I still can’t stop but think how stretched out the Hobbit films were, for an otherwise short book. That’s a sin that stains forever with me. The Lord of the Rings films, do have their own flaws, but they’re fairly contained and can be debated as to whether they were good or not. I have so much trouble excusing anything with the Hobbit though.

And I hope we never, ever see anyone tackle The Silmarillion. Simply because, there will be so much improvised fluff in that would-be film, that it’d make the Hobbit films blush.

  • thethrilloftime69@feddit.onlineEnglish
    352·
    3 天前

    Disney didn’t ruin the Star Wars sequels. They were a terrible idea to begin with. They were built from the ground up as focus-grouped corporate slop built to sell merchandise.

    • UPGRAYEDD@lemmy.world
      25·
      3 天前

      They also had access to a galaxy worth of new york times best sellers, and instead of taking the best ideas from already loved stories, they declared them as non cannon.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1·
      2 天前

      I assumed that’s what the comment above meant. It was just corporate slop that no one wanted, and there was no passion behind it. They had the IP and all the money in the world to make them good, but they squandered it making total garbage.

      • thethrilloftime69@feddit.onlineEnglish
        2·
        2 天前

        I think the subtle difference of opinion is that I don’t think having having a franchise and money is a good enough excuse to make a movie. That’s how corporations make decisions. Tbh that “expand the franchise” mentality is what’s wrong with modern media. I think franchises should die. We don’t need more Star Wars movies. We need new ideas.

        • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
          1·
          2 天前

          I mostly agree with you, but I have no issue with more in a franchise if it’s also bringing new ideas. Andor, for example, did something totally different, and it was great. If they’re willing to do more things like that, and push the boundaries, it’d be fine. Andor was a fluke though. Disney wants to play in their safe little sandbox where they just make shitty products with cute things to sell as merchandise.

    • hansolo@lemmy.today
      9·
      3 天前

      They were part of George Lucas’s original intent. What Lucas had in mind, I think we’ll never know, but what we got was certainly not that.

        • hansolo@lemmy.today
          12·
          3 天前

          Apparently. Didn’t sound better, either…

          “The next three movies were going to go into a microbiotic world. There’s this world of creatures that operate differently than we do. I call them the Whills. And the Whills are the ones who actually control the universe. They feed off the Force.”

          — George Lucas

          Then Darth Maul becomes the new Jabba the Hut. It sounds… Like ideas I guess. Maybe a weird dream he had one night.

          https://shapes.inc/fandom/star-wars-sequel-trilogy-george-lucas-plans/quotes

          Edit: also, now we know that Luke wasn’t special after all.

          “By the end of the trilogy, Luke would have rebuilt much of the Jedi, and we would have the renewal of the New Republic, with Leia, Senator Organa, becoming the Supreme Chancellor in charge of everything. So she was [the Chosen One].”

          — George Lucas

          • Almacca@aussie.zoneEnglish
            12·
            3 天前

            Many years ago I read the George’s first draft of the original Star Wars, and boy-howdy was it a load of old nonsense. He works best when he has an editor prepared to tell him ‘no’.

          • wjrii@lemmy.worldEnglish
            7·
            3 天前

            George undoubtedly said that. However, the idea that there was ever a single master vision that was fiddled with around the edges is kinda his own mythmaking bullshittery, plus wishful/rueful thinking from fans. Any time he was interviewed, that man just proclaimed what whatever he’d been noodling on in the last week, influenced by whatever was going on in his personal life, was always the plan from day one.

            Certain core elements seem to persist, but shit like “how many movies,” or “who’s the central core to the narrative” or “exactly WTF are Whills” can go in 180 degree directions depending on the era in which he is discussing them. The analogy I’ve made for George is that all of Star Wars was his American-Graffiti-style garage hot rod. He fixes it up and mods it and rolls it out to show off and race every once in a while, but fundamentally it’s his. He can change whatever the hell he likes, and it’s your problem if you got attached to the red paint job from 10 years ago. This is what I think people are instinctively getting at when they say George doesn’t understand his own creation.

            • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
              4·
              2 天前

              I feel for Lucas. I don’t think he’s fundamentally any different from most creative people, he just made a hugely successful franchise and had a habit of excitedly discussing whatever ideas he had in the moment.

              Yeah, most of them sounded VERY ridiculous, but if we could see the ideas of any successful project’s initial stages we’d be losing our minds over it too lol.

              Any one of us would be the same way, but we weren’t trying to keep the hyperdrive running on an already ultra-successful forever-money-printing cultural touchstone.

              So, I dunno, I’d like some recognition and success but I never wanna be in his position…

            • hansolo@lemmy.today
              3·
              3 天前

              For sure. I don’t mean to say he didn’t understand his creation, but rather he hadn’t settled on a final version enough to shoot. It’s Whills and microscopic world and crime boss adventure tale and Leia and politica and Luke with Jedi legacy and its… Whatever the last thing he was thinking about.

              Which doesn’t guarantee it would be better than the hot, festering shitpile we got. But it would be hard to do worse.