Silly Disney......

1979......we need to cash in on that star wars thing and create our own cash cow........lets do Black Hole (1979) - hmm that didn't work

1982......that star wars thing is still going strong (Empire 1980).....we need something to compete with Luke now!.......lets do Tron (1982) - IMO superior, but not a cash cow for Disney

2010.......those star wars prequels......they made money......what can we do - Tron Legacy! (still superior IMO, but not a cash cow)

2012........hmmmm lets shoot the farm and do John Carter.....Flop!

2012......screw it - lets just buy George Lucas and star wars!

2018......Dammit we've destroyed our golden goose!

I'm not sure how they could've screwed things up so bad to be honest. It shouldn't have been rocket science. They should have skipped the original characters and story and did old republic or done something new........if only there wasn't something they could've drawn on that fans would be behind......something like 3 decades of top selling stories and books......oh wait

Black Fleet Crisis
Dark Nest Trilogy
The Old Republic
Corellian Trilogy
Jedi Academy
Fate of the Jedi
Darth Bane trilogy
New Jedi Order
Thrawn Trilogy
xwing rogue squadron
yuuzhan vong

and about any other 500 fantastic books/stories. Guess they couldn't afford it after buying out Lucas???

I've been saying for years that another studio should pick up the rights to Tron. With Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar, re-releases of classic animation to live action its CLEAR Disney has no interest in Tron which to me has a strong enough cult following to support more stories from The Grid.

PS: True story. I'm wearing this Tshirt right now

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this is pretty spot on about Solo

I saw this the other day & thought it was pretty pathetic.

Vanity Fair has always gotten the rights to print the exclusive, first-look, behind-the-scenes photos for all the new movies. You can find the article here. I read it and found it to be rather uninspiring, boring, and made me want to see the movie even less....but that's not the main point.

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/05/star-wars-cover-story?verso=true

Someone online pointed out that the best photo from the article, showing a badass Luke & R2D2, was completely fake, and a bad photoshop job at that. Judge for yourself, as you can see that elements of Luke's robe, hands & feet completely match the cover photo from last year's Vanity Fair Star Wars article. So to generate fan buzz for TROS, they created a completely fake first look photo of Luke. I doubt he's even in the movie now. If so, just post an actual set photo. If you have to create fake content to generate buzz, it's pathetic.

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To make matters worse, Hamill chimed in with his own tweet, pointing out in his own subtle way how bad the scale of R2 looks.

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Only 6 months until this turd drops!

This is the most interesting thing from the whole article:

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Star Wars doesn’t have to stay frozen in time; if anything it’s the opposite, if it doesn’t change it’ll die. It will turn into Flash Gordon. For Abrams, that means he can’t go through this process so haunted by the ghost of George Lucas that he winds up doing a cinematic Lucas impression. At some point Abrams has to let Abrams be Abrams.

“Working on nine, I found myself approaching it slightly differently,” Abrams says. “Which is to say that, on seven, I felt beholden to Star Wars in a way that was interesting—I was doing what to the best of my ability I felt Star Wars should be.” But this time something changed. Abrams found himself making different choices—for the camera angles, the lighting, the story. “It felt slightly more renegade; it felt slightly more like, you know, Fuck it, I’m going to do the thing that feels right because it does, not because it adheres to something.”
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So......JJ felt an obligation to honor Lucas' vision with Episode 7, which has basically a soft reboot that matched the basic story elements of Episode 4. Then he watched Rian Johnson shit all over the plot points he left for him in Episode 8 & disgrace the memories of our beloved characters. So now JJ is back for Episode 9, and his attitude is "yeah well fuck it" I'm gonna do my own thing now too. Based on the track record here, his comments are not optimistic.

The writer of that article was a complete shill too. No I'm sorry. Star Wars does NOT have to change. The formula works. Adults & children love it. Jedi vs Sith, good vs bad, rise & fall of empires/republics for 1000's of generations. When you blow all that history up for something new (No more Jedi/Sith, bring on the "rise" of the new religion of "Skywalker"), then Star Wars we know & love ceases to exist. The fans stop caring. I know I already have for Episode 9.

On VII Abrams felt beholden to Star Wars? I'll say.

After I saw VII, I thought it should have been titled ANOTHER NEW HOPE and I figured VIII would just be THE FIRST ORDER STRIKES BACK followed by IX being THOSE JEDIS REALLY DO RETURN AND STAY FOR GOOD THIS TIME.

After I saw VIII, I was desperately wishing I could wake up to find that THE FIRST ORDER STRIKES BACK was actually the one that would be in theatres.

Abrams is a total hack if he is doing 9 I really don’t need to see it . Episode 7 and 8are by far the worst Star Wars movies ever made and just bad movies in general . Could have been great , I really wish Disney would have hired some of the writers that did the books that take place after return of the Jedi but they didn’t .

Everything he touches turns into shit, doesn't it? Oh well, he can't possibly damage this any worse if he tried, so I say have at it.

Anything new worth chatting about here?

Sure there is! How about something positive for change?

After a fairly long process, I recently became an official member of the 501st Legion. For those who are unaware, that is the Lucasfilm sanctioned worldwide fan organization of Stormtroopers, Sith Lords, Bounty Hunters etc etc. Lots of appearances, charity work & making people happy. In fact all of the stormtroopers appearing in the upcoming Mandalorian TV series are 501st members. So yes I am officially part of the Empire now! Just completed my first troop at a minor league baseball game last Saturday.

I grew up with the original trilogy, and have always thought the dirty Sandtroopers looked the coolest. So since I live in the Nevada high desert, this choice was a no brainer. Now I just need to tweek my armor to make it as screen accurate as possible & get accepted into the Mos Eisley Police Department, which is a detachment of the 501st that is exclusively for Sandtroopers. My armor/helmet came from the original ANH molds in the UK, so it's already very accurate. So some tweeks here & there, start to build a DLT-19 heavy blaster.... there's always something to do. I have too many hobbies. haha

Am I the first 501st/Pinball enthusiast? I'd be curious to know.

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Solar Fire!

Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper?

If I had a Republic Credit for every time I've heard that one... haha

Awesome!
.
.
.Nerds!

End Game will pass Avatar to become the top grossing movie all time (worldwide) more than $620M from China alone.

End Game will surpass the last three SW movies combined. (R1, TLJ and Solo).

so which one of you guys is behind this?

https://www.npr.org/2019/06/18/733479265/avengers-but-make-it-without-women-or-men-hugging-or-levity-in-general

Hey, remember when Luke succeeded where his father failed, ultimately redeeming Anakin, defeating the Emperor, and restoring peace to the galaxy? Disney doesn't.

Apparently they're just going to retcon anyone from the original trilogy as a complete, abject failure.

https://movieweb.com/rise-of-skywalker-star-wars-comic-emperor-palpatine/

Exactly. Nobody cares that some people at Lucasfilm are attempting to retcon their recent mistakes, via "offical cannon" in a comic book that 99% of people will never read. The whole premise is a waste of time. Go write some new material instead & leave the original trilogy alone.

So The Emperor has been influencing Luke & breaking his will from beyond the grave for the last 30 years? Is that it? So then what was Yoda doing to prevent it all that time? He was too busy doing afterlife laundry I guess. This is exactly why these new episodes are so dumb. The wrap-up story for Episode 9 is going to be a real turd.

They could have just had Luke & Leia build a New Republic for 30 years, new age of enlightenment, new Jedi Academy, marry & have lots of children, everything is wonderful. No retconning needed. Then we discover the Emperor had enacted a secret plan upon his death, Empire & Sith loyalists rebuilt a new army in the unknown regions. Empire & Grand Admiral Thrawn return out of nowhere to crush Skywalker & the New Republic. One final struggle to defeat the Empire once and for all.

Nah let's create a jumbled mess of a story, shit on the original cast, make it all about female empowerment instead. Think of the holiday Porg toy sales!

Yeaaaaah, I like the idea you presented here way better. I'd imagine if a cohesive set of writers consulted and developed a vision based on earnestness, versus broadest demographics, many, many storylines could have been far, far more engaging than the seat of the pants drivel we've had barfed out at towards our eyes and ears, not to mention cracking our hearts in half over Kennedy's knee.

Very easy assessment of "new" trilogy. Is there a )...single...character that feels unique, seems admirable, or is relatable in a way any for fans of the prior trilogies?

cash grab alert, End Game will be adding a post credit scene. I'm not to mad because I wanted to see it again in theatre.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/19/18691624/avengers-endgame-post-credits-scene-rerelease-spider-man-far-from-home-avatar

I saw it. It's the worst of the new X-men movies and quite frankly, a wasted opportunity. They brought back all those actors one more time to just to rehash the phoenix story. They did a poor job once again. The story ignores setups from previous movies & tells a pretty dumb story with little explanation of major plot points & characters. There were multiple reshoots of the ending & the release was delayed. This isn't really surprising when you consider that they let Simon Kinberg take his SECOND attempt at writing this story. He wrote the awful & poorly received X3: The Last Stand, and then somehow gave him the green light to both write AND direct this turd. They had to let Bryan Singer go due to his sex abuse scandal, and it clear that he had no part in this movie. The reviews are legit...you can pass on this one.

Disney has the rights now but I've been hearing that the X-men won't be making their Marvel movie debut for a few years at very least. They want to let the memory of these movie fade a bit. They're seriously focused on inclusion for the next phase, and Kevin Feige has stated it repeatedly. More female lead films like Captain Marvel 2 & Black Widow, more Black Panther, introducing gay characters in The Eternals, the first black female marvel director, introducing an asian lead in Shang-Chi: Master of Kung-Fu. They are going all in on this for the next couple years. The only holdover is Guardians of the Galaxy, Dr.Stange and if they continue to share Spider-Man with Sony. I can't see them doing a 3rd Antman movie either. They want to move on from these characters. Marvel movie universe is going to look pretty different post-Endgame. The question is how will fans react? If numbers start to drop, expect the Fantastic Four & X-men to get moved to a higher priority.

I'd like to see Tron moved to a higher priority

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Would LOVE LOVE LOVE another Tron.....

Doubt it

but WANT it

I've said it before and will repeat that since Disney appears to have no interest in the Tron IP that another studio approach them for the rights. There is still a lot of story to be told on The Grid.

Marvel announced their plans for phase 4.
Thoughts?

Me? Ugh.....

Way too much stuff. Feels like B/C sides.

I wonder when Disney will tap this well. Between live action remakes, Marvel, Star Wars, and other Pixar/CG stuff, the industry seems dominated by them in a way that only suits a monopoly, and destroys variety and competition.

I’m all for Disney maximizing content production for the MCU...while the sun is shining make hey and what not. Would be nice to see that not prevent IP like Tron from getting follow up attention.

I’ve not watched any YouTube Star Wars hype channels or anything like that. I do not plan to see Episode IX absent knock out word of mouth.

I'm with you. I'm just over the whole MCU thing. I was all over it for years, but after Captain Marvel and Endgame, I just don't care anymore. Those two movies have killed the excitement for me. Same with Solo and TLJ for me and Star Wars.

Time travel that is well done and well thought through can be a lot of fun. See the first two seasons of Matt Smith’s reign as Doctor Who (even though it was not consistent with its own rules, it made great use of time travel).

Endgame was a bit of a cop out in its use sadly...but hey, the MCU doesn’t follow any rules of physics ever so I’m not sure why anyone thought time travel would be different in it.

I'm going to go on a rant here, but I think Marvel has jumped the shark. The downhill slide has begun, similar to what Disney has done to Star Wars.

Skeptics will look & point to the record recent box office numbers. Look at the billions Black Panther & Captain Marvel pulled in. Endgame is the highest grossing movie of all time. Marvel has never been bigger & shows no sign of slowing down. Perhaps....but the Avengers movies are in a special class of their own.

I would argue that the downward slide started 4 movies ago. After Thor Ragnarok, the stand alone films started getting bad. Ant Man & Wasp was boring, unnecessary & totally forgettable. Black Panther was seriously over-hyped by the media & is quite frankly not great a movie. No need to rewatch. Captain Marvel was without a doubt the worst marvel movie ever made with unlikable characters, a dumb story & an overpowered mary sue hero. Sure they made huge money, but are you going to see the sequels? Hard pass for me.

The nail in the coffin for me was Spiderman: Far From Home. I really disliked it. The focus on his annoying teenage classmates. Bad jokes that fell flat. The unlikable nihilistic emo ethnic version of Mary Jane who bares no resemblance to her comic counterpart. The poor depiction of a great Sinister Six villain Mysterio, who uses McGuffin Stark-Tech drones to stage his illusions, instead of gasses & toxins to screw with people's minds. What a poor use of a great physiological enemy. And after nearly 20 years & multiple reboots, this teenage version of Peter Parker has been played the fuck out. How many times do we have to see this version & stories retold over & over? Oh they teased J Jonah Jameson for the next one? We haven't seen that one before huh? It's about time to show an experienced, cynical, married Peter Parker in his late 20's. Into the Spiderverse was a MILLION times better than this flat boring Spidey adventure.

Marvel has made clear they are all in on inclusion & gender swapping characters moving forward. That is the priority now. Sound familiar? Look at how they self-destroyed their comics division with this material. Look how they did the same thing to the Star Wars franchise. Now Iron man & Cap are gone. Thor is an afterthought. All the B & C tier Avengers (Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Winter Solider, Loki, etc) have been delegated to television. Marvel has moved on. Lady Thor & Black Widow? Pass. The Eternals is a property that couldn't even find success within the comics industry. Repeatedly cancelled. Notice there are no plans for a new Spidey movie? No Guardians? The question here is whether or not fans will accept the new focus of Phase 4. I'll see Dr Strange 2 & that Kung-Fu movie, but the rest looks very unimpressive to me.

Of course all of this will be moot when they give the fans what they really want....marvel produced X-men & Fantastic Four franchises, Galactus, Dr Doom, etc etc. I guess we have to wait 4 years or more for that.

Wow, the new Picard trailer actually looks amazing! Here I was thinking the shows creators would pull a Last Jedi and make Picard an old grumpy man that doesn't want to help anyone. "I started this winery to die", "It's time for Starfleet to end" lol. Nope! Take notes Disney...actually it looks like CBS took notes after fans reactions to The Last Jedi.

An into the spiderverse is in all actuality the only sequel I would like to see. I don't have Disney+ and have no plans on watching any of those TV shows. GG comic books movies. RIP Iron Man. PS it's only a matter of time until they bring Iron Man back from the dead.

Sure they will...as Riri Williams aka Ironheart. More gender swapping. Same as they did in the comics. Especially if Lady Thor is successful. I’ll pass.

I read the only reason they are doing a Hawkeye TV show is so they can permanently make Jeremy Renner the ninja Ronin & replace him with Kate Bishop aka Lady Hawkeye.

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Jesus, there's another Lady character?!??!!

Why is it so hard for these writers to establish new characters sans corrupting old ones?

Oh yeah, that's right, doing so would take the creative powers that Lee, Kirby, Siegel, etc had all those years ago. Same as Lucas.

Write new characters. Leave existing ones alone. Damn it.

(Side point, playing through Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 now on the Switch, and how are Spider Gwen, and Miles differentiated at all from Peter???)

Holy shit....Data is back?

Is this something younger people respond to? I don't get it either. It just seems like there is a group of people trying to "modernize" these films with no idea of the history or what fans are interested in. I liked some of the earlier Marvel films but liking them less and less. I was not impressed at all with the last Avengers movie but hard to argue with it being the highest grossing movie of all time. Even my daughter was excited to see it with her friends so obviously Disney is doing something right.

You’re all starting to sound a bit too much like the incel losers who complain about women all the time.

It’s simple. Either you like the movies they make or you don’t and box office goes down.

I wasn’t a fan of Captain Marvel but because the actor didn’t breathe any life into the character. Samuel Jackson carried that movie.

Female iron man? Sure, why not? Keep an open mind. No one is threatening your masculinity.

Picard looks BAD ASS!!!

Bring it!!

Why not just create a new character though? Why take away a character so the new character can exist? It’s all fiction, make an Iron Lady or something less derivative with her own history.

I’m all for female characters. The more the better. I love female lead hero movies like Resident Evil or Alien, great stuff there. But just gender swapping all characters did nothing to help the comics (sales are at all time lows) and I can’t see it helping the movies. I think MCU phase 4 will really struggle compared to this past phase. We will see. Maybe the X-men can save phase 5.

These are massive brands no one is going to just go see some new made up character with no history. Women have literally been fucked over and exploited in Hollywood for far too long. People think the solution is to not give them and good roles and just make up shitty new characters in some B rated bimbo franchises, yeah that is a good idea.

I know its a little off topic but I can not wait for the new black female Bond, Phoebe Waller-Bridge is fucking an incredible writer. Everything she does is fucking amazing. Well with one exception the stupid made up no one gives a shit droid in Solo was exactly what I don't want to see. She is a beautiful, powerful, super expressive women and they decide to make her a comic relief droid.

Tony Stark died (Spoiler Alert!)

Ugh. That was her in that role? That character couldn't have been more in your face progressive ideals, removing the viewer from a fantasy world with so many lines of awkward dialog.

I haven't seen Fleabag. Is it a lot better than the Solo performance?

It's not about masculinity at all. It's about Disney time and time again choosing the lowest hanging fruit, and rather than create and develop new and rich characters, they take a pre-existing one, and slap a new gender or color on them.

That's insulting as someone that's followed these character's journeys, even fictional, for possibly decades, all for a quick cash grab fro. existing fans, like myself, and larger demographics that weren't prior consuming this kind of media.

None of this is about racial/gender equality and diversity, it's ALL about adding more to the existing pot. Nothing more. Take existing fan base and money, and add new fan base and money, in the flimsiest, most cynical, and creatively bankrupt way possible.

Disney does this with all licenses, ones not even their own, like Kimba the lion. They've double downed on that thievery from Tezuka Osamu.......

So what? Loki and Gimora also died...yet still carry on. That’s not even really the point nor is it connected to needing to build up a new character rather than making one so 100% derivative it used the same name.