[joost]

If Star Wars was made today:

Quote:

Lucia Skywalker is a strong independent womyn of hispanic descent who don't need no man, making a living on the city planet of tatooine as CEO of an interplanetary corporation and part-time veterenarian, when one day while feeding the homeless comes across Threepio, an effeminate gay white man and his robot side kick who ask her help in finding Kenobi, an guy who went into hiding decades ago. Threepio is on the run from the empire because they don't like gays, and Lucia sympathises because no one should be persecuted for whom he loves. Being hyper-competent at everything, she immediately finds Kenobis whereabouts and brings the duo to him. Threepio and R2D2 then reveal that they are seeking to compose a rescue mission to free Princess Leia from the clutches of the Empire aboard the Death Cannon. Kenobi, an older white guy informs Lucia that she has been chosen by the cosmos to fight the Empire, a patriarchal organization of white people, and thus should come with them. When an altercation with peaceful sand people occurs and Kenobi slaughters them instead of negotiating like Lucia attempts, Lucia decides however that Kenobi is evil and kills him with his own light saber.

She hires Han Solo, a black man's man, pilot of a stealthy ship who is himself introduced by gunning down dozens of imperial Storm Troopers. He is accompanied by a 7ft white Manbaby wearing a fox costume. On the way to the Death Wang, Han and Lucia have sex. When they arrive at the Death Cannon, it appears to be a moon-sized phallic implement. The Death Cannon captures the stealth ship nevertheless but the crew is able to sneak aboard.

Through cunning and imperial incompetence, nobody is looking though Lucias Storm Trooper disguise and they manage to free Princess Leia, who turns out to be a transgender, thus the Princess monicker. Threepio and Princess reveal that they are lovers. Princess suggest they must escape to the Rebellion. Darth Vader, a blonde guy with blue eyes and force powers engages them, delivering lines like "Your place is in the kitchen, girl". A battle ensues and Lucia uses her new found magical Force powers for which she needed no training since she was chosen by the universe, and fight their way out of the Death Phallus, but the empire remains in close pursuit. Fursuit manbaby dies during the fight.

Arriving at the secret rebel hideout Lucia, backed by Princess, calls to action all rebel pilots in a rousing speech and leads a fleet of diverse Pilots of various genders and orientations against the heteronormative Death Cock. A duel between Blond Vader and Han Dindu happens that is narrowly decided in favor of Dindu. Most rebel Fighters die but Lucia single-handedly destroys the Death Penis using a fighter craft that she has never piloted before. Later she marries Han Dindu and they are having 2.3 children and live in a house with a white fence in the suburbs.

[YossariansRight]

Alderaan had WMDs, Palpatine was keeping us safe.

[Handsome Creepy Eel]

I'm not going to see this primarily because it looks contrived and poorly made with a cliche story. They could have gone with Thrawn Trilogy (added bonus: the main villain is a very pale alien-but-white male), but noooooooo. They just threw some plots into a random number generator and came up with this unholy special-effects-laden mess that makes zero sense. If I want to just watch explosions that don't make sense I'll go watch a Michael Bay movie, thank you.

As for the race issue, it's one thing to pick an actor of whatever ethnicity because they're a great actor who fits the role, and an entirely different to pick an actor because of affirmative action, sending a message or some personal grievance with the white race. This is why people didn't have any issues with Lando or Mace, but are feeling betrayed now: because it's obvious it wasn't a spontaneous process.

[Vaun]

So my hunch based on my limited knowledge is that Luke becomes Kylo Ren, given the references to him being a cyborg, and his lightsaber with the shield that protects the wrist. Or Luke is killed by Kylo Ren. To me this appears very obvious, but I dont really keep up on this stuff, other than having seen every single Star Wars in the theater. Its the first movie I ever saw.

To me killing Luke and turning him into a bad guy is the most PC thing they could have done. Its like the death of Captain America. SJW shock value, PC appeasement narrative of the lowest common denominator, that shows that "everyone is really flawed."

[_GQ_]

Luke is most definitely not Kylo, and he's not Sith.

[Akula]

What I've read is that Luke becomes so powerful in the Force that he scares himself and goes into hiding, then gets brought back to the battle when a new Dark Side force arises that only he can defeat.

JJ Abrahams is pretty SJW (cut from the radical leftist/elitist Hollywood crowd, go figure) so obviously a lot of the old storytelling will get changed and we'll see "strong women" and stupid/evil/deviant men who need a "woman's wisdom" to right the universe. Just look at the "Star Wars: Rebels" cartoon where you have women leaders everywhere doing lots of the hard work (including the main pilot who's the best pilot in the galaxy apparently as well as a Mandalorian woman who has purple & orange dyed hair and who easily kills storm troopers en masse on her own (she's slim though, kind of suprised at that twist)).

I just hope they don't fuck it up like they did with The Phantom Menace...btw here's the new trailer...apparently Jar Jar is BACK!

[Paracelsus]

(11-07-2015 10:02 AM)Vaun Wrote:  

So my hunch based on my limited knowledge is that Luke becomes Kylo Ren, given the references to him being a cyborg, and his lightsaber with the shield that protects the wrist. Or Luke is killed by Kylo Ren. To me this appears very obvious, but I dont really keep up on this stuff, other than having seen every single Star Wars in the theater. Its the first movie I ever saw.

To me killing Luke and turning him into a bad guy is the most PC thing they could have done. Its like the death of Captain America. SJW shock value, PC appeasement narrative of the lowest common denominator, that shows that "everyone is really flawed."

Unlikely. The role of Kylo Ren is being played by Adam Driver. On the other hand, it would not surprise me in the slightest, the way the teasers are going, if Han Solo were not to wind up dead somewhere round the end of the second act, dead at Ren's hand, and that Kylo turns out to be a fallen son of Leia and Han. Harrison Ford has never liked the character, or at least has said on several previous occasions that there wasn't anywhere to go with the character by the time ROTJ rolled round. Even in that movie he just phones in his performance and has to hold off a supremely bored expression while waiting for the next Indy movie.

That said, the previews are featuring Daisy Ridley (the brunette chick) and her voice alone is like listening to Emma Watson lecturing about feminism: uppercrust English accent combined with a certain deadness in her tone that doesn't bode well for me.

[The Beast1]

Looks like we'll never see how the new Star Wars was meant to turn out. George Lucas admits Gisney hijacked the story from him and is "re-telling" it. Lucas wanted to tell a multi generational story.

Quote:

Before handing over Lucasfilm and the future of his galactic saga to The Walt Disney Co. for $4 billion in 2012, Lucas came up with story treatments for a new trilogy. Those materials, to put it bluntly, were discarded.

“They decided they didn’t want to use those stories, they decided they were gonna go do their own thing,”

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/11/20/geo...ns-breakup
So basically, expect a lot of SJW, racially mixed BS.

He sold his soul, not my problem. Last I checked Gisney paid $4 billion for it.

[Paracelsus]

(11-23-2015 09:43 AM)The Beast1 Wrote:  

Looks like we'll never see how the new Star Wars was meant to turn out. George Lucas admits Gisney hijacked the story from him and is "re-telling" it. Lucas wanted to tell a multi generational story.

Quote:

Before handing over Lucasfilm and the future of his galactic saga to The Walt Disney Co. for $4 billion in 2012, Lucas came up with story treatments for a new trilogy. Those materials, to put it bluntly, were discarded.

“They decided they didn’t want to use those stories, they decided they were gonna go do their own thing,”

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/11/20/geo...ns-breakup
So basically, expect a lot of SJW, racially mixed BS.

He sold his soul, not my problem. Last I checked Gisney paid $4 billion for it.

It's an interesting 'what could have been', because let's remember the best parts of Star Wars don't necessarily come from George Lucas. I honestly think it's a real fifty/fifty over whether his presence on the new Star Wars films would have been a hindrance rather than a help. Lawrence Kasdan and Irvin Kershner saved ESB with, respectively, a beautiful script and a relentless focus on closeups - Kershner always said there's nothing more interesting to fill a movie frame than the map of the human face.

From Episode 1 onwards, George could afford all of his vices. He could fund the films right out of his own pocket and there was nobody with enough clout to tell him the script was bad. Back on the original Ep 4, Harrison Ford filled that function: "George, you can type this shit, but you can't say it," is the oft-repeated line. Nobody did that for him in 1999 -- certainly not Rick McCallum the producer, who basically sucked Lucas's cock through three movies.

And to make matters worse he was still, even as late as Ep 3, experimenting with digital filmmaking. He had a serious hardon for the technology and was distracted from solid directing as a result. There's a godawful lot of what I call the Greenscreen Stare from people in the PT -- a certain look on the actor's face that says "I am looking at a bright green prosthetic that is supposed to be a living, breathing head, and I just cannot do it. I cannot visualise it and act credibly because I have no visual, olfactory, or audio cues and cannot actually believe I am in this situation."

About the only actors who get out of that trilogy with reputations semi-intact are Ian McDiarmid as the Emperor (and in which he gloriously chews the nonexistent scenery in every shot, or so it seems) and Ewan McGregor whose physical and emotional commitment to the role of Obi-Wan was unique. By the third film he manages to summon up Alec Guinness's ghost so convincingly it's frightening.

It's a pity, too, because George's work was breathtakingly imaginative ... provided somebody else makes it. Agreed there will probably be a lot of target-audience, safe directing and story decisions in this film, but at the same time I really don't think George Lucas had anything left up his sleeve. He had nothing in the tank by the time Ep 3 rolled round.

[Belgrano]

Holy shit.
Suddenly everything makes sense, this is too convincing to be wrong.
They were hiding it in plain sight!
I´m a believer:

[Theory] Jar Jar Binks was a trained Force user, knowing Sith collaborator, and will play a central role in The Force Awakens

[Paracelsus]

Sorry, lads, but for me the phantom menace in The Phantom Menace was named George Lucas. I know it's old to hate on the PT and all, but the entire series -- bar moments of ROTS -- has the feel of being filmed at least a couple of script drafts too early.


...although, ah hell, Id best disclose it: I'm going to be in line for the midnight screening when it comes out. One more charity root for the old bitch for the sake of my raped childhood.

[bk19xsa]

I follow and pay close attention to film media and film making and as such its become very annoying to see how much Hollywood has resorted in pushing its Feminist and PC agendas.

Though Im not that big fan of Star Wars ,I have watched the movies when I was young and have known people who are really into it. I also understand the cultural impact and the revolution in cinema that Star Wars brought.

First of all when Lucas sold the film making rights to Disney ,that itself should have been a major red flag considering the kind of movies Disney has been recently making.

Secondly ,when John Boyega, a black actor, was cast as 'Finn' and as the lead, I thought it would be interesting and gave the benefit of doubt that the actor was picked on merit.
But when the trailers came out and the story started to reveal more , the Force Awakens started to look more and more as a Hollywood PC Agenda piece .

Finn is NOT the main lead.He is among the main characters. But its the Female (Rey) who is the Main Lead. She will be the one who will take out the Main Villain .Just look at the poster for proof.
Finn is a Beta dude in the movie who will follow the Girl's lead . Want further proof?

Watch this :

This shows Finn will be your usual bumbling ,dependent ,learning to be strong on the go dude with some comic relief while Rey will show strength , assertiveness and independence. 'Girrrlll power' will be at its best.

There is also the pilot 'Poe' played by a good actor in Oscar Isaac.

Gentlemen , I can already see Disney making a side plot that will be inspired by the 'twilight' type romance but with a twist that Rey is not damsel in distress and instead is the heroic badass vowed by the 'nice guy' Finn and pseudo cool Poe.

Oh and to top it there are rumors that the only 'manly' dude Han Solo will die in the first movie. And if he doesnt then it will be his sidekick 'Chewbacca'.

Its as if there is no place in big films to have strong independent heroic badass male Characters anymore.

But there is ample place for them to be the villains.
The main villain 'Kylo' is a tall white dude with idealistic issues. He has a lot of 'anger' in him and vows to continue the dark ideology.

Ofcourse Kylo has a strong female by his side too; 'Capt. Phasma' will be played by Gwendoline Christie who was especially chosen because she kicked lots of Male ass in Game of Thrones.
Ill tell you now , she will be there for the next movie too or even all three movies.She will be the ultimate side bad ass ,kicking everyone's butt left right centre.She will be the villain that the audience 'loves' . She would be either stopped by multiple men or by beta Finn who will get the beat down from her but somehow manage to be 'lucky' to stop her and her death will be a bad ass warriors death.

I just laugh at How plain can it get in terms of PC and Feminist Agendas.

But still , why the sudden overdose in Star Wars?
There might be a reason.At least for Star Wars there might be :


Kathleen Kennedy , who started out as Spielberg's secretary , has gone into feminist overdrive after becoming the President of LucasFilms during Disney's takeover.
The other Star Wars movie coming out , the stand alone one ,also has a female lead as the hero.
Moreover ,Kathleen recently said she wants Female Directors for future Star Wars movies :
http://www.businessinsider.com/star-wars...or-2015-12

Its straight up absolutely annoying agenda pushing.

Lastly , Star Wars when it came out was the quintessential Boys Fantasy Movie. What Phoenix said in his post is correct. The three main male characters in new hope represented what boys desired to be. It was a central theme to the movie and the series.

And now people are even denying that . The Director JJ Abrams said somewhat the same and immediately caused an uproar among the Feminists .The SJWs made him apologize :

http://deadline.com/2015/12/jj-abrams-ex...201653533/

How many females actually watched star wars and gave it the legs for it to become the phenomena it is?How many?
I bet the answer hugely pales in comparison to the number of males.

Its surprising how many current male fans can be fine with this as there is not much uproar.Even Mad Max,a movie with significantly less following, had more uproar.

They need to realize that this movie was made for only 2 purposes :1. Guzzle money out of mindless sheep 2. make those mindless sheep adhere to its social agenda.

[nomadbrah]

(10-21-2015 05:29 AM)Paracelsus Wrote:  

Well, the Empire has always looked a lot like Nazi Germany:

Lucas should pay royalties to Leni Riefenstahl. Blatantly ripped off 'Triump des Willens'.

The aerial shots of troops amassing for war are literally carbon copies:





And Dart Wader sure is sporting that chic SS costume:



Of course, Lucas was not an agenda hack like JJ Abrams, so his imitation of Nazi Germany was not meant to be a crude grade school level talking point, but more as an homage to the disturbing yet undoubtedly genius aesthetic of the Nazis.

[kaotic]

Han Solo isn't going to die, chewbacca will (they hint at it in the trailer), he'll sacrifice his life for his best friends child(ren). Chewbaccas son ends up becoming han/lei's childr(rens) body guard.

That's how the post Return of The Jedi books told it.

"The First Order" was originally Grand Admiral Thrawn's guys in Timothy Zahn's "Thrawn Trilogy"

Luke was actually cloned from his cut off hand also, along with I think a clone of the emperor himself.

Luke actually was with a girl named Mara Jade (who used to be the emperors right hand woman).

We'll see what happenes, I'm not holding my breath for this film - this shit should've ended at Return of the Jedi.

[Paracelsus]

(12-08-2015 05:59 PM)kaotic Wrote:  

Han Solo isn't going to die, chewbacca will (they hint at it in the trailer), he'll sacrifice his life for his best friends child(ren). Chewbaccas son ends up becoming han/lei's childr(rens) body guard.

That's how the post Return of The Jedi books told it.

That would be the Expanded Universe, which was a very, very large and unwieldy group of literally dozens of novels and comics that purported to all be in the same continuity together and continuing the story as set out in the films. Disney's killed that EU in that it's said explicitly that only elements of the Clone Wars cartoon series and now the excrement called "Star Wars Rebels" are still part of the movie continuity, so it's a clean slate.

Chewbacca does indeed die in one of the EU books -- Vector Prime, about 20 years after ROTJ and signalling the beginning of what I call The Jumping Of The Shark in the EU, being the arrival of an extragalactic threat for our friends from the OT to fight. Chewbacca goes out somewhat heroically but at the same time really stupidly (in essence, a moon falls on him.)

(12-08-2015 05:59 PM)kaotic Wrote:  

"The First Order" was originally Grand Admiral Thrawn's guys in Timothy Zahn's "Thrawn Trilogy"

Not exactly. In the Thrawn Trilogy, it was explicitly the Imperial Remnant: the Empire remained in existence even roughly twenty years after ROTJ, pushed back down to about a dozen star systems until Thrawn came along and reinvigorated the whole imperial movement by reason of his tactical acumen and became a threat to the New Republic.

(12-08-2015 05:59 PM)kaotic Wrote:  

Luke was actually cloned from his cut off hand also, along with I think a clone of the emperor himself.

That's merging together two stories in the EU: The Thrawn Trilogy and the Dark Horse comic series Dark Empire. In the Thrawn books, the Emperor had kept a cloning facility operational on the planet of Wayland, and had cloned a Jedi Master -- Joruus C'Baoth -- to guard it. Thrawn got his troops by getting that facility up and running again. During the course of the trilogy, Joruus arranged for a clone of Luke to be created from Luke's cut-off hand.

The Dark Empire trilogy is set roughly five years or so after the event of ROTJ, and the Emperor returns with an even more massive Star Destroyer -- Eclipse class, about 25 km long if I remember right -- and has been keeping himself alive using a series of clones. All these clones are destroyed during the course of the story and the Emperor himself pushed through into "the Void" (i.e. No-Coming-Back-From-Death-Land) by the sacrifice of a Jedi knight who'd been hiding out uninvolved in the rebellion. That's about the last time the Emperor shows up in the EU continuity.

(12-08-2015 05:59 PM)kaotic Wrote:  

Luke actually was with a girl named Mara Jade (who used to be the emperors right hand woman).

Correct - though this plot element didn't actually crystallise until the very last book that Zahn wrote for the EU, Vision of the Future. Up to that point Luke and Mara Jade were frenemies at best. It was a very, very silly time.

[kaotic]

Well EXCUSE me Mr. Post ROTJ expert

But yea you pretty much nailed it, we'll see what happens.

They just introduced Leia's daughter today.

[Blackwell]

(12-09-2015 05:03 PM)kaotic Wrote:  

Well EXCUSE me Mr. Post ROTJ expert

But yea you pretty much nailed it, we'll see what happens.

They just introduced Leia's daughter today.

The daughter of Leia and Hans Solo?

I swear they are meant to have a son as well. A son who ends up turning to the dark side. I believe he becomes 'Darth Caedus'. This is just stuff I remember from reading about the expanded universe, might be wrong.

[Paracelsus]

(12-09-2015 05:16 PM)Blackwell Wrote:  

(12-09-2015 05:03 PM)kaotic Wrote:  

Well EXCUSE me Mr. Post ROTJ expert

But yea you pretty much nailed it, we'll see what happens.

They just introduced Leia's daughter today.

The daughter of Leia and Hans Solo?

I swear they are meant to have a son as well. A son who ends up turning to the dark side. I believe he becomes 'Darth Caedus'. This is just stuff I remember from reading about the expanded universe, might be wrong.

According to the EU at least, which again they're not adapting, that would be Jacen Solo, Jaina's sister. (Their brother, named Anakin, dies somewhere during the novels). He does, indeed, become Darth Caedus, and eventually Jaina does fight him and beat him. There are some indications that Kylo Ren is indeed Rey's sister, too, chiefly, JJ Abrams is expected to be apeing a lot of Star Wars plot elements -- and a sister eventually fighting her brother is a big one that's been waiting to be used for a long time now.

[kaotic]

My bad Carrie Fischer's daughter is playing in the movie BUT NOT as Leia's Daughter



http://www.people.com/article/billie-lou...ncess-leia

[Off The Reservation]

(11-28-2014 08:08 PM)Hedonistic Traveler Wrote:  

(11-28-2014 03:56 PM)Aros Wrote:  

That light saber. The dual light saber I could understand, but this.

I'm guessing it's meant to function like a hilt on a sword. A defensive tool, not an offensive one. I'm not a fan either though, sometimes I think they change things just so they can pretend they had an impact.

I'll definitely be watching it when it's released, but I'm keeping my expectations low. I've only seen 3-6, but I've heard some awful things about 1-2. 3 was pretty lame for the most part too.

Fisher, Ford, and Hamill are all coming back for it. Should be interesting. Hamill was an awful actor, I wonder if he has taken classes in the past 40 years.

This chick is in it too. Guarantee she'll be playing an alien.

WB even as alien

[Paracelsus]

Saw a small featurette-bullshit-thingy briefly interviewing John Boyega and Daisy Ridley. Their natural voices and accents are ... well, let's just say I was surprised the Light Side of the Force has been recruiting from Sarf Lundun.

[YossariansRight]

Francis Ford Coppola: George Lucas got lost in the Star Wars movies:

http://www.thebeardedtrio.com/2015/12/ge...-wars.html

[Canopus]

For reasons that will become apparent if you glance slightly to the left, I couldn't very well remain unspoken on this subject.

I was born just a couple years after Return of the Jedi; I must have been 12 the first time I watched the original Star Wars trilogy on VHS in my parents' bedroom, one lazy Saturday. All three movies, one right after the other. For a young boy, that is an absolutely igneous experience. The duel between Luke and Vader in Empire is still burned into the forefront of my mind as the benchmark for fight scenes in cinema. Even the (largely Lucas-driven) troubles of Jedi leave that movie with a crackle in my memory. That film hasn't the whimsy of Hope or the romance of Empire, but it does have its virtues...though they must increasingly compete for airtime with barbarian teddy bears. (I'm always fascinated by the Return of the Jedi That Almost Was, where Han would have died on Endor, Leia would have become Queen of a tattered Alliance, and Luke would have walked off into the sunset like the Man With No Name. Amusingly enough, that actually seems to better fit the premise of The Force Awakens from what I've seen.)

Watched together as a child, the movies leave your imagination crackling with voltage. The stars suddenly feel within reach; life seems always on the edge of adventure. And though the scene carries not a word of dialogue, any young man can tell you what Luke is feeling here:



Naturally, I couldn't conclude this (admittedly affectionate) reminiscing without taking a detour to talk about the fellow in my avatar. He is absolutely one of my favorite film villains.

If Alec Guinness was the acting spine of the Rebels, Peter Cushing was his counterpart for the Empire. Vader may be the more iconic villain, and the Emperor the more demonic, but the tone of the Empire's portrayal over the three films really begins with Grand Moff Tarkin and the cold, reptilian pragmatism that Cushing brings to the role. He is as relevant today as he was in 1977: a stark image of pragmatism divorced from all moral restraints. You can see when Tarkin tells the other governors "Fear will keep the local systems in line" that it isn't just a smug bit of moustachio-twirling. He believes it. His face in that scene is that of a man whose career and station in life have been built on the efficient utilization of terror. (Which makes his portrayal by a horror film legend all the more fitting. And awesome.)

Obviously, the SJWs in the "fandom" entirely gloss over his character -- I suppose they're too busy penning Tumblr essays about how Gaston from Beauty and the Beast is the Most Terrifying Villain Ever because he says women shouldn't read. Tarkin, meanwhile, strokes Princess Leia's chin as if greeting a favorite niece while coolly informing her that he's just signed her death warrant. Minutes later, he has her defenseless homeworld blown to fucking cinders and makes her watch, while chiding her for trusting him. Dial down the fantasy of a planet-popping superweapon for a moment. The fear exists; the stakes exist; the politics exist. Tarkin could exist today, and our docile leadership and pathetic Twitter mobs could do nothing to stop a monster like that. Scary stuff.

Anyway -- if there's a point to any of this gushing, it's that the original three movies endure (in spite of ending on a teddy bear luau) and still offer much to engage the imagination at any age.

Then there was much silliness in the prequel trilogy and we should all avert our eyes. ("If you only knew the power of the Dark Side!" Vader tells Luke in Empire with a clenched, quivering fist. Doesn't Jones' delivery just tell you so much more about Anakin's fall than three movies of that Chosen One bullshit?)

Now we come to the new films, and I'm expecting what most people are: an experience not quite on the level of the originals, but better than the prequels, with an "inclusiveness update" now that it's in the hands of Disney.

I'll adventure a contrary view: I encourage diverse casting in a setting like Star Wars.

I don't buy this "diversity makes better stories" pablum, but I do believe it can strengthen the setting of a story, and Star Wars especially. In a galaxy teeming with millions of aliens and droids and single-biosphere planets, I hope for a dramatis personae encompassing humans, aliens, and robots of all stripes. That was a charm of the original movies, and a weakness of the prequels: the galaxy feels larger the more strange new faces appear on the stage of the drama, but it feels smaller as the same old faces keep popping up in its history. Yoda fighting alongside Chewbacca, Anakin building C-3PO, Obi-Wan meeting R2-D2 -- ridiculous contrivances that push you out of the story. Suddenly the "galaxy far, far away" looks like the one diner in a town of 30 people.

I expect Daisy Ridley to REALLY suck, at least for the first flick. John Boyega will do all right, but I think taking this role might weigh heavily on his career (like Hamill). And of the three "new faces", Oscar Isaac will do most of the heavy lifting because he's a fucking geared actor with a stellar career ahead of him.

Of all the old faces, it's Mark Hamill I'm most looking forward to. He's a genuinely great guy and a rightfully beloved icon of the voiceover community. If he's in it even for thirty seconds, he'll steal the movie.

Lastly, I'm very happy John Williams is still alive to score this film. His soundtrack, especially Across the Stars (fuck, that song deserved a better movie), was one of the only positives of the prequels. I'm excited to hear his work for the new movie.

All that to say, I'm going to catch the movie when I can and I'll go in with the enthusiasm I obviously still carry for these movies. Whether the film can outpace Disney's political and mercantile agendas, well, we'll see. But I think I'll crack a smile at least once.

Still, in the spirit of Tarkin, I'm always going to wish this guy would make it to the screen someday:

[Paracelsus]

Canopus Wrote:

Then there was much silliness in the prequel trilogy and we should all avert our eyes. ("If you only knew the power of the Dark Side!" Vader tells Luke in Empire with a clenched, quivering fist. Doesn't Jones' delivery just tell you so much more about Anakin's fall than three movies of that Chosen One bullshit?)

This +20.

You get a very similar thing out of Alec Guinness's performance: he gives one short monologue on the subject of the Jedi Knights: "For over a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic ... before the dark times. Before the Empire."

Luke is waving his lightsaber around experimentally while this goes on, but the combination of images just suggests a massive backstory behind it, utterly compelling - it basically creates thousands of years of history in one line, and does it fantastically -- much more than three films stuffed full of CGI stupidity and monologues about sand.

[Paracelsus]

P.S. @Canopus - I assume you've heard Carrie Fisher talk about acting across from Peter Cushing. She said it was practically impossible to act angry with him because he was the epitome of a charming gentleman in all his dealings with her (and more generally in his life, so I understand). As Fisher put it: "I mean, I found it really hard because here I was insulting him about his foul stench when the man smelled like lavender."