Just about a year before the wrap up of the SW prequels i wonder how casual and dedicated fans alike will feel when it’s all said and done…were they worth doing? Will they ever be embraced with as much esteem as the original trilogy? Will future generations be urged to watch the saga chronologically?
Of course we still have an installment left before we make judgments on the movies as a whole, but judging by the quality of the first two…how will Star Wars be viewed 40 years from now?
Which one?
By the time Lucas gets done “revising” it, you’ll have 3 or 4 versions, with major plot & character revisions so extreme that the last version of “A New Hope” will not resemble the original version seen in the 70’s in any way.
Lucas calls this “improving the films”. :dubious:
I wonder if future genreations will understand the big fuss over Star Wars. I suspect that it’ll hold a special place the hearts of many for years to come, like Mary Poppins or Old Yeller. Of course entire generations of children will grow up thinking that Greedo fired first.
Marc
The prequels are crap and have no chance of being embraced by future generations.
I think the question is how will the original series stand up? How much will the new movies cause people to downgrade their opinions of the first three?
I think we’ve made such a thing of pop culture that future generations will feel obliged to remember, albeit as a mere footnote, that an awful lot of people got very pissed off about various parts of Star Wars. They will be unable to conduct any serious study of any aspect of modern entertainment without running into millions of references to the original films.
And of course, given that the single most useful tool for the future historian will be scanning old message board posts, I think there’s every chance that people of the future will believe us to have never discussed anything else.
The problem with viewing the “Star Wars” prequels is that they are just movies, whereas to many of us of a certain age group, we want them to be the same kind of towering achievments that we remembered standing in line for as kids. The thing is, the original movies are not as good as nostalgia makes them out to be. And it is very difficult for any movie to inspire the same sense of wonder in a generation of now more cynical adults that the original movies inspired in a generation of wide-eyed kids. In the process of growing up, we learned to view movies as just movies, and to view them more critically. Personally, I think the only film that has come close to inspiring the same sense of wonder and excitement that the original trilogy mustered is “Lord of the Rings.” And a generation of geeks who came of age after “Star Wars” still found nits to pick with Jackson’s handling.
I’ll admit that Lucas hasn’t helped with some of the creative choices that he made in the prequels, but I don’t know that anyone could use the backdrops that Lucas created and still inspire the same sense of excitement and wonder in someone in their late 20s - early 30s that the originals inspired in young kids twenty years ago. The target audience has changed, and the younger generation has grown up in a world of movies that has been changed by “Star Wars” in ways that are now taken for granted. The things that the original trilogy pioneered, in terms of special effects, spectacle, and the way movies are packaged and marketed (especially to kids) are now such an ingrained part of American culture that we don’t even recognize them any more.
I think an analogy can be made to the historical treatment of “Citizen Kane” versus that of “Casablanca.” In the history of film, “Citizen Kane” stands tall for what it did for the craft of moviemaking, in Orson Welles’ use of light, shadow, and camera to create a mood. But many people, who grew up in a world where everyone uses or can use the same tricks Welles did, focus instead on the story, which is a fairly depressing (though IMHO, well told) tale of corruption. As an example, I watched a bit of Roger Ebert’s audio commentary on “Citizen Kane,” in which he dissects the elements of filmmaking craft, explaining how different and pioneering the work was. But a lot of what he is talking about was stuff I didn’t really notice or think about when watching it - they’re common tricks now. This is why a lot of people don’t get why the cinema-geeks get all orgasmic over “Citizen Kane.” What “Citizen Kane” pioneered has now become ordinary.
“Casablanca,” by contrast, is not (to my knowledge) cited for any particularly groundbreaking achievments in the craft of filmmaking. But many would probably rank it as a more enjoyable viewing experience than “Citizen Kane,” though the cinema geeks rate “Citizen Kane” higher.
So, I guess this is a long way of saying - the prequels will be viewed as “just movies” by future generations, but so will the original trilogy. A kid watching the original trilogy may enjoy the films, but I doubt they will form a core part of his or her cultural experience in the same way they did for school-age kids in the 1970s and early 1980s. It will just be another old movie.
Just my 0.02.
I recall growing up, my dad raving about the ultimate sci-fi/adventure movies of his day and how nothing, not even Star Wars, could ever compare to them. To him, history would ultimately remember “Doc Savage, Man of Bronze” and “The Beast from 20000 Fathoms”, and dismiss Star Wars as a fad. But then, we also saw “Battle Beyond the Stars” at the same time as Star Wars, and he thought BBtS was a superior movie. Come to think of it, he really liked “Megaforce” and “Laserblast” also, which were complete crap.
What was my point?
The questions to be asked will be the same that’s said of any creation: Does it work? Coming to it the first time, will it still touch you, amuse you, scare you, make you think?
People seeing “Star Wars” 40 years from now won’t know as well the impact these movies made on us, partly for the reasons expressed above, but also because they simply won’t know and won’t care. They’ll watch these as movies, and in that respect, I’m betting that the consensus will hold true: #1-3 as utter shite, #4 a high point, #5 successful, and #6 a very mixed bag, and no amount of fiddling on Lucas’ part will ever change that.
When The Empire Strikes Back came out, Lucas said he envisioned a series of nine movies. The third trilogy would be set after the final destruction of the Emperor, the second Death Star, and Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi. But what the third trilogy would be about, that I never heard. Is Lucas still planning this third trilogy or has he given up on the idea?
Last I’d heard, Lucas had decided NOT to do a third trilogy. And you know George Lucas: once he’s made up his mind about something, there’s no changing it come Hell or high water.
Yeah, like US Forgeign Policy or a fat man’s diet… :rolleyes:
Umm…if George is going to do the third trilogy, he’d have to either borrow from EU or make up new story line. When Lucas had plans for the third trilogy, he was going to make it so that RotJ involved Luke falling to the dark side just like his father, and then the movies were going to be dragged out for another 3 installments so that Leia could bring Luke back.
But luckily Lucas seemed to realize that it would be much better to just wrap the story up completely in RotJ, so no, there will not be a third trilogy.
How could we BE so lucky?
Deeds not words!
Not my generations! I’m going to go buy the damn laserdiscs and they will be the only Star Wars allowed in my house.
I’m going to make 'em listen to the soundtracks on vinyl, too.
Of course, that already happened, but in the comics (and referenced in the novels). IMO - unless George Lucas truly wants to alienate all his devoted fans - he could do another trilogy starring the Solo twins - Jaina and Jacen - starting when they’re about 20. Not that I think he’d be able to do a decent job without damaging the great work done by the Extended Universe writers.
If Lucas did decide to have a third trilogy made, he should hand over both the writing and directing chores to someone else, and only be expected to supply ideas in places where, no matter what he comes up with, the Extended Universe continuity can’t be damaged. (While the EU continuity isn’t perfect, it’s very impressive. Lucas should at least be commended for instituting great quality control for the EU - comics, novels, toys…)
Anyhoo…
I think after the fanboy ragging has died down, people will see them for the gorgeous films they are – the most visually stunning SF films ever created.
I don’t think it will. They don’t strike me as movies that will stand up for any length of time, since so many people (and it’s not just geeks) have ripped the first two to shreds.
Sometime in the Future…
Future Guy: Ooh! Look what I found. The complete Star Wars Trilogies. Shall we view them?
Other Future Guy: IT’S A TRAP!
The Timothy Zhan books could be the third trilogy now, if they wanted. But Lucas probably wouldn’t live long enough to see them through, and if Lucas can’t be the big man in charge…