ST The Sanctuary - (Dissenters Unite! - Warning on page 232)

And yet claimed he couldn't write a scene with poe and Finn because he wasn't able to identify their individual voices?

 

I don't think McQuarrie deserves particular credit for this. He was great in terms of starship design and architecture but the living alien world inside those things had nothing to do with him and everything to do with Lucas.

Lucas tried to tell them they needed 3 years to do this type of film. They didn't listen. The one man on earth who could probably be considered an authority on blockbuster film making and they ignored him. It seems Disney's hubris during this entire ordeal has known no bounds.

 

DP

 

Agree. The web Sidious spun was brilliant. The Jedi were screwed no matter what they did. Once the Clone Army came into being, it was all over but the killing for the Jedi. And the Jedi may be bound by their beliefs, but they were very successful at it. So much so, Sidious had to start an entire galactic war and build an army to get rid of them.

 

I think Sidious is basically the best villain in cinematic history. He’s brilliant.

 

He's up there as one of the cleverest and most meticulous, certainly. I was shocked when I found out one man destroyed the Republic before it happened, but Palpatine convinced me it was very plausible. I loved it!

He puts Snoke and Kylo to shame, especially since we know so terribly little about the former. And I'm supposed to care about Snoke and Kylo's goals when we have such an excellent character in Palpatine, whose cunning and manipulation drove the conflict of the prequels?

 

I’m pleased it wasn’t it in it but then wonder if being even worse makes any difference. It just further confirms the attitude and intention of the movie really.

 

I just assign that Rey is a demigod of anonymous and unimportant parentage. An Anakin without even one named parent. It resolves everything. Anakin's criterion, 'Conceived by the Force', is moot because of the Bible story of Mary, who was married. Making Rey purely human that is purely 'unusually strong in the Force' causes problems because of the command line cheat codes she is given in her technology tree. The show runners want to suffocate the trickle of oxygen in terms of the big mysteries that could have gasped along on a thimbleful of information, so this is what it's come to. Rey is a demigod of more or less irrelevant parentage, and no Pablo tweet can overturn that, for, the chance to have tweeted what overturns it was in the films. No one has to assert that Anakin was so full of the Force that he inevitably shall have found fame and high destiny. He could have languished as an unintuitively good pod racer. No one has to assert that Rey shall have found fame and high destiny. She could have languished as an unintuitively good junk collector. So the intent by the showrunners that destiny can be unhinged from lineage is intact, and I'm ok with that. Complete unknowns can feel the call, and that's fine. I hear the modern messaging. I hear loud and clear that smashing the patriarchy is one of the ends of these means.

 

Look at the 9th picture in the following link.

http://www.starwars.com/news/an-annotated-guide-to-the-star-wars-portfolio-by-ralph-mcquarrie

 

I've seen these before. They still don't convey the alien world that is Star Wars. They are merely the first glimpses at that world. Don't forget that it was Lucas who was the impetus for these pictures. McQuarrie was bringing Lucas' words and vision into reality for the first time.

 

Kylo Ren.

Anakins turn is explored in

I believe it was a Ralph painting which sold the idea of star wars.

I find it odd that Lucas gets dissed as a control freak, yet everybody that works with him seems to do their best work, and speaks volumes of the man. He must have a gift for communicating.

This is also why he gets shorted as a director. He directs EVERYTHING.

Disney was silly not to take him up on his suggestions.

Those darn prequel trilogy haters!!! Lol

 

Same. I have no desire to get anything with Rey, Finn, Poe, or Rose on it. They’re the most uninteresting and underdeveloped main characters Star Wars has ever seen. They’re just so boring to me.

I wonder how many people genuinely are interested in seeing their stories continue in IX. There doesn’t seem to be much of a story there to be honest.

 

Large enough to control the galaxy according to the opening scroll. So really they are the Empire reborn but with more resources. Also no suggestion of government so they must control the galaxy as a military force and have enormous armies and fleets of ships.

 

It saddens me, because I feel the same way. I have an entire shelf of Episode 7 Funko pops and black series figures from TFA, and frankly, it's kind of hard to not just pack them up and sell them off. I'm very tempted to do just that honestly. I really don't care, or like, any of these characters, or the direction they're going in. I really enjoyed TFA, but felt it relied too much on being a trilogy. It's not a film you can watch and say "I'm good" and not get a sequel to. It exists purely as only the first part to a much larger story. And it doesn't have a continuation I like even as its own movie, let alone as a Star Wars film.

 

Sorry if this comes across as "calling you out" as I am just curious how you can say "snoke's origins or Rey's parents are not the big mysteries of TFA" - really! You really think that? Gotta disagree with you there...

Snoke is set up as the BIG BAD behind the scenes. The controlling power driving everything the FO are doing with Kylo and Hux as his puppets. Of course his origin was set up as a key mystery. It was core to the story. Not only who he is but how is he so powerful and how did he turn Ben Solo!

As for Rey - JJA had his (stupid IMHO) mystery box approach on hyperdrive for that one. How many clues and hints were dropped. How much, as it turns out, mis-direction did TFA give us about her parentage.

Sorry but both of those were absolutely core to TFA.

 

I agree. It's not just fans over-thinking. Those speculations were encouraged.

 

It frustrates me that so many people (read: Twitterati) are desperate to pretend there was no such push in TFA to speculate about Snoke/Rey. It's ok to admit that JJA had a different vision to RJ and that RJ provided answers that disappointed speculators. Trying to pretend JJA didn't want us to, and it's OUR fault we speculated is just silly.

 

I probably should have expressed myself differently - to me, questions like 'Who is Snoke?' and 'Who are Rey's parents?' are absolutely not at the core of The Force Awakens. For me, that film is the story of a young woman discovering her incredible inner power and being drawn into galactic events. The Last Jedi gave me what I expected and wanted by continuing to tell that story and following Rey as she goes from a confused young woman seeking others to save the galaxy to a resolute and fully awakened young woman who realizes that she has to be the new hope for the galaxy herself. That was the story I cared about, and I think it's the story Rian cared about, so I was satisfied with what he did. To me, things like Snoke and Rey's parents were only interesting insofar as they related to the main characters and their stories (Kylo and Rey respectively). I know that others feel differently and I'm not saying anyone is wrong for being upset that they didn't get the answers they were seeking.

 

yes, "your snoke theory sucks".

I think the main issue is that some Star Wars social media influencers and critics have a vested interest in defending the brand since their livelihoods are tied to the success of the franchise. If the movies fail then ad revenue and patreon money will dry up. So the situation for them is that criticism of the movies becomes an attack on their lifestyle which leads to the desperation in defending the choices made.

 

You know, I did wonder that, particularly in relation to the guy you're referencing there. Kristian Harloff is sky rocketing in my estimations because that was always my perception of him, but his view of the franchise as a whole and their decisions almost identically mirrors mine, and he isn't afraid to verbalise that.

 

The best part about "your snoke theory sucks" is that literally every theory out there, from plagueis to jar jar and everything in between, was more thought out and better than what these professional writers gave us. I know I was intrigued by the potential of prime jedi, fallen whills or angels, or anything really

 

Actually, this another point about TLJ (and to a lesser extent TFA) that is very much unlikeable. All the misdirection - the deliberate deceit in marketing the film. The trailers give the impression Rey and Kylo join up, Kylo kills Leia. That draws you in - then they don't deliver that but something else. It's like "Ha! Ha! Got you". It is childish storytelling. Why go back and see something where they deceive you.

The "mystery box" is all about that - Rey's parent's are important because they were important to her as a character/who she is. Let's just drop that - "Ha! Ha! They are unimportant she doesn't need them" They do it with Snoke - everyone speculates, Rian Johnson says "Your Snoke theory sucks" - makes you think it is going to be interesting, then "Ha! Ha! Snoke is a plot point".

 

And they market Luke coming back and training Rey, yet that doesn't happen and we get Jake Skywalker instead

 

Yeah those are good points. It feels like fans are being treated with disrespect. Actually it seems like intelligent discerning movie lovers are being treated with disrespect by simply brushing away (in such an irreverent way) plot and character points that were very deliberately and carefully set up in TFA. That is toying with the audience and would have been fine with a quality pay off except...TLJ jettisoned most of it!

You simply cannot have it both ways and expect the audience (well some of the audience I guess) to accept that as suitable resolution of a mystery. Snoke's origin and/or back story DO matter as a result of TFA. Rey's parentage (or at least an explanation for the strength of her Force sensitivity and mastery) DO matter as a result of TFA. If they didn't matter or were inconsequential then TFA should not have teased so obviously!

 

I also believe it was why TLJ has the unenviable record of the BIGGEST 1st to 2nd week drop in history. A lot of people who rushed to see the film, thought 'ho hum don't need to see it again'. Then on reflection they start to see how truly awful storytelling TLJ is.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!