Actually not too long ago and I was shocked how much better it was than I remembered....after the whole wacky opening dance number. I mean it isn;t super great don;t get me wrong, Wee Willie is the fucking worst, but Short Round is good people. And Moleram was a bad ass.

TOD is not bad...Willie is atrocious and the opening dance number is bad, but overall a pretty decent movie. Nowhere near the level of TLJ.

Temple of Doom is awesome.

Now Rocketeer, that's a movie that doesn't hold up. (and should be remade)

I like you but you’re crazy.

I’d be onboard - haven’t seen it since the drive-in but love that Art Deco vibe.

Hell, I love both movies.

Curious, what's not to like before I get the proverbial Willie screaming or raft scene? Like Law mentioned, Temple of Doom has arguably the best antagonist in the franchise. Oh, did I forget about the action scenes.

Han Solo was very buff in Temple.

Except the Darth vader scene which was really out of place and out of character for that era of Darth vader. You can tell it was forced as fan service and ruined the continuity of what Darth Vader was at that time.

Agreed. Dearth Vader was a classic villain, not an unstoppable murder-bot. I felt that scene was out of touch with continuity.

Vader didn't even sound much like the way Vader used to in RO (the same goes for Star Wars Rebels). James Earl Jones just doesn't have the voice he used to have.

About two or three days.

Now this is just getting stupid, Darth Vader from 40 years ago was Darth Vader from 40 years ago, so you guys expect the film makers to stay within the narrow confine of the first 3 movies? It's one thing to say TLJ fucked up on several levels but to say Vader wouldn't have done this or that is just pure guess work, maybe he's pissed, maybe he's having a bad day. Or just maybe it's 40 years later and movies are 10x more violent.

There were so many things I hated about TLJ. One of those things was the reveal that Rey's parents were junk dealing no-bodies. Well in the video below, this guy shares his theory on how that particular plot point could be retconned.

I know there are many people that defend that idea that Rey is the offspring of nobody important...that is how real life is, but let’s face it, this is not real life. I want her to be the progeny of someone important, because that is what I expect from this sci-fi fantasy saga. Bloodlines have always been important in Star Wars and TFA spent so much time making me think her linage was going to be important.

Stop "subverting peoples expectations" Lucas Film and give fans what they want! (Or at least stay consistent within your own story arcs and plot. How hard can it be to plot out three movies that make sense and stay consistent).

Sadly it's too late for Luke Skywalker, you completely fu*ked that up and there is no way to retcon that. Such a shame.

It really is amazing. Look what the Karate Kid franchise just pulled off with its actor’s 34 years later. It’s incredible how amazing Cobra Kai was led by a nearly 60 year old Johnny Lawrence character that is a nobody in the anels of fiction compared to Luke Skywalker.

Of course Cobra Kai has the opposite message of most canned franchise shows these days and was incredibly insensitive to the SJWs like KK...one of the reasons it’s so popular and legitimately well reviewed in my opinion.

Heard two people mention it in some sort of "inside baseball" publication related to Disney. I'd mark it down as unverified for now.

Personally.. I'd be surprised if it happens. Iger placed KK in that position at Lucasfilm and at the last stockholders meeting indicated they were staying the course.

Iger has been very good at eliminating anyone who could be a threat to his rein at Disney. Unless there is a direct threat to him by the stockholders (its you or her) she isn't going anywhere.

Of course that was before Solo came out, and Solo is hurting bad. Numbers I have heard for production was 250 mil for shooting, 200 mil for re-shoots and 100 mil for marketing. Possible, but another source stated 150 mil for marketing. 80% of the movie was re-shot but the big expenses are on the CGI and that is all done last. Either way they spent a ton of cash on this one and its cratering.

$192 million domestic as of today, they have not even recouped the marketing expenditures let alone the primary production and re-shoots.

Incredibles 2? $180 million opening weekend.

That seems a bit high. Best-case all-in spend was probably more like 400m minimum, but just like the equally troubled (yet much more successful) Justice League the studio is going to keep the actual numbers as secret as possible.

Between shoots, re-shoots and marketing I'm sure they are over $400 million, but a fair number to work with.

I must be living under a rock. I never heard of Cobra Kai. I'll take a look.

Studios never want people to know what they spent. There's many cases of "the most expensive movie ever" being made but under the radar. Who Framed Roger Rabbit, True Lies and most recently Pirates 4, whose whopping 410m PRODUCTION budget was only revealed because UK film credit tax laws were under scrutiny.

Solo's worldwide box office won't top 400, putting actual rentals at 200m best case. Making most of its money in America will give Disney a boost since they get the best "rental" rates here (big movies often start 90/10 in favor of studio)

In the old days many a movie was "saved" by home video but that market has dried up. Now movies are saved by China... Who don't care about Star Wars. Basically no way Solo isn't a huge loss.

They need to take a break and let anticipation build. Used to be 3 Star Wars movies a generation... Now it's one every year. It's no longer special.

I respectfully disagree. All they need is a good product. American's don't get tired of anything...ever, so long as it is a good and compelling product.

I agree we’re at 8 Fast and Furious movies and counting.

I’ve yet to see Solo but I think the idea is people are skipping it not because of burn out or because it’s a bad film but moreso because of TLJ was so bad. Heck The Hobbit movies were horrible and yet they all made nearly $1B each.

But TLJ was really “the last straw” for many.

Compared to Solo R1 has 2.5x as much domestic box office at the same date. That really says something.

Anyway as I said not seen Solo yet but before it came out when I saw the trailers and read that Lando was pan sexually and the director change etc. I could only think of the real Han Solo this quote

9C76449D-0EF7-4E68-BC3D-FD85BDA31FAD (resized).png

Speaking only for myself, I skipped Solo because I'm not in love with the whole "spin-off prequel" movie concept, the previews looked pretty middling and reviews confirmed it, and there were other things out at the time that I wanted to see more (Deadpool 2). I wouldn't say I'm suffering from "Star Wars fatigue" but I'd probably have gone to Solo if it was the first Star Wars offering in ten years. As is I'll catch Solo on streaming for sure, I didn't avoid it on principle and I'm open to the idea that I may love it -- or hate it. But from what I've seen and heard, it's probably just mediocre.

On that topic, I'm not sure how you'd tabulate "protest non-viewers" vs. "general lack of interest non-viewers." It's obvious how that breaks down in this thread, but less obvious in the wider world. Maybe Disney has some relevant data and modeling, but I doubt they'd publicize it.

I think that Lucas Film need to change tack and put their focus on a new Old Republic Trilogy. That way it will kind of be a re-boot of the franchise, or more like a prequel without all the trappings of story line interference. They can then map out a proper new saga, with fully fleshed out character arcs, continuity between movies and a long term vision. That, IMO, is the only way that they will be able to try and emulate the kind of success Marvel has with its franchise (Or the success of the original trilogy).

I'm on board, setting it thousands of years in the past takes off the artificial (and drama-sapping) constraint of writing toward a conclusion that everyone already knows by heart. If done right, they could make something cool and new that still has that "Star Wars" feel. Plus they could steal ideas from the comics, KTOR video games, etc. as they see fit, without being tied down to any of the continuity developed there over the years (some of which is cool, of course, and some of which is stupid). Maybe after Episode IX they'll move in that direction. Or they could have two trilogies going at once, one in the Old Republic and one going forward in time, alternating years. That's still a whole lot of Star Wars, but I'd like it better than the "A Star Wars Story" model they're working now.

And to create a good movie product they need good scripts. But everything they make now feels rushed. Last Jedi felt like a first draft. A few changes would have made it awesome (change Luke's death, make Holdo a traitor, let Finn die...)

Regarding Episode 9, Colin Trevorrow was let go after at least a year of work, giving JJ that much less time to make his version great. It's very much like what happened with the Hobbit, where years of Guillermo del Too work was thrown out the window when he left and Peter Jackson stepped back in.

JJ can do wonders with shit scripts (Star Trek 2009 comes to mind) but I wouldn't expect any miracle recovers on this one.

While I've read nothing to indicate this, I'm already convinced that the GOT producers Benioff & Weiss trilogy will focus on the Old Republic period. Simply because it makes so much sense. These guys already have experience taking a complex ancient fantasy world & turning it into a huge success. They are great storytellers. They develop complex characters & compelling dialog, and include shocking narrative twists. They know how to film exciting action sequences. They know how to adapt complex source material, and there's tons of Old Republic content to tap into. How many Emmy's have they won?

These guys are a perfect fit. Give them years to develop a well thought out storyline with compelling characters, that explores the ancient myths of Star Wars Universe. Home fricking run.

This I agree with.

This I don't. Ever since GOT got ahead of the books, the storytelling has been a bit off the rails. Also, they didn't create the characters, G.R.R. Martin did. The characters that they did create were crap. Like Olly, Brother Ray, Locke, and others that I can't think of now.

Just read all Star Wars Story movies have been put on hold so they can focus on IX and a new trilogy. So both Obi-Wan and Boba Fett have been canned. At this point they might as well drop IX as well, the whole story line is pointless. Just start over with a whole new trilogy with new characters. Man did they fuck up this franchise.

100% agree. As soon as they ran out of books it started being crap. Especially the travel - Westeros went from taking an entire season to cross to going from King's Landing to the Wall in like one day. Star Wars suffers badly from this as well.

If it's true this is big news, and hopefully means they'll slow their roll a bit and tighten up the product. Here's the original story:
http://collider.com/star-wars-spinoffs-on-hold#images

They must have read my above post about not rushing scripts!

Maybe now they won't have to reshoot every other movie they make. Perhaps they can get the story working on ultra cheap PAPER first and THEN hire super expensive crews to film it.

https://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/2018/06/disney-scrapping-star-wars-standalone-movies-rethinking-development-and-why-thats-actually-great-for-the-franchise.html

"Disney is done experimenting with new or unusual filmmakers and will go back to proven veteran talent who they know can handle a big budget Star Wars production in an effort to prevent future production chaos, drama, and firings."

Hear that? That is the sound of Rian Johnson and the other directors going under the bus to save Kennedy's ass.

Question is, will it be enough? No one is buying it, someone had to hire and sign off on what those directors were doing.

K.K.

Thanks for the link. At least they acknowledge that something is wrong. However, they are still going about it the wrong way IMO. They should retire Kathleen Kennedy and promote Dave Filoni immediately. He is wasted in the Animation department. And the Star Wars story group need a big kick up the arse.

Correct. Fans are not buying it. I think this is all that's going to happen for now. After Episode 9 tanks at the box office, the heads will really roll at Lucasfilm. They can't clean house at the top while Episode 9 is in production. That would be too embarrassing for the company, and create the same bad word of mouth that plagued Solo's release. They gotta let it ride at this point with Episode 9, no other choice.

Put a die hard fan as president of Lucasfilm, like Filoni, as many have said. He deserves it at this point with a long track record of success. Just like Kevin Feige at Marvel.

Shame tho, because I thought an Ewan McGregor Kenobi movie had lots of potential. Letting him age another 15 years might be beneficial actually.

Man they have worked themselves into a hole. I wonder what they will do with nine, will they completely half ass and low budget it, knowing its dead or will they actually spend time and energy to try and make something out of it. That ship is sinking they might as well just make it a turd and hope it's a cult classic of terrible movies. I can't imagine them getting any money out of it at this stage.

I expect a ROTJ Reboot. They'll throw the Hutts in there for fan service, dig up Billy Dee Williams so they can embarrass & disgrace his character too. At this point, no one cares anymore. All character arcs (if you even want to call them that) wrapped up at end of Episode 8. JJ might do a twist to show Rey's real parents. Again, no one cares about her character, the damage has been done.

It should be noted that JJ is part of the problem here as well, not the solution to fix this mess. So my expectations are rock fricking bottom. I think the execs think Solo was a fluke & they are just exploiting the licence too much. I still think they are in denile that their leftist SWJ trilogy is a train complete wreck.

Best thing they could do is tease Luke magically reappears at the end of Episode 9. He has transcended the Force, most powerful user ever, rises from the dead. Then at least they can right the biggest wrong from Episode 8, and the fans would be thrilled. Who cares how dumb the logic is. Then they can do the Skywalker bloodline/Thrawn story they should have done in Episodes 7-9.

They are going to have to double down and try and save the franchise in some way by correcting a lot of RJ’s BS. They will go back to Rey being the child of someone important, I’m sure, and probably place her in a predicament she can’t solve with her perfection (not sure what that would be).

They would need to do something incredible to trigger interest. A Rey heel turn to the dark side to set her up as the big bad of future SW stuff or their television show would be interesting.

Their real problem from a story standpoint that simply can’t be solved is the First Order instantly gaining full control over thousands of thousands of planets. They’ve made the galaxy such a tiny small insignificant place with instant travel and light speed ramming weapons and warp drives on fighter planes...negating the need for carriers...I’m not certain how to solve this plot problem. It’s all a fantasy universe destroyer.

I've got it! Just have the opening scene show Luke waking up from the terrible nightmare that was TLJ and move on from there, as if it never happened.

Idk how Episode 9 can be saved at this point. The entire new trilogy has sucked so far in my opinion. Episode 7 felt pretty good but Episode 8 ruined anything it had built up. There are some cool moments with the original cast in episode's 7 and 8 but they are few and far between.

As I mentioned before the entire First Order concept is lame and is simply a rehash of the Empire. Snoke had a cool sense of mystery surrounding him...and then was quickly killed and replaced by a boring villain, Kylo Ren.

A majority of the original cast in the new films have been killed off and replaced. Want to know what Episode 9 should be about at this point? Just have BB8 and the Porgs drop C3PO and R2 off at a scrap yard, blow up the Falcon and then the rest of the movie is spent with them hunting down Chewie, the last surviving original character. Lol.

Disney is moving its chess pieces very slowly and methodically, but they are moving.

They just announced new heads of Pixar and Walt Disney Feature Animation (to replace John Lasseter) and are in a bidding war with Comcast over Fox. I wouldn't expect any changes at Lucasfilm until after that battle is over.

All of these small announcements (no more spin offs, hiring better directors) are setting up Kennedy's departure. Then they'll wait a few months and announce the cancelling of Rian Johnson's trilogy as well.

...and he goes in to take a shower and Bobby Ewing is there.

Hey, I pitched this concept a few months back, if Disney's following this thread maybe it'll get some traction:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/spoilers-star-wars-the-last-jedi-is-really-bad-spoilers/page/32#post-4302090

They'll have to do so much "repair work" for the story in Episode 9 that it will probably end up like this:

Episode 9 part 1
Episode 9 part 2 six months later.

George RR Martin Style. Except part two takes six years instead of six months.

I was thinking more "Deathly Hallows".