ST Your predictions about the reception of the ST

If quality remains consistent and they can keep finding interesting stories to tell, it shouldn't be too bad, but I can't see all the spin-offs being huge. Will be interesting to see how it all pans out.

 

<>I was writing in the "brainless Ep7 post, which got locked before I could post my reply. Choosing to finish it in here.<>

To the original post: it wasn't until there was that rumor a few months back of this moving being just another rescue mission, a la the essence of rescuing Leia in ANH (which I personally would not even describe ANH that way if I was asked to describe it). And this all got me thinking of like what if Ep7 does in many ways just try and mirror ANH, but only captures it by only recreating the bare surface level of what ANH was. It got me pretty freaked. Part of of SW's lure to me and I think a lot of people was the wide universe** that came to be and had so much potential to be explored. I get that SW is the movies, but the potential of more within universe was also somehow just as captivating, in a way. And even with that feeling I don't necessarily mean all of the EU (because maybe once something was written about, then the mystery was gone, so then move on to the next thing that wasn't written about? Which is a weird paradox altogether). I remember feeling this magnetism as a kid playing computer games like the main Phantom Menace Windows computer game and one of the X-Wing Alliance games. Neither of the games were particularly good, but to be able to "walk" around in way more of Mos Espa than you ever see in the movie to, if I'm remembering right, I think hunt around for Watto to only then find him deep in the stands of the podrace event. That was a big deal to me as a kid to be able to insert yourself pretty in depthly into those locations, a very much getting to see behind-the-curtain of places you'd enjoy being real. How did I get to talking about all that?

**An example of this, in a small way, was how certain characters from the OT were never addressed by their names once in the movie, but yet in SW pop-culture people knew their names.

 

I can only speak for myself, and since I don't dislike any of the films I doubt I'll dislike this one or the two that follow. Where this film and trilogy will rank for me story wise I can't say until I've seen it. I do, however, have a feeling that this trilogy will be the best out of the three visually.

 

I'm just happy the focus seems to be on the practical rather than the digital. Add to that Kasdan, Abrams, the original cast, the new cast, JW with the score..I simply cannot think of anything negative pertaining to it at this stage. But rest assured, if the milk turns out to be sour? I'll tell it as I see it lol

 

- haven't read whole thread disclaimer - ...Has anyone noticed the time ticker at the top is off? It's based on a May 2015 release date, not the December date. It gave me false excitement for a minute.

 

Practical and digital are not at all exclusive.

In fact the point is that digital allows you to do more of the practical hence why the PT has many, many, many times over the amount of practical work that the OT has. Making a movie analog with optical printers was one of the reasons why the OT was so limiting to Lucas' actual vision of what he would have liked them to be. The fact that everyone else was amazed by them is great but he's the magician who knows the trick and knows how much better it could be and with the PT he was able to do that.

The problem is that for some strange reason people think that the story telling style of the PT is exclusive to the tools that made them and the OT was exclusive to the tools that made them.

They aren't. There is a relation of course but if the digital tools were able to be used for the OT it'd still be of the same style and feel only epic in scope. The funny thing that people don't seem to realize about the SE's is that it wasn't only CG additions. Much of the work added was more practical models and miniatures like the new sandcrawler or extensions to Mos Eisley.

Analog makes a lot of practical work simply impractical while digital makes practical work something that George could finally apply with unfettered imagination and not work around all the limitations.

JJ will do the same. Don't buy into this VII is being done on film nonsense. It's going to be shot on film but made digitally just like his Trek films and CG will be used as well to do all the things it does so well. As JJ said doing the Enterprise as a model might be an exciting thought for him but the reality is that'd just be a vanity thing and CG was the way it was going to be done.

 

At the time Lucas was making the OT he was using every known piece of technology available to him at that time. It was cutting edge stuff. The Battle of Hoff, Animatronics Jabba, the Death Star battle in ANH. Every SFX technique employed at the time was cutting edge. And it took skilled creatives and visionaries to bring his vision to life. Sure with computers he would've made the battles more numerous, but for their time they were epic. And their creation should be celebrated. In particular the effects in ESB for the late 70's. There was nothing innovative about the PT battles. Entire films were being made using computers so the awe factor wasn't the same.

 

I see that you really haven't looked into the making of the PT. You really should. The incredible accomplishments made are staggering.

The OT wasn't innovative in the technology it was using as such. The thing was how they were applying it that was the revelation. The craftsmanship and skill.

The PT was about innovation. The technology that was created and forwarded by ILM to go from analog film-making to go into the digital realm. Lucas wasn't just using every known piece of technology he was creating it! All the same skilled creatives and visionaries were still used to bring his vision to life and he pushed them often without knowing exactly how they were going to do it.

Ask Dennis Muren how innovative the PT battles were. The fact is that they were doing things they never could before.

These are the movies that made possible "Entire films were being made using computers" though that itself really is a poor description.

You make it seem like you just press a button and the work is all done for you. That is entirely not the case at all. You really should look into the making of the PT. I mean you don't like matte paintings or models or miniatures or location shooting or any of the tools used to create those battles and the immense work necessary to create all the elements from sets, costumes, props and everything else that were then digitally combined plus the incredible CG elements as well?

 

Again, your lacking some insight which does your argument a disservice. I actually agree that the effects of the OT should be celebrated. I agree that Lucas used every piece of technology made available to him in realising the OT. That you do not understand that he applied that same principle to the PT is what undermines your comments. For all TPM's faults, nothing had been done like the battle of Naboo before. It was hugely innovative... it seems to me that you just don't like (or can't appreciate) where the innovation was.

 

Many people it seems fail to see the PT's innovations and accomplishments in film making because they're blinded by their disappointment in the films. Sometimes it's hard to see the good in something that's broken your heart.

 

I think the general reception will be very good among the general movie going public, but among fans, reception will be very divided. It's Star Wars, and the core fandom is already very divided. It might have more backlash than JJs Star Trek, in the core fandom.

 

I've been making special note of people who don't like the PT and are convinced that no one else likes them either and say they've never come across anyone who has liked it and if they did they must be crazy!

LOL!

How open-minded of them.

The thing is though that they go on about how they want the ST and VII to do this and do that and they are placing all these great expectations on the film and need it to deliver.

Sound familiar?

Another common thread seems to be as mentioned before the linking of the story telling itself to the effects being used so they associate "practical" with the OT which they like so it's good and "CG" with the PT and so that is bad. They are so happy that JJ is going "old school" with shooting on film and having puppets etc.

So either they can't or won't acknowledge or actually have not bothered to find out how the PT was made and I question if they know how the OT was made. If they did they they'd realize why things simply aren't done that way anymore. Even the simplest of things which should be readily apparent like location filming I've noted people rejoicing saying VII will be the first location filming since 1983!

The OT shot live action and plates in Tunisia, Guatemala, Death Valley, Norway, Yuma and the Redwoods. The PT shot live action and plates in Tunisia, Italy, the UK, Spain, China, Thailand and Switzerland. The movie that was the most "unreal" was ESB.

That's why I see some people setting themselves up for a hard fall. I've heard people who say they didn't care for STID or Super 8 but liked Star Trek who are hoping that JJ does something that will totally amaze them. That they don't care for two-thirds of the above seeems to be incidental.

They also want it to be "dark" they want it really "DARK" but then we have the truly dark III and they slough it off as nothing. I don't know what they want then because the chances of getting anywhere near as dark as that is pretty slim especially in the corporate era.

Besides that you can't be that dark in the set-up when you are establishing things. If you had started with an ESB tone from the start the success of the first film wouldn't have happened. You needed that first movie to in part set things up so you could go to ESB (nevermind all the important events that actually happen offscreen and weren't actually in the first movie).

 

Oh I can almost certainly appreciate innovation. But using a computer, in my eyes, is just not innovative. It's like using an electric drill. A few things aside, The whole look of TPM was very Star Wars. It felt like the SW universe. More so than the other 2.

 

So many straw men QRB, it's not even funny. We get it, you think the PT are masterpieces. Fair play. Lots of people feel they are flawed. Presenting why you don't feel the films are flawed is great. Telling people who feel different they are wrong, is not.

 

I find myself in the strange position of being skeptical about new Star Wars films, because I loved 1-6 so much, and Lucas was in charge of all of those. Maybe I will turn out to be much more of a Lucas fan than a Star Wars fan. This is the ultimate test, because I haven't liked a JJ Abrams film or show yet. Trying to keep an open mind.

 

In a very similar position myself. I totally get why Abrams was hired... he's probably best suited to manage, what will probably be, the biggest, most problematic production of an ST entry... My concern in the main (now we believe he's off VIII and IX) is not the look of the film (I think his films usually look good) nor the lack of narrative/emotional substance that, IMO, is common throughout his work (ANH wasn't a deep film)... Rather, my concern that he's damaged the story irrevocably by submitting to his fanboy notions of SW e.g. using old characters, situations at the expense of new etc. Something that the rest of the ST may find it difficult to recover from. However - if the main thrust of the story/characters remain true Lucas' outline/draft, then I retain hope.

 

I'm at peace with however it turns out. I won't be angry if I don't like it, and it will still be amusing to see a bizarro Star Wars movie. Either way, it will be interesting, and there will be new John Williams cues.

 

I'm sure it will be 'worth it' for Williams' score alone.

 

Yeah, good point. CGI or not, for me ESB routinely delivers the most closed-in, obviously movie set surroundings of the whole series. Not sure how mass audiences would receive a return to a backdrop style like ESB (although I suspect the mainstream isn't quite as concerned with "practical" as certain Internet segments are), but personally I'd be disappointed. I prefer the Star Wars universe when it feels sprawling, alien, and somewhat unknowable, and aside from Cloud City the environments of ESB do this for me the least out of the six films.

 

While I agree, this is also part of what makes the film work. The increasing claustrophobia of the sets and shots invokes the noose tightening around our heroes' throats. Brief moments of openess and hope (start of battle on Hoth, the Falcon fleeing the Star Destroyers) are replaced with restricted scenes/situations (interior of rebel base with the walls crumbling, the asteroid chase and space slug). It does make the galaxy feel a little less wide open than the other films, but it works. Of course I am probably over thinking it.

As for the main topic, I don't really care what the general consensus is, as long as it does well enough to ensure more SW in the future. Despite what others may think, there is stuff I like in AotC (my least favorite) as well as stuff I don't care for in SW (my overall favorite). If I have to make a guess, I think general reaction will be somewhere between the first two trilogies, while fan reaction will be just as polarized (if not more so) than the PT.

 

Exactly, and the ST will continue the trend. There is no way they will not be using a blend of every technique available to them, including pushing new techniques.

 

As good if not better than The Avengers. I think Disney proved they can go against the odds and deliver with that film. Superhero team movies are tough. Outside of the X-men films I can't think of any other mainstream superhero team movies, and Marvel/Disney took a unique approach to setting up the Avengers and while some may not like the movie, it's a quality film that delivered. I think Disney/Lucasfilms will do the same with Episode VII.

I can't wait for it!

 

We got Bob, who is an innovation already!

 

Not to sound stupid but what's the countdown for?