Star Wars 7 - don't feck it up, Disney..

[Nibble]

Quantum of Solace is an underrated film when watched on it's own. I didn't think much of it on first viewing as it had been 3 years since seeing Casino Royale. Watch them in fairly quick succession, and QofS is actually far better than it seems as a direct sequel to CR.

It's alright and good in parts . The reason it lacks a meaty story is that a writers strike was called during the script process, they couldn't postpone filming so Daniel Craig actually wrote most of the second half of the film. He freely admits he did a poor job.

 

[Stat Brother]

Quantum of Solace is an underrated film when watched on it's own. I didn't think much of it on first viewing as it had been 3 years since seeing Casino Royale. Watch them in fairly quick succession, and QofS is actually far better than it seems as a direct sequel to CR.

Deffo.

If you can bypass the hype, the feelings of disappointment, and most importantly the product placement, it's nowhere near as bad as you remember it.

I watched again after x amount of years, when it was already tucked away in the arse end of nowhere on ITV and it wasn't as bad as I remembered it.

 

[The Fifth Column]

My first inkling that the newer films might not be quite as good as the originals was when the famous writing started rolling up the screen on Episode 1. The opening line being:

"Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute"

Taxation of trade routes...? WTF is all this ?

"I think you can kiss your trade franchise goodbye, Viceroy". Wow. gripping stuff.

Thats Disney for you, can't have a traditional tagline of 'Alien race X is attacking and destroying Alien race Y leading to near annihilation". Thats far too violent and involves killing etc, completely against the ethos of Disney hence the tepid taxation storyline. Expect the franchise to cater to a much younger audience now and be heavily watered down.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

You can see why they picked the middle 3 of Lucas's Star Wars saga when he must have first pitched it for funding. The first film is epic because it is so simple, so beautifully made, there are no spare scenes, it just jumps in that first scene and never lets up. Getting Irvin Kershner to direct Empire Strikes Back was also a stroke of genius, taking the sort of happy fairytale ending of Episode 4, and making a much darker, but more character based approached with the whole Han / Leia love storey woven into a seemingly indestructible empire.

When they read the start of Episode 4 compared to Episode 1, clearly someone picked up on the fact that taxation of trade federation routes wasn't going to be a complete winner at the box office. The prequels survived being pretty poor just through every Stars Wars fan wanting to know what happened to get us to Episode 4. On that level, it was difficult for Lucas to fail, but he so nearly did. Caught between a young and older audience, CGI, it is all a bit of a mess, even if personally I enjoyed the story unfolding.

Did you ever go to Saturday morning pictures at the cinema ? The scolling text gave viewers a précis of the previous episode (eg The Lone Ranger , Flash Gordon etc). Star Wars was released as Star Wars , they changed the official title to Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope a couple of years after. Episodes V and VI were the remainder to make up a trilogy which only got the green light after the phenomenal success of the first film. Episodes I , II , and III (the prequel trilogy) plus Episodes VII , VIII and IX were only a long term concept when George Lucas was cobbling Star Wars together and probably no more than a paragrah or two.

 

[Nibble]

Thats Disney for you, can't have a traditional tagline of 'Alien race X is attacking and destroying Alien race Y leading to near annihilation". Thats far too violent and involves killing etc, completely against the ethos of Disney hence the tepid taxation storyline. Expect the franchise to cater to a much younger audience now and be heavily watered down.

Disney weren't involved in ep1-3

 

[Bold Seagull]

Thats Disney for you, can't have a traditional tagline of 'Alien race X is attacking and destroying Alien race Y leading to near annihilation". Thats far too violent and involves killing etc, completely against the ethos of Disney hence the tepid taxation storyline. Expect the franchise to cater to a much younger audience now and be heavily watered down.

The taxation storyline was nothing to do with Disney, they only bought the rights after the prequels were all finished. Episode 7 will be their first involvement so we'll have to see what is watered down in December.

 

[The Fifth Column]

Disney weren't involved in ep1-3

I know, thats the benchmark for Disney to get themselves under! i fully expect somewhere in this latest installment for a prince and princess to finally fall in love after years of being kept apart by the evil empire, they'll break into a cheesy future No.1 hit song somewhere in space accompanied by their lovable pet Space Lion whilst riding on the back of a goofy Space Dinosaur called Star-Rex.

 

[The Fifth Column]

The taxation storyline was nothing to do with Disney, they only bought the rights after the prequels were all finished. Episode 7 will be their first involvement so we'll have to see what is watered down in December.

I have no idea about who was involved in what storyline, I'm just taking the opportunity to have a pop at Disney. its the internet innit, I'm not going to let simple facts get in the way of my pointless sniping!

 

[Papa Lazarou]

I know, thats the benchmark for Disney to get themselves under! i fully expect somewhere in this latest installment for a prince and princess to finally fall in love after years of being kept apart by the evil empire, they'll break into a cheesy future No.1 hit song somewhere in space accompanied by their lovable pet Space Lion whilst riding on the back of a goofy Space Dinosaur called Star-Rex.

Really? Have you seen any of the Marvel movies over recent years? Have they been fluffy and light? Disney appear to know how to let the creative people do their stuff without excessive control. Star Wars is in very good hands with Disney - far better than it was prior to the buy out.

 

[Bombadier Botty]

As mentioned, Lucas isn't involved in the story so there's a chance it won't be shit. I recall when we went to watch Phantom Menace. The feeling was good, the famous music and scrolling came on screen, lovely stuff. I would say within 20 mins the whole audience could tell it was a total Turkey. I think we lasted about 40 mins before walking out.

The only film I have ever walked out of a cinema on and probably around the same time as you, 40-odd minutes in.

 

[Bold Seagull]

The only film I have ever walked out of a cinema on and probably around the same time as you, 40-odd minutes in.

But you would have missed Jar Jar Binks numbing his tongue on Anakin's Pod Racer energy couplings!

 

[Nibble]

The only film I have ever walked out of a cinema on and probably around the same time as you, 40-odd minutes in.

That's all I could stomach! I have only walked out of one other film, one of the Transformers ones, cannot recall which one.

 

[MattBackHome]

RotS is really good.

 

[Nibble]

Watching the TERRIBLE acting as Anakin turns into Vader, the locked arms and legs, the laughable Frankenstein walk, part of me died. Plus Ewan McGregor, one of the world's most uncharismatic actors, trying to sound like a young Alec Guinness but just sounding like Mr Cholmondley-Warner was painful. throw in all the super shiny, over produced special effects, killing off Darth Maul, one of the few really good things about the films, ruining Boba Fetts's back story with some over-complicated clone bobbins and Jake The Muss as his Dad and it really was a pretty dismal effort.

 

[BadFish]

RotS is really good.

Yes better than Return of the Jedi IMHO. The second one is pretty good too.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Watching the TERRIBLE acting as Anakin turns into Vader, the locked arms and legs, the laughable Frankenstein walk, part of me died. Plus Ewan McGregor, one of the world's most uncharismatic actors, trying to sound like a young Alec Guinness but just sounding like Mr Cholmondley-Warner was painful. throw in all the super shiny, over produced special effects, killing off Darth Maul, one of the few really good things about the films, ruining Boba Fetts's back story with some over-complicated clone bobbins and Jake The Muss as his Dad and it really was a pretty dismal effort.

Was Darth Maul one of the few really good things as his entire dialogue for the film included one small sentence?

Without killing off Darth Maul, presumably Lucas couldn't have written in the brilliant Count Dooku character; Christopher Lee only too happy to resurrect his Hammer Horror acting credentials!

This scene is painful...

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Was Darth Maul one of the few really good things as his entire dialogue for the film included one small sentence?

Without killing off Darth Maul, presumably Lucas couldn't have written in the brilliant Count Dooku character; Christopher Lee only too happy to resurrect his Hammer Horror acting credentials!

This scene is painful...

Without killing off Maul there would have been no need for General Grievous - WTF was that about?

 

[Bold Seagull]

Without killing off Maul there would have been no need for General Grievous - WTF was that about?

What, a cyborg with a chest infection!? What isn't there to like!!??

 

[Papa Lazarou]

What, a cyborg with a chest infection!? What isn't there to like!!??

A cyborg, with an organic heart and eyes, who appeared to be on 40 Full Strength Death Sticks a day.

 

[Nibble]

Oh, tell a lie, I walked out of Kingdom of the crystal skull about 40 mins in too. When I realised it wasn't going to improve.