Seriously? Star Wars Episode 7?
Oct. 30th, 2012 10:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sniffnoyWhen I first saw people talking about this I thought it was some sort of joke. Apparently it's not, though. (Yes, this is what gets me to actually blog about something these days.)
So on the one hand, this sounds like just a stupid idea. Did anyone really need more Star Wars movies? On the other hand, having George Lucas less directly involved means there's more of a chance to actually be good.
On the gripping hand, though... it's just kind of hard to really care about this. When was the last time I actually went to see *any* movie? Hell I was waiting for so long to see The Dark Knight Rises and then, well, didn't. (Doubtless I'll be seeing it over and over again on the house TV once it comes out on DVD, etc.)
Or to focus more on this in particular -- first there was Star Wars. This was almost 10 years before I was born so I never really saw it in this form. But people generally agree it was pretty great. Then there were two sequels and it was a trilogy (and Lucas claimed it was meant that way all along). And it was still generally thought to be pretty great, though quite a few people had gripes about them. Then there were three prequels (and Lucas claimed it was meant that way all along). And they sucked, and many people (like me) prefer to just ignore them, but a lot of people also *don't* just ignore them and actually speak of them as "the first one", the "second one", "the third one".
And now... I mean, what is another Star Wars movie, or three more, or however many more -- what is this actually going to do? There is so much Star Wars shit out there now that it just seems ridiculous. And in particular I am not going to feel particularly compelled to see the newest ones when there are already three of them I prefer to ignore. And once you give me reason to pick and choose, well, why not just choose to ignore anything new? So far as I'm concerned, Star Wars consists of three movies and the Thrawn books. Maybe a tiny bit more.
Of course what I have to wonder is if George Lucas might finally admit he ever claimed that there were going to be nine films before he backpedaled to six. Doubt it though. (What's less well-known is that before the "three trilogies" idea, he had said he wanted it to be a long ongoing series like James Bond, without so much connection between the various entries -- he was hoping for like twelve films, IIRC. And of course before that, before Star Wars blew up and nobody thought it was going to be popular, there was just the hope of maybe getting in a low-budget sequel or two, which would not have resembled the actual sequels at all. Basically any plans George Lucas ever claims to have had from day one (like, say, Vader being Luke's father) are complete bullshit. Read "The Secret History of Star Wars" by Michael Kaminski if you want to explore this in ridiculous detail.)
EDIT: Huh -- I missed the part of the announcement where they said that not only were 8 and 9 planned, but that the long-term plan is to have a new Star Wars movie every 2-3 years. Guess they are kind of moving towards the James Bond model, then. Which is a quick way to make me stop caring -- abandoning a tight core in favor of endless sprawl.
-Harry
(Oh hey unrelatedly when did <lj-spoiler> tags get added? That's a neat addition.)The new films will almost certainly not focus on what was originally intended for the sequel trilogy, because that plot hook got resolved in a different way in Return of the Jedi. (Hey, I already said "Vader is Luke's father" in the entry itself, I couldn't use that example!)
So on the one hand, this sounds like just a stupid idea. Did anyone really need more Star Wars movies? On the other hand, having George Lucas less directly involved means there's more of a chance to actually be good.
On the gripping hand, though... it's just kind of hard to really care about this. When was the last time I actually went to see *any* movie? Hell I was waiting for so long to see The Dark Knight Rises and then, well, didn't. (Doubtless I'll be seeing it over and over again on the house TV once it comes out on DVD, etc.)
Or to focus more on this in particular -- first there was Star Wars. This was almost 10 years before I was born so I never really saw it in this form. But people generally agree it was pretty great. Then there were two sequels and it was a trilogy (and Lucas claimed it was meant that way all along). And it was still generally thought to be pretty great, though quite a few people had gripes about them. Then there were three prequels (and Lucas claimed it was meant that way all along). And they sucked, and many people (like me) prefer to just ignore them, but a lot of people also *don't* just ignore them and actually speak of them as "the first one", the "second one", "the third one".
And now... I mean, what is another Star Wars movie, or three more, or however many more -- what is this actually going to do? There is so much Star Wars shit out there now that it just seems ridiculous. And in particular I am not going to feel particularly compelled to see the newest ones when there are already three of them I prefer to ignore. And once you give me reason to pick and choose, well, why not just choose to ignore anything new? So far as I'm concerned, Star Wars consists of three movies and the Thrawn books. Maybe a tiny bit more.
Of course what I have to wonder is if George Lucas might finally admit he ever claimed that there were going to be nine films before he backpedaled to six. Doubt it though. (What's less well-known is that before the "three trilogies" idea, he had said he wanted it to be a long ongoing series like James Bond, without so much connection between the various entries -- he was hoping for like twelve films, IIRC. And of course before that, before Star Wars blew up and nobody thought it was going to be popular, there was just the hope of maybe getting in a low-budget sequel or two, which would not have resembled the actual sequels at all. Basically any plans George Lucas ever claims to have had from day one (like, say, Vader being Luke's father) are complete bullshit. Read "The Secret History of Star Wars" by Michael Kaminski if you want to explore this in ridiculous detail.)
EDIT: Huh -- I missed the part of the announcement where they said that not only were 8 and 9 planned, but that the long-term plan is to have a new Star Wars movie every 2-3 years. Guess they are kind of moving towards the James Bond model, then. Which is a quick way to make me stop caring -- abandoning a tight core in favor of endless sprawl.
-Harry
(Oh hey unrelatedly when did <lj-spoiler> tags get added? That's a neat addition.)
