What worries you?

And then this thing happened:

 

NO Lando! Will it be explained where he is, we have Nien Nunb(Landos co-pilot), and Admiral Ackbar but no Lando?

 

I'm worried TFA will be a solid action-adventure, and nothing more. Something made by professionals that certainly looks and sounds like Star Wars but fails to capture the magic. I'm scared of it being a solid 7 which is forgotten by Spring. I'm worried we've all set such high expectations, we're bound to be disappointed. I'm scared of one too many callbacks. I'm scared of JJ's love of ESB and him desperately trying to shoehorn an "I am your father" moment. I'm worried of another superweapon and all the baggage it brings. I'm worried about the dumb looking PZ droid being the new Jar Jar. I'm worried Greg Grunberg may play 12 roles (11 of which are Greg playing Greg with a mask on.) I'm worried about Adam Driver and his inability to command the screen or instill fear in anyone. I'm worried about every major new character being related to every major old character. I'm worried about Leia not having anything to do. I'm scared Chewie will die in a silly manner.

But otherwise, I have faith this will be a December long remembered thanks to TFA.

 

THIS.

Don't get me wrong, I love "strong" female characters. But I like characters who are just...great characters (well written and well cast) who happen to be female ( like Princess Leia). I don't like when characters are thrown in just to please PC Imperials or to prove "how dumb boyz r and girlz r better".

For example, I hope Rey isn't always right, always does _____ better than any male characters, or is so inhumanly badass just to show "girls can do it too!" Yeah, we get it already in 2015. Just give us a great female character with strengths and weaknesses. Female characters can have flaws and weaknesses and even need to be rescued sometimes (all people do) and still be strong women. Balance, moderation, and a sense of humor is key.

I'm a little worried Rey, Leia, and any other female characters will be portrayed as these cartoonish always right, always stronger, always smarter, untouchable goddesses. I loved how Leia was able to show both glamorous and tomboyish sides, both military and nurturing. Sometimes she was the one rescued , sometimes she was the one who rescued others. She was funny, brave, and bold-but didn't always say or do the right thing. And when she did do the right thing, I saw a wonderful heroine to admire.

My hope is t hat we will see some fantastic new female characters both men and women can relate to, characters we love and admire because of their actions, choices, character development, mistakes, and triumphs. Based on what I've seen of Daisy, I do have hope since the actress seems to have a great personality, presence, and sense of humor that could meld well with a Star Wars character.

 

I'm worried that it will be depressing in some ways. I'm worried that my 2 favorite characters' ending in ROTJ will be spoiled by this movie.

 

The teal and orange in the trailers. It destroys the Star Wars feel. When I watch the trailers, I feel like I'm watching The Hunger Games, not Star Wars.

 

Exactly, treating females as "less than" compared to males is wrong, but so is putting women on a pedestal. It goes both ways.

I am very happy we are getting a female protagonist, I would have done the same thing.. but if she has no vulnerability then the movie will not have tension.

 

Having seen all the Star Treks series and films, people really forget how radically different the OT was from the new age TNG era onward... Violence was way more common: it wasn't all social justice, it was also a weekly action series in the vein of Westerns of the era (even Rodenberry described it as Wagon Train in space.)

That said, while I loved the first Star Trek film on an intellectual level, it's slow as hell. The JJ Star Trek films felt more like episodes from the TOS to me, instead of the overwrought pathos that made the latter TNG films and Voyager feel bloated.

On a separate note for some other posts I saw:

All the anti feminist talk in this thread has me concerned that people don't understand what feminism actually is and what feminist critiques really are regarding film.

Only TPM has two female characters who talk to each other -- which is kid of sad. Feminism isn't about women being better than men. It's about females having the same opportunity to get dirty, to be bad, to save the day, and to mess up as their male peers.

We'd be lucky to have nuanced characters of any gender or ethnic background. Star Wars doesn't have many well-written characters nor many women considering they'd be half the universe but just two get to speak onscreen.

 

Looks like something right out of the Prequel Trilogy

 

Lens flare.
10 minutes or less of Luke

 

There is very little about the movie that I have seen or rumors consistent with what I have seen (there are plenty of rumors I don't think are consistent with what we have seen in the trailers and BTS footage).

What worries me is the screaming moans of the disgruntled fan. The cries of yet again raped childhood. The opening night YouTube rants. Media even social media still follows bad news. If it bleeds it leads. The one angry fan will be louder than those who enjoy it. If the movie sucks hey they deserve it I guess but there are a lot of expectations around doing a SW movie that I flat out don't think its possible to please some fans.

 

That the two main villains of the saga are dead. I won't be able to help missing them.

 

Ease up, cowboy, Empire Strikes Back did it first.

 

I don't think this is just SW, I think its EVERY movie franchise these days. Have you seen the hysteria from Batman/Superman fans after Ben Affleck was announced as Bruce Wayne? Unfortunately social media gives a voice to everyone, so you will essentially getting millions of opinions that we honestly never would have heard from 20 years ago. If the internet were around in 1983, SW fans would have been screaming about the ewoks. If the internet were around in 1984, Indiana Jones fans would have screaming about Kate Capshaw's annoying character. I could go on an on about the old sequels in the pre-internet days that people would have complained about.

I may actually try something new (if I have the willpower) and just stay away from social media and SW message boards a good 2 weeks after TFA is released. It would be interesting to walk out of the movie and process it for a week or two without any knowledge of what people think on social media, and the only opinions you can go by are your friends and family.

 

Oh man Kate Capshaw's character is annoying.

@Pastor Barndog
And no one was crying about a raped childhood - the "raped childhood" meme (for lack of a better word) was invented and used by prequel defenders to shut up people with legitimate arguments against The Phantom Menace being a (good) movie. As for YouTube moaning, don't watch it. I certainly want to go in and see The Force Awakens for myself before listening to what other people think. It may come as a surprise, but as I first watched The Phantom Menace I had no idea what the world at large thought of it; and I was very confused that first viewing, not really knowing what I felt. Or thought I saw - but I certainly didn't jump on any bandwagon (as you seem to imply); I am rather hopeful that many Star Wars fans are able to find their own arguments and do not need, initially, other peoples' opinions to form their own.

 

You are wrong. It was not just an eye candy. The characters were great. It got me involved emotionally. It was story driven. Not just action for action.

 

If we could drop the "[blanked] childhood" rhetoric, I'd appreciate it. It's tacky hyperbole at best.

Speaking as someone who went through abuse as a child along with my sisters, it's kind of BS to compare what we went through to the problems of the PT. I mean, I have a ton of criticism for them but let's be clear in our critiques.

Even if the fans are trying to be helpful, most creative types shutdown when the criticism immediately jumps to nazi or child abuse analogies.

There's an Icelandic saying that peeing on one's feet will only keep them warm so long. It may be gratifying to really lay into the prequels but, this is Star Wars, we can be thoughtful and clear about it.

 

That must be your experience I only ever heard the meme referenced against TPM several times always by those that hated it. I don't plan on watching a bunch of YouTube rants one way or the other. My worry, which was why I posted in the thread about worries was that bad press would make the movie less successful.

It is probably far worse than tacky hyperbole and I have always hated it. I did not bring it up to revisit it rather that was that things like this ridiculous meme would resurface. That was simply one of the things that worry me.

 

Going back to the subject, there's little information to tell how well the characters are written. There's word of mouth but most of the folks are on the film's payroll.

My fiancée were just talking about the writing in Inside Out. There's character name Bing Bong whose character arc made me cry. I'm a 29 year old, used to be active duty Marine, and the writing was that effective and thoughtful that I have no qualms admitting I cried. That's what good writing can do potentially -- take an absurd premise like a magical clown fading into obsolescence and make it feel grounded and relatable. There's no way it felt real but I felt.

Three decent screenwriters (at least) worked on the script: Ardnt, Abrams, and Kasdan. People tend to forget Abrams started as a screenwriter with a number of good films Regarding Henry and Forever Young. Even Armageddon wasn't so bad -- it just had heavy-handed direction from Michael Bay and Affleck/Tyler's acting wasn't their best.

 

All right, fair enough. As one who was at the front back then, I can confirm that the whole "Lucas raped your childhood" thingy was, indeed, a "meme" or expression that the "defense league" began uttering whenever someone had a complaint or criticism of The Phantom Menace (and Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith following it); it didn't matter if you just slammed Jar Jar Binks or spent an hour writing a thought-out critique, as someone with a dissenting opinion you were immediately called out: "Wha wha wha Lucas raped your childhood wha wha wha". And people are actually still trotting out that tired - and, as @darrenkitlor rightfully points out, tacky - expression wherever someone says something negatively about the prequels. Granted, I can understand that fans of the prequels get tired of hearing how bad those films are over and over again, and I may have misunderstood the intent of your post, so just for the sake of clearing things up, yes, it's tacky, yes it came from the prequel crowd, and yes, it was aimed at "haters" or "bashers" or whatever you want to call people who did not immediately bow down before the altar of the almighty George Lucas and praised the prequels.

All right, case closed - and I will definitely be watching and reading people's opinions - but not until I've watched The Force Awakens three or four times, to form my own opinion - completely unhindered by glorious praise or vehement negativity. Whatever. People like stuff, people don't like stuff - but Star Wars fans they REALLY like stuff (and, I guess, can REALLY dislike stuff, too).

I didn't mean my post to be an attack on you or your opinion @Pastor Barndog, just to be entirely clear on the matter.