I was so happy to see Han when he got there...and then they wanted me to believe all that nonsense about he and Leia being apart and that he wouldn't take a purported map to Luke to Leia. That was the exact moment the movie started to come apart for me. Bad enough they were already claiming that he was back smuggling and lousy at it (I saw someone on a comment thread call Han the Jack Sparrow of Star Wars - seriously?), and lose the Falcon. Okay...
But not get to Leia with news about Luke?
The whole OT's foundation is the friendship of Luke, Han and Leia. That it becomes family ties and love at the end, no matter what, they are still friends with each other, a friendship that stands up through torture, carbon freeze, battle after battle, revelation after revelation...and now you want me to believe this?
The OT & PT work because Lucas is an actual storyteller, who synthesized myth and all these disparate strands of moviemaking into a whole. He has a vision and a story he wants to tell. He also understands that some of the strongest relationships are between friends - Obi Wan and Qui Gon, Obi Wan and Anakin, Luke, Han and Leia. There's love in the mix too, but those foundations drive a lot of the movies.
The ST is a remix. It's Kasdan trying to resurrect his past glory and Abrams, who never met a fandom he couldn't hack apart (don't start me on Trek), deciding that the only way to make a SW movie is to...make Ep IV and switch up the parts. They don't have a vision outside of redoing the parts that they think signify "Star Wars movie" - so a Death Star, some X-Wings, a villain in a mask and cape (why???). So we'll have a boy and girl meet and then have them bicker - no, until Harrison got hurt, that was the plan for Rey and Finn. We'll kill our pilot off early - because Poe was supposed to die in the crash. Then we won't even have a trio - which, they don't really, since Poe never meets Rey. We'll make Han play himself and Obi Wan/Qui Gon, because someone who's a known star has to die, apparently, for it to be a SW movie (and throw his death scene away - because Abrams was quoted that oh, people are not concerned Han died, they're concerned that Kylo is now dark forever. I don't know who those people are but I certainly wasn't one of them).
We'll make the villain the son this time, won't that be wonderful? Yeah, because I really want to see a SW movie where Han and Leia's child will probably be killed by Luke's child (not that I won't cheer when KRen bites the dust). Who apparently Luke left in a desert, because apparently SW movie also means we get a desert planet. Meanwhile, we'll turn Luke into Yoda, because that's what old Jedi do.
And once we've completely destroyed the growth and love of the OT 3 by ripping them apart and turning them back to who they were in Ep IV, and make their kids oppose each other, please enjoy Luke and Leia having to redeem Han's killer, just because he's their kid. Because you know that's coming.
Lucas had a story to tell, a vision, and the ability to tell a visual story. Every time I see "oh, look at the parallels btw the OT and the ST" comparison GIF sets on Tumblr, I just think..."Yeah, Abrams can rip off something if he looks at it long enough." It's not a parallel, it's a ripoff.
And not one scene has the power of the binary sunset shot. Not one. And there's no narrative flow between the OT and ST. Those six movies tell you a cohesive story. I don't get the story the ST is going to tell me. And all the people going "oh, it's just part 1" - well, part 1 didn't do enough for me that I care. If Luke and Leia weren't in 8 and 9, I wouldn't be going. And if Luke doesn't make it out of 8? I'll be thinking very hard about 9.
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I was so happy to see Han when he got there...and then they wanted me to believe all that nonsense about he and Leia being apart and that he wouldn't take a purported map to Luke to Leia. That was the exact moment the movie started to come apart for me. Bad enough they were already claiming that he was back smuggling and lousy at it (I saw someone on a comment thread call Han the Jack Sparrow of Star Wars - seriously?), and lose the Falcon. Okay...
But not get to Leia with news about Luke?
The whole OT's foundation is the friendship of Luke, Han and Leia. That it becomes family ties and love at the end, no matter what, they are still friends with each other, a friendship that stands up through torture, carbon freeze, battle after battle, revelation after revelation...and now you want me to believe this?
The OT & PT work because Lucas is an actual storyteller, who synthesized myth and all these disparate strands of moviemaking into a whole. He has a vision and a story he wants to tell. He also understands that some of the strongest relationships are between friends - Obi Wan and Qui Gon, Obi Wan and Anakin, Luke, Han and Leia. There's love in the mix too, but those foundations drive a lot of the movies.
The ST is a remix. It's Kasdan trying to resurrect his past glory and Abrams, who never met a fandom he couldn't hack apart (don't start me on Trek), deciding that the only way to make a SW movie is to...make Ep IV and switch up the parts. They don't have a vision outside of redoing the parts that they think signify "Star Wars movie" - so a Death Star, some X-Wings, a villain in a mask and cape (why???). So we'll have a boy and girl meet and then have them bicker - no, until Harrison got hurt, that was the plan for Rey and Finn. We'll kill our pilot off early - because Poe was supposed to die in the crash. Then we won't even have a trio - which, they don't really, since Poe never meets Rey. We'll make Han play himself and Obi Wan/Qui Gon, because someone who's a known star has to die, apparently, for it to be a SW movie (and throw his death scene away - because Abrams was quoted that oh, people are not concerned Han died, they're concerned that Kylo is now dark forever. I don't know who those people are but I certainly wasn't one of them).
We'll make the villain the son this time, won't that be wonderful? Yeah, because I really want to see a SW movie where Han and Leia's child will probably be killed by Luke's child (not that I won't cheer when KRen bites the dust). Who apparently Luke left in a desert, because apparently SW movie also means we get a desert planet. Meanwhile, we'll turn Luke into Yoda, because that's what old Jedi do.
And once we've completely destroyed the growth and love of the OT 3 by ripping them apart and turning them back to who they were in Ep IV, and make their kids oppose each other, please enjoy Luke and Leia having to redeem Han's killer, just because he's their kid. Because you know that's coming.
Lucas had a story to tell, a vision, and the ability to tell a visual story. Every time I see "oh, look at the parallels btw the OT and the ST" comparison GIF sets on Tumblr, I just think..."Yeah, Abrams can rip off something if he looks at it long enough." It's not a parallel, it's a ripoff.
And not one scene has the power of the binary sunset shot. Not one. And there's no narrative flow between the OT and ST. Those six movies tell you a cohesive story. I don't get the story the ST is going to tell me. And all the people going "oh, it's just part 1" - well, part 1 didn't do enough for me that I care. If Luke and Leia weren't in 8 and 9, I wouldn't be going. And if Luke doesn't make it out of 8? I'll be thinking very hard about 9.