ST A 'brainless' Episode VII

One of my biggest worries surrounding the outcome of the sequel trilogy is that in seeking to "correct" the prequel trilogy or at the very least address commonly held fan grievances the filmmakers might overcompensate. So, in the place of any kind of political drama we are treated to an almost exclusive 'personal' drama. In place of inhabited galactic locales we are again treated to a suite of 'outer rim' single biome worlds which drearily look like some place on Earth. In place of large and interesting battles the action is scaled down and a philosophy of 'the smaller the better' is implemented.

I'm most concerned that the film will simply ignore the major themes of the other six films and deliver a trite, cliched and ultimately unsatisfying action-adventure film. For me, star wars has always possessed an intellectual dimension even if at times certain ideas have been inexpertly or incoherently expressed. But for the sequels to dumb everything down would, I think, constitute a real tragedy. Thoughts?

 

Considering the amount of money Disney invested, they can´t allow it to be another generic action movie, like Transformers. If they lose a major part of the fans it will be a disaster for them.

 

While I am fairly confident and hopeful that this will not happen, this is a worry of mine as well. Its always possible, especially considering Lucas isn't in charge anymore. Instead a bunch of people who may be more concerned with getting the feel of the OT back and bring back the swashbuckling sense of adventure are the ones who wrote the movie and are calling the shots. Also, Lucas is an expert in Anthropology and myth, which is largely where the heart of Star Wars lies. Hopefully it isn't forgotten because the filmmakers are too focused on other things.

 

Kathleen Kennedy brought us.

Back to the Future
Jurassic Park
Indiana Jones
The Goonies
Gremlins
E.T. The Extraterrestrial
Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Going "retro" is a good thing.

 

I'd be more concerned about a lack of emotional depth than intellectual depth. Intellectual depth may lead to lots of discussions about a movie, but almost invariably the movies that people consider classics, that they re-watch again and again (not just in the theater, but what gets broken out periodically on family movie night for years thereafter) are the movies that touch our hearts in some way or another.

Fortunately, from what we've been hearing (and seeing played out a bit on Twitter) is that our new leads have FANTASTIC chemistry which is going to make people feel a connection to them and that in turn will given them the sort of emotional investment in seeing the story play out that should make these new films classics well worth being added to the Star Wars canon.

 

The politics were by far my favorite part of the PT. I understand why they will be pulling away from politics a bit (especially in VII), but I hope that they are addressed on some level. While I am a fan of Abrams, his Star Trek films are not as "deep" (for lack of a better term) as others in the series and that is what I worry about with the ST.

 

If you lose Roger Rabbit, that is a list of my favourite non-Star Wars films! That's an epic CV (resumè).

 

Less content of thematic interest is a worry of mine as well, but I think I'm most concerned about losing the smaller moments in the series that I dig so much. As I get older, I really appreciate the quiet moments in the series like sunset on Coruscant in TPM and Luke and ghost Obi-Wan conversing in the Dagobah woods in ROTJ. A concern of mine is that these smaller naturalistic moments will be lost amidst a greater pool of on-the-go, oh-so-witty and sarcastic dialogue exchanges, as if far too many characters are concerned with emulating the general fan perception of what makes Han cool or "bad ass."

 

I liked the politics but there was too much in the PT, however all Star Wars movies have an element of politics. When I first seen 'A new hope' (7 years old) I was introduced to words like 'the senate' 'governors' etc etc and although I didn't know exactly what they meant the way it was introduced via the script and delivery I was able to pick up on the basic relevance to the story. I hope they attempt to keep it like that but I also realise it's a difficult thing to do with such precision.
Overall though I think they'll nail this movie as there's so many extremely talented people brought up on a diet of Star Wars involved in it.