Starting to get scared of what is going to happen to Star Wars

[barbzilla]

Well it seems like most everyone is saying that we can expect more of the same, with a slight variation one way or the other in quality. I can handle that. I was mostly worried about a white wash. Gazillion's Marvel Heroes was the real warning point for me, and I'm not even sure how much Disney had to do with the process. The funny thing is Marvel Heroes is one of the better Marvel games in the past 10 years or so, it just way too far off as far as paid value.

Thank you to everyone for the input though.

 

[Waffle_Man]

I always found that video to be a rambling mess. I have nothing against Errant Signals, he has good points at time, but i don´t see what he´s getting at in this video. There are lots of different Star Wars games out there, just look at recent titles like Force Unleashed, they did stuff that hadn´t been done in the series before and they are even quite unique compared to other games in the same genre (though we could argue about the quality).

What he's getting at in the video is that we shouldn't be worried about what Disney and EA are going to do with Star Wars at this point because Star Wars has been taken so many places as to have no real thematic or emotional center any more. You can literally do anything with the Star Wars license and not have it seem out of place. Therefore, what value as a franchise does it have?

And what I wanted to ask was "what is so good about Star Wars anyway?" Not that I don't love the original films, but a lot of what made them good, such as the cinematography and how the imagery went well with the simple themes, has been increasingly thrown out and ignored in adaptation. Star Wars itself was purposefully designed to be as generic as possible in order to pay homage to older works, and yet we treat it as some sort of sacred scripture. Being generic and derivative isn't bad, but after enough derivations, things tend to become diluted past the point of having any emotional weight. Everyone rightly likes KOTOR, but has anyone stopped to ask what the game actually gained from being in the star wars universe as opposed to any other universe?

 

[Chaos Isaac]

Considering how enjoyable the Marvel movies have been, i'm not too worried about new Star Wars content. Though I do hope they don't continue with the numbers, as Anakin's story is over and we all know that was the point of the entire episode set.

 

[80sboy]

I suspect it will end up like the new Star Trek films, hollow imitations of a bygone age, still entertaining in their own right but lacking the spark that made StarWars great.

This.

JJ Abrams know how to keep tension in his films. But he's not a very good at storyteller, the characters in his movies are pretty flat, and like the poster above me said - from what we saw of Star Trek - he's not very good at recapturing the magic that was involved in the original series.

I guess what we can expect from the new Star Wars movies is a lot of the cliches most people associate with that franchise. You see! When you create a new body of work, you can't just stick with the old tropes, you have to bring something new to the table, yet expand that universe in ways that would make sense.

So what can we expect from the new films:

-robot with silly personalities.
-light sabers, light sabers, and more light sabers.
-another death star or something similar.
-another Vader like character.
-another Boba Fett - actually - the Boba Fett.

Basically just regurgitating everything we've seen already, and not adding new light to it.

For instance, take the Knights of the Old Republic games, look at how well they did translating the old work into something new. We didn't just have more C3PO or R2D2, we had HK-47 which was something completely new and deserving to be part of the series. That's what I mean by expanding the universe but yet keeping it the same. We need more dimension to the characters, while still keeping the light and dark conflicts with the force around. Not see the same characters (or new characters based on the older archetypes) going through all the same motions again. We don't need another Luke story, or a Han Solo story, and God forbid another Anakin story from the prequels.

 

[Something Amyss]

I can understand that. Personally I loved the dialogue, but I'm pretty easily amused and I know nothing about the comics, so it's not like the game had a high standard to reach with me in the first place. But even the 'generic, repetitive' gameplay was still a blast (for me, at least) until the very final stretch, which dragged on a bit too long with too high of a random difficulty spike all based in one boring arena.

It's possible it's just my inference. I'm normally easily amused, but something about the delivery comes off as "please laugh, won't you please laugh?" And that's a turnoff. I don't even necessarily mind repetitive gameplay. I play Dynasty Warriors games.

And yeah, Marvel's game record isn't all that great. Even Spider-Man 2 is a pretty mediocre game, no matter how awesome the web-swinging may have been.

It was more fun to sandbox in than actually play, I agree.

He's apparently the CCO of Marvel Entertainment now, which I guess is the greater Marvel company as a whole?

...

If anything, it sounds like a higher position than the one he held before, so sure, let's blame him.

Yeah, I'll go with that.

 

[Something Amyss]

as Anakin's story is over and we all know that was the point of the entire episode set.

The fact that Lucas had planned episodes beyond VI and Vader's resolution would disagree with that.

Apparently, all of us doesn't include George.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

I suspect it will end up like the new Star Trek films, hollow imitations of a bygone age, still entertaining in their own right but lacking the spark that made StarWars great.

That's what makes me all the more depressed about the Star Wars situation, especially with "Dumb Dumb" Abrams at the helm.

I found the first new Star Trek film to be worse than a hollow imitation, and I didn't find it entertaining in any way. It's just a horrible shlock action film that has a famous franchise label to try and make more money; it's parading around in horrible remakes of another person's "clothes" and not even know why the "clothes" really matter. It joined the ranks of movies like the Eragon "adaption", as the small list of movies that offended me so badly about how terrible and how wrong the creators got it, that I wanted my money back. If I had the power to delete such movies from existence or go back in time to force them to do it the proper way, I would.

Of course, because of the first new one, I didn't see Into Darkness, but listening to friends that are gluttons for punishment, I didn't miss anything good, and from what I've heard, it was somehow much worse than the first new Star Trek travesty.

Disney has shown that it can treat nostalgic fandoms right, with the latest series of Marvel movies, because they've brought aboard writers, designers, and directors that actually have an interest or at least properly studied the genre/franchise they are doing.

But with them selecting Abrams to spearhead the new Star Wars, it looks like Disney is revealing that their choices for the Marvel movies were just amazing flukes.

Of course, it also doesn't bode all that well for Star Wars games either, as Disney is farming out the largest portions of the Star Wars license to EA.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

Considering how enjoyable the Marvel movies have been, i'm not too worried about new Star Wars content. Though I do hope they don't continue with the numbers, as Anakin's story is over and we all know that was the point of the entire episode set.

Really the numbers have nothing to do with Anakin, in that they weren't all about just him. The prequels were about his life and his development into Vader, the original trilogy was about Luke discovering who he was and becoming a Jedi like his father, but not faltering like him. I'm willing to bet that the new Star Wars will be about Han and Leia's kids, one or all of them, considering that they are bringing back the original actors to play their older selves.

Now on the first part of your comment, Disney showed they can't always pick it right, as they selected J.J. Abrams to direct it.

With him and his typical group of horrible writers at the helm, I'm going to call the new movie Star Wars: A No Hope. For he, with the new Star Treks, has proven he doesn't get what makes beloved franchises so great.

Now that I think of it and how Abrams likes to operate, I bet to try and lessen backlash, he's going to pull another Star Trek, and make these new Star Wars movies set in an alternate reality. Him and his writing staff are just that stupid enough to try it, no matter what they are being told from higher up.

 

[Saltyk]

Wait, is this thread about the movies or the games?

If about the movies, I am cautiously optimistic. The Marvel Movies were all made by Disney. And they were great! The worst were generally watchable. Well cast (Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark, need I say more?) with great action, and even some good downtime. With some great people, who seemed to be fans (Joss Whedon) working on the films. Anyone too concerned, should just watch Avengers.

Will the Star Wars movies be good? I don't know. But if Disney keeps up the record, they will at least be watchable. Can't be worse than the prequels, right?

Full Disclosure: I don't fully hate the prequels. There are some good points to them. However, the things I do hate are very hard to ignore. Anakin... I seriously can't watch Revenge of the Sith because he is just too damn annoying in that one. It's his zenith of annoyance. Kind of amazing, really.

If this is about the games, shouldn't this be in the Gaming Section?

Anyway, I can't say much. I rarely touch licensed games. They don't tend to be well made. It's like playing a movie based game. It's likely crap and even by playing it you lose. I can't really think of any great games out there from the Marvel universe.

Not saying that a licensed title can't be good, I just don't find it likely. There are great ones here and there. KOTOR, for example.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

I suspect it will end up like the new Star Trek films, hollow imitations of a bygone age, still entertaining in their own right but lacking the spark that made StarWars great.

Really? I enjoyed the first Trek film and absolutely adored the second, regardless of the director.

I'm going to guess by your age, that you haven't watched much of the original Star Trek, or any of the series after. Because by your birth date, you didn't grow up with them.

If you had truly watched and enjoyed the rest of the "real" Star Trek franchise series and movies, you would find J.J.'s Star Trek to be utter crap.

The new Star Trek has the feel that the people that worked on it were people that their only experiences with Star Trek were still pictures with no context and memes.

The new Star Trek fills a Trekkie like me with no hope of getting proper Star Trek in the near future. Because J.J. and his writers certainly show they have no idea what makes Star Trek, Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry is rolling in his grave.

 

[6_Qubed]

Star Wars Christmas Special.

Ask not what horrors the franchise will endure, but rather what horrors it must atone for.

(captcha: face the music)

 

[aggers]

im just sad all that continuity from the comics and books is going to get overwritten by disney. stuff like the Yuuzhan Vong and others just retconned and forcibly stagnated in the blink of an eye by a shallow cash grab trilogy of (lets face it) probably mediocre films.

 

[Bleidd Whitefalcon]

Considering how enjoyable the Marvel movies have been, i'm not too worried about new Star Wars content. Though I do hope they don't continue with the numbers, as Anakin's story is over and we all know that was the point of the entire episode set.

Really the numbers have nothing to do with Anakin, in that they weren't all about just him. The prequels were about his life and his development into Vader, the original trilogy was about Luke discovering who he was and becoming a Jedi like his father, but not faltering like him. I'm willing to bet that the new Star Wars will be about Han and Leia's kids, one or all of them, considering that they are bringing back the original actors to play their older selves.

Now on the first part of your comment, Disney showed they can't always pick it right, as they selected J.J. Abrams to direct it.

With him and his typical group of horrible writers at the helm, I'm going to call the new movie Star Wars: A No Hope. For he, with the new Star Treks, has proven he doesn't get what makes beloved franchises so great.

Now that I think of it and how Abrams likes to operate, I bet to try and lessen backlash, he's going to pull another Star Trek, and make these new Star Wars movies set in an alternate reality. Him and his writing staff are just that stupid enough to try it, no matter what they are being told from higher up.

We already know who's writing Episode VII and it's NOT Abrams' usual gang of idiots. It's the guy who wrote Toy Story 3

 

[Flames66]

I suspect it will end up like the new Star Trek films, hollow imitations of a bygone age, still entertaining in their own right but lacking the spark that made StarWars great.

Really? I enjoyed the first Trek film and absolutely adored the second, regardless of the director.

I'm not saying they weren't enjoyable, I had a fun time with the two new Star Trek films. My problem is they were just standard action films with Star Trek labels and heavy references to better films.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

snip

We already know who's writing Episode VII and it's NOT Abrams' usual gang of idiots. It's the guy who wrote Toy Story 3

I actually knew that, but I just didn't think it mattered, because I can guarantee that someone affiliated with Abrams is going to screw it up, if not the man himself. No written script and story for a movie is just written and plain accepted. It will go through a review process with Disney and Abrams, and Disney, stupidly thinking Abrams and his team aren't screw-ups(because they've made money in the past), are going to give the nod to him and his team to make the calls.

This Toy Story 3 writer(if he can actually pull off writing proper Star Wars), will hand off his awesome script and story, then Abrams and his team will look at it and say, "No no no, this isn't good at all. It doesn't have enough inane superficial callbacks to the past movies, plus it doesn't have enough action. There should be practically 100% action all the time, more explosions, more lens flare. Even in scenes where you have people talking here and there and there and there and there, you have too much hang time, you can't let people think, thinking is bad. Talking scenes must be short 20 second or less snippets if they aren't talking scenes while people are running and actioning it up with explosions and more lens flare. Did we mention, you need more cues for lens flare, we don't see that you have added any lens flare cues."

I just don't see Abrams letting this movie be properly made. I know the Star Wars movies tended to have more action than the old Star Trek films, but Star Wars films had their proper slow and thoughtful scenes as well. The problem is that Abrams and friends style is anything but slow and thoughtful. I just don't see him letting there be a slow, no pew pew schlock action point in this new Star Wars film, because if Abrams and friends had an acronym saying that described how they make movies, it would be A.B.P.P.W.L.F., Always Be Pew Pewing With Lens Flare.