ST The Case for Lowered Expectations

Mate, how much clearer or more diplomatic could the post you quoted be?

Frankly there's gotta be some sort of cognitive dissonance going on with hyperdefensive PT fans.

 

Assuming you were serious... Nope, the rights belong to Lucasfilm.

 

Even if the rest of the film is mindbendingly awesome I Luke only has a cameo it will automatically be declared the worst film ever made and the resulting riots will do more damage than ISIS

 

I'm sure the French will find that post particularly hilarious.

 

That's in such poor taste it's not even funny.

 

That's not a term I particularly warm to... "PT Fan" as it's used in a perjorative sense. I've never met anyone who exclusively likes the PT... so the term is redundant. I am a Star Wars fan, like my father before me.

 

I'm only talking about the people who rush in to wag their fingers at people who plainly state that, for them, the PT did not align with their idea of SW.

To be completely honest, and to move this back on topic, I do believe that TFA will alienate people who prefer the PT to the OT, and it'll perhaps drive an even greater wedge into fandom.

 

It's possible. Even the suggestion that the TFA advertising represents a deliberate "celebrate the OT, ignore the PT" strategy causes some fan angst.

 

I actually think we'll see more reconciliation with Ep VIII and IX... so TFA may very well divide fandom, but I also think TFA will be quite different from what comes after.

 

Maybe it will. Maybe it won't. Maybe who gives a ****.

I can't blame them for trying so hard to make this movie look and feel identical to the OT, while still telling a new story. Prequels, love or hate, were nothing at all like the OT. And that was a mistake.

 

I agree wholeheartedly. Whilst the PT are very much films of their time, the ST will equally be of their time to... which isn't that of the 1970's/80's. Chronologically, in terms of production, TFA is much closer to ROTS than it is to ANH... and I think that's evident on screen.

 

I think you're probably right. I've noticed that almost everyone I've met who is negative when it comes to ST (there are damn few of them, but they are there) is a diehard PT fan. I suspect it really DOES come from the different and aesthetic of the PT vs the OT. A lot of PT fans really prefer Jedi everywhere and the Empire vs Rebels moptif is really lost on them. I get that. I enjoy both, for different reasons, but I admit the Empire vs. Rebels stuff is what really sparks my imagination. The Jedi stuff sprinkled on top is what finishes it off so nicely.

That is very possible.... but I personally think it has more to do with the mythological emphasis than the look (the divide, that is). Most PT fans, I find, are really interested in the Jedi v. Sith aspects of Star Wars, Many (if not most) OT fans really enjoy the Empire vs. Rebels aspect, though I don't think the OT would be the same with the Force story on top of it. I know that as a kid, I wanted to fly an X-wing AND have a lightsaber... just like Luke! On thing I didn;t like as much about the PT is that we saw Anakin in a Starfighter cockpit very little.... disappointing after hearing Obi-Wan tell us he was the best pilot in the galaxy.

 

One of the newest shots we've seen of the movie - Kylo deflecting blaster fire - reminded me more of Fellowship of the Rings than either the OT or the PT. The very natural outdoor lighting and the forest setting made me think of the final act of FOTR and Boromir's death.

If TFA can remind me of FOTR throughout more than it reminds me of either the OT or the PT, then I may be very pleased.

 

http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwi...ng-for-critics-might-be-a-good-thing-20151116

This story is going more mainstream already.

This has become the go-to critique of Abrams in the media. The implied criticism that he is a better publicist than director of his movies. Rolling Stone made that case most openly.

 

The most surprising thing to me about both that article and the one it references is their seeming acknowledgement/acceptance that holding some films for critics until their release date might not be a bad thing. I expected more push-back on that.

 

They SHOULD NOT be done simultaneously for a number of reasons, one of them being that it's disrespectful to Episodes I-III, and shows that JJ fails to get that Star Wars has been successful by re-defining itself and moving forward not staying mired in the past.

 

Arguing that case gives it a more mainstream journalistic tone, but wouldn't it be interesting to see a list of movies/box office relative to when the movie was screened/not screened for critics?

If that's a common strategy, how successful has it been historically?

 

But staying mired in the past you prefer (aka 1-3) would be OK?

 

Impossible to know, right? Because you'd have to know how a late-screened film would've done vs. how it would've done if it were screened earlier. Otherwise, I suspect you'd just see the correlation they talk about -- that the studios tend to try to delay reviews for stinkers.

I might've missed your point, though.

 

I'd like to see when the strategy has been used for major, big budget wide releases.

Usually, when you think of examples, it's the low budget horror movies that are awful but mostly critic proof. Then there are the stinkers like Pompeii.

I'd just like to see how many "held from critics, also a blockbuster" examples there have been.

 

Ishtar?

 

I don't understand your argument. How is disrespectful to Eps I-III? Also, IMO, "moving forward" doesn't mean "redefining" at all. One complaint many previous fans had with the PT is that is felt too much like a complete redefinition. That is not meant to denigrate those films, or their fans at all, but just a statement that some fans felt they were too different. I don't see an issue at all with an ST that is more in line with the look and feel of the OT, but projected forward 30 years. It would seem impossible to have the same kind of connection with the PT era both because of the additional narrative temporal displacement and the fact that the galaxy as it existed int he PT had been completely redefined by the Empire.

That movie, however, had terrible buzz going into its release. Everyone expected it to be a debacle, and it was. TFA is a different animal entirely. Its buzz is overwhelmingly positive.

 

remember when that replaced Heaven's Gate as the go to example of a big budget megaflop?