No man I disagree strongly and I have evidence to support it.
Star Trek TNG.
Big success. Years into the future from TOS. You had like one original character as a touchstone. Well two, the Enterprise of course granted a new ship.
TNG still used several TOS actors in its first season, and that first season was
not good. The 2nd season improved considerably. But it was also far lower budget, geared towards syndication, and not at all about launching an entire multimedia franchise (at least, not from the get-go).
A syndicated from the start episodic TV program based on a TV series vs. a feature film based on a film series franchise is not an apt comparison. TNG benefited from 25 first season episodes and even with that luxury wasn't very good. And in their pilot the brought in DeForrest Kelly to ground the series. From the standpoint of shear content, TNG had over 50 hours of screen time the first two seasons to try and sell the premise and they barley made it. TFA had ONE shot to bridge 30 years, bring back the old fans and bring in the new and the hit a undeniable bullseye. So their instinct has proven to be correct.
Oh, that's so funny, @
NeoRutty wrote the same thing I said while I was typing.
They didn't want a mildly successful film that may grow interest, hopefully, in the next chapter... you need BIG OPENING WEEK. 90 percent satisfaction out of the gates.
Look at Terminator Genysis and it's next 2 flicks.... which will never happen now.
If TNG was a movie, and it's first one got the mild praise the first season of TNG got... they would be hugely disappointed after spending 4 billion on it.
Exactly these two points.
I mean, I get the notion of "I want something new and fresh and far flung into the future, so that we protect the OT heroes and they get to 'keep' their happy endings." The problem is that for the average movie-goer...Star Wars IS Luke Skywalker and Han Solo and Princess Leia and the Empire and big space superweapons and those X-shaped spaceships and stuff. Hell, the average movie goer probably doesn't even know all of the changes that George Lucas put into the films other than all the obvious CGI creatures. They don't know that Ben's scream was originally the same as the dewback cry. They don't know that Cloud City's background wasn't originally the cityscape, but rather was just white, brightly lit walls. They don't know that the scene in ESB with the wampa chowing down on taun taun shanks was added later.
The average movie goer doesn't know Star Wars like we do. Without a connection to the OT, they would be very unlikely to go see it. Particularly after the PT and the reputation that series garnered. Yeah, I know, there are fans who liked it, but the average viewer? Probably saw 'em once, thought "The battles were cool. But the rest of it I don't really remember" and that's it. You can't build a franchise on that kind of fandom. You definitely can't launch a multi-media empire on that kind of fandom.
So, you have to include the OT heroes.
The trouble is that, if you do so, you have to also create a conflict. You can't have Star Wars without, you know, a war. So, ultimately, what would that conflict be? Why would there be a fight? What would the fight be some 30 years after the last go-around? The obvious answer is "The Empire -- or something very much like it -- rises again." Likewise, it being Star Wars, you'd have to have dark Jedi or dark Force Users or someone. Basically, dudes with red sabres to fight.
If the OT heroes win a triumphant victory and completely demolish the Empire at the end of ROTJ, and if the Sith are utterly destroyed at the end and the Jedi grow...what's that leave you with? Where do you go from there? What conflict do you show people? And especially, what conflict do you show people that will feel familiar to them and easily relatable?
Pretty much exactly what you got with TFA.
Now, I'll agree that the commonalities between TFA and ANH are striking and that they may have gone overboard with them. It's a weakness in the film, just not (to me, anyway) a fatal one. But it's also a weakness that I kinda understand. It's a lot safer to go with a path that follows ANH and the generic Hero's Journey with your big relaunch than it is, for example, to do a story that starts out at one of three Jedi Academies where you end up having a civil war within the Jedi as another civil war breaks out in the newly formed Republic and so on. I mean, yeah, I can imagine a pretty cool story surrounding stuff like that...but it's pretty different from what people are used to when they think "Star Wars."
TFA's weakness in its similarities to ANH are largely the result of a purpose-built bridge-film designed to create instantly familiar points of reference for movie goers before plunging them into wholly new territory. Was it the right decision artistically? Could there have been, perhaps, a better, more original, more different story? Yeah, probably. But it would've been a lot riskier and might have ended up alienating a lot of people.
As strong a brand as Star Wars is, it isn't bulletproof forever. You need to have a few hits for all the misses that may sneak through, and especially you need a hit out of the gate when relaunching the franchise. And let's be clear -- to the bulk of the planet, Star Wars was absolutely being relaunched. They don't play the video games, they don't buy the toys, they don't watch the cartoons. They know the movies, and they know the OT the best. So, that's what Disney sold to.
I don't know what fight everyone is talking about where Rey dominated.
She was pushed back almost the entire fight, mostly just poking and swinging (like you would when you carry a staff around for 10 years for protection)... then when she goes in her force moment, lets it "control her actions", like Luke deflecting the training remote, got a few hits in, and then just PUSHED his hand into the ground until he was to weak to hold on anymore (you know... with the giant bleeding wound in his core.)
Luke did pretty damn good against Vader in Empire... What sword specialist taught him to fight while on Hoth? He wasn't exactly wielding a melee weapon around most of his younger years to be in any way proficient with that weapon..
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I agree... the point is the Force AWAKENED in someone... there was a serious lack of light side around... The Dark was growing... so it came on full throttle with Rey... much like with that little Anakin Punk... maybe more so. It's coming back and picked her, a Kenobi
, to finally punch the Skywalker chosen lineage to the ground.
Yeah, I think it's more that Rey was sort of "overtaken" by the Force in that moment, but as I've said before, I think her astounding ability will be explained moving forward. It won't just be like "Wow. She's really powerful. anyway, how was your day?"
