Star Wars: Episode VII to be directed by J.J. Abrams **NON SPOILER THREAD** — Page 100

Farscape made a good stab at it.

The crew of Moya largely look like Sith where as all the pretty people tend to be evil.

I hope that Episode VII takes some inspiration from ANH. ANH is a charming tale of fun and adventure and an underdog overcoming an "invincible" force.

luke, han, leia seem to be center stage for episode VII in the new script by abrams, and i am thrilled. f**k the haters on this one.

Does anybody remember those theories about Palpatine being a clone of Sidious? TFN is definitely reminding me of them.

skyjedi2005 said:

darklordoftech said:

Does anybody remember those theories about Palpatine being a clone of Sidious? TFN is definitely reminding me of them.

 A TFN fanfic from a fever dream after reading too much Dark Empire. 

 I don't agree there.

Palpatine as Sidious was such a badly executed plot device I was always expecting a twist of some kind to happen.

Once again the technology is established so having Palpatine the puppet of the Sith Lord whom he resembles makes more sense than having him known to both sides of a war but doing the Clark Kent thing with the Separatists.

Where does that leave Dooku?

Beyond the fact he has functioning eyes and ears he is a Jedi so even if the magic Sith cloak fooled him he must know who is under that thing as must all the Separatist leaders.

So why didn't we have interesting scenes of Sidipatine playing on his position in the Republic to manipulate the Separatists? We all like I Claudius right?

Either they don't know who he really is (which is dumb beyond words) or George thinks we don't which is frankly insulting.

Now if Palpatine really was an innocent but ambitious politician replaced by a Face Dancer at the last minute (or a clone, or android) you could understand the lack of really fun scenes along the lines I describe.

It would have been something of a surprise and one thing the PT really needed was surprises that weren't along the lines of Threepio being Leia's older brother.

Bingowings said:

Palpatine as Sidious was such a badly executed plot device I was always expecting a twist of some kind to happen.

I touched on this in another thread, but they missed an opportunity by introducing Sidious in TPM. Instead have a villain with no clear ties to the OT, get people invested in the present plot instead of waiting for some reveal, and only in the final movie does it become relevant that "PALPATINE'S BEHIND IT ALL".

Also, how do you think it went when Palpatine got into his "Sith" persona? Do you think maybe his valet or whatever walked in on him making one of those "Kill the Jedi" holograms and he had to make up a story on the spot about some kind of historical reenactment society? Or did he just throw on the robes on his way out the door and say "Jeeves, I'm going for a night on the town"?

vacuum said:

luke, han, leia seem to be center stage for episode VII in the new script by abrams, and i am thrilled. f**k the haters on this one.

 I almost think they have to approach the ST this way to get back all of the OT fans who were burned by the PT.

I can only speak for my friends (I hate generalizing), but I was suprised at how many of them just didn't give a shit about the ST when I mentioned they were going to make it.  They hated the PT so much, they are EXPECTING the ST to suck, and that is why they haven't got really hyped.

Now where things will change is when they see that first Episode 7 trailer with Luke, Leia and Han, and I think they will be curious enough to see the movie now.

ray_afraid said:

 I'm in the same group your friends are in, CO. The only promising thing about Ep.7 that we know at this point is the inclusion of the 'big 3'. That has me curious enough to go see it, but I have zero expectations of it being anything I'll enjoy.

And I agree with what you said about the folks behind the film needing to focus on the original characters in order to cleanse the awful taste of the PT. I don't know anybody who would even go see it if they weren't involved. And, even with that,  most of the people I know won't be seeing it anyway.

 Now I can't speak for younger generations (people who grew up with the PT or young kids who grew up with the Clone Wars Cartoon Show), as maybe SW fanbase is so big that it doesn't need the OT generation to generate huge box office numbers?  

I go back and forth daily about whether I want them to film this trilogy or not.  There is a part of me that will totally regret if they fuck up Luke, Leia and Han in Episode 7, as there is a chance that could happen.  But I am a SW fan at heart, so I am hoping if its done well I can look at MY saga as Episodes 4,5,6,7,8,9 and that would sort of help me forget the PT ever existed.

The same thing happened with me with the Rocky Franchise.  Rocky 5 was so bad it just left a bad taste in my mouth towards the whole franchise (although I can always look at the Original Movie as a classic without sequels so thats never tainted).  But Rocky 6 sort of put my faith back in the overall Rocky Story, as it was a perfect ending and I actually don't even recognize Rocky 5 now. 

I can't wait for TFN's reaction if the term "padawan" isn't used.

I was in high school when ROTS came out, so I'm kind of the in between generation, where I was raised on the originals but I also just young enough to be 'wide eyed' about the prequels.  I remember my dad taking me to see TPM and I loved it.  Then when AotC came out, I was a little older and wiser, and I still enjoyed it but something about it didn't sit right with me.  By the time RotS came out, I understood that these movies were never going to be as good or culturally relevant as the originals.  I sat through it, and I enjoyed it, but in the end, it felt like an empty shell.

In the years since, I have trouble sitting all the way through any of the prequels.  TPM is probably my favorite, because I think it best captured some of the original spirit and fun of Star Wars.  Sure, it has a pretty bad child actor, an annoying cartoon rabbit, and seems to be packed full of plot holes and poor writing, but it none the less had a sense of discovery, and fun moments.

Anyways, I got off topic...  The point of this, is that Episode VII news didn't really shake my world.  I didn't start to get excited until JJ was announced as director, and the original 3 were rumored to return.  I enjoy Ardnt's writing, I trust JJ to respect the original material, and I don't think the original three would return if they didn't trust the script.  So once all of these things came together, I started to actually care about what happens with the movie.  And now I *want* to see it, and I *want* it to be good.

The original trilogy is and will always be Star Wars, where as the prequels were almost like poorly made fan films in my mind.  I originally expected the sequel trilogy to also turn out as poorly made fan films, but now I really want them to be part of what I consider Star Wars.

darklordoftech said:

I can't wait for TFN's reaction if the term "padawan" isn't used.

 I went on there a few weeks ago just to see what those nitwits were saying about the ST:  They wanted Hayden Christensen to play an Obiwan type Force Ghost role throughout the trilogy to guide Luke/Leia and the Skywalker Grandchildren.  That way it could still be viewed as the 'Tragedy of Darth Vader' Episodes 1-9. 

Hayden's in the ST = I'm out

Ben Affleck in the new Batman/Superman movie = I'm out

CO said:

Hayden's in the ST = I'm out

Ben Affleck in the new Batman/Superman movie = I'm out

Hardly comparable situations, but I respect your opinion.  At least Affleck has some acting chops and can carry a film without making you roll your eyes.

I like the idea of using Luke, Han etc., they're going to be cranking these movies out every year for the rest of our near-future , might as well see the old gang for one of them, still plenty of time to introduce the new characters. The fans were going to have a cow either way, so why not.

Humby said:

CO said:

Hayden's in the ST = I'm out

Ben Affleck in the new Batman/Superman movie = I'm out

 

Hardly comparable situations, but I respect your opinion.  At least Affleck has some acting chops and can carry a film without making you roll your eyes.

To be honest, I'd rather watch a non-PT performance by Hayden than anything by Affleck.

I know there are alot of OT fans who are excited to see the main cast as the center but I think its a mistake.

The 1977 original was essentially a sci fi film for teenagers and young adults.  The kid, the youngish rogue and the smart princess taking on authority, making jokes,and saving the universe.  There was that cool villian Vader and the mentor Obi Wan was neat but people walking out of that film really loved and identified with Luke and Han and their journey as younger growing characters.

As much as people here dislike the prequels, it tried to keep that tradition with the main three characters..  It was just overtly more serious, amongst other things.

To have an episode of star wars to be about three old people running around the universe just doesn't work, at least in theory.  Old cliffhanger serials that star wars was based on kept the cast usually pretty young.  Personally I was fine with seeing some young new characters and Luke as a mentor.  I think thats what Arndt wanted and it kept with the concept of what these movies are about.  Escapism for kids/teens that adults wont detest.

From the latest postings at TFN, it sounded like Lucas wanted the young main characters but Abrahms and Kennedy said no.  Whatever you think of Lucas, he created this entire concept.  Kathleen Kennedy has worked with Spielberg for the last twenty years to create forgetable audience pictures with very few good exceptions.  And Abrams if he really thinks that Star Wars is only about 3 OT characters including one who was barely used in Jedi (Han) then hes mistaken.