Star Wars: The Franchise

[alpierce]

Eh, Lucas wrote Star Wars backwards. This is never a good idea. Also, he sold out with Return of the Jedi. If he had concentrated on writing a good movie...

[Binky]

I guarantee Lucas watched it and wanted:

Lots of melodramatic, boring conversation about vaguely menacing things

A 15-20-minute CGI animal chase

LOTS of exposition about the political system

Awkward verbalization of abstract emotions

Longer, but ultimately pointless but for shinyness, space battles.

[Mierin]

Dec 30, 2015 21:09:44 GMT -4 Freelance Exorcist said:

2 Storm Troopers backing out when Kylo was having his tantrum.

If this scene isn't already a .gif and hasn't supplanted the skittering octopus as the latest "NOPE" meme, I'm writing a strongly-worded letter to the Internet to change that.

Agreed!

[Neurochick]

Dec 31, 2015 3:11:04 GMT -4 Martini Girl said:

So apparently George Lucas is bitter, table for one over the new Star Wars, and compared Disney to "White Slavers". Get over yourself George. You got 4-billion for your troubles.

I think he's genuinely butt hurt this film was more warmly received with critics and fans.

I got the impression that Lucas was more pissed because Disney did a retro, while he had other ideas and Disney didn't ask him for his input, hate to say it, but even though I loved the movie, it was retro, a lot of it was like "A New Hope" from the death star to the bar scene. But it worked because it was good.

The man will always be the creator of Star Wars, no matter what JJ does. What does it say on screen, "Based on characters created by George Lucas," that's what it says.

But yeah, take the $$$ and run darling, spend time with your older kids, and your wife and young daughter.

But I will always adore Lucas for telling Ronald Reagan to fuck off and that he couldn't call his nuclear program "Star Wars."

[Persephone]

Dec 31, 2015 13:39:13 GMT -4 Binky said:

I guarantee Lucas watched it and wanted:

Lots of melodramatic, boring conversation about vaguely menacing things

A 15-20-minute CGI animal chase

LOTS of exposition about the political system

Awkward verbalization of abstract emotions

Longer, but ultimately pointless but for shinyness, space battles.

And a giant-ass parade/party at the end that means nothing.

[iClaudia]

Dec 31, 2015 1:11:34 GMT -4 nemmie said:

Oh man, I loved it. Love. I am in the camp that it was superior to any of the previous films. To me the acting, dialogue, and directing were all better than A New Hope (no offense to Mr. Lucas, who came up with an amazing journey story, and will always deserve all the credit in the world for creating this franchise).

We saw it in 3D as soon as it came out. And admittedly, the nostalgia hit me hard because my Kindergartener found it to be just amazing, magical, perfect, basically All The Things. He loves Rey and thinks she is the best thing EVAR. He plays Star Wars 24/7, takes apart the living-room furniture to recreate scenes from the movie, creates elaborate Star Wars Lego set ups and plays for hours, talks nonstop about it. His dad just took him again last night as a reward for a good week. He is essentially me, of 30 years ago, and it makes my heart happy. To me that's the best part.

I read something today that Disney is really going to be crankin' out the movies - 9 scheduled in 7 years, is that right? Damn!

I saw it today, and this pretty much my reaction minus the kindergartener (but I am sure if I had one, s/he would be the same way!). My J.J. Abrams love has gone to a whole new level.

[lea1977]

What would you like to see differently in the next movie? Plays too much to little kids, I hope they change that.

[Martini Girl]

Dec 31, 2015 14:32:09 GMT -4 Neurochick said:

Dec 31, 2015 3:11:04 GMT -4 Martini Girl said:

So apparently George Lucas is bitter, table for one over the new Star Wars, and compared Disney to "White Slavers". Get over yourself George. You got 4-billion for your troubles.

I think he's genuinely butt hurt this film was more warmly received with critics and fans.

I got the impression that Lucas was more pissed because Disney did a retro, while he had other ideas and Disney didn't ask him for his input, hate to say it, but even though I loved the movie, it was retro, a lot of it was like "A New Hope" from the death star to the bar scene. But it worked because it was good.

The man will always be the creator of Star Wars, no matter what JJ does. What does it say on screen, "Based on characters created by George Lucas," that's what it says.

But yeah, take the $$$ and run darling, spend time with your older kids, and your wife and young daughter.

But I will always adore Lucas for telling Ronald Reagan to fuck off and that he couldn't call his nuclear program "Star Wars."

He was upset with the retro aspect, but from what I can tell, that's what fans and critics wanted!! However, I learned long ago that George doesn't give a sh*t about what fans want.

There are a generation of filmmakers who don't care about character development. All they care about are the special effects and shiny new toys they get to play with. And instead of having a movie (I'm looking at you Superman reboot), fans are left watching filmmakers masturbate over their cool effects. To me, this was a huge part of the problem with the prequels. George finally got to play with all the toys he wanted and that's where his focus was. Not on the actors, or the screenplay. And eventually, those effects will look less than stellar and you'll have a very mediocre film.

I saw George at a talk several years ago, and he was so arrogant and devoid of personality that I had to leave. I get it, you created a universe that changed my childhood, and I'll always be grateful for that. But your ego outmatched your talent long ago, and the last films you made were dreadful. And this isn't just some unpopular opinion. There was a reason people were cheering over the fact you would have nothing to do with this franchise moving forward.

Also, there seems to be some confusion on whether or not George actually took his $4billion payment and donated the $$$ to education as promised. I'll be very sad if this didn't happen.

[codert]

The Charlie Rose interview was fascinating. In the context of the interview I understand his use of "white slaves." Seems he is anti Hollywood. I loved his advice on breaking up. So true. Have to move on. He has moved on but I really would like to see the movies he is working on just because. Watching the extra DVDs that come with the box set really helped me understand all the work that went in to the movie. I may be alone but I enjoyed the prequels. Especially episode II. I enjoyed this one also but it is episode I've all over and I am ok with that. I look forward to how the next two episodes will unfold. At the premiere it was nice to see George on the red carpet sort of passing the baton. I like that he was self aware enough to know that if he was involved with the new movie that he would muck it up.

[putch]

Dec 31, 2015 17:18:02 GMT -4 lea1977 said:

What would you like to see differently in the next movie? Plays too much to little kids, I hope they change that.

I really hope that there will be more substance to the story. The action scenes were good but I felt the story was a little thin.