CinemaDome: Creed vs The Force Awakens

THE FORCE AWAKENS. I adore it and everything about it. I have no interest in reading any of your cynical bullshit opinions on it, so I won't.

I liked Creed, Creed was OK. It's probably my 4th favorite Creed movie ever. And it also has a very original spin on the Creed series - unlike in the rest of the movies,

But pitching Creed against TFA is like the first Rocky fight versus Apollo. Creed is a little nice boxing movie that nobody I know asked for or was hyped about, while TFA is an over-hyped juggernaut, that received raving critical reviews and fan-love solely based on its trailers. By all accounts, TFA should win.

The problem is, TFA is not good. I wouldn't go as far as calling it a piece of trash: it has competent cinematography, some good practical effects and likable cast. The first time I saw it, I thought it was OK. But then I remembered I felt the same way about Phantom Menace. And about Attack of the Clones, come to that matter. And so did all of my friends. We were Star Wars fans, we really wanted another SW movie, and we did our best to enjoy and to love those dreadful soulless prequels. By the time Attack of the Clones was released, everybody was already aware that Phantom Menace was awful. And yet, I remember there was a consensus that AoC was a very decent movie and even superior to "Return of the Jedi". Only the passage of time has proven - unequivocally - that both Phantom Menace and AoC are unwatchable (Revenge of the Sith still admits arguments on both sides). It's obvious TFA is not as bad as the first two prequels (or even the 3rd), but it belongs to that league and I'm sure that time will situate it there eventually. The problem with TFA is that it is not a reboot nor a sequel - it is fan-faction. A big budgeted, over-hyped, PR-orchestrated and even lovingly made - but fan-fic nonetheless.

Actually, it is most similar to Star Trek reboot. It is watchable - at least once - with clever little nods and cameos and kind of coherent - but also entirely forgettable. I don't remember any particular scene from the Star Trek reboot, and all I remember from TFA is cringe-inducing, like:
- Han Solo and Chewbacca "magically" appearing on Millenium Falcon, just when I was wondering "where the fuck is Han Solo?"
- The cheap CGI chase in the space station
- Han Solo all but adopts Rey with no build-up whatsoever, just because it was time for it.
- The CGI Yoda-like character saying wise things all of a sudden... again, because it is time to say them
- Rey discovers a light-saber in the basement, see reason above
- The 3rd Death Star (seriously, did we need it?) wreaks doom because it is time to up the stakes
- Han Solo wants to try Chewbacca's bow
- Han Solo and Kylo Ren do the Vader&Obi Wan scene

And stuff like this, it is basically in every scene.
Anyway, sorry for the long rant and another cynical bullshit opinion. One for Creed.

Not cynical bullshit: entertainment conglomerate churning out formulaic (but shiny!) pap because they know nostalgic middle-aged dads will fork over money regardless of quality.

Cynical bullshit: pointing that out.

TFA is one of those Movies that I had the biggest change in experience between the first Cinema watching (awesome) to a second viewing at home on DVD (crap). So I guess the Cinema experience was more about the nostalgia and thank god it wasnt totally stoopid like the prequels, but on a second viewing once youd gotten used to seeing the characters back on screen again, I was pretty bored by it (relative to first viewing). The Rogue trailers look good though, hopefully being freed from the fan service and being able to develop new stuff might make things a bit more interesting. I did wonder how they would relaunch SW without Vader, which I guess they solved.

some bits were great though, but then as others have said theres stuff in there thats just -- lame, like those big aliens on that ship and those "rogue traders" coming to chase Han and Chewie with that dodgy accent in Comedy outfits like some kind of fifth element knock off. I also thought they Went a bit far in revealing the bad guy (and letting him get kicked about a bit too much) and yeah, I Think we had enough with the whiny brat bad guy in those god awful prequels.

Hopefully the next one will be better since they wont have to just rehash the first trilogy and can take things in a new direction

having said that, and while agreeing in general with Jeffs latest comments, I've still not seen Creed, have no interest in seeing Creed and will never see Creed. I'll definitely see TFA again, so thats enough for a vote in my books

but Creed is supposed to be great!

Bojack wrote: I've still not seen Creed, have no interest in seeing Creed and will never see Creed.

Bojack, I really do hope that there's no apocalyptic event, and if there's one that you aren't forced into co-existing with a John Goodman's lookalike in a bunker, and if that happens that Creed is not the only movie that crazy psycho has in his DVD collection, because if all of those things happen, it means you would have lied to us here.

dysjunct wrote:

Not cynical bullshit: entertainment conglomerate churning out formulaic (but shiny!) pap because they know nostalgic middle-aged dads will fork over money regardless of quality.

Cynical bullshit: pointing that out.

To wash the taste of SW 1-3 out of my mouth, I considered the cost of admission for TFA to be money well spent. If someone would do that for The Matrix:Revolutions, I'd spend money for that as well.

RobertB wrote: dysjunct wrote:

Not cynical bullshit: entertainment conglomerate churning out formulaic (but shiny!) pap because they know nostalgic middle-aged dads will fork over money regardless of quality.

Cynical bullshit: pointing that out.

To wash the taste of SW 1-3 out of my mouth, I considered the cost of admission for TFA to be money well spent. If someone would do that for The Matrix:Revolutions, I'd spend money for that as well.

Go see Dr. Strange.

RobertB wrote:
To wash the taste of SW 1-3 out of my mouth, I considered the cost of admission for TFA to be money well spent..

perfect! I endorse this quote.

Winner!

13 - 6

Clap your hands everybody...Star Wars got a win!

Voting's over; but I'll just chime in - TFA gets my nod.

Not that TFA is a good film. It's not. But it's serviceable.

Creed is also not a good film. But Creed is sloppier IMO because it's supposedly grounded in our reality. Any Star Wars film can dismiss illogical issues with Space Opera logic. You know, if something doesn't make sense, just say, "A WIZARD DID IT!" Or in this case, a Jedi. Or the Force. Whatever.

Creed's training schedule is silly
Balboa's cancer treatment / recovery is practically offensive

Making matters worse, Creed is a (loose) follow up to a superior film - ROCKY BALBOA. I would rank Rocky "6" as the second greatest in the franchise, only behind the first one.

Rocky beat it? Maybe I missed it, but I was left under the impression he still has it, but it's at bay or in remission.

I expect it to get him in the next one.

He definitely didn't beat it, but the treatments seem to be working. He is scheduled to die a la' Mickey in the next movie.

TFA probably deserved to win even though I didn't vote for it. My main reason for this is that if you read through this thread you'll quickly see that most of the discussion is around how good or bad TFA is. People voting for Creed, myself included, spend most of their time trying to prove that TFA hasn't earned their vote. Which means that people thought about it much, much more.

Of course this is a nerd site so I suppose that should come as no surprise.