"Geek Gab" Talks Valerian, Dunkirk, & The Need For Good Storytelling

Today on "Geek Gab", Daddy Warpig and the gang discussed Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

Some of us are on the hunt for alternatives to Star Wars now that The Mouse is pozzed and spread the disease to Lucasfilm. Valerian disappointed, and by comparison that film to Nolan's Dunkirk shows how important it is to not only cast your roles properly (which Valerian did not) but to know how your medium works when you tell your story. Christopher Nolan knows how the medium of film works. Luc Besson does not. It shows in the final product.

You also have to know your property, and that includes historical subjects. The director, writer, and producers need to know what the hell they're on about or the final product will be crap. Dunkirk shows that this is the case with Nolan's film, and that Besson's team dropped the ball.

And yes, the head office as Lucasfilm shows by their own words and deeds that they too do NOT comprehend their property. Lucas had the excuse of trying something new; Kennedy and company aren't even doing that- they're deliberately rehashing old stuff and turning out sanctioned fan-films, as if they decided to take the worst of the old Star Wars Adventure Journal and pour in additional pozzing.

They failed to remember that you have to tell a good story to keep a property thriving and profitable, and you can't do that if you subordinate that fundamental requirement for success to the service of an ideological agenda- and that is exactly what Lucasfilm did once the ink on the purchase dried. This is why there's a move to "make our own Star Wars", to fork it, and return to a dissatisfied audience that which they found in the Original Trilogy.

Right now, we have one series of books that aim to serve that audience. Nick Cole and Jason Anspach co-wrote the "Galaxy's Edge" series: Legionnarie, Galactic Outlaws, and the upcoming Kill Team. There are others, some available for sale and some still in the works, and as they come to my attention I'll give them space either here or at the Study.

In the meantime, I think I'll pencil in time to see Dunkirk.