Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Pre-release)

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Edwardowan said:
LOL! Disney acquisition is a $4.2 Billion investment... Disney won't let this fail.. I'm sure if there was any weird Disney input that JJ or Kathleen Kennedy didn't feel was right they would tell them and Disney would be appreciative of the constructive criticism and back off. I have a good feeling about this movie.
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But the level of rhetoric and hyperbole post acquisition was absurd. A lot of people opining with poorly considered opinions. Internet.
 
Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Bryancd said:
But the level of rhetoric and hyperbole post acquisition was absurd. A lot of people opining with poorly considered opinions. Internet.
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exactly. I stopped reading those comments. Disney is good by me. much of what I read is just childish ignorance anyway... Disney has really stepped up their game in the past couple of years. Sure, major corporations can have strange if not idiotic policy or direction but at least Eisner isn't at the helm any longer... Disney surrounds themselves with smart people these days and the board is strong. Its a marketing and distribution powerhouse and that ruffles the feathers of some but with disney Star Wars has found new life.

STAR WARS™ is BACK!
 
Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I think we're off the beaten path a little bit. But, I am a huge Kevin Smith fan, granted he get's pigeonholed a bit because of his "potty humor." But, there's something special about Chasing Amy (although it took me a long time to truly appreciate it) and Clerks... I'd even go so far as to include Red State, because of how far it was away from his "safety net."

While I may've lost a little interest with him building his "podcast empire" and well, once he went from a moviemaker about potheads to an actual pothead - I still look forward to what's next from Kevin. Now, his next movie, Tusk has very little appeal to me... but, I don't know what to expect... I know it's Kevin Smith, so I will see it and will have some hope for it (and hey, Johnny Depp's in it).

- - - Updated - - -

...and yes, the Evening with Kevin Smith DVDs are well worth watching. Especially the first one (watch it first, kids).
 
Re: Star Wars Episode VII

With Doug Chiang and Iain McHaig designing stuff again ... does it look like a metal penis?
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Actually, no. I mean, beyond the obvious fact that it is essentially a straight tube with features, no.
 
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Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Edwardowan said:
...She doesn't really look much like a young Carrie so if she is indeed young Leia I'm not sure we old fans will be able to visually accept it!
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Carrie barely looks like Carrie these days; I think the older fans might have a harder time accepting that. :lol

But seriously, I've seen so many movies and/or television shows in which the actor playing the "young/younger" version of a character looks nothing like the actor playing the "current age" character that I'm surprised when there's actually a resemblance between the two. As long as she can act, I think it'll be fine.
 
Re: Star Wars Episode VII

clancampbell said:
Doug Chiang is a designer on EP7? Oh no......his production paintings always seemed static and dull...i never got his stuff, and i never think he truly got Star Wars.....of course, Lucas could be blamed for that too.

On the other hand, i think Ian McCaig was a genius.....

Well, i guess i'll wait and see.

Rich
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I'm with you on this one....I personally love Doug Chiang's work, but even I'll admit that his style is just wrong for the Star Wars feel. The Star Wars aesthetic is hard-edged, beat up and engineered, Chiang's work...well it's literally the opposite of all of those.

I personally feel that if you want to truly emulate how Star Wars should feel, you have to go back to RMQ and ILM. Once you go back to McQuarrie's way of thinking, it's a safe bet you'll end up with something that really feels like it belongs in that universe, even if it looks much different
 
Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Even thought there was some beautiful work done on EP1, 2, and 3, I felt that they didn't "de-evolve" the ships, tech, and costumes like they should have from the OT. The clones looked too advanced, and the Stormtrooper looked like a side step more than an evolution of the armor. Some of the ships even seemed forced, like the Tie/A-wing design of the Jedi fighters. I think they could have done more to make the designs follow a more natural progression that you could see eventually becoming what we see in the OT.
 
Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Only thing in the PT that looked more old fashioned was Anakins metal hand.

Lucky for Luke at least they made advancements in that field.
 
Re: Star Wars Episode VII

hansicle said:
Even thought there was some beautiful work done on EP1, 2, and 3, I felt that they didn't "de-evolve" the ships, tech, and costumes like they should have from the OT. The clones looked too advanced, and the Stormtrooper looked like a side step more than an evolution of the armor. Some of the ships even seemed forced, like the Tie/A-wing design of the Jedi fighters. I think they could have done more to make the designs follow a more natural progression that you could see eventually becoming what we see in the OT.
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I read one theory which suggested that the vastly different aesthetics are reflective of design under democracy compared with totalitarianism (the PT is way more political than the OT and sums up Lucas' ideologies nicely). It's a well thought out theory, to say that more colourful, curvaceous designs will flourish under an economic and political golden era whereas a fascist rule brings design back down to the barest element: hard edged, mass produced and worn out. You could look at Art Deco vs Soviet union for that idea.

The problem with that is it wildly over estimates Star Wars to be higher brow than it is. As far as I'm concerned all those analyses are well and good but when you get down to it, the designs for the PT are just Lucas tryina be trendy
 
Re: Star Wars Episode VII

While that is true, I think the issue is 30 years down the road, you don't go from one extreme in ship design to the other. The 'new models' so to speak, could look OT due to the changes in government/time/etc, however, the stuff that existed 30 years ago you'd think would still be around. Drive around town for example - you still see cars from 60'-80's all over the place. Occasionally older than that. We saw nothing in the OT that looked like anything in the PT. There'd bound to be some crossover.
 
Re: Star Wars Episode VII

cboath said:
While that is true, I think the issue is 30 years down the road, you don't go from one extreme in ship design to the other. The 'new models' so to speak, could look OT due to the changes in government/time/etc, however, the stuff that existed 30 years ago you'd think would still be around. Drive around town for example - you still see cars from 60'-80's all over the place. Occasionally older than that. We saw nothing in the OT that looked like anything in the PT. There'd bound to be some crossover.
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Ever & Oak said:
I think it's fair to say that if you have to work this hard to justify them or accept them, they're poor designs for the prequels' context.
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I agree with both of you, I just thought it was an interesting theory that I wanted to share. And either way, even assuming that theory was 'correct', 30 years is not that long to see such a huge and widespread change in aesthetic/practicality.
And there would definitely still be PT designs floating around as you said cboath; IMHO the design that feels naturally closest to something out of the prequels is Slave I
 
Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I'd wager it has something to do with the fact that Slave I was designed and built and used (etc) in the OT first :)
 
Re: Star Wars Episode VII

The bottom line is that there was no real reason to depart so dramatically from the OT design aesthetic when doing the prequels. It was only 30 years earlier. In a world as technologically advanced as the Star Wars universe,the ships would've been the same. In our own world, aircraft and military naval vessels are designed to last for decades and with newer ships, closer to the century mark. In the Star Wars world ships are likely used for many decades and with the capital ships, probably centuries. The ships of the OT would have been even MORE current in the PT era because by the time of ANH, they were a bit worn and well-used from years of service.

As far as Chiang goes, I'm not a fan. He doesn't get Star Wars and even said in interviews that when he watched it as a kid he always felt things didn't look quite right. That alone says he doesn't get the aesthetic and explains to some extent why the prequels look as lame as they do. Even the new Star Trek movies look more Star Wars than the PT did. But, for better or worse, he's in. I also didn't care for McCaig's work either, though the dislike doesn't run as deeply as it does for Chiang's work. That said, the small glimpses we've seen thus far hint that somebody in the design department IS getting it and what we've seen so far, which isn't much, at least LOOKS like Star Wars. At the very least, whatever the end product, we know this much...it can't be worse than the prequels. By accident alone, at its worst it'll still be better than all three prequels combined. It really isn't a high bar that J.J. has to rise past.
 
Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Just to play devil's advocate - there COULD be a reason for the de-evolution of tech. The problem is, we were never given one in the OT. We know the empire is opressive, but that's about it. They could have used their power/place to confiscate all tech and leave the masses with junk far inferior to theirs or inferior in general. Thing is we see both sides have the same tech and it's woefully behind the PT. We all know the reason is both sets of tech were far superior to the tech of the day they were made in. But I don't think it'd have been hard to do the PT and keep the tech similar. I can buy sleek ships vs the industrial designs of the OT, but the tech is just too obvious.

I suppose a few lines in e7 could explain it, but that's way too little too late. You can't fault the OT as they never expected there'd be any more, but i think you could have easily adjusted scenes in the PT so the tech didn't look so advanced. However, I guess they wanted to make it believable to new audiences or something who wouldn't by in world tech looking inferior to our current day stuff. Like I said, i think it could have been done better. Some of the stuff just seemed a bit over the top
 
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