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."
May the first post be with me (Score:5, Funny)
No?
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The force is obviously not strong in this one.
Certain Disappointment (Score:4, Informative)
I am disappointed that they are even making another Star Wars "film."
Re:Certain Disappointment (Score:4, Funny)
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).
Re:Certain Disappointment (Score:5, Funny)
Then this isn't the thread you are looking for, move along.
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Same here. The movie storyline was fairly compactly wrapped up. More movies feels like a money grab. I was interested in the prequels and seeing the Republic in its former glory, but more SW movies feels like a comic movie sequel where they wheel out another villain.
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Theoretically, the first three they created told a story from beginning to end too. It's like complaining about LOTR because the Hobbit ended quite thoroughly(books, not movies).
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The first movie told it all and was tied up in a single bundle and intended to be one movie only. The next two were to capitalize on unexpected success.
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The first movie began "Episode IV: A New Hope", implying that at least three prequels were envisioned.
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I enjoyed the hell out of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Singular. The sequels were shite.
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Well, since so much time has passed since Return of the Jedi, I believe in Episode VII Han Solo will be fighting the Soviets. Seriously, though, you can't have Star Wars without a villain, and Thrawn was a great one.
More on topic, the Star Wars universe is a rich one with lots of potential, and it seems to me like there should always be a film in the works. I would have no problem if it became like the Bond franchise, with a new movie every few years. Sure, some will be crap, but those don't detract from
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These movies were part of the plan before the first one (episode 4 ) even came out.
I'm sure though that the prospect of great mounds of cash went a long way towards getting buy-in for the new movies.
It's always been about money. (Score:3)
Jesus H. Christ on a tauntaun - every movie in the series from Empire onwards has been nothing but a money grab. Hell, for that matter Star Wars itself was made for the sole and singular of generating a profit.
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(Pointless cynicism is a pet peeve of mine)
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Cynicism is never pointless.
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It is always only entirely pointless.
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Its called lowering standards. If you expect bad movies, its easier to actually enjoy them. If you expect great movies, its easy to be disapointed. Most people aren't very good at approaching a given subject with objectivity.
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Does Lucas have any creative input for these? Certain disappointment, if that's the case.
Abrams is a schlocky hack, but you know, these films are supposed to be schlock, so I'm with you in cautious optimism.
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He is a creative consultant plus Disney has access to all of his old files.
I actually take this as a good sign. Lucas does the big stuff – like universe building – well. That is what he is going to have input on. I like JJ Abrams is very good at making great stuff that is bright and shinny – the deep stuff less well. Hopefully they will fill in the gap for each other weaknesses.
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Then don't watch it. You are completely free to watch the original trilogy, in their original versions, on laserdisc, over and over again.
JJ Abrams did a good job with the new Star Trek movies. The prequel trilogy was ruined by George Lucas. With him out of the picture, I'm cautiously optimistic.
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.
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I think you're overselling StarTrek a bit. It was a silly action/adventure show with regular goofy fight scenes. It was though, a show that was written by people with an interest in core questions of humanity. On the good episodes that humanity shone through in a way that was novel for television. On the bad.. well, not so much.
I do agree that the show lost something in it's newest franchise and has become something else that I find isn't for me. Lets not kid ourselves on the source material though.
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Re:Certain Disappointment (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Certain Disappointment (Score:5, Interesting)
"Star Trek 6, the undiscovered country" is a metaphor for the end of the cold war. Klingon have always been a Russian equivalent of a scary foreigner that we're not quite really at war with. By movie #6, the cold war was over and the movie's plot was centered around old war mongers that feared change and would commit to war just for their own desires. What do we do with our old war machines? Between the heavy topic and the Shakespeare quotes, #6 is one of the more intellectual movies of the set.
The whales are in "Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home", which had a more lighthearted approach and the moral was that we shouldn't genocide species on Earth as they may be important some day. In this case, it's because a vastly powerful alien race made first contact with whales before human were around and their efforts to re-establish contact with the now extinct species was destructive to the surface.
I hear what you're saying, but I like my sci-fi like I like my eggs. HARD. [wikipedia.org]
Re:Certain Disappointment (Score:4, Informative)
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Difficult to be entertained while doging the minefield of plot holes. An hour of Hot wheels crashing in mid air with circus music and lens flare would be about the same as Abrams Trek.
Re:Certain Disappointment (Score:5, Funny)
It's not like Harrison Ford needs the money, so I can't imagine he'd sign on if it wasn't a good part.
Did you watch Kingdom of The Crystal Skull?
WTF slashdot (Score:2, Interesting)
Multiple Autoplay ads while unattended and minimized?
I come back into office and my computer is yacking away.
Good bye dickheads
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You can see ads? I almost forgot what those were like... Perhaps you shouldn't be using the internet...
Gosh I guess, I've just reinstalled a now Win7 OS (clean) and using the basics, a 455 line HOSTS file from
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/ho... [mvps.org] and no ads (something works better as my old HOSTS file blocks too much).
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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?
These are NOT... (Score:2)
These are not the actors you are looking for... (Or the story, writers, or director .....)
You KNOW that after 6 movies of declining quality and a host of spin off cartoons of horrible quality, this can go only one way. I'm already disappointed that they didn't leave the story alone after the first three (i.e. Star Wars, Empire, Return). What can they do now? Invent another alien character like JarJar Binks? PLEASE NOOOOOOooooooo!!!
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Who do think is doing the motion capture for Jar Jar?
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Opening scenes of Star Wars Episode VII: An older Jar-Jar Binks walks through Mos Eisley and says "Meesa so glad me made it past all that craziness unharmed."
Out of nowhere, Gollum jumps on top of Jar-Jar and dismembers him shouting "You ruined my Precious!!!"
The Cantina band stops playing for a bit to watch the spectacle but soon starts up again. Wipe over to the main story after audience applause.
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You forgot the start of the Title sequence...
A long time ago, In a galaxy far far away..... (pause)
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The Cantina band stops playing for a bit to watch the spectacle but soon starts up again. Wipe over to the main story after audience applause.
I always thought that the Cantina music would be great dubbed over that scene from Return of the King where Frodo and Gollum are fighting over the ring in Mount Doom. Someone has to make that a reality.
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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.
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Pretty much this. If the series was going to be milked further, it should have gone forward, not backward*. Oh well, a bunch of people will pay $10-$35 to see it. That's all the people pulling the strings care about
*(upward, not forward. whirling towards freedom, etc)
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Oh well, a bunch of people will pay $10-$35 to see it.
That would not include me. I'm saving my grocery money for The Matrix, part IV.
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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.
Have you watched any Harrison Ford movie in the past 20 years where you thought he did a good job? I haven't.
I suppose he was passable in Ender's Game.
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Empire and Jedi are both better then than Ep. 4
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Empire and Jedi are both better then than Ep. 4
In Borat voice "NOT!"
Ep 4 is much better than Jedi.
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Hey, the cartoons by Genndy Tartakovsky were good.
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You KNOW that after 6 movies of declining quality
Really? I have them like this:
1. V. Empire
2. IV. Star Wars
3. III. Sith
4. II. Clones
5. VI. Jedi
6. I. Phantom Menace
Hardly declining quality. And who knows? Maybe these will be awesome... The recent Star Trek movies are certainly better than the old ones.
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I liked Jedi the best, myself. If you just squint and pretend the ewoks are wookies, it's really a good film. I found the pacing on Empire plodding, and the whole last act boring whenever Vader wasn't on the screen.
But then, I also thought Phantom Menace was acceptable - not as good as IV, but not that bad. The plot was a hopeless tangle that made no kind of sense but the individual scenes were entertaining. Not like Clones and Sith which each had the worst direction in any movie ever (yes, each was wor
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I'm with you on your #1 and #2, but I thought Jedi was better than the episodes that came after the original trilogy. It might be that I didn't see the last three installments in theater but on DVD later. Actually, I only saw Empire and Jedi in theater, so I actually saw the original film after the last two.
Where I thought the prequels where interesting, and I generally enjoyed them, I found the inconsistencies in the story line way too distracting, not to mention all the new aliens they invented where ev
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Holy shit, I would NOT have rated any of the prequels higher than Jedi.
Jedi sadly had a bit too much Ewok, but it has the best-choreographed of the space battles in all the Star Wars movies, Luke's confrontation with Vader and the Emperor was perfection (especially with the use of lighting), and the whole Jabba cold open is great stuff as well.
There's some shoddy writing in Jedi, but the acting is actually good enough to pull it off. I can't say the same of the acting in any of the prequel movies.
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Put Jedi and PM on the bottom, ESB and Ep 4 on the top.
Lucas Banned For Life from Star Wars Franchise (Score:2)
The moves, announced by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, are the most severe sanctions the league has ever levied against a Franchise owner.
The worst part... (Score:3)
The most heart-wrenching part of the polygon article was finding out that Amy Hennig was going to be working on a new Star Wars game, but it'll be published by those bastards at EA.
After her work on LOK, I would have loved to see what came of that...
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EA is buying all the best developers and turning them into a steaming pile of shit.
See Bioware and Popcap.
Hey Slashdot -- change the helptext for R2-D2 (Score:2)
Thanks,
Everyone
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.
I for one... (Score:2, Funny)
...am looking forward to Andy Serkis' mocap performance of Jar Jar's light saber seppuku.
JJ Abrams Direction (Score:5, Funny)
He already tried turning Star Trek into Star Wars, now they are giving him that franchise to ruin too... Star Wars, now with 5000% more lens flare!
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Actually, when I originally saw the new Star Trek, I thought that it was a fun movie that wasn't Star-Trek-y enough. I remember saying at the time that I wished Abrams had done a reboot of Star Wars instead, since his style of action/adventure, mystical explanations, and lens flare would be better suited to that franchise.
Say what you will, but I think lens flares will feel right at home in the Star Wars universe. And at least Abrams wouldn't have introduced the midi-chlorians. He might introduce a bunc
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....
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In the second ST movie* he toned it down a lot. I hope that he keeps that trend. There is a place for them, the bridge of a ship is not it.
*Great sci-fi movie, horrid ST movie.
Han didn't shoot first. (Score:2, Informative)
Han shooting first means there was a shot fired second. There wasn't. Therefore Han didn't shoot first, he just shot.
Kenny Baker. (Score:5, Funny)
Thank god they got Kenny Baker. I would hate to see someone else we can't see inside a metal can that makes beeping noises.
I wonder if they got the same key grip?
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You'd think that by now they could make a real R2 robot, and not have to have a person inside.
Harrison Ford (Score:2)
Harrison Ford - 42 (Score:2)
Perhaps, IJ4 and Ender's Game Mr. Ford was weak. But he was amazing in the recent Jackie Robinson film 42.
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Am I the only one who liked that movie? It was one of Ford's few good turns in recent years.
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No, I actually loved him in Ender's Game. He certainly does still have it.
Mother of All Retcon Films NOT!!!! (Score:2)
First off, in most of canon, books are rarely considered canon. (ie: Star Trek, etc) there are a few exceptions, like Babylon 5 where JMS took an active hand in things.
But frankly, I am so so so thankful that they are NOT doing the whole Skywalker Twins, Thrawn, etc. I never liked where those stories went. And so while you may be disappointed. I am sighing a huge sigh of relief.
And retcon, was the silly stuff they did in the prequels. I think JJ Abrams will be a bit more mindful. That said, I kind of wo
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Lucasfilm actually had a person whose ENTIRE job was maintaining canon through all the properties for over 20 years. MANY novel and comic ideas were turned down because she said no.
It's really too bad Lucas himself didn't have to listen to her. With those constraints, we might have had a better movie (Boba Fett is just yet another Stormtrooper... Um, OK I guess...(disappointment...))
Future not hard to see it is (Score:3)
If there is one thing Disney is good at it's their ability to take someone else's work and run with it.
I'm just not going to get used..... (Score:2)
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:Stop whining, you old farts! (Score:5, Funny)
On my lawn, you are.
No Benedict Cumberbatch? (Score:5, Funny)
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I thought he had to be in everything these days
He'll be in the second movie, playing a previously seen well known character. They'll tell everyone repeatedly he isn't playing that character, only to have an underwhelming scene in the movie where he reveals his true identity as said character.
My money is on him playing Palpatine.
We already had this happen back in '99 (Score:5, Informative)
The EU has always been subject to being tossed out for the films. I mean, I still have a copy of the 1994 "A Guide to the Star Wars Universe". On pages xviii-xx, it has a timeline that establishes the following:
1) C-3PO is 57 years older than Anakin Skywalker.
2) Obi-Wan Kenobi is only five years older than Anakin Skywalker.
3) The Clone Wars ended 17 years before Anakin became Darth Vader and Palpatine became Emperor.
4) Anakin was in his mid-thirties when he fathered Luke & Leia.
How could anybody have anything like a reasonable expectation that things would be different this time?
Max von Sydow (Score:3)
C'mon people - they have Ming the MFing Merciless in this. In a just world, Brian Blessed would have a place in this movie.
"OLD BEN'S ALIVE!?" "Wookiees, DIIIIVE!"
Aping Flash Gordon for a Star Wars sequel is one of the less grievous mistakes they could make.
Star Wars has always been a kids movie (Score:5, Interesting)
In the new film Han WILL shoot first (Score:3)
At the neighbourhood kids running around on his lawn.
Bored to hell by CGI (Score:3)
Am I the only one who finds a lot of the big action CGI stuff really boring? I mean a lot of the Marvel stuff has been good, Gravity was amazing, and there's other stuff that really makes good use of special effects. But it seems like there's a lot of movies that seem to live on long drawn out action sequences, 300, the new Star Trek films, the Star Wars prequels, the Hobbit. I just end up disinterested because I don't actually care about the characters.
I maintain that it isn't the ignorance of youth, the original Star Wars is good, maybe it was the melodrama or the simple story but I actually did care about the characters, that's why those simple action sequences are still riveting. I don't see a basic difference between the new Star Trek and the old new old Star Wars, sure the Star Wars had some cringe-worthy writing but a lot of good things do as well, the problem was they used spectacle to distract from the fact the story and characters weren't that interesting. They need less spectacle and bigger story, I'm just not sure Abrams is the one to save the franchise.
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aka it was reddited and twitter...'ed? The internet is a lot larger than slashdot these days, it appeared en masse elsewhere first.
True (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe it was just me who was hoping that it wasn't a thing of the past.
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It's a fucking movie. IT's going to violate its previous mythologic narratives? It was MADE UP by writers. IT doesn't matter. It will still be a crap movie.
Well thank you very much, Mr. . . . uh . . . Spoilsport.
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. :)
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:4, Funny)
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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"
This isn't a change of existing policy. All along has been the understanding that only the movies are considered part of Lucasfilm canon.
Other people can write as many stories as they want, but that doesn't mean "it happened" in the official universe.
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.
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Re:so? (Score:5, Interesting)
I saw an interesting fantheory on this subject. To summarize, his theory was that the secret origin of the Jedi order is that force sensitives were growing in number across the galaxy due to the force sensitivity being a heritable trait. The power of the force easily lent itself to megalomaniacal personality development (essentially random people discovering themselves to be akin to gods among men). In order to resolve this growing issue. The Jedi Order was formed as a means of controlling the growth of the force sensitive population, by indoctrinating them with celibacy to cut down on the volume and potency of Force Sensitives in the galaxy, and avoid a need for mass genocide from the fearful majority of non-force sensitives, as well as avoiding too many power-mad force users. Over time, the overarching reason for the formation of the Jedi Order was lost over time, and all that they remember is the specific teachings of celibacy and self-discipline. Force users who simply embraced the gift of the force and welcomed the power it brought were labeled as the enemies of the Jedi Order, and called "Sith" by the Jedi.
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Has live humans? Did you not read Harrison Ford will be in it?
At this point they could animate it and it would still be awesome.
In fact, they could redo the whole thing with animation.
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... Also, Andy Serkis is a motion capture actor and so there will probably be a Jar Jar-like digital character in the film.
Aaarrrggghhhhh!!!!!
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Andy has also acted as himself, and he's fine. He's also a good voice actor.
Trivia: what movie has Andy Serkis, Ian McKellen, and Hugh Jackman? No, not a LORT/XMen crossover, amusing as that might be.
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Galactic Climate Change...the universe is getting warmer. Only the Jedi can stop the Sith factories from raising the thermal temperature of the universe and destroying ALL matter.
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Really??????
Cause Star Trek and Into Darkness both cream Star Trek V, and quite a few of the TNG movies.