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What if TFA is awful?

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What if TFA manages to make the Prequels, Transformers, and even Battlefield Earth look like master pieces? What if the story is like horrible fanfiction? What if the acting is worse than what we would expect from 2nd graders? What if John Williams decides to put in dubstep instead of his regular awesomeness, y'know, for teh kidz? What if the special effects have less dimension than a Monty Python cartoon? What if every good scene we've had in the trailers aren't actually in the film? What if it is edited in that fast paced vomit inducing shaky cam / jump cut way? What if it makes every SW fan in the world commit suicide? So many what ifs...

Not enough people read the EU.

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what if barbie had a hand grenade?

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Star Wars fans already have low expectations for the movie. 

If its bad we just have more to make fun of/ignore.

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Sevb32 said:

what if barbie had a hand grenade?

 What if God was one of us?

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LuckyGungan2001 said:

What if TFA manages to make the Prequels, Transformers, and even Battlefield Earth look like master pieces? What if the story is like horrible fanfiction? What if the acting is worse than what we would expect from 2nd graders? What if John Williams decides to put in dubstep instead of his regular awesomeness, y'know, for teh kidz? What if the special effects have less dimension than a Monty Python cartoon? What if every good scene we've had in the trailers aren't actually in the film? What if it is edited in that fast paced vomit inducing shaky cam / jump cut way? What if it makes every SW fan in the world commit suicide? So many what ifs...

 If it's anything less than stellar fans will destroy it. 

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Oh I think you're just going to have to wait and find out exactly what will happen in the inevitable event the movie reeks.

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We'll still have the original trilogy to enjoy (unofficially if not officially), so if TFA sucks, it won't mean a lot to me. It'll be disappointing for sure, but that's life.

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Don't we already have one of these threads?

My group of buddies prefer to ask a different, more interesting question when discussing Star Wars:
What if TFA is actually good?
None of us have much faith in that being the case, but it'll be cool if it is.
And if it's not, well, it's just another bad Star Wars movie. Most of 'em are, so no big deal.

Ray’s Lounge
Biggs in ANH edit idea
ROTJ opening edit idea

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There's one thing what the prequels taught me - expect NOTHING when you're going to see a movie, so you can be only pleasantly surprised.

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You know there will always be a percentage that will hate it. No matter what.

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I get that we've all been burned before, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect this to be one of my four favorite Star Wars movies.

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Then I'll be right where I was in 2002.

– Bill

Never tell me the odds.

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joefavs said:

I get that we've all been burned before, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect this to be one of my four favorite Star Wars movies.

Talk about lowering expectations...

I think it's pretty much impossible for it to be worse than the prequels--so worst-case scenario, it'll make you retch, but a lot less than you're used to during a new Star Wars film.  But that's not the same thing as saying it won't be awful.

And does it matter?  I plan on waiting for the reviews on this.  If the reviews (the ones I trust) are bad, I really won't feel the slightest remorse in skipping it (I feel quite a bit of remorse for not skipping the prequels due to the poor reviews).  If watching fan preservations continues to be the only way to actually enjoy the Star Wars universe, that's not really so bad.  I don't need new films.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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CatBus said:

joefavs said:

I get that we've all been burned before, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect this to be one of my four favorite Star Wars movies.

Talk about lowering expectations...

I think it's pretty much impossible for it to be worse than the prequels--so worst-case scenario, it'll make you retch, but a lot less than you're used to during a new Star Wars film.  But that's not the same thing as saying it won't be awful.

And does it matter?  I plan on waiting for the reviews on this.  If the reviews (the ones I trust) are bad, I really won't feel the slightest remorse in skipping it (I feel quite a bit of remorse for not skipping the prequels due to the poor reviews).  If watching fan preservations continues to be the only way to actually enjoy the Star Wars universe, that's not really so bad.  I don't need new films.

Why not just see it for yourself and form your own opinion? There are a few movies I enjoyed in which my trusted reviewers didn't or just didn't like as much as I did. 

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Lord Haseo said:

Why not just see it for yourself and form your own opinion? There are a few movies I enjoyed in which my trusted reviewers didn't or just didn't like as much as I did. 

That was the logic behind my watching the prequels, and see how well that turned out.  Sure, reviewers can be wrong, even ones you like.  But they're also often right, and failing to watch a good movie isn't exactly the worst thing in the world you can do--it's not like I'll otherwise spend those two hours jabbing forks into my eyes or something.  I haven't watched the entire BFI or AFI top 100 films yet, maybe I'll try one of those.  Forgo one good thing for another good thing, it's a wash.

On the other hand, I often regret my choice to give the prequels a fair shake, instead of jabbing forks in my eyes.  Fair shakes are overrated.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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However it will be, I expect to see people on this forum present their fan-edits of it.
As with some of the previous movies, if the original sucks then I'll watch only the edits and hail them as the true versions. I do think that we could come to a consensus as to would be the movie's biggest violations and not make fan-edits that would differ too much overall.

Although... If TFA would be awful then that would also make me tone down my involvement in the fan community. For instance, I would not allow myself to be involved in any 501st troop that would promote the sequel trilogy.

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CatBus said:

Lord Haseo said:

Why not just see it for yourself and form your own opinion? There are a few movies I enjoyed in which my trusted reviewers didn't or just didn't like as much as I did. 

That was the logic behind my watching the prequels, and see how well that turned out.  Sure, reviewers can be wrong, even ones you like.  But they're also often right, and failing to watch a good movie isn't exactly the worst thing in the world you can do--it's not like I'll otherwise spend those two hours jabbing forks into my eyes or something.  I haven't watched the entire BFI or AFI top 100 films yet, maybe I'll try one of those.  Forgo one good thing for another good thing, it's a wash.

On the other hand, I often regret my choice to give the prequels a fair shake, instead of jabbing forks in my eyes.  Fair shakes are overrated.

Considering the prequels are what they are I'm sure JJ will have made the film at least watchable without having to be inebriated. I'd say worse case scenario it will be a 7/10 film. Also if the movie end up being great you'll regret not being there on that historic opening night. 

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CatBus said:

joefavs said:

I get that we've all been burned before, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect this to be one of my four favorite Star Wars movies.

Talk about lowering expectations...

 Well truthfully, I expect it to be better than ROTJ when all is said and done, but I hesitate to make open displays of optimism on this board. What I'm getting at, though, is that most of the buzz around this movie is very all-or-nothing in tone, like that idiotic poll where 63% of responders said they thought it would be the best film overall, or the population here that dismisses anything after 1980 as crap by default. I think it's far more likely that TFA will fall somewhere in the middle of the ranking, and I think it's not insane to hope it will rank closer to the top than the bottom given what we've seen and heard so far about how it's being made.

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Lord Haseo said:

Considering the prequels are what they are I'm sure JJ will have made the film at least watchable without having to be inebriated. I'd say worse case scenario it will be a 7/10 film. Also if the movie end up being great you'll regret not being there on that historic opening night. 

If I had as much confidence in JJ's abilities as you seem to, I might be more excited.  But frankly, on the anticipation scale, TFA doesn't rank as high as the possibility of another Lilo and Stitch direct-to-video sequel.  Hey, they could both be good, right?  Also they might not.  My happiness does not hinge on getting either of those questions answered.  Ever, really.

I don't regret not seeing Star Wars on opening night--I don't see how I could possibly regret not seeing TFA on opening night.

I think we're just on opposite ends of the caring spectrum.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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CatBus I am surprised you are even posting in this thread. You are one of those opinions are facts people. When film and art is highly subjective.

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Sevb32 said:

what if barbie had a hand grenade?

Well... close enough?

Anyway about TFA, the story should be fine (as long as Kasdan is involved), the actors' performances won't let down being who they are.

My only concerns are all about its genre: if it's your usual Marvel-style blockbuster, I'm not interested, being to me basically the same movie over and over again since the first X-Men movie. Also Abrams: I admit I haven't seen any of his Star Trek movies, but his Mission Impossible 3 was bad enough to me that I'm just a little concerned that TFA will be another action-packed-special-full-of-special-effects-with-ridiculous-plot-twists movie, and... Mr. Verta's rumors about TFA make my concerns actually legit by now.

Guess I'll have to wait and see for myself :D

The Original Trilogy’s Timeline Reconstruction: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Implied-starting-date-of-the-Empire-from-OT-dialogue/post/786201/#TopicPost786201

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Sevb32 said:

CatBus I am surprised you are even posting in this thread.

Well, the title of this thread is "What if TFA is awful?", which pretty much flags it as an "angst over yet another potential Star Wars disappointment" thread, don't you think?.  And what better way to prevent disappointment than to walk in with realistic expectations?  Enter CatBus, with perspective.  Not really such a huge surprise after all, now, is it?

You are one of those opinions are facts people. When film and art is highly subjective.

I can't even see where in any of my posts you could even read between the lines and come to a conclusion so completely opposite my intent.  Whether TFA is any good or not is of course subjective, but going into it expecting historic cinema is setting yourself up for the sort of disappointment I'd like to prevent.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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Abrams lives and dies on his scripts. If the script is good, we'll get something as good as Star Trek 2009. If it's bad, we'll get Into Darkness.

JJ doesn't srike me as a guy with vision, but he's a technically competent director.

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John Doom said:

My only concerns are all about its genre: if it's your usual Marvel-style blockbuster, I'm not interested, being to me basically the same movie over and over again since the first X-Men movie. Also Abrams: I admit I haven't seen any of his Star Trek movies, but his Mission Impossible 3 was bad enough to me that I'm just a little concerned that TFA will be another action-packed-special-full-of-special-effects-with-ridiculous-plot-twists movie, and... Mr. Verta's rumors about TFA make my concerns actually legit by now.

Guess I'll have to wait and see for myself :D

 What are the Verta rumors?

I loved M:I 3.  I HATED Into Darkness.

– Bill

Never tell me the odds.

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CatBus said:

Lord Haseo said:

Considering the prequels are what they are I'm sure JJ will have made the film at least watchable without having to be inebriated. I'd say worse case scenario it will be a 7/10 film. Also if the movie end up being great you'll regret not being there on that historic opening night. 

If I had as much confidence in JJ's abilities as you seem to, I might be more excited.  But frankly, on the anticipation scale, TFA doesn't rank as high as the possibility of another Lilo and Stitch direct-to-video sequel.  Hey, they could both be good, right?  Also they might not.  My happiness does not hinge on getting either of those questions answered.  Ever, really.

I don't regret not seeing Star Wars on opening night--I don't see how I could possibly regret not seeing TFA on opening night.

I think we're just on opposite ends of the caring spectrum.

I might not have the most confidence in JJ but the fact that Kasdan co-wrote this movie qualms my doubts concerning the film. Also JJ being a fan of the series means he probably gave this his all and more. 

If the film is as good as any of the OT films I think you will regret it. Especially if you hear something from a review (or anyone else) that you wouldn't want to know.