Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII For 1, we know Abrams is involved, and that's all that needs to be said. The guy outright killed Star Trek, and turned its corpse into the most brainless action film he could get away with. He in no way revived it. He just turned its corpse into cheap fodder for 13 year olds. It would have been a mercy, and better for the franchise, to leave it dead. He's basically guaranteed that we'll never see real Star Trek again from movies or TV. As for casting, if we get the original three then the movie will have at least three good casting choices. If none of them are in it, we'll be lucky if its just as bad as Star Trek's cast. For #2, it doesn't matter who else is working on it. JJ is writing and directing it, its his movie. Kasdan has no say in what happens, its all JJ. He was hired to make money, and c%^p like JJ Trek and Transformers made money, so this will just be more of the same. He's proven that he does one thing well. He turns good franchises into mindless action films, and doesn't care about the franchise in question. He's the Emperor of SW, unless he literally loses his mind he's definitely going to get whatever he wants. Ok, 3 is just hilarious. Disney doesn't care about Star Wars, they care about money. If they thought it would make them money, Episode 7 would be all about R2-D2 and C-3PO teaming up with Jar Jar to save the Ewoks. They are more than willing to give SW to the guy who basically made Transformers in space. Star Wars was officially dead the moment he came on board. No one who can turn out JJ Trek has an ability to do anything good. He's a hack but, much like Michael Bay, he makes brain dead movies for people who want them, and they make money. There is literally no one I think would be worse for SW. I'd take M. Night Shyamalan over Abrams, at least then SW would have some chance of surviving in some form that resembled its original version. As it is, be ready for another idiotic action movie with a sci fi skin, because that's all Abrams is good for.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII This is a guy who would be eating some grapes, bite into a bad one and blame JJ Abrams. Do you honestly expect anything more from him?
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII Nolan. Abrams. Clearly a tag team of History's Greatest Monsters®. How they haven't stood in shackles before The Hague I'll never know.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII Well, between me REALLY hating Abrams, and so many people on Trekbbs refusing to believe their patron saint of stupid movies has any flaws, it all probably evens out.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII Jar Jar Binks was the best thing Lucas did with the prequel films.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII He's no patron saint. I think the Transformers films are loud, overrated and overblown junk. I believe he did a pretty good job with the last two Trek movies and they were entertaining. They weren't Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Godfather, but they were fun. The Star Trek movie franchise was rescued from near-death. Are we all delusional fools? Episode VII will be just fine. You'll see.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII Which doesn't exclude Kirk5555 from hating it when it's done. He has a preconceived opinion with which he'll watch the movie and focus on all the things that will confirm it. But it will only be his opinion and doesn't say anything about the overall quality of the movie. He has the right to hate everything under the moon if he wants to, it's just the way he presents his negative opinion as the general consensus and fact sometimes that rubs the wrong way. For me the movie could go either way, I won't know until I've seen it
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII Hey, for all we know Episode VII could be the biggest bomb since the height of Cold War nuclear testing - I'm just not gonna bury the thing before it's even been born. I remember all the folks who said that Daniel Craig would ruin the James Bond franchise. How's that workin' out for ya?
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII Alot of people who felt that way about Daniel Craig still feel that way, for many no amount of success will mean anyhing. The prequels wree highly successful movies and generally well liked, it's only sci-fi and fantasy fans who ontinue to rank about them. IMO it's far too early to tell much of anything about the Star Wars sequels.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII I'll take mediocre Star Wars (and Trek) over most other sci-fi/fantasy anyday. There are a hundred legitimate gripes to voice about the dramatic failings of films like Attack of the Clones, but it's classic H.G. Wells or Bradbury compared to a lot of the other stuff being cranked out in the genre. It's all relative, really, and it always will be.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII What's opinion about, then? Who watches a movie, hates it, then says "Well, I may hate it, but since others like it, it can't possibly be a bad movie"? Also, I always say my opinion is just that, my opinion. Your free to like what you like, just like I am, and I don't claim to have the only opinion, or the most subjectively valid one, because there isn't one opinion, when you get down to it, that is any better than others. Its all based on personal likes or dislikes. Still, you'd almost think no movies are allowed to be called bad by some people. Its fine if you disagree, but I can hate movies I think are terrible, even if you like them, and its just as valid an opinion as people who praise those movies. Also, if your implying I'd just love these movies if I didn't have "preconceived notions", thats just stupid. I had no preconceived notions when I first saw Star Trek 09, and I hated it. I didn't focus on things to hate, I really had no idea who Abrams was and it was another ST movie, which I was excited for. It was horrible, though, so of course it influences my opinion of Abrams work. That said, if he could make something that was any good, I'd admit it. No movie gets a bad review from me, once I've seen it, because I had already decided it was a bad movie, or was looking for reasons to dislike it. Even when I think something will suck, I'll give it a chance when I watch it (that's why I bother to watch stuff like Into Darkness, to give it a chance). But, when you outright loathe a movie, the sequel is almost certainly not going to change your opinion. Still, Into Darkness didn't need any special effort to dislike, the bad acting and horrible story were more than enough. That's what I expect from Ep VIII, and I doubt I'll be surprised. I'd take mediocre ST and SW over some things too, especially over JJ Abrams movies.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII Your opinion based on not seeing the final product yet. Which is perfectly valid, because I have directors whose prior films I don't like either and there's no reason I have to see their new film in order to say that it's probably not for me. The difference being, once I know who's directing, and I know I'll probably not like it, I really don't have anything further to contribute to the thread, so I bow out from that point on. I don't continue to harp on that one single issue over and over again and dominate the entire thread with my complaints, which is something you do continuously, whether it's about Man of Steel or Christopher Nolan superhero films or Gal Gadot playing Wonder Woman or this. That's why people take issue with you, not just because they don't like your opinion. It's that you make every thread you participate in all about you and your one-note extremely premature opinion which you have no intention of altering, and you keep hammering that singular complaint into the ground when there's no room for a discussion to really develop from it. You need to learn that you don't have to grace everyone with your opinion about everything, especially if you're not even the slightest bit interested or encouraged about the project from the get go. Or, at the very least, once you've made your point the first time, and there's nowhere else to go with it, then let it go and let other people who are more interested in the subject matter than you continue the discussion. As it is, it just looks like you enjoy being the center of attention, and discussing the movies themselves are secondary to that.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII This. So much. I've certainly done more than my share of complaining about the Prequels (and will likely complain more in the future), but the fact remains that I am still hopelessly in love with that universe and will always look forward to another opportunity to visit it.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII I like them, but I don't know if they're generally liked. They weren't exactly critically acclaimed and sites like rotten tomatoes typically show them as rated about 60%. That's not entirely flattering for them. But yeah, only fans continue to complain about them. I look forward to the new movies, but I think I might be a Star Trek / Star Wars whore. There are certain franchises that I just can't quit, no matter what.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII Pssst...People tend to feel insulted when you make derogatory remarks about the fans of movies you don't like. Saying JJ is making his movies for 13 year olds, is crossing into making derogatory remarks about those who like his Trek movies. I'm 2 months shy of 50, not 13.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII Yeah they weren't critical hits but the movies made money and I'm sure they get plenty of viewers during the marathons on Spike otherwise there'd be no reason to keep running them.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII Counting the take of the 2012 3-D rerelease, Episode I has made $474.5 million domestic, $14 million ahead of the original film and ranking it #5 all-time. For a movie so many fanboys spit on as the violation of their very childhoods it tore up the North American and global box offices and became a phenomenon.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII I guess you have a point there. Even if they do focus on the Big Three, they could always leave the actions scenes to the kids, or just not do the big action scenes I was picturing when I wrote my other post. Although being a big budget sci-fi summer/winter blockbuster and JJ Abrams movie, there's probably going to be some kind of action scenes in it.
Re: New Casting and Story Rumors re: EPISODE VII Thanks for saying all that in much nicer terms than I would've used. Your Iron Eagle IV DVD is in the mail (a reference to a thread from quite a while back).