Tagged: snoke
Game Of Thrones Season 8: From the Writer of ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’!
So people seem quite up in arms about the latest season of Game of Thrones to put it lightly, it’s been pretty much everywhere online, more drama online than this season of the show could churn out! I’ve been thinking about it all for a few days now since watching Episode 5 and I think there’s really is something to all the anger towards the show writers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. Now that they’ve got no more writing from George R. R. Martin’s final book (which he still hasn’t finished) to base this season on, we get to finally see the writing chops of these two dudes in action. I’ve got a few major problems with what went down so far in the final season, most it being the execution of plot points by these guys, but some it of it indeed revolves around some shoddy ass writing.
One thing that now makes perfect sense is that David Benioff was actually a writer of easily one of the WORST movies in recent Hollywood history, 2009’s ‘X-men Origins: Wolverine’. If you’ve seen it, most unanimously agree, it’s one of the most pathetic movies to reach the major cinemas in recent times. Single handedly ruining Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, Deadpool and Sabretooth all in one horribly executed, terribly written mess of a movie. It makes ‘X-Men 3’ feel like a god damn cinematic masterpiece. His buddy D.B. Weiss hasn’t written or directed much outside of GOT either. So it’s not all that surprising that this season feels a bit like a shit-storm to many today. SPOILERS AHEAD!
So I wanna point out a few things I think totally sucked about this final season so far, I realize that the internet is filled with GOT opinions right now so I’ll keep it all short. One of the BIGGEST problems for me is the handling the The Night King & the whitewalkers, seven damn seasons of fantastic mystery brewing around this incredibly intriguing and terrifying villain, then in one episode mid season it’s all over and nearly forgotten by the next episode. One of the things so many were most invested in was his true motivations. Would we see things from their perspective? Learn what fuels their rage towards the living? Find out what they really wanted from Bran? Actually hear The Night King speak his case with some real dialogue? Nope! The major supernatural threat of seven seasons was wiped from the plot in one murky battle and by the next episode everyone was back to acting like a bunch of spoiled babies after just surviving a possibly world ending event. Cersei wasn’t even affected by them in the least, but how awesome would it have been if The Night King and the Whitewalkers had shown up on her doorstep first and she had to flee to Jon Snow & Daenerys for help? Imagine the drama…Whatever the case the whitewalkers turned out to be a big ass nothing burger to say the least, a huge missed opportunity in my opinion. It actually felt as if the writers just wanted to quickly erase them from the last season for some reason.
The largely controversial Daenerys “mad queen” plot would have been fine with me, but the execution of it was seriously lacking the character development needed to add any real believability to her actions. She was majorly bummed off that most people seemed to love Jon Snow so much, but she’d just arrived on the scene, so I don’t know, maybe try and socialize a bit with everyone after the damn battle against the walkers?!! Geezus!! I’m sure this all must have been what George R. R. Martin had in mind ultimately (?) but if the writers expect me to believe Daenerys is then gonna go completely bonkers, exterminating a whole population of innocent, poor villagers, many of them children (who’ve already suffered under the rule of Sersei) you better have a lot more character development to occur to sell it. It all felt rushed & carelessly forced. I think it’d made a hell of a lot more sense if she’d went for Sersei directly in the battle with her rage, killed her personally or even better, captured her and viciously tortured her among the rest of her current crew. Reigning dragon’s fire upon the poor villagers who’ve already been punished for most of their existence was just not believable at this point. It felt like shock for pure shock value. The end of Sersei also felt anti-climactic, she never even shared any real dialogue with Daenerys & it felt for the most part like she was trying to commit certain suicide by her horrific slaying of Missandei. Whatever the case, this whole debacle mades perfect sense when I discovered that one tidbit of info that’d slipped through the cracks for me, David Benioff wrote the cinematic turd, ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’…nuff said.
Star Wars Episode IX: Hopes & Predictions Part 2!
Hey! Here we are with part two of my hopes and predictions for Star Wars Episode IX, this next installment is quite a deal breaker for the franchise’s future. The Last Jedi was a polarizing film and JJ really needs to rope all the fans back into the arena and get everyone to stop bickering and name calling. How’s he going to accomplish this? Well the last installment I focused on Luke, Rey & Kylo and what I hope to see from them in the next movie, I also included what I think though will actually end up being the case for the characters. One things clear, there’s a lot of fans who’re lacking the enthusiasm they once had for Star Wars, so let’s take a look at some of the remaining characters and figure out just what’d be the winning recipe for Episode IX that just might bring back the disgruntled customers to the franchise!
Finn
I loved Finn in The Force Awakens, his character was totally likable and his back story was actually pretty unique as well. Sadly in The Last Jedi he was given a pretty uninspiring side quest that went nowhere not fast enough. I continue to think of all the other more compelling scenarios that could’ve been thought up instead of the whole casino thing and that whole being arrested for parking his ship illegally on the beach and thrown into jail thing. Uggh…such bad writing in my opinion. I hope in Episode IX Finn gets a little more respect and is given a more interesting story arc. I also hope he’s given another chance to wield a lightsaber, he’s got serious potential and needs one of his own for sure. In my opinion also he’d be the best love interest for Rey, him and Rose had absolutely zero chemistry.
Prediction:
Finn’s going to be given serious redemption and JJ’s gonna for sure have a rewarding adventure for him to embark on as well this time around. I’m predicting he’ll use a lightsaber again as well at some point in the movie. He’ll also spend a lot more time with Rey as the two of them had sweet chemistry together in The Force Awakens, I’m also predicting they’ll have some sort of love connection, it makes a lot more sense than the whole “Reylo” theory. I wouldn’t be surprised if he actually saves Rey from Kylo in the first lightsaber duel in the next movie. Whatever the case he’s gonna be utilized in a much more compelling way this time around. I’m guessing that his “relationship” with Rose will be headed into the “friend zone” in the next film.
The Remaining Original Trilogy Characters: Leia, Chewy, Lando, R2D2 & C3P0
Oh how I’d love these characters to get their chance to really shine one more time. It’s a shame how they’ve been shoved to the background especially in the last movie. I’m hoping Chewy gets a ton more screen time and is included this time around as a real supporting character. He was barely in The Last Jedi and when he was he was simply utilized for quick “porg humor”. This time I hope he’s actually in on the action, teaming up and sharing the screen with Lando in the Falcon.
Speaking of Lando I’m hoping he get’s more than a quick cameo, give him a substantial role and perhaps pair him up with the remaining classic cast members. I think it’d be interesting if Lando was so angered by Han’s death that he was fueled to want revenge against Kylo. That’s a scenario we could really feel for his character. Also let’s get C3P0 and R2D2 in this damn movie more, am I the ONLY one who thinks these two need more screen time?! These droids are truly iconic & what’d be amazing would be if Luke didn’t die and could be teamed with the droids and Chewy once again. That however for some reason seems like wishful thinking at this point.
Lastly Leia, sadly there’s not much they can really do with her at this point, they’ve got some footage they can splice etc but since she was pushed to the background in The Last Jedi sadly we’re left with whatever JJ’s got in the vaults. I’d have loved to have seen her use the Force in a different way, I think it would have been amazing if it had been revealed that Luke had indeed trained her as a Jedi (like in the Legends/EU material) and she’d pulled out a lightsaber in The Last Jedi rather than oddly flying through space. But hey that’s just my opinion. All in all I hope they showcase the classic characters more this time around-people still LOVE them!! Continue reading
Star Wars: The Last Jedi ‘Re-Edit’ Trailer Arrives!!
So as most of you all have probably heard by now, ‘The Last Jedi’ was a pretty divisive film to say the least. Star Wars will likely never be quite the same because of it, to some that’s a good thing, but to most the movie was seen as a huge disappointment. A lot now rides on the shoulders of JJ’s upcoming Episode 9 and many seem to think the damage to the franchise simply can’t be repaired. I myself was not a fan of ‘The Last Jedi’ in the least, which was perplexing as the original trailer made the movie appear to be something completely different from what we ultimately ended up with. The treatment of beloved classic characters like Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, Leia & Admiral Ackbar enraged longtime fans & shoddy storytelling paired with jarring attempts at comedy helped to sink Episode 8 to new depths most haven’t seen since the days of the prequels. Luckily someone has stepped up to the plate to entirely re-edit the movie, Ivan Ortega (who edits movies for a living), whom I’ve been following since the start of his Youtube channel ‘Film Fix’ has been working hard on this for the better part of 2018.
He’s shown several times on his channel edits he’s done that drastically alter the narrative of the movie and seemingly breath new life into The Last Jedi. His approach puts a heavier focus upon Luke Skywalker, something many fans including myself had been hoping for all along since this latest trilogy was announced . Ortega though has not just re-edited The Last Jedi, he’s also apparently filmed new material, one being an extended fight sequence between Luke & Kylo, one where lightsabers actually clash and real contact is made between the two combatants. He’s also given Admiral Ackbar more screen time and true purpose in this new version. I suggest checking out his channel to see exactly how it’s being done as it’s truly fascinating. The new Edit is very close to completion and today we get the official ‘re-edit trailer’ for his labor of love. I’m so damn excited to check out the full version, as it seems his approach is more in line with Lucas’ original vision, given the material he had to work with. Check this out and watch closely for all the changes that were made to shift the movie more in line with the spirit of the original trilogy!!
‘The Last Jedi’ Gets a Second Chance: First Look at The Ultimate Fan Edit Trailer!!
I’ve been following the Last Jedi drama since the movie dropped back at the end of last year, it’s been a wild ride that’s for sure. As for The Last Jedi, no, I wasn’t a fan of it. At all. And it wasn’t because I dislike strong female leads either, I saw The Force Awakens 4 times in theaters. The Last Jedi to me was just unfulfilling on so many different levels as an old Star Wars fan who is over 40 years old, but it wasn’t just because they didn’t utilize the the classic characters in Episode 8 for one last adventure together. That was indeed a total bummer for sure. However, most of all for me it was because it didn’t feel like a cohesive sequel, it actually felt like one director (Rian Johnson) fighting actively against everything that came before it. Then serve up truly some subpar storytelling, with plot points that consistently go nowhere, dodgy “comedy” and wrap it all up into one dare I say rather boring mish mash of a feature film and you’re sure to have a ton of totally pissed off fans out there. Well, as we all know now, it indeed did piss of a legion of die hard Star Wars fans and one of them decided to take matters into his own hands. Enter a true Star Wars fan and professional editor Ivan Ortega!
Now I know there’s a lot of people out there that try stuff like this, but Ivan Ortega has real experience editing movies and tv shows under his belt. It’s clear with his Youtube channel’s content that he himself was indeed severely disappointed with the movie and has decided to use his skills to entirely re-edit it, actually changing many of it’s major plot points, trimming out the fat and even attempting to add in entirely new scenes altogether. At first I had my doubts about the execution of exactly what he wanted to accomplish and wondered how cheesy it might end up looking, but after watching a ton of his videos about the progress he’s made on the project, I’m really counting down the days to seeing his full cut of the movie. You wanted a real Luke Skywalker/Kylo Ren lightsaber duel? You didn’t like the Cantobite casino planet sub plot? Perhaps you were disappointed in the way Admiral Ackbar was killed off screen like it was no big deal? Totally bummed they killed of Luke? Hey maybe you thought Holdo was acting a like a prick when she could’ve revealed that she had a real plan to Poe? Well then I think you’re really gonna wanna check it out. Today the trailer has dropped for the new cut!I gotta say I’m fully impressed, this new trailer is a new hope indeed- Check it out!!!
Casting the ‘Star Wars: Heir to the Empire’ Live Action Movie!
After the last two installments of the “Skywalker Saga” sequel trilogy ‘The Force Awakens & The Last Jedi’ from Disney I’ve decided to look elsewhere for a good fix of the iconic series til ‘Episode IX’ drops. There’s definitely not a better spot to start than with Timothy Zahn’s iconic “Thrawn” Trilogy!! There’s a lot of Star Wars fans out there, like myself, who’ve never really seriously delved into the EU (expanded universe) stuff, I’d been recommended this trilogy of books, ‘Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising & The Last Command’ for a long time as they’re considered by many fans the real Episodes 7, 8 & 9. I can firmly say I’d wished they’d have drawn from this storyline for the current trilogy as it’s not a direct “retelling” that mirrors the original trilogy. It has incredible villains at it’s core as well, that bury characters like Snoke, Kylo Ren & Phasma. The current trilogy is actually more of a reboot, borrowing major plot points from previous movies, even Rian Johnson’s “The Last Jedi” while supposedly attempting to subvert audience expectations still follows very similar beats with the original trilogy.
Heir to the Empire is set five years after the events of Return of the Jedi, the Rebellion, which is now known as the New Republic, is still fighting the final remnants of the Imperial resistance and trying to set up a strong new government. But in outer reaches of the galaxy, the most cunning of all the hand picked Grand Admirals is quickly gaining power and preparing to launch a series of deadly attacks on the New Republic. After convincing a crazed Dark Jedi to join his side, Grand Admiral ‘Thrawn’ is scheming his ultimate victory. I’ve been listening to the audio books, narrated by Marc Thomson and damn does that guy nail the voices of almost all character to perfection, as I listened I could picture it all unfolding on screen with the original actors, so if you’re a bit late to the party (it came out in 1991!) & wanna check this out most definitely check out this version of the story, it’s a ton of fun.
So obviously I began to think about how much I’d like to see this basic story on the big screen & while it is true, that because of the newest trilogy they’d have to change a few of the plot points I think they could still manage to tell a decent version of the original story. Fore instance Leia is newly pregnant with twins at the time in the book, that’d have to change, it’d have to be baby Kylo and it could take place a bit later than 5 years after Return of the Jedi. Still though, this story could indeed be brought to the big screen as many of the major characters required for this adventure have actually already been recast in ‘Solo’ and ‘Rogue One’. I have my doubts however this movie would happen at this point in time, as ‘Solo’ was a bit of a flop and perhaps Disney wouldn’t want to take a chance recasting the original trilogy characters again. If they ever do bring this to life though, I’ve got the actors right here cast that’d likely please hardcore fans- let’s take a look at some choices for major characters in the story that I think would be great for the movie version of the epic trilogy….
Han Solo: Alden Ehrenreich
Obviously we’ve got to to cast Alden again as Han right? To keep with continuity of the new ‘Solo’ film it makes perfect sense he’d be up for the role again. I of course wish they’d have given Anthony Ingruber a shot as he’s a spitting image and mastered the general vibe of Harrison Ford. But in this case we’ve already got our new Han so we might as well roll with it right? That’s the good thing here, some of the casting is already complete. Phew!
Lando Calrissian: Donald Glover
Another no brainer, as Glover did an excellent job as portraying Lando in ‘Solo’. He had it down and obviously did his homework on mastering a similar swagger of icon Billie Dee Williams. There’s a lot of Lando here in this Star Wars adventure and it further cements him and Han’s friendship after the events of ROTJ. It’d be amazing to see Glover back again and cement his legacy as a younger Lando once again as this story has a good deal of trouble for him and Han to get into!
Princess Leia: Billie Lourd
To me Billie Lourd is the only real option for Leia. She’s the perfect age to play the role, she’s totally beautiful like Carrie and she’s Carrie’s daughter!! She’s also looks a lot like her and has already expressed interest in playing a young version of the character. How truly sweet would it be to have her play her mother’s iconic character? Check this out as she states how she wishes she could play a young Leia:
I know she’s got a small role in the latest trilogy but this would be a whole new timeline. I’d love to see Billie as Leia learning to use a lightsaber as well as tapping into the Force like she did in the book. How could you turn her down for the role? You’d have to have no damn soul!
STAR WARS: Episode IX – How to Please ALL the Fans One Last Time!
I’ve been re-watching the original Star Wars trilogy lately (along with the prequels which are still pretty damn hard to sit through) and been thinking a lot about the latest trilogy’s aggressive backlash since ‘The Last Jedi’. It’s clearly evident there’s something that the originals had that these new movies are missing the boat on. Those first three films had a serious feeling of camaraderie along with strong totally relatable bonds between it’s diverse cast of characters, something that the latest movies seem to be struggling quite a bit with. I like the new cast but they really haven’t been given the screen time they deserve to fully develop into the tight knit unit that the original crew became so iconic as.
Let’s face it, the gang in the original had a certain chemistry among them that for some odd reason has been incredibly hard for ‘Disney’ Star Wars to replicate. In the late 70’s & 80s films were paced quite a bit differently as well and characters were given more actual story & screen time to be fleshed out, making their friendships all the more believable. We definitely got some tender moments in The Force Awakens between Finn, Rey, Poe, Leia & Han but it felt like ‘The Last Jedi’ just wasn’t able capture much real emotion amongst it’s large cast. Finn & Rose felt pretty forced, Rey and Luke lacked any chemistry, while Holdo and Leia really weren’t given the time together for their relationship to mean much of anything to the audience. Most of the main three new characters barely spent much time onscreen together at all. Think for a second about the way Luke, Han, Leia, Chewy, C3PO & R2 all felt together on an adventure onscreen, their friendships were a wonder to behold. They were all like family, I often compare them to the main characters in ‘The Wizard of Oz’. You really feel something genuine for them all that really warms the heart.
Well now we’ve got one LAST movie left of the “Skywalker saga”, Episode 9 has got a lot riding on it’s back since the huge division amongst rabid Star Wars fans. It’s got to unite all fans again and there’s really an easy way to do exactly that, however it seems for some reason Disney just can’t wrap their heads around exactly what will please both new & old fans alike. To me it’s obvious, first off avoid making this last installment a copy of ‘Return of the Jedi’. Devise a bit more of an original story, because as much as Rian Johnson thinks his movie was divisive because it was “so different than any of the previous movies” in actuality it really did borrow a ton of it’s “unique” plot points from Empire & Return of the Jedi. Secondly it’s clear, Star Wars fans STILL love the old characters-I keep hearing everyone in the movie industry saying-it’s not the old characters story anymore, it’s about the new. My question is, why can’t the story truly be about both the old and the new? Continue reading
Is There An Evil Online Conspiracy Against ‘The Last Jedi’?!
Wow, I wasn’t even planning on writing about ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ because let’s face it, there’s enough material about this movie online for you to read for decades. However after seeing the movie and being thoroughly disappointed, (and more so everyday the more I think about it) I’ve become well aware that I’m NOT the only one who feels this way. Some SPOILERS ahead….
What inspired me to write this post is the recent news of the giant backlash against the movie from fans simply being called a conspiracy by anti-social justice warriors who’re irate about the inclusion of strong female characters & racial diversity in the new movie. It’s claimed they’ve essentially hacked Rotten Tomatoes and have brought the fan score to a whopping low of 54% while the critics reviews rate it 92% fresh. I’ve decided to put my opinion here, to state as a long time fan, since I was a little boy, that the reason I disliked The Last Jedi has absolutely zero to do with strong female characters, white males, racial diversity, or anything that has to do with the current political landscape of the real world.
It actually upsets me that Disney simply can’t accept the fact that maybe, just maybe, their $200 million plus budget movie might not have pleased a huge number of long time fans. I can see many reasons why people absolutely love The Last Jedi AND I can also see just as many reasons why people may absolutely despise it. It may for some all revolve around shitty people being racist, sexist, bigots who’re furious about Rey being female and Finn being a black male fronting the franchise now. I however don’t think that’s the case for most, as The Force Awakens holds an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes by fans and I highly doubt everyone suddenly became upset about the sex and race of characters between the last movie and this one. No, the people I know who were disappointed had completely different issues with the movie entirely. Continue reading
Universal Dork 