Do Anthology Films Suffer from Fans Knowing too much ?

This may sound a bit counter intuitive to some but here goes -

Do RO and Solo suffer a bit because fans have filled in the gaps over the years with their own ideas about who these characters should be?

For example, every fan knows that Jabba was the Crime Lord on Tatooine and winced a bit when the relatively low level criminals did not know. IMO , as stated in another thread, there are reasons why this might not be such common knowledge " in Universe" .

or,

Ham being completely unconcerned with anyone but himself until he met up with Obi Wan , Luke and Leia is another ingrained idea with some people but might not have been entirely true.

certainly there are other examples as well.

To me , both RO and Solo were good movies that helped fill in some of the gaps. They certainly were not perfect and there were things in each film that took a different direction than what I had thought. But over the 40 plus years since ANH first came out, its really not a big surprise that things have evolved a bit from the initial concepts ?

With several more films in the works, all of which I am looking forward to and hope will be great movies , the best bet, at least for me, is to take a deep breath and a step back from what I think I know and judge each film as it comes on its merits and where SW is now as opposed to the 10 year old kid who first thought Vader was a Robot.

 

I think this may be a factor, particularly with Solo but for different reasons and it depends on your age. I grew up the Brian Daley novels. I had a Han history that I was very comfortable with and flat out relished reading about.

In those novels Han had a soft streak for certain situations and was not always self centered or in it for himself, slavers for example. If we did not have that as a reference point I would have gone into Solo with no preconceived notions or alternate history and enjoyed the ride and opportunity to see stories we did not know. In this case we now have a "new" history to contend with and it rankles some.

There is a bit of this with Rogue One, but the story of how the alliance got the plans wasn't as fleshed out as the Solo history and leaves room for other events to happen simultaneously to the characters in Rogue One.

 

For some that might be a problem, but I enjoy learning more about characters and filling in gaps in time periods. They shouldn’t hold Star Wars back by saying “oh, we can’t learn more about that because we already know how it ends.” I much prefer the stories in existing time periods (Rogue One, Solo) to the continuation of a story that could’ve been left finished (ST).

The only exception I would say is Yoda. Learning more about him would be detrimental.

 

I think fans suffer from knowing too much and letting that affect their viewings. Keeping expectations reined in is a great way to enjoy these.

 

I literally check my brain at the door. I tear it out of my skull and put it in a shoe box that I carry with me around at all times.

 

I think it suffers more from Fans not wanting to know too much.

 

The anthology and the ST suffers from we knowing that the good guys will always win. If they killed Rey in TFA, then I would be surprised.

This is how all movies go, so it is a common issue.

 

Ever since Disney's canon split we don't really "know" that much- old canon is officially wiped away yet it still is there on the background of this new canon. I like that they don't completely abandon it for the new ideas. Like Savareen Brandy- it was just a random mention in old EU-stories and now we actually see it mentioned and drank on-screen on planet Savareen no less.

This is something that only fans can really enjoy, so while it is true that anthology films may also suffer from fans knowing too much, but on the other hand knowing so much also gives new interesting ways to enjoy the films. As finnish fan it was also extremely fun to hear Teräs Käsi mentioned on-screen- haha not only we have finnish Chewie now, but someone says Teräs Käsi on-screen in a canon Star Wars movie. I was even excited to see it mentioned in the Last Jedi visual dictionary. Now we just need to see that planet Kalevala.

I think that anthology films are the best if you are a fan and know these things. Sure some may expect too much because knowing too much, but then I think it's attitude towards film more than knowledge that is the problem. If you have the attitude that "nothing is allowed to be changed in the new canon" and "there has to be all those things from expanded universe I like" etc. you are bound to be disappointed. But if you go with open mind and accept it can be completely new version of the story you already think you knew- then you find that there are all sort of nods towards and connections to Legends-stories (and other movies) and most of them are not going to be overwritten or changed by it. This makes me happy as a fan. "Hey I know that thing!"- this sort of enjoyment is not possible without knowing enough.

 

Did the prequels suffer from us knowing too much? NO!

 

That's why you should not be interested in who wins, but how they win. To be fair there are movies in which good doesn't win- murderers are not captured, innocent people suffer and die. Often it is not ultimately victory for the evil either even in those stories though- but they try to be more realistic. As in real life good doesn't always overcome every evil there is. But I think that Star Wars shouldn't be so bleak. Revenge of the Sith, Empire Strikes Back, those movies have pretty dark endings and evil wins the battles, but they are not the end of the story. So good guys don't always win. The Last Jedi didn't really had a good guy victory either- there survival was the greatest victory as in ESB and ROTS, even though bad guy victory was Pyrrhic in that one. Rogue One was actually as bleak as Star Wars can be IMO. Good guys don't always win, knowing that ultimately they will win doesn't ruin SW movies for me. I would be pretty disappointed if they slaughter Rey, Finn and everyone good in episode IX and Kylo Ren and the First Order conquers the galaxy. That doesn't feel like end- it feels overly bleak. But if Rey dies and good guys still win that would work and be surprising.

 

Hey we get to find out how solo got his name... I DIDN'T NEED TO KNOW THAT! JUST SAY HIS NAME IS SOLO DAMMIT!

 

For me, the PT was a bit handicapped by the audience as oracle aspect. One aspect that countered that was that it was leading up to a specific event that had a gallows "You have to see this!" aspect (the lava hotbath and Vader's getting his new wardrobe.) The PT also had another "Christmas present" event that I didn't foresee before starting it, and that was the anticipation of Sidious finally revealing himself to the Jedi.

Another thing that could have countered it is newly introduced characters whose fate we didn't know in the PT. Jar-Jar could have been such a character had he been popular with viewers, but as it turned out, his viewer acceptance went down a different trajectory. (Even so, he did function a little bit as a POV character for me. I was interested in how he'd react to "Lil' Ani" in the suit. Sadly, ROTS never showed that.)

TCW, similarly, worked for me precisely because of its newly introduced characters. It only took a few episodes into the show before I started getting bored when it was just Anakin and Obi-Wan in a story.

Head-canon isn't too big an issue for me, but the prequel-lock predictability and lack of tension is a big issue as is often the lack of a strong character arc that comes from being sandwiched between prior works.

Regarding the anthologies: Rogue One did center on new characters, so it didn't fall into that specific trap. I haven't seen Solo, so I don't have an opinion on how well it navigates this issue. Nevertheless, it's a fact that prospects of Solo/Obi-Wan/Boba Fett backstories are poor lures for me as a viewer.

 

Did Lando land on things?

 

I do not think so. In fact, one of the things I enjoyed about Solo were the subtle references that avid fans would pick up. For instance, the mention of Aurra Sing, the appearance of Lando's cape from ESB, adding in the Asteroid field during the Kessel run, etc. If done properly, the anthology films should reward fan knowledge of the saga.

 

Personally, I think films only suffer when they're not good.