W_L

The Patriots also have better cover songs:

Real love is found in innocence.

That's another one of my cautious hopes for Eps 9,. Like I said, I don't like what Rian Johnson did or his choice in plot points, but it's not as bad as Phantom Menace, it's Attack of the Clone in quality at least. I know JJ is really good at source material building, so there's still hope. PS: @CassieQ there were Padawan in Episode 8, they're just little "Annie" at the moment

Uh, didn't you see my status posting after I watched the movie or the comments I made in chat, I don't think anyone would have mistaken me for a fan of Episode 8 Is it Bias? Yes Is it a Flop? Yes, when you expect to make $750-800 million domestically and come out with 610 million domestically after 2 month run. Also, it's a flop when a major market pulled your movie after 2 weeks of a run. A flop is not a Box office bomb, they'd have to do a really bad job to go below $200 million in overall gross. They made money, but failed to meet expectations. Well, if you like Episode 6, the Ewoks now have competition with the Porgs Also, did you like that arc with Admiral Holdo and Poe? I mean honestly, all she had to do was tell Poe, "Hey dude, we're doing this because xxx" and there wouldn't be any conflict or drama. It's empty tension and just shows off Poe as being too rebellious for his own good. Compare that to Lando's plight in Empire Strike Back, he couldn't tell Han and Leia about Vader et al, because he had a gun pointed to his head with Cloud City at risk. That's real tension within the plot and real necessity for an action to take place. As for another "new direction" plot point which I'd also note as weird: Kylo perhaps was the only one with redeemable character development in Episode 8, it's probably one of the reasons I can see a Episode 9 working out with JJ at the helm again.

Don't trust anyone over 40 Matt

Hey I "resemble" that comment Millennial are different based our birth year, I like to think guys like me who were born in the late 80's with our teen years during the internet boom and smartphone revolution being coinciding with 9/11 and Columbine, being one group and the kids who were teens during the Great Recession and the social media revolution with scary ramification for bullying as the other group. My generation is seeking connections, seeking new ways of being human in a chaotic world, where any moment can be your last due to some insanity. The popular media are shortsighted as to the motivation of my generation, @BHopper2 it is not just a SJW monolithic cause that propels people, prior to the causes, there's an "affect" or influence of historical events like technology and tragedy, and after a cause there's "effect", which is still evolving today with things like #MeToo. Movies today try to cash in on the causes from traditional standpoint without understanding the reason "why" they are important. Another name for my generation other than "Millennial" is Generation Y or "Generation Why?"

Agreed, money is their main goal right now, not the story. If the story quality declines and all there is left are effects, then we get what we paid for. Still I am cautiously hopeful about episode 9 returning to form, I will note, I feel bad for JJ Abrams. Again, it might be me, but if you are going to do a revision of an existing universe like Star Wars, the least you could have done is do it under one writer/director's direction. Collaboration is something writers do a lot, but changing writers in mid-story is usually a bad idea.

I know Jar Jar was bad and Episode 1-2 were atrocious, episode 3 was decent, but this was his universe after all. I liked Episode 7 and Rogue One, but there's a difference, they were consistent with how the movies had gone from 4-6, even 1-3 in some ways. The current Box office trend, the reviews, and let's be honest even you can't deny some of the scenes were just badly plotted or edited, show this was weaker in quality. It's not "Phantom menace" level of bad, but it's at least "Attack of the Clones" level of bad. George Lucas' script should not have been scrapped completely by Disney or Rian Johnson, my point on this is that much of the problems were based on around how they wrote it. Viscerally, it's beautiful movie, but for development/plot, it has a lot of pitfalls.

True, but most fans did appreciate going back to Episode 4 as source materials went, look at Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritics audience reviews, we gave it an overwhelming thumbs up at 88% and 6.8/10 on Metacritics. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_wars_episode_vii_the_force_awakens/ http://www.metacritic.com/movie/star-wars-episode-vii---the-force-awakens The Last Jedi is getting 49% on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic of 4.5/10 https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_wars_the_last_jedi/ http://www.metacritic.com/movie/star-wars-episode-viii---the-last-jedi The vocal minority wanted radical departure, but a consensus wanted a steady and logical flow of events. I am hard to please, but Last Jedi really rubbed me the wrong way, like sand paper

@CassieQ The Domestic box office was only $610,725,821 as of today. www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=starwars8.htm In foreign markets, especially China being one of the largest movie watching emerging markets and it has been completely pulled in just a few weeks, the performance was below expectations. If you are aiming for $1.6 billion worldwide and $750 million domestically, you short https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/films/905945/Star-Wars-Last-Jedi-flop-China-box-office-pulled https://www.cbr.com/star-wars-last-jedi-expected-global-box-office/ It's a flop, it's not a bomb, as the movie did not lose money. It also divided Star Wars viewers immensely on its storyline and plot: Don't read this next section if you haven't seen the movie: Yes, there's a lot of disappointment and a lot of problems that can squarely be placed on the Rian Johnson as the person who attempted to change the movie to how he thought Star Wars needed to be. JJ Abrams from both his work on Star Trek franchise and Star Wars 7, demonstrated at least respect for source material, but there are limits to what you can do in a universe with history. History creates a logical flow of events, deviating from logic is fine if your story is meant to be illogical, but that's "Spaceballs", not "Star Wars". @BHopper2 You'll love the Porgs! Watch Episode 8 with lower expectations, I think most of the fans expected far more thank we actually should have

With the recent Star Wars sequels having taken place without George Lucas' presence or involvement, there's an interesting example now of a popular story under the stewardship of a non-original source writer. George Lucas himself has publicly disliked the new direction as something different than his own, but freely admits he sold his creative rights to the story even though he has other ideas of where things should be: If you take this concept beyond just George Lucas and also apply it to Actors like Mark Hamil, who disagree with how fundamentally Writer/Director Rian Johnson had altered the character, created by Lucas, you have an interesting meta-situation where the character of a story is basically telling you the new direction doesn't flow with the archetype of the original basis for the character Right now fans of Star Wars are divided against the studio, Disney, and the movie's director. Perhaps, the ultimate issue is that instead of writing a story that flowed logically from Star Wars Episode 1-6, the new series took too many licenses with characters. This is not a "small" issue of stormtrooper A falling without getting shot that people argue sci-fi fans pick apart far too much. It is a fundamental issue of writing, when you are not the original author and instead of trying to blend original ideas, you take radical departure from preexisting characters and universal rules. -------------------- The recent "disappointment", or I'd plainly consider a flop based on the low end box office results and bad audience ratings, by Star Wars Episode 8: The Last Jedi, this boils down to creative limits within existing stories. I think there are limits to what is logical for pre-existing universes that we read and write for, whether it is fan fiction or original fiction.

Well, you got to admit some of the stories are kind of funny about how belligerent Philly fans can get: PS: Though I in no way condone animal cruelty, the guy is sort of hot in that bad boy type way

You should return back to your roots and let the philly fans be belligerent. (Be careful, I've heard the reports of Eagles fans being out for blood, unless you are padded I wouldn't go out to the bars in Philly in Pats gear or if you do want to enjoy a drunk drive up to Boston and we can have a few Sam Adams, a New Englander's beer) The Vikings' fans are rooting for the Patriots too after what happened last Sunday.

They both have beefy hot guys with pads on staring at each other's crotches all day

You all know who I will be rooting for based on my avatar, but I also feel somewhat enamored by Philadelphia Eagles. They've come so close to the prize, but just missing out by a kick last time. To me this Super Bowl is like Rocky Balboa vs. Apollo Creed in Rocky 2. Tom Brady already has 5 Super Bowl wins and 7 appearances compared to Nick Foles. On paper, Patriots should win this against the Eagles based on experience, but Tom Brady is getting older and he's not as fast as he used to be on the release. Philly's defense is no push over and won't let down their guard in the 4th quarter knowing what happens when teams do that even leading 3 scores. I want the Patriots to win, but I wish the Eagles can get something out of it too. I also suspect after this game Brady may announce his retirement and Bill Bellichick may prepare for his own retirement soon after, 6 wins means New England is equal to the Steelers as the number 1 most SB winners and the best team in the early 21st Century without equal.

I am bias, being a Patriots Teddy Bear , but I didn't like the trade we had for a 2nd round pick. Jimmy G. is a good back up QB with experience, skills, and ability. The Rams game wasn't a huge deal, but the Jaguar game the week before on Christmas Eve showed us why the reactions on Jimmy G might be real, he's a damn good Quarterback. Defeating the leagues No. 1 defense is no easy task with one of the leagues worst teams. Back in 2000, Tom Brady having come from San Mateo, CA had wanted to be a 49ers QB from his high school to college days, but they rejected him. (Aaron Rodger's also had the same dream). The 49ers have made a lot of bad choices over the decade in their franchise, but maybe just maybe they made a good one. Now, Jimmy G. the Patriots backup QB was traded for a 2nd round draft next year and won 5 games to a team that had a 1-11 record, I am worried Bill Bellichick made a serious mistake. It looks like he just gave 49ers the Patriots version of Steve Young to Brady's Joe Montana. Anyone else thinks Jimmy G is going to live up the hype and lead 49ers to playoff, or God forbid a Super Bowl victory?

True, I lost my first RB, Johnson early in the season, so I had to run by waivers, then came up with Drake. Freeman was my only consistent player. I was banking on Brandin cooks being the 2nd coming of Randy Moss, but he ended being another Julian Edelman, good but nothing special. Jared Goff was a real good choice though for me, he's going to be a good QB for most leagues next season, even if Gurley gets most points.Even though I prefer Patriots to win in AFC, I think the Rams will beat out Philly in the playoffs on the NFC front if the Vikings don't finish off Foles, he's just not up to Carson Wentz's caliber, who if he was playing I'd be really scared of facing in the super bowl. Jared Goff is still a good QB at heart with a strong run game and I'd love to bookend Brady's career of Super Bowls with a win against the 1st team he beat in the Super bowl.

While the study is interesting, I think it misses out on something: how does it categorize Science Fiction. There are several sub-genres of science fiction, while space setting science fiction is most famous, the other settings like alternate universe Earth, a future or even non-human styled stories are just as important. Point taken on the lack of strong female characters (I fixed that in book 2 of my story), but on the flip side popular movie franchises like Star Wars has flipped the script to compensate. The focus now is strongly aligned to the female characters, but it sacrifices the story in the process like Star Wars The Last Jedi's Admiral Holder, Rey, Rose, or even Leia's superman inspired scene. Science fiction at its heart should not be about just the science or the crazy adventure, but the human condition of its characters. Classic sci-fi from its masters like Heinlein (he did more than Starship troopers), Frank Herbert (Dune is still a relevant social commentary on middle east as it was in 1970's), and Philip K. Dick (Artificial intelligence and government surveillance are now a reality, but he foretold it as a sci-fi writer and to me is a master of my subgenre). While I started out as a Sci-Fi writer, I am more specialized now in the realm of Speculative fiction, the same kind that other writers like Dan Brown specializes. We're still considered Sci-Fi writers, but it's 70% modern fiction- 30% science fiction.

2017 was a big letdown in terms of movies and TV shows for Sci-Fi: Justice League and Star Wars sucked sadly Maybe Marvel's infinity war and star wars rebels last season will help, but it's hard to really say. Beyond that Star Trek Discovery was just bad, Mary Sue/Michael, the female lead character was wooden and illogical, the Klingons were made into a social commentary that was out of character, and let' be honest "Spore" drive is ridiculous. If they want to re-invent Star Trek, go into the future like 25th century, not this.

When All Time Has Gone By WL In the Beginning, there was light At the End, there will be darkness Between the flickers of hope Between the cries of mercy There is Time Remember heroes who gave their last full measure Remember villains who gave their final solutions Through the halls of great men and women Through the graves of victims and conquerors There is Time Love we show to th

Short Poem for the New Year It also announces to everyone, I am back to writing again!

Well I got knocked out 1st round of playoffs: Last line up: QB: Jared Goff RB: Devonte Freeman RB: Kenyan Drake Flex: Marshawn Lynch WR: Brandin Cooks WR: Devin Funchess TE: Travis Kelce DST: Rams Kicker: Stephen Gostkowski My oppenent had: QB: Philip Rivers RB: Todd Gurley RB: Alvin Kamara WR: Antonio Brown WR: Josh Gordon TE: Jimmy Graham DST: Vikings K: Kai Forbath Flex:

True, The LA Rams and LA Chargers fans would agree with you, but those folk in St. Louis and San Diego who saw their only football team leave might not as they lose part of themselves in the mix as some big and wealthy city took their childhood idols away. Before Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, the New England Patriots had considered moving to another town, somewhere warmer, where football could make a lot more money for the owners, plus give the perennial team of "Almost got it" to a big win. They weren't the first ones to consider it, the Boston Red Sox had considered moving too, so did a lot of my hometown teams. In the end, they all stuck it out, redoubled their efforts, and did what they needed to do to win. I know Boston and most of New England has been spoiled over the last decade with victories and accolades, but we also had a very long winter of defeats and "almost victories". Sports fans don't just root for their team in the best of time, we also root for them, because we want to believe in them and believe in ourselves as well, it's almost cathartic.

Yes, but I don't want to spoil it for you. I didn't like it that much though and it was such a letdown for all the wrong reasons. I don't know if I want to watch Episode 9 if this is how they are planning to do Star Wars.

Anyone else seen Star Wars Last Jedi?