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Bloomberg: Star Wars Is Struggling to Win Over the Next Generation of Kids

#Phonepunk#

Banned
From what i heard it cost 200$ to build a light saber and they are shit.

Disney is just gouging its customer base.
Tbf those parks are expensive cash sinks for privileged upper middle class families. Essentially these are the whales. They make tons of money selling blue milk for $8 and figured out how to sell lightsabers in pieces (it’s an “experience!”) lol at anyone buying this crap

As for “SW fans will never be pleased” that is an accurate statement, given that “fans” of the world’s biggest IP (“fans” meaning people who bought tickets, unless it’s convenient to throw the same under a bus) includes hundreds of billions of people, it is physically impossible to make 100% of billions of people all have the same reaction. To want that to even happen is absurd
 

Fbh

Member
The new movies suck and have terrible characters so I'm not surprised.

I said it in another thread but I went to a few toy stores last week to buy a present for my nephew and was surprised by how little Star Wars stuff they had. There was a ton of Marvel, some DC (mostly Superman and Batman), lots of Disney princesses, some hotwheels, some transformers and a lot of stuff from TV shows which I'm not familiar with, but hardly any Star Wars. And funnily enough the little selection of Star Wars stuff that they did have was mostly OT focused (Vader, Yoda, R2, etc)


Also, why the hell did they go with the First Order as villains? I didn't need an Evil Empire redux as bad guys fighting the Rebe- er, I mean the Resistance. Is this only conflict available for this franchise to mine for story? Can't they think of more original plotlines to draw audiences in?

Because JJ is a competent director but a terrible writer with no ideas beyond "hey, do you remember THIS from the old movies?". You'd imagine that for a good writer "staying true to the franchise" would mean staying true to the style and themes set by the original while still telling a new fun and unique story. For JJ "staying true" means "taking a bunch of stuff from the old movies and putting them in the new ones".
He did it with his Star Trek which is probably one of the main reasons he got hired to make Star Wars, so of course he did the same with it
 
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cryptoadam

Banned
Tbf those parks are expensive cash sinks for privileged upper middle class families. Essentially these are the whales. They make tons of money selling blue milk for $8 and figured out how to sell lightsabers in pieces (it’s an “experience!”) lol at anyone buying this crap

As for “SW fans will never be pleased” that is an accurate statement, given that “fans” of the world’s biggest IP (“fans” meaning people who bought tickets, unless it’s convenient to throw the same under a bus) includes hundreds of billions of people, it is physically impossible to make 100% of billions of people all have the same reaction. To want that to even happen is absurd

reminds of JP, where Hammond is like he wants everyone to come to the park but the lawyer is like we will have a coupon day LOL.

If you make it super expensive and rely on 40 year old man babies your park is probably going to fail. There aren't enough man children around to keep a multi million dollar park running, especially when you shit on them on a constant basis.
 

#Phonepunk#

Banned
Nah I think otherwise. man children have no kids of their own, no future, corporate loyalty has replaced family. they are aggressively consumerist and territorial, especially thru current programming. they are evangelical about gatekeeping and battling one another to be “the real fan” and promoting an Ideal Consumer. the people parodied by Nerd Crew. It’s kind of the perfect market for them to exploit tbh
 
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Why would they? The OG trilogy is old and the new movies are shit.

That's okay though, Jedi Master Luke milking a space cow will ensure that the license will survive for at least one more generation in the hearts of kids and their memes.

 
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#Phonepunk#

Banned
i just tried to find a toy of the space cow. there is no toy!

even Lucas knew to make toys of all the background characters. jesus the incompetence...
 
i just tried to find a toy of the space cow. there is no toy!

even Lucas knew to make toys of all the background characters. jesus the incompetence...

Thats cuz Hasbro isn't in the market of making lewd space cows with sagging tits.

I wonder if they'd let you milk the toy though...
 

Conan-san

Member
That's what happens when you turn the next film in your long lived line of pulp space adventure movies into an extended episode of V Gundam.
 

VulcanRaven

Member
One reason could be that the new movies don't have many Jedis and lightsaber fights. Its a good thing that they want to do something different and not have Jedis in every movie in my opinion but kids might not like it.
 
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Ulysses 31

Member
One reason could be that the new movies don't have many Jedis and lightsaber fights. Its a good thing that they want to do something different and not have Jedis in every movie in my opinion but kids might not like it.
Surely they could've come up with something more original than a droid smuggling plans to the resistance and ultimately destroying the death star, ehm sorry, starkiller base.
 

NickFire

Member
I find Disney's excuse to be downright offensive because in my opinion it means "we think you're stupid so here's a bullshit excuse".

Franchise fatigue my ass. If done right they could have broken box office records 3 times a year. But instead of making a movie for the original fans (many of whom have children) they shit on the original characters and decided to target the female (non)audience specifically, even going so far as having a purple haired grandmother dress down a hot shot fly boy for basically being a forceless Luke. They most certainly are not going broke over it, but this most certainly counts as another instance of get woke and choke a golden goose close to death.
 

Sleepydays

Banned
But instead of making a movie for the original fans (many of whom have children) they shit on the original characters and decided to target the female (non)audience specifically

That's the baffling thing. There couldn't possibly be marketing data to suggest that abandoning/actively alienating the traditional audience made sense, but they did it anyway. My best guess is it was purely down to Kathleen Kennedy's personal politics. That she hasn't been let go for that disastrous ego trip tells you how unaccountable these exec types are.

I noticed Target was selling an adult wookie one piece swimsuit recently. How many women do you know who'd buy that?
 

JimiNutz

Banned
Although Rogue One is probably my favourite of the Disney Star Wars films I feel like the best thing they could have done is give the new characters six films rather than just three.

Scrap Rogue One and Solo and give the new cast more films and more time to win over the fans. Other than Kylo (who has probably had the most screen time in this new trilogy) the new cast are very forgettable and their trilogy will be over before we've had time to see much from them.

I know the original cast only got three films as well but the new cast had more of an uphill battle to win fans over.
It would obviously help if the films weren't shit as well....
 

Nymphae

Banned
There couldn't possibly be marketing data to suggest that abandoning/actively alienating the traditional audience made sense, but they did it anyway. My best guess is it was purely down to Kathleen Kennedy's personal politics. That she hasn't been let go for that disastrous ego trip tells you how unaccountable these exec types are.

Hubris plain and simple. They walked in and bought this thing that had all of this existing cultural capital, and they thought they could just hand it off to some woke female writers and dictate to fans what they would enjoy. You are going to watch what Disney produces, period. No need to focus test late 2010's feminism and wokeness, what are you a bigot or something? In fact, we're re-releasing the originals as woke cartoons because surely that is what fans have been wanting all this time!

When was the last time they mismanaged a property this hard? Have they ever? They did not think it possible.They were absolutely certain that with the media running defense for them that they could simply railroad us with whatever garbage they wanted to and it would sell. Look at all the positive reviews and coverage! Bad reviews are just trolls!
 
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Paltheos

Member
To everyone saying, "Bring back Lucas," I don't know about that.

SFDebris made a long video series on the production of the original trilogy, and a big component of the documentary is Lucas' transformation throughout and how he tended to get in the way of production as the series went on it and his studio and sfx production company got bigger. It's not all his fault, but I don't know if he was up to everything that fell at his feet. It's a good listen.
 

NickFire

Member
To everyone saying, "Bring back Lucas," I don't know about that.

SFDebris made a long video series on the production of the original trilogy, and a big component of the documentary is Lucas' transformation throughout and how he tended to get in the way of production as the series went on it and his studio and sfx production company got bigger. It's not all his fault, but I don't know if he was up to everything that fell at his feet. It's a good listen.
He can't make it worse, so he has that going for him at least.
 

Paltheos

Member
He can't make it worse, so he has that going for him at least.

The difference to me is negligible. I'm already not going back to see the next movie. Even if he did produce a slightly less shitty product, it's not enough to get me back in the theater. I've been burned by Disney and by him. It's a no-brainer.
 

Gargus

Banned
I'm 43 and I don't care about star wars anymore.

All I want is a unspecial edition of the original trilogy on blu ray and that's it. I haven't bought anything star wars since the original trilogy came out on DVD. And I accept no reasons from them, when the harmy edition exists I don't believe a multi billion dollar company cant do it.
 
I seem to be part of a laughably small minority that enjoyed both Rogue One and Solo. IMO both benefited heavily from being one-offs and not having much responsibility other than adhering to the timeline. As far as 7 and 8 go, I wouldn't go out of my way to watch either one again.

Also before anyone else jumps on that image snippet of the article about the Rogue One actress, go look up the actual article. It's total clickbait; the relevant quote is blown out of proportion and isn't the focus at all. I'm all for calling out SJW shit, but that's not it.
 
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hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
Good star wars stories can be made, just look at the KOTOR games. Hell they made me re-evaluate the prequels and I'd honestly be happy with those games as movies. Instead we got Woke Wars.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Im not a big SW to begin with, but they had to go with new characters and story.

The original cast are all around 70 years old. They are all laughably bad on screen. Did u guys see Harrison Fords last Indy movie? Horrible. The guy is two steps away from using a cane.

Problem is the plots are repetitive, its the same rebel vs empire planet destroying plot and the characters are bland.

The old SW movies are pretty campy and cheesey to todays movies where everything skews to grittiness. But that 70s and 80s cheese makes the movies more memorable.

But even some scenes like the old Xwing/Deathstar scenes were awesome even if it was plastic moulds and models. Still better than any recent CGI SW battles.
 
The Last Jedi made the prequels look like a masterpiece.
Hmm, I still think the prequels are poo. AotC is still one of the worst movies I have ever seen in cinema.
The PT just had very different problems than the ST has now.

TFA laid a nice groundwork, even if it had its problems. It needed its sequel to explain all the stuff left out in it.
But unfortunately RJ took over, and decided he can basically neglect everything that was build up in TFA.

And that's the biggest problem of the ST.
 

VulcanRaven

Member
The original cast are all around 70 years old. They are all laughably bad on screen. Did u guys see Harrison Fords last Indy movie? Horrible. The guy is two steps away from using a cane.
Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill have been great. I wasn't a big fan of what they did to Luke's character but he was the best part of The Last Jedi. I liked all the Luke and Rey scenes.
 
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hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
Hmm, I still think the prequels are poo. AotC is still one of the worst movies I have ever seen in cinema.
The PT just had very different problems than the ST has now.

TFA laid a nice groundwork, even if it had its problems. It needed its sequel to explain all the stuff left out in it.
But unfortunately RJ took over, and decided he can basically neglect everything that was build up in TFA.

And that's the biggest problem of the ST.

Without the prequels we wouldn't have KOTOR, so even if you don't like them something good came of them. Personally I recognise their flaws but they did an excellent job of world-building with genuinely alien environments, and a story that wasn't a re-hash of the original trilogy. The prequels cop a lot of flak and certainly suffer from excessive use of green screen meaning the actors had nothing to act off (at a time when people weren't used to that) and the scripts needed someone to tighten up the dialog, but honestly they're good fun films.
 
Without the prequels we wouldn't have KOTOR, so even if you don't like them something good came of them. Personally I recognise their flaws but they did an excellent job of world-building with genuinely alien environments, and a story that wasn't a re-hash of the original trilogy. The prequels cop a lot of flak and certainly suffer from excessive use of green screen meaning the actors had nothing to act off (at a time when people weren't used to that) and the scripts needed someone to tighten up the dialog, but honestly they're good fun films.
Like I wrote, they had their own set of problems.
I acknowledge that there is some good stuff in there. It's hard for me to enjoy that, though, having to listen to all that stilted dialogue like "I don't like sand" and "in my opinion it's the Jedi who are evil", tons of green screen that feels completely off.

And while you could give the PT points for not rehashing the OT, that story was done in such a bad and convoluted way I am not really sure it amounts to much in the end given everything.
 

Suraj106

Neo Member
I very much liked the first 6. But these new ones have not caught my interest at all, so much so I have not bothered watching the second.

You know it is bad when rouge one was better than the first in the trilogy.

For me the story was far too unimaginative. Nothing had me that excited, not enough lightsabers :p, humor was hit and miss.
 

#Phonepunk#

Banned
TFA laid a nice groundwork, even if it had its problems. It needed its sequel to explain all the stuff left out in it.
i disagree. if it had laid a nice groundwork it wouldn't have needed the sequel so bad to justify it. TFA left things very vague so the next guy could go in and expand the world. problem is he didn't bother, he went in and deconstructed it instead, so what we now have is smaller than when we went in.

prequels all stand up on their own merits. wonderful art design. amazing visuals. pulp setpieces. world building. you really feel the expanse of this galaxy. with the new series, it all takes places on a handful of worlds, and 5 or 6 people are the only ones that matter.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
The new age of Star War sucks. I use to watch the original trilogy on satellite growing up. It felt like magic. The last film was so boring. I want to see how they end this mess, but if I miss it in the theaters then so be it. There's no real soul to the new Star Wars. TFA was good for a minute, but what they did in TLJ was terrible. A few short scenes here and there to sum up a somewhat interesting plot. I turned off the Solo film 30 minutes into it. It just sucks. I can see why kids aren't in love with it. They're being too obvious with their marketing.

They were too conscious with trying to make it. They are far more aware of ruining a franchise than the sole creator is. I'd rather see Lucas make the mistakes than someone trying to just sell a brand. It feels like a bunch of rich Hollywood people were handed the brand and were told to market it for kids. It exist as a legacy brand versus something new. I'd rather have retro Star Wars than new Star Wars.
 

MayauMiao

Member
There is nothing amazing about Star Wars nowadays. The franchise is running out of fans as more form of entertainment are taking up their time, from video games to anime.
 

NickFire

Member
Problem is the plots are repetitive, its the same rebel vs empire planet destroying plot and the characters are bland.

I will never, ever, ever, ever understand how they made a new trilogy without the first episode being about a new sith rising to a position to challenge the new Jedi that Luke trained. Sure, that would repeat similar themes, but that would only be a problem for people who never liked Star Wars by and large. Not exactly a big risk there.
 

Nymphae

Banned
I will never, ever, ever, ever understand how they made a new trilogy without the first episode being about a new sith rising to a position to challenge the new Jedi that Luke trained.

I can understand it to some degree - picking up 30 years later and not having to hand hold you through what happened since Jedi allows them to start somewhere totally fresh and then slowly reveal what has happened in the 30 years. The problem is they just didn't give a fuck about fleshing it out - like at all, they just created an artificial starting point that ignores Jedi's ending and were not interested in bridging the gap really.
 
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VulcanRaven

Member
I hope get a new movie set during the prequels at some point. It would be great to get a movie that looks like them but is better. Good director and better script.
 
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I will never, ever, ever, ever understand how they made a new trilogy without the first episode being about a new sith rising to a position to challenge the new Jedi that Luke trained. Sure, that would repeat similar themes, but that would only be a problem for people who never liked Star Wars by and large. Not exactly a big risk there.

Yeah, that would have been far more interesting than what we've got. 'Tis a shame, really.
 

#Phonepunk#

Banned
I can understand it to some degree - picking up 30 years later and not having to hand hold you through what happened since Jedi allows them to start somewhere totally fresh and then slowly reveal what has happened in the 30 years. The problem is they just didn't give a fuck about fleshing it out - like at all, they just created an artificial starting point that ignores Jedi's ending and were not interested in bridging the gap really.
indeed and now that they've failed to set up anything new, they are going back and doing a repeat of ROTJ. hearing the Emperor laugh in this new trailer was confirmation to me that yes they have run out of ideas and didn't need to see any further Disney SW material. just as well that moment is after the reveal of the Death Star, which, i was just like, are you serious, again, with this exact same thing, the Death Star, again? rmde

the new characters were poorly served, right from the start tbh. Maz is there to show up for 1 minutes as a hype person and state enigmatic trailer lines spelling out the themes for the likes of MovieBob to pontificate over. her thousand year old castle is destroyed and she could hardly give a shit, cos it was only there for this scene. Finn's setup as a stormtrooper had zero impact on his story, and what should be a traumatic background raised as a child soldier in a fascistic army has not once been seriously addressed. instead his time with the FO dismissed with the unfunny joke that "he was a janitor". somehow this child soldier never had a combat mission until he was 23! that's pretty old for a child soldier! (see this sloppy worldbuilding?)

Poe, we don't know anything about him aside from he's a spaceship guy. Rey is now defined entirely in two movies by the mystery surrounding her parents. this unique girl from nowhere who is already great at the force and doesn't need to train but discovers things on her own... has to spend an entire movie begging Luke to do it. she has to retrace his steps, relearn what he learned, and do all the training that she doesn't actually need to do. in a lot of ways the last movie felt like one step forward and two steps back. overall the ST has been a waste of time.
 
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Nymphae

Banned
hearing the Emperor laugh in this new trailer was confirmation to me that yes they have run out of ideas.

Yeah same, I rolled my eyes into the back of my skull when that happened, and they tried to sell us on the idea that they've always had that planned lol. Yeah ok. Actually it wouldn't surprise me to learn that at no point in production were they seriously concerned with fundamental stuff like basic plot details, where the arc was going to go, etc, but they knew they had to have OT hooks so they just had a list of characters they wanted to come back in some way.
 

mcz117chief

Member
Yeah same, I rolled my eyes into the back of my skull when that happened, and they tried to sell us on the idea that they've always had that planned lol. Yeah ok. Actually it wouldn't surprise me to learn that at no point in production were they seriously concerned with fundamental stuff like basic plot details, where the arc was going to go, etc, but they knew they had to have OT hooks so they just had a list of characters they wanted to come back in some way.
Well, to be honest, the Emperor did return, as a clone, in the comic books that take place after episode 6.
 

Nymphae

Banned
Well, to be honest, the Emperor did return, as a clone, in the comic books that take place after episode 6.

Sure, Disney obliterates the EU but decides to keep that one (fairly laughable and underwhelming) nugget hidden until Episode 9? I just don't buy it - they were trying to buy back good will after the shit show that was TLJ.
 
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mcz117chief

Member
Sure, Disney obliterates the EU but decides to keep that one nugget hidden until Episode 9? I just don't buy it - they were trying to buy back good will after the shit show that was TLJ.
I get you, I'm just saying that it isn't totally outlandish. I too think it was a very VERY cheap way of trying to lure fans back to see episode 9. The only other cheaper would be Vader's breathing, which would probably make me cringe so hard I would break my spine.
 

JimiNutz

Banned
Oh they will def roll out Vader for IX
I'm not sure how but they will find a way to stick Vader in there somewhere.
 
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