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TxFrog1999

The Man Behind The Curtain
Just back with the family from The Lion King (2019).

Pretty much a scene for scene live action version, with a little #girlpower sprinkled in and a Beyonce riff for good measure. Animation was beautiful, but I can't think this trend from Disney has much staying power. Did see a trailer for Mulan, which is one of my favorite Disney movies, and it looks like they rewrote parts of that movie as well to make her more of a Mary Sue, but that will probably be the last live action Disney film I see in the theaters.
 

MTfrog5

Active Member
Just back with the family from The Lion King (2019).

Pretty much a scene for scene live action version, with a little #girlpower sprinkled in and a Beyonce riff for good measure. Animation was beautiful, but I can't think this trend from Disney has much staying power. Did see a trailer for Mulan, which is one of my favorite Disney movies, and it looks like they rewrote parts of that movie as well to make her more of a Mary Sue, but that will probably be the last live action Disney film I see in the theaters.
My buddy has a huge issue with how Disney is throwing in girl power into the new movies. He was pissed that Jasmine became Sultan instead of Aladdin
 

Chongo94

Active Member
My buddy has a huge issue with how Disney is throwing in girl power into the new movies. He was pissed that Jasmine became Sultan instead of Aladdin

Does Disney control Star Wars, I forget...the most recent one was so bad. But it definitely had Mary Sue issues with the main star. 1 week of practice and suddenly she’s an amazing Jedi Knight? I refuse to see this next one because the last one was so bad.

And I’m not a Star Wars junkie or anything, that was just a horrible movie with bad plot lines and bad writing.
 

MTfrog5

Active Member
Does Disney control Star Wars, I forget...the most recent one was so bad. But it definitely had Mary Sue issues with the main star. 1 week of practice and suddenly she’s an amazing Jedi Knight? I refuse to see this next one because the last one was so bad.

And I’m not a Star Wars junkie or anything, that was just a horrible movie with bad plot lines and bad writing.
I don’t do Star Wars but I’m pretty sure Disney does make them now
 

Purp

Active Member
Does Disney control Star Wars, I forget...the most recent one was so bad. But it definitely had Mary Sue issues with the main star. 1 week of practice and suddenly she’s an amazing Jedi Knight? I refuse to see this next one because the last one was so bad.

And I’m not a Star Wars junkie or anything, that was just a horrible movie with bad plot lines and bad writing.
Disney does own the Star Wars franchise. I disagree about the new one, though. I think Rey's character is excellent and I don't think many would confuse me here for an overt girl power movement leader. What's exciting about her character is how well she learned to use the force on her own without training. I think there was always a little bit of "what if Leia had trained in the force" curiosity with Star Wars fans so Rey's character feels less like a forced girl power move to me maybe for that reason alone.

I enjoy the Star Wars movies and even enjoyed the prequel trilogy that came out in the early aughts. Those weren't as good as the originals, but I enjoyed them. Any time you go into a sci-fi/fantasy movie without being prepared to lose yourself in the fantasy for a couple hours you're setting yourself up for disappointment. I feel like these Disney ones are much better than the last ones George Lucas put out.
 

Hoosierfrog

Tier 1
My buddy has a huge issue with how Disney is throwing in girl power into the new movies. He was pissed that Jasmine became Sultan instead of Aladdin

You would think Muslims would be pissed, since they would have never allowed such a thing to happen. They have to come here and get elected to Congress and use their platform to say how crappy a place the US is...
 

Chongo94

Active Member
Disney does own the Star Wars franchise. I disagree about the new one, though. I think Rey's character is excellent and I don't think many would confuse me here for an overt girl power movement leader. What's exciting about her character is how well she learned to use the force on her own without training. I think there was always a little bit of "what if Leia had trained in the force" curiosity with Star Wars fans so Rey's character feels less like a forced girl power move to me maybe for that reason alone.

I enjoy the Star Wars movies and even enjoyed the prequel trilogy that came out in the early aughts. Those weren't as good as the originals, but I enjoyed them. Any time you go into a sci-fi/fantasy movie without being prepared to lose yourself in the fantasy for a couple hours you're setting yourself up for disappointment. I feel like these Disney ones are much better than the last ones George Lucas put out.

I get you and I totally agree on the need to lose oneself in the movie and I agree, these are better than the recent George Lucas ones but still kinda meh to me sadly.

I didn’t have a problem with her really, but that movie or her character comes across to me as a Mary Sue movie by traditional terms. My main problem was it was just badly written and a poor story with just random plot lines that went nowhere, and characters that have no use whatsoever yet appear to be major. It was the first time I remember in a while that I was checking my watch a few times while watching a movie.

Also, the new evil wanna be Vader dude, what’s his name, Kylo Ren?...as soon as he takes his helmet off in the first one people laughed in the theater I was in haha. It was just really hard to take that guy seriously as a bad guy. Rogue 1 was fantastic but these new Star Wars ones have been sadly meh to me.
 
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Purp

Active Member
I didn’t have a problem with her really, but that movie or her character comes across to me as a Mary Sue movie by traditional terms. My main problem was it was just badly written and a poor story with just random plot lines that went nowhere, and characters that have no use whatsoever yet appear to be major. It was the first time I remember in a while that I was checking my watch a few times while watching a movie.

Also, the new evil wanna be Vader dude, what’s his name, Kylo Ren?...as soon as he takes his helmet off in the first one people laughed in the theater I was in haha. It was just really hard to take that guy seriously as a bad guy. Rogue 1 was fantastic but these new Star Wars ones have been fairly meh to me.
I get you on the Kyle Ren bit. For me he's a bit like Anakin in Episodes 1-3 where the character is critical, but the delivery is missing something very important. In Anakin's case I think it was poorly acted.

In Kylo Ren's case I think he feels less menacing. I think that's partly due to not being acted as well as it could be, but mostly because in the story he clearly isn't as established in the Dark Side as Vader was. There's also the fact that he's Leia and Han Solo's kid so we have an urge to want good for him rather than bad, which withholds some of the hate emotion a movie goer may have for the typical villain.

Removing his helmet frequently didn't bother me much, though. There was clearly nothing wrong with him physically like with Vader so the helmet is seemingly superfluous, but if you're going to make him look menacing you have to cover up the baby face. I think the helmet coming off and going back on was an effective way of illustrating some internal conflict within his character. The same way part of the plot in the originals was always that Luke held out hope he could bring his father back from the dark side we're supposed to have hope Kylo Ren can be reconciled with Leia. Removing the helmet and exposing his face shows some vulnerability that keeps that hope alive.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I think that's why it didn't bother me as much as it did you.
 

Chongo94

Active Member
I get you on the Kyle Ren bit. For me he's a bit like Anakin in Episodes 1-3 where the character is critical, but the delivery is missing something very important. In Anakin's case I think it was poorly acted.

In Kylo Ren's case I think he feels less menacing. I think that's partly due to not being acted as well as it could be, but mostly because in the story he clearly isn't as established in the Dark Side as Vader was. There's also the fact that he's Leia and Han Solo's kid so we have an urge to want good for him rather than bad, which withholds some of the hate emotion a movie goer may have for the typical villain.

Removing his helmet frequently didn't bother me much, though. There was clearly nothing wrong with him physically like with Vader so the helmet is seemingly superfluous, but if you're going to make him look menacing you have to cover up the baby face. I think the helmet coming off and going back on was an effective way of illustrating some internal conflict within his character. The same way part of the plot in the originals was always that Luke held out hope he could bring his father back from the dark side we're supposed to have hope Kylo Ren can be reconciled with Leia. Removing the helmet and exposing his face shows some vulnerability that keeps that hope alive.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I think that's why it didn't bother me as much as it did you.

Those are good points. And I do think you’re right, that it (removing the helmet and his general storyline) was probably for storylines and plot development that you mention and it does work that way when you think about it.

I think why I got lost one it was that while I knew that guy was in the movie, I was unaware he had been cast as the new bad guy. The trailers and the movie itself were showing this kickass mask and this pretty powerful bad guy and I was down with him, particularly his first major scene showing off his power in that camp raid.

And then, he takes off his mask and I was like what? This guy? And as I mentioned, some actually laughed haha. It was as you said, less menacing. It was as if the air in a balloon had just been let out or the toothpaste had been pushed out of the container. I thought he worked better in his conflict between good and bad so the urge is there to seem him come good as you mentioned and maybe they do that in this next one, but as a bad guy, he should’ve kept the mask on or fixed the baby face somehow like you alluded to.

And yeah, Anakin in the first ones was so poorly acted. Just goes to show how much casting can help or hinder a movie.
 

talor

Active Member
Does Disney control Star Wars, I forget...the most recent one was so bad. But it definitely had Mary Sue issues with the main star. 1 week of practice and suddenly she’s an amazing Jedi Knight? I refuse to see this next one because the last one was so bad.

And I’m not a Star Wars junkie or anything, that was just a horrible movie with bad plot lines and bad writing.

I've never heard this "Mary Sue" phrase before. What does that even mean?

I liked the new star wars movies, all of them except those super [ Finebaum ]ty ones that came out 1999-2003 or whatever. The Last Jedi is held in really high regards by some avid star wars fan friends of mine as being one of the top 3-4 of them even.

The live action Jungle Book is really fun and I feel that the internet ratings support this claim, be it imdb or rotten tomatoes. But so far the reviews and numbers for Aladdin and Lion King are really mediocre.
 

Mean Purple

Active Member
Just back with the family from The Lion King (2019).

Pretty much a scene for scene live action version, with a little #girlpower sprinkled in and a Beyonce riff for good measure. Animation was beautiful, but I can't think this trend from Disney has much staying power. Did see a trailer for Mulan, which is one of my favorite Disney movies, and it looks like they rewrote parts of that movie as well to make her more of a Mary Sue, but that will probably be the last live action Disney film I see in the theaters.
I'll be honest, i would like to see the Aladdin film they made. I'm a Will Smith fan. And it is still in some theaters so I better get off my lazy briles and get to it.
 

TxFrog1999

The Man Behind The Curtain
I've never heard this "Mary Sue" phrase before. What does that even mean?

I liked the new star wars movies, all of them except those super [ steaming pile of Orgeron ]ty ones that came out 1999-2003 or whatever. The Last Jedi is held in really high regards by some avid star wars fan friends of mine as being one of the top 3-4 of them even.

The live action Jungle Book is really fun and I feel that the internet ratings support this claim, be it imdb or rotten tomatoes. But so far the reviews and numbers for Aladdin and Lion King are really mediocre.

From Wikipedia...

A Mary Sue is an idealized and seemingly perfect fictional character. Typically, this character is recognized as an author insert or wish fulfillment. They can usually perform better at tasks than should be possible given the amount of training or experience, and usually are able through some means to upstage the main protagonist of an established fictional setting, such as by saving the hero.

I'm all for strong female leads, but the recent trend is to make female leads nearly perfect in their roles, think Rambo for male characters (not first blood, but the one where he nearly takes out the entire Soviet army by himself). Now, there is nothing wrong with that type of character in fiction, but lately it's been forced in roles where it isn't warranted. For example, one of the great aspects of Mulan (since I mentioned that earlier) is that she wasn't a particularly skilled fighter and was certainly shown as being less physical than the male counterparts (they even made fun of her when they thought she was a "weak" man), but she used her mind and strategy to win the day (she's shown winning a game just in passing by the players and glancing at the board, retrieving the arrow by utilizing the heavy discs to climb the pole, firing the rocket to start an avalanche rather than waste it killing one man, etc.). Now, in the future remake she's shown slicing her way through Huns like it's a scene from Hidden Dragon or a Jackie Chan movie. There is no need to remake the character into a martial arts expert.
 

TxFrog1999

The Man Behind The Curtain
I'll be honest, i would like to see the Aladdin film they made. I'm a Will Smith fan. And it is still in some theaters so I better get off my lazy briles and get to it.
It was a decent remake, not the shot for shot type of movie like The Lion King, the new musical numbers didn't even come close to matching the tone of the originals, and the actor depicting Jafar (like the one voicing Scar in this remake) lacks the presence that role calls for, but if you're looking for a decent popcorn movie to kill time it's worth a red box rental.
 

Frog-in-law1995

Active Member
Mary Sue has counted to infinity. Twice.

Mary Sue was once in a knife fight. The knife lost.

Superman wears Mary Sue pajamas.

Mary Sue doesn’t wear a watch, she decides what time it is.
 
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