Porthos

It might have helped that when I watched it, I saw it in the so-called chronological order. That way I skipped around the first three seasons quite a bit. Allegedly the first couple of seasons were a bit hit-and-miss, but since I was dipping in and out of the first three seasons almost at random, I really didn't notice. OTOH, the very first episode of the series (if one doesn't count the movie as the first four episodes [which they were before Lucas decided to stitch them together]) was a Yoda episode. Watching it online convinced me that I should give the series a chance. Of course, I'm something of a Yoda fan, so that helped. But that very first episode (Ambush) told me that this was my kind of SW. Philosophical with lots of potential for character development. Plus Yoda kicked ass. I couldn't ask for much more than that.

NOTE: Even quite a few of the films that came out in 1980 and 1981 still had a lot of 70s DNA in them, so spare me the "Well, actually"'s. The dividing line is probs The Cannonball Run. At least that's one of the last successful Seventies style films that comes to mind.

Forget it, Jake, it's the Seventies.

For the same reason someone thought writing Scarlett would be a good idea.

People thought I was annoyed when AotC made the list? Well, gonna be grumpy if Reloaded does. Save one VERY unnecessary dive party scene, that was a GREAT film. Still, not my list and I really appreciate @Thegun for going through the trouble of doing this. At the very least it's driving a lot of conversation.

*shrug* Don't get me wrong, I'm not a huge fan of Christensen's acting. It's a bit too uneven for my tastes (at times, such as when he's paired with McGregor, it's excellent; other times, more than a bit forced [he said to be polite]). But it's certainly not a death sentence for my enjoyment of the films. Could the performance been much better? Sure. But it's not bad enough to sink the film, IMO.

What sealed it for me being intentional is that Padme is just as awkward and sheltered as Anakin, just in a different way. She may have a cool and collected exterior, by deign of being a politcian all her life. But when it comes to actual personal stuff? Well, she was never allowed to be a kid/teenager where she could work out that sort of thing. So she isn't able to handle the creepo stalker 'person she has feelings toward that she doesn't want to admit to herself' as well as she'd like. But, as said, probably not the thread for me to go into this in detail.

Not gonna drag the thread through a defense of AotC, BTW. Not fair to the thread or @Thegun. Just had to get my "hey, the sand scene is actually good, y'all!" opinion off my chest. Carry on, everyone.

Upon my rewatch, I decided I LIKED the "I don't like sand" scene. One of the few times Christensen actually nailed the more vulnerable side of Anakin without sounding whiny. Also showed two INCREDIBLY sheltered and dysfunctional people trying to figure out how to court, and failing miserably. Looked at through the lens that it was supposed to be awkward, I decided I quite enjoyed it.

I've been hearing stories about a live-action TV series for well over a decade. I'll believe it when I see it and not a moment sooner. Sure, now there's the might of Disney perhaps being involved. But before there was an "eccentric billionare" who didn't mind throwing good money after bad to see a project come to fruition (The Clone Wars). I'm not entirely convinced that things have changed enough for this to happen. Then there's the elephant in the room: Would people 'settle' for TV-quality special effects in a SW TV show? Effects may have come a long way in the last 20 years since the days of TNG/DS9 and Babylon 5. OTOH, the SW movies themselves are now setting an incredible bar. It's one thing to see the level of quality in cartoons (and people have complained fiercely about the drop off from TCW to Rebels) and accept it. Perhaps another for live-action TV. I mean, I'd love to see it no matter what the avenue (I don't particularly care if it is ABC/Netfilx as I think that wouldn't matter all that much given this should be family entertainment). With the Story Group up and running they'd probably be able to handle it swimingly (if they didn't just dust off and repurpose the scripts/treatments/whatever actually exists for Star Wars: Underworld). But I've been burned on this story at least two or three times. Gonna wait for something a bit more concrete than some exec from Disney saying it would be a neat idea.

There have been some truly abysmal sequels over the years!

As long as it makes it to DVD/BR in a reasonable timefreame it can backfire as much as it likes.

When the SW Show said a couple of days ago that they had an extended interview with Rebels showrunner Dave Filoni, they weren't kidding! Nearly an hour long interview, peeps! So great listening to him talk about, well, anything. Between folks like him, Pablo Hidalgo, and Kari Hart (among many others), the future of SW is in very safe hands. Really be interested to see what he could do with other projects, to be honest. Not entirely sure if I want to see him make the leap to live action film-making (if only because I don't want his time monopolized by one project for nearly two years ), but out of all the people who speak publicly he seems to be the one person who really gets the Lucas vision of SW. Not surprising, given he worked with him so long. Hell, any person who will stick to their guns and give a passionate defense of midichlorians AND make it work is someone I want in charge of SW one day.

Congrats on becoming purple, @nilephelan! The shade suits you.

Fuck That Stupid Squad.

Can't buy off the critics for EVERY movie. People start to get suspicious that way. Alice 2 was the fall guy to let the rest of the movies live. Or, to put it another way....

excel actually broke character this week tho. Kinda disappointed to be honest. He's like Colbert. He shouldn't ever break character, even outside threads about "his" movies.

Man, am I looking forward to the Rogue One OW thread.. Y'all realize there's every chance in the world that it's going to have a lot of frontloading no matter what the reviews are, right?

I just realized something. BKB hasn't been around to see this Saturday drop. Oh, dear.

On the other hand, if SS does tank, then we get to look forward to another round of "CBM fatigue" articles. And while they probably don't affect things nearly as much as the trades/blogs would hope, they're still annoying to deal with.

Sadly Wonder Woman already ruined the joke, otherwise I would have gone along with it.

Also, I hope you realize that I might have been looking to poke bears (in a gentle, non-trolly way of course) by bringing up DH2. Just maybe. I mean, I may be new to the forums but I ain't THAT new.

Finale factor is overrated.

Frontloading* + mixed-to-bad WOM. Once more, with feeling, two things can be equally true: 1) There is a core of GA that can be appealed to and will rush out to see DC films OW. 2) The trends are showing warning signs that WB better not ignore OR overreact to. Not really sure what else there is to say. This film is doing waaaaaaaaaay more than was expected not even six months ago. Even if WB got 75% of the potential audience to show up the OW, that's still money in the bank for them. Lots and lots of money. The warning sign is taking that audience for granted in the future. * Frontloading has been getting worse and worse every year, and I think with the third film of the DCEU, it is fair to say there will be frontloading if marketing did its job.

Harry Potter VII: Part 2, what a piece of crap, amirite?