Star Wars movie, and maybe not as good an attempt at the movie it's trying to be.

Example - Finn seems to be born anew into this world. Presumably he's seen other raids like the one on Jakku, or been told about them. He's a former sanitation worker, so why is he now a stormtrooper? He's been trained since birth to work for the First Order and fight. So he should be harder and less emotional. He ought to be Kurt Russell in Solider.

But Abrams doesn't care in this movie what the characters have done or where they come from. All he cares is what they want. Finn, for whatever reason, wants out of the evil army.

Rey has parents, seems to have been left at least in the short term with Unkar Platt who in present day gives her food in exchange for parts, treating her without a scrap of benevolence. Why? We may never know. All Abrams is concerned with is that she wants to belong somehow with someone.

Chewie growls, so it's hard to establish his POV, but he should have a fairly deep history with Kylo Ren. Knew him when he was a kid and cared for him somehow. Or maybe he resented him. And Kylo should have some sort of feeling for Chewie, possibly divorced from whatever problems he has with Han and Leia. But all we know is Kylo killed Han, so Chewie wants to kill him. That's the story in this moment.

The actors do an incredible job making all this work. Poe is nothing more than a great pilot with encouraging worlds, but for whatever reason I give a [expletive] about him. And I totally buy his friendship with Finn, which is all of a couple hours old by the time they reunite on the rebel base. If I were writing this script, I would never trust that it could work.

Lots of great details too:

Rey commenting on the greenery on Moz's planet, and Han having a visible twinge of sadness for her.

Han saying he's giving her the blaster because he knows she can take care of herself. That's a great line some other movie should have used by now.

Kylo having a horrendous temper is such a nice touch. It lowers the stakes in a way because he's less fearsome, but it makes the conflict more interesting at the outset. Vader was struggling with himself, but we didn't know that. He was predictable until he end. I have no idea what Kylo Ren might do.

Everything to do with Rey on Jakku. Her scavenging, her pilot doll, scrubbing the old parts and staring at the old woman she realizes she's on her way to becoming. It's obvious, but they took the time to show it and they kept it out of the dialogue. This desire to escape a similar situation is literally spoken aloud by Luke 3-4 times in A New Hope, and it makes him an annoying character.

There's more I noticed and have already forgotten again. Anyway, for a pretty simple movie, there's a lot to enjoy on a rewatch.

Edit - On review, how nerdy to do a long post on a 2 year old Star Wars movie on an Internet forum at age 43. Especially the idea of giving Chewie a storyline. I’m afraid it couldn’t be helped.

[thrill]

JJ is doing #9 now. I think how I view the final trilogy is going to be contingent on 8, which is good, because I'm a big Rian Johnson fan.

I just thought Force Awakens was paint by numbers plot and stunning CGI visuals, which doesn't really do it for me, and at this point, the most emotionally resonant characters are Chewie, Leia, and R2. I think it's an issue when none of the new characters that are supposed to carry these movies really made much of an impact emotionally.

[GeddyWrox]

I'm looking forward to The Last Jedi more than I really should.