Along that line of thought lies the likes of Phantom Menace, and thus madness.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Post-release)
- Thread starter Vivek
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Along that line of thought lies the likes of Phantom Menace, and thus madness.
Bull. The Prequels could have been good and exciting if George had turned over writing and directing -- at least partially -- to someone else. His weakness showed through. Beginner-level camera moves and shot framing (boring), people standing in semicircles talking... but above all not enough time on the things that should have been front and center, and too much time on things that needed less coverage -- or to happen offscreen altogether. The problem wasn't the politics. The biggest problem was George can't direct human beings. He doesn't like it, he's not comfortable with it, he's not good at it. And right behind that was the problem that George is a great idea guy... who then needs an actual skilled writer to take the idea and wring a coherent story from it.
George is most at home on the visual-effects stage and in the editing bay. But he feels that in order to control the raw material he has to work with when editing, he needs to do all the steps prior to that, too. Even in editing, though, I'd rather he at least would have considered professional collaboration with Marcia after their divorce. She was his critical brain. She's what kept his burp and fart jokes in check for the first two films. She was the one who urged him to leave in scenes the audience liked but he didn't, and to take out bits he loved but that fell flat in the test theaters.
I think JJ gets the gist of Star Wars, but tried to do too much in one go. Push TFA back six months to give it a May opening, and instead of Rebels (do that one later) start an animated series that covers at least some of that thirty year gap. But even then, I think the audience could have been better informed of what had changed since we last left Our Heroes, without muddying things down with boring exposition and political "intrigue". Even with nothing bridging the gap cinematically, a well-written opening crawl can bring everyone up to speed better than what we got. This was my first pass, not long after seeing it the second time:
Episode VII
THE FORCE AWAKENS
A generation has passed. Following
the death of the Emperor, the Rebel
Alliance declared a New Republic,
even though it was some time
before the Empire finally had to
surrender.
With real peace now possible, Luke
Skywalker began training a new
order of Jedi Knights. However, in a
mysterious tragedy, the academy
was destroyed, and Luke disappeared.
Now a new group has risen from the
ashes of the Empire, determined to
overthrow the Republic, and find and
destroy the last Jedi. Princess Leia
has organized an underground
resistance to oppose them and find
Skywalker first….
I've worked since then with a few tweaks here and there to the wording to tighten it up, but this is the gist, and gets things back to the model Star Wars and Empir established -- work from the general to the specific, with the last line leading to the opening shot, and the only words in all caps are words that would be in italics -- ship and space station names. TFA made me twitch with the FIRST ORDER and the REPUBLIC and the RESISTANCE -- treating it like a script, where the first mention of a person in a narrative slug is done in all caps so when you're skimming looking for it, it's easy to spot. But it's not how it's supposed to work. The only words in all caps in Star Wars and Empire were "DEATH STAR", because it was the proper name of a space station. As with the people kvetching about the font, or failure to accurately recreate the ANH Han Solo blaster, it's possible to do it, and the fact that they didn't rankles.
KrangPrime
Master Member
always with you, it can not be done ;o)....
watch clone wars, and tell me even galactic politics can't be interesting if done right ;o)
Snikt
Sr Member
Yeah the prequels would have been awesome if George Lucas didnt have anything to do with them. :lol
Yes, we've known that for about a year now... 
Been a nonzero amount of speculation she named herself Rey because she couldn't remember her real name and went with the one on the helmet.
Been a nonzero amount of speculation she named herself Rey because she couldn't remember her real name and went with the one on the helmet.
Reelo
Sr Member
That's not little Annie, that's Rey from the scene in TFA. Anakin's scavenged helmet was completely different.
The story of Rey's helmet is that it belonged to one "Dosmit Ræh" from the "Tierfon Yellow Aces" who got shot down during the Battle of Jakku.
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Only "Ræh" isn't pronounced like the English "Rey"
"Rei" or "Rej" would have been fine though :lol
The American and English pronunciation of "æ" allows for both "AY" and "EE". The true (modern) pronunciation is somewhere between those, but that's a subtlety neither can linguistically manage, a bit like the Scandinavian "ø". It is a matter of ongoing debate.
--Jonah
--Jonah
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Yup. The takeaway is that the filmmakers put that on the helmet intending it to be pronounced the same as the protagonist's name. I'm one that thinks that isn't coincidence, but we won't know until December (or possibly 2019).
--Jonah
--Jonah
bumping this to the top.
as some of you know i have had a obsession with the Behind the armory-Luke light saber
WARNING: i did not watch the whole video, so SPOILERS BEWARE
the youtube video i am posting, the kid claims Adam Driver used this saber during filming of Ep7. has anyone else heard any news of this? he starts mentioning this at 2:30 (which i highly encourage just skipping right to 2:30 )
before i get flamed, i know he's not the most reliable source. but a friend knows how much i obsess about this saber and linked me to the video. I for one haven't heard a single thing about Driver using this. and still to this day debate if its even in kylo's hand at the force back scene...
i have my own beliefs about whats in his hand, and its not lukes saber
as some of you know i have had a obsession with the Behind the armory-Luke light saber
WARNING: i did not watch the whole video, so SPOILERS BEWARE
the youtube video i am posting, the kid claims Adam Driver used this saber during filming of Ep7. has anyone else heard any news of this? he starts mentioning this at 2:30 (which i highly encourage just skipping right to 2:30 )
before i get flamed, i know he's not the most reliable source. but a friend knows how much i obsess about this saber and linked me to the video. I for one haven't heard a single thing about Driver using this. and still to this day debate if its even in kylo's hand at the force back scene...
i have my own beliefs about whats in his hand, and its not lukes saber
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JD
Master Member
SPOILERS! This is still supposed to be a spoiler-free thread.
This forum has a feature to hide spoilers - or even potential spoilers like this.
mkstewartesq
Sr Member
Am I missing something? The post stated "the kid claims Adam Driver used this saber during filming of Ep7". Episode 7 came out in December 2015. Are we still in a "spoiler free" zone for TFA?
M
Edit - ah, I see your concern - the blurb in the Youtube video, not the post. Anyways, all speculation.
JD
Master Member
...oops? I messed up. Clicking through the RPF after a 24-hour shift and I didn't realize which thread I was in and just missed Episode VII/TFA bit. It all just went kinda blended together in the moment.
Apologies all around.
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