Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Discussion * SPOILER THREAD * — Page 188

A writeup detailing what to expect from the EW issue: http://www.ew.com/article/2015/11/11/star-wars-force-awakens-ew-cover
Doubt we’ll get anything of substance in the Luke article, but I’m interested to see how J.J. talks about Starkiller Base, given that they’re coming right out and calling it a Death Star on the cover. The stuff about Maz Kanata’s background should be interesting, too.

http://www.ew.com/gallery/star-wars-force-awakens-exclusive-photos

27 images, some new, with details/captions.

Harrison on Han http://www.ew.com/article/2015/11/11/harrison-ford-is-han-solo

Spoiler alert: Old Han Solo is not that great at accounting/finance?

JCM said:

http://screenrant.com/star-wars-7-force-awakens-simon-pegg-genuinely-magical/

Was listening to the Far, Far, Away Podcast this morning and Simon is taking a hit for his comments about the Prequels but the man speaks the truth.

I mean, I accept the Prequels on their own terms. They exist, I don’t want them written out of history. But they are not good movies. TPM was maybe one of the worst movie-going experiences I have ever had in my nearly 40 years. I wonder if this is maybe a generational thing. Gen X loved the OT because it spoke to them and Millennials (not all of them, but a lot) are more apt to like the PT.

What I cannot abide by is the fact that the OT that we are forced to live with in the public domain now is not recognizable to what I grew up with. If I can be forgiving to the PT and say “let 'em live” then we should at least have the OT available to us as they were originally released and not retroactively changed to fit the PT (or other whims). Even if it makes for an uneven viewing experience, that’s fine. They don’t all have to fit together and make sense. They can exist together in the same family without all having to agree with each other as long as they agree with each other among themselves, PT, OT and now ST, respectively.

Yeah. In my mind the PT exists as history with just the facts.

Obi Wan and Liam Neeson find Anakin as a child
Raise him up to be jedi
He is extremely adept in Force powers
He is generally a good guy
Falls in love with Padme
Then tragedy befalls him and he goes ape shit
Emperor gets hold of him and seals his fate.

All the details in between are irrelevant in my galaxy view. The nuances dont matter as that stuff exists in the movies and sucks.

luckydube56 said:

JCM said:

http://screenrant.com/star-wars-7-force-awakens-simon-pegg-genuinely-magical/

Was listening to the Far, Far, Away Podcast this morning and Simon is taking a hit for his comments about the Prequels but the man speaks the truth.

I mean, I accept the Prequels on their own terms. They exist, I don’t want them written out of history. But they are not good movies. TPM was maybe one of the worst movie-going experiences I have ever had in my nearly 40 years. I wonder if this is maybe a generational thing. Gen X loved the OT because it spoke to them and Millennials (not all of them, but a lot) are more apt to like the PT.

What I cannot abide by is the fact that the OT that we are forced to live with in the public domain now is not recognizable to what I grew up with. If I can be forgiving to the PT and say “let 'em live” then we should at least have the OT available to us as they were originally released and not retroactively changed to fit the PT (or other whims). Even if it makes for an uneven viewing experience, that’s fine. They don’t all have to fit together and make sense. They can exist together in the same family without all having to agree with each other as long as they agree with each other among themselves, PT, OT and now ST, respectively.

Yeah. In my mind the PT exists as history with just the facts.

Obi Wan and Liam Neeson find Anakin as a child
Raise him up to be jedi
He is extremely adept in Force powers
He is generally a good guy
Falls in love with Padme
Then tragedy befalls him and he goes ape shit
Emperor gets hold of him and seals his fate.

All the details in between are irrelevant in my galaxy view. The nuances dont matter as that stuff exists in the movies and sucks.

I had the thought the other day that the prequels would be a lot more palatable as a comic. Same stuff happens, it’s still canon, but no one has to act, characters don’t need to blend into CGI sets, and you never hear anyone say “Dooku” out loud. It’s all just this weird Adventures of Young Obi-Wan Kenobi serial that technically counts but no one cares much to talk about. That’s sort of how I’ve chosen to remember it.

Regarding Leia:

“She’s referred to as General,” says director and co-writer J.J. Abrams. “But … there’s a moment in the movie where a character sort of slips and calls her ‘Princess.’”

So not much of a surprise on the ‘what is she called’ article today.

Okay, so almost no one calls her that anymore. You’ll have to imagine who slips — and how it goes over.

😃

“The stakes are pretty high in the story for her, so there’s not much goofing around where Leia’s concerned,” Abrams said.

😦 Was looking forward to the goofing.

Was kind of bummed to read this but I suppose I knew it would happen. Apparently Lawrence Kasdan is moving on after he finishes up with the Han Solo SW Anthology film (due in 2018). So he will have co-written TFA and the Han Solo movie and bow out. I hope Rian Johnson is really as good as they say to write the middle film. For that matter, Colin Trevorrow with the final film in the ST.

http://www.slashfilm.com/star-wars-writer-lawrence-kasdan/

Another thing this convinces me of is that Han Solo will absolutely die in TFA. Kasdan has written some of Harrison Ford’s most iconic moments in the cinema and him bowing out after TFA and the Solo Anthology film solidifies, for me, that Captain Solo is not long for this galaxy.

I assumed that Kasdan would bow out as soon as it was announced that Johnson would be writing VIII. His writing the Solo anthology movie is a nice unexpected bonus, as far as I’m concerned. I don’t know if I agree that his exit doesn’t bode well for Han’s chances of survival, but it certainly doesn’t help either.

https://youtu.be/bDd9EcJxnb4?t=13s

The Falcon hyperspace shot goes on a few seconds longer here, and we see the planet they arrive at.

Also: Disney has a behind the scenes special on Friday (ABC has a different TFA special tonight, though).

Promo for a behind the scenes thing on the Disney Channel with a few new shots. It’s the simplest thing, but I love the hell out of the Falcon approaching the planet (Takodana?).

EDIT: look sharp, EW is teasing an article about Snoke that will hit today.

Maz: “She’s lived over a thousand years. She’s had this watering hole for about a century, and it’s like another bar that you’d find in a corner of the Star Wars universe.”

Her eyes have special meaning and power. “I had some specific ideas about how she would work and what she would do,” Abrams says. “I had this pitch about these goggles that she wore. Her eyes are an important aspect of her character, and you’ll see how it plays out.”

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/11/12/star-wars-force-awakens-lupita-nyongo-maz-kanata

JCM said:

Was kind of bummed to read this but I suppose I knew it would happen. Apparently Lawrence Kasdan is moving on after he finishes up with the Han Solo SW Anthology film (due in 2018). So he will have co-written TFA and the Han Solo movie and bow out. I hope Rian Johnson is really as good as they say to write the middle film. For that matter, Colin Trevorrow with the final film in the ST.

http://www.slashfilm.com/star-wars-writer-lawrence-kasdan/

Another thing this convinces me of is that Han Solo will absolutely die in TFA. Kasdan has written some of Harrison Ford’s most iconic moments in the cinema and him bowing out after TFA and the Solo Anthology film solidifies, for me, that Captain Solo is not long for this galaxy.

It’s also been confirmed that Abrams will not be overseeing VIII and IX like George did with Empire and Jedi.

It sounds like a lot of people are really not happy about Trevorrow directing IX. I still haven’t seen Jurassic World, mainly because the review I read wasn’t positive and I heard nothing but bad things from my friends. That and it didn’t appear to need my help at the box office.

I did see Safety Not Guaranteed and enjoyed it quite a bit, but as someone pointed out, Jurassic World probably shattered the record for the increase in budget from a director’s previous film.

This is probably more coincidence than anything else, but remember how George wanted Spielberg to direct Jedi?

I thought Jurassic World was fine. Nothing special, but it delivered what it needed to. I don’t think Trevorrow is a particularly bad director, I just think he’s a really boring one. Anyone could have made World, there was no flair. I’m sure the LFL brain trust will have more to do with the actual story than Trevorrow by the time we get to IX, but I’d hoped someone with a little more spark would land this thing.

I also really hated Safety Not Guaranteed, but my beef was with the screenplay and Trevorrow only directed, so I’m not holding it against him.

I’m getting a Splinter of the Minds Eye vibe from that image in Kylo vs The Good Guys in the forest.

Tbh, anything could happen between now and then. I mean, we were also supposed to get a Star Wars spinoff directed by Josh Trank. I wouldn’t get too worried about Episode 9 until we’ve all seen 7 and 8 first.

Snoke:

“Supreme Leader Snoke is quite an enigmatic character, and strangely vulnerable at the same time as being quite powerful,” Serkis says. “Obviously he has a huge agenda. He has suffered a lot of damage. As I said, there is a strange vulnerability to him, which belies his true agenda, I suppose.”

While Abrams has emphasized a return to practical effects on The Force Awakens, is Snoke perhaps a character who could have been played by Serkis in make-up?

“No, no,” the actor says. “The scale of him, for instance, is one reason. He is large. He appears tall. And also just the facial design – you couldn’t have gotten there with prosthetics. It’s too extreme. Without giving too much away at this point, he has a very distinctive, idiosyncratic bone structure and facial structure. You could never have done it [in real life.]”
…
If Snoke is a “damaged” character, that raises the question: Did his wounds come from the clash between the Rebellion and the Empire, seen in the original Star Wars trilogy? Serkis hesitates here, but then says he believes Snoke was outside of that conflict.

“No, he’s a new character in this universe. It is very much a newly-introduced character,” Serkis says. “He’s aware of what’s gone on, in the respect that he has been around and is aware of prior events. I think it’d be fair to say that he is aware of the past to a great degree.”

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/11/12/star-wars- andy-serkis-supreme-leader-snoke

spanish imax poster

Speaking of which, I checked the Smithsonian’s ticketing site and noticed they’ve quietly added a 70mm showtime earlier in the day at 2:30 for Friday-Sunday. Previously they were all sold out until 10:45 on Saturday night.

Maybe I’ll be seeing this earlier than expected.

Aaaaand just this moment saw the special preview during the “Shondathon” on ABC.

LOTS of new shots.

New tv spot (preview) that premiered on ABC tonight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6HN9soeGa8

It’s like new stuff every few days.

EDIT: Full quality official version