Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?
If ANH/ESB are the "SW" fans, okay, fine. But then we need another name for the fans of the bigger set. I don't care what we call them, I just think we need to make the distinction.
Truth is, a big part of me agrees with you. I certainly put ANH/ESB on a higher pedestal than anything since. But this attitude also basically means the franchise is dead. Nothing else that gets released in the foreseeable future is going to live up. It's possible but pretty unlikely.
I agree with this. There was a period -- especially post-Prequels but pre-Sequels -- that I thought "How is it that they can't seem to get this right? Just tell a new story, but in the way they did it before!" Over time, what I've come to realize is that that's basically impossible. I've realized this after watching multiple attempts to recapture the glory days of old franchises, sequels that tried to mimic the success of their predecessor, and reboots that tried to "do it the same but different."
Hollywood in the last almost 20 years has shown that it really is not very good at designing sequels that are "the same, but different." And really, I
do think that's what fans want. They want a story that isn't recycled plot points, jokes, or even necessarily a formula, but they want it to "feel" the way the old films did. I just think that's ultimately unrealistic, depending on how one defines that "feeling" part.
For me, Star Wars is not simply about recapturing the "feeling" I had when I first saw the original films. I can't recapture that. I'm different, the world is different, the movies are different, and movies are made differently. I don't feel a sense of "awe" at movies anymore. F/X, however fancy they are, just don't blow me away. Not since I saw The Matrix without knowing anything other than "It's a movie about computer hackers" walking in. Since then, nothing has really blown me away in terms of F/X, and that includes Avatar (which just gave me a headache and otherwise didn't mask a boring Dances with Smurfs narrative). So, for me, the sense of "awe" isn't really there. It hasn't been captured yet. Maybe it's still possible, but I don't know.
I've come to the conclusion that I'm not really looking for "the same" in the sense of "the same as ANH/ESB." What I want, what I've always been most attracted to, is cool new stories within a universe where we're keeping fidelity with how the universe itself operates and with how it appears. As long as the story is otherwise told well, if I get that stuff, I'm a happy fan. I'm not really tied to the OT characters anymore, and that as a conscious decision on my part going in to TFA (mostly because I expected them all to get killed). I also am really, really interested in seeing films that deviate from the established formula, or which are NOT repeating the story beats of the previous films. I can enjoy that, too, but I most appreciate it when the film doesn't just recycle story beats.
As an example, consider the Gundam franchise. The original 0079 story set the framework for the vast majority of other Gundam TV series. Some tweaks have been made (e.g., riffing on Gundam Wing), and there have been some really weird outliers (e.g. G-Gundam), but by and large, although the story does change, it keeps repeating the same beats as what you saw in either 0079 or Gundam-Z. (And we don't talk about ZZ.) That's fine, and I can enjoy that, but...I basically know what's gonna happen each time. I might not get all the specifics right, and they might shift a few things around here or there, but mostly I can guess when the Char clone shows up that he's hiding some dark secret of being related to a primary character, and I know who's standing in the shoes of the Amuro clone, etc., etc.
This would be like if every Star Wars film from here to eternity had plucky underdog rebels fighting against an evil galactic fascist force that's dominating the galaxy, the fascists wore white armor suits, the rebels wore whatever they had handy (but especially pilots in primary colored jumpsuits), you had a Luke Skywalker stand-in with a secret and unknown-to-him/her connection to a black-clad powerful bad-guy Force wielder standing in for Darth Vader, there was some shadowy manipulator Bigger-Bad evil Force user, and we basically just hit all the same story beats again and again. I might enjoy that as iterative entertainment, but...to be honest...I want something different. It still has to maintain fidelity with the universe itself that has been established in the films, in terms of look and basic tone, but let's explore other stuff.
So, for me, Star Wars is now pretty much a setting for telling other stories. IF you get the setting right, and you get the story right, I'm basically happy. And that's how I get "the same, but different." Just keep the setting the same. Otherwise, do your thing.
I agree with most of this. TLJ legitimately disappointed fans and the SJW-based fan-bashing does not help Disney/LFL in the long run.
This tactic of blaming the fanbase for racism/sexism/etc when their movies fail to succeed . . . IMO this won't last. I guess it will take a few more rounds of it before the major studios get their noses bloodied enough times to wise up. If "cinematic universe" franchises are about long-term fans then you shouldn't insult your fans like that for a very minor (if even any) short-term gain. It is very short-sighted thinking on the studios's part IMO.
Two things:
1. I'm not so sure Disney/LFL considers TLJ a "failure to succeed." It didn't do as well as TFA, sure. But it still brought in $1.3B worldwide. It's the #8 domestic grossing movie of all-time (TFA is #1). It's #11 all-time for worldwide gross (TFA is #3). So, yeah, it didn't do as well as TFA, but a "failure" it ain't. Not in terms of box office numbers. One might see it as a failure in storytelling, but that's a more subjective issue, and one that probably matters less to Disney/LFL.
2. I don't think "the fanbase" has been blamed for racism or sexism. I think
some fans have been unarguably racist and some have been unarguably sexist. They are a noisy, detestable minority of the fandom. They are also different from people saying "I didn't like the movie because I didn't like how they handled Luke" or "Because there were some dumb plot holes" or "Because I hated how they undercut the mystery of Rey's parents" or whatever. All of which are complaints I've heard, none of which are sexist or racist. But there have been some very visible, very sexist and/or racist fans who have been called out, and deservedly so. Those folks can go pound sand, as far as Disney, LFL, and I'd say the majority of the fandom is concerned. I do think there are some fans who are perhaps unconsciously affected by sexism, and who don't realize it, but having a discussion about that is different from dismissing them altogether, and I also distinguish them between the "WTF? Star Wars isn't for girls!" bull**** that pops up now and then.
