Lucas-bashing

[AdminAssistant]

Well, and it's not just Lucas. Nerds/geeks/etc. seem to love criticizing and nitpicking the very things that are created for them. Take Star Wars: The Old Republic. I think it's a freakin' amazing game with an incredible story that makes you really think about your character. The fact that you can, and indeed are forced to, complete your class quests solo is AMAZING. Love it. But, go on the fan boards or listen to my fiance and it's "Well, it won't work with old graphics cards" and "PVP sucks!" and "They need to nerf the classes that I don't play!" and "There's not enough end game content!" Oh for fuck's sake people! If you want a terrible looking game where you can gank to your heart's content, then play WoW. Oh boo hoo, someone developed a game for the casual MMO player instead of the hardcore 5 days a week raider. It's not perfect, so it's terrible? Give me a break.

[mikoyan29]

I know that I have criticized some of his decisions in the past. For instance, I hate Jar Jar with a passion but you can't help the look of awe when you see a kid watching Jar Jar. I think a big part of the problem is that Star Wars is not really meant for an adult audience and when it came out most of use were kids. I enjoy Star Wars and I don't mind most of things that he's changed in the various iterations of Star Wars (except for adding NOooooooo to Jedi) but for the most part I take them with a grain of salt. They are his creations after all and it is his vision.

I think where it really bugs me is reading the reviews for "Red Tails" and the general panning of that movie. They are basically criticizing it for what it is not nor what it was intended to be. George Lucas basically set out to create a classic war movie and that is what he did. It was an entertaining movie about a group of guys that history has given very short shrift to. If you want a pondering (and plodding) war movie....watch The Thin Red Line (which I absolutely hated btw).

I think the big problem with the criticism of Lucas is that we (the internet culture) want these "dark" and "thoughtful" movies and that's not what he is providing. Whatever happened to fun?

[lordlundar]

It's not perfect, so it's terrible? Give me a break.

That's a bigger issue than just ToR and one I have a particular distaste for. A game could be a solid, well rounded piece of work. Not spectacular by any means, but better than average at least. Then there's one minor glitch or something and the game is suddenly unplayable.

Worse still is when a game comes out half finished and the devs have outright said "No, we won't fix it" and they get a free pass (Skyrim's memory issue is the most recent, though Bethesda seems to have this modus operandi down pat), bt that's another rant altogether.

[Canarr]

Personally, what annoyed me the most about Lucas was his attempt to return to his creations and somehow "fix" them. Having Greedo shoot first (and miss a guy sitting right across from him at a table) because in today's movies, the good guys don't just shoot the bad guys without a warning, or Jabba the Hutt (the crime lord with his own castle and private army) show up in some rundown space dock and let Han step on his tail... Jabba should be scary, not comic relief. To me, that's just not the story I saw again and again since being a kid, not the characters I've known for so long.

To me, that doesn't feel like a creator standing behind his creations, and that made me lose a lot of respect for him.

[Ginger Tea]

The jaba tail step was an unfortunate side effect of how the scene was filmed and acted, jabba was not realised at the time and was played by a fat guy in a sheepskin coat as a place holder for some bluescreen stopmotion or puppet to be super imposed.

As the scene was cut it didn't matter what jabba looked like in the end, so when we got the Hutt species introduced, he probably never thought "no we can't use that design as it would screw up the Moss Esley scene when I put it back"

Robot chicken, if they were to reproduce the scene would probably have Boba, when he shows up for his fan service cameo, crotch thrust the camera.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

http://mongosmusings.blogspot.com/20...ing-about.html

I found something interesting about Lucas. He made a speech on how we as a society should not change films yet he himself does that very thing over and over again.

It is a sad state of affairs that there is no way that I can show my children the Star Wars that I saw and grew up with.

[Canarr]

Christ almighty... dark blue font on black background? What do you have against my eyesight, anyway?

But: excellent points made, and thanks for those snippets of Lucas' saner days. I didn't know about that.

On a sidenote: I do believe that my DVD of A New Hope, at least, has a copy of the original film version on a 2nd disc. I'm not 100% positive about that, though.

[AdminAssistant]

I think there he was complaining about studios 'improving' films without the permission of the creators. When it comes to the Star Wars saga, he's the creator.

[Canarr]

Not entirely, no:

Attention should be paid to this question of our soul, and not simply to accounting procedures. Attention should be paid to the interest of those who are yet unborn, who should be able to see this generation as it saw itself, and the past generation as it saw itself.

[mikoyan29]

there are copies of the film that are unaltered. I believe the version the library of Congress has is unaltered. Although, I wish the blurays would have had the original versions of the movies....but oh well.

[jackfaire]

I have the original trilogy on VHS.

[Seifer]

To be honest, I only watched the first movie in the prequel series. It was awful - so awful, in fact, that I had no interest in II and III.

You'd think making three movies simply to squeeze more money out of his fanbase would have been enough for George. But no, now he wants to jump on the bandwagon of re-releasing movies in 3D. (Yes, Episode 1 is being re-released in theaters in 2-D and 3-D. Why? So you'll give George Lucas another $15 out of your pocket.)

[Gravekeeper]

Lucas has an imagination that probably no one else in the world could ever have, or know how to use.

Um....yeah, no. Have you ever actually heard of the first Star Wars draft? Yeaaaah no. The first 3 movies worked because Lucas did not have 100% control. Other people where there to veto his bad descisions. Though they did begin to creep in by the third film ( He wanted to sell toys, we got Ewoks ).

I admit to wanting to throw the remote at all the tweeks he's done with the originals and whatnot, and sure, it's all in all a tad melodramatic, but you have to remember that it wasn't all him doing it.

Yes it was. His attitude has been very "This is what *I* wanted. They're MY movies and I'll change what I want.". With many of the changes basically being nerd sacriledge.

With the prequels, fact of the matter is Lucas surrounded himself with yes men who would never challenge him when making a bad desicion. The result was revealing him for a terrible writer and bad director that he is when given free reign. The prequels quite literally ignored every single basic thing from film class 101. EVERYTHING.

Red Letter Media's breakdown review of everything wrong with the prequels is utterly embarrassing and it takes them an hour per film to explain how many things are wrong with each one. >.>

[Seifer]

Red Letter Media's breakdown review of everything wrong with the prequels is utterly embarrassing and it takes them an hour per film to explain how many things are wrong with each one. >.>

Yes and yes. I wanted to name-drop that review, but the "hookers trapped in the basement" portion of those videos gives them a 'squick' factor.

[ExRetailDrone]

Um....yeah, no. Have you ever actually heard of the first Star Wars draft? Yeaaaah no. The first 3 movies worked because Lucas did not have 100% control. Other people where there to veto his bad descisions.

I have to ask, as this makes me think of it. Did he have complete control over the Star Wars Holiday Special? Because that was such a load of painful-to-watch crap that I can't even describe it >.< I even watched it with RiffTrax, and it didn't make it any less painful. The late-70s commercials were the best part about watching that steaming pile...