I last watched HOME ALONE (1990) recorded from analogue cable in 1995 on VHS I love this movie alot......
Swung and missed, Rogue One is not a 'Star Wars movie', more correctly it is a movie set within the Star Wars Universe and as such going in with the expectation that because it is set in the Star Wars Universe it should follow the Star Wars formula is a huge mistake. Now not liking the fact that instead of being a jovel delivery of silly mis fits going on an adventure to nick the Death Star plans it turned out to be a pretty grim experience were the only levity was the next snarky comment delivered by D2 is fine, if you don't like it that's great but it doesn't change the fact that it is now part of the Star Wars canon and that most folk have actually quite liked the movie, despite it being quite different in tone to the main Star Wars movies.
I'm not sure if people just like Star Wars because they think they should, or grew up with it, 1 good movies and 5 bad ones isn't a good ratio for me. Haven't saw the new ones though. Mid way through an older movie, The Town. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_town/ Enjoying it so far, hoping things stay this way.
It's probably the booze talking, but it's xmas and I have bedlam at my house, so thought I'd take a moment to think about what you typed, reflect and reply. As professionally as I can. You first point is it's not a Star Wars Movie. This, I agree with. Sadly, this makes my belief even stronger than I graded the film as 6/10 correctly. Adding to your point, I did not go into this film with a star wars expectation, I went into it expecting to be entertained and I was not. No characters and no story. No amount of lightsabers and tie fighters will make a film good if it lacks those two elements. A single text message telling her to shoot a torpedo into an exhaust port would blow up the death star would've done it. Dang, you could have written that on a bar napkin with an arrow and a circle. But here's the thing, the exhaust port weakness was NOT built into the Death Star, it was found by Organna AFTER extrapolating the Death Star Plans from R2D2: Organna Well, the Empire doesn't consider a small one-man fighter to be any threat, or they'd have a tighter defense. An analysis of the plans provided by Princess Leia has demonstrated a weakness in the battle station That one paragraph nullifies everything about Rogue One. The exhaust port is open (yet ray shielded) and after analysing the Death Star plans (not listening to any communications regarding someone's daddie leaving the Death Star with a purposeful 'weak spot') they found the weakness. The only 'flaw' in the design was its tactical disadvantage and arrogance, which honestly always reminded me of the Gustav Gun from the second world war. Which as recently pointed out by Heisenberg (darkly ironically) in Breaking Bad, was destroyed by one person and a small bag of thermite, roughly the size of a bar of soap. Allegedly. No one believed anyone would get to the Gun due to it's size, and no one thought it possible, so they didn't think about it. Doh! I honestly think I am the only person in the world who saw that connection. So, the rebels were essentially the US Marines fighting an oppression overload, and the Empire where the arrogant Germans, overtly confident of their superiority and clearly, were blinded by their own stupidity in creating something which is not impervious to attack...they even called them 'Storm-Troopers'. Your second or continuance point is: If we agree (which we do) that it is not a star wars movie, then...why call it a star wars movie, and why not just write a script and shoot it and call it something else? Why include it into fodder if it is not part of the fodder? Can't you see? This undoes your point and focus by your own logic. Furthermore (pours another shot, knocks it back, takes a bite of a mince pie...homemade) the tone of the film was anti star wars, it went against what makes these films fun, and again (as I think I mentioned above/below) it takes a dump on the original film by changing/altering the intent and outcome of the first film by this strange anomaly. For the last time: this is a Fan Film with a $300m budget by someone who doesn't understand star wars. John Knoll has a lot to answer for. He didn't get a xmas card from me this year.
You keep using this term as if the continued use of it will by some form of magic make it true. It isn't a fan film it's a film set with in the Star Wars Universe. The whole point of Rogue One was to give a bit more depth to what is no more than a throw away comment about a lot of rebels dying to obtain these plans. The Rebels needed the plans to find the flaw, be that flaw designed in or accidentally included through lack of design doesn't matter the whole point of the movie is to watch how these guys managed to get hold of the Death Star plans. It doesn't nullify the entire plot it just puts the whole sub plot about it being a deliberate flaw in to question and either way does it really matter to the rebels? Evene if Jyn's father was there telling them where the weakness is they would still want to see the plans and confirm the flaw for themselves before committing a large amount of resource to attacking it. We aren't it's a movie SET in the Star Wars Universe. You don't seem to be quite getting the point of that. A Star Wars movie will have have a number of very specific elements too it. Plot points, characters, music, direction and tone that make it a Star Wars movie. It's very possible to make a movie set in the Star Wars Universe but because it's tone characters plot points are different it ISN'T a Star Wars movie.
Still this...Ok, so based on the me realising that Star Wars movies are bad movies, does the fact mean Rogue One is a good movie because it's not a Star Wars movie?? I generally hate cinemas but we got a gift card for Xmas, so might go and see Rogue One now.
Alien looks cool but I wonder where it fits in the time line (I understand that it's a direct sequel to Prometheus).
I was speaking figuratively, extending the way it made me feel. That's highly assumptive. They were committed either way to take down the Empire and kept going until the Emperor was dead - and even then (for some reason) there still existed a version of the Empire. Surely there would be a return of the imperial senate, democracy and bureaucracy? That point was glossed over, in fact, it wasn't even covered in TFA... I completely agree, and would direct you to what I said which was: So, why not make a NEW film and set it on the other side of the galaxy? Using no existing storylines, plotlines...it pulls on threads too much and unravels the rich weave...and in doing so reminds me of a conversation between Piccard and Riker: PICARD Part of me cannot accept the idea that Q would have given me a second chance... that he would demonstrate that much... compassion. (beat) But if it was Q... I owe him a debt of gratitude. RIKER In what sense? It sounds like he put you through hell. PICARD There were many things in my youth that I'm not proud of... they were loose threads... untidy parts of myself that I wanted to remove. (beat) But when I pulled on one of those threads... I unravelled the tapestry of my life. Y'see? The original film had a tight story with great characters. If this film is as wonderful as it is, surely, surely, surely, surely it could have been made without the need to pull on the threads of other films? If not, then what is next under this logic? A film about how Luke buys his speeder and from whom? A film about who designs the moisture evaporators, and puts a design flaw in them requiring a translator? A film about who made the ejection capsule, making sure an R2 unit could open it? A film about the X-Wing design, ensuring it will require an R2 unit to assist the pilot, and making sure it can carry photon torpedoes? How many times in how many ways are you going to slice this? As I have have said many times on many topic; it doesn't add, I only understand how it subtracts.
My understanding is it's the results of too many folk moaning about how their wasn't enough Alien in Prometheus, so instead of giving us the sequel hinted at at the end of THAT movie, where whatever her face (can't remember her name) goes off to find The Engineers and all we get is a small glimps of something that looks vaguely like the Alien we know we are instead getting some bastard child of a sequel to Prometheus mixed with more familiar Alien stuff. At this point I would have been happier if Del Toro had gotten the rights to a direct a sequel to Aliens, even if it did mean ret-conning Alien 3 (which was actually alright) and Resurrection (which was just a tad too silly and too stupid to really fit in well with the overall Alien theme.)
And she was quite young too (by 21st century standards), such a shame. I heard she had some health problems, maybe even some drug addictions due to that the accelerated her aging. Sad, RIP.
So it looks like I am not the only person that was disappointed in Rogue One. Spoiler I hated Jyn and Cassian. Both I thought were awful in the roles, made me dislike the characters, and had no type of character development. The character development problem though stems into the whole movie in my opinion. It felt rushed, too rushed to make any sense. In a matter of days, one girl who we have never met sways almost an entire rebel alliance. About the only character I truly liked was probably Chirrut. I did like seeing a darker side of the rebel forces though, that was neat. The ending was amazing. Some things did not make sense, as stated earlier the flaw in the Death Star was found by looking at the schematics. This could be argued that the others did not know about the mission for Rogue One at least though. The Storm Trooper banter was classic, always is though. Loved that! The ending though, was amazing. I get it, this is not a Star Wars movie. It does not have to follow all the rules for a Star Wars movie. Where the hero or heroine are totally awesome, make it out alive all the time one way or another(Or at least live out a full life before dying), which is all good. That's fine, but at least make the story make sense in a timely fashion, and give us characters that are likable!
Green Room - 4/5 Aaaaaand breathe! Wow, that was bloody intense. A naive, desperate punk band plays a Neo-***** bar where they inadvertently witness a crime in the Green Room, to say the **** hits the fan would be an understatement. A simple, yet effective genre piece that knows what it is and wastes no time, at around 90 minutes long. Easily one of the best thrillers I've seen from the past year, similar in a sense to Don't Breathe, but a lot more effective in what it sets out to do. RIP Anton Yelchin, who was brilliant here. Also, a special mention to Patrick Stewart, who plays against type as the leader of the group of skinheads. Silence - 5/5 When Scorsese is this good, there is simply no one that can touch him. It's unlike anything he's done, in terms of style at least, felt a lot more like a Kurosawa film and not just because it's set in Japan. It's not a film for everybody, and it doesn't answer a lot of the questions it poses about faith, suffering and the human condition, but my word, is it an experience. Goes without saying that it's beautiful to look at, and draws brilliant performances from virtually all of it's actors. Highly recommended! Rogue One - 4/5 Never been the biggest Star Wars fan but I really liked this. Went in not expecting much as I wasn't that impressed with A Force Awakens once I'd seen it again after the initial hype had died down. Well, I'm glad to say this far exceeded my expectations. Felicity Jones was a strong lead I thought, even though her transition from prisoner to rebel leader was a tad unconvincing. Her backstory really made the viewer connect with her character so I was able to overlook that flaw. She was a pretty convincing badass. She's joined by a host of memorable characters as they lead an assault on the imperial fleet, led by the suitably over-the-top Ben Mendelsohn. Loved the Donnie Yen scenes, and the fact they showed a different side to the rebels through Deigo Luna's character. Felt more realistic that the rebels had a darker edge and weren't the goody goodies they were portrayed as in previous Star Wars films, they are rebels after all. It gave the film a bit of depth that I always felt the original Star Wars films lacked. It's not perfect by any means, it takes a while to get going as the audience is annoyingly pin-balled from planet to planet with little explanation or direction, and then there's a very weird scene involving tentacles which we could have done without. Vader's final scene is a thing of beauty, not gonna say much more as it just has to be seen. All in all a thoroughly enjoyable Star Wars film that I can't wait to see again. Ties up a lot of loose ends from A New Hope and gives us some more great characters in the Star Wars universe to care about.
Assassin's Creed - 2/5 Well, it's not a total borefest. The director of last year's impressive 'Macbeth', Michael Fassbender, Jeremy Irons, Marion Cotillard, Brendan Gleeson and Michael Kenneth Williams. All these big names make you wonder how they fecked this up so badly. There's a good premise in there somewhere, but they inexplicably highlight all the worst aspects of the game; namely the scenes set in the future, instead of focusing on interesting history of the Knight's Templar and the Arab conquest of Spain. The heavily CGI'ed action feels inconsequential and is poorly shot, and just when you think the film is getting interesting, they jarringly break it up with scenes in the future. Avoid.
