The Star Wars thread - "Chewie, we're home." - The Bear and Badger

Yossarian

RedDave2 wrote:

He counts as a memorable design. He has what, 4 words in the phantom menace? A cool design? Yep. A good character? Nah.

Yossarian wrote:

Great design is absolutely part of making a great character.

He looked cool and menacing as fuck, that made him memorable, that made him a good character.

I mean, if it’s just about words spoken then Chaplin’s Tramp was a dreadful character, he never said anything.

RedDave2

Yes, the tramp was shite.

Fucker didn't even have colour.

Seriously though, stop being silly. It's becoming a habit.

superflyninja

RedDave2 wrote:

b0r1s wrote:

The main crime is instantly forgettable characters. Complain all you want about the prequels George understood how to make memorable characters.

Hang about - who are the memorable characters in the prequels? I mean there is some nice designs of some of the bad guys but I could not call them memorable.

Yaddle

davyK

Count Dooku was a good 'un but that has to with Sir Lee.

Yossarian

RedDave2 wrote:

Yes, the tramp was shite.

Fucker didn't even have colour.

Seriously though, stop being silly. It's becoming a habit.

What?

Get fucked.

RedDave2

Yossarian wrote:

RedDave2 wrote:

Yes, the tramp was shite.

Fucker didn't even have colour.

Seriously though, stop being silly. It's becoming a habit.

What?

Get fucked.

Thats it Yoss. Arguments lead to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to the Dark side.

Yossarian

No really, do.

RedDave2

Ah shit, sorry Yoss. Was just messing.

b0r1s

@RedDave2 - Dooku, Mace Windu, Padme, Jar Jar, Anakin, Darth Maul, Qui Gon Jin, Sebulba and Watto all spring to mind without having to do a Google.

The best character in Rogue One is the droid and I can't even recall his name. Hang on there's Madds... oh.

davyK

b0r1s wrote:

@RedDave2 - Dooku, Mace Windu, Padme, Jar Jar, Anakin, Darth Maul, Qui Gon Jin, Sebulba and Watto all spring to mind without having to do a Google. The best character in Rogue One is the droid and I can't even recall his name. Hang on there's Madds... oh.

Lucas made quite a few scoops re acting talent when you look at that. Lee, Jackson, Portman and Neeson all made their roles and make Ep.1 watchable. One could argue that they, McDiarmuid, McGregor, the 2vs1 fight, the podrace and the new Williams soundtrack saved it in the face of a plodding script, wooden dialogue and a fucking annoying CGI character. Watto was the CGI character mark of the time, not effing Jar Jar. There's a scene in Ep.2 where Watto's animator plays a blinder - it's when Watto recognises a grown up Anakin - it's real CGI acting.

RedDave2

I'm not saying rogue one has better characters. But I don't think good characters was a strong point of the prequels.

I think visually there's something to be said for the designs but I felt many of the characters were just way too bland. To be Dooku, mace windu and jin all feel like if they didn't have that actor playing them, they'd have made no impact. Padme doesn't really bring anything to the table. She's an object rather than a character. Jar jar? Well, at least he is memorable. As for Anakin, I don't think his arc works at all in the three movies. It feels forced (ha!) more by "he must be vadar!" rather than a natural feeling of descent to the dark side.

I mean each to their own, but to me the three originals and the force awakens created much more interesting characters.

b0r1s

Don't get me wrong they aren't great characters, but they are identifiable and you know who they are. With Rogue One it was Guy with the Big Gun, Guy with The Stick, Nervous tortured pilot guy, Funny Droid, Not very nice killer lead guy etc.

monkey

RLM nailed this years ago. Describe a character from the prequels without referencing their name, costume or role in the movie. That's a piece of piss with the originals. Naive and plucky. Old and wise. Daring scoundrel. Hairy and growly.

Phantom Menace is boring 1, boring 2, annoying child and really annoying alien.

Rogue 1 god knows. Woman. Accent Man. Man. Another man. Vader.

poprock

Not to excuse the recent films at all, but it helps that you’ll have seen the original trilogy tons of times over the years. Those character archetypes have had time to bed in.

I can name a memorable character from the prequels: Jar. Jar. Binks.

Memorable for all the wrong reasons, but memorable nonetheless.

monkey

Darth Maul was good comparatively. Yes, it's 80% character design but what a design. It does the work that Lucas' writing couldn't. He'd have been great with a few more lines, some more evil stuff to do and in a much better movie.

pantyfire

You lot don’t even star war.
You know nothing.

davyK

Heh. Baby Yoda's guardian by his side now.

davyK

monkey wrote:

Darth Maul was good comparatively. Yes, it's 80% character design but what a design. It does the work that Lucas' writing couldn't. He'd have been great with a few more lines, some more evil stuff to do and in a much better movie.

Was a waste of a great character. I was baffled when they had him killed off.

Bobba Fett was the same too really. One or two lines and great design. So Maul was in that same category.

Funkstain

Kids have been wanting to watch star wars for a while. We did IV-V-I-II but felt that III was a bit violent so moved to VII (fun!) and tonight VIII. Was expecting it to be capital B bad cos I’ve been turned from remembering enjoying it at cinema (only seen once). But it’s actually really quite good. Even the silly casino bit is passable with kids. It makes sense, holds up well. The whole “bombing run” is ridiculous but is almost necessary to set up the “they’re smaller and faster” thing. The bits with Luke and Rey are actually pretty good, again make sense philosophically (Jedi are bad cos they believe they are sole arbiters of what’s “good” about force, and look where that got them (palpatine in their very midst)). It even explains kylo’s position on things: sith, Jedi, load of old religious horseshite: I’m powerful in the force so I’ll use it to make myself the boss and that’s that

Funkstain

Really wish they’d stuck the landing and followed through with these themes. Rey is no one but discovers love and goodness with surrogate family and friends. Kylo goes other way, rejecting love for power. Snoke an ancient zealot irrelevance, get rid. Luke one last hurrah. Others discover the force within them.

regmcfly

Plenty to disagree over here (Mando feels a bit overrated to me) but I enjoyed reading this

poprock

That was lovely, thanks Reg. The Atlantic always delivers.

b0r1s

So I knew that Mandalorian was filmed on the new Unreal giant real-time 3D backgrounds. What I didn’t realise is they used it for interior shots too and makes the idea that this was more real than the prequels quite funny as it’s just a better technology. And baby Yoda lol.

About 4:50 in.

Great channel too.