The Old School Otaku Lounge

While the original Star Wars trilogy was made with passion and innovation, now that Disney has acquired the rights to Star Wars, it seems that they're just making new Star Wars movies for the sake of just making new Star Wars movies. As dumb as the prequels were, at least they were some sort of vision that George Lucas had. Of course, this vision was unchecked by the lack of a collaborative process and was obviously the result of groupthink and "yes mans", at least there was some sort of thought behind it. Now it's just, "Hey, let's make some new Star Wars movies. We'll figure out what they're about later."

And the main creative force behind these new SW movies is JJ Abrams, the hit-or-miss director behind a lot of stuff these days. I kinda liked his first Star Trek movie, except for giving Spock a raging case of the "not-gays" and making out with Uhura, who was certainly not as classy and refined as Nichelle Nichols' portrayal of the character. With the followup movie from last year, I was just rolling my eyes constantly as he tried so desperately to rehash The Wrath of Khan. He took the most popular Trek movie and just tried to rehash it, along with adding a bunch of "9/11 was an inside job" conspiracy bullcrap. I am afraid that this guy is going to take the most popular Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back, and just try to rehash it. Not make new movies in the same spirit as TESB, but just recycle it, just like everything else in Hollywood is recycled.

I hope the new, upcoming Star Wars movies pretend that the prequels never happened. If I see just one Gungan, some battledroid, any of the stupid cartoony aliens, the portrayal of Jedi as loathesome soulless loners sitting around on Ikea furniture all day doing nothing, or even the mention of any midichlorians or a virgin birth, then I will be very upset. As much as I didn't mind Ewan McGregor as Obi Wan, I just do not want to see any of the prequel actors show up in the new movies at all.

What do you think of this obvious cash grab? Is there anything worth looking forward to, or is it just an excuse to keep a license going, like these current lame Spider-Man movies?

Sorry to disappoint you then...from what I have read, the original films, the prequels and the TV series will be the only canon. They will use Lucas' writings of "this is what happened next" as the basis for the next 3 films. Many fans are disappointed that the material including the many novels approved by Lucas will not be considered canon but that's it for now. I'm actually interested to see where this is all supposed to go from here on out...

Well, I think JJ Abrams has enough sense to realize how the prequels failed to truly endear to people and stand the test of time. I think he probably has enough both business and geek sense to stay away from the prequels nightmare. At least that's what I'm hoping. It's like how Highlander 3 completely ignored Highlander 2 as though it had never existed, or like how the (albeit boring) Superman Returns ignored the existence of the 3rd and 4th movies.

You do know they are rebooting Highlander...

_D_ wrote:You do know they are rebooting Highlander...

No, I wasn't aware of that. More brilliance from Hollywood, apparently. I'm sick of these reboots.

I'm really torn on how I feel about the upcoming Star Wars movies.

At one time, I was a big Star Wars fan; movies, figures, books, video games, you name it. I remember being so excited for the release of Episode I that I watched one of the original trilogy movies nearly every day for months leading up to it! However, I've become very disenchanted with the franchise in the years since. While the prequels typically garner the most criticism from fans, even the well-received additions to the mythos (such as the two Clone Wars animated series) have done little to excite me. I've enjoyed them occasionally, but it never comes close to capturing what the magic of Star Wars once felt like to me.

Perhaps this is just a part of getting older or a byproduct of becoming more interested in other franchises and fandoms, but I'm not sure any new Star Wars movie will send chills down my spine the way that the original trilogy is still able to do.

I'm sure I'll see Episode VII, maybe it will even capture the magic again for me. I'll have to stop short of saying that I'm excited about it though...at least not yet.

I'll admit, I'm optimistic regarding this, but it can go either way. That said, after what happened with Jorge, I'll take anyone else to take his place, even Uwe Boll.

I wouldn't go as far as to say Uwe Boll, or even Michael Bay, but I'd trust Star Wars in the hands of a genuine Star Wars fan over Lucas anyday now.

To read up on how George treated people, check out this article and this article. Lucasfilm would have a rep come and tell everyone how to speak to Lucas, such as never correcting him, never questioning him, and never saying "no" to him. Even when he has the lamebrain idea of "let's make these two characters friends" even though they lived hundreds of years apart and "well, let's make one a ghost" and coming up with stupid names like "Darth Icky" or "Darth Insanious." Then follows the uncomfortable silence when everyone realizes he isn't joking. Apparently Lucas just got to the point where he didn't give crap about Star Wars.

Read what this guy said about his experience working at Lucas Digital Arts. It is obvious that Lucas just didn't give a crap about his own employees, either.

I'd argue that Boll and Bay's stuff are AT LEAST amusing enough to not bore me to sleep, like Jorge's prequels.

Interesting articles. Thanks, greg.

Kame-Sen'nin wrote:I'm really torn on how I feel about the upcoming Star Wars movies.

At one time, I was a big Star Wars fan; movies, figures, books, video games, you name it. I remember being so excited for the release of Episode I that I watched one of the original trilogy movies nearly every day for months leading up to it! However, I've become very disenchanted with the franchise in the years since. While the prequels typically garner the most criticism from fans, even the well-received additions to the mythos (such as the two Clone Wars animated series) have done little to excite me. I've enjoyed them occasionally, but it never comes close to capturing what the magic of Star Wars once felt like to me.

Perhaps this is just a part of getting older or a byproduct of becoming more interested in other franchises and fandoms, but I'm not sure any new Star Wars movie will send chills down my spine the way that the original trilogy is still able to do.

I'm sure I'll see Episode VII, maybe it will even capture the magic again for me. I'll have to stop short of saying that I'm excited about it though...at least not yet.

I pretty much feel EXACTLY the same way, right down to the luke-warm feelings about even the good Star Wars spin-offs. They're good, yeah, but not nearly the same type of good as those original movies.

I think that's one of the problems with the franchise currently....everyone seems to be working too hard to recapture the ol' glory days of Star Wars. And in the process, they're just kinda...meh. Even the fun stuff like Clone Wars and Lego Star Wars just smacks of trying too hard to me. And it doesn't help that it seems like there's new Star Wars shows/specials/books/games coming out ALL THE TIME. It's gotten to the point where I don't even really consider the brand a "geek" thing anymore...Star Wars stuff is so easily found and readily available that it's more of a mainstream entertainment brand at this point.

So basically I'm not holding my breath over the new SW movies...so if they suck, I won't be too disappointed, and if they're at least fairly good, maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.