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Post by The Captain on Dec 30, 2022 7:01:11 GMT -5
This was the conversation I had with my younger daughter the other day while she was watching Star Wars. I pointed out all of the garbage CGI crap that Lucas threw into the Mos Eisley street scenes, the extra cantina aliens, Han shooting first, the Jabba scene, etc. At one point she asked me if there was anything I still liked about the movie, to which I bluntly replied “the original version I saw in theaters”. And yet, none of it altered the story or the characters I fell in love with as an 8 year old in '77. They are still there any and every time I watch the move no matter what edition. -M I can't get past how the movie itself has been altered. The CGI elements are so obviously out of place, like first She-Hulk trailer bad, that my eye is drawn to them immediately, taking me out of the story. The Jabba scene should have been left on the cutting room floor (or the original comics, albeit with a different-looking Jabba). He isn't well-integrated into the background, so he looks completely fake, and much of the dialogue is relaying information that was already covered between Han and Greedo in the cantina. As well, the Boba Fett cameo is cheesy, as he looks directly at the camera in an almost-knowing fashion; this is fan service at its absolute worst. I don't care if Lucas wants to monkey with the film until the day he dies, churning out endless new editions of it with just one more cool thing he thought of while sitting on his golden throne, but for the purists, for the people who loved the movie that was released in 1977 and don't care that he can do more now because of technology, just make that version available for us to enjoy. As others have pointed out, Lucas's changes alter the character arc of Han Solo pretty drastically. But there are lots of other smaller, but no less significant ways in which the changes alter the story beats and undercut the dramatic tension found in the original film. To give just one example, the whole seriousness and menace of the visit to Mos Eisley is completely undercut and spoiled by the new CGI additions. The spaceport is supposed to be a scary place. The scene on the bluff overlooking the spaceport, in which Kenobi describes it as a "wretched hive of scum and villainy" and tells Luke "we must be cautious", is there precisely to establish that the characters are about to go into a perilous place. But in the SE, this scene is immediately followed by a badly animated slapstick routine involving a droid hitting a floating remote and a Jawa falling off of a startled Ronto, completely destroying the dramatic tension set up in the previous scene. This is just bad filmmaking, pure and simple. Actually, the whole Greedo shooting first thing also contributes to this "defanging" of Mos Eisley, by making both Han and Greedo less dangerous characters. IRT the bolded portion, I say 1000 times yes! Those little things add nothing to the story; they're gingerbread that Lucas added only because he could due to technology. It's the same kind of silliness that infiltrated the prequels, like Jar Jar Binks' pratfalls and fart jokes, when playing it straight would have been so much better.
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Post by The Captain on Dec 29, 2022 13:17:25 GMT -5
I'd try and look for them unedited if you can (not trying to advocate piracy, but). The current versions (blu-ray/Disney +) incorporate elements from the special editions like Han shooting first etc.
I've heard stories that basically Lucas messed with the original negative of the film or something and it's now considered lost? IDK, it sounds ludicrous to me honestly
If they don't want them pirated they'll make the real versions available instead of the versions Lucas took his crayons to. This was the conversation I had with my younger daughter the other day while she was watching Star Wars. I pointed out all of the garbage CGI crap that Lucas threw into the Mos Eisley street scenes, the extra cantina aliens, Han shooting first, the Jabba scene, etc. At one point she asked me if there was anything I still liked about the movie, to which I bluntly replied “the original version I saw in theaters”.
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Post by The Captain on Dec 24, 2022 13:33:05 GMT -5
Proud dad moment yesterday for me. I came downstairs from reading, and my younger daughter was sitting on the couch watching Star Wars (the original). I asked her why, and she said it was about time she got around to checking it out. We’re going to watch the rest of the initial trilogy this week.
In the afternoon, she sat down with me and watched the first two episodes of Firefly. Said she liked it and would keep going with it, but only if I watch it with her.
The plan for tomorrow night is to finish rewatching Hawkeye, then all of us, at both of my daughters’ request, are going to watch my favorite Christmas movie of all time, that being Die Hard.
My daughters are awesome. #GirlDad4Life
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Post by The Captain on Dec 23, 2022 15:57:03 GMT -5
Currently -2 here in Western Pennsylvania, with a windchill of -28 or so, and winds are 25-30 mph, but on the plus side, it's going to warm up to almost 7 degrees by midnight, so we got that going for us.
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Post by The Captain on Dec 22, 2022 11:40:13 GMT -5
Slam_Bradley , glad you enjoyed it. It’s also great that they got Gwendoline Christie in the show, and the young woman who plays Enid is super likable and is a fabulous counterpoint to Wednesday. Yeah, I really liked the lil gal that played Enid. Super cute, but you suspect there's hidden depth. I don't really know Gwendoline Christie (I've still not watched Game of Thrones). I guess she was also in a Star Wars movie, but those honestly leave almost zero impression on my noggin at this point. The two things that I know Christie from are GoT, as you mentioned, and Sandman, where she played Lucifer. Her height obviously helps, but the woman has serious screen presence whenever she’s there.
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Post by The Captain on Dec 22, 2022 10:57:41 GMT -5
Slam_Bradley, glad you enjoyed it. Jenna Ortega was on some Disney Channel show my daughters used to watch, and she was the absolute best thing about the handful of episodes I had the misfortune of seeing. She is just loaded with talent. It’s also great that they got Gwendoline Christie in the show, and the young woman who plays Enid is super likable and is a fabulous counterpoint to Wednesday.
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Post by The Captain on Dec 21, 2022 11:48:20 GMT -5
My father actually had gotten offered tickets to the Immaculate Reception game, but he turned them down because he and my mother already had plans to do some Christmas stuff that day (this was the year before I was born, so it was just the two of them).
I honestly believe he holds a grudge against her to this day for him missing what is the second-greatest event in Pittsburgh sports history.
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Post by The Captain on Dec 21, 2022 8:56:08 GMT -5
I love all of the money that the “other” New York team spent this offseason, as it makes them all the more unlikeable. My Christmas wish for them is nothing but underperformance from their mercenary squad and irrelevance in both the New York market as well as the NL East.
Growing up, I HATED them and the Phillies (obviously), but then the Powers That Be decided to make the Pirates a “Midwest” team and pair them up with the Cubs, Reds, Cardinals, Brewers, and Astros (at least until the latter shifted leagues). I could never work up the animosity toward any of those clubs, although the Cardinals and Cubs gave it a good try, that I had for New York and Philadelphia.
As we used to say at Three Rivers Stadium from the cheap seats: Muck the Fets!!
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Post by The Captain on Dec 21, 2022 8:33:26 GMT -5
Can’t believe it’s been three-and-a-half months since anyone added to this thread.
Anyway, has anyone else watched Wednesday on Netflix? It wasn’t something on my radar, but I sat down with my daughters for the first couple of episodes and got hooked, so I kept going with it through to the end.
I thought I’d figured it out the mystery by the fifth episode, but I was completely wrong, which I enjoyed. The fan service bits and nods to both the original show and the two movies were clever, which just added to the overall quality. Definitely recommend this show.
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Post by The Captain on Dec 21, 2022 8:10:34 GMT -5
A few betrayals later, the Space Phantom is defeated when he tries to change places with Rick Jones but can’t because of the Captain Marvel Symbiotic relationship. See The Captain , Rick Jones saves the day again. I’m feeling triggered. It’s exactly this kind of harassment that shows why the forum needs a “dislike” button. And as I’ve pointed out time and time again, Rick Jones succeeding, in this instance and many others, has nothing to do with any specific actions he’s consciously taken but rather pure, EXTREMELY dumb luck or happenstance.
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Post by The Captain on Dec 19, 2022 10:03:06 GMT -5
Just don’t like penalty shoot-outs in finals. I know you couldn’t really expect teams to play indefinitely, we could end up with five hours of extra time. The NHL says “yes you can”. One of my fondest memories of college is writing an entire final paper for my US Military History class during the span of one NHL playoff game. I was the only non-ROTC student in the class; it was a requirement for them, I was just taking it for poops and giggles, so I wasn’t taking it entirely as seriously as I should have. On May 4, 2000, I sat down to write my last paper shortly before puck drop between my Penguins and the Philthy Flyers, figuring I’d bang out some of it that night, then finish it the next day. The game ended in the wee hours of the morning with 8 minutes left in the 5TH overtime period, with the Penguins finally falling by the score of 2-1. The two teams had played an extra 92 minutes, putting in a little over 2-1/2 games’ worth of ice time. The paper was completed sometime between the third and fourth OT periods, and I was able to do nothing the next day other than recover from that marathon.
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Post by The Captain on Dec 18, 2022 5:37:36 GMT -5
I thought Morbius was an odd choice but I've literally never even heard of this villain. wouldn't surprise me if this book is going nuts on ebay! -M A copy of this issue sold for over $200 yesterday on eBay. At least three or four others sold for at least $75, and a bunch of them sold for at least $45. What frightens me even more is that there were actually TWO slabbed 8.5 versions that sold. Who the heck slabbed the first appearance of Hypno-Hustler without any prior knowledge that this announcement was coming? We are truly living in the darkest timeline.
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Post by The Captain on Dec 17, 2022 8:04:33 GMT -5
On the roundabout discussion, I absolutely LOVED driving them when I was in Wales in 2019, even though I was learning to drive on the "other" side of the road for the first time. We had a Nissan hybrid small SUV (akin to a Subaru Outback), and that thing got 77 mpg because we NEVER stopped moving; my hybrid here in the states, at its best, was only getting 61 mpg because there is a stop sign or stop light at every intersection. Once a person figures out the flow and how to maneuver through them, roundabouts are a breeze.
On the "bendy bus" discussion, Pittsburgh has loads of them. Used to ride them all the time from the suburbs into our downtown area when I worked down there.
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Post by The Captain on Dec 8, 2022 11:49:29 GMT -5
We have Netflix, Amazon Prime (although this is more of a throw-in because my wife utilizing the two-day shipping from Prime as the primary reason we pay for it), and the Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+ bundle, as well as Spotify Premium (which is mostly for my daughters, although my wife and I use it to some extent).
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Post by The Captain on Dec 8, 2022 9:22:48 GMT -5
I just want to say that I really admire and appreciate the passion that you primary contributors to this thread have for pro wrestling. I dabbled in it from the late 1980s through about 2005, but never to the degree that you all obviously do.
I don’t have much to add to the conversation, but I thoroughly enjoy reading what you all post and learning more about this stuff, especially the deep dives you do on the territories in the pre-WCW/WWF days.
Cheers!
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