Werthead Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 7 hours ago, Kalbear said: I think the notion that somehow Disney isn't absurdly happy with the amount of money they spent on Star Wars and what they got back is pretty insane. They're probably happier with Marvel, given how little it cost them, but Star Wars by virtually every account has been a monstrously successful investment so far. Even with TRoS not doing super amazing at the box office. The Mandalorian alone is almost worth it with how well it brought people on the streaming platform. They're probably not super thrilled with Kennedy and Abrams, but making a 300m-500m profit per movie AND having crazy merchandising AND having extra theme park traffic from a lot of people who didn't go to disney before? And having exclusive rights to the backlog of the Star Wars movies on their streaming service, which are some of the most rewatched movies ever? They're doing just fine. Yeah, they're not starving. I do think they're probably disappointed to have fallen short of their expectations though. Based on the franchise's prior performance they were probably projecting $2 billion for every mainline movie (or at least closer to that figure), $800 million to $1 billion per spin off (which Rogue One) and a more in merchandising. They've hit this spot of being more than profitable but not coming close to their ceiling figure of what they thought was possible (I suspect they're extremely unhappy with EA, who promised the Earth in 2013 on their video game deal and have fallen far short, taking seven years and half a dozen studios to deliver just three games). They also have this really odd critical mix, where they've had some of the worst-received (Rise of Skywalker) and best-received (The Mandalorian) stuff in the franchise coming out simultaneously. I do wonder how much of this is down to the mishandling of the franchise and how much is down to just maturation and saturation. Star Wars is now an old, old franchise which a lot of young kids don't have any real interest in (just as, as a kid, I had little interest in Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers), and the excitement and hype in previous generations was more down to it being a franchise with very little live-action content (going from 6 movies in 30 years in 2007 to 12 movies in total just twelve years later) to one with an absolute ton. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartofice Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 There is definitely a level of over saturation in terms of big screen blockbusters.. which is kind of strange because I think there are probably less these days than you would have seen a decade ago. However these blockbusters are not doing anything to stand out from each other. These new SW sequels followed mostly a very safe cookie cutter approach ( even taking into account TLJs choices) to story telling. They never felt like there was any sort of vision or artistic integrity to them. At least the Marvel movies can fall back on their universe and range of interesting characters to make up for their blandness, and occasionally take some risks like with Thor 3. I don’t think it’s a coincidence we are talking about Rogue One and Mandalorian as properties that were a success. Those two out of the many releases seem to most ‘get’ what makes the SW universe appealing. They had that lived in feel and it felt real. The Sequels just felt like a Disney World ride on screen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dog-days Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 I watched Rise of Skywalker last night for the first time since seeing it in the cinema. It wasn't agonizing, but it seemed such a waste of all that potential. And acting talent. And money. All that gigantic budget. It kept striking me how much it relied on reusing musical motifs from the original series to create atmosphere or emotion. There were a couple of nice touches (I liked the old droid of the Jedi Hunter, and Bapu Frik), but it was so horribly unadventurous. Then I watched the last few episodes of Clone Wars Season 7, which showed Rise of Skywalker how to do epic finales and then some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corvinus85 Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 43 minutes ago, dog-days said: I watched Rise of Skywalker last night for the first time since seeing it in the cinema. It wasn't agonizing, but it seemed such a waste of all that potential. And acting talent. And money. All that gigantic budget. It kept striking me how much it relied on reusing musical motifs from the original series to create atmosphere or emotion. There were a couple of nice touches (I liked the old droid of the Jedi Hunter, and Bapu Frik), but it was so horribly unadventurous. Then I watched the last few episodes of Clone Wars Season 7, which showed Rise of Skywalker how to do epic finales and then some. I haven't watched the whole video, but this shows why the music is misleading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dog-days Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 1 hour ago, Corvinus85 said: I haven't watched the whole video, but this shows why the music is misleading. Thanks - just watched the whole thing now. I hope Williams's original score one day reemerges. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poobah Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 27 minutes ago, dog-days said: Thanks - just watched the whole thing now. I hope Williams's original score one day reemerges. Wow yeah that was a great video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 Preeety sure I posted that video in an older thread, but yeah, it's spot on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karaddin Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 Yeah I think the criticisms in that one are pretty spot on. I'd also posted this one previously I think which is looking specifically just at the trailers and from memory there is some similarity there in manipulative usage of the music to try hack a shortcut to the emotional response. Actually looking through the youtube channel for Sideways, he had actually done a previous video specifically on the trailer music that I've watched before and *that* is probably the one I'm remembering and confusing with the above one on trailers. Patrick's video may have been what sent me to the other one though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 I could go on a long rant about just the music in TROS tv spots alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RumHam Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 Hayden Christensen Rumored To Finally Return In Star Wars Disney+ Show (The Obi-wan one) I don't believe it myself. I guess they could do flashbacks set between II and III but The Clone Wars pretty much had that covered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhom Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 12 minutes ago, RumHam said: Hayden Christensen Rumored To Finally Return In Star Wars Disney+ Show (The Obi-wan one) I don't believe it myself. I guess they could do flashbacks set between II and III but The Clone Wars pretty much had that covered. The speculation I read was that he would appear in Obi Wan's nightmares. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RumHam Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 2 minutes ago, Rhom said: The speculation I read was that he would appear in Obi Wan's nightmares. Ah, that'd make more sense but when I read he'd be a regular I figured it would be ongoing flashbacks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 Bit odd. He's 15 years older that Anakin was when he became Vader. Him playing Vader in a new series set between Sith and Hope and we get to see him with his helmet off or something, maybe, but having him show up in a dream sequence seems strange. Of course, as a stylised dream sequence they can de-age him digitally a bit more convincingly, probably. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 Maybe he shows up all burnt and fucked up like a cenobite from Hellraiser Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 50 minutes ago, Rhom said: The speculation I read was that he would appear in Spoiler Everyones nightmares. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RumHam Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 I just wanna see a scene of him flipping through the voice options on his new Darth Vader suit and settling on James Earl Jones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMC Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 Yeah Christensen coming back to play the Anakin he was around the time of the prequels sounds pretty WTF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 ScreenRant is pretty much a bullshit rumors site anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueMetis Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 2 hours ago, Darth Richard II said: ScreenRant is pretty much a bullshit rumors site anyway. Well, Doomcock isn't exactly the most trustworthy source. (Some of you probably think what I just wrote is a joke, it's not) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 11 hours ago, Werthead said: Bit odd. He's 15 years older that Anakin was when he became Vader. Him playing Vader in a new series set between Sith and Hope and we get to see him with his helmet off or something, maybe, but having him show up in a dream sequence seems strange. Of course, as a stylised dream sequence they can de-age him digitally a bit more convincingly, probably. I guess if they do regular flashbacks they'll have McGregor playing obi so it makes sense to use Hayden for anakin irrespective of time passed. Guess it depends how much Hayden has aged. God forbid the show has vader temporarily able to heal himself (or via emperor) to the extent he doesn't need the mask and we get helmetless vader. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.