Unpopular opinions/going against the grain of the conventional wisdom, let's talk about it

For all topics regarding speculative fiction of every stripe. Otherwise known as the Geek Cave.
User avatar
BridgeConsoleMasher
Overlord
Posts: 11638
Joined: Tue Aug 28, 2018 6:18 am

Re: Unpopular opinions/going against the grain of the conventional wisdom, let's talk about it

Post by BridgeConsoleMasher »

Beastro wrote: Fri May 15, 2020 6:13 am
BridgeConsoleMasher wrote: Wed May 13, 2020 3:08 am Episode 2 is a great Star Wars movie.
It would have been had it been Episode 1 and we'd gotten a proper Episode 2 that showed off the meat of the Civil War before the 3rd concluded it.

The Phantom Menace should have been an unattached establishing movie disconnected from "the trilogy".

That might be an unpopular opinion, depending on how the contrarian winds are blowing now, but Star Wars could very well have been hobbled, and continues to be hobbled, by the trilogy obsession.
GreyICE wrote: Fri May 15, 2020 6:19 am Alright, but if they'd launched their first Star Wars movie in like 20 years and it was a goddamn spin off prequel there would have been riots.
lol.

I guess, like I would say that Episode 2 is greatly hindered by how mediocre the first movie was, and that it probably should definitely just be part 1 -- perhaps leaving everything else as is.

But as it is, a large jedi arena battle even after a somewhat meticulous and drawn out buildup is bounds ahead of a kid accidentally blowing up a space station. Even including the Maul fight it doesn't stack up.
..What mirror universe?
GreyICE
Captain
Posts: 1011
Joined: Mon May 29, 2017 7:12 pm

Re: Unpopular opinions/going against the grain of the conventional wisdom, let's talk about it

Post by GreyICE »

Oh, actually another one. I've been mulling it over, but here you go. Season 1 of Discovery is better than Season 1 of Picard.
Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs

- Republican Party Platform
Captain Crimson
Captain
Posts: 1541
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2020 10:37 pm

Re: Unpopular opinions/going against the grain of the conventional wisdom, let's talk about it

Post by Captain Crimson »

Here is one that is for sure guaranteed to get me some degree of raised eyebrows and head-shaking, but since I'm on a massive SW kick, gonna say it. I would rather have Mr. Johnson than Mr. Filoni or Mr. Abrams. Hot take, I know, but there it is.
User avatar
Link8909
Captain
Posts: 579
Joined: Thu May 21, 2020 6:39 pm
Location: Kent, England
Contact:

Re: Unpopular opinions/going against the grain of the conventional wisdom, let's talk about it

Post by Link8909 »

Captain Crimson wrote: Fri May 22, 2020 9:17 pm Here is one that is for sure guaranteed to get me some degree of raised eyebrows and head-shaking, but since I'm on a massive SW kick, gonna say it. I would rather have Mr. Johnson than Mr. Filoni or Mr. Abrams. Hot take, I know, but there it is.
While I have nothing against JJ Abrams and Dave Filoni (I'm currently watching The Clone Wars all the way through and really enjoying it, I'm near the end of Season 5), I really like what Rian Johnson did in The Last Jedi.

I love the speech from Yoda about letting failure be a teacher and not something to rule over you to the point you give up; I love the message throughout the film about how the battle against evil is an important one to be fought by showing the price of neutrality from DJ and Luke; the Force bond that Rey and Kylo Ren was fantastic, it gave them two some great interactions, expanded the possibility's of the Force and I'm super happy that we got more of it in The Rise Of Skywalker; the action was great, the acting was great (especially from Mark Hamill), and overall I had a great time watching The Last Jedi.

I personally also enjoyed The Force Awakens and The Rise Of Skywalker, I think they are good films too, they both capture that Star Wars feel very well, especially recently re-watching The Rise Of Skywalker which personally had me smiling all the was though, I love the return of the Emperor and the Sith planet Exegol, I personally like the reveal of Rey being a Palpatine as well, it gives Rey this internal conflict (is she meant to be a bad person? should she have just stayed on Jakku to protect the galaxy?), and the message of the film (and the overall theme of the Sequel Trilogy) that we are who we choose to be, and once again the action and acting was great.

I think with hindsight there should have been one Director throughout this trilogy, and while JJ Abrams can capture the feel of Star Wars, I personal think Rian Johnson is capable of doing that as well as JJ Abrams and can push the franchise out of its comfort zone and give people something new that they may not have known they wanted to begin with, so I hope he does get to work on future Star Wars films.

For me personally, this trilogy is done and there's no sense getting furious about it, I personally will enjoy them for what they are (both the good parts and the bad parts), and as Yoda taught Luke in The Last Jedi, I hope that whatever the future is for Star Wars, that the mistakes of the past can be a teacher and help be used to build a better future.
Last edited by Link8909 on Sat May 23, 2020 10:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"I think, when one has been angry for a very long time, one gets used to it. And it becomes comfortable like…like old leather. And finally… it becomes so familiar that one can't remember feeling any other way."

- Jean-Luc Picard
Captain Crimson
Captain
Posts: 1541
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2020 10:37 pm

Re: Unpopular opinions/going against the grain of the conventional wisdom, let's talk about it

Post by Captain Crimson »

Link8909 wrote: Sat May 23, 2020 7:44 pm
Captain Crimson wrote: Fri May 22, 2020 9:17 pm Here is one that is for sure guaranteed to get me some degree of raised eyebrows and head-shaking, but since I'm on a massive SW kick, gonna say it. I would rather have Mr. Johnson than Mr. Filoni or Mr. Abrams. Hot take, I know, but there it is.
While I have nothing against JJ Abrams and Dave Filoni (I'm currently watching The Clone Wars all the way through and really enjoying it, I'm near the end of Season 5), I really like what Rian Johnson did in The Last Jedi.

I love the speech from Yoda about letting failure be a teacher and not something to rule over you to the point you give up; I love the message throughout the film about how the battle against evil is an important one to be fought by showing the price of neutrality from DJ and Luke; the Force bond that Rey and Kylo Ren was fantastic, it gave them two some great interactions, expanded the possibility's of the Force and I'm super happy that we got more of it in The Rise Of Skywalker; the action was great, the acting was great (especially from Mark Hamill), and overall I had a great time watching The Last Jedi.

I personally also enjoyed The Force Awakens and The Rise Of Skywalker, I think they are good films too, they both capture that Star Wars feel very well, especially recently re-watching The Rise Of Skywalker which personally had me smiling all the was though, I love the return of the Emperor and the Sith planet Exegol, I personally like the reveal of Rey being a Palpatine as well, it gives Rey this internal conflict (is she meant to be a bad person? should she have just stayed on Jakku to protect the galaxy?), and the message of the film (and the overall theme of the Sequel Trilogy) that we are who we choose to be, and once again the action and acting was great.

I think with hindsight there should have been one Director throughout this trilogy, and while JJ Abrams can capture the feel of Star Wars, I personal think Rian Johnson is capable of doing that as well as JJ Abrams and can push the franchise out of its comfort zone and give people something new that they may not have known they wanted to begin with, so I hope he does gets to work on future Star Wars films.

For me personally, this trilogy is done and there's no sense getting furious about it, I personally will enjoy them for what they are (both the good parts and the bad parts), and as Yoda taught Luke in The Last Jedi, I hope that whatever the future is for Star Wars, that the mistakes of the past can be a teacher and help be used to build a better future.
I think in terms of creativity, Mr. Johnson works better if he's not having to conform to preexisting lore. He's made some solid movies. Though his Twitter tirades and then deleting 20,000 tweets to try and deny he ever went too far is facepalming. People such as Mr. Filoni and Mr. Abrams try and follow more along the line to what the original lore does, but muck it up badly along the way to the point it was better off if you hadn't done that. There is something to be said for wanting to follow your own creative vision. But I would trust Mr. Johnson to make a Star Wars movie before Mr. Abrams or Mr. Filoni.

I belong to the segment of fandom where I've watched the prequels in-depth, and I've read the tie-in material, and so my perspective is unique compared to other segments of fandom like the OT fanboys who then latched to TCW because they felt let down by the prequels, but never checked the spin-off material. And I believe that for all it does good, that TCW does not enrich the lore, and it was largely unnecessary. Mr. Chuck himself has called this era oversaturated, and it bleeds over into other areas of lore. And it began in 2008 with TCW. I don't even consider it part of SW so much as the Filoniverse. Which the DC has built on. If you love TCW, approach it on those terms.
ChrisTheLovableJerk
Officer
Posts: 288
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2018 10:31 pm

Re: Unpopular opinions/going against the grain of the conventional wisdom, let's talk about it

Post by ChrisTheLovableJerk »

Captain Crimson wrote: Fri May 22, 2020 9:17 pm Here is one that is for sure guaranteed to get me some degree of raised eyebrows and head-shaking, but since I'm on a massive SW kick, gonna say it. I would rather have Mr. Johnson than Mr. Filoni or Mr. Abrams. Hot take, I know, but there it is.
Unpopular opinion from me. I wouldn't trust Johnson to direct traffic. The fact that, according to his TCM bio, he got rejected from film school five times until he wrote a letter whining about how hard it was to get it should show you what kind of talent he actually has. TLJ is one of the worst movies I've ever sat through, I legit can't think of anything I liked about it that isn't undone by how atrociously written and directed the film is and it's themes are shallow folderol.
Artabax
Officer
Posts: 269
Joined: Sat Jul 14, 2018 11:03 pm

Re: Unpopular opinions/going against the grain of the conventional wisdom, let's talk about it

Post by Artabax »

I like Trek movie 5: Spok kills God = Logic disproves God.
Self sealing stem bolts don't just seal themselves, you know.
User avatar
BridgeConsoleMasher
Overlord
Posts: 11638
Joined: Tue Aug 28, 2018 6:18 am

Re: Unpopular opinions/going against the grain of the conventional wisdom, let's talk about it

Post by BridgeConsoleMasher »

What does Spock need with a motivation to kill god?
..What mirror universe?
User avatar
Beelzquill
Officer
Posts: 453
Joined: Tue Dec 19, 2017 4:55 am

Re: Unpopular opinions/going against the grain of the conventional wisdom, let's talk about it

Post by Beelzquill »

Allright, this is a weird one that will need explaining.

In the history of a Song of Ice and Fire there was this civil war called the Dance of the dragons between two rival heirs of the last king. One side was the Blacks led by Rhaenyra who was the last kings eldest child and the other side (called the Greens) was led by Aegon, the last kings eldest surviving son. Most people in the fandom side with the Blacks because the last king declared Rhaenyra his heir and the Greens were more villainous in their actions overall.
I personally support the Greens not because I believe in Agnatic primogeniture (I don't). I just believe that Rhaenyra being the first ruling queen sets a bad precedent due to the obvious facts that she had three bastards that she claimed were from her first husband and she claimed as her heirs and her husbands (who was gay and died before the war but that's another story). Having her be queen basically invailidates Marriage alliances which were really important at the time and makes the throne weaker. Unfair to her probably but it would have been better precedent for the future of the crown at the time anyway.

Yeah, I know really minor in the grand schemes of Asoiaf anyway.
User avatar
clearspira
Overlord
Posts: 5688
Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2017 12:51 pm

Re: Unpopular opinions/going against the grain of the conventional wisdom, let's talk about it

Post by clearspira »

Artabax wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2020 8:36 pm I like Trek movie 5: Spok kills God = Logic disproves God.
I've always liked it too. I have always thought that the row your boat scene is poignant.
Post Reply