A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

What do some Star Wars fans have against Gray Jedi? Grey Jedi do not exist in the  Star Wars  canon. They did not exist in the canon prior to 2012, the year that George Lucas decided to retire and sell his company, Lucasfilm Ltd., and all of its intellectual properties to The Walt Disney Company. They also do not exist in the  Star Wars  canon in the post-Lucas era. There are Force-wielders like Ahsoka Tano and Maul, former members of the Jedi and Sith Orders, respectively. There are also the fugitive Jedi Knight Kanan Jarrus and his Padawan Ezra Bridger, plus the Bendu. And, of course, there are non-Sith Dark Siders such as Kylo Ren, the Inquisitors (which, I believe, were invented for the old Expanded Universe but made canonical by  Star Wars Rebels ), and Supreme Leader Snoke. But there are no Grey Jedi. Grey Jedi are figments of the imagination created by some  Star Wars  fans who write fan-fiction. It’s a hamfisted attempt to create her...

On Quora, member Thomas Fay asks:  Do you keep count of how many times you watch the Star Wars movies so you can say you've seen them “X” times? Not since I bought my first (used) VHS video cassette of  Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope  back in 1984. Before  then, when VCRs were still expensive toys that only people with lots of disposable cash could afford, most  Star Wars  fans of the 1977 Generation only saw the Original Trilogy in theaters - as many times as they could. Star Wars -  as the first film was originally titled before its Summer of 1981 re-release - premiered on May 25, 1977, although it didn’t hit theaters in some cities (such as Miami) till early June. 20th Century Fox was  not  expecting it to be a big summer hit, so it acquiesced to Lucasfilm’s request that it release the movie close to Memorial Day weekend. (Fox believed that its Summer of 1977 would be its adaptation of Sidney Sheldon’s  The Other Si...

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...

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 ...

Why was the character Snoke such a letdown in Star Wars: The Last Jedi after his build-up in The Force Awakens? There wasn’t any build-up. As Yoda might tell you, “Only build-up, in your mind it was.” Supreme Leader Snoke did not have much of a role in  Star Wars - Episode VII: The Force Awakens.  He appears only in a few brief scenes as an imposing-looking hologram, utters a few Palpatine-lite lines to General Hux and Kylo Ren, and gives a few plot-necessary orders to his minions. The heroes of the Resistance only refer to him once, and that’s when Leia reminds Han that it was Snoke who turned their son Ben into his Vader-wannabe Dark Side apprentice. He never wields a lightsaber like Kylo Ren’s idol, the aforementioned Darth Vader, and he’s not present on Starkiller Base when the First Order uses its superweapon to decimate the New Republic. That’s it. I don’t see any evidence of a huge character build-up. Look, the problem with Sequel Trilogy dislikers is tha...

If you do not like the new Star Wars movies, why are you considered a toxic fan since opinions of movies are subjective? Oo, oo! I’ll take this one. © and ™ Lucasfilm and Dolby Laboratories From my perspective, this is what it boils down to: It’s perfectly fine to  not  like a movie. It doesn’t matter if the movie is a  Star Wars  Episode or Anthology film, or if it’s  Bolero  or  Ishtar.  As you say in your question, whether you like a movie is a subjective thing. It’s acceptable to write a negative review of a film, so long as you don’t insult the cast, crew, or director  personally.  Critique their work, yes, but stooping to calling them names or picking on them for reasons that are only tangential to the film is not okay. Your behavior can become  toxic  if you start flooding social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Quora, just to name a few) with long, overheated, and hateful diatri...

© 2017, 2018 Del Rey Books/Lucasfilm Ltd. Which elements of 'The Last Jedi' do you think J.J. Abrams will retcon in the upcoming 'Star Wars: Episode IX'? Oh, Sithspawn. Will  The Last Jedi  bashing ever stop? All right. Listen. Apparently, you never took Basic Screenwriting 101 or understand how moviemaking at that level works  really  works. First, even though J.J. Abrams did not write or direct  Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi,  he is one of the film’s executive producers, which is the same job title George Lucas had when Lucasfilm Ltd. made  The Empire Strikes Back  and  Return of the Jedi. That means that even though he was not on-set every day or oversaw production in a hands-on way, he read Johnson’s script way before principal photography began. As executive producer, along with Kathleen Kennedy and others on his decision-making level, he had  veto power  over Johnson’s script. Thus, if Abrams believed, l...

Is it fair for Star Wars fans to target Kelly Marie Tran for her role in The Last Jedi? No, it’s not. It’s not only unfair, but it shows that “fans” who target and harass anyone involved in the making of a  Star Wars  film, TV show, or any part of the canon are immature, self-centered, and have too high an opinion of themselves. Same goes for anyone who “targets” George Lucas, Bob Iger, Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan, or Rian Johnson in a campaign fueled by irrational hate because they made the movies or TV series in a way that they found aesthetically or thematically wrong. Now, I’m not suggesting that people have to like  The Last Jedi, The Force Awakens,  the Prequels, the Special Editions of the Original Trilogy, or whatever it is they don’t like about the franchise. Far from it. If you honestly don’t like something, that’s fine. George Lucas, Bob Iger, or Kathleen Kennedy aren’t going to show up at your door with a real-life Darth Vade...

Jake Lloyd as Anakin Skywalker. Photo Credit: Lucasfilm Ltd. via Daily Mail On Quora, "Anonymous" Asks:  Did George Lucas ever feel guilty for messing up Jake Lloyd’s life or is Jake himself to blame for sc r ewing up himself? Or is the general media the main reason that Jake’s childhood was ruined? My Reply This question, by far, wins the prize for Disingenuous Query of the Month. George Lucas is a producer, screenwriter, director, and entrepreneur who used to own one of the most famous production companies in the industry, Lucasfilm Limited. I know people who have met him in person, and by all accounts, he’s a smart, talented, generous, and warm-hearted man. He has several kids that he raised, for the most part, on his own. So the last thing in the world that George Lucas would do is “mess up” any actor’s life, much less a juvenile actor such as Jake Lloyd. The only “sin” Lucas committed was to write and direct the three films of the Prequel Trilogy that fail...

Goodness gracious,  no. The Walt Disney Company bought Lucasfilm Ltd., its intellectual properties (not just the  Star Wars  franchise), and all of the rights thereof from George Lucas over six years ago. Lucas chose Disney instead of, say, Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox or Paramount because he had collaborated with the House of Mouse on various projects before, including theme park attractions such as  Star Tours, The Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular,  and Michael Jackson’s  Captain Eo  film . And regardless of what a loud and vocal subgroup of fans tends to believe, other than maybe releasing too many  Star Wars  movies in a relatively short time, I don’t think that Lucasfilm, under the Disney aegis, has done as badly as those “Disney bashers” claim. So…Disney is not looking to sell either  Star Wars  or Lucasfilm, so even if some fans can “pool money together to buy the  Star Wars  rights from Disney,” they c...