how do you think Darth Maul would have fared against Finn?

obviously a ridic question (Darth Maul nearly won vs 2 Jedi) but it speaks to how comparatively weak Kylo is. When I saw that scene in the trailers my assumption was that Luke would appear in the scene bc any scene with a Sith vs untrained rando's should not be interesting

I feel like it is a given that Disney remakes episodes 1-3 in like 8-10 years, no?

Fair point.

I do think this is an example of what makes Kylo Ren so interesting. He's clearly extremely powerful, but he's also extremely raw and way too emotional for what he sees himself as. It seems that rather than just coldly vaporizing Finn and Rey, he made it personal and wanted to just beat on them.

I mean, who really knows? The way I look at it, though, is that it makes Kylo Ren much more intriguing, rather than being something that's disappointing.

I thought the movie did a fantastic job at bringing back a lot of the same elements of the OT that made us love these movies in the first place, while at the same time added a lot of new stuff and leaving lots of questions that we are excited to see answered in the future.

I think it is more likely that they remake episode IV-VI. Call it stupid or ******ed but a lot of young people don't want to get into Star Wars because of the age of the original trilogy.

The only question imo is whether they have the balls .

the one thing TPM got right

I was thinking they might try, but it's a thankless task. It's a more ambitious story than the OT, you still have the problem which all prequels have, that everyone knows how it ends up (which hamstrings you plot-wise and makes it really tough to surprise the audience with anything, which is part of the fun of seeing a movie), and fans will go in with a checklist of original-version problems that the new versions are supposed to "fix". Nobody will be happy.

Disney will not be afraid to monetize the **** out of thing thing. They paid $4b and have (currently upset) shareholders, I wouldn't put anything past them. if it makes them money they'll do it, fat and happy Lucas is no longer in charge of his baby

I too expected Luke to come in and save the day....I mean how else would they survive????

Speaking of Luke, another reason I had for thinking Kylo should be a major bad ass (aside from photon Force stop and b/c the main villain should be) was the recounting of how he killed?, or something, all of the the young Jedi trainees. I mean presumably Luke was around when that happened and even if he wasn't Kylo had to defeat several of his Jedi trainee peers....again, implying that he is a super bad ass. As he should be.

I'm hoping this thought process leads the next two episodes to involve some more interesting characters to be developed...

I mean we already know about Rogue One and the Han Solo stand alone, you figure Boba Fett, maybe a Yoda stand alone. Beyond that I'm not sure

There were lots of Jedi left after the end of 3. Vader (not anakin) spends a lot of time hunting down remnants and killing them.

A Vader stand alone would be great.

This. What is Disney trying to do? Reclaim George's legacy? It's a 4 billion dollar company, they're not going to do that.

To 'fix' the story? I mean it's a huge mess in ways but at its core, the fundamental plot isn't what broke the OT. Like GMan says, you're constrained by setting all the pieces up in their Episode IV starting positions (Emperor is Palpatine, Vader is a Sith apprentice warrior crushing it across the galaxy, Luke is his unknown hyper Force sensitive son, Obi Wan is watching him in exile, Yoda is in exile, etc.) by the end of it. The stories that got us there is something of a let down. It's why George, way back when in the mid 70s, started where he did. The first few acts of the soap opera were ultimately skippable. Like is there an audience desperate to go back and see young Obi Wan and the young Palpatine and Yoda again, and Vader before he's a cool bad guy?

Maybe, but you can shoehorn that in. It's pretty clear the Anthology series is functionally what you're describing. Rather than go back and reboot the main episodes, they're going to tell side stories to keep their marketable assets that are still wildly popular in toys and merch markets (insert Han, Boba Fett, probable Vader and Yoda cameos along the way) and hope the audience keeps buying that stuff. So rather than remakes, what you're going to get is stand-alones of the legends of the series where they can credibly still do it. It might be hard to tell more 'young Luke' stories since you already knew teen Luke, but 'young Han' swashbuckling around the galaxy is already in the works. I don't doubt there will eventually be like 'Vader: The Lost Stories' about him crushing the remaining Jedi. I mean they've went to that well so many times already. I read Disney does alot of Darth Maul merch business still, you could see some kind of Darth Maul origin story. **** like that.

No Prequel can or ever will be "great", the result is known.

As for the one-off films; they should have a Ken Burnsesque mockumentary about the architect that designs the various Death Stars and his ultimately career-destroying penchant for including mysterious portals that cause his structures to explode when any large objects are thrown inside.

Ultimately, any attempt to determine which one of two space-wizards should win a fight based on an analysis of the principles of space-magic is going to be a fruitless endeavor. Rey beat Kylo because she's a badass and wanted it more, and Kylo lost because he's a ragey, untrained emokid. That's the message. The only binding rule of space-magic is that a non-space-wizard (Finn) can't beat a space-wizard. When two space-wizards go head-to-head, anything can happen.

Lol, they're probably gonna recoup their $4b investment off this movie alone. Such a steal.

Depends on how you define recoup but $4b is a lot of money. I think they'll be beyond happy if the IP generates $1b of free cashflow between the release of VII and Rogue One. I agree $4b seems like a cheap price though for such a massive IP that has stood the test of bad new content .

VII + toys + themepark licensing will make them their investment back.

Super easy win/win for both sides. Lucas sets a giant pile of money for an asset he was doing little with and Disney gets one of the most under monetized assets they could possibly acquire. But they are a public company beholden only to shareholders, they'll only stop when their money can be better used somewhere else

There is lots of fertile territory between episodes 3 and 4, the cartoons have gone there. Plus there is way back stuff like Yoda and way way back stuff like knights of the old republic era.

If I was setting the over/under for future star wars universe movies... I might start with something like 15.

Honestly, if you thought Kylo Ren was a threatening antagonist on a par with Darth Vader, you missed a lot of stuff. He was clearly portrayed as a wannabe with a lot of inborn talent. Like, there's an actual scene where he explicitly asks Darth Vader's mask to make him less of a wimp! Going forward, I assume they are planning to train Kylo Ren up to make him tougher.

EDIT: Can you imagine Darth Vader taking a lightsaber to a control panel because of a set-back? Twice?! Darth Vader killed people when he was annoyed.

Going way way back would be fine, as we don't know any characters or events, but even going between 3 and 4 I mean there's nothing major happening is there? No Jedi left besides Obi wan and Yoda in hiding, Luke and Leia just pups. There may be events but not Jedi/Sith stuff which is the backbone of Star Wars.

Would rather just see them go forward and simply drop snippets of what happened between 6 and 7. Don't really want a Han Solo prequel either.

I can't think of ANY example of a prequel that has worked or been anything other than average.

Fwiw the two anthology movies they have announced will not be force related

Also the Jedi purge we saw did not kill 100% of Jedi.. So there is stuff there to explore. And I don't just mean Obi Wan and Yoda

Exactly. If they wanted a close battle, maybe have Kylo toy with them as a bully might, taunting them for even daring to draw sabers with him, and in his carelessness sustain a couple glancing blows or something. The chasm opening up between then should clearly be saving Rey, not him. Even if Kylo's powers aren't fully developed, he should still be way more badass than Rey. It raises the stakes and makes seeking out Luke all the more urgent.