Lucas-bashing

[AdminAssistant]

I finally sat down a few weeks ago and watched Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. It was...well, it wasn't great. I don't think Anakin's transition was handled well, and the Jedi Council were such douchebags that it's not hard to see why Anakin would join the dark side. The previously ass-kicking Padme degenerated into a sobbing mess, before 'losing the will to live' or whatever.

But I didn't sit down to watch a well-written drama. I sat down to watch the last film in one of the most cinematically beautiful series ever created. In that vein, it did not disappoint.

Is Anakin any whinier, any more emo than Luke in A New Hope? Does Padme shift moods faster than her daughter throughout the whole damn series? Is the writing significantly worse in the first three than the last three? I really don't think it is.

When I read this article, I felt a genuine sense of sadness. I felt sorry for the man who devoted so much of his life to perfecting his opus. I felt enraged that Hollywood would snub its nose at an all-black WWII film.

Most of all, I felt saddened that the man who has done more for film technology than anyone else in the last forty years, is slinking off in the sunset. That nerds everywhere delight in picking apart his every decision, even though he created the very thing they love. That he'll be remembered, not for THX, Industrial Light & Magic, or Skywalker Ranch, but for Jar Jar Binks and Indy in a fridge.

All I ask is, next time you want to take an internet rage-dump on the Bearded One, show at least a little respect for what he's done.

ETA: And, I also want to apologize to Lucas, for the times that I've sneered at the cheesy dialogue, the wooden acting, the inconceivable plots. Because, despite all of that, I love those movies. I love that story.

[firecat88]

I'm not even much of a Star Wars fan and I think what Lucas did was impressive. I mean, the man created not just one world, but an entire frelling galaxy with multiple planets that all have their own distinct looks, species, levels of society. Those ideas became a series of highly successful movies.

How many other people can say that they've done all that in their lifetime?

[HYHYBT]

Odd to say at this point, but I have the idea most of the complaints are about his *not* knowing when to put something down as finished and move on.

[Kheldarson]

HY's got a point. Yes, he's made a whole world. And yes, we all love the stories he created and universes he introduced us to.

However.

His latest endeavors (starting with the prequels) just...don't fit with his original franchises. And that breaks the believability of the franchise to an extent.

It would be like if Rowling wrote a prequel to Harry Potter with James Potter, Snape, Sirius, etc., but made James the stereotypical hero and Snape the pseudo-villain. Despite being shown that Snape was the victim in book 6 or so. That would upset readers because she broke her own story.

Same with Lucas. He told us a story...but then in an attempt to expand, broke his own story.

[Ginger Tea]

The prequels did harm the franchies in most eyes, or atleast to the inner child who grew up with the originals, as soon as I saw the child Anakin I knew it wouldn't turn out good, how can Darth Vader Dark lord of the Sith be that little snot nosed kid?

Yes he had to find some way of getting him to sow his oats to get luke and leia onto the scene, but watching the Naboo scenes in Atack of the clones was too much, these days I just skip all the faff and just watch the story from Obi Wan's POV and only worry about those other two when they are needed.

Indi 4 should not have been made, not too sure on temple of doom either.

THX 1138, I don't remember too much of, but its remembered cos it was one of his earliest works, the exact film by any other director and it might be forgetable, but it got thumbed up in the general conciousness because of his later works.

With out IMDBing him, I can only think of 6 Starwars films THX American Graphiti and 4 Indi films that he either wrote directed or both.
For someone in the business that long, that seems rather unproductive.

I used to watch the shit out of starwars when I was younger, A new hope used to be on most christmasses, we sat through the trilogy at our local (now a marks and spencers) cinema seeing Jedi for the 3rd time on the big screen (if not more).
We got the VHS
Then the Widescreen one
The digitally restored one (the one he blanked by accident)
The tin box set with oodles of gumph on a 4th tape, sadly not the biggs scenes.

Then the DVD's and the SE DVD's (might have also got them on VHS)
I've yet to get the bluray box set, mostly cos I don't have a bluray player, but afaik it is the wizz bang updated with overkill CGI and not a nice HD presentation of the original cut.

He might have made more films if he wasn't too busy tweaking 3 he made his money off.

I won't miss him cos I thought he retired years ago.

[BlaqueKatt]

The previously ass-kicking Padme degenerated into a sobbing mess, before 'losing the will to live' or whatever.

This I will say is more accurate than sci-fi/action fans want to admit, as far as "human" behavior. Pregnancy hormones, the love of your life going down a horrible path and you can't stop them, their paranoia causing them to almost kill you.

I was a soldier in the US Army, my husband is an unmedicated schizophrenic, other than the pregnancy hormones, that's exactly what I'm going through.

And guess what, I'm a sobbing mess quite a bit-I'm trained to fight/kill other humans. And I don't see how the prequels "broke the story" Padme, Anikin, the jedi council were mentioned in passing if at all in episodes 4,5, & 6.

[AdminAssistant]

With out IMDBing him, I can only think of 6 Starwars films THX American Graphiti and 4 Indi films that he either wrote directed or both.
For someone in the business that long, that seems rather unproductive.

Except for starting all of those other companies I mentioned under the LucasFilm umbrella.

[Kheldarson]

And I don't see how the prequels "broke the story" Padme, Anikin, the jedi council were mentioned in passing if at all in episodes 4,5, & 6.

Like in the other thread, he tried to explain scientifically something that was established as mystic. You want it to be something that someone trained (Jedi or Sith) can feel or measure, great. But pulling out the scanner and going "Hey he's off the charts"....what?

The main issue that I keep seeing in complaints is that he didn't truly focus on the main issue. He gave a milieu story. He showed us all the ins and outs of his universe (which is explained in detail through countless spinoff novels, fanboards, etc), but failed to show us truly why Anakin became Vader.

Yeah, he told us, but that's bad writing. I hated Anakin the entire time. I didn't believe he was good or bad the entire time. So I have a hard time believing he's the kick-ass Vader we see later, and that breaks the story.

[BlaqueKatt]

Except for starting all of those other companies I mentioned under the LucasFilm umbrella.

yeah industrial light and magic was created simply because the tech to do what lucas wanted wasn't available, so he hired people to create it. Everyone told him it couldn't be done, he didn't listen.

[Andara Bledin]

I'd have more respect for him if he hadn't gone out of his way to kill off every Jedi created by anyone other than him in episode 3.

If he's going to let other people into his sandbox, even if he is god, he shouldn't be godmoding.

^-.-^

[AdminAssistant]

I'd have more respect for him if he hadn't gone out of his way to kill off every Jedi created by anyone other than him in episode 3.

It's made quite clear in 4-6 that Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Luke are the ONLY Jedi in the world/universe/galaxy/whatever. Of course, you have those that are force-sensitive, but don't know it (Leia). But for the original three to make sense, he has to kill off all the Jedi.

[Duelist925]

And if you accept the expanded universe as canon, (Games, comics, novels, etc) Than a number of Jedi did survive Order 66

[Ginger Tea]

Except for starting all of those other companies I mentioned under the LucasFilm umbrella.

I'm not deniing their existance or the work they do for the industry on the whole, just for him as a writer and or director of movies.

Adding producing credits would garner extra results like Howard the Duck, but producing, ILM, Skywalker sound etc creating a company and or financing a movie is different to 'creating' a movie.

ILM was only started due to the craft being less saught after than years previous and production companies capable of doing what was needed not established.
Had they been, it would have been outsourced.

Most others could be seen as vanity products and only really achieveable due to SW box office results (and the keeping of Merch rights).

[blas87]

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

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.

[jackfaire]

but for Jar Jar Binks and Indy in a fridge.

This is why me and many other nerds will never get along. I am a huge geek. I thought the Indy in a fridge thing was friggin inspired. I didn't go to see a realistic movie I went to see a movie by a genius that had a magic box melt people's faces off.

I have loved everything Lucas has done and if any "fans" think they can do better then they should very well do so and increase the surplus population of bad films.