In case you don't read the title, next month is a big month here at SimbaKing94 Productions. This is the month I have been looking forward to since I first posted "What Could Have Been: The Phantom Menace" over 10 months ago. May 2014 is STAR WARS MONTH!!!!! Everyone has been in some way, consciously or subconsciously, affected by the Star Wars Franchise. Whether it's cheap science fiction, a deep and moving epic saga of good and evil, popcorn movies, or a series of progressively worsening movies and books, Star Wars has in some way affected most of the general public in some way, for good or bad.As for me, I grew up on Star Wars. One of my fondest memories was watching these films for the first time at my grandparent's house (they had the 1987 home video releases). I loved the story and the epicness of the Star Wars saga so much that from the age of 7 to 11, I was a Star Wars character of some kind for Halloween. In fact, when I post my 20 all time favorite movies list, you'll find A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back on their without a doubt.
Even the Prequels are reasonably entertaining, if not for their complex awfulness. They may be clunky and have horrible scripts, boring effects and even more boring actors, but they're at least attempting to be good movies here.
So when the Crown Jewel in the legacy of one filmmaker George Lucas fell into the hands of the Walt Disney Company two years ago, people were amped for the next saga of films (either that or they were terrified that Disney would destroy Star Wars beyond repair), but I digress. Lucas is out, JJ Abrams is in, and now Disney has set it's sights on not only keeping Marvel Universe in the works, but also revitalizing a movie franchise long devoid of excellence since George revived it in the mid 90's.
So, what are the ways to make Episode VII not suck? How can Disney save Star Wars fans from six years of absolute pigshit? Well, there's no use in asking questions. Let's jump in, shall we?
1. The First Step has already been taken....Step 1 for the new creative team tackling the next Star Wars saga was to make sure this guy had absolutely nothing to do with the saga. Sure, George Lucas created the franchise from next to nothing but an idea, but his head has long been filled with dreams of money instead of storytelling.
Disney has already confirmed that old Jorge will have nothing to do with the next saga. When I first heard this, all I had to say was "THANK GOD!!!!!" George Lucas was at the heart as to why the last saga failed miserably. The only person who had a hand in creating the old saga that should return as a creative consultant would be Producer Gary Kurtz, the only man outside of Steven Spielberg willing to tell George that they were going to do the films in a way to not make them suck.
Sure, maybe George could show up once or twice on the set and make sure that they aren't fucking up as badly as he did, but he should be at best a minor consultant. He has good ideas on paper, but he's really bad at executing them. This is a new saga, and to bring back too much of the old shit will be too disappointing. Which leads me to...
2. This is not a reunion special.....
Episode VII is going to take place at least 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi, so that means that there's a pretty good chance that most of the cast members of both sagas (Christopher Lee, Ewan McGregor, Liam Neeson, Hayden Christiansen, Natalie Portman, Samuel L. Jackson, Billy Dee Williams) will not be in the next film. And while we do know that Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill have been rumored to be involved in this film, the less we see of them is the better.
This story should not have them heavily involved in the story. Luke Skywalker, if you really want him to be involved, should be more like Yoda in the saga. Just being very wise and instructive to the next generation of Jedi Knights. Mark Hamill isn't as young or fresh looking as before, so keeping him heavily involved in the story is probably not a good idea.
Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford should be avoided at all costs, but since their children are probably going to be in the next film, then they'll have to be in it. But Princess Leia and Han Solo are not needed to make a film work. Red Letter Media reviewed the prequels and one of his biggest gripes was all of the lazy nostalgic imagery George hammered into the story (children training with the droids like Luke, etc.). Therefore, JJ Abrams and his writing staff should not have to worry or care about some of the things not being easily recognizable. Nobody knew a god damn thing about A New Hope when it first came out, but they were able to relate to all of the characters, be it Han or Luke or Leia. NOT the characters themselves, but what the characters represented in the story. Luke was the protagonist that we went on the journey with and learned things with, not just about the world they lived in, but about him and his legacy. Han Solo was the fearless smuggler who would go and act as he pleased, but still had a sense of good and evil. Leia was the damsel in distress who could still hold her own with a blaster. And Darth Vader even represented the potential for evil in all of us.
This is where George and his Prequel Trilogy all failed miserably. We didn't care about what happened to Padme, Obi-Wan, or Anakin because we weren't allowed to get to know them or their personal matters. Obi-Wan was just being Obi-Wan (not showing much room for depth in his character), Anakin Skywalker was split into two different characters, an annoying overly happy little kid and a whiny bitchy teenager, and Padme was written more like an idea than as a character. She didn't really have a personality outside of her looks, which is one of the big reasons why the Star Wars Prequels failed.
For the new films to work, the next line of main characters needs to be similar to the original trilogy, but giving them new twists and turns. The "John Everyrman" story is getting a little old in Hollywood. Maybe Leia and Han's daughter can inherit her father's disregard for the rules but have her mother's devotion to duty when needed. Or maybe you can write a creative villain scenario where the villain is dark and complex. Not just evil for the sake of being evil, but a tormented soul that just needed a little bit of caring and compassion. Here is where a well written Disney Villain could come into play.
3. Follow Lord of the Rings.....
Few people take into effect just how important Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy was, or how significant an achievement James Cameron's Titanic was. Sure, they're known for their groundbreaking effects and stunning visuals, but the biggest shocks come from the fact that most of the time the sets are practical and actually exist and the effects were not all digital effects. Fox built a private set for James Cameron to build a boat as closely as possible to be the Titanic. And Peter Jackson took his crews to New Zealand to film much of his trilogy.
You also have to give George Lucas a ton of credit for the crap he endured while shooting in Tunisia for A New Hope and for shooting in Norway for The Empire Strikes Back. But that probably detracted George from wanting to shoot on location again for the Prequel saga. Most of the film's locations were composited digitally. That allows you to go to new and exotic places, such as a planet above the water or an entire volcanic planet, but sometimes it makes problems for the actors. Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christiansen both complained about having practically no real sets to work on.
It also makes scenes poorly shot and directed. Lucas uses a practically archaic style of filming when not shooting action scenes. Here is
Non-Action Scenario: Two or Three characters are walking somewhere or sitting on something, speaking their dialogue. If they're walking, they stop and talk to each other in a shooting technique commonly known as "Shot; reverse shot". Then, one character walks towards a window or a balcony and looks out it.
This lazyness made dialogue scenes in these films drag.
Then, to make things worse, some of the action scenes are so far overblown that they defy conventional belief and actually become like a video game no one can play. The Droid Factory scene is a perfect example of this, as is the fight with General Grievous in Episode III. But by far the finest example of this is the Mustafar fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan. The fight is so long and over-amplified that it actually severs the audience's connection with the characters. Anyone with a brain cell can figure that Anakin loses. The fight could have been 4-5 minutes long, and shot on location at an active volcano in Italy or something. But George got what he always wanted and reaped the Razzies for it.
For the next line of films, JJ Abrams must blend both the CGI and digital effects with actual camera work and actual live sets that don't need to have that many special effects. Scenes need to be shot with their own unique flair and not to look like a soap opera being shot. And shoot on location sometimes. You don't need to create environments from your own imaginations, but create some that could exist in earth.
One of the things we loved about Star Wars was the lightsaber. And yes, a decent amount of the lightsaber fights in the Prequel Trilogy were awesome. But one of the subtleties of the Original Trilogy was the fact that the script and action scenes didn't always call for Luke to call out his lightsaber. Luke only used his lightsaber in the following scenarios, and notice how all were necessary and needed for each situation:
1. Escaping from the Wampa
2. Cutting through the AT-AT
3. Fighting the specter of Darth Vader on Dagobah
4. Fighting Vader in Cloud City
5. Saving his friends on Jabba's Sail Barge
6. Deflecting the bolts of the speeder bike
7. Fighting Vader on the Second Death Star
There were several action scenes in the first trilogy where Luke could have used his lightsaber but didn't need to. Such as:
1. Fighting the Thugs in the Cantina
2. Escaping from the Death Star
3. To fight off the monster that nearly ate R2-D2
4. Fighting off the Stormtroopers in Cloud City before his duel with Vader
5. Fighting the Rancor
6. To Fight The Emperor aboard the Second Death Star
In the Prequel Trilogies, here are the land-based action scenes that happen without the aid of a lightsaber:
1. The Podrace
2. The Arena Fight (before the Jedi showed up)
3. The Final Fight with General Grievous
In contrast, here are the scenes where they DO use the lightsaber:
1. When they hear an explosion in the first five minutes of Phantom Menace
2. Fighting droids in the ship
3. Fighting droids in the woods
4. Fighting droids in Theed
5. Qui-Gon fighting Darth Maul on Tatooine
6. Rescuing Naboo from the Trade Federation
7. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan vs Darth Maul
8. Killing the bugs sent to assassinate Padme
9. Cutting through the assassin's ship
10. Injuring the assassin in the bar
11. Yoda teaching the bad acting kids about lightsabers
12. Obi-Wan vs Jango on Kamino
13. When Obi-Wan noticed Jango flying away
14. Anakin slaughters Sand People
15. Anakin in the Droid Factory
16. The Battle of Geonosis
17. Anakin and Obi-Wan vs Count Dooku
18. Drug Addict Yoda vs Count Dooku
19. Fighting droids in Grievous's hanger
20. Obi-Wan almost kills Anakin in the elevator
21. See 17
22. Fighting Grievous's bodyguards in the Main Deck
23. Obi-Wan vs General Grievous
24. Anakin Threatens Palpatine
25. Palpatine vs Windu and the Jedi pussies (uh I mean Posse)
26. Windu deflects lightening at Palpatine
27. Anakin slices Mace's arm off
28. Obi-Wan's happy he got his lightsaber back before Order 66
29. Multiple scenes during Order 66
30. Yoda escapes Clone Troopers
31. Jedi fight clones in the temple
32. Darth Vader murders children
33. Kid fights clone troopers in Temple
33. Darth Vader murders the Separatist leaders
34. Obi-Wan and Yoda fight clones in the temple
35. Yoda vs Emperor
36. Vader vs Obi-Wan
See how many that was? 36! Those scenes all didn't need to be there.
For the next saga, if you want to have a lightsaber duel, than you have to give us a reason to care about the fighting and not just to be blown away by how the effects and stunts are awesome.
5. Keep up the Star Power....
Alec Guinness, Liam Neeson, Christopher Lee, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Samuel L. Jackson, Jimmy Smits, Harrison Ford, Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones, Peter Cushing, and Frank Oz are some of the major movie/TV/ radio stars that were cast to be in the Star Wars Saga. And while some of them (SAMUEL) didn't exactly pan out, most of them were actually good efforts. Liam Neeson was one of the best parts of The Phantom Menace, and Christopher Lee is the only thing worth seeing in Attack of the Clones.For the next series, we should beef up the roster of stars in these movies while also developing our own actors. Actor ideas for the next saga could include:
Orlando Bloom
Jennifer Lawrence
Megan Fox
John Rhys Davies
Anne Hathaway
Leonardo DiCaprio
Shia LeBouf (as much as I hate him...)
Joseph Gordon Levitt
Josh Hutcherson
among others.
6. Pay homage to the Original Trilogy...and forget the Prequel Trilogy...
I foresee a Star Wars Episode VII that will utilize some of the cool special effects of the Prequel Trilogy, but will fully capitalize on the dark and complex storylines covered in the Original Trilogy, which may very well be the greatest trilogy ever made. Since the story will most likely have nothing to do with the "Expanded Universe", then the storyline will be the first Star Wars film to have it's own story since Return of the Jedi.
But Disney cannot make this film in a way to just make money. This is not your average cash cow. Star Wars Episode VII is going to be the biggest gate draw for all of 2015. And that's a year that will most likely see Kingdom Hearts III, Batman vs Superman, and The Avengers 2.
7. Do not "Disney-fy" Star Wars
There was one fear that everyone holds deep within their hearts: this poster. Everyone is afraid that Disney is going to put their own touch on the film and hamper it with their marketing and demographics. These films have the terrifying potential to be "child friendly" movies that limit the action in these movies and add musical scenes.
Luckily, The Avengers has quieted these doubters of this. Disney didn't screw up the most sought after movie not named "Justice League". So, there's reason to hope that Disney will let this film exist on it's own terms and keep their child friendly nonsense to the animation and Disney channel.
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