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Anonymous
Waiting for the first numbers to come rolling in. Deadline and Gitesh Pandya of Boxoffice Guru are your go-to places for near real-time info. These are the records TLJ is taking dead aim at. Force Awakens holds most of these:
Midnight screenings: $44m, Harry Potter & Deathly Hallows 2 (2015)
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Friday/single day: $119.1m
Saturday: $69.6m, Jurassic World (2015)
Sunday: $60.5m
Weekend: $248m
Global weekend: $542m, Fate of the Furious (2017)
Overseas weekend: $443.1m, Fate of the FuriousOK, I’ve been waiting for a thread to start up for days. I saw this a couple of days ago and the critical support seems a little overrated. I would rate this fourth in the whole series, which isn’t too bad. I enjoyed The Force Awakens a lot more and while that one was a ripoff of A New Hope, it fixed the problems of the original so as not to make the same mistakes. This had some absolutely iconic moments in it and it was a visual feast. Surprisingly this film is more simplistic, reminding me of Fury Road’s very simple plot of a car chase, the entire film is an evacuation and takes place literally a minute after The Force Awakens ends. There are more character deaths than you would think, and SPOILERleiaSPOILERdoesn’tSPOILERdieSPOILER. The problem with this is that nothing of note happens; characters die and that’s it. It was interesting to see them downsize the plot to make it less convoluted, but it happens at the expense of anything major happening. Thankfully it gets me excited for the final film.
B+
ReplyCopy URLFor those who have seen it, if this doesn’t win best visual effects for that one breathtaking moment there is no justice.
I confess I haven’t seen The Last Jedi but in my humble opinion the race for Best Visual Effects at the Oscars is strictly between Blade Runner 2049 (that 3-way techno-merger sex scene was jaw-dropping even for me) and IF it wins Bafta first, War for the Planet of the Apes.
Funny, I had the Force Awakens in 3rd in my Best Visual Effects predictions behind The Revenant in 2nd and MM:FR in 1st due to both of those being such strong Best Picture frontrunners that could sweep the tech categories as well. Yet instead of awarding Disney Wars, the Oscars went with the only other non-BP nominee in that category Ex Machina, the fresh and inspired science fiction film that didn’t exist solely to sell toys and Member Berries nostalgia porn that coincidentally also happened to star Oscar Isaac and Domhnall Gleeson. I had Ex Machina down at the bottom in 5th place. The skin-peeling thing was okay, but it was objectively the least deserving nominee in that category, as much as I loved seeing the film itself win an Oscar.
With Ex Machina as the exception, most of the time if there are Best Picture nominees in Visual Effects those win that category, and if there are none then they typically go for the most Best Picture-esque nominee, and this year that looks like Blade Runner 2049, which has an arthouse feel to it that many Oscar voters jaded by constant CGI explosions and lasers will feel impressed by.
I see these Disney Wars movies performing the same at the Oscars as the Marvel movies, where they get a couple tech nods at most, and even then not for every single film, and never win anything. The only reason Force Awakens got 5 was because of all the hype of it making so much money, people were nostalgic and desperately wanting to love it more than anything in the world, the movie delivered that nostalgia which for many was enough at first… but then the film resonated over the next couple months and more and more people started to realize that once you got past the Member Berries, there simply wasn’t much inventiveness there to appreciate. That’s why it lost all 5 of its Oscar nominations. Plus, it probably lost a ton of votes in Visual Effects to The Martian, which also had solid space effects and unlike Disney Wars came from a more iconic director and was a Best Picture nominee.
Without seeing it, being as purely objective as I possibly can be, I am currently predicting Disney Wars: The Last Jedi to be nominated for the exact same nominations I thought TFA would get a couple years ago, being Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, and Visual Effects. I think John Williams could get name-checked for Score, but I’m not predicting it. Not over the likes of The Shape of Water, Dunkirk, and The Post, the latter also being a Williams score.
My ONLY time ever taking part in a Goldderby slugfest I was trying to convince Amanda Spears, Tony Ruiz, and Matt Noble that The Force Awakens stood no realistic shot at getting any major Oscar nominations. Matt and the rest of the editors (in another slugfest) were ALL saying that it would get a Best Picture nomination, but I was smart enough to see through all the bullshit. I told it like it was during the slugfest, rather bluntly I admit, and later Tony accused me in the comments section of “stating my opinions as facts.” I know not to do that sort of thing, since all art is ultimately subjective, I literally was stating the fact that Disney Wars was NEVER seriously in the Oscar conversation for Best Picture, it was fan/stan hype and nothing more. Granted, I also stated the still objectively true fact that it existed only to make money and not tell any kind of thoughtful or creative story. Not that those kinds of movies don’t win Oscars in technical categories on rare occasion, but when on the even rarer case those kinds of movies do get Best Picture nominated (I can’t think of any examples of this, but just trying to being fair here) they are NOT part of a “franchise,” which the Oscars hate almost by reflex by this point, unless they do something extraordinary like Mad Max: Fury Road.
Obviously, in regards to TFA’s Oscar chances being laughably overrated, history has proven me right, even though both Tony and Amanda get to participate in slugfests to this day, while I got only that one. In hindsight, I should have sucked it up and just nodded “yes” to Force Awakens possibly being a BP contender, since all they evidently wanted was some fanboy sheep to agree with them about it being a serious Oscar contender. I sincerely hope to take part in another slugfest in the future, although I am still waiting for that opportunity to come.
ReplyCopy URLFor your Goldderby Film Awards consideration: Isle of Dogs for every category, especially Music Score for Alexandre Desplat!
Ah I loved it! I don’t know if i’m crazy, but Kylo Ben Ren Solo is my favorite character and I find his story arc to be so captivating. He’s a villain, but he has those moments where you expect him to turn or when he shows he’s not a monster.
Awards-wise, this deserves nominations for Visual Effects, Score, Sound, Production Design, Costumes, Hair/Makeup, and Cinematography. All of which are such a high caliber and deserve recognition. I feel we are in an age though where blockbusters are immediately discredited in a lot of these categories in favor of “period pieces,” so I’m not holding my breath on it.
Also, can we talk about how Mark Hamill’s acting has improved greatly since the originals? I was real worried when I discovered he would be more than just a cameo, but he really came through in this. Laura Dern was also a nice touch.
Definitely a lot of iconic moments and I will eagerly be waiting for Episode IX.
Will be back with more plot discussion once the movie has been out a little longer…
ReplyCopy URLMy jaw is still on the floor. AMAZING. I don’t want to put any spoilers but will say this: Carrie Fisher was incredible (as was the rest of the cast) and I am in awe of Mark Hamil and Daisy Ridley in this too. Only minor minor complaint I had was that I wanted more Chewbaca and Rey interaction. I like that friendship. My grade: A+
ReplyCopy URLAh I loved it! I don’t know if i’m crazy, but Kylo Ben Ren Solo is my favorite character and I find his story arc to be so captivating. He’s a villain, but he has those moments where you expect him to turn or when he shows he’s not a monster.
Easily my favorite new trilogy character. He is the only new character I like and the only one with any debth at all. If this movie had to get one major nomination, it should be for the phenomenal Driever. Won’t happen, and there are 5 better performances, but he was great.
ReplyCopy URLWell, I didn’t like it as much as I did ROGUE ONE (2 nods) but much more than I liked FORCE AWAKENS (5 nods) so I’m guessing 3 nods is the max it can hope for:
VISUAL EFFECTS (a lock)
SOUND MIXING (very likely)
SOUND EDITING (no surprise but always a tricky category)It may pull off a Production Design nod (the franchise has always done well with them) but I’m skeptical. Ditto John Williams’s score, which doesn’t even have a memorable cue like Rey’s theme from Ep7. It’s not bad, but it mostly borrows heavily from the others. Heck, I despised Eps 1 & 2, but they had some masterly music cues (far better than those abysmal films deserved) and didn’t get nods so he will probably be represented by THE POST instead.
As for wins, the movie will make a ton and be embraced (for good reasons), but I still hope the Academy gives some love to the Apes franchise or Blade Runner instead. The film has top-notch artistry but not much from a craft point of view we haven’t seen before.
ReplyCopy URLLoved it. Best SW film since Empire Strikes Back. One of the year’s best. Which means zero love from the Oscars. In ideal world, noms for Hamill, Ridley, Driver and Fisher, Rian Johnson (directing), and all techs. A little flabby in the middle, but twists galore, people who you think were gonna buy it didn’t. People who you thought were, went out in grand style. I was immensely satisfied with Johnson; had my doubts, but he pulled it off.
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