Quote:
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud
The entire situation is weird.
She was turned down by more than half a dozen directors and wound up with Abrams, who insisted on writing the story for VII, so Arndt was dumped.
It doesn't take a critical eye to see that the whole thing is a gigantic cluster**** of epic proportions. It's going to take a massive effort to turn things around for Episode IX to win back the fans and make the Star Wars galaxy coherent.
Good luck, JJ.
|
I agree with much of this analysis. However, I think the majority of the blame has to fall on the shoulders of JJ Abrams - who's continued love for the
mystery box has again disregarded the character development, story arcs and plotting for his love of
twists and
surprise.
If he didn't have a track record for doing this exact thing in
Lost,
Star Trek and many of his other works, I wouldn't be as critical - but at this point, it seems what JJ has to offer is taking an original work and adding his touch of mystery and propulsive action to it - basically making it an unoriginal cutout of an original work that's driven by a contrived mystery that disregards other elements of the established universe he's working in.
Seriously, his handling of both Khan and Luke Skywalker came at the expense of both character's identity for his love of the mystery box.
I suppose my anger comes from the fact that Disney was so hellbent on getting a movie out there that they allowed JJ to come in with a story that cast adside the future of the saga and the previously established universe.
And now - people are hoping that JJ will somehow come up with something that will "save the story" - but we all know that's going to be
Return of the Last Jedi. Fans will be complacently pleased, but will still be left asking what the point was to continuing the franchise (like they did after TFA).
People can be mad at Rian all they want to - but JJ has a track record of starting these exact mystery-driven stories and completely disregarding what the outcome is going to be. People are surprised that these mysteries had divisive payoffs, but at this point with JJ, should they be? I for one loved that Rian was willing to subvert expectations (Killing off 8 foot Palpatine, refusing to re-tell the Yoda/Obi-Wan - Luke story, and refusing to Deus-Ex the ending) while creating a character driven story that had compelling arcs for Kylo, Rey, Poe and Luke (though I know Luke's is being hotly debated).
Anywho - I was pleasantly surprised with TLJ and I'd love for JJ to prove me wrong with 9, but I'm guessing he's going to play it safe again - and that's incredibly disappointing.