ST Is Star Wars setting up for massive disappointment?

I told my wife that if those idiots got capture by the "Others" AGAIN (it had already happened 2 or 3 times) I was going to quit watching. Sure enough they went and got captured and I quit watching

 

lolz

 

LOST started out strong with it's fans calling it the best TV show ever made.

It was only towards the end when they realized they'd been tricked by JJ and co into believing in something that wasn't there.

Maybe this new Star Wars trilogy will follow the same pattern?

 

Are you being willfully obtuse or are you proud of the fact that you haven't read any of the thread?

 

"JJ is going to mess up Star Wars because LOST! "
"JJ wasn't involved much other than the pilot and first season".
"JJ is going to mess up Star Wars because LOST! "
"JJ isn't directing 8 anyway."
"JJ is going to mess up Star Wars because LOST! "
"I.....uh......JJ didn't have anything to do with....."
"JJ is going to mess up Star Wars because LOST! "

CONCLUSION: Not everything has to explained in the first film. If your fears are with JJ, then he's not as involved going further. Lost wasn't his fault.



























POST CONCLUSION:"JJ is going to mess up Star Wars because LOST! "

 

It was a shock for me when Lucas sold everything. I had doubts. I saw the previews and I had concerns. Then the movie was absolutely terrible to me...

I don't see how I'm going to recover from here on out...

 

It's up to the individual to manage their own expectations and also to either defend their reaction to works in the face of criticism or not. Not everyone has to like the same things or want the same things for Star Wars in the same ways. TFA is a good start. Where we go from here will determine how much time each of us wants to spend with VIII and IX long term. I'm optimistic but also trying to manage my expectations.

Most of all, I'm just happy Star Wars is back and that we have ample opportunity to play in the sand box with the Anthology films and this new trilogy. Heck, I'm even excited about taking my family to Disney World someday and going to Star Wars World now. Honestly, everything could be so much worse. I'm happy to have so many new and exciting Star Wars offerings back in my life.

 

I didn't last beyond the 3rd episode of the first season of LOST because I could already tell this was one of those shows that was just going to pile on the mystery without resolving them before my interest in resolving them waned. Same reason I didn't last beyond Game of Thrones season 1 -- it was just too damn slow.

Having said that, I don't think the important issues brought up will not be resolved, but I do believe that there are several camps that have set themselves up for an epic disappointment, namely:

1. those who cling to the idea of the Rey Skywalker/Solo/Kenobi/Palpatine as though any other outcome were impossible.
2. those who claim to know what the producers/writers/directors have planned for the trilogy.
3. those who are more concerned about midichlorian counts of Rey vs Kylo than the human drama behind the new trilogy.
4. people who actually believe even half the stuff written in the "40 Unforgivable Plot Holes" HuffPo article.

 

Lost worked because everyone who watched just made up in their minds what they felt the show was ultimately going to be about while simultaneously hoping to be surprised by something even better than what they had also imagined. When neither their own grand visions were met, nor exceeded, they were let down. I still feel it was an interesting show with some interesting characters and an okay ending.

I'm more of a "the journey is as important as the destination" type because to me the fun you're having with something (including the time you spend discussing with friends or online on boards) is part of the experience. A less than satisfying or predictable ending doesn't rob all of the entertainment value you had in the years of lead up. You were still pleasantly distracted. You were still entertained. Your imagination still ran wild. I can think of worse ways to spend ones time with Network TV over that same time span.

 

I feel the same is happening with TFA.

JJ threw all these mysteries in just to hook the audience and make them feel like something is there.

I don't think they know who Snoke is, I don't think they've fleshed out the Knights of Ren, I doubt they have anything for Rey beyond that she's a random that's good at the force just because.

It's the same as LOST, the fanboys will swear up and down that there's a deep meaning behind every scene but in reality it's just something they wrote to suck in an audience and they'll try to work it all out later.

 

Ron D. Moore claimed they have not idea where they were going with Battlestar Galactica, but they did a remarkable effort to tie up most of the plots at the end. That said the show was no near as Lost in terms of planting mysteries for the sake of it but it's a example of working towards a conclusion. Still, the finale had a fair amount of criticism but I guess you can't make every tome happy in the end.

The important questions have to be answered that's for sure.

 

Except JJ has said specifically that style of writing no longer appeals to him and he's not going to do the mystery box with no answers thing anymore, and that they aren't doing that with Star Wars. So where does that leave you?

 

I don't see it happening here, if the Abrams-directed Star Trek movies are a sign. It's much easier to write a story that'll have a conclusion within two more films than to write a series for which you weren't sure was good for how many seasons.

Besides, I blame Damon Lindelof for LOST (and Prometheus).

 

Fans are setting themselves up for massive disappointment. What with all the wild theories about Rey being the kid of every characters known in the star wars universe.

Instead of enjoying the movie, trying to interpret every single facial expression to mean something profound and mysterious; that is fans setting themselves up for massive disapppointment. Not JJ.

 

You'll be missed.

 

Some fans. You can enjoy talking about that stuff and dissecting thIngs without getting wedded to any one speculation or conclusion.

 

I don't see how fans are setting themselves up for disappointment. We've already had more than a decade to do that with TFA and the majority of people seem to be pretty happy with what we received. Disney will play it safe. Rey will be a Skywalker and if she isn't she's still going to save the universe. There really isn't much more to it. Some people will walk away disappointed but that's true of every movie. Overanalyzing things is what fans do and despite the complaints and criticisms most will come clamouring back for more.

 

If it continues on the same path? Yes. TFA was clearly a very corporate movie. Not a single idea seem fleshed out by some marketing department. Hopefully Episode VIII goes back to it's true roots and has more of an independent film feel to it in terms of it's story. I think it will. I also think it is going to honk a lot of people compared to TFA which I am really look forward to as well.

 

All the Lost/JJ discussion here has muddied the point of the debate somewhat. Star Wars to me has never seemed a series driven by unanswered questions - the "I am your father" twist is a response to a question the audience hasn't asked - so focusing on the mysteries presented in TFA is only one facet of the overall phenomenon. That said, TFA does introduce more narrative enigmas than any other Star Wars film, and I can see them being a source of frustration for fans down the line if the explanations are weak.

(Like others have said, with two years to speculate on it, "Rey is Luke's daughter" will seem like an anti-climax. On the other hand, perhaps the more interesting reveal will be why she was just on Jakku rather than who her parents were.)

The broader question at play, though, is will there be a Disney SW film considered a disappointment by the majority of fans?

The thing is, with a new Star Wars film every year, it's inevitable that one of them will be considered a let-down by the majority of people. Maybe it will be Rogue One. Maybe it will be Episode VIII. Maybe it won't happen for another five or more years. But it will happen at some point. However, I don't think this will be a problem, for two reasons:

1. We've been through it all before. It's hard to imagine a future SW film ever facing as much of a backlash as TPM did, especially not given how safe Disney/Lucasfilm seem to be playing things. At most, people will get bored with Star Wars, but we (as a fandom) already lived through mass outrage and I think become somewhat immune to it. Sorry prequel fans, but be prepared to hear lots of "it's not great, but it's still better than Episodes I-III" reviews in the future.

2. More importantly, the nature of the franchise has now changed forever. With TFA out of the way, there will never be another movie that the entire Star Wars legacy rests upon, because we'll already have next year's offering in our sights. If one movie is a flop (which I don't believe any of them really will be), then there's another one already lined up with a different director. This is one of the primary strengths of the Marvel Cinematic Universe - when fans are unhappy with an Iron Man 2 or a Thor: The Dark World, it doesn't really matter because they're already excited for the next Captain America or Avengers. There's always going to be more Star Wars, so why does it matter if the current offering isn't to your taste?

Personally, I don't think Star Wars will ever reach the (quality) heights it did with the OT, but I don't think it will ever be seen as a failure again without an absolutely spectacular cock-up.

 

What worries me is that by playing it safe and nostalgic to the OT, they may push further movies to be this way. Im hoping now that this movie got them a lot of money, now they can start taking risks and telling new stories. Im not holding my breath though.

 

For the millionth time, JJ wrote the pilot. And that's it.

Direct your ire at Lindelof, if you must. He's responsible for the morass.

 

Well, Johnson had pretty much completed the Episode 8 script before there was any guarantee that TFA would do so well. And Kasdan called the script "weird." So while there will certainly be some reasonable OT influences (especially visually, which I applaud and encourage), I think the next film, at least, will be much different than TFA or ESB or any other Star Wars film to date. Now, if it tanks, Lucasfilm will almost certainly look back at the TFA formula for guidance. But if that's the case, perhaps it will be justified. Perhaps there are only a few story structures/ themes that can satisfyingly hold the Star Wars universe together into a compelling story?

We shall see. At the very least, this is a hugely interesting time for Star Wars...

 

ANH did world building, TFA does mystery. Here's how TFA would have handled the famous ANH scene.

"how did my father die?"

[insert cryptic flashback here]

find out next movie!

 

Why did Abrams/Disney have to even soft reboot SW? It's something I've read countless times but it's an excuse imo. Ep7 could've/should've just as easily been a completely original story....merely catching up 30 years later -- like Ep7 did -- but without the need to copy-paste ANH so much.

They talk like "ok now that Abrams has soft-rebooted SW, and there's massive fan interest again, Rian Johnson/etc can NOW take the story on, can NOW create an original screenplay, etc". But Abrams could've so easily done that in Ep7.

It's almost like one can't even rank TFA among the existing six SW films simply because it just copied so much. For instance....imagine if George Lucas himself had copy-pasted ANH for TPM when kick-starting a new trilogy. He didnt need to tho. Nor did Abrams/Disney, as tho the fans needed winning over again or had deserted the franchise.

 

I think there was an element of playing it safe with it being the first film that Disney had slated, I would argue they actually did take some big risks but narratively speaking it was fairly safe. They have big plans for the franchise going forward so a lot was riding on this film. Its a critical and commercial success, probably more than they expected. At this point any decisions they made seem pretty well vindicated.