ST The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s impact on new Star Wars films

Just backing up a bit to the original posters question. I do think the new Star Wars films have borrowed from the Marvel template. The quips and jokes for a start. Unfortunately making a joke of things every 2 seconds like in TLJ doesn't work in a space opera, a comic book fantasy it does. Deadpool and Spiderman are popular because of it.You can have the odd witty character (Han), but not littered all the way through it.

But where the new films fail at being Marvel is in the directors. Marvel use new promising directors that the studio thinks will be perfect to direct their film. It's worked great and Star Wars seems to want to do the same thing. But Marvel don't let these new directors make up their own script. They don't even let them shoot the action scenes. They bring in tried and brilliant action directors for that. They know they can trust them.

I also wonder if they got a lot of this strong Woman stuff from Wonder Woman. It was hugely popular and Lucasfilm maybe thought strong woman are popular, we'll do that.
All this shows is that I doubt they have many ideas of their own.

 

The MCU directors aren’t allowed to shoot their own action scenes? That sounds fracking awful. No wonder they all look so generic. Why would one want to emulate the worst element of the MCU, and dramatically restrict the creativity of Star Wars directors and writers? George Lucas would lose his mind if that’s what Disney turned LFL into. It’s completely against his independent spirit. As long as Kathleen is there, she’ll never let that happen. Long may she reign.

 

It was from Hunger Games

 

Thanks for clarifying, as I'd never heard that before.

 

I saw The Clock in the Walls a few months back and I saw Ralph Breaks the Internet tonight. Here's something I noticed. The directors of both films came onscreen and thanked the audience for coming out to the movies. It is clear that Disney understands who is paying the bills even if a select few directors do not (cough Rian Johnson cough). Having said that I am hoping Disney Star Wars can take some respect for the audience in the upcoming film. I hope Star Wars can take a hint from that

 

Kathleen Kennedy is doing a brilliant job, and I can’t wait to see all the TV projects and films LFL has in store for us. There’s nothing that needs changing.

 

Since when do directors have to come on-screen and thank the audience... since when do they even come on-screen? Is this an American thing?

 

No, it’s not. At all. I’ve never seen that happen before a film. Perhaps it was just those two movies? No idea. Sounds stupid, in any event. I definitely don’t want or need a director to thank me for watching their movie. It’s a very...Trumpian idea, to be honest. “Show me respect and praise me just for showing up!” An almost breathtaking level of entitlement in that sentiment.

 

Not to mention they heap praise on all the fans at every Celebration.

 

Right. And honestly? I even find that nauseating. Definitely don’t want it tacked to the beginning of the movies I see.

 

With the way a lot of the fanbase has treated the executives, the creators, the writers, the actors, and heck even each other for the past few years, I don’t think it warrants a “Thank you” from anyone.

 

Luke, Han and Leia appearing together in the ST would not have been fan service, it would have just been consistent storytelling. Or script service, if you want. Harrison Ford wanted out and could only do one movie? Fine, have them appear together in the first movie, and then Leia and Luke take the handles in the rest two. It would not have been fan service at all, it would have been just... normal, and expected. And sometimes normal and expected is good. If you can't come up with good plot twists and story development, don't subvert expectations even on stuff that doesn't make sense.

I think Kathleen Kennedy is doing a pretty mediocre job at best, and I think there is a whole lot that needs changing.

 

From what I've read and seen, that Ford wanted out after one is a nice story tied to ROTJ that JJ took advantage of. He claimed in EW that he killed Han but I've seen the "well, of course Ford was only there for one movie" without any confirmation over and over. Even JJ was all "oh, I heard he wanted to be killed off in ROTJ" in Vanity Fair before the movie opened so when people ask me why I don't trust JJ, that's one of my reasons. When the Hollywood Reporter had them all signed for all three movies and said Ford was paid to not be in 8 and 9. And since we now see that they were happy to kill off Luke...

In any event, whether he was there for 1 or 3, the idea that they couldn't write a scene reuniting the three of them and not get called out for it by SW fans is just insane to me. Every other reunited cast playing their original parts I can think of has been reunited except one of the top casts of all time and but fans didn't raise much of a stink. Anyone wondering why it was so easy to kill off Luke should look at that as evidence to LFL that hey, they could do anything they liked. I will NEVER understand that one, ever.

 

The directors of these films thank the audience for coming out. What's stupid about that? So we have to wait every other year for lucasfilm to say thank you for spending money on a product that was doormant for years until TFA came out. It's something that Disney has started doing because they realise the fanbase is where they get their money

 

I personally don't need to be thanked for buying their product and do not know why anyone would.

 

They thank us enough by giving us films and TV shows and books and toys and games. Are fan egos really so fragile that they need to be directly thanked by the director right before the movie? If so, yeah, I think that’s stupid. Though maybe it’s just sad.

Kathleen is responsible for my favorite film in the entire SW series (Rogue One) as well as my fourth favorite (Solo). And she’s following that up with a TV series following one of my favorite SW characters (Cassian) during my favorite period (dark times), as well as a TV series set during a time period I have been dying to see on screen (the Mandalorian). And then she’s given the people who’ve created my second favorite TV show of all time (GoT, just behind the Wire and just ahead of BSG), the keys to a new film trilogy. The person who’s doing that gets close to an A plus for me. Sorry you feel differently.

 

I've seen it happen with Incredibles 2 and Ralph Breaks the Internet.

Basically just in animated film sequels

 

Lol. OK. And that’s being used as the foundation for an attack on LFL for not doing the same? The “Kennedy doesn’t respect tha fans11!!!” argument has reached a new low.

 

I mentioned it because it was nice to see after being talked down to by Johnson and other LFL employees. It is a subtle admission by Disney that they are aware of all of the foolishness that some LFL employees has brought about. I don't need to be thanked either but it's a nice gesture that's appreciated by me.

 

I here this complaint a lot and I am rather curious about this because I have not seen RJ being condescending to fans. My impression was that he always (unnecessarily) responded to toxic fans -i.e not the ones who are respectfully critical of TLJ. I could be wrong, though.

 

Unless you have already decided that The Mandalorian, the Cassian show and the D&B film series will be great (which it seems that you might have, but my apologies if I am reading too much into it) then the future is always in motion, and should not be used as proof that Kathleen Kennedy deserves praise. I am excited about all of those things as well, but so was I for TFA and TLJ.

For me her record in SW movies is 2/4. I do not consider TFA a success (though I would never call it a failure either) and I don't want to repeat myself about TLJ.

I do like to see the big picture though and not just the positives:
- Planning a Boba Fett film for me should not have been a priority. Have you established a fanbase that will go to see even a movie such as Ant-Man 2, like Marvel did? Then by all means, make the Boba Fett movie. Maybe 10 years in the stretch. Not now. After the Obi-Wan movie. After a Solo sequel (if it hadn't underperformed in the box office, which it could have, with better marketing). Even an Ahsoka movie might gauge a lot of interest before Boba Fett. You started something great with the Anthology films, and now.... everything is on hold.
- Treat your flagship better. Give more time to plan Episodes 7-9 more. Have a cohesive storyline across all movies, and perhaps even the same director for all three. Make sure that priority is to actually make great art, not subvert expectations, do well in the box office every December, and attempt to have diversity (but then kinda half-fail, with minority and female characters ending up being underdeveloped).

So yeah, I can also give her an A+ for the things you said, which would be the first midterm. And the second one, which is all the rest, would be a C-. So she gets a B at best for me.

As much as I am not a fan of Marvel, and I think that at least half of the MCU movies are overkill, I do admit that they did an excellent job planning the whole thing. They had a whole schedule planned out for 8 and 10 years in advance, when they started with Iron Man. That's why it worked. Not because the movies were masterpieces. Almost none of them was a masterpiece. But there was continuity and planning.