Poll: Are We Too Hard On Lucas?

[Aurora Firestorm]

He's the creator. He plays God with his canon. He can do whatever the hell he likes, and fans can suck it up. He has every right to do what he likes with his work. You and I don't own it. He owns it. That's like telling JK Rowling she can't kill Dumbledore because we like him too much. Sucks to be us.

But I'm not a diehard Star Wars fan, so I can't really understand this fanboyism.

The prequels were better than The Last Airbender, so I honestly can't say they're the worst things ever and have no redeeming value. Were they Awesomely Significant and Wonderful? No. Were they pieces of crap? I'd say no. They were fun. Shallow and stilted, but still fun. I enjoyed the pod-race scene. I liked the graphics; they were immersive. I liked the whiz-bang and General Grievous and the lava fight. I thought they were nice to watch. Ergo, it wasn't a 100% failure in my book.

The originals, I honestly didn't like much. I was under 10 when I saw them, and all I wanted was to watch animated Disney movies, and I thought Luke Skywalker was lame and boring. I saw the first movie recently and...welp, now that I'm out of college, I still think Luke Skywalker is lame and boring. Maybe I'm just not cut out for Star Wars.

 

[Stilt-Man]

In a way, I think whether he deserves it or not is irrelevant. When you make a work public -- be it a major motion picture, or a lowly forum post -- you open yourself up to criticism and praise. You gotta take the bad with the good, even if there is no good. If he's sensitive about the public's reaction, perhaps he should have stopped sooner.

So, to answer the original question ("Are we too hard on Lucas?"), I would have to say "no". I think there are better, and more-constructive ways to voice displeasure; however, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and has a right to express it.

 

[illas]

In my opinion, the original trilogy are average at best. Return of the Jedi in particular devolves into "muppets in space!"-like farce.

My major issue with Lucas is that he returns to the Star Wars universe time and again primarily to make money. Eg: all the crass tie-ins, unnecessary revisions, and 3D remakes.

 

[RagTagBand]

No? He's fucking with classic cinema for no credible reason and we're supposed to feel bad because he doesn't like being called out on it? Have some integrity.

 

[maddog015]

He's the creator. He plays God with his canon. He can do whatever the hell he likes, and fans can suck it up. He has every right to do what he likes with his work. You and I don't own it. He owns it. That's like telling JK Rowling she can't kill Dumbledore because we like him too much. Sucks to be us.

Not quite. It's more like if JK goes back now and tools around the books to change the tone or introduce frivolous details. People would be outraged. For the most part, people like things the way they are when they originally saw/read it, flaws and all.

 

[Vie]

Lets put it like this:

I don't like Star Wars, yes we do exist, and even I recognise that the prequels are a pile of poo compared to the original films. And I agree that the edits Mr Lucas made in the re-releases are to the detriment of the original films.

 

[Silver PBall]

I'm only really bothered that he's made such a case of re-selling his movies repeatedly, rather than making new ones. Modernizing the classics that we all have already fallen in love with, despite their flaws, is kind of a kick in the seat.

 

[Zenn3k]

He's the creator. He plays God with his canon. He can do whatever the hell he likes, and fans can suck it up. He has every right to do what he likes with his work. You and I don't own it. He owns it. That's like telling JK Rowling she can't kill Dumbledore because we like him too much. Sucks to be us.
.

Its more like if JK went back to the first book now, and decided to re-write the entire book, by adding a goofy side-kick character that follows Harry around, then not change any of the other dialog, just randomly insert bad slapstick humor in EVERYTHING.

Then you have what equals to what Lucas did to Star Wars.

If you're gonna make an analogy, make it correct.

 

[Scarim Coral]

The thing is while the original (4-6) were incomplete in his view, we loved them just the way it was! Ok yes I guess he was thinking we would love it even more for the alteration he add to it. Yes I can get when you're perfectionish but you can't denined people loving your creation the way it is so why tampering it any further?

As for good other prequels, we will have to wait and see for The Hobbits (I wonder who are going to complains about the changes they did compare to the book).

 

[BloatedGuppy]

He makes Uwe Boll and Michael Bay look like masters of the medium. If he ever had talent, it's long since deserted him. His finest films were principally the effort of other people.

To those presuming the only reason one could hate the prequels is because of outraged Star Wars fanboyism...no. I stopped caring about Star Wars a long, long time ago, but I haven't stopped caring about quality cinema. It's an art form, just like music, just like literature. If you've ever complained about a bad song, or a bad book, or a bad game, you've not got a leg to stand on here. Lucas is the Rebecca Black of film directors. He's Stephanie Meyer. He's Elf Bowling.

He's a joke, and a hack, and his prequels are the worst kind of rubbish, and deserves every jot of abuse he's been taking and then some.

 

[Montezuma's Lawyer]

Jar-Jar Binks.
Midichlorians.
Hayden Christiansen shopped into the ending of RotJ.

JAR. JAR. BINKS.

No, I don't think people are too hard on him at all.

THIS.

Just because he decided to cry about it, does not excuse him from what he's done.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Let me put it this way: I don't wish death on the man, but I'm in the camp that is just biding their time until he kicks the bucket, and hoping his heirs have a bit more sense about the movies than he does. We're never going to get a good transfer of the original original trilogy as long as the man lives. It's not because the original negatives have been destroyed; you don't really need those to get a good transfer when there's still three strip technicolor prints extant -- those things, along with vinyl records, are one of those formats that pretty much never decay as long as they're properly stored. What we're seeing here, sadly, is a man with a bruised ego who is too proud to admit he made a mistake. Until he either admits his mistake[footnote]meaning he gives the original cuts the respect they deserve; a transfer of a master made for laserdisc that looks worse than the fan transfers of the actual laserdiscs does /not/ count.[/footnote] or dies, I'm unlikely to ever buy a new transfer of the old films. And that makes me sad; lord knows the man has made a small fortune off of me alone over the years, and there would be plenty of money left if he would just give the fans (including me) what they want.

The infamous edit that puts Hayden Christensen at the end of RoTJ was released on a special edition DVD that included the original theatrical version of the film. I bought them just a couple years back, so I can't imagine that they'd be impossible to find.

 

[Zen Toombs]

In some ways, yes. But Mr. Lucas has been something of an idiot in the past, and has earned most of his criticism.

 

[Hollock]

He has complete disregard for his fans. He said a million times that he just wants to make his movies and doesn't give a shit what the fans think. He says that his movies are kids films and that it shouldn't matter to his older fans. If all of a sudden he says you guys are to mean to me I'm not playing with you anymore! after years of nothing, well. Fuck him.

And as far as him retiring from film making. He's made 6 films in 30 years. Him no longer making films is like me retiring from dating.

 

[PhunkyPhazon]

By no means is he without faults, and he has most definitely made some poor decisions with his recent films. On top of that, he refuses to listen to fans or virtually any feedback whatsoever, just doing as he pleases with his movies. Normally that would be fine, but Lucas does things to his movies that drive a lot of people away from them.

However, when all is said and done, they're just movies. He's not murdering children or anything, he's just making unpopular decisions with his films. For that reason, I do think some of the bashing has gone extremely overboard with some people. I mean if you were to listen to a die-hard Star Wars fanboy, you'd think Lucas committed genocide and that he was the adopted child of Hitler and Satan. I mean good god people, I hate Jar Jar as much as anyone but it's not THAT big of a deal.

 

[maddog015]

Not quite. It's more like if JK goes back now and tools around the books to change the tone or introduce frivolous details. People would be outraged. For the most part, people like things the way they are when they originally saw/read it, flaws and all.

Its more like if JK went back to the first book now, and decided to re-write the entire book, by adding a goofy side-kick character that follows Harry around, then not change any of the other dialog, just randomly insert bad slapstick humor in EVERYTHING.

Then you have what equals to what Lucas did to Star Wars.

If you're gonna make an analogy, make it correct.

Hey, I like the way you think.

 

[Schmittler]

Jar-Jar Binks.
Midichlorians.
Hayden Christiansen shopped into the ending of RotJ.

JAR. JAR. BINKS.

No, I don't think people are too hard on him at all.

While I agree to an extent that we shouldn't let him off the hook so easily, if we ignore the Phantom Menace, I can forgive him.

I can forgive Hayden Christiansen being shopped into RotJ for continuities sake, but I do dislike that he messes with his original trilogy and makes decisions based on toys, etc. Throwing in CGI'd aliens is passable, but making Vader say "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" in RotJ was just silly, as well as having Greedo shoot first.

In conclusion, sure the guy has made some mistakes, but he gets a little too much hate for what he has done. Without the Phantom Menace it is at least respectable. He shouldn't be directing his movies in my opinion.

 

[Risingblade]

Yeah you guys are too hard on the poor guy, I feel sorry for him quite honestly.

 

[WeAreStevo]

I do not believe we are too hard on Lucas. He has driven his original, amazing series into the dirt.

Examples: Jar Jar Binks. Indiana Jones being nuked and surviving in a fridge.

Those god awful "new" versions of the original trilogy....

I'm glad he's stopped before any more damage can be done...

 

[Strain42]

As someone who doesn't see Star Wars as some "holy trilogy" and just sees them as semi-decent movies set in a fairly interesting universe, I think people are way too hard on him. It's one thing to get mad at a director for making bad films, it's another to literally insult the man into semi-retirement because of some altered effects.

I know some of this will come across as hypocritical (and it is) but there are better things to vent anger at than a man who decided to alter something that he made.

Seriously, people freaking out about Greedo shooting first is about as pointless as getting mad if someone plugs their phone charger into the top outlet instead of the bottom one.

Star Wars fans are the nerd ragiest of nerd rage, and watching them fling poo about it makes me embarrassed to be considered part of the same culture as them.