Star Wars Lives!

Still have the scars from the rabid anticipation of 97-98. Star Wars is just another franchise now, it has a lot of prove in my book.

@aequitas:

The Old, new Star Wars crew.
What you think??

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/29/star-wars-episode-vii-cast_n_5229727.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063

There’s some good actors there but JJ is directing it and writing it. No enthusiasm whatsoever. Too much riding on this for it to be anything but barely watchable “product cinema” overly influenced by focus group derived fan service “moments” at best with shaky cam and lens flare.

My hope is everyone will finally see Abrams for the hack he is.

@frimmel:

There’s some good actors there but JJ is directing it and writing it. No enthusiasm whatsoever. Too much riding on this for it to be anything but barely watchable “product cinema” overly influenced by focus group derived fan service “moments” at best with shaky cam and lens flare.

My hope is everyone will finally see Abrams for the hack he is.

Amen, Amen… truer words were never said.

While I do not necessarily wish it, it would be interesting to see if JJ Abrams Star Wars is actually better than George Lucas Prequel Star Wars.

Much of Lucas’ prequel trilogy is panned or ridiculed as not having lived up to the originals, so it is at least possible for Abrams’ version to be viewed as ‘better-than’ the prequels, even if marginally so. Honestly, I do not see how simply because of the fact that it is (1) JJ Abrams, (2) now an interminable, sellout, money-based franchise and (3) owned by Disney.

No anticipation here either.

I can’t argue that other than “Sith” the prequels are “good” movies but they are by no means travesties of cinema. They each have some pretty neat stuff in them despite maybe not overall “working.” I think at this point the pile on is just habit and not wanting to seem “uncool.” Like you’d be one of “those” fans instead of one of the cool nerds.

The example I use is “Temple of Doom.” It has some problems but the chief problem is it isn’t “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and this causes its problems to be unfairly magnified.

JJ is good at hype but he isn’t a good filmmaker and I think folks turn a blind eye to the mediocrity he churns out to justify buying into the hype. I think JJ is among those responsible for movies not needing to be good anymore as long as you can create enough hype. He’s a much better marketer than film-maker. (Marketer= makes an eskimo want to pay for snow.)

JJ stole one of the worst sequences from the Star Wars prequels for Trek (09) but I keep coming across those who vehemently hate the prequels but love the lens flared mess of JJ Trek.

Everyone will be so excited to see Han shoot first (mark it down, at some point Han will shoot before the other guy gets a chance) they’ll be willing to overlook the other mediocrity he’ll shovel at us.

Yeah, I’m one of those in the minority that still admits that I liked the prequels when they came out. I was 12 when Episode I debuted, so of course the slapstick Jar Jar and the lightning-fast lightsaber battles entertained me.

Looking back, of course the acting and directing was terrible, but at the time I loved those movies. And that’s what George Lucas was trying to do, so I don’t fault him too much.

I’m not really sure about JJ, not a huge classic Trek fan, so I enjoyed the 09 version for what it was but I can understand how some people would be upset ("Hey, you know everything that happened in the old show?? TIME WARP!!).

My worry with JJ is his tendency to work with his talentless writing buddy, Damon Lindelof (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0511541/?ref_=nv_sr_1).

If you haven’t heard of him, he’s responsible for such travesties as the ending of Lost, Prometheus, the ending of World War Z, and yes, Star Trek Into Darkness. He is my celebrity arch-enemy, and I hope they don’t let him within the same area code as the Star Wars script.

@frimmel:

I can’t argue that other than “Sith” the prequels are “good” movies but they are by no means travesties of cinema. They each have some pretty neat stuff in them despite maybe not overall “working.” I think at this point the pile on is just habit and not wanting to seem “uncool.” Like you’d be one of “those” fans instead of one of the cool nerds.

Yes, I really don’t have the vehement issues with the prequels that many do; partially because I was younger when they came out and generally enjoyed them. I do, however, recognize their faults and the disconnection of tone from Ep IV-V-VI. They are not all they could have been, but are not, as you said, travesties of cinema.

@frimmel:

The example I use is “Temple of Doom.” It has some problems but the chief problem is it isn’t “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and this causes its problems to be unfairly magnified.

Yes, I agree. Watching it again recently I could tell how poor of a movie it was in comparison to Raiders. It isn’t that it was a particularly bad movie; Temple has some excellent scenes, and it might very well have been my favorite when I was growing up. For some reason though, there just isn’t the same impact found in Raiders or even Last Crusade… which is also not as good as Raiders.

The comparisons will always be there, but that is both good and bad.

@frimmel:

JJ stole one of the worst sequences from the Star Wars prequels for Trek (09) but I keep coming across those who vehemently hate the prequels but love the lens flared mess of JJ Trek.

Which scene are you referencing?

@frimmel:

Everyone will be so excited to see Han shoot first (mark it down, at some point Han will shoot before the other guy gets a chance) they’ll be willing to overlook the other mediocrity he’ll shovel at us.

That is the sad part about commercialized franchises which thrive on the memory of the past. Put in enough tributes, easter eggs or character throwbacks and it will appease the masses. Discerning minds who want something new, innovative, respectful and true to the original will see through the bones thrown, but for the rest it will be a laugh and a feel good romp down memory lane and they’ll just throw money at it.

@LHoffman:

@frimmel:

JJ stole one of the worst sequences from the Star Wars prequels for Trek (09) but I keep coming across those who vehemently hate the prequels but love the lens flared mess of JJ Trek.

Which scene are you referencing?

Heroes (or Hero) get chased by monster, while running from said monster it is eaten by a bigger monster. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon leaving the Gungan city/Kirk stranded on the ice planet.

@frimmel:

Everyone will be so excited to see Han shoot first (mark it down, at some point Han will shoot before the other guy gets a chance) they’ll be willing to overlook the other mediocrity he’ll shovel at us.

That is the sad part about commercialized franchises which thrive on the memory of the past. Put in enough tributes, easter eggs or character throwbacks and it will appease the masses. Discerning minds who want something new, innovative, respectful and true to the original will see through the bones thrown, but for the rest it will be a laugh and a feel good romp down memory lane and they’ll just throw money at it.

One of the reasons I loved “Rise of The Planet of The Apes” is the fan sevice they threw in felt organic. There wasn’t belabored set-up so they could do the fan service. I’d also point to “Skyfall” as having gotten it right in the fan service regard.

@ossel:

I’m not really sure about JJ, not a huge classic Trek fan, so I enjoyed the 09 version for what it was but I can understand how some people would be upset ("Hey, you know everything that happened in the old show?? TIME WARP!!).

Trek '09 is a bad movie utterly aside and independent of it being bad Trek. Some of the bad Trek counts as both (Spock/Uhura relationship for instance. Bad Trek/Bad Writing knowing nothing about Trek) but you can still put that aside and the film is a mess. They seemed to use familiarity with Trek as a crutch to prop up tension only to yank it away as a sort of gotcha/this isn’t one of those “boring” Trek movies.

Oh… totally starting to agree on Lindeloff (although in his slight defense it seems “Prometheus” was already a considerable mess.) Glad he is (so far) in a galaxy far far away from the Ep VII script. Although see firing the writer of “Toy Story 3” for another in the list of unenthused about the movie.

I appreciate how dark and different Temple of Doom is, it was refreshing to have Lucas & Spielberg try something different when making a sequel before going the more familiar route in Last Crusade (also a great movie).

One problem with the prequels is I don’t think Lucas was fit to both write and direct them, he needed some additional voices in the room. I’m still bummed Return of the Jedi was so compromised. Luke should be spending episodes VII-IX looking for and helping train his sister, not having a very convenient solution to the love triangle established in Empire.

But after reading about Lindelof and his resume, things don’t look promising. I hated Prometheus and Into Darkness was such an insult.

@frimmel:

Heroes (or Hero) get chased by monster, while running from said monster it is eaten by a bigger monster. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon leaving the Gungan city/Kirk stranded on the ice planet.

I thought that might have been the one. I did not see anything particularly awful about it. I mean it was a very pedestrian and cliche attempt at suspense in both instances, but certainly there are worse offenses in both films.

@frimmel:

One of the reasons I loved “Rise of The Planet of The Apes” is the fan sevice they threw in felt organic. There wasn’t belabored set-up so they could do the fan service.

I agree with that. If the fan service falls naturally into the storyline or script it comes off as respectful and true to the original, rather than as pandering. In that respect, it really is no longer fan service (which is pandering).

I really cannot think of any other examples like Planet of the Apes, where the service was natural and unobtrusive. Another very obvious and poor example is Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Granted, I only watched it once, a while back, because it was so bad. One piece of fan service that I do remember was when Jones was being chased through the warehouse at the beginning, one of the boxes that gets knocked over is shown to contain the Ark of the Covenant. The camera painfully focuses in on it too. It seemed like such a shill when I watched it. Just really kitschy and in-your-face. I am sure there was some sort of Ooh, Ahh or giggling of glee in the theater, but I watched it at home and it was more of an, “Awww Dammit!”. Then it only got worse from there.

@General:

I’m still bummed Return of the Jedi was so compromised. Luke should be spending episodes VII-IX looking for and helping train his sister, not having a very convenient solution to the love triangle established in Empire.

While I am well versed in the films themselves, not so much in the background of the writing/development… What exactly do you mean “compromised”?

@General:

But after reading about Lindelof and his resume, things don’t look promising. I hated Prometheus and Into Darkness was such an insult.

Into Darkness was insulting and really not very interesting.

After watching Prometheus I remember saying, “Well, I never want to watch that movie again.” It had so much promise, but something just was off about it. I really don’t know what though. Full disclosure: I had never watched anything from the Alien franchise when I saw Prometheus (I have since watched Alien). However, even after watching Alien, Prometheus still did not make a lot of sense. Maybe the actions of the people in Prometheus made less sense. There were some Alien-esque interesting (revolting) things in Prometheus, but it was not a good movie because of them. There were good elements, but clearly did not reach its potential.

Since May the Forth is upon soon, I thought a Star Wars question was appropriate. Who is your main character in the series? Who is your favorite supporting character?

@ABWorsham:

Since May the Forth is upon soon, I thought a Star Wars question was appropriate. Who is your main character in the series? Who is your favorite supporting character?

I assume this should read favorite main character and favorite supporting character ?

One of the best comments I’ve ever read about the Star Wars cast of characters was the observation that, when the Emperor was briefly introduced in The Empire Strikes Back and especially when his role was greatly expanded in return of the Jedi, Star Wars fans were shocked to realize that the epic-scale villain Darth Vader was essentially just a middle manager.  We see this demonstrated right at the beginning of RotJ, when Vader informs the Death Star construction supervisor that the boss is “most displeased” with his lack of progress, adding the further comment that the Emperor is “not as forgiving as I am.”  This kind of scene would not be out of place in a Dilbert cartoon.

Can’t believe anyone would bother saving Episodes 1 & 2 from the incinerator.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI&list=PL8358B6703245914D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfBhi6qqFLA&list=PL39C77C596E490C96

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_W5OuuV-hk

I love the Plinkett movie reviews, I remember stumbling upon his ST Next Gen reviews and getting so excited for his take on the prequels. Though I will say of all the Next Gen films First Contact is by far the best not worthy of total condemnation.

The RLM team summed up ST 2009 pretty well and even warned about what kind of movie Into Darkness would be. Their Half in the Bag shows are amusing reviews with a little Plinkett mixed in.

@Flashman:

Can’t believe anyone would bother saving Episodes 1 & 2 from the incinerator.

While they are exceedingly far from perfect, there are a precious few good choices or scenes.

Casting Ewan McGregor as Obi-wan was an excellent choice in my opinion. Liam Neeson as Qui-gon was good too, though I shrink from calling it excellent. However, like the video points out, their performances were inhibited by a poor script.

The ending lightsaber fight in Ep. I with Qui-gon, Obi-wan and Darth Maul was perhaps the best fight of any Star Wars movie. Definitely worth keeping.

For that matter, Darth Maul was a great bad-guy, but so little was done with him and his role was (intentionally?) left very under-developed. Could have been even better.

I like Sam Jackson as Mace Windu, though the character himself left a little to be desired.

Beyond that, casting was very poor and acting was worse. A good part of that blame must be chalked up to the script, but still…

I thought Neeson looked thoroughly embarrassed to be seen in the movie; sleepwalked through his role.

As Plinkett says, there isn’t a single real character in it, apart from Binks who everyone hated.

@Flashman:

I thought Neeson looked thoroughly embarrassed to be seen in the movie; sleepwalked through his role.

As Plinkett says, there isn’t a single real character in it, apart from Binks who everyone hated.

I do agree. Neeson did not do a great job, so I should redact my statement as it pertains to him.

I just hope the new one does something interesting with the original cast, like Luke being corrupted by the Force.

Just playing older versions of themselves taking on a new set of one-dimensional villains with British accents would be pointless. Apart from the money they’d make.

The first picture in this story will probably remind Star Wars fans of Luke speeding above the Tatooine desert in his landspeeder.  Even the landscape colour is similar.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/aerofex-hover-bike-goes-on-sale-in-2017-1.2642866

Star Wars Set Photos Taken By Accident

A man who was taking publicity shots for a flying school returned home to discover he had captured images of spacecraft used in the new Star Wars film.

Matthew Myatt originally thought his pictures of the Millennium Falcon and an X-Wing fighter were experimental aircraft at Greenham Common, Berkshire.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-29144135