Here’s What George Lucas’s Episode VII Would Have Looked Like (VIDEO)

Luke

From Outer Places:

Even though Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens made more money than any movie ever (in North America, at least), not everyone loved it. Most fans and critics seemed to enjoy the film quite a bit, but there were others who found it derivative of the first Star Wars film; and they didn’t like how the movie negated decades of canon Star Wars lore from the Expanded Universe. These fans wondered what the Episode VII version that George Lucas wanted would have looked like, and now they can get a better idea of what he wanted thanks to a new video.

 

 

Mr. Sunday Movies has put together an extensive video detailing the version of Episode VII Lucas had envisioned prior to Disney’s takeover. And actually, some of it doesn’t sound that different. For example, Luke Skywalker was going to be an older, Obi-Wan type of character – which he appears to set up to be at the end of TFA. But the rest of Lucas’s ideas, which he transferred over to Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm when he sold the property to Disney, were discarded. Lucas wanted the main focus of the new trilogy to be on young characters, but Disney was worried about comparisons to the loathed kid-centric prequels and ditched his idea. Lucas also didn’t want to do a retro, retread of his original trilogy – which is exactly what Disney wanted.

 

So check out the video below, and see if you can piece together what George Lucas’s Episode VII would have looked like.

 

 

This article originally appeared on Outer Places.

 

 

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Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.

Born on April 24, 1980.

Val Trichkov (Viral Hide)

Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.Born on April 24, 1980.

204 thoughts on “Here’s What George Lucas’s Episode VII Would Have Looked Like (VIDEO)

  • September 29, 2016 at 3:36 am
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    It’s too bad the video doesn’t actually explain what George Lucas’s Episode VII would have looked like. It was entertaining though.

    • September 29, 2016 at 7:12 am
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      I know right? I had to watch it twice because I thought I was missing something. But nope a couple of facts we’ve known for years and not much else.

      • September 29, 2016 at 7:49 am
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        Give them a break. It’s been a slow news month regarding rumors.

  • September 29, 2016 at 4:09 am
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    Brace yourselves, here come the George Lucas haters…

    • September 29, 2016 at 4:53 am
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      There’s a difference between criticism and hate.

      • September 29, 2016 at 7:49 am
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        The real “difference” is that haters don’t want to be labeled haters, but negative critics.

        I’ve talked to quite a few of these “critics,” who hated everything about GL, his recent films, his filmmaking approach, his style…. But they’re not haters (?)

        • September 29, 2016 at 1:14 pm
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          You don’t reply to posts. You don’t have conversations with anyone. Just unload opinions you never support. Positive or negative.

  • September 29, 2016 at 4:15 am
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    So that was very uninformative.

    • September 30, 2016 at 5:32 pm
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      Couple of interesting facts in it, and it was entertaining. I like the Auzzie style, you can imagine him narrating the video with a can of fosters in hand.

  • September 29, 2016 at 4:52 am
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    The film was the best received Star Wars film since the original trilogy. it sold double the number of tickets as Revenge of the Sith. It was one of the best reviewed films of 2015, receiving positive reviews from 92% of critics. It received the most Oscar nominations since the original 1977 film. It became the highest grossing movie in American history. And yet, you focus on the asinine gripes of online naysayers and pretend like the reaction to the film was a mixed bag. It wasn’t. Both critics and audiences loved it. But certain people will find reasons to complain about anything. Their very vocal complaining will not diminish the very obvious positive reaction to the film.

    • September 29, 2016 at 7:46 am
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      Critics were indeed mixed. For example, if you go to rotten tomatoes, the majority of the reviews were partially negative for reasons stated by this article’s author. However, rotten tomatoes has a way with awarding “fresh” tomatoes to bad reviews for some reason.

      • September 29, 2016 at 11:50 am
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        I always thought the critics themselves were the ones giving the fresh or rotten award. So even if their review seemed more negative that’s because they are criticizing more than they are praising. Which is part of their job as critics.

        I’ve seen reviews of the opposite problem though, where it seemed like a critic enjoyed a movie just by their written review but ended up giving it a rotten award.

      • September 29, 2016 at 3:06 pm
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        No one would call the reviews for TFA mixed. They were largely positive, which does not mean they were ALL positive.

      • September 29, 2016 at 6:13 pm
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        By that logic, then, the original trilogy must have also been received with mixed reviews and the prequel reviews must have been mostly negative. With 92% for TFA, TPM gets 56%, Clones gets 65%, Sith gets 79%, ANH gets 94%, ESB gets 94%, and ROTJ gets 79%.

        Or, if you don’t care for Rotten Tomatoes, you could use Metacritic, which gives TFA an 81% – still a majority positive. Compare this to Empire at 80% ANH at 92%, Jedi at 53%, TPM at 51%, Clones at 54% Sith at 67%. Clearly, TFA was a critically well-received movie.

    • September 29, 2016 at 9:15 am
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      TFA was made for that specificaly, there is no susprise in that. really? you still don’t get it?! The Force Awakens was made to sell.

      Star Wars is not about that, star wars is about exploring, experimenting, TFA is nothing about that.

      I like the movie a lot, but I know exactly what they give us, I enjoy it for what it is, no more, no less, that’s why I think this movie can be the worst and the best at the same time.

      • September 29, 2016 at 11:44 am
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        Star Wars is not about exploring, inventing, and experimenting, which TFA did too just in a lesser scale than the prequels.

        Star Wars is about the psychological motifs, mythology (myths and legends), religions, the importance of family, philosophy, and general fantasy stories that have been repeated throughout history and in different cultures but in a more modern fashion. This is directly taken from Lucas’s interviews and nowhere does he say Star Wars is just about exploring, experimenting, or inventing. That’s more what Star Trek is about.

        I get where you are coming from but that’s not what Star Wars is about.

        • September 29, 2016 at 9:25 pm
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          Yea, you say it right, of course is more than what I said, but with exploring i didn’t mean literaly places like star trek, a mean imagery, visuals, diferent direction in characters, shapes, color, planets, ships design, live places, etc, all that make richer the story the movies are telling. Thats what I call exploring, inventing, and experimenting.

          The philosophycal motifs, mithology, family, etc TFA did righ i think, thats part of what I liked of this movie.

        • October 4, 2016 at 9:05 am
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          one of the cornerstones of star wars has been making distinctly different and original films that explored a variety of mythological and psychological motifs, he says that in his Charlie Rose interview. He also implies that The Force Awakens itself is the product of decision making that is the antithesis of the foundations that Star Wars was built upon. He literally says that The Force Awakens as a film doesnt interest him because it is the product of a type of filmmaking that Star Wars was always distinct of.

          If you want to bring the creator into this, don’t make is sound as if he’d approve this film and its content. He pretty much calls it horse shit lol.

          • October 5, 2016 at 12:15 am
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            He did approve of the film, he just didn’t like the retro aspect, and he wasn’t a fan that they took it in a different route than what he originally intended.

            You’re twisting my perspective around to suite your opinion. We apparently have vastly different opinions when in reality we both share similar ones.

            I SAID, that TFA and TPM share very similar plot elements to ANH broadly, which is a fact. You are saying that TPM shares very broadly, but TFA does not share broadly. I’m saying that the reason why it seems like TFA shares more with ANH than TPM is solely because of the aesthetics. Do you not agree with that? If you took TPM and replaced the aesthetics with that of TFA would it not be very similar too?

          • October 5, 2016 at 2:41 am
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            I discussed this all in my other comment bro. Especially your laughable “only aesthetics” comment. rofl.

            One thing: the only comment that indicates GL liked it was kathleen kennedy saying so. Everything George says, and James cameron too, indicates Georges dislike of TFA.

            Cool thats youre opinion. Not a fsct, opinion.

            In my opinion, George hasnt made a film in ages so i cant judge. At least he was a visionary at some point. jj Abrams isnt a visionary. He is like the filmmaking equivelent of Josh brolins character in hail ceasar! A studio money making fix it man posing as a filmmaker. He is a scam, and episode Vii is a scam.

            I would rather have seen Georges VII, even coming off the prequels, than JJs.

            Agree to disagree. Have a good one.

          • October 5, 2016 at 9:13 am
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            You have a lot of hate/angsty pent up aggression in you Critic. Which I believe is effecting your judgement. 30 years down the road you’ll be looking back and thinking “Wow, why was I so critical and such a cynic?” TFA wasn’t really that bad of a movie and it’s really not that bad when Star Wars isn’t your whole life.

            It also sounds like you just are biased against JJ Abrams (you think he’s a hack/scam artist) so to me that means you were always biased against it to begin with, since you don’t like the man directing it.

            Your opinion is not fact either. You keep stating my opinion is fact, I gave you facts about what George said you are misinterpreting and making conclusions about what George Lucas thinks based off a couple interviews, as well as James Cameron (Who cares?)

            The “fact” that you think my aesthetics comment is laughable makes you seem like a high and mighty asshole, which is cool, nobody likes your type of personality so you’re welcome to leave whenever you want. I won’t silence you, unless you begin to make malevolent comments.

          • October 5, 2016 at 3:40 pm
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            Actually im not an asshole, you wont get any malevolent comments out of me. Time and time again i say the same thing, everyones entitled to an opinion.

            Im just confused, you keep trying to provide excuses and reasons why me having an opinion that is negative on the film and doesn’t go along with yours is wrong or biased.

            Ive obviously interpreted a lot of this differently from you, but to be honest, but everytime i bring up a point that differs from yours, you continue to misinterpret and discredit it. An opinion.

            For example, you brought up the comment about the aesthetics. Ive provided my opinion on why i feel youre brushing off legitimite critisism on many levels of the film, calling it “aesthetics”, and brushing it off as a prequel apologisist.

            This isnt just you, and im sure you wont agree, but the hypocrisy of some people in this issue is mind blowing. You call me out for bias against a director who has made 1 and a half films i dislike (tfa and STID)! I like the guy, and endorsed him for this film. Honestly, the amount of anti-prequel fans who were so quick to lambast anyone who disagreed with them was overwhelming. And now, a lot of people like me feel like we cant give our opinipns without being attacked or discredited. If simon pegg says he hates the prequels, people go “yeah!”, if JC says he dislikes them, people like you go “who cares!”

            Then again, lets be honest, tone and sarcasm dont exactly travel over the net. The “laughable” comment was me trying not to say “i think you are wrong” again. Apologies if you were offended. Im sorry if you think im an asshole.

            Fair enough. Honestly in 30 years, i think a lot of people who dont have built up hatred for the prequels will watch the force awakens and feel that it was a mistep. Unless you have a time machine handy, i guess we’ll have to wait!

          • October 5, 2016 at 12:27 am
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            No he doesn’t call it horseshit, you’re the one calling it horseshit. We can make assumptions all day long.

            If you were an honest critic, which I hope you are, you could look past the obvious criticisms and realize that there are a lot of positives to TFA too.

      • September 29, 2016 at 1:13 pm
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        Yeah. Ape is right. Star Wars isn’t about catering to the fans or maintaining continuity of imagery, story and lore.

        Proof is in the pudding. See the Prequels.

        • September 29, 2016 at 1:42 pm
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          Im possibly misunderstanding your comment and please forgive me if I am, but are you being sarcastic or serious?

      • September 29, 2016 at 5:02 pm
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        SW is for experimenting and exploring ?? Really ? It was in 1977. Experimenting and exploring is what gave birth to the prequels. Story should always be the main focus. The goal of ep 7 was to install bases for a new generation of heroes. And it did. It sold because it was a good movie. Marketing isn’t everything. Go check ep 2 box office numbers…

        • September 29, 2016 at 9:14 pm
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          As I said before, sells don’t make a movie good o bad, it’s easy to get confuse with that. And yes experimenting and exploring was what gave birth to Star Wars, OT and PT.

          I’m not saying anything about marketing, but now that you bring it to the table, man i don’t know in your town, but in mine marketing was everywere, I saw a bag of oranges with the image of TFA, TFA tupperware, TFA bublegum, TFA water, TFA everything, juice, bread, notebooks etc. I’m glad that is past now. So that leads me to think that marketing has part in the sells (litle or big?), I know marketing isn’t everything but I don’t remember seeing that for any other movie, not on that level.

          • September 30, 2016 at 3:47 pm
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            Marketing has ALWAYS played a big part of the Star Wars phenomenon. I find it more than a bit ironic that I encounter folks here and there that complain about the marketing of TFA; especially if the criticism comes from those that grew up during the OT era. Star Wars was very heavily marketed during its initial run. Beyond toys, Star Wars was branded on towels, soap, school supplies, food items, and a zillion other things. There was even a Star Wars swing set. I have one. : )

            Did TFA see a broader marketing presence? Sure. But it makes sense. The vast majority of original, branded Star Wars items were aimed at kids. Now that we’re grown up, the marketing machine is aiming for two demographics. And it’s probably true that there is a greater variety of consumer products in the marketplace today compared to the late 70’s and early 80’s, so that’s going to come into play as well.

          • September 30, 2016 at 8:59 pm
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            I just think the marketing was a bit exagerated for my taste this time, I understand that is because of Disney. I thought maybe I didn’t pay attetion before, but, with the force awakens it was impossible not to notice it, it was everywere, I dont know, that was my perception.

            Im, sure that more than 1 person went to the movie teather to see it because of that (the big marketing campaing), more than other reason. And it’s a good thing the the end of the day, that means we’ll have more Star wars content for long long time.

          • September 30, 2016 at 10:10 pm
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            I really don’t think the marketing for TFA was any more comprehensive than that for Episode 1. I remember E1 marketing everywhere. I don’t know. None of it bothers me and to be honest, I probably look past most of it without really noticing. I don’t collect modern product and my boys are mostly into other things.

            But anyway, the marketing we saw with TFA wasn’t anything new. If people are going to be upset because there is maybe a bit more of it, well, that’s an argument of degrees. There is no magic line of there being “too much”. And honestly, if someone is going to get cranky because they see Yoda on a bag of oranges, they might have bigger problems.

          • October 1, 2016 at 4:16 am
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            Ha ha, It doesn’t bother me, I’m not upsed because of that, just responded to the “Marketing isn’t everything” comment from manuel gasse.

            Marketing is good, its part of the hype and the exitement, but this time I saw it a litle more, I have never seen before a bag of oranges with the SW logo, I wanted to buy everything! sometimes I felt it noisy, tha’ts all. I believe that this time was a litle bit more than other times, but maybe I’m wrong, thats a possibility too.

          • October 5, 2016 at 12:20 am
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            I don’t know how old you are but maybe your perception has changed and you notice the marketing more since you are now older.

          • October 5, 2016 at 1:28 am
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            Yea maybe, I don’t really remember how it was with IV, V, and VI, I was a kid then, but from epI to epVII, I remember clearly I believe, and from TPM I began to follow very close every single piece released about SW, from cereals, juices, books, etc. to bigger stuff, actually more than now, and to be honest this time i think is a bit bigger, at least a bit, enough to be noticeable, but as you say it is my perception.

      • September 29, 2016 at 5:36 pm
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        I think you idealize too much the SW saga.

        The first SW was “experimental” because there were nothing else who did those things in that scale in the 70s. TESB could have been “experimental” for the fact it expanded the mythology, and give SW the weight of a classic tragedy.

        But… what there was of “experimental” in ROTJ? And, speaking about the prequels: The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings were much more “experimental”, in terms of esthetics and technologies. Don’t forget that, while Lucas was having fun with Jar Jar, Andy Serkis was giving his body and his face to Gollum…

        It’s false to pretend that TFA didn’t expand the SW mythology. Surely it didn’t expand the esthetics, but the mythology it’s safe, to me.

        • September 29, 2016 at 8:30 pm
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          All six movies from 1 to 6 are experimental films, because don’t have to depend on the standard ways to make a movie, but that is another topic. And I donth know if Matrix and LOTR really count as experimental.

          I think you forget that thanks to Jar Jar, existed Gollum, George Lucas wasn’t only having fun with Jar Jar, he was inventing in pushing the technology ahead with ILM to make posible to have an all virtual being as main characters. before that there was nothing like that, Gollum came later. So Jar Jar can be considered the father of Gollum :).

          Im not sayin TFA dond expand the mithology, I think it did actually, but it is indeniable that TFA was made to like, an not to invent, and because of the way they did that is why it is considered as a remake, rehash, homage, to the orginal, they went the safe way, they didn’t risk.

          I know what I love about Star Wars, and much of that is missing in TFA imo, it is a good movie, perfectly well excecuted, crafted, etc. and I like a lot of the stuff in it, the story between Rey, kylo, Luke, bb, the force, Kylo being seduced by the light! thats interesting, etc. that is really interesting stuff and makes me get rally exited for what is comming. But all the stuff surrounding that really interesting plot is all rehash.

          I don’t think it is a bas movie, i think is a good movie, but we have to see it as what it is and not pretend that it is the best Star Wars movie ever just because It sold a lot. Sells dont make movie bad or good.

      • September 29, 2016 at 5:57 pm
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        Star Wars was made for pure popcorn entertainment, like the old matinee serials it was paying homage to. An exciting thrill ride with likeable characters that the audience could cheer on and leave the theater wanting more. That’s exactly what TFA was and what many fans felt had been forgotten with 1-3. There were plenty of new things introduced into the saga that, for some reason, detractors seem to ignore:

        -Deserting stormtrooper as protagonist
        -Female lead protagonist
        -Females in opposition forces
        -6 new planets
        -new ships/vehicles
        -unique new droids – bb8
        -Dark side user tempted by the light
        -First Jedi temple
        -tons of new alien species
        -visions triggered by force-sensitive objects
        – Dark side mind extraction
        -Knights of Ren
        -cross guard sabers
        And much more.
        But for some reason, this wasn’t enough “inventiveness.”

        • September 29, 2016 at 6:43 pm
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          “Tons” of new alien species? Did you even watch the movie? There were considerably more humans than aliens in the film.

          “New” Ships and vehicles?! Really? Lol..

          BB8 a ‘unique new droid’? Ever heard of R2D2?

        • September 29, 2016 at 6:57 pm
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          The problem, with the movie in that sense, is the context and the movie story, is way too similar to the others, all you mention was made inside a safe context, It seems something like if the planed the movie like this: “lets make a new droid, but we need to hide the other somehow, because what worked before is two droids, not three” and “lets make a new planet, same as tattoine but, because is safe, with just one sun”, “lets make a superweapon, but we will make it different, make it a planet that looks like endor mixed with Hoth, bucause ice and threes worked before” and “lets make the movie a complete homage to the first three”, And I can go all day. Thats why the major impression is that it is an ANH remake.

          That’s the problem for me, and in general, all star wars movies pay homage somehow to the others, and repeat stuff, planets, etc. thats part of it, but look different one from the other, every one have new stuff really new stuff and not new stuff that looks like the old stuff. And for that reason the movie is its own spoiler, you can predict more than half fo the movie.

          And I give you that the movie have wins, reason for what I din’d hate it, and actually liked it, because it has a lot of things I liked a lot, all the Rey, Kylo, Luke plot, bb8, kylo’s LS, the falcon escape secuence, the final duel, and a lot of other stuff, and because of that Im’m very exited abou whats coming, it is a good and entertaning movie there is no question in that, but you can’t deny the obvious. You can find almost every scene you saw in TFA in the other movies, almost exactly, I think that is more than a homage.

          • September 29, 2016 at 10:19 pm
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            And what do people love most about TFA? the new characters.

          • September 30, 2016 at 1:29 am
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            Same here, dude.I love The Force Awakens. Great movie. Bt , weirdly enough, I like mor Attack of the clones, because it is the makers vision. For the same reason I ould rather see Lucas to be involved in ny fom with pisode , to see how the “real” story continues. And all this I am saying with the bluray of E7 at home and midnight opening and lokimg forward for 8 and 9

        • September 29, 2016 at 8:06 pm
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          Agreed. Any notion that the original Star Wars movies weren’t made to sell tickets and make money is pure fantasy. Rest assured, Lucas was hoping to make some decent dough out of the deal. It was, you know, his job and all.

          I don’t understand these romantic ideas that Star Wars was this artsy, outside-of-mainstream source of entertainment with zero or little financial concerns. There are folks here that still cling to that fabrication. It was mass market, corporate-driven entertainment. And it was awesome.

        • October 4, 2016 at 9:28 am
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          COOL, a few things…

          What exactly was NEW about the new planets? They are all just renamed versions of OT planets (New Tattooine, Death Star on Hoth, Endor-type planet).

          The ships are MOSTLY just derivitive of the OT (The falcon, barely evolved from the empire First order ships, Rebel pilots using Xwings AGAIN.

          -A jedi temple? NEVER SEEN THAT BEFORE.

          -A female protagonist who is a desert orphan who leaves her planet after acquiring a droid. REMOVE THE “FEMALE” PART AND YOURE DESCRIBING LUKE.

          -Um, BB8 is just new cuter R2D2?

          -The Knights of Ren and Church of the force are flimsily-explored ideas that dont even affect the plot of the film.

          -Wow, a new lightsaber. how original lol.

          -Yes, because a dark side user was never tempted by the light. DID YOU WATCH RETURN OF THE JEDI BRUH?

          • October 5, 2016 at 12:01 am
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            Jakku – planet of wrecked spaceships from decades-old battle, in which scavengers scrounge for parts – NEW
            Takodana – planet covered in palatial lakes, home to a space pirate hangout in an old castle – NEW
            Ach-To – jagged, rocky island emerging from the sea – NEW
            Starkiller – cold climate planet with forests, creating a battle in snowy woods. Laser weapon excavated into planet’s surface – NEW

            New ships – Stormtrooper transport, Kylo’s ship, Rey’s speeder, quad-jumper, Han’s cargo ship, various pirate gang ships, Rey’s “family” ship, Resistance transport. All not updated versions of existing ships.

            The FIRST Jedi temple. FIRST. When exactly have we seen the first Jedi Temple on the island before?

            Why remove the “female” part? The whole point is that we are seeing a story about woman instead of a man – that’s the difference, and it’s a significant one.

            BB-8 is a new design, entirely, with subtle aesthetic hints of R2. It was not simply a smaller R2. It was a technical challenge getting him to be practically functional, and his design amazed fans when they first saw it – so yes, it was a great new idea for a droid.

            The church of the force is the entire group you see being killed at the start of the film. And The Knights of Ren will be further explored in the coming episodes. So yes, they are both significant additions to the saga. Just because you don’t instantly know everything there is to know about them after one film doesn’t mean they are insignificant in the long run.

            A new lightsaber design is still something new.

            Return of the Jedi demonstrated a dark side user being compelled to save his son from death by sacrificing his own life. It is an instantaneous decision, a spur of the moment choice, it is not a prolonged struggle in temptation. It is not the equivalent of Kylo Ren’s prolonged experience in struggling to embrace the dark side out of attachment to his family by the call of the light.

          • October 5, 2016 at 2:02 am
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            Oh my god youve been suckered in. All your descriptions of the planets are just “spin”. They are essentially slightly modified versions or combined versions of THINGS WE HAVE ALREADY SEEN BEFORE. a junkyard on a desert planet? Wattos junyard, tattooine, dammit. MAZ KANATAS CASTLE is just the cantina from episode IV omoved to endor! Oh, how different, that weve seen the FIRST jedi temple! A death star on hoth! Oh how original!!!

            You see, if you can remove one word out of a character or locations description and it describe something from the previous 6 films, its Not really new. Its just slightly modified repurposed thing WEVE SEEN BEFORE.

            Youtube max landis’ thoughts on the film for a better context.

            Like, the fact that there is almost nothing new isnt necessarily a bad thing (i happen to think it is), but its like youre that stormtrooper from episode iv that obiwan pulls that old jedi mind trick on. Come on man, wake up.

          • October 5, 2016 at 4:24 am
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            I gave you several examples of genuinely new things in the movie and you have ignored them. And no it isn’t spin. A ancient castle by a lake where space pirates hang out has never been seen in a Star Wars film before. Should every Star Wars movie not have a bar because of the cantina scene? Would you prefer an alien strip club perhaps? The old saloon scene is a staple of the Western movie – one of the genres that Star Wars draws from. Is the cantina scene a rip off of those?

            Guess what? We had a trilogy of new things, and it SUCKED. Yes, there are a lot of similarities and there was a good reason for it – the prequels drove the Star Wars franchise off a cliff.

            Episode 7 was a reclamation project – where Star Wars would be redeemed and be brought back to what Star Wars is all about. Of course a part of that effort was reminding people of what they initially loved about Star Wars and moving on from where the prequels failed.

            The trilogy will have the chance to be more innovative as the episodes progress.

            And Max Landis is a mediocre screenwriter who hates the fact that people enjoy franchise movies over his crappy original movies. I don’t need any of his “insight.”

          • October 5, 2016 at 5:08 am
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            Wasnt that approach of going back to the things that we loved while treading new ground something that creed did last year? I dont see anyone moaning and complaining about that.

          • October 5, 2016 at 7:06 am
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            Creed still exists? No one gives a shit about Creed. Crappy band from the start. Oh, you mean the Rocky movie. Rocky is not the massive, fan rabid franchise that Star Wars is. You will not have legions of Rocky fans complaining about everything the way Star Wars fans do. There were plenty of throw backs and references in Creed. Another story of a misfit youth who goes to Philly to train and achieve respect as a boxer despite losing the final fight in a split decision. There is even an Art Museum stair climbing scene. It was well-received critically as TFA was. But Star Wars fans and fans of sci-fi/fantasy/action are going to be all the more critical of new Star Wars films than fans of Rocky will be of new Rocky films. After several mediocre Rocky sequels, no one was expecting anything great with this one, and it turned out to be surprisingly good. And the people moaning and complaining about TFA are a clear minority, anyway. The film was the biggest movie in American history. 2x more people bought tickets for it than Revenge of the Sith just 10 years earlier. it was an undeniably well-liked movie.

          • October 5, 2016 at 2:56 pm
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            Interesting. I guess your right, although star wars itself was in a pretty bad state as well less than 6 years ago, But i guess it is true about the fanbase. Kind of like marvel and dc fans eh?

  • September 29, 2016 at 5:06 am
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    There will never be a Star Wars film that “everyone” loves.

    • September 29, 2016 at 6:05 am
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      Or film in general.

      • September 30, 2016 at 6:30 am
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        Except Zootopia.

        • September 30, 2016 at 7:02 am
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          i, uh, didn’t really like zootopia…

          • October 1, 2016 at 7:27 pm
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            Get out.

      • October 5, 2016 at 1:12 am
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        This is definitely true, but is it possible to have a “Star Wars” film that every Star Wars fan loves?

        • October 5, 2016 at 1:28 am
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          empire strikes back is one of the best films ever made and there is still a pocket of fans that don’t like it. which is fine. loads of people swear by blade runner or firefly and i never got either. personal taste is just too subjective.

    • September 29, 2016 at 7:30 am
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      There’s a very limited number of people that loves SW.

      • September 29, 2016 at 10:33 am
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        No, that’s not true.

        • September 29, 2016 at 2:40 pm
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          That’s true if you live in certain regions of europe. I love in Italy, and here in the north east of italy it seems that nobody likes star wars, or knows what’s the difference between Star Wars and star trek.

          • September 30, 2016 at 1:21 am
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            Same here in Czech Rp. and Slovakia. Peope are not hyped at al, and almost n Star Wars toys for kids….

          • October 5, 2016 at 1:17 am
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            I know a guy who lives there named Martin Klekner who worked on a Star Wars Fan film, Shadows of the Past. So, they are definitely there, they are just hiding in the shadows. 🙂

            It’s kind of hard to appreciate Star Wars and the merchandise if none of the stores are stocking Star Wars stuff though. 🙁

          • October 5, 2016 at 1:15 am
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            Star Wars is so big in the states, that I totally forgot that might not be the case in other parts of Europe or Asia.

            I know it’s pretty big in the UK too.

            I always find it interesting to see what other nations think of Star Wars, mostly because I’m such a big fan of it.

            I heard that Russia wasn’t really a big fan of it either.

          • October 5, 2016 at 8:30 am
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            Ironically, for what I see, eastern nations seem more interested.

          • October 6, 2016 at 3:42 pm
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            I live between Spain and Paris, and most of the people love Star Wars.

          • October 7, 2016 at 12:34 am
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            Yeah, well, I’m certain not in all french or spanish regions it’s so widely acclaimed

    • September 29, 2016 at 7:44 am
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      Except ESB.

      • September 29, 2016 at 11:30 am
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        Even then, there are still people who prefer the first one. Also, I’ve heard people say their favorite one was Return of the Jedi minus the ewoks. So, yeah there will never be a perfect Star Wars film.

        There are people out there who’s favorite character is Jar Jar Binks, so I really can’t see how there will ever be a “perfect” Star Wars film that virtually everyone who watches it enjoys it.

        • September 29, 2016 at 5:32 pm
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          Yep. I think objectively speaking, ESB is the best SW film w/o argument. There is almost no wasted scene or dialogue, the story is amazing from opening to closing, and it just encapsulates the struggle of the saga as a whole within it… hell even the updated special edition version Lucas put out of it actually ADDS to making the film look even more beautiful instead of including a bunch of useless or unnecessary parts like he did w/ some of the others.

          However subjectively, RotJ is my favorite SW film granted you have to flush out the ewoks (though an idea of flesh eating midget teddy bears can work w/ the right mindset lol) Out of all the films, it has my favorite scenes: Jabba’s palace sequence, confrontation w/ the emperor, an amazing space battle, “it’s a trap!”, and the ending where you have those I dunno.. maybe 15 seconds where the amazing theme comes up as the fire illuminates Luke’s face as he’s watching the father he finally was able to save, but never got to know, being cremated. Maybe its because my dad and I aren’t close, but that’s the scene that always gets me emotionally. When you think of all the subtext that goes into it, its just so relatable and tragic.. Because while the good guys win, Luke still kind of loses in the end. But maybe w/ EP VIII or the new novels we’ll get to see if Anakin and Luke conversed in those 30 years!

          • September 29, 2016 at 10:08 pm
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            “ADDS to making the film look even more beautiful instead of including a bunch of useless or unnecessary parts like he did w/ some of the others.”
            .
            Except the extra wampa stuff and Vader returning to Executor. Those additions totally break the rhythm of the film. The Vader one is particularly bad because you’ve got the film culminating and building to one last desperate escape…and then break that mounting tension to cut away and Darth parking.

          • September 30, 2016 at 1:17 am
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            y favourite epiode of the saga as well including the Eoks. To ne perfectly clear, no the Special edtion with Jedi rocks and different final song

      • September 29, 2016 at 2:45 pm
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        And it didn’t really get that until ROTJ came out and completed the story because at the time a lot of people didn’t like being left hanging.

      • September 29, 2016 at 8:01 pm
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        I recently combed thorough some old newspaper archives from Cleveland. Almost across the board, critics gave ESB sour reviews.

    • September 29, 2016 at 7:20 am
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      thank goodness, that’s what we expect from an episode VII – more of the same

    • September 29, 2016 at 7:21 am
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      Led zeppelin made everything VASTLY superior

    • September 29, 2016 at 3:38 pm
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      Really good video. Kind of scary, too.

  • September 29, 2016 at 7:19 am
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    it funny how fast lucas went from “there will be no episode VII ever… there is no story beyond episode VI” to “hey i got this got this great treatment but disney burned it before my eyes and then flushed the ashes down the toilet”. george is a visionary storyteller and visual effects artist, but dam he talks out of both sides of his mouth more then the current election candidates.

    • September 29, 2016 at 10:11 am
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      fast? from 2005 to 2015, that’s not what I would consider fast.

      • September 29, 2016 at 10:30 pm
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        more like 2005 to 2011-12 when he decided whip something up to make lucasfilm worth more to potential buyers.

        • September 30, 2016 at 2:06 am
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          A chronology of what I remember he said about prequels, sequels, is something like this:

          80s, George said there are 9 movies (with 20 more or less years between each trilogy)
          80s he talks about what the prequels may be about.
          90s/2000s Made the prequels
          2000s, He said maybe he will make the sequels (In 2017-2020)
          2005, He said there is no sequels ( cause the 9 year comitment to make them, and he wanted to do other things )
          2011, He meets with Mark and Carry to talk the idea of making the sequels (clearly reconsider it, but planning in direct only the the first one )
          2012 He retired and sold LF, and donates the money to charity.
          2015 Lucas said that Disney will not use his sequel tratments.

          your’e welcome 🙂

          It wasn’t that fast Dux!

          • September 30, 2016 at 2:30 am
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            here’s the thing with george, what he says changes depending on who he’s talking to. observe:
            -1980s mark hamill says in an interview that lucas talked to him about playing an obi-wan like character in 30 years. that this was nine part saga.
            -then: 1999, in vanity fair, george says: “I never had a story for the sequels.”
            -and then in 2008, in film magazine: “I left pretty explicit instructions for their not to be any more features(after he dies). There will be no VII,VIII, IX because there isn’t any story. I never wrote anything.”
            -and finally, from how star wars conquered the universe(re:2011): “lucas had said explicitly that 7, 8 and 9 weren’t to be made and he never thought up any stories for them. But how hard could it be to whip up a few more space thingies?”
            -in the span of few short years he completely changed a course he had felt so strongly about that he had written it into his will.

          • September 30, 2016 at 2:58 am
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            Yea, I think he didn’t really make them most of the time, I’m sure he had an idea of what could be a sequel about, but not a written story , So when he thought in selling, he wrote the treatments, actually in an interview he said something about it, right? writing the tratments in order to sell the company.

            I really hope he come back in some way in the future, the problem, at least for now is that he wants to do everything or nothing.

    • September 29, 2016 at 1:11 pm
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      He lost visionary story teller with the prequels.

      • September 29, 2016 at 10:36 pm
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        maybe, but thats a separate issue.

    • September 29, 2016 at 3:04 pm
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      Fast? Hardly.

      And the very nature of treatments is that they change. Just look at George’s original ANH treatment compared to the final product.

      • September 29, 2016 at 10:35 pm
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        yes, fast. in span of couple years he said there was no story and would never be a story, then disney backed a truck full of cash up to his house and suddenly there was a story.

        • September 29, 2016 at 10:43 pm
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          The span of a couple of years (roughly a decade or so) is hardly fast.

          And that’s not what happened at all. He decided ahead of time there would be more movies, either b/c he wanted to do them then decided against doing them himself or to make it more attractive to a potential buyer. He went to Disney, not the other way around.

          You should probably read up on this. Lucas hired Michael Arndt to write the script before the Disney sale.

          http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-03-07/how-disney-bought-lucasfilm-and-its-plans-for-star-wars

          So not very fast at all.

          • September 29, 2016 at 10:58 pm
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            disney approached him first, lucas politely declined because he wanted lucasfilm to be in as best shape as possible. so he hired kennedy, and then decided to dust off star wars from the vault. its all documented in how star wars conquered the universe.

            and again, as late as 2008 he said there was no story beyond VI and he was taking the franchise literally to his grave. then only a few years later he reverses course and its back.

          • September 29, 2016 at 11:58 pm
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            Yes, I read that book. I also know that Lucas was asked by Iger and said he wasn’t interested just yet. But when it came time, he went to Disney. They didn’t back up trucks of money. He needed to get his affairs in order. He was already thinking of retiring.

          • September 30, 2016 at 12:37 am
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            It was a business not a creative decision, which is fine. But he has no room to complain that Disney didn’t use his slapped together ideas that he wouldn’t even let them see presale and written by a guy they didn’t hire. Lucas wanted to have his cake and eat it too and even his own successor said no dice which is telling.

          • September 30, 2016 at 12:39 am
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            Yeah, he sold it so he doesn’t get a say. Some people still want his opinion or ideas to be held up and it doesn’t work that way with the new stuff. Don’t disrespect the past, but forge ahead.

          • September 30, 2016 at 1:07 am
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            if only that last sentence was possible…

          • September 30, 2016 at 4:44 am
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            It has been so far.

          • September 30, 2016 at 4:48 am
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            He was plenty of room in that he was reacting emotionally. But he knows rationally the way things are. It’s hard to let go.

  • September 29, 2016 at 8:35 am
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    I loved TFA, but I can never resist a good “what if”, so I hope lucas’ draft does leak out or get released after this new trilogy is finished. It’s like when they made that comic series “The Star Wars” that was based on the original drafts & ideas. Or maybe rework it into a novel like splinter of the minds eye was. Lucas said, even back in the day that the EU was Not at all like he imagined the future of the Star Wars characters, but we never got much of an idea of where he would have taken it. From various sources it seems like the only constants from lucas’ ideas were
    1.) it would focus on a young girl lead
    2.) Luke is the new obi-wan
    3.) Daddy issues
    But other then that we may never know. My biggest question is did Lucas invision the sith returning or a new foe? That would be fascinating to learn

    • September 29, 2016 at 11:28 am
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      I really liked reading through Dark Horse’s take on “The Star Wars” as an alternate story to A New Hope.

      I have to say after reading it though, I vastly prefer the film version. The original draft was still good, but I don’t think it would have been nearly as popular if that version was made into the film instead of the one we all love and got.

    • September 29, 2016 at 8:00 pm
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      I agree. I absolutely think we’ll eventually see Lucas’s ideas in some form. It might be years down the road, but I’m expecting a comic or something eventually. I loved TFA and I quite like the direction that Star Wars seems to be going, but I’m honestly dying to know what Lucas had in mind.

      • September 29, 2016 at 9:41 pm
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        Lucas didn’t leave enough for an entire comic. It was a treatment. Of 1 movie. And treatments are just starting points.

        • September 29, 2016 at 9:56 pm
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          I understand that, but I think the treatment could easily be spun into a complete story, especially if Lucas was asked to flesh out some of the details.

          • September 29, 2016 at 10:17 pm
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            The treatment was spun into a complete story, it’s called The Force Awakens. A treatment is merely a starting point for a story. It’s very bare.

            “Easily spun” is baseless speculation since we don’t know how full the treatment was in the first place. Lucas has retired. Let him stay that way.

          • September 29, 2016 at 11:22 pm
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            Well, until we know exactly how comprehensive the treatment is, it’s impossible to know how much resemblance to TFA it really has. A treatment can range from a 3 sentence synopsis to nearly a complete outline. Right now, few can really say. And they’re not exactly talking.

            Easily spun isn’t baseless. Even if the treatment were rather spartan, with Lucas involved the story could be fleshed out and presented in some format other than the screen. That doesn’t sound like a monumental task.

          • September 29, 2016 at 11:53 pm
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            Right. And they said we might find out once the trilogy is done. So I am not going to speculate until then.

          • September 30, 2016 at 1:08 am
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            Speculating is fun.

    • September 29, 2016 at 8:00 pm
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      It probably would get released at some point..probably years and years from now though which is gonna suck to have to wait and see.

  • September 29, 2016 at 10:13 am
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    Lets not forget TFA did that well thanks in part to Han Leia and Luke returning..I have a feeling it would’ve been way different if they werent in it

  • September 29, 2016 at 10:40 am
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    You made me waste 10 minutes of my life listening to this annoying guy.

    • September 29, 2016 at 9:40 pm
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      No one made you do anything.

      • September 29, 2016 at 11:39 pm
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        through the false promise that I moght find out what was supposed to be episod VII if Lucas’ work would have been accepted they made me watch a video of this annoying guy saying practically stuff we already knew.

        • September 29, 2016 at 11:51 pm
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          You could have stopped at anytime, but honestly, something like this would be big enough news that you wouldn’t need to watch a video.

          • September 30, 2016 at 12:12 am
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            I held hope that maybe at some point he would say something new. But I didn’t even sit through the whole thing, I skipped a lot of parts.

    • September 30, 2016 at 12:56 am
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      in that ten minutes you could have switched your car insurance to geico. oh well…

  • September 29, 2016 at 11:13 am
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    I enjoyed this article m/

  • September 29, 2016 at 11:29 am
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    Don’t forget that was Lucas himself who sold SW to Disney with those precise conditions. I’ve always seen Lucas as a pretty lunatic guy. If he wanted to continue to write for the saga, he could have sold SW with other conditions.

    Anyway, I’m fine with TFA the way it went out. We cannot know how it could have been with another kind of writing. Surely, it was a good idea to quash the original Lucas’ Ep.7 “childish script”: in terms of narrative, an already grown hero is easier to handle (no absurd time lapses between episodes); same in terms of empathy. I don’t know if I could have endured throughout another movie with a 10-something kid as the main lead.

    • September 29, 2016 at 2:07 pm
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      I love what george has done, but he really did become a bit of a control freak after he did star wars (at least post jedi) Im glad he retired and seems to be enjoying life now.

    • September 29, 2016 at 3:03 pm
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      What precise conditions?

      • September 29, 2016 at 5:25 pm
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        To not have decisional weight anymore. You cannot sell a brand with those conditions, and THEN complain about the “white slavers” who quash your ideas. That was not part of the deal.

        Apparently, something survived from Lucas’ original treatment (the female lead), but if Lucas wanted to continue to work, even as just a screenwriter, why not pretend different deals? And I’m not a Lucas hater, even if after The Crystal Skull I think most of his talent has definitively gone, but it could have been pretty cool to return to that collaborative process which made great the original movies: the Author writes his story; the Screenplayer adapts it; the Director makes the movie. I think this Lucas/Kasdan/Abrams collaboration could have been explosive in TFA. But the movie was good anyway, so I’m fine with Disney.

        • September 29, 2016 at 6:46 pm
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          Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you were saying he sold LFL with precise conditions. I misunderstood.

          Yes, Lucas sold it and all of his opinions matter about as much as yours or mine now.

        • September 29, 2016 at 7:04 pm
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          Agreed. Lucas just needs to be ‘controlled’. Let him spill ideas and concepts and allow others to wield them into something fantastic. I feel the PT and Indy 4 are prime examples of allowing him free reign, though in the case of Indy I worry about Spielberg allowing it to develop the way it did with the overuse of CGI and poor lines.

    • September 29, 2016 at 6:57 pm
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      Well I think it was mentioned as teenagers…….but yeah I agree that could of been 13 which would of been bad. 19 would be workable, and IMO Anakin should of been the same actor throughout the prequels and started at 16/17

      • September 29, 2016 at 8:22 pm
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        I think the problem there is that he wanted to show a promising, sweet, talented, but maybe not so bright in certain ways, kid fall. That kind of means by his teens you need to see the beginnings of that darkness, so you start younger than that. The real problem I feel is that he didn’t do enough to show Anakin slipping down that path in AotC, and had to basically put that whole arc into Sith. It made his turn feel rushed and unjustified as a result.

        • September 29, 2016 at 8:31 pm
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          “a promising, sweet, talented, but maybe not so bright in certain ways, kid” is also a fair description of the 19 year old Luke in ANH.

          I get your point but all traces of that character in Ep1 are completely gone by Ep2. We never actually see the transition. So what’s the point of showing us that at all?

          • September 29, 2016 at 9:40 pm
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            Almost nothing in TPM actually matters to the rest of the trilogy except Anakin leaving his mom.

          • September 30, 2016 at 1:00 am
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            and palps becoming chancellor, but that could have been covered later.

          • September 29, 2016 at 9:51 pm
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            Yes, precisely what I said – I understand why he started with Anakin as young as he did, it makes good narrative sense. He badly underwrote that arc though, and wasted a whole film that should have done more to push Anakin down that path until, when we got to Sith, we had a character that we could buy as teetering on the edge of a terrible decision for all the right reasons. I actually don’t mind AotC (I know, I know, ‘blaspheme’), but in terms of the trilogy, it’s mostly treading water and wasting 33% of the time Lucas had to tell Anakin’s story.

          • September 29, 2016 at 10:26 pm
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            I just don’t see inciting that story thread with a cherubic child, lacking in perceivable darkness, as particularly good narrative sense. It’s an interesting concept – to document the transformation from complete innocence to total malevolence. But the scope of the narrative never really required that degree of juxtaposition. Anakin Skywalker, well intentioned hero of the Republic, falls prey to his darker impulses while trying to protect his loved ones. That journey didn’t need to start in grammar school in order to be compelling.

          • September 29, 2016 at 10:37 pm
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            Well, Lucas had kids that age at the time, so kinda naturally it was on his mind when he was writing. And the idea is that you start with a sweet, talented kid, who has abandonment and attachment issues but basic good intentions and show how those get manipulated. It’s also a mistake I think to look at his journey as ending in malevolence – Anakin THINKS he’s doing the right thing – it’s another thing I like about what Lucas was doing; bad guys rarely see themselves as bad guys. He made a choice which he felt was the way to save his wife, and save the galaxy, even if it meant making a deal with the devil – it’s all still coming from those places we first see in TPM. It was badly underwritten, almost to the point of being non-existent, clumsily handled, and often tin-eared, but I still think the idea is sound.

          • September 29, 2016 at 11:15 pm
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            I received the character’s origins, and how it informs his later self, pretty well. There’s plenty of subtext: Growing up a slave, being freed, but still having to call his superiors “master”. The guilt of abandoning his mother to servitude in order to gallivant the galaxy. Failing to save his mother’s life and how that obsesses him with protecting Padme’s. Needing parental recognition from a group that can’t provide it, and finding it instead in a figure that tells him his ‘sins’ are actually blessings. All the makings are there. I just fail to see how they wouldn’t have instead been far better initiated with an older character with more life experience.

            Admittedly, my opinion is likely colored by my own biases here. I feel shifting from the original Ep1 draft to a notably younger protagonist was an act of trying to appeal more to that demographic. The maturity level from the early drafts to the feature release does take a fairly noticeable dip. I personally think it was more a marketing decision than a thematic one.

        • September 29, 2016 at 8:31 pm
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          TPM had a pretty… one-dimensional idea of childhood.

        • September 29, 2016 at 8:56 pm
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          The relationship between him and Padme wasn’t done well either (forgetting the whole lack of chemistry and poor lines). Could of done with a false love triangle with Obi-wan, in that Anakin is jealous of his master’s friendship with Padme.

          • September 30, 2016 at 3:54 am
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            I always thought that it was kind of implied that Anakin was jealous of Obi-Wan and Padme being friends, he started to choke her right when he sees that Obi-Wan was on her ship and blamed her for bringing him there to Mustafar. Plus, there were times where Anakin says stuff like was Obi-Wan here?

          • September 30, 2016 at 10:55 am
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            Yes that is true, but it never comes across as grounded. AotC would of been the ideal place to have seeded that jealous side, say in the apartment when the all meet at the start. Anakin is all nervous and Obi-wan is laid back, just one look from Anakin towards Obi-wan as he talks easily with Padme could have shown a jealous nature.

      • September 29, 2016 at 9:39 pm
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        That would require changing the entire arc. It’s easy to say that, but it changes a lot.

        • September 29, 2016 at 11:39 pm
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          True – and wouldn’t be required if he had written how a 9 year old boy actually is. Honestly he behaves more like a 5 year old than a boy at 9.

          • September 29, 2016 at 11:51 pm
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            No argument there.

    • September 29, 2016 at 7:54 pm
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      Yes to this.

  • September 29, 2016 at 2:05 pm
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    All I can say to george is to basically quote rich evans from his half in the bag episode when threatened with the original unaltered version of the movie: Noooooooooooo this isnt my true vision that I keep changing! 😉

  • September 29, 2016 at 2:45 pm
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    That is one annoying video, adding nothing new at all. Good work.

    • September 29, 2016 at 9:21 pm
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      Wasn’t that voice speaking over the video just so easy to listen to and not annoying at all?

  • September 29, 2016 at 6:00 pm
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    I love George, the Charlie Ross interview was such a heartbreak to watch, I felt very much in line with Lucas regarding the execution of 7 and the general direction under Disney. I think the video’s cool, the guy makes a great point about what George was all about, which was to constantly change, improve and mend the industry to his wildest dreams, for which, I will be forever in debt to him.

    • September 29, 2016 at 7:54 pm
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      I don’t feel bad for Lucas. I’m a big Lucas fan, but Star Wars wasn’t pulled out of his hands. He sold it with absolutely no guarantee that future movies would follow his outline. He’s a big boy. He’s not some senile old simpleton that got duped. He knew what he was doing. He absolutely could have just made the sequel movies on his own. But he chose not to.

      • September 29, 2016 at 8:08 pm
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        agreed, doesn’t change the fact that despite receiving ridiculous amount of money for the transaction he seems genuinely heartbroken over 7. shows that in the end of the day, hes not a bussinessman but an artist

        • September 29, 2016 at 8:18 pm
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          Or just someone who’s no longer accustomed to ever being told “no”.

          • September 29, 2016 at 8:22 pm
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            haha true. but then I don’t really think people like George, Steve Jobs or say Bob Dylan should, or in fact, would ever be able to get accustomed to that.

        • September 29, 2016 at 8:19 pm
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          I don’t know. He might be bitter that they didn’t use his treatment, but I have a sneaking suspicion Lucas is more glad to wash his hands of the thing and maybe see a reduction in the number of assholes endlessly whining about him on the intertubes.

        • September 29, 2016 at 9:37 pm
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          He was then. It was all new and fresh. He just needs time.

        • September 29, 2016 at 10:09 pm
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          “…hes not a bussinessman but an artist…”

          Why does he have to be one or the other? The two things are not mutually exclusive. I’d imagine that the vast majority of artists that have ever existed were more than happy to get paid for their work. Shakespeare was as much a businessman as he was an artist. So was Michelangelo. So was Rodin. So on and so forth…

          I think that saying Lucas was “heartbroken” over the direction that his former company took with Star Wars is a bit hyperbolic. Bummed? Sure, why not. But not heartbroken. At least, I’ve never seen evidence to lead me to thinking of him like that.

      • September 29, 2016 at 8:17 pm
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        Yeah, I don’t think anyone said they felt bad for him, just that there is something missing in TFA that we would have had in a Lucas continuation of the saga. Love or hate the result, and he can be fairly blamed for botching the execution, but he always started with ideas and themes that he was intrigued with while writing, and deliberately used the PT to do something different than the OT, and different than what people expected. The 7 we got doesn’t really have any ideas it wants to explore, it’s not really about anything, and it doesn’t have anything going on under the hood apart from ‘make more Star Wars’. It’s fine, but it’s lacking subtext.

        • September 29, 2016 at 10:02 pm
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          I said I didn’t feel bad for Lucas. I wasn’t speaking for anyone else. That being said, plenty of folks have tossed pity in his direction at this and other forums.

          “The 7 we got doesn’t really have any ideas it wants to explore, it’s not really about anything, and it doesn’t have anything going on under the hood apart from ‘make more Star Wars’.”

          That’s entirely a matter of perspective. I got quite a bit out of E7, even if you and others did not. It’s pretty hard to categorically state the movie isn’t about anything. It’s sort of like claiming that a William Carlos Williams poem is meaningless. You might not see anything of value in other. Others are moved to tears.

          • September 29, 2016 at 10:18 pm
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            I said it’s fine; it functions as a piece of fairly disposable entertainment product, but what’s it’s “big idea”? The original SW was Lucas noodling around with ideas about VIetnam, how resistance movements can defeat a superior, occupying force, and thinking about the time he spent talking to Campbell about myth. The PT was him fascinated by how democracies become unwieldy and collapse under charismatic demagogues, and how talented people can make terrible choices for all the right reasons. TFA on the other hand doesn’t really seem to have anything it’s interested in saying. It moves along fine, the cast is completely fantastic, and it’s snappy and shiny, but I find there’s something…hollow about it.

          • September 29, 2016 at 11:39 pm
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            Once again, you having gotten something out of the Classic and Prequel trilogies but not anything out of TFA (other than it being “disposable entertainment”) doesn’t preclude there being anything of substance to the film. Not by a long shot.

            To me, TFA was largely about legacy and identity and how these forces and influences can determine in large part who we become. We see this at work in all the new principal characters in addition to the returning CT characters.

            I also enjoyed elements of the plot that touched upon how quickly we lose our collective memory of horrendous events. The Republic doesn’t seem to have much interest in dealing with the First Order. So little interest, in fact, that the Resistance acts almost as a rogue military splinter group in order to deal with the growing threat. It seems as though the only folks that understand the threat of the First Order are largely those that dealt directly with the Empire. People, we tend to lapse into complacency pretty easy, and TFA plays with that.

            So, yeah, there’s a couple things.

          • October 4, 2016 at 9:21 am
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            i get where youre coming from man, but having said that, i feel like the themes that you’re bring up were minor (at best) elements that COULD have been interesting has they been more prominently explored, however, they were ignored or put to the background in order to focus on familiar beats from a new hope (because apparently the recipe to making a good star wars film is just NOSTAGIA + fixing the problems of the prequels).

            A LOT of fans have commented lately on finding the film to lack substance. I dont think that you should dismiss the opinion of so many others so easily (Just like i’m not dismissing yours…)

            Also, i cant understand how you maybe found the resistance substantial. I felt the opposite. The whole concept and execution felt like an excuse implemented by JJ in order to show the heroes being the underdogs again. It didnt even feel like a story JJ felt like exploring, hence the shoddily-shown “starkiller base blows up the republic home world, then our heroes are rebels again!” storyline.

            I just feel like your attributing “substance” to something that really was just a plot device JJ had in order to reset the galaxy back to “ANH REMAKE! conditions….

          • October 4, 2016 at 4:15 pm
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            I completely disagree. These were thematic elements that pervaded the entire story. I’m not sure how anyone could watch that movie and not see how legacy and identity are working away on some like Kylo Ren or Han Solo. You can call them “minor (at best)”, but that was definitely not my take-away with this movie.

            I’m not dismissing anyone’s opinions. If I were, I wouldn’t come here to talk about this movie. But I certainly don’t agree with many of them. A lot of folks I think are either flat-out wrong or simply being contrary for one reason or another. And a lot of arguments against this movie are just weak and largely a matter of subjection.

            “I just feel like your attributing “substance” to something that really was just a plot device JJ had in order to reset the galaxy back to “ANH REMAKE! conditions….”

            Aren’t all movies just a series a plot devices? Again, film is an art form and largely up to the interpretation of the individual viewer. Just because I saw some interesting thematic elements at work in the movie and you didn’t doesn’t mean they aren’t there. One cannot explain color to the colorblind.

          • October 5, 2016 at 2:56 am
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            Fair enough man. Just because youre trying to convince me that a slice of cake is actually a jellyfish doesnt mean its true either.

            Agree to disagree.

            And ny argument about the plot devices, its kind of like you presenting me with an essay on the thematic reasons why JJ popped a trench run sequence into TFA. sure, you can have a list of reasons, it doesnt mean the real reason isnt because it said so in the A New Hope script.

          • October 5, 2016 at 4:16 am
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            “…its kind of like you presenting me with an essay on the thematic reasons why JJ popped a trench run sequence into TFA.”

            Yeah. Except I didn’t do that.

            “…sure, you can have a list of reasons, it doesnt mean the real reason isnt because it said so in the A New Hope script.”

            And that’s how you discuss a film? I can have my reasons but they can’t be “real” because you feel the movie was lifted straight from the ANH outline? That’s kid stuff, man, kid stuff.

          • October 5, 2016 at 5:16 am
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            Correction. Thats Faraci’s stuff man 🙂

          • October 5, 2016 at 7:13 am
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            Youre twisting my words dude. It was an analogy for how defenders of TFA are coming up with thematic depth to characters and plots that simply arent there, or anywhere as prominent as you are suggesting. And you havent actually come up with an argument against this, instead insulting my analogy.

            This is what i meant by the second line. A person can come up with a thousand deep and meaningful explantations for why something is deep, but that doesnt mean its present.

            Fair enough dude, like i say, this stuff is all about interpretation. Im just tired of JJ/TFA lovers who cant explain or comprehend how or why someone might have had a bad experience with the film.

          • October 5, 2016 at 7:49 pm
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            “…defenders of TFA are coming up with thematic depth to characters and plots that simply arent there…”

            and

            “…this stuff is all about interpretation”

            Well, which is it? You’re contradicting yourself.

            Assuming that folks are “JJ/TFA lovers” just because they enjoyed the movie and found some real value and depth to the story is a bit of an over-exaggeration. And if you’re that tired of the whole thing, why bother visiting Star Wars discussion threads where the movie is discussed? You don’t have to be here. No one is forcing you to read this stuff.

          • September 30, 2016 at 12:29 am
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            TFA is just one film while you are judging the OT and PT on their entirety. For me I like seeing what happens after the “happy ending” and how fairy tales don’t always come true. Plus… it was just a lot of fun.

          • September 30, 2016 at 2:44 am
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            The “big idea” could be this…what happens if a Cold War ends in the detonation of weapons of mass destruction? It’s a Star Warsian look at what our world could’ve looked like if the Russians didn’t back down during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

        • September 29, 2016 at 11:47 pm
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          I wholeheartedly agree. Further, I think Lucas wanted to explore an overarching but innate mythos (good vs. evil, dark vs. light) while crafting a story around a family. To Lucas, the Star Wars universe was a canvass; for Disney, it’s simply to entertain the masses, expand its presence in China, and score high reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

  • September 29, 2016 at 6:15 pm
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    “. . . the movie negated decades of canon Star Wars lore from the Expanded Universe.” The EU was never canon to begin with.

    • September 29, 2016 at 9:36 pm
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      Scream it louder!

  • September 29, 2016 at 6:52 pm
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    I still can’t believe how Lucas felt a 9 year old streetwise slave would talk the way he did in Episode I. My 5 year old has more savvy than Anakin.

    That being said, having young talented actors is fine with the right director, throw in some of the OT cast and it would of great with those other concepts that may or may not be Lucas’s. Episode 7 is pretty good, but was lacking an original arc.

    • September 29, 2016 at 9:22 pm
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      He’s not a slave. He’s a person and his name is Anakin.

      • September 30, 2016 at 12:51 am
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        are you an angel?

        • September 30, 2016 at 6:20 am
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          Try spinning!

    • September 29, 2016 at 9:36 pm
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      Yeah, Luke’s hero journey was very new and fresh.

      • September 29, 2016 at 10:03 pm
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        It had the advantage, in the late ’70s, of not being onscreen in every second release from every studio.

        • September 29, 2016 at 10:18 pm
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          In TFA, we get a villain’s journey, instead. That’s original.

        • September 29, 2016 at 10:18 pm
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          But still familiar. Which is part of why it resonated.

          • September 29, 2016 at 10:21 pm
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            But not so utterly played out was my point. Those stories weren’t playing out at every theater, round the clock in ’77 the way they are right now. SW’s success is very much a product of spectacularly good timing, filling a void that had existed after the Western fell out of fashion.

          • September 29, 2016 at 10:30 pm
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            Right, it wasn’t as heavy as it is now. But the hero’s journey has been pretty basic for a long time. So to accuse TFA of lacking an original arc when ANH also lacked one…

      • September 29, 2016 at 11:33 pm
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        It was for many in that setting. Even with a rehash are you suggesting those concepts mentioned in the video wouldn’t of been more exciting to have seen.

        • September 29, 2016 at 11:53 pm
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          There was nothing really new there if you’ve kept up with Star Wars and Lucas since the beginning. I loved TFA. People always want what never happened, but it doesn’t interest me.

          • September 30, 2016 at 12:45 am
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            I’m so sorry but I missed the start, what with being just 3. It obviously interests you enough to comment though and forums are all about people sharing.

          • September 30, 2016 at 3:48 am
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            What he means is that seeing George’s version of Episode 7 doesn’t interest him. The politics and drama behind it all are very interesting. 🙂

          • September 30, 2016 at 10:56 am
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            Ta

          • September 30, 2016 at 4:47 am
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            You don’t have to been there at the start, but you can go back and read the stuff that was said from before. I was born a year after Empire, but I’ve been reading about Star Wars and Lucas since I could read.

            The video piqued my interest until I saw what it contained, which was nothing new. As for the comments, people say things and I react. That doesn’t mean the video contained anything I found groundbreaking. But it obviously was a lesson for some.

  • September 29, 2016 at 6:55 pm
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    i like the way the Force awakens was made. it was a retro copy of the original but that was because it needed to redeem itself after all those years. poor george. he should still get some chance to be a part of it. i think episode VIII and IX are gonna be the best

    • September 29, 2016 at 9:36 pm
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      He doesn’t want it.

      • October 1, 2016 at 11:45 am
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        He alwys will want it secretly

    • September 30, 2016 at 12:54 am
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      “poor george”? he has complained almost since ANH debuted that star wars has held his life hostage and was preventing him from making his small experimental films that only he and his friends would like.

  • September 29, 2016 at 9:19 pm
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    Shame on you, SWNN! Very misleading.

  • September 30, 2016 at 12:42 am
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    Nitpicking here…but hyperbole & stating opinions-as-facts always frustrates me.

    Re: “made more money than any movie ever (in North America, at least)”
    I realize that many fans wanted TFA to be the top grossing movie ever, but no need to twist words to imply this.
    You could just state – 3rd highest grossing movie ever.

    Re: “Most fans and critics seemed to enjoy the film quite a bit, but there were others who found it derivative”
    Starting with “most fans…” then “but others” found derivative implies as a statement of fact that a only a minority of fans found it derivative.
    Can the author site a source for this?
    Of all people, I would assume it would be the fans who would’ve found it derivative…..based on…well, it BEING derivative. I’m not commenting on the qualities of the movie, but just that it’s rather hard to argue that it’s NOT derivative.
    Also, you can like/love the movie & still find it derivative.
    I found it hard to believe that a majority of fans (as this statement claims) did not find TFA derivative.

    Re: “worried about comparisons to the loathed kid-centric prequels”
    Really?! I find the prequel bashers frequently have to get in jabs about them related to any commentary.
    It’s like they’re not confident enough in their personal opinion ( mostly retro-active dislike for PT ) that they need to inject this, for others to hopefully chime-in agreement, into any topic.
    Also….more importantly(?!)… again this was written as a statement-of-fact, “loathed kid-centric prequels”. Fine that that’s the author’s *opinion* but inaccurate/misleading to state this as if it’s a *fact*. I mean the only real evidence would be the likes of reviews/ratings & box-office take – ALL of which disagree with the prequels as being *loathed*!
    “Freddie Got Fingered”, “Battlefield Earth”, “The Last Airbender” – those are examples of what you could arguably make a statement as fact, as being universally loathed. Prequels? No, sorry…the evidence states otherwise.

    • September 30, 2016 at 12:47 am
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      very well said and thought out. cheers. 🙂

    • September 30, 2016 at 3:46 am
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      Facts state that TFA is the highest grossing domestic film to date. Not Worldwide obviously, Titanic and Avatar take that prize.
      There also comes the problem with the original trilogy and even the prequels having multiple runs in theater. Star Wars was in theater for nearly a whole year where TFA was in theaters for about three months or so. Times have changed in regards to movies but regardless, Going off of the Box Office Mojo records and adjusting for inflation, the original Star Wars trumps the rest but like I said it’s sort of hard to truly judge a film’s quality based off the amount of money it made. If a movie is popular it generally does well that’s all the box office really indicates.

      Critics ratings are a little more credible but then you get the people who loved a movie that the critics hated, and the opposite as well where you hate a film that the critics loved. The critics are more in tune with the quality of films but they are not the end all say all for how good a movie is either. That’s entirely up to each individual to decide. I think it’s fairly rare though where you get a film that is both well liked by most critics and is also liked by general audiences. Which TFA was, there’s no denying that just like there’s no denying that it had a very similar plot to A New Hope, but so did The Phantom Menace and so did KOTOR.

      What’s funny is that people universally love the KOTOR game right? TFA is literally KOTOR set 30 years after RoTJ minus the revelation of Revan being an ex-Sith. KOTOR also follows A New Hope very closely trying to find a map to get to the Star Forge a giant space station that will mean the end of the universe for the good guys. They are just slightly different ways of accomplishing the same goal and same plot. Nobody has a problem with KOTOR and many don’t have a problem with TPM’s plot, but a lot of fans don’t like TFA because it’s too similar. They are all very similar stories, if aesthetics is the only thing that is making people not like one version over the other then that seems like a very shallow reason. I guess that indicates that aesthetics really does have a strong effect on how we perceive a movie.

      The prequels aren’t universally loathed sure, but they are universally considered by both general audiences and critics to not be as well made films as the originals that’s fact, no hiding around it. I think some fans are a little extreme and jump on the “The prequels were horrible train” But you see that for TFA too online.

      • September 30, 2016 at 5:15 am
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        Re: “Facts state that TFA is the highest grossing domestic film to date”
        Understand TFA was highest grossing N.Amer/US box office.
        I’d just suggest – why not state what you did?
        Instead of “made more money than any movie ever” with the N.Amer qualifier tacked on in parenthesis.

        Kind’a like:
        “TFA couldn’t break the top 30 grossing films ever (in **China at least)”
        Unless it’s just a matter of national pride to make the claim, it seems kind’a misleading/tells half the story.

        Re: Derivative
        My point about being derivative was that the article states that a minority of fans think TFA was derivative. So I was questioning the source of that claim, suggesting that it’s more likely a majority of fans would admit TFA was derivative. I mean even the creators have hinted as much that they were going for familiar beats/tone/etc… but I think that even from the staunchest of fans you’ll find recognition that it’s very similar to the likes of ANH.
        Without too much detail/re-hash:
        from an orphan on a desert planet, encountering a hunted droid carrying something vital to the good guys, to being aided by the wise mentor character who dies, good guy’s planet tragically destroyed & massive super weapon is destroyed following against-the-odds rag-tag mission & trench run by ace pilot who destroys said weapon…oh, & a hero awakening to power in the Force.
        I never finished KOTOR, but I’m not certain that the importance of the map in the plot comes anywhere near as close to story beat similarity between ANH & TFA.
        [ Side note: glad you reminded me of KOTOR, re-purchased for PC a while back & need to finish that game! ]
        One could write a fairly detailed “movie outline” (major story beats/character arc/traits) & not tell the difference if it was TFA or ANH. The same cannot be said for any of the previous 6 SW movies.
        Again, someone (myself included!) can really like/enjoy TFA & find it derivative at the same time. This wasn’t mean as an attack on TFA, just questioning the author’s claim & decision to (inaccurately, imho) compare/contrast a “majority of fans” with the *derivative* conclusion.

        Re: reviews/critics, fan popularity & “loathed”
        I think we’re in agreement that this is subjective.
        My point was that about the only somewhat objective measure of whether a movie is liked/loved vs loathed would be: 1) reviews 2) box office take
        I tossed a few examples there of what some examples of movies that most likely a vast majority of people would agree to labelling as “loathed”.
        You wrote:
        “The prequels aren’t universally loathed sure”
        You seem to agree with the point I made & my questioning of the article’s statement.
        You wrote:
        “considered by both general audiences and critics to not be as well made films as the originals”
        The author didn’t say this, though.

        My post was just expressing my disagreement with using hyperbole or making statements/misstatements to inject an *opinion* which is being stated as if it were *fact*.

        **Note: source wikipedia, shows TFA as #33 in China

      • October 1, 2016 at 9:19 am
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        Okay, i think you are missing the point, and kind of misrepresenting the argument here, mr moderator.

        You seem to be suggesting that the force awakens only borrows from ANH on one level, the broad strokes of the plot. The Force Awakens largely borrows from A New Hope, at least in some way, on MANY, if not ALL levels. From the heroes (New Luke, New Obi-wan, New pirate Yoda, New Mon montha), villains (new vader and new palpatine), planets (New tattooine, death star on hoth, a 5 minute walk past the ewoks to maz kanatas castle), scene composition (snoke-kylo is the exact same scene as palpatines first scene in the OT, Han’s death is obiwans death in a different context) and overall creative composition (apparently there has been no evolution in the star wars world. still just using xwings and star destroyers. Even thought there was a similar gap in time between TPM-ANH then there was in ROTJ-TFA, in one, we see a radical change in technology, in the other, almost none.)

        Im not a gamer and havent played KOTOR, but as for TPM, its plot is definately similar to ANH in a broad-strokes kind of a way, but so much of the details in the film are completely original. Tattooine is the only non-original planet. All the ships are new.

        Now that doesnt mean it sucks. You have to decide for yourself whether or not a sense of originality is important to you in a SW film. For a lot of people, the overwhelming nostaligia didnt disguise this problem, and how a lot of people feel like the plotting decisions that JJ made to “reset” back into ANH positions ultimately undermine the characters and story of the original trilogy. And other people loved the film. It was exactly what they wanted.

        • October 1, 2016 at 11:50 am
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          The force awakens definitely uses many broad derivative elements as a new hope. Especially in pacing and beat. But so many examples you used sounded like you desperately grasping for straws. As if you needed to bolster and justify your anger over it not being different enough.

          “Walking past ewoks (setting) to get to maz’s bar”? Cmon, so cause of trees being in the background that’s makes it sterile or derivative?

          Oh and love your example for scene structure. Kylo killing Han is a rip from the Vader killing obi-wan? Except in a different context, making your point invalid by own admission. The scene didn’t even look like it, wasn’t paced like it, had a complete different tone and dramatic weight/resonance. So it bugged you cause it had a bad guy killing a good guy? Derivative only in the fact that almost any movie or story will share such details.

          New mon mothma? Except it’s just an older woman as the head of a movement. Straws so much grasping. And another thing that bugged me about your tirade was being mad that they still used x-wings. Yet it literally makes the most sense it could. Your a broke ass resistance, living in a stagnant galaxy where no progress has really been made in advancing, where it kinda seems obvious everyone is poor (hell probably the best ships in the galaxy owned by the republic managed to just cover a couple planets and got torched). So what would an ex leader of the rebellion use for ships? Probably whatever the hell they could scrounge up easily from said rebellion.

          So as much as you rattled on, and yes there are obvious similarities, and I wish they veered off more…your tirade just kinda made me laugh. Cause I feel it’s what most people who over complicate movies such as this do…ya get a negative opinion about a couple things, then grab for straws to try and justify your opinion even harder.

          • October 1, 2016 at 12:55 pm
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            Perhaps i shoulda better articulated the points, i was struggling for time.

            Dude, the point about the maz kanata planet is that it isnt original in star wars. Weve seen a similar planet before. Its not grasping at straws. Think about every single previous star wars film before now, and the new environments they provided.

            1. ANH desert planet, imperial base, underground rebel base.
            2. ESB. Snow planet, cloud planet.
            3 ROTJ forrest planet.
            4 TPM rennesance planet, city planet.
            5 AOTC water planet
            6 ROTS volcano planet, a variety of original planets in the order 66 montage such as the plant planet.
            7 TFA _____________

            thats not grasping at straws bruh.

            Now the xwings thing. Yes the rebels are using old xwings. why the hell is there another rebellion again? Oh thats right, not for a good story reason, but because JJ needed to set it back to the ANH status quo. the idea of the republic being this organisation in the distance that gets destroyed by starkiller base is stupid.

            And now, the big one. You not understanding the similaritiez between han/kylo and anakin/obiwan kinda makes you look dumb bro. The main older mentor to the younger lead characters confronts his old good turned evil son/friend, and is killed with a lightsaber in front of said lead character. HOW DO U NOT GET THIS LOL.

            look, this is stuff i brought up in the moment specifically to do with comparing film symmetry (tpm/anh) to borderline plagerism (tfa/anh). Im not calling it a shit movie. Theres a lot i like about it. But as a filmmaker and writer, dont tell me im grasping at straws for looking past forcefed nostalgia and identifying structural and writing issues with a film i saw 5 times at the cinema.

        • October 2, 2016 at 7:57 am
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          I agree that it’s all subjective but your argument doesn’t make sense to me talking about originality. If we’re talking originality of plot, then TFA and TPM are both guilty of borrowing heavily from the OT. If we’re talking originality of aesthetics only, then TPM wins compared to TFA. However, I don’t equate aesthetics originality to making a film better in quality, especially with sequels or prequels to a well known film series.

          I think Lucas messed up by making the technology designs drastically different between the prequels and the OT as it’s not as believable. Granted, they go from a sort of free Galactic Capitalistic society to a complete and utter dictatorship, so things would definitely change pretty drastically on the worlds controlled by the Republic/Empire in between the 19 or so years, they would definitely have a much more wore torn and oppressed look to them. Would their technology change drastically though?

          For example, if you have the technology for AI battledroids or genetically modified clones 19-30 years ago why would you ever want to go back to the old fashioned recruit and train regular soldiers method? That just seems silly to me, TFA was kind of forced to do that because the First Order is an extension of the Empire from the OT. Some more examples, in Episode 2 we see missiles that fly in and out of asteroids to try and hit a target, as well as the Hailfire missiles that home and blow up a AT-TE in one shot. It sure would have been nice to have some of those missiles when the Rebels were trying to blow up the first Death Star. You can explain in canon somewhere that maybe, the Empire lost all technical data on the CIS technology but that seems ridiculous. Then the design for the AT-TE, lower cnter of gravity, rear cannons, turret on top with 360 degree rotation is a much more practical design than that of the AT-AT. Then in Episode 3 the Republic has basically early X-Wings???? Why didn’t they just keep using the ARC-170s??? They are apparently better designed ships than the TIEs and they couldn’t have cost that much more to make than TIEs. This decision to have seemingly better technology 19-30 years earlier, which conveniently disappears for the OT, was a poor choice in my eyes. Whatever though, that’s my take on the technology and design aesthetics for the prequels versus the Originals.

          So, yes we got new designs in the prequels but it doesn’t make sense to me the decision to make those designs superior. Sure, you could argue that the OT was limited on the time they were made but still in 30 years how much has our technology really changed in real life? 30 years from now how much do you think technology will change? Do you think it will change drastically like it did between the prequels and the OT? and if we were as advanced as they are in Star Wars how much do you think would change over just a period of 60 years? Remember this a class 3 civilization we are talking about here. So, to me it makes more sense that we’d see a more gradual change in technology like we saw in TFA from RoTJ than we saw from TPM to ANH. That’s just my opinion on the technology aspect. Once again, if we’re talking purely aesthetics then yeah those ships were all new, and so were the battledroids, and many of the worlds.

          I don’t believe a change in aesthetics should have that much of an effect on people’s opinions on whether they like or dislike a sequel/prequel more. Lucas could have made those prequel ships and worlds look very similar to the OT designs and would that have made people appreciate and like them more than the originals? Or Lucasfilm could have just as easily made TFA look more like the prequels and have entirely new ship and locations but would that have made the film drastically better?

          • October 4, 2016 at 8:50 am
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            Cool, you’re taking one thing i mentioned about the technology component and trying to make it seem as though it was my entire argument.

            Firstly, TPM and TFA DO NOT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD EQUALLY BORROW FROM ANH.

            Menace borrows on a broad level. Its details, in both technology, characters, planets, story beats and set pieces are LARGELY ORIGINAL AND UNIQUE TO THE FILM.

            TFA borrows on MULTIPLE LEVELS: planets, characters, individual story beats, technology, set pieces and art design.

            Like, watch at 1:02:40 of this, and then actually read the multiple points i said instead of one or two, and see how you feel about the film:

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miVRaoR_8xQ

          • October 5, 2016 at 12:14 am
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            No, I am making an argument stating that TFA is not very different from ANH or TPM besides aesthetics. A fact which you are continuing to ignore but whatever.

            I’ve already watched that and I agree a lot with what he said, and the fact that he actually likes TFA much more than the TPM speaks volumes since he is a harsh critic.

          • October 5, 2016 at 2:33 am
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            Cool so lets take aesthetics out for a second. The argument that the prequels, particulary TPM, and TFA arent that different is absolute bullshit. Characters in the phantom menace arent anywhere as derivitive as TFA. Plotwise, TPM shares the desert orphan, and rescuse a princess/queen elements. And, on a broad level, thr “destroy the trade federation mothership” sequence. Most of the other story beats are unique. TFA steals MANY more story beats and characters, and does so in the least subtle ways possible. For example, consider the Anakin/trade fed ship sequence vs ANH vs TFAs “starkiller” trench run sequence. To say TFA and TPM rip off ANH equally is actually laughable.

            At the end of the day, youre making the argument that all im noticing is aesthetics. Youre wrong. I might bring up aesthetics in my argument (we are discussing FILMS) but you seem to continue to glaze over what im saying: to say that TFA and TPM arent too different in the “originality” argument is horse shit.

            Also, as I’ve constantly said, films are subjective. Whether you think a film is plagerised, and whether or not you like it, are NOT mutually exclusive.

            And i havent been making the argument that all of a sudden the prequels are good. The prequels have big flaws. But i thought they were brave, big swings, just like previous star wars films, but these ones unfortunately didnt hit.

            But TFA? i thought it was lazy, i thought it was star wars-lite, and worse of all, it lacked a reason for existance. It was like a hollywood generic blockbuster in star wars pajamas. Its my opinion, so dont feel the need to diss it.

            At the end of the day, the fact that this film is so divisive is worrying. Do you not honestly think that Lucasfilm could have made a film that would have appealed to YOU and ME? i think they could have, but they were too interested in playing it safe. And playing it safe goes against the spirit of star wars.

          • October 5, 2016 at 8:58 am
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            It’s not divisive, it’s only divisive for those who make it divisive.

            I honestly think that it is not possible for Lucasfilm to make a film that would appeal to you and me. As everybody has different preferences and ideas that they’d like to see in a Star Wars movie. I liked the echoing and the similarity with the OT, you didn’t like that.

            Pretty much everybody loved TFA except for the small vocal internet using minority, and even then there are still plenty of people who enjoyed it. All you have to look at is the poll for people on this site, (who are even more critical than casual audiences) to see that it was loved by many even 7 months after release.

            I’m sorry you thought it was lazy/bad but just know that you are in the minority of those who didn’t enjoy the film as a whole which is fine.

          • October 5, 2016 at 3:48 pm
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            Im just gonna recuse myself now. We’re not getting anywhere and to be honest, you seem to think im biased, and i kinda feel the same about you. At the end of the day, you arent gonna be able to convince me that JJ is a demi god who made a perfect film with no similarities to the force awakens, and im not gonna convince you thst he made a safe, by the numbers generic blockbuster with some star wars things in it.

            Thatll teach me to engage with people outside of my demographic! Have a good one dude, hope you continue to get whatever you hope for out of star wars films. Maybe ill stick to rebels, filoni seems to get it ☺

            Have a good one 🙂

        • October 2, 2016 at 8:04 am
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          I posted a long comment to your response, but it’s not showing up lol

  • September 30, 2016 at 7:06 am
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    Thank GOD the new Trilogy was not made by George. I thank George for creating Star Wars – but glad he is in no way a part of it’s future.

  • September 30, 2016 at 3:52 pm
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    That video has taught us nothing at all and like the rest of us knows nothing about George Lucas’ sequel trilogy concepts. The criticism leveled at Lucas by who-knows-who because we haven’t heard officially – that his plot treatments were discarded by Disney because they focused on youngsters? Both Rey and Finn are young, and they weren’t considered obstacles to appealing to fans. Luke and Leia were both barely past their teens. This is likely the age group of the new characters Lucas had in mind, surely?

    • October 2, 2016 at 9:43 pm
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      He could have chosen to focus on Luke training younglings,,,

  • September 30, 2016 at 5:02 pm
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    I’m sure at some point in the future, the Lucas treatment will leak out. No one knows if it would have been better or worse. Anything that would have reunited the big 3 in a sequel would have done the same kind of money whether it was a Lucas version or a Disney version.

    We got TFA, and most found it enjoyable..there are a few such as myself that wanted something much different but we can’t change that. I rest my hopes that episode 8 will right what I feel was a let down in 7.

    I personally would have loved more of an EU version with Thrawn still alive.

  • September 30, 2016 at 6:17 pm
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    Leave George alone. He gave us the story, he is retired, enough is enough. All SW movies gave us something imporant and you know it. Let’s move on shall we?

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