Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens

[Deftscythe]

A lot of people attribute the drop in quality for dialogue/directing to two factors. First, during the original trilogy Lucas was this unproven guy so the studio and those surrounding him(producers, cast, etc) had no problem questioning what he did and giving him advice, whereas for the prequels he was looked at as this infallible movie god and allowed to do whatever without input. Remember that if he'd had his way in the 70s, Luke would've been an old man and Han would've been a lizard.

Secondly, his wife was supposedly a big humanizing factor for him during 4-6. She got people much better than Lucas and shared the insight with him. Also, I'm not going to go so far as to say being bitter over his divorce caused the romance in episode two to be weird and unbelievable, but it wouldn't surprise me.

[ronin sparthos]

What is the one binding thread that all of those scenes have in common? They're all unpolished ideas that were transposed directly to the script without any filtering.

Lucas is an idea guy. He comes up with good ideas but he needs people to weave those ideas into his scripts. As the prequels so aptly demonstrated, he has no idea how to communicate this ideas subtly so we ended up with very robotic scenes. Death sticks? Really? 'Smoking is bad' could have been played for humor rather than the almost PSA-tier scene we got there. Let the audience figure out what you want to communicate. It's more fun that way.

The prequels wanted to make alot of real world commentary. On politics, schemers, love, religious orders and Lucas' own politics but without the proper writers to keep the whole thing level, we got a lopsided mess. It's bad symbolism when you're throwing the shit directly in the audiences face.

I'm sure JJ will pare down the new trilogy and make it easy enough for even the derpiest derp to understand (like 1-3) for better or worse. I expect like Star Trek to hear endless bitching about how Star Wars is now for idiots rather than cultured nerds. I direct such nerds to Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan.

[Deftscythe]

Not to derail, but people who complain about the reboot movies not being in the spirit of Star Trek must have never watched the old movies. Aside from Star Trek: The Motion Picture all of the Star Trek movies have been sci-fi action, rather than being about exploration and diplomacy like the series.

[kuronosan]

I think because of the limitations of CGI it made focusing on story elements easier. These days the action takes front seat because it's easier to do large sequences on a computer.

[Rulke]

Not to derail, but people who complain about the reboot movies not being in the spirit of Star Trek must have never watched the old movies. Aside from Star Trek: The Motion Picture all of the Star Trek movies have been sci-fi action, rather than being about exploration and diplomacy like the series.

And people complained that ST: The Motion Picture felt too much like an extended series show at the time too, and not like a movie /shurg. Movie going crowd is often different than those who follow a particular series. Anyway, back to SW.

[ronin sparthos]

I only mentioned the ST reboot because at the end of the day the original Star Wars was a pretty simple as fuck adventure story about good and evil. At least until layers upon layers of awful CGI and ham-fisted politics took center stage in the prequels and subsequent re-releases.

So if the new trilogy is storywise simple, doesn't involve much in the way of deep introspection and comes off as 'dumb action movie' to some critics I'd be pleased. Spare me the excessive fanservice and keep the deep thinking to the realm of Expanded Universe entries.

Also, I liked the prequel saberbattles. To an extent.

[Deftscythe]

Prequel fights were all too sterile. They looked like exhibitions with no emotional context. I'll take Luke artlessly hammering at Vader any day.

[kuronosan]

Huh? The 1-3 fights were all neutered choreography with next to no emotion that went for style over substance.

They could have done a lot with the Jedi fight in 2, but instead opted to just have thousands of sabers on screen for nothing.

[Amiricle]

A lot of people attribute the drop in quality for dialogue/directing to two factors. First, during the original trilogy Lucas was this unproven guy so the studio and those surrounding him(producers, cast, etc) had no problem questioning what he did and giving him advice, whereas for the prequels he was looked at as this infallible movie god and allowed to do whatever without input. Remember that if he'd had his way in the 70s, Luke would've been an old man and Han would've been a lizard.

Secondly, his wife was supposedly a big humanizing factor for him during 4-6. She got people much better than Lucas and shared the insight with him. Also, I'm not going to go so far as to say being bitter over his divorce caused the romance in episode two to be weird and unbelievable, but it wouldn't surprise me.

What is the one binding thread that all of those scenes have in common? They're all unpolished ideas that were transposed directly to the script without any filtering.

Lucas is an idea guy. He comes up with good ideas but he needs people to weave those ideas into his scripts. As the prequels so aptly demonstrated, he has no idea how to communicate this ideas subtly so we ended up with very robotic scenes. Death sticks? Really? 'Smoking is bad' could have been played for humor rather than the almost PSA-tier scene we got there. Let the audience figure out what you want to communicate. It's more fun that way.

The prequels wanted to make alot of real world commentary. On politics, schemers, love, religious orders and Lucas' own politics but without the proper writers to keep the whole thing level, we got a lopsided mess. It's bad symbolism when you're throwing the shit directly in the audiences face.

I'm sure JJ will pare down the new trilogy and make it easy enough for even the derpiest derp to understand (like 1-3) for better or worse. I expect like Star Trek to hear endless bitching about how Star Wars is now for idiots rather than cultured nerds. I direct such nerds to Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan.

I think These 2 posts sum up the reason quite well for the massive discrepancy between the 2 trilogies.

[Tyrath]

I enjoyed the darth maul vs obi wan and quigon fight at the end of 1. That's about it though

[Andalusian girls]

best lightsaber fight of the series no doubt

[Cichy]

I enjoyed the darth maul vs obi wan and quigon fight at the end of 1. That's about it though

best fight in the entire franchise

[samalis]

All this talk about darth vs obi wan and qui gon reminded me of this

[Vaspinne]

All this talk about darth vs obi wan and qui gon reminded me of this

Man, I love this fight especially with the Duel of Fates playing in the background. But oh god this video lol

[Zeb]

Man, I love this fight especially with the Duel of Fates playing in the background. But oh god this video lol

Duel of the Fates? You mean Corn on the Cob?

[kuronosan]

best fight in the entire franchise

wat

[jimbobsonofgod]

Duel of the Fates? You mean Corn on the Cob?

I now hate you.
That is all I will hear from now on when I hear that song.....
YOU SUCK.

[Cail]

Duel of the Fates was the best part of I-III

[Palin]

A lot of people attribute the drop in quality for dialogue/directing to two factors. First, during the original trilogy Lucas was this unproven guy so the studio and those surrounding him(producers, cast, etc) had no problem questioning what he did and giving him advice, whereas for the prequels he was looked at as this infallible movie god and allowed to do whatever without input. Remember that if he'd had his way in the 70s, Luke would've been an old man and Han would've been a lizard.

Secondly, his wife was supposedly a big humanizing factor for him during 4-6. She got people much better than Lucas and shared the insight with him. Also, I'm not going to go so far as to say being bitter over his divorce caused the romance in episode two to be weird and unbelievable, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Add a 3rd, he was lazy as fuck and wanted to do everything in his stuido in London. EVERYTHING had to be CGI because he didn't want to go on location to any place. When every actor is in front of a green screen 24/7, you're going to lose something.

[Moss]