I’m almost at the point where I will have no use for the community at all. I hope that guy gets paid by the word.
I’m not even sure that guy is part of the community. He seems to be writing about film in general, but I share his view, that Star Wars has become a franchise, that doesn’t go forward, because it’s obsessed with looking in the rearview mirror.
Funny, I thought TLJ moved to new territory and broke the pattern. And Solo should be fun, not epicly serious.
I disagree. An Empire vs rebels/new hope vs fallen Jedi apprentice replay is not my interpretation of breaking new ground. TLJ’s calculated story twists don’t alter the fact, that it still shares a lot of narrative and visual similarities with TESB and ROTJ. It’s less derivative than TFA, but the fact that TLJ is seen by many as moving to new territory, imo proves that Star Wars has become so limited in scope, that the slightest deviation from the mold is now seen as visionary, and creative.
I seriously wonder if we will ever get a Star Wars film, that isn’t in some way a remix of Lucas’ greatest hits. What’s wrong with just telling a story about a new smuggler type character (or any other new character for that matter) set in the Star Wars universe, where we don’t know where all the characters end up? How about getting people to view your film simply on the merit of telling a good original story with good original characters, rather than relying on the classic characters, story tropes, nostalgia, and fan service to draw people in for another deja vu experience.
I actually really agree with you here. TLJ does take more risks than TFA, but it also could have taken some real chances that would have really shaken up the SW universe.
Firstly, after TFA, with Starkiller base destroyed, and the Republic gone, there was a vacuum of power that could be explored by Johnson in whatever way he saw fit. JJ gets a lot of criticism for writing RJ into a corner but the political situation was wide open. Johnson could have literally gone any direction with the overall story but instead went in such a boring and safe direction. The First Order now just rules over basically the entire galaxy, the Resistance is small and on the run the entire movie, and RJ basically just doubled down on the Rebels.V.Empire concept.
Secondly, RJ still had a second chance to really turn the story around with Kylo and Rey. Imagine if Rey accepted Kylo’s call to join him? Both the light side user and dark side user in the sequel trilogy, truly joining forces to eradicate what came before and start something entirely new?
Overall, RJ took a few risks but didn’t go nearly far enough to get away from remixing elements of other SW movies. I will admit that killing off Snoke was a great surprise and a really good decision by RJ that did something new with Star Wars.
I thought I was the Solo thread for a while - yet no, of course members here have no other threads to discuss TLJ/TFA and the choices of the respective directors & writers in.