Distraction thread

Discussion regarding the Outsider webcomic, science, technology and science fiction.

Moderator: Outsider Moderators

fredgiblet
Moderator
Posts: 983
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2011 4:02 pm

Re: Distraction thread

Post by fredgiblet »

It's probably the first time Lucas has been willing to sell. It'll be VERY interesting to see what Disney does with it

User avatar
pinheadh78
Posts: 68
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2012 3:36 am

Re: Distraction thread

Post by pinheadh78 »

Given the quality of episodes 1-3 and Disney's handling of the Pirates , Pixar and Marvel properties I'm looking at this in a good way. I'm not saying that episodes 1-3 were awful, but there is plenty of room for improvement in casting and story. No where to go but up from here.

Btw, Star Wars books are good scifi action reads; Republic Commando was pretty good.

User avatar
Count Casimir
Moderator
Posts: 217
Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2011 7:50 pm

Re: Distraction thread

Post by Count Casimir »

My favorite books are the X-Wing series by Michael Stackpole. There are a few by Aaron Allston in the middle too.

I've been looking for the comics for a little while now, but they're a bit scarce.

As far as the big purchase goes, I've kinda been trying to avoid thinking about it. I don't know if I trust it, but I feel like I should at least give Disney the benefit of the doubt for now.
Ashrain is best rain.

fredgiblet
Moderator
Posts: 983
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2011 4:02 pm

Re: Distraction thread

Post by fredgiblet »

You can say 1-3 are awful, that's fine. 3 isn't actually awful, but as the third in a trilogy it can't be separated from it's predecessors and is thus awful as well.

Absalom
Posts: 718
Joined: Sat Sep 24, 2011 4:33 am

Re: Distraction thread

Post by Absalom »

I wouldn't say that any of them were bad, they just didn't have the developed & polished feel of the classic trilogy.

Ep. 1, of course, was the big problem. In keeping with the setting at that point, it had a "light-weight" sort of "feel"; it was reminiscent of a children's movie, and that hurt it's popularity. The fact that the new comedy relief was incompetent (JarJar) instead of just being the universe's chew toy (C3PO & somewhat A2-D2) didn't help. If I was in a film school (whether student or teacher), I would use it as an example of using tone to convey something about the setting (because I think it works decently well at that), and how this can be done poorly.

Episode 2 felt a little too focused, almost like a TV mini-series instead of a stand-alone movie.

But yeah, Episode 3 certainly suffers from association with the other two. It did seem to have moments of melodrama, but no big deal.

Honestly though, apparently Disney got all of it. And that's a lot of production resources and preexisting content (a decent portion of which probably still sells, though admittedly maybe not all of it; when was the last time they printed a disk for TIE Fighter?), the possibility of new content is a head-sized piece of gold stuck on top of an already appetizing cake.

User avatar
Arioch
Site Admin
Posts: 4486
Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2011 4:19 am
Location: San Jose, CA
Contact:

Re: Distraction thread

Post by Arioch »

I thought Episode 3 was hands-down the worst installment of the prequel trilogy. There's just nothing in it that I thought had any value, and a huge number of moments that were just laughable.

Episode 1 was nonsensical, but at least it gave us interesting new visual design to look at; it's a new era and there are some interesting-looking new characters (Darth Maul!). Everything visual in the next two movies was just a boring extrapolation between Episode 1 and the original movies.

Episode 2 was the closest to having a coherent plot and characters with problems that you might actually care about... but the poor writing, direction and performances of the two leads make that caring require a significant amount of effort from the viewer.

I suspect that what Disney wants is just to have the rights to use the franchise in marketing, merchandising, and creating attractions and games and the like, without having to negotiate with Lucas every damn time. I'd be surprised if they actually had plans to create new movies with it. But you never know...

fredgiblet
Moderator
Posts: 983
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2011 4:02 pm

Re: Distraction thread

Post by fredgiblet »

Actually they've announced that Episode 7 is coming out in 2015

javcs
Posts: 179
Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2011 10:05 pm

Re: Distraction thread

Post by javcs »

Well, Episodes 1-3 lowered the bar, so to speak, for the next trilogy.

2015, 2017, and 2019 are the theoretical releases.

User avatar
Arioch
Site Admin
Posts: 4486
Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2011 4:19 am
Location: San Jose, CA
Contact:

Re: Distraction thread

Post by Arioch »

I meant "new" movies; Lucas has been talking about the third trilogy for decades.

javcs
Posts: 179
Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2011 10:05 pm

Re: Distraction thread

Post by javcs »

Arioch wrote:I meant "new" movies; Lucas has been talking about the third trilogy for decades.
For some reason, I want to say that Lucas's third trilogy would have been an extension of the existing movies/connected fairly closely to pre-existing lore. I gather that the word on the Disney-backed trilogy is that they're planning on going somewhere new in the Star Wars universe. Of course, where/when they go in the universe to be somewhere/something new is going to be interesting to see - whether they actually go/do somewhere/something new or they bypass pre-existing stuff and overwrite it in the timeline, so to speak.

Karst45
Posts: 785
Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2011 4:03 pm
Location: Quebec, Canada
Contact:

Re: Distraction thread

Post by Karst45 »

Arioch wrote:Curious time to purchase the franchise, Lucas having run it pretty well into the ground.

http://genzoman.deviantart.com/art/The- ... -335220142
Aww you beat me on this one :S

But since we like big balls!

fredgiblet
Moderator
Posts: 983
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2011 4:02 pm

Re: Distraction thread

Post by fredgiblet »

Arioch wrote:I meant "new" movies; Lucas has been talking about the third trilogy for decades.

My understanding is that the new movies will be only loosely connected with the existing ones (which makes sense given how long it's been). I doubt that what we'll see will be at all similar to what George would have done.

Michael
Posts: 243
Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2011 6:51 pm
Location: England

Re: Distraction thread

Post by Michael »

Arioch wrote:I meant "new" movies; Lucas has been talking about the third trilogy for decades.
Really? Why would he do that?
CJ Miller: How many millions must be banned before we stop having pointless arguments on the Internet?
fredgiblet: ALL OF THEM! Our banhammers will blot out the sun!
CptWinters: Then we will troll in the shade.!
Image
Image
Image

User avatar
Trantor
Posts: 780
Joined: Sun Mar 06, 2011 1:52 pm
Location: Hamburg, Germany

Re: Distraction thread

Post by Trantor »

Michael wrote:
Arioch wrote:I meant "new" movies; Lucas has been talking about the third trilogy for decades.
Really? Why would he do that?
Why wouldn´t he? Initially he even talked about 4 trilogies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_sequel_trilogy

I remember a series of nine comic books about the three trilogies (I-III, IV-VI, VII-IX) some 30 years ago.
High quality print, and episodes I-III surprisingly accurate (which only became clear after the movies´ releases). I have no idea if they were authorized, tho´.

pinheadh78 wrote:Given the quality of episodes 1-3 and Disney's handling of the Pirates , Pixar and Marvel properties I'm looking at this in a good way.
Hm. That´s true. They can´t do them any worse than Lucas did.
I-III were soulless vehicles for merchandise.
Disney, at least, could add some soul again.

Edit: Or maybe the makers of Star Wreck jump on it? Or Mel Brooks again?
sapere aude.

User avatar
Mikk
Posts: 83
Joined: Tue Mar 22, 2011 9:02 am
Location: Online/offline

Re: Distraction thread

Post by Mikk »

I suppose for those who never saw any 'soul' in Star Wars to begin with, episodes 1..3 looked perfectly great.

Edit: speaking of distractions, although they've hit their goal, here's something interesting http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ada ... r-everyone
Fandom established 2004*. (*Official records lost)
Sometimes I have a twisted mind…
¿What could possibly be better than giant robots fighting with knives? ¡Giant robots fighting with swords, of course!

Michael
Posts: 243
Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2011 6:51 pm
Location: England

Re: Distraction thread

Post by Michael »

I have a subscription to IGN, from what I've gotten from them, theres going to be another trilogy, apparently there is quite a large area of non-canon they can explore, from a series of three books, who's names escape me right now as well as the comics nad then of course there is Bioware's KotOR games
CJ Miller: How many millions must be banned before we stop having pointless arguments on the Internet?
fredgiblet: ALL OF THEM! Our banhammers will blot out the sun!
CptWinters: Then we will troll in the shade.!
Image
Image
Image

fredgiblet
Moderator
Posts: 983
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2011 4:02 pm

Re: Distraction thread

Post by fredgiblet »

The Expanded Universe of Star Wars is enormous. You're probably thinking of the Thrawn trilogy, which is widely considered one of the best. There's a lot of people who denigrate the EU, but there's a lot of stuff there that's at least better than the prequels and some that's legitimately great in it's own right.

User avatar
icekatze
Posts: 1399
Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2011 8:35 pm
Location: Middle of Nowhere
Contact:

Re: Distraction thread

Post by icekatze »

hi hi

I have heard good things about the Thrawn trilogy. There's plenty to work with in the expanded universe, and I suspect that there's plenty to work with in the imaginations of just about anyone who was a fan of the movies.

However, they've got to have good characters. The characters just can't afford to come off as stale and lifeless cardboard cutouts or caricatures.

Also:
SpoilerShow
Image

Image
(If you've ever watched Redlettermedia's Star Wars prequel reviews, you know how I generally feel about them. Its sad too, because in a few places there were some genuine flashes of something that might have been good if it had been expanded on.)

javcs
Posts: 179
Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2011 10:05 pm

Re: Distraction thread

Post by javcs »

The Star Wars EU is a mixed bag - there's plenty of good stuff, and there's a fair amount of stuff that's merely passable, but there's also a lot of stuff that deserves the crap it gets. That's a side effect of having been around for so long and there having been so much stuff created in it (drunk typewriter-monkey principle). Unfortunately, you can't always tell which it's going to be.



On a sidenote ... Halo 4 is out now. I'm not sure I liked the ending/what happened at the end, though it was intended to be the first of a trilogy. Hopefully, the wait for the continuation won't be too long.

Michael
Posts: 243
Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2011 6:51 pm
Location: England

Re: Distraction thread

Post by Michael »

Eeeeeeeeee Halo 4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CJ Miller: How many millions must be banned before we stop having pointless arguments on the Internet?
fredgiblet: ALL OF THEM! Our banhammers will blot out the sun!
CptWinters: Then we will troll in the shade.!
Image
Image
Image

Post Reply