On 9/7/2017 at 10:30 AM, Kieransi said:

I'm fully expecting Disney to completely redo episodes I-III. After what they've done to Marvel, don't be surprised if we get a new movie every year (and if the movies start seeming kinda cookie cutter). It's hard to keep up that level of output, and they end up doing stuff like a Guardians of the Galaxy sequel that nobody wanted and three different Spider Man series in a couple decades. I also won't be surprised if they redo the prequels but don't make them any better, and just end up having large Death Stars explode at the end of each prequel movie as well. But if Hayden Christensen becomes no longer canon, I'll still be all in. It'll be sad to lose young Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon from the canon though, because those two actors made the prequels almost watchable.

Liam Neeson did almost nothing for Episode 1. He wasn't very good. The prequels were just bad as a whole. Episode III was tolerable simply because half the movie was light saber battles, which was awesome. Episode II; Padme and Anakin hang out and talk. Snooze alert! Those trade federation vice-roy people were infuriating. I would love it if they redid Episodes 1-3. Star Wars didn't need all that slapsticky comic relief. I really enjoyed Episode VII even if it was a mirror image of Episode IV.

On 9/7/2017 at 3:30 PM, GrimmyV said:

So how about giving the 'new' stand alone prequels Episode Numbers replacing George's prequels?

ep 1: Obi wan movie

ep 2: Han Solo movie

ep 3: Rogue One

and move the old prequels to a separate series about the origins of the Villians, with Ep 4 being the Boba Fett movie and hopefully getting a Thrawn movie and maybe Snoke movie about his rise to power and origins of the Knights of Ren.

thoughts?

What are these 'George's prequels' you are talking about?

1 hour ago, Hannes Solo said:

What are these 'George's prequels' you are talking about?

I vaguely remember a few movies about 15 years ago about gundams or spinning being a good trick.

On ‎10‎/‎25‎/‎2017 at 11:25 AM, Hannes Solo said:

What are these 'George's prequels' you are talking about?

Ok, so a couple Jedi go to negotiate with some jiangshi and their army of stick-figures, who have blockaded the planet of Naboombu because they want the secret to Substitutiary Locomotion. The negotiations fail, and the Jedi go down to Naboombu where the meet a frog. The frog is so irritating that the queen orders him to leave the planet, but in speaking to him, the queen has dishonored herself and the people demand that she accompany the frog as punishment.

The group eventually lands on a giant beach and meets a kid who programs robots with over 6,000,000 languages. However, everyone is too busy relaxing on the beach to bother taking foreign language courses, so the kid has to fall back on losing in races to pay the bills. Everyone agrees that this is a sound economic policy, and they all bet on the kid to win the race as part of a complex, multi-layered scam. Unfortunately, the kid accidentally wins the race for real, and the scam falls apart. After that, they're forced to take the kid with them when they find out he's been over-chlorinated. Then a clown in excessive face-paint shows up and starts making balloon animals, causing everyone to flee the planet in terror.

Later, the group lands at the capital and the party splits up. The queen takes the frog and goes to meet with Senator Notanevilguy. He explains to her that, as a proud member of the Notanevilguy family, she can totally trust him and should do whatever he says to help him gain absolute power. This makes sense to her, so she agrees. Meanwhile, the Jedi take the boy to get dechlorinated. The boy points out that the Light Side of the Force is overwhelmingly strong right now, and should really be more balanced with the Dark Side, and that he can help with that if they'll only train him. This makes sense to the Jedi, so they agree.

(Basically, the whole sequence is vitally important in establishing that, from top to bottom, the galaxy is ruled by incompetent imbeciles.)

Then everybody heads back to Naboombu to tell the jiangshi to go hop somewhere else, and to hurl erasers at their stick figure army. A bunch of frogs refuse to help out because they hate the queen and her people, but immediately change their mind when they realized the queen tricked them with a body-double. As the battle begins, the clown returns, and the boy runs away to space to spin a bunch rather than being subjected to that horror. After one of the jedi figures out how hallways work, he cuts the clown in half, ending his threat forever until a cartoon reveals that he's not quite dead yet.

The other jedi decides he didn't want to be in the sequels, so he gets burned up while the chief frog is awarded a piece of the Triforce, which is round for some reason. After he declares martial law, the credits roll and the player is invited to start a new game.

There were a couple other movies, too, but that should be enough to at least give you an idea of the backstory.

On 10/30/2017 at 7:32 PM, JJ48 said:

Ok, so a couple Jedi go to negotiate with some jiangshi and their army of stick-figures, who have blockaded the planet of Naboombu because they want the secret to Substitutiary Locomotion. The negotiations fail, and the Jedi go down to Naboombu where the meet a frog. The frog is so irritating that the queen orders him to leave the planet, but in speaking to him, the queen has dishonored herself and the people demand that she accompany the frog as punishment.

The group eventually lands on a giant beach and meets a kid who programs robots with over 6,000,000 languages. However, everyone is too busy relaxing on the beach to bother taking foreign language courses, so the kid has to fall back on losing in races to pay the bills. Everyone agrees that this is a sound economic policy, and they all bet on the kid to win the race as part of a complex, multi-layered scam. Unfortunately, the kid accidentally wins the race for real, and the scam falls apart. After that, they're forced to take the kid with them when they find out he's been over-chlorinated. Then a clown in excessive face-paint shows up and starts making balloon animals, causing everyone to flee the planet in terror.

Later, the group lands at the capital and the party splits up. The queen takes the frog and goes to meet with Senator Notanevilguy. He explains to her that, as a proud member of the Notanevilguy family, she can totally trust him and should do whatever he says to help him gain absolute power. This makes sense to her, so she agrees. Meanwhile, the Jedi take the boy to get dechlorinated. The boy points out that the Light Side of the Force is overwhelmingly strong right now, and should really be more balanced with the Dark Side, and that he can help with that if they'll only train him. This makes sense to the Jedi, so they agree.

(Basically, the whole sequence is vitally important in establishing that, from top to bottom, the galaxy is ruled by incompetent imbeciles.)

Then everybody heads back to Naboombu to tell the jiangshi to go hop somewhere else, and to hurl erasers at their stick figure army. A bunch of frogs refuse to help out because they hate the queen and her people, but immediately change their mind when they realized the queen tricked them with a body-double. As the battle begins, the clown returns, and the boy runs away to space to spin a bunch rather than being subjected to that horror. After one of the jedi figures out how hallways work, he cuts the clown in half, ending his threat forever until a cartoon reveals that he's not quite dead yet.

The other jedi decides he didn't want to be in the sequels, so he gets burned up while the chief frog is awarded a piece of the Triforce, which is round for some reason. After he declares martial law, the credits roll and the player is invited to start a new game.

There were a couple other movies, too, but that should be enough to at least give you an idea of the backstory.

Oh now I vaguely remember seeing that film. It is this one right? Still do not see how it should be connect to star wars?

On 10/30/2017 at 2:32 PM, JJ48 said:

The group eventually lands on a giant beach and meets a kid who programs robots with over 6,000,000 languages.

6 million forms of communication . Say it right or don't say it at all.

On 9/12/2017 at 10:15 AM, Magnus Grendel said:

Part of the problem is how you tell the story. After all, one important thing to note is that episodes IV and V are kind of Han's redemption story - at the start of IV he is really not a good person - he's a drug smuggler and casual murderer . Lando is at least trying to do something legitimate with his life when Executor parks up in orbit, at which point what the **** is he supposed to do?.

the question, then, is what similar things do you want to 'flesh out' on the criminal/western Han Solo side of the story. By all means tell the story of saving chewie or winning the falcon or both as side threads, but make story something that stands on its own merit. Equivalent plot points in Episode IV that could probably do with fleshing out that might make a nice standalone story:

• We don't know how Han ends up working for Jabba in the first place. Yes, Han is "jabba's best" but the big slug actually seems sort of paternal (which is surprising given his behaviour in Episode VI and Clone Wars to.....basically everyone else)
• Why Han is convinced - even for a moment - by Lando's "you've got a nerve coming here" act.
• Why has Greedo 'Been looking forward to this for a long time?'

This is where I really see the problem with this movie. I'm reserving judgement until I've seen it but the execution will be difficult. It will need to be a stand alone movie with it's own narrative and a protagonist we can relate to; so how do we relate to Han being a spice smuggler working for the worst known gangster in the galaxy who swindles his friends and is ALSO a character we relate to? The dangers I see are in severely diluting what makes the character interesting and complex for the sake of pumping out a Han movie because... Han sells.

There's the potential for some very clever story telling here but also the potential to crash and burn one of the OT's most complex and layer'd characters into a joke.

On 10/25/2017 at 6:03 PM, GrimmyV said:

I vaguely remember a few movies about 15 years ago about gundams or spinning being a good trick.

I thought it was the tale of how a boy grew up to hate sand...

17 hours ago, Smutpedler said:

It will need to be a stand alone movie with it's own narrative and a protagonist we can relate to; so how do we relate to Han being a spice smuggler working for the worst known gangster in the galaxy who swindles his friends and is ALSO a character we relate to? The dangers I see are in severely diluting what makes the character interesting and complex for the sake of pumping out a Han movie because... Han sells.

There's the potential for some very clever story telling here but also the potential to crash and burn one of the OT's most complex and layer'd characters into a joke.

It is risky.

Essentially there are two ways they can go; the 'scoundrel with a heart of gold' (okay, maybe overdoing that phrase) and explaining why circumstances have put him in the situation he's in, or else essentially cast him as an anti-hero who realises that's what he is and starts on (but doesn't finish) a path to redemption where by the time of the end of Ep. IV he's approaching being an actual hero.

Assuming solo cuts-away to the start of a New Hope much like Rogue One does, the big thing that's 'just happened' is Han has dumped a hold full of spice 'at the first sign of an Imperial Cruiser' (although he says he was boarded), but we only have a couple of vague lines of dialogue explaining what actually happened.

On the one hand, the non-saga "star wars story' films, judging by Rogue One, are prepared to be less good guys/bad guys black-and-white, and allow for more interesting shades of grey, but at the same time this is the first time a major character has had significant screen time (aside from Vader, who's most important bit is to get a scene to show off ridiculous levels of unmitigated brutality on some nameless redshirts)

Monsieur Lucas gave a great gift in not just delivering Star Wars but giving us a universe in which to play. There is so much more on offer that is not presented in front of us. Eg. Han and Lando's history, Han and Chewie's relationship, the bounty hunter Han ran into at Ord Mandell, the Kessel Run, "You've never heard of the Millenium Falcon? implies it has some level of notoriety, Han's history with Jabba, etc. And these examples are just for Han Solo alone. There is so much more to the universe than just what's on screen.

Bear with me.

Now with each of those examples above, when reading you automatically filled in the blanks. Your imagination ran away and in a nanosecond you thought up a fantastic story for each of them. Maybe it was a reflection of something you'd read or seen, but it's yours. You have become emotionally invested into this universe because you have created a small piece of it. That's why we love the OT.

This is why books are always better than the movies and why the aliens are always scarier before they're seen in the latter parts of movies. It's you, it's relevant to you, it's interesting to you, it's scary to you.

A Han Solo (and possible Boba Fett/Obi Wan) movie take this away. They make the SW universe smaller and limit your personal canon. You experience someone else's story, and whilst it might be good. It's not specifically tailored to you. It will never be as good as what's in your head.

Han, Obi and Boba are more interesting off-screen!

I would also argue the SW prequels (and most prequels/origin stories for that matter) are doomed before they hit the screen. This psychology is an element as to why they received such bad reviews. They did not let us invest at an emotional level into the universe .. instead, detracted from it by explaining EVERYTHING .. down to the force.

TFA also fits this basket as it gave us a story, but did not give us the chance to emotionally invest in it. Sure, it leaves us with questions like "Who is Rey?", "Why did Kylo leave his parents?", "Why is Luke on a secluded island?" but we know these questions will be answered in future instalments. TFA did not enrich OUR universe.

There is an infinite universe out there for us to play in. I'd rather see some original stories and new characters from other arcs. Rogue One is a great start. It also gave us a taste of the universe and left some holes for us to fill. "Why does Kennick wear white?", " What the **** do the Urso's farm?", " What were the other projects Jyn read out when looking for Stardust?", What's the story behind Saw leaving the Rebellion?", "Is the blind guy a jedi and what is his history?". Ooooh, I'm intrigued .. I have an answer to these questions .. I know you do too. You have just expanded your own personal canon .. an experience the prequels and TFA denied you.

2 hours ago, Conandoodle said:

There is an infinite universe out there for us to play in. I'd rather see some original stories and new characters from other arcs. Rogue One is a great start. It also gave us a taste of the universe and left some holes for us to fill. "Why does Kennick wear white?", " What the **** do the Urso's farm?", " What were the other projects Jyn read out when looking for Stardust?", What's the story behind Saw leaving the Rebellion?", "Is the blind guy a jedi and what is his history?". Ooooh, I'm intrigued .. I have an answer to these questions .. I know you do too. You have just expanded your own personal canon .. an experience the prequels and TFA denied you.

I'll definitely agree here: Rogue One filled in blanks that needed explaining because they didn't make sense ("why does the death star have such a massive technical weakness", "why - given what we see in rebels before and subsequent episodes after do you get the impression that the rebels are just thirty-odd fighters and that's it?"), tells a story that we new the broad outlines of ( "... During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans.. ." etc., etc.) but in return we get new 'half-told' stories like Cassian, Saw, Chirrut/Baze, and so on.

That's the right way to do a prequel, because it provides more interesting new questions and settings.

I don't think the Prequel trilogy completely 'blocked off' new things and new personal canon, but I agree that answering too much stuff is dangerous for a character, especially one as iconic as solo.