WARNING: Literal potty humor
Teaser for a new Plinkett video, yes! I love Red Letter Media so much!
Teaser for a new Plinkett video, yes! I love Red Letter Media so much!
The Plinkett Awakens!
- Thread starter SirSullymore
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Heck yeah! I discovered him a few months ago and I was so sad there was only a few episodes, but watched and re-watched them plenty of times. Probably my favorite reviews of all time.
I'm more excited to watch this than I was for the actual film; his prequel reviews are legendary.
Also, obligatory "What's wrong with your faaaaaace?"
Also, obligatory "What's wrong with your faaaaaace?"
I don't know how much there will be to say. A good many of the film's flaws are - like so much else in the movie - lifted straight from A New Hope.Fox12 said:
The Prequels only failed as hard as they did because they were so recklessly ambitious. There's nothing like the stupid political shenanigans or horrifically misdone romance or allegedly clever scheming in this movie. You can't pick apart dialogue and plot points that don't exist.
I feel like there are all new things to gripe about in this one, but at some point it sort of becomes white noise. There are so many planned sequels that, unless something really staggering comes out, there's not much point in making any more reviews. This may be the last one.Veylon said:
The thing that kills me about the prequels is that they actually had some vaguely interesting concepts. Classical tragedy, the downfall of democracy, theming. Lucas just botched it up in about the worst way possible. It feels like he read a book about great storytelling, but he didn't have the talent needed to do a good job. Kind of like this one. Right here:
The new film was safe, but horribly mediocre. I think that's actually much worse then trying and failing. I don't really respect Lucas, but I like him more then Abram's at this point.
Yeah...I'm going to pass.
I understand the appeal of his reviews, but I feel they just get too mean spirited and nitpicky at times. It's not too egregious a line, but there's a phrase I believe in when it comes to reviews, and that's "insult the product, not the person." If he wants to tear apart the prequels, fine. I'd prefer it if they weren't slagging on everyone involved in them (not just Lucas), or insinuating that anyone who likes them must be stupid.
I understand the appeal of his reviews, but I feel they just get too mean spirited and nitpicky at times. It's not too egregious a line, but there's a phrase I believe in when it comes to reviews, and that's "insult the product, not the person." If he wants to tear apart the prequels, fine. I'd prefer it if they weren't slagging on everyone involved in them (not just Lucas), or insinuating that anyone who likes them must be stupid.
So beautiful! This is where the real movie comes in. It's an event we have to prepare for.
Well I hope he tears FA a new asshole, because it's pathetic how safe it is, just skimming peoples expectations (with the help of focus groups) to get pass, and other shit. Fuck the Force Awakens!
Well I hope he tears FA a new asshole, because it's pathetic how safe it is, just skimming peoples expectations (with the help of focus groups) to get pass, and other shit. Fuck the Force Awakens!
This is actually kind of surprising. Mike seemed to really enjoy the movie in their Half In the Bag review. You can tell because he is pleasantly smiling the entire time they are talking about it, lol. Rich was the only one who seemed to have a lot of hangups about it.
I can't imagine he'll be nearly as hard on it as he was (rightfully) with the Prequels.
Looking forward to it, regardless.
I can't imagine he'll be nearly as hard on it as he was (rightfully) with the Prequels.
Looking forward to it, regardless.
You can also tell because he literally said "I loved it, it was everything I hoped it would be" in the opening minutes and wasn't being sarcastic. Then Jay also liked it. Rich was the only one who didn't take to it, but even then he didn't hate it, just felt it was unremarkable.Fappy said:
Mike is the guy who writes the plinkett reviews as well as being the voice of plinkett (Rich is only plinkett in Half in the Bag), so his opinion will likely be the one that gets presented.
That said, he's had time to let it sit and stew and he likely watched it again, maybe he has more to say about this film then he had in Half in the Bag. Regardless, Plinkett reviews are always a treat. I'm content with him giving the film a good ribbing as long as we get classic plinkett antics interlaced with solid criticism.
Red Letter Media is probably my favorite YouTube channel. A Plinkett review is long overdue at this point. Star Wars will be an annual thing now so Mike should be pretty busy for the foreseeable future.
Half in the Bag seems to be their personal off the cuff opinions while the Plinkett reviews are more thought out and critical. I'm imagining this will be like his Titanic review, he'll talk about the things that were good (the fun tone, simple Star Warsy story, the new and old cast, the practical effects,) and the things he didn't find so good (the fact that it was a rehash of IV to the point of not making sense in some areas, Snoak as a generic uninteresting bad guy who came out of no where).
The thing I'm most looking forward to is seeing his take on Rey and Kylo Renn, I suspect he'll praise Kylo and say Rey is not developed enough quite yet but has potential.
The thing I'm most looking forward to is seeing his take on Rey and Kylo Renn, I suspect he'll praise Kylo and say Rey is not developed enough quite yet but has potential.
That's a lot to unpack, but let me give it a shot:ravenshrike said:
1) No argument there; Finn adjusts pretty fast.
2) I don't remember where this happened. Sci-Fi tech in general is pretty breaky and unreliable.
3) Never mind FTL; any space-tier speed is too fast for human reflexes. That trench run is ridiculous.
4) The Empire didn't learn anything either to judge by the now-apocryphal EU. The First Order at least put their superweapon at a safe distance from the stuff it was blowing up. That puts them figurative lightyears ahead of the other superweapon-building folks.
5) We don't know that. Even if so, it's like blaming Jesus for not appearing to find your keys for you.
6) Again, we don't know the entire history of hyperdrive. On the other hand, in real life we had a huge, unprecedented boost in wireless internet technology in the last thirty years as compared to the thousands that came before them, so these things can happen.
Some of those are a stretch, but even the gimmes don't have much meat on them. TFA is a very simple, unambitious movie with simple flaws. Is having Snoke just appear out of nowhere so that we can have a Palpatine replacement stupid? Yes, but the movie didn't bother explaining how or why he's there, so there's precious little to say about it besides it being stupid.
To be honest I was kind of disappointed with Finn's arc in a few ways. I dunno if Plinkett will agree with my sentiment, but I'm looking forward to this either way. We can all use a little more Plinkett nowadays.
In any case I hope Plinkett will find a fair share of things to complain about in the film. I worry that an "ok" film like this one won't give him much material to work with.
And if anyone's curious about what I mean, Finn appears to be the "main character" due to the fact that the story early on follows him after the rebel massacre at the beginning of the film. It focuses on his gradual development from timid and cowardly to someone who wants to fight for his friends, and then for what's right, but it all amounts to nothing because only jedi can fight other jedi. It would have been an amazing subversion to see Finn push the arrogant and unstable Kylo Ren to the point of needing to use force powers to RQ the fight, implying that Finn has come so far that through sheer will and courage he is able to go toe to toe with a jedi. Instead he gets cut up like a chump, further cementing the tired "jedi = only characters that matter" syndrome of the prequels. On top of that it would've been an interesting subversion to see Finn become the new Han Solo and Rey become the new Luke Skywalker, since that would've made a clever bait and switch. Instead it makes Rey look like a mary sue because she ends up being both instead, with Finn tossed aside at the end of the story with it being left up in the air as to whether or not he'll come back in future films. That disappointed me because it felt like Finn's whole arc was "he comes to become someone who's willing to do the right thing, but still fails lol" and that made me sad to see, because I felt Finn was still likeable despite his cowardice and it would've been nice to see him have meaningful growth as a character and have that growth bear fruit. Instead he gets shunted to the side and is just a supporting character rather than a lead.
In any case I hope Plinkett will find a fair share of things to complain about in the film. I worry that an "ok" film like this one won't give him much material to work with.
There's plenty to criticize, as it was far from a perfect film. It'll be interesting to see what tone it takes, since...as you've pointed out...Mike really liked it, and Mike IS Plinkett.Ragsnstitches said:
I suspect, at the end of the day, this is a case of the Star Wars reviews being by far their most popular/notorious works, and them wanting to drive traffic.
I really despise this narrative where the prequels stumbled only because of an excess of ambition or creativity. Designing new robots and creatures, a good 75% of which are either stupid looking or bizarrely racist, is not exactly laudable ambition. The (over) use of green screen and CGI effects is not cutting edge film making. If Lucas wanted to be ambitious, he probably should have started with going back to film school. I see more ambition, bravery and creative expression in a lot of low budget indie films than was on display it the execrable prequels.Fox12 said:
If "trying" and failing dramatically enthuses you, you might also look into the works of Ed Wood.Fox12 said:
The prequels were just as bad as TFA. The difference is that Lucas at least tried something new, and played with some interesting ideas. Abrams did the least amount of work possible and called it a day. Between the two I can at least sympathize somewhat with Lucas. I have no stomach for Abrams, who has never cared about anything except making the most money for the least amount of effort. To his credit he is very, very good at this.BloatedGuppy said:
I'm going to stop you right there Fox. There's no accounting for personal preference, and film (like all entertainment) is a fundamentally subjective medium, so there's nothing to stop someone from, say, praising the works of Uwe Boll, or arguing that The Ridiculous Six is a more essential piece of cinema than Citizen Kane. Tastes will be tastes, right?Fox12 said:
Unfortunately, in order for there to be anything resembling a constructive or collegial discussion, there has to be some element of shared experience or common ground. I hear you saying you feel that the Star Wars prequels warrant discussion as being roughly equivalent to The Force Awakens, a flawed but generally competently assembled film. That's fine, but you might as well be telling me you think lemons would make excellent houses. I have absolutely no idea how to communicate productively with someone who holds these beliefs.