Andrew C
You know what's funny?
They would have failed anyways. The execution is the most significant problem.
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Does anyone else think Galaxy’s Edge is a misfire?
- Thread starter Pizza Moon
- Start date
Separate problem but also true, at least under Iger, Chapek, and KK’s meddling.
Lucas as a creative consultant and going more off the original plans literally would’ve worked.
Rich T
Well-Known Member
For me, GE is a misfire and a missed opportunity. I find it ugly, cold, and emotionless. A lot of effort on display, but it makes me feel NOTHING. It’s a place I’d never want to spend any more time in. If they ever retheme it to the original trilogy, I’ll give it another shot.
flynnibus
Premium Member
TLDR - "Iger bad"
Listen, we all know the sequel stories suck. Disney and KK completely mismanaged Star Wars for many years. But the reasons they built SWGE on something besides the OT are not based purely on some ego narrative you've bought into. They are based in business decisions on they wanted to expand the franchise for the future in ways Disney completely controlled. But it didn't work because the horses they bet on sucked and KK captained the boat right into the rocks.
The reasons and rationale for doing what they did is the same regardless of the success of the creative output during that time. And, no matter what you think, Disney was already on this course before the fate of the sequel stink was cemented. Should they have pivoted by 2017 and started over? I think the sequels should have been aborted before they were made.. but they kept trying to make it work.. and they failed... and SWGE is brought down compared to 'what if' because of it.
But if you wanna play 'what if...' with a decade of hindsight... have at it... beat that dead horse and stand tall on Mt Hindsight but it doesn't change why they did what they did.. and Disney didn't blow billions and a generation of good faith on ideas they thought were gonna fail. The biggest flaw IMO was riding that ship down as far as they did. Who is the real reason for the stink? It seems to depend on who you ask.. but all the people that really know aren't talking.
flynnibus
Premium Member
Standing near the falcon at night under the lights and having the CO jets go off.. or seeing fireworks behind the moutains while JW score plays.. if you don't get emotions from that I don't think much will.
Disgruntled Walt
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
There are parts of Galaxy's Edge that excite me because I love Star Wars. There are major issues with it that make it a misfire. I'd rather Rise of the Resistance be focused on the OT, but I enjoy it for what it is. I rode it for the first (three) times this past summer, and it was one of my favorites. I missed out on finale Kylo each time, but it was still a marvelous ride. SR is not, though with the tinkering they're doing, it may get better. I love standing in the middle of the marketplace and looking around, but I know it's missing streetmosphere and could be much better than it is.
I like it. But it's not all that it should have been. Hence, a misfire, but at least we've got a gun.
I like it. But it's not all that it should have been. Hence, a misfire, but at least we've got a gun.
Rich T
Well-Known Member
Oh, there are plenty of things that get me emotional and make me feel wonderful. Disney’s handling of Star Wars isn’t one of them, though I still love New Hope, Ralph McQuarrie’s designs and the John Williams score. Galaxy’s Edge could be so much more than what it is.
DrStarlander
Well-Known Member
Oh sure, execution is whole other topic. The problems are so numerous it's complicated to keep track of them...
"El Gran Magnifico"
Well-Known Member
I'm in favor of it.
Um, yeah, regarding what we're talking about, what other conclusion could be drawn? If you literally sum up what I said as just me blindly hating Iger, you literally didn't engage intellectually with what I wrote at all. He literally has public statements that backed up every point I made, but you're only saying that because I literally wrote a point-by-point essay using logic and reason to come to my conclusions, and you just come up with logical fallacies and sidestep any argument I have in favor of defending your own psyche.
Why are you do you hand-wave everything is some obsessive favoritism for TWDC's corporate culture and inability to just make rational conclusions? Every point I make is valid, and you keep sidestepping the specifics of the nuanced points.
Are you literally just not capable? It likely goes beyond just a random, inconsequential Star Wars debate. I am just going to assume this is how you approach life in general.
Stop with this reality in your brain that people weren't calling all of this out in 2014, 2015, 2016, etc.
It's literally not true to say there haven't been millions of people blasting it from the start. This line of defense is beyond bonkers because it's based on a flat-out lie.
Fixed that for you.
Disney literally controlled the older films, completely; they didn't need to say "scew you Lucas and fans the HR department knows better!" and start from scratch, as it was a terrible business decision then, and it has played out to be a terrible business decision now. Stop acting like it was "necessary" or "logical." I went point by point, dissecting many aspects, which you can't respond to because your entire argument collapses under itself when presented with the objective reality that happened:
- "Fans never begged for a blank-slate sequel outpost, ever, and if Iger had taken two seconds to understand the fandom or just listened to Imagineering's original plans, rather than shifting directions due to his huge ego after the original 2015 announcement, all of this could have been avoided, but he meddled, ignored criticism from people who understood the franchise better, and the results are an inevitable consequence, and you are defending it. You act like everything is just a shot in the dark; it's literally not.
- I vividly remember and have been alive to witness people warning that Disney, with Iger's leadership buying Star Wars, was going to be terrible for the franchise, which turned out to be true, especially for a lot of people that understood what the mindset was.
- As for the movies, I also specifically remember discussions with people concerned about JJ Abrams creating mystery boxes that went nowhere in Lost, Iger throwing out George Lucas' story treatment in favor of an unplanned one, and JJ not being considered the ideal director for Star Wars after a so-so reception to the Star Trek Trilogy.
- It was obvious to a lot of people, it wasn't to you, and that's fine, but you cannot in good faith say there haven't been people this whole time aware of MULTIPLE wrong directions from the lands to the films because it wasn't just one area it was many, and the fact that both Iger and Kathleen Kennedy screwed up so many things shows that they were not competent for the job; hindsight is not 20/20, perhaps that's true for you."
I would love for you to address any of these points directly and the other ones I made, from Disney going with The Hobbit instead of Lord of the Rings, basically because you keep sidestepping everything; it is literally impossible to have a constructive conversation becasue you've already concluded that "no one could've predicted this," which is such low-IQ, I can't even fathom how someone even thinks like this.
As I said, Merchandise was a disaster for the Sequels, too. The land's timeline was a terrible choice. The land's execution was terrible too.
I mean, Starcruiser which I haven't even mentioned, lost like $200M, What on Earth possessed them to do that instead of just DO THEIR ORIGINAL PLANS?
They thought they could milk fans like the "consumers," that's why. They believe we are that instead of humans, and it backfired spectacularly from movies to lands to merch. Everything. They left so much money and artisitic craftmanship on the table, for what?
I actually have unpopular opinions like paid fastpass not being a bad idea, or raising ticket prices to bring down peak crowds, so I am not some blind TWDC hater even for their very controversial changes, and I've given Iger the benefit of the doubt too many times, but Chapek as a fall-guy got me to stop drinking the kool-aid.
Why can't you just admit Iger's directives literally are the reason for the way things are, LMAO.
The business decisions were wrong; he does not have the creative impulse to do things like Walt Disney, Michael Eisner (ignoring his cheap post-DLP later years), James Cameron, or George Lucas, and it has been proven. I don't know how many more decades he will need to prove this. The creative decisions by Iger (ignoring George Lucas' story treatment and Imagineering's original plans) were wrong. In what world, in what world do you feel the need to ignore this reality. You keep moving the goalposts or deflecting.
You ignore my entire points because you can't handle the reality that Disney has really effed up and it was clear to people not blinded by ideals.
Again, for you and Iger, it's hindsight, but it wasn't for millions of people, but if it helps you sleep at night, rather than being proven wrong with overwhelming evidence, feel free to continue.
How do you think someone like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, or just any random innovator actually builds things? Iger just acquires good products and milks them, and thinks he knows best, when he doesn't. He is not Steve Jobs.
He has no vision to create actual art.
Everything was viewed from the perspective of "Star Wars nerds bad, let's make a generic action film for the masses, and they must be force-fed and like it."
We were robbed.
Ended up with the most Puritan, surface-level outcome we could’ve had, even if we ignore the setting of the Sequels.
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Figments Friend
Well-Known Member
I would be a very wealthy dragon right now if I had a dollar for every time I have heard a Guest utter after experiencing ‘Star Tours’ that they liked it better then ‘Smugglers Run’.
Happens on almost every ride I am on….just listening to the Guests commentary as they exit.
That time period in particular, when Galaxy’s Edge opened but before ‘Rise’ did …I would have been a millionaire.
Guests were disappointed.
The land was hyped to deliver a lot of things that were anticipated, and fell short.
As I said at the time the area first opened, it is a nicely detailed setting like a movie set…but a very ‘empty’ feeling movie set.
Personally, I find Disneyland’s version of Galaxy’s Edge to be the better experience of the two.
More ‘action’ with roaming characters, the nighttime show, and just general setting vibe.
It was a nice improvement over the Florida version IMO.
But both areas are in need of more additions to really bring the place alive.
What could have been…..
(Those who know, know. )
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Happens on almost every ride I am on….just listening to the Guests commentary as they exit.
That time period in particular, when Galaxy’s Edge opened but before ‘Rise’ did …I would have been a millionaire.
Guests were disappointed.
The land was hyped to deliver a lot of things that were anticipated, and fell short.
As I said at the time the area first opened, it is a nicely detailed setting like a movie set…but a very ‘empty’ feeling movie set.
Personally, I find Disneyland’s version of Galaxy’s Edge to be the better experience of the two.
More ‘action’ with roaming characters, the nighttime show, and just general setting vibe.
It was a nice improvement over the Florida version IMO.
But both areas are in need of more additions to really bring the place alive.
What could have been…..
(Those who know, know. )
-
DrStarlander
Well-Known Member
"Extremely slight defense" is fair. And I agree with "stupid."
Despite the inclusion of some data screens, Star Wars is famously a hands-on, analog world. There are countless scenes of characters fiddling with real mechanical things like levers, knobs, and switches, to make stuff happen -- no doubt inspired by George Lucas's own gear-head, hotrod-mechanic passions. SWGE was the perfect opportunity to create immersion using hands-on fiddly interactives. This tactile, science-center type stuff could be, perhaps, a slightly aged-up and sometimes more puzzly version of the interactives in Toontown. Things you can twist, pull, slide, manipulate, to engage with the world.
The potential for fun discoverables could be amazing. A feature like the antique phones on Main Street that allow you to listen into a call could exist as wall-intercoms in SWGE. A feature like the Sword in the Stone in Fantasyland could be a Jedi celebration moment (what lucky kid makes the object levitate off the ground?).
And while a more dedicated play area (like Tom Sawyer Island, Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, Viking Training Camp at Epic Universe...) would be warranted (and smart...if a goal of SWGE was to help create a new generation of SW fans), I prefer the idea of sprinkling these things out all over the huge (and lifeless) land, to create energy, emotion, and utility to the acreage. Toontown is better off that the fun is all over the place.
Even non-interactive walk-throughs on par with the Adventureland Treehouse or Sleeping Beauty Castle walk-through, engage guests on a different level than ride attractions. Even though you're on a dictated path, you feel a sense of exploration and self-determination that heighten feelings of immersion. But combining a walk-through with interactives would be fantastic too. For example, a Jawa droid-workshop would have been a great way for guests to be reminded of the Original Trilogy and have lots of droids and machines to fiddle with to bring to life.
It's true that stuff breaks, and it's not worth doing physical interactives if you don't allocate a maintenance budget. But they belong in SWGE for sure. It would bring a lot of joy and fun to a joyless, melancholy place.
ChrisFL
Premium Member
I'm watching the John Williams documentary on Disney+ and reminded WHY ISN'T THERE STAR WARS MUSIC THROUGHOUT GALAXY'S EDGE?
I know others have mentioned it, but it really is a huge miss that's one of the easiest and quickest things they could correct. I understand there's *some* realism by not having it, but people want the adventure, the escapism, the epicness of Star Wars.
I know others have mentioned it, but it really is a huge miss that's one of the easiest and quickest things they could correct. I understand there's *some* realism by not having it, but people want the adventure, the escapism, the epicness of Star Wars.
Because they’re pretentious idiots that think they know better than we do.
Andrew C
You know what's funny?
It’s crazy. It just is.
Ayla
Well-Known Member
You don't know what literally means.
AdventureHasAName
Well-Known Member
You're criticizing the poster for not commissioning Drew Struzan to make concept art for his message board post?