Star Wars Thread (a Galaxy Far Far Away) Obi-Wan Movie In The Works! (36)

I’m sure they are milking it, they kind of have to with what they paid for it, but the universe they are building right now is the opposite of the crap sequels. So far it’s starting to remind me of the MCU in that they finally have the right people in charge that love SW and they’re using beloved characters and this time using them right. S2 of the Mandalorian has been a blast, the last episode pretty much made me shed a geek tear and feel like a kid watching SW again. Favreau and Filoni know what they are doing, and they are also putting people in charge of the other projects that have directed good episodes of the Mandalorian already, or someone like Tony Gilroy in charge of Andor who originally came in and reportedly saved Rogue One in the reshoots and edits. Patty Jenkins is also doing Rogue Squadrons and it early reviews of WW84 are true she’s on a roll lately.

Believe me, HJ, I was left stunned, numb and disappointed after 9, it was the worst SW product I’d ever seen, and my faith that SW could always course correct was shaken, as was i to my core, but the new people in charge get it, I think they have figured this out. Notice how every project here is a TV show other than Rogue Squadrons, they’re giving these creators room to breathe and work on projects with some room to explore story and character, rather than pumping out 2 hour films to make a quick buck. Of course they can still mess some of this up, but the Mandalorian and it’s willingness to dig deep into the lore and to connect to the animated SW universe has renewed my faith that SW is back on track and the creatives are starting to get what the fans want, good stories that are fun to watch, good characters that aren’t cardboard cutouts done worse than Luke, Vader, and the Empire, and respect paid to what Lucas has done before. One of the most fun parts for me is that a number of these shows are now set alongside eachother and will come together at some point to maybe finish the story in a mini-Avengers Endgame way.

 

Couldn’t wait until tomorrow, tired of having stuff spoiled from Twitter or any site you open in headlines so I watched episode 7 immediately upon release

Spoiler: Mandalorian Episode 7

That episode was so much f****** fun. I’ve heard some people say they don’t like Bill Burr’s character in this series, and I can understand their point of view, but I just don’t agree. I’ve read or heard some say he takes them out of the show, but I absolutely love his character, and I thought he was fantastic in this episode. He very much reminds me of Han Solo in that he’s real, he’s just a guy doing what he can to survive with this stuff going on around him, cracking jokes and being a jacka** about the Mando’s code the same as Han did about the Jedi and their hokey religion. Also a guy that does shady stuff to get by, but is he really “bad”, much more grey than black and white same with the stuff Han has done, characters can change and be redeemed.

The scene of him and Mando in the Emperial instillation having to sit down and have a drink with an officer, that was some of the most intense Star Wars moments I can remember, very much reminded me of the bar scene in Inglorious Basterds. I believe this is some of, if not the first time we get to hear from an ex-Imperial on what it was like from his side losing battles, friends with families (in live action), as well as his whole politics of war/occupation conversation with Mando as they were driving to the base, and to me this just continues to expand the SW lore and story, to me that was handled in such a better way than the Canto Bight stuff in TLJ, not so slap you in the face with it. After that seeing Mando fight with a different armor while being attacked by pirates and then taking the helmet off again was cool too, a good reminder once in a while of who is under that armor that we are rooting for.

Couple other little tidbits, Boba’s line “I think they might recognize my face” cracked me up, and poked fun, almost as if they anticipated it, at people all week saying why does no one recognize Boba as a clone trooper. And lastly when Boba released the seismic charge and blew up those tie fighters, man when I heard that sound and saw that blast, I literally raised my hands and cheered, smile a mile wide on my face. Star Wars feels so good again.

 

They literally just got done making the trilogy, and instead of riding the momentum from it, they are doing everything they can to get as far away from it as possible. Can we finally stop with all the, "It's just a loud vocal minority of Star Wars fans that hate the sequels!"? They announce 1,000 different things about the future of Star Wars and NONE of them are in the same time period as the sequels. At least this is proof that Disney knows they screwed up. Whether they publicly admit it or not, yesterday told everyone they know they blew it. Rian Johnson's trilogy? Where was that? Are you telling me they can announce that many new projects and they can't even give an update on something that actually has a contract signed?

I want to say I feel vindicated, but until they take the final step and eliminate the "sequels" from canon, I will always have one foot out the door with this franchise. As long as those movies are in the timeline, the universe is fundamentally broken.

 

Spoiler

Good episode. I am one of those people that doesnt like Bill Burr in the show. He is my favorite stand-up comic and I listen to his podcast often. So even though his acting is good and he's doing nothing wrong, I just can't see anything or anyone except Bill Burr. I wish it wasnt the case since he dies a fine job in the role, but I have watched way too many hours of him as Bill Burr.

I like how Burr's character said we have all these lines we won't cross until something pushes us...Mando taking off his mask to save the child was a nice bit of character development to show just how much he now cares about Grogu.

I did not like Mando's little speech to Moff at the end. It tactically makes no sense. Moff had ZERO reason to think they knew where he was or that they were coming for him. It's almost exactly like the Emperor announcing he's returned before he's ready to actually do anything. It is really dumb.

 

Spoiler

I love Burr’s character, I hope we haven’t seen the last of him. The growing pain on his face as that officer talked about Operation Cinder so casually was brilliantly acted. Again, he very much reminds me of Han Solo, the wisecracking guy pointing out the absurdity of all that’s going on around him while he reluctantly participates.

As far as Mando’s speech, I hadn’t thought of it being dumb, but I guess it is. In the moment I just thought of it as him being a bada**, he was just repeating the speech Gideon gave to him at the end of season one word for word except he changed “it means more to me” to “he means more to me”. I guess they did choose to go with a cool moment over actual strategy though. But anyway, here’s hoping the finale is 45 mins to an hour long, the 30 min episodes fly by.

 

For you, @Savory Griddles , NSFW language warning

 

Spoiler: Mando season 2 finale

Well, my life is complete, Favreau and Filoni just gave us all what Abrams and Kennedy were too chicken s*** to do, “Luke takes over every scene he’s in, we want the characters to sell toys, wah wah wah”. They didn’t overthink and say how can we do this, we can’t do this, they just did it, because why the hell when given the option would you NOT DO THIS?! They didn’t say we can’t use Luke and give people what they really want to see, because why can’t you? I seriously wept tears of joy like a little girl. Hell yeah, Star Wars, felt like a damn kid again, heart pounding out of my chest, absolutely giddy, the last time SW made me feel this way was watching Episode 3 in the theater. That whole Luke vs the dark troopers, it felt like the Vader/Anakin wiping out the last of the separatists scene in episode 3, but the good guy version, absolutely amazing.

OK, OK, one complaint, the CGI on Luke looked bad, like a video game, maybe they can fix it later, and honestly I’d rather have a not so great version of CGI Hamill than a recast like Sebastian Stan, it just felt right and like an apology to Hamill. Now retcon the sequels, alternate timeline, fix it with the world between worlds, make Luke not a failure and awesome again and we’re good to go, don’t stop at the 1 yard line, take it in for a touchdown. They’ve got to have a bigger plan for this than “Luke took Grogu, Kylo murders Grogu, that was all pointless”, they’ve just got to at this point, this has to lead to a better, cohesive, overall story. I can see it involving Luke, Ahsoka, Thrawn, Ezra, all these characters, it would be a crime not to go for it all.

Oh and Boba Fett series, hell yeah keep the good stuff coming. I didn’t even talk about the rest of the episode either which I loved. Mando vs the dark trooper, Mando vs Gideon, Boba Fett goodness, the clone wars characters continuing to get time to shine, hell even an all female kick a** mow down of waves of stormtroopers I’d bet not even the most cynical would complain about because it was earned and not shoved in our faces as some sort of agenda, what a finale.

 

Spoiler

There is a way to make this work. Continue to make these shows lead up to right around the birth of Rey. When she is born, that's when Ahsoka tells Luke of the future. Rey can be the catalyst as she was the body the Emperor needed to come back into physical form. Luke stops the Emperor's plan before he takes physical form. That keeps Anakin as the one who kills Palpatine and brings balance. Luke can adopt Rey as his daughter (have her biological parents be killed in the struggle). Rey then is legitimately Rey Skywalker. Show toddler Ben interacting with baby Rey. Then have a single scene in the future of Rey fighting along side Ben as Knights. It kind of makes everyone happy. Heck, even the twisted Reylos would like it since there's still a chance they end up together. Rey is a powerful Jedi with limitless adventures in front of her. She actually would be the recipient of a life's worth of training. Luke, Leia and Han don't all end up being utter failures. Heck, they could find Finn (since it was hinted that he was force sensitive) and he can become a Jedi too. It doesn't wipe out the sequel trilogy. It just changes a few of the facts and makes the story more cohesive. It's obviously the best way to go. But they won't. But Rey is still Rey and is a Jedi and is a hero for little girls everywhere with this course of action. It just makes it so the other people are heroes too.

 

Love this man

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

JJ Abrams: I think the audience would love it if we hyped Luke up, but then never show him in the movie except for like a couple seconds. And we have to kill Han so the fans never get the chance to see Luke Skywalker and Han Solo together again cause who would want to see that? But when we do show Luke, what do you think people will want to see?

Rian Johnson: I think they'd love to see Luke suck green milk from a sea cow's t** and hold an ignited lightsaber over his sleeping nephew with the intent to murder him in his sleep.

JJ Abrams: Good idea. I could never top that. You probably should just kill him after that cause there's no way I could ever make Luke that awesome again.

Rian Johnson: Done. How about a Force overdose kills him?

JJ Abrams: That makes absolutely zero sense whatsoever. I LOVE IT! In fact I'm gonna kill Leia the same way!

 

So cool, never seen most of this footage. I still get chills when I see Luke and Vader dueling, I don’t think Empire can ever be topped as a SW film, it IS Star Wars.

 

Yep. People knew how to tell stories and develop characters so much better in the 70's and 80's. I think that's why TV is where we go for entertainment. Writers aren't as good anymore. They can't tell a story and give us a character we care about in two hours. They need 10 hours a year to develop their stories. The older writers didn't waste time on screen with cheesy jokes. The would use throw away lines to give insight into someone's character. They were much better at showing and not having someone explain it. Show don't tell is one of the most important rules in filmmaking and no one follows it any more.

People think it's a get-off-my-lawn thing. But it's not. There are objective things people did better back then. And yes, there are objectively good and objectively bad movies. People want to say movies are completely subjective. That's bull crap. There are things that good movies have and bad movies don't. Whether people like or dislike them is subjective. But a movie that doesn't follow the rules it establishes, that has characters act irrationally, that has plot points that are nonsensical...that's an objectively bad movie. Someone can like it, but it's objectively bad.

 

Happy for Mark

 

Is there any doubt that a large portion of the people working at Lucasfilm hate Star Wars (as it was for decades under Lucas), and hate their fans? How does Pablo Hildago have a job still? If any one of us were to make fun of people for liking the product our companies produced, we would be fired on the spot. Disney is laying off THOUSANDS of people left and right while Pablo keeps his job while actively mocking the customers (one of the most loyal customers Star Wars has at that). When do the shareholders step in and make something of this? How can a company be ran like this? When a shill publication that washes Disney's balls 24/7 so they can continue to get access actually calls out someone at Lucasfilm, you know it's bad.

https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/star-wars-theory-pablo-hidalgo-luke-skywalker-1234875850/

 

Rise of Skywalker legit shook my faith in all that is good. Before that movie I still had faith in Star Wars somehow pulling out the win at the last second, I believed that the people in charge could at least, being professionals at the top of their field, put out a movie more competent than fan fiction. Then when I saw it I walked away just deflated, like there was a pre TROS world and a post TROS world and nothing would ever be the same.

Star Wars was the last franchise to be rebooted that hadn’t yet eventually become a total dumpster fire. I know many people hated TLJ, but to me at least at the time it was a competent film for the most part even if you didn’t agree with its choices. I don’t know that I feel that way now, I haven’t watched it since TROS because that movie ruined any positives the sequels had, it answered questions raised in the worst ways possible, like Rey Palpatine and Snoke was just a bad clone *facepalm*. I never, NEVER thought I’d sit and watch a Skywalker saga film and be rolling my eyes and laughing and going “wtf how is this real?!” And “that’s now how the force works!”, or “good god what is happening!”, but it happened.

Solo is bad IMO, but more because it’s boring, it doesn’t go out of its way to be flat out wrong. I agree on 7 too, first time I saw it I left the theater feeling nothing really, though something was wrong with me because everyone loved it, but to me it wasn’t even anywhere close to Revenge of the Sith. I think I discussed that here too, I just didn’t get it, felt like imitation Star Wars and rehashed, also wasn’t a fan of the JJ mystery box crap.

Also I saw a list on Collider I think maybe 2 days ago that genuinely angered me, it was all the Star Wars films ranked from worst to best. They had TLJ second above Empire, and TFA I think third ahead of RoTJ. I just clicked off the site and said wow f*** this guy. You aren’t allowed to have that opinion as a “journalist”, you just aren’t. It wasn’t a list of the movies ranked in order of his favorites, it was listed as worst to best. No sequel films are better than any of the original films, objectively, they just aren’t. I personally don’t put any sequel films in quality over RoTS either, but if you want to argue acting and such that’s fine maybe I’ll give you that.

 

If not a large portion there’s definitely a nice chunk there that hate the fans. Hidalgo apparently has an enemies list of YouTube channels he posted to Twitter one time, I can only find bad screenshots of it. I’ve grown to really dislike Rian Johnson the Twitter personality too, although I do like his movies, he’s just an a-hole and too sensitive. Shouldn’t have signed up for a Star Wars movie if you can’t handle the “haters”, friggin George Lucas the creator himself got as bad or worse than him for years.