He had stated that he came up with the idea for the ending before he came up with the idea for the pilot. But either way, Im sure the new Star Wars movies will be fine. The uber nerds wont like it, but theyre never satisfied.
I find your lack of faith disturbing. I was 9 years old when A New Hope came out and I clearly remember talking with my friends about how there were supposed to be 9 movies, 3 with Luke, 3 prequels, and 3 sequels that take place after Luke. I was overjoyed when the prequels came out. I thought Phantom Menace, aside from Jar Jar Binks, definitely the most annoying character in the history of movies, was very good and thoroughly enjoyable. I don't understand all the hate toward that movie. The Clone Wars was boring as hell and the worst of the 6. Revenge of the Sith was just as good as Phantom Menace, possibly a little better. Mainly because I loved seeing Yoda in action. I can't wait to see the new one and my son is on pins and needles for it to come out so we can go see together. I have complete faith in Abrams and I was very happy to hear he was directing it. I love what he did with Star Trek and he absolutely stayed faithful to the characters their relationships, banter, and struck all the right notes. I have no doubt he will do the same with The Force Awakens. What more can anyone ask for?
You're probably right. But annoying fanboys are in many forms, coming in all kinds of husky shapes and XL sizes. They're the ones who relentlessly lobbied to get that atrocious Tron sequel made or bitch that Wolverine doesn't wear his yellow suit comic faggotry in the X-Men movies. Focus: These new films certainly won't be groundbreaking like the originals, but not crappy like the unneeded prequels. I count on them being fun and huge in scale. With this new one it should simply be Luke slicing off Jar-Jar's head. It will be called Star Wars Episode VII: A Galaxy Rejoices.
The biggest problem with these movies is that how do you create an antagonist that's better than Darth Vadar? I don't think you can. He is one of the iconic bad guys in movies. All of the first six movies in some way have this character as a main focal point. Obviously in 4-6, he's the bad guy, and what a bad guy. There was just enough allusions to earlier events to get you interested in how Darth got to be Darth (Hence the first 3 movies, which were awful - despite having an awesome foundation for a storyline, they still managed to suck Chewbacca's balls). So how do we care about a new bad guy? I will say Abrams did a good job with Star Trek. To be fair, the Star Trek movies always had an element of camp to them (which I like) and Abrams update didn't. His treatment of Kahn was great too - but again, that's an existing bad guy. Here? We don't have one, so you're going to have to have a really good bad guy to even approach the level of love that people had for the originals. Given the shitstorm that was the prequels, I don't think they can. I hope I'm wrong. I now dub Star Wars VII: 'The Search For A Script That Doesn't Suck Donkey Balls And Includes Characters That You Don't Want To Watch Get Mauled By A Rabid Bunny Rabbit.'
So will Han and Leia still be together or May Divorce Be With You? Ford had better be rocking the tuxedo vest or I will fucking fight.
Has there been any mention by TPTB of whether Timothy Zahn's interpretation of the gang's future would be borrowed from at all? Any love match for Luke would have to contend with the spectre of Mara Jade. Yesterday I saw a portrait done by James Hance (he does a lot of pop culture mashups, most notably Han Solo and Chewbacca as Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh) where he imagined that under Vader's mask was Severus Snape. It made me sad, because it reminded me of the fact that Vader's backstory was not done nearly as well as it could have been. Snape is a good example of a (semi)villainous character whose backstory is revealed and he is instantly made so much more sympathetic and his descent into darkness that much more poignant and tragic and his eventual death that much more a keen feeling of loss for what could have been. I would have wanted something like that for Vader's backstory.
I would be disappointed to not see Mara Jade come into play. I think Disney is not going to meddle too far into the accepted canon, because the Galaxy has had numerous screenwriters, comic artists, comic writers, novels, novellas, etc. to draw from, and to retcon all of it would just be near-impossible. Better to just fill in with new stories, like what they did with Star Wars: Rebels. As for the Skywalker continuity, I think they will use it to fruition.
I consider myself a Star Wars nerd. I've read most of the Expanded Universe books, good and bad. I'm moderately excited to see what's going to happen, and have the following thoughts: 1. The biggest problem with the prequel trilogy is that they took the "prequel" part too seriously at the expense of the story. There are two large overarching plots in the prequels - the rise of Palpatine and the Galactic Empire, and Anakin's descent into darkness. They tried to do both, and I think that it suffered because of it. If they had made the story favor one over the other, it would have been much better. I don't care about Jar Jar. Return of the Jedi had fucking Ewoks in it, and it was still a good movie. I don't care about the excessive CGI, either. I care much more about the fact that we don't see Anakin until forty-five minutes into the Phantom Menace. I care much more about the fact that the love story's dialogue and actions are so jarring that they make their relationship unbelievable. 2. If they're going to make 7, 8, and 9 work, they need to treat the original trilogy as a distant relative. Insert a few references here or there. Make some of the planets match during conversation. Delegate Harrison Ford & Friends to extremely minor roles as a new set of protagonists take over. Make Luke Skywalker the wise old sage who gives brief guidance to the protagonists. Letting the original trilogy dictate the story will turn it into a steaming pile of shit. 3. The vast majority of the Expanded Universe (other books, comics, and the like written by random people) is complete and utter shit. Feel free to take a few references from it, but don't try to make it all fit. The fanboys will all whine about continuity, and they can go fuck themselves. You know what's worse than bad continuity between fanfiction and a sequel? Having the sequel suck because the director tried to shoehorn in a whole bunch of shit for the neckbeards. When I think of the pitfalls of catering to the fanatic fans, I think of the Simpsons episode where they make a realistic sci-fi movie. No sound in space, no warp drives, boring-as-fuck space combat. Everyone walks out, and Comic Book Guy is yelling "Yes! A masterpiece of cinema! Huzzah!"
The guys over at Red Letter Media have the definitive analysis on why the Star Wars prequels sucked so badly. http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars/
It is, but it has a lot more than just nitpicking its way through the movie. At its core, the review is actually a guide to compelling storytelling, using examples from Episode 1 (and later, 2 and 3) of what not to do. There's a fair amount that is obvious, but it really is breaking down exactly what makes a good movie and what makes a bad movie. I find myself thinking about it frequently when watching other movies and asking myself, "Why don't I like this?" It's also completely fucking hilarious. The deadpan voice combines with ridiculously dark humor and sarcasm and selected footage to produce an excellent effect that can't be replicated with text or a straight video. There's a lot of it that will probably make you say "who the hell cares," but it's masterfully combined with the greater themes to show what happens when the flaws start to pile up.
I love the Plinkett reviews on RLM. Fucking hilarious. Im more a Star Trek fan and his break downs of the plot holes and differences from the shows the movies had are spot on and as hardcore nerd as you can get. Seriously those dudes are funny.
Here's my analysis: Because the "love story" shit between Anakin and Padme was written by a hormone fueled 13 year old. And of course JJB sucks.
Shit. I'm excited for it now. I was hoping to go in without too much expectations, but that plan is ruined now. I really hope this is good.