Brace yourselves, Star Wars fans.

[Anders Ämting]

So, Disney is buying Lucasfilm for a cool four billion bucks.

Aaand they're going to make a seventh Star Wars movie.

No, I'm totally not kidding.

Good God... It's all going to happen again, isn't it?

 

[CupofJoe]

and an 8th & 9th... the horror... the horror... of "Disney" Star Wars...

 

[Anders Ämting]

and an 8th & 9th...

Actually, they say they're going to keep making them "every two or three years." Like, indefinitely.

the horror... the horror... of "Disney" Star Wars...

Well, honestly, I think Disney is probably capable of putting together a decent Star Wars movie, you know, if they really try. I mean, if I'd trust any company with the brand, it would be Disney. They've already proven they can make entertaining action/adventure matinées. (Pirates of the Caribbean, Tron: Legacy, John Carter, the whole string of Marvel superhero movies, etc.)

What actually worries me - aside from the inevitable endless fandom whining - is that they are apparently planning to mass produce Star Wars movies for as long as the brand remains profitable. So there is really no way this is going to end on a high note.

It just seems like a great way to run the whole franchise into the ground, and I think Star Wars deserves better than that.

 

[CupofJoe]

They've already proven they can make entertaining action/adventure matinées. (Pirates of the Caribbean, Tron: Legacy, John Carter, the whole string of Marvel superhero movies, etc.)

It's amazing how two people can come to completely different conclusions from the same data...
For me from the quality of Pirates of the Caribbean, Tron: Legacy & John Carter [I haven't seen all the Marvel movies so I will exclude them] I would say they cannot make "entertaining action/adventure matinées". I thought all the PoC franchise were awful and T:L & JCoM were no better. Lots of action but no plot or depth or heart... But there again I am a long way over 15 and I guess that is Disney's target audience.
[Yes I saw all three original movies in the cinema first time round]
And I do worry that you are right that we will in the not to distant future be faced with "Ewok School Musical 2: The Graduation"...

 

[WyrdMystic]

Disney's epics are hit and miss, some of them are great (avengers) some are cut your own eyes out terrible (x-men first class).

The problem for me is Yoda is dead. Sorry, but Star Wars dies with Yoda for me. No coming back from that - imagine how terrible 1-3 would of been without him to make the films worth sitting through. Even 4-6 would of been much worse off without his character.

 

[Aidan of the tavern]

I can't say I'm optimistic about Disney doing Star Wars. For me they proved with Pirates 2 and 3 that while they can start with a really good film they end up spending too much time goofing around for the audience and get lazy. Plus they're almost deffinately going to make it family friendly, and if I see another ewok or another Jar Jar I might cry.

Damn I'm negative these days. Its interesting that they are going to continue from ROTJ, but I can see them getting younger actors. Maybe if the timeframe was right they would bring back Mark, Harrison, and Carrie, but I don't know if they would actually choose to come back. I know all three of them struggled with that level of fame. And I can't think of anyone who could replace such iconic portrayals. Can't help thinking it's best protected by being left alone.

 

[Penpilot]

Meh... To me the franchise, in terms of movies, is rock bottom already. Soooo... there's no place to go but up. I have hopes that they'll do it right story-wise this time. But regardless Star Wars is too big to fail no matter how badly written they are. So I'm not holding my breath. If the new movies turn out great, awesome. If not, I'll roll my eyes at the great milk cow that is Star Wars and move on. I'm all nerd raged out on that subject.

 

[Sheriff Woody]

Can't possibly be any worse than if Lucas remained at the helm. He has to be one of the worst film-makers the medium has ever known. The guy couldn't direct Jared to Subway.

 

[Steerpike]

Never been a huge Yoda fan. He's better than the blasted Ewoks, of course, but in the original trilogy I was always excited for Luke to leave Dagobah.

 

[BWFoster78]

I think this is a good thing. Lucas apparently had no desire to do anything else with the franchise. As a consumer, I'd rather the potential of a new product, even without a guarantee of quality, than no chance for a new product.

 

[Anders Ämting]

It's amazing how two people can come to completely different conclusions from the same data...
For me from the quality of Pirates of the Caribbean, Tron: Legacy & John Carter [I haven't seen all the Marvel movies so I will exclude them] I would say they cannot make "entertaining action/adventure matinées". I thought all the PoC franchise were awful and T:L & JCoM were no better. Lots of action but no plot or depth or heart...

Meh, Tron: Legacy was actually better than I expected and while I had some issues with the themes in John Carter, it was still mostly what I was hoping for. (That is, "kinda like Star Wars except not.")

As for PoTC, the first one was masterly, but then quality dropped considerably in the sequels. That's pretty much why these news worry me - I trust Disney to make one good adventure movie, maybe two, but once they get a damn production line going they tend to lose sight of what made the original good in the first place.

But then again, the Marvel movies are made production line style and they have been consistently decent, with a couple being great and Avengers totally rocking the world. I dunno, it's probably some kind of witchcraft at play, but apparently it's possible.

But there again I am a long way over 15 and I guess that is Disney's target audience.
[Yes I saw all three original movies in the cinema first time round]

Look, being old and crotchety isn't something to be proud of. Keep this up and next you'll be yelling at kids to get off your lawn, going: "When I was your age..."

And I do worry that you are right that we will in the not to distant future be faced with "Ewok School Musical 2: The Graduation"...

I'm worried it'll end the same way Highlander did - the last movie being some aweful direct-to-DVD garbage that completely betrayes everything the originals stood for, and yet nobody actually cares because at that point everybody has just gotten sick of Star Wars.

 

[Penpilot]

But then again, the Marvel movies are made production line style and they have been consistently decent, with a couple being great and Avengers totally rocking the world. I dunno, it's probably some kind of witchcraft at play, but apparently it's possible.

I think all the Avengers stuff was planned and in motion before Disney acquired Marvel, so all Disney had to do was keep their hands off. But I'm not trying put a damper on things. Disney can make good movies, and with fresh blood injected into that universe, good things should happen.

 

[Anders Ämting]

Meh... To me the franchise, in terms of movies, is rock bottom already.

No. No, no. Bless your innocent little heart, no. Star Wars isn't even near rock bottom.

Rock bottom is hiring writers who apparently hate the core concept and want to see it suffer. Rock bottom is when every new movie is inconsistent with the previous one. Rock bottom is having to watch the ideals and tenents that made Star Wars what it was being picked apart and mercilessly mocked. Rock bottom is a whole movie entirely about Jar Jar, because they ran out of good ideas six years ago.

You thought midichlorians were bad? That's just, well, a stupid idea. A couple of lines of dialogue that can be ignored. Mark my words, eventually they'll make a movie that reveals that the Jedi and Sith had it wrong all the time, that there is no Light or Dark side and that the Force is generated by some ancient machine built by space fairies or something, the entire Jedi religion being the result of someone reading the instruction manual wrong. And when that happens you will look back and realize just how naive you were.

 

[Mindfire]

I'm actually kind of excited for this. Yes. I think this will be a good thing. Breathe new life into the franchise and all that.

 

[Steerpike]

Jar-Jar tours the galaxy with the cast of Aladdin. Real life version on ice coming to a skating rink near you for a nominal fee.

 

[Mindfire]

It's amazing how two people can come to completely different conclusions from the same data...
For me from the quality of Pirates of the Caribbean, Tron: Legacy & John Carter [I haven't seen all the Marvel movies so I will exclude them] I would say they cannot make "entertaining action/adventure matinées". I thought all the PoC franchise were awful and T:L & JCoM were no better. Lots of action but no plot or depth or heart... But there again I am a long way over 15 and I guess that is Disney's target audience.
[Yes I saw all three original movies in the cinema first time round]
And I do worry that you are right that we will in the not to distant future be faced with "Ewok School Musical 2: The Graduation"...

You are either extrmely nitpicky or you have no soul. I liked all four Pirates movies. Haven't seen Tron Legacy or John Carter though.

Disney's epics are hit and miss, some of them are great (avengers) some are cut your own eyes out terrible (x-men first class).

The problem for me is Yoda is dead. Sorry, but Star Wars dies with Yoda for me. No coming back from that - imagine how terrible 1-3 would of been without him to make the films worth sitting through. Even 4-6 would of been much worse off without his character.

X-Men First Class wasn't Disney; it was Fox...

 

[Anders Ämting]

So, more news: Apparently they are going to make the new movie entirely from scratch.

“Forget the Star Wars novels. Forget the graphic novels. Forget everything you think you know about what happens to Luke Skywalker. According to my sources, Episode 7 will literally be nothing you’ve ever seen or read before from the Star Wars universe.”

That's actually kinda relieving to hear, I think. Making a fresh start would probably minimize the potential damage to the old films (no dropping moons on Chewbacca and so on) and it means they have to make an effort to appeal to something other than nostalgia.

As long as they get all the essential elements in there (space battles, the Force, lightsaber fights, annoying comedy relief) I think I might like a completely original Star Wars movie.

You are either extrmely nitpicky or you have no soul. I liked all four Pirates movies. Haven't seen Tron Legacy or John Carter though.

Tron isn't amazing or anything but it was enjoyable to watch. John Carter suffered from some pretty annoying clichés (and they get all the themes from the book backwards) but it's still crazy underrated.

I think the first pirates is glorious but that they kinda failed to recreate the formula. The sequels just aren't nearly as good.

X-Men First Class wasn't Disney; it was Fox...

And it wasn't really that bad, either.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

I sincerely hope that whatever Disney does with Star Wars films, they avoid using any of the existing characters. Sure, it's obvious fanwankery to include Luke or Han or someone (recast with younger actors -- Star Trek did it, why not Star Wars, they'll say), but really, Star Wars is a vast universe and there's plenty you can do with it without touching those people. Give the reins to David Fincher or Chris Nolan or Joss Whedon (well, he'll be busy with Avengers 2) or Steven Soderbergh or Kathryn Bigalow or Ben Affleck (who it turns out is a far better director than actor) or any other interesting director, and let them run with it, and see what kind of magic you can conjure up.

With regards to Tron: Legacy, I think that the movie ended up being a little boring, mainly because I sort of found myself not really caring whether or not anything happened to Sam Flynn. Sure, the phase where he's first in the world and getting introduced to what's going on was fun and exciting, but the rest just ended up sort of... not going anywhere. He wasn't a good protagonist. His plans kept getting thwarted by random chance; his goals weren't very clear; the rules of the world weren't really clear. The movie made the (admittedly very common) mistake of thinking that lengthy action scenes make for an interesting movie. They might keep you on edge for the duration, but afterward nothing much has really changed and you don't look back and think, "Wow, what a pivotal moment."

Despite the overall story problems, I liked a lot of the touches in Tron: Legacy, such as when Clu goes into Flynn's apartment and is exploring around touching things, furiously trying to understand his creator, and completely failing, because he just doesn't have the context to understand what would drive a man like Flynn, even though he's made in Flynn's image. It was such an obvious allegory about man trying to understand God, but meaningfully executed.

Or the moment after they escape the nightclub, where Flynn says, "You're really... you're messing with my zen thing, man," an acknowledgment that Flynn has constructed a persona for himself that he knows isn't real. It's a moment that seems to clearly have thoughtful intent behind it, and I find myself wondering how much the movie was altered from Joseph Kosinski's original intent by studio interference.

 

[WyrdMystic]

X-Men First Class wasn't Disney; it was Fox...

Why doesn't that surprise me?

 

[WyrdMystic]

And it wasn't really that bad, either.

Yeah...it was