Lets talk all things Star Wars

[ghostryder]

Disney Disturbs the Force: Pleasing Star Wars Fans Complicates Saga

‘The Rise of Skywalker’ looms as a big hit and everyone loves Baby Yoda. But there’s also a disgruntled contingent of fans, a string of fired directors, a movie spinoff that left audiences cold and a decline in ticket sales. ‘We’re gonna hit pause.’

www.wsj.com

 

[Ron]

So Ben is named after Ben Kenobi? Is that confirmed? I always assumed that he was but is officially stated anywhere that he was?

 

[Toadmeister]

So Ben is named after Ben Kenobi? Is that confirmed? I always assumed that he was but is officially stated anywhere that he was?

Can't resist..... apologies in advance

 

[Ron]

Lol well I just want to make sure before I comment on how absolutely stupid it is for Han Solo to have named his son after Ben Kenobi when Luke was the one he was a mentor to. If anyone would name his son Ben, it would be Luke. Don't tell me Leia either because she's never even known him except for when she was a baby and wouldn't remember.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Disney Disturbs the Force: Pleasing Star Wars Fans Complicates Saga

‘The Rise of Skywalker’ looms as a big hit and everyone loves Baby Yoda. But there’s also a disgruntled contingent of fans, a string of fired directors, a movie spinoff that left audiences cold and a decline in ticket sales. ‘We’re gonna hit pause.’

www.wsj.com

Decent article, but I still think they are putting too much importance on the racist/misogynist Twitter people. I think like all Twitter mobs, the media reaction to it is bigger than the small group of people who are yelling. I think more people were pissed because of what they did to Luke and the disjointed story. If that many fans were like that, they wouldn't have accepted Leia in the OT and Mara Jade wouldn't be as popular in the EU.

If anyone would name his son Ben, it would be Luke. Don't tell me Leia either because she's never even known him except for when she was a baby and wouldn't remember.

Yeah that would make more sense... if only someone had done that...

 

[Ron]

Decent article, but I still think they are putting too much importance on the racist/misogynist Twitter people. I think like all Twitter mobs, the media reaction to it is bigger than the small group of people who are yelling. I think more people were pissed because of what they did to Luke and the disjointed story. If that many fans were like that, they wouldn't have accepted Leia in the OT and Mara Jade wouldn't be as popular in the EU.



Yeah that would make more sense... if only someone had done that...

Yes, when the better parts of the EU mattered... before the dark times, before the mouse.

 

[Halliwax]

My idol just posted this

 

[Frogfreak]

My idol just posted this

That's awesome! I love that guy's videos!

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I sent my cousin that WSJ article posted at the top and she said that she wondered if all the people who didn't like the Prequels were responsible for what we got in the Sequels. We don't know exactly what Lucas' story was, other than that Luke was on an island training a female Jedi, but I wonder if that's why Luke didn't have any fully trained Jedi in the Sequels. Maybe Disney freaked and didn't want to see any more than a couple Jedi because they thought that people only wanted something like the OT. That's why Luke's academy, or whatever it was, was taken out before the movie so that it reset back to a single teacher/student situation like Obi-Wan and Luke. It's pretty obvious in TFA they were replicating ANH, then TLJ became ESB with the student seeking out the master and training in an isolated area, and now this movie is ROTJ with the Emperor somehow surviving. My biggest gripe about the Sequels is that it invalidated all Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Luke tried to do because they intended Luke to rebuild the Jedi in some form. I think the Sequels would have fared a lot better if it was set 5-10 years after ROTJ When Luke was still searching out and retrieving Jedi information in order to rebuild the Jedi. and then Luke wasn't killed of course. Then Rey would be his first student of the new order.

 

[DARTH ANIBAL]

I think the Sequels would have fared a lot better if it was set 5-10 years after ROTJ...

Hamill is too old for that and NONE of us would've been okay with him being recast.

Unless they pulled this off correctly...

 

[Darth Lars]

I think convincing digital de-aging could be done these days, allowing Mark Hamill himself to play a younger Luke most of the time.
There are tonnes of videos out there of de-aging that amateurs have done on their home PCs using the DeepFake software, which is based on so called "Deep Learning" algorithms (which is actually more like statistics than intelligence). Many of these videos have gone viral, and some are very good: at a level surpassing what professionals have done with more traditional techniques. One of the most famous was a remake of the fake young Leia in Rogue One, using footage from the original Star Wars are data-set. The DeepFake version is more natural-looking than what was in the movie.

Imagine the software in the hands of real professionals with a real budget. I think that with Mark Hamill actually being present, you also get more options than pure post-production. Maybe markers painted on his real face could allow the algorithm to do an even better job. If the algorithm fails, professionals effects artists would available be able to fix it using conventional techniques. In the worst case, you could even redo the shot and the effects.
You'd just need enough footage of Hamill in the target age.

 

[Joek3rr]

I sent my cousin that WSJ article posted at the top and she said that she wondered if all the people who didn't like the Prequels were responsible for what we got in the Sequels. We don't know exactly what Lucas' story was, other than that Luke was on an island training a female Jedi, but I wonder if that's why Luke didn't have any fully trained Jedi in the Sequels. Maybe Disney freaked and didn't want to see any more than a couple Jedi because they thought that people only wanted something like the OT. That's why Luke's academy, or whatever it was, was taken out before the movie so that it reset back to a single teacher/student situation like Obi-Wan and Luke. It's pretty obvious in TFA they were replicating ANH, then TLJ became ESB with the student seeking out the master and training in an isolated area, and now this movie is ROTJ with the Emperor somehow surviving. My biggest gripe about the Sequels is that it invalidated all Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Luke tried to do because they intended Luke to rebuild the Jedi in some form. I think the Sequels would have fared a lot better if it was set 5-10 years after ROTJ When Luke was still searching out and retrieving Jedi information in order to rebuild the Jedi. and then Luke wasn't killed of course. Then Rey would be his first student of the new order.

So from what I've gleaned George's story may have gone something like this...

An acolyte of Uber called Talon (an adaptation of Darth Talon) would be responsible for seducing the Son. As I recall The Son destroys his uncle's Jedi Academy, (though Talon is called The Jedi Killer, so it might have been her) and I believe kills his father at some point. Luke, broken, disappears "hiding from the world in a cave." A young female heroine called Kira is tasked with finding Luke and convincing him to return.

Of course as any movie in development, things changed. Michael Arndt suggested they push Luke to the very end of Episode 7. Talon went from being The Jedi Killer and seducing the Son. To the Son becoming The Jedi Killer. Uber became Snoke, Kira became Rey, and Skylar became Finn.(these weren't the only names given these characters during development). The fall of the Son, and destruction of Luke's Jedi Academy, and his subsequent self exile, went from something that happened in the film, to stuff that happens before the film.

 

[Toadmeister]

I think convincing digital de-aging could be done these days, allowing Mark Hamill himself to play a younger Luke most of the time.
There are tonnes of videos out there of de-aging that amateurs have done on their home PCs using the DeepFake software, which is based on so called "Deep Learning" algorithms (which is actually more like statistics than intelligence). Many of these videos have gone viral, and some are very good: at a level surpassing what professionals have done with more traditional techniques. One of the most famous was a remake of the fake young Leia in Rogue One, using footage from the original Star Wars are data-set. The DeepFake version is more natural-looking than what was in the movie.

Imagine the software in the hands of real professionals with a real budget. I think that with Mark Hamill actually being present, you also get more options than pure post-production. Maybe markers painted on his real face could allow the algorithm to do an even better job. If the algorithm fails, professionals effects artists would available be able to fix it using conventional techniques. In the worst case, you could even redo the shot and the effects.
You'd just need enough footage of Hamill in the target age.

Link to Leia deepfake?

 

[sztriki]

I sent my cousin that WSJ article posted at the top and she said that she wondered if all the people who didn't like the Prequels were responsible for what we got in the Sequels.

Maybe Disney freaked and didn't want to see any more than a couple Jedi because they thought that people only wanted something like the OT.

Ugh I hate this mentality. “It’s because fans were hating on prequels”, “hating fans bullied George away”, “hating fans had to be given their fanservice”.
No, the prequels were simply bad. Give me a proper story, interesting direction/filmmaking and relatable characters and I’m okay with an active Jedi order. Hell in the end I was fine with a copy of ANH just because it was a competently made film with decent characters.
Also it’d be great to decide why we hate Disney, because they copied the OT too much or because they ruined the OT.
Bottom line for me is that a competently made film with good characters and a story that somebody spent some time on developing is all I need to be a happy boy but I feel I’m asking too much.

 

[Halliwax]

I read rumors of a Luke skywalker tv series on Disney plus, taking place after RoTJ and before tfa

I wouldn’t have a problem with a new actor coming in a playing a Luke Skywalker

 

[Victor3]

In preparation for next Friday, my wife and I just finished watching TLJ last night. We hadn't seen it since the theater. And after the last 2 years of all this online, I forgot:

I actually enjoy this movie...

 

[Captain Dunsel]

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Ugh I hate this mentality. “It’s because fans were hating on prequels”, “hating fans bullied George away”, “hating fans had to be given their fanservice”.
No, the prequels were simply bad. Give me a proper story, interesting direction/filmmaking and relatable characters and I’m okay with an active Jedi order. Hell in the end I was fine with a copy of ANH just because it was a competently made film with decent characters.
Also it’d be great to decide why we hate Disney, because they copied the OT too much or because they ruined the OT.
Bottom line for me is that a competently made film with good characters and a story that somebody spent some time on developing is all I need to be a happy boy but I feel I’m asking too much.

Fans keep declaring the Prequels were bad like it's widely accepted by all SW fans. It's not. I'd watch the Prequels any day of the week over the Sequels.

Hamill is too old for that and NONE of us would've been okay with him being recast.

I wasn't saying they could do it, I just said it may have worked better if it was done in that time period.

 

[JoeG]

Fans keep declaring the Prequels were bad like it's widely accepted by all SW fans. It's not. I'd watch the Prequels any day of the week over the Sequels.

Have you watched them lately? I watched TPM the other day on Disney+. Its a lot worse than I remembered and I used to like it when it first came out.

 

[David3]

Yeah, a lot of my daughter's and nephew's generation love, or loved, the prequels, because they grew up on them. But frankly I find them really hard to watch all the way through, apart from things already mentioned, I think mostly because of the over use of now dated CG. The prequel fan edits save it a little bit by cutting down on the overlengthy screen time. Dare I say it but i'll sit through the sequels much easier than the prequels.