The Original Trilogy

The story goes that when George Lucas first conceived of Star Wars it was nine films but unable to get funding for such a huge project he settled on making the middle three films – the original Star Wars trilogy. So naturally in the late 90s when Lucas wanted to revisit Star Wars he went back to the idea he originally had and made the prequel trilogy. And when Disney acquired Star Wars it made sense to make another trilogy – the sequel trilogy. But according to Lucasfilm’s president, future Star Wars films will not run in this trilogy format. We’ve already had Rogue One and Solo: A Star Wars Story as well as various tv shows. One of the major problems with the sequel trilogy was that there was no story arc for the three films, suggesting that the whole project wasn’t as thought out as it should have been.

Rogue One & Solo

Many Star Wars fans cite Rogue One as the best of the Disney era films or even the best outside the original trilogy. The story of how the Rebel Alliance came by the Death Star plans could simply have been fan service but the film was a triumph of storytelling and character (with another great droid added to the saga with K2), the only major criticisms I’ve seen of the film are that with it being a prequel there is a lack of jeopardy and using CGI to insert dead actors into it.

Solo was a lot less successful with many fans being disappointed. The change in directors from Phil Lord and Chris Miller to Ron Howard was a bad sign and many didn’t like the actors portraying the major characters. I was disappointed when I first saw Solo but on subsequent viewings I’ve enjoyed it a lot more, seeing it as an enjoyable heist film.

Star Wars has had some big successes on television – The Bad Batch and The Mandalorian have received very positive responses from both fans and critics. Obi-Wan Kenobi was popular (I loved it).

One of the major questions with new Star Wars projects is whether they should focus on existing characters and ideas, or make new characters and ideas. And there is no way for Disney to win. Fans complained about portrayals of Boba Fett and Luke Skywalker when existing characters were used, and when a project uses completely new characters fans complained that they missed the old characters.

Looking at what the next film/trilogy/tv series/bi-monthly box of curated snacks Star Wars takes on there is the question of when it is set. In both the canon established in the films and the huge amount of books, comics, and video games that exist there are literally thousands of years of pre-A New Hope history and stories set after the original trilogy. The period of the High Republic is a fertile ground for ideas, being the period of the Jedi at the height of their power. Personally, I like to see smaller-stakes stories moving away from the main characters, the Star Wars galaxy is huge and providing the bad guys aren’t planning to blow up planets there are very few constraints in terms of canon-Star Wars. There are different nations, hundreds of alien species, crime syndicates, cults, sinister secret organisations, and an almost limitless amount of stories.

Should It Be A Film Or Series?

Something I’ve stated many times but everything needs to be about what serves the story. If a story works better as a film, make it a film, if a story works better as a miniseries, make it a miniseries. Outside of Star Wars, the movie World War Z is a classic example of where a mistake was made on whether it should be a film or tv show, the book is a series of interviews with people who survived the zombie apocalypse, essentially each interview a separate little story. It takes in two dozen countries and characters with no connection to each other – it should have been a tv show but we got a film that tried to push this into less than two hours. The Book of Boba Fett may have been better done as a film as while I enjoyed that series it didn’t always feel there was enough there to sustain so many episodes.

Whatever happens next in Star Wars it is guaranteed an audience and in my opinion, if they want to be continuously making new shows and films they need to try new things and moving away from trilogies will allow them to do that.

Also Read: Iconic Scenes: Star Wars: The Last Jedi – “The Kylo Ren & Luke Skywalker Confrontation”

Your contribution to Big Picture Film Club will allow us to continue to produce content. No matter the amount your contributions are greatly appreciated.

The post Now That Disney Has Stated They Won’t Focus On Film Trilogies, What’s Next For Star Wars? appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

The Plot – The film follows Jyn Erso a woman who has been on the run from the Empire since her childhood because her father is the man who designed the Death Star. Forced by the Rebel Alliance into a mission to extract her father from the Empire’s clutches and so disrupt their plans, Jyn becomes more and more involved in the civil war that is only just beginning.

Why It’s Great – In my opinion this has been the best of the new crop of Star Wars films. A self-contained story (more or less) that fixed perhaps the biggest plot-hole in all of Star Wars – namely, who builds a priceless weapon of mass destruction with such an easy Achilles’ Heel. The cast is sensational with Felicity Jones and Diego Luna as great leads, Ben Mendelsohn doing his Evil Scumbag routine in space and with great actors like Mads Mikkelsen and Forest Whitaker taking on small roles.

Verdict – A wonderful addition to the Star Wars Saga.

Inception (2010)

The Plot – Leonardo Di Caprio plays Cobb, a very special kind of criminal who enters peoples’ dreams to steal information. Challenged to the seemingly impossible act of “inception” – implanting a new idea in a dream that the dreamer will believe to be their own Cobb puts together a crack team to accomplish his goal.

Why It’s Great – Christopher Nolan doesn’t make bad films. Or at least he hasn’t yet. Inception was the first film Nolan directed after Nolan makes blockbusters like no one else, making them as intelligent and original as they are a spectacle. There is a lot of the “one last job for a criminal” motif going on but that is just a great jumping off point. The special effects are truly stunning with the city landscape being twisted and folded as the high point and even if the writing and acting were terrible – which they aren’t – it would be worth watching for the effects alone. As frustrating as the ambiguous ending might be, I like a film that is brave enough not to give you all the answers.

Verdict – A dazzling and smart sci-fi blockbuster.

The World’s End (2013)

The Plot – Gary King wants to reassemble his school friends to complete the “Golden Mile” a pub crawl along twelve pubs in their home town. Sadly for Gary much has changed since school, the group is estranged and he is no longer – if he ever really was – their leader. As the friends reunite and start their pub crawl things in the town become increasingly odd leading to a sensational fight in a pub toilet that reveals what is going on in the town.

Why It’s Great – All of the Cornetto Trilogy are more than what a simple category can describe – all of them are excellent examples of their genre but excel in being films about people. The World’s End is a film about aliens slowly taking over the planet but it’s also about friendship, betrayal, dealing with disappointment in life, youth (and losing your youth), what is life about and more. I would say this is my least favourite of the trilogy but that still could put it in my top twenty films of all time. It has another feature of the Cornetto Trilogy in combining huge, over the top scenarios, in small unlikely places. Few films pack the emotional punch of The World’s End let alone comparing it to other sci-fi comedies.

Verdict – A triumphant end to the Cornetto Trilogy.

Back To The Future Trilogy (1985, 1989, 1990)

The Plot – After accidentally travelling backwards in time teenager Marty McFly interrupts the meet-cute between his parents and thus will never be born. Recruiting the younger version of the scientist who sent him back in time, Doc, Marty seeks to set the timeline right and save himself. In Part 2 Marty and Doc travel to the future to avert a disaster for Marty’s son only to make things much worse everyone – well, nearly everyone. And Part 3…well Part 3 is set in the Old West for some reason ( just go with it, it’s fun).

Why It’s Great – I suppose it’s cheating to put a whole trilogy into one slot but it’s surely a crime to break up these wonderful films when they make such a satisfying collection. It’s hard to overstate the impact these films had on science-fiction and pop culture in general. For many these are the films that made time-travel (and all the paradoxes, dangers and opportunities that come with it) vaguely possible to understand, partly through literally drawing it on a blackboard in Part 2.

Verdict – If for any reason you have not seen these films prepare to watch three of the most enjoyable films ever made.

Annihilation (2018)

The Plot – Lena’s soldier husband returns mysteriously to their home but something is very wrong with him and it isn’t long before the government swoops in and takes control of the situation. It turns out her husband was sent on a secret mission into The Shimmer – a mysterious area of land where normal rules do not apply and her husband is the only person to return from numerous missions. Lena, a scientist and former soldier joins the next team determined to find out what happened.

Why It’s Great – While it does feel somewhat fitting to include a Netflix original film on this list doesn’t mean Annihilation doesn’t got a free pass – it’s a great sci-fi film, and in a way that few sci-fi films are. It has gunfights and monsters and all those things going on it has also has unusual ideas that make you think about the world and the universe. Science-fiction gets a lot of criticism but to me it’s always been the genre of big ideas – whether that’s time travel or space flight or what it means to be human. Written and directed by filmmaking genius Alex Garland and adapted from the successful Southern Reach book trilogy this film comes with exemplary sci-fi credentials.

Verdict – Bizarre mind-bending sci-fi epic.

The post Five Sci-Fi Films To Watch Right Now On Netflix appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.