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Never forget J.J. & TFA is what got us here

posted 7 years ago by Threadkiller (3089)
11 replies | jump to latest

A surprisingly objective early article of TFA. Still a bit too forgiving IMO but way more honest than most of the delusional hype fever & shilling was at it's peak.

https://thestir.cafemom.com/movies/194238/star_wars_the_force_awakens

Why set the movie 30 years into the future, if we’re going to start back from the beginning again? We went through so much with Han, Luke, and Leia -- not to mention Chewy, Yoda, Obi-Wan, and so many others -- in those first three brilliant movies. Over the span of six years, with each episode, we cheered them on as they fought to overcome the Galactic Empire; to restore balance to the Force; to battle, and to rise above, their own inner demons. We destroyed the Death Star, for goodness’ sake!

All that work, all their triumphs and sacrifices … was it all for nothing? In the Force Awakens, the galaxy seems right back where we started in 1977. The entire film is an exercise in rehashing all the same old ground -- same premise, same plot, with some different characters, but going through the exact same motions. The big giant evil Empire-like "new order," the horrible planet-destroying weapon, the creepy-as-f*ck British captain-guy leading a host of Nazi-esque stormtoopers in the name of an even creepier-as-f*ck Emperor / Supreme Being character … um… haven’t we heard this before somewhere?

The entire move felt to me like a remake. Not a new episode, but a remake. Like J.J. Abrams wanted to do the whole thing over again, but his way. Instead of moving the story forward, he found a way to go back in time and make everything that happened before somehow meaningless. He pandered just enough to fellow original Star Wars fans, with some great scenes that brought to mind our favorite moments from the good old days. And I was right there with him -- laughing at the "Just use the force" jokes -- until I realized that this movie was essentially an erasure, and a redo.

[–] darkpast (9025) 7 years ago

TFA was an intentional throwback to OT, but they had no plan in place afterwards

[–] Arghhhh (804) 7 years ago

The fact that it was intentional doesn't make it any better.

[–] Threadkiller (3089) 7 years ago

Indeeed. It makes it decidedly worse if you ask me.

J.J. could have come up with anything and a lazy, disjointed rehash was the most he could muster. TLJ & the entire ST was set up to fail by the big empty retread J.J. gave us.

[–] Arghhhh (804) 7 years ago

I find it so hard to believe that there is anyone alive on this planet that can defend the guy given how many empty promises he's made...

You've got Lost - "This is all going somewhere". Oh, no, it wasn't.
You've got Star Trek - "It's all an alternate time line, the original stories are 'safe'". Oh no, they're not.
You've got Star Wars - "Here's part VII". Oh, no, my mistake, here's part IV version 2.0.

And now you've got people hoping he's going to 'fix' Star Wars with part IX. Fan's of JJ (not that he really has fans, fans of the IP's he's trashed I suppose) remind me of people trapped in an abusive relationship, "He's changed! He's promised me he's quit drinking and rebooting other people intellectual property!". It'll all end in tears. Or mass delusion. Just like the last 20 times.

[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

Wasn't jj quoted as stating that he wanted HIS versions of trek/SW to be the only ones - hence the deliberate sabotage to their storylines?

That would make it arrogance.

http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/scifi/levar-burton-calls-jj-abrams-star-trek.html

[–] Arghhhh (804) 7 years ago

That's interesting but to be fair to JJ those words are only rumoured and to be honest, I don't think he actually cares about things like that, about making Star Trek 'his', I actually think that would require more artistic intent than we've seen from the guy.

What he is, is a nostalgia strip miner. He finds IPs that are currently undervalued, knocks out an empty, hollow rip off - but one that is guaranteed to generate a certain Pavlovian response - and then buggers off before people realise they've been duped. He's essentially an asset stripper. And I think he knows it. This is why he doesn't stick around, he's too savvy. He's not deluded that he's some great artiste and that he has a "bold new direction for Star Trek/Star Wars", he's not Rian Johnson, he's a modern PT Barnum only with none of the charm (or song and dance skills).

[–] Threadkiller (3089) 7 years ago

And now you've got people hoping he's going to 'fix' Star Wars with part IX. Fan's of JJ (not that he really has fans, fans of the IP's he's trashed I suppose) remind me of people trapped in an abusive relationship, "He's changed! He's promised me he's quit drinking and rebooting other people intellectual property!". It'll all end in tears. Or mass delusion. Just like the last 20 times.

Unfortunately there are still many in denial & can't admit that they were so blinded by hype/hope for the ST that they duped themselves into giving J.J.'s glitter covered turd a pass. Many will still find a way to make it TLJ's fault when J.J. gives us another dumpster fighter and or allow J.J. to pull one over on them again by dangling more empty plot threads & nothing boxes for these poor saps to look forward to in future sequels and spin offs.

[–] Arghhhh (804) 7 years ago

Yes it is hilarious and sad in equal measure.

It went something like this:

Someone: "TFA is terrible, here's 27 reasons why."
TFA apologist: "No, it's amazing, and all those issues will be solved by the sequel".

TLJ happens. None of the problems are solved. Many are made worse.

Someone: "Now do you believe me?"
TFA apologist "No, it's still amazing, it set everything up beautifully and it's all Rian Johnson's fault."

IX is going to come out and it's going to be a clusterfuck because A: after TFA/TLJ you would need a master story teller to salvage something from the wreckage and B: JJ isn't *any* kind of story teller never mind a good one. What we'll get will be a couple of vague ret cons, lots of lens flare and explosions and some hooks to dangle for the next trilogy. It'll be shit but it the apologists will love it *because* it wasn't the last Jedi and so the logic will become:

TFA gets a pass because the sequel will fix it
TLJ gets hated because it failed to fix TFA
IX gets a pass because at least it's not TLJ

JJ will then move on to plunder Star Gate or Battlestar Galatica. I mean, his buddy Lindlehoff is going to do Watchmen. Jesus titty fucking christ how did the crown jewels of popular/geek culture end up in the hands of these talentless hacks?

[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

Not SG ... NoooOooOooOooOooooo!

[–] danno1864 (126) 6 years ago

Never forget, JJ is a copycat filmaker. He is incapable of creating original content and aping far superior filmakers. Lookit his reboot Star Trek - in less than .5 of the reboot he jumps the shark and runs out of ideas in a franchise klling second movie. He and Rian roundhead killed Star Wars.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Pretty much spot on.