Agreed. It’s a shame Lucas was too insecure to keep collaborative people around him who were as good or better than him at developing ideas and enhancing the storytelling. That’s my theory, anyway.

The more that I’ve read about the making of the original Star Wars trilogy, the more I’ve become convinced that Gary Kurtz had a much bigger part to play in making the first two films as great as they were. 

I was so irritated by the death of Vanessa in “Deadpool 2.” It felt like a total cop-out, as if the writers were unable or unwilling to at least try and tell a story with a love interest. They just threw up their hands and said: “Fuck it! Let’s kill her and figure this out next time.” ENOUGH with the next time!

I won’t ever agree that Rian Johnson’s direction was “fresh” and/or “bold.” Which is not to say that all of his ideas were bad, but I will maintain that most of them were very poorly executed, and did not mesh well with TFA. Yes, Rian did change a lot, but IMHO it didn’t cohere AT ALL with what had been presented…

The trailer is a tonal mish-mash, but I like the look.  Hard to tell about much else ‘cause it’s just too messy.

While I love this line and it is one of my favorite moments in the series, I’d be more curious to hear how Phillipa felt about the cringe-worthy scene (thankfully deleted from the theatrical version) where Eowyn is revealed to be a horrible cook. That cliche is so ancient it makes Cthulhu seem like a toddler by…

I’m cautiously optimistic. VERY glad to hear that Brian Froud is involved! His crucial contributions to the original film cannot be overstated.

Saw it once. Hated it. Watched it again months later on Netflix and laughed my ass off at how unintentionally(?) stupid and cringe-worthy the writing and directing is throughout. When I wasn’t guffawing, my jaw was just hanging open in astonishment. It’s stunningly bad.

I’m with you there. It’s the writing.

Well! This looks promising! They’ve certainly appeared to amp up on the Kaiju-Fu, which is great. While I didn’t have a problem with the limited amount in the first film, Aaron Taylor-Johnston was not a strong enough actor to hold my interest when Godzilla wasn’t around.

I don’t the Lego Batman movie needs a sequel. I enjoyed the first one for about a half hour, but it got tedious pretty quickly after that. The character just doesn’t have enough range to being interesting for a full movie. Robin and the villains kept it kinda fun and interesting, but it felt very narrow and flat…

That was very helpful!  I can’t go the digital route on books just yet, but it’s nice to know that there’s a hardcover out there.  I think I may have read that new foreword in the paperback I have, or it may have been included in the Tales from Watership Down.

May your dilithium crystals never crack and your sensor array always be properly harmonized!

Ah, ok!  Now I understand better.  I’m going to have to read the book again.  Is there an edition of yours that is a favorite.  I’d like a hardcover as my paperback is pretty worn.

I would recommend the book very highly.  It’s a very different experience.  Reading about violence is quite different from seeing it, and the story is truly an epic adventure with wonderful characters and a very unique world.

What about the original film do you find unfaithful? I don’t recall the details of Blackavar’s story, but I thought overall the film it hewed very close to the novel.

Watery Shit Down.
Watership Dump.
Watership Sunk.
Someone below had Watership Let-Down.  That’s pretty great!

Interesting! I think the original film is one of the better book adaptations I’ve seen in terms of being faithful to the story and really capturing the otherworldly feeling of the world through the rabbit’s eyes. In particular, I LOVE the opening sequence where we get the story of the birth of El-Ahrairah and which is…

As a big fan of the book and the superlative original animated film, I have to say that this looks awful. The voice cast is great, but everything else is inexcusably sub-par, especially the CG animation. If you remove the textures, then you are left with clunky movement and stiff facial animation which more closely…

If you don’t know that this exists, you should. There is a company that makes models of the refit that are over 3 feet long!