AndyLL's "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue" Top Ten of 2015

[75Live]

17 minutes ago, CJohn said:

The number 1 redeemed this list. 

 

agreed.  number 4 almost killed it for me, I can deal with some of the other off the beaten path picks but that was almost the end, but after that and of course to number one, made up for it  

[75Live]

oh and @AndyLL well done on the list.  As much as we joke, I know it takes time to do all the write up and such so good job  

Edited January 11, 2016 by 75live

[AndyLL]

12 hours ago, Baumer said:

 

Sorry, I can't "like" this post....will like every other post your write because I love lists....but this is one of the worst movies of all time.....imo. 

 

LOL... that's fine.

 

However I have a hard time understanding how you rated MJ1 a 5 and MJ2 a 0.  To me it's just 1 movie with a real long intermission.

[Fancyarcher]

I would have probably switched the top two, but otherwise quite a good list.

[Ethan Hunt]

Nice little list here Andy. I like it (excluding those two turdbags at 9 and 10)

 

 

 

[baumer]

Andy i think i want to have sex with after your Star Wars write up. That got me sexually aroused. Well done bud.

[baumer]

For anyone who cares ill be starting my top 50 films of 2015 on Friday.

[Blankments]

#1 and #2 were lovely  

[Claire of Themyscira]

On 1/11/2016 at 4:06 PM, AndyLL said:

 

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I'm sure this choice will surprise no one that has paid attention these last few months.

 

Star Wars is my favorite franchise.  ANH is my all time favorite movie event.  I was 14 years old when ANH came out and it is impossible to describe what it was like to see it in then theater.  We were seeing things on the screen that had never been seen before.  I was an avid science fiction reader at the time and to see the types of things I was reading about appear on the big screen was amazing.

 

I was worried TFA would not live up to my expectations.  I was hoping for something on par with ROTJ that had the feel of the original trilogy.  TFA far far far exceeded my expectations.

 

ANH - Allowed us to see the Star Wars universe and introduced us to the characters.  However... the plot was simplistic, the characters, at times,  one dimensional, the dialogue at time painful.  It had a lot of great moments but also had some pacing challenges.

 

ESB - An all time great movie.  This was a road trip story. It dealt with Luke's journey of discovering Force & Family.  That characters were so much better than in ANH and the story so much more mature.

 

ROTJ - Kind of a rehash of ANH with the Death Star again threatening to wipe out the rebels and the main plot seemingly revolving around the destruction of it  However the 3rd act of Luke, Vader and the emperor redeem the plot.  It was a fun movie and a fitting ending to the trilogy.

 

Prequels - Complicated, convoluted stories.  Unlikable characters.  Poor acting.  Too much (bad) romance. So much world building it's overwhelming.  Anakin is a likable character in the TV Clone Wars series.  Why not do that for the 1st 2 movies so there is an emotional payoff when he turns into Vader.  I was hoping Lucas had forgotten about the OT and was just gonna kill off Anakin.

 

TFA, in my opinion tops all of them.

 

1st I'll briefly address the complaints I've heard.

 

It's just a rehash of ANH - That's like claiming T2 is just a rehash of The Terminator because a terminator was sent back to kill Conner.

 

The plot between AHN and TFA are completely different.  In AHN it was all about destroying the death star.  In TFA... it was more of a plot device to give a location and urgent tension to the final battle.  The battle of Hoth, battle against the Hut, the 2nd death... all had similar plot devices.

 

If anything... it was more of a rehash of ESB.  While the plot might have been to find Luke... the story was about Rey's journey and the awakening of the Force.

 

Yes there were many familiar scenes.  

 

Some obviously took popular elements from the OT.  BB-8 is a great example of that.

 

Some come from being a continuation of Episode IV.  Ren wearing a mask is not a rehash of the OT... it's a continuation of the story of Vader's family and Ren wanting to fallow in grand dad's footsteps.  

 

Some are just ridiculous.  A cantina with aliens in it is too much of a rehash of ANH?  I'll bet $100 right now that if there is life in the universe... plenty of them are sitting in a bar right now getting smashed and listening to music.

 

And the best one of all I've heard:  Han Solo in TFA was too much like Han Solo in the OT.

 

JJ addressed the similarities:

 

“What was important for me was introducing brand new characters using relationships that were embracing the history that we know to tell a story that is new — to go backwards to go forwards,”

 

It is obvious the goal was to wipe out the memory of the prequels and get back to the feel of the original trilogy.

 

So yes... many familiar things in TFA... just like ESB and ROFJ all had familiar things.

 

Rey was too powerful - I'll be brief here.  Star Wars is the story of the Skywalker family and their exceptional ability to use the Force.  Every story had untrained Skywalkers doing things in the Force they shouldn't have been able to.

 

The great things about The Force Awakens

 

The characters:

 

Rey was fantastic.  He attitude, her physical skills, her beauty... her interaction with everyone else... just a perfect character played perfectly.  People like to compare her to Luke or even Solo.  A better comparison would be to a young Anakin.  She already had a nice character arc in TFA and you can sense there is plenty more to come.

 

Finn - People keep trying to compare him to former star wars characters.  None of them fit.  He is his own character.  And in some ways he is the opposite of Rey.  So insecure and wanting to do the right thing but not knowing how.  He is best when on screen with Rey or Poe because they bring out the best in him.

 

Kylo Ren - People complain he is a weak and easily beaten villain.  I hope they realize that this was on purpose.  Vader was the same full-fledged villain through out the OT.  There was no real growth in him until the final scene.  Palpatine was basically they same villain throughout the PT.  With Ren they have left a lot of room for growth... in many different ways.

 

BB-8 - Yes... I'm sure marketing played a role here.  But I never thought they'd come up with a droid that would be as likable as R2D2.  What I really liked was that they didn't always explain what BB-8 was saying... they left it up to the audience to interpret it themselves based on the context. With R2D2 you typically had C3PO or someone else making sure you know what he said.

 

Poe - Loved the 'best pilot in the resistance' but we didn't see enough of him.  I have a feeling that'll change in future movies.  I believe we'll find the reason he is so skilled is that he is force sensitive.

 

Han Solo - Solo is not only one of my favorable characters of all time but Harrison Ford is one of my favorite actors.  I thought his Han Solo in TFA was exactly what Sol would be like 30 years after ROTJ.

 

The other OT characters - I though they did not try to throw all of them at us with major roles in the 1st movie.  They all were there just as much as they needed to be for the movie.

 

What was so great is how well all the characters interacted with each other:  Finn - Rey, Rey - BB-8, BB-8 - Poe, Poe - Finn, Rey -Solo, Rey - Leia, Solo - Leia

 

It just all seemed natural.  You can Ship them all.

 

The Story

 

The main plot was obviously the search for Luke.  However the story is the Force Awakening in Rey.  I sure this story will continue over all 3 of the movies.

 

I loved the pace of the movie.  There were higher paced sequences and slower paced sequences.  But the slower parts never took me out of the movie or bored me.

 

So many emotional scenes... I teared up a couple times:

 

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The opening scroll and the pan down to the Star Destroyer

Maz telling Rey her family is not coming back for her

Han dying and Leia feeling it

BB8-greeting Poe

Leia & Rey

Rey & Finn meeting up on the star killer

Rey leaving Finn at the end

Rey & Luke

 

 

So many exceptional scenes

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All of the above plus

The lightsaber going to Rey instead of Ren.  

Leia & Han

The 1st act on Jakku is the best act in any Star Wars movie... including Vader, Luke and the Emperor in ROTJ.  The score was the best there also.

Rey exiting the Falcon on Takodana 

Ren watching the Star Killer fire from the Star Destroyer

The Tie fighters coming out of the sun on Takodana

R2D2 coming alive

 

 

And countless others.

 

Right now I rank The Force Awakens as the best Star Wars movie.  That puts it in my top ten of all time long with ESB.  That might change 6 months from now when I watch all of the OT + TFA on Blu-Ray in 4 months or so.  But I doubt it.

 

I am already so freakin' excited for SW VIII.  I hope they don't screw it up.

 

YAS. CLOCK THEM, HATERS, BOO. SNATCH THOSE PATHETIC SLIMY ASS ****' WIGS. OH, SCALP THEM, SIS.

 

Star Wars is the end all, be all.

 

The Force Awakens is the shit. Like, how was the film so amazing? How was I so snatched?

 

 

You write-up was beautiful and lovely and touching, Andy. I too feel you though I was much younger and smarter and more talented and wiser than you happened to be when 21. Very touching though, and it's glad to see I am not alone in how I felt when watching this film. Each of my three times so far.

 

For all the haters, racist, and sexists...

 

The Force Awakens was amazing, and that is that.

 

 

 

Edited January 15, 2016 by Rey

[Plain Old Tele]

Watch that language, Claire.

[Claire of Themyscira]

16 minutes ago, Telemachos said:

Watch that language, Claire.

Shut up.

 

[DAJK]

Great job Andy! 

 

(part of that is that I'm so happy SW is number 1  )

[m3racer123]

One word to describe this list...

 

Spoiler