Star Wars: Episode VII: The Nerd Rage Awakens

[cooleddie74]

Then that's their problem. The Prequels were largely considered a failure and widely loathed by fans (and man, did they have their serious and very annoying flaws) but they were three of the highest-grossing films in Hollywood history and each one sold enough toys and merchandise to fill a fleet of space cruisers.

Fans' expectations are just that: invididual and group ideas of what a movie should be like and when those ideas aren't seen as being matched by the finished product the producers are looked at like they're some kind of war criminals. This movie is going be a global blockbuster of epic proportions because it's the first new Star Wars movie in 32 years with Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher and the first live-action film in the franchise since 2005. It'll be successful from box office and merchandising points of view whether fans think it's the best movie since Empire or the worst one ever made.

I don't want to see Han Solo get killed and I still hope he doesn't, but if he does I'm not going to spend the next few years badmouthing J.J. and Kasdan on the Internet for it and acting as if the producers had some legal or moral obligation to give me precisely the film I wanted.

 

[Dream]

I can't wait for the 'tone poem' commercials!

You shouldn't expect any teasers that good from JJ "I'm going to hide as much of the movie as I can" Abrams.

 

[DWF]

Then that's their problem. The Prequels were largely considered a failure and widely loathed by fans (and man, did they have their serious and very annoying flaws) but they were three of the highest-grossing films in Hollywood history and each one sold enough toys and merchandise to fill a fleet of space cruisers.

Fans' expectations are just that: invididual and group ideas of what a movie should be like and when those ideas aren't seen as being matched by the finished product the producers are looked at like they're some kind of war criminals. This movie is going be a global blockbuster of epic proportions because it's the first new Star Wars movie in 32 years with Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher and the first live-action film in the franchise since 2005. It'll be successful from box office and merchandising points of view whether fans think it's the best movie since Empire or the worst one ever made.

I don't want to see Han Solo get killed and I still hope he doesn't, but if he does I'm not going to spend the next few years badmouthing J.J. and Kasdan on the Internet for it and acting as if the producers had some legal or moral obligation to give me precisely the film I wanted.

Yes well that's you, don't expect all of fandom to have the same feelings. The movie will provoke love, hate and indifference among the fans.

 

[cooleddie74]

I don't expect it, but I also don't care what most of them think.

Some Star Wars fans will say a new movie raped their childhood whether it was anything close to bad or not. Haters will hate and the fans who can put things in a more proper perspective will do that as well. If the new film genuinely disappoints or even sucks I'll be one of the first to say so and won't hold back, but I'm not going to judge the film based on rumors about an OT character that are whispered months before it even premieres.

 

[BigJake]

The Prequels were largely considered a failure and widely loathed by fans (and man, did they have their serious and very annoying flaws) but they were three of the highest-grossing films in Hollywood history and each one sold enough toys and merchandise to fill a fleet of space cruisers.

Why it's almost as if commercial success and artistic excellence are not directly related.

Nahhh, that's crazy talk.

 

[Tulin]

 

[Set Harth]

I like how they went all the way back to Naboo to check the reading!

 

[Hound of UIster]

Slave Medical Insurance wouldn't cover it.

 

[cooleddie74]

Why it's almost as if commercial success and artistic excellence are not directly related.

Nahhh, that's crazy talk.

Tell me about it, man. I mean, whenever somebody says "a movie made half a billion dollars so it has to be good" I have to resist smacking myself and wondering if we've entered some dark, parallel universe ruled by the insane. Everybody knows success always equals quality and vice versa.

 

[T J]

Jediabetes!? ROFL!

 

[DWF]

The Prequels were largely considered a failure and widely loathed by fans (and man, did they have their serious and very annoying flaws) but they were three of the highest-grossing films in Hollywood history and each one sold enough toys and merchandise to fill a fleet of space cruisers.

Why it's almost as if commercial success and artistic excellence are not directly related.

Nahhh, that's crazy talk.

Well nobody's made that claim, but artisic excellence is a mere matter of opinion, box office success though is money and it means that people over and over again paid the money to see the movie. But then no Star Wars haas ever won award for it's acting or writing.

Although Disney seems to think that The Age OF Ultron is a failure even though it made over a billion dollars, so unless TFA makes more than Avatar and Titnaic I'd expect the same reaction from Disney.

 

[fireproof78]

It would've been nice for Abrams dnd Kasdan to at least try to give us something new.

I'd say they still are. One of our lead characters is a former Stormtrooper, another is a girl who lives on her own as a scavenger, the villain isn't a Sith at all but someone who only idolizes them, and the main story appears to revolve around the search for a missing Luke Skywalker.

None of these concepts are very original if you have paid attention to the Expanded Universe.


[x]Stormtroopers/clonetroopers as heroes
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/CT-7567
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/CT-5555
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Allegiance_(novel)
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Survivor's_Quest

[x]Solo/Skywalker as a junkdealer.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ania_Solo

[x] Sith Wannabes
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Inquisitor
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Emperor%27s_Hand
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_Side_Elite

To be fair none of Star Wars is original! Lucas freely admits his inspirations from Dune, Flash Gordon, westerns, among others.

Also, so what if it isn't 100% original? If they take those elements and put them together in a fun and entertaining way, I'm not going to notice the fact that the cantina seen is a Western shoot-out, that the trench one is straight from Dam Busters, and the like.

So, is TFA going to be original? No, obviously not. Kylo is too much of a Vader stand-in for that to be true. But, it has a great amount of potential to be interesting take on the world.

Also, clones as heroes is interesting as well, but we had Davin Fel prior to them

The Prequels were largely considered a failure and widely loathed by fans (and man, did they have their serious and very annoying flaws) but they were three of the highest-grossing films in Hollywood history and each one sold enough toys and merchandise to fill a fleet of space cruisers.

Why it's almost as if commercial success and artistic excellence are not directly related.

Nahhh, that's crazy talk.

Well nobody's made that claim, but artisic excellence is a mere matter of opinion, box office success though is money and it means that people over and over again paid the money to see the movie. But then no Star Wars haas ever won award for it's acting or writing.

Although Disney seems to think that The Age OF Ultron is a failure even though it made over a billion dollars, so unless TFA makes more than Avatar and Titnaic I'd expect the same reaction from Disney.

Welcome to the world of Hollywood.

 

[Hound of UIster]

Although Disney seems to think that The Age OF Ultron is a failure even though it made over a billion dollars, so unless TFA makes more than Avatar and Titnaic I'd expect the same reaction from Disney.

74% rating on RT and it didn't surpass Avengers in the Boxoffice while still having a larger budget.

 

[Mach5]

Although Disney seems to think that The Age OF Ultron is a failure even though it made over a billion dollars, so unless TFA makes more than Avatar and Titnaic I'd expect the same reaction from Disney.

74% rating on RT and it didn't surpass Avengers in the Boxoffice while still having a larger budget.

I sincerely doubt anyone expected it too.

Calling a movie that made $458 mil. domestically (and another billion overseas) a "failure" is beyond ridiculous.

 

[DWF]

Although Disney seems to think that The Age OF Ultron is a failure even though it made over a billion dollars, so unless TFA makes more than Avatar and Titnaic I'd expect the same reaction from Disney.

74% rating on RT and it didn't surpass Avengers in the Boxoffice while still having a larger budget.

I sincerely doubt anyone expected it too.

Calling a movie that made $458 mil. domestically (and another billion overseas) a "failure" is beyond ridiculous.

Sequels have been generally surpassing the first movie, it's crazy but Disney I think really wanted it to beat Avatar's box office take. And yes it is ridiculous.

 

[Mach5]

Fun fact - in today's dollars / ticket prices "Revenge of the Sith" would have been ahead of Ultron by $40 mil. domestically. It opened in 615 less theaters too.

Ultron didn't have a snowball's chance in hell at reaching Avatar domestically, let alone worldwide. Jurassic World seemed to have a shot at one point, but it fell 110 mil. short. Nearly overtook Titanic, though. Needed just another 9 mil. Could still do it with a re-release.

 

[Corran Horn]

If Han dies, it'll be a very sad and poignant moment for me as a person who grew up with his character as part of my generation's pop culture identity and one of the most recognizable heroes of the big screen, but I won't be mad at the producers.

Yeah, I feel the same way.

In my head I've already booked it as happening so in the slight chance it does not I'll be that much happier.

 

[FPAlpha]

Then that's their problem. The Prequels were largely considered a failure and widely loathed by fans (and man, did they have their serious and very annoying flaws) but they were three of the highest-grossing films in Hollywood history and each one sold enough toys and merchandise to fill a fleet of space cruisers.

Fans' expectations are just that: invididual and group ideas of what a movie should be like and when those ideas aren't seen as being matched by the finished product the producers are looked at like they're some kind of war criminals. This movie is going be a global blockbuster of epic proportions because it's the first new Star Wars movie in 32 years with Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher and the first live-action film in the franchise since 2005. It'll be successful from box office and merchandising points of view whether fans think it's the best movie since Empire or the worst one ever made.

I don't want to see Han Solo get killed and I still hope he doesn't, but if he does I'm not going to spend the next few years badmouthing J.J. and Kasdan on the Internet for it and acting as if the producers had some legal or moral obligation to give me precisely the film I wanted.

Pretty much it. I don't care who dies in the movies as long as it works in the plot and theme of the movie, is done well and has meaning.

For example i was truly shocked when Wash was killed so suddenly in Serenity.. some asshole spoiled Book's death (the one time i really wanted to see a movie spoilerfree and avoided all spoiler sites like hell) which was sad but Wash came out of left field. However it worked within the context of the movie and the universe Firefly is set in.. an unforgiving and harsh world where many live day by day.

So if Han goes out blasters blazing so be it.. he wasn't the type of character who'd want to die peacefully in bed and he sure didn't live like this. I'm also sure that if JJ kills him off he will receive death threats and so many "He raped my childhood!" posts.. it's fandom after all and everybody has a slightly different view on things.

 

[fireproof78]

74% rating on RT and it didn't surpass Avengers in the Boxoffice while still having a larger budget.

I sincerely doubt anyone expected it too.

Calling a movie that made $458 mil. domestically (and another billion overseas) a "failure" is beyond ridiculous.

Sequels have been generally surpassing the first movie, it's crazy but Disney I think really wanted it to beat Avatar's box office take. And yes it is ridiculous.

It's their business. They can have ridiculous expectations if they want too

Also, given the hit that Avengers was, I think there was a sincere hope of catching Thor's lightning in a bottle again and sincere disappointment at what was actually done.

Regardless, I imagine that whatever Star Wars take is, Disney will be disappointed due to how much money they have spent on LFL.

No one ever said Hollywood made sense when it comes to budgeting. Some actors have not seen royalties from projects because the film has not "made a profit" according to the studios.

 

[Mach5]

Regardless, I imagine that whatever Star Wars take is, Disney will be disappointed due to how much money they have spent on LFL.

Doubtful. It wouldn't surprise me if they already made their money back through merchandise.

Any Force Friday numbers? Eddie?