All Things Star Wars Thread (Spoilers)

[wizards8507]

I think if I were honest I really didn't like the throwing away of the Thrawn trilogy too... Jade, Karde, Thrawn and that story line>>> Rey, Finn, Ren and a New Hope clone.... but I'm trying Ringo, I'm trying REAL hard... we will see how this next film plays out. If the concerns that gk, lion and I have come to light I think my focus will just move completely to SWS films and the old school media.

Thrawn is canon now, dawg.

 

[ACamp1900]

I don't mind repetitive plot points and aspects of the series... the bad guys will always be looking for a new super weapon, the good guys will always be trying to hide out and then strike when the time is right (or when they're discovered), and the main character is always going to have some close connection to the bad guys.

I just don't want to see this be a point-for-point remake, which TFA basically was, just with new characters and a few tweaks.

And for the record, I didn't mind it with TFA. I thought it was a tremendous way to intro a new generation to the Star Wars story, while also catering to the OG fans. I'll just be bummed if the entire trilogy is basically a rehashing. There's no reason that they can't stay true to the formula while also throwing some fresh intrigue and a different storyline out there.

Pretty much this... TFA for the record was the best SW movie since RotJ imo (though it's since been well passed by RO) and it had a number of extremely good acting performances for a SW film. There were a number of flaws (many already touched on in the last page or so) to it that I did find rather annoying though, that I hope they clean up with the future Skywalker films.

 

[wizards8507]

Camp, if you're a Wedge fan, check out the Aftermath trilogy. He's not the main character by any means, but when he's featured he's a badass.

 

[ACamp1900]

Camp, if you're a Wedge fan, check out the Aftermath trilogy. He's not the main character by any means, but when he's featured he's a badass.

It's been a while since I read a SW novel, so I just might pick this up... thanks.

 

[gkIrish]

We know that Leia is going to probably have to die in this movie. I bet it's something like a base she is in being blown up. Maybe even a planet being destroyed so she goes down like the rest of her people. I also worry about Chewbacca but I think he makes it to at least the next movie.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

The Week's Matthew Walther just published an article titled "Confession of a Star Wars Nerd":

Does the phrase "earth tones" inspire you to fits of childish and utterly inexplicable laughter? What about "Yub-Nub?" Do you consider the replacement of Elaine Baker, the woman who played the spooky holographic Emperor in Empire, with Ian MacDiarmid one of the most egregious changes in the Special Editions? (Do you, in fact, refer regularly to the second Star Wars film as "Empire"?) How often have you complained to your wife or girlfriend, if you have one, about the absurdity of ret-conning "Darth" into a title, like "Sir"? Does the phrase "Zahn-era Expanded Universe canon" mean anything to you? Do you know how many novelistic accounts we have of Han Solo's marriage to Princess Leia, and do you prefer the one where C-3PO serves — naturally — as "Best Droid" or the one where Han kidnaps Leia and flies her to a planet he's just purchased, one inhabited by a clan of Force-wielding witches who want Luke to impregnate their chieftaness in order to produce some kind of super Jedi babies? Do you continually return to Mr. Plinkett's prequel reviews? Could you pick a Sullustan out of a police lineup? How about Bossk?

If you answered yes to any of my questions, it is possible to predict a few things about you. You are between the ages of 25 and 45. You are likely white and almost certainly male. Odds are you didn't see all the original Star Wars films, or maybe even any of them, in theaters. Your introduction came by way of the old CBS/Fox videocassettes or maybe the THX boxed set with the "One Last Time" preview and the Leonard Maltin interviews with George Lucas at the beginning. You had the Kenner "Power of the Force" toys from the mid-'90s rather than the ones from the '70s. You were confused by The Phantom Menace, disappointed by Attack of the Clones, and saw Revenge of the Sith with your friends explicitly to make fun of it. You think that the Special Editions of the film released in 1997 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Star Wars are even worse than the prequels because they sullied something you loved. You complain constantly about the unavailability of the original versions on modern home-video formats and make a point of reminding people who don't care about whether Han shot first that you own them on VHS. You might even own the laserdisc versions as well even though you don't have a laserdisc player.

If, on the other hand, you answered no to most or all of my questions but think that my asking them is occasioned by the upcoming release of Disney's Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which I have no plans of seeing, you are wrong. Star Wars exists for fans like me in a realm that Disney cannot touch, in tapes and heaps of out-of-print mass-market paperbacks and coffee table books with titles like The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels and, above all, in memory. It is a hobby, a sport, and even a kind of cause. It is (to paraphrase General Motti) the ancient religion to which we are sadly devoted.

I cannot actually remember the first time I watched the films, except, oddly, Empire, which used to be my least favorite. At first I only had Star Wars. Then my mother taped Return of the Jedi from TBS the day after Christmas, complete with repeat airings of a Menard's commercial that I will be able to quote on my deathbed. A few years later I can recall being in Mrs. H's first-grade class compulsively rereading The Golden Globe, the first in the Star Wars Junior Jedi Knights saga, not to be confused with the roughly concurrent Young Jedi Knights series written by Kevin J. Anderson, much less the Star Wars Galaxy of Fear books, with their attractively spooky holographic covers. By the time I was 8 I could quote every line of dialogue from all three of the films. I had been Luke and Han for Halloween in immediate succession. I was old enough not to want to die of boredom during the romance scenes but young enough to want to leave the room from embarrassment.

One of the rites of passage for serious fans is recognizing that the hallowed original trilogy is not without its problems. So your very interesting and original opinion is that the Ewoks were a lame cash grab from Lucas, who clearly cared more about selling stupid toys than the cinematic arts? That's kid stuff. Real Star Wars fans can turn off the sound during the first film and tell you in any given scene whether Carrie Fisher is even bothering with her never-very-steady English accent. They can catalogue the various pronunciations of Han's name in Empire. They can point out to you how that film's timeline makes no sense at all unless you proceed on the unspoken assumption that it takes place over the course of at least six months, that Luke ran and did pushups and balanced cups on his nose for weeks on Dagobah while the Millennium Falcon crawled to Cloud City. (I would be lying if I said that I did not know a website where someone has done the math, using the speed at which the Falcon was able to travel without hyperdrive to arrive at an exact figure for how long our hero was with Yoda.)

Do the films hold up, though? It depends what you mean. It is certainly the case that, in the words that only we have committed to memory, they "changed movie-making forever," but it was almost certainly a change for the worse. They are fun, even Jedi, but are they any good?

When we are children, it doesn't really matter what we read or watch. The point is to have something to apply our silly minds to, preferably something that can inspire a sense of awe and longing, something that succeeds, however clumsily, in telling us a story about good triumphing over evil. It turns out that for a large-ish portion of American males in roughly my age bracket and slightly older, Star Wars was that thing. Forget the effluvium. The novels were boring by the time we were 10. The merchandise was a scam for which we should be begging our parents' forgiveness. But the films themselves were good then and are good now because they are true and even moving. We can still laugh with them even though we are old enough now to laugh at them as well.

There is nothing I would rather watch than Luke staring up at the twin suns of Tatooine, one blood orange, one faintly violet, framed by that ridiculous magenta expanse of sky, dreaming of something ineffable amid the strains of John Williams' throwaway pastiche of a score for the very simple but impossible to explain reason that it is the most beautiful scene ever filmed.

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[wizards8507]

The Week's Matthew Walther just published an article titled "Confession of a Star Wars Nerd":

Only filthy casuals still hate on the prequels. "The prequels suck" is a take that expired in 2012 for someone who calls themselves a "Star Wars nerd."

https://makingstarwars.net/2017/05/prequelist-joseph-scrimshaw-star-wars/

 

[ACamp1900]

You think that the Special Editions of the film released in 1997 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Star Wars are even worse than the prequels because they sullied something you loved. You complain constantly about the unavailability of the original versions on modern home-video formats

I don't think they are THAT bad but I'm def in the camp that wants the OG versions on blu ray... it's especially bad in the Jabba's Palace scene in RotJ, that scene is the only one that truly bothers me.

I'll note the Ewoks never really bothered me tho... I have two semi domestic rabbits living in my backyard, they have a burrow and everything, they are super cute and one of them is named, "Ewok"....

 

[wizards8507]

I don't think they are THAT bad but I'm def in the camp that wants the OG versions on blu ray... it's especially bad in the Jabba's Palace scene in RotJ, that scene is the only one that truly bothers me.

#JediRocks

 

[ACamp1900]

I liked how he noted that ESB was his least fav as a kid... I think that was the way of it for most younger viewers of the described generation... I was the same way. It wasn't until I got older that I appreciated it for the great film it is.

 

[IrishLion]

I liked how he noted that ESB was his least fav as a kid... I think that was the way of it for most younger viewers of the described generation... I was the same way. It wasn't until I got older that I appreciated it for the great film it is.

RotJ was always my favorite when I was a kid. The green lightsaber + AT-ST's + Speeder Bikes in the forest = Awesome Sauce.

The Ewoks have always been "meh" for me, even when I was an impressionable child, but I'm always amused when I read people talk about how terrible they are. Star Wars is goofy and weird at its core, even with all the serious stuff lingering in the story, so of course these lovable balls of fur are going to be barbaric but effective killing machines.

My appreciation for Empire came later, much like yours.

 

[wizards8507]

It's Star Wars Time, Again | The Weekly Standard

Apparently the cool thing to do these days is just be butthurt about Star Wars. Seriously, I can think of maybe five pop culture things that DON'T divide the country and we should probably hold onto those as long as possible (Star Wars, Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, the Super Bowl, the MCU).

 

[ACamp1900]

only three of the eight entrants in the series are good and the rest range from flawed (Return of the Jedi) to bland (The Force Awakens) to insultingly, indulgently awful (the prequels).

 

[GATTACA!]

I'd be shocked if they killed both Luke and Leia in TLJ. Since it appears Leia has to bite the bullet I think we get at least one more adventure with Luke.

Also I don't think they will ever kill Chewbacca. It's like killing a dog on screen, you just don't do it.

 

[IrishLion]

I'd be shocked if they killed both Luke and Leia in TLJ. Since it appears Leia has to bite the bullet I think we get at least one more adventure with Luke.

Also I don't think they will ever kill Chewbacca. It's like killing a dog on screen, you just don't do it.

Nah, Chewie is gonna get a glorious “Off Into the Sunset” exit at some point where he flies the Falcon into deep space, off for some grand adventure of his own.

 

[IrishLion]

Wife just surprised me with an early Christmas present: tickets for an 8pm showing on Thursday night.

Legggoooooo

 

[ShamrockOnHelmet]

I just don't want to see this be a point-for-point remake, which TFA basically was...

[sigh]
I hate this narrative. It wasn’t, plain and simple. It has familiar notes, but any two movies about heroes battling villains will have similar notes. This argument is as tiresome as it is inaccurate.

 

[Cackalacky]

enjoy:
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[greyhammer90]

Only filthy casuals still hate on the prequels. "The prequels suck" is a take that expired in 2012 for someone who calls themselves a "Star Wars nerd."

https://makingstarwars.net/2017/05/prequelist-joseph-scrimshaw-star-wars/

I wasn't aware the prequels became good in 2012. Did someone remake them? Or are you just a contrarian shill?

 

[IrishLion]

[sigh]
I hate this narrative. It wasn’t, plain and simple. It has familiar notes, but any two movies about heroes battling villains will have similar notes. This argument is as tiresome as it is inaccurate.

It starts with stolen plans (a map) being entrusted to a droid.

Bad guy shows up and captures the first main protagonist that we meet.

Torture ensues.

Protagonist escapes with the help of another protagonist.

Main protagonist has a mysterious past, but somehow has powers that she must learn about.

Bad guy is motivated by a mysterious internal struggle.

Bad guy is trained by a mysterious overlord of some sort, whom we only see via hologram message.

Bad guys have a super weapon, which is a giant laser that blows up planets.

Super weapon has a weakness that is exploited, causing its destruction.

Main protagonist leaves at the end of the film to seek out a mentor, potentially for training.

C'mon man. That's point-for-point, basically, just with new window dressing and bigger weapons. The only difference is that Kylo Ren isn't an established badass the way Vader was, and that Rey doesn't meet a true mentor figure.

Otherwise, that is literally the entire plot of "A New Hope," and not just in the sense that "all movies with good guys versus bad guys will share similar traits."

 

[wizards8507]

I wasn't aware the prequels became good in 2012. Did someone remake them? Or are you just a contrarian shill?

They're still bad movies, but choosing to harp on that fact is a n00b Star Wars fan thing to do. It's like "Han shot first." Most of "the community" has come to appreciate the sequels for their underlying story. With better acting, directing, and writing, there's a lot of value in the story of Sheev Palpatine's rise and Anakin Skywalker's fall.

 

[zelezo vlk]

It starts with stolen plans (a map) being entrusted to a droid.

Bad guy shows up and captures the first main protagonist that we meet.

Torture ensues.

Protagonist escapes with the help of another protagonist.

Main protagonist has a mysterious past, but somehow has powers that she must learn about.

Bad guy is motivated by a mysterious internal struggle.

Bad guy is trained by a mysterious overlord of some sort, whom we only see via hologram message.

Bad guys have a super weapon, which is a giant laser that blows up planets.

Super weapon has a weakness that is exploited, causing its destruction.

Main protagonist leaves at the end of the film to seek out a mentor, potentially for training.

This is the plot, but to really get the TFA feel and pacing, you need to let a 3 year old on coke tell it.

 

[greyhammer90]

They're still bad movies, but choosing to harp on that fact is a n00b Star Wars fan thing to do. It's like "Han shot first." Most of "the community" has come to appreciate the sequels for their underlying story. With better acting, directing, and writing, there's a lot of value in the story of Sheev Palpatine's rise and Anakin Skywalker's fall.

You can say that. It doesn't mean its true. But you can say that.

Besides, your statement is a complete cop-out.

"I dislike the prequels."
"That's a noob thing to say. No Star Wars fan would say that in 2017. Everyone knows that with better writing, acting, directing, cinematography, action choreography, deemphasized digital effects, a more consistent tone, better scene structure, and a shorter run-time there could be some value."

 

[wizards8507]

You can say that. It doesn't mean its true. But you can say that.

Besides, your statement is a complete cop-out.

"I dislike the prequels."
"That's a noob thing to say. No Star Wars fan would say that in 2017. Everyone knows that with better writing, acting, directing, cinematography, action choreography, deemphasized digital effects, a more consistent tone, better scene structure, and a shorter run-time there could be some value."

You're missing the point. I'm not saying it's no longer acceptable to dislike the prequels, I'm saying it's a trite / banal / hackneyed / overused thing to harp on. The horse is dead, no need to keep beating it. Mr. Plinkett made his videos, there's nothing left to add.

 

[greyhammer90]

You're missing the point. I'm not saying it's no longer acceptable to dislike the prequels, I'm saying it's a trite / banal / hackneyed / overused thing to harp on. The horse is dead, no need to keep beating it. Mr. Plinkett made his videos, there's nothing left to add.

The author used one sentence in an entire story to describe his generations general attitude towards the prequels. He didn't even write that sentence to explicitly trash the prequels. He did it to illustrate the age group of fans he's discussing. You selected that one statement, took issue with it, and said he 's a filthy casual for hating on the prequels. I think it's reasonable to infer that you were defending the prequels quality considering that no one was beating the horse before you wheeled it out and attempted to proclaim it was breathing.

 

[Cackalacky]

You're missing the point. I'm not saying it's no longer acceptable to dislike the prequels, I'm saying it's a trite / banal / hackneyed / overused thing to harp on. The horse is dead, no need to keep beating it. Mr. Plinkett made his videos, there's nothing left to add.

This aspect is their defining quality. It is a primary and debilitating aspect of their existence. They are bad movies. If I want to truly understand the story of Palpatine, it will require digging into literature to discern it becasue the movies do a big disservice to the story. No one can be a noob for understanding this or even commenting on it. In fact Lucas should probably go to his grave knowing just how bad he messed this story arc up.

 

[wizards8507]

Moving on.

Have you guys watched any of the press tour promoting the movie? Adam Driver is absolutely fascinating. He's like Kylo Ren in street clothes IRL.

 

[zelezo vlk]

Moving on.

Have you guys watched any of the press tour promoting the movie? Adam Driver is absolutely fascinating. He's like Kylo Ren in street clothes IRL.

He's from Mishawaka I think? and a Marine. Very interesting dude as you point out. My first introduction to his acting was in This Is Where I Leave You, and Kyle Ren was my favorite part of TFA. He did very well in Midnight Special and Silence too

 

[greyhammer90]

Moving on.

 

[Cackalacky]

Your use of gifs is an art form sir.