1602

I think Lucas cares deeply about Star Wars but he never understood what made those original movies successful. It was the characters and the actors playing them. All the stuff he piled on in the remakes and prequels, the effects and technologies and explanations, it hurt the story more than helping it.

The new film makers seem to understand why we love those original 3 movies, but they’re shit at making new ones. JJ Abrams just imagines cool scenes, and they’re really cool looking, then strings them together with bullshit that he clearly put no thought into and doesn’t care about. His Star Trek movies were like that. Blow up vulcan! Skydiving transporters! FIRE EVERYTHING! Really cool, but not Star Trek and the overall plot was stupid and a disservice to the franchise and the characters. I fully expect Episode 9 to be like this, 6 or 7 awesome scenes tied together by sloppy, nonsense writing full of plot holes and completely forgetting about parts of the continuity.

1603

My buddy who works on Mandalorean and I were having a conversation recenlty, and he said he wonders if the next movie will actually have any change in starship tactics or design or warfare after the way the super humongous First Order warship was destroyed in the last movie. He was joking of course.

That’s Jar Jar Abrams for you. The guy who put in a portable transporter in Star Trek that you could carry around with you and beam yourself from Earth to the Klingon Homeworld instantly, thus nullifying the entire reason to have starships in the first place.

1604

Yup! Like, we gotta get to Planet Klingon cuz it’s cool (and it was cool) but fuck all on how we get there. Just hand-wave it.

1605

We’ve really been witness to something special: both how you can mess a successful movie series up by extending it with something completely different that has no guarantee of being any good because it ignores the low-probability event of something coming out good in the first place (the prequels), and how you can mess up by trying to adhere to the general spirit of the original movies but completely disrespecting/ignoring their characters, internal logic, and in general just lacking coherence (the sequels).

1606

I’m pretty sure that the personal transporter was, itself, the goal (in a “wouldn’t it be cool” way), not the product of lazy writing because they wracked their brains and could let think to use a ship. It’s not like that would cost significantly more in screen time to introduce.

1607

But it is lazy writing, because it doesn’t for a second take any kind of thought about the implications of what they’re doing.

The portable transporter is never heard from again. It’s like the entire world decided to stick with spending 6 months to cross the Atlantic in Mayflower vessels when there are 747s available.

1608

I’d say it’s different priorities. Cool new toys over everything else. It’s not harder to write in a ship. It’s just not as cool, per their measure.

1609

You mean the way they literally cured death?

1610

And then they locked away the cure and never talked about it again.

1611

Hmm.

Feige had discussed a foray into the Star Wars universe in a late summer meeting with Kennedy and studio co-chairmen Alan Horn and Alan Bergman, sources say. In response to a query from THR , Walt Disney Studios co-chairman and chief creative officer Horn said, “We are excited about the projects Kathy and the Lucasfilm team are working on, not only in terms of Star Wars but also Indiana Jones and reaching into other parts of the company including Children of Blood and Bone with Emma Watts and Fox. With the close of the Skywalker Saga, Kathy is pursuing a new era in Star Wars storytelling, and knowing what a die-hard fan Kevin is, it made sense for these two extraordinary producers to work on a Star Wars film together.”

Some see this move as a prelude to a larger role for Feige within Lucasfilm, while others say it merely reflects the Marvel executive’s passion for the franchise. A top Disney source says Kennedy remains in charge with no plans for any changes. One knowledgeable source says Feige has told a major actor that there’s a specific role he would like that person to play if and when he makes the movie.

1612

This is pretty much true, but the recent comments indicate further that he doesn’t see the value in a franchise maintaining a foundation of setting and tone and staying true to it. New can be good, but it’s not the only good. A franchise needs an identity and an anchor point from which to stretch to new places. If it betrays that, it loses its creative integrity and also probably much of its audience.

1613

If I had to guess, Ms. Kennedy won’t be in charge of Star Wars for much longer after Ep.9 hits the theaters. Clearly, she does not have permission to green-light any new film projects.

1614

I agree. And this is exactly what you’d expect to see happen: she was given several shots and failed. Now they’re (gradually?) transferring this very expensive brand over to the guy who’s been successfully shepherding their biggest money makers. Maybe they’ll have him oversee someone else running it.

1615

Absolutely. You can’t have any coherent work completely reinvent itself and expect to succeed each time. Funny how he didn’t have this expectation of Indiana Jones for some reason.

1616

Huh. Wonder if I’ll get as bored with Star Wars movies as I am with Marvel movies.

1617

Aren’t you already? I have no desire to see the next one whatsoever.

Whereas I’d go to see a Spidey movie unless it gets abysmal reviews, and if they can start restructuring these movies so it’s not always just building up to a big battle at the end, I might be curious enough to see what’ll happen in the next Marvel phase.

1618

No! I would describe my feelings about Star Wars as casually interested. I still go see the main numbered films in the theater, just not opening night. But I still haven’t seen the side movies at all.

1619

After Last Jedi, I’m all in. I’ll go see whatever they put out with the Star Wars name now.

1620

I haven’t either.

After 7, I was mildly interested in what will happen to the characters. They seemed to have potential depth and recreate the magic of the original characters. And then 8 came along. Now I honestly don’t care what happens to these characters and their 10-person “Resistance”.

1621

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