Discussion Only original aliens?

JabbatheHumanBeing
Stop! I'm not trying to hook you and others who fully know that it was Bothan spies that stole the plans for the second Death Star. lol I'm just trying to have some fun by making a joke about the faction who don't know the difference. I know my trolling is weak. That said we need to be prepared for the people who will inevitably be angry that the Bothans weren't a major player in this movie.

 

Just to clarify my earlier point when I said that even a Rodian can be made to be more emotive, here are two examples of what I mean done by the artist Dave Rapoza. Greedo and Bossk, with their original designs, yet with much more character injected.

I think this is what they mean by “more realistic”. Imagine an Ithorian or Duros (Cad Bane, anyone?) with that level of detail? It needs to happen, IMO:

 

I love those sketches, but unfortunately it really seems like Disney/Lucasfilm's got an issue with aliens that look "too alien".

According to the Rogue One rumors, we will see more humaniod aliens in upcoming SW films and less alienlike aliens. Which is a SHAME, because Star Wars has never featured that much humanoid aliens before.

Come think to it, both Maz and Snoke (who were the two most prominent new aliens of TFA) look much more humaniod compared to Yoda, for example.

 

Are you deliberately being obtuse?

 

Nah, I'm being pessimistic.

 

Well it just seems to me that you're misinterpreting what Scanlon meant by "realistic". As others have pointed out, he wants to develop the animatronics behind the aliens to the point where their facial expressions are more detailed and nuanced than before. Nothing to do with the designs themselves.

 

It's a big galaxy. What is the big deal? With all due respect, we have more diversity of even a single species on Earth than is shown in movies on a galactic scale. So multiply that by an almost unknown amount of planets in an expansive galaxy and we frankly should be seeing a new alien walk by every scene in every movie.

 

Abednedos are a new favorite species. I'm not sure why, but I super dig that design.

 

It's because it's a great design. You can empathize with it, as it has a kindly, generally humanoid face, but it's not too humanoid as to look like just a person with prosthetics/ face paint (which is my general issue with Twi'leks). In short, not too out there and not too human - a perfect balance. It also looks sort of like something that could evolve from an aquatic animal here on earth, but without being too on the nose. Frankly, I think the Abednedo are basically a Mon Calimari done right - as controversial as that might seem in fan circles.

Here are three from TFA (there's a fourth one on Jakku behind Rey in the Unkar food line, but no official photo of it). Perhaps the best alien design in the saga, IMO.







And I also love the Tarsunts simply because they look like a cross between a yak and a manatee, two of my favorite animals.

 

I dont know, they felt very bland to me - like rehashes of races like whiphid.

However, that's typically JJ Abrams - taking old stuff and then slightly changing their designs to something "new" and "different".

 

dARTh Scubbles wrote

It's a big galaxy. What is the big deal? With all due respect, we have more diversity of even a single species on Earth than is shown in movies on a galactic scale. So multiply that by an almost unknown amount of planets in an expansive galaxy and we frankly should be seeing a new alien walk by every scene in every movie.

And what would be the point? More background staffage? Technically you are right, but is the audience really interested to "connect" to the "alien of the week"? If we take a look at Star Trek we can notice that only the aliens that got plenty of coverage are those the audiences or fans are actually interested in.

 

Agreed. If you ask fans to name 5 Star Wars races, do people really think they will name the new ones from TFA?

 

I do find it amusing that riff on Abrams for not being original, while at the same time complaining that he didn't use enough previously known species.

I think the new alien species look great. I'd like to see some classic aliens too, at some point, but I have no problem with new ones either.

 

Didn't realize that Crusher Roodown from TFA was also an Abednedo:



Such a great, versatile design.

Is the alien above bland?

 

You can't make a comparison like that. First of all, people riff on Abrams not because he wasn't original - but because he was rehashing stuff in a "rebootish" kind of way.

There's a difference between bringing back characters and locations and doing something NEW with them, compared with making reimaginations of old characters and locations who look similar but are "new".

Let me give an example: Iron Man is a super hero in a metallic red & yellow suit who fights in the Avengers movies. In each new movie, his suit has a new design - but it's still the same character. But if we go with JJ style, we could see a "new" super hero make an appearance in a future Avengers movie - a guy in a metallic red & yellow suit who has an armor that doesnt look exactly like Iron Man's suit, but is heavily inspired by it.

 

Hey, maybe that's what you get out of all this, but I sure don't. But hey, maybe you'll like Rian's movie. We don't know much yet, but I sure like what I see so far.

 

I'll definitely like Rian's movie. He seems to know his stuff very well.

 

I do agree with the point of the aliens (at least in TFA) looking too humanoid. I think what they were going for was to resemble the aliens we saw in the ANH Cantina. I love the designs of these new aliens, but IMO if that's the only thing we see from now on, I fear the aliens will eventually start to get too Star Trek-y. What I mean is only the head being alien, where they have human (or nearly human looking) bodies, hands and feet. One of the things I loved about the prequel aliens is that they looked alien, top to bottom! Zeb in the series rebels is a perfect example of that!

What I'd really like to see sometime again is some familiar alien beings-rodian, aqualish, kaminoan, trandoshan, etc. In TFA ALL the aliens were new (good-but still new), with the exception of two.

 

Rodians, Trandoshans, Snivians, Duros ... please get them all back!

 

Honestly my main problem with the TFA aliens is actually that they became too cartoonish and for the want of a better description "farscapy". The resistance ones were mostly fine but the "gangster" ones had IMHO a lack of threat to the them compared to the OT. Maz#'s bar for example didn't feel nearly as threatening or atmospheric as the cantina or Jabba's palace.

The big challenge I would imagine is going to be not Rogue One but the Han Solo film as that's likely to feature a lot of the gangster culture.

 

The whole bar scene in Maz's castle was totally out of place. It just didn't come off as natural. From the outside, the castle looked totally empty, but then once they opened the doors it's like the biggest party ever inside. People naturally come and go from such a place, and usually you'd have some kind of guards on the outside. Where are the other guests' spaceships for example?

Also, I agree about the menacing part. The cantina and Jabba's palace definitely felt more threatening. Maz's castle felt more like a busy hotel reception, but a rather unrealistic one since it looks dead on the outside.

If I were the director of TFA, I would've made Maz's bar less crowded in that scene - or possibly even completely empty except for Maz cleaning some tables. And she'd be like "Hey fellas, we don't open until later toni..... oh my... HAN SOLO!"

 

It wasn't supposed to be. Maz is an ally of Han Solo's, whereas Jabba was an antagonist, and the heroes go to each location under different circumstances and within different contexts. Of course her bar is going to more inviting.

 

This is one thing I do agree with you about. Would have been great to have the Hassk triplets (pictured below) hanging around outside like monkeys (which would have been fitting, with the Angkor Wat-style surroundings) and possibly some mounts and/or speeders parked outside, either along the path to the castle, or near the entrance. That's one scene where I wouldn't mind seeing a Lucas-style special edition that adds in some alien activity! There's just too much of an odd separation between inside and outside. Makes both the interior and exterior look like an artificial "set."

 

But just a few of the above elements, not an overload of them as we sometimes got in certain Star Wars films.