Actually I was thinking that the 40% of the people who didn’t like the 3 movies have not yet kissed a girl.
Star Wars was a great movie (and I was in my late 20s at the time it came out). The Empire Strikes Back was an OK sequel, and The Return of the Jedi, started out well, but lost momentum once Luke left Yoda and was limped to a rather routine ending.
But the prequels were just bad movies. In the first, you had one of the least interesting villains in the history of film (Darth Maul), and any chance for excitement was drained out by the fact it was a prequel ("Gee, Obi-Wan Kenobi is fighting for his life! I wonder if he’ll survive? Oh, wait . . . . "). And, of course, Jar Jar Binks.
The later sequels were pretty much forgettable potboilers. The movies just didn’t work at all as movies, and were only so-so as special effects films (and I hate special effects films). All of the flaws can be laid at the feet of one person: George Lucas
Well that’s flatly impossible, because I’ve kissed a couple.
You are remarkably angry and snippy in defending utter rubbish. If your standards are so low that you’ll accept drivel as fine art, good for you. I imagine you can find great entertainment watching infomercials.
However, the films are stupidly written, horribly acted and directed poorly.
Again, kudos to you for being able to find great joy in lesser works. But don’t expect the thinking public to gravitate to your lowbrow tastes.
Some of us have kissed real, live, full-grown women! OK, I had been open to the possibility that the OP was interested in other opinions, or at least wanted to mount an actual defense of the movies. Since the purpose of the thread appears to be to take cheap shots at people. I choose not to spend any more effort in being a target.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all of good will.
>However the then sat on his fat ass for thirty years and created something terrible that he didn’t really think about.
Wow, how would you like to be judged on your appearance?
While the haters were whining I was enjoying the excellent Lucasarts games his studio produced. While other IP holders were just giving licenses to Activism to sell poorly made franchise games, Lucas built his own game studio to create some really phenomenal video games. Also, I cant think of any other IP holders who allow so much commercial parody, profitable conventions, etc with his creations. Oh, lets not forget his work pioneering THX sound in movie theaters.
While the newer movies arent perfect (but get much better after Phantom), I really see Lucas as something of a geek hero. He revolutionalized sci-fi movies, video games, and theater sound. Shame the angry “fail” crowd has decided its hip to hate him. Herd mentalities and hate combine into an ugly thing.
There’s no question he did all that. And he did a poor job on the prequels.
Is it better to be an unthinking, unquestioning fanboy who loves everything someone does? Or is it better to apply a little critical thinking?
I liked the original movies. I love Lucasarts and nearly all the games that came from them. ILM is near legendary as a special effects company. And Lucas fucked up his own story with the prequels. How does saying that make me a bad person?
ETA: And nice job with the insults and attempts at getting nerdrage started, OP. Poor form.
Lucas did amazing work building new special effects and movie technology. He’s really great at that and unmatched in Hollywood in that field. We all know that. However, he turned into a piss poor storyteller and director after the first Star Wars film. And that’s why the prequels sucked, because he didn’t want to delegate the writing and directors to others like he did with Empire.
Calling someone fat and a loser and all the other insults I see on this site is far from “a little critical thinking.” Its just childish nerd rage. Im all for criticism but as the OP wrote, its not criticism its outright 2 minutes hate thats socially acceptable in nerddom. Well, it shouldnt be. Seriously, if talking about movies gets people this angry then its time to close the browser and go for a walk.
Who’s angry? Strong opinions |= anger.
I’ve yet to see anyone on the verge of bursting a blood vessel in their head or neck over reading the mere mention of George’s name or work.
Can you point me in the direction of such posts, maybe my huge nerd glasses prescription need another update. :rolleyes:
Sure, calling him fat and other names may be making it personal, but that’s hardly the norm. Most people in this thread have given fairly reasoned explanations as to why they have little respect for Lucas regarding the prequels without getting noticeably pissy about it. To ignore them and focus on the people calling him names is, again, poor form.
I should say that I have no problem with fat filmmakers, after all I loved Peter Jackson before he was svelte.
That said, Lucas is sitting on his fat laurels. He’s a pathetic figure really. Someone who once had a gift and degenerated into a parody of his former self, surrounded by yes-men and small people who are too afraid to let him know when he’s making a stupid decision.
He had been basking in the aroma of his own greatness for so long he took it for granted.
Here’s the source of my disdain for George Lucas: he has proven himself a feeble storyteller.
I imagine myself hanging out with “someone” who’s telling me the story of Star Wars. He starts with episode 4, but doesn’t tell me at first that we’re coming into the middle of a story. Then, pretty much right after he’s told me about the awards being given out by Princess Leia, he says, “Now I have to tell you, this is really not where everything began. There was a whole bunch of stuff that came before the Tantive IV was captured by the Empire.” [sup]1[/sup]
Then, he goes on to tell me the story of Empire and Jedi, including C-3PO’s retelling of the story to that point (obligatory Anna Russell reference).
Then, as I’m taking a sip of a tasty beverage, he says, “Now, before I go on to tell you all the stuff that happened before Episode IV, I have to correct some of the things I told you so far.”[sup]2[/sup]
“Buh-what?” I say.
“Yeah, it’s just little stuff. Like that explosion I told you was the biggest thing ever when the original Death Star exploded? It was even bigger than that, and it had a ring.”
“A ring?”
“Yeah, like when [del]Praxis[/del], er, I mean like Saturn, but cooler and expanding out with the explosion. The second Death Star had one, too. Even bigger!”
“But the Death Star II had less mass.”
“Maybe I meant Dantooine. Or Alderaan. Whatever. Anyway, it was a lot cooler looking than I told you it was the first time. Oh, and Greedo shot first.”
I do a spit take. “Greedo what what?”
“Yeah. I know you probably thought Han was a real badass for proactively defending his own life like I originally said, but no, after I saw how you took to him as a character, I realized I had misspoken: he’s really a good guy type, a straight shooter who would only ever shoot in true self-defense.”
“But he’s a ruttin’ criminal.”
“A moral criminal, who would never commit murder.”
“Are you just making stuff up now just to piss me off?”
“No, no, I have to make sure my artistic vision is preserved. I just didn’t have any way to communicate to you before how things really went.”
“Frak you, man, I’m tired of this crap.”
“But I haven’t told you about Anakin as a boy and his love for Amidala.”
“First Luke and Leia and now Anakin and Amidala? Dude, you have got to work on your character’s names. Now piss off.”
“But you’ll want to hear about how the Trade Federation was blockading --”
“Another blockade, too?”
“No, I mean, they were enforcing an embargo --”
“Sounds great. When does Darth start killing Jedi?”
“Oh, Darth’s not really his first name. It’s a title.”
“Obi-Wan called him ‘Darth.’”
“Obi-Wan was an old man.”
“Yeah? Seems to be a lot of that going around. Piss off.”
[sup]1[/sup] This was done when they re-released Star Wars as Star Wars: Episode IV, A New Hope before Empire came out.
[sup]2[/sup] The Special Editions, natch.
This is not film criticism.
Lucasarts have been making amazing video games for more than two decades, and plenty of that stuff wasn’t based on StarWars. Kudos to them. I rather doubt Lucas himself was all that involved in the actual execution of any of those games, though.
As for the StarWars franchise - Lucas did great. He was a visionary in that field and just the toys and related merchandize of the first 3 movies probably made him more money than the ticket sales.
I really don’t know much about the details of the THX sound, except that it always seems to mess things up on my stereo DVD system.
As far as I’m concerned, Lucas has a good eye for visuals, and an amazing understanding of the technology and business of film making, but he needs pressure to keep his films watchable. The overall plot of the first prequel - the one of with the trade blockade and that stuff - is just incomprehensible. And then you get Jar Jar.
I’m not a star wars fan at all - I liked the first 3 movies OK; they had some tension, an easy plot and some very nicely made “old-school” FX that didn’t get in the way. The 1st prequel was incomprehensible, had too much FX (the kind of FX that should “Look at me! I’m a special effect!”) and the setting was uninteresting. Looking back, I think it would have made for a much more interesting story if they’d started the prequels with Anakin only a bit younger than Luke was in Star Wars; already an accepted young Jedi, and then just follow his spiral to the dark side. With some real hard choices he has to make in order to make it believable. Not just “oh no they killed my mum” or whatever his motivation was supposed to be.
I mean, if you’re going to wait more than 2 decades, why not have a good story at least?
OK, gang, Moderator intervention: a reminder that other posters can have different opinions, one of the joys of discussion of art/entertainment is the different perspectives. You may say what you want about George Lucas, but you may NOT insult other posters just because they have a different perspective than you. We’re doing fine so far, but there are a few comment that strike me as a little… well, edgy, and I don’t want this to become a slug-fest between posters. So: agree to disagree and discuss the causes and reasons for the disagreement. OK?
Does anyone think or believe that Lucas had the storyline/movies plotted out ahead of time as they came out, or was the unexpected success of Star Wars the impetus for everything else?
Does Lucas himself believe or has he said that his vision for the stories/movies followed a specific inverted timeline since the story began with Star Wars?
Given all the changes and contradictions, it is obvious that Lucas had only the sketchiest outline developed for the story. George has told the lie so often I think he really believes it now.
“If your standards are so low that you’ll accept drivel as fine art, good for you. I imagine you can find great entertainment watching infomercials.”
Who said these movies were “fine art?” Not me , nor did anyone else. I just said “pretty good” which is a long way from fine art the last time I checked. Someone else said I posted the films were “great” which is just as funny.
These are classic straw men, make up something I didn’t say to make me look bad and then knock it down.
I recall hearing at the time (perhaps after Star Wars, or perhaps the other two) that Lucas said his grand plan was to make a nine-film series that included three prequels and three sequels.
He has since said that six films was his plan all along, and that he never said anything about nine films. But I know I heard it. I just never found a cite (and I’m not such a fan that I would want to look).
I think he said “I will make 3 bad movies on purpose and sit around and laugh my ass off while everyone complains about them. I don’t care about the fans, I’ve got $3 billion dollars!”
If you think The Phantom Menace is “pretty good”, what do you consider “really crappy”? :dubious:
Because, pretty much any way you look at it, The Phantom Menace is a really crappy movie. It doesn’t have a protagonist, there are gaping plot holes, characters act with inconsistent motivations or no motivations at all, the dialog is awkwardly written and delivered, and the conclusion is neither emotionally nor intellectually satisfying. And, worst of all, it’s BORING. The original Star Wars was a thrilling bit of summer escapism. It wasn’t great art, but it was well-made, was packed with memorable moments, and was (and still is) a lot of fun to watch. The prequels are confusing and dull – if it wasn’t for the lingering aura of goodwill created by the original trilogy, The Phantom Menace would have tanked and been completely forgotten the way crappy movies usually are.