George Lucas says that Disney didn't use any of his ideas for the J.J. Abrams version.
So maybe there's a new hope.
Star Wars was an entertaining matinee-style movie. I watched it in the theater and enjoyed it. I saw it once. The Empire Strikes Back was a better movie, a feature film as they used to say. Return, apart from Carrie Fisher's bikini, was down hill -- Ewoks, we hates them, to cross the streams of geekdom.
I saw about five minutes of whatever the first prequel was and didn't waste any more time. People criticize Starship Troopers, which is not a great movie, but it's roughly equivalent to the original Star Wars, and not as dumb as ROTJ. None of them are as good as Aliens. I've only seen Alien and Aliens, so I don't know about the rest. Of course, I'm partial to Sigourney Weaver, so that might have something to do with it.
In the end, it probably won't make any difference to me because I won't bother to see the new version, either, but Lucas doing a little bit of whining, with his $4 billion buy-out, hardly brings tears to my eyes.
Well said, Dwaine.
ReplyDeleteI concur with your assessment of the Star Wars franchise. Good scifi is few and far between as it is. I enjoyed Starship Troopers. Alien, Aliens, Firefly, Serenity, Galaxy Quest, Blade Runner, The Fifth Element, Spaceballs, The original Star Trek, and a few others.
I didn't hate Return OfThe Jedi but once Lucas threw in the muppet factor everything began to go steeply downhill.
I'm not really impressed with Abrams works (I find them to be, mostly formulaic but pretty) but he is still better than Lucas was after Empire Strikes Back.
I actually liked Lost until Abrams lost his way in a terrible finish. He can start a good story but he can't end one well and don't get me started with what he did to Star Trek, basically reducing it to action films with populist cliches and a lack of understanding about the original characters (Kirk was never an impulsive cowboy who just happens to get lucky more than he uses his brains).
So I don't have high expectations for the next chapter of Star Wars but again, it's bound to be better than what Lucas did. I'll probably watch it on tv when it gets there.
They should've used Joss Whedon or Christopher Nolan instead of Abrams ti relaunch Star Wars. Oh well, at least it's not a remake so that's something.
Yes, Christopher Nolan is very good. I really like The Dark Knight, and I've been meaning to get around to watching Begins and Rises. I also completely agree about Whedon and Firefly.
ReplyDeleteHow can you find fault with Spaceballs? We again have the Sigourney Weaver factor in Galaxy Quest. Sigourney Weaver plus sci-fi equals success.