Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm (after 2021)?

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Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

Is she still there? A person who would generally appear in front of a camera or microphone to announce the monthly LFL office supplies invoices has seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth.

Addition.. I tried to ForceTime her on the issue but she wasnt taking apparitions that day.

Probably deleted her twitter account anyway as that seems a thing now. How do you even make 20,000 tweets in the first place.:lol
 
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Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?


Ripley > Rey

Ripley went from Persnickety 2nd Lieutenant to Flamethrower-wielding-xeno-killing-badass. By comparison, Rey would be a xeno killing badass with no explanation of how she got to that point. Just because. Your expectations have been subverted! And before you say it, yes I'm aware of all the gender fluidity in the Alien movies. But you know what? I frankly don't give a ****. They are well written movies for the most part, save a couple of the later ones. Suspense and horror well done for the time it existed in. Even today, few things stand up to just how... terrifying the Xenos really are. How helpless as humans we are when pitted against them.

Older movies are just better written. I can't put my finger on it, but I feel this is where most modern movies fail hard. Their writing is sucks... it's like they have absolutely no idea how to write a progressing story arc.
 
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Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

Ripley > Rey

Ripley went from Persnickety 2nd Lieutenant to Flamethrower-wielding-xeno-killing-badass. By comparison, Rey would be a xeno killing badass with no explanation of how she got to that point. Just because. Your expectations have been subverted! And before you say it, yes I'm aware of all the gender fluidity in the Alien movies. But you know what? I frankly don't give a ****. They are well written movies for the most part, save a couple of the later ones. Suspense and horror well done for the time it existed in. Even today, few things stand up to just how... terrifying the Xenos really are. How helpless as humans we are when pitted against them.

Older movies are just better written. I can't put my finger on it, but I feel this is where most modern movies fail hard. Their writing is sucks... it's like they have absolutely no idea how to write a progressing story arc.

As somebody who writes movies for a living I'll pretend to be offended and point out a few things.

One, this is preposterous. Look at anything A24 puts out. Look at genre benders like Get Out, Moonlight, or even Logan. To make the generalization that anything "new" sucks is preposterous.

Two, look at these films and you'll see something they have in common: minimal studio interference. Studios have stopped making low to mid budget films. In a post digital filmmaking world the sea of smaller production companies cover this space and turn to the studios for distribution. Or sometimes, magically, like with Logan, Deadpool, or Blade Runner 2049, the studio actually trusts the director and is hands off. But for the most part, studios these days stick to their franchises as only they can afford them and the security of a promised pre-existing audience hardwired to the IP. Because they have so much riding on it, the studio will micromanage it, exhaust a chain of writers with changes driven by market research, test audiences, and rando notes from execs who wish they were creative, but aren't.

Three, ironically, this model is in a lot of ways the fault of Star Wars. The high-concept summer blockbuster made-for-everyone movie is the only true genre studios love. After Jaws and Star Wars invented the blockbuster we had an amazing run through the 80s where concept was king. If the 70 pre-Star Wars gave us the new generation of filmmakers that challenged the rules, the 80s was when scripts were allowed to go nuts. After 30 years though, as I said above, studios are more conservative and less likely to take chances when there are so many outlets producing films with much less overhead. The IP driven high concept for-everyone film is still king, it just changes shape every now and then. Obviously, it's superhero films now. But the scope of these films, how they are written, and what the studios want them to do is 100% 40 years of trying to recapture Star Wars magic.

When everything is punched into a formula and planned to engineer an exact type of film, creativity suffers. There is no shortage of well-written scripts in Hollywood, or original ones, but those are not safe bets for a studio. ESPECIALLY if we're talking about a huge IP like Star Wars. They aren't going to break form. Marvel is no different, most of their movies are the same structure-- but they cast so brlliantly you're happy to watch their characters do the sane stuff over and over.l

Finally, general audiences are just to blame as anyone else. If there's a drug dealer in your neighborhood some people will blame their presence gor whatever the junkies may do. Others will say the junkies wouldn't be hooked if it wasn't for the dealers. Supply and demand is symbiotic. The one thing that the portion of fandom that dislikes TLJ is doing right, is bycotting with their money. Disney doesn't care about angry fan videos on youtube, or man babies destroying their action figures. They don't even care if Solo bombed. But if IX bombs, and the TV show flops, and whatever comes next also fails to perform, they'll care. I still don't think angry fans out number general ausoences, but we'll see. Point is, to say Hollywood is lacking in quality writers is a over-generalization, as well as a myopic understanding of how the business works.
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

Ripley > Rey

Ripley went from Persnickety 2nd Lieutenant to Flamethrower-wielding-xeno-killing-badass. By comparison, Rey would be a xeno killing badass with no explanation of how she got to that point. Just because. Your expectations have been subverted! And before you say it, yes I'm aware of all the gender fluidity in the Alien movies. But you know what? I frankly don't give a ****. They are well written movies for the most part, save a couple of the later ones. Suspense and horror well done for the time it existed in. Even today, few things stand up to just how... terrifying the Xenos really are. How helpless as humans we are when pitted against them.

Older movies are just better written. I can't put my finger on it, but I feel this is where most modern movies fail hard. Their writing is sucks... it's like they have absolutely no idea how to write a progressing story arc.

You've hit the nail on the head. With your last part. There has been a general decline in movie quality. Really since the 2000's There have been only a few movies in recent memory that really blew me away. And those where Dunkirk, Arrival and Blade Runner 2049.

So I've been thinking about your complaints of the feminist and SJW agenda being pushed on us in Star Wars. And while I do believe it's there in Hollywood, I don't think it's in the Star Wars films. I really think the most feminist thing they've done was Forces of Destiny. And even with that they back peddled very quickly.

Let me explain it like this quickly

Rey- she's not conveniently powerful to force a strong female on us. Everything she does someone else has already done. And when you understand how the Force works, how it chooses people, guides, and controls the Star Wars galaxy, she fits right in.

Holdo- she was tailor made to butt heads with Poe. If anyone else had been in her position, Poe would have never had any problems. But when purple haired, non uniform wearing, lady from another ship is put into command, that pushes Poe's buttons.

Rose- she was made to be the opposite of DJ. DJ is all about don't join live free. And Rose is about joining the cause live for others. Rose and DJ kinda have a tug-of-war going for Finn. And finally she's there so Finn had someone to kiss other than Poe.........
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

It’s also worth considering that there are a ton of really terribly written old movies that were made. Just as there are plenty made now. Easy to forget since a large portion of them aren’t available for viewing in any medium (who wants to spend money producing a bad movie that no one will buy?). It’s like classical music or classic rock. There’s tons of really awful stuff that was produced at the same time as the “classics,” and was then discarded and forgotten about, while the “classics” endured.
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

Do we all remember hearing "back in my day _____ was better" when we were kids?
Well now we've arrived at the age "adults"said it to us...chronicentrism, don't let it color your perspective. ;)
 
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Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

We only look back on the GOOD films of the past. There were plenty of crap films before now.
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

WRONG. Totally different.

We aren’t saying: “these whipper snappers and their picture shows nowadays are horrible!!!”

We/I are/am saying: “this movie was horrible.”

Not just a bad Star Wars movie. And not because of Wuss Luke, or Leia Poppins.

Not because of women, not because of any actors race, color, or creed.

No... just off of pacing, continuity and continuation. Of the overall vibe of a franchise. Story. Story content. Why we get to story points and the odd scenes and cuts to cram that stuff into said story points and in the end... why those main story points were not only NOT entertaining, but they also raised more plot holes than any other episode in this franchise.

The whole movie was a large ship chasing a large ship slowly.

And with the main characters as far as continuing ANYTHING from episode7... to leaving nothing to lead up to THE FINAL EPISODE IN THE SKYWALKER SAGA OF NINE MOVIES IN FORTY YEARS.

What is there to be excited about for episode 9?

Please enlighten me.

Random crap thrown on the wall isn’t edgy artistic or subversive. It’s lazy.

and episode 8 was garbage as a movie. On its own or as part of the largest movie franchise in the history of the world.

Mic drop. Feedback.

Do we all remember hearing "back in my day _____ was better" when we were kids?
Well now we've arrived at the age "adults"said it to us...chronicentrism, don't let it color your perspective. ;)
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

At some point I wonder if we’ll be able to discuss this beyond the grade-school level of:

Person #1: “I like it so it’s perfect and great.”
Person #2: “Well I don’t like it because it’s horrible.”

Debating opinions is stupid and pointless. Why bother? You liked it, good for you. You didn’t, well, better luck next year.

Theres so much subjectivity to what makes something like a film “good” or bad,” that debating as a way of finding some singular, ultimate truth is incredibly naive.

The objectivity as relates to “good/bad” is really limited to just the technical aspects of a film. Did someone forget their lines and start laughing? Did a crew member’s arm or microphone end up in the shot? Aside from a few minor choreography mistakes (a Praetorian Guard altering his attack on Rey so as not to strike the actor when she failed to duck at the correct time), TLJ is a technically sound film as a whole.

Whether or not a film entertains you is not some sort of exact science. If determining whether a film was “good” or “bad” was at all an objective exercise, literally every movie on places like Rotten Tomatoes would be either a 0%, or a 100%.

Not sure how many more times this needs to be explained.
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

At some point I wonder if we’ll be able to discuss this beyond the grade-school level of:

Person #1: “I like it so it’s perfect and great.”
Person #2: “Well I don’t like it because it’s horrible.”

Debating opinions is stupid and pointless. Why bother? You liked it, good for you. You didn’t, well, better luck next year.

Theres so much subjectivity to what makes something like a film “good” or bad,” that debating as a way of finding some singular, ultimate truth is incredibly naive.

The objectivity as relates to “good/bad” is really limited to just the technical aspects of a film. Did someone forget their lines and start laughing? Did a crew member’s arm or microphone end up in the shot? Aside from a few minor choreography mistakes (a Praetorian Guard altering his attack on Rey so as not to strike the actor when she failed to duck at the correct time), TLJ is a technically sound film as a whole.

Whether or not a film entertains you is not some sort of exact science. If determining whether a film was “good” or “bad” was at all an objective exercise, literally every movie on places like Rotten Tomatoes would be either a 0%, or a 100%.

Not sure how many more times this needs to be explained.

I actually think we have discussed it beyond that. Sure there's a lot of kiddish back and forth and it's annoying, both "sides" considered, I agree. But there's literally hundreds of pages of discussion with plenty of intelligent discourse. Might as well close the forum down then if it's so pointless and we just always agree to disagree and glide on our star-studded roads of tranquil equilibrium.
And no, technicalities do exist in the script, direction, character motivation as well. There is a craft to writing a script, checking your boxes if your plot is tight, your characters' decisions make sense and so on and so forth.
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

WRONG. Totally different.

We aren’t saying: “these whipper snappers and their picture shows nowadays are horrible!!!”

We/I are/am saying: “this movie was horrible.”

Not just a bad Star Wars movie. And not because of Wuss Luke, or Leia Poppins.

Not because of women, not because of any actors race, color, or creed.

No... just off of pacing, continuity and continuation. Of the overall vibe of a franchise. Story. Story content. Why we get to story points and the odd scenes and cuts to cram that stuff into said story points and in the end... why those main story points were not only NOT entertaining, but they also raised more plot holes than any other episode in this franchise.

The whole movie was a large ship chasing a large ship slowly.

And with the main characters as far as continuing ANYTHING from episode7... to leaving nothing to lead up to THE FINAL EPISODE IN THE SKYWALKER SAGA OF NINE MOVIES IN FORTY YEARS.

What is there to be excited about for episode 9?

Please enlighten me.

Random crap thrown on the wall isn’t edgy artistic or subversive. It’s lazy.

and episode 8 was garbage as a movie. On its own or as part of the largest movie franchise in the history of the world.

Mic drop. Feedback.
This pretty much sums up what I was getting at in regards to the way modern writing is going. Modernist plots in movies are sloppy and lazy. It's about a quick crash grab and nothing else. Longevity in story telling seems dead.
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

Of course, there are technical aspects to a number of different components of a film. But as far as a script that’d be limited to whether the writing was grammatically correct, not whether it “entertained.”

“Technically sound,” not “technically good.”

As for character motivation, I think that’d be entirely subjective. One person’s idea of weak motivation could be something that resonated deeply with another. Neither one’s more right, ultimately.

edit: and to comment on modern film storytelling, I’d absolutely agree that the majority of major film productions seem mainly interested in making back the enormous amount of money they cost (or, “cash grab”), rather than telling a unique vision. As someone else said, these days the most groundbreaking films are coming from small independent creators, not big studios, as it used to be.
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

WRONG. Totally different.

We aren’t saying: “these whipper snappers and their picture shows nowadays are horrible!!!”

We/I are/am saying: “this movie was horrible.”

Not just a bad Star Wars movie. And not because of Wuss Luke, or Leia Poppins.

Not because of women, not because of any actors race, color, or creed.

No... just off of pacing, continuity and continuation. Of the overall vibe of a franchise. Story. Story content. Why we get to story points and the odd scenes and cuts to cram that stuff into said story points and in the end... why those main story points were not only NOT entertaining, but they also raised more plot holes than any other episode in this franchise.

The whole movie was a large ship chasing a large ship slowly.

And with the main characters as far as continuing ANYTHING from episode7... to leaving nothing to lead up to THE FINAL EPISODE IN THE SKYWALKER SAGA OF NINE MOVIES IN FORTY YEARS.

What is there to be excited about for episode 9?

Please enlighten me.

Random crap thrown on the wall isn’t edgy artistic or subversive. It’s lazy.

and episode 8 was garbage as a movie. On its own or as part of the largest movie franchise in the history of the world.

Mic drop. Feedback.

I wasn't speaking specifically about TLJ but the notion that new movies are crap and back in the day people knew how to write.
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

Of course, there are technical aspects to a number of different components of a film. But as far as a script that’d be limited to whether the writing was grammatically correct, not whether it “entertained.”

“Technically sound,” not “technically good.”

As for character motivation, I think that’d be entirely subjective. One person’s idea of weak motivation could be something that resonated deeply with another. Neither one’s more right, ultimately.
So what would be your assessment of The Room then? Is it a film where the objective faults are scenes being out of focus and that's it? Script is okay, characters make sense, motivations are sound, scenes build properly on each other?
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

I wasn't speaking specifically about TLJ but the notion that new movies are crap and back in the day people knew how to write.

Where's the talent in putting **** as every third word? Even if could do that :lol
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

And the music is just screaming or loud bass, "bonk...Bonk...BONK!"

Al Bundy scored four touchdowns...

Movies used to require a better story and good efffects were costly. Heck! Old Star Wars found ways to present a story with limited technologies. Now, scyfy can cgi Mammoth and Megashark and people will watch.

The point being, this is about Star Wars. It used to have an all around level of quality. Now it is just pretty, polished effects and sound. Like candy presented in a gold bowl, but no nutritional value whatsoever. Stunning to see folks defend such bad quality.

The goal is to raise standards by commenting on how stupid tlj was. Many many examples have been given. Its like a nutritionist explaining that candy bars are not health food, and the candy bar eaters scream they are good for you.

We just want good movies. Sad to see sooo much resistance.
 
Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

Of course, there are technical aspects to a number of different components of a film. But as far as a script that’d be limited to whether the writing was grammatically correct, not whether it “entertained.”

“Technically sound,” not “technically good.”

As for character motivation, I think that’d be entirely subjective. One person’s idea of weak motivation could be something that resonated deeply with another. Neither one’s more right, ultimately.

edit: and to comment on modern film storytelling, I’d absolutely agree that the majority of major film productions seem mainly interested in making back the enormous amount of money they cost (or, “cash grab”), rather than telling a unique vision. As someone else said, these days the most groundbreaking films are coming from small independent creators, not big studios, as it used to be.

Yet most of those big studios are in charge of our most beloved franchises. While only a handful of them handle those intellectual properties with any kind of justice, the vast majority have had very poor results with the fan base. I'm not just talking about Star Wars. I could rattle off a dozen franchises who have suffered similar problems with fan reception in the post-modernist era.
 
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Re: Kathleen Kennedy to step down from Lucasfilm?

WRONG. Totally different.

We aren’t saying: “these whipper snappers and their picture shows nowadays are horrible!!!”

We/I are/am saying: “this movie was horrible.”

Not just a bad Star Wars movie. And not because of Wuss Luke, or Leia Poppins.

Not because of women, not because of any actors race, color, or creed.

No... just off of pacing, continuity and continuation. Of the overall vibe of a franchise. Story. Story content. Why we get to story points and the odd scenes and cuts to cram that stuff into said story points and in the end... why those main story points were not only NOT entertaining, but they also raised more plot holes than any other episode in this franchise.

The whole movie was a large ship chasing a large ship slowly.

And with the main characters as far as continuing ANYTHING from episode7... to leaving nothing to lead up to THE FINAL EPISODE IN THE SKYWALKER SAGA OF NINE MOVIES IN FORTY YEARS.

What is there to be excited about for episode 9?

Please enlighten me.

Random crap thrown on the wall isn’t edgy artistic or subversive. It’s lazy.

and episode 8 was garbage as a movie. On its own or as part of the largest movie franchise in the history of the world.

Mic drop. Feedback.

Everyone has their likes and dislikes. For instance my friends all went to A Quiet Place. They came back and raved about it, so I went. I hated it. It was so boring for me. But I haven't seen anyone else apply boring to that film. I just perceive horror films differently then most people.

For me The Last Jedi wasn't a perfect film. Nor was it the worst (that goes to ATOC, still love it though).
 
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