Unpopular Opinion Thread — Page 29

I haven’t read them but based on what we know of them i think George Lucas sequel treatments sucked.

Everyone online is like zomg why didn’t Disney make his sequels.

Whills and Midichlorians and Darth Maul as the big bad are terrible.

The actual trilogy Lucasfilm made under Disney ownership is probably not as bad. But also is disjointed because they wanted to avoid prequel like worldbuilding and politics. And it was a bit of an overcorrection. They really should have shown where the resistance and first order came from, how Kylo Ren came to be and who Snoke was and why Luke failed. And i don’t mean the answers Rise of Skywalker gave.

If there’s one Special Edition Trilogy change I could keep in the OT, it would be the extra shots of the Wampa in TESB. I never liked the fact that we never get a clear look at the Wampa, only brief glimpses. Another thing I like is that it’s a guy in a costume, a practical effect, so it blends well with the rest of the movie.

Spartacus01 said:

Personally, I think that it’s way more fun to fill in the blanks with your own imagination than having TV shows, books and comics before, between, and after the movies. Using your own imagination to imagine what happened between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith is way more fun than watching The Clone Wars, or reading the Clone Wars Multimedia Project. Using your own imagination to imagine what happened in the Old Republic era is much more fun than playing Knights of the Old Republic, or playing the Old Republic MMO. Using your own imagination to imagine Luke’s future adventures after Return of the Jedi is way more fun than reading the EU, or watching the Sequels.

I don’t think this is an unpopular opinion.

I can give Lucas a bit of slack for the lucklusterness of the PT and ROTJ, since he was ultimately just trying to make pulpy Flash Gordon-esque adventures, not high-art movies. ANH and ESB, however, were so good that they’re generally considered to have entered into the realm of high art. He then fell into a trap where his subsequent films were expected to be masterpieces as well, and I agree that he could have definitely done better on them. But since he really knocked it out of the park on his first 2 SW films, fans’ expectations were higher than his.

Gandalf the Cyan said:

I can give Lucas a bit of slack for the lucklusterness of the PT and ROTJ, since he was ultimately just trying to make pulpy Flash Gordon-esque adventures, not high-art movies. ANH and ESB, however, were so good that they’re generally considered to have entered into the realm of high art. He then fell into a trap where his subsequent films were expected to be masterpieces as well, and I agree that he could have definitely done better on them. But since he really knocked it out of the park on his first 2 SW films, fans’ expectations were higher than his.

I don’t think this opinion is too unpopular, especially around this forum. ESB especially came out amazingly good, but went over budget and probably gave Lucas ulcers from the stress. He probably never intended to make Star Wars that good - but it ended up being that good anyway due to “lightning in a bottle” factors like Kasdan’s script, Kershner’s direction, and the natural chemistry between Hamill, Fisher and Ford.

Channel72 said:

Gandalf the Cyan said:

I can give Lucas a bit of slack for the lucklusterness of the PT and ROTJ, since he was ultimately just trying to make pulpy Flash Gordon-esque adventures, not high-art movies. ANH and ESB, however, were so good that they’re generally considered to have entered into the realm of high art. He then fell into a trap where his subsequent films were expected to be masterpieces as well, and I agree that he could have definitely done better on them. But since he really knocked it out of the park on his first 2 SW films, fans’ expectations were higher than his.

I don’t think this opinion is too unpopular, especially around this forum. ESB especially came out amazingly good, but went over budget and probably gave Lucas ulcers from the stress. He probably never intended to make Star Wars that good - but it ended up being that good anyway due to “lightning in a bottle” factors like Kasdan’s script, Kershner’s direction, and the natural chemistry between Hamill, Fisher and Ford.

Why does everyone ignore the fact that TESB was co-written by Leigh Brackett? They always make it seem like Lawrence Kasdan was the sole screenwriter.

fmalover said:

Channel72 said:

Gandalf the Cyan said:

I can give Lucas a bit of slack for the lucklusterness of the PT and ROTJ, since he was ultimately just trying to make pulpy Flash Gordon-esque adventures, not high-art movies. ANH and ESB, however, were so good that they’re generally considered to have entered into the realm of high art. He then fell into a trap where his subsequent films were expected to be masterpieces as well, and I agree that he could have definitely done better on them. But since he really knocked it out of the park on his first 2 SW films, fans’ expectations were higher than his.

I don’t think this opinion is too unpopular, especially around this forum. ESB especially came out amazingly good, but went over budget and probably gave Lucas ulcers from the stress. He probably never intended to make Star Wars that good - but it ended up being that good anyway due to “lightning in a bottle” factors like Kasdan’s script, Kershner’s direction, and the natural chemistry between Hamill, Fisher and Ford.

Why does everyone ignore the fact that TESB was co-written by Leigh Brackett? They always make it seem like Lawrence Kasdan was the sole screenwriter.

Well, I definitely don’t ignore that. In fact, I posted a whole thread about Brackett’s screenplay a while back. But the reality is that close to 0% of Brackett’s draft made it into the final shooting script, so her role is often glossed over for the sake of brevity when discussing the development process of ESB.

In fact, I wouldn’t even necessarily say Brackett “co-wrote” ESB. That implies a collaboration between Brackett and Kasdan. In reality, Brackett independently wrote a completely different take on ESB based on Lucas’ plot outline. Lucas then rewrote the script from scratch apparently. It’s hard to say how many ideas in Lucas’ rewrite originated with Brackett. At face value, the later Kasdan scripts (which were based on Lucas’ rewrite) appear to be completely independent from Brackett.

Personally, I believe that elements of Brackett’s draft influenced the way Kasdan/Lucas thought about the story as they developed it. But that’s just my own speculation. The broad story elements - the plot, the locations, even some specific things like Luke being attacked by a snow monster - originated from Lucas’ plot outline, not Brackett’s draft. So it’s tough to identify specific ideas in the final script that unambiguously originated with Brackett. But going by Kasdan’s fourth draft and the final shooting script, pretty much 0% of Brackett’s original writing or dialogue carried over into later iterations.

Channel72 said:

fmalover said:

Channel72 said:

Gandalf the Cyan said:

I can give Lucas a bit of slack for the lucklusterness of the PT and ROTJ, since he was ultimately just trying to make pulpy Flash Gordon-esque adventures, not high-art movies. ANH and ESB, however, were so good that they’re generally considered to have entered into the realm of high art. He then fell into a trap where his subsequent films were expected to be masterpieces as well, and I agree that he could have definitely done better on them. But since he really knocked it out of the park on his first 2 SW films, fans’ expectations were higher than his.

I don’t think this opinion is too unpopular, especially around this forum. ESB especially came out amazingly good, but went over budget and probably gave Lucas ulcers from the stress. He probably never intended to make Star Wars that good - but it ended up being that good anyway due to “lightning in a bottle” factors like Kasdan’s script, Kershner’s direction, and the natural chemistry between Hamill, Fisher and Ford.

Why does everyone ignore the fact that TESB was co-written by Leigh Brackett? They always make it seem like Lawrence Kasdan was the sole screenwriter.

Well, I definitely don’t ignore that. In fact, I posted a whole thread about Brackett’s screenplay a while back. But the reality is that close to 0% of Brackett’s draft made it into the final shooting script, so her role is often glossed over for the sake of brevity when discussing the development process of ESB.

In fact, I wouldn’t even necessarily say Brackett “co-wrote” ESB. That implies a collaboration between Brackett and Kasdan. In reality, Brackett independently wrote a completely different take on ESB based on Lucas’ plot outline. Lucas then rewrote the script from scratch apparently. It’s hard to say how many ideas in Lucas’ rewrite originated with Brackett. At face value, the later Kasdan scripts (which were based on Lucas’ rewrite) appear to be completely independent from Brackett.

Personally, I believe that elements of Brackett’s draft influenced the way Kasdan/Lucas thought about the story as they developed it. But that’s just my own speculation. The broad story elements - the plot, the locations, even some specific things like Luke being attacked by a snow monster - originated from Lucas’ plot outline, not Brackett’s draft. So it’s tough to identify specific ideas in the final script that unambiguously originated with Brackett. But going by Kasdan’s fourth draft and the final shooting script, pretty much 0% of Brackett’s original writing or dialogue carried over into later iterations.

So Brackett was credited as a screenwriter as an acknoledgement of her involvement?

Leigh Brackett was a Hollywood legend, she was very ill when writing for Lucas (she passed away soon after IIRC), so as an hommage to a great lady, her name was kept in the credits even if none of her writing was used.

Z6PO said:

Leigh Brackett was a Hollywood legend, she was very ill when writing for Lucas (she passed away soon after IIRC), so as an hommage to a great lady, her name was kept in the credits even if none of her writing was used.

Thanks for clearing that up.

Last Jedi is a better made film than Return of the Jedi, and Return is a bad sequel to The Empire Strikes Back.

I might like Lukes’s portrayal more in ROTJ, but its a weak entry.

Superweapon VII said:

Part of me wants to object, but I never even finished TLJ, so who am I to claim otherwise?

I certainly agree ROTJ’s weak. I don’t even enjoy watching it anymore. Everything between the sail barge showdown and the lightsaber duel cures me of insomnia.

ROTJ starts to drag badly as soon as they get to Endor. The ending space battle is cool though. The Endor forest sequences are just really slow, long, and visually uninspiring, apart from the speeder bike chase. It’s mostly just Han and Leia walking through the woods in California (a very fan-filmy looking setting), they run into some useless Stormtroopers, they get separated, they spend like 10 years screwing around with Ewoks, they bumble around some more in the woods, etc. etc. And there’s no concurrent B-story line that breaks up all this Endor monotony, except for when we occasionally check in with Vader and the Emperor, both of whom are basically just waiting around.