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Ronnie

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Posts posted by Ronnie

  2. Posted

    7 minutes ago, Julius said:

    but the lack of cohesion and a plan is really what hurt the sequels, even if there's still stuff to enjoy in them. 

    I've often wondered if the original trilogy had come out during the social media age, whether the narrative would be similar to what it is with the sequels. "Empire Strikes Back does a 180 on A New Hope, Darth Vader was never supposed to be Luke's father!" or "Return of the Jedi just goes back to A New Hope and does another Death Start, Leia and Luke are siblings?? pfftt, retcon!". Ok, a bit of an exaggeration but it does make me wonder. Definitely agree with you that a general story outline would have been good for 7, 8 and 9, but I do think that argument is overplayed. The Last Jedi flowed perfectly fine from TFA for me, and even TROS didn't 180 that much. A lot of what people claim it did is just plot development.

    But absolutely agree with you about TLJ. I think the issues some people have with it all boil, deep down, to Luke's anti-hero portrayal in the opening two acts and it colours their entire impression of what was a very well made, thoughtful, engaging film.

    15 minutes ago, Julius said:

    Again, the duel in TROS using it is great, but the angles themselves when Rey and Ben are talking generally felt like a huuuuuuuuuge step down from the framing Rian used in TLJ. 

    I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought the Force Skype™ scenes in TROS were a step down from TLJ. I can't quite put my finger on why. Maybe there was more subtlety in Rian's film, he gave them more time to breathe, whereas TROS was so frantic, the scenes had to be a little rushed. Also you could see Adam Driver emote in 8, whereas he had his helmet on in TROS.

    19 minutes ago, Julius said:

    I do think outside of Luke/Rey/Ben, though, that's where the film is generally at its weakest, and it was almost like Rian tried to cram too many ideas into one film when there were enough ideas to split across two. I think this is the closest to Revenge of the Sith in terms of having great ideas and a great main story thread, but just not executing all around, and so some of the side story stuff falls to the wayside a little bit. 

    Yeah I see what you mean. The Canto Bight sequence gets a lot of flack, and the bits on the cruiser, although I loved both, especially the latter. Oscar Isaac's performance when calling Holdo a coward and a traitor is brilliant, love that scene. As for Luke, it's a little sad that some people seem to fixate on his Ahch-To portrayal, and not, you know, the last act where stories of what happened on that planet inspired the galaxy. The broom boy scene gets so much abuse, but I've no idea why. Could be the same thinking that made Jake Lloyd give up acting after TPM, though obviously on a smaller scale.

    23 minutes ago, Julius said:

    TROS - like you said, great moments, but for me that's all they are; overall, the film is, fundamentally, a mess. It passively aggressively (and other times very aggressively) at times tries to undermine some of Rian's decisions in TLJ, the pacing is the worst in any Star Wars film (think I said when I first watched it something to the effect of while ANH was saved in the edit, TROS was destroyed in it), and yeah, if just drops the ball for the most part I think as what is supposed to be both a Saga-ending and Trilogy-ending film. It's funny because after watching it three times in cinemas and not having much to love about it other than Adam's performance (because the film butchers Williams' score because Disney are stupid and likely wanted a super short final cut to maximise what they could out of the Saga-ending film at the box office), going on looking for things to love worked and there are great moments throughout, but it almost feels at times that the film doesn't flow through those moments but instead delivers one great moment, then takes aim at another, and the 10 minutes between those are basically trying to explain how we get to that next moment. It's very weird. 

    Agree. It's a film that I enjoy watching bits of, 5 minutes here or 20 mins there, but as a whole, it's a mess, and JJ tried to cram waaaay too much in. Too many planets, too many characters, too many story beats, too many setpieces. Keep it simple. I'd have gotten rid of the whole Kijimi scenes, and definitely ditched the rescuing Chewie on the Destroyer. Spent more time on Pasaana, slowed the pace down early on to build over the runtime. I wonder if Disney were pressuring him to make it as epic as possible. Good quote about ANH being saved in the edit and TROS being destroyed in it. All of this with the caveat that it must have been tough to work around Carrie Fisher's passing. They've said numerous times she was going to have a big role in the storyline, so obv it wasn't easy to reshape it all.

    27 minutes ago, Julius said:

    But yeah, I've got appreciation for the sequels, and I did before, I just think IX (kind of understandably) left a poor taste in my mouth when I watched it at release which soured so much of the trilogy for me. My biggest hope, as ever, is that they learn from this so that whenever we get another trilogy, the same mistakes aren't made again :peace:

    Fingers crossed!

    28 minutes ago, Julius said:

    So many other shows aimed at kids I feel might have addressed it in a really hamfisted and direct way ("Why did you do that?"), so I'm glad that they didn't do that here! 

    There's great subtlety to some of the more emotional moments in The Bad Batch, which I really appreciate.

    Glad you enjoyed the first half the season. I wasn't a fan of Faster or Tribe, prob my least liked eps of the whole series, but Entombed was one of my favourites. Incredible visuals, mood and MUSIC!!! As for Faster, it's funny you loved TAY-0, I absolutely hated him :laughing: and I don't use that word often. 

    32 minutes ago, Julius said:

    so that kaiju-looking mech from the Ancients is almost certainly Zeffo tech, right?

    Yeah that's what a lot of fans were speculating at release. I stupidly didn't pick up on the design at first.

    Thought you'd like the clone two parter, it was all really interesting and well made. The final scene in the Senate was great. 

    The Echo stuff at the end of 8 makes sense from a story perspective, he'd been building up resentment of the Batch's aimless wandering around in the build up to this two parter.

    Ep 7 is my probably my favourite of the whole series along with Ep 13, but I doubt many would share that opinion :laughing:. Be interesting to see what you think.

     

  4. Posted · Edited by Ronnie

    Getting great reviews from people who've seen it. Not sure when official reviews are out though.

    Overall consensus seems to be: fun, amazing animation + music/sound, great voice acting, a million easter eggs but the storyline is weak. So basically, a Mario game on the big screen.

    And one bad one:

     

  6. Posted

    On 31/03/2023 at 3:06 AM, Julius said:

    Nah, it's an 8/10 for me...yeah, definitely an 8/10 considering that the positions of the other Saga films beyond the sequels are pretty fixed in my mind at this point :p

    It's funny though, I did actually notice the tree resembling the Jedi Crest (and by extension the Resistance/Rebellion symbols too, though the concept art certainly pushes it towards being more the latter two!), but never picked up on the First Order symbol. Thanks for sharing that!

    Fair enough. Man, I wish that rumoured trilogy from Rian Johnson ends up being real, but I suspect it'll never happen. Would love for him to craft his own story on his own terms though. Would be incredible.

    Interesting thoughts re: your re-watch of the sequels, and always enjoy reading your thoughts on soundtracks and themes, a massive blind spot for me. Generally speaking loved Eps 7 and 8, and loved bits of 9, lots of bits of 9 actually. The Ben/Han scene is incredible, everything on Exegol, Finn going from someone who wants to run away from the First Order in 7 to "...now we take the war to them." + that epic af ship take-off scene. Goosebumps.

    And yeah Adam Driver is fantastic. Great casting and good chemistry with Daisy Ridley.

    13 hours ago, Julius said:

    curious if Crosshair took the shot because he was ordered to do so, or if it was because he wanted to save Cody from having to go against his word? It's obvious in this episode how much Crosshair respects Cody, and it does seem like he lowered his weapon until he had to make the choice and the killshot

    That's a really good point, I hadn't thought of that. Maybe a bit of both following orders and protecting Cody? Brilliant episode though, loved it, and I say that as someone who doesn't typically gravitate towards TCW-type episodes (don't hate me).

    Looking forward to more thoughts of later episodes.

    • Like 1

  9. Posted · Edited by Ronnie

    3 minutes ago, Julius said:

    I have a question to put out there: do we think the XYZ coordinates on the mini-map seen in the demo are here to stay? 

    I ask because a lot of the breakdown videos I've seen are treating it as fact that it'll make it into the game, and while it would be nice and make things like guides and walkthroughs easier when seeking certain items/locations, I honestly thought watching the demo that it was just something they'd left in from the test build. 

    On the one hand, Aonuma did say that development of the game is now complete...but on the other, he didn't actually say we were seeing the completed product (even if it did feel implied).

    The other thing that has me on the fence about it being included is the fact that, well, it looks terrible and tacked on (kind of like a dev option), as it can't be read clearly at all at certain points of the demo (light text on the light background representing the sky islands in particular). If it were to be included in the full release, I'd have to imagine there'd be a dark ring around the mini-map (or something along those lines) to house those coordinates instead? 

    So yeah, curious to know what others think :peace:

    I think it's just leftover code from development and it won't be in the final game. I'm not sure Nintendo wants people to be trading exact coordinates for things, and instead just stumble on and discover stuff naturally. And yeah, the fact that it's not always legible suggests that too.

    • Like 1

  12. Posted

    Chapter 21... fantastic. Much as I've been loving the season so far, definitely feels like it needed a bit of a kick up the arse, overall storyline wise. But eps 3 and 4 in particular seem to have laid the foundations for future eps, same as we say in Andor.

    Tons to talk about...

    Spoiler

    Zeb is easily top 5 favourite Star Wars characters for me, so to see him in live action was incredible. He was perfect. And voiced by Steve Blum, naturally. :heart: I was dubious that he would show up in Ahsoka but I think you're right @Julius feels like an inevitability now.

    Great to see Carson Teva. Loved the Adelphi base, Y-wings! Definitely fitting in some Rangers storyline, even though I'm pretty sure Kathleen Kennedy mentioned not much of it had been written before it got cancelled.

    Loved Bo's mission briefing during hyperspace, great music, great editing. Very cool. And gotta love a hyperspace pull-out animation. Yes fucking please.

    The Nevarro battle was spectacular and it's becoming a bit of a running theme with this show: top notch action. The gauntlet and the N-1 working together is great fun to watch, though they really need to tone down the Mando 'whistle' whenever he does something cool. Less is more guys. :laughing:

    Loved the whole 'returning to Nevarro as heroes' angle.

    Really feels like Bo is getting the lions share of attention this season. Not complaining, just an interesting choice. I wonder if Pedro Pascal couldn't commit much time, even for voice recordings.

    I was really surprised (and gutted) to see them kill Gorian Shard, feels like he became a fan favourite after just 20 seconds of screen-time in the opening episode :laughing:  Plus, another absolute beauty of a ship destroyed before its time :cry: I did love the extra large communication from him to Greef, baddies always get the room-filling holograms.

    It's funny you go in with expectations that Paz will be a dick and the Armorer the ultimate villain. That may still be the case, but time and time again they surprise me.

    A few small negatives, a couple of ropey performances. The New Republic dude who turns down Carson Teva was not good. Also all the murmurs and hushed conversations between all the Mandos during that meeting was hilariously OTT. I'm also not the biggest fan of Thane, so it's a shame he survived and not the pirate king. And finally, could have maybe done with making the battle a little tougher, felt a bit easy.

    1 hour ago, Julius said:

    I'm guessing Bo's crew captured him and so we'll see him turn up again when Bo finds her crew again? 

    That's a good call ! I'm pretty sure the actor who plays the dude in her old squad said he was back for S3 but I could be wrong.

    As for the New Republic being useless, yeah it's a tough watch. What softens the blow is their intentions are obviously noble and good. I suppose it would have been dull if they were perfect from the beginning and maybe post TROS they will be again.

    I'll give this one a 9/10, loved it. Sad there's only three episodes left. Next week could be a great one though given it's Bryce Dallas Howard in the Director's chair. I'm expecting a weird and wacky Mando/Grogu-centric episode and a trip to that droid bar?

    • Like 1

  16. Posted

    3 hours ago, Julius said:

    and that's whether or not Nintendo would actually do something about weapon durability (they have, in a wacky and wonderful way that only they could)

    I was going to say something similar. I love their clever/crazy way they handled the weapon durability thing. For me, it's a system that's central to the game design, so I'm relieved it's still in, but the way they've expanded on it is genius.

    3 hours ago, Julius said:

    The fact that they didn't focus on the spiral-emitting rock things when we saw one on our way up to the falling debris that Aonuma used Recall on, and which many assume are going to be this game's alternative to the Shrines in BotW, I think is a good sign that dungeons are in

    I always felt like the 80 or so puzzle shrines from BOTW were the equivalent of four or so traditional dungeons, just broken up into pieces to fill the openworld with, so be interesting if they can have traditional dungeons AND a similar number of shrine type things as BOTW.

    3 hours ago, Julius said:

    Oh, and a second lastly, actually: can we just acknowledge the genius of the game's originality in its mechanics and how that is going to spread like wildfire and make it such an obvious viral hit online? Nintendo have done such a great job this generation of making shareable moments that are built into their game's mechanics and experiences, which is an incredibly potent marketing tool that we don't get to see many others put to good use (because, well, no-one seems to put out as consistently deep games mechanically as Nintendo). 

    Absolutely. The new mechanics shown off are ideal for years of social media posts of people discovering things or sharing funny moments.

    3 hours ago, colormonkey said:

    So, what kind of scores from the critics are you hoping for?

    No way it beats BOTW, I'll say about 94 on MC. But like @killthenet says, there'll be a few outlier clickbaity scores "glorified DLC" etc that'll drag the average down.

  17. Posted · Edited by Ronnie

    A game world that needs to be constructed around, for starters:

    - rewinding various objects trajectories and being able to ride them/stop them at any point.
    - building your own means of transport
    - phasing through ceilings

    funnily enough, takes a long time to design.

    Are you seriously comparing Spirit Tracks, with its sectioned-off gameplay areas, with the above?

    2 hours ago, Dcubed said:

    It's remarkably inefficient production compared to not only BOTW itself, but every single previous Zelda title ever made.

    Once again, you talk as if you know everything the game has to offer. You don't.

    2 hours ago, Dcubed said:

    If they're struggling to put out what is oestenably a glorified DLC expansion

    I wish you'd put this at the top of your post, I'd have known to stop reading there. 

  18. Posted

    As if there was any doubt, they're literal gameplay geniuses over at Nintendo.

    Like @Julius said the way everything is so seamless is fantastic. Ultrahand looks crazy ! I assumed there'd be some menu system to get through to make things but I guess not!

    An incredible sandbox game seemingly made even more incredible.Very restrained showing too, great to see.

    14 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

    (and no, COVID is not an excuse)

    Why not?

    (not that I think there's anything to 'excuse', for the record)

    • Like 1

  19. Posted

    8 minutes ago, Julius said:

    It's looking unlikely at this point, but if that does happen, you'll be my first port of call :peace:

    Thank you! Hopefully no last min changes for you though.

    Yeah I'm not sure if more tickets = better chance at success. I would have thought single ticket orders would have more luck, but who knows.

    Found a guy happy to sell a Showcase on Galaxy stage QR for $35. Might do it and try and find another for my me/my sister, we'll see. With that there's still the danger of hoping the person doesn't sell it multiple times.

    8 minutes ago, Julius said:

    Was definitely a bit of a mad scramble in the 10 minutes leading up to the reservation queue going live and quickly figuring out which actual slots I'd be free for depending on panel times, which is why I went for Friday evening. 

    At least you're familiar with the reservation system now, it'll be the same for on the day panel reservations. I had 3 phones up and one got in faster than the other two.

    10 minutes ago, Julius said:

    Absolutely abysmal messaging though, totally agreed. I had three devices open and got through on two of them just 30 seconds or so apart, after booking mine I quickly added the same slot for my friend and it wouldn't process (so fully booked I gathered), so he'll be going 17:30 - 18:00 instead. Shouldn't really impact his purchasing ability (and from what yourself and others have said, it's not impossible to get in at another time just by lining up) but just splits us up for no real good reason

    If people have 2 or 3 tickets on their order, they should be able to make one reservation for 2 or 3 people. It's bizarre they expect people to be split up. But yeah like I said, I imagine that late in the day you'll just be able to walk in anyway. 

    12 minutes ago, Julius said:

    Going back to avoiding panels and queue times when organising a slot, though, that struck me as really poor planning: having Lightspeed Lane reservations up before we even know what panels we've got into? Seen countless posts on Reddit and in the Discord about how people won't be turning up to their reservation because they got a panel lottery win! 

    Yeah, they should have switched it around, last year panel wins were announced the day after the lottery closed but this time it took an extra week, dunno why. As for double-booking, you'd hope people would just avoid booking a 11-12 slot, but I think there's early morning exclusives like pins and Funkos, so earlier tends to sell faster.

    14 minutes ago, Julius said:

    No email, no update on Showclix

    arrived about 30 minutes ago :blank:

    :laughing:

    16 minutes ago, Julius said:

    Not to bash the organisation of the event too hard, because I'm sure it'll be a lovely time regardless, but as someone who takes on the role of organiser in my group (and all the anxiety that comes with that): wth ReedPop and co.! :nono:

    From what I gather, ReedPop are universally disliked. So you're not alone there.

    Excited for Mando tomorrow, I imagine this is where we head back to Nevarro. Also they keep referring to the Bad Batch two parter as the season finale so hopefully that means there's more to come. :heart:

  20. Posted · Edited by Ronnie

    Fantastic, congrats! You should def be chuffed with that. As usual there are reports of people getting into 3 or 4 and even more getting into 0, so two out of five is a great return. Of the two you got, the Showcase is definitely the one you'll want to be in the Celebration stage for, and it's a great way of kicking off Celebration. I got into one panel, Bad Batch on the Celebration stage, for me and my nephew, the exact same one I got into (officially) in Anaheim :laughing:. A little disappointed I didn't get a second as well (Showcase or Ahsoka) but never mind. I'm loving the series so much so it'll be great. Still holding out hope of blagging my way into another one, constantly checking Facebook/eBay. If god forbid you have any last minute cancellations in your group I would selflessly take a QR code off your hands for a decent fee btw :D tbh, I think I might just try queueing up in the standby line at 8. 

    And yeah got a Store reservation easily enough (despite their terrible messaging in terms of number of people per order allowed). How about you? 

    11 hours ago, Julius said:

    A little nervous about potentially lining up for Obi-Wan as it starts at 13:30 and Villains ends at 12:00, so we'll see what happens ::shrug:

    Just head straight there I'd suggest.

    11 hours ago, Julius said:

    And lastly, out of curiosity: have you received or had any updates on your tickets yet? I'm still waiting on mine for now, won't let nerves kick in unless they're still not here by the weekend!

    Got an email today saying they'd been shipped, about time! You'll be alright. They sent international tickets first I believe. UK ones last. Ah that's annoying re: Lyte, you're right, very scalper like prices. And they aren't exactly cheap to begin with!

     

    • Like 1

  23. Posted

    On 21/03/2023 at 9:54 PM, Julius said:

    Yeah it's just one of those where I put my hands up and shrug, I think it's a terrible decision from both a fan and business perspective, but wcyd ::shrug:

    I'd be really curious to hear their actual reasoning on the decision, but obviously that's unlikely to happen. Businesses just seem obsessed with controlling the messaging these days, so it's just an extension of that I guess. The funnyt hing is all the footage they showed last year of Mando and Ahsoka looked polished and ready for broadcast, it wasn't rough looking at all. (like that first footage of Mando they ever showed to the public apparently was)

    On 21/03/2023 at 9:54 PM, Julius said:

    What I will say too is that I'm kind of baffled that they aren't figuring out some way to tie it into Disney+. How about a £30 stream pass for SWC that gives you complete access like the good old days, with interviews and then being able to show the full panels? If there's something Disney likes more than keeping things on the DL it's certainly more money in its pockets! 

    That'd be a great idea! Sign me up. Even if it's just the major panels, kind of like a pay-per-view type thing.

    On 21/03/2023 at 9:54 PM, Julius said:

    I will say though, I do wish it was tweaked just a little so that more people got to experience at least one of the major panels, vs what I read a lot about last year where some lucky people got into multiple lotto panels and others got into zero. I don't think there's a perfect scenario, in London at least, where everyone could get into at least one major panel, but yeah, just spread the love of Celebration a little I guess? 

    Yeah giving most people a minimum of 1 and maybe a maximum of 2 to spread things around would be ideal, though I imagine the numbers would still come up short there, especially in London with much smaller rooms.

    On 21/03/2023 at 9:54 PM, Julius said:

    Yeah, I am a bit worried about some characters ending up being watered down versions of their animated selves to be honest

    All the Mandos in Mando are so stoic and stiff it'd be great to have Sabine have a bit more personality. Same with Ezra of course. I get that time would have passed obviously, but still. Fingers crossed.

  24. Posted · Edited by Ronnie

    Chapter 20 of Mando... have to say I wasn't a massive fan of this one. Carl Weathers directed my least favourite of S2 and I get the feeling it'll be the same in S3. It wasn't bad by any means and re-watches definitely helped a bit.

    Spoiler

    I get that Grogu's rescuing from the Jedi temple is important to people (though I'm not entirely sure why the details matter so much), but I'd have shortened that sequence. It was lovely to see Ahmed Best in another Star Wars though and look awesome at the same time. Loved his lightsaber fighting style.

    I love Paz Vizla's armour, the character himself is cool in general. I figured they might be setting him up as more of an antagonist role, but after this ep maybe not? Same with the armourer actually.

    Baby dragons were cute, so were the rock crabs at the start. 

    And as usual, Mandos on this show completely incapable of saying "isn't" or "didn't" or "aren't" instead of "is not", "did not" and "are not" continue to wind me up. 

    Love how episodic the series continues to be, each one a mini adventure. Big fan.

    Probably a 6.5/10 for me. It was enjoyable, but definitely my least favourite of the season so far. Seems to be getting good reviews online though, so what do I know.

    21 hours ago, Julius said:

    I don't think there's been an episode on the 30 - 35 minutes range of live-action Star Wars that I've really loved so far (could be forgetting one I guess)

    Chapter 2 is one of my favourites and I think that's the shortest episode of the whole series. But yeah fair enough, 40+ mins for most would be good.

  25. Posted

    8 hours ago, bob said:

    I came in here to read Mando reactions, and can't find them amongst all the Conchat.

    Here's a tip, the posts that talk about Mando start with:

    On 02/03/2023 at 12:33 AM, Ronnie said:

    Chapter 17. Definitely a prologue of sorts.

    On 01/03/2023 at 9:57 PM, Julius said:

    Just got finished S3 E1 of The Mandalorian, or Chapter 17 – The Apostate. Here are some random and not really cohesive thoughts

    On 08/03/2023 at 10:06 PM, Julius said:

    Just finished E2 S3 of Mando...

    On 15/03/2023 at 11:03 PM, Julius said:

    Earlier this evening I watched Mando S3 E3...

    On 16/03/2023 at 2:07 AM, Ronnie said:

    Wow, a ton to unpack with Chapter 19.

    on the previous page and this one.

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