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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker **Spoilers from post 2076**

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Comments

  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 36,711 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    Inviere wrote: »
    Post #3 below sets the tone :D (I've edited out the non misery bits :P)

    Right, well let's agree to disagree 'cos I think one swallow doesn't make a summer here, and the thread's been fine otherwise :) Snarky, not scarcely the trough of despair you seem to think it is.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,000 ✭✭✭Theboinkmaster


    Total flop and a financial loss for Disney
    Inviere wrote: »
    What's a bad idea? We don't know anything though, and people are already writing off the film based on assumption,

    You sound like David75 :eek:

    I haven't seen anyone write off this film yet.

    However I do see people disagreeing with bringing Leia and Lando back and expressing doubt over the potentially quality of the story and execution of the film.

    Perfectly OK IMO, this is a discussion forum isn't it, for a film that's not out for 18 months :D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,755 ✭✭✭Inviere


    pixelburp wrote: »
    Snarky, not scarcely the trough of despair you seem to think it is.

    Perhaps not, yet. Though sure as the force being with a Skywalker, this thread will rival a Mos Eisley canteena before long...:o
    You sound like David75 :eek:

    Interesting, who is this David75 chap? He sounds like a nice person to have a reasoned debate with :D


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,680 CMod ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    I wasn't writing off the film, just the use of CGI Leia, which lets be clear is exactly what they are doing here. Yes, it may be more augmented CGI than full CGI like Tarkin, but it's still CGI. What annoys me is that they said Leia wouldn't be in the film but have now done a complete 180.

    As I've noted, though, there appears to be plenty of footage leftover from TFA that could be used to construct a decent performance with some CGI help, I just hope they don't go overboard with it and only use it at the end of the film where it will cause least distraction, but I'm very sceptical that's what they'll do.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,755 ✭✭✭Inviere


    I wasn't writing off the film, just the use of CGI Leia

    Ah, my bad, apologies then I misread your post.
    which lets be clear is exactly what they are doing here. Yes, it may be more augmented CGI than full CGI like Tarkin, but it's still CGI.

    Why though? Do you mean to digitally take Leia out of the physical surroundings of the unseen footage shots, and place her in a more fitting environment? Or do you mean they'll actually alter her appearance? The former is probably a given (and perfectly fine imo), but what evidence suggests the latter is probable? There'd be almost universal backlash for messing with the appearance of Fisher, I find it hard to believe they'll do it.
    As I've noted, though, there appears to be plenty of footage leftover from TFA that could be used to construct a decent performance with some CGI help, I just hope they don't go overboard with it and only use it at the end of the film where it will cause least distraction, but I'm very sceptical that's what they'll do.

    I reckon they'll do the smart thing, and construct a scene that plays to the strengths of whatever footage they have left, and it'll be short, meaningful, and sweet. I honestly can't see them going down any other path.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,000 ✭✭✭Theboinkmaster


    Total flop and a financial loss for Disney
    Inviere wrote: »
    I reckon they'll do the smart thing, and construct a scene that plays to the strengths of whatever footage they have left, and it'll be short, meaningful, and sweet. I honestly can't see them going down any other path.

    All recent evidence to the contrary :( I wouldn't have confidence that's what they'll do.

    Smarter thing would be to have her die in opening crawl and kick off film with touching funeral scene etc. Maybe opening shot being her coffin in space shooting out of a spaceship and then amazing sweeping shot with music through ship etc. You could do it in a really great way and then get on with the story.

    Remember the fan outrage and dismay when they announced Solo?! Look what happened...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,755 ✭✭✭Inviere


    The smarter way to do it is debatable, even from this thread there are folks who feel an opening crawl announcement would be jarring. Others, feel differently obviously. Personally, I'd prefer to see it in an opening crawl announcement, as opposed to having to deal with the difficulties of setting it up on screen. That said, does it have to be set up on screen? What I mean by that is, what's to say Leia has to die? How do we know the unseed speech they have of her, isn't someone very fitting for the end or near the end of the film, and the best tribute they feel for Leia/Fisher, is to have her remain alive, and therefore, forever alive in our hearts and minds?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,917 ✭✭✭nix


    Inviere wrote: »


    Interesting, who is this David75 chap? He sounds like a nice person to have a reasoned debate with :D

    Wouldnt get much of a debate, you could have Darth Vader reading the newspaper on a toilet seat for 2 hours and he would say its the best movie ever. :pac:

    But eh, i think hes banned now :(


    Oh and opening a star wars movie with a funeral wouldnt be the Disney thing to do :D


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,680 CMod ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    Inviere wrote: »
    Why though? Do you mean to digitally take Leia out of the physical surroundings of the unseen footage shots, and place her in a more fitting environment? Or do you mean they'll actually alter her appearance? The former is probably a given (and perfectly fine imo), but what evidence suggests the latter is probable? There'd be almost universal backlash for messing with the appearance of Fisher, I find it hard to believe they'll do it.

    They'll have to alter her appearance otherwise she'll be wearing the exact same outfit and hairstyle as TFA and it will be obvious as hell that they are just using deleted scenes. They'll also be integrating her footage into new scenes featuring the main characters and that may require CGI to change her mouth movements, etc. Even if they cut around that, there's still going to be a lot of CGI involved and the audience will be watching for it.

    I'll remind everyone of what the last attempt to CGI augment an actor looked like:

    cavill_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqVkR74_kydjgeTPIib1rsJ6x30VG81Iu4g0V5oSrMhqQ.jpg?imwidth=450


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,305 ✭✭✭✭branie2


    Runaway hit highest gross beating The force Awakens
    Lando's back!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,542 ✭✭✭✭Tony EH


    Kiith wrote: »
    I just don't think it would be a fitting end to one of the main characters in the story.


    Han and Luke didn't exactly go out well either. :pac:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,542 ✭✭✭✭Tony EH


    pixelburp wrote: »
    The Lando I knew was a cameo character with a penchant for capes & a bald robot slave. Let's not get carried away because Billy Dee Williams is a charismatic actor. You could fit Lando's biography on a postage stamp.

    Oh wait, sorry it's Star Wars. Go ahead, get carried away.

    Unless you were being sarcastic, in which case, well done :)


    Yeh. Never, ever understood Lando's popularity. But, mmmm, Star Wars does have form in turning nobodies into beloved characters.


    BTW...[nerd] Lobot chose to be permanently connected to cloud city's main computer for "administrative" reasons.[/nerd] :D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,542 ✭✭✭✭Tony EH


    If the alternative is some crap scene leftover from TFA and some CGI I'd say having her die off screen is a lesser evil.

    What's, more than likely, going to happen will be a composite CGI effort. There can't be enough appropriate cuts from the last two films to put together a convincing set of scenes for Leia in IX.

    Unless, of course, she's on screen for ten minutes and blown away.

    Either way, it'll be interesting to see how they do it. Probably the most interesting aspect of the film. But, I think an opening crawl saying "GENERAL LEIA is dead and the newly restored Resistance is in mourning..." would have been the best approach.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,816 ✭✭✭Relikk




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,952 ✭✭✭Conall Cernach


    Tony EH wrote: »
    What's, more than likely, going to happen will be a composite CGI effort. There can't be enough appropriate cuts from the last two films to put together a convincing set of scenes for Leia in IX.

    Unless, of course, she's on screen for ten minutes and blown away.


    Either way, it'll be interesting to see how they do it. Probably the most interesting aspect of the film. But, I think an opening crawl saying "GENERAL LEIA is dead and the newly restored Resistance is in mourning..." would have been the best approach.
    She was hardly onscreen for 10 minutes in the previous 2 anyway.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,755 ✭✭✭Inviere


    Could she appear in a series of force visions of the past, which would negate her hair and attire being the same as VII?


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    Inviere wrote: »
    Could she appear in a series of force visions of the past, which would negate her hair and attire being the same as VII?


    Or a hologram.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,844 ✭✭✭py2006


    Some set pics:

    NINTCHDBPICT000428198889.jpg?strip=all&w=721


    I love this one:

    NINTCHDBPICT000428198818.jpg?strip=all&w=960


    NINTCHDBPICT000428198728.jpg?strip=all&w=932


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,297 ✭✭✭✭AMKC
    Ms


    Runaway hit highest gross beating The force Awakens
    py2006 wrote: »
    Some set pics:

    NINTCHDBPICT000428198889.jpg?strip=all&w=721


    I love this one:

    NINTCHDBPICT000428198818.jpg?strip=all&w=960


    NINTCHDBPICT000428198728.jpg?strip=all&w=932

    Where about are they? Ireland or maybe England during the recent hot spell was it?

    Live long and Prosper

    Peace and long life.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 33,987 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    Don't think there was any filming in Ireland this time around (well not so far).


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,000 ✭✭✭Mr Crispy


    They're just outside London, according to the Google machine.


  • Registered Users Posts: 626 ✭✭✭Wedwood


    They've barely started filming the episode 9 and already articles are appearing online, critical of the movie.

    A year and a half of this, it'll be the most hated movie nobody has ever seen.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 408 ✭✭Defunkd


    There's what, 12 members of the Resistance left? And they're going to defeat the Empire, led by Force-Incarnate Rey and the millenium fcuking falcon.

    Even if JJ and screen writer were to draft an original script, it would take some serious plot armour/deus ex-m to straighten out this installment.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,701 ✭✭✭Bacchus


    Defunkd wrote: »
    There's what, 12 members of the Resistance left? And they're going to defeat the Empire, led by Force-Incarnate Rey and the millenium fcuking falcon.

    Even if JJ and screen writer were to draft an original script, it would take some serious plot armour/deus ex-m to straighten out this installment.

    I can't remember exactly but I seem to remember them mentioning that they couldn't get word to their allies to support/rescue them, or that they wouldn't respond to the call anyway. I'm guessing this band of allies will be roused into action in IX as a result of Luke's actions (as was alluded to by Luke himself I think in VIII).


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,542 ✭✭✭✭Tony EH


    Defunkd wrote: »
    There's what, 12 members of the Resistance left? And they're going to defeat the Empire, led by Force-Incarnate Rey and the millenium fcuking falcon.


    Looks like they're going to go to planet Beneton and recruit a load of check boxes, then win...somehow.


    sei_26460697-d64e.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&zoom=1&resize=540%2C460


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 36,711 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    Oh FFS don't start that.

    Anyway; latest casting news is that former Dr. (Who) Matt Smith has bagged an as-yet undisclosed role. Hopefully something more substantial than the 5 seconds of him seen in Terminator: Genisys.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 523 ✭✭✭Sal Butamol


    Will be interesting to see how they try (and fail) to save this cluster**** of a trilogy.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,542 ✭✭✭✭Tony EH


    pixelburp wrote: »
    Oh FFS don't start that.


    :pac:


    I jest... :P


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,680 CMod ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    Tony EH wrote: »
    Looks like they're going to go to planet Beneton and recruit a load of check boxes, then win...somehow.

    What's that a reference to?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,542 ✭✭✭✭Tony EH


    Will be interesting to see how they try (and fail) to save this cluster**** of a trilogy.

    It'll be a minor miracle if JJ can abandon his form and actually pull together a decent conclusion. Although, where Johnson has left the story has put him in a really difficult situation. Writing a convincing scenario whereby the Resistance get out of the shit they're in now and somehow winning the day is one hell of a job. It wouldn't be a task to envy

    Although, I think Disney's bigger problem is where they go after this thing is done with. Solo's belly flop has soured the "A Star Wars Story..." brand, so they're tentative about that area, hence the regrouping effort.

    I think this trilogy will just limp on to its death and Disney will look to move away as fast as possible to newer Star Wars ground, as it were. In years to come, I don't think people will be too kind to it, once they actually analyse its content, or lack thereof.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,542 ✭✭✭✭Tony EH


    What's that a reference to?


    The United colours of Benetton?


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 36,711 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    Tony EH wrote: »
    It'll be a minor miracle if JJ can abandon his form and actually pull together a decent conclusion. Although, where Johnson has left the story has put him in a really difficult situation. Writing a convincing scenario whereby the Resistance get out of the shit they're in now and somehow winning the day is one hell of a job. It wouldn't be a task to envy

    I don't think it's that irredeemable a scenario TBH; the end of Last Jedi kinda implied there was a nascent rebirth of the rebellion coming, and a script could easily tell of scattered attacks or resistance against the First Order merging into a new rebellion, headed by the Rea, Finn & pals.

    Hell, the fact the Episode VII script simply shrugged its shoulders and went "the empire v. rebels fight is on again. Whoops, we blew up the New Republic" doesn't exactly speak to a broader narrative dignity that the writers will try too hard to renew the rebellion.

    And if anything, Abrams has fewer spinning plates and mysteries to deal with than the number Johnson had thrown in his lap. It's not like most around here haven't made their feelings clear on Episode VIII, but I challenge anyone to write a satisfying 2nd part with as many trailing strands as Abrams left for his successor.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,542 ✭✭✭✭Tony EH


    pixelburp wrote: »
    I don't think it's that irredeemable a scenario TBH; the end of Last Jedi kinda implied there was a nascent rebirth of the rebellion coming, and a script could easily tell of scattered attacks or resistance against the First Order merging into a new rebellion, headed by the Rea, Finn & pals.

    Aye, but it also made clear that nobody was interested in coming to their aid too, which makes it a more difficult task. I really don't know why Johnson decided to put that in there?

    Looking at that pic I posted, it suggests that "Rey, Finn & pals" are off to some backwater kip to hire whomever they can, probably because every other planet has decided (remarkably) to just not bother doing anything about the First Order. That doesn't really convince TBH. Of course, it's just first impressions and considering just how wrong I was about 'The Last Jedi' before I actually saw it, first impressions can be useless.
    pixelburp wrote: »
    Hell, the fact the Episode VII script simply shrugged its shoulders and went "the empire v. rebels fight is on again. Whoops, we blew up the New Republic" doesn't exactly speak to a broader narrative dignity that the writers will try to hard to renew the rebellion.

    Couldn't agree more. But they've been, rightly, roasted over that shtick.
    pixelburp wrote: »
    And if anything, Abrams has fewer spinning plates and mysteries to deal with than the number Johnson had thrown in his lap. It's not like most around here haven't made their feelings clear on Episode VIII, but I challenge anyone to write a satisfying 2nd part with as many trailing strands as Abrams left for his successor.

    Sure, JJ left a lot of mystery boxes (TM) for Rian to deal with. But, unfortunately, Rian just threw them over his shoulder.

    I think, however, that the sequels were just doomed from the beginning. Too afraid to go with its own story, too many useless characters (Finn is practically redundant now) and just lacking imagination in every department. As I said above, it'll limp on to its end and, probably, won't be looked upon with much fondness in the future, once the trilogy concludes and people can view it as a whole.

    Personally, I think a lot of its defenders are holding onto the idea that once it's complete, it'll all come together. I can't say that I would be partial to that opinion myself.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,026 ✭✭✭homerun_homer


    Total flop and a financial loss for Disney
    If we are to believe this ends with IX and doesn't splinter out to a X, then one of the only ways I can imagine this film salvaging what's been set up by TLJ in the space of one film is if it's about the confrontation with Rey & Kylo, and whether there is redemption there or not for him as a Skywalker. Hopefully it's not all about redemption as they need something new with that part of the story.

    They can't have a resurgence of rebels out of nowhere in the span of one film that defeats the First Order, so perhaps a defeat of Kylo will be the wrap of the story. And while the film may end there, there is still a war ongoing that can lead to a new batch of films about what will happen from there.

    If JJ can finish this trilogy well then it will put paid to all the grief he gets for setting stories up and then abandoning them.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 29,717 CMod ✭✭✭✭johnny_ultimate


    One of the major, consistent focuses of TLJ was to drag the Resistance fighters down to their lowest ebb, but to also leave them in a place of hope that they can fight back and inspire others. The last images of the film show this in no uncertain terms, and it’s something repeatedly referenced in the dialogue as well. Of the narrative and practical challenges facing Abrams, I’d suggest it’s among the easiest to deal with... it naturally and logically flows from the end of the last film. If it seems the heroes are facing overwhelming odds... well, that’s not exactly new territory for either SW or basic storytelling in general :)
    Tony EH wrote: »
    Personally, I think a lot of its defenders are holding onto the idea that once it's complete, it'll all come together. I can't say that I would be partial to that opinion myself.

    As an adamant defender of TLJ, my view is that it all *has* come together in ways that I found immensely rewarding and satisfying, and in ways TFA did not lead me to expect. My relatively muted expectations for IX would instead be based on Abrams not having displayed the capacity in the past to follow-up the sort of rich, thoughtful storytelling Johnson introduced. I’m sure Abrams can still offer up a satisfying piece of entertainment - certainly more likely to do so than Trevverow was - and I look forward to seeing what he has to offer. But to me TLJ was the sort of (mostly) complete storytelling (at least in most of the important ways) one doesn’t expect from a middle chapter... and that’s a hard act to follow (although I wouldn’t have it any other way).


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,680 CMod ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    I don't see any major challenge for JJ in this film. It's pretty straight-forward what he has to do. Johnson did all the hard work, dealing with and taking the flak for the useless mystery boxes that JJ introduced and never intended to open, and wrapped up the character that JJ didn't know how to write and mostly left out of TFA. Stuff like "but all the Resistance are dead" is extremely minor to the story problems that TFA (or even TESB) created for their sequels. Johnson may not have left fans anything to chew on for 2 years, but he set up the third film nicely, mainly by staying out of its bloody way. Giving it the freedom to jump forward in time as much as it wants in order to tell the story it wants to tell and without having to deal with mystery boxes that nobody has an answer to. So if JJ screws this film up, it's all on him.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 523 ✭✭✭Sal Butamol


    That's a remarkable shifting of the blame. Remarkable.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 36,711 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    JJ Abrams wrote into the Episode VII script a sh*t tonne of mystery boxes and trailing plot strings; Knights of Ren, Rey's lineage, Luke's lightsabre, on and on. No writer could have been reasonably expected to take all those winks & nods and spin gold. I know Rian Johnson is now some kind of cinematic antichrist, but he was given a huge amount of question marks to deal with. We may not have liked the answers he came up with - but they are still answers to a needless number of mysteries.

    And this is scarcely the first time JJ Abrams could be accused of this behaviour in his storytelling, so it's not shifting anything really.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,815 ✭✭✭SimonTemplar


    If JJ had been hired as one of the writers of the entire trilogy from the offset, I wonder how different TFA would have been. I wonder if it would have contained as many mysteries.


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  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 36,711 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    If JJ had been hired as one of the writers of the entire trilogy from the offset, I wonder how different TFA would have been. I wonder if it would have contained as many mysteries.

    It's a debatable point, but looking at the precedent of Abrams' TV work, there's no evidence the man knows / cares about sticking the landing. Lost and Fringe just made stuff up as it went along, and while the former rambled into its own mythology, the latter just about scrapped past the multitude of spinning plates (and fans like myself would point to stuff like "The Pattern" for examples of Forgotten Mystery Boxes). It's a long time since I saw Alias, but IIRC it too suffered the same of a bunch of mysteries with limp payoffs. His film work is peppered with the same tropes of Boxes left unloved (see 'the Rabbits Footer' of MI:3)

    To be fair, he writes killer hooks and understands the exciting attraction they can present - and in the case of MI:3 the Mystery Box wasn't that important - but he just doesn't seem to have the capacity to follow through.

    What I do like about his writing though is that more often than not he trades on the power of his characters' emotions and charisma. He writers impactful, emotional creatures without (too often) diving headlong into schlock or excessive melodrama.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,915 ✭✭✭cursai


    I find it remarkable that people are still defending TLJ. Although the defence is mostly waffle with a sprinkle of nostalgic deathgripping.
    It doesn't bode well for the next film if paying punters standards are this low.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,542 ✭✭✭✭Tony EH


    One of the major, consistent focuses of TLJ was to drag the Resistance fighters down to their lowest ebb, but to also leave them in a place of hope that they can fight back and inspire others. The last images of the film show this in no uncertain terms, and it’s something repeatedly referenced in the dialogue as well. Of the narrative and practical challenges facing Abrams, I’d suggest it’s among the easiest to deal with... it naturally and logically flows from the end of the last film. If it seems the heroes are facing overwhelming odds... well, that’s not exactly new territory for either SW or basic storytelling in general :)

    No. But, in this case is utterly ridiculous. There's 12 people left vs the thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of the New Order. At the very least, there needs to be years and years of rebuilding, all the while Kylo Ren and his lot get stronger.

    As I said, writing something convincing for a good guys win there isn't going to be easy.

    Perhaps the New Republic conveniently see the error of their ways in between VIII and IX and call up Leia to apologise? Maybe the people in the pic I posted on the last page are the remainders of Luke's Jedi school and they're all shit hot like Rey -> instant win.

    All of this is shooting the breeze, of course. But, frankly, it's about the only interest I have in IX now.
    As an adamant defender of TLJ, my view is that it all *has* come together in ways that I found immensely rewarding and satisfying, and in ways TFA did not lead me to expect.

    Well, I spose all I can say there is good for you. :D


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,680 CMod ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    pixelburp wrote: »
    JJ Abrams wrote into the Episode VII script a sh*t tonne of mystery boxes and trailing plot strings; Knights of Ren, Rey's lineage, Luke's lightsabre, on and on. No writer could have been reasonably expected to take all those winks & nods and spin gold. I know Rian Johnson is now some kind of cinematic antichrist, but he was given a huge amount of question marks to deal with. We may not have liked the answers he came up with - but they are still answers to a needless number of mysteries.

    And this is scarcely the first time JJ Abrams could be accused of this behaviour in his storytelling, so it's not shifting anything really.

    What Johnson could have done is simply left all the mystery boxes unopened, maybe even adding some of his own, and leaving the reveals until the third film with predictably unsatisfying results given that JJ never had an answer for these things. This is what distinguishes mystery boxes from puzzle boxes. Puzzle boxes (e.g. Westworld) are meant to be solved, usually sooner rather than later and in a dramatic fashion. Mystery boxes (e.g. Lost) aren't meant to be solved. In fact, the whole idea of the mystery box is to prolong the mystery as long as possible and hope that the audience is so engaged by the story that they forget about the mystery or don't care that the answer is unsatisfying.

    Johnson just treated the mystery boxes for what they really were: unresolved plot threads that weren't worth prolonging. He was also a good enough writer to be able to plot his film without making more of them. He spoke to JJ and Kasdan, had looked behind the curtain, and knew there was nothing more to characters like Snoke than what you saw on-screen. He wasn't interested in expanding the mystery or making big reveals out of stuff that wasn't important to the story. In this sense Johnson did kinda break JJ's mystery boxes, but for the better of the trilogy as a whole even if it meant upsetting a bunch of online theorists who were more interested in TFA's mystery boxes than they were in its story.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,917 ✭✭✭nix


    What Disney should have done, was have someone write the story for the entire trilogy, instead of just having people jumping in and making it up as they go along, its a ****ing mess.

    I'm baffled as to why they would even do it this way, its like the most expensive game of "Once upon a time", why would they do it this way? :confused:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,815 ✭✭✭SimonTemplar


    I still think the worst decision of this trilogy what not locking in the same writer/director for the three movies. One of the problems I have with TLJ is that it just doesn't feel like a continuation of TFA.

    TLJ could have been a fantastic stand alone film, but ultimately, it needs to fit within a trilogy.

    And I'm sure if they knew back when this trilogy was being planned that JJ would direct both the first and last films, he'd definitely end up at least writing the second one too.


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  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,680 CMod ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    nix wrote: »
    What Disney should have done, was have someone write the story for the entire trilogy, instead of just having people jumping in and making it up as they go along, its a ****ing mess.

    I'm baffled as to why they would even do it this way, its like the most expensive game of "Once upon a time", why would they do it this way? :confused:

    They did. Arndt was hired for exactly that purpose. It didn't work out. JJ and Kasdan had to start almost from scratch. They barely came up with a story for one film and were still re-writing and reshooting as they went. Disney weren't going to delay for several years while they planned the rest of the trilogy.

    Check out Chris McQuarrie's interview on the Empire podcast where he talks about making up the story to Fallout as he went along. He addresses this question of "well, why didn't you start with a finished script". He says that's just not how Hollywood works, that blockbuster filmmaking is total chaos.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 408 ✭✭Defunkd


    If JJ can finish this trilogy well then it will put paid to all the grief he gets for setting stories up and then abandoning them.

    He's jew a significant bonus from directing this one, as per TFA, which netted him an extra $24 or $40 million. You can be sure he'll put in effort. Who wouldn't?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,035 ✭✭✭✭J Mysterio


    Runaway hit highest gross beating The force Awakens
    Ultimately - for me - the most disturbing aspect of the new trilogies has been their lack of direction. This 'making it up as they went along' business is very annoying and has resulted in this, well, mess.

    For the life of me I can't understand why they didn't plot the three films, or actually just write the three films, before filming.

    Why did they initially want three different directors? What is the benefit of that? I can only see negatives insofar as they will have different ideas, goals, style, technique and this will result in a different feel, tone, result.

    I would have liked to have seen Lucas vision borne out. It would have been best if himself and kasdan could have been out together to work on the plot and then had that be reviewed and worked on with whatever director. This was always supposed to be the story of the Skywalker family in three trilogies, covering three generations. That has been totally obscured.

    I'm still annoyed about what they did with Luke. What a fuçking waste. I was looking forward to some cool Jedi ****, from the master Jedi(!) and what do I get? 'The Jedi are wrong'. FFS. The Jedi was always what was coolest about Star Wars - lightsaber, robes, mind tricks, force push(ing), wisdom.

    Disaster.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,815 ✭✭✭SimonTemplar


    The fact that they can't even plan a trilogy correctly shows what an even greater feat the MCU has been. Say what you want about it, at least they have been consistent with their world building and Infinity Wars feels like a natural conclusion to the last 10 years of story telling.

    In contrast, TLJ often does not feel like a sequel to TFA but instead one of those "A Star Wars Story" movies.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 523 ✭✭✭Sal Butamol


    I can't believe how badly they fcuked the whole story up. It's unforgivable.

    Kennedy should be fired immediately. Johnson should have his trilogy cancelled.

    Hidalgo fired

    It's a cluster****.


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