Support NeoGAF

[Dazrael]

They've never been able to move past the story of the first three movies, because that really is the only story worth telling.

This sums up Star Wars in a nutshell. The franchise will always revert to one thing: a war in the stars. The OT is the sole amount of content that you need to see on the matter, everything else is flogging the same horse.

 

[BlackTron]

Absolutely, she's just doing her job and wasn't out to destroy anything.

Captain Cringe Rian Johnson tried to relive his high school days over some nerd crush he had to further subvert expectations.

They'll never expect something that feels out of place in Star Wars! Perfect. It's just another embarassing bullet point that makes it all a bunch of glorified fan-fiction. The bad kind, that's extra influenced by high school, like anime fans write

 

[EddieVanHelgen]

Star wars died with Luke Skywalker.

 

[EviLore]

Star wars died with Luke Skywalker.

 

[Toons]

That’s not the financial situation. Turning a profit for the sequel trilogy is not the necessary bar for success. The sequel trilogy could’ve been written by Seth Rogen and directed by Bret Ratner and it would’ve turned a profit with the fandom desperate for new material, a beloved IP for countless millions of people, and hundreds of millions of dollars in marketing invested.

Disney paid $4 billion for the IP. You don’t pay that much and put the force of everything Disney has behind ongoing promotion of the brand (theme parks, tv and kids shows, events, Disney+, etc etc.) to make some money here and lose some money there. Expectations were much higher and opportunity costs exist.

Frankly they bought it for more than it was worth at the time of buying. The franchise wasn't even in a great spot in 2010. The clone wars show was winding down and they had like one video game planned, after that notion. GL says he had another trilogy in his pocket but he wasn't making any real moves on it, and I'm not sure it ever would've seen the light of day given he clearly was checked out of the role by then, which is why he decided to sell.

As I said earlier, Disney's big money comes from merchandise and parks. Well... now they have made a star wars park and now they have made a bunch of things star wars to make money off of, and its looking like the franchise can easily ride on for another 2 decades off of that alone, longer with more IP.

Im not gonna pretend they didn't have a less than optimal start but as someone who's been a star wars fan for all of his life, frankly I don't think there's any multiverse scenario where this new trilogy would've been loved by everyone. Star wars i such a ubiquitous beast that everyone and their dog has an opinion on how to do it "right". Compared to the original, compared to what came after, compared to general storytelling capabilities. So they really shouldn't try to please everyone, and that was their biggest mistake with the last movie if the ST.

The point now needs to be what comes next for the franchise, not just for fans that exist but ones that will exist and don't yet. RT scores are nice and all but RT doesn't determine a franchise lifespan, cultural relevance will. Under Lucas, the relevance of SW was beginning to fade because there just wasn't much content. He said on the OT actors and did nothing with them, he had a great tv show come and rehabilitate the image of the PT, but beyond that, I do believe its accurate to say Disney had a big hand in turning that around. I think a buyout was inevitable, and with the benefit of hindsight, who else should've gotten it? Warner Bros? They somehow turned superman into an unreliable box office. Sony? Lol. There was really no other way for this to go, and GL is a lot smarter of a business man than he let's on, and he probably perceived that before anyone else did.

So yes there's been definitely an adjustment period, but frankly we've had some bang up SW content in this era. Its far form having been all bad, and what fee things were actually missed from the messy inconsistency of the EU is just being brought in anyways. We were never going to get a live action thrawn under lucas. He never respected the EU and didn't really consider it... and they've taken a shaky start and turned in into a new type of hype building, tv shows interconnrxted that are going to build to, basically an heir to the empire film. And that's something that would never have happened pre buyout. So what exactly are we missing that the pre Disney era offered that isnt there now? We still get good stories. We still get bad stories. But star wars is relevant and there's a lot of cool stuff to watch read and play, and more to come. I would take that over the alternative frankly.

 

[AJUMP23]

All he wanted to do was go to Toshi station and pick up some power converters.