The first few seasons of GoT were anything but an "age-old savior-prophecy". It's not like that in the books either.Instead it's inspired by all the generic save-the-world superhero theme park ride trash that dominates the big screen nowadays.
Quote from: Oli on 12/23/2019 10:28 amThe first few seasons of GoT were anything but an "age-old savior-prophecy". It's not like that in the books either.Instead it's inspired by all the generic save-the-world superhero theme park ride trash that dominates the big screen nowadays.The rumor is that the top job at Lucasfilm will now go to Jon Favreau, who is currently producer for The Mandalorian, having also produced Iron Man and various other hits.
...Disney, like a well-tuned corporate empire, has then efficiently brought together a bunch of big name talents to mechanically execute on a plan that had a seed, but no soul. And the results of this are plain for all to see.J J Abrams, who originally made his name in television and had landed the Star Trek movie reboots, has likewise shown up to do this movie for the paycheque, while also re-capitulating what entertained him in his youth. And that's what he's done in this movie - re-hashed what was done before.The power of the paycheque and the quarterly profit statement has prevailed, while inspiration and originality have taken a backseat to plagiarism and performing on command.A lack of vision gave way to free-form arbitrary plot contrivance, which was passed off as pleasing the masses.Rules and conventions that had evolved for a story universe were cast aside for expediency, and this was branded as boldness and originality. Original Star Wars: I have a story to tell you.New Star Wars: It's time for me to $ell a $tar War$ $tory again, so just take whatever I can come up withThis is akin to farming fertile land until it becomes dry dust.
With the movies truly at the end of their rope (and the Skywalker saga concluding) In stark contrast with the raving critics of The MandalorianI'm left wondering - whatif Star Wars future (and possible renewal / redemption) belonged to SERIES ? We are, possibly, at a turning point. As shown by The Mandalorian, Star Wars basic settings/ universe, which made a large part of the original trilogy, can be better explored / exploited, at length, in a serie rather than in a movie. Plus in a serie one can develop brand new characters with more depth than in a movie.
The head of Disney's newly-purchased Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy, was tasked to oversee the production of this new trilogy while not having any over-arching story plan for it beyond just an imported cloned premise.
George Lucas was retired from the franchise after having cashed out, he had no real role or stake in architecting such an arc.
J J Abrams, who originally made name in television and had landed the Star Trek movie reboots, has likewise shown up to do this movie for the paycheque
The power of the paycheque and the quarterly profit statement has prevailed, while inspiration and originality have taken a backseat to plagiarism and performing on command.
Original Star Wars: I have a story to tell you.
New Star Wars: It's time for me to $ell a $tar War$ $tory again, so just take whatever I can come up with
This is akin to farming fertile land until it becomes dry dust.
Kennedy wasn't the right hands. A least not alone. She needs a creative next to her, guiding a story.
Kennedy was never an 'idea' person, she is the money producer, an experienced producer who was with Lucas and Spielberg for decades. who's job it was to oversee the nuts and bolts of a production but not the creativity.
It has been discussed around the trade sites that she also wanted to deviate from the Marvel format, where the creatives, directors/writers are basically restrained from being creative. They have to fit within a story and style that is created by a handful of people, overseen by one man, Kevin Feige. Kennedy's intent was to give each writer/director pretty much carte blanche with where they went on the story and she had outline where it would end up. Which is why you go from the Force Awakens to the out of left field, wtf was that The Last Jedi.
If you have ever paid much attention to JJ's interviews you will notice one thing, he throws crap at the wall and sees what sticks. And while he was promoted as the idea guy for all three movies it is now painfully obvious that actually he did his usual, came up with a bunch of ideas in the original movie that the following creators could pick up and carry forward or abandon as they wanted. If he didn't stick around because of his work load or whatever it is obvious he had no start at A and finish at C type of story in mind either.
Actually George was/is far from out emotionally at least. He's been throwing a temper tantrum for years that Disney refused to follow his plotted out story arc for the final three movies. My thoughts on that is he sold the franchise off. If he wanted control he could have kept it, Disney chose though to put him out to pasture so to speak. So he wanted his movies, but he no longer owned it. And evidently the story delt with the micro universe of the midi-chlorians... Ack!
I believe that is unfair to JJ. He returned to save the last movie after they crap canned the director/writer who evidently was doing a worse job than Rian Johnson. If that is even possible. This is entirely Kennedy's fault who instead of having an outline that at least detailed something of a story arc for all three movies with a specific destination for the final one, decided to let the creatives do as they wish, go where they want. While Lucas obviously played fast and loose with how his storyline played out and who some of the characters were, he still had a final destination for Return of the Jedi and that didn't change much. That can't be said for this trilogy.
If it wasn't there to make money it wouldn't exist in the first place.
Sorry but if you study the history of star Wars it is blatantly obvious that the 'story' was a money grab. Lucas has always been a better businessman than a writer. He knew that even if Star Wars was a middling movie or even a bomb he could make a lot of money off of the toy licenses. In fact he was so worried about Star Wars not being a hit, that to keep the toys going he had Alan Dean Foster craft a screenplay sequel that could be produced for as little as 2 or 3 million and not the 11 million Star Wars itself was costing while filming the first movie. The screenplay became the novel "Splinter of the Mind's Eye". Star Wars is really a carefully crafter 2.5 hour commercial for a toy line. Think about it, all those droid designs, aliens... Were they really needed for the storyline? No the storyline for the movie is all humans vs humans with a couple of droids. Did he need so many droid variations for the Jawa scenes? No. Did he need all the aliens for the Cantina Scene? No. But I don't think even Lucas realized just how big a kids toy commercial it was because as the decades passed he kept revising the original movies to be even more kid "friendly". The most notable change, Han shoots first. Dumbing the movie down to a 5 year old's level. But that wasn't the only change to make them more kid friendly, there is a good youtube video detailing all of the kiddyfaction of Star Wars.
When he finished Return of the Jedi, he made it well known he was stopping there because the Special Effects technology just wasn't where he needed it to be for the Sequels. The special editions were used to push the technology to where he needed. We may not like the final results, but Lucas was already a very rich man at the time he started the sequels. He didn't need the money, ILM alone was rolling in the money. He'd adopted a couple of kids and wanted to tell them the story. Unfortunately the story appealed to kids.
No it's not. Lucas got to obsessed with it being kid friendly. He started with a movie that was like old Warner Bugs Bunny cartoons. Something a kid could understand but enjoyable for an adult and his last try at it was more like a Saturday morning my little pony show, all commercial for toys. Lucas in his concern for children, got in his own way. Put the franchise in the rights hands and you'll be crying it's greatness once again. Kennedy wasn't the right hands. A least not alone. She needs a creative next to her, guiding a story.
Creativity was the necessary core of it all, without which the rest was just a wasted mechanical effort.
Kennedy et al really did not know their own product, or its particular fanbase.
J J Abrams just wasn't the right talent to pull off a new Star Wars trilogy. I get that he was brought in at the last minute, but they needed a more creative vision. They needed some kind of vision, period.
Gee, they were going to play up the Midi-chlorians even more? How? "Fantastic Voyage" into the Midi-chlorians?
They badly needed a creative vision or story arc. This is a well-defined universe.
Without a story, they're obviously going to fall short on that too.
That's why there were things like the Ewok movies, etc.
They also needed a greater moral message to underpin the story.
Would The Mandalorian be getting the same attention if it was with a baby Hutt instead of a baby Yoda?
Did you even read what I said? Kennedy's intent was to let each movies creative choose where they went. Rian Johnson went where he wanted to that is for sure. The problem was there was no cohesive storyline for all three movies to keep the directors from going off on tangents.
I disagree, Rebel One while it's production was a disaster ended up one of the best movies IMO. Solo was also fan fulfillment that got slagged more because Harrison Ford wasn't playing the character. And unfair point since the guy is in his 70s. Kennedy is also a top producer on Mandalorian. As I said she isn't a creative but when she hires the right person we get gold. We'll see how the upcoming Kenobi series is.
If you want he has several interviews and there are numerous articles out there. But yes he wanted to go into the micro universe of his worst idea ever. Starts at the 10:30 mark. A bit of information, the original draft for what became star wars was called the Journal of the Whills and it was a multi-generational story about the Skywalker family. The first movie was actually the middle of the original draft. So yes ultimately he was going to dive into the micro universe of his creation.
Yah, whatever. Tell you what, they are looking for the next movie trilogy, write up a spec script.
