Star Wars Ep. VII Megathread: The Force Awakens (2 Viewers)

[SamT]

I have. Attack of the Clones is one of the worst movies any human being has ever created. Especially when you consider the amount of money and talent they had.

 

[TravisR]

I have always said that Episode I is better than Attack of the Clones.

I've seen that said somewhat frequently and I don't see why people think that. In Attack Of The Clones, almost any scene with Ewan McGregor/Obi-Wan is pretty decent and basically the last hour is an action movie with a big battle, a ton of Jedis chopping things up and Yoda kicking some butt. I enjoy The Phantom Menace but I much prefer Attack.
EDIT: Yes, the love story is far from believable (though it is over the top and operatic which fits Star Wars) but so much of the rest of the movie works that it makes up for the 10 or 15 minutes of screen time that the love story takes up.

As for it being "one of the worst movies any human being has ever created", that's treading dangerously close to 'Lucas raped my childhood' hyperbole.

 

[Sam Favate]

When I watched the six films in numerical order (the only time I've done so) when the blu-rays came out, I was struck by two things: How the tone of ROTJ didn't fit the other films at all (ROTJ is essentially played for laughs all the way through) and how Episode I seems to belong to a different universe. Episode II has its flaws, but it is a much better movie than Episode I.

 

[Simon Massey]

I had opportunity to see AOTC in 3D last weekend ( impressive conversion for the most part especially the environments ) and it IMO is a stronger story than TPM but it does have the worst scenes of the whole series

 

[Chris Will]

I hope these 3D conversion make there way to Blu-ray one day, especially the original trilogy.

 

[Edwin-S]

I'm not really anticipating these films. Episodes 1, 2, and 3 only demonstrated the truth of the adage that "you cannot go home again". These next three, by bringing back Hamilton, Fischer and Ford, are only going to reinforce that fact. What's Episode 7 going to be called "Star Wars New Republic: Geriatric Jedis". That's not meant to insult older people, because I'm not that young myself anymore; however, come on, sometimes you just have to know when to call it quits. Bringing those three back, NOW, for a Star Wars reprise is just ludicrous, SW episode 7 is going to be 'Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull" amped to 11.

Why can they never leave sleeping dogs lie? They just keep coming back and milking it and milking it, until there is nothing left but a dried out rotting husk, continually reminding a person of how good the original concept used to be.

 

[SilverWook]

Not even going to wait for a trailer?

I don't think the new films are going to revolve around Hamill, Fisher, and Ford. It's probably going to be a passing of the torch sort of thing, and seeing Mark in the Obi Wan mentor role is going to put a big smile on my face. George once said the droids were the only characters intended to be in all three trilogies anyway.

There were jokes about the aging original Star Trek cast at one point, (The Search for Regularity) but they still had the magic in The Undiscovered Country. I don't mind my heroes getting old, so long as it's done right.

Will be interesting to see if anything is shown at the D23 Expo this weekend...

 

[Simon Massey]

I'm apprehensive more than anything - it would be nice to see these characters again if done right, but equally I think another trilogy with different characters would probably be a better optionHaving them in as a passing the torch thing could actually be equally distracting and detract from the story. C3PO as an example seem shoehorned into the prequels as a cameo except maybe for Sith which largely wasted time whereas R2D2 actually had a function in the prequels which made sense.

 

[Bryan^H]

SW episode 7 is going to be 'Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull" amped to 11.

Yeah, but we don't know that yet. We have a good writer(and OT SW fanatic) a good director(and OT SW fanatic) on board. We have the original actors of the OT. I'm more along the line of -at its worst, it will probably be an average, enjoyable summer movie that will bring a few smiles to OT fans. At its best it may just blow our minds!

 

[dpippel]

I'm very cautiously optimistic that the new films won't suck. IMO one the main problems if not THE main problem with the prequels was that Lucas had complete control and surrounded himself with yes-men. That didn't work out so well. With Disney and Abrams mostly free of that ball and chain things may go much better creatively. On the flip-side it could also work the OTHER way. My mind remains open. For now.

 

[Tino]

I'm very cautiously optimistic that the new films won't suck. IMO one the main problems if not THE main problem with the prequels was that Lucas had complete control and surrounded himself with yes-men. That didn't work out so well. With Disney and Abrams mostly free of that ball and chain things may go much better creatively. On the flip-side it could also work the OTHER way. My mind remains open. For now.

Ditto

 

[SamT]

I just saw Star Trek Into Darkness. Just wow, wow.Such a terrible generic movie 5/10! It's official J.J. Abrams has never made a great movie and I don't have high hopes for Episode VII anymore.This might sound too harsh but I'm afraid he has no talent. Repeating stuff is not called homage, it's lack of imagination. He is a copycat, instead of making a great original story, he relies to reference old stuff and replay them. Make something that can stand on its own.I found replaying the same stuff from Star Trek II pretty offensive and I dread Episode VII to be a clip show of old material and references.

 

[Tino]

JJ didn't write Star Trek as you know. Blame the writers if you must. If you don't like his direction, that's another matter. I for one loved STID and can't wait to see what he does with the Star Wars universe.

 

[SilverWook]

Wow. Harsh.

I liked the 2009 film, which had a better script. (And I'm an "old school" Trek fan.) There's going to be a lot of pressure to do this right. Nobody wants to be the director that killed Star Wars. I think JJ is up to the task, all he needs is a good script and cast.

But, if George ends up backseat directing, all bets are off.

 

[SilverWook]

And if this doesn't cheer you guys up...

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/23/star-wars-episode-vii-will-be-shot-on-35mm-film

 

[dpippel]

Nobody wants to be the director that killed Star Wars.

Lucas says "Too late!!!"

 

[SamT]

Star Wars: Episode VII To Shoot On 35mmWith cinematographer Dan Mindel behind the cameraJostling with Batman for our attention this morning is some very big news from the Star Wars-verse. J. J. Abrams' cinematographer of choice, Dan Mindel, has signed up to shoot Star Wars Episode VII. And Mindel confirmed at an ASC breakfast in Los Angeles that it will be filmed entirely in anamorphic 35mm.

 

[Joel Fontenot]

Does that mean, no 3D?I'm hoping there's no 3D for this one. I know they could still do post production 3D, but I'd rather they don't spend (waste) the time on it.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Does that mean, no 3D?I'm hoping there's no 3D for this one. I know they could still do post production 3D, but I'd rather they don't spend (waste) the time on it.

If they gotta do 3D then shoot native, i'd go further and say shoot using 2D and 3D cameras and optimize for both systems, i don't like conversions.

 

[SamT]

Hurd Wood, Pettyfer Up For "Star Wars"
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/28372/hurd-wood-pettyfer-up-for-star-wars

I hope J.J. (Is that short for Jar Jar? God helps us! ) doesn't just cast pretty faces.