Star Wars Sadness

Cafe Society
21

Of course I mean the original Disney film, and no, there’s no disconnect. The original Disney’s Jungle Book had about as much in common with the Kipling stories as Frozen has to do with Hans Christian Andersen’s Snow Queen.

The remake of The Jungle Book may have made beaucoup bucks but according to this thread from when the movie came out,
the reaction around these parts was from “meh to okay”. Most of the praise was for the stunning visuals, which as I said Disney relies too much on. A couple of Dopers said they really liked the movie. You can see, my own opinion hasn’t changed much. I missed the emotional impact of the original movie and still do.

And as for those sneering about my complaint about the lack of original stories these days, because obviously nobody should even attempt to write anything new because they’ll never outdo Shakespeare, I abjectly apologize. I’d rather be bored to death than dare to insult the Bard.

22

It wasn’t even the first (or second, etc) adaptation of the stories into film format. And, yes, all the broad strokes were there: the characters, the conflict with Shere-Khan, the abandoned temple city, etc. Handwaving it away as “totally different” doesn’t make the complaint any less silly sounding. One thing that the Disney film absolutely wasn’t was an original story.

23

Okay, you win, the original version of Disney’s The Jungle Book was a remaking of the Kipling stories. I think everyone can agree with that.

Do you agree that more original stories in the movies would be a good thing? Because that’s all I’m asking here. I didn’t think that was such a goddamn controversial opinion.

24

I think Disney is a terrible place to look for originality, period. Always has been, always will be. Complaining about Disney not being original is like complaining about the ocean being a bit moist.

25

I agree, which is why I said Disney is vapid and boring.

I don’t care who would make original story films, I just wish someone would.

26

Ever watched cartoons you loved as a kid when you were an adult? There once was a time, not so long ago, when this was basically impossible; you were at the mercies of the studios and networks to decide to re-air them, which almost never happened (they’d already sold everyone those toys and needed to sell them new ones). This had the positive effect, for everyone, of preserving our fond memories of childhood pleasures while simultaneously protecting us from discovering, as adults, how those shows very, very much sucked.

Today however, with some combination of Netflix, Hulu, and/or YouTube, one can look up nearly any show you loved as kid and watch it again. I promise you it’s godawful. Or maybe you grew up in a time when animation for children was much better than the bullshit I grew up, but hey, He-Man and GI Joe and Transformers were mind-blowing at the time, but watching them as an adult they are objectively terrible in almost every possible way.

27

And my apologies for the double post above.

28

I love the whole Star Wars story, from the beginning to where we’re at so far. Sure, some parts of the story have been told better than others, but taken as a whole-- Anakin’s rise and fall and redemption, the fall of the Republic and Jedi Order, Obi Wan’s story, Darth Maul’s journey, the Rebellion, the Resistance, etc.-- I love it all.

The way I watch it (as a 42 year old man, who has now introduced his 8 year old son to the franchise): It’s one big story, with some parts being told great, and some pretty ham-handedly. But I’ve never stopped caring about the characters or how the story unfolds overall. Even the bad movies have their merits. And the cartoons have totally redeemed the BBY story-telling, which was pretty uneven in the prequel movies (some might say “terrible,” I say “uneven.”)

29

I agree with all of you saying nothing will be as great as it was when a kid, I know that already lol. With Star Wars, i’m looking at it more so as a comparison of the movies, it just seemed they went so downhill. And yes, when it came to Kylo Ren, I was extremely disappointed since I had seen the show ‘Girls’ and it completely tainted my view of that actor, since I didn’t even know who he was before that show. I just generally feel the franchise outside of a couple video games and the originals, just went really downhill. Major disappointments. I guess i’m looking for something else to get into now, maybe i’ll check out Star Trek and Farscape to see whats going on.

30

Darth Maul’s journey? The guy shows up, looks badass, and gets cut in half. What journey?

31

Watch Clone Wars, watch Rebels.

32

Everything has to be love or hate nowadays, doesn’t it? Well, I like Star Wars. All of it. Some bits I like more than others, I don’t regret seeing any of it or feel like it was a complete waste of my time and/or money - even Droids and the Ewok movies - but nothing rises to the level of hate (although, to be fair, I’ve never seen the* Holiday Special*) or love (except the costuming. I love the costuming.)

33

I just about HATE Star Wars. It’s my belief that it takes a fan to REALLY work up a good hate for a movie or book or TV series, and I was as big a Star Wars fan as anyone. It came out when I was 11 years old, and I had the good fortune to see it on, what I was told, was the biggest movie screen in the state. Moreover, I really had little idea what it was going in. Space ships, lasers, aliens. Sounds cool. When the rebel ship moved across the screen, I was in awe. When the STAR DESTROYER FILLED THE SCREEN for what seemed like minutes, my jaw hit the floor. That film is just about EVERYTHING an 11-year-old boy would love - bad guys getting shot by good guys, swordfights, magic, spaceships, rescues, big shit blowing the hell up, etc etc. Awesome.

Empire came out. Still cool, little darker, kinda disappointed with the lack of a solid ending, like the first movie had. They took three more years to finish the trilogy, and by that time, I was 17 and had other distractions, and I didn’t get around to seeing it until I was about 25. Freakin’ Teddy Bears? ANOTHER Death Star? I was growing up, the movies were targeting younger kids and, it seemed, running out of ideas by rehashing the Death Star.

1999 rolls around. Pod racing, Jar-Jar, midichlorians,“I hate sand”, “the younglings!”, “NOOOOOO!!!” MORE Boba Fett dick-sucking? Dammit! Boba Fett was a pussy who had 5 lines in the original trilogy, if we count the, “Aaaahhhh!” as a blind Han Solo kills him by accident, and I’m supposed to think he’s a badass? As Col. Kurtz would say, he’s an errand boy. He follows the gang and tattles on them - he doesn’t even capture or kill anyone. He then carts Han from point A to point B, only to get himself killed. What justifies bringing him and his father into this shitfest? How big a shoehorn did they use to get that fucker into THIS trilogy?

Suck. Christ, the SUCK! Ewan McGregor was pretty kick-ass at channeling Alec Guinness as Obi-wan, but that’s it. Really enjoyed him, to be honest.

2015: OK, I won’t see it at the movies, but I’ll watch it at home. . .

(watching ensues)

Nice to see Leia and Han again, but friggin’ emo Darth Vader? ANOTHER GODDAMN DEATH STAR! I’d almost rather hear another monologue about trade wars by toad aliens than another friggin’ DEATH STAR!

Goddamn lazy shit. If they ain’t gonna even try, fuck 'em. In fact, I’d demand about 8-9 hours of my life back, if I ever did anything useful with it anyway.

You have to be a fan to get a REALLY good hate on for something.

34

I loved the original movies, but I was a baby.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, and there’s no accounting for taste. That being said, the prequels were bad and if you liked them, you’re wrong.

The new one, meh.

But I recently saw Rogue One, and I was actually kind of impressed. I think it was because there was nothing “just for the kids” in it. Even though the action/battle scenes went on too long for my taste, Rogue One was a grownup’s Star Wars film, through and through. Darker, grittier, more challenging, it was the Star Wars movie I wished they had made instead of those three piles of shit they call the prequels. The Star Wars movie I would have made if they let me make Star Wars movies.

CGI Tarkin and Leia were dumb, though.

35

Here’s the deal, kids.

Most of us saw the original movies when we were just children. The movies were made with a child’s audience in mind.

The prequels came out when we were all much older. The movies were still made with a child’s audience in mind.

I think it’s fair to say that we’re all critiquing these movies with an adult sense, whereas we should still be trying to find that childhood magic…