Star Wars VIII Script Is "So Good", Abrams Wishes He Could Direct It

[circularlogic88]

You mean besides there being no inherit risky ideas

No, and putting those words in my mouth is dishonest. I don't mean anything of the sort, and you know better. It's the entire reason you responded to me.

I don't know if you're expecting some sort of counter-argument from me, but it seems like a waste of time to argue in good faith when you seem uninterested in doing the same.

What did Lucas innovate or stand to risk with the prequels?

He had a license to print money with his franchise that people were starving for at the time. He didn't change up the formula by radically casting POC as the main characters. Anything that didn't work in the previous movie, he would draw less attention to or ignore completely in the following prequel movie.

You shot down the person's reasoning and then didn't follow up with counter points to their argument.

What did Lucas risk with those movies?

 

[iseko]

as long as snoke does not turn out to be plagueis it's all good. If he does I'll be pissed and then disney and the new movies can go F themselves

 

[Something Amyss]

What did Lucas innovate or stand to risk with the prequels?

Rephrasing something to change meaning is a poor way to start a discussion. I said nothing about innovation and "stand to risk" is something Lucas has never had to do post-OT Star Wars. His next movie could be an arthouse film about black lesbians in the antebellum south and Lucas would stand to risk nothing. This is a guy who could afford to sell off Star Wars and then give the money to charity.

By that diction, Lucas almost can't ever have a risky movie ever again.

 

[Veylon]

as long as snoke does not turn out to be plagueis it's all good. If he does I'll be pissed and then disney and the new movies can go F themselves

The EU went into a blender, remember? There's no Plagueis anymore. I have the feeling that we'll be wishing he was Plagueis once we get the reveal, though. There was something almost unbearably underwhelming about the guy.

 

[Zontar]

There's no Plagueis anymore.

Uh, the EU may be gone, but they didn't throw out the prequels or the Clone Wars animated series, both are explicitly still part of the new EU.

 

[Jandau]

I do not like Abrams' directing. Never have. Anything that he touches that manages to be good does so despite him, not because of him. I find this to be quite evident in Force Awakens - the film's strong points were the dialogue and the characters. The weakest points were the pacing (or lack of any) and the direction. Basically, everyone else put in such good work that not even Abrams' shoddy work could quite bring it down. And that's what frustrates me about Force Awakens - it's a decent enough film, but it was so close to being genuinely great. If only it was directed by a half-competent person...

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

yes some of the greatest movies are risks but then again ALL of the bad ones were too.

I don't think that's true at all. Plenty of films played it safe, and lost in a big way.

The Lone Ranger, John Carter, and Green Lantern, for instance, were all films that were considered safe bets by hollywood, and seriously under performed. And those are just recent examples from the top of my head..

I personally consider the fate John Carter suffered at the box office to be nothing short of tragic. It was a great fun pulp sci-fi movie with some heart and not afraid to have a bit of fun. They did give John a gritty little backstory but by the time he was hanging out with four armed Martians and piloting giant flying machines I stopped caring. Yet somehow, the advertising behemoth that was Disney looked at a movie staring a cowboy who goes to Mars and gets superpowers and thwarts an evil empire, and collectively shrugged their shoulders and stuck their thumbs up the arses. The advertising was pathetic.


Now there's also been lots of hooting about Rey being a better Force user at the end than Kylo-Ren and a thought occurs: isn't it possible that Kylo himself just wasn't that good? Seriously maybe he's just been coasting on the few impressive basics he's actually learned but otherwise reputation is doing most of his job for him.

I like to imagine some kind of comedy cut of this where the Force ghost of Anakin Skywalker is watching

Spoiler

his nephew

and is just rubbing his forehead and muttering "You jug-eared chimp, my padawan on her first day was less of a dickhead than you".

Actually there's an idea; since they didn't strike Clone Wars from the formal storyline, could Ashoka show up?

 

[Myria]

Hey, JJ...

"Don't get cocky, Kid".

 

[Sampler]

At no point have I ever been "impressed" with Abrams' work; he is a mediocre director who releases derivative work with virtually no originality and Ep. 7 is no exception. About as middle-of-the-road a movie as possible, nowhere near as poor as any of the prequels, barely scraping a c+ compared with any of the originals.
Thank god he's gone and someone with talent is taking the helm on the next one.

He took the safe route with Ep 7, and considering fans still have a bad taste in their mouth thanks to the prequels, i'm not surprised.

Still if ep 7 is any indication, it can only get better thanks to what it set up. Say what you want about ep 7, but u can't deny the characters are likeable, the humour is on point (and probably the best in any starwars film) and the nice blend of practical effects and CGI really make it come together. Unlike the prequels where characters were added purely for comic relief *glares at Jar Jar* the humour is, at times, cringe worthy and the CGI is an eye sore. And this is coming from someone who doesn't actually mind the prequels xD (well...to a point)

I can quite easily deny it.
Po was a non-entity, on screen for so little time it was impossible to feel anything but anger at his smug, self-aware "I've got plot armour" dialogue.
Finn was the worst case of 90's-Nickelodeon-Character I've seen in a long time, virtually every line he delivered sounded like it wouldn't have been out of place in a episode of Keenan and Kel. His tone was simply off, every time he spoke.
Rey was just about tolerable, but come on. She's spent years and years waiting for something to come and make her life better and is "convinced", "reluctantly" to abandon that wait due to an "awakening" of the force? She's the audience! She is J.J. Abrams trying to convince the viewers that "yes, maybe the original trilogy were better and yes, you've been disappointed before, but c'mon, take another chance..." The manipulation of the audience is evident (and not subtle!) every second she's on screen, just no. Hell, she's even shown fondly staring at some Star Wars memorabilia ffs!

Ok, fine.

BB-8 was fun.

Agreed on Poe and Finn but Rey was terrible, her dialogue was clunky and she delivered with an air of reading from memory in an accent totally unbefitting of her characters back story and she was brilliant at everything for no reason (oh, yeah, strong with the force as she's

Spoiler

Luke's daughter

).

Harrison Ford phoned it in through the entire film with an expression on his face of "Can't wait until

Spoiler

I get written out of this shit

and pick up my paycheck" and Chewbacca had nothing but to sit there and smile and go "Hey kids, remember Chewie!" even though he and R2' are major players in the story [http://fantheories.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars] - oh, and R2' shut down for no god damn reason other than to have more BB8 in the film?

Though, granted, loved the way the little guy wiggled his ass