Saga Mega thread: Sequels and spinoff films and the overall saga

You mean Ben might have grown up not knowing that Luke was his uncle?
Well... I guess it's POSSIBLE...

...but unlikely.

Or do you refer more to the details of what happened to Vader and what role Luke had in it?

 

Just that it is by no means a given that Ben knew or knows everything that we know.

Clearly, he knows that Vader is/was his grandfather/Leia's father. Does he know that Vader was Anakin? Or that Anakin was Luke's father?

 

In one of the canon novels someone outed Vader as Leia's father. To discredit her. So if that become open knowledge you'd think it would be known that Vader was Luke's old man. Also, you'd think Snoke would be well aware of that stuff.

 

Snoke is aware. He seems to be aware of quite a few things regarding Vader, in fact.

 

My View:

I was in two minds between mediocre and pretty good - In the end I went for pretty good as at least Luke speaks.... FINALLY!!!! Even if what he is saying (now not only did he turn tail and run away like a coward when his punk Nephew started dabbling with the dark side but Rey also seems to scare him to death) makes me very, very worried about what they're doing with Luke.

Still FAR, FAR too much "Disney" in this trailer (by that I mean lots of pointless explosions, lots of ships and space battles thrown in for no reason etc...) but on the plus side it does look much more "epic" than TFA and it seems it might, just might, have a unique vision of it's own.

 

@G-FETT

How can you tell just from a trailer that there is no point to the explosions in the film or no reason for the ships or space battles depicted in it?

If you somehow already know conclusively that TLJ the movie is filled with pointless explosions and spaceships and space battles in it "for not reason", then why even bother with the trailer?

 

I meant in terms of the narrative of the trailer.

The ships and explosions add absolutely nothing to the trailer other than to say "hey guys we've got loads of ships and explosions in this one" - Its a typical Disney Star War trailer - Looks great, hits all the right notes, has probably been focused grouped to death, but ultimately tells you nothing and scratch beneath the shiny surface is actually pretty banal, pointless and very "play by numbers"

That said, like I say I don't hate it. In another thread I rated it pretty good.

 

Trailers don't have narratives other than "here's some stuff to expect". Their purpose is to trail coming attractions not narrate it or themselves. In fact leaving out or disconnecting the action from the narrative so that the movie remains fresh is one of the purposes of a good trailer.

 

Yeah, all the other stuff is "peripheral" (the special effects, space battles, etc) but what they're doing with Luke looks very concerning.

If Luke goes from: "Never. I'll never turn to the Dark Side. I am a Jedi, like my father before me"

To anywhere close to the dark side then it will be just terrible.

I think Luke makes or breaks this whole thing for me. I could see me going from either becoming truly enchanted with Star Wars again to actually getting up and walking out of the theater, depending on what happens with Luke.

(Edit: With Rey, I'm less concerned. Because TFA had so little characterization she's still basically a blank canvas at this point - We think we know her... But there is room there to move her towards the dark side if that's what they want to do. Her character is by no means set in stone. But Luke going anywhere near the dark side. No. Just no.)

 

You're only expected to judge whether you'll go to see it (in order to fully experience the context, motivation, narrative etc for the events alluded to in the trailer) or not.

 

What I liked about the trailer:

- Porg. Cute little guy!
- a couple of shots had an epic fantasy vibe

Dislikes:

- Didn't care for the characterization in TFA, and there's no hooks in the trailer that suggest things will be different in this film.
- Tech look still seems to be trapped inside a ROTJ mindset. Very bland design. Extra yawn points for yet another AT-AT scene.
- awkward lines and deliveries ("we are the spark, that'll light the fire"- ugh)

Really not feeling this overall. Could be bad timing, though, seeing this a few days after the new Blade Runner. Very different types of SF, true, but somehow the gap between Star Wars and "serious" SF has never seemed more distant to me than after watching this trailer.

 

I hated the visual style of TFA, particularly the CGI in the starfighter battles, and here it looks even worse. With Johnson directing, I thought the look would be different, but I guess JJ got to dictate the entire look of the ST. Rogue One on the other hand looked phenomenal. The ships looked very realistic and flew very naturalisticly in space. You could actually tell what was going on. The scenes in space here look just as intangible as in most JJ movies.

 

OK I've finally seen Rogue One - Overall it was OK.

Too much action for me really... I know this is what most people want out of Star Wars but personally I love Star Wars for its mythology not for space battles, explosions, etc... Was there any mythology in Rogue One at all? Maybe a little bit with the blind fela (i have no idea who any of the characters were or what they were called) but any mythology that was allowed to creep in was quickly "swamped" by all the fighting and "noise"

The tie-in's (Tarkin, Vader, Mothma, 3PO/R2, Bail, Leia) were fun and overall it felt a much more inspired and competent effort compared to the dreary TFA - At least they took a major risk of having all the main characters die at the end... Certainly wasn't any happy endings beyond Princess Leia getting the Death Star plans.

Could've done without "bad-ass" Vader showing up and slaughtering everyone with his lightsaber.... Though I guess it at least made sense given where it was in the story.

Non- JW Star Wars music stuck out like a sore thumb... But I guess it's something we'll have to get used to once the ST is done.

Gareth Edwards seemed a more competent director with action scenes compared to Abrams. I could at least follow (most of the time) the action without getting lost and wondering what the hell was going on (like I did several times during TFA) There indeed was a much more "fluid" movement of the space ships compared to TFA that harkened back to Lucas Star Wars.

Once again I found all the environments completely unchallenging. I would LOVE Disney to come up with one, just one, planet that has something that blows my mind in the way Coruscant, Kamino and Mustafar did in the PT...

Talking of Mustafar one thing I noticed is that every single planet/environment is given a name in writing as it's introduced in RO... Every single planet except for... Mustafar. It really does seem that this one PT environment to appear in Disney Star Wars so far was actually sneaked in to the movie, unannounced, by the back door... The PT is now Disney/LFL dirty little secret I guess?

Overall it was a reasonable effort. Whilst the film itself wasn't really to my tastes and as expected didn't cover a period in Star Wars I was particularly interested in at least Director Edwards had a go at doing something original and different... So whilst the film itself is probably no better than a 4/10 for me I'll raise that to 6/10 for effort by Gareth Edwards who clearly has tried to do something heartfelt and original not to mention some very heart-felt performances by most of the actors in the picture.

 

Mustafar wasn't referenced via text in the film so that Vader's appearance at that point in the story would be a surprise.

 

& as I said in the other thread...this is Star Wars.

Incorrect. The planet featured in the opening of the film is also not named. Anti-PT conspiracy theory debunked.

TLJ trailer is fantastic btw. This new era of SW looks like only getting better!

 

Explosions during wartime for no reason. Tut - tut. Typical Disney.

 

I couldn't even claim to know anything about her, since they didn't bother to give her character any motivation whatsoever for her actions and decision making other than leaving Tatooi-- erm, whatever they called the unoriginal copycat planet. And she's the protagonist of the trilogy...

 

The first movies don't flesh out the protagonist's motivations in great depth. What was Anakin's reason for leaving his mother again? Coming back to free her? Also a dream about freeing all of the slaves. Cut to 10 years later & she's still stuck there. As for the dream, that went nowhere. With Rey & Luke (& unlike Anakin) they had nothing left on their planet to bother staying for. Luke in a literal sense. Rey too, but she was in denial & needed to realise that. Throwing in with a cause & exploring their abilities gave them a path. Pretty straightforward.

 

The induced force vision, the reality check supplied by Maz, and the unheralded success in her first collision with the realm of the force are Rey's motivation. They are the conspicuous and key turning points of the film for her.