ST JJ Abrams to direct Episode VII

I like how he wondered about being invited. What better way to hype the film this early than get the comic book nerd director to visit the set, sign a NDA and go an talk about how awesome it is.
Free hype

 

Yeah the part of me that is skeptical and thinks everything has a sinister reason, I totally believe that J.J. brought him to the set for this exact reason, to calm down fans and insure them that he's doing a great job. I do sense some dishonesty in Smith. It's like he's either holding back his REAL feelings on the prequels (because he's smart and may one day be invited by Lucasfilm for a SW project so he wants to seem neutral) or he really does like them, just in a different way.

I'm close to Smith's age and I felt basically felt the same way about the PT as I did about the OT. Granted it will ALWAYS be different because I was an adult when the PT came out and a child when OT came out. HOWEVER, I don't see how EP7 will make me feel like a child again. I think I will be close to how I feel about the PT, I was an adult, I know it's different, but I still like it.

 

I recall Smith being neutral on TPM but pretty vocally supportive of ROTS. He even did battle on a message board with posters who didn't want to accept his positive take on the film. Cool if he changed his tune, everybody's entitled to that, although I do find it pretty annoying when this or that generation claims ownership on a given film/set of films.

 

I think he's genuinely excited after seeing it, it's just that, obviously he would be. Seeing Han, Luke and Leia and others
and stepping into the fully built Falcon would make me wet myself too.

I also get annoyed with the ownership of saga's and that stuff. Every-time I put on a star wars film, or line up to see it in a theater i'm in my childhood. The adult me takes a back seat. So if I stepped into say a jedi starfighter i'd be excited too,
however just the fact that the OT were classics, and a pop culture icon spanning what 30+ years now, of course us older people are going to have a stronger attachment to things from the OT. It's like a first love, nothing can compare to it, even if you find something better/different in life.
The whole gushing over things being tactile, annoys me - there were plenty of tactile things in the PT and George was also trying to push the limits of digital cinema, which has come a long way since even ROTS. Is there faults with the movies, no doubt, but there are with the OT as well.

 

If my memory serves me right he even praised AOTC and even defended the romance story

 

Don't get me wrong, I paid the extra money at Celebration 6 to see the Kevin Smith show and he seems like a genuine Star Wars dude. He had the same enthusiasm about telling the stories from when he was a kid, and he even cried at that show too! (he cries a lot when talking about Star Wars!) He defends the prequels well, my only contention is without even seeing the finished EP7 film, he seems to be saying that the OT and the ST bring him back to his childhood, but the PT doesn't (even though he likes them). I'll give it to nalkwan that seeing actually Luke, Han and Leia will bring you back, at that moment. But I still feel walking into EP7 on opening day, we are all 30+ years older and we still won't have the same experience we did when we were 5 years old.

I actually am saying his reaction is a GOOD thing! However I take everything with a grain of salt. If I get super hyped based off of his comments, it might be easier to be let down when EP7 is released. So I'm trying to stay neutral.

 

NSFW (language warning)

Here's the recent video of him describing the set visit on EPVII on SDCC, pretty much the same stuff he said on the Neuchatel festival video, but with a couple more details. (Like Chewie's weapon, must be the bowcaster)

 

this is very wise.
I'm lucky, i've been superhyped by every star wars movie since before empire came out, and i've never been disappointed.
but that's because all i expect is to see some lightsabers, action, fun, space ships. Everything else is like a cherry on top
However it's always wise to not expect too much from a movie, no matter how excited one might get

 

Making you feel like your 5 years old is a fairly impossible task for any movie. Rather a very good movie should be soo engrossing you are transformed from time and space into pure escapism. Kevin Smith was merely stating he felt that way walking onto the Millenium Falcon set (probably because he was high

 

I can see he's had sort of a religious-like break through, seems like he's been depressed (at least in regards to making films) for a long time. So it's nice to see someone get their sense of wonder back.
Especially from the Star Wars

 

I love how Kevin Smith said that JJ showed him a cut sequence and that he's already got it right there. More and more people who have had direct contact with the production are gushing to no end. This is exactly the kind of information I want to hear. I'm the same age as Kevin Smith. I feel like I know exactly what's he talking about. JJ, KK, Lucas, Hamill, Fisher, Ford, Mayhew, Daniels, Baker and Williams are going to return many of us to the pure innocence experienced by so many when they witnessed Star Wars for the first time in its early forms on film and in our earliest incarnations as individuals. These films are directly and purposely created in the Romantic tradition. They're fundamentally sentimental and idealized versions of love, comedy and heroism. Johnny Williams is the best at coaching emotions and tears to the surface. Who thinks we're going to hear Luke and Leia's Theme from RoTJ again? I hope so. Star Wars, more that any other series I know, is the best at combining images and music to create the conditions whereby we identify, feel, and outwardly cheer for our heroes to succeed, while emotions swell, rise and spill over and out of our eyes. I hear you, Kevin Smith. Right on.

 

I think it would be wise to take a step back from thinking it will be like experiencing 77 all over again. I felt the same before seeing Kingdom of the Crystal Skull... and whilst I thought it was an entertaining film, I wasn't in any way transported back to when I fell in love with Raiders.

 

I don't imagine it will come close to ANH or ESB, but I am hopefully we will get a genuinely good film that also happens to be a good SW film. If it's not, I'll live, but I'm enjoying this part of the anticipation and optimism cycle. So far I've liked pretty much everything I've heard and certainly every official word (what few there have been) have struck all the right notes for me. Fingers crossed.

 

Yeah, I'd say people should probably temper their expectations just a bit. I think a "best since Empire" buzz was always going to accompany VII given the circumstances it was made, although to me reality dictates that those same circumstances will pretty much guarantee that the film will be it's own unique thing in terms of overall Star Wars. No matter how much some of us might want to go back to a time when the OT defined Star Wars, the fact remains that Episode VII is a modern day blockbuster that is key to Disney's stated 40 year franchise plan. I do think the Abrams-led film will have a better general reputation than Episodes I-III, but when the dust settles I also think that this reputation will be a lot closer to one of VII's superhero contemporaries than anything that will remembered as a pop cultural landmark or a true return to the spirit and style of filmmaking that gave us some films released in the late 70s and early 80s.

 

Disney has a forty year plan for Star Wars? Blimey!

 

I think that the attempt to recapture the "old" school might actually end up back-firing when people are looking at EP 7 without any nostalgia goggles.

 

This is my concern too. It should feel new, and different enough that it doesn't feel like a nostalgia tour.
Hoping the filmmaker so understand that too. It should be a movie that stands on it's own as much as fits in the saga

 

By "old" school, what do you actually mean by that? Is it the look? the feel? the overall spirit of the originals? These aren't stupid people making this film, and they'll be fully aware of the need to make this film have it's OWN identity while also paying homage to what made the originals so successful. I genuinely feel this is the film VII will be.

 

That's a bit of wish fulfilment though isn't it? Cleverer people than you and me make poor movies each and every year. If it was easy, every film would reach its potential and we wouldn't get the films that usually dominate the holiday season. It's not easy to make a good film, let alone a great one.

 

Very true.

 

Maybe Kevin Smith was high as a kite in his room and only imagined the "trip"?

 

I have a question, perhaps it has been answered before: but why was Kevin Smith allowed on the set of EP VII ?

 

Free publicity, most likely. Also, the guy does have a few connections.

 

There was nothing "allowed" about it. JJ invited him.

 

My main concern is every time a filmmaker made a movie that is a part of his cherished childhood, they ended up as a nostalgia tour. Most good films are often a product of directors understanding that they are not making a fanfilm with hollywood money.