Controversial TV/Film Opinions

[godisawesome]

Inspired by the post above... CONTROVERSIAL FILM OPINION: the Star Wars films all fail in their overall mission, to restore "balance to the force." It's not balance, you're just removing the Sith to put in the Jedi. Balance, to me, would be learning to unite both, and realise both Sith and Jedi is needed to bring harmony. Hippy as hell, but it always bugged me whenever they said "restore balance." If you have one side with 11kg, and one side with 1kg; you don't balance it out by putting 10kg on the other side. You put 6kg on both. Or is that just me being crazy???


I actually really like this idea.

The problem with “balancing the Force” that way is that the dark side is populated almost exclusively by genocidal Space Nazis trying to pervert and exploit nature. It's not very hippy to say those guys should be able to just keep on committing mass murder and turning planets into rubble. It’s part of the reason Rey wanting to hold Kylo’s Han makes her come off like a Nazi-sympathizer without any self-respect or spine in TLJ.

I’ve long thought, however, that if it was suggested that what had happened was that the Sith code was split off from a working non-dark side code for the Force, and then perverted by dark side users, you could actually create a working, non-Nazi-hugging version of a “yang” to the Jedi’s “yin.”

Like, passion and self-sacrifice for others because you care about them maybe *should* be considered a light side act - especially after ROTJ.

So, this would bring me to a wider opinion for fiction outside of just Star Wars, though it’s probably not that controversial: too many creatively conservative creators will religiously adopt any kind of “The hero can’t commit to a love interest because of reasons” not because they think that’s true, but because it lets them avoid committed relationships.

I kind of hated the way Raimi Spider-Man and Webb Spider-Man tried postponing some romance across films with the “you’d be in danger,” largely because of how bluntly they treated it. MCU Spider-Man handled it a bit better just because of how deftly they managed to convey the idea, and that it was a flawed idea on Peter’s part.

[Kieran_Frost]

The problem with “balancing the Force” that way is that the dark side is populated almost exclusively by genocidal Space Nazis trying to pervert and exploit nature. It's not very hippy to say those guys should be able to just keep on committing mass murder and turning planets into rubble. It’s part of the reason Rey wanting to hold Kylo’s Han makes her come off like a Nazi-sympathizer without any self-respect or spine in TLJ.

I’ve long thought, however, that if it was suggested that what had happened was that the Sith code was split off from a working non-dark side code for the Force, and then perverted by dark side users, you could actually create a working, non-Nazi-hugging version of a “yang” to the Jedi’s “yin.”

Like, passion and self-sacrifice for others because you care about them maybe *should* be considered a light side act - especially after ROTJ.

I never saw the Sith that way; baddies sure, but Space Nazis? Never crossed my mind, to be honest. Regardless, BALANCE. Balance to me is not going from one to another. That's... just physics

[Mark Trail]

I don't know how controversial this one is because I mostly lost interest after the third film.

Princess Leia shouldn't have been Luke's sister.

The other would be jedi should have been Han Solo who's been using the force unconsciously all this time in his flying skills, and with the help of Yoda's voice, awakenings to full force ability within the carbonite block freeing himself. Not by being freed by the others.

Agree 100%

[Jim Kelly]

I'm no Star Wars expert but even I know that the original George Lucas movies are loaded with Nazi iconography. Darth Vader being numero uno Sith Lord is a walking talking Nazi billboard. That's how you know he's the bad guy in the movie. He's literally a Blackshirt.

[Kieran_Frost]

I'm no Star Wars expert but even I know that the original George Lucas movies are loaded with Nazi iconography. Darth Vader being numero uno Sith Lord is a walking talking Nazi billboard. That's how you know he's the bad guy in the movie. He's literally a Blackshirt.

Oh visually, yes I can see that; but I never got a master race vibe for any of Vadar (or the Emperor's) dialogue. It always seemed to be just... rule over everyone mentality.

[Jim Kelly]

In a related field, I think it would be interesting to break down how people feel about Cruella de Vil based on generations and which version they saw first. I'm from the 1961 Betty Lou Gerson generation, so to me Cruella is an irredeemable character who should be shot on sight. For people from the 1996 Glenn Close generation, they might have a pro and con view of Cruella where she's not the worst human being in the world (mainly because she's played by Close). But the new generation whose first version is 2021 Emma Stone might believe that Cruella is their hero, championing the cause of diversity. I wonder what happens if you watch these versions in reverse order--from Stone to Close to Gerson--do you see her differently from that changed perspective? Were the Dalmatians the real villains all along?

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I worked as a production assistant for a couple of months. So I'm fine with the Disney live action remakes. It's a job that a lot of production workers benefit from. Plus you don't have to watch them- there are plenty of other options out there.

Although I prefer the more experimental stuff like Maleficent. I rather get sequels like the Aladdin DTV movies and animated series.

[Catlady in training]

In a related field, I think it would be interesting to break down how people feel about Cruella de Vil based on generations and which version they saw first. I'm from the 1961 Betty Lou Gerson generation, so to me Cruella is an irredeemable character who should be shot on sight. For people from the 1996 Glenn Close generation, they might have a pro and con view of Cruella where she's not the worst human being in the world (mainly because she's played by Close). But the new generation whose first version is 2021 Emma Stone might believe that Cruella is their hero, championing the cause of diversity. I wonder what happens if you watch these versions in reverse order--from Stone to Close to Gerson--do you see her differently from that changed perspective? Were the Dalmatians the real villains all along?

I'm what is called a Millenial and I strongly dislike this current trend of villain apologia movies. I don't say it can't be done, I loved Wicked for example, that's where it worked for me, but some villains should just be left as villains, IMO. Not every villain has a sob story, some are just evil and in movies we can love to hate them without any need to excuse their actions.

[Mark Trail]

I'm what is called a Millenial and I strongly dislike this current trend of villain apologia movies. I don't say it can't be done, I loved Wicked for example, that's where it worked for me, but some villains should just be left as villains, IMO. Not every villain has a sob story, some are just evil and in movies we can love to hate them without any need to excuse their actions.

Puppy killing is a helluva weird version of girl power.

[TheRay]

The Hobbit worked so well it should have guaranteed a Silmarillion film.

[Alan2099]

Inspired by the post above... CONTROVERSIAL FILM OPINION: the Star Wars films all fail in their overall mission, to restore "balance to the force." It's not balance, you're just removing the Sith to put in the Jedi. Balance, to me, would be learning to unite both, and realise both Sith and Jedi is needed to bring harmony. Hippy as hell, but it always bugged me whenever they said "restore balance." If you have one side with 11kg, and one side with 1kg; you don't balance it out by putting 10kg on the other side. You put 6kg on both. Or is that just me being crazy???

Reminds me of the bit for this comic where Mace and Yoda are discussing Anakin being the one to bring balance to the force.

[godisawesome]

Oh visually, yes I can see that; but I never got a master race vibe for any of Vadar (or the Emperor's) dialogue. It always seemed to be just... rule over everyone mentality.

I think a “master race vibe” isn’t necessary when they’re committing genocide on their own populace as a “message” about the dictatorial regime, enslaving people all over the place, and we’re formed by masterminding a giant false flag operation that got millions killed…

Fascism is fascism.

Maybe my controversial opinion is that too many audience members are willing to let lazy writers and biased creators treat a villain’s crimes as statistics and background noise that can be ignored.

Like, Kylo Ren walked onto screen, ordered mass murder for no reason, was revealed to be both a school shooter-equivalent and running a slave army, then violated the main character’s mind in a way that was clearly an attempted sexual-assault allegory… but when Rian Johnson gave into his attraction to having a sad handsome white boy protagonist, and wrote a sloppy-ass, Neo-Nazi-sympathizing story where the only reason giving for ignoring that’s as basically “Look how pretty he is!”…

…Way too many damn fools folded into that immediately.

At least with Vader and Loki, you’ve got the villain having a connection and limit towards the protagonist heroes; you can work that if the hero retains a larger perspective and empathy that’s horrified at the villain’s actions. But Kylo Ren and Suicide Squad’s Joker are perfect examples of someone realizing a vocal part of their audience doesn’t care about what they’ve done, and just wants them treated special - and give into that.

There’s a reason a Star Wars fan of the Empire maybe shouldn’t be writing Star Wars stuff if they don’t seem to care about what the Mepire, or the Sith, are doing; it breaks the story in a lazy way for no good reason.

[Gray Lensman]

Oh visually, yes I can see that; but I never got a master race vibe for any of Vadar (or the Emperor's) dialogue. It always seemed to be just... rule over everyone mentality.

Well, the Imperial forces are all human, the aliens are almost exclusively found either among the Rebellion or a crime syndicate. There isn't much subtext there, it's straight text.

It gets even more blatant in the novels. The Empire allowed non-human to be second class citizens at best, provided they were doing something the Empire found useful. Keeping those other aliens down even further is one of those things.

[Frobisher]

Inspired by the post above... CONTROVERSIAL FILM OPINION: the Star Wars films all fail in their overall mission, to restore "balance to the force." It's not balance, you're just removing the Sith to put in the Jedi. Balance, to me, would be learning to unite both, and realise both Sith and Jedi is needed to bring harmony. Hippy as hell, but it always bugged me whenever they said "restore balance." If you have one side with 11kg, and one side with 1kg; you don't balance it out by putting 10kg on the other side. You put 6kg on both. Or is that just me being crazy???


I actually really like this idea.

Absolutely. Lucas took the iconography of Taoist philosophy, but stripped it of all meaning by setting it as a simplistic Manichaein battle between white hats and black hats. You could say “sure, what do you expect from a kid’s film”, but there’s been like 14 of these films now for them to develop a slightly more nuanced and interesting take.

[TheRay]

Seth Rogen is much better when he’s not the lead.