Call me crazy, John Carter bombing and delusionally thinking Avengers didn’t make enough profit for Disney were leading factors for Disney buying Lucasfilm.
Disney has a pretty long history of going hard on a project and then having it implode on them; see "Blackhole". John Carter was just the latest one.
I honestly don't know how they fucked up John Carter so hard - and I think that was part of the problem. For something based in old school pulp scifi opera the movie was just so completely bland and forgettable.
George did make something that completely sucks. The prequels really do suck. The Room is a bad movie, but it's funny and entertaining too. Rian's movie won't be funny and entertaining, it will just be frustrating.
Having been an unknowing fan of Rian's other work, I can tell you exactly why he sucked ass when handed Star Wars.
Rian is good with methodically paced, slow build up with a big payoff. Lots of... not exactly tension in a thriller sense of the word, but good slow-burning conflict between characters. I love "Brick"; once you get over the way its written, its a great Noir story, but the movie is slow. as. fuck. which makes it hard to introduce people to. Everyone is very low key until the end. Not to the straight up valliumed out degree of "The Signs", but no one is over the top.
Same general thing with Looper, where everyone gives very subtle performances. He paints his dystopian world and doesn't call it out, and lets you experience it (he doesn't have people whinging about global warming, he shows sugar cane being grown in Kansas; he doesn't talk about an energy crisis, he shows cars sitting out with jury-rigged solar panels but almost no one driving). I like the film but man you put that on at the end of the night, and everyone's going to be passed out before act II. (Same general thing with Brothers Bloom, but lets skip that as he was aping Wes Anderson; I'd say successfully, but there's usually enough comedy going on in that one to hold your attention)
His movies are also pretty bleak in Noir sort of way, where its not misery porn, but things don't turn out universally great for his protagonists, lots of the 'bittersweet' endings.
tl;dr RJ works best with bleakness and subtly.
This is not what you bring to space opera; you do not bring low key slow build subtly to space opera, you bring flash and everything is cranked to 11 - because if you made 10 be louder, the dial wouldn't go to 11, and it wouldn't be the same. You also can't make it bleak; Yes, you can have things take a bad turn for the heros, but when you do its massive and dramatic; huge defeats, not just grinding them down into ennui & pathos.
He didn't have enough space to play to his strengths with TLJ, and probably killed off all of JJ's villains because they were too over the top to work with the way he wanted to tell his story. Phasma got dropped down a shaft because he didn't know how to tell her story; Snoke got axed with zero payoff because whatever JJ planned RJ couldn't work into his methodical space noir.
He might have done better had he made the first movie in the trilogy, and its possible if he makes his own trilogy, it might be ok; but it won't be Star Wars.
He was also obviously not a Star Wars fan, with no appreciation or respect for what he was being given.
I think he's a climber. He's moved steady up in the world as far as scale, scope, and budget for his movies, and Star Wars (big budget working for the mouse) was to be the top. So he wanted to make his mark on starwars (and he did, just not what he was thinking), as his resume & mark on the world, so that's probably why he's such a fucking jackass when talking to/about "haters";when you shit on starwars you aren't just saying he made a bad movie, you are shitting on his legacy and his climb to the top.
He's got to know the movie was utter garbage deep down, but he can't show it and is hoping no one else important notices either. If people at the top are actually watching and listening, this means being cast off the mountain to languish back at B or C tier.
tl;dr
TLJ is further proof the same person who writes Star Wars should never be the person who directs it.
This is a complete nonstarter and anyone suggesting it is naive to the point of borderline re.tardation. Why? Whatever the average Wong on the street thinks about faggotry, if they think about it at all, China's censors are notoriously homophobic and will not allow any overt homosexuality on-screen. Apparently said censors even take a hard line about suggestions that such things exist. So until such time as attitudes in China -- or maybe in the Chinese bureaucracy -- change, nope, not happening. Or maybe until Disney gives up on Star Wars ever hitting it big in China, possibly. But I don't see either happening any time in the near future.
Checkmate, SJWs. Market realities and homophobic PoCs make even Darth Disney bend the knee. At least if they want their movie released in the second largest movie market on Earth. Rey won't be scissoring away with Maz Kanata any time soon, at least outside of fanfiction.net.
The odd part is that when I've pointed this out, in the politest rainbow infused language I can muster, I get downvoted on Reddit and elsewhere. Even had a comment deleted at the Mary Sue. Which I guess shouldn't surprise me. Nobody seems to disagree with what I'm saying, they just don't want to hear it.
Even if Disney decided to write China off as a lost cause, trying to force overt LGBT themes in Star Wars wouldn't fly with the rest of the world. Asia in general isn't keen on homosexuality, South America would disregard the whole thing, and the Middle East speaks for itself. Hell, even places as "progressive" as the US and Europe wouldn't appreciate it, as parents probably would be a little weirded out about their kids getting exposed to such themes without warning.
"Niche" products like books and comics might get injected with LGBT themes, but there's no chance in hell that Disney would risk alienating the vast majority of their movie audience just to appease what basically amounts to a vocal minority (one that doesn't even pay for whatever products that cater to them).
Even if Disney decided to write China off as a lost cause, trying to force overt LGBT themes in Star Wars wouldn't fly with the rest of the world. Asia in general isn't keen on homosexuality, South America would disregard the whole thing, and the Middle East speaks for itself. Hell, even places as "progressive" as the US and Europe wouldn't appreciate it, as parents probably would be a little weirded out about their kids getting exposed to such themes without warning.
"Niche" products like books and comics might get injected with LGBT themes, but there's no chance in hell that Disney would risk alienating the vast majority of their movie audience just to appease what basically amounts to a vocal minority (one that doesn't even pay for whatever products that cater to them).
The people who write that shit don't know what the world is like outside of their California blogs. These are the same people who go to Muslim countries and end up beheaded in the wilderness.
The point's moot because Lucas has stated, multiple times, that Anakin is indeed the Chosen One. An entire arc in TCW exists just to prove it definitively. That scene isn't saying Anakin isn't the Chosen One, Yoda is stating that "bringing balance to the force" may not mean destroying the Sith as originally thought. It's especially apparent considering the context of the scene, Obi-Wan states that Anakin will destroy the Sith, and Mace flippantly states that "so the prophecy says".
Well, he did destroy the Sith and fulfilled his prophecy, there was just this issue of him doing an extended intermezzo of genocides and murder before he was pulled back by his son.
Recently I've gone back to this brief scene from ROTS.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=87j7CR1nJhk
Now Yoda saying the prophecy could have been misread may indicate Lucas was being ambiguous about whether Luke or Anakin was the Chosen One. But I wouldn't put it past Disney to retcon it given how Yoda was portrayed in TLJ.
Since we're going into in universe theories about prophecies and characters in star wars episode 8 empire strikes back (this is when George Lucas supposedly had 3 trilogies and some obi-wan kenobi standalone movie's planned read the secret history of star wars. Anyway there's a line as Luke flies away referring to there being "another." Obi-wan to Yoda "He's our only hope." "No, there is another." And no it's not Leia. Regardless there's a 20 page overview Lucas wrote that he must've given Disney. After all reys design is from one of Lucas's drafts where he made Luke named Anakin at the time into a girl. If only he would've made Luke a girl rey could be criticised for being a bad character.
Edit: here's part 1 of the audio book.
Hell, even places as "progressive" as the US and Europe wouldn't appreciate it, as parents probably would be a little weirded out about their kids getting exposed to such themes without warning.
If I recall, the Japanese anime version of Sailor Moon features villains that are a pair of gay lovers (not sure if it's two males or two lesbians). Knowing full well that cartoons are largely watched by young kids in the US, and that parents wouldn't be too keen on a gay couple in a cartoon watched by their young children, the Americanized version instead made the villains brother and sister.
Back to Star Wars, as much as Disney wants to be woke and progressive, they have to be mindful of its global audience and what will and won't fly. Short of making edits to different international versions or not airing the film to significant foreign audiences (which would mean zero revenue for those regions), Disney would have to tread lightly with any type of LGBTetc themes and at most include them in the form of vague, ambiguous, double entendres which even then might not please foreign censors.
The same liberals who want to see more LGBT in American films are also the same ones who insist we have to completely respect the values of foreign countries and citizens . Intersecting the two, I'd love to see how they deal with those countries whose values either disapprove of the LGBT movement or acknowledge it but prefer not to have it thrust upon them in the most confrontational way possible as we often see in current films and the media at large.
The people who write that shit don't know what the world is like outside of their California blogs. These are the same people who go to Muslim countries and end up beheaded in the wilderness.
Hand in hand with the above, we're talking about people who scREEch about pinkwashing and other SJW "crimes" while unironically wanting to impose American values and standards on the rest of the world. Just look at the recent posts about the upcoming Disney+ show about Mandalorians actively including modern political statements. If true, that sounds more like the old WWII-era propaganda films than genuine entertainment.
Having been an unknowing fan of Rian's other work, I can tell you exactly why he sucked ass when handed Star Wars.
Rian is good with methodically paced, slow build up with a big payoff. Lots of... not exactly tension in a thriller sense of the word, but good slow-burning conflict between characters. I love "Brick"; once you get over the way its written, its a great Noir story, but the movie is slow. as. fuck. which makes it hard to introduce people to. Everyone is very low key until the end. Not to the straight up valliumed out degree of "The Signs", but no one is over the top.
Same general thing with Looper, where everyone gives very subtle performances. He paints his dystopian world and doesn't call it out, and lets you experience it (he doesn't have people whinging about global warming, he shows sugar cane being grown in Kansas; he doesn't talk about an energy crisis, he shows cars sitting out with jury-rigged solar panels but almost no one driving). I like the film but man you put that on at the end of the night, and everyone's going to be passed out before act II. (Same general thing with Brothers Bloom, but lets skip that as he was aping Wes Anderson; I'd say successfully, but there's usually enough comedy going on in that one to hold your attention)
His movies are also pretty bleak in Noir sort of way, where its not misery porn, but things don't turn out universally great for his protagonists, lots of the 'bittersweet' endings.
tl;dr RJ works best with bleakness and subtly.
This is not what you bring to space opera; you do not bring low key slow build subtly to space opera, you bring flash and everything is cranked to 11 - because if you made 10 be louder, the dial wouldn't go to 11, and it wouldn't be the same. You also can't make it bleak; Yes, you can have things take a bad turn for the heros, but when you do its massive and dramatic; huge defeats, not just grinding them down into ennui & pathos.
He didn't have enough space to play to his strengths with TLJ, and probably killed off all of JJ's villains because they were too over the top to work with the way he wanted to tell his story. Phasma got dropped down a shaft because he didn't know how to tell her story; Snoke got axed with zero payoff because whatever JJ planned RJ couldn't work into his methodical space noir.
He might have done better had he made the first movie in the trilogy, and its possible if he makes his own trilogy, it might be ok; but it won't be Star Wars.
He was also obviously not a Star Wars fan, with no appreciation or respect for what he was being given.
I think he's a climber. He's moved steady up in the world as far as scale, scope, and budget for his movies, and Star Wars (big budget working for the mouse) was to be the top. So he wanted to make his mark on starwars (and he did, just not what he was thinking), as his resume & mark on the world, so that's probably why he's such a fucking jackass when talking to/about "haters";when you shit on starwars you aren't just saying he made a bad movie, you are shitting on his legacy and his climb to the top.
He's got to know the movie was utter garbage deep down, but he can't show it and is hoping no one else important notices either. If people at the top are actually watching and listening, this means being cast off the mountain to languish back at B or C tier.
tl;dr
TLJ is further proof the same person who writes Star Wars should never be the person who directs it.
My second documentarian style blog, that is my longest video blog to date, calculating at one-hour and five minutes. The topic of this blog is on the Star Wa...
Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed COMPLETE Documentary This originally aired on The History Channel. Star Wars Epic Collection Graphic Novel -Legacy #1: http://...
youtu.be
Has JJ Abrams in it as academics philosophies on star wars equating it with classic myth when in trith it's based on samurai movie's old westerns war movies and flash gordon style serials.
Apparently Disney has forced FanX to cancel a Star Wars panel with Ian McDiarmid and Hayden Christensen. The reason: they want to avoid any leaks regarding Episode IX.
I'm holding off on judging Knives Out one way or another. That one could actually be good as he's working with a format that will allow him to play to his strengths, but I'm also hearing that Rian has gone full woke (though I don't see any colored people in the principal cast, very haram) and the film is full of "biting commentary", so I do fear that his new allegiance to InSocJus might have ruined an otherwise entertaining movie.
Which part of the problem now - I can't trust positive reviews because defending Rian means defending TLJ which is defending feminism and resisting Trump (somehow), so a shit film could be getting glowing press simply because of who made it. And negative reviewers might just be angry because he struck the killing blow for Star Wars, so a good film might get shit on just simply because of who made it.
I'll either stream it or maybe go see it when it hits the dollar matinee theater.
I still don't know what the fuck they were thinking having him direct Star Wars. The only thing I've got, other than him having some sort of leverage over a disney exec, was since they're doing a shitty aping of the OT they wanted to make the 2nd film a downer movie, so they found a guy who makes sort of bleak films and put him in charge.
Apparently Disney has forced FanX to cancel a Star Wars panel with Ian McDiarmid and Hayden Christensen. The reason: they want to avoid any leaks regarding Episode IX.
At least C-3PX made sense in context, being an assassin that could perfectly disguise himself as a protocol droid, which tended to be near the rich and powerful anyway. 3P0 turning evil from Sith writing is stupid. Also, why would they need to read a fucking KNIFE? Oh yeah, let's read the KNIFE to figure out where Palpatine is or some such bullshit.
I'm surprised no one brought this up yet, but I heard one of the leaked plotlines reveals what the knife is:
The knife is the Dagger of Mortis.
Along with this, I've heard two versions of how this plot plays out:
1) The true villain is not Kylo Ren or Palpatine, but the Son, would would be played by Matt Smith. The Son was killed by Anakin in TCW after the Father killed himself with the dagger. Somehow the Son is back and had been manipulating things in the background up to the point of Episode IX, where he comes out into the forefront for whatever reason. Supposedly his motivation is he wants revenge for the death of her sister, the Daughter, who he accidentally killed with the dagger.
2) More or less the same as the above, except Snoke was the Son.
I don't remember which video I heard this from, but it was from sometime last week.
Anyways, this fits with the multiple-cuts/edits-as-market-research narrative going around, where JJ and Disney have just resorted to throwing stuff to the wall and seeing what sticks at this point.
It's so appallingly sad it drove poor Doomcock to tears.
As much as I don't like the last jedi, and no matter how many people complain about it on youtube or on internet forums, it still made 1.3 billion dollars. Had people spoken with their wallets it would be different, and maybe Disney would have a reason to worry. But on paper, that movie was a success. It's was the ninth highest-grossing movie of all time at the time of release (currently 13th).
Though, the fact that the theme parks and Solo flopped might mean this will change. But history has shown us that fans complain with their keyboard, but endorse with their wallets.
I think it goes without saying that TFA was so successful because there had been a drought of Star Wars films, a lot of pent-up nerd rage over the Prequels, and the official word on the next trilogy being an non-starter according to George until he sold. So Disney had the perfect environment for bringing back Star Wars, and for what it's worth, they got what they were expecting with the first film. Most people clearly liked the idea of a new SW trilogy and were on board, with or without reservations on whether or not it was even good. Those that had their doubts and misgivings most likely figured all of the questions and the rough spots would be answered and polished by the next film, or at least they hoped. The minority thought it was shit or just underwhelming out of the gate. The point I want to make here is TLJ owed much of it's success to the conditions under which TFA succeeded. Everybody thought it would be great: more Luke, more character development for Rey/Finn/Poe, and more answers.
Technically, Rian AUGHMAHDEEEEEEK Johnson delivered on all three counts, the same way shitting in a cereal bowl counts as serving breakfast. So there you go.
''The lives of the last men are pacifist and comfortable. There is no longer a distinction between ruler and ruled, strong over weak or supreme over the mediocre. Social conflict and challenges are minimized. Every individual lives equally and in "superficial" harmony. There are no original or flourishing social trends and ideas. Individuality and creativity are suppressed.''
This shit is going to fail so hard it's going to be fucking fascinating. Shitheads like me will be able to micro-analyze it for years and not even come close to breaching the surface of such a failure.
I've heard the EFAP crew and others say more than once that this whole Disney Star Wars debacle should be taught in film school. Papers and books should be written on it.
There's already a few out on Amazon now, for and against the Fandom Menace, with another couplecrowdfunded books & a film documentary in the works.
George did make something that completely sucks. The prequels really do suck. The Room is a bad movie, but it's funny and entertaining too. Rian's movie won't be funny and entertaining, it will just be frustrating.
Just an old gambler drunk on power and overconfidence in the end. Ironic.
By the way, isn't it funny that Darth Vader's ideas ended up causing the Empire its most crushing defeats? Letting the Falcon leave the Death Star with a tracker was his idea, and it ended up leading to a decisive victory for the Rebellion. Turning Luke to the Dark Side was also his idea, and Palps was just like, "Hey, that's a good idea. Deux it."
It's the same shtick that Rian aped with Snoke. Oh he could see the future all right, but not the whole picture.
Having been an unknowing fan of Rian's other work, I can tell you exactly why he sucked ass when handed Star Wars.
Rian is good with methodically paced, slow build up with a big payoff. Lots of... not exactly tension in a thriller sense of the word, but good slow-burning conflict between characters. I love "Brick"; once you get over the way its written, its a great Noir story, but the movie is slow. as. fuck. which makes it hard to introduce people to. Everyone is very low key until the end. Not to the straight up valliumed out degree of "The Signs", but no one is over the top.
Same general thing with Looper, where everyone gives very subtle performances. He paints his dystopian world and doesn't call it out, and lets you experience it (he doesn't have people whinging about global warming, he shows sugar cane being grown in Kansas; he doesn't talk about an energy crisis, he shows cars sitting out with jury-rigged solar panels but almost no one driving). I like the film but man you put that on at the end of the night, and everyone's going to be passed out before act II. (Same general thing with Brothers Bloom, but lets skip that as he was aping Wes Anderson; I'd say successfully, but there's usually enough comedy going on in that one to hold your attention)
His movies are also pretty bleak in Noir sort of way, where its not misery porn, but things don't turn out universally great for his protagonists, lots of the 'bittersweet' endings.
tl;dr RJ works best with bleakness and subtly.
This is not what you bring to space opera; you do not bring low key slow build subtly to space opera, you bring flash and everything is cranked to 11 - because if you made 10 be louder, the dial wouldn't go to 11, and it wouldn't be the same. You also can't make it bleak; Yes, you can have things take a bad turn for the heros, but when you do its massive and dramatic; huge defeats, not just grinding them down into ennui & pathos.
He didn't have enough space to play to his strengths with TLJ, and probably killed off all of JJ's villains because they were too over the top to work with the way he wanted to tell his story. Phasma got dropped down a shaft because he didn't know how to tell her story; Snoke got axed with zero payoff because whatever JJ planned RJ couldn't work into his methodical space noir.
He might have done better had he made the first movie in the trilogy, and its possible if he makes his own trilogy, it might be ok; but it won't be Star Wars.
He was also obviously not a Star Wars fan, with no appreciation or respect for what he was being given.
I think he's a climber. He's moved steady up in the world as far as scale, scope, and budget for his movies, and Star Wars (big budget working for the mouse) was to be the top. So he wanted to make his mark on starwars (and he did, just not what he was thinking), as his resume & mark on the world, so that's probably why he's such a fucking jackass when talking to/about "haters";when you shit on starwars you aren't just saying he made a bad movie, you are shitting on his legacy and his climb to the top.
He's got to know the movie was utter garbage deep down, but he can't show it and is hoping no one else important notices either. If people at the top are actually watching and listening, this means being cast off the mountain to languish back at B or C tier.
tl;dr
TLJ is further proof the same person who writes Star Wars should never be the person who directs it.
I haven't seen his other work, but just judging from TLJ, I wouldn't say subtlety is a strongsuit of his. He talked a big game about how "we needed to have this discussion for Star Wars to grow" and wanting to do something new and different, but his movie is just a blatant mashup of Empire and Return. He's no better than JJ in that regard; at least JJ had his insufferable mystery boxes.
Really informative post about his other movies, though. Good stuff.
I still don't know what the fuck they were thinking having him direct Star Wars. The only thing I've got, other than him having some sort of leverage over a disney exec, was since they're doing a shitty aping of the OT they wanted to make the 2nd film a downer movie, so they found a guy who makes sort of bleak films and put him in charge.
The rumor mill leading up to the big September 2018 announcement suggested that Kennedy simply liked working with Rian, which could mean several things: a) he made her feel comfortable during the interview & throughout production; b) he did everything she asked for in the film, including flying Leia if I'm not mistaken; or c) Kennedy casting-couched him because he likes feet.
Apparently Disney has forced FanX to cancel a Star Wars panel with Ian McDiarmid and Hayden Christensen. The reason: they want to avoid any leaks regarding Episode IX.
I suppose of the two actors' contract allow for this, Disney certainly has the right to minimize the likelihood of leaks (though I can't help thinking about Lego's pestering Null for the Lego images posted here).
However, it still reeks of distrust. These aren't new actors that lack the maturity and experience to keep from blabbing stuff they shouldn't. Both actors mentioned have been around long enough to handle probing questions the right way with something along the lines of, "As much as you want to know, we can't comment on any of that. Sorry folks," as appropriate. And I'm sure there would be other aspects of SW they could discuss or share that would please the fans, especially since a good number of them are the die-hard spergs that would gush over anything SW-related they'd discuss with the audience.
I suppose of the two actors' contract allow for this, Disney certainly has the right to minimize the likelihood of leaks (though I can't help thinking about Lego's pestering Null for the Lego images posted here).
I might be too lazy to actually get into this, but are actor's contracts really so ironclad absurd? I understand that there must be some restrictions on them like them not receiving full compensation if any of them should decide to bad mouth the company employing in public, but this is absurd. How the hell can these people so slavish to such absurd conditions.
Apparently Disney has forced FanX to cancel a Star Wars panel with Ian McDiarmid and Hayden Christensen. The reason: they want to avoid any leaks regarding Episode IX.
Just saw that. This feels so stupid. Then again this might be related to Anthony Daniels accidentally confirming some leaks about 3PO.
Still I wonder if this means that Hayden will be in the movie... Could those old rumors about Anakin's dark and light halves appearing in the movie as separate spirits be true? Honestly, the lengths they'll go to for these member berries is astounding.
You mean the concepts and rough script/outline that George made for VII? I think I talked about that in length and posted all of the unused concept art and ideas from the film like 200 pages ago. Anyone remember what page that was?
www.google.com
youtu.be
comicbook.com
