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The problem with Jedi is that the Empire would have won. I get that the Emperor was over confident, but he could afford to be.
Forget the Death Star II for a minute, the fleet holding the Rebels there consisted of 40 Star Destroyers of various types, plus the Super Star Destroyer Executor.
They didn't even need the DSII, those Star Destroyers were plenty to wipe out the Rebels all by themselves. Holding them there using Interdictor cruisers, there really was no escape, regardless of what happened on the Death Star or on the surface of Endor.
The Rebel's brought 9 Mon Calamari Cruisers of various types, including Home One. While the weapons and shields of a MC-80 is similar in many regards to an Imperial Star Destroyer, 9 of them sure aren't going to win against 40 ISDs.
The Executor all by itself had enough firepower to wipe out the Rebels, without any help. Home One had 72 weapons emplacements, Executor had 5,000. Executor could have simply rammed Home One and destroyed it with brute force, the shields were strong enough.
Yes, yes, I know, an A-Wing crashed into the bridge. Well then, the Empire was going to lose no matter what, because you simply don't design and build a ship that large, to be that easy to destroy. Besides, a ship of that size has shields strong enough to allow 500 fighters to crash into it.
Either the Empire is a great threat, or they are not. If they are that easy to kill, then they would not control the galaxy.
That is the problem, the movies try to have it both ways. The evil Empire is crushing everyone, but just a few lucky shots and that's it, all over...
Lets face it, Lion King was amazing because of the money spent on quality animation, quality voice acting, and the music by Elton John was just perfect.
Aladin had Robin Williams, who *is* the Genie. He didn't come back to do the sequel due to a contract dispute over money and the second one is terrible because of that. The third is better because they got him back for that.
Re: Avengers, yes, you are correct, that was done well, one of my wife's favorite of all the comic book movies. That movie screams for a sequal, they just need to be sure to give it a budget larger than the first one.
Speaking of which, Black Widow won't be in Iron Man 3, she has asked for her own movie it seems. Will be interesting to see if they do that or not.
Add pixie dust...
Enter music: Imperial march!!!
Seriously, Zahn trilogy would be good source for episode 7-9, too bad Harrison Ford would be much too old to reprise his role as Han Solo per that source material.
If I would be so bold as to recommend another route for episode 7, I would base it on Star Wars Legacy comics series. It is the only other good EU story IMHO after Zahn's trilogy. Starring Cade Skywalker, Luke's grandson, in a mess up galaxy ruled mainly by Sith. This would be a new take, a few generations removed from OT (i.e. less complains by die hard fans ;)) I do not know if Disney would ok the grittier aspects of the story though.
The problems with Prequel Trilogy, IMHO, lied mostly on George Lucas being the big boss. Nobody in LucasFilm dared to question his decisions as evidence in any documentary about the making of ep 1,2,3. Contrast with ep 4 & 5 where editor, director, etc stepped up and challenged Lucas' views to some degree. Hopefully with Disney execs on the top someone can balance him a bit.
@LegoFanTexas I can't argue against 1st Aladdin movie being an excellent piece. Second movie was not that bad, I can name several Disney movies worst than Aladdin II. The Aladdin TV series moved along just fine without the honorable Mr Robin Williams if 80+ episodes could be evidence. IMHO as a fan of the TV series, movie 3, which was kind of a bookend to the TV series, suffered a little bit by adding Mr. Williams back as Genie.
Another way to go would be to move into the Bounty Hunter series, or to explore Mara Jade's background. The Wilde Card and the adventures to be had there would be pretty cool. I'd also love to see a red Imp Star Duce. ;) But of course that is way too obscure to make it into a movie.
Bonus points to anyone who, without looking it up, knows what the heck I'm talking about re: painting an Imperial Star Destroyer Mark II red.
:)
Yea, books have been written, but who reads books anymore. Most people that know the Star Wars universe know it through the movies and I think, therefore, don't know much background other than what is in the those. Who says Disney needs to start with totally new material. I think they could make the Zahn trilogy from the expanded universe into movies because I doubt the target audience of Disney is going to be the type that loves to read.
Anyway, Disney has already announced it will be original material so there's no point in arguing. The time frame may be close to the Zahn trilogy, but I think they will do a totally new story.
Even with the Emperor, Vader, the DSII, and the Executor gone, the ISDs, not to mention the rest of the fleet spread out far and wide across the galaxy, could easily have wiped out the remains of the rebel fleet. While obviously losing the political leadership would have hurt, the fleet had plenty of capable admirals and captains who could have finished the job. And don't even get started on the ground troops - who cares if a battalion or two got wiped on the surface of the Endor moon - that would have been but a drop in the bucket of the overall Imperial army and marines.
This was at least one area where some of the EU books, including the Thrawn trilogy, tried to create this notion of pockets of Imperial forces holding out for some time afterwards. In reality, the Empire would have still had an enormous strategic and tactical advantage, but I suppose huge percentages of the command structure could have flipped allegiance once Palpatine and Vader went down.
I have read people using Marvel as an example of Disney getting it right... but the idea of Disney setting deadlines for Star Wars films and *then* choosing a director, creative team etc is the worst idea I can imagine for Star Wars. I'd rather release dates and production schedules get set based on how long it takes to make the movie, not when Disney want to fit a big 'tent pole' movie into their plan.
Rant over, I shall go back to quietly fearing the absolute worst....!
It feels like I shall be collecting less and less of my Favorite SW.
Frinding Greedo.
Song of the Sith.
Lando and the Tramp.
Snow White and the Seven Droids.
The Princess Leia Diaries.
Emperor Palpatine's New Groove.
The Wookiee.
Beauty and the Boba Fett.
Lilo & Sith.
The Fox and the Han Solo.
Droid Story.
Jabba the Pooh.
Bambi Wan Kenobi.
Chitty Chitty Death Star.
That's So Vader.
Also, with the younger generation knowing SW through Clone Wars, I think they would be more open and receptive to an EU trilogy that is not about the Vader legacy.
EDIT: I echo some other voices that it will make for more variety of LEGO sets, which is potentially a positive thing. TLG already works with Disney and Lucasfilm, so this should go pretty smoothly for new sets.
An unmolested version of THX1138 would be nice too, but much less likely.
I think what is key is for Disney to strike its own path. Don't be beholden to the expanded universe. They need to go "Next Generation" with the entire concept. You can still have Jedi and starships and lightsabers and the same types of aliens, but we probably don't need to focus on "Luke and Leia and Han." We know who they are, and although stories about "what happened to them" are fun, we already know that. Make the story about the CHARACTERS, not the continuity. (This was one of the major issues with the prequels -- focused far too much on moving the chess pieces around, not on exploring who Anakin was and why he turned. So sad - there was SUCH a powerful story to be told there.)
And it has to take place "after" the original trilogy. There needs to be a substantial element of the unknown here. I'm ambivalent on how far out or whether it needs to jettison the established portions of the expanded universe. I stopped reading the novels sometime in the late 90s (except for Zahn) so I really don't know much of what happened outside of the Zahn / Anderson books.
This will probably be a cash cow, unless Disney somehow trashes it like John Carter from Mars, BUT you will ALWAYS have unhappy people with the direction they take.
Also you have the nagging questions of will Lucas still have any say in the story line or creativity of the story?
Will they ask that Hamill, Fisher, and Ford come back for cameos?(unlikely for any of them to do Im guessing) What if they do? Will it appease fans, or anger them?
Will they try to take the whole story into another direction without the main characters? If so will THAT alienate the fan base as well?
There is a reason why Lucas did not want to do the sequels.. too much Interference..
The prequels, for all their faults, still had the back story from the 4,5,6 to be based on. With the Sequels I just see a big mess
All together now 'Disney rapped my childhood'.
Actually, this is one of the good things about a rich guy like George Lucas, he can just do whatever he wants, and sometimes this can be a good thing, and others... not so much...
For example, Firefly was a great series that got killed off by corportate suits, shame that Joss didn't have the money to just do it himself.
And please, keep George Lucas from directing Ep7 from the backseat at any cost.
Mark Hamill can always cameo / star as a Force Ghost, providing the new storyline takes place after his death. So there is always a place for him in the sequels. Carrie Fisher can do the same, providing they go with the Leia as force wielder storyline.
As for not releasing the original Star Wars in blu-ray, I tought that was per George Lucas' will. Now that Disney execs are in charge, perhaps they can strongly persuade him to release it. Or we can just wait until Lucas retires.
I am not surprised, they are direct to video variety. If you like the cartoon, I strongly recommend watching movie 3 as it served as the series finale for the cartoon as well.
Here is the quote below that news article, I think it stands well on its own:
------------------
"George... I'm so sorry. I've given you a hard time for the last decade or so, and now I'm truly sorry. With this incredible act of charity and kindness, you have earned a free pass for anything that might have upset me or other fans in the past. You want to not release the pre-Special Edition movies in HD? Fine. You want Greedo to shoot first? You got it. You want Episodes VII-IX to be about Jar Jar doing his laundry? ...well, I'd prefer that not be the case, but if that's what you want, you've earned it. When you first released Star Wars, you were a visionary. Now, you're a hero."
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/disney-deal-george-lucas-will-384947
In any case, that is a whole lot more than any one of us can donate to a good cause. So kudos to George
He doesn't have to give a dime to charity, the fact that he wants to focus on it, to give back to the next generation, is a nice thing to do.
It buys a lot of Karma points...