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Yes a good movie sword fight has a sweet spot as far as time and skill go. If you watch Rob Roy but give them light sabers, that would be perfect.

 Maddermax wrote:
Now, for the new Star Wars movie, I know Disney is very competent at making movies, and what comes out will be excellently produced. The thing that'll make it into either an "eh" movie that's soon forgotten or a great movie that really adds to the setting will be almost completely in the writing. And there's nothing much in JJ Abrams back catalogue that really inspires confidence in his abilities as a writer.

I don't share your feeling about Abrams, but I think this really is a case in which anyone other than Lucas is an improvement. From the prequels and his changes to the original trilogy, he didn't even seem able to grasp how dialogue even works in a movie anymore.

Contrast the beginning of the lightsaber duel between Luke and Vader in TESB to the beginning of the lightsaber duel between Yoda and Dooku in AoTC. One lets its characters be silent and have their actions do the talking, building the tension. The other is filled with dumb chatter that detracts from the tension.

And forget about handling actors. Lucas made casts filled with great actors look like dinner theater troupes. Lucas just spent too many years holed up in Skywalker Ranch thinking about merchandising and playing with technological doo-dads.

It's almost 35 years later, but Kasdan's work on TESB -- writing and direction -- is still the best work that anyone's done on Star Wars ever. So he gets the benefit of the doubt from me.

 Frazzled wrote:
Yes a good laser duel-original Star Wars for something masters might do, or ESB for two experts. Having the fights go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on please just die already.

They always start in fifth gear too, as if the key to a good sequence is protracted intensity; I get a headache just remembering the Obi vs Anakin fight in RotS.

Again, look at TESB in comparison. Luke and Vader start out slow, and it creates buildup and helps drive Vader's aura of menace.

The fights in the prequels are technically better in terms of the footwork and sheer amount of cuts and parries and ballet moves. But they lack good pacing and end up soulless and exhausting somehow.

It's the same thing over and over again with Lucas...technical wizardry over acting, dialogue, pacing, and all the other elements of filmmaking.

Gorgon has the way of it.

Another disaster waiting to happen... bringing back the OT cast members.

Outside of Harrison Ford, they basically look awful.
If you saw Mark Hamil back in the Spring on the Criminal Minds finale... geez Luke, the treadmill isn't with you! (let alone The Force anymore)

Hes got the force....its just in his waist line.



But lets be realistic, how old is the cast now? Outside of having a few "hey look its so and so" I hope it stays that way, because I dont want to start seeing the Arnold syndrome. You konw, where the actors are 60+ and are pretending they are in their 30s or 40s.

Luke's force powers are vocally based now.

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:
Luke's force powers are vocally based now.

I can see it now. DBZ style battles where Luke spends 2 hours charging up the 'Force Wave'

 LordofHats wrote:

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:
Luke's force powers are vocally based now.

I can see it now. DBZ style battles where Luke spends 2 hours charging up the 'Force Wave'

For a two hour charge-up time, I better get to see the 'Super-Spirit Force Wave'

I'd watch it. Especially if he's doing the Joker voice.

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:
I'd watch it. Especially if he's doing the Joker voice.

I would love this even more if it was Zahn's clone Luke vs Luke, and it sort of devolves into a laugh contest of Mark Hamill trying to outcackle himself for a few minutes.

Of course, any such film would have the artistic integrity of Kung Pow.

They could avoid a lot of that if they put it substantially in the past or the future. Aka pre or early Republic or maybe a few decades post empire. Make your own space in the SW empire.

Would be nice to see something not heavily focused on jedi though. SW was a romp and only had the one jedi fight in it. making another uber jedi for entire movie movie would be boring.

That's what I think, though to be honest and to have a minor spoiler, a few decades post-Empire actually puts you right back into the days of the Empire, so to speak, though it's a "good" Empire this time. But yeah, sometime between the Vong war and the Legacy graphic novel period would be really cool. That's about 75 years of uncharted territory.

Experiment 626 wrote:
If you saw Mark Hamil back in the Spring on the Criminal Minds finale... geez Luke, the treadmill isn't with you! (let alone The Force anymore)

Hamill and Fisher have already said that both have been sent personal trainers to get them into movie shape for the film. Personally, even as much as I like the Heir to the Empire trilogy, I am glad they are ignoring the trainwreck that is the EU.

Experiment 626 wrote:
Another disaster waiting to happen... bringing back the OT cast members.

Outside of Harrison Ford, they basically look awful.
If you saw Mark Hamil back in the Spring on the Criminal Minds finale... geez Luke, the treadmill isn't with you! (let alone The Force anymore)

Here's what Ahtman referenced.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/17/star-wars-mark-hamill-gym-fit

They can also do all kinds of magic with film. Which is not to say that they won't look old. They will. But they'll have them looking better than they look IRL.

Besides, their children will almost certainly be the main characters.

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
For once, I think we're in agreement!

I feel a strong urge to disagree with that, but I can't think of how

The mess that was Revenge of the Sith, with its wooden acting and poor plot, was probably the biggest, steaming pile of Bantha fodder that I have ever seen! The scene where Anakin becomes Vader had me cringing so much, that even after all these years, my face is still red!

I enjoyed Revenge of the Sith the most out of the prequels. It wasn't good, but it was the one where stuff actually happened. it was also the one with the most wasted potential, because it had at least as many awful bits as the earlier films, and those bits felt even worse because they were in the midst of scenes that actually mattered. For instance, Obi Wan killing Darth Maul by slowly jumping over him, landing and taking a massive baseball swing while Darth Maul seemed to just kind of forget to turn around was really stupid, but ultimately it was just a fight scene with guy that was made up as a purely physical adversary for one movie, so who really cares. But the 'you can't win Anakin, I have the higher ground' bit in RotS was possibly a bit less stupid, but it matters more because this was the big showdown between Anakin and Obi Wan, one of the key points of the mythology.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Maddermax wrote:
The thing about the prequels is that almost everything in them was great - good production, good effects, good cast for the most part, great setting and design that expanded on the originals. The things that let it down, really let it down, was the writing and plot. However good the rest of the production is, if the writing is poor, the movie will be too. Same thing with the new Star Trek movie to my mind - brilliant production and great casting, piss poor writing and plot.

I would argue that not even the writing was a problem, or at least no the dialogue. Not because it was good, because it sure wasn't, but because good dialogue has never really been a Star Wars thing. In the original trilogy the dialogue is kind of formal and awkward. I mean, think of the line 'only a master of evil, Darth'. Alec Guiness sells that line like only Alec Guiness can, and it's in the middle of a good scene that fits perfectly in to the movie, but of itself the line is bad.

But I'm right with you when you talk about the problems with plotting. The structure of the prequels was just all wrong. Way too much time spent on macguffins peripheral to the main plot - I'm pretty sure investigating the clone army in the second movie had more time invested in it than the betrayal of the Jedi got in the third movie. When the plot is plodding along worrying about pointless stuff then you notice the bad parts a whole lot more. For instance, I think the final battle in Attack of the Clones is one of the better action sequences in a Star Wars film, as it expands from the main characters fighting monsters in an arena, to the Jedi fighting throughout the arena, to a massive land battle between two armies, but it's not really any fun because it's all really pointless to the overall story.

Now, for the new Star Wars movie, I know Disney is very competent at making movies, and what comes out will be excellently produced. The thing that'll make it into either an "eh" movie that's soon forgotten or a great movie that really adds to the setting will be almost completely in the writing. And there's nothing much in JJ Abrams back catalogue that really inspires confidence in his abilities as a writer.

Disney's recent record with blockbusters isn't that great. Their last three big budget efforts aimed at the young adult market were the Lone Ranger, Oz the Great and Powerful, and John Carter. Star Wars is different enough and big enough that there's reason to believe this could be different, but Disney's record can't really be used to predict this will be good, or even competent.

Honestly, JJ Abrams is the reason I think this most likely won't be bad. It probably won't be great either, but I have a hard time thinking it will be prequel level bad. The guy makes slick, well polished movies.

Do we think we'll have a consistant villain figure throughout these films (like Vader) or do you think it will chance like the prequels?

I'd like to see Luke in a new Jedi Master role, training up new Jedi on Yavin or Coruscant.

I'm wondering what kind of threat they'll be facing, and who our main heroes will be?

Probably some Imperial remanent. We can only hope it's Thrawn.

I would honestly like a movie set in the Star Wars universe that didn't deal with "big" events. Yeah, maybe that isn't Star Wars enoug; but I would like the setting dug into a bit more to tell good stories from other film styles.

You know like a Stormtrooper crime procedural, a gangster looking to retire from jabba's syndicate but has to do one last job, basically take any formula from other famous movies and imprint it into the Star Wars universe with aliens, robots, and FTL travel.

I know. I'm lame.

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:
Probably some Imperial remanent. We can only hope it's Thrawn.

Which Thrawn?

 Easy E wrote:
I know. I'm lame.

You just pitched JAG Storm Trooper edition. It might have just enough twist to not be anywhere near as boring as JAG Hardly lame sir.

I personally loved the original pitch behind Star Wars Clones Wars. An animated TV series not centered on someone named Skywalker and his lame punky sidekick? TOo bad that's the exact opposite of what the series became A damn shame.

Actually, I think there are supposed to be a series of "side" SW movies outside the new trilogy. So there are your smaller stories, probably.

Dunno if they'll be like this though...








Oh, and I have to think there'll be a Sith in the new trilogy somewhere.

Gorgon, I was thinking of the very same video.

My guess is that its a remnant of the Empire being controlled from the shadows by a new Sith. Maybe the Sith will be a former Jedi trained by Luke who went missing many years prior.

 Grey Templar wrote:
My guess is that its a remnant of the Empire being controlled from the shadows by a new Sith. Maybe the Sith will be a former Jedi trained by Luke who went missing many years prior.

What evs, we all know the movies are gonna be all about Jacen and Jaina. Two young adults connected to the original characters by blood? It's almost like they were invented for sequels.

 Easy E wrote:
I would honestly like a movie set in the Star Wars universe that didn't deal with "big" events. Yeah, maybe that isn't Star Wars enoug; but I would like the setting dug into a bit more to tell good stories from other film styles.

You know like a Stormtrooper crime procedural, a gangster looking to retire from jabba's syndicate but has to do one last job, basically take any formula from other famous movies and imprint it into the Star Wars universe with aliens, robots, and FTL travel.

I know. I'm lame.

They made two Ewok movies just for you.

And me.

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:
I'd watch it. Especially if he's doing the Joker voice.

Will this do?

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 Easy E wrote:
I would honestly like a movie set in the Star Wars universe that didn't deal with "big" events. Yeah, maybe that isn't Star Wars enoug; but I would like the setting dug into a bit more to tell good stories from other film styles.

You know like a Stormtrooper crime procedural, a gangster looking to retire from jabba's syndicate but has to do one last job, basically take any formula from other famous movies and imprint it into the Star Wars universe with aliens, robots, and FTL travel.

I know. I'm lame.

They made two Ewok movies just for you.

And me.

Don;t forget the christmas special or the Droids cartoon!

Hey! I liked the Droid cartoons.

I liked the Christmas special. It actually presaged ROTJ with multiple wookies.