Does anyone else invent their own words for t'theme?
Star Wars
It was a war
It was in the stars
la la la laa ...
Production company Bad Robot has tweeted the very first picture from the set of the new Star Wars movie, which may or may not be called Star Wars Episode VII: The Ancient Fear. <i>Star Wars</i> clapboard on the first day of shooting The picture doesn’t give much away about the movie, in fact, it tells folks absolutely …
Ok, it's time for me to single myself out. Jar Jar was not the most annoying thing about episode one. It was Anakin. The constant 'I'm the best pod racer' and 'I'm going to be a Jedi' whiny obnoxious little shit statements all the way through drove me insane. At least they replaced him with a wooden chair in episode 2.
i watched Episodes 1 to 3 almost back to back a couple of weeks ago, and was suprised to find that Jar Jar and Anakin being annoying weren't half as much as i remembered them being from the first time i saw it.
Yes, they're still annoying, but i think on watching it additional times, you're able to blank them out and focus on the rest of the films. The huge space battle at the start of Ep 3, for example, is fantastic (blanking out the weird missiles that turn into droids with laser cutters...)
Anyway - i liked what he did with Star Trek, am optimistic that the new movies will be more Empire than Phantom Menace
It wasn't Jar Jar, and it wasn't Anakin - it was the dull story, piss-poor scripting, shoddy direction, and rotten pacing that annoyed me. Or am I just annoyed at myself, for throwing good money after bad by also going to the cinema for Episodes II and III?
Compared to that lot, whatever they churn out for VII will be heavenly.
Why are they rejoicing over what will almost certainly be a very middle of the road, CGI filled affair?
Name me anything JJ Abrams has done recently that is anything better than 'average' once you take away fan appeal.
Worryingly, after a quick scrub of IMDB, it seems he's on board for a Half Life and Portal movies....oh dear.
Steven R
once you take away fan appeal
but that would make many sequels merely average. Empire and Jedi would be just average sci-fi without the fan appeal of building on what the first film did.
Godfather 2 might be able to stand on its own.
And Aliens also would work by itself. although, it's still appealing to sci-fi fans, so if you removed that....
I get what your saying, but really it was the Abrams part I was getting at. I don't see his name on a poster and think 'boy, gotta watch that, all his stuff is really good' if you catch my drift. If I see Christopher Nolans name on something, or Guillermo del Toros, I have... I don't know, higher expectations of what I'm likely to see - it'll at least be interesting. I just don't get that with Abrams.
That said, given how his work gets a mixed reception (I'm thoroughly of the opinion that it's distracting stuff, and can be entertaining, but not terribly good - I didn't mind the Star Wars reboots, but they're not exactly snapshots of the finest that this generations cinemagoers have had offered to them) it must have taken some balls to take on the Star Wars license.
I mean, look at how people have turned on Lucas...
Anyway, it's all subjective really, all that matters to the studios is that it makes money, and all that matters to those who care deeply about Star Wars (I like it, but I didn't have any action figures as a kid) is that he doesn't utterly fuck it, ruthlessly, like Lucas did.
In that case, I suppose Abrams ain't a bad choice. I suppose I can at least say I've not seen him make something as bad as The Phantom Menace. And at least it's not current era Micheal Bay...
And yes, for someone who isn't all that into Star Wars, you can say I'm rambling on a bit, but isn't that what forums are for? I'm interested to see what he can come up with, but I'm not getting my hopes up too much.
Steven R
George Lucas did something amazing with the first Star Wars movie. Despite the second movie being even better in most people's opinion, by making Darth Vader the father of Luke Skywalker, he set in motion the factors that constrained the prequels to a form that did not fit the expectations set by the original movie.
And then there was the divorce. That apparently led to Lucas not having a very important guiding hand; and so the third movie was panned by many fans. Then the Special Edition. Then the prequels.
George Lucas didn't lose his talent or his creativity. But his success led to a situation even he couldn't afford; either no one around him was willing to seriously challenge him on any point, or if they did, he was able to just ignore them. No matter how talented or creative you are, you're not going to be able to produce your best work under those conditions. (Steve Jobs, I'd be looking at you if you were still around.)
He toyed with the franchise according to his own whims - and the main result was that the Star Wars movies became children's movies instead of movies for everyone. Very, very good children's movies, yes, but because of that, less satisfying than they might have been for everyone else.
Recognizing this isn't turning around and betraying George Lucas. Your real friends are the people who will tell you what you don't want to hear.
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He did use the phrase 'Wagon Train to the stars' himself. But, in fairness, this was in materials aimed at getting the show accepted by network executives. The difference between how he had to present the show, and what he was intending to achieve, was presented in detail in Stephen E. Whitfield's The Making of Star Trek, and it would be better to read that than to deal in attempts to explain that here.
The point is that a new Star Wars film has been long awaited by many fans who very much enjoyed all the films in the series - even if the prequel films could have been even better, were it not for some flaws they deeply regret.
The picture proves that actual filming really did begin on that date, something these fans did not dare to let themselves believe would ever happen, in fear of bitter disappointment. Yes, it didn't leak anything about what the film will be about; that is par for the course given how the franchise was handled in the past. But just knowing that the new film is real is cause for excitement to the passionate Star Wars fan.
My big beef with the prequels was that they ruined the original three movies, the big surprise *spoiler* that Darth Vader is Luke's father is no longer a twist. They should have cut that final bit out of episode III as it ruins a classic moment.
Hopefully these new movies won't repeat the same mistake, I find myself pondering if that's even possible although I'm just waiting for it to turn out that Han is a massive racist while Luke got arrested for paedophilia :(