Re: Star Wars Episode VII

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They've somewhat backtracked on the aggressiveness of these so-called "stand alone" films from a timing standpont, and as to who would get a film, it's all rumor at this point--as is this piece of news today, I suppose.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

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I've got to think they'd want to see how Ep 7 does before branching off into side character tangents. That said, if there's any franchise that's pretty much a license to print money, it's Star Wars.
Just cut them up like regular chickens

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

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darkness wrote:I've got to think they'd want to see how Ep 7 does before branching off into side character tangents. That said, if there's any franchise that's pretty much a license to print money, it's Star Wars.
Yeah, it's not like they were going to shove a Yoda one-shot out in 2014 or anything.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

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You sure that's not the tagline for the new Die Hard film?

It's fan made. There are a bunch of them out there.
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Just cut them up like regular chickens

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

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I'm one of the few who hated the Star Trek reboot. Abrams' tweeny casting choices work in the context of 21st century network television and may also appeal to 10-year-old girls I guess, but no. There was also far too much in the way of action, lens flares and general noise. On the other hand, similar criticisms could be leveled at Lucas' Star Wars prequels so it can't get any worse I guess, and who knows, maybe Abrams will go in the opposite direction to confound expectation.

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

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I think you give JJ too much credit as far as going in any revolutionary direction but I disagree somewhat on Star Trek, we were all critical of initial casting and timely production design updates but he crafted a good entertainment out of the project with enough nods to the faithful to override cries of complete heresy. Given the job handed to him, he did a fine job. Again, a revolutionary job? Nah. But a fine job, sure. He's a guy who clearly grew up on and loves the geek genre shit but also has an almost but not quite postmodern take on what these things should/can be to make the wide audience happy and thus pump dollars into the old school studio system that is making him a very rich man. I will say that I hope he calms the fuck down from a visual/editing standpoint on this new Star Wars as the primary flaw in his "pump out the right product for the masses" style is the Michael Bay on meth presentation, it speaks to his failings as a filmmaker that his films are so overheated to watch. Star Wars' initial appeal was somewhat grounded in classic soundtrack and visual presentation, so I hope he takes that into account and scraps his blender tendencies on the cinematography front. Perhaps Super 8, where he attempted to ape Spielberg's classic era presentation, will serve as a guidepost. One can only hope.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

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It's a digestable enough watch-it-once-on-a-Saturday-night-and-then-forget-about-it CGI explosion fest - he did a decent enough job there from a commercial persective - but it isn't Star Trek, imho. Not that Star Trek is something to be put up on a pedestal, don't get me wrong, but it does (did) have a certain tone, a certain ethos - a guilty pleasure... Super 8 was an advance for sure, although not all it was hyped up to be - I find it lacks the soul, the memorable iconography and the timeless fun, of The Goonies, E.T., Gremlins, etc.

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

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klimov wrote:It's a digestable enough watch-it-once-on-a-Saturday-night-and-then-forget-about-it CGI explosion fest - he did a decent enough job there from a commercial persective - but it isn't Star Trek, imho. Not that Star Trek is something to be put up on a pedestal, don't get me wrong, but it does (did) have a certain tone, a certain ethos - a guilty pleasure... Super 8 was an advance for sure, although not all it was hyped up to be - I find it lacks the soul, the memorable iconography and the timeless fun, of The Goonies, E.T., Gremlins, etc.
I agree with everything you say here aside from "Super 8 was an advance," it was an aping exercise of the first water of the movies you mention but it actually confirmed what I suspected, which is that JJ knows how to get the right people together, work with actors, break a story well from a standard 3 act structure etc but he brought so absolutely nothing to the table aside from "yeah, I liked those movies as a kid too" that I stopped hoping for original entertainment from him and figured he would just do well with things like this. I agree that the new Star Trek is more straight up sci-fi actioner than pseudointellectual sci-fi moralizing with the occasional fistfight. But given the task at hand it was about as good as you could expect, perhaps a bit better. He does a fine job of throwing the ensemble together and giving each one a moment to shine, he probably digs deeper into the Kirk/Spock relationship than has ever been done before, the baddies are bad, the rewriting of the timeline works, plenty of nods to the original series, ultimately solid casting, there's a lot to respect considering how ungodly fucked the whole endeavor could have been.

I do hope Super 8's attempts to recreate Spielberg's late 70s/early 80s framing and editing have rubbed off and show themselves with his material going forward, because for all his competence JJ has done a lot of the "images thrown into a blender" shit that we've complained about here and elsewhere throughout his other films. To capture the Star Wars feel there does need to be a more restrained overall look, otherwise you throw the baby out with the bathwater.
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

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Kasdan on his spin-off film:
I’m trying to start fresh," he said. “There are certain pleasures that we think the saga can bring to people that they’ve been missing, and we’re hoping to bring them that, and at the same time, have them feel that it’s all new.
And a little dig at Lucas:
The ones I worked on were a long time ago, and they had a slightly different feeling than the ones that followed. The first three, Star Wars, Empire and Return of the Jedi are all sort of more about people than the ones that followed.
The full LA Times interview here.
Just cut them up like regular chickens