The sexual tension between space Guatemalan and space tulpa was palpable, was hoping they’d get it on
2 Likes
no. as in rose would crawl under the barb wire with a knife in her teeth and do the dark deeds for general leia.
3 Likes
update: The Hidden Fortress was pretty good, interesting to see where a lot of SW tropes came from, while quietly thinking about what R2 and C3PO would be like if they were greedy sniveling chumps
Rashomon: Where a rapist, a ghost and a coward somehow feel more credible than a…ugh…woman. (that messy scared sword fight made me laugh a bunch though)
Kill! (aka Help! A Vagrant!) was very enjoyable throughout
gonna get around to Yojimbo & Throne of Blood tonight/tomorrow, while hopefully watching the rest throughout the week. i guess it’s gonna be a very Chambara Christmas this year
1 Like
Don’t forget his softer stuff: Ikiru, about heroics within bureaucracies, Madadayo, about a life well?-lived, and Dreams (especially Dreams), about being old and no longer worrying about structure but just wanting to show beauty
3 Likes
I checked out Dreams from the library when I was a young teenager and the end of the first segment has always stayed with me
Red Beard tho
1 Like
Been meaning to revisit Dreams since I learned Ishiro Honda directed the Tunnel bit. That was a library rental for young me too!
Excalibur
2 Likes
oldie but a goodie
4 Likes
I agree with parker, as usual.
Rey is definitely my favorite character, playing a naive cipher in a world of archetypes. In Dark Force Cave she looks for deep mysterious answers and just finds… herself. Literally. (As opposed to Luke’s head in Vader’s armor on Dagobah, indicating a much more traditional “darkness inside.”) She reads as being spectrum, almost. She immediately appeals to the dark for information because it’s not obvious to her what should be considered so dark about it, which is exactly what makes her immune to corruption. She deals with everything exactly on its face without a bunch of selfdoubt or psyching herself out about hidden emotional depths. She’s got friends and a simple morality and that’s it. A perfect person to dismantle a Manichean dichotomy in favor of a greyer, more individualistic and case-by-case ethics of power.
14 Likes
Apparently I accidentally ignored this thread at some point. I was wondering why I couldn’t find any talk about this movie!
I have my issues with Last Jedi, and it’s a movie that can only work because Force Awakens exists, but it’s a much, much better film. It’s also, I think, a good ending for Star Wars. The kids killed the past, and now they get to figure out for themselves how they want to live their lives moving forward. There are no “great mysteries,” no prophecies to fulfill. Just the ugly business of rebuilding. I’m satisfied with leaving the “what comes next” unsaid. I certainly don’t expect that The Third Movie In An Epic, Merchandising Trilogy has an interesting way to follow that up.
But this is how I feel about a lot of franchises. I might be interested in more stories with these characters, or in this Media Universe, but I don’t want a sequel to this, and I don’t want another “Star Wars.” If Movie 9 jumps ahead another generation or so, maybe…
4 Likes
I feel the same way. A good side effect to that is, of course I AM going to see episode 9, and it won’t be as good, but 8 works so well as a thematic ending that there’s no way 9 can “ruin” it.
It’s odd that the decade after the original trilogy, Star Wars became mostly synonymous with this wide variety of good quality video games. Wonder if it’ll ever be that way again, or that era is done for good.
I’m really, really cynical about there ever being another good Star Wars videogame 
The issue is, LucasArts always seemed to treat their games and other Star Wars games as worthwhile artistic products in their own right—not just movie tie-ins. They operated like any other mid-sized game developer… the only difference being they often made games with the star wars universe.
Disney seems totally different. By shuttering LucasArts and contracting stuff out to EA and others, it really seems like, to Disney, the only purpose of auxillary Star Wars media is as either promotional material for the next movie/season of Rebels, or an after-the-fact cash grab. Instead of the Book, Movie, and Game spheres existing relatively independently and all trying to make good entertainment, it’s now MOVIES with books and games as auxillary support. And mean, that’s the approach Disney has taken to its vidogames since… forever.
It’s really depressing. Cuz yeah, we can debate which movies are actually good and which suck, or if they’re all trash but maybe some are GOOD trash, or whatever, all day, but the Star Wars videogame legacy is pretty undeniable, and was a huge part of culture for so long, and it pains me to see it dismissed so unceremoniously.
4 Likes
I will always remember playing rebel assault with a mis-calibrated joystick so that the ship always pulled slightly to the right in all those levels where nicking the FMV scenery even once would be an instafail
space desert bus
11 Likes
I’m wondering if Disney’s expanded universe plans wont function the same and just always be orbiting whatever the new film franchise is. Kind of bummed out about the buyout when it comes to the EU, which was always my favorite star wars part for how fuckin’ weird it is.
1 Like
I myself don’t necessarily want any more good Star Wars games, per se.
I just want a complete, end-to-end Super Star Wars anthology.
Just give me a whole franchise’s worth of these janky 16-bit platformers with only the most marginal respect to the source material, absurdist level design, sloppily digitized graphics, topped off with some literally unplayable mode 7 setpieces, and then I can happily dissipate into a force ghost.
4 Likes
Disney’s treatment of VIDEOGAMES is overall pretty awful. Most powerful entertainment power in the world cant maintain inhouse studios to make wonderful creative projects. Instead has randomly opened and closed studios once they werent the most successful thing.
I don’t care much about star wars videogames since they became just another flavor of licensed tie-ins, but I admit I was very curious about the Visceral game that was directed by Amy Hennig
1 Like
