What worries you?

I'm a Trek fan and feel quite differently about Star Trek 2009. The story itself was an origin story, so I grant you that it didn't have a sense of exploration. Neither did many Star Trek episodes from each of the series. But we got to know our lead characters in a universe that looked great and felt real. If anything, he added a bit of Star Wars grittiness (lived-in universe) to it, which I know some Trek fans didn't like but should assure us Star Wars fans about his vision.

I admit, though. The lens flares were a bit much in that one. Significantly toned down for Into Darkness.

So I was pretty happy that JJ had signed on for Star Wars, while at the same time a little sad he wouldn't be returning for the third Star Trek. I honestly don't have any worries because I have a lot of faith in the team behind everything. Story and characters are most important so we have Kasdan there. Visually we have practical effects and ILM... best in the biz. Ben Burtt and John Williams provide the sound. Fantastic actors all around. I feel like all the bases are covered.

Edited for grammar

 

What worries me is that JJ might not get the balance between established tropes and new material quite right. Or that he might pay too much service to fans in the hope of healing the hurt some felt after the PT.

Both existing trilogies start with a no-one on a desert world who is lured into an adventure culminating with a major strike against a threat to galactic peace and the realisation of the hero's personal potential. That's pretty standard; that's the 'Hero's Journey', mythic and universal. Presumably, and based off the evidence we've seen, TFA will follow that same basic formula to kick-off the ST--but I think if it doesn't add a twist or two, or subvert itself through knowing self-reference, general audiences might yawn and leave with a sense of 'here we go again.'

JJ may have this in hand with his female lead, but what else has he got? All this talk of super weapons and a climactic space battle sounds very SW, but is it too ANH?

One of the funniest experiences I had in a theatre watching TPM was when some boisterous wit in the audience shouted "Oh, I've seen this" the moment the legend "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." was screened. To an audience of excited movie-goers about to see the first new SW in years, that was funny. It got a big laugh. But on the way out, I overheard a lot of people expressing pretty much the same sentiment after actually seeing the complete film! Not great.

I'm mostly confident TFA will deliver, I think JJ knows what needs to be done. I just have this ever-so-tiny worry that he might have gotten carried away with it all....

EDIT: for the record, I really enjoyed the Star Trek movies....

 

I'm worried that there might not be a balance between good action scenes and smaller/character scenes. I really don't want an all out action movie. Some of the best parts of the PT were the non-action scenes, like Palps and Anakin during the water globe show. A good balance is key, for me at least. And of course, good dialogue and acting wouldn't hurt

 

I'm worried about the color grading of the film falling into the now overdone orange and teal look. I want a varied color palette darn it!
I'm also worried about JJ's filming style: Slanted camera angles while traveling, camera moving in to close ups, documentary style snap zoom, etc. It will feel very different to the original trilogy in that regard. I'm worried these things will take me out of the movie, but it might just be me. Not everyone is going to consciously notice that.

 

One of my worries is the flow from ROTJ to Force Awakens. I felt like the transition from end of ROTS to a New Hope was not done well. The end of Revenge of the Sith felt rushed, they put in 2 seconds of Vader, a young Tarkin who walks by, and we see the beginning of the Death Star being built. The aging process was off, as I've said in other threads, with ObiWan, Uncle Owen, and Aunt Beru. So, I really want the movie to feel like it is a continuation of the OT and not have weird time gaps or inconsistencies. One thing I really like though so far is the evolution of the Storm Trooper look, to me that is just perfect.

I don't mind some fan service, but I don't want it overdone. To me, Predators comes to mind; how that movie used so much from the original Predator that it was just a mess. I don't really need to hear anyone say "here we go again" or "I have a bad feeling about this".

 

I'm a Trek fan. I though 2009 was pretty fun, not very Trek-like but decent. Into Darkness was even less Trek-like than 2009. It had a lot of call-backs to Trek lore but left the Spirit of Trek at the door. JJ was not a Trek fan, but I feel like he was trying to throw out trek easter eggs the whole movie. I'm afraid this type of pandering might end up happening in TFA.

Now the difference is that JJ IS a huge Star Wars fan. So I think he's been dreaming about this movie his whole life. I think he'll treat it with a little more care than Trek. Really, he kind of mixed a bit of Star Wars style in the new Trek. And, to me, there is a problem with all this "JJ knows how to make a Star Wars movie" talk. George didn't know how to make a Star Wars movie, he just did it. Once he thought he knew HOW to do it, the moive's lost something (the PT. Sorry, they're just not as good!).

I think the OT actors are going to do a lot more for making this feel more Star Warsy than JJ.

I've got nothin against JJ (even though I don't really like his Trek movies). And deep down I believe he'll come through. I think this is a very important project for him. My hope is that TFA ends up being a mix of the best parts of SW with a lot of new stuff added in. I don't want to see ANH again.

 

My biggest worry is that the new characters (Rey, Finn, Poe, etc) won't resonate with me, and I will end up caring more about Luke, Leia and Han, knowing that they won't play that big of a role in the grand scheme of this trilogy. Alot of today's movies are really dense on character development as the director is more worried about wowing people (Jurassic World comes to mind), but SW was always different.

A director just can't create chemistry between the characters, as it just has to work and end up clicking with the audience. Now of course I don't expect the new trio to have the same great chemistry and banter that Luke, Leia and Han did, but I expect them to resonate more with me then Padme, Anakin and Obiwan did in the PT.

 

There was no sense of erxploration in ANY of the Star Trek series, there arestarbases adn colonies every ten flippin feet in all the series.

 

Star Date 15432.3: We're exploring a new sector, now lets stop at this Starfleet base and gas up. Ha!

Thats true for a lot of TOS and TNG. But Enterprise didn't suffer from this, DS9 had the Gamma quadrant (uncharted on the other side of the galaxy), and Voyager took place 70,000 lightyears from the nearest Starfleet base, they couldn't even talk to Starfleet. So I'd partially disagree... but that's still pretty funny!

Another thing the new trek really lacked was an overdose of technobabble! They really oughta just forget the movies and go back to series.

Sorry about the derail! Back to TFA worries. @Jedi77-83 I'm a bit worried about the new characters myself. I already like Poe. I'm still on the fence about Finn and Rey. I'm also bringing a lot of OT baggage to the table. I just want to see The Big Three! Here's to hoping that the New Three have got it where it counts!

 

Why did you gotta go and mention Stardates, they tick me off XD THEY ARE RANDOM NUMBERS

 

My biggest worry is Luke being a big failure in the story. I hope his character is doing something noble.

 

Many many excellent comments on this thread. I was a little worried this would be a JJ bashing thread. JJ is the absolute perfect director to bring Star Wars into current times. His non stop action sequences and ability to modernize movies will certainly be impressive. What he did for Star Trek may not have hit home with the treakies but it is exactly what needs to be done with SW.

My fear is that while JJ always puts together an entertaining script, his scripts also tend to be a bit shallow. This is going to be a pretty difficult film to do. Fans are going to want entertaining yet bridging the gap between ROTJ and TFA will take some explaining. That being said, I see no way I will sit there in the theater on December 18th and not be entranced by the fact that Star Wars is back!!!

 

Have you seen this video? I haven't seen chemistry from actors/actress like this in years. Body language alone you can tell they are genuinely interested and care about what each other are saying and when one is talking the other 2 are trying to have eye contact. That speaks more than words, you can't really fake that. Also John and Daisy are good friends in real life. The funniest part is at :40

 

No doubt this is promising as I agree the new Big 3 really seem to be on the same page with this Trilogy. But you just don't know until you see them on screen? Can JJ create interesting characters that have depth? Are they likeable? Do they have distinct personalities that will appeal to all of us? If we walk out of the theater and say, "This character was my favorite, or that character was my favorite," then I think my fears will be squelched.