A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

© 2020 W.W. Norton & Company Hello and welcome to another edition of A Certain View.  It's Tuesday, November 12, 2019, and it's a lovely fall morning in my little corner of Florida. Right now the temperature outside is 68℉ (20℃) under partly sunny skies. Apparently, the Big Chill that is affecting most of the country has made its way to the Sunshine State as well, although it's not as cold here as it is further north. If I don't get sucked into my routine of sitting at my desk all day, I might venture out to the veranda and read in the fresh air and sunlight after I have some breakfast. If you are a Constant Reader of this blog (and I thank you if you are!), you've probably noticed that until recently I was writing at least one post a day. My goal for 2019 was to have at least 365 blog entries written and posted; as of today, my tally will be 389 once I finish this post and hit the "Publish" button, which will put me 24 posts over my original tar

J.J. Abrams did not, as you put it,  give way  to anyone as far as directing  Star Wars - Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. Per the original plan that Abrams and the people in charge of Lucasfilm Ltd., each of the  Star Wars  Sequel Trilogy films was to be directed by a different director. Thus, by the time Abrams began pre-production on  The Force Awakens,  the lineup looked like this: The Force Awakens -  Directed by Abrams, with a December 2015 release date Episode VIII -  Directed by Rian Johnson, originally scheduled for a May 25, 2017 release Episode IX -  Directed by Colin Trevorrow, scheduled for a May 2019 release. And in between each of the Saga films, a  Star Wars Story  anthology movie would be released as well. For  Star Wars: The Force Awakens,  J.J. Abrams would direct from a screenplay he co-wrote with Lawrence Kasdan. Originally, the writer for  The Force Awakens  was Michael Arndt, a solid writer but one who takes a while to get a script done. Abrams re

Some questions, apparently, keep coming back, like kudzu...or a boomerang.  On Quora, Raivo Berkins asks: Will Han Solo come back in the final installment of the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy? My reply:  No, Han Solo, the iconic character played by Harrison Ford in the Original Trilogy and in  Star Wars: The Force Awakens,  will not come back in  Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.  His character was killed off in that 2015 film in such a way that only the dimmest and least observant person could possibly believe that he survived. Consider. In his last onscreen appearance in  The Force Awakens,  Han is: Stabbed through the heart with a highly unstable but deadly lightsaber blade wielded by his own son, Ben Solo, aka Kylo Ren Right after being stabbed through the heart, Han falls deep into a chasm under the bowels of Starkiller Base, a planet-turned-into-a-superweapon even more powerful than either Death Star used by the Empire Shortly thereafter, Starkiller Base itself is de

Is Star Wars: Episode IX just an excuse for Disney to make a bunch of money? All things being equal, all movies (except those small movies made solely by independent “artsy” production companies that hardly anyone sees), are made with the goal of making someone - usually a studio and its stockholders - “a bunch of money.” That’s why  movie studios  exist: they invest (read “risk”) millions of dollars in a movie - in this case,  Star Wars - Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker -  with a certain expectation of making a profit. The Walt Disney Company and its film division, Walt Disney Motion Picture Studios, are of course also making  Star Wars - Episode IX  to fulfill George Lucas’s on-again, off-again aspiration of creating a three-Trilogy Skywalker Saga, plus they have to finish the story that Lucasfilm began with 2015’s  The Force Awakens  and continued in  The Last Jedi.  Everyone involved in the creation of  Star Wars  (or any movie, for that matter),  hopes  that many peop

On Quora, member Michael Justin asks: Will  Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker  flop like  Solo: A Star Wars Story? My response: Considering that most of the audience for the Skywalker Saga films is larger than the core of naysaying “Never Disney  Star Wars ” fan-group, I would say…”No.” Solo: A Star Wars Story  failed to perform well at the box office, not because of the success of a boycott led by  The Last Jedi- basher clique or because it was a lousy  Star Wars  film, but rather by its behind-the-scenes drama, a lackadaisical marketing campaign, spectacularly  bad  scheduling, and perhaps even a mild case of franchise weariness. Of all those factors, the most serious was Lucasfilm’s hiring and subsequent firing of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller as directors of a  Star Wars  films. Reportedly, the creators of  The LEGO Movie  wanted to give  Solo  an  Ocean’s 11  comedy-caper vibe - much to the dismay of screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan - and refused to give Lucasfi

On Quora, Mike Austin asks a peculiarly worded question. (I say "peculiarly worded" because it's not quite clear if Mike is asking whether the trailer or the entire movie is the "it" referred to in the question body.) What is your impression of the new Star Wars Episode IX trailer? Do you think it will unite fans? My reply: Oh, for crying out loud….. First, my impression of the trailer for  Star Wars - Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker  is pretty much the same as the impressions I’ve had of previous  Star Wars  films, beginning with the ones on TV for 1977’s  Star Wars: Cool images, yes, but even though they are - by design - a montage of tiny, unconnected moments from a movie no one has seen yet, I have no clue as to what the story’s going to be about. That’s cool, because I prefer that type of trailer to the tell-almost-everything-about-the-plot trailers that some companies like to use to peddle their wares. To be honest,  I don’t wa

Quora, a popular Q&A site that is a direct competitor to Yahoo! Answers, has hundreds of thousands of daily users that ask and answer questions about everything under the sun; topics range from archaeology to zoology, including world history, aviation, U.S. and world politics, pop culture (including subcategories such as Star Wars, Star Trek, The Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter ). and sex.  The quality of the questions varies greatly as well, depending on various factors, such as age, education level, cultural awareness, and writing abilities. As such, one is bound to see queries that run all the way across the quality spectrum, from the Very Interesting to the Very Weird. This one, by Quora member Mina Simard, is one that falls into the Weird end of the spectrum:  What are the chances that we'll get Star Wars Episodes VII, VIII and IX with the original cast coming back to reprise their roles? My reply: Well, considering that Lucasfilm (and, in the case of

On the questions-and-answers site Quora, somebody asks:  Is there any way that Star Wars Episode IX will make all Star Wars fans happy? My reply is: You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. The question you ask reflects either the inexperience or naivete of someone who hasn’t been around to experience the  Star Wars  phenomenon since it began in 1977. Well, I was 14 when  Star Wars  (as the original film was originally titled) premiered on May 25, 1977. And I can tell you right now that if there is one truth about the franchise’s fans, it is this: There is no such thing as a  Star Wars  movie that will make  all  fans happy. It wasn’t possible to please all of the fans in 1977 when some fans thought the tone of  Star Wars  was too kid-friendly, mainly because of the Laurel-and-Hardy relationship between Artoo Detoo and See Threepio. It wasn’t possible to please all of the fans in 1980 after  The Empire Strikes Back  was released; there was a lot of arguing about how in

Someone on Quora asks: Are you disappointed that Rey has seemingly reforged the Skywalker lightsaber hilt, rather than constructing her own design? No. Why would I be? Look. I’m a movie buff. I’m a reviewer. I’m a  Star Wars  fan. And I’m also acquainted with creating content because I’m also a writer. I learned long ago that I, a consumer of the  Star Wars  films that Lucasfilm has made from 1977 to 2019, have no say in what George Lucas or Kathleen Kennedy decide to make or green light. That applies to every other movie I have watched, whether they’re franchise films or standalone ones. Therefore, since I was 17, I have gone to each film without a wishlist of “fanboy theories” or things I want to see happen. Same applies for Star Wars - Episode IX; The Rise of Skywalker. In this specific instance, I am not disappointed at all that Rey managed to repair the Skywalker lightsaber. In fact, this is one of the very few plot points that I anticipated when I watched  Star

Someone on Quora asks:  What do you think of the Star Wars Episode IX trailer? As someone who has seen every  Star Wars  trailer for the live action Episodes since 1976, I can honestly say it’s par for the course for a Lucasfilm  Star Wars  trailer. In essence, it follows the conventions of the  Star Wars  teaser trailers that have come before. It gives the audience glimpses of what the filmmakers have to offer without giving the narrative away. Obviously, there are stylistic differences between the teaser for the first  Star Wars  Skywalker Saga film and the one for the last. For instance, there’s no “voice of God” narrator in the teaser for  The Rise of Skywalker ; instead, we have Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, reciting some dialogue that gives viewers a hint about the thematic content of the film  without  spoilers. I also like the fact that the  Episode IX  trailer is itself a callback to the teaser for  The Force Awakens. And I love the twist at the

Is  The Rise of Skywalker  the last  Star Wars  movie? No. While  Star Wars - Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker  will bring the curtain down on the Skywalker Saga that began with 1977’s  Star Wars,  it is not going to be the  last  feature film set “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” To be sure, it is the swan song, as it were, of the film series that bears - for good or ill - the DNA of George Lucas’s  The Star Wars.  The Big Three - Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher have moved on: Harrison and Mark have had their characters killed off or transformed into Force ghosts, and Carrie died in late 2016, so her role in  The Rise of Skywalker  has been minimized into scenes that can make use of existing footage shot for  The Force Awakens  and (perhaps)  The Last Jedi.  And, as George himself once said, the only characters that are in the entire Skywalker Saga are C-3PO and R2-D2. The Rise of Skywalker  will also be the last film that Lucasfilm and Wal