If by “flashy” and “colorful” you mean that blobs of colored light flash inexplicably across the scene at random times, for no discernible reason.
But that’s just it, this is exactly what made the '77 original so great*!* And Abrams also knows the value of creating characters that the audience becomes emotionally invested in and cares about, which is exactly what made the prequels so bad*!*
True, but the first movie could rest on its originality, spirit, fun, and special effects enough to glaze over those shortcomings. And the actors all got better in Empire and Jedi. Jedi kinda sucked, stupid Muppets & teddy bear people, but Empire was a worthy sequel because it had a better screenwriter (Lawrence Kasden) and director (Irvin Kershner) than either SW or ROTJ…
(Originality? An adventure in Space? In the 1970’s. Yeah, sorry can’t agree, Lucian of Samosata was original, science fiction in space about an evil empire? Yeah no.).
I thought Revenge of the Sith was excellent. PH was bad and AoTC was saved only by the last hour.
That’s not even remotely what made the original movies great. There have been plenty of movies with more action and better effects than the original Star Wars trilogy - movies that sucked.
What made the original great was the characterization and the conflict. We identified with Luke because his story of a teenager stuck at home while his friends went off to experience the world and have adventures resonates strongly with us. We identified with Lea as the plucky princess who doesn’t take crap. We identified with Han as the charming rogue with a rough exterior and heart of gold. They are all cliches, but they are cliches done very well. The story was one of the classic stories of all time: “The Little Tailor.” Luke was the peasant farm boy with nothing who rises to save a princess and defeat an empire.
All these characters were so well written and portrayed that we feel we know a lot about them - more than was ever shown on the screen. We know the types, and we like them. And because we know and like them, we get very invested in what happens to them, which makes their final triumph extremely satisfying.
That’s why Star Wars was great. It had little to with the effects or the action. The Phantom Menace had more action and better effects. What it lacked was a single character we could possibly care about. Padme? What kind of person is she? Any idea? How about Qi Gon Jin (sp)? Is there anything about him that should make us care what happens to him, other than that we know he’s a ‘good guy’? Obi Wan Kenobi? If you didn’t know the character from the first Star Wars movies, would you even remotely know or care what kind of person he was? Hell, in the original movies R2-D2 had more personality than any of the characters from the Phantom Menace, and he could only communicate with beeps.
The second trilogy failed because Lucas is a crap writer and a director more focused on playing with technology than traditional direction craft. The acting was bad because much of it was performed in front of a green screen and the actors had nothing to play off of, and because Lucas’s dialog was just awful.
And look at what Abrams did to Star Trek. He threw plot elements into the mix without caring whether they made sense or not, and didn’t even try to explain it. Why did Spock have to be lowered into a volcano? Couldn’t they just use the transporter? And since when can you fix a volcano with a device like that? And then we find out that there’s a transporter capable of transporting people across the galaxy. Wouldn’t that pretty much render Star Fleet obsolete? Or at least change tactics so dramatically that the rest of the world would no longer make sense?
Then there’s the characters. Kirk becomes little more than a petulant playboy. Uhura is a sexpot with no other real contribution. Everyone is basically reduced to a caricature, while the original Star Trek’s appeal was based almost entirely on the relationships between Kirk, Spock, Scotty, and McCoy. They were all people we cared about in the original Star Trek, but in the reboot they’re just there as quip machines and vehicles for producing more action sequences.
“…plenty of movies…” ?!
The only film I can think of that used high quality, motion control special effects before Star Wars was 2001. And saying Star Wars’ effects and action had little to do with its success is insane. Yes the film had a great heart, but without it also having the groundbreaking use of expensive SFX applied to a swashbuckling scifi setting it would not have been the mega-success it was. Not at all.
Lucas famously screened it for industry friends before it was finished. IOW the special effects weren’t there, the sound design wasn’t there, Vader’s voice wasn’t there, the music wasn’t there etc. And it was a disaster. It was a disaster because without those elements the film was awful. It’s story & characters were not enough to carry it thru such an otherworldly type of setting without the impressive & immersive visuals. But the prequels went overboard with the visuals and, more importantly, completely left out the characters & driven story. You need both for Star Wars films.
And this is why I think Abrams will succeed. I’m a total Trekkie, and yes, I get the complaints about his version, but I was still able to enjoy it. But Star Wars is so much less dependent on techno-babble and backstory canon minutia than Star Trek is, that I think Abrams take on it will be perfect.
I agree on both points. I’m not an Abrams fan, but Williams is probably the greatest film composer of all time, after Henry Mancini. 
Ewoks bad, yes. RotJ is overall, pretty darn good, however. The final fight between Luke and Vader is excellent, and the showdown between Luke and the Emperor is good. And the stuff in Jabba’s palace is also good. The look of the movie overall is excellent. It’s a fun 80s movie.
There’s no lumping it in with the prequels. Those are just shit.
It’s the only one of the prequels with any real interest, due mainly to Ian McKellen’s excellent acting as Palpatine.
Star Wars, wookies, jabba fets, I could not care less.
Certainly good effects are necessary for a science fiction film. My point was that the effects weren’t what made the movie great. There have been lots of crap movies with great effects.
Really? You don’t think the backstory and canon matter to Star Wars fans? I have one word for you: Midichlorians.
Maybe the new movie will be great, and maybe it will be more JJ Abrams flash without substance. I’m skeptical. But then, I don’t really care much. Star Wars has been dead to me since The Phantom Menace.
His acting was so good, he looked just like Ian McDiarmid…
Ah yes, my bad.
Personally, I’m just sick of seeing so much Star Wars shit around the stores so many months before the film is even released.
I think the film will finally come out and I will be so over saturated that I won’t want to see it.
My worry is that since JJ Abrams gave us the worst swerve in movie history with Kahn in Star Trek into Darkness, he’s going to double down and at some point in the middle of the Force Awakens someone will say “Hey this planet Jakku… it’s actually Tatooine!”
It’s just that the name was forgotten over the past 32 years… just as the Jedi were forgotten in about the same amount of time after Vader destroyed them!
The timeline of A New Hope doesn’t make a lot of sense… But I guess it’s plausible in a sparsely populated Galaxy in which law and order are spread pretty thin. It doesn’t make sense at all with the prequels dumped in.
I certainly have no confidence that The Force Awakens will make any sense in terms of timeline. Having Old Han, Luke, and Leia in it pretty much forces it to be set in real time vis-a-vis RotJ.
A movie targeted for ten year olds, just like the rest of them. So I am sure I will love it.
I’ve been holding someone else’s breath till the movie comes out.
Luke, I am your grandfather!
Well that puts a great ending on Obi-Wan and Satine’s love affair in Clone Wars.
Well, yeah.
Hopefully, it will be fun. I’m hoping we simply use the old characters to help introduce the new ones, and that the new ones are interesting and compelling, and that the movie’s a fun ride.
There’s a Facebook meme going around now, that points out the many directors and producers and writers that made the Original Trilogy… and then points out that the Prequel Trilogy was all George Lucas, for the most part. The implication is that the brilliant young director who made American Graffiti and Star Wars had, in the intervening decades, become much more of a property and licensing manager than a movie director or writer, and it showed.
May even be true.
The GOOD thing about Disney’s custodianship, in this case, is that they’re generally pretty good about managing a franchise. If the movie stinks, it’ll be because the whole COMMITTEE dropped the ball, as opposed to Uncle George.
This is not necessarily a good thing. But we’ll see.
I remember back in 1977 there was a HUGE demand for Star Wars toys for Christmas… and Kenner couldn’t pump 'em out fast enough. Couldn’t keep up with demand.
Now you can buy Halloween costumes of characters that we don’t really know who they are or what they do in the movie yet, because the movie ain’t out. But, by ghod, the MERCH is OUT IN FORCE!!!