Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/01/14/this-is-allegedly-the-origin.html
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I like this treatment a lot better, to be honest.
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Man, Disney really didn’t have a single person who gave this story arc any actual thought before making the movies, did they? It just baffles me–love, hate, or tolerate them, the sequels are so remarkably scattershot and disjointed that I don’t know how a bajillion dollar franchise like this wasn’t handled with a little more foresight.
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Well, that wouldn’t have been very good either.
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It really amazes me - AMAZES ME, how many MILLION DOLLAR films start filming with no or an incomplete script. Some times they pull it off, but it is usually a mess.
The Marvel movies may be a bit too sugary sweet, prepackaged pop culture - but - they have a solid story arc through them.
I LOVED the re-introduction of the Emperor and several of the concepts in the last movie - but it was just all shoved into one movie and had little to nothing to do with the previous ones.
I’m with you, it is ridiculous that they didn’t have an over arching plan.
The original films, at least the first two (third one starts to get muddled) has a couple plot lines that link up with to each other. The story is not complicated. The simplicity of the Mandalorian echos the old films (and the inspirations for those films.)
Also, did anyone else notice in the sequels that the core character never felt like a team of friends? Luke, Han, Leia, Chewie, and the droids all seem like friends who would do anything for each other. The sequels feel like coworkers for the most part with some interpersonal relationships between some of them.
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That right there is the problem: it’s not a story being told, but a sequence of set pieces that have a feeling like they were set by algorithm. Well, to be fair, The Last Jedi had a bit more of a plot, and an interesting resolution to its story, but it’s been made into a standalone in the middle of a totally different story.
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It seems like it would have taken another three movies to get through all of that.
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The thing I find with the sequels - and the prequels - is that they’re just so bloody complicated. It’s like they’re purposely trying to fit in as many locations and set pieces as possible. “Start at A, go to B, split up and get team 1 to C and team 2 to D, then reunite at E, and don’t forget about subplot at F and the Big Bad people over at G H and I! Then, a big finale in X with the space battle overhead!”
Compare that to RtoJ… and it just feels so much smoother… save Han, drop in on Yoda, get to Endor, confront the Emperor, Space Battle, Finale. It has focus on one arc.
Even when the team splits up, with Luke going solo to Yoda, Han and Leia (et all) aren’t trying to sneak in to some bloody [casino\occupied port city] to find [some twit with a stupid name] who is the only one who can [give them the magical doodad/reprogram the droid], before the rando fucks off never to be seen again.
Stop trying to sell lego sets and funko pops and tell a captivating story!
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They did, they just apparently weren’t willing to pay Jon Favreau enough to actually do it.
Chewie flies an X-Wing.
HOW WAS THIS NOT IN THE MOVIE?
Also, my extensive experience jamming Kenner action figures into space vehicles tells me he won’t fit, but I AM STILL HERE FOR IT.
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There was little to no chemistry between the three leads. I never got the “bromance” between Finn and Poe (and as for Poe; why even was Poe? I felt his character was shoehorned in, and I don’t get the love for Oscar Isaac).There was some promise of chemistry between Rey and Finn as two isolated people who have now found their first friend, but the script was so barren that although the actors did what they could, the friendship between the three of them was not plausible to me.
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But that baffles me even more–they couldn’t get their first choice to plan at least in broad strokes a three-movie story arc, so instead they had…no one do it?
Honey, I couldn’t get reservations at that new Italian/Indonesian fusion place downtown everyone loves so much, so I thought we’d just go to Walgreens with blindfolds on and grab the first five things that feel edible. Get your coat!
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As a kid I always thought it sort of weird that Star Wars only behaved as though there were only 3 important people in the universe and everything important happened to or around them. Everyone else was just window dressing.
The sequels felt the same only it was just Ben and Rey.
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If you missed it, there was some news a while back suggesting that the final cut of RoS was utterly butchered by studio meddling and not at all what Abrams wanted. It could just be more random whimsy – but it would be mighty consistent with the jumpy incongruity of the film.
Anyway, I suppose we can expect someone’s graphic novel based on this plot twenty years from now when the proverbial wheel has turned again. (They can’t maintain an iron grip on what should be considered “canon” forever. Can they?)
<>curses loudly in Wookie<>
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i said the same thing. you and i understand each other, haha
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Asking J.J. Abrams to head up your project is like hiring a mystery writer who pens the first half a novel and then hands it off to someone else without giving them any hint of who committed the murder or why they did it.
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…or any warning that he’ll handle the last chapter himself and change the story to be a road-trip coming-of-age story instead of a murder mystery. And also dogs can talk now, and the unnamed doorman who was standing behind the main character in the opening chapter was actually everyone’s father. Because he’s a wizard?
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YES!!! That’s it exactly!
I almost want to see this idea played for comedy. Imagine Luke popping out of nowhere to yell “boo!” every time Kylo tries to meditate. Or singing “99 bottles of blue milk on the wall” while he’s trying to lead a meeting of the Knights of Ren. Or randomly zapping things with lightning just for lulz.
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