Star Wars: Episode VII Cast Officially Announced 325
eldavojohn writes: "Word was leaking this week of some familiar faces in London hanging out together. Finally today an official cast listing for Star Wars Episode VII was handed down from on high to us mere mortals (Google Cache and Onion AV recap available). From the short release, 'Actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow will join the original stars of the saga, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker in the new film.' Let's not bicker and argue about who shot first but instead come to an agreement on expected levels of almost certain disappointment. No, this will not feature the Expanded Universe (EU) — you can now refer to those tales as 'Legends' which are not part of Star Wars canon. Instead prepare yourself for what will likely be the mother of all retcon films."
Re:These are NOT... (Score:4, Insightful)
Episode VII is the movie they should have made years ago. Instead, we got the godawful prequels and now all the original cast is a hundred years old and will be lucky to get through filming without needing paramedics standing by at all times.
Most fandoms would be furious (Score:5, Insightful)
Most fandoms would be furious at literally the entire storyline beyond six films being tossed aside, and new sequels commissioned using only a handful of the original actors and one original writer.
*Most* fandoms didn't have to go through the prequel trilogy and a series of bad retconny rereleases being made by the original creator himself.
Add the fact that the SWEU is remarkably uneven in quality - while some parts are downright brilliant, there's wide swaths of crap that were still canon because the movies didn't contradict it - and I can completely understand why the general fan reaction to this is "cautious optimism" or "reserved pessimism" rather than nerd rage (there's *some* nerd rage, but not much). My own response is "interested apathy" - it might be good, but I really just can't force myself to care anymore, not the way I used to.
Re:so? (Score:4, Insightful)
OTOH it's a thread about something you claim not to care about, and yet you post here.
BTW +1 for the Fireside reference. :)
Star Wars, now with Lens Flare (Score:5, Insightful)
A long time ago in a galaxy... (unreadable due to lens flare) ....
STAR (unreadable due to lens flare)
Princess Leia (unreadable due to lens flare)....
Spaceship... (unwatchable due to lens flare)
Monster/special effects, jiggly camerawork. Things happen in film for no logical reason and plot holes you could fly the death star through....
This *is* a JJ Abhrams movie after all....
Re:so? (Score:4, Insightful)
The narrative is the entire point. It's a movie.
If you want me to become emotionally invested in your story, you can't just suddenly say "Ignore everything I've been telling you for the past 30 years"
Re:so? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why all the snark and angst? The story submission dripped with unwarranted sarcasm ("cast list... handed down to us mere mortals?" What, you wanted them to consult you first?) and negativity ("mother of all retcon films" - the stupid EU stuff was never really canon to be retconned).
I know everyone was disappointed by Episodes 1-3, but let's get over it and give the new movies a chance. Oh, and for the record, yes Episode 1 was utter trash except for about 15 minutes, but Episode 2 was at least marginal and Episode 3 was a decent movie. Attribute all this to George Lucas being a changed person/storyteller and having nobody looking over his shoulder to say "George, that's a stupid idea." (Who elects a queen? And who elects a 14-year-old girl to anything? Oh, and why do you want to prevent Jedis from having kids when using the Force is apparently an inherited trait?) We can all go on about what was wrong with the first three movies, but they were not collectively the unmitigated disaster people love to claim.
I don't think that anyone can deny that George Lucas, in recent years, was an absolutely terrible steward of his own creations - basically "nothing going on" with Star Wars except for an awful animated TV show and EU novels that were a perpetual crapshoot in terms of quality. Star Wars was stagnant and heading downhill in terms of ever building on its legacy. Besides, the EU had run its course - the last novel I read had Han, Luke and Leia running around blowing things up while they practically needed scooters to get around, and the series failed to deliver a really compelling new generation of characters to care about (maybe except Jagged Fel and Ben Skywalker's Sith pseudo-girlfriend).
So the EU was done, George Lucas had run the Star Wars empire into the ground, and it was time to start fresh. There's a new sheriff in town, and I'm OK with that. I know this is heresy here, but I actually liked what J.J. Abrams did with the Star Trek reboot. I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt with the new Star Wars movies. Yes, I will go into the theater in December 2015 with managed expectations but I don't understand everyone piling on and assuming they will be terrible.
Re:WTF slashdot (Score:4, Insightful)
AdBlock + NoScript--your best friends for surfing.
If you block ads on slashdot, do you see anything at all?
Re:Certain Disappointment (Score:4, Insightful)
I have to admit, there was one episode of Clone Wars where the writers made good use of Jar Jar (the clone troopers effective used his as a bomb to take out the enemy - sadly, only a metaphorical bomb).
Stop whining, you old farts! (Score:4, Insightful)
You know how you can retain your good memories of Star Wars? Don't watch the movies. As for the rest of us who never read the books and thought the original movies were a range of merely okay to pretty dismal, let us watch these new movies in equally okay to dismal peace.
Re:Certain Disappointment (Score:5, Insightful)
JJ Abrams did a good job with the new Star Trek movies
What? Are you high? He fucking ruined it.
He turned an intelligent show, an universe wich could be used to adress some core questions of humanity and morality, and turned it into boring action films.
Great if you don't like to think for yourself and just want to be entertained.