Star Wars: Episode VII to be directed by J.J. Abrams **NON SPOILER THREAD** — Page 98

darklordoftech said:

Ryan McAvoy said:

 It's better than the Sith returning.

Repeating the same thing over and over doesn't make it true.

As long as they don't introduce a precocious boy genius into the series or a girl with a tragic past who becomes a goddess and female love interest to the chaste male lead by predestined fluke alone...

DuracellEnergizer said:

Madonna at least had some musical talent back in the day. I'm sure Miley's only talent is giving her daddy's bank account a blowjob. 

Hey... a good blowjob isn't as easy as it looks. For one thing as Prince pointed out the name of act is misleading...

I found that song too late to rescue my dignity.

Humby said:

After years of being on the inside, Lucas had no understanding of what made Star Wars important in the first place.  I'm not accusing him of trying to sell toys as many of us like to do, but the cultural marketing of Star Wars is what influenced Lucas' decision making.  For example, Darth Vader was only a larger than life character to the audience, not to the other characters in that world.  But Lucas didn't understand that.  And that resulted in a story that focused on Anakin/Vader being presented as this fallen Christ-like figure.  Or perhaps look at the Jedi and their trusty weaponry.  The marketability of that iconography certainly influenced Lucas in making the Jedi being a huge focus, and such constant use of Lightsabers, scene after scene.  There are countless examples like these, and although that "cultural marketing" perspective may not have been his sole influence, it's still an obvious factor.

Now don't get me wrong, there are definitely certain fans out there who love the prequels, some of whom may only see Star Wars for its superficial imagery, and if they had any say in Lucas' plan, they would have made very similar decisions.  But a successful filmmaker who understand the history of both Star Wars as well as film history in general, will be far more capable of understanding what makes Star Wars interesting and engaging.

 I'm as big a Lucas basher as you get around here, but I have to atleast defend him alittle bit because all franchises fall off the rails at some point.

I respect the story he eventually told about the 6 movies (although I hate that he tries to re-write history by saying this was mostly planned from the original, and Darth Vader was always the main person of the story.)  In an ironic way, if Lucas was more honest about how he kept changing the story, I would have more respect for him.

In saying that, I hate where he took the SW story after ESB (as much as people love 'I am your father') it was a great plot point, but ended up limiting the movies to Darth Vader, and that is where I sort of lost interest in the overall story.

But I will also say that the SW movies would have gotten redundant if he just made them standalone stories like Indiana Jones movies, and no real overall plot line.  That's why I say every great franchise gets to a point where there is nothing more to tell, and the stories are just catering to the fanboys.

I will give Lucas his props for the Original Star Wars from 1977, as I think the bad mouthing from our sector of fans get alittle too much.  Sure it was a collaborative effort (with his wife, the editors, John Williams), but its like that with most great movies.  Now is Lucas as good as Scorcese or Spielberg?  Not at all, as they are much better directors.  But in fairness to Lucas, after he started Lucasfilm in 1981, he was never going to be a director ever again like he was pre-Lucasfilm.  Every decision he made was about business, because that is what CEO's do, they think of the bottom line first. 

It would have been intersting if Lucas has stayed with directing and walked away from Star Wars after 1977, as I think he would have directed more good movies.  But, we will never know!

TV's Frink said:

darklordoftech said:

Ryan McAvoy said:

 It's better than the Sith returning.

Repeating the same thing over and over doesn't make it true.

 It was always true.

Anchorhead said:

It makes no sense what so ever that he's suddenly elevated to the feared-by-all status in the following film. What (in-story) warranted that transformation?

Exactly.  This was kind of the first slip-up, where Lucas started showing a lack of understanding of the world he had created.  This is one of the instances I can somewhat forgive, however, because in the end it does serve the story well.  But when Lucas got around to the prequels, he suddenly had this preconception that Anakin needed to "live up" to the name of Vader.  And that resulted in all this nonsense about a prophecy, a chosen one, and that Anakin's fate was somehow tied to the fate of the galaxy.  He didn't understand that just like Luke becoming a Jedi in the original trilogy, Anakin's fall to the darkside should have been auxiliary to the story.

CO said:

But I will also say that the SW movies would have gotten redundant if he just made them standalone stories like Indiana Jones movies, and no real overall plot line.  That's why I say every great franchise gets to a point where there is nothing more to tell, and the stories are just catering to the fanboys.

I definitely agree, and I didn't mean to imply that they should be standalone stories.  I actually like the plot that runs through the OT.  Although I think ROTJ could have been handled a little bit differently, I have no issue with the fact that Luke and Vader remained the main protagonist/antagonist up until the end.  Their intertwined fate gave the relatively small scale events of ANH new meaning, and that's one of the things I enjoyed about it.  What I intended to convey was that Anakin's fall to the dark side didn't need to be the sole focus of the story, and it didn't need to be so closely tied to the fate of the galaxy.  

If Sam Jackson had P'tooted in ROTS it could have had the dubious accolade of feature a broken Windu, breaking wind through a broken window.

I just wish someone at Disney would activate the Farscapestarwarcrossovermattron.

Ryan McAvoy said:

The point is, that by that point Lucas adding N'Sync to AOTC was totally believable, wether true or not.

 And what's even more screwed up is that I'm convinced that part would've easily been the best thing about the monstrosity that is AotC.

I don't know 7 people on this picture, is that normal, or am I just getting old?

TMBTM said:

I don't know 7 people on this picture, is that normal, or am I just getting old?

In fairness, six of them aren't even popular anymore.

And none of them still work for Disney. I get that pictures like these are jokes, but seriously, this would never happen. People who think that it would are forgetting all the successful and mature Disney franchises that don't feature any teen "stars" (POTC, Avengers, etc).

Bingowings said:

I just wish someone at Disney would activate the Farscapestarwarcrossovermattron.

Y'know, Chris Pine as Kirk in that first Trek movie always reminded me of Ben Browder as John Crichton. Abrams and Mindel's camerawork even reminded me of that show, the way we'd fly and swerve through the hallways of the Enterprise. Pretty much everything about the "Numb Tongue" scene practically screamed Farscape to me, to the point where I'd be surprised if Abrams had honestly never seen the show.

Also, just making sure:

Unless I missed something, Disney only ever bought The Muppets, not the Jim Henson company as a whole. The creation of a Farscapestarwarscrossovermattron device, as awesome as that sounds, is a pipe dream.

TMBTM said:

I don't know 7 people on this picture, is that normal, or am I just getting old?

Oh, it's completely normal. After all, modern teenybopper crap is completely forgettable (unless they shove it in your face and try to force-feed it to you). 

DuracellEnergizer said:

TMBTM said:

I don't know 7 people on this picture, is that normal, or am I just getting old?

Oh, it's completely normal. After all, modern teenybopper crap is completely forgettable (unless they shove it in your face and try to force-feed it to you). 

 The only person (besides our beloved Stars) I'm sure about is Miley Cyrus.  And having been a late 90's Disney kid, I think I recognize that blonde girl on the left.

EDIT:  Wait a minute, those blonde kids on the right... is one of them the kid from Big Daddy?

Is there anything (other than these people being in the movie) that would make my fellow originaltrilogy.com members walk out of the theater before the credits roll? I would walk out if the Jedi incorrectly think that the Sith are extinct again.