Ben Shapiro burns Barbies

[ingemann]

The greatest trick Shapiro ever pulled was convincing the culture warriors that he is in any shape or form relevant.

Seriously do anyone who are not way too much on internet knows this guy exists, in case of the people who are way too much on the internet have anyone ever changed opinion on anything thanks to him? He’s a charisma-less runt with a voice not even a mother could love, and he’s 100% fake, his arguments are fake, his persona is fake, and his support is fake.

I may criticize the Young Turks, but they at least have build up their own brand and support themselves, they’re not failed Hollywood writers who convince a bunch of rich sugar daddies to fund their media presence.

[ingemann]

Ben Shapiro is a failed screenwriter and his entire career revolves around him being bitter about the fact that he was unable to make it in show business even though he came from a successful family. If you've ever read excerpts from his novels you'll see that he's a very typical talentless hack. People like him are a dime a dozen in California but turned his outrage into a career as a conservative propagandist.

In all fairness seeing what Hollywood produce in screen writing quality right now I get his bitterness. But I think the mix of being talentless, together with his anti-charisma, extreme arrogance and obnoxiousness and slightly because of his politics is really what killed his Hollywood career. Right now screen writing in Hollywood seem mostly being written by rich kids at very low wages and with little care about whether they have any talent for writing, but having a guy like Shapiro on the same team as other screen writers seems a great way to get a very toxic work environment.

[ingemann]

Ben Shapiro is a failed screenwriter and his entire career revolves around him being bitter about the fact that he was unable to make it in show business even though he came from a successful family. If you've ever read excerpts from his novels you'll see that he's a very typical talentless hack. People like him are a dime a dozen in California but turned his outrage into a career as a conservative propagandist.

This description fits to a T the other Big Culture Warrior of the moment: Will Jordan aka Critical Drinker.

I think that’s a bad comparison, Will Jordan whatever people may think about have build up his own career, he also have charisma, he also sometimes avoid being a complete tool (he sometimes do thing you wouldn’t expect, something Shapiro never does). From what I can see of his books on Amazon he’s mostly successful and with score which look natural; his books in English usually get 4,5 average and above a few thousand review with his new ones set getting around 500 and the ratings doesn’t look manipulated. He seems a pretty average moderately successful author, not a guy who will be remembered 30 years after he stop writing, but one who can live moderately well of his writings.

[ingemann]

The Last Jedi was the best of the sequels, but that doesn’t mean it was a good movie; in fact the movie was something of a mess. We have the fleet fleeing in something which feels like a few days, at the same time the adventure of Finn & Ross feels like it happens over a few week, while Rey arc feels like months. Poe’s arc is a confusing mess and a great example of tell don’t show.

Finn repeats his arch from the first movie and is continued undercut and humiliated for little reason. Kylo Ren arc is a mess but do work. Rey is robbed of the little character she had from the first movie and end up mostly a tool to move the plot along, the only times she seems a real character is when she interact with Kylo Ren.

The entire trip to rich casino world is a complete waste of time and only serve as a failed FU to original trilogy (Del Toro’s character is meant to be a deconstruction of Han Solo and …. sigh….subvert our expectations, and instead it all just seem meaningless and stupid).

The Luke arc works but just seems mean spirited and a general FU to people who likes Star Wars (like most of the people seeing the movie). Leia being a force user are fine, but Admiral HR manager have the potential to be an interesting character, but is undercut by her interaction with Poe not making a whole lot of sense.

At last Rian Johnson’s love for burning everything down and leave things as flaming ruins is not what the second director in a trilogy should do. I do think that as the first film in a trilogy this could have been an interesting strategy and then have used the second movie to have the character fight to establish a new status quo.

All in all Rian Johnson is just as much a gimmicky director as Abrams and both was terrible choices as directors for Star Wars but for different reasons. But I also agree with Landslide Lyndon that the biggest sin was the lack of overarching story for the trilogy. They knew it was a trilogy, they should have planned for a narrative running through all three movies.

[ingemann]

The Last Jedi was the best of the sequels, but that doesn’t mean it was a good movie; in fact the movie was something of a mess. We have the fleet fleeing in something which feels like a few days, at the same time the adventure of Finn & Ross feels like it happens over a few week, while Rey arc feels like months. Poe’s arc is a confusing mess and a great example of tell don’t show.

Finn repeats his arch from the first movie and is continued undercut and humiliated for little reason. Kylo Ren arc is a mess but do work. Rey is robbed of the little character she had from the first movie and end up mostly a tool to move the plot along, the only times she seems a real character is when she interact with Kylo Ren.

The entire trip to rich casino world is a complete waste of time and only serve as a failed FU to original trilogy (Del Toro’s character is meant to be a deconstruction of Han Solo and …. sigh….subvert our expectations, and instead it all just seem meaningless and stupid).

The Luke arc works but just seems mean spirited and a general FU to people who likes Star Wars (like most of the people seeing the movie). Leia being a force user are fine, but Admiral HR manager have the potential to be an interesting character, but is undercut by her interaction with Poe not making a whole lot of sense.

At last Rian Johnson’s love for burning everything down and leave things as flaming ruins is not what the second director in a trilogy should do. I do think that as the first film in a trilogy this could have been an interesting strategy and then have used the second movie to have the character fight to establish a new status quo.

All in all Rian Johnson is just as much a gimmicky director as Abrams and both was terrible choices as directors for Star Wars but for different reasons. But I also agree with Landslide Lyndon that the biggest sin was the lack of overarching story for the trilogy. They knew it was a trilogy, they should have planned for a narrative running through all three movies.

Overtime I have come to blame the Force Awakens more too because while at first I thought it was the 5th best movie in the Saga(behind episodes 3-6), as time passes I realize how much it helped cause the issues of the sequels.

1. It was The Force Awakens that decided to basically destroy the idea of a New Jedi Order and have Luke walkaway and while yes The Last Jedi could have showing him train an order in secret, the fact is it would have been much easier to show the New Jedi Order in Episode 7.

Sure you could show its in turmoil with many of its members joining the Knights of Ren but we should have seen the New Jedi Order

2. Han was basically turned back into a Smuggler here and it would have been much better if he was shown as an Admiral of the Republic Military

3. Leia again was turned back into a rebel fighter when we should have seen her as a full fledged Jedi as well as a politician like both her biological mom and her adoptive father.

4. The First Order being able to build something like Starkiller base is completely lol worthy and it made no logical sense for them being able to do that in secret.

5. Trying to repeat Luke's story with Rey was a disaster and helped create the whole storyline around what her lineage was and that was just not needed. Rey should have been introduced out of the gate as the daughter of Luke Skywalker and shown as a Padawan near the completion of her training.



If Episode 7 had started out strong with all these plot points defined and didnt take the soft reboot/mystery box approach, then the worst things in episode 8 would not have happened to begin with.

Yes, Abrams was every bit as much a disaster as Johnson, his mystery box destroyed Star Wars. But honestly the worst about Rey is the lack of character and the fact that she’s completely reactive. If Abrams had gone the route he did with her, she should have had more character than being lonely and being reactive.

I honestly liked the idea of building up the sequels up around Finn which the Force Awakens played with, and I think Rey should have been a desert rat; competent, hard and with a bit of cruel egoism, she also should not have had any mysterious past, she should simply be a orphan surviving in a cruel world. I think Poe should have been either Luke’s or Leia and Han’s child, with Kylo Ren being his cousin.

Han should not have returned to smuggling, I don’t care what he is doing, but he should do something new. Leia should simply be a politician and Luke should be training Jedi’s in a hidden temple safe from attacks by dark side users.

[ingemann]

Saw that this thread had expanded to seven pages. Braced myself for what I assumed was going to be an absolute flame War involving Bunches of gratuitous dunking on trans people. To my pleasant surprise it was merely Pages after pages of tail-chasing debate over how to objectively judge a movie and applying said standards or lack thereof to The Last Jedi.

Progress for Atlas I guess?

Why would this have been the case?

One (or maybe two?) of the Barbies in the movie are played by transwomen.

Honestly who cares?