Recent Viewing Part IV

we buy blu-rays all the time, much cheaper and you know most films are re watchable for many times. It's just, you have to wait various months to see it being released

Rogue One

Some spoilers ahead for those who didn’t see the film jet.

Well, in all honesty, when I decided to watch Rogue One on BluRay tonight, I had no Idea, that it is the 40th anniversary of the franchise. I must have been the will of the Force then.

I enjoy this film immensely and much more than The Force Awakens. Still I’d like to share some observations, how Rogue One affects the original Star Wars of 1977.

The inflation of the Star Wars universe inevitably leads to the relativization of the Original Trilogy. When Lucas developed Star Wars he very effectively suggested an old and deep universe by hinting at certain things while leaving almost everything to the imagination of the audience.

Now we know all about that young boy that was already a great pilot, when Obi Wan first met him. Maybe we know more than we ever cared to know.

Now we know, that the Whills were not some mystical record keepers but semi Jedi that for whatever reason were never trained to be Jedi Knights.

Now we know, that Luke destroying the Death Star was not merely the will of the Force but the result of sabotage. Just like mediclorians this kills a bit of the wonderment.

So, there was another bunch of fellows who were at the wrong place at the wrong time and naturally became heroes. That makes Team Luke another relay rather than the ones chosen by the Force.

But most of all, the brilliant vistas, the Death Star in all its amazing details and all these fancy creatures make Star Wars of 1977 look dated. In fact, we now know fairly well, what a remade Original Trilogy would look like. I find this effect much more eminent with Rouge than with the prequel films since you could still pretend the downgrade in beauty was caused by the fall of the Republic. As it is I find it harder to accept Star Wars to be the sequel of Rogue One than the Original Trilogy to be the follow ups of the prequel films.

So, on second sight I am a bit ambivalent about Rogue One, which I still think is a very well made movie. I would like to know though, what the original vision of this film has been, before the re-shootings and before the change of composers.

Thoughts?
Volker

Colossal

A slightly above average film made even better by its unique premise, with decent performances by the two leads. First film in a while where Ann Hathaway isn't annoying. Worth seeing, and a nice take on the big monsters destroying cities trend.

McCreary's score is quite good too, never playing up the comedy and writing appropriately epic, ominous music nicely juxtaposed to the small setting (minus the monster scenes).

They were really good friends and Freud considered Jung as his most talented disciple and even potential successor. There was a fallout between the two of them, but it was mostly "philosophical" in origins. Freud was an anti-theist, Jung defended religious faith and in fact reiterated the point that we need religious symbols and their meaning in our lives (we have spiritual needs which are important for our well-being). In fact one of Freud's first and most important anti-religious books was written precisely because Jung wrote something pro-religious. And it was Freud who seemed to be more obsessed with Jung going his way after their break-up.

Sabine Spielrein... she was considered to be one of the so-called Jungfrauen, the women who were Jung's students and quite close to him. Yes, he did have affairs with them, long-term actually. I've read somewhere that once even Jung begged his wife to let one of his lovers move in with them. So he had these affairs, they were usually long-term.

The specifics of this particular case aren't really known to me. A lot of it was surely dramatized.

Originally I thought he was a sort of "pro-religious atheist", like William James, but then he openly admitted to being a Protestant in one of his books on Alchemy.

Nothing like German compounds. Like Zwangsneu-rose.

Well, he considered himself religious and was a staunch defender of religious faith. In fact I think sometimes he considered the Freudian kind of atheism (simplifying: if you're religious you probably don't get laid enough, because it's sublimation and it leads to suffering because it tells you to control your desires) to be highly neurotic and demanding therapy

And his team won.

It was satisfying to see one of my favourite composers beat the eggheads.

Even if it was by luck which the very humble Arnold admitted.

Batman vs Superman (2016)

Got this one relatively cheap on BluRay. I accidentally saw the 3 h ultmate edition. I can't say anything about the cinematic cut which I never saw.
I digested this with rather low expectations, having read all the scalding reviews. However, to my utter surprise I really really enjoyed this film. I thought the exposition was rather slow and I had to wrap my head around the fact that this Batman exist in another universe than the Black Knight one. But then I thought this was a really well made superhero film. It even manages to fix the mass murdering climax of Man of Steel to a degree. Of course the conflict between Supe and Bat feels forced and it dissolves rather quickly, Lex L is a nuisance, but then this is no Shakespeare, so I don't care much about such shortcomings.
Also I loved the score by Zimmer/Junky XL in context.

Volker

Is it just me or did Henry Cavill look much more like Christopher Reeve this time than he did in Man of Steel?

Man of steel is atrocious from start to end, a nonstop CGI puke-fest with awful performances that completely misinterprets the essence of Superman. Can't understand anyone of my generation even likes this one. The only true Superman film is Richard Donner's.

I've never once been so outspoken for the hate of a film during my first and last viewing as with MOS. I was getting angrier as it went on. The film is downright horrible. And the score... well I have no desire to hear it ever again.