Mikw, you are justifying why Henry Ford sold the Model T, and also you justify why Ford came a nano inch from collapse in the late 20's, when he was still making the ford T. Edsel Ford had to beat him over the head, and he still hated his son for the rest of his life for it. Yet he would have failed. See. movie moguls assume the "audience" are all the village idiots. They will pay the 10.00 and go stare at mindless crap for 90-120 mins, as long as you have a name, a line, a catch phase, an actor, a "something". Pixar does just that, and all the other cartoon movies. Some are "cute" but that's it. Star Trek and Star Wars have now entered that phase of "rinse, recolor and repeat", as well as the 50% of new movies that are "remakes". It satisfy the crowd enough to make them some money. Basic movie logic is you either sell to an existing need or want, or create it. That is the basis of what they do, Star Wars and Star Trek now sell to an existing want, with lots of flash and the same story in different clothes. Look at Valerian and the Hidden City. An awesomely well made movie, but from a European comic book. Problem was it was flashy and had a really predictable story. TV is doing the same thing, if it wasn't for Seth McFarlane both backing and doing the Orville, it never would have seen the light of day. There will probably be 2 or 3 more space series next year, and if they don't take, no more for another 10 years and we will have "NCIS in your toilet" (because every city has been used), and 350 series about black people, gay people, or addicts. As far as handcrafting goes, fan films were that equivelant, and people were going to pay for the privlidge. That was why Axanar was hammered. Go look at Star Trek Horizon, which was about as good as a fan film gets, near professional level, and cost in the neck of 30-40 k to make, almost 2hours. It got loose before CBS knew about it, because they did not go as wide open as Axanar did, but they got a C&D letter and told they had to comply with the new "Rules of Acquisition". No movie over 15 mins, no more that 2 episodes in a row, no professional actors even if free. CBS does not like competition, especially when they are a lot cheaper than they are.

Mike, I have no problem with diversity, in fact diverse casts have been a hallmark of great movies for as long as there have been movies. Charlie Chaplin was about as diverse as it gets, that was his whole basis. I will disagree about Axanar, they never used anything specific to CBS when they were going to make it, it was a legal excuse to put them in the legal money drain, which is exactly what CBS did, hold them hostage for 12 months with BS accusations, then settle. There were other films out there that ACTUALLY used their characters (ST COntinues) and ships and specific property, yet no lawsuit. It wasn't about length either, it was about a million dollar fan film that would have matched their level, and then the questions start "How can they do this for a million and it costs us 7 million (ST Discovery average episode costs). Shareholders are not stupid. I had about 350 into it, and I do not believe any bad press on Alec, as Richard Hatch would never have allowed it. Go look at the 2015 SD Comic Con discussion he did where he spent 10 minutes or so detailing why movies today costs 10 times what they should. He had filming nailed, and Rob and Alec followed his process. The "downgrading" idea is just justifying the "let them eat cake" philosophy of a majority of managers in America. It is not related to their contractual agreement to provide a quality product for what is paid, whether directly or indirectly. Americans have been programed to accept mediocrity, one reason I like Seth McFarlanes "The Orville". It is a pretty good show compared to flashy Star Trek Discovery.

Yep...let the Free Market do it's thing!

Don't go so hard on rats and DDT, nick. (grin)

I have a friend who does special effects for Hollywood movies. She has lots of (otherwise low-value) souvenirs from working on Pirates of the Caribbean and other movies. She tells me that it is standard operating procedure for producers to have complete houses built for themselves and bury the costs in their current movie project.
Surprise! Hollywood moguls are corrupt even beyond their sleazy use of power to gain sexual favors. Power corrupts and Disney execs have been corrupt for a long time.
Solution? I agree with Mike. Don't give them your money. At least they can't come steal it on pay day like the scumbags they support in the Dark Center.

Don't mince words Mike, how do you really feel?!

Laughing.... but you did cut right to the heart of the matter where others exit stage left...

2 is a sad commentary, too much is made of "ethnicity" but cultural diversity is the spice of life, although in a smaller and smaller world as mankind evolves, (hopefully) would and should adopt the best of all memes and culture. Like everything else, the idiots of society won't let the nature of things take their normal course and still celebrate our universal differences.

Star Wars is a product, like soap or beer. You can buy handcrafted soap and beer, locally produced from all organic and natural ingredients, and packaged with love. But those entrepreneurs are not millionaires supporting thousands of other employees. You can complain about MS-Office. You can complain about airline travel. You pay $10 for two hours of entertainment ... you and 20 million other people just like you. Well, maybe they are not engineers from Galt's Gulch... maybe they are just like you as measured by their shampoos and shirts.

Something new and original comes along once a decade, once a generation, once a lifetime... Often it fails to find a market.

I had a class in sociology of the workplace and it presented the usual leftwing line that businesses suck our money out of our pockets with crap we do not need or really want. So, I. did a quick search for "famous failed products." Vitamin water. Big now; failed in the 1980s and laughably so: who would buy that??? Handheld PDA... Heck, the personal computer. For what? Calculating recipes? Gimme a break. But some people wanted them. Innovators, new adopters, outside-the-box thinkers... Then they caught on.

But to sell to a million people or a 100 million, you have to erase all the distinctions among them and between all of them and your product.

Walt Disney is dead. Disney Studios are back to Herbie and the Love Bug (part 2) and The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again. So, go tell your local power company that you hate 60-cycle electricity and want yours at 27 square roots of pi.

But BTW.... Anheuser Busch as the AB Inbev multinational corporation makes Goose Island and some other crafities. You don't have to drink Bud Lite. And maybe Disney will underwrite something more craftie later...

(1) I sent $100 to Axanar and have nothing to show for it. That's the risk of entrepreneurship. While it looked nice on YouTube, the fact is that they attempted to steal intellectual property and ended up in court. Thus, I did not get the mission patches they promised.

(2) The universe has more creatures in it than white guys, so I do not understand your problem with diversity. Ultimately, perhaps the mainstream creation will be a statistically smoothed humans of no particular ethnicity (or gender).

(3) See my comments here, also. The downgrading of Star Wars (and Star Trek) is just regression to the mean, like Japanese beers. Disney is not a craft brewer. You want a Modernistic house? Any architect in America can stamp one out for you ... now... But it will lack that ineffable j'ne c'est qua of originality.

One hell of a summation, Nick...way to go.

Ok, I should have gone with my business group team and seen it for free, just didn't want to drive 60 miles to do it, but have seen a lot of the "spoiler filled" videos and reviews. One reason I was not willing was Hollywood has the imagination of a DDT laden rodent on heavy herbs and hallucinogens. So, I pretty much was able to sum it up: Rebellion is in danger, ratted out, new girl goes to Luke to get learned, but has to go to save Rebellion. A few side trips looking for secret thing or information to save said rebellion. Kill off a couple people who you might like, as they are too old and cost too much. Bring on new cheap labor and sell it as "politically correct, ethically mixed, tolerant" person who helps in some odd way, have a space station or big ass ship, big battle last 30 mins (oh yea, have several chase scenes in Millennium Falcon with cute weird creature making cute weird noise), new girl gets captured by evil dude in black outfit, who also wants to kill boss dude. Kill boss dude (sort of, he will be back in next movie, CGI is cheaper than humans). End on cliff hanger. Can you say "Empire Strikes Back" with cheap labor and way cooler effects? It is so sad that with all the awesome books they had (and this borrows from them, but not in a way they could get paid for, which is also why Disney declared all Star Wars canon dead except movies they own), they could not come up with a way to use that material and just make it somuch better, and still rake in the cash. Nope, they are "original", "brilliant", "new" and gloriously self absorbed with their own greatness. So, you get TLJ. I may get the DVD, maybe, on sale. JUst like I still have not got "The Force Awakens" after an exact rerun of "Star Wars" in the exact same manner. We were laughing in the theater as a group, and predicitng the next scene, like "Now Fat Guy in bomber dies" and sure enough, "boof", fat guy gone. Same thing happened to Star Trek, same thing with all the "remakes" of every movie ever made. There are only a thousand or so really good Sci Fi authors, who have books in series, that would be fabulous movies. But the suits rule, and the suits have the imagination of that DDT laden rat..... To prove my point, go look at "Prelude to Axanar" on YouTube and realize it only cost 80K to make. The late Richard Hatch (an excellent Klingon) said: "You can make a 150 million dollar movie for 15 million, and sacrifice nothing but the waste and inefficiency." Truth. But all the parasites would have to go....

Read some of the reviews by viewers on rottentomatoes dot com. Scathing!

Spoken like a true fan of the originals.

Thanks for the stats...
Said to be written by children...that's one hell of a commentary.
Got my curiosity up as to "Just How Bad is it?"

Great comment by a viewer at rottentomatoes:
"help me Old Milwaukee youre my only hope" to tolerate the crappiness of this movie

Haven't seen it.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the critics on rottentomatoes like it - a 91% positive rating.
But viewers seem to be as unhappy as Hitlery voters. Only 51% give it a positive review.
And that is from 159,843 viewer reviews.
For comparison:
Episode IV A New Hope 96% viewer reviews positive
Episode V Empire Strikes Back 97% viewer reviews positive
Episode VI Return of the Jedi 94% viewer reviews positive
Episode VII The Force Awakens 88% viewer reviews positive
Rogue One 87% viewer reviews positive

Looks like a loser from the Hollywood people who supported Hitlery.
Disney has been a ethically challenged cash cow since 1984.