Hernalt wrote:
So if I calibrate my own reaction to TFA, I find that I heavily weight the authority of the Source of Authority, Lucas, over the authority of some server of innumerable references, however nicely ordered, colored, listed, and presented, back to the Source of Authority. And so for me, and a large number of futily outnumbered individuals on theforce.net, the value beta, in terms of "hyperlightspeed weapon" and the value of alpha, in terms of "hyperspace" are extremely similar. We no more have hyperspace than we have hyperlightspeed weapons, and so, an attack on TFA on the basis of its depiction of technology vis a vis our reality is an act of performance, a bit of drama. That attack logically applies to any of Star Wars prior to Abrams, and NGT is there, just when you were wondering, and just in the nick of time, to set you straight on this highly controversial topic.
Yes. The hyperspace beam isn't illogical per se. It's the way it's depicted that is problematic. Not the idea, but the form.
It's also a cheap trick.
And they're right on the absurd minimalism.
Because Abrams apparently had to pee over all of Lucas' works like if he had been ordered to make a SW whilst at the same time show who is the master now (rubbing salt into the wound), everything is MORE.
So the Death Star is bigger, and the Rebels are fewer, therefore increasing the contrast between both forces.
So the question to pose here to this forum after that outline of a model for quantifying gamma is: Can anyone decompose the two vectors in their consumption of TFA, emotional payoff by all available means, and their tolerances for Abrams deviations from Lucas technological lore? I know that I cannot quantify my own unmovedness, unimpressedness, uninvestedness, of Abrams choices at the emotional front - it's just not a tractable problem. What I Can do is take empirical measures from other similar thinkers and see how they manage the emotional payoff vs suspension of disbelief costs, and see if they can trace How the money is flowing instead of just reporting a net profit. (If this forum has a majority favorable opinion of TFA, then most have a net profit in TFA.)
Lucas was a good world builder but sucked big donkey balls at script writing, especially when he became rich and fat. Many of his ideas, when it came to execution, were awful too, as proven in the PT, but his directing style was good enough and conservative for SW, which didn't need all the Fast n Furious shit you get these days.
Abrams on the other end understands nothing and can't be arsed to create a credible universe. His directing is obviously more modern, more dynamic; good enough for an action movie. And that's all. Everything else good is solely due to the gifted people around him and the tons of money this overrated hack gets handed for making movies.
It's hard to want to analyze a movie which is certainly nothing more than a cynical cash grabbing project. When I see the crews who operated on the production, I can only speak of waste.
Out of Disney, in the hands of people who would have been more careful, perhaps more in love with the universe, we may have had something solid.
This doesn't mean there aren't good ideas in TFA, but it's too late.
Even if the sequel is good, it's not going to erase TFA.
TFA is such a travesty that they use a the classical briefing-before-suicidal-mission moment to make fun of the OT. It should pay hommage to it but actually ridicules it. Yes, it is insulting. You don't mock the OT. You show your due respect and try to be just as good.
Besides, it's a trilogy made by unrelated people. There's no sign that there's one large vision for the entirety of it.
And hell to that, it's Disney in charge now. The same shitbags ready to roll out a full trilogy of Han effin' Solo!
These guys only see money, they underestand nothing else. They're oblivious to greatness and beauty. They see a popular character, they think he's worth an entire set of movies.
This is getting so bad that I may very well focus uniquely on the OT and perhaps even return to the original versions, to purify my enjoyment of SW for whatever is left of it.
I'm also more interested in the Rogue One movie because, well, it offers more of the Empire at a very important time for these series. It won't be anything beautiful but it's the best you'll have to expect: a polished EU movie. It will have clichés (it already has a shaolin monk), but at least we'll get more of the Imperial warmachine on the big screen, the thing we always wanted. And that will be all about it. Nothing else. I have no expectations, I'll watch it for the eye candy and for memories of old places seen in a freshier setting. Period.