January 23rd, 2014
I don’t think we’ve fully grokked all the implications of Disney’s purchase of the Star Wars franchise. For instance, Marvel is now taking over the comic-book properties from Dark Horse.
And for another, J.J. Abrams seems to be bringing a very Disney sensibility to the sequels. (By “Disney sensibility” I don’t mean in terms of aesthetics or morals; I’m referring to the way in which Disney seems to conceive of the re-use of characters in franchise sequels.) Courtesy of Galley Friend B.D., there’s a very smart take over here on the conflict between what audiences want and what they need (the creator’s dilemma made famous by Joss Whedon):
What the audience wants is to see Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo again. The problem is, that’s impossible. Those characters are gone. They are a creation of celluloid well over thirty years ago. Without conducting the requisite thought experiments, though, the audience – and J.J. Abrams – will continue to “want” to see their heroes again, right up until the moment that they do. At which point, I think, a rather horrible collision between wants and needs will take place, right up there on the big screen.
What the audience needs, above all, is to not have their abiding affection for the original trilogy tampered with.
-
Sic transit gloria Star Wars. I thought for sure that world would expand beyond the original movies when I was younger, but that “Load” and “Re-Load”* bullshit “prequel trilogy” put the kibosh on that. Don’t you think?
That’s so strange: the Star ‘Worlds’ almost seemed made to expand into new narratives, but nuttin’. Or nothing serious, anyway. Worse, I just glimpsed where they could have taken Star Wars in advertisements for those stupid video games. Watch the first minute of this two minute trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O17j94YBCg
That was a sixty second cartoon, and it was better than the whole second trilogy. Right there you have ideas you could make off that single scene: had they done it right with live-action models instead of wasting it in a no-name game. The mind boggles with possibilities. You could make a movie off that one minute scene and it would be as iconic as Vader dangling that rebel officer’s boots, or Vader strangling that general, or Vader striking down Obi-Won in… hmm. Ok, a lot of it was Vader, but there was also Princess in a metal bra and “Who shot first? Han Solo or Aaron Burr?” and even frickin’ Jawas. Jawas are so iconic I didn’t even have auto-correct highlight it, and it was certainly one of the weaker parts.
I have to admit, I stopped reading that article after I heard about septuagenarian Luke Skywalker. That just made my blood freeze.
Or maybe I’m wrong. I don’t know, Jon. Maybe it can’t be killed.
Jim Versluys
*- The beginning of the shitty Metallica albums after a five album run of almost perfect genius.
-
Chapter Nine: The Geriatrics Strike Back, wherein the action moves to the Mos Eisley Can’t Pia, that wretched hive of shingles and osteoporosis. “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine, what with all the usable organs that can be harvested for transplant.”
AOHenry January 27, 2014 at 10:08 am
Could J.J. reboot the franchise the way did “Star Trek”? Or has that avenue been wrecked by the prequels?
The trailer is great but it’s a lot easier to make a one minute trailer interesting than to make a good two hour movie.