Episode VII: 'The Force Awakens' Discussion Thread

[hamsterboy]

^That was in the same article I read over on Yahoo. He said he doesn't want people to go "why isn't this over yet?"

[yojoebro82]

^That was in the same article I read over on Yahoo. He said he doesn't want people to go "why isn't this over yet?"

I'm with him on that one. I'm also tired of movies in this genre trying to be "epic". When I think epic, I think Zach Snyder describing his Man of Steel movie (one of my least favorites in recent memory). "Epic" has turned into tacking on 20-40 extra minutes of buildings falling over and an overdoes of characters that don't need to be in the film. When I think "epic", I think someone trying to outdo something that came before. Visually I don't think that can be done. Every one of these movies has awesome special effects. Any one can digitally insert any environment or character they want seamlessly. You can't outdo anything visually anymore. Time to try and outdo something stotywise.

 

Someone says they're not trying to make an "epic" geek movie? GREAT!

[Devilbat]

In terms of film-making, I do not envy J.J. Abrams's disposition in carrying the Star Wars torch, as it were, one little bit; overdo it and you further alienate the already-disgruntled fanbase, underdo it and you'll have people clamoring for the next director and new vision for the franchise. It's a creative and professional balancing-act, involving arguably the most anticipated film of all time. No pressure, Mr. Abrams... (lol)

[featofstrength]

In terms of film-making, I do not envy J.J. Abrams's disposition in carrying the Star Wars torch, as it were, one little bit; overdo it and you further alienate the already-disgruntled fanbase, underdo it and you'll have people clamoring for the next director and new vision for the franchise. It's a creative and professional balancing-act, involving arguably the most anticipated film of all time. No pressure, Mr. Abrams... (lol)

 

No one is forcing (no pun intended) him to do it. We could discuss "ego" and "passion" and money til the cows come home...if he didn't sign on, someone else would in a heartbeat.

He may get lucky. He may get what he deserves.

 

 

It's good for him that he's totally unoriginal....safe. He'll be fine. I mean...I don't see the general public growing any taste between now and Christmas.

Anyone else see Pitch Perfect 2? Awesome!!!!

[yojoebro82]

In terms of film-making, I do not envy J.J. Abrams's disposition in carrying the Star Wars torch, as it were, one little bit; overdo it and you further alienate the already-disgruntled fanbase, underdo it and you'll have people clamoring for the next director and new vision for the franchise. It's a creative and professional balancing-act, involving arguably the most anticipated film of all time. No pressure, Mr. Abrams... (lol)

 

Seeing as how Star Wars is the most ravenous of all geek fan bases. No...no I do not envy him either. I just wish him good luck and my the force be with him.

[Devilbat]

Well, you have to understand George Lucas painted himself into a corner so to speak in terms of storytelling with the prequels; there were only so many ways it could have gone...he already had his Point B story, as it were, with the original trilogy. He just had to derive a Point A origin and fill in the details that could be retrofitted enough to plug into an established lore, and in doing so he kinda limited his own path to follow.

 

In my own experiences as a budding writer, instructors have forced me to write assignments within a specific word count. At first I thought it was awful constricting and binding, and would prove to hinder my thought process. In actuality however, I found that my writing became more precise and streamlined as a result of being forced to narrow my thinking and ideas to fit a finite body of work. My writing truly became better because of it. I would imagine it was a similar process for Lucas, to be confined by his own storytelling, to have to follow a restricting, pointed literary pathway...he was free to play around with his long-brewing concepts in any fashioned he wished, yet he knew he had to arrive at the birth of the Empire and eventually Darth Vader. I'd imagine it was also quite a challenge...

 

J.J. Abrams, on the other hand, had an advantage going into the process of establishing a new trilogy arc. Long-suffering fans, like myself, have wanted to see the original-trilogy-era characters and concepts expanded upon since the mid-to-late '80s, when Lucas hinted at the possibilities, however remote, of someday continuing their adventures, when it might be more feasible to do so. Abrams has been tapped to do that very thing, so he's in charge of pleasing a ready-made fanbase, despite the established hard-core fans that have consumed any and all properties related to Star Wars; some people don't care about the prequels or the peripheral shows and what-not...they just want to see more of Luke, Han, Leia and Co., the characters and storyline that hooked them in the first place. And the sky's the limit story-wise...Abrams was not hindered by origins or pre-established plot-points that needed to be incorporated or fleshed-out.

 

Also, people have pined for a more at-least traditional-looking form of Star Wars, with all the trappings and feelings found therein, so...terrible story notwithstanding, Abrams can hardly go wrong as he seems to be giving the fans exactly what they've been wanting...or at least what the disenchanted ones want. There are those of us that feel Star Wars is like pizza...even when it's bad, it's still pretty good. (lol)

 

I'm excited about it, and I think based on what J.J. Abrams did with Star Trek, he's gonna knock it out of the park. I've decided life's too short to be pessimistic and jaded about something like a Star Wars movie. And at the end of the day, it's just that, a movie. If it sucks, my world will most assuredly not end. Yeah, I love Star Wars, and I want to see it thrive and be successful, but if it don't, what can ya do about it except see it or vote with your dollars and not see it? That's right...that's about all you can do, besides gush or whine about it. I think I personally tend to fall in the middle of that spectrum somewhere...

[yojoebro82]

Well, you have to understand George Lucas painted himself into a corner so to speak in terms of storytelling with the prequels; there were only so many ways it could have gone...he already had his Point B story, as it were, with the original trilogy. He just had to derive a Point A origin and fill in the details that could be retrofitted enough to plug into an established lore, and in doing so he kinda limited his own path to follow.

 

In my own experiences as a budding writer, instructors have forced me to write assignments within a specific word count. At first I thought it was awful constricting and binding, and would prove to hinder my thought process. In actuality however, I found that my writing became more precise and streamlined as a result of being forced to narrow my thinking and ideas to fit a finite body of work. My writing truly became better because of it. I would imagine it was a similar process for Lucas, to be confined by his own storytelling, to have to follow a restricting, pointed literary pathway...he was free to play around with his long-brewing concepts in any fashioned he wished, yet he knew he had to arrive at the birth of the Empire and eventually Darth Vader. I'd imagine it was also quite a challenge...

 

J.J. Abrams, on the other hand, had an advantage going into the process of establishing a new trilogy arc. Long-suffering fans, like myself, have wanted to see the original-trilogy-era characters and concepts expanded upon since the mid-to-late '80s, when Lucas hinted at the possibilities, however remote, of someday continuing their adventures, when it might be more feasible to do so. Abrams has been tapped to do that very thing, so he's in charge of pleasing a ready-made fanbase, despite the established hard-core fans that have consumed any and all properties related to Star Wars; some people don't care about the prequels or the peripheral shows and what-not...they just want to see more of Luke, Han, Leia and Co., the characters and storyline that hooked them in the first place. And the sky's the limit story-wise...Abrams was not hindered by origins or pre-established plot-points that needed to be incorporated or fleshed-out.

 

Also, people have pined for a more at-least traditional-looking form of Star Wars, with all the trappings and feelings found therein, so...terrible story notwithstanding, Abrams can hardly go wrong as he seems to be giving the fans exactly what they've been wanting...or at least what the disenchanted ones want. There are those of us that feel Star Wars is like pizza...even when it's bad, it's still pretty good. (lol)

 

I'm excited about it, and I think based on what J.J. Abrams did with Star Trek, he's gonna knock it out of the park. I've decided life's too short to be pessimistic and jaded about something like a Star Wars movie. And at the end of the day, it's just that, a movie. If it sucks, my world will most assuredly not end. Yeah, I love Star Wars, and I want to see it thrive and be successful, but if it don't, what can ya do about it except see it or vote with your dollars and not see it? That's right...that's about all you can do, besides gush or whine about it. I think I personally tend to fall in the middle of that spectrum somewhere...

 

 

I think there were a few missteps with Lucas and the prequels. It's not any one thing.

 

I think Lucas can be a decent storyteller. He gave us the OT, after all, which we all know and love. But with the OT he surrounded himself with other talented storytellers to bounce ideas off of and the story flourished because of it. With the prequels, he surrounded himself with yes men too afraid of being thrown off the money boat to speak up and say, "Maybe this needs to be reworked". Look at any of the special features on the prequel DVDs and you'll see a frustrated Lucas surrounded by guys following him around, taking notes, nodding their heads and saying, "..........yeah....yeah that's......good......"

 

For all its flaws, there are hints of workable material in the prequels, some decent ideas. But they put a rough, rough draft on screen instead of taking time to flesh it out. It was nowhere near being ready for the green light.

 

I also think rust may have been an issue. Lucas hadn't made a movie in a while and he may have been rusty. I went to art college before becoming a teacher and I know for a fact I'm not as good an artist as I was back then. I'm out of practice.

 

Then of course, there's the heavy reliance on the CGI which made the whole thing feel like sterile animation.

 

Put all of that together and you have my Jar Jar Binks action figure.

 

Going back to artistry...I actually understand Lucas wanting to go back and rework his OT. I do not AGREE with it, but I understand it. He's the artist, it's his creation, and if he wants to go back and touch up things he thinks need touching up...well, again, it's his work. I and a lot of others thought it was good the way it was, he made changes that I didn't like. But I have a version of the film I consider the "best" that I can watch anytime I want (VHS). He has the right to make changes until the cows come home and it really won't affect me too much.

 

The prequels didn't pan out, IMO but if George Lucas died tomorrow, I'd write a post thanking him for the fun universe of characters he created and a good sci-fi yarn about a farm boy who meets his destiny. That's what Star Wars is at the heart of it all.

 

Now it's Disney's property and the fact is we really have no idea at this point what's in store. We have one trailer, thousands of online "news" sources (which are actually just opinion pieces) disecting it frame by frame, we have our own hopes and guesses about it. Aside from that we got nothing. We don't know what episode 7 has in store. See you in December.

[featofstrength]

 

 

Now it's Disney's property and the fact is we really have no idea at this point what's in store. We have one trailer, thousands of online "news" sources (which are actually just opinion pieces) disecting it frame by frame, we have our own hopes and guesses about it. Aside from that we got nothing. We don't know what episode 7 has in store. See you in December.

 

 

Thread locked, then? I'm all for locking everything about the future of SW. All we really need is threads for product/action figures that are currently out there

[featofstrength]

 

I'm excited about it, and I think based on what J.J. Abrams did with Star Trek, he's gonna knock it out of the park.

 

INTO. DARKNESS.

[Devilbat]

Good or bad, the new Star Trek movies proved Abrams can make a fun sci-fi movie. That's all I'm saying. And yes, I enjoyed both films, flaws and all.

 

If someone tried to dissect and over-analyze the Flash Gordon serials that Star Wars is based upon, like we do modern films, they'd go insane. It'd be laughable. These films are just meant to be fun entertainment. Period. Yes, sometimes things are so stupid and non-sensical that you can't enjoy them, but that's our overgrown-nerd tendencies...

 

I try to enjoy Star Wars through the prism of my seven-year-old self, when I didn't care about overtones and implications and story arcs...sometimes I just want to watch a fun romp of a film. If I want heavy-handed, adult themes, implications, and imagery, I'll watch a Stanley Kuberick film. I'm not looking for deep logic and detailed cohesiveness. I wasn't when I watched the original films, and they're an integral part of shaping my imagination and near the center of most of my nostalgic memories as a child. If one wanted to, they could go back and pick-apart the original films and find tons of flaws and plot points that simply don't make sense, but no one ever does that. I think it's because of the impression the films made on us all at the right place and time in our lives, so we value that over any lapses in logic these films may contain. In other words, we sometimes collectively ascribe more importance to these films than they represent or even deserve, because the original meant so much and went along way in making us who we are. Keeping that in mind, I think it's why we sometimes unfairly judge the modern films because they could never live up to the impression the originals made on us. I just don't take it all that seriously, and that's why I enjoy myself when it comes to Star Wars in general, and why I'm looking forward to the new films immensely.

[featofstrength]

Keeping that in mind, I think it's why we sometimes unfairly judge the modern films because they could never live up to the impression the originals made on us.

 

Sometimes...they do.

[Devilbat]

Oh, no doubt feat...I've seen neither of those but want to badly. I meant the modern Star Wars films, not films in general.

 

I've read reviews for Fury Road, and I'm not sure exactly when I've seen film critics downright gush over a movie like that in a long time, if ever.

[featofstrength]

Oh, no doubt feat...I've seen neither of those but want to badly. I meant the modern Star Wars films, not films in general.

 

I've read reviews for Fury Road, and I'm not sure exactly when I've seen film critics downright gush over a movie like that in a long time, if ever.

 

Even so, whatever they churn out as new Star Wars should be held to the bar raised by Fury Road. If you havent followed it's history from development hell to critical darling, you should read up on it. Fascinating.

[FUGAYZIE]

we can only hope that the new SW will share the same success as the new mad max.

[Bespin refugee]

Andy Serkis' character name revealed

[featofstrength]

Andy Serkis' character name revealed

Supreme Commander what?

[Bespin refugee]

John Williams has started scoring 'The Force Awakens'?

[featofstrength]

just had to find a way to get people to buy into a new action figure of a character that doesn't age:

http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2015/06/c-3pos-new-look-revealed-for-star-wars-the-force-awakens.html

[hamsterboy]

Andy Serkis' character name revealed

 

What I'd like to know is will he look like an ape or Gollum?

[yojoebro82]

just had to find a way to get people to buy into a new action figure of a character that doesn't age:

http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2015/06/c-3pos-new-look-revealed-for-star-wars-the-force-awakens.html

 

It took me a while....CPO's arm is red? Was the original also hacked off by a lightsaber?

 

I'm still waiting to see confirmation on Chewbacca's rumored robo-arm. I couldn't tell from the trailer...

 

New limbs for everyone!

[featofstrength]

http://www.ibtimes.com/lightsabers-key-star-wars-force-awakens-stunt-double-adam-driver-reveals-1959927

 

"Lightsaber, Lightsaber, Lightsaber...enough with the @!#$#&* lightsabers!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blkx6axytKQ

[yojoebro82]

http://www.ibtimes.com/lightsabers-key-star-wars-force-awakens-stunt-double-adam-driver-reveals-1959927

 

"Lightsaber, Lightsaber, Lightsaber...enough with the @!#$#&* lightsabers!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blkx6axytKQ

 

You just need to start a comprehensive list of grievances, man. Make it a separate thread and list them from least egregious to most, add to it as we grow ever closer to the movie's release. I'm very curious to see where Ball Droid ranks compared to Abrams directed Into Darkness and so on and so forth. But just stick to Episode 7 stuff for now, no prequel or spin off gripes. We don't have all day

[featofstrength]

 

http://www.ibtimes.com/lightsabers-key-star-wars-force-awakens-stunt-double-adam-driver-reveals-1959927

 

"Lightsaber, Lightsaber, Lightsaber...enough with the @!#$#&* lightsabers!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blkx6axytKQ

 

You just need to start a comprehensive list of grievances, man. Make it a separate thread and list them from least egregious to most, add to it as we grow ever closer to the movie's release. I'm very curious to see where Ball Droid ranks compared to Abrams directed Into Darkness and so on and so forth. But just stick to Episode 7 stuff for now, no prequel or spin off gripes. We don't have all day

 

 

Ball Droid sucks, but nothing, not even the new SW movie as a whole could suck as hard as Into Darkness. Unless of course they just rehash plots.

 

And I thought pointing out someone saying lightsabers are the key to Ep 7 in conjunction with the overuse/ruination of the lightsaber was something...like poetry?

[yojoebro82]

OK, that's two. But come on, every post over the last 18 pages is a new gripe. You have more ammo than this. Lighsabers, 3PO's red arm, Disney's "greed", Ford's old age, the hiring of young actors, Daniel Craig, camera angles, the 1 min 13 sec mark of the trailer, I want them all listed comprehensively from worst to first @smilepunch@

 

PS...As a Star Trek fan, I was not thrilled with certain aspects of Into Darkness, it was definitely flawed. Have you ever seen Abrams' MI3 or Super 8? Those are good flicks.

 

And let me throw this at you: Lawrence Kasdan far, far, far, FAR > than Kurzman and Orcci. Lucas with Kasdan got us the Empire Strikes Back. Lucas with Rick McCullum got us the prequels. Kurzman and Orcci are Abrams' Rick McCullum. Together they get us Star Trek Into Darkenss. We'll see what Abrams and Kasdan get us.

[featofstrength]

Have you ever seen Abrams' MI3 or Super 8? Those are good flicks.

 

 

I never watched Felicity, Alias, or Lost, but Ive seen enough at the box office of Abrams...not impressed with his filmography. Im not going to invest time into it, but maybe he's better suited for tv?

 

Oh, and I haven't seen this yet:

maybe he's better suited for comedy? Wait...no...remembering comedy "bits" from Super 8....

 

 

Kasdan? His last well-remembered film was The Bodyguard...in 1992. Yeah, he helped make Raiders of the Lost Ark and Empire work, but beyond that...pee-yew. So im not sure what a mediocre writer/director past his prime plus a mediocre writer/director in his prime gets us yet...but as always, Im going to curb my enthusiam.