As a fan of the series, why should I give a shit about how much money they make?
By the way, it's worth noting that Disney is not making any Star Wars films. Lucasfiilm is making Star Wars films. Disney just provides the money and reaps the rewards. Just as Disney doesn't make Marvel or Pixar films. It's an important distinction.
That
is an important distinction. I actually didn't think that was entirely the case, since it felt like when Lucas sold the company to Disney, Lucas not only stepped down from any creative input, but Disney stepped in and started churning up the machine again to get a new installment going. And I guess that's still what they did, but I really had no idea how much say-so they were having with how the new films were going to go.
As I am with Episode VII, I too am optimistically skeptical about all the upcoming Star Wars installments.
It's unrealistic to be entirely drawn in by the hype and the furiously happy fan freak-outs these days, and not go into the theater with a little bit of a reality check, or with reasonably mid-level expectations. Because while many people from both sides of the fence (the crew and the uber-fans) are saying that this film is doing everything right, I have to be prepared that something about it just won't be right for me. I never can tell if a movie is going to get my approval on all points, and lately something about each film I've seen this year hasn't clicked with me. The only real favorite I've had is
Kingsman, and even that film has something about it that only now doesn't quite gel with me. I can't say what exactly. Perhaps it was Colin Firth's unexpected death near the end that put a bad taste in my mouth. I love everything else about it, it just felt wrong to kill him off, even if he was the Obi-wan type character.
So far everything they're doing with the marketing of Episode VII, and all of the hype building that they are doing at conventions and such, is pretty much perfect. They are slowly letting a little bit more of the magic come out in trailers and behind the scenes footage every few months or so, and eventually we'll get a full-fledged trailer with a bit more of the actual story revealed. I appreciate their tactics with all of this, unlike most modern film marketing, where they just throw everything out all at once.
Now I can't quite expect them to do the same for the following Star Wars films. There's a chance that they'll get back to the old ways and start blowing everything in one trailer. Then again, maybe Star Wars is the franchise that they'll think more carefully about how to present to the public: giving out the small doses and real teasers before presenting a full trailer closer to release-date. That's what it should always be, for every movie.
I have honest faith in these upcoming films. More faith than I have ever had in any film before now. And so I don't want this film to disappoint me, but I shall be cautious.
It is definitely going to disappoint someone. No matter who it is or what the reason, films will always disappoint someone. But as long as Episode VII doesn't disappoint me, then I will call it a success on J.J.'s part, and the rest of the cast and crew. And I have a good feeling that if they set things off right with this first new installment, then the rest of the films will have a good chance of being equally promising. I also have a good feeling that Lucas Film will choose slightly better crews to helm Star Wars projects than Marvel chooses crews to handle Marvel projects. They both might end up on a similar scale of average to good to great, with maybe one bad apple. But overall I think Star Wars could end up being collectively better than all of the current Marvel films. We've already had the three worst possible Star Wars films, even though some folks still enjoy them, and I can understand why. So it really can only go up from here, because everybody knows how messy those three were, especially at Lucas Film. They've been trying to clean things up ever since.
