OFFICIAL NEWS * THE OFFICIAL * JJ ABRAMS THREAD

and a lot of shots of people using telephones, recieving weird intercom messages, the emperor speaking backwards and shots of lamps flickering

 

YES! Those would definitely be in a Lynch Star Wars film!

 

for real

 

Quentin Tarantino. He would take practical effects to the extreme and include the strangest action scenes in the Star Wars franchise.

 

I just want one star wars movie actually SHOT in 3D and not just converted

 

Oh, please let Tarantino direct a live action version of Star Wars Rebels.

THE POSSIBILITIES!

Tarantino Lightsaber duels! Force visions that look like a bad LSD trip. Someone would blow up JarJar for being annoying.

 

To address the OP - yes, we should temper our expectations. But this thread is really misleading since your reasoning why is based on your obvious dislike for Abrams. Thats really a more appropriate discussion for the official JJ Abrams thread that is stickied at the top of the forum. There you'll find your opinions have been debated for some time.

If you have any other reasons why we should lower our expectations aside from the director I'd love to hear them. But if this is just an indictment of JJ Abrams I'm out.

 

Thanks for the interesting thread @AllHailVader.

After flicking through all pages I feel like I've spent time with everyone in The Cantina for real - that we got a little tipsy, lost some inhibitions, misheard a lot of what was said amongst the din of hedonic tone. Some voices were raised, some love was splashed around, some opinions were taken a little to heart. We liked, disliked, agreed and disagreed, spoke and misspoke and maybe even embarrassed ourselves a little at times. Overall, perhaps a bonding experience for some and an experience to forget for others - either way I ended up with a little headache and a decision to take home.

Until now I've always come down on the side of lowering expectations so as not to be disappointed. It has never harmed a film I've seen while high expectations have. What this thread has helped me realize is that the films that have really benefited from my lowering expectations are films that I kinda think are s**t. Lowering them made them seem a little less s**t at the time, but down the track I still see them as s**t.

But you've changed my mind. I don't think I should do it with TFA. As you, and a host of other wise voices have said here, it might be unrealistic to expect better than ANH or ESB - but it's not going to be s**t. You backed up your case with evidence every step of the way, and I read your intention to be one of genuine concern that fanatical expectations will play out as unfair on the filmmakers, theater goers and the legacy involved. I've decided that lowering my expectations would be just as unfair for the same parties.

Thanks again

P.S. I like the idea of this David Lynch anthology film. A pity John Cage couldn't score it - UNLESS...someone starts a thread of film making teams (dead or alive) for creating a dream Star Wars one-off production.

 

Glad to here I have been of much use....I don't get complimented often as I do come across as very blunt, as I see myself as a realist.

I'm just saying to you hardcore Star Wars fans to not go in with clouded judgement of this being better than the Prequels and taking that pain away.

Matrix Revolutions crushed me in ways you can never imagine. The scars will be with me forever, and unlike y'all....you are getting a chance to be redeemed while I still wait...

But it's just me doing careful calculations of the filmmaker involved, his sensibilities and his history.

It leads me to say this WON'T be rubbish as he's never made a straight up bad film. This WILL be well made as he has proven in Star Trek.

But will it have the creativity and ingenuity of George Lucas? No. Because Lucas is one of the most creative minds we've ever seen.

Will it have the incredible dramatic realizations of Empire? No. Because Abrams's sensibility doesn't come from those who were knocking out those films in the 70's and his track record shows he can't really reach those dramatic depths. Whereas a Rian Johnson could...

So it's knowing what to expect. Talk of this being the best Star Wars movie ever is just not helpful and not realistic at all. There's a chance it could be, there was a chance Revenge of the Sith could have been a great film. Always a chance.

But keep in mind....this is JJ Abrams....NOT Steven Spielberg, one of the greatest directors of all time.

Know what to expect and don't overestimate.

 

IMHO, J.J. is a heck of a director

 

Edit: Sorry. I thought this was posted on a different thread called "why we should lower expectations for TFA". Its meaning is lost and off topic on an official JJ specific thread.

 

Now that would be interesting.......

 

Honestly, i think any director of today could direct a Star Wars movie, one's will do it a little better than others but anyone could do it (except for Shyamalan, is that bad). Personally think C Nolan, Guy Ritchie or S Soderberg would be good, the Wachowski brothers could be interesting, but David Lynch kill my favorite book in a bad taste movie adaptation in "Dune".

I say any director would do for StarWars because there's no much director freedom or any director slide of hand, there's a very strong writing team and a lot of people to control everything, even the toy makers have more to say about a StarWars Movie than his director.

 

I agree with a lot of what you say but I have some strong points of contention to make.

"With the screenplay, there is reason to be optimistic. Abrams is a competent writer, but he's no Darabont, Tarantino or Puzo. But decent enough. However, you have Kasdan who IS quality screenwriter as Empire and Raiders will prove. So together, the story SHOULD be decent."

I haven't seen any of Kasdan's work since ROTJ... have you guys? Some of them look like awful films, so I am concerned in the Kasdan regard... though I remain optimistic that he knows how to write for Star Wars. Some times people who produce mediocre work within another context make brilliant work in the right environment.

"The thing with Abrams is I don't see him as a filmmaker. He's more of a blockbuster director, and one of the best in his field of that type of cinema."

I agree with this statement, but I think Spielberg is a blockbuster director as well. I mean watch the films he did in the 80's... so campy! They are good films, but I wouldn't say on an artistic level there is much depth there. Even when he teemed up with Janusz Kaminski & did films like Schindler's list... the "artsy" shots were so blatant (red coat) that it leaves nothing to be dissected in the way that a Kubrick shot could be.

Daniel Mindel, Abrams cinematographer, is an expert in regards to composition... I think his shots are very compelling. True, these are blockbuster films, but they are pretty to look at... not just on an FX level.

"But Kershner may be of some hope.
Before Empire, he didn't really make a film you would call of a high standard. But with the tools of Star Wars, that was his calling and he hit magic. So perhaps, this is the film Abrams has been waiting for to really show his qualities. "

I don't remember which film maker said this... it could have even been Lucas... but I remember them saying when you work on a film... you never know how it's going to be until you get it into the studio to edit. Many times there are just lots of happy accidents; as in the right crew, the right weather/ lighting for a shot, just the vibe... things that can't be controlled.

Kershner did exactly what Lucas didn't want him to do... took his time to make sure shots were perfect & filmed plenty of takes, which made the film go way over budget. Lucas was in fact furious about this, and even said that He would have preferred ESB to *not* be as good as it was, just due to the cost.

Perhaps Kershner didn't get the chance to do that with other projects, since Star Wars is such a big budget project.

Abrams has always had high standards for production, so I think we know what we're gonna get roughly because we saw it in Star Trek. I'm not sure if the budget is different from Star Trek to Star Wars... but it looks like Abrams went all out with this film, so hopefully this is his masterpiece!

I'm optimistic, but my expectations are in check. But I see nothing in the trailer to indicate this film will be mediocre... I think it will rank 95 % on rotten tomato. If not, I highly doubt it will be anything less than 80%. Anyone want to take wagers?

 

Definitely agree with two key features:

- Kasdan is a very good screenwriter and good enough for any SW movie, he was on the SW Original Trilogy and Raiders of the Lost Ark
- JJ Abrams is just a blockbuster director, like Armagedon, big budget, big names, huge prodution, poor story and desappointing ending (Lame Director)

On Other hand, what if GL decided to hand down one Star Wars movie from this trilogy to .............. Peter Jackson, we would get:

- One Movie in 6 parts, each with over 300 minutes.
- Huge revolution in digital Special Effects
- No narrative adaptations what so ever (this guy can film an exclamation point)
- Ewooks and even more Ewooks
- What about a Ring of the mighty Sith?

 

Abrams didn't direct Armegedon... He was involved but that film wasn't his fault (lol)

 

And an incredibly lame chase with a Jedi in an A-wing drawn by Mynocks and three dozen TIE Fighters. Ten minutes of it. Until we finally got up and got another bag of popcorn.

would sure be different.

 

Interesting thoughts..

 

Maybe a little off topic here but I think it's still relevant to our expectations of the Kasbrams team.

Great post. Reminds me of some art curator I heard on radio talking about how impossible it was to tell if a future art project was going to be good or not. He was in charge of a trust that would commission works from various artist. He basically said - and I paraphrase here -
"You can never know what quality will eventuate. No matter what previous works the artist has done, how experienced they are...you basically give them [the team] the money and hope for the best. In 30 years I have been unable to determine an accurate way to predict when a quality project will manifest."

Here's a short but illuminating interview with Kershner in case any SW fans have not had the pleasure of seeing it: (The audio's terrible but the words are priceless.)

I feel your pain. I don't like it either - I think it's got the death sentence on at least 12 star systems. But have to advocate for Mr Lynch here and add that I'm pretty sure the film was another case of producers exercising their right to a cut that the director hated. I think he tried to disassociate himself with it as much as possible. I heartily recommend Jodorowsky's Dune, the doco on the first attempt to get a film adaptation of the novel made. (Just in case you haven't seen it yet.)