Volitions Advocate on 1/11/2012 at 07:57

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Honestly, I had never seen this interview here. All I ever heard him say over and over again was that he thought Lucas should've directed it because it was his creation.

I never said Lynch was obligated to or wanted to and was forced not to. I'm just saying he would've done a superb job if he had applied his Idiom to the franchise. Everything we're talking about here is a "what if" so I can carry on with a bit of nonsense if I want.

@ fett

I get your point. The only Starwars books I ever read were the Han Solo trilogy and the X-wing books. I agree. an X wing movie would be pretty ace. Let the main characters rest. A bit of focus on something other than Jedi would be most welcome, but I think you're right, that won't happen.

heywood on 1/11/2012 at 09:46

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Bookmark this thread, so when the next movie comes out we can go back and see who eats their words. I think you're all high as Baumgartner's balloon (except fett).

First, it's fucking Disney, who are like the EA of movies only worse because they have near monopoly power. Disney is a sausage factory, not a creative enterprise. They specialise in grinding out a steady volume of sequels and formula driven stuff which is safe but mediocre. They ran out of ideas in the 1990s and ever since then they have sustained themselves by signing distribution deals and buying up proven franchises. Disney's execs see it as an IP holding company and their business model is to milk every drop out of their back catalog.

I blame them for killing the golden goose of creativity at Pixar. The last two films in the pipe when Disney bought Pixar were Wall-E and Up, and these turned out to be the last fresh ideas out of the studio. Under Disney's reign we've gotten Cars 2, Toy Story 3, Brave (a Disney formula flick), and in production now are more sequels to Monsters and Nemo. We haven't seen the Disney effect on Marvel yet because recent releases like The Avengers were half way through production when Disney acquired them. But I don't expect it will be an improvement. For those defending Disney, what good shit have they put out recently besides stuff they acquired which was already under production?

Second, it's still fucking George Lucas. There's no way in a million years that Disney is going to go off on a new path and invest $150-200M in a new story line and new characters when they can get a safe, predictable ROI by carrying on with the existing Lucas story. It's just not in the company DNA. Disney considers its IP, particularly its characters, to be its biggest assets. They're not going to throw them out the window. And if the next movie is going to come out in 2015, then a lot of writing and early production work has already been done by Lucas and/or his people. Disney isn't likely to throw that out or put a new team on it now.

Third, the kind of Star Wars movie that we'd like isn't necessarily the one with maximum market appeal. It seems that most people I know who were born since the late 80s tend to prefer Ep 1-3 over the original trilogy. Who do you think Lucas and Disney are more interested in appealing to, those of us who grew up with Ep 4-6 or the younger generation who grew up with Ep 1-3? I'm betting the latter.

heywood on 1/11/2012 at 11:47

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Toy Story 3 came out as good as it possibly could have, and in technical merit it was better than Toy Story 2 which was better than Toy Story 1. But I'm ambivalent about it and wouldn't have bothered watching it if my wife hadn't insisted. I'll admit it held my attention, but that's not saying much and it wasn't memorable. It just seemed like more of the same thing. I'd honestly rather just watch the original again.

The original Cars was a decent movie. Not as clever as their best stuff, but better than most of the shit that DreamWorks Animation churns out. Cars 2 was just bleh.

Brave is the one I'm most disappointed in, since it wasn't a sequel. The problem with Brave is that it seemed like a typical Disney formula flick and lacked the things that made Pixar films special. I struggled to stay with it.

fett on 1/11/2012 at 14:37

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I don't see how I'm being Chicken Little. I've admitted it could turn out great, it could be something new and fantastic, that I would welcome a new, well told story.

But the "sky is falling" part that wasn't being discussed previous to this page is exactly the stuff heywood mentions. There is no "new" story with "new" characters being created by a "new" writer. They have specifically stated they are using Lucas' notes for these episodes which we already know continue on from ROTJ. So all this "YAY IT WILL BE BETTER" comes off like sticking your fingers in your ears and chanting "lalalalala." You're not listening to what is being said - you're concocting some imaginary redemption scenario that simply doesn't exist - because Lucas and Disney have both said that it doesn't - not because I'm having nerd rage.

And heywood is exactly right. Up was the last great Pixar film TS3 was fine, but everything since then has been an utter Transformer style shitpile. Was there honestly any difference between Brave and Tangled? Not only did they take a real-life story and make it so fantastical that most people lost all suspension of disbelief (hurrrr, her mom turned into a bear because she was a BAD GIRL), they did it on the heels of films that created compelling characters out of cars, toys, rats, and monsters in the closet. Pixar has been going down the crapper for about 4 years now. I still love what they do, but it's nowhere near as good. And like heywood said, Disney gets no credit for the Avengers. I will tip my hat to them for the new Muppet Movie - fantastic job. But otherwise, there's not much to recommend here in terms of taking a dying IP and "saving it." Disney plays it safe, and don't intend to stray very far from Lucas' original intent. Hopefully they'll see the error of that in the months to come because this has the potential to be awesome. But right now, if they stay this course, it would be near impossible to pull off.

Now the nerd rage part: Yes, there is something to lose. The prequels can be ignored because the original films stand/stood without them. Maybe the same will be true for the sequels. But because it's the same characters, that's going to be very difficult to ignore. What's lost is the "sanctity" (admitted nerd rage here) of the originals. But worse, IMO is the obliteration of the EU, which has done a more than spectacular job of carrying on the stories of those characters. Young prequel fans don't give two shits about Han and Leia, or Lando - yet, those are the characters that (apparently) we will be returning to. So not only will it not appeal to younger fans as much, it will alienate and further piss-off the hard-core older fans that have kept the EU alive with money and attention for 20 years. I have no idea who the hell is supposed to win in this situation except Disney stockholders. /nerd rage

Stitch on 1/11/2012 at 15:34

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So yeah, lets move on from the emotional explosions and talk new Star Wars. What do we know about them?

They're sequels to the original trilogy, which makes sense and is totally doable.

They're sticking to the outlines written up by Lucas, which I think is a good idea (Lucas has been the center of Star Wars, for good or bad, so I like the idea of him playing some part while still being kept in check)

To what degree are they going to feature the original characters? Do we know? I do think the further adventures of Luke, Han, and Leia would be a mistake, but I don't see why they couldn't play peripheral roles in a series focusing on the next generation.