. However the prequels do not get a pass just because Lucas worked on them.
Thats really not the motivation. I really don't care about the person just the result.
Minus jar jar the first prequel was a pretty good start. The other two just did nothing to explain or justify darth vader falling. Well My mom died, so now i slaughter all the jedi kids... wait.. what?
I liked the first sequel, a lot. Yes, it was derivitive, but it looked like SUCH a good start...Ok, you can make a starwars movie. Now can you GO anywhere with it... apparently not.
One made no sense. The other was.. actively nonsense? Deliberately wrong? It was the difference between I don't care and YOU shouldn't care about this.
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Mandalorian was Favreau's project from the beginning. Filoni was more likely brought in to be Jon's deep lore geek and to also get Filoni experience with live action and level him up for bigger things in the future solo. Though both spin offs are developed by both of them. If you look at the writer for the Mandalorian episodes, most of actually written by Favreau.
Favreau worked on CLONE WARS as well, voicing Pre Vizsla (recruited by Filoni, actually).
dislike the sequels all you like. They aren't my favorite movies. However the prequels do not get a pass just because Lucas worked on them.
The difference between the prequels and sequels IMO feels like in unity of ideas. So the PT has an over-arcing, pre-planned storyline and theme. The three films are telling one story and building to one moment and the immediate aftermath. The art design is also exceptional.
The problem is that the execution is dreadful. The scripts are awful. The dialogue is awful. The editing is often surprisingly awful (given this is Lucas's key strength from his earlier career). The actors, even exceptionally good ones, are often given so little to work with, that they are also awful (especially Portman, McGregor and Jackson), with a few noble exceptions (Neeson and McDiarmid, although the latter also seems to sometimes deal with the scripts by turning into a shrieking panto dame which is entertaining in a camp fashion, but not dramatically satisfying). The CG is impressive in quality but completely overloaded in quantity.
So with the PT the pre-planning and theme and visuals and over-arcing story are all pretty good, they are just executed poorly.
With the ST you have the opposite problem. The dialogue is stronger, the humour works (most of the time), the actors are allowed to breathe and give much better performances and the moment-to-moment, scene-to-scene direction is much, much better. The CG is more restrained and more believable. The problem is that there is no pre-planned, over-arcing storyline. Each writer/director was allowed to basically just do what the hell they wanted without a strong central vision with a firm grip on the tiller. If Rian Johnson was in charge of all three films with one story he'd conceived and been able to execute, you'd have a cohesive, non-self-contradicting story. People might still have issues with it, but it'd be at least coherent. Instead, mixing and matching directors and writers who seemed eager to overwrite what happened in the film before resulted in a trilogy that lurched from one story point to another without any kind of forethought or narrative ambition. Stuff just happens without much rhyme or reason.
The only thing in the ST that feels like it even halfway works it the Rey/Ren relationship and storyline, which (more or less) tracks from one film to the next to the last. Everything else feels like an RPG campaign where 3 DMs have run the same game with the same characters but they completely disagree about where the story's going (and the 3rd DM quits five seconds into his job, forcing the 1st DM to come back and throw out all his plans but has nothing to replace them so starts free-wheeling on the spot despite having the improvisational skills of a tree). Oh, and there's far too much rote repeating of things and motifs from earlier movies rather than doing their own thing.
It feels like the ST is built on the Marvel template - give each writing/directing team the freedom to do what they want in the context of a larger universe - but they forgot that pre-Infinity War/Endgame, none of the Marvel films actually formed a tight, multi-movie storyline. With a more serialised story, that template simply does not work as well (and Marvel bring back the same writing/directing team, where they can, for successive movies in the various sub-series).
I think the value of the PT and ST's distinct weaknesses will vary a lot for different people. Some people will forgive awful dialogue and direction as long as the story makes sense, so they'll favour the PT, whilst others will forgive story lapses if the moment-to-moment dialogue and acting is better, so they'll favour the ST. And lots of people will look at the weaknesses in both and dislike all of it.
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Everything else feels like an RPG campaign where 3 DMs have run the same game with the same characters but they completely disagree about where the story's going
And the second DM didn't read the rules on hyperspace....
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The prequels are the perfect example as to why gamers never flesh out their character's mom.
It is sad that he passed away the day mandalorian season 2 ended.
May he rest peacefully.
Today's episode.
Mind. Blown.
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WHAT AN ENDING
I take back almost every bad thing I said about the Disney Star Wars films over the past three years.
My only problem.....
Since sabine found the darksaber, and did not get it via combat herself, she doesn't really own it.
OOO.. this ones actually in rebels
When Sabine related that she did not obtain the Darksaber in a fight, Ursa responded that her daughter's ownership of the weapon was disputed due to the circumstances of its acquisition.Wookiepedia
Sabine is a minor and doesn't count (to prevent a 12 year old from regiciding someone in their sleep and becoming mandalore)
You can pass the darksaber to a regent/ overlord without fighting? Whats the clan flow chart look like?
I mean they could just schedule a non lethal fight somewhere and have it out. IT clearly doesn't have to be to the death.
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I mean they could just schedule a non lethal fight somewhere and have it out. IT clearly doesn't have to be to the death.
Yeah, a nice round of beer pong and good to go. :)
Or a duel, only Din loans her the Beskar spear so it doesn't suck to bad for her.
I laughed when the dark trooper tried to squish his head. "Oh no, not again!"
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But for real if we could just pick up with the next star wars movies moving on from Nandalorain instead of 7,8,9. I would be fine with that.
Guns jammed
whack. whack
works better this way
But for real if we could just pick up with the next star wars movies moving on from Nandalorain instead of 7,8,9. I would be fine with that.
Not happening, lol.
I don't think they will undo 7, 8, 9. But they could sort of back door 6.5, 6.6, 6.7 and give us a decent set of sequels to Return of the Jedi. They have already recast Han, there are a few good looks for Luke, and an obvious front runner for Leia. We could get several series that cover some of this territory, and then they could go forward into the future post episode 9.
I've seen some interesting casting ideas for picking up with Luke, Leia and Han after the OT in a Mando-era project. Some of these are problematic, most notably the insistence on casting Sebastian Stan as "young" Luke. Stan is 38 now, so by the time any likely project rolled around he'd be almost twenty years older than Luke was in the OT (and correspondingly almost 10 years short of Luke in the ST). He's wearing it well, but I think that makes it unlikely you could use him unless you were going for a very specific time period, say when Luke tried to kill Ben, and frankly you could still use Hamill for that.
The favoured fan casting for Leia seems to be Millie Bobby Brown, who is obviously way too young right now to pick up after the OT (Carrie Fisher was 27 when she filmed RotJ, playing 23; Brown is 16), though some kind of "Young Leia" story on Alderaan could be viable. Give it a decade and you could probably do a solid post-OT-era story with Brown, Ehrenreich returning as Han (who was fine in Solo, but not outstanding; I'd be wary of risking another choice at this juncture), Glover as Lando and a newcomer as Luke.
Incidentally, it just occurred to me that Luke is going to be flying his X-wing back where he came from with Baby Yoda sitting on his lap, which seems a bit dangerous. "Just going to sleep for a bit...leave the proton torpedoes alone!"
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Yeah, they’ve got more than a few awesome characters to choose from going forward, including some we have yet to see in live action. Let’s give the original three heroes a rest.
I’m content to see more Ashoka. Maybe some Ezra Bridger. More Bo (and other Mandalorians). More Boba Fett (here’s hoping we don’t have to start calling him Boba Fatt if he sits on that throne too long). Hell, I might even like to see the adventures of that lady who runs the hanger on Tatooine. She’s awesome.
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It just hit me, in fact. They could do a stand alone series where each episode focuses on some of the other characters they’ve introduced. Maybe one episode with the hanger lady from Tatooine. Another with Timothy Olyphant’s character. Hell, maybe even an episode focusing on a day in the life of the Sand People, or Frog Lady.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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It just hit me, in fact. They could do a stand alone series where each episode focuses on some of the other characters they’ve introduced. Maybe one episode with the hanger lady from Tatooine. Another with Timothy Olyphant’s character. Hell, maybe even an episode focusing on a day in the life of the Sand People, or Frog Lady.
If the Book of Boba Fett is primarily or even partially based on Tatooine (which seems likely), then we could very well get more of hanger lady, the marshal, and sand people.
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The Clone Wars series just blew me completely away. Of course, not every episode is a winner, but the rest make up for the clunkers. Watch Star Wars: Rebels next. It starts out sort of kiddie-oriented but matures as it goes on.
Fun show. I enjoyed the heck out of it. I also got a half-spoiler about the ending (the appearance of Artoo... which strongly implied an appearance of Luke.)
I like Star Wars a whole lot, but I am very far from a super-fan.
And I will never love Star Wars the way I love Star Trek.
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I bet you didn't cry at all, or that you shed that one manly tear you see in movies. I was blubbering like a kid. Grogu's hand on the helmet, then the helmet comes off, then the Child's hand on his cheek... the way his eyes closed in that moment... FEELS!
My eyeballs decided to moisturize around that time, yes. I too was a Star Trek kid growing up, but Star Wars has always been something I have enjoyed. I’m way more invested in these two than any of the trilogy characters however. Maybe it’s the much more personal, gritty journey. Mando is just the lone gunslinger making his way in life, not the chosen hero like Luke.
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I'd really much rather they ignored the big 3 (or left them as guest stars/cameos) and did other Star Wars stuff rather than cramming more into their backstories.
Agreed. Glover's Lando would be my first choice for a spin-off from that generation, rather than Luke, Leia and Han (or Chewie and the Droids, for that matter).
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This show is a really good remake of Shogun Assassin.
In a major way, the show returns to the roots of Star Wars by going back to some of the source material: westerns and samurai movies.
Well, a pretend remake. Ogami always had Daigoro with him, while Mando is constantly finding babysitters.
But adding that Eastern-West Samurai aesthetic is exactly what has been missing from Star Wars for the past five years.
I mean they could just schedule a non lethal fight somewhere and have it out. IT clearly doesn't have to be to the death.
There is a far simpler solution: Din Djarin has basically pledged his service to Bo-Katan, and he will keep his word. So he wields the Dark Saber, and she wields Din Djarin. Bo-Katan has the better weapon.
Agreed. Glover's Lando would be my first choice for a spin-off from that generation, rather than Luke, Leia and Han (or Chewie and the Droids, for that matter).
We are getting a Lando series as well.
I mean, at this point we're getting a spin-off show about just about everyone apart from Sy Snootles and General Veers, and they're probably in negotiations.
Well, a pretend remake. Ogami always had Daigoro with him, while Mando is constantly finding babysitters.
But adding that Eastern-West Samurai aesthetic is exactly what has been missing from Star Wars for the past five years.
Considering The Phantom Menace has none of this, it's been a lot longer than 5 years. The prequels were self-referential, but somehow managed to not reference any of the source material from Star Wars.
Agreed. Glover's Lando would be my first choice for a spin-off from that generation, rather than Luke, Leia and Han (or Chewie and the Droids, for that matter).We are getting a Lando series as well.
I mean, at this point we're getting a spin-off show about just about everyone apart from Sy Snootles and General Veers, and they're probably in negotiations.
The ice cream machine guy spinoff is going to be epic!
Considering The Phantom Menace has none of this, it's been a lot longer than 5 years. The prequels were self-referential, but somehow managed to not reference any of the source material from Star Wars.
Qui-Gon was pretty much a samurai warrior on a mission for the Shogun, accompanied by a younger, more callow apprentice.
I mean, at heart throughout all six of his Star Wars movies, Lucas was just writing Kurosawa fanfic. And that's not a bad thing.
I would disagree.
I would agree that in Ep 4, this was definitely true. EP 1-3, there was no Kurosawa fanfic. No one should insult Kurosawa by saying that 1-3 were tributes to his movies. I am fully aware of all of the elements Lucas took from Hidden Fortress for Ep 4. I am also fully aware of precisely how he abandoned those tropes in the prequels.
Considering The Phantom Menace has none of this, it's been a lot longer than 5 years. The prequels were self-referential, but somehow managed to not reference any of the source material from Star Wars.Well, a pretend remake. Ogami always had Daigoro with him, while Mando is constantly finding babysitters.
But adding that Eastern-West Samurai aesthetic is exactly what has been missing from Star Wars for the past five years.
Bullcrapola. Lots of jedi walking around acting like samurai.
I would disagree.
I would agree that in Ep 4, this was definitely true. EP 1-3, there was no Kurosawa fanfic. No one should insult Kurosawa by saying that 1-3 were tributes to his movies. I am fully aware of all of the elements Lucas took from Hidden Fortress for Ep 4. I am also fully aware of precisely how he abandoned those tropes in the prequels.
There are direct scene tributes in the PT to Kurosawa. In Revenge of the Sith, Kenobi looking down at Anakain from the ramp of Padme's ship before their final duel is identical to a shot of Mifune in the early part of The Hidden Fortress.
The Phantom Menace is also much more of a direct match to The Hidden Fortress than the original Star Wars: a wisened general (Mifune/Neeson) works to escape enemy territory alongside a young princess (Uehara/Portman) so she might save her people. Along the way there is subterfuge involving the princess and her handmaid (Keira Knightley's character in Phantom, the short-lived Corde in Clones).
There are also strong stylistic similarities between Phantom Menace and Kagemusha (ironically, a movie co-funded by Lucas) through its use of decoys and doubles, with Lucas ultimately using the translation of the title (The Shadow War) as an episode of The Clone Wars.