JJ Abrams LIED TO US! He said no more trailers until the film came out. Granted, this is the Chinese trailer, but still. I’m hurt. No, I’m not, I’m watching it over and over again. There is a LOT of new footage (and it is awesome!), so if you want to consider that a spoiler warning, you stand warned…..you already watched it, didn’t you? Ok, your bad, not mine.
While we’re on the topic, here’s the plan for when Episode 7 releases: I have tickets to a 10:30 Thursday 12/17/15 showing of the film, so the review will go up early in the morning on the official day of release. I am going to make that review as spoiler-free as I possibly can, because I don’t want to ruin anything for anyone. I will write another review after the film has been out a few weeks going over every geeky detail, but I’m not ruining someone’s experience. Hang in there, time killers, were almost there!
Simon Pegg and Anthony Daniels have both intimated that they think this is the best one, and while I don’t think it will dethrone ESB (TFA will take no risks, and ESB contained almost nothing BUT risks) I have to admit there’s a possibility it COULD be the best (Pegg and Daniels are not shy, and they certainly are not sellouts).
I’m just a little sad tonight. Not because I’m not going out of my mind with excitement, but because it’s clear that Disney did not use a single idea of George Lucas’s, and because the other day Lucas stood on the red carpet and couldn’t bring himself to say he liked TFA.
I always had this vision of the new films being popular and the fans having something positive and non-divisive to talk about, and the bitterness about the prequels abating as a result. It might have happened, too. A lot more people these days are standing up for the prequels. People were starting to come around. But Disney’s total shutout of Lucas, and his recent attitude, have both ensured that he is permanently alienated from his creation, and that the prequels will remain a source of contention forever, or at least as long as I’m alive.
The thing is, I’m sure his plans for the sequel trilogy were GREAT. And I’m sure that Disney sidelined him because he’s such a polarizing figure, not because there was a problem with his ideas. I will defend the prequels to the death. A film franchise has to be pretty amazing for me to watch it over and over again, even in the face of Jar Jar BInks.
I’m not watching this last trailer BTW, I already know too much. I’m seeing the movie next Friday and I won’t be reading any reviews, not even yours (no hard feelings). It’s been many years since I’ve been so unspoiled about a movie I was looking forward to so much.
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Well, I’ve avoided articles with spoilers. I’ve watched all the trailers and I’m super excited. Any doubt I had was erased awhile ago. The Lucas incident was unfortunate and I wish some of his ideas could be in there, but he didn’t come off well. He looked like someone who didn’t think Star Wars movies could be made without his input and it kind of seemed like sour grapes instead of being happy his creation has a secure legacy. It’s unfortunate that he became so reviled by fans. I’m mixed on the Prequels, as you know, but he did a brilliant job with Episode III; I actually think it’s the best directed film he’s ever helmed. It has to be incredibly hurtful to create something so many people love and to be told that they love it, but just without him anywhere near it anymore. Lucas brought a lot of that on himself with his constant, tone-deaf tinkering to the original films. I wish he could have embraced it as gleefully as the original cast has seemed to, but then Lucas never understood or cared about actors. His place in history is going to be kinder to him, this is an awkward moment of realization that Star Wars has moved past him. I actually think that by including the original cast, the prequel trilogy generation will embrace the original trilogy films even more and that’s going to give Lucas his legacy. It was a sad note to the euphoric high everyone is under waiting for this to hit. Don’t worry, we’ll be talking about Episode VII for a year leading to Rogue One and five months later Episode VIII. Star Wars is back on the front burner of pop culture.
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Lucas did bring a lot of this on himself, and obviously people who complain about Greedo shooting first, and the romance in AOTC, and all of that wonderful stuff have a point, but it’s not like Lucas set out to infuriate his fan base, and anyway I don’t understand hating a person just because he makes bad movies. I can understand disliking someone like Lars Von Trier personally because you think his movies are that immoral, but Jar Jar Binks is completely benign, and SW in general is a positive story about everyone’s potential for redemption.
But putting that aside, the diehard fans should have been the very first people to understand and appreciate what Lucas was doing with the prequels. Instead the fans picked the films apart like wolves. And some of their complaints are so nonsensical, and their criticisms of Lucas so nasty, that I can understand Lucas not giving an inch with the special editions, or anything else. He must be feeling extreme ambivalence right now. SW will live on now for certain, and Lucas gets to wash his hands of it, and I suspect those are the two reasons he sold to Disney. But despite all his accomplishments he has always been thought of as the personification of SW, and now people are saying they’re overjoyed that he’s divorced himself from the thing that defines his entire career. It must be bizarre and demoralizing that people love something you made, and treat it like it’s holy writ, while at the same time calling you a hack.
I hope he realizes how many fans he really has.
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