Smuel's good morning extravaganza

Sounds very sensible, maybe I'll insist on that in the future. And thanks to ytzk for the needless snide remarks, that was greatly appreciated.

Good morning.

 

True, I felt like I had seen the movie before.

Spoiler

I liked Kylo Ren until he took off his mask. He looked like some pimply teenage nerd, long hair and all. Just having a whinge about anything. His behaviour and demeanour seemed to be different when he wore the mask, like a totally different character.

Also didn't like his buck teeth.

 

Sorry, I didn't mean to be snide.

I was just saying you'd be less frustrated if you weren't so polite all the time but, admittedly, you'd probably be more frustrated if everyone else were less polite.

The jibe at 'venting on your blog' was a Futurama quote, nothing personal. Good morning.

 

Fair enough, and...

Good morning.

 

For no particular reason...

snide (adj.)
1859, thieves' slang, "counterfeit, sham, bad, spurious," of unknown origin. Of persons, "cunning, sharp," from 1883. Sense of "sneering" is first attested 1933, perhaps via sense of "hypocrisy, malicious gossip" (1902). Related: Sneeringly.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=snide​

Good Morning

 

Yeah, I was pretty sure I wasn't being snide, but quite sure I didn't know what it meant exactly either.

I just assumed it meant being rude while being polite, because English have a hundred words for that, like Eskimos and snow.

Oh shit, I'm being snide again, aren't I? Good morning.

 

It means being rude directly to a person in question in attempt to provoke or annoy (almost while sneering, like the web definition says), which I assumed ytzk was being as I thought he was saying I was treating this place as a personal blog, whereas instead he was quoting Futurama. It's pretty commonly used in sunny old England if there was a situation that called for it, I wasn't just using colourful language to come across an overly eloquent wanker - at least not on this occasion. It's almost always paired with remarks, as in, "I've had enough of your snide remarks," but comments works just as well.

And now I've summed up a common British colloquialism, Good Morning.

 

That's a great cover and all but he actually meant you are using the forum as a personal blog.

 

It is a 'sideways snipe' in other words, and not my style.

Though I accept it in the spirit in which it was used, as a cliche meaning "fuck you" which is how we express annoyance in Australia.

Good morning and happy solstice.

 

Oh dear, I haven't really said anything at all here for an eternity. Well, late is better than never, I suppose.

Good morning!

 

Well, in any case...

Good morning.

EDIT: Having watched Star Wars yesterday, I thought the film was a bit busy (not mentioning any spoilers in this bit). There's too much focus on driving the character arcs of Kylo Ren, Rey and Finn forward so they could establish the basis for the rest of the trilogy and fewer scenes of action that aren't focussing on developing the characters like the rescue for Jabba's Palace or escaping something like the Exogorth. On that basis I'd normally give it a 7/10, however they also made it a highly enjoyable film so it would be an 8/10 for me (a good amount of reasonably natural feeling humour, and lot of really good looking action to sink your teeth into without the lengthy periods of exposition that separated those scenes in the prequels. Whilst heavy on the character development, it is also satisfying character development overall). I particularly warmed to little touches like:

Spoiler

The lightsaber duels in the woodland around Starkiller Base - having trees there gives a very nice practical demonstration of the power of the lightsabers with trees being felled during the fight. As I said, a really little thing, but it makes you realise the effort that went into the film conceptually.

For Kylo Ren, I'm particularly interested in:

Spoiler

The temptation of the light side for people in the dark. Reading a brief Q&A with Abrams he said that Kylo idolises Vader for being so powerful with the dark side of the force, and he believes Vader's biggest failing was being tempted back to the light. It makes an interesting case where sticking to the dark side actually requires effort - as up to now the franchise has made it seem like the path of least resistance that grants more power at the cost of your humanity.

We see that Kylo is putting in that effort by killing Han, forgoing that relationship to his family that part of him still desires. I'm hoping to see much more in the future of this kind of conscious decision to erode his own humanity and cleave closer to the dark side of the force.

And one last thing:

Spoiler

I was disappointed Luke was a cameo. While for a lot of people that was adequate pay off, for me it wasn't. I sincerely hope for the next film he can take a prominent role, rather than just training Rey and that being about the end of it - with the potential for most of that being wrapped offscreen before the start of the start of episode VIII.

 

I'm really looking forward to coming back and reading all these opinions you guys have about the new Star Wars film in a year's time after I've watched it on Netflix.

Good morning.

 

I don't think I'll wait as long as Smuel. but it will be awhile before I can see the new Star Wars.
Hopefully before Lucas buys it back and retcons it to add Gungans.

 

I want to discuss the movie but can't be arsed fiddling around with spoiler buttons.

Here is an abstract haiku instead, sans spoilers.

Pew pew jkss jkss zjuuu!
Neeeeerr pew pew pew kepough pough!
Bjoooooooooooooooor jkksjkss

Good morning.

 

I scanned through your post with my eyes quickly, and thought that this was Dutch for a second.

And speaking of Star Wars, some of my lads are enthusiastic as to seeing the new movie, and some are skeptical to it being anything as good as the older ones. Personally, I don't care much - more importantly, I think it's best to have a good seat in the cinema, without some degenerate kicking my chair from behind.

Good morning.

 

The thing is though, the original Star Wars movies really weren't that good. The story was shit, it was the setting that made the movie great.

 

All I knew is that it wasn't Welsh. Far to many vowels.

Those people hate vowels!

Good Morning.

 

Spoiler: Good morning

Good morning

Spoiler: Star Wars 7

Kylo Ren was much less of a geek and a whiny bitch than either Skywalker, and much less schizophrenic than Annakin. Also, I'm glad noone chopped off anyone's hand, yet, because that would have been a formula too far.

The cutesy droid antics were not egregious, at least compared to the ewoks or Jar Jar. It was just like R2D2 in the original trilogy, but with more body language and less beeping. It could have been a lot worse.

The space dogfighting scenes were quick and brutal, and I was relieved they weren't dodging meteors and doing backflips for ten minutes because that beggars belief. It seems like the two jedi fighters were going like 1 m/s at the beginning of episode III, because they spent ten minutes flying a few hundred metres in a straight line.

Everything was done to the original formula, ignoring the prequels entirely, and it openly repeated the old plot devices with just enough airbrushing to make it seem different but the same.

It is a perfect reboot of the original star wars updated for modern audiences. Lucas is properly shamed and the franchise is possibly redeemed. As a movie it was anticlimactic, but as an installment, a success.

That said, I'm taking off one star because it was only perfect when compared to the prequels. I gave my first star when I could understand the opening paragraph and it didn't mention anything about economics.

Four Stars. But if it leads to the prequels being replaced by real cinema, then six out of five.

 

I also saw the new Star Wars film today, and so I'll have a couple of words about it.

Spoiler: I reluctantly put this button here to spare you from the pitiful truth, don't bother clicking if ye haven't watched Star Wars Episode VII.

First of all, I expected the movie to feel a bit dull and as if nothing was actually new, which was partially correct.

To elaborate, I think that there weren't enough new characters introduced. Well, the amount of new characters is high, but their kinds of personalities were familiar and didn't feel much new.

Rey, one of the protagonists, was shallow and a rather typical female film hero. Her lines were rather predictable, which was the case for several other characters too.

Kylo Ren was probably the most disappointing character of them all. It was interesting to have a twist of him being naïve and afraid, a lot like Dorian Gray in Oscar Wilde's classic novel, but that was poorly executed. He should either have been the young afraid man even during the time before he took off his mask, allowing his followers to have their doubts about him, or he should have been a powerful and confident evil leader like what Darth Vader was in episodes IV and V, which would on the other hand put him as one of the things that were repeated heavily from the previous movies.

Another new character is Finn. I love that he deserts and turns against his former leaders, he was executed in a great manner. One of the few characters whom I actually liked. He wasn't extraordinary, but compared to the other characters, I really liked his role in the movie.

BB-8 was also a great disappointment, his role was too large in the movie, but his personality shallow. The "charming little robot" thing was overdone, he could have at least been bigger and have a conveyance method such as walking, or going on wheels like R2-D2. Really, a robot talking in English would have suited a large role like this one better.

Han Solo's death was quick and didn't really capture my feelings. That Kylo Ren tricked him was a good twist, but that was about the only thing capturing me, which was also only for a few seconds. More music in minor tones, more mindless gaping from his friends, and a slower death might have been better, which would have allowed me to geekingly whine and shed tears due to his passing; as the movie is edited now, the scene jumps away too quickly from him, not allowing me to think about his death.

One thing which applies to all new characters is that their personalities weren't well at all developed. Hopefully we'll get to know them more in future movies, but I wish that everyone would have said more, other than just describing the situation. Maybe a conversation between Rey and Finn describing their origins some more would have added to them well. However, that would in its turn not have fit in so well in this episode, perhaps we'll, as I said, have something like this to know them more in the coming episodes.

I will say however, that the VFX and soundtrack were astounding. The soundtrack explains itself, putting the nostalgic feelings into me. I've always liked Star Wars for their classic, orchestral, soundtrack, rather than having some typical boring electronic music such as certain action movies have. The VFX is well done, but nothing particularly new or revolutionary, compared to other movies. What made me love it is that certain classic scenes have received much better special effects, but at the same time the movie didn't feel new. I'm actually unsure what to say about it, more than that.

In conclusion, the new things of the movie were new enough to not be a complete "HD remake" of the previous episodes, but so poorly executed that they might as well should have avoided putting in anything new.

Oh, and of course, good morning.

 

Happy New Year to all. Godspeed. May the wind always be at your back. Bless this house. Live long and prosper. Namaste. May your enemies be driven before you. Good morning.