Same, after watching the Last Jedi, I nearly walked away from the franchise.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Star Wars Expanded Universe
- Thread starter Huntn
- Start date
-
- Tags
- star wars star wars books
- Sort by reaction score
This situation with large media corporations ruining beloved franchises, you can chalk it up to incompetence, lazyness, over reliance on past successes, or it’s like a family member who decides to steal from the family calculating how far they can go before they are tossed out.
I think you're 100% spot on. This was George Lucas' baby, he cared for it, he nurtured it, he went out of his way to ensure that it was exactly what he wanted. Sometimes he over did it, but you cannot condemn him of just trying to phone it in.
Disney had no such love, they saw a beloved franchise with a dedicated fanbase and they saw dollar signs. They themselves phoned it in. Solo: A Star Wars Story is testament to that mentality. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and I will say Rogue One is one of the best Star Wars movies out there.
Dave Filoni who does many of the Star wars TV stuff loves Star Wars and the quality of his work shows such care. My criticism are mostly based on the movie division. I don't even think they have a Star Wars movie scheduled or planned at this stage
And why aren’t they working on movies? Because they know that Star Wars series are better ROI on Disney+
Keeps people subscribing for longer.
The trouble with George Lucas quotations about Star Wars, is he is not consistent.
The first film ANH, was not originally intended by him to be a kids movie. It's a re-working of Akira Kurosawa's film Hidden Fortress, but set in a futuristic setting. The parallels between jedi and samurai are not coincidences.
As the film progressed, it turned into a kids movie, which is something he wasn't happy about at the time. It was however an unexpected success. That success, though wasn't all down to him.
He showed his final draft of the movie (without special effects) to his film-making friends, including Brian de Palma, Spielberg and others. They were friends more than rivals in those days. They were mostly polite about it, but after they went for dinner afterwards, Brian de Palma really laid into it and dissected all the things wrong with it, inspired by de Palma's frankness, the others joined in. Lucas was hurt by what de Palma said, but went along with almost all of his suggestions, as well as some of the others. What we ended up with was a movie that was a product of the minds of (what would become) the greatest directors of cinema of the 80s, 90s and beyond.
When a sequel was agreed to, they were intended to be the adventures of Luke Skywalker. His contemporaneous interviews repeatedly said this.
ESB was not the movie he intended it to be. When he saw what Kershner had created he was very unhappy. He thought it too ponderous and was too much of a romance. He had expected an action movie with higher energy levels, more in keeping with the old Buck Rogers / Flash Gordon serials he was inspired by. Its success was a surprise to him again.
He took more control over Return of the Jedi and we have there what he intended at the time.
Lucas then moved on with his life and other projects. He eventually agreed to let writers do novels about the Star Wars universe, and the initial writers were given a time period they could write in. They could use the original characters, but weren't allowed to kill them off or change them.
When Zahn's novels proved very successful (Heir to Empire, et seq) and it could be seen there was a big market out there, he decided to do some more movies, and studios were keen to invest.
The pre-quel trilogy were originally intended by him to be about Obi-Wan Kenobi, rather than Anakin Skywalker, but by the time they'd filmed a lot of it, the story wasn't working and they re-wrote what was left to be more about Anakin. This is why McGregor gets top-billing in each of the prequels, even though he isn't the main character any more.
In interviews after this re-write, Lucas starts to claim it was always his intention to make it all about Anakin, and the his turn to Vader.
From this period onwards, older interviews that are used in Star Wars specials are edited to remove anything inconsistent with this new claim.
All of which is a long (and probably too detailed) way of saying Lucas has said all sorts of different things at different times about these movies.
Oh to be sure, whether we're talking about Han shot first, or Luke/Lei's kiss. There's a measure of revisionist, and retconning to the franchise.
Here's my take, he had a somewhat nebulous idea for a movie, he added/removed stuff and it was not intended to be a franchise. Once the studio decided that they wanted to keep making boatloads of money, the franchise was green lit. Just consider Darth Vader, in A New Hope, you can easily make the case that Darth Vader was his full name, not title and sith pseudonym. The universe, characters and plots evolved and tightened up as the movies were made and to an extent, comic books, and books.
@maflynn I agree with your take completely.
I also want to add that I loved Andor. What a fantastic contribution to the Star Wars universe.
And we have Mandalorian Season 3 coming up soon, too.
I also want to add that I loved Andor. What a fantastic contribution to the Star Wars universe.
And we have Mandalorian Season 3 coming up soon, too.
So it seems the new season of the Mandalorian's ratings have been lack luster. Words like ratings crash are being bantered about.
I saw one article (I can't find it now) and it was basically stating that baby yoda arc really needs to be wrapped up I don't have any suggestions or thoughts.
I saw one article (I can't find it now) and it was basically stating that baby yoda arc really needs to be wrapped up I don't have any suggestions or thoughts.
There's a rumor that Katie Sackoff will take over as the lead. After all, the show is called "THE Mandalorian." It doesn't specify which. Plus, Pascal's availability could be an issue.
I wonder if people are just baby-Yoda'd out at this point
I don't know, but it did worse then the under performing Boba Fett - hopefully this is a temporary setback and the series will find it's footing
The problem is, he sort of adopted Grogu. It's not like he can just dump him off on someone and continue the show. He'd look like a jerk. By switching to Sackoff, they could take care of two problems at once. Plus, Katie's backstory seems more interesting to me.
Oh!!! That would be very interesting if this proves to be true! I could see her leading the show!
Maybe people got put off by the mediocrity of The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan and haven't come back yet, much like people started tuning out the newer MCU series (like I did). A pity, because Andor was very good and provided a much needed different perspective into the overall Star Wars story.
Agreed that the Grogu story is running out of impetus. No way is he going to start wearing a little beskar helmet and start saying "The way, this is", right? The whole story of the Mandalorians taking back their home planet could still be a good one, regardless.
Agreed that the Grogu story is running out of impetus. No way is he going to start wearing a little beskar helmet and start saying "The way, this is", right? The whole story of the Mandalorians taking back their home planet could still be a good one, regardless.
Obi-Wan started slow, but I felt the last two (three?) episodes were excellent.
One of my criticisms of the sequals, is that the protagonist is too powerful at the beginning of the story. In this case Rey. What is there for her to over-come? An uneducated scavenger who can speak to droids, and wookies. Can fly space craft. Can beat Kylo Ren in a light saber duel even though she's never even held one and he spent his entire life training.
With Obi-Wan, we have a broken man, who's connection to the force has been severed (due to PTSD/guilt?) So its a great story from that perspective of someone over coming so much.
The problem with The Mandalorian is, I'm not sure what the end game is. Right now, he just seems like a dude, wandering around doing...stuff. There's no long journey for him to complete here, just a bunch of short ones. He had Grogu, to deliver him to the Jedi. But then he keeps him as a ward, so now what?
Honestly, I feel like this is what it aways should have been. I don't even mind Grogu, but it should have been more Lone Wolf & Cub mixed with Sergio Leone. Bringing in Luke, the Dark Saber, etc just kinda killed its momentum. Din shouldn't be the High Mandalor, ever... He should have gotten the Dark Saber and immediately it should have went to Bo-Katan, like it did when Sabine gave it to her. I'm still not sure why Filoni wrote that whole plot reversal.
I feel it should have stayed aways from the "civilized" parts of the galaxy, have it be more Cobb Vanth and broken Empire, less Jedi.
As to the other stuff, I've really enjoyed it. I honestly feel like Star Wars is better made for long form storytelling and monster-of-the-week. Honestly, after watching the OG trilogy again, they're not really great movies. I mean, I know they helped change Hollywood, but man, the dialogue is cringe, and Luke is, as much as I hate the term a "Mary Su" I mean I get it, so is Rey and Anakin, they're the Chosen One(s). Out of the 12 movies, I think there's like 2-3 genuinely great movies in there. The rest is fluff.
A huge YEP:
- The heroine too powerful - Rey a scavenger somehow can talk to Wookies, can talk with any and all droids, knows how to fly, can fix and repair any ship. Can easily light saber duel someone who has trained all of his life. Good story telling shows a hero or heroine unable to attain a goal initially and then fight/struggle and work to overcome. Hard to show someone improving when they’re already great at nearly everything
I know I was expecting it to be a Lone Wolf and Cub style series... which it has been, sort of... maybe 50% or so of the time.
I don't think you will hear anyone say they are great movies... Spectacular seems to be more fitting!
The original three are good movies for what they are. I find Rogue One to be my favorite, depending on my mood, and A New Hope to also be my favorite, again depending on my mood. Empire is good, and Return is ok--> good. The others... UGH. I do like some scenes from the others, but man... they are tough.
Is it bad that I was thinking he was going to fall over forward when she put the breast plate on him?