Collected Data
"One hopes that having thoroughly dredged that particular well for all possible returns, the next Star Wars installment may go looking for this franchise's future instead of safely dwelling in its past."
This levity makes it difficult to find too much fault in the film even when it exists less as a meaningful extension of its world than as a fan-service deployment device, in part because every eye roll-worthy moment (another Death Star to destroy?) is preempted by the film's own built-in eye-roll response gag (”...but bigger!”). Also because its affectionate call-backs are doled out with such underlying competence, from the fleet narrative's clean, three-act structure, to the convincingly deployed iconic visual grammar of wipes and agile dolly shots, to the strength of the performances.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
This review by Sam C Mac is very much in line with my feelings about the film. In short; it’s a very well made fan film. I liked it. I might go see it again. It’s the best non-Mad Max sequel of the year, easily better than Avengers Age of Ultron and Spectre.
But’s not a great Star Wars film.
The Prequels biggest fault was the lack of any attachment to character. This film cures that. The new cast is strong and after seeing the film, I am curious enough to see what happens that I will go see the next one.
But what The Force Awakens lacks is imagination. As someone who grew up pretending to live in the world of the original trilogy, it saddens me that this new film couldn’t even muster one new idea. Each film in the original trilogy showed us something we have never seen before. Hate the Prequels all you want but they were filled with new ideas. The Force Awakens best idea; a bigger Death Star. It’s pathetic. Seriously, it’s pathetic.
Much in the Prequels was soul crushing, but they also contained a few scenes that were brilliant. The Force Awakens is very even; nothing is horrible but also nothing is great. I’m sure it averages out as being ‘better’ but it’s still just average. I’d rather a film with flashes of brilliance than one that plays it safe.
The Force Awakens is very safe.
"We demonstrate that our method can synthesize visually believable performances with applications in emotion transition, performance correction, and timing control."
From Disney Research;
We present a method to continuously blend between multiple facial performances of an actor, which can contain different facial expressions or emotional states…a seamless facial blending approach that provides the director full control to interpolate timing, facial expression, and local appearance, in order to generate novel performances after filming.
FaceDirector: Continuous Control of Facial Performance in Video
"To break the record held by the very first Star Wars movie, the current episode would have to earn at least $3.1 billion in worldwide ticket sales."
Adjusting for inflation changes the rankings dramatically. The original Star Wars movie A New Hope is no longer in the middle of the pack. Instead of only $750 million, it made over $3 billion in movie ticket sales after adjusting for inflation. The Empire Strikes Back moves from the very bottom of the list to second place with over $1.5 billion in inflation-adjusted ticket sales.
After adjusting for inflation, Gone with the Wind earned $3.4 billion in inflation-adjusted money, eclipsing both Avatar and the first Star Wars movie.
Latest Star Wars film may be ‘biggest movie of all time’ – just not at the box office
"3. Apologize. Not because it’s your fault, but because the incident cost other people time or money or upset them, and you’re sorry that they have to deal with that."
"The time to start worrying about the consequences of our editorial decisions was before we raised a generation of people who get all of their information from television"
If you got all of your information from TV and movies, you'd have some pretty dumb ideas. You'd be convinced blowing stuff up works, because it always does in our movies. You'd have no empathy for the poor, because there are no poor people in American movies or TV shows - they're rarely even shown on the news, because advertisers consider them a bummer.
Politically, you'd have no ability to grasp nuance or complexity, since there is none in our mainstream political discussion. All problems, even the most complicated, are boiled down to a few minutes of TV content at most. That's how issues like the last financial collapse completely flew by Middle America. The truth, with all the intricacies of all those arcane new mortgage-based financial instruments, was much harder to grasp than a story about lazy minorities buying houses they couldn't afford, which is what Middle America still believes.
It's Too Late to Turn Off Trump
"I want to beg filmmakers (young ones especially) to try something else."
Watch: "The Husbands of River Song: Official TV Trailer - Doctor Who Christmas Special 2015"
Watch: "STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS Official International Trailer #2"
"Tell them that a giant slug captured me and forced me to wear that stupid outfit, and then I killed him because I didn’t like it. And then I took it off. Backstage."
Were you able to relate to her more now than you did 40 years ago?
(Shakes her head “no.”) I bring [the characters] to me. I don’t go to them. I don’t get into character.
Carrie Fisher on Her Return to ‘Star Wars’
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