Hope it's not too early to have this discussion, but I'm already excited.
I know VIII was a cluster, but I liked it anyway. Kind of like Temple of Doom. It was not up the standard of the rest of the trilogy but it happened and now all we can do is enjoy it for what it is.
As far as predictions, I have none. What I'd like to see: more Mark Hamill, maybe Frank Oz. And I'd love for them to explore some of the "deep magic" of the force. We will see.
Disney is losing billions on Star Wars over Rian Johnson's The Least Jedi debacle and Kathleen Kennedy's mis-handling of the franchise as a whole. I dearly hope that JJ can pull off a miracle and bring the magic back. Right now literally every other project besides the Mandolorian is on hold and they even announced today that there will be no trailer during the Super Bowl.
I am excited to hear about how much Hammill is in IX, and Billy Dee! I hope that they give some depth back to the characters. Finn had so much promise! I dearly hope for better writing for Kylo. Adam Driver is a superb actor and could really do some magic with better writing.
I liked TFA, I loved Rogue One, I still saw Solo on opening night despite TLJ. I will see Ep IX on opening night as well.
I haven't given up on Ep. VIII yet. If they tie up all the loose ends with 9, I'll be satisfied with both. Too much weird E36 M3 happened with the last one to feel confident, though.
Star Wars is at a tipping point now, IMO. The TLJ backlash created a lot of ill will in the fan base that was never there before. Even if a lot of people thought TFA wasn't all it could be, it didn't inspire the vitriol that TLJ did. And you saw the evidence when Solo underperformed bigtime, though a lot of that had to do with them releasing it in May rather than waiting for December. If Episode 9 is another misfire, it's going to look like Disney has killed it's golden goose. A lot is riding on JJ's shoulders right now.
Regardless, I'll be there opening night, like I have for every Star Wars movie since 1977.
The Last Jedi still made over a billion dollars at the box office. Yeah Solo was a miss but I can't see them as "losing billions" with a 1.3 billion box office.
I feel like for Episode 9 to work it's gotta do one of two things:
1) More story, lets distraction. Every main character needs to tell us something about what happened between 6 and 7. If they want to wrap this up, they have to go backwards in order to successfully move us forward. None of the purple hair side stories wasting screen time with forgettable characters. Tell us more about Snoke, about the Knights of Ren (who Kylo apparently knew during his destruction of the New Jedi Temple), about where the First Order came from and how it seemingly integrated with the Empire.
2) Build new strong characters (or character arks) that instill wonder and mystery into the larger Star Wars Universe. If they can successfully do this for video games like Knights of the Old Republic then the smaller film storylines should be easy. Even just referencing some of the already expanded universe like Ezra Bridger (and his somewhat unknown fate) or The Bendu/Grey Jedi could be a big deal.
Man, I thought Solo was a pretty decent flick. Not Rogue One good but not bad. Last Jedi was kind of a... I'm not sure who thought all of it was a good idea, but they maybe need to try a different line of work. In any case, I'm looking forward to IX and off of the near-zero amount of information I have, I think it's got a lot of good ingredients to be a great movie.
dculberson said:The Last Jedi still made over a billion dollars at the box office. Yeah Solo was a miss but I can't see them as "losing billions" with a 1.3 billion box office.
Of course it did. It was a Star Wars movie before the brand was tarnished in some people's eyes. Plus, controversy sells. It's the ones after the controversial one that you have to worry about.
I liked Solo just fine, as well. Decent standalone adventure story, good action, etc. It's problem was that it was released only 5 months after TLJ when many folks were still pissed, and when films like Infinity War and Deadpool 2 were still in theaters. Had they waited until December, there would have been less competition (no Marvel flick, especially), people would have had some time to calm down after TLJ, and it wouldn't feel so close to the last one (and far from the next one, for that matter). I simply can't imagine why they did it.
I also thought Solo was a decent movie done in by the worst possible timing. Ep.7 was fun even though it follows Ep.4's storyline and Ep.8 was kind of a letdown (on top of being a quasi-remake of Ep.5), so I'm not all that excited to see Ep.9...I can wait for it.
In reply to dculberson :
Disney's own earnings calls show billions in losses. Toy lines, affiliate marketing, licensing, streaming, and private viewing sales are all down. Star Wars action figure sales declined 30% last quarter (holiday!) while literally every other figure category was up. It's not hyperbole.
In reply to pheller :
Disney killed the EU already. So they're not going to pull stories from stuff they've declared not canon.
pheller said:I feel like for Episode 9 to work it's gotta do one of two things:
1) More story, lets distraction. Every main character needs to tell us something about what happened between 6 and 7. If they want to wrap this up, they have to go backwards in order to successfully move us forward. None of the purple hair side stories wasting screen time with forgettable characters. Tell us more about Snoke, about the Knights of Ren (who Kylo apparently knew during his destruction of the New Jedi Temple), about where the First Order came from and how it seemingly integrated with the Empire.
2) Build new strong characters (or character arks) that instill wonder and mystery into the larger Star Wars Universe. If they can successfully do this for video games like Knights of the Old Republic then the smaller film storylines should be easy. Even just referencing some of the already expanded universe like Ezra Bridger (and his somewhat unknown fate) or The Bendu/Grey Jedi could be a big deal.
KOTOR was fantastic, i would have loved a movie about that...or even a third game.
The EU had a lot interesting stories, its sad they totally scrapped it
I'm always amazed at the loyalty Star Wars fans have. I can't think of another movie series where people are excited about the next movie, even though they didn't like the last one. No one was excited for Die Hard 5, because Die Hard 4 sucked....but with Star Wars, the fans even forgave Jar Jar Binks.
Not disparaging any fans--- I've just always been floored by how the fans always come back for more.
To be honest, I liked VIII 
They lost me years ago with Jar Jar. Nothing since has even moved the needle for me. I think they would be better punting it to the fan projects they keep suing. Its been 100 % a transparent soulless cash grab for parents who want to share the nostalgia with their kids. The spirit that made the franchise is long gone. The mouse is a rat. Get off my lawn. /rant
yupididit said:To be honest, I liked VIII
I liked them all. Even Ep. 1. Every last one. I go to be entertained and follow a story. Every single one has done that to date for me. I’m entertained and I like them. I don’t get the snobbery and hate some people show to a made up sci-fi movie. It’s not real. Roll with it.
bobzilla said:yupididit said:To be honest, I liked VIII
I liked them all. Even Ep. 1. Every last one. I go to be entertained and follow a story. Every single one has done that to date for me. I’m entertained and I like them. I don’t get the snobbery and hate some people show to a made up sci-fi movie. It’s not real. Roll with it.
That's pretty much where I am. Entertaining, family friendly (mostly, some of the violence is a bit much for small children) and just all around fun. There is stuff I'd like to see/explore, but if those roads aren't paved I'll be ok.
The real problem with EP8 is not that it's a bad movie (it is) since other Star Wars movies have been bad. The problem is that it's not really a Star Wars movie at all. When you add a movie to an existing fictional universe, it has to respect the rules and conventions of that universe. If you want to change things, you have to give a really good explanation.
EP8 completely ignored or went against so many important aspects of that universe that it simply isn't a Star Wars movie anymore. I went to the theaters to see a Star Wars movie and was presented with just another bad sci-fi movie. I am still pissed.
And I am really surprised that the people responsible for that debacle still have a job with Disney. While the box office revenue wasn't bad, it's the merchandising that really brings in the $$$ for something like Star Wars and in that respect, EP8 was a HUGE flop.
For the first time, I'll actually wait for the first (hopefully positive) reviews to come in before I spend my cash to go see the next Star Wars. I wouldn't want to be in charge of fixing that franchise.
fanfoy gets it.
I am a *huge* Star Wars fan. I saw the Special Edition releases of IV-VI and all 3 Prequals in the theaters on opening weekends. I've seen every Disney release on opening night. I played the Decipher CCG back in the day (and still have the collection), play X-Wing TMG now, and have owned over 100 of the novels and comics. I have DVDs, shirts, action figures, models, Lego, etc, etc that are licensed SW stuff.
TLJ just wasn't a Star Wars movie. SW is incredibly entertaining and a space opera/fantasy. It's fine to try new things, stretch boundaries, and introduce new characters. Finn was excellent in TFA and th entirety or Rogue One was a masterpiece. The problem with TLJ (besides just being plain a bad story told poorly) was that it had a plot hole within itself (hyperspace tracking is suddenly a thing, which is cool, but the tracker given to Finn before he goes to sideshow hell does literally the *exact same thing*) and that it broke SW "physics" with the Holdo maneuver. There have been numerous shots throughout SW of ships going to hyperspace right before hitting something else only to not affect it at all (including through docking bays on Rebels!) and suddenly SW physics just changes and hyperspace missiles are a thing?!? Not only that, but Hux clearly knows what is going to happen meaning it's happened before? Why not just ram a droid-piloted X-Wing into the Death Star or the Starkiller Base then? Or hell, a planet? (You don't even need to build a Death Star!)
When you throw in the very un-character like actions of even the new characters (seriously, Finn was like in LOVE with Rey and as soon as he meets Tico he's after her like the same day?), the terrible storyline (running out of gas, really?), and then the treatment of the OT characters (Leia Poppins and Hammill saying "not my Luke" the character was so bad) you get the backlash that has happened by fans new and old and the absolute tailspin of sales.
Despite all of that, I still saw the first showing of Solo (which was just kind of meh overall, I would have much preferred a Lando movie with a couple of scenes of Han, it felt like an MCU movie and in a bad "the sequels are coming" way) and I will see IX on the first showing as well. May the force be with JJ....
When someone says "Episode ____" is coming, I assume they're talking about Project Binky. Took me a minute to figure out why the Roman numerals and being way behind the current episode number.
For me, Star Wars has been been all downhill starting with the ‘97 Special Editions.
fanfoy said:The real problem with EP8 is not that it's a bad movie (it is) since other Star Wars movies have been bad. The problem is that it's not really a Star Wars movie at all. When you add a movie to an existing fictional universe, it has to respect the rules and conventions of that universe. If you want to change things, you have to give a really good explanation.
EP8 completely ignored or went against so many important aspects of that universe that it simply isn't a Star Wars movie anymore. I went to the theaters to see a Star Wars movie and was presented with just another bad sci-fi movie. I am still pissed.
And I am really surprised that the people responsible for that debacle still have a job with Disney. While the box office revenue wasn't bad, it's the merchandising that really brings in the $$$ for something like Star Wars and in that respect, EP8 was a HUGE flop.
For the first time, I'll actually wait for the first (hopefully positive) reviews to come in before I spend my cash to go see the next Star Wars. I wouldn't want to be in charge of fixing that franchise.
The way Luke was in TLJ makes me think the director was obsessed with making Star Wars his own and pissing off the fans of the series.It was a stupid idea.
The Holdo maneuver might have turned off old school Star Wars fans, but I’m sorry it was amazing. Awesome concept, well shot, and totally blew me away. It was like the shot of the star destroyer crashing into the Death Star in the original trilogy. I had to back it up and rewatch it several times.
I think that might be a good example of the difference between a “Star Wars fan” and the average movie fan.
In reply to dculberson :
Agree 100%. So, to geek out a little here.... from the first Star Wars movie, Han makes a comment to Luke that "Traveling through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops, boy! Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star or bounce too close to a supernova and that'd end your trip real quick, wouldn't it". Considering the physical mass of Snoke's ship, which made the old Star Destroyers look like a kids toy, it makes sense that pushing a large capital ship through that mass at hyperspace could be like flying through a star, and in that regards follows the canon of the series. And it was visually amazing.
Joe Gearin said:I'm always amazed at the loyalty Star Wars fans have. I can't think of another movie series where people are excited about the next movie, even though they didn't like the last one. No one was excited for Die Hard 5, because Die Hard 4 sucked....but with Star Wars, the fans even forgave Jar Jar Binks.
Not disparaging any fans--- I've just always been floored by how the fans always come back for more.
It's because 4+5+6 were so good, all the fans want to see something that great again.
Kind of like the Bleach manga/anime, fans watched/read it right to the crappy end hoping for something as good as the best parts which were all in roughly the first half of the whole storyline. And the anime was already slow-paced as hell and packed to the gills with filler seasons to avoid outrunning the source material which was written at a speed that makes George R.R. Martin look like Philip K. Dick.
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