Speculation Is Disney Capable of Learning the Lessons of John Carter and Phantom Menace?

Plus, it gave Star Wars one of the best characters in the entire Saga: Qui-Gon Jinn.

 

So it never occurred to the moron that he could have had both? Sounds about right for modern Hollywood...

Anyone who was in for a cut of the profit participation on Carter should be suing the pants off Disney in general and Iger in particular. Of course, they'd have to be able to prove in the legal sense that he tanked the project deliberately, which I assume is next to impossible...

 

Plus , it gave Star Wars one of the worst characters in the entire Saga : The Rabbit Frog Rasta man ( Jar Jar )

 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Jar-Jar. Thematically he represents the innocence of the Republic and his experiences during the War reflect how war takes its toll on such people. Within the cast, he is the symbol of the "man[alien] on the street" that the heroes are fighting to defend.

He's a very "simple" person, and a bit comical, but we all know someone who embodies those attributes at least to a degree. Yes, he can be portrayed a bit over-the-top, but frankly some of the R2 scenes play that way at times as well (I'm thinking right now specifically about the cutting saw scene in Jedi).

 

As with many in things in the PT, I don't mind the idea of what they're supposed to be.
I'm just not often very impressed with the execution of that idea. What you say is true, but it could have been presented in a better manner, from my point of view.

 

^That's fair. I don't hold up the PT as the pinnacle of moviemaking by any means. I just don't think it deserves the crap that gets thrown at it by a lot of people.

 

Jar Jar was eventually toned down in the PT. Qui-Gon only became more important, eventually teaching Yoda how to transcend death.

 

If you were a corporation, would you care about anything else?

 

Yes, because making a quality product will get you even more cash.

 

There is no lesson to be learned from TPM, because fan expectation can't be controlled or predicted. Over-hype is what hurt TPM, nothing more.

The lesson to learn from John Carter is simply to make better movies.

 

And people can't 'force themselves' to do it either....

No.

 

Just for a goof, let's add a little spice to the discussion: what lessons are there to be learned from After Earth?

 

To not allow M. Night Shyamalan to direct anymore big budget movies. His best movies had small budgets (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs).

 

Will Smith really, really wants his son to be a movie star?

 

That Cale and Akima should never have trusted Captain Korso... oh wait, nevermind.

 

^^^^^^^
This

I had hoped the horror of the film which identifies itself as "The Karate Kid" (which itself is odd as the film takes place in China... shouldn't it be "The Kung Fu Kid"???) would have been enough to derail Jaden Smith's future Hollywood ambitions.... But Noooooooooooooooooooo!!!!


Yancy

 

See, I don't even get why they didn't change the name; The Kung-Fu Kid would not only have been location/martial-art accurate; it had a nice ring to it; it sounded right as a kids' film title. I understand that they felt obliged to keep the title because they were remaking the property, but intellectually and logically, it's just not a good enough reason to me.

Which brings us to the first lesson to learn, whether you think it's from JC, TPM or AE: make sure your film's title doesn't sound stupid and/or boring.

 

You are trying to compare Jar Jar with Artoo? Wow. How is Artoo cutting a rope (trying to save the group) akin to Jar Jar stepping in crap and getting farted on? Come on, Jar Jar was ridiculous. His portrayal failed miserably as comic relief.

 

And also Michael Bay

 

One can hate Bay with a passion (just like I do, believe me), but his films accomplish at least one thing that Shyamalan's apparently don't: they're not completely and utterly boring like After Earth clearly seems to be. Bay's films are large, crass, broad, juvenile and just plain stupid cartoons calling themselves movies - but they're not boring.

 

I would agree with you until I saw Transformers 2. That movie was not only awful but it literally put me to sleep. I still haven't been able to sit through the entire thing.

 

The smilie doesn't get enough usage around here. Kudos for really using it well there... haha.

 

Is that the one with the grandpa Blackbird decepticon?

It felt...awkward, to say the least.