CPF Reviews #6: You Can't Go Home Again-The Dark Side of "The Force Awakens"
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- Опубликовано: 19 окт 2017
- The Force Awakens was hailed as a huge critical and commercial success, but is it really a worthy successor to Star Wars, or a cynical cash-grab? Corn Pone Flicks presents its view.
Развлечения
This is a monumental review, dude. I enjoyed every bit of it. I'm sharing it right now!
Thanks a lot. My channel is tiny, and can use all of the exposure it can get. We seem have a lot of the same problems with the film. I wish I'd had time to get into the whole "practical effects" issue (I suppose I could have whittled it down to that one really crappy bird puppet that in no way looks better than most every CG effect made these days), but I try to keep these things to half an hour or less.
I think it's the perfect length, and the pacing is also very fluid.
Yeah..... I'm confounded as to why this doesn't have more views. Shared as well.
Well, I'll hazard a few guesses: RUclips is saturated with videos on the subject as it is, and now people have moved on to bashing the new one. Also, I have a teeny subscriber base, so it doesn't even get a large number of initial views from that group, thus it stays out of top search results. I expect it'll stay that way, too, as I take a long time per video, and I jump around from one topic to another instead of mining a particular genre, so there's no real chance to pick up a following. It is what it is. I'm not going to do things differently based on what I think other people might want to see. Thanks for sharing the video!
@@Corn_Pone_Flicks RUclips is saturated with the same old thing every channel seems to react to the same films TV shows daily zero originality or difference in product even with the reactors and they get thousands of views god help the next generation of brain dead lemmings
You are a criminally under appreciated channel!
There's a lot of reasons for that, including my inability to stick to a single topic. Thanks for so saying so, though!
Love the Jurassic Park quote at the end... so true. And those running Lucasfilm would/will NEVER appreciate the irony.
A very insightful, fair, and entertaining critique.
"I bypassed the compressor"
Apparently, Rey understands guitar FX pedalboard switchers as well.
Maybe the Falcon could use some more phasing.
What the Falcon REALLY needs is a Ring Modulator.
@@justinthomas7222
She's a big Kraftwerk fan.
The ship, I mean. It's obviously sentient.
@@mattgilbert7347 Which is funny considering that there is a parody video which I made about the Falcon being sentient! 😆
#kaosnova
This is a spectacularly spot on take on a spectacularly bad movie. Nice work, sir.
The awful part is that everything I'm hearing about the new one sounds even worse.
Corn Pone Flicks Quite depressing. My own opinion is that Disney shot Star Wars in the head with the Force Awakens. They dug a hole in the ground with the Last Jedi. Then, with the next movie, they will put the final nail in the coffin. As long as these horrendous Disney films are canon, the entire Star Wars franchise is severely undermined. They've got to go.
Frankly, I think the whole idea of "canon" boils down to personal opinion. It's not history; it's fiction. You aren't stuck accepting the bad parts. For me, canon is what Lucas wrote. Rights ownership means zilch to me. Disney didn't create it, thus it's fan fiction with money. As far as I'm aware, legally there's no reason why Michael Bay can't release Hamlet 2: This Time, It's Personal, but I doubt many Shakespeare fans would feel compelled to accept it.
Corn Pone Flicks Hmm. Good point.
Corn Pone Flicks Although I'd love to see how disastrous a Michael Bay Shakespeare sequel would be. Of course it'd be rather difficult since isn't everybody dead?
This is what I get for commenting so early in the video.
2:14 "sanctioned fan-fiction"
Completely agree. I never understood the idea of "head-canon" or continuations by people other than the original author. Even post-hoc explanations by the author to satiate fans are usually utter trash compared to the original work. If it isn't in the original vision, it ain't in it at all has been my philosophy. Saves me loads of internet cancer.
This isn't to say people shouldn't write their own stories, but that's where they remain: their own stories.
One thing that bothers me the most about the new trilogy is how eager they were to get back to "Rebels vs The Empire". So eager that it makes little sense at all. So eager it's like they just couldn't fucking stand it and couldn't be bothered to even attempt to write a worthwhile story for how things got back to that situation.
The new republic is just wiped out casually without ever even showing the audience what it was. Are we really to believe that the new republic, a vast galactic republic, just had one fleet stationed at it's capital? It just makes the whole conflict between the galaxy at large and the first order seem small and meaningless because it's just part of the rush to get back to the "Rebels vs The Empire" status of the original films.
It was a serious misstep and it was done in such a lazy hand-wavy way. It would have made more sense to make the first of the new trilogy about the new republic having to deal with a resurgent imperial faction that had consolidated and grew strong enough to threaten the republic's dominance while the republic had grown lax.
Imagine after the fall of the Empire that many of the imperial military forces had been seized by dictators and military strong men that broke into splintered factions and fought among themselves and eventually the First Order or whatever was able to claw its way to the top and eliminate its rivals or bring them into the fold long after the new republic has decided it was satisfied with reclaiming Coruscant and many other core worlds leaving the imperial remnants to squabble among themselves.
It would have been far more interesting than just having the First Order show up with very little explanation bearing inexplicably shiny new weapons and an even more powerful but absurd version of the Death Star.
If you could just one shot kill the republic's military power in one solar system then their military must have been virtually nonexistent on a galactic scale anyways and it brings into question why you'd even need a presumably super expensive and resource intensive super-weapon in the first place.
They didn't want to tell a story that takes place in a realistic and complex world. They just wanted to have a Star Wars play set as the backdrop for the characters to run around in.
One thing that seems to be going on, at least as far as it appears to me, is that the new films treat the Force as a sort of gimmick that allows characters to do neat things and occasionally to explain shit away, whereas it used to be treated as a system that expressed a set of values about the world. I don't personally buy into any kind spiritual mumbo-jumbo myself, but it's obvious that the idea was important to Lucas as a concept, and not just a way that characters could get in cool fight scenes.
Corn Pone Flicks
I agree. The Force just became this cheap deus ex machina on demand sort of thing in the latest movies where characters just use it to push the story forward, get out of a jam, or just do something "cool".
In the previous films the world felt like it had some coherent rules that the characters had to live by thus granting some sense of verisimilitude to a fantastic setting. Not so in these last two movies where shit just happens because they wanted it to, both in dealing with the force but with other things in general.
Unfortunately The Force Awakens just felt like it was made by someone who didn't truly understand the Star Wars universe and it seemed like a sophomoric attempt at aping it. Even worse though The Last Jedi feels like an outright rejection of the Star Wars universe and its fans.
I mean I didn't expect anything amazing but I figured they could at least come up with some serviceable films that could at least get the basic principals of story telling right and had some simple understanding of the way things worked in the Star Wars universe. I always figured fans would be nitpicking the details rather than being completely baffled by lack of basic character development and coherent story telling.
I have not been interested in any of the Disney Star Wars. This video validates my lack of interest. I found your channel via Twin Peaks, but your other stuff is great too. Thank you.
I also found this channel through the excellent Twin Peaks review / analysis series. It became my first and (at time of writing) only subscription. I enjoy your style - blunt but not cruel, with a splash of humor. You seem to have a creative vision of your own, and I hope I am able to see the product.
You’re my favorite movie channel on this site! Do a Mulholland Drive video please! Your break downs and analysis of David Lynch content is mind blowing! Hope you’re doing great man
I basically covered Mulholland Drive in my third Twin Peaks video, We Live Inside a Dream. I honestly don't think I have much more to add to that subject than what I said there; this is comparatively one of Lynch's more straightforward films.
"Maybe it'll turn out she's made such rapid progress because she's been using the Dark Side all along."
Well, they sort of went that route, but it didn't redeem anything.
Yeah, they pretty much botched that, too.
This has only 4.4K views?! I was expecting to see more like hundreds of thousands or low millions. How odd. It's great, and one of the few or possibly only one that I've seen that describes my own gripes accurately.
It's a pretty decent view count for this channel, actually.
Nice job, I enjoyed this video.
Darth Emo!!!! LMAO
If you can just pick up the force, wouldn't Leia be able to save Alderaan by doing a Jedi mind trick on Tarkin?
Leia even had the dual advantages of being Anakin's daughter and having actually grown up knowing about Jedis and the Force. This is why stories need to stick to internal logic.
@@Corn_Pone_Flicks exactly
I completely agree with this review, but at the same time I'm getting some prequel apologist vibes, which, as flawed as the new movies are, the prequels aren't any better. You make many valid points about how TFA is inconsistent with the original trilogy, but the prequels are just as bad and I think using those movies as evidence against the new movies isn't necessary. Lucas may have been the one behind it, but boy has the man lost his touch. They fail on every level.
Sorry, but I disagree completely. I don't have the hate for the prequels that many seem to, and I think Episode III is easily as good as anything in the original trilogy. At any rate, if the debate is over story consistency, then I think they're perfectly valid to invoke. If I'm going to watch a lesser version of Star Wars, I'd take Phantom Menace over The Force Awakens any day. neither is as good as A New Hope, but one is a different story and one is a shameless plagiarism. Even if they were equal in all other measures, lack of any story creativity would still strongly tip the scales.
@@Corn_Pone_Flicks Wow I'm pretty shocked to hear that, considering your filmaking background. Sure, I'd take originality over the shameless rehash as well, but at the end of the day one turd is new and the other a remake. It's still a turd. I just can't see how you can be so forgiving of the prequels, which in the same way as you tore TFA apart at basically every level for not making sense and not being consistent with the rules established in the original trilogy, could also apply to the prequels. Episode III as good as any of the originals? Haha, Come on man, you can't be serious. That's not inconsistent? By the first 10 minutes of episode III every line of dialog, every beat in the story makes no since.
You obviously have some incredible talent as a filmmaker. You're videos include some really impressive work. I think it's crazy that someone who could put in all that time and effort and get such great results (seriously, it's awesome) could watch the prequels and enjoy them on any level. Forget anything Star Wars, the movies are just actors in front of green screens delivering clunky dialog on a soundstage, interrupted by seizure inducing badly aged cgi action scenes that are overblown overlong and pretty boring. But i'm sure you've heard all that before, arguing about star wars movies in youtube comments is the last thing either of us want to do.
Regardless, I still think you're channel is crazy underrated and you've got a ton of great videos. I recently subscribed and enjoying going through them.
I can be and am serious. What dialogue in the opening of Episode III doesn't make sense?
CPF, i'd love to see a review video for Ep.1-3!
Just found this and, while I really enjoyed The Force Awakens, I agreed with nearly all of the criticism you gave. Just about all were fair points and those mistakes helped perpetuate the issues that made The Last Jedi so problematic.
You should also check out the multi-part series on The Force Awakens by One Dodgy Dude. It's very well produced and comes in nice, easily-digestible chunks.
Yeah I had similar gripes. I have a bad feeling about last Jedi.
Signed,
James
(Former editor in room 2 lol)
Hey man, how've you been? You still doing music? (I ask because at some future point I might need some-I'm trying to get my shit together enough to make an actual movie.)
oh yeah, still producing away as usual. never stops
I haven't seen it, but everything I've heard about it has me convinced I don't ever want to see The Last Jedi.
You get a like just for the intro. True LOLs.
The Farce Awakens makes perfect sense as a sequel to Space Balls I'm just puzzled as to why they never mention any original character like Lone Star. Maybe its a spinoff in the same galaxy but these characters just dont know each other, two self contained stories.
Corn Pone Flicks, can you please make a review for the rise of skywalker?
Eventually, but until the actual disc comes out, I've got no footage to work with.
Yeah, I can't really refute any of this. Although Into Darkness and Super-8 are also pretty bad to my mind, where emotional moments simply aren't earned and therefore have no impact whatsoever.
Still, that Twin Peaks eh?
I was going to point you towards this one in regards to your confusion on the "Mary Sue" designation for Rey in your post on my Last Jedi video, but I see you found it without me.
I personally thought Abrams made Star Trek actually watchable again after decades, though I've never been a Trekkie, and Super 8 I find intensely fun, and exactly what this film should have been: a replication of the feel of another's work without copying actual plot elements.
Your reasons are why I haven't bothered to see Episode 7 after seeing it in theaters almost 2 years ago. I took nothing from the movie since it was just a fan pandering film, and Rei was way to perfect at everything she did that she fit the "Mary Sue" title completely. She can do the whole movies by herself so whats the point of having supporting cast to go with her in the first place.
I also look at Rouge One as a fan film, which to me Rouge One was a better film than Episode 7 just because it was at least doing something different, or is considered a Star Wars OVA. So I guess ill dump money after the nerds ransack the theaters a week or so later for Episode 8 to see Empire Strikes Back Ver. 2.0.
Rogue One was better if only because it wasn't a rehash, but it was entirely unnecessary. We already knew the rebels successfully stole the plans, and the ending made no sense at all. How on earth did Leia think she could fool Vader with an excuse about being on a diplomatic mission when he saw, with his own two eyes, her ship actually fleeing the battle scene?
I really have no interest in Episode 8, and that makes me sad, because I've really liked everything Rian Johnson has directed before. He was on my list of "directors to watch," and then he got swallowed up into a franchise machine that's not going to let him do the sorts of interesting things he did in the films he wrote before.
Rogue One story could've been told 1000 ways differently than how it came out because its ultimate goal was to get the death star plans and that's it. It was a nice "what if" movie for me, which just felt like a documented war film of events that happened. You don't need to invest in the characters so much, but just to see how the objective was achieved in the end, which was what I expected to see and got in Rogue One. Call it simple or low expectations, but I got to see what I wanted and it meet those expectations, therefore made it a good movie in my book. Would I see Rogue One over Episode 7 again, that kinda depends.
I'm one of those people that if I start a film series, I gotta see where it goes, even if its down the crapper. It was the same for the Star Wars prequels, which I've never gone back and seen since they were originally in theaters other than Phantom Menace. I've seen Phantom Menace about 6 or 7 times between seeing it in theaters and on home video, and its probably been 15 years since I last saw the film from start to finish. As much as I would like to see a Shadows of the Empire film to be made, the Disney machine would find some way to royally screw that up in some way.
They should have stuck with Jacen Solo, and made Rei Jaina Solo......So then the story would fucking matter, and the interaction with Han suddenly makes perfect sense.
@Christian Kirkenes
With the rumor circulating that Disney didn't want to pay Lucas 25% royalty fees as he own the merchandising rights of the OT and PT, I can see possibly why they removed the EU from their new canon and didn't go with Jaina and Jacen Solo.
Though if you want my honest albeit jaded opinion on why Jaina and Jacen weren't adapted, do you honestly expect these hacks to be that creative...?
Yeah, the sex of a character IS the main thing, when the people crying sexism are sexist bigoted hypocrite maniacs. I dont even know why anyone cares anyways. They are just crappy movies.
edit- by the way, fuck all that shit! Nice video dude. Good quality.
In the modern world, a woman being taught by a man is par to being mansplained and to avoid challenging their inferiority complex, it is easier to be more PC and make the female protagonist a Mary Sue with nothing to learn or story arch to achieve unless she does it for herself entirely. Men can learn from a mentor or from their brothers in arms, but for women they can have no Mr Miyagi and even feel threatened by a Mrs Miyagi.
I think that's over-generalizing; there are plenty of counter-examples that don't fall into that mold. (I also don't think women, by default, have inferiority complexes.)
Moviebob made a two part video defending 'The Last Jedi' explaining why he likes the new films. Claiming that Luke, and Rei's story is a 'love letter' to 'Star Wars' fandom. He views Rei as an 'unabashed fangirl', and compares Kylo Ren to those 'dark, and edgy' fans from the 90's raised on Limp Biscuit, and Lincion Park who reimagine The Empire as something out of a Hot Topic goth party. Also, he's kinda peeved about the whole 'Marry Sue' label that fans have given Rei. That being said, you make a compelling argument on how Rei didn't work hard to earn her status, as well as the problematic writing.
I'm not sure how making Luke into a coward who considered murdering his own nephew constitutes a love letter. And while Rey may well be a fangirl, I don't see how that's a compliment, any more than "fanboy" is.
I watched Super 8 again last night, and was once again struck by the fact that JJ Abrams is totally capable of mimicking a style without outright ripping off specific plots, which is exactly what he needed to do and yet failed to do here.
I also see what you mean by how Rei get's from point A to point B with little to no effort. Making her journey easier than it needs to be. It's been a while since I've seen the 'Hunger Games' movies, but if I recall, Katniss had quite a bit of challenges to overcome. Yes, she was a skilled archer, but was kinda relatable, and had a good support group to help her out with other things she couldn't do on her own, and she wasn't made to look better than everyone else.
The very thing Katniss volunteered for in the first place, to save her sister, she ends up failing to do, so she'd hardly be considered a wish fulfillment character. Those films were surprisingly bleak, frankly.
The problem with Star Wars sequels is that if you cleave too closely to what was done before, you've added nothing new, but change too much, and you risk making it not feel like it belongs. Star Wars is such a specific kind AND style of story that it's hard to continue after what was obviously the ending, and it would've been better to have simply let it be. Let's have something new, rather than a pale reflection of something old.
Patrick Willems is better than Moviebob.
I still don't agree that these films are any good, but at least he's watchable.
@@mattgilbert7347 I never liked either of them.
Totally agree for God sake my mum is a woman and a hell of alot stronger than me or any man I know including my dad and two brothers sons nephews. All this womens strength rubbish in the media is bull
I sure as hell wouldn't try and take my wife in a one-on-one match. Personally, I find little to be sexier than a tough-ass chick...my issue with films like this is that they seem to think this is some new idea, when they're doing it more poorly than has already been done. Kill Bill, anyone?
28:28. Your welcome.
My welcome what?
@@Corn_Pone_Flicks We are ALL welcome.... to the wonder of Leia.
THAT’S NOT WEDGE!!!!
Sorry...who's not Wedge?
Corn Pone Flicks Well played sir you got another view out of me. 20:10. That’s not Wedge I’ll grant you his Wedge-likeness but this is Wedge starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Wedge_Antilles/Legends?file=WedgesEntireHead-ROTJ.png. I wouldn’t care but the actor is scottish and you don’t mess with the Scots 😠. Also I’m pretty sure he’s my mum’s covert crush and that’s why he was kinda a legend in my house growing up. Loving your vids btw.
"Played?" I legitimately didn't know what you were referencing. In any case, I don't see how that's not Wedge. He looks exactly like that sceencap you linked to, plus the original script attributes that line to Wedge: www.imsdb.com/scripts/Star-Wars-A-New-Hope.html
I'm Scottish, too, not that that means much of anything.
Okay, Just did some Googling, and apparently Wedge was played by two different guys in A New Hope, both dubbed over by a third guy. Weird. My facial recognition sucks, so I never noticed this.
Corn Pone Flicks Two Wedges!?! Nope - can’t handle that 😵
I get you like the prequels, but they caused Disney’s lack of originality - fans of the OT were so angered by tue prequels that Disney seems to have thought they wanted the OT remade.
I don’t hate the prequels, but none are on a par with the OT. That opinion didn’t mean I wanted Disney to make a crappy remake OT knock-off though. Still not sure which is worse: 1) over the top PT (looking at Jar Jar); or 2) a lackluster rehash of the OT. Still, your review was spot on.
I think Revenge of the Sith was on par with the originals, but that matter aside, they stemmed from the actual creator of the franchise and they were a different story. If I have to settle for lower-quality Star Wars and the choice is between one that's the same story rehashed, and one that's something different, there's no real difficulty in choosing.
Corn Pone Flicks I can buy that