How Do You Make a Good Star Wars Movie?

My theory has very little to do with WHO, and more to do with HOW. Feel free to comment on that instead of making the same complaint again and again.

Honestly I think it's pretty simple, linear story telling with well defined characters and iconography, and clearly defined good and evil. Rogue One was certainly the most outside that box in regards to characters and complex motivations. The universe is built, curiously built mostly by fans in their heads, but none the less it's an available construct to base stories off of. When people talk nonsense like SWIQ that really wasn't anything created by George by design, WE have made this monster about what Star Wars should be. And everyone is wrong and everyone is right. If I'm trying to shepard new Star Wars films going forward, find people who are knowledgeable and passionate about the franchise and give them the opportunity to actually play in the sand box. George always envisioned Star Wars being open creatively to all his friends, let that be the legacy. And arguably that has been the legacy so far. KISS, have the spectacle, the great music, the familiar, and make sure any random 10 year old boy or girl can be invested in the characters and story. That's 90% right there. Don't make it for me, make it for them.
 
I would agree with that— do you think you could make a Star Wars movie that was successful without any of the visual cues we know? Like all new production design, no Jedi, no lightsabers, no plots characters from another movie.
 
I would agree with that— do you think you could make a Star Wars movie that was successful without any of the visual cues we know? Like all new production design, no Jedi, no lightsabers, no plots characters from another movie.

I do and I think there is a degree of inevitability that it will happen based on the planned content release schedule. You still need the little things to make it feel in universe, a speeder, and old Y-wing flying by, an Ithorian in a pub, but beyond that SW can live beyond The Force, the Skywalkers, etc. In fact I think Rian might be exploring that opportunity as we speak.
 
I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what he was doing, but I didn’t want to say it as his name spawns troll comments.

But more or less, this is kind of what I was getting it. If you go back to the roots of what inspired George and capture just a bit of what is familiar about Star Wars, it would not only work, but I think actually be better than what we’ve been getting.
 
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When the PT came, the visuals did not feel much like the Star Wars I knew, but the style grew on me and gradually became a part of the whole. I absorbed more and more of that style and it became part of Star Wars for me. Those things were not what was wrong about the PT.
I think Lucasfilm made a mistake of connecting back only to the OT also visually and not respecting the PT at all.
A lot of Lucasfilms current demographic grew up with the PT being more significant for them than what OT is for many of us "old guys" here.
Then they did things that are clichés for us old guys: superweapon and a good guy and a bad guy fighting in a forest with little to no motivation than that they are a good and bad, (although the latter is more of a fan-fiction cliché).

I'm sorry, I don't mean to be a complainer but it is easier to point at specific things than to mention something on the larger scale.

@SethS,very good points, one other thing I would like to add in regards to why the PT doesn't feel like star wars is because it ****s up Star Wars' cosmology.
You mean theology. ;) I studies "cosmology" in college: it is the scientific study of the physical universe, not the metaphysical.
 
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You mean theology. :b I studies "cosmology" in college: it is the scientific study of the physical universe, not the metaphysical.
Ive wondered why the word cosmology is used for this myself, the person who taught me about this stuff used that word. I think it has something to do with world building and what the rules of the fictional universe you created are.
 
How about don't take something ethereal and magical like The Force and turn it into a cheap easy-to-perform parlor trick or a reason to kill a character.

A Jedi's strength flows from the force....unless you want to Force project then it'll take all your strength and kill you.

Force use takes mental discipline, rigorous training. You struggle to earn those abilities. Unless you need to conveniently escape or defeat the bad guy.

Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and that leads to the darkside. Unless you fear your nephew's force powers, that's okay that won't turn you at all.

They basically had no respect for it. They don't understand the mysticism behind it. And they thought we all just liked people doing neat superhero stuff. They were wrong.

They did more damage than midichlorians ever could.
 
***** ****** just close this thread.

It’s literally impossible to talk about Star Wars in this forum without the TLJ hate squad just interrupting and ruining everything. I don’t mind people disagreeing with me, or having a difference of opinion, but you’re not responding to the topic in an earnest way. You’re just using it as a thinly connected platform to make the same complaints you make in every single Star Wars thread there is.

It’s exhausting to read, so I can only imagine it being exhuasting to live in such a butthurt and bitter existence. I was stupid to leave the SW prop forum and try to have conversations about anything else.

Thanks for ruining it.
 
How about don't take something ethereal and magical like The Force and turn it into a cheap easy-to-perform parlor trick or a reason to kill a character.

A Jedi's strength flows from the force....unless you want to Force project then it'll take all your strength and kill you.

Force use takes mental discipline, rigorous training. You struggle to earn those abilities. Unless you need to conveniently escape or defeat the bad guy.

Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and that leads to the darkside. Unless you fear your nephew's force powers, that's okay that won't turn you at all.

They basically had no respect for it. They don't understand the mysticism behind it. And they thought we all just liked people doing neat superhero stuff. They were wrong.

They did more damage than midichlorians ever could.

This is a great example of how fans have made the constructs of Star Wars into something that has never actually been well defined and why these impulses should be ignored going forward. Even their arguments are self defeating..mysticism by definition has no set rules as to how power is achieved, the entire point of mysticism is that it's unknown how it happens.

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***** ****** just close this thread.

It’s literally impossible to talk about Star Wars in this forum without the TLJ hate squad just interrupting and ruining everything. I don’t mind people disagreeing with me, or having a differe3nce of opinion, but you’re not responding to the topic in an earnest way. You’re just using it as a thinly connected platform to make the same complaints you maker in every single Star Wars thread there is.

It’s exhausting to read, so I can only imagine it being exhuasting to live in such a butthurt and bitter existence. I was stupid to leave the SW prop forum and try to have conversations about anything else.

Thanks for ruining it.

You got that right, brother.
 
***** ****** just close this thread.

It’s literally impossible to talk about Star Wars in this forum without the TLJ hate squad just interrupting and ruining everything. I don’t mind people disagreeing with me, or having a difference of opinion, but you’re not responding to the topic in an earnest way. You’re just using it as a thinly connected platform to make the same complaints you make in every single Star Wars thread there is.

It’s exhausting to read, so I can only imagine it being exhuasting to live in such a butthurt and bitter existence. I was stupid to leave the SW prop forum and try to have conversations about anything else.

Thanks for ruining it.

Perhaps your overreacting a little. I`ve started many threads and they have gone off in many ways that i never intended but thats just what happens sometimes.
 
Perhaps your overreacting a little. I`ve started many threads and they have gone off in many ways that i never intended but thats just what happens sometimes.

Gaslighting 101– be rude to somebody, then tell them they are overreacting. Not buying it. I’m not an idiot. Neither are you. We both know what you are doing.

I get derailing. I’m fine with it. I don’t need people to agree with me. You came in, the first post, and made your point.

Then you made it again. And again.

If this were a party and there was a group of people talking about something you disliked, instead of finding other people to talk to, you’re going to them and telling them you hate what they are talking about.

Instead of then moving on to talk to other people, you stay there, and continue to tell them you hate what they are talking about.

I’m not stupid. You’re not stupid. Literally every SW post on the first page has you talking hate on Rian Johnbson and Kathleen Kennedy. I’m not here to make you like TLJ. In the first post I even talk about having trouble with the movie myself— but you’re not contributuing here. Even a derailment is when the conversation slides somewhere new. All you are doing, over and over, is making it clear to anyone that will listen, that TLJ failed for you.

You are literally posting between people talking about something else to say the same thing over and over. Do you WANT to derail it to being another TLJ bashfest? Are the three other threads doing that not enough?

Maybe I am over reacting— or maybe I just want to talk about something Star Wars related on a more creative and theorietical level than who is making and releasing what movie right now, and you want to block that for some reason.
 
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This is a great example of how fans have made the constructs of Star Wars into something that has never actually been well defined and why these impulses should be ignored going forward. Even their arguments are self defeating..mysticism by definition has no set rules as to how power is achieved, the entire point of mysticism is that it's unknown how it happens.

The specific points I'm addressing were well-defined.

I mean...did you even see Empire Strikes Back? Do you know who Yoda is?
 
First you write a good story. You don't say we want to make a 'Fill in the blank' movie and then write a script as quickly as you can.

Remember above else: The Force is not a blood disease. It isn't quantifiable. Some people are naturally more adept then others but it is mystical. You can't count it. If you could, it makes Han's "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." and "There’s no mystical energy field that controls my destiny" nonsensical.
 
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edge10 said:
Remember above else: The Force is not a blood disease. It isn't quantifiable. Some people are naturally more adept then others but it is mystical. You can't count it. If you could, it makes Han's "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." and "There’s no mystical energy field that controls my destiny" nonsensical.

One midichlorians were around since he wrote Star Wars because he made a thing answering questions about the universe that's in the Rinzler Making of book. Two the midichlorians are basically just antennae. The more you have, the more powerful you can be because you can access more Force power. It didn't alter the Force as being an energy field at all. I don't know why people have that big of a problem with it. They had to have a way for the Jedi to measure Force power to tell how they recruited people.



I don't know how one would define "feeling like SW". I thought the Prequels felt like SW, just a different era. I would certainly say the Sequels feel like SW, I just didn't like the direction they went in. I read waaaaay too many EU books and some you just read so you could follow along and they aren't that good. Then there are some that have "it" and work, IMO, like the Republic Commando series, pretty much any Timothy Zahn book, the Darth Bane series, and both X-Wing series. I would say that the KOTOR game, which is 4,000 years before ANH, feels like SW. I don't know if it comes down to whether you like the story or what.
 
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