Posted on 04/25/2017 6:47:57 PM PDT by BenLurkin
No, the potential problem with Episode IX is its strange placement in the bigger Star Wars picture. It is, technically, a final chapter to the current trilogy, if not the entire "Skywalker Saga" that has run through seven of the eight Star Wars movies to date. Fandom had long considered the model of a trilogy of trilogies to be the length of the series, even before The Force Awakens was announced, so there's a double weight of expectations resting on it from the very start; it has to not only tie up the themes and plots of the past two movies, but also offer some level of payoff to eight earlier features, as well.
On the one hand, this isn't an impossible task. After all, both 1983's Return of the Jedi and 2005's Revenge of the Sith managed variations on this task for their own trilogies, with Sith attempting to tie together the two trilogies into an airtight — some would say, airless — whole. Both of those movies had an advantage than Episode IX lacks, however: they actually were intended as final chapters at the time they were made.
Episode IX, by comparison, will arrive before an audience who will likely know the release date, plot and cast of another couple of subsequent Star Wars movies; no matter how much it tries to offer a conclusion to events, audiences will know that it's not the end, or even the end for awhile. Instead, there'll be another chapter coming along, most likely in the next year. How can a movie successfully provide closure when everyone involved knows that the story isn't actually closing?
(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...
ep 9: girl jedi goes rogue, must come back to the force
Episode IX could well be the end of the Luke Skywalker era. New movies made after that, whether part of a trilogy or not, will feature the Rey girl, and other new characters of a new generation. The whole Jedi storyline will continue; this First Order group of bad guys will rise and fall, new villians will show up, etc. etc.
Star Wars may never end, they will just keep introducing new storylines and new characters, based on good guys vs. bad guys.
Making more movies after Episode 9 would only be milking the tit dry. They seem to be on track to give Luke's story a fitting conclusion. They should let it end with that.
And besides, there is 25,000 years of Star Wars history to play with. They haven't tapped into that yet. A trilogy set thousands of years before or after the Empire? That could be fun.
Anything would be better than what Lucas did with the concept.
It made sense that ObiWan would dress like an Arab on a desert planet. By why the Sam Hill are the Jedi dressing like goat-herding hermits when they are back on a civilized planet?
This is the problem with telling a story in a trilogy format, and it’s not unique to Star Wars. LOTR had the same issue.
It's more like a "warrior-monk" aesthetic. Elements of samurai, and Knights Templar. That's what one of the concept artists for the prequels told me a long time ago anyway.
And wasn’t there a new Star Wars movie, which will fill in the back story of Han Solo? I haven’t kept up with it. But, there could be many more such movies made, if they delve into the back story of multiple characters.
Interesting how this all works. I had heard that many many years ago, that George Lucas and his people had to brainstorm back stories which explain things. When Star Wars became such a huge hit, and inevitably talk of sequels came up, that’s when George devised plot points, such as Darth Vader being Luke’s father, and Luke and Leia having been twins separated at birth.
None of that was talked about in the first movie, because Lucas didn’t know that there would be a sequel at the time the first one was made.
Keeping Mark Hamill from groveling in
the public ashtrays on the sound stage set?
The real problem they have is expanding the scope of Star Wars. It has a huge universe explored to a degree in the old Expanded Universe books (restarted with the new books after the old EU was tossed out as non-canon by Disney), but the truth is that Star Wars has always been Rebels fighting the Empire. They’re trying to restart that now, but will it work? Is there anymore to it? Even in the excellent “Knights of the Old Republic” comics and games, it was the Republic fighting against the Sith Empire, which was just the Empire with a few more Dark Jedi tossed around.
They can only re-hash the original concept so many times before people lose interest, but Disney will have to take risks with a flagship property they paid billions for.
Will there be yet another Death Star or planet destroying weapon to wipe out?
“How can a movie successfully provide closure when everyone involved knows that the story isn’t actually closing?”
The author is missing the obvious. If everyone knows this “isn’t the actual closing” then no firm closure is needed. They just want to see this particular chapter story closed (i.e. several questions will be or should be answered - such as “Who is Snoke?”).
Lucas replied "He's Luke Skywalker's father."
Allegedly, Lucas was shocked that it wasn't widespread knowledge when it was confirmed six years later in Return of the Jedi.
I thought that we were seeing a rehash of the original Star Wars in The Force Awakens.
Instead of young Luke Skywalker, you had the Rey girl. Her droid companion was BB8, similar to how Luke was accompanied by R2D2 and 3PO. They were on a journey. The bad guys were after them. Instead of the bad guys being the Empire, the bad guys were named The First Order.
And I’ve heard speculation that Rey, having delivered the light saber to Luke, sets it up so that Rey will get Jedi training from Luke, similar to how a young Luke got Jedi training from Yoda.
They are possibly just recycling the storyline all over.
Uh......to me they look neither like monks, nor samurai, nor Knights Templar. I always figured Lucas was just being too lazy to come up with something different.
There’s a lot I would have done differently beyond having the Jedi knights dress as, well, futuristic knights. The Force would have remained spiritual — and not biological. The Empire would have been established decades, if not centuries earlier. Lord Vader would have been an actual Lord in the feudal sense. Han Solo would have had a more detailed backstory. And more.
But I’m just a Joe in the cheap seats. The people in charge of Star Wars are wildly successful with their product, and there is no arguing with that success.
Dude you got that right. Midichlorians? What the hell was Lucas smoking?
rofl!!
I just hope they don’t kill off Spock or Commander Adama.
Their biggest problem - -
The Title IX folks accused them of cultural appropriation.
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