Knight26

I have yet to buy the movie on BluRay, for some reason I just can't bring myself to do so, but I did dig up this write up I did on small fixes that could have helped the movie, because, you know, I like to fix broken things. The Last Jedi Fixes There is nothing quite like a good Shrimp burrito, when all the ingredients are there in just the right proportions and combinations it is a flavor explosion that cannot be beat. But, when the cook doesn’t prepare it right, using days old fillings, or the tortilla that’s been sitting just a little too long you get just a taste of the greatness, but not the whole experience. That was the taste left in my mouth by The Last Jedi. I’m not saying it is a bad movie, at it’s core it was good with great potential, but it was mixed with stale ingredients, the wrong spices and wrapped up with tired cliches. The scenes involving the Jedi were great, though sometimes a bit odd, but those were the core of the story that kept it from being terrible, though even they could have been better. It could have been saved though, one more story revision and it could have been near perfect. Here’s how I would saved it. The biggest issue with the movie is one of timing. The movie takes place too soon after the last and over too short a period of time. It is a common misconception that in Empire, Luke was only on Dagobah for a few days, however it is established in canon that he was there for months as the Millenium Falcon trudged its way up to light speed and back down again on its much slower accelerating reserve hyperdrive. The movie just does not make that clear, something a single line of dialogue could have fixed: “We’re almost out of supplies too Lando, that reserve hyperdrive takes weeks to get you into hyperspace.” The problems with the timing are massive. The last movie ended with the Galaxy in utter chaos, the Republic capital has been destroyed, billions dead and its fleet scattered, this is bad for our heroes. The First Order isn’t much better off, their capital has been blown away as well, but as a smaller overall force, they would be able to rally faster. So give them a few months, 3-6. The Republic will still be in disarray, and skip the evacuation of Resistance base, instead start with the pursuit. The pursuit is 3 months on, the Resistance is haggard, down to just a few ships. They have been unable to call for aid, unable to resupply, refuel, rearm, rest, think the episode 33 from the NuBSG. Pilots and crews are all exhausted and the First Order is able to bring in its ships from throughout the galaxy to pursue them, each one coming with fresh crews as they track the Resistance through some unknown means. In a desperate gambit, Poe leads a bomber force against a First Ordere dreadnaught, but not the stupid B-17s in space we got in the movie. Instead we get the new gen B-Wing (or its replacement) making torpedo runs with one final bomber, piloted by a good friend (or lover) of Poe making a suicide run into the soft spot of the ship. But the bomber force is still devastated, giving Leia her excuse to demote Poe. Meanwhile Rey has her meeting with Luke, he still tosses the lightsaber and refuses to train her. Cut to a montage of her waiting outside his hut for days on end before he finally opens the door to start “Training” her. This plays homage to the old Kurosawa Samurai movies that also inspired Lucas. Much of what happens from here on can remain relatively untouched, but maybe show a bit more training actually happening. This takes us back to the Fleet battle. Leia has been injured and the Admiral (in a proper military uniform) has taken over. She reveals their plan (you know, respecting the intelligence of her troops instead of keeping them in the dark) that they are heading towards an old, disused base on the rim with a transmitter that can reach the remains of their allies and the scattered republic forces. But, they only have so long they can wait to get there due to their dwindling supplies. They need to lose their First Order pursuers and have only a few days to do so before they either run out of fuel or take their chances. So, she order Poe and the newly revived Finn to find a way through the shields of the First Order flagship to destroy the tracker, sending them off on their sidequest. Boom, we just deleted the second biggest issue with the movie, the Rose and Mutiny storylines. Instead we get Poe and Finn off doing their buddy cop thing from Episode 7 more, developing and maybe rocking that friendship some more, no forced love story, no criminally bad fan service. Now let me explain that Fan Service. Rose is the worst kind of fan service, she is a fan replacement, a fan of the film in the film. Her hero worship of Finn makes no sense in the timeframe of the movie as it stands, Finn would be little known at this point, especially amongst the lower level crew. At most, they would have heard about the First Order defector who helped destroy Starkiller base, but not much else in a day or two. You could also cut most of the slave/animal abuse angle. Star Wars has always been for kids, yes. But, the first two movies did so with minimal pandering, The Last Jedi pandered to the kid audience hard in those scenes, and it didn’t need to do so. The character of DJ, a wasted performance, did not need to happen or turn traitor. He could have been a legit ally, but what would have been better is this: Have it be Captain Fasma instead. We’ve never seen her face before this, so, while the audience might be in on her being coming betrayal, the characters would not. Or have it be that he was working for her the whole time, and it was all a trap or setup to wear the Resistance fleet down, capturing Finn is just the icing on the cake. The rest of the movie can play out largely the way it did, the hyperspace ram (most awesome scene in the movie) can still happen as a last ditch effort to get the Resistance planetside when the other plan fails, but keep the Admiral alive, an astromech could have piloted the ship at that point. Rey can still show up when she does, the scenes with Snoke could be expanded, but would remain largely intact, as well as the fight between projected Luke and Kylo Ren. Even have there be minimal response to their call, but add one last thing, a rescue by the shattered republic. Instead of only a few dozen people making it aboard the falcon, have it be a hundred or so crammed into a handful or dropships getting cover by a squadron of advanced X-Wings. This gives us a bit more hope for the future, and maybe even a cameo by the real greatest pilot in Star Wars, Wedge Antilles, and even Lando. The movie could even close on the slave kid using the force, a clear sign that Jedi still exist and are being born. Overall I think that covers the biggest story issues with the movie. Does it address all the fan complaints, no, but it doesn’t need to. The identity of Rey’s parents was fine, they didn’t need to be connected to the rest of the movies because it shows that anyone can be a Jedi and opens up the possibility for a huge number of Jedi in the future. Snoke being a bit of a glass cannon was fine, it showed that Kylo Ren was a real force to be reckoned with that he could fool his master in such a way. As it stands, Episode 9 will have a very weak base to stand on after these last two films. It has a lot of issues to address, the biggest of which is real life death of Carrie Fisher, something this movie should have fixed in reshoots. I do not feel that the franchise stands on solid ground at the moment and with Abrams coming back to helm Episode 9, I do not have much hope. Rogue One left me on a Star Wars high, Ep8, has dropped me back down, but I didn’t have my hopes high to begin with.

The bombing scene was so offensive IMHO that I nearly walked out of the theater. Even from a story perspective it was terrible.

Back to the Macross License. Does HG have right of first refusal with Tatsunoko, or does it become an open bid in 2021? If it is the former, well we could be in the same boat we are now, if the latter, all BW or Bandai, or any other distributor need to do is give a better offer, which seems likely.

Interesting, but who will play young Spock? And the young Majel Rodenberry first officer?

That trailer does fill me with hope. And Donald Glover must have studied a ton of Billy Dee performances, because he has the mannerisms down pat. So, thoughts, is the piece in the mandibles a shuttle, cargo module or "escape pod." I hope it is some kind of cargo or expansion module.

Don't forget, Bandai has a vested interest in Macross now too. I'm sure they will be all over working with Big West to buy the rights from Tatsunoko so that they can finally market Macross products outside of Japan; BluRays, Models, Toys, etc...

Finally watched these, pretty truncated and a bit sanitized, but it does hit the key points of the early days of Robotech before it's initial demise. If they ever do a third video, I am curious as to how they will present the legal battle and the looming loss of rights.

I think Itano would approve. That would be an awesome display to see them light all 12 of those bad boys off.

Ah GSK, what a fun series. Was Woodhead in charge when Animeigo did the Macross remaster?

Saw the movie this weekend, with my boys, we enjoyed the heck out of it. It was not deep, but I do find it better then the first, in most ways, and a heck of a lot of fun. The writing was pretty tight, have to rewatch to be sure, the mecha designs were good (for the most part), the red herrings were well done, as were how they handled those reveals. And for once, the trailer didn't ruin the whole movie. Even the actors did well, and my kids loved seeing Ravi from some Disney channel show they like on the big screen. The young actors were not grating, some cringy bits, and Boyega did a great job with some good jokes in there as well. Overall, a super fun movie, and a good example of how to make giant mecha anime work on the big screen.

So, I read through these online, not saying where. Holy Crap these are bad, artwork, character design, dialogue, writing, I can find nothing redeeming about any on this.

MY local TRU has been having the Going out of business sale for about month now, but all the best stuff was either not marked down, or had minimal mark downs. The store just went to 50% off most of hte store, and most of the stuff the boys and I want are gone. Lego stuff still fills the shelves as it is only 10% off, and Star Wars toys (figures, vehicles, nerf) also fill shelves despite before 50% off. I'm waiting for the Recoil blasters to go to 70% off then I will snatch up a couple of those.

I find it so awesome to see my designs sitting right next to a real world aircraft model in the same scale.

Picked up the 1:48 Diecast J-15 model for $20. I love seeing it next to one of my own designs at the same scale.

Same here. Everything about those movies was ridiculous, but awesome. Now I need to introduce my sons to these movies, lol.

You had my childhood hopes up there for a second you bastard. Now I just have to remember the dream I used to have of Prince Talon (from Sword and the Sorcerer, the guy with the incredibly impossible 3-bladed sword) linking up with Hawk the Slayer and his crew.

He now stands alongside the giants upon whose shoulders present and future physicists will stand.

Very interesting movie, if slow moving at times. Overall good.

I am so looking forward to this.

Watched the ending of rebels, overall quite a good ending, bitter sweet in some ways, and did, sort of, tie into the other films. Certain things were left open ended, which I liked, but I do have some critiques. I like that they left Ezra and Thrawn's fates open ended. They needed to kill off more characters. Why can they not kill off a certain character who should have died during Clone Wars to signal the beginning of Anakin's Fall? Inter-species breeding? Come on. This is something in sci-fi that has always bugged me and until now has never been canon in SW. So time to speculate on the next animated series: 1) An original trilogy era story following the rest of the rebellion (Rogue Squadron *crosses fingers*) 2) Sabine and Ahsoka searching for Ezra and creating a link to the new trilogy. If they do this, then Thrawn had better be alive too.

I wouldn't mind another series that takes place during the OT or between the OT and NT, but I would prefer a different art style.

That is cool. Does Google have it's own Voxel based modeler now?

Is any more MTF being released? We need it now more then ever with that horrid Robotech Comic out there

Serisouly, at this scale, why are the pilot figures not articulated?

Macek's original vision? His original vision was to import numerous different mecha titles under the Robotech banner, but leave them as separate entities, sheesh.