ST Worried for Episode VII?

I'm setting the bar fairly low to be honest. I'll be happy if it's somewhere along the quality of the recent Hobbit films, which I know aren't great films per se, but I still generally enjoy the universe and characters. That said if they do something too stupid like the Darth Luke thing, that's going to be really tough for me to get around.

I'm keeping my expectations low. This is no Episode I type situation here. George was great, but like someone mentioned above I think he lost his mojo a long time ago.

 

Teens don't need to be excited for VII right now. However, if they're still not interested a year from now despite the released trailers and media hype, then it's definitely time for Disney to be concerned.

 

Agreed. Of course Star Wars is still popular, but I get the sense that it's not really as "needed" as it once was given all the other quality options in the SF/F action genre these days. I can see a lot of film fans being content with the effects/world-building of Avatar, the edgier style of the Dark Knight, the whimsy of The Hobbit, etc. Plus even in terms of the nostalgia factor a lot of franchises are getting to the point where they're the things that younger people "grew up with" more so than any Star Wars.

 

Worried no. Excited yes.

 

Hobbit felt more like an encore rather than a new experience. I hope the ST offers the latter.

 

if they are as good as the Hobbit films i will be ecstatic. I have enjoyed all those movies, at least they were fun.

 

My main worry is that they're going to kinda disregard ROTJ and do things like have Luke just turn to the Dark Side or go off missing like 3 weeks after the Endor battle.

I think they should respect the OT's overall story arc, having Luke turn to the Dark Side after everything we saw in the OT for example just doesn't ring true to the character and wreaks of wanting to be dark for the sake of being dark. I don't want to see "plot gimmicks" like that.

That part of it worries me. The other stuff that I've heard about Boyega and Daisy's characters and that stuff I do like though, even though the floating hand bit does strike me as fairly corny, but I can get past that type of thing.

 

I think Luke going dark is a bit lame - although the idea could throw up some interesting plot strands - but you can imagine JJ Abrams in his office looking at a rough draft, throwing it in the bin and saying "oh screw it, let's make Luke go evil. It's easier than thinking up something new!"

So yeah, it's possible the screenplay might feel a bit like something anyone with only a basic understanding of SW might make. George Lucas WAS Star Wars - he knew it inside it - his vision. JJ Abrams is just the hired help and it's worth mentioning no-one but 20th Century Fox even believed in Lucas' original Star Was screenplay. It's not as if Disney wanted to make it in 1977 so it's possible they don't see it any sort of visionary way - they just see it as a franchise needing to be rebooted. And JJ Abrams seems to latch onto any franchise that his agent throws his way. Mission Impossible, Star Trek and now Star Wars. Without wishing to be too harsh on the guy, he does seem a bit of a franchise whore!

Personally I'd rather someone else directed Ep 7 and the franchise remained with 20th Century Fox.

 

Unless I'm mistaken, we've only read rumors and seen concept art. The only facts, aside from locations and those involved, is that anyone who's seen what's happeneing has had nothing but positive things to say about it. To me, that's a pretty good sign.

 

True, but to be fair I highly doubt someone like Kevin Smith would come out and not be positive after being invited to the set. That's not to accuse his reaction of not being genuine, but then again he's an established fan who's not even anti-prequel (or at least he wasn't back when they were being released). Obviously he was going to like what he saw, and thus a perfect publicity moment is born.

So yeah, no reason for blatant negativity or worry yet, but likewise at the moment I'm hesitant to embrace extreme optimism based on what little we've seen thus far.

 

I think the new saga may have a fundamental problem that will be impossible to resolve.

If the Sith are back or even Sith version 2 (some new take on the characters) it's going to involve reinventing the back story. For example - the rumored Inquisitor character.

According to Wookieepdiea

If such a character - or similar characters - appear in Ep 7 - as a means to introduce new villains, a new threat etc, it's reinventing the backstory. The backstory being episodes 4,5 and 6.

This is why I believe it makes more sense to forget the Empire and the Sith and come up with new villains. New villains have no earlier Empire-based backstory. It's a clean slate.

For example - a new terror organization is exactly that, new. No links to previous continuity.

You don't need to invent a backstory like:

See, whatever story JJ Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan have cooked up it's going to rely on some revisionist take on the previous episodes.

At some point - I guess early on - in Ep 7 the plot will reveal a character WHO WE NEVER SAW OR HEARD OF BEFORE IN EARLIER EPISODES - worked for the Sith or had some encounter with them. This is the only way to revive the Sith Empire.* And this will feel a little too fan fiction-ish in approach. *The other approach is there are other Sith Lords out there in the universe, they never revealed themselves, and, conveniently, no-one ever mentioned them! This may seem too far fetched.

An all new villain will avoid this approach. Any new villain can work - assuming it's a reasonably large threat - because it's new. Has no ties to past continuity.

A revisionist take on the SW universe is inevitable if the Sith return because Abrams and Kasdan have to reinvent events of the past to create some way to bring back the Sith or the Empire. And if such an approach is done in a fairly crass or simplistic way it will feel like fan fiction Star Wars (albeit done on a 200 million dollars budget).

 

I agree that in order to bring the Sith back the only way to do it is through revisionist and lame fan-fic approach.

I do hope however, that George set clear guidelines to the Story Group and to JJ as far as what elements can and can't be changed. Otherwise Star Wars is in real danger of destroying it's own elements of storytelling that help keep it standing where it already does stand.

Some folks think that anything about Star Wars can simply be turned upside down and it somehow works, but in reality, that's never the case.

However, I don't necessarily agree with those who think that Star Wars is nowhere as big as it used to be. I mean, simply think about the fact that Marvel had been bought by Disney in 2009, and yet very few where aware of this until Star Wars was bought by Disney.

The truth is that while some kids may not have seen the films, their characters permeate pop culture much more than those of any franchise.

 

I sorta agree, I think. Whenever I hear about characters or re-written backstories about something we've never heard of before, I kinda roll my eyes. Like, I think the invention of Asoka is kinda like this. Anakin just happened to have an apprentice during the exact time frame between two movies. She appears and leaves just at the right time. Now, the stories being told themselves are fine, but the introduction of such a character is a little shoe-horned, IMO.

Maybe if we had seen everything in the right order it wouldn't stand out, but it's a little jarring is all.

The Plagueis novel didn't sit quite right with me either for similar reasons. I'll spoiler below:

Spoiler

It bugs me that Plagueis was still alive during the events of TPM and even watched the exchange between Sidious and Maul when Maul talks about revenge. That aspect of the story was just really silly to me.

It can work sometimes, however. I don't mind that Mara Jade was there all along, because she was a secret agent. her whole purpose was to be hidden and unseen, and she had no part to play of the major events in OT. But IG-88's memory possessing the Death Star 2 computer during the Battle of Endor? Give me a break.

 

I dunno the approach of Mara Jade and C'boath in the Zahn films never bothered me, I always actually liked the idea that the Emperor had all these hidden/covert wings and projects on the side that we didn't know about during the OT, it just fits with the character so well.

Besides I don't think you can ignore the Light/Dark side conflict in a Star Wars film, making the bad guys some generic terror organization or something just doesn't work that well for me, because they will seem kinda underpowered if they have no Force sensitivity, it's kinda like well if Luke could beat Vader, these guys would be chumps by comparison.

 

I've seen the concept art and I'm not very impressed, tbh. I doesn't have to mean anything, though, but I didn't feel the urge to explore this world when I saw the pictures. I'm also not a big fan of Abrams and his hectic style. I've enjoyed some of the TV shows he's created, but TV and film and different things. Kasdan, sorry, I consider him the most overrated contributor to the success of Star Warso. Lucas, of course, but also Kershner, Kurtz, McCalllum, John Williams, Doug Chiang and Ralph McQuarrie, even Coppola and other lifelong Lucas companions were more important, imo.

I'm still not worried, though.
I've got six movies I enjoy, I've got a full story that works perfectly the way it is. If the ST turns out to be a worthy extension/part of that story, I'm happy. If not, I don't care. I've never asked for more films, now they're coming anyway, but there is nothing to lose for me.
Just wait and see!

 

I really want to see how they hype this film up. Like, they really need to do another Avengers miracle. Only Disney could have made the not-Spiderman/Wolverine aspects of Marvel anything more than "Dorky geek stuff". Instead, Joss gave us an incredible film that was immediately accessible to everyone, while still enjoyable by the actual fans of the characters. I hope that Abrams can capture that sort of essence with the ST and Spin Off Films. They're trying to reincorporate the OT back in the wake of the Clone Wars Marketing Hurricane, but that'll only get the kids back on the series. If it wants to succeed it needs to destroy the stigma that arose, and bring the popularity back to pre-Episode 1.

 

I fear that Ep 7 will end up limiting the overall sense of epic story-telling possible in a Star Wars film. Sticking to an established formula ( aka trying to recreate the OT) seems to be what JJ and Co are doing.

If the end result is a generic "episode" of Star Wars, then I may lose even more interest in the franchise as a result.

 

My biggest worries about ST


1. No Darth Vader, I loved the villians of the prequels. I love Maul & I think Darth Tyranus is a smooth cool creepy sith. But the sith were destroyed. Now what? I hate the Inqusitor, he's a cheap rip off imitation of Maul. Are we going to get some cheap rip off half man half machine cyborg like Vader?

2. If there are no sith, how can the villians use lightsabers? Only force sensitive beings Jedi and Sith should be able to use a lightsaber in combat. If any old bad guy wanna be can use a lightsaber then it disrespects the art and training of jedi and sith. If any old bad guy wanna be that's not force sensitive can last 60 seconds with Luke in lightsaber combat then its just going to be pretty lame.

3. Luke turning to the dark side. As I said in another thread, this is INCREDIBLY STUPID & destroys everything EI-EVI

4. Female sith as a bad guy. Um no, Terminator 3 was lame, the villain was hot, but the movie was lame.

5. Disney is about 1 thing and 1 thing only. Making money and lining their pockets with a profit. They don't care about the mythology or integrity of the story of Star Wars. I'm afraid Disney just wants to whore this franchise out for money. An Obi Wan spin off would be cool. A Han Solo spin off would be cool. We don't need a Boba Fett spin off because he's not and never will be a major character nor would his spin off add anything.

George has said himself that he found the story of Anakin to be the most interesting and fulfilling. That makes me think he never really thought things out past ROTJ and now they are just going to make stuff up just to sell toys and to make money. The story will feel phony and contrived.

I do agree with some above. I love George, he's a great visionary. Episode I & Episode III should have made Avengers type box office money if they were directed by someone else and the script written by someone else.

As for kids not being excited about SW. SW has a ton of competition. When I was a kid in the 80s SW was the only sci fi franchise around seems like. ST sucked, SW was much cooler. Today we have Marvel movies, The Batman Trilogy, Superman has returned, Avengers next summer, Batman v Superman. Kids today have a ton to digest, but make no make IMO SW will make a huge mark next Christmas.

 

Just to follow up my earlier post - if this is accurate - big IF I know! - then we're going to see a flashback scene with Darth Vader and the Inquisitors:

http://www.latino-review.com/news/exclusive-star-wars-episode-viis-villains-revealed

This would also explain why the Inquisitor has been introduced into Star Wars Rebels. It's sort of a teaser.
It's possible Inquisitors don't age like regular humanoids so it's not such a stretch to imagine Inquisitors of the Empire still operating 30 years on (although how JJ Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan are going to explain where they've been for the last 30 years - who knows!) You would think Luke or someone else would have said "hey, what about the Inquisitors? They're still out there!"



If they're being retrospectively placed into the SW universe it may cause some fan backlash. An all new villain with no tie to the Sith Empire would avoid any continuity problems. And from a SW universe perspective, with the Sith Empire gone there is a power vacuum. A new enemy could use the demise of the Sith and the Empire as the means to rise to power. There is a lot of story potential that may not be tapped into.

I suspect Disney and JJ Abrams didn't consider going with an all-new villain for fear of throwing away all the classic SW elements - Sith, Empire, Star Destroyers, Stormtroopers etc. They want to protect their investment. However, this decision may backfire. I don't think it will impact the box office, Ep 7 will be huge, however, if fans - hardcore or just casual sci-fi fans - believe the movie doesn't push the saga forward into new territory the box office might drop a week or so after release. It will still be big but perhaps not as mega big box office as some predict.

But having said that, The Transformers movies make huge money and they're the same plot repeated - Autobots vs Decepticons! Perhaps more Luke/Han/Leia vs the Sith Empire won't be a problem for most fans. Time will tell.

 

There

is

nothing

to

worry

about...

 

I'm not worried for Episode VII it will most likely be a terrible movie.

 

I'm 50/50 on Episode 7. It was not all that long ago that a photo of Chewie with a cybernetic arm (presumably the one he used to stop the moon from crushing him in the EU novels) was presented as "concept-art" from VII. I am still recovering from that horrid possibility, and am currently on the third stage of the cycle of grief... bargaining, though, sadly I have nothing to give, which I guess fast-tracks me to the 5th stage, which is that of depression. Yay, I guess...

Honestly, I think it has the potential to be everything I ever thought it could be (and more) with the return of familiar original trilogy alumni alone. I can also picture myself in a little over a year's time as an emotionally devastated individual seeking therapeutic comfort in a bottle of Rob Roy, and a carton of Rocky Road ice-cream singing, "Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they're here to stay. Oh, I believe in yesterday", all-the-while viewing the original trilogy in all its' glory, of course.

Pfft... whatevs. JJ is trying his darndest from the looks of things, and I tip my hat to him for that. Thus far, Star Wars has always had a defining quality that makes it unlike anything I else I have ever seen on screen, and whatever the sequel trilogy's eventual, inevitable destination 'twill be a wild ride getting there, for sure.

 

It is very hard to take you any kind of seriously when this is one of your reasons. Any company that sells shares is only out to make money. ALL of them. The only reason that there are businesses to offer you anything is because they want a cut of your money. They made an investment. Nobody makes an investment so that they can lose on it. Especially a multi-billion dollar investment. Why would Disney be any different?

What could even give you cause to say that? They didn't pick up this franchise on a bargain, they paid $3+ BILLION for it. Not only that, they are putting up what will likely be another $BILLION$ or better to make and market this trilogy (not including the spinoffs). You don't think that they are smart enough to want to make efforts and to take steps in order make this franchise good enough to turn that giant investment into profit?

C'mon man. Really?

 

Yeah, because every Disney film is terrible and everything we've seen about VII show zero effort to get this right.