TLJ; Should it have been filmed in the same style as TFA?

Great post!

 

Uhhhhhh, errrrrrrrrrr, uhhh THAT WAS A VISION! Yes! A vision! That battle took place in real time! So was that battle a vision?

Woo! Almost had me!

 

The fight between Rey and Kylo in TFA had also slowmo.

 

I actually like it this way and kind of hope episode 9 will be different than 7 and 8. It'll be fun to go through this ST in a single afternoon, having all those differences...
And as a whole, the same goes for the OT, PT and ST. Going through all 9 movies would be less interesting if they had all been filmed in the same style IMO.

 

I think slow motion was used twice in The Empire Strikes Back:

1. definitely in the cave scene in Dagobah Luke and Vader's mystical confrontation

2. and I think earlier yet, for a moment, when the Wampa lost its arm (as it falls to the snow)

 

The style of TLJ is the suppression of the evolution of sameness. The evolution of sameness is basic evolution, but the movie wants to look past the basic evolution and does that by having an aura of not wanting progress - Canto Bight isn't actually condemned, the twin suns are rejected by Luke, the Britishness of Rey is embraced, Chewbacca's anti-vegetarianism is treated as humorous, etc etc

Actual progress is being honoured by being treated as a self-aware entity; so the rejection of nationalism, the cause of vegatarianism and the nature of sunlight are actually honoured by being allowed to scrutinise themselves

 

No, Sir.

 

Or alternatively fanboys will find something to rave about.

 

Yes slo mo was used then. Nothing new. Just like bombers in space, remember the TIE bombers in TESB? More pointless raving from the haters.

 

3. Obi-Wan’s death in A New Hope is also a subtle slowmo moment

 

Yoda's death too. Did you realise that the "suicide" to become one with the force of Luke has the same effect? I loved that, a nod straight to the old Ben and Yoda.

 

I don't think cinematic style is what most folks complain about. (I loved the hell out of this movie, so I'm not a complainer)

I DID find it interesting to read of one guy who allegedly walked out of the movie in a little-girl huff about halfway through the film.....but....then complained (in vivid detail) about the end scenes. I mean.......

A large chunk of the overall pearl-clutching is made up. Not sure why, but folks do that now. So no....a similar style would not have soothed their troubled souls.

 

I don't think so, no.
The style is just fine, imo.

 

No.
Each SW of the OT is different.
The OP states they are the same, but they really aren't. They are only linked in the era's overall limitations and zeitgeists in camera work.
Lucas used a very stiff blocking in ANH that has only slightly more motion to the camera than PT, and aimed to do as much as possible with master shots. Meanwhile, ESB dropped motion of the camera to a minimum, cut master shots as the go to, and shoved the camera right up the actor's nose so their faces filled almost the whole screen. Then there's ROTJ which returned to master shot templates as typical, but also cut more rapidly around from shot to shot and had a far faster pacing than ANH.

Then there's the PT.
The PT all have the exact same of two things: budget and camera work. This is because Lucas did all three himself and had a very specific design goal in mind with the camera work.
In the PT Lucas hardly moves the camera, uses non-stop flooding of master shots, puts everything square in the center instead of using the modern thirds alignments, sticks the camera to small tracks and the only motion the camera has in the series is slow to mild pans left and right. This was because he wanted to homage old serial scifi's he grew up on so he did the entire trilogy using old methods and all on soundstages with no on-site sets.

TFA returned to a more ANH mixed with ROTJ style, but tossed in pulls and pushes (which SW very rarely used before) and intershot directional juxtoposed continuity (JJ's forte is in making directional continuity across different shots...i.e. shot of a ship coming from top left to bottom right with fast but short pan, juxtaposed to pilot of a chased ship cockpit shot angled slightly to the up and left with the actor looking back over their shoulder up and to the left while taking up the right third of the shot so it's like the ship that's chasing and the actor are shot like dialogue shots).
And then there's RJ who is a master painter with master shots that can be framed, and then he intermixes fast cuts between and doesn't fear audio overlap between fast cuts, and also packs in about 1.5 times as many shots as is normal...like a comic book panel on fast forward and then right when you're in a blur a bit, bam, longer held master shot again like you've gone off the ramp and hanging in the air, and then, boom right back in to cut, cut, cut...etc... He's a master of slow/fast pacing juxtapositioning.

Considering that ESB was a sharp deviation from ANH, and ROTJ is well akin to ANH just a bit more speedy, the ST will end up about the same since TFA and IX will be JJ while TLJ took deviations in good contrast to JJ's style.

RJ was THE perfect pick for a likeness of the placement of TLJ against ESB because he is also strong minded, well visioned, dark (even in sunshine), and ruthless.

Cheers!
Jayson

 

In terms of cinematography, I found TFA more organic, with a classic grain, a sensation that gives me the feeling I'm watching a movie.
Not the entire move (Ahch-To and Crait are good with a more classic style) but I found TLJ more digital (probably because there are more spotless interiors and clean suits). Too much definition for my taste.
So, for me, i would prefer the same style yes. Although I like the flashbacks and slowmotion.
Despite being diferent to each other, OT and PT follow a same pattern style in its own trilogy, in my opinion, that gives the sensation of a union.

 

I think they should do what Peter Jackson did with the LOTR trilogy. A fully planned out story, principal photography happening simultaneously for all 3 movies. Post in between the individual releases. Reshoots if needed. Multiple directors if needed but only a handful of screenwriters with a unison vision as far as they main plot is concerned rather than everyone doing his/her own thing.

 

Absolutely agree. I don't mind the new direction RJ went but I disliked his timing. TLJ works well in many ways but not as a sequel and it is only a mildly interesting setup for IX which is why I like the movie as a standalone prodcut but not in context with the saga.

 

Definitely not. Out of every SW, TFA was pretty much the one I liked the least both in visual style and pacing.
TFA felt way too small-scaled, restricted, void and too calculated. It's the least "living" of any of the episodes imo. It's also incredibly rushed. JJ's modern techniques such as fast zooms and fast side tilts (always to the left side to add) are also very un- Star Wars-y.

TLJ was much better. I loved the close-ups, the scale, the establishing shots, the colours. It was definitely better directed than TFA imo.
The only thing I didn't like was the Luke slow-mo and narration. Rey's cave scene very certainly would've been better without Rey explaining everything to the audience...

Many are saying this, but I don't think TLJ set up the sequel any worse than ESB. It's at least not as sequel-independent as TFA.