It's Time To Forgive George Lucas

[Bat Vader]

I have to agree. George Lucas has given so much more to the filmmaker of today. Yes, the prequels were bad but they are also watchable too. In all honesty, I really liked Revenge Of The Sith, especially towards the ending when Anakin turns to the Dark Side and leads the clone troopers on the Jedi Temple.

 

[Jaebird]

I personally can't fault a guy for wanting to go back and touch up older work

That's what she said.

[small]Sorry, but it had to be done. [/small]

Taken out of context, I don't that works.

 

[Madshaw]

"...if Greedo shooting first "ruined your life" then your life was in a pretty sorry place to begin with"

EXACTLY!

Hit the nail on the head with this article. I'll be e-mailing it to a bunch of my friends to read over. Doubt it will change there opinions but whatever, some people are just thick headed

greedo doesn't shoot first?

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

greedo doesn't shoot first?

The original scene

 

[Tom Phoenix]

I never disliked George Lucas, primarily beacuse I never liked Star Wars as much as other people did. This is not to say that the movies are bad or that they do not have their moments of genius (and they certainly were revolutionary for their time from a technological aspect). However, from a modern standpoint, Star Wars (yes, including the original trilogy) does not amount to much more then a "fairy tale in space". I even found the main plotline in KotOR to be better then the story from the original movies.

However, I suppose I can understand the sentiment of SW fans to a degree. While I am not a Trekkie, I have watched a certain amount of Star Trek and the best episodes (at least for me) were usually the ones that strayed away from the vision Gene Roddenberry originally set out for the franchise. So I would not be suprised if there is a difference between what the fans think makes SW great and what George Lucas thinks makes SW great.

 

[internetzealot1]

I enjoyed all prequels but Episode III, and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull would've been good if it hadn't been for aliens.

 

[Always_Remain]

NEVER COMPROMISE!!!

No really I grew up with the prequels so they never bugged me so I have no reason to hate Mr. Lucas. Haven't seen Crystal Skull yet though xD

 

[Canid117]

I am still not in a forgiving mood towards anyone involved in Indiana Jones 4. I wont try to actively seek out scenarios to rail against them but I am still going to cringe whenever the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is mentioned in my presence.

 

[Atmos Duality]

I'm not a Star Wars purist. Not even close. All I saw was that he was doing nothing but exploiting his own series for profit, and because of that, shouldn't ever be taken seriously; "canon" be damned and all. Hell, I read the first X-Wing series by Stackpole, and HE did a better job capturing the feeling of the Star Wars universe than Lucas ever did.

If one of your subordinate contract writers puts more creative effort into your idea, then there's something wrong. The books were based on mechanics from the VIDEO GAMES!

Thus, I believe that the movies were NEVER made to really tell a good story. They were made to dazzle the viewer with abusive amounts of CGI tech, and then lure you into buying merch after the fact. The merchandise justified the movie, rather than the other way around (like it's supposed to be)!

I'm sure George Lucas didn't care because it made him filty stinking rich.
Really, you can't be a household name and not learn how to ignore people. You would go insane if you actually stopped to consider your fanbase's opinion.

Therefore, I'm not going to apologize for anything, nor forgive George Lucas, because I can see why he did what he did. He saw an opportunity and exploited a market he created, and there isn't anything to forgive there.

 

[kawaiiamethist]

I hate the movie (in this case, Crystal Skull), not the man.

 

[rddj623]

Bravo Bob, Bravo.

 

[(LK)]

I wonder aloud to myself what exactly MovieBob thinks of THX-1138.

 

[Seneschal]

Like all SW, love the mythos, ADORE the KotOR games. Hey, he led to the KotOR games! How can we hate him? (Okay, so your mileage may vary with the sequel, but I thought it was okay)

Yes, the prequels were kinda worse, but I like watching them. They're shamelessly epic, downright campy at times, they tie in into the mythos like the OT's idiot friend that everyone wants to watch make a fool of himself. And while 1 and 2 are complete duds in terms of drama, Revenge of the Sith actually had some pretty effective conflict.

Yes, the acting in 3 sucked (who'd figure that James Earl Jones cannot make a good Big No?) but I think it was better at starwarsing than Return of the Jedi, it was more epic, more tense, it had better music, better fights, bigger events, better conflicts, etc.

Now, I think everyone agrees on this - the prequels had some KICKASS music, amazing lightsaber duels, awesome villains (Maul, Dooku, even Ian McDiarmid chewing the scenery was a delight to watch), gratuitous but generally very good special effects, and so on. They were made so for the wider appeal, and it worked by the looks of the box office. Much worse movies have reaped the same amount of money, like Revenge of the Fallen, so being angry at Revenge of the Sith for being just enjoyable sci-fi adventures, not world-shattering epics, makes no sense to me.

If anyone really wants to get deeper into the story and the characters, which the general public and 95% of the audience that went to see the prequels DON'T, they have the novels, the video-games, the roleplay games, the ridiculously detailed expanded universe, etc. I'm not sure whose loss was it that the movies were blockbusters. The earnings and the popularity allowed dozens of other SW-related products that were actually good (like the aforementioned Knights of the Old Republic, the Sixth Sense of gaming).

And yes, Jar-Jar sucks for everyone, and so does the Holiday Special ("Stir whip stir whip whip whip stiiiiirrr," oh the horror...).

Off-topic, I hope How to Train Your Dragon is on the list of reviews in the near future. Doesn't have to be next week. But pleeeeaaaase, Movie Bob!

 

[neutrinoide]

The think he has to realize is that he wasn't angry about God, since the concept don't exist but something else.

 

[Chewster]

So people should stop using hyperbole when it comes to directors they dislike.

Gotcha.

 

[DTWolfwood]

hmmm strange never notice or thought it was much of a deal who shot first <.<

but Greedo missing at point blank doesnt make much sense if he was an experience bounty hunter if u ask me

 

[craddoke]

Here's a thought from left field: Perhaps George Lucas has done the world a favor by destroying/raping his most popular franchises - franchises that extolled a simplistic us vs. them morality (Star Wars) and uber-macho womanizing coupled with disregard for cultural sensitivity (Indiana Jones). We're talking about a man with decidedly liberal tendencies forced to endure decades of conservative twits (Reagan foremost among them) co-opting his fantasies to shill imperialist policies. It's probably not a coincidence that the very generation that was born into the Star Wars universe (those in their mid-30s right now) skew conservative to a much higher degree then others just a little bit older or younger.

The take-away? George Lucas is killing his (cinematic) children so that they're never raped by conservative politicians again. The man deserves a f**king medal.

 

[Proteus214]

Didn't George Lucas address this sort of thing when he was interviewed on The Daily Show? You can basically tell where the fans feelings lie based on what iteration of Star Wars was out when they were under the age of 10. There's an entire generation that loves the prequels, it's just that they're currently 12-13 years old. There's even an up an coming generation that loves Clone Wars that is currently under the age of 8.

Rose tinted glasses people.