Star Wars Episode VII Discussion, News, Interviews (12/18/2015)

I actually think the Jedi screenplay wasn't that great. It was trying too hard to wrap things up. Everything the characters said was plot-related, whereas the other two films the characters spoke about the little details of the world they lived in as if they actually lived there. I guess I'm having trouble explaining my point, but Jedi's screenplay was simply efficient but way to rigidly structured. A little pat.

Mods, please merge threads!

 

I agree. Aside from that, in their hurry to wrap up all the plot threads, Jedi felt more like two movies in one.

 

nah man, you explained it PERFECTLY. I enjoy jedi for what it is, and the stuff with luke, emperor, vader is fantastic. but you are right, it was lacking. and it doesn't all fall on the ewoks, although they deserve some of the blame(moreso lucas but you catch my drift). the thing is, I think a lot of people are thinking in their clearly deranged heads that if this movie doesn't get near empire strikes back its a bust and abrams is a hack. but that's simply not the case. we just need a GOOD star wars film, but hopefully a REALLY good or great one. at least after what we have had to live with over the past decade and a half. by the way I love all of you and if I could invite every one of you trekker bastards to my wedding(if im lucky enough to have one) I would. cheers to nerdiness. we live in such wonderful times! I guess im optimistic and in a good mood today?

 

Thank you! You seem like a genuinely interesting person!

Yeah, I agree the emperor, Luke, & Vader scenes have a lot of pathos (even if the throne room set isn't nearly as interesting as the location of the duels in Empire) and the space battle was fantastic.

I think a better screenplay would not have needed Ewoks, but, since they are there, they are used in interesting ways, making the ground battle one that was really fun to watch.

But again, the screenplay simply painted by the numbers (the sole exception was the fact that I believe that Luke crossed over to the Dark Side for a brief amount of time in the film in order to beat Vader - and Vader was actually scared for the first time; that was risky) but everything else seemed written, and nothing breathed, nothing made me feel like I was learning more about the universe, where as Empire, and in particular, it's third act, was all about making the universe feel both bigger and yet more finely detailed. Even the first film with talk about harvesting seasons and moisture vaporators all added to the canvas that this is a real, working universe. Jedi only played lip-service to these notions, and the pacing wasn't too good.

If anything, it was the heroes (Han, Leia, Luke, Lando, and Chewie) that we know who should have stolen the Imperial Shuttle and got word that the Emperor was going to be on the Death Star, not some rebel people we never meet. That would have made it interesting. And maybe send them to Endor on the shuttle without getting any support initially from the rest of the alliance. See, already, the screenplay would have been more interesting.

They needed to light a fire under that screenplay.

 

Studios often rush to premiere before the year's out, hoping to catch some Academy Award nominations while the picture is still fresh in the minds of the voters, rather than waiting for another year. Perhaps more importantly, the Golden Globe Awards are held in January awarding films released in the previous year. This helps build the foreign press buzz.

 

Star Wars was part of Iger's larger strategy in 2015.

 

Does anyone know if the new date will put it head-to-head with Avatar 2?

 

Jedi was the weakest and least satisfying of the OT scripts and films by a mile but I'll still give Kasdan credit where credit's due. Episode VI had its share of weaknesses (not the least of which were the defanging of Han Solo as an edgy character and the film feeling more like one long, 130-minute merchandise commercial more than it did an epic space fantasy-adventure film) but I still liked it a lot and I liked it more than most of the Prequel Trilogy.

Storywise Jedi does feel more rushed and the pivotal moment that Luke tells Leia that she's his sister lacks the emotional impact it might otherwise would have had thanks to Carrie Fisher's mediocre acting and the hurried sense of "let's get this brother/sister/Darth Vader's-really-our-dad thing out of the way so we can get more Ewoks throwing spears on the screen," but it's still a good movie and a wonderful childhood memory even if it's the runt of the Original Trilogy.

 

I'm still not entirely convinced Avatar 2 is going to happen. But if it does, I don't think it'll actually come out in 2015.

 

Oh, Avatar 2, 3 and even 4 are most definitely happening (right now actually), but I think you are right 2015 is doubtful.

 

Some histrionic moron on one of the sites reporting the Episode VII news posted something along the lines of "this why I want George Lucas to die. Star Wars movies come out in May and are for summer, not Christmas!"

I've expressed my own share of frustration with George Lucas and his creative and directorial choices in recent years and the man's light-years from perfect, but when you claim to be a fan and want him TO DIE because of things like a Disney- and Kathleen Kennedy-directed release date that likely had very little if nothing to do with George, then you are an embarassment to the fanbase and an example of why human beings need to maintain at least some basic touch with reality and common sense when it comes to being a sci-fi/fantasy fan.

If going to see a movie seven months later than you wanted to (and after an entire 10-year wait since the last film in the series) makes you wish death on a man who no longer wields the control over his creation that he once did, then you need to buy a first-class ticket out of Dicksville and stop taking a fictional universe that seriously.

 

While it would've been nice to see the May Release tradition continued, December's not a bad time to release a blockbuster movie like this, and it does have precedent, as the original Star Wars had been scheduled to be released in December of '76 before the production problems pushed its release back to May of '77.

 

Wih both Avengers 2 and B& S coming out in summer, moving it to winter was smart

 

Not counting the TCW film, which knocks it down to 7...

 

I meant, of course, live-action Episodes, but yeah - the TCW film is considered canon (but many fans consider it almost a form of blasphemy to include it with Episodes I through VI ). Still, whether seven or ten years it'd be the second-longest wait between two theatrical Star Wars movies after the long gap from Jedi to Phantom.

 

Just think of it as Episode II.V.

...how did the Romans do decimals again?

 

They didn't. They used fractions.

 

and Gods people said.....AMEN.

 

...but Christmas IS in the summer... I'm just glad we're not having another winter release for a Star Wars film!

 

Yes Christmas is in the summer and what a Star Wars summer that will be..