What Disney must not do with Star War Episode VII.

Star Wars is a cultural phenomenon, and has been a strong brand for decades. However, Lucasfim made some mistakes with their relaunch of the franchise back in the late 90’s. Now that Disney has bought out the Lucas empire, they plan on bring out the franchise for another run of movies for a new generation of moviegoers. However, while the three movies from the 2000’s were successful, they also were not great movies. Here are some key things that Disney must be sure not to do with the “New” trilogy.

1. Use the CGI sparingly! This is something where the now christened prequel trilogy (I,II, & III) went overboard. CGI can be a great tool for certain things. It can bring to life something that would cost a fortune to create by hand. Yet when overused, it can make a viewer lose their suspension of disbelief. Instead of using rubber suits and Muppets for the aliens and creatures in the prequels, CGI was used to portray them. The CGI however, took the lifelike feature from them, making the movies feel like cartoons.

2. Don’t turn this into a vehicle for big-wig actors! This is a must. While there is no problem with some star power being thrown into the mix, the movie needs to be about telling a good story rather than promoting some actor.

3.  No bad acting and writing! This seems like something that should be obvious, but the acting and the scripting in the prequels was by and large terrible. The actors and writers who work on these films must be professionals who can do their jobs properly.

4. Don’t get too caught up in “cannon”! This is something where, while sticking to the spirit and continuity of the original films is a must, for these movies to be good they must not be shackled by previous material, especially material that comes from novels and comics. Seeing Thrawn and Mara Jade on the big screen would be great, but the writers shouldn’t be constrained by it either.

5. Don’t lose sight of the spirit of Star Wars! Disney and the crew of the new trilogy must be able to keep to the spirit of what Star Wars is all about. The prequels got this wrong, with a storyline marred with then modern political allusions (Nute Gunray ring a bell) and a dreary tone that had none of the “fun” that the original movies had. This is a fun, fantastical space fantasy and not a dark, hard-hitting sci-fi thriller.