How do you guys feel about this? Going to see it? Not going to see it? Waiting for DVD? I have tickets to see the first show on Thursday. I think if I didn't have other people wanting to go see it with me, as they are my official Star Wars movie watching people, I might not have gone the extra mile to make sure we saw it on night one. While I spent the whole lead-up to this movie being supremely underwhelmed and not at all excited, I will say that now that the week has arrived, I'm looking forward to it. Do I have any expectations? Nope. And because of that, I actually am starting to feel like I might enjoy it. As we have stated before, the best part about it is that the characters we know and love must be "safe" in this movie. They can't change them or ruin them. I think maybe I can just treat this as any other movie, really. I think. I hope.
Definitely sad to be thinking that a year ago we were all so, so excited for Episode VII. It was going to be great, and bring back all of our favorite characters and we were going to see them on screen together again. So much for that, but at least it has fixed me so that I am now immune to disappointment, because I will never have any level of hope going into one of these movies again.
Not seeing it unless people tell me I absolutely cannot miss it. My default on Star Wars now is to spend no money until people I trust (like people on this board) say it's absolutely worth it. Otherwise, my money stays firmly in my pocket and doesn't go to Disney.
ReplyDeleteAnd as of now, I'm totally ignoring all the "ZOMG! It was the best thing EVERZ!" coming out of the premiere and waiting to hear more, because those people are not going to say (and are often not permitted to say) negative things. I mean, they said The Phantom Menace and Batman v. Superman were both brilliant after premieres. So judgment withheld at the moment.
And I'm torn between wanting it to flop and wanting it to be generally considered vaaaastly better than TFA.
I will for sure give you an honest review. If I had something better to do, I wouldn't go. But I don't :)
DeleteAnd yes that is why I'm not putting any faith in the apparent reviews that said it was good. People were raving about TFA right away too. Still no expectations from me, though.
I just read this:
Delete"Holy Sith! @RogueOneMovie is unbelievably wonderful! No lie: it is #EmpireStrikesBack great! An excellent chapter in the @starwars Universe!"
- Kevin Smith about Rogue One
“Of the film, I can say many things. But the long and short of it is that I liked it — quite a bit. I’d rank it right after Empire in a list of fave Star Wars flicks. It starts great, ends great, and has great stuff sprinkled in between.”
- Kevin Smith about.....wait for it...THE PHANTOM MENACE
LOL
Haha, that is amazing :)
DeleteYay! I actually got an email update for this post!
ReplyDeleteLet's see, here. Um, I am going to see it. I don't really care about going to see it. In my family, I'm known to be the Star Wars fan, so my aunt got tickets for her family and mine and we all went to see TFA together. Apparently, it's a tradition now and we're going to see R1 together. I can't remember when. Anywhoo! So, yeah, I'm going.
Also, to respond to those reviews you listed, Kels, (because I know all of us have to be thinking it) NOTHING is ESB great.
Do I think it will be a good movie. I'm sure it's not horrible. Do I care about watching it? Absolutely not.
True. It is impossible for anything to be ESB great, and I just laugh when people say that, given that ESB and Godfather II tend to be the two films people refer to when they are asked the greatest sequel ever. (And this isn't really a sequel, so it kind of doesn't even fit...)
DeleteWOOT! I got an email notification of a new post on this blog! Finally! Yay!
ReplyDeleteAs for seeing Rogue One, I honestly keep forgetting what the release date is in the UK. (Of course, I also keep forgetting that it's Christmas time; I'm trying to get my house ready to put on the market, and can't think of much else atm).
Still, it's continually astonishing to me that a new Star Wars movie is coming out and I am not even thinking much about it unless someone mentions it to me. I had my heart broken by TFA and I just can't drum up any deep enthusiasm for Rogue One -- certainly nothing like the crazy state I was in this time last year, fizzing with excitement and trying hard to keep a lid on it so people wouldn't find out what a dork I am for Star Wars. I'd been waiting since 1983 to revisit my beloved heroes and I couldn't wait to find out how they fared after RotJ (in the new canon)....gah! *stabs out own eyes*
I do plan to go see R1 but I'm now a little wary about the notion (which I'd previously held) that "they can't hurt me any more". I'm a little nervous after hearing rumours about the Han Solo movie and a possible cameo by nu-Han in Rogue One or in the post-credits scene. I don't mind seeing Leia from a distance or in silhouette or something, but I don't want to actually see Han or Leia (or Luke, for that matter) being portrayed by anyone else. Like, with dialogue. Don't. Want. So maybe I will not rush to see it on the first night... I'll wait to find out if there's another kick-in-the-teeth lurking in it somewhere for Han/Leia fans.
Wait, Non Solo might be in this thing? I thought that was a rumor that fizzled. Ugh.
DeleteOh, don't count on me to be up-to-speed on any of that. I could be going off of rumours that have since been squashed. I honestly haven't been keeping up with it... If he's not going to be in it, good!!!
DeleteI love that you guys are getting email notifications, yay! I thought that rumor kind of died, and it really doesn't even make sense if this is like, weeks or even months before ANH, it would just be confusing.
DeleteIt's funny because this time last year I was watching every talk show that had anyone on it, live streaming red carpets from premieres, anything that had anything to do with it. Now? Eh, no thanks. I think there is a Rogue One special on Jimmy Kimmel either tonight or tomorrow. I will maybe later watch it on youtube if I hear it has anything good. Otherwise? Nah.
Same! I remembering watching the- Oh, what was it?! I think it was a red carpet sort of thing. It was live on some site (Wait! I think I heard about it on this site) and they were talking to the actors and it was the night of the premiere. I remember I was watching it, sitting, dressed in my coat, waiting without patience to go see the movie in an hour or so.
Delete*shakes head sadly* No hype, right? At least, that's my personal rule.
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DeleteHan is not in it at all from what I heard from people who claim to have seen the movie. Leia IS seen and heard with Carrie Fisher's face CGIed over the actress that was earlier announced to be playing her and her voice is Carrie Fisher's modified but apparently the CGI was done badly and she looks more like a video game character.
DeleteIt sounds like all the character-based CGI was done horribly (and almost unethically, said several critics, and I tend to agree but will leave that convo for another day) in this film.
DeleteYeah, I read in reviews the CGI of Tarkin looked horrible as well.
DeleteI'm assuming Carrie Fisher gave them her blessing to use her face and agreed to do the voice (probably extra money for her). But the guy who played Tarkin died years ago right?
Yes, Peter Cushing died in the 1980s. I wrote a law journal article waaaay back in the 1990s about the ethics of using bodymapping/CGI for dead actors. And hey presto, here we are. Dead actors playing roles in movies that they may have turned down were they alive. Kind of gives me the ethical creeps.
DeleteWe're going to see it because my oldest kid wants to. I'm not expecting much, but I also think that it'll be fine because the story is a self-contained and has less to do with the Big3 and even less to do with Han and Leia. So I can kind of take it on its own terms and just be "entertained" without having to feel cheated about how the OT characters are portrayed.
ReplyDeleteSo... "meh" about sums it up?
My son bought the two of us tickets for opening night, but I'm going with less than brimming enthusiasm. I was so excited for TFA and it gutted me, and I'm still not over it. The trailers look good, but I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop...what else can they hit me with that will render me in a state of mourning until this time next year, when it's entirely possible that they'll crush me my memories all over again?
ReplyDeleteSo I'm going, but keeping my expectations low. There is one saving grace...it's in the 'new' theatre in town that serves alcohol! :)
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ReplyDeleteYay! Like everyone else, the email notification worked!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm not going, even though I am drowning in stuff on my Tumblr dash, on Twitter, and OMG TV. I do have friends going so I know they - and you - will give me the scoop.
Can they hurt the OT3? Sure. To me, saying it's a "rebellion based on hope" when LUKE is the hope is annoying as all hell. It's supposed to end right before ANH starts, so I can certainly see a cameo here and there. I expect there may even be a shot of the Falcon flying into Tatooine.
As for why I'm not going? Well, I can't. I won't give them any more of my money than I have to because I want to see what BS they do to Luke and Leia in 8 - and that will determine whether I see 9. They broke my heart and I've been really noisy about it on social media and I don't honestly care. Screw 'em if they can't take it.
And here's this gem from Deadline today, which probably settles whether Han's coming back or not. In any case, it makes me so angry, I'm not giving them a dime if I don't have to. I am a Florida native so I already owe Disney for what was done to my state....
Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn says that Rogue One “just came together”. Sure they could have put the Han Solo standalone first, “but we liked the space between Force Awakens when Han Solo dies, and the origins story. This felt like a good thing to slip in; filling the gap between the third and fourth chapters.”
Then Kathleen Kennedy says this: "Rey is strong and technically capable and compassionate and driven is that the women who were in that room" talking about all the women at LFL. Like Leia and Padme were what, not those things?
All the women in that room decided that ruining Leia's life was a good thing to do?
So yeah, not so much Rogue 1. Good job, Kels, finding those Kevin Smith quotes. I know the prequel fans were angry considering the first person they interviewed on the red carpet was Wil Wheaton, trashing the prequels. He's already put it ahead of Empire.
The embargo on reviews ends tonight, I think.
(reblogged to put the notify tag on!)
Relating to the OT3 and hurting them, I saw a post on IGN, I think, from a big Luke fan who seems to be as annoyed at TFA as we mostly are here, and it was a specific perspective I hadn't seen a lot of. Most Luke fans are just annoyed that he wasn't in the movie. This fan had a much more interesting and, I would argue, correct take. What he could not get past about TFA was that Luke Skywalker would let his sister and Han suffer (and Han die) like that. He argued that this was the same person who left his Jedi training to save Han and Leia AND ignored the Jedi when they told him to kill Vader. Luke, he argued, is all about love and he would have moved any mountain to not allow the events of TFA to happen. I quite liked his take, and I think it's smart and very accurate to the character of Luke.
DeleteThis is so true! The real Luke Skywalker would not have hidden himself off on a island while everything else went down! The ST is just an excuse to sell movie tickets. Just really expensive but bad fan fiction.
DeleteEvery time I see an image of Kylo Ren (which is every time I go to the feckin' grocery store, ffs) I feel brokenhearted all over again that THAT is the "official" story of how Han and Leia's romance ended -- with tragedy, estrangement, betrayal and murder. I'm so incensed by it, I sometimes forget to be outraged over what that says about Luke.
DeleteThe IGN poster is right; it's appalling to suggest that Luke Skywalker would just hide out on his island, knowing his sister needs him, knowing the trouble that is brewing with Kylo Ren, and knowing that Han is in danger (because Luke *must* know, right?), and not do anything about it. WTF. They really need to fix that in Ep8, but I have no idea how they could do it.... Everything is in ruins! *sob*
Oh, Luke fans have as much reason to be upset as Han and Leia fans. Luke absolutely would NOT have run away and abandoned his best friends to hide out because he messed up. No way, no how. It is an insult to his character to have him do that. Just as it is an insult of Han's character to have him run away from Leia, and also an insult to Leia's character IF they are to tell us that Han was a crappy husband and father (which we still don't seem to know) and she put up with it for all those years. It's all just further proof that NONE of this makes sense.
DeleteLuke fans have it just as bad as Han/Leia fans. If it turns out Rey isn't his daughter, it means he spent like the last 30 years lonely and by himself training apprentices only to have them all brutally slaughtered by his nephew then he went off into exile for the last 6. I'm kind of hoping Rey is his daughter just so that the poor guy had some companionship in the last 30 years. At least in the old EU, he was best friends with Han and had dinner at Han and Leia's every day and was a loving uncle to their three kids before he met Mara. In the new EU it seems like he leaves immediately after ROTJ and Han and Leia have very little contact with him.
DeleteYeah I don't get saying that Han and Leia hardly saw Luke right from the beginning. Seriously how are they going to write books about them if they're all split up? Of course I only realized while writing that, the intention was probably never to have a lot of books about them in between, because they ruined them anyway and it might just get too compared to the Legends EU. Stupid. They all just found their new family and right away they split up. Sure.
DeleteYoda in ESB: "No. There is another."
DeleteYoda in ROTJ: "There is another Sky...walk...er"
Luke in ROTJ: "You're wrong, Leia. You have that power too. In time you'll learn to use it as I have."
Luke, one day after ROTJ: "OUTTA HERE, GOOD LUCK WITH THAT FORCE THING, SIS!"
"But Han and Leia will die if I don't!"
DeleteThat and Han saying "Luke!" when Lando says "somebody called Skywalker" are the set up for the whole last act of Empire - you see the love and faith they all have in each other.
But (and if you've seen Wrath of Khan, remember how Dr. McCoy talks about the Genesis Project - "along comes Genesis and it can do it in six minutes!")
Luke would NEVER abandon Han and Leia. I love Mark but he said that he thought Luke's entrance would be when Rey pulls the saber from the snow. If that had been Luke's entrance? I'd've walked out unless he had Han draped over his shoulder, alive and spitting mad. Because if he had been that close and left Han to die? What a betrayal.
As it is, the "new canon" betrays all three characters. I'd love to read that IGN post because yes, Luke leaves Han and Leia without any word and then sits on his rock while Han dies? Oh hell no. Not the Luke I know, who would have come roaring back (I had him save Han in my fix it, my pal Jesse Bee did in hers too).
One of my friends who loves old and new canon said I should read the new books, that Han and Leia come off as heroes and I just can't. You can't make me believe that six months after Endor Leia's pregnant in a war, Han's run off to help Chewie after the Alliance won't, and Luke's bugged off with Lor San Plot Device - who the hell is he that Luke would go with him over Han and Leia? Are they going to make me believe that Luke, who brought his father back to the light with his love is going to bug out and leave Han and Leia in the lurch?
It so negates, as Zyra said, their found family. But I guess that's not important any more. And yes, Luke wouldn't leave Rey, if she's his child and he knew, and he wouldn't leave the galaxy in the lurch! That they expect me to believe Han and Luke left is such a crowning insult to their characters.
Someone had a great meta piece on Tumblr that I saw today that Han should be out gathering intel on the First Order and finding out where Ben has gone and how to get him back, not gone back to smuggling.
Even if they somehow manage to bring Han back, I still can't believe this BS.
Maybe Lor San Plot Device had stolen a time turner from Hogwarts and they can use it in Ep IX to start the ST over.
DeleteNow that? Would make him a worthwhile character ;-)
Delete(and why in the world would they hire Max von Sydow for ONE scene???)
Because...DISNEY! Seriously, they could have gotten anybody to do it at scale. JJ Abrams probably wanted to fanboy von Sydow the way he fanboyed Ford on the movie.
DeleteI will not be seeing Rogue One. That is all.
ReplyDeleteI'm done with the money grab Disney Star Wars - aka demolish Lucas' SW otc, pump-out new films like comic strips movies just because they can. So obviously, no Rogue One for me.
ReplyDeleteI'm not in the least bit resentful about TFA, am I? Haha. As you can probably imagine, I'd rather have bamboo shoved underneath my fingernails than go see the young non Solo movie( whenever that is supposed to be released), episode 8, or 9 for that matter as well. Zero interest whatsoever, which is really sad considering what the OT meant to me for decades.
Oh, I will never buy a ticket for the Faux Solo movie! I hate that one with a passion.
DeleteAlso not buying a ticket for Faux Solo. I am dreading the next year of hearing about it.
DeleteI'm not interested in this movie. I realized my Star Wars fandom is all about the OT. I probably will sort of see it, while it plays on ou TV in front of the kids, while I wander around sorting laundry.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I'm allowed to say this here, so Zyra, please delete if necessary...but the NYT just broke the "Rogue One" embargo early and I'll just say that
ReplyDelete----parts of review follow so stop here if you don't want to read -----
"thoroughly mediocre"
and
"But the injunction not to ruin anyone’s good time by “revealing spoilers and detailed story points” is itself revealing, an indication of the meager and disposable pleasures this movie is meant to provide, and also of the low regard its makers have for the audience. It hasn’t always been this way, of course. The first “Star Wars” trilogy had a fresh, insurgent energy, and learning the names of all those planets and galactic adventurers has seemed, to generations of fans, like a new and special kind of fun.
Now, though, it is starting to feel like drudgery, a schoolbook exercise in a course of study that has no useful application and that will never end."
...are probably not the pull quotes that Disney was looking for. I particularly liked the slam on Disney's low regard for its audience.
Oh, thank you! I've been hoovering up the bad reviews - one reviewer even asked if it was time to abandon SW. When reviewers who liked TFA can't even praise this...
DeleteIt's at about an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes right now (73% for top critics), although Rotten Tomatoes has become a studio shill in its own right, as some of the reviews they have marked as "positive" are 2.5 out of 4 stars and, if you read them, are overwhelmingly mixed-to-negative. In my world, 2.5 out of 4 stars is not a "good" review. It's a "meh, maybe I'll see it on video if at all" review.
DeleteI don't know why this feels strangely pleasing to find out. I mean, I'm going to see it no matter what. It's what the older kid wants to do, but knowing the film is mediocre makes me feel somehow vindicated! Like, "See you stupid mouse? Your machinations have fallen flat! You deserve it for messing with my OTP!"
DeleteEven though the movie will likely do exactly what they want, which is to make money and then more money to feed the franchise. I doubt they really care about mediocrity as long as there are box office receipts.
Yeah, I doubt they care much as long as it makes them $$$ unfortunately. They've already made like $200 million in advance sales and are going to make millions more from just the merchandise.
DeleteI bought tickets to the midnight show but I'm not super excited like I was for previous SW movies (Wasn't excited for TFA because I was spoiled a year beforehand and knew Han and Leia were broken up and Han would die).
ReplyDeleteOne thing I think will be interesting to see will be watching the visuals of the Death Star plans getting stolen. How many times did we read that story in the EU? Every author wanted their pet character to steal them. Bria Tharen, Kyle Kartan, Garm Bel Iblis, Jan whatshisface. I believe the EU explanation was that there were actually four separate parts of the Death Star Plans and then when put together they formed a full schematic. LOL, remember those ridiculous explanations by the EU continuity gods to make everything consistent? I wonder if Disney decided that they would do a film version after seeing how popular the idea for the story was in the EU?
I'm so glad to see the general public beginning to wise up to Disney's treatment of their audience. There's only so much you can do with nostalgia. Disney could have made fresh, new, interesting stories instead of stealing breadcrumbs from the OT. The fact that I have read NONE of the new material out there is evidence enough that I am not thrilled with the ST. I have like a hundred well-worn Legends novels sitting under my bed but haven't spent a dime on anything new since December 15, 2015.
ReplyDeleteI am going to see R1, mainly because I feel like this is the last SW movie in the foreseeable future that I will be able to enjoy. And that in and of itself is depressing the hell out of me. God.
I've got midnight tickets - bloody hard to find as they sold out the second they went on sale.
ReplyDeleteI'm hearing good reviews and that it's a lot darker than most SW movies. Leia's appearance is similar to Luke's in TFA - she's talked about as a legend for most of the movie then you see her and a couple of lines with Carrie Fisher's face CGIed. I'll probably tear up at seeing my girl on the big screen.
And some good news - this means Bria Tharen didn't steal the Death Star plans right?
It's getting REALLY good reviews - I'm excited!
ReplyDeletehttp://mashable.com/2016/12/13/rogue-one-reviews/?utm_cid=hp-h-2#wvJp.sURriqs
This is a really biased article. It cherry picks only from "good" reviews and in some cases presents negative reviews as positive! For a more objective round up of critic opinions I'd go with the NYTimes article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/movies/reviews-star-wars-rogue-one.html?_r=0
DeleteSadly, The NY Times, New Yorker, and Times were scathingly negative. And those are among my favorite publications.
Spoiler review from a Han/Leia fan: http://mlder.tumblr.com/post/154468837475/spoilers-for-rogue-one
ReplyDeleteHaving read that, I'm actually a little more likely to go see this now that I know they don't do anything horrible re: Han and Leia (like making Jyn Erso a version of Bria Tharen or something).
DeleteI've tweeted at this critic - he wrote a fantastic review of TFA from a filmmaking standpoint (and also story too - not happy with how that worked either) and got death threats because it wasn't 100% fawning.
DeleteHere's him on Rogue One:
http://cinemalogue.com/2016/12/13/rogue-one-star-wars-story
Haven't gone. Not planning on it. Read reviews. Spoilers included. More story mangling it sounds like. Came to check in here and LOVE that we are more excited about the email notices for this blog working than the movie.
ReplyDeleteGonna go read the previous post on the mature fics and then finally read Kels new fic.
I'm still excited for it - the only thing I'm not a huge fan of is that I'm hearing this movie is pretty dark and starts to gray the lines between Empire and Rebellion. That was something the EU did that annoyed me - I thought Lucas was pretty obvious Empire = bad, Rebellion = good. I was reading an interview with Adam Driver and he was talking about how JJ had a conversation with him about how the Rebels in ANH were really terrorists because thousands of innocent people were murdered on the Death Star when Luke blew it up and how Kylo doesn't really believe he's doing anything wrong because the Resistance is a terrorist guerilla organization. Ughhhh.
ReplyDeleteHere's a still of Leia in Rogue One that leaked: https://twitter.com/m_berger21/status/809274060400115712
ReplyDeleteThat's actually not bad. You can definitely see a young Carrie Fisher there.
DeleteI'll look at it after I see it in the theater tonight. Really there is no excuse for it not to look good. Did you all see the first scene in Ant Man when they de-aged Michael Douglas? It looked like they really did go back in time and shoot it at the same time he made Wall Street or something. It really shouldn't be that difficult, especially with a ridiculous amount of material to reference directly from and supposedly the best effects department in the industry to have it look like Leia. Even the new Star Tours used Carrie's voice and manipulated it to sound more like she did when she was younger.
DeleteOkay, the terrorist thing. JJ needs to stop. If you're going to do all these historical allusions/allegories...you kinda need to present some POLITICS. Y'know, like the prequels that JJ professes to hate. Otherwise, Kylo is what he is - a school shooter.
DeleteAt one point, Leia and the resistance were supposed to be getting a death star. Or the Republic would be building one - now that would have been interesting as a reason Leia left the Republic and struck out on her own.
As it is, we know nothing about why anything happened politically. And I am SO TIRED of the "Luke killed innocents" on the Death STar. It was a MILITARY TARGET. Also, how many innocents died on Alderaan? How many on Hosnian Prime? You can argue about gray areas if you earn it through the narrative and we're not. If Kylo is so upset with his family killing innocents, then why does he go join an even WORSE organization? And why, if he's so upset about killing innocents, does he not go with Han when given the chance? Oh, right, he'll have to face the consequences!
Look, JJ, that makes a good story - if that's what you're telling. And JJ, you're not. You're also forgetting that we know what the good guys look like....and you've destroyed them to get to this post modern narrative. This might have worked if you had an original story to tell - hell, it would have worked 50 or 60 years later, after Luke, Han and Leia are dead (and Lando. Chewie would still be around).
But trying to sell me this story - and especially trying to sell it when you aren't tell me ANY of it - is nuts. If this is what 8's going to be about, I'm definitely renting it and not bothering with a theater.
The original plan according to MSW was that Leia built a Death Star for the Resistance and that was one of the reasons Luke and Han left her because she had become just as bad as the Empire. I'm glad they left that part out - it was bad enough they ruined Luke and Han'a character, that would have completely ruined a Leia's character to have the princess who's planet was destroyed by a Death Star build her own. I'm still worried Episode VIII is going to turn her into Alma Coin or something but now it sounds like they're just going to write her out from the coma rumours.
DeleteI know Adam Driver is just trying to find inspiration in his character and that as an actor he has to find ways to justify that his character doesn't believe he's doing anything wrong, but it drives me nuts how every time he gives an interview bashing how horrible Luke, Han and Leia are and the mainstream media prints a million articles taking his words at face value (News: Han and Leia were really bad parents!). The people Luke killed on the Death Star were working on a military target who was responsible for blowing up a planet of billions of people. How are they innocent? And if Kylo is so against the killing of innocent people, why does he massacre an entire village of civilians? We were also never given any information that Kylo is with the First Order because he agrees with it ideologically and thinks the Resistance is a terrorist group - all I really saw is that he's with it because he's with the Dark Side and Snoke and Snoke happens to be aligned with the First Order, because we have to repeat everything in the OT where the Empire was also run by a Dark Sith Lord.
Okay...so Abrams and KASDAN came up with that? Or the vaunted "story group" who apparently never even watched/read anything they were producing before the buy out? All these women that Kennedy is so proudly touting created the magical Rey, who is good and strong and technically competent and unlike any other woman in SW ever ::cough Leia & Padme::cough::
DeleteLEIA builds a Death STar? Have they gone mental? Well, that I could see running off Luke and Han...although they'd probably commit her first (putting aside WHERE IS THE MONEY COMING FROM FOR THIS?).
More and more, I think about how crazy the whole thing is. The main reason we're having the big debate about who Rey's parents are is that at one point, they were Han and Leia and apparently they just kept in those points and larded Luke points on top? Luke and Han leaving due to Leia making a Death Star almost makes sense -except it completely disregards who they are as characters - so it stays in even as the Death STar comes out.
The original screenwriter kept saying that Luke overshadowed Rey. Well, yeah, one's a character, the other is a conglomeration of parts that are supposed to equal one and don't. So that's why Luke is shoved out until the end.
I read a great meta yesterday about how Han has absolutely no arc in the movie and that's why his death seems so cheap and low impact and it was right on the money. I was just chatting with someone else a few minutes ago - they turned Star Wars into just another Marvel movie, where they recast and recast the parts (how many Spidermen have we had?) and in the comic books, characters are reset and redone all the time.
But Star Wars wasn't a comic book. It's a generational saga about a family and love and myth. It's not one more disposable "badder than the last one" villain and fist fights that are an orgy of CGI.
Well, it wasn't those things. I guess it is now. We'll have a Nu Han and I'm sure, unless Disney manages to completely destroy things (which isn't out of the realm of possibility), that I'll live to see a "reboot" of New Hope.
JJ and Kasdan. You can still see parts of the idea in the concept art (another concept art had Han drunk, bearded and depressed and Rey and Finn meet him in a cantina - I'm sure if that had been kept in all the Kylo fans would say Han was an alcoholic father who beat Kylo or something).
DeleteKasdan never liked Han/Leia as a couple, he always saw them as Rhett and Scarlet and said their scenes in ESB had a touch of falseness to them.
Yeah at one point (in Arndt's script I believe) the Jedi Killer was unrelated and Rey was Han and Leia's daughter - it looks like they flipped the two. At the Skywalker failure rate, it's probably better if they die off when it seems you have a 50% chance of going Dark and if you don't go Dark or marry into the family you either get killed or have a horrible life.
Their scenes in Empire...that he WROTE! If he thinks they're false sounding, he should look in a mirror. I've seen script pages that I guess Kershner, Ford and Fisher rewrote on the fly - someone told me Kasdan never wanted to make a movie with Harrison again...
DeleteYeah, I haven't delved too deep in the stuff, but remember about the beard/depressed. Han was never much of a drinker - he was in the cantina to meet clients. He was originally supposed to see Rey's vision with the saber too...which I would have loved but I know they would have screwed up somehow. At least they kept out Kylo owning the saber so I can write that Han saw it daily for the three years Luke had it and used it himself and that's why he recognizes it.
And if you do marry into the Skywalkers, you die - cf Han and Padme!
I don't understand WHY. Why tear them up and cast them to the winds? The three of them together, old and still having to fight the same fight - you've got three people who can act (and IMO two of them who can act circles around any of the new people) and still look good - set it so their ages are correct - forty years later, have them set up the new crew and then if you have this burning need to kill them, do it so they go together. Give them the "fitting sendoff" you promised. Not this horror show that negates all they did and all they were.
And that's why I won't see Rogue 1...
Just got home. In case you don't get an email alert, I'm going to write a new post while it's all still fresh in my head. So stay tuned...
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