I thought Rey was terrific. For all the many problems of the sequel trilogy, characters weren’t one of them, IMO. Characters were the strength, actually, so I’ll be very glad to see Rey again.
I’m not saying she was terrible but terrific? really? Is she a character in the mode of Luke, Han or Leia? Obi-wan or Vader? She doesn’t linger long in the memory, she’s not iconic and I think that’s the sort of charisma and screen power required to drive another film series.
Absolutely yes, IMO. Especially when she was matched up with Kylo (who I really wish they hadn’t killed off, but who knows if Adam Driver would come back anyway).
But we’ll see. Much too soon to have any idea how it will turn out.
Kylo was the only great character in the sequels, IMO. New ones at least, I actually liked what they did with Luke.
All the new characters could have been salvaged at any moment by better writing. If there will be another film, I hope they finally manage to do so with Rey at least. Maybe we’ll get to see her have a new take on the Jedi, and learn the lesson that Luke could not: that in order to properly empathize with and fight for the good of people, one must be sensitive to both the dark side and the light. Humanity is a force neutral species.
Gosh, well we’ll very much have to disagree on that one. They faced off and I honestly couldn’t have cared less.
One movie. The other two movies announced are for different time periods.
Which isn’t to say there might not be more Rey movies, but I think they’re moving away from the “trilogy” model.
OK, well that’s less of a challenge I suppose but still not an attractive draw for this Star Wars fan, still going to be a tough sell for many others I think.
Same. I think part of it was being the parent of young girls at the time the sequels came out. Although I didn’t need that to like the character, as I’ve said before.
She is 100% as iconic as the OT characters and I definitely would want to see more of her story, I am glad they are not making the same mistakes they did with Luke/Han/Leia and waiting 40+ years to continue the story. Frankly the idea that the sequels would be retconned was laughable from day one.
Agreed, the problems of the sequel trilogy boil down to not having one person in charge, that is all. Having alternating directors choosing where to take the story when its the turn was a horrible mistake.
I just loved the beginning of VII. After I’d given up on Star Wars after those soulless prequels, this one opened with a scared stormtrooper. And even better, a young girl scavenging a star destroyer and taking in a wayward robot.
I thought Rey was well-written and well-acted, throughout “her” trilogy (well, hers and Luke’s and Han’s and Finn’s and Poe’s and Kylo’s… and BB-8’s).
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I’m also excited about the news of Lando really happening. "Donald Glover is not only board, but very excited about it.”
Rey, in restraints, flipping the dynamic of the whole scene by trying her hand at a Jedi mind trick — only to utterly fail, flipping the scene into something else so she can emotionally slip into a different tone of voice when again trying and again failing to mind-trick the guard — and then hitting the Alec Guinness impression just in time to get the win? And only then realizing she should mention putting down the gun? Fantastic.
That’s a big one, but the ep 7 was basically an uninspired remake of ep4. If they used one person’s vision it shouldn’t have been JJ Abrams’.
That was kind of a safety net, and weirdly probably the most well received of the three. I would have gone with someone besides JJ Abrams also though.
I don’t think it’s that weird. 8 was risky and 9 was possibly the worst Star Wars property of all. When 7 came out I was disappointed in the plot, but sort of thought “ok, this is just them saying ‘we’re going to do better this time, we got you.’” Well made, but not going out on any limbs. As you said, a safety net. Had the other two movies told a coherent story then I would have forgiven it.
The first trilogy was goofy because it’s meant for kids. They tried to make the franchise more adult with the second trilogy and it ended up banal. They then rehashed material from the first trilogy and the results were also banal.
Given that, they should just give the franchise a rest, but given the amount invested and opportunity costs, they’ll probably just milk it for what it’s got, similar to what’s done for some TV shows.
I think part of the issue with making new films for both Star Trek and Star Wars is they have an almost unpleasable fan base. The two most complaints among fans are two contradictory criticisms:
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They changed it now it sucks.
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They are just doing the same thing over and over again.
I don’t know what the answer is either. Personally I think Disney should just abandon the “rebels are fighting the evil empire” stories because I think it seemed really forced with the last trilogy and they completely wasted Palpatine in the last film by rushing through his return and death in one movie.
I wonder how Star Wars fans would respond to a “Star Wars” film with a different type of story line:
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A First Contact story with a new species
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A more unique threat like the Borg or shapeshifters like the Dominion trying to infiltrate society.
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A Alien/Pitch Black like story where they are trapped on a planet with a really dangerous species.
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A film just exploring the uniqueness of one of the multiple Alien races in Star Wars.
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A film exploring the droids and the ramifications of working with artificial intelligences.
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Star Trek likes time travel stories but I am not sure that would work in Star Wars because Trek’s back story is basically Earth’s history and Wars has its own backstory. Unless went Disney really off the wall with it and tried something like The Deep Space Nine (DS9) episode “Trials and Tribble-ations” where they edited the DS9 characters into the Original Series episode “The Trouble with Tribbles”. Trying to do something like that with The Original Trilogy could be great or it could be the worse thing ever.
Anyone else have any thoughts?
Star Trek vs. Star Wars in the vein of Freddy vs. Jason or Alien vs. Predator. It would probably be terrible, but then again, it could be magnificent, like an all-Texas Super Bowl…
I don’t think the answer to invigorating either of those franchises is for them to become more like each other. The best Star Wars stories aren’t really Science Fiction stories; they just have the trappings of SF. And Star Trek is at its worst when it gets mired in spiritual gobbledygook (usually thanks to the Vulcans).