Star Wars Episode VII - Atoning for the Prequels

[YJ02]

If fans had a say, episode VII would be based on the EU, I am glad it is not.

the EU had some interesting aspects, but it got way too wonky and way too out of synch with what had been going on in the films and CLONE WARS and the canon novels/comics

 

[YJ02]

Can't call it a reboot because it is a sequel and the plot may generally follow the lines of IV but is different in many ways. And it is an atonement for the horrific prequels first because it did right pretty much everything the prequels did wrong and second it pretty pointedly did not mention or refer to the prequels in any way whatsoever.

I often think that the pre-quels were made the way they were for the expressed purpose of expanding the fan base.

a love interest story for the girls and young women; a "cartoonish" feel and low brow "comedy" (like the Gungan chieftain shaking his head and throwing slober all over) to get the kids interested (read: "Mommy I want that SW's toy!")

I also believe that Lucas did this fully aware that it would piss off core fans and that he may have lost some, but that the financial pay off (I mean just look at the profit numbers in the graph OM put up) and the expanison of the fan base would more then make up for the geeky co-splay fans in the crowd

Never forget, when ep 4 came out, 20th century fox (thinking the film would be a bomb) let Lucas keep the residuals (is that the right term?)-that is, he got the money from after movie sales of knick-knacks,paddy whacks, darth vader masks, action figures and Princess Leia artificial hair buns.

I am sure he was motivated by this need to re-invigorate the toy, masks, coffee mug and co-splay costume market by making a whole new slew of characters endearing to the fans wallets.

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any "necessary" backstory could have been better told in one film-the corruption of Anakin and the creation of the Clone Army was the only thing I found interesting in these movies

 

[Joelist]

I often think that the pre-quels were made the way they were for the expressed purpose of expanding the fan base.

a love interest story for the girls and young women; a "cartoonish" feel and low brow "comedy" (like the Gungan chieftain shaking his head and throwing slober all over) to get the kids interested (read: "Mommy I want that SW's toy!")

I also believe that Lucas did this fully aware that it would piss off core fans and that he may have lost some, but that the financial pay off (I mean just look at the profit numbers in the graph OM put up) and the expanison of the fan base would more then make up for the geeky co-splay fans in the crowd

Never forget, when ep 4 came out, 20th century fox (thinking the film would be a bomb) let Lucas keep the residuals (is that the right term?)-that is, he got the money from after movie sales of knick-knacks,paddy whacks, darth vader masks, action figures and Princess Leia artificial hair buns.

I am sure he was motivated by this need to re-invigorate the toy, masks, coffee mug and co-splay costume market by making a whole new slew of characters endearing to the fans wallets.

----------------------
any "necessary" backstory could have been better told in one film-the corruption of Anakin and the creation of the Clone Army was the only thing I found interesting in these movies

That may have been Lucas objective. Interestingly, it really was the writing (and action choreography) which ruined them so badly. The SFX were fine for the era (albeit way overused).

The writing however was just loopy, and actually did to Star Wars what JJ did to Star Trek - it made major changes to the Star Wars backstory that were outright illogical and indeed made the prequels incompatible with the Original Trilogy without a fair bit of retconning. I could do a whole thread on the problems, which caused Lucas to offend the whole fanbase when he retconned both The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi to try to make them fit (unsuccessfully).

Add in the flat acting (I do wonder how much of that was just bad acting and how much the actors being poorly directed) and fight choreography that just sucked all the emotional gravity out of the lightsaber duels and there is a reason these movies (despite initial boxoffixe) are not thought of well.

 

[Joelist]

Suggestion - we have two separate threads on Episode VII and both have a discussion running on Star Trek being Science Fiction versus Fantasy. Should we open a new thread explicitly on that topic and merge both discussions there?

 

[Overmind One]

Suggestion - we have two separate threads on Episode VII and both have a discussion running on Star Trek being Science Fiction versus Fantasy. Should we open a new thread explicitly on that topic and merge both discussions there?

Don't we already have one? If not, yeah please create one.