emersonlakeandbalmer wrote:Bakustra wrote:You're missing the point. That whole scene is well out of line with the rest of the movies concerning telekinetic strength among the Jedi. But nobody cares. Nobody cares (I sincerely hope) about the super-speed going unused except for you- both scenes used or did not use the powers for dramatic effect. Would you really have preferred if the final battle had been structured around a single, unimportant scene from the opening minutes and every god damn fight scene was either sub-Transformers levels of busyness in scene comp or made heavy use of slo-mo- way to date the effects. Or is your argument that the sole scene with superspeed wrecks TPM permanently, in which case your level of caring about it suggests, frankly, to me, that you need to get some Vitamin D into your life.
This is without going into the inane idea you presented that the Force was presented as unlimited in the OT and that the prequels wrecked it (using terms like "mana bar" to boot) which ranks down there with evolutionary psychology biotruths for stupidity. But I feel charitable today.
Do go on... how is it out of line with telekinetic strength among Jedi?
That question aside. My point was that Jim went to great lengths to defend things that really any normal person should admit was kind of a bad idea. Then on top of that he was just plan wrong in his defense.
The real question is what does cutting the super speed at the begin of TPM cost the viewer? Nothing. What's the dramatic effect of its use in that scene? Nothing. So no. I wouldn't want "a final battle constructed around a single unimportant scene from the opening minutes" I would want that single unimportant scene (not even the scene really just the effect) cut from the film. You, I assume, like single unimportant scenes, which is most likely why you like TPM. It must be all the Vitamin D you're getting.
But not the superspeed isn't what wrecked TPM for me. That would be a combination of Jar Jar, child anakin, "yippee", 6 hour pod races, space taxes, midichlorian, bad guys that sound like racist caricatures, incompetent bad guys, the thousand yard stare on every actor has on their because they're acting next to a tennis ball on a poll, etc, etc
I can't wait to hear how much you guys love Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls and how The Happening is a totally under rated horror master piece.
As for the force and its limits. I'm still waiting to hear when any of the jedi discussed how the powers worked and what their limitation were. If I missed a scene let me know, because anything else is conjecture.
Mana Bar
I see that you're too dumb to get metonymy, but I'll take this as though you understood it anyways. Yes, I get lots of sun, unlike your perverse pride in hiding in momma's basement. Yes, getting plenty of sun makes you less obsessive about tiny details in single scenes in movies. Yes, I am a jock, stuffing you into a metaphysical locker of sorts. (PS: "Vitamin D" in this sentence is a metonymous reference to sunlight, you ignorant buffoon).
Secondly, the scene involves lifting an X-wing. Nobody else lifts anything close to what an X-wing should weigh, unless in Star Wars they make everything out of styrofoam. All other telekinesis is relatively small (compared to the X-wing) metallic objects and individual humans (as well as crushing their necks) which requires less work than moving the X-wing unless they're unreasonably dense too.
Now, normal people don't assume things are unlimited until told otherwise, and we see Yoda look exhausted after lifting the X-wing and Luke strain himself while pulling up his lightsaber in the same movie. But you need an expository conversation to tell you "gee we Jedis can sure get tired sometime, right?". I mean, you bring up
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (which is better than
Temple of Doom and doesn't give people Tay-Sachs, sorry) and
The Happening, and without my knowledge of those two films and going by what you just said, I'd have to assume that they weren't slow-paced and exposition-heavy enough for you, and so I might go and look for them, since most people don't consider the combination of those two factors a sign of quality in a movie.
I'm not sure why you hate midichlorians so much, either- oh, it's because the exposition on them was brief and left most of it up to the viewer to interpret. You also hate that there's taxation in space in a universe that specifically draws on history for inspiration, so even if you're a post-scarcity singularitarian whackjob, you should ideally be able to appreciate a universe that isn't supposed to be a "blueprint of the future", but nope, you're dumber than that.
Invited by the new age, the elegant Sailor Neptune!
I mean, how often am I to enter a game of riddles with the author, where they challenge me with some strange and confusing and distracting device, and I'm supposed to unravel it and go "I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE" and take great personal satisfaction and pride in our mutual cleverness?
- The Handle, from the TVTropes Forums