Discussion The Utterly Awful Completely Contemptible Please God Make The Suffering Stop Rumors Thread

I did. The substance is hard to discern.

 

Then as I said, we're at an impasse. I have yet to see a substantial defence of the current strategy, other than a 'it can't be worse than the sequels' philosophy...

 

Flawed is a big word, but truth is this is three seperate movies with no connection, meaning three marketing campaigns, communication strategies etc.

That has an advantage, because any failure isn‘t as dramatic as you can start anew with the next one or at least adjust. It has a huge disadvantage too. It means the viewer has no connection to the next film. He can skip any of the three easily. Much of the problem TV faces too. If I like Mandalorian, it means nothing about my relationship as a viewer to The Acolyte or Skeleton Crew. The original two trilogies simply required you to watch all three to get the conclusion and from a marketing perspective that is kind of cool. So I guess they are well aware of all of this and really look for a new franchise making series starting movie. But it is an inherent flaw imho.

 

It will of course be challenging for LFL to launch what is essentially three new SW movies that feature new settings and new characters audiences are unfamiliar with. The hardcore fans, the ones who’ve watched every movie and even the D+ shows will of course pick it up without trouble. But for general audiences - the ones who showed diminishing interest in the ST and Solo - it will take some effort and careful marketing to get them onboard, and probably strong quality for the films themselves. Each film presents particular challenges and opportunities, I’ll go through them from “easiest” lift to “hardest”.

Filoni’s Heir to the Empire has the benefit of (presumably) getting a tv show or two for introducing characters and building buzz. Combined with a bit of deepfake technology to allow Luke, Han and Leia to establish context, it should be fairly doable to get audiences to basically understand the concept: it’s “another sequel” to the familiar OT Star Wars we all know and love. What about the ST? Forget about the ST, these ones come before those ones! Ok, that should be easy enough . . .

The “Dawn of Jedi” movie has the most opportunity for surprising and intriguing audiences with its trailers imo. The ancient setting means designers can try out entirely new aesthetics which feel exotic and fresh while still being familiar enough to evoke Star Wars’ retro-sci-fi vibes. But it’s easier said than done, the only true true visual reference points will be lightsabers. This will be a similar challenge to what TFA faced, the need to create something that’s actually new, but while Abrams called it quits after BB-8 and then just recycled ANH, DoJ probably won’t be afforded that luxury.

The new Rey movie might be the hardest lift of these three, because of how anticlimactic TROS was. My impression is that audiences never quite latched onto Rey, she was too generic, too shallow, and inconsistently written. And now she’s a . . . Skywalker? What does that even mean? Good luck trying to answer that question for hardcore fans, let alone the casuals. Forget about Skywalkers for a minute, I think the ST left audiences a bit confused about what Jedi are supposed to be in Disney Star Wars. Now it seems that Rey will be a Jedi Master of some sort . . . yeah, I can see a lot of ways this turns into a confusing jumble. Oh, and the Empire/First Order is gone, so is OT3, Yoda, Sith, all you’re left with is Chewie and the Falcon. In other words, the TFA marketing formula can’t be redone.

Now, introducing each new setting for audiences would present its own challenges, but doing all three in quick succession? That will be tough. Just as soon as you finish establishing expectations for one movie, you need to start all over for a new one, and then another one. Audiences will be forming their own preferences and opinions about nu-Star Wars which must be addressed in real time.

This won’t be easy, but I’m told Disney are the best in the world at this, so there’s no need to worry.

 

Maybe the films need a voice actor to narrate the crawl, perfect for kids who can't read yet, having their parents narrate for them. At this point, maybe the crawl could be in Aurebesh, since it would be redundant to have narration of readable text. The voice actor would now be narrator and interpreter.

 

dude the voice actor should totally be Morgan Freeman

 

1. It shows a lack of confidence in what they are doing and they are just ‘throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks.’

2. Going between three different eras will confuse the general audiences.

I wrote all those posts, and you came away with something I didn’t even say?

 

I agree that their plan shows a lack of confidence. But I think they are still also overconfident, overconfident in the strength of their storytelling ability, and too willing to cut corners. Believing that audiences will accept it.

 

well, I don't have a lot of confidence in what they are doing either

but that's different than applying my personal opinion to that of the general audience

 

Why are you assuming I’m alluding to you? If I were, I’d address you directly.

 

I mean, the entire last page is you addressing @DarthPhilosopher

 

Yeah, what an absolute waste of time.

 

Total waste of time.

 

Or Jeff Goldblum

 

Stupid dribbling knuckle dragging general audiences lol

they confoosed by unfamiliar characters, barf.

 

I actually spent my entire 5-day vacation reading their exchange, and my employer is reimbursing me for the time.

 

Don’t lie Bor, you and I both know your time isn’t that valuable in the first place.

 

They sell my time at Dollar General, so yes, you’re correct.

 

That new "Please Be Good" banner managed to give me a good laugh and crippling anxiety at the same time. Well done, Mods.

 

I signed up for this site before TFA came out right after Disney bought LF. Since the start, I always wanted a "clean slate" new movie that was some super-imaginative SW story like no other that didn't involve characters from old movies. I think they have a chance to do something like that here, or at least something similar. Basically, I think the success of unfamiliar characters and storylines will depend on how good they are, and whether they are able to connect with the GA.

They weren't going to hide behind old characters to be successful, as that alone won't do it (e.g. Solo box office). One way or the other, they were going to at this point come up with new productions that would sink if they weren't well done.

The lack of constraints may actually help the new movies to a degree, since they aren't so tightly put together around the old stories. That gives breathing room to be creative, for example in the "open space" in the Rey movie that you mention, and all of the new settings they will have to create.

There is a reason that interest diminished from TFA through Solo as you pointed out- it was not holding the attention of audiences- they weren't as excited to see the next one. Love or hate the ST, it simply did not capture the public's imagination. They can avoid that situation by making something great with these movies, or at least a decent portion of them.

 

You ultimately have to start with a story good enough to be put to film. It's not enough (usually) just to rely on brand or iconic/well known characters. That's the mistake the DLF made with their live action films IMO. Start with a compelling story and then you can pretty much take it anywhere.

 

But you need to remember that Solo flopped, but TROS did not flop. So you can't really stop at Solo when the next film had another billion box office. So apparently the flop just sits with Solo and Solo only. Now why that is... who knows. Personally i think had Solo been the first movie since episode 3 it would have made a billion. But it was the 4th movie in 3-4 years. And i don't think that has anything to do with TLJ as Solo has very little connective tissue to TLJ, while the film that did, which followed after did make a billion.

The way the fans treated the PT for years there was no way they were gonna do something out of the fans comfort zone.