Official Star Wars Thread

So apparently now we're getting one Star Wars film a year. I'm very skeptical about it. Hell, I flat out dislike the idea. It's too much! I wish they focused on the new trilogy completely for now. No spin-offs! Don't do everything at once... At least throw one spin-off for three episodic films or use them as breaks between trilogies, dilogies or whatever... I don't want Star Wars to become another fast food franchise like Marvel did. Of course I understand that they just want to make that crazy amount of money ASAP. It's hard to expect a company to think different. My worry is that the filmmakers involved will become gradually worse (I mean it will take less to get a Star Wars job), leading to whole streaks of 'meh' films. Currently the worst thing is that Han Solo spin-off... I'm not buying that mainly because I think the casting is impossible. Call it a hasty opinion, but I can't help it.

Although it's natural, it makes me a little sad that this is the last time a Star Wars premiere is this special. It seems we will never have to wait a decade for a new one and this is the last time we deal with a new territory of that scale. (And by 'last time' etc. I obviously mean reasonable future :p) Anyway, it's 10 days to go. That's crazy. I still remember how 10 years ago the idea of Episode VII was a complete fantasy, which was never going to happen, lol. And now it's here. I've already stopped visiting Star Wars sites and watching or reading anything about it. I know many spoilers came out recently so it's time to get extra careful.
 
I agree with you to a point ... of course it all depends on how good the films are .. especially the stand alone ones. Every other year for the "episode" movies seems fine with me, I thought the 3 years Lucas did was a bit too much spacing.

I like the idea of the first standalone movie, but am not thrilled with a Han Solo movie or really an "origin story" of anyone. They only character revisit that I would be really interested in would be Obi-Wan ... McGregor would be about the right ago to play him between Eps III and IV
 
I like the idea of the first standalone movie, but am not thrilled with a Han Solo movie or really an "origin story" of anyone. They only character revisit that I would be really interested in would be Obi-Wan ... McGregor would be about the right ago to play him between Eps III and IV
I agree about Obi-Wan 100%. Especially since Ewan's Obi-Wan is my favourite character of all 6 films and he claimed he would return if there were plans for such film. I'm wondering, though, when will they stop playing it safe and make a more original spin-off. Han Solo is one of my strict favourites too, but I have absolutely no interest in seeing 'the adventures of young Han Solo'. Boba Fett (very likely to happen) could be more interesting given that they don't make him survive sarlacc (which couldn't be more far-fetched) and set it around TESB, but that's about it for revisiting. I love the prequel era so I would like to see something set during Clone Wars, but that's quite unlikely due to the common prequel prejudice.
 
My gut feeling is I'd rather they took more time, but are they looking at a newer trend in cinemas, and a younger generation which is used to getting the next instalment in a franchise relatively quickly? As well as Marvel, we've had the runs of big LOTR and Hobbit films in recent years, one a year.


This is the thing about the prequels that is most baffling to me. I understand the overuse of blue screen, I even understand Jar Jar. I get why George made a lot of those decisions, but the one I just can't figure out is why he killed off Darth Maul and introduced Count Dooku when the role could've easily been combined. Instead of those few scenes in Episode II where they try to develop Dooku's character and give him a shoehorned backstory, they could've spent that time introducing Grievous as a character to be fleshed out further in the next movie. Maul is your main villain, Grievous is a secondary villain. That one change would've improved the movies so much and it would've made that opening battle in Episode III (Anakin and Obiwan vs Darth Maul) much more intense.

An Anakan and Obi-Wan v Maul battle in Episode III would have worked incredibly well, I think, not least with Obi-Wan fulfilling his commitment to raising Anakin as a powerful Jedi and effectively getting revenge on Qui-Gon's killer. (Yeah, I know, revenge isn't supposed to be a Jedi thing, but there was the implication that Obi-Wan had let the whole thing get too personal anyway). Plus Maul was such a cool villain. I'd like to have seen him having grown in power by Episode III, then that fits very nicely with Anakin defeating him and becoming his successor.

I suppose they needed a victory in the Jedi/Sith storyline in Episode I to offset the death of Qui-Gon. Perhaps if Maul was last seen dropping down that chute, defeated and assumed dead, but not cut in half?
 
we've had the runs of big LOTR and Hobbit films in recent years, one a year.
I also thought about LotR. They proved it's possible to make a masterpiece trilogy really quickly (not counting Hobbits, ofc ;)). The thing is you would need a break after that in order to avoid the excess. So e.g. I would be down for one Episode a year, break, spin-off, break, another main trilogy/some spin-off trilogy... Or something like that.
 
in the Brazilian translation of Star Wars, Count Dooku's name was changed to Dookan because in Portuguese "Dooku" can be roughly translated to "from the ass" or even "I do anal"

This is definitely the piece of Star Wars trivia that made my day :D

I am currently trying to schedule... I would like to see all the 6 movies before I go see TFA on 19th. Will see if there'll be any change in my opinion on the prequels (which are quite good, actually, IMHO).
 
Marvel is awesome. Star Wars is awesome. Do it right it works perfectly. Do it wrong and end up neutering your franchise.
 
Ugh, to me Marvel films are the definition of bland... I hope that similar business model is not enough to make Star Wars like this.
They also spent 3 years filming before Fellowship came out. They had most of the trilogy done.
Sure, I know. It's quick anyway.
 
Ugh, to me Marvel films are the definition of bland... I hope that similar business model is not enough to make Star Wars like this.

I agree. Haven't seen all of them, but I have to see one that I don't instantly forget - including the much praised Avengers.
 
I agree. Haven't seen all of them, but I have to see one that I don't instantly forget - including the much praised Avengers.

Well, I liked Iron Man 1 & 3 and Captain America 2. But for example Guardians of the Galaxy, funny as it was, is absolutely inessential.
 
They all feel the same... The last one I saw, Age of Ultron, was stupidly shallow. The fact they try to tie them all together doesn't help. I haven't seen Guardians of the Galaxy, but I think it might be better (probably because it's not so typical for Marvel). First Iron Man was good and then they started making too many of them, hence my worries regardning Star Wars business model. Star Wars has a huge advantage, though. There's much more you can do in that universe, whereas a superhero film is always a superhero film.
 
a superhero film is always a superhero film.

Well, the first Iron Man and the first Kick Ass (haven't seen the second one, nor do I intend to do so anytime soon) show that there can be some variation, if you try hard enough.
 
there can be some variation, if you try hard enough.
Nolan's Batmans are even better examples of that. First two are brilliant films, because besides being so well made, they were something new. That's rare now. Marvel decided on mass production.
 
In all honesty, I have completely forgotten about Nolan's Batman movies, simply because I don't have them labeled as "superhero movies" in my head. It's just different class. Including the underrated Rises!
 
@Srogyy: Did you actually see more than those 3 Marvel movies you mentioned? They may be mass produced but it's not like they have one cast and one director throughout like some franchises. And it's hard to find 2 Marvel movies (that are made by Marvel Studios, not talking about Fox/Sony) that are too similar. Maybe both Thor movies but that's it.

And all new Star Wars movies so far have different directors so I think that's gonna help them not repeat themselves. I do think 2 years between episodes is slightly too much, but I'm not too worried about the quality. Maybe have ep 7 in 2015, ep 8 in 2018, ep 9 in 2021, with one spin-off movie in between each.
 
A Star Wars film is always a Star Wars film too. Tautology is a tautology.
You can make something epic about Jedi and Sith, you can make a war film about Rebels fighting Empire, you can make a western about Obi-Wan on Tatooine, you can make a comedy adventure about young Han Solo or something dark about a villainous bounty hunter... That was my point. I'm talking about potential. Whether or not such film will end up being good or necessary, is a whole different story. The variation that Marvel and its superheroes can offer is significantly smaller in my opinion. At the end of the day it's a hero saving the world.

@Srogyy: Did you actually see more than those 3 Marvel movies you mentioned? They may be mass produced but it's not like they have one cast and one director throughout like some franchises. And it's hard to find 2 Marvel movies (that are made by Marvel Studios, not talking about Fox/Sony) that are too similar. Maybe both Thor movies but that's it.
From MCU I've seen all three Iron Man, both Captain America, first Thor, both Avengers plus Daredevil series (and one episode of Jessica Jones). To me the tone is always pretty similar, they are all visually the same, there are no stakes, because you know the actors signed for 10 subsequent films... There are no good villains, the plot always seems shallow to me... I find these films just bland. Not terribly bad, but not particularly interesting either. I don't know, if I was 12 I would love them, but now they bore me. And for the record, DC is not much better with their stupid, rushing approach to BvS (more like 'Justice League 0.5').

In case of Star Wars I'm not concerned with repetitiveness, but the possible decline in quality if they decide to rush and plan too much ahead. Come on, they've almost hired Josh Trank, to make one... I would prefer a spin-off once in a blue moon, when there's a good idea and it's really worth doing, not just because they can and want to make many of them. The canon can be developed via different media (maybe even Netflix series). Anyway, for now it's just me speculating and being pessimistic. We have to wait and see.
 
I agree. Haven't seen all of them, but I have to see one that I don't instantly forget - including the much praised Avengers.



Agree, they all seem the same and there are just a ton of them (not just Marvel, but superhero movies in general). I am done with them .. if one gets a really good review, I might check it out or watch one on a plane when there is not much else to do .. but that is it for me.
 
Back
Top