Daisy Ridley on Rey: ‘It’s not because Rey is strong that she’s amazing. It’s all her complexities. She’s struggling’

Ah, yes. It's just so hard when you're a Mary Sue, instantly perfect at abilities you've never been trained in, in fact, never even heard of. The struggle is real.

Now hear this: The Force Awakens sucked.

Now hear this: The Force Awakens sucked.

Well, I wouldn't go quite that far, but I didn't feel particularly menaced by Kylo Ween. And I always thought a movie about Finn would have been much more interesting than one about Rey.

A comprehensive list of female creeps:

https://twitter.com/ScribeUndead/status/1202305123764068354

Star Wars sucked. The whole thing. It had fun effects and whatever, but it was silly and unnecessary.

We're at a third generation of people taking this stuff far too seriously. They talk about the characters and their motives as if it mattered. These are grown men who really, really ought to be giving their attention to better things. Take the whole series, all of it. Every ancillary product, cartoon, whatever…

Is ANY or ALL of it as poignant as Tessio's approach to Michael at the burial?

To reflect on the work from Hollywood in the decade before 1977 is to feel a genuine loss.

Crid: . . . but it was silly and unnecessary.

Serious question, and after over 15 years of mutual contempt and antagonism, I think I'm entitled to at least one, but what movie or franchise would you have described as "necessary"? Is any movie truly necessary?

You may have a point about the effects. They can go too far with trying to cram all the special effects you can into one movie. "Man of Steel" is a case in point. After seeing it, a friend of mine asked, "How was it?"

And I replied, "Noisy."

It's wonderful that Hollywood can do all these amazing things now. But it is not necessary to put them all into one movie. Save something for the sequel. And it's a little odd that Supes would go into emotional turmoil over having to snap the neck of General Zod when you realize that they're battle sent them crashing through several occupied skyscrapers, toppling some of them in the process.

And Old RPM Daddy, the Mary Sue convention needs to be called out vigorously, wherever and whenever it appears.

It's never over until the Germans bomb Pearl Harbor.

https://dailysnark.com/the-nfc-east-is-so-bad-the-3-9-redskins-can-still-win-it/

The thing about the first Star Wars movie was that it came along at the right time. The mid-1970s were full of over-the-top disaster and personal-drama movies (The Boy In The Plastic Bubble, I'm lookin' at you), and Star Wars was a welcome break from it. (Airplane, even more so.) Arguably, the revival of Star Trek, and the new wave of sci-fi in the 1980s, would not have happened without the first Star Wars movie. I have to admit I also enjoyed the other movies of the original trilogy, but just about everything since then has sucked balls.

Part 2 of the list of female creeps. As pointed out several times, most of the news articles omit the word "rape".

https://twitter.com/ScribeUndead/status/1202603443208241152

I have to admit I also enjoyed the other movies of the original trilogy, but just about everything since then has sucked balls.

The latest set of 3 is so bad that I'm almost ready to wax poetic on the merits of The Phantom Movie, errr, Menace. And no, I will not be viewing the last offering. Not even if someone bought me a ticket.

And I have issues with Episode 6. But, as Meatloaf put it, two out of three ain't bad.

I thought the music in the first Star Wars movie was both good and original.

They got extremely lazy about the scores, and phoned it in, after that...

Cousin Dave: The thing about the first Star Wars movie was that it came along at the right time. The mid-1970s were full of over-the-top disaster and personal-drama movies (The Boy In The Plastic Bubble, I'm lookin' at you), and Star Wars was a welcome break from it.

What I remember most about the seventies, as far as movies go, was that the preferred genre was supernatural horror. The Exorcist, Beyond the Door, It's Alive, etc. It seems demonic/diabolic possession was all the rage.

When Lucas got divorced everything Star Wars went to hell.

He refuses to provide the National Film Registry with the original release, probably because it would be evident that

Marcia Lucas's brilliant editing saved his ass.

I like to think she would have stopped the Mary Sue brigade of the Kathleen Kennedy Army of Social Justice Warriors as well.

Ah, the "one child policy" bears more fruit.

Page after page, the names stack up: 629 girls and women from across Pakistan who were sold as brides to Chinese men and taken to China. The list, obtained by The Associated Press, was compiled by Pakistani investigators determined to break up trafficking networks exploiting the country’s poor and vulnerable.

The list gives the most concrete figure yet for the number of women caught up in the trafficking schemes since 2018.

https://apnews.com/c586d0f73fe249718ec06f6867b0244e?

The thing about the first Star Wars movie was that it came along at the right time. ~ Cousin Dave at December 5, 2019 8:03 AM

It came along when I was young enough that it sparked my imagination. It, like any good fantasy or myth, had all the elements of the hero's journey.

I know way too many people who saw it at that age and now will discuss the history of the empire or the religious practices of the Jedi with the same seriousness with which Joseph Campbell might have discussed ancient mythology or Dianne Fossey the mating habits of gorillas. They study it like it's real.

I first ran into people like that with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, people who practically memorized The Silmarillion and taught themselves ancient Elvish. At least that required some mental effort, not just watching movies and cartoons. Later came Star Trek and people speaking Klingon while discussing Romulans and neutral zones.

These are adults, willingly lost in a fantasy world that, to them at least, exists. They'll have long arguments about them.

The real world can be boring on a day-to-day basis. However, the history of it is fascinating, albeit without orcs or Jedi mind tricks.

"Oh no, not another fucking elf!" ~ CS Lewis (allegedly when faced with listening to JRR Tolkien reading aloud from his manuscript)

"In this house, we obey the laws of Thermodynamics!" ~ Homer Simpson.

What’s the over under on when democrats start calling Professor Jonathan Turley a “Russian asset”?

https://twitter.com/larryelder/status/1202409444962795525

taught themselves ancient Elvish

Hopefully it wasn't that Sindarin trash.

We're at a third generation of people taking this stuff far too seriously. They talk about the characters and their motives as if it mattered. These are grown men who really, really ought to be giving their attention to better things.
_________________________________

I swear it was Fran Lebowitz who said - though I can't seem to track this down:

"There are things that are simply too lightweight to bear criticism. Movies, for example, and, of course, rock and roll."

At any rate, I managed to stop talking about either of those subjects (except with fellow diehard fans and in similar online forums) by age 25 or so. Not a minute too soon. From what I've heard from moderate/conservative columnist Alex Beam, it's become common for educated adults to talk very seriously, at parties, about critically praised cable TV shows - as if they were on the same level as critically praised books! I REFUSE to do that...even if it's true that, as they say: "TV is better than the movies these days."
__________________________________

And I replied, "Noisy."
__________________________________

Reminds me of the first Mary Poppins movie. I didn't enjoy it much when I first saw it as an adult - for me, it was just too loud and annoying. Besides, I missed the witty snarkiness of MP in the books. (I read all four of the main books first; I was born some time after the movie was made, and VCRs were a long way off.)

For those who don't know, she's actually a no-nonsense tyrant who never gives hugs. What makes her shocking today is that she's "perennially unfair" and the children are expected to accept that, but what made her radical in the 1930s was the idea that it was OK for child readers to ACKNOWLEDGE, even if only privately, that grown-ups could ever be unfair!

And I consider myself lucky to have grown up in a time when, because of those limitations, one was not considered a nerd for reading ANY book before seeing the movie version! That's leaving aside the rare teen who might read "War and Peace" for fun - but even then, that doesn't prove anything about that teen's social skills or lack thereof.

I see Pelosi lost her erm, temper when asked about her hatred of Trump, claiming that because she's Catholic she can't hate anyone - and Biden called a voter a liar and challenged him to a push-up contest.

If I wasn't on keto I'd make popcorn to watch this show.

PC in the military:

Army Tags Scripture as Offensive

Who here has NOT tried to build a small nuclear reactor inside his garage?

As this article rightfully calls for elimination of the universal tariffs on steel, aluminum and solar panels, some fellow Trump supporters will go into a rage.

For runners and fans of the Boston Marathon:

Is Boston Marathon Fundraising Out of Control?

In a theme park parking lot at night, a worker sleeps in her car. This is life in America’s most visited city

And finally, bring on the psychiatrists:

Trump’s mental state is deteriorating dangerously due to impeachment with potentially ‘catastrophic outcomes’, psychiatrists urgently warn Congress

some fellow Trump supporters will go into a rage

No.

For both suggestions. I'm not in a rage, but no we should not be propping up the MF Chinese commie party, either. No tariff free-trade is a nice idea, but everyone cheats.

For lenona :

https://images.app.goo.gl/2nLpBvQX8goDiX2z7

And finally, bring on the psychiatrists: ~ mpetrie98 at December 5, 2019 6:53 PM

Wasn't it declared unethical for psychiatrists and psychologists to pronounce on a person's mental health without actually meeting them after the Goldwater fiasco?

...claiming that because she's Catholic she can't hate anyone.... ~ Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at December 5, 2019 4:32 PM

Um, Nancy, being Catholic has nothing to do with being able or unable to hate. But, since we're discussing your staunch Catholicism, what about that abortion thing?

> what movie or franchise would you
> have described as "necessary"?
> Is any movie truly necessary?

Point taken— But when you reflect on the magnitude of fascination there things have engendered, and humble intentions and origins of their plots as described by Lucas when the enterprise (so to speak) was new, it's obvious that too many people are engaging popular culture without a full kit of irony… Which is what gave the indulgence its charm.

What would it be like if post-'Nam America was presented with a pre-WWII narrative of derring-do and trite comeuppance?