Fixed and thanks.

*backup=[...snipped...]

There are a LOT of similarities. It definitely blurs the line between "reboot" and "homage", but I'd argue that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I think it will take a few years for me to digest and figure out where I think it ranks in my personal assessment of the Star Wars movies.

That being said, I'm excited about the future of Star Wars again -- the prequels came very close to destroying any optimism that I had in that regard.

For the moment, consider Episode VII but ignore the plot and parallels / homage / blatant copying between it and A New Hope. In all three prequels combined, there wasn't a single character that was interesting; that we could identify with. Anakin was annoying -- in kid form and adult form. Ewan McGregor did OK with the material and directing he was given, but the script and writing in general did NOTHING to connect prequels Obi-Wan with the original trilogy. Padme, Jar-Jar (ha!), Palpatine, Dooku, etc. -- not a single memorable, interesting character that made me want to learn more about them. Sam Jackson's Mace Windu was probably the closest, but didn't get enough screen time or depth to really establish interest.

Already I feel confident in saying that in terms of characters, Episode VII is massively, overwhelmingly better than the prequels. Rey, Finn, and Poe are each individually far more interesting than every character from the prequels combined. AND, I want to see how those new faces interact with the old stars also. Luke, Leia, even Chewbacca (my personal favorite of the OT) all seem like they will continue to be very important to the story moving forward -- and continue to develop their own story arcs in addition to the new cast.

The Force Awakens wasn't *perfect* -- I tend to think it leaned a bit too much on revamping A New Hope also -- but it was very good and very entertaining. And I am definitely excited about the future of Star Wars again.

"Automatically ok"? Not necessarily. But in cases where it makes sense, at a stretch even "plot sense" for the character to be there; yeah, I think that is OK.

The Last Samurai isn't a documentary. But, the general historical justification for Tom Cruise's character being in Japan is pretty much valid. Meiji was interested in the West -- clothes, technology, weapons, and military. He actually did hire Westerners to train his army, although from what I read it sounds like they were German, French, and Italian rather than American. Still, the movie portrays the general situation/setting with at least *decent* broad-strokes historical accuracy. LOADS of movies deviate from even this degree of historical accuracy *way* more without drawing complaints; particularly if their main purpose is entertainment and not education / documentary.


Your hypothetical reverse movie makes some valid criticisms. Even though it would have been historically possible for a Westerner to be in Japan at the time -- even to be involved with training a Western-style military -- it would be unlikely for such a person to get captured, run into a Shogun that speaks English, become a badass (or at least passable) samurai warrior, and end up playing a major role in politics and significantly influencing Emperor Meiji.

My defense against those criticisms is that, for me at least, the movie is entertaining; which is kinda the point. Your "Union Samurai" movie might be equally entertaining and therefore given an equal pass on historical inaccuracies by me.

The whole characters as a "lens through which the audience can appreciate a culture/history outside their own" issue is (slightly) more weighty to me. I don't think those are often necessary, but I don't feel like my intelligence is being insulted if the movie maker feels that they are in order to sell tickets.

I love the Chinese historical novel "Three Kingdoms". A few years ago, John Wu made the movie "Red Cliff", mostly about one particular battle in the historical period portrayed in that book. For the Chinese audience, Wu made the movie in two parts, summed up about four and a half hours long. For the US / West, he made a version trimmed to just over two hours. Why? Because he (and a team of market researchers, I'm sure) knew that very few Westerners would go to see a 4+ hour long movie, entirely in Mandarin Chinese (with subtitles), about a piece of Chinese history from ~1800 years ago that very few in the West have ever heard of or know anything about.

I think the full 4+ hour long movie is great. In my personal top 10 favorite movies of all time, ahead of most Hollywood stuff. But I also understand that there's no way that movie would appeal to all but a tiny, tiny fraction of Western viewers in that full-on 4+ hour format. But, even though I personally think the cut-down 2 hour "US" version is drastically inferior to the full cut, I am glad that he made it because it gives a suitably accurate introduction to the subject matter to more people in the West (just like the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Dynasty Warriors" videogames do), and makes that tiny, tiny fraction of Western people that know anything about it a little less tiny. While being entertaining along the way.

For other movies, sometimes the best way that a filmmaker can sell a movie to an audience that otherwise might not accept it (at least in large enough numbers to justify the production costs) may be to insert one of these "lens" characters for the audience to identify with. I don't think there is inherently anything wrong with that. It might not work for movies that are taking a more hardline approach to historical / contextual accuracy (ie., if Tom Cruise showed up in "Red Cliff" in circa 200AD China), but outside of those situations, if that is what the studio thinks it will take to sell tickets... Cool.

The Last Samurai is, like @ChaosEngine said, a movie primarily about an outsider learning a new culture (and accepting his own past). He serves as that lens character, but actually the hows and whys of his character arc are the main points of interest in the movie, at least to me.

I'm sure that an awesome, historically accurate movie could be made dealing with young Emperor Meiji, Takamori (who Katsumoto seems to be based on in The Last Samurai), and the influence of modernization on Japanese culture at the time. It could be made with no Western "lens" character, no overt influence by any particular individual Westerner, and be entirely in Japanese. But that movie wouldn't be The Last Samurai, wouldn't be attempting to serve the same purpose as The Last Samurai, and very likely wouldn't sell as many tickets (in the US) as The Last Samurai (starring Tom Cruise!) did. That wouldn't make it a worse movie, just an apple instead of an orange.

Well, at the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, there are more white people in america than other colours.

Would we really care if a bollywood joan of arc or hamlet was played by an indian actor?

Whenever this sort of thing comes up, I'm always reminded of the vital question of Columbo's right eye. Does Columbo have a glass eye, or is Peter Falk's glass eye playing the role of a real eye?

This looks absolutely horrible!
They will ruin the Civil War story arc.

Could it be a standard cloud to cloud arc but seen end on so that it appears ball-like? I know that the existence of "ball" lightning is disputed, and to me the end-on-view seems the simplest explanation, so Occam's razor and all that.

@HugeJerk
did you hear that???
that was the point whooshing over your head.

so you reply to a comment about your semantics,
by using even more semantics and then engage in some impressive mental gymnastics.

ok man..i can accept when a horse is dead,and i am not interested in beating it any further.

voodoo was attempting to make an over-arcing point in regards to civil liberties and possible abuses.which is very similar to the point i was trying to make,but you are either unwilling or unable to acknowledge those possibilities.

while newt may disagree with mine and voodoos premise,at least he acknowledges the possibilities for abuse.

ah well,probably my failure.
i can muddy the waters of my own argument by my own ramblomatic self-destructive prose.

peace brother.

So...I go to John Lewis if I'm an old man who wants to look at little girls through a telescope?


The Man in the Moon had silver shoon
And his beard was of silver thread;
He was girt with pure gold and inaureoled
With gold about his head.
Clad in silken robe in his great white globe
He opened an ivory door
With a crystal key, and in secrecy
He stole o'er a shadowy floor;

Down a filigree stair of spidery hair
He slipped in gleaming haste,
And laughing with glee to be merry and free
He swiftly earthward raced.
He was tired of his pearls and diamond twirls;
Of his pallid minaret
Dizzy and white at its lunar height
In a world of silver set;

And adventured this peril for ruby and beryl
And emerald and sapphire,
And all lustrous gems for new diadems,
Or to blazon his pale attire.
He was lonely too with nothing to do
But to stare at the golden world,
Or to strain at the hum that would distantly come
As it gaily past him whirled;

And at plenilune in his argent moon
He had wearily longed for Fire-
Not the limpid lights of wan selenites,
But a red terrestrial pyre
With impurpurate glows of crimson and rose
And leaping orange tongue;
For great seas of blues and the passionate hues
When a dancing dawn is young;

For the meadowy ways like chrysophrase
By winding Yare and Nen.
How he longed for the mirth of the populous Earth
And the sanguine blood of men;
And coveted song and laughter long
And viands hot and wine,
Eating pearly cakes of light snowflakes
And drinking thin moonshine.

He twinkled his feet as he thought of the meat,
Of the punch and the peppery brew,
Till he tripped unaware on his slanting stair,
And fell like meteors do;
As the whickering sparks in splashing arcs
Of stars blown down like rain
From his laddery path took a foaming bath
In the ocean of Almain;

And began to think, lest he melt and stink,
What in the moon to do,
When a Yarmouth boat found him far afloat,
To the mazement of the crew
Caught in their net all shimmering wet
In a phosphorescent sheen
Of bluey whites and opal lights
And delicate liquid green

With the morning fish — 'twas his regal wish —
They packed him to Norwich town,
To get warm on gin in a Norfolk inn,
And dry his watery gown.
Though St. Peter's knell waked many a bell
In the city's ringing towers
To shout the news of his lunatic cruise
In the early morning hours,

No hearths were laid, not a breakfast made,
And no one would sell him gems;
He found ashes for fire, and his gay desire
For choruses and brave anthems
Met snores instead with all Norfolk abed,
And his round heart nearly broke,
More empty and cold than above of old,
Till he bartered his fairy cloak

With a half waked cook for a kitchen nook,
And his belt of gold for a smile,
And a priceless jewel for a bowl of gruel,
A sample cold and vile
Of the proud plum porridge of Anglian Norwich —
He arrived much too soon
For unusual guests on adventurous quests
From the Mountains of the Moon.

To those who have not kept up on the series, here is a foot note.

After the original Ghost in the shell movie, the second movie was loosely based on the series and has since forth become the end of its line.

Stand alone complex is a TV series based on the same world as the original movie but the movie never happened. Stand alone complex consist of 2 26-episode seasons and an OVA movie. There is no "ending" to the series and it is ready to continue from this point if they want.

Ghost in the shell: Arise is an origin tale consisting of 4 OVA episodes detailing how Major Kusanagi picked the team and became the leader of Section 9, and the purpose of Section 9. Later on, Arise was split into a 10 episode "season" suitable for airing on TV, with 2 episodes at the end dedicated to new content.

Ghost in the shell: Shin Gekijōban, the movie trailer we see here, is either a continuation or a side story near the end of Arise. And holy crap I hate those english voices.

If you are wondering if any of it is worth watching, I consider the entire series to be a masterpiece. Stand alone complex is quite deep and loaded with content while Arise is a little light on content and really makes you want more. Luckily it gets better after each OVA.

Oh, also you will see movies related to Stand alone complex called laughing man and Individual Eleven, these are the first 2 seasons with all the side stories hacked out and only the main story arc shown. Avoid these.

Chris Hedges is the MAN. Such an incredible wealth of knowledge, so well spoken, and such a heart arcing towards justice in society. If you haven't yet, check out his book, "War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning". Truly a seminal book for all.

this reminds me of looking down at the traffic from the arc de triomphe in paris.

*backup=[...snipped...]

I was unfortunately surprised to learn that my butcher block home workbench, or more likely the varnish (looks like polyurethane to me) in many spots has a very low resistance (<0.5 ohm/in as I measure). Fried a PCB I was working on, which I took a lot of shit for, everyone assuming I'd just done something stupid. Anyways, the moral is don't assume your wooden bench is actually an insulator.

Oh, and I also don't recommend playing with a a transformer out of a microwave unless you really know what you're doing. Though it's probably safe enough, 2kV will arc pretty far through air, so you don't even have to actually touch it to have a bad day.

There is a similar phenomenon in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. Around dusk every day in the springtime, a 'tidal wave' of fog flowing eastward from the coast would hit the western foothills of the peninsula, and arc gracefully over the 280 freeway like a massive, slow-motion crash of water. From 20 miles away it looks like a tidal wave, capable of wiping out all of silicon valley, is just frozen in place at the edge of civilization. Up close, it's like surfing your car through the barrel of an enormous wave.
It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life, and it happens almost daily there.

It's amazing that despite all the amazing precision, the part that sticks out most for me is him driving over that arc thingie. I honestly might be able to do that myself with a thousand attempts, a safety harness and a crane, but for some reason it sticks out.

Have to agree with andyboy that the editing could have used some work. It seemed more than half about "let's do a quick stunt at this scenic location and then pop to somewhere else" than "let's explore the skills of the rider". This was just a taste of how ample and numerous those skills are.