LongHairStu

Excellent post, and a privilege to hear your insights and experiences, many of which make perfect sense in the way they're reflected on the screen.

If I've written any more, it's scattered around forum posts and messenger conversations, and if there is such a review then I must have cherry picked what I agreed with and forgotten it. If I see one, I'll bear it in mind for you. For now, this one makes a point about TFA that gives me hope that TLJ won't follow suit, but it's more about the nostalgia point than the details. To briefly expand... Map to Luke was a MacGuffin of the worst order. Zero credible investment in Rey's abilities as a pilot - possible, but audience not given enough of a buy-in. Presence of Falcon and arrival of Solo happen at whim of script, not through narrative logic. Likewise return of Poe and presence of Luke's lightsaber. I actually liked the idea of a force user whose abilities are discovered when another user pushes at them and they push back, but this still could have been handled better, especially with regard to saber duelling - perfunctory use of staff didn't convince me. Starkiller idea was lazy, and lazily done, with none of the gravitas of previous weapons of roundly similar scale, and shot through with immature embiggening. TLJ risks undermining itself if it attempts to rationalise any of these points, probably best just to forget Abrams' hack-like handiwork and forge onwards with its own identity. I'm more hopeful that it will than I am fearful that it won't, but I've been wrong before...

Surely the problem with TFA isn't that it leans on nostalgia, it's that it does so with narrative developments that strain credulity (from an internal consistency perspective) and themes and events that generally aren't earned?

Yes, quite liking the idea that they could basically do 20th century period pieces that aren't particularly enslaved to the DCEU arc. Not that I don't enjoy a good cinematic universe (or even the DCEU...) but I feel standalone films will add texture, and allow less devoted viewers to dip in and out more easily.

When I played The Last Guardian, this is what it made me long for. So yes, PS2, PS3 disc and PSPlus versions behind me, it'll be a day one for this one for me.

No, one after this, of fewer episodes.

Seems somewhat pertinent... http://dailygrindhouse.com/thewire/alien-alien-resurrection-metatextual-meditation-franchise-filmmaking/ I'll be going with the morbid curiosity viewing once Covenant is on Netflix, happy to decline a more informed position for the time being. In the meantime, the fine analysis in here will doubtless soon inspire me to a viewing of Alien and Aliens.

Ooh, hark at judgement boy, here...

Beg to differ - the point of the original trilogy was that Luke did dabble with, or at least stray close to, the dark side, and it didn't dominate his destiny. It was the rigidity of the old Jedi order, the various prohibitions and inflexible structures, that contributed to its own downfall. Whilst Luke's path in the OT was more fluid, perhaps he fell back into such rigidity with his attempts to recreate the order, and doomed history to repeat itself. Only now is he completely free to shape a new way forward. Looking forward to finding out, hoping not to be disappointed.

Ser Jtankian? Is he one of the Kingsguard?

Day one at the cinema for me. (Read: whenever it ends up on Netflix.)

Ouch

Seems reasonably fair, given we usually get the cinematic releases earlier.

Better Call Saw!

Still not exactly And don't get me wrong, I want to believe it, but I just ain't seeing it!

If only you could talk to the bandits...

I reckon I'm with you there - a December full of trips means saving it till Christmas week (off work) is my best bet. If any game has Christmas playthrough shot down the middle of it, it may as well be this one.

Best trailer yet. The only one I've felt like watching over and over, that has really tugged on the emotions, and that's from someone who is completely on board with this film.

Is it Dark Souls 3 that reads 'Press any button' and then doesn't respond to the shoulder buttons? They should count as 'any buttons', right? Still, Dark Souls.

Metroid Prime... was fine, but Metroid Prime 2: Echoes was another story. It had had enough sticking points throughout - Spider boss, Chykka double bill, various dark world spaces - but the gradual exploration, pushing back the boundaries of the game world, carried it through. Penultimate boss just wasn't a goer, so I called it and watched it on GameEndings.com or some such video site. I was happy enough with that, I could gladly play a Prime game with no bosses. Persona 4 The Golden. It was within my grasp, I had 90 hours on the clock and a reasonable aptitude to its systems (not Qazimod levels, but who does?!), and then I just... stopped. I'd formed such connections with the characters, I didn't want it to end. Rationally, I know that's wrong, I wouldn't stop reading a book so, I'd enjoy the exultation and the sadness together, but it's probably too late to go back now. My Persona 4 relationship is to me like a fly in amber, or something, and I'm not sure I should make any dinosaurs from it. Sorry, rambling a bit there...

Yes, I've just watched and enjoyed that one. There's an episode of Red Dwarf that has nigh on an identical plot. No bad thing, mind!

Yeah, but you'll miss the panel reshoots and pickups they'll be doing later.

It spoke of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time to me.

I dunno man, looks like you're trying to find flaws in it... Seriously, just as Wiper could give the game as a whole more of a chance - it's a worthy investment in the long run - you'll get more out of the ending if you accept it and explore the concept. I genuinely feel it would have been a lesser experience without that moment.

It's the lack of agency that makes it, that elevates it. You're welcome to turn the console off, to not play, to not take that action. But you don't. Having an in-game choice would dilute it massively, and be inconsistent with the rest of the journey. Think about how it affects you as a person, not about how you affect the character.