TransMonk

Holy design change, Batman!

30. Noah Syndergaard 29. Jacob deGrom 28. Bartolo Colon 27. Yoenis Cespedes 26. Addison Reed 25. Asdrubal Cabrera 24. Steven Matz 23. Curtis Granderson 22. Neil Walker 21. Jeurys Familia 20. Seth Lugo 19. Robert Gsellman 18. Kelly Johnson 17. Jerry Blevins 16. Hansel Robles 15. Juan Lagares 14. T.J. Rivera 13. Michael Conforto 12. Jose Reyes 11. Rene Rivera 10. Wilmer Flores 9. Jim Henderson 8. Lucas Duda 7. Brandon Nimmo 6. Matt Reynolds 5. Ty Kelly 4. Fernando Salas 3. Alejandro De Aza 2. Jay Bruce 1. Matt Harvey

On the whole, I enjoyed ROUGE ONE. As others have mentioned, it was definitely darker and grittier than any that SW films have come before, but I thought it was tastefully done and , IMO, now makes the Episode IV story that much more compelling. The first 45 - 60 minutes were a little cumbersome mostly due to the amount of new characters and worlds being introduced. As I mentioned above, I read the pre-R1 novel, so I had at least had some background on the Erso Family, Orson Krennic and Saw Gerrera...and it was still a bit confusing. I can imagine that confusion would be higher for those without any prior knowledge on these characters. I agree with Chuck above that the cameos from characters from other films were not necessary to the story and were really just bones thrown to die-hard fans, so some felt a bit cheap. Highlight for SPOILERS below: I agree with LWFS that the Jedda City war scenes were jarring and real. I feel like they worked, but, man, it did mirror life for some here on earth. Without a doubt, this film put the WAR in STAR WARS. I understand that in a prequel with several new characters that don't appear further down the timeline there is going to be a lot of death, but I wish we could have seen more of Forrest Whitaker's character. I thought all of the actors did a great job with what they were working with. My biggest gripe with the film was the CGI portrayals of previous characters. First, Tarkin: I'm not a CGI fan, but all-in-all, I thought the artists did a good job of re-creating his likeness, but still, I thought these scenes would have been more believable if done one of two ways: 1) Tarkin could have appeared in holograms which would have provided enough distortion to account for the CGI. 2) Bite the bullet and find a really good actor and some make-up. If Bryan Cranston can make me believe he is LBJ, then Disney could have found someone to make me believe I was seeing Peter Cushing. Mon Mothma was believably played by a younger actress without outcry (reprising her role from Episode III, I believe). No matter how good the CGI looks now, it will look worse in 10, 15, 20 years. I do not believe this portrayal will stand the test of time. Lastly, Leia: It is not often that the final two seconds of a movie tarnishes what was a very good film that came before it, but the CGI Leia was too much for me. Again, this scene could have easily been done differently. There was no need to see Leia's face there. Her back is turned when the door opens...the officer could have handed her the file to her with her back still turned. As she takes the disc, she could have said her line, "Hope." and then a quick cut to the credits. EVERYBODY knew it was her. There was no reason to clumsily re-create Carrie Fisher's 19-year-old face digitally. Again, this will not stand the test of time. So, I walked away with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, but again, still enjoyed the movie altogether.

I rarely read bestselling fiction, but I'm studying up for the new flick. A prequel to the prequel...

Vic and I must have been watching this at the same time last night. My reaction was lukewarm. Cavill does a great job with Superman, IMO. I wasn't quite as impressed with Affleck's performance, though. I think part of it is that Cavill is a relative unknown outside of his work as Superman. To me, Cavill IS Superman while Affleck is just another guy (with more than a couple questionable acting performances on his resume) in a long line of well-known actors to play Batman. However, I thought that the writers did a decent job with the character. Eisenberg...ugh.

I see LEGEND playing on cable from time to time and will need to catch it next time I see it. Unfortunately, I often confuse it for the 1985 Tom Cruise fantasy flick.

Nope...I'll add it to my queue, thanks!

Finally saw this on cable. It was better than I thought it would be. Leo won the Oscar for this, but really, with the makeup, special effects, fight choreography and lack of dialogue, I thought many actors could have pulled the lead role off just as well. Tom Hardy was the best actor in this flick. The cinematography Oscar was well deserved with the nearly total natural light and outdoor settings. The opening sequence and hand-to-hand fight sequence at the end were brilliantly done.

Yeah, 12 teams and 1 winner makes it tough to get excited if your are not near the top of the standings. By this time each season, I'm usually already dumping for next year.

My two highest paid pitchers (Harvey and Shelby Miller) are both now riding the pine. These guys represent 14.5% of my total payroll and are pitching like total dog doo. OE: And my third highest paid pitcher (Wheeler) hasn't pitched in a meaningful game in 20 months. I'm going for GM of the year if you couldn't tell.

I am all hit and no pitching this year...in the top two of all hitting categories, but at the bottom in all pitching categories. Shelby Miller and Matt Harvey are letting me down BIG TIME so far.

Fresh off the digital home release of Episode VII, Lucasflim released the first trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story which will be released in December. Wji-BZ0oCwg This flick is a stand alone story and does not follow the Skywalker character plot. The events take place between Episodes III and IV.

I've never seen where Fangraphs gives potential bid amounts. They do give a FPTS score, which I assume is a relative value, but doesn't really translate to how we score or what our budget is. I wish they would show me which players have retired because their club won't let their home-schooled kid hang out with the team all season.

Is this our Snukes owner...or just a coincidence?

d'Arnaud PA: 268 Cespedes PA: 249 d'Arnaud XBH: 27 Cespedes XBH: 35 d'Arnaud OPS: .825 Cespedes OPS: .942 Nymr83 wrote: d'Arnaud was just as big a part of the Mets' 2nd half resurgence... d'Arnaud Aug OPS: .901 Cespedes Aug OPS: .872 d'Arnaud Sept/Oct OPS: .745 Cespedes Sept/Oct OPS: 1.017

G'ah! I'll fix and edit...thanks for catching.

30. deGrom 29. Granderson 28. Harvey 27. Murphy 26. Familia 25. Duda 24. Syndergaard 23. Cespedes 22. Colon 21. Conforto 20. Niese 19. Flores 18. Tejada 17. Wright 16. Lagares 15. Matz 14. d'Arnaud 13. Cuddyer 12. Robles 11. Uribe 10. Gilmartin 9. Clippard 8. Johnson 7. Plawecki 6. Verrett 5. Goeddel 4. Reed 3. C. Torres 2. Nieuwenhuis 1. Campbell

For me, personally, it's about nostalgia more than anything. Sure, the story is familiar, but it's like visiting a childhood friend after 30 years. The story had enough new elements to keep me interested (especially since there are two movies yet to come in order to complete the whole picture). Additionally, I would rate the acting, direction, cinematography, effects, pacing, stunts and costumes as excellent in this movie...better than in the prequels and, in some cases, better than the original trilogy. In an age where Hollywood is "rebooting" seemingly every action/comic franchise (sometimes more than once) and we're going to see our fifth actor playing Batman on the big screen this summer, it's hard for me to fault Star Wars for playing it safe with the story while executing nearly everything else about the movie well.

Vic Sage wrote: Why? I guess because they think that's what we wanted. It's what I wanted.

Saw this again today...even better the second time. I read an online article earlier this week theorizing that Rey may not be a Skywalker descendant, but rather a Kenobi descendant. Watching a second time with this theory in mind does make some sense. She shares Obiwan's proficiency in the Jedi mind trick, her sneaking around on the Starkiller resembles Ben's sneaking on the original Death Star, the British accent, the tunic that resembles Obiwan's Episode I under-cloak garb...even at the end of Rey's dream sequence after touching Luke's lightsaber, Ewan McGregor makes a cameo voice appearance whispering "These are your first steps…". The article went on to propose that the Rey vs. Kylo Ren battle(s) in this new trilogy may not be between siblings or cousins but rather a re-duel between grandchildren of Episodes III and IV...and that perhaps when all nine films are completed, they will tell as much about the Kenobi family history as the Skywalker family history.

That movie the seventh time is still exponentially better than Episodes I, II and III. People can applaud Lucas for his vision, but his vision for the prequels made two and a half horrible movies. Episode 7 is the movie I wanted them to make back in 1986. Fans were calling for a return to form, which is exactly what this is. I'm not sure why anyone was expecting otherwise.

I watched the PBS Frontline doc on the subject two years ago. I'm guessing the film takes more dramatic license to expand the story than the Frontline episode. I'll probably skip this one until it comes to cable.

This one could be the spoilers thread. We have the one below in the Non-BB Forum with no spoilers already. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=23807

Edgy MD wrote: And how does a non-jedi (seemingly in touch with the force, but a non-jedi), as well as a random non-Force-oriented-at-all guy get to (SPOILER)=#FFBFFF]pick up a light saber and go blow for blow, parry for parry with a sith or sith-paduan or whatever he is?(/SPOILER) I'm guessing it will be later revealed that Rey (PURE CONJECTURE)=#FFBFFF]is the daughter of Leia. Maybe shortly after her and Han split, she discovered she was preggers but didn't tell him and "hid" Rey on Jakku to keep her from Snoke/Kylo Ren. Or, heck, maybe she's descended from Luke directly. It seems like she has some familial relationship to the group.(/PURE CONJECTURE) More on Finn's backstory and force ability may be explained in later films, too. Edgy MD wrote: =#FFBFFF]Here, we have planets we know, worlds we've walked on. I saw what seemed to Coruscant (sp?) which presumably is as populated as any place in the galaxy, go up. Later, Republic. My wife said she thought Endor went up too. So no more Ewoks in the universe, you psychotic freak. Just how much desolation do you really need to set your plot in motion, J.J.? I'm with Ol' Ben. I felt as motivated to die here as moved to fight. Moreso.(/BIG SPOILER) (NERD RESEARCH)=#FFBFFF]The Hosnian system was the system targeted by the Starkiller Base. Hosnian Prime, which was the new home of the Republic capital, was destroyed and the current chancellor was killed in the attack. I've been able to piece this together through various websites where bigger nerds than I look into this stuff (by Googling Hosnian System), but I had to check, since I did not get the same feeling you did that Coruscant and Endor were destroyed. According to this map from The Force Awakens Visual Dictionary companion book, Coruscant and Endor are not part of the Hosnian system.(/NERD RESEARCH)

I also liked it A LOT. It was the first movie in a long time (maybe since the overwhelming disappointment of Episode I) that I had really been looking forward to where the film then exceeded my expectations. If I hadn't seen it Xmas eve morning, I would have immediately viewed it again. Better than ROTJ...as good as the original, IMO (but, obviously, the original breaks any ties because it was the original). I appreciated the return to characters with life and the proper mix of humor, emotion and action to create a properly paced story. I loved that the lightsaber duels returned to the weighty, claymore-like fights of the original trilogy as opposed to the CGI baton twirling of the prequels. I liked all of the new main characters and thought the screen time of the old-timers was nearly perfect. My gripe list is small: - I wanted more of Captain Phasma. The character seemed too minor given the pre-press leading up to the movie. I'm hoping for bigger things in Episode VIII. - I'm not a big fan of fully CGI characters, so it's hard for me to take Snoke too seriously. - Carrie Fisher, man. The facial work she's had done kind of ruins her as Leia for me. I plan on seeing it again during this next week (haven't done that with a new release in over 20 years, either). Great fun!