Do you think the prequels will hurt the expectations for episode 7?
I know that I can’t watch the footage that’s come out so far, without feeling a pang of frustration and disappointment related to what I think of the prequels. I think I might forego the whole thing.
No, I’m excited. I actually hold out hope that Disney can’t possibly fuck it up as much as Lucas did.
I think, if anything, it’s made the expectations higher. Disney/Abrams are basically saying that they know the prequels sucked and these are going to be more like the originals.
I’m so old, I saw the original in (several) theaters when it was simply called Star Wars.
I’ll probably go see Episode 7 because I’ve seen the other six, but after the prequels I have no expectations left to shatter.
The prequels were really, really bad, but even if they’d been rather good, I think they would have suffered from the impossible expectations of the fanbase, after more than two decades of wanting a new Star Wars movie.
The new films, I think, are benefiting from the opposite effect. Even if they’re kind of bad, I think they’ll do very well, because now the expectation for a Star Wars movie is that it’ll suck to an almost unprecedented degree.
I won’t be in the early crowd of lemmings, immediately forking over my movie-watching dollar for an unknown product. The prequels cured me of that. But if early reviews are decent, I’ll be more than happy to renew my 40-year love affair with Star Wars. I’m mentally crossing all 10 of my fingers that the new ones will be ok.
It’s so dense. Every image has so many things going on.
I thought it was funny how their initial PR rollout was trying to distance themselves from the prequels. Look! We’re using practical effects and real sets. We brought the original actors back. We got Chewie! P-Please don’t hate us.
I know a lot of people didn’t like the Abrams Star Trek reboots, especially when he just recycled/ruined old scenes while making everything bigger, louder and dumber. But that might be a good approach for Star Wars.
I already have zero expectations. I don’t read about the movie, I don’t look at videos. I’m not counting the days.
But I will watch it early, give it a fair chance. If it’s good, then it’s good. But if it’s another Star Trek…ugh.
Going to read the reviews before I consider seeing it. If they’ve trashed the story lines or it’s full of lens flare, I’ll skip it. The new Star Trek movies may have been visually interesting, but plot, character and logic wise, they’re utter rubbish.
The prequels haven’t hurt my expectations for Ep 7. What’s hurt my expectations for Ep 7 is the fact that Abrams is directing them. He’s a hack, and the best thing I can say about him is that he’s not Michael Bay.
Not mine. I’ve only seen the teasers, but this looks like a Star Wars movie to me. And I trust Abrams’ ability to direct his actors.
Me too! I was 11 years old in 1977. My family was not a movie-going family, but I had seen the TV commercials for Star Wars, and I begged and begged and begged until my parents relented and took me to see it. And seeing that movie was probably the definitive moment of my childhood, and ultimately shaped so much of who I grew up to become. It gave me my love for science-fiction, which led to my love for fantasy, which has ultimately led to my current fascination with real-world history. If I could go back to college now, I’d be a history major.
Everybody goes on about Princess Leia’s metal bikini in RotJ, but not me. For me, it was the scene on the Death Star where Luke burst into Leia’s cell. There she was, in her white robes, lounging on her side as she said, “Aren’t you kind of short for a stormtrooper?” The way she looked in that moment gave me a boner … and that scene had exactly the same effect on me at age 31, when I watched it when the movie was theatrically re-released in 1997. Though the effect seems to have been limited to the big screen. I’d re-watched the movie plenty of times in the intervening years, but the effect wasn’t the same on a 19" CRT TV.
I kind of like Abrams. I haven’t seen much of his movie work, but I really enjoyed the Fringe TV series. I enjoyed his Star Trek movies; I’m a huge ST fan, but his reboot didn’t piss me off. ST:TOS was a product of its time, and if that story is to continue, it really needs to be updated to modern expectations. Nobody complains about James Bond movies always being set in the “now”, relevant to the current world.
Slight aside, but can someone explain to me why Lucas gave up the rights to make these films? I mean, he has more money than a small nation-state so it can’t be for the money (which he would make gobs more of whether selling the rights or making the films himself). Star Wars was his baby that he obviously owes his mega-gigantic life’s fortune to in the first place, and while he certainly doesn’t have to do jack shit for the rest of his life, it seems like this is the kind of thing someone would want to see through to the end. I don’t know, it just seems odd that he would hand over the reins to someone else to make them.
I suspect that it is because he doesn’t have the energy and drive to see it all the way through another 3 pictures and felt that Disney had the resources to pull this off better than he could.
There is a point where the mind can be willing but the body just says no.
Even though it was his baby to start, he wants it to continue and by pushing it through to Disney that is the best for long term success
Also, when he was younger and getting the original Star Wars out, he was treated for exhaustion. Now add in doing this 40 years later and under a much higher profile, I can see why he passed on the torch.
If you look at the Comic con footage, you can see that it is Kathleen Kennedy, Lawrence Kasden and JJ’s show now
Pure speculation, but: Lucas has never been shy about sharing his toys. He’s always been happy to let people make comics, and video games, and cartoons, and novels set in his universe. Now that he’s no longer interested in making movies himself, it seems in keeping with his character that he’d hand the films over to someone else, too.
The prequels are definitely vastly inferior to the originals, but I don’t have the overwhelming hatred for them that some fans do. In general, I can overlook many of the shortcomings and try to enjoy them for what they were trying to be. That said, there’s actually a whole generation of people who are young enough that they didn’t grow up the originals. I’m too young to have seen any of the originals in the theaters, but I probably saw all of them on VHS dozens of times as a kid, and I was extremely excited to see Episode I, and even fooled myself into loving it at first, until I settled on just thinking is was poor.
However, having run into plenty of people in their mid-20s and younger, they were the target demographic when the prequels came out, and many of them have a similar love for the prequels that people in the later 20s and older have for the originals. I’ve even heard many of them say they find the originals slow paced and boring. And a lot of the younger generation has difficulty really understanding just how exceptional the effects were in the prequels at the time, just as much as they were in the originals, but they still just seem dated to them.
Personally, though, I’m unsure about Episode 7. I’m excited about it, and I’m definitely seeing it opening weekend, but frankly, I’m not sold that it’s going to be substantially better than the prequels. I liked the trailer I saw, but I didn’t love it. I know many Star Wars mega-fanboys went nuts over it, but that’s precisely why I wasn’t blown away by it, because it was focusing a lot on the nostalgia factor and the impressive visuals, but it didn’t really give me anything about what’s happening in the film. After all, the Episode I trailers were SPECTACULAR, and we know how those films turned out. No one criticizes the prequels for the visuals or the action, it’s criticized because of poor direction, dialogue, and under-developed characters. Maybe when we get a true trailer that can give us some dialogue and a little bit of insight into what the plot is, I’ll get more excited. Until then, I’m not impressed yet.
With that said, I don’t think the prequels hurt the new film at all. They’re making a point of saying this new film is so much more like the originals, and I think the die hard fans are excited about that. And I think the younger generation that enjoyed the prequels will see this film because they liked those. Regardless, Star Wars is just too much a part of our culture that people will see it regardless of their feelings about either trilogy, as long as they enjoyed one of them. What really remains to be seen is if the film is actually good, and word of mouth encourages people who are hesitant to go see it. It’s also coming out in December against little competition, so I suspect some people that might have skipped it in the summer in favor of another film may just go see it because, why not?
The prequels would do well to have the feeling of the original trilogy. Snappy dialogue, rough-around-the-edges characters, and a simple plot.
Episode 7 could certainly be good without feeling like the original trilogy, but it’s risky.
I’ve read all the spoilers for ep 7 and I think it’s going to be amazingly good.
He didn’t want to make the prequels. He felt obliged to, what with he himself numbering the original trilogy that way, but though he wanted the movies to be made (and he to supervise them) he didn’t want to write or direct them - he knew his limitations. But nobody else was willing to do so either, they all felt it was too sacred a task to even try. Lucas’s hand was forced. No pun intended.
He kept denying there were ever any plans to make further sequels, while also not letting the “expanded universe” team from writing stories that covered the time period beginning 30 years post-ROTJ. He had been planning a TV series, a kind of Sopranos-esque underbelly type of thing, about the bounty hunters and crime lords, set in an earlier era, I think, but that also fell apart after he realised it would be years before elaborate VFX on that scale would be affordable on TV budgets. We still aren’t there yet.
I believe Disney came to him first (they already had an association) and he saw the opportunity to properly retire from the Star Wars albatross around his neck, and not be blamed if he messed up anything else he made (e.g. Indiana Jones 4 was also his fault), so decided to just give up cold turkey. He has used the money from the sale wisely, generously, and creatively, so it’s been a good move on all fronts.
I am cautiously optimistic.