So i decided to talk about something more related to the outside world this time. You know, the things that start existing when you click that X in the top right corner of your Steemit tab. :)
And Star Wars pooped into my mind. The most influential trilogy of all time that reinvented the meaning of "blockbuster".
Now i cant speak about the original trilogy from my own experience since i wasnt alive at the time it was released but i did watch some documentaries and it seems that those movies were something unseen before in cinema.
I dont think "Fandom" really existed until that time.
The reaction to Star Wars was so amazing that it single-handily spawned a bunch of clones that wasted millions upon millions of dollars trying to recreate the magic of Star Wars.
Gene Roddenberry actually states that Star Wars was one of the reasons that he was able to pitch his Star Trek movies after the cancellation of the TOS tv show.
So where did it go wrong?
Well During early 2000s and late 90s the Star Wars brand was still going strong, making George Lucas into a legend in the eyes of Star Wars fans. He could do no wrong..... until he did.
So the prequels came out and everyone loved them for a little while.... until everyone hated them.
I was luke warm to them as a kid but now that i rewatched them a few times i can see where George mocked it up.
"Ego" was the reason in my opinion that the movies werent as good as they should have been.
Just like with the original trilogy George had a vision, even clearer this time around. His world building was great, the sets (though green screen mostly) the overall arc all made sense and were an amazing addition to a world that was kind of constricted in scope.
You really didnt see much in the original series. It was mostly in space, bad guys fighting the good guys.
Here he went in the right direction but somewhere along the way of making the movie he got lost.
Since everyone was holding him in such high regard he convinced himself of not being able to do no wrong and put it all on himself to complete. He lost his grasp on all the strings. And that failed badly..
The prequels had some wooden acting, weird line delivery, questionable cast, muddled motivations and too much political intrigue in a mostly kids movie.
Flashes of brilliance were still there. Ewan McGregor was amazing and there is some immensely quotable dialog and amazing scenes you remember. Scenes i still rewatch to this day.
Lucas got a lot of backlash, so much that he decided to scrap any further stories he had lined up.
That is until Disney came along and dropped a pile of cash on his desk and said: "Gimme".
So he Gimmied..... And from that point on a corporation had its greedy hands on one of the most beloved franchises in the history of cinema. What Disney didnt realize is that Star Wars has some of the most vocal fans of any franchise.
The kind of people that one day love you and the next day are slashing the tires on your car.
Disney, being a soulless corporation that it is, didnt realize the dangers that it was facing. They didnt realize that they had 1 chance to get this right.
So what did they do? They went out and remade "A new hope". Stripped almost every main plot point from the original movie, shuffled around some characters, injected some nostalgia with the old cast and of course, they couldnt miss the opportunity to insert some social justice neofeminism.
Some fans hated the movie immensely, me being one of them, since i wanted to see something new, a continuation of the world building that was done so well in the prequels and the books and the games....
What i got was another Death Star, another Vader, another rebellion... And all those things were done more stupid and more nonsensical then in the originals.
But still, some interesting questions and cliff hangers were left for us to wonder about and create anticipation for the next one. Could this actually lead into something new and interesting.?
The answer was no. Im not going to go into why "The last Jedi" is bad because at this point its like beating a dead horse. What i will say is that Rian Johnson is the undertaker of Star Wars. He literally dug a hole and buried it.
The over-reliance on plot twists and bad humor without actually taking the plot in any direction made for a horrible movie on its own, and a disastrous Star Wars movie.
There was a point in the movie, the casino planet subplot, that i grabbed my head in disbelief, in awe at the pure stupidity and lack of any reason for that subplot to exist. It was literally written in so Finn and Rose have something to do. (i said i wouldnt beat the dead horse. grr, haha)
The movie messed with the lore and how the universe works, it inserted feminism and social justice in every crevasse it could. (Purple hair gives me PTSD now)
So crap ensued shortly after the release... The mob has no patience. They gave Disney 2 chances and they blew it.
Reviews started pouring in and ofc, politically biased reviewers, the same ones that loved the Ghostbusters gave the movie rave reviews.
On the other hand the fan backlash got so bad that people were getting annoyed and angry by the complete lack of objectivity by the critics and the response they got from Disney.
(91% critic review score and a 46% viewer review score.)
That gap shows how little the critics are in touch with fans of the franchise.
At that time everyone was preaching: "Its just a loud minority, its just the alt right, its just misogynists".
And the apologists were happy with that..... until the Solo movie came to theaters and bombed spectacularly.
That is the first Star Wars movie i didnt watch so i cant say how good or bad it was but what i can say is that the apologists were wrong. When ever you anger the fan base of a franchise...
those loud ones will be the ones heard, they are the hype machine or the FUD machine and their voice travels.
Disney disregarded, attacked and insulted the Star Wars fans so much that they lost hundreds of millions of dollars on the Solo movie and could have killed the franchise for good.
At this point we are waiting for the last movie in the new trilogy. It really seems like they have nowhere to go with this.
Rebellion with reform, Mary Sue will defeat Kylo Ren in one way or the other, Universe in peace once more..bla bla bla..
There just isnt anywhere to go with this honestly....
A franchise Disney payed billions for, might not even make them their money back, because they decided to insert neo feminist, social justice rhetoric into the movie and into their interactions with the fans.
I think the saying is: "Get woke, go broke".... And that seems to be what will happen here. Oh well....
Just a few thoughts, have a great day everyone.
I like gifs, what can i say. :D