Cast of Star Wars 7 announced

[von Baur 54]

Dave,

 

Daniel Craig...absoluley. It's been a lo-o-o-ong time (the 60's) since I read the books but that Bond wasn't particulaly smart. What he was was a survivor. Craig got that, perfectly, as did Sean Connery. I still prefer Connery, probably just because I grew up with him as 007. But Craig is my second and very close. Not that I didn't like the Roger Moore movies, but they had little more than titles and character names in common with Ian Flemming's books. The original Casino Royale movie is a completely different beast.

 

Total Recall...completely agree. They took a fair sci-fi based action movie and made it a much more interesting story. I'll give that more to the star than the CGI effects and stunts, though.

 

Star Trek...not so much. The actors are good, but the changed timeline invalidates the TV series at the same time that it uses it as a basis. Just doesn't work for me. If it does for you, great. And I'm not a Trekkie, just someone who grew up on the TV show and liked it.

 

Others? Adam Sandler's The Longest Yard was ok, but I didn't get the personal involvement I did from the original.

 

The Mechanic...If you want a lot of good action watch the new one. If you want a good story with character development and one of the best endings in movie history (right up there with the original Ocean's Eleven), get over the 70's look and watch the original with Charles Bronson and Jan Michael Vincent. Even my son, who is a big Jason Statham fan and hates the gritty, moody look of the period, likes it.

 

And since I mentioned Ocean's Eleven...both versions were fun to watch, IMO, but for different reasons. Push-comes-to-shove, I'd probably say the remake was more fun (somewhere, in some other plane of existence, my mother-in-law is sticking pins in a voodoo doll of me right now).

 

And I won't go into Star Wars again.

 

 

What does it all mean? Other than the fact that people have different opinions about things, nothing. Nada. Zip. You like what you like for the reasons you like them and they're your reasons, so you're absolutely right. And the same is true for everybody else, too. I hope the new Star Wars series is worthy of its predecessors. From the sound of it you do to. We both seem to agree on that.

[Emp_Palpatine 501]

Its like the Star Trek reboot. The new movies are awesome. The series needed this so it doesn't die. 

I ain't a Trekkie, but... Why does  a cultural work has to stay alive? Cultural works are also part of an era. Star Wars, it's the 1980's. Bad special effects and imperial officers pornstaches are part of the overall charm. 

I mean neither Star Trek nor Star Wars were dead. These are cultural monuments. Awesome works. They are to our societies what Homer's works were to Greece, Shakespeare's to Renaissance England, and so on. When something reachs such a point, you just can't do anything with it. For instance, mess with its timeline or whatever. You don't start with a blank page but with something having an history. Nowadays, Hollywood guys just want to do whatever they please without any respect for what might have preceeded them. 

 

You can't rape Homer's work (well, they did with Brad Pitt's Troy), you shouldn't be able to do so with modern equivalents. 

 

[von Baur 54]

Too many in Hollywood have no respect for anything. They've turned Sherlock Holmes into an action figure and Abraham Lincoln into a vampire hunter. There are some who value history and art, but most are prostitues...they'll do anything for a profit.

[+Dave 2,321]

That is true, Hollyweird does some dumb shit. In the case of Star Wars and Star Trek, fans wanted more. The sales of Star Trek are a testament to that. It is my opinion that how they rebooted the series was brilliant. I'm not so hard core that I'm running around saying "The previous series mean nothing now!!!!"

 

With all the Star Wars movies, by adding the prequels and adding extras to the originals it's keeps them alive and in the backs of the fans minds.

 

None of you can sit here and say you didn't want more of the above series. You all did. It's might of not been the way you envisioned but they aren't bad none the less. I look forward to more Star Trek movies because the did great with the last 2. Hopefully this new Star Wars will do the same. If they fuck it up then shame on them. I'll be the first to say let sleeping dogs lie.

 

As far as Sherlock Holmes goes, the 2 movies were excellent. Robert Downey Jr put a new spin on it without losing who and what Sherlock was about.

 

The BBC has a series called Sherlock. It's 3 seasons for a total of 9 episodes at 90 minutes each. It takes place in modern times. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Sherlock and it is just brilliant beyond words. One of the SSgt's I work with told me about and I watched them on Netflix. In 2 days. I couldn't wait to see the next one so I watched them all. That's is how good this telling of it is. Trust me watch the first episode and you're hooked. The writers knew what they are doing. Check it out, you won't be disappointed.

[+Dave 2,321]

Speaking of Shakespeare and Sir Author Conan Doyle, and I'll give Hollywood credit here, without them making a movies based on these works. They get lost to memory. Hollywood made them relevant again. It sparked interest in people to look at who these people were and what their works were about. With that, these works continue to live. So sometimes Hollyweird can accomplish something without it even knowing it did.

[macelena 1,070]

The best way is to watch them as an independent work. I think Dave and I already said something about Total Recall in another thread. From my point of view, the best way to see it is open minded, not expecting anything. I personally feel weird about the new guys casted, but i´m betting it will be great in its own way

[+Dave 2,321]

Exactly Mace!!!

[von Baur 54]

I agree with macelena, too. Ocean's Eleven was a good example of that. I loved the original. We watched the remake on a family DVD night and my mother-in-law grumbled all the way through it. Since I was open-minded about it going in I was able to enjoy what it had to offer.

 

You make an excellent point too, Dave, that a movie can motivate some people to read the original work on which it was based. I was actually inspired to read The Hobbit by the 90-minute made-for-TV cartoon in the 70's, even though a good friend of mine had been recommending it and the LotR trilogy for a long time. And I've been wanting to re-read The Odessy (it's been since 1965 or 66) since seeing the opening of O Brother, Where Art Thou. My only worry is that people who have a movie as their first exposure may feel that the book "got it all wrong".

 

Reworking classics is a dicey business. You're going to thrill some and totally piss off others. Robert Downey Jr is a very good actor and I've enjoyed him in many roles. His Chaplin was fantastic...made the man so much more 3-dimensional and relevant to me. Watching his Tony Stark was like seeing the character walk off the comics page. I just didn't care for his Sherlock Holmes. It didn't "feel" like the the man I'd read about years before. Personal opinion.

 

Just to interject, here. My favorite portrayal of Holmes (though Basil Rathbone remains, to me, the image) was by Jeremy Brett in the 1980's. He was so intense while piecing together the puzzle and so giddy once he'd done so. I remember one time he climbed on a sofa and perched himself on its arm as he explained how he'd reached his conclusion. But thank you for recommending the new version. I may just look it up.

[+Dave 2,321]

Von Baur that is why I read the Hobbit too, I saw that cartoon as a kid and had to read more. Robert Downey Jr is a better Tony Stark than he is Sherlock Holmes, however he did a great job of being Sherlock Homes. I cannot recommend the BBC Sherlock series enough. Its amazing, just amazing. Benedict Cumberbatch is made Sherlock Holmes his for sure. 

[Emp_Palpatine 501]

I get these points, and they are all good indeed.

And I am perfectly aware how a grumpy cat I am. 

I can say I had the process you speak of with Battlestar Galactica: I went to the 1970's series thanks to the 2000's ones.

Yet... What pains me is the overall and great complexity of Star Wars universe (I can't say about Star Trek, don't know enough of it, but I did not liked much the reboot): that's a modern mythology. 

In my opinion, it would have been better to follow this mythology because:

- I am quite sceptical of what this decade's hollywood is able to produce (the better and the worse), I am very much afraid that the new Star Wars will be full of 2010's bullshits and disrepectfull of the original things spirit. 

- I very much loathe that "reboot" thing. I want to see new things. New stories, new universes. I want them to bet money on new things. Not produce godzillas every 15 years, or a new spiderman reboot every 10 years. 

Edited May 3, 2014 by Emp_Palpatine

[dsawan 624]

wha, no Lando?

[Lexx_Luthor 57]

Dave::

 

None of you can sit here and say you didn't want more of the above series.

 

uh, me, lol

 

Ep IV is a complete story for me, the beginning and the end, the rest were shallow -- very fun but not the gut punch deep and simple story that followed you around for weeks or months like original Star Wars had. I never saw the prequels. For me, only Apollo 13 with Tom Hanks had that same punch, and that was when I was much older. That was amazing what Ron Howard did there.

 

But you've seen my mods, so you already know I'm a weirdo. Others may not know so,....

[dsawan 624]

i'll probably see them depending on the trailers but ya dont get the same thrill you did back when you were younger.

[RUSTYMORLEY 162]

When Star Wars first came out I was totally blown away with it. I have been a fan ever since. Regardless of any negative, positive or indifferent comments, I intend to see the next film in the saga when it is released in Britain. 

[von Baur 54]

Von Baur that is why I read the Hobbit too, I saw that cartoon as a kid and had to read more.

Thanx for reminding me how old I am, Dave. I was already in the Air Force and may have been married when that show hit the air.

Don't feel too bad about it, though. I'm reminded every time I look in the mirror.

Or get out of bed.

Or get the "senior discount" without asking for it.

 

Lexx, there's a good reason why you feel that way about the first Star Wars movie. I don't know if you've heard the story or not, but for the benefit of those who haven't:

Lucas said that he originally wanted the Star Wars saga to be told in 12 movies. Supposedly he wanted people to be able to spend an entire day watching it. But when he took the whole story to the studios he couldn't convince them: science fiction was believed to be a dead form (like the western...and we all know how badly movies like Silverado and Unforgiven did). 20th Century Fox told him they'd green light one movie and if it did well enough they'd consider more. So he pored through this universe he'd created, looking for one small part of it that, if he weren't able to do any others, could stand alone. And that was it.

[shotdown 8]

I've a very bad feeling about this sort of reboot.

Abrams butchered Star Trek. He'll maul Star wars.

 

And the worse isn't even the cast of the new films or Disney's acquisition. It's the annoucement that all the Expended Universe is hereby forgotten.

 

George Lucas already killed the Expanded Universe (or, more propperly, it never existed for him, except when the time came to get money from it). Actually, some things from the EU were difficult to fit in the movies universe (And  I'm talking about movies already existing when the EU novels were written). To make things worse: Some things from the second trilogy go against what we saw in the first one. So, nothing new here.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Filming the next installments of Star Wars in the UK is a bit disappointing after all the others were filmed in space. :(

[JediMaster 451]

Not at all. The UK is located on Earth. Earth is in space. QED.