SW - Episode 7: Mary Sue wakes up but there's no coffee. RAGE.

[Lucas]

For the sake of my ego and self esteem, from now on in this topic I'll be known as "Bob". Thank you.

[Sky]

It sucks that Lucas had some really strong acting talent in Palpatine, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon but then cast the absolute worst wooden actors for Anakin and Padme. Also, going back to Anakin's childhood for an entire movie was way too much, at best that needed to be a quick few scenes to set up his relationships.

My favorite part of the sequels is still a comment from the DVD commentary about the stupid factory scene (with flying R2, and Annie/Padme in a platformer?) that was added because 'the movie was getting a bit too plot heavy and needed an action scene'. Talk about phoning it in.

[Ingmar]

Attack of the Clones was so bad that I didn't even see Revenge, and I was probably about a 7 on a 1-10 scale of 'excited for new movies' before the first one came out. I would have been a 10 but I have a friend who worked at Lucasfilm at the time as an effects guy and he managed to get me a little prior warning that they might not be great (not enough though.) The dumb parts of Phantom Menace were probably dumber (I am filled with loathing for the derp derp I flew a spaceship and won the war by accident sequence in particular) but the romance stuff in Clones was just awful, movie-ruining stuff, right up there with shit like Queen of the Damned and Battlefield Earth for sheer crapitude. If Bioware hadn't saved Star Wars I think I'd still be pissed at Lucas.

Sky, I don't think it was the casting. It was the directing and the dialogue. Good actors turn bad with bad material all the time.

[eldaec]

Yeah, presidents and Jedi are easy to write for and easy roles for actors to look good in.

Portman is lucky she had Leon to fall back on or it would have killed her career as dead as Christensen's. Or whatever the hell his name was. But neither are bad actors.

[Merusk]

And Revenge of the Sith was TERRIBLE. Just horrifyingly bad. AOTC was the only watchable one of the prequels, and that is being generous.

Amusingly, my son and his friends enjoy ROTS the most. Of the 3 it's the only one I can watch regularly.  It's much more actiony and like the saber duels and the jedi slaughter parts the most. I just go for snacks during any of the Anakin-Padme scenes and stop watching after Vader is left on the side of the volcano to burn.

[Malakili]

I agree, the dialogue is just so bad that there is nothing they could do with it.  It's just scene after scene of boring crappy dialogue and nothing making sense.  Natalie Portman has been good in things.

The ROTS duel at the end, particularly the Obi v. Ani duel was about 45 minutes too long.

[jgsugden]

I choose to look forward, not back. 

I had a long conversation with some insane SW fans and we talked about how they could have told pretty much the exact same story, but not have the sucky parts suck so sucky.  I choose to think of that version of the story and block Hayden Christensen, accidental destruction of massive ships, Ewoks, and all the other disappointments out of my mind.   

I believe that they're on a better path for this set o movies and that they understand what the audience will want.

[Ghambit]

There are also talks about oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/12-years-a-slave-oscar-winner-lupita-nyongo-up-for-a-potential-star-wars-episode-vii-role-20140314
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I'm sure she'll be some exotic alien Jedi to be killed off in the 1st five minutes.

[Teleku]

Oh come on, don't be so cynical.

She'll be the jive talking comedy relief Jedi who is killed off in the last fight sequence.

[Merusk]

Lucas isn't involved, they've pretty much done away with that nonsense.  As referenced before, Clone Wars has set a much better tone post-prequels.  It's been 10 years, let it go.

[Bunk]

Oh come on, don't be so cynical.

She'll be the jive talking comedy relief Jedi who is killed off in the last fight sequence.

Exactly. The Jedi that get killed off in five minutes with no dialogue whatsoever will be based upon popular characters pulled from an EU source that will be stuck in the movie just so that they can look like complete chumps.

Honestly, were Lucas involved I would expect to see Kyle Katarn walk in to a scene background just long enough for the audience to recognize him, only to be run over by a runaway speeder piloted by a Gungan/Ewok/etc.

Not that I'm bitter about how he treated certain characters or anything...

[Miguel]

Any chance we could see a Thrawn trilogy out of this?  Doesn't that happen 20-30 years after ROJ?

[Mithas]

Any chance we could see a Thrawn trilogy out of this?  Doesn't that happen 20-30 years after ROJ?

If I remember correctly it was less than 10 years after ROJ.

[Ironwood]

Any chance we could see a Thrawn trilogy out of this?  Doesn't that happen 20-30 years after ROJ?

Nope.  Lucas already shat that stuff out of his colon.  Alllllll non-canon.

[Soulflame]

That's a shame.  I enjoyed those books.

[Merusk]

Yeah, no chance. One of the redeeming things about the prequels, IMO, is how much they destroyed the EU bit by bit.

Thrawn trilogy started with the premise that the Clone Wars were against a bunch of clones who'd gone insane. (You could tell a clone by their not-clever use of doubling vowels! Luuke Skywalker.. Joruus C'both!)  It also stated that Thrawn worked-out how to successfully clone people without them going insane (Force resonance causes insanity ergo use yslarmi which block force!)

AOTC blew all of that out of the water the moment you saw ten thousand Jangos on the good-guy side without any of them being crazypants.

About the only thing you could get out of it at this point is an appearance by Thrawn, the nghori and Mara Jade in some new story.  Considering Disney's stance when they bought the franchise is, "We're evaluating what parts are worth keeping" that's probably all that's going to happen.

[Ironwood]

One of the redeeming things about the prequels, IMO, is how much they destroyed the EU bit by bit.

That's an interesting take on it.

 

[Sir T]

I thought the EU had been in a full scale Civil war since 1979 in any case. 

[Lt.Dan]

So who are the protagonists 30 years after ROTJ?  The Emperor is gone, Luke is the last Jedi (except for one other).  They saved the universe.  What's next? What new threat could the writers create that would (a) top that, or (b) be necessary as a sequel not just create a new space opera.

How about Joe Haldeman's Forever War or  Julian May's Saga of Exiles.  At this point in the Star Wars universe what stories are there left to tell?

[calapine]

So who are the protagonists 30 years after ROTJ?  The Emperor is gone, Luke is the last Jedi (except for one other).  They saved the universe.  What's next? What new threat could the writers create that would (a) top that, or (b) be necessary as a sequel not just create a new space opera.

How about Joe Haldeman's Forever War or  Julian May's Saga of Exiles.  At this point in the Star Wars universe what stories are there left to tell?

Kotor 2 - The Movie!







  I'd see that!

[Phildo]

It's an established setting, so they don't need to spend as much time explaining things and can get straight to the main story.  The question ought to be, what couldn't they do in the Star Wars universe?

They can just cast Scarlet Johansson as Mara Jade and do whatever the hell else they want.

[Torinak]

So who are the protagonists 30 years after ROTJ?  The Emperor is gone, Luke is the last Jedi (except for one other).  They saved the universe.  What's next? What new threat could the writers create that would (a) top that, or (b) be necessary as a sequel not just create a new space opera.

How about Joe Haldeman's Forever War or  Julian May's Saga of Exiles.  At this point in the Star Wars universe what stories are there left to tell?

Kotor 2 - The Movie!




  I'd see that!

Wouldn't a faithful adaptation end about 15 minutes too early, after 10 minutes of just phoning it in?

[jgsugden]

Knowing what we do about JJ, it will likely be a reflection of some modern issue ...Probably something having to do with the difficulty in establishing and maintaining order after a revolution, or dealing with conflicting agendas in a new regime.  I'm betting the villain will end up being a symathetic villain, not someone bent on universal domination.

[Numtini]

Knowing what we do about JJ, it will likely be a reflection of some modern issue ...Probably something having to do with the difficulty in establishing and maintaining order after a revolution, or dealing with conflicting agendas in a new regime.  I'm betting the villain will end up being a symathetic villain, not someone bent on universal domination.

Better sympathetic from the start than evil to the core then "sorry" poof now I'm a Jedi glowy again. In general, I'm very optimistic and looking forward to the new movies. Abrams was a disaster for Trek, but all the reasons he was a disaster would fit perfectly into a SW franchise film.

On Lucas, I've seen Red Tails several times, but I'll watch anything set in the European Air War--probably need to talk to a shrink about that--and there's never been even a moderately good movie set in it. Tails shouldn't have been as bad as it was. It's really what Lucas does well: recycle B-Movies. I think in this case, it got too messagey and the topic wasn't removed and light hearted enough to start. On the other hand, it's the best thing he's made since Raiders!

[Ironwood]

Beaten wife like you would not believe.

So Sad.

[Nevermore]

They can just cast Scarlet Johansson as Mara Jade and do whatever the hell else they want.

That might be tough since she's five months pregnant.

[Khaldun]

I just hope they steer completely clear of resurrected Emperors, Thrawn, even Sith per se. Get a new twist. Idealistic crusaders vs. crime lords, bounty hunters and corrupt politicians w/the main characters mostly living in the grey spaces in between, just wanting to help ordinary people live decent lives, that could be kind of good if it was done well.

[Shannow]

Knowing what we do about JJ, it will likely be a reflection of some modern issue ...Probably something having to do with the difficulty in establishing and maintaining order after a revolution, or dealing with conflicting agendas in a new regime.  I'm betting the villain will end up being a symathetic villain, not someone bent on universal domination.

Better sympathetic from the start than evil to the core then "sorry" poof now I'm a Jedi glowy again. In general, I'm very optimistic and looking forward to the new movies. Abrams was a disaster for Trek, but all the reasons he was a disaster would fit perfectly into a SW franchise film.

On Lucas, I've seen Red Tails several times, but I'll watch anything set in the European Air War--probably need to talk to a shrink about that--and there's never been even a moderately good movie set in it. Tails shouldn't have been as bad as it was. It's really what Lucas does well: recycle B-Movies. I think in this case, it got too messagey and the topic wasn't removed and light hearted enough to start. On the other hand, it's the best thing he's made since Raiders!

Nope, it went beyond awful. Awful dialogue, awful acting AND worst of all AWFUL CGI. The air combat was 1. unrealistic and 2. LOOKED awful. Tusakagee Airmen was a better film by a magnitude of 10.

Have you ever seen Dark Blue World? , I personally haven't but heard lots of good things about it.

[Lucas]

I just hope they steer completely clear of resurrected Emperors, Thrawn, even Sith per se. Get a new twist. Idealistic crusaders vs. crime lords, bounty hunters and corrupt politicians w/the main characters mostly living in the grey spaces in between, just wanting to help ordinary people live decent lives, that could be kind of good if it was done well.

I vote for an opening showing Luke being a retired Grandmaster Jedi Farmer on Tython, fending off Flesh Raiders assaults on his own. Please continue this wonderful plot as you see fit 

[Ingmar]

I just hope they steer completely clear of resurrected Emperors, Thrawn, even Sith per se. Get a new twist. Idealistic crusaders vs. crime lords, bounty hunters and corrupt politicians w/the main characters mostly living in the grey spaces in between, just wanting to help ordinary people live decent lives, that could be kind of good if it was done well.

That kind of stuff is for satellite content. They're not going to drop lightsaber spectacle and such in their centerpiece product.

[Nevermore]

I just hope they steer completely clear of resurrected Emperors, Thrawn, even Sith per se. Get a new twist. Idealistic crusaders vs. crime lords, bounty hunters and corrupt politicians w/the main characters mostly living in the grey spaces in between, just wanting to help ordinary people live decent lives, that could be kind of good if it was done well.

When the name of the franchise is "Star Wars", you kind of need to have stars and wars in it.

[Khaldun]

Hey, eventually the grey area guys get sick of the crusaders and the Hutts and shit and get some lightsabers and Star Destroyers and war the shit out of all the stars. The End.

[eldaec]

You do kind of need a Jedi. But the more it focuses on small people caught in events, the more it will feel like the good trilogy and not the bad trilogy.

[Lucas]

MEANWHILE, ON KORRIBAN....AN ANCIENT EVIL AWAKENS. 

[Cyrrex]

For what it is worth, the prequels have already well established that Sith can hide in the woodworks and come popping back out at any time.  The also established that the Rule of Two was sort of fluid.  There were overlaps where a third apprentice, or even a fourth, could be hiding in the background somewhere just waiting to be Sith.  There are any number of plausible ways to bring saber-wielding bad guys back, including Korriban (though that would be utterly ham-fisted).  The easiest way is probably just some rogue Jedi coming from Luke's own academy or lineage.  If they stick with the betrayal/redemption theme at all, it will be somebody close to him.