Call me crazy, but personally I'd love to see more SW movies. It's a very rich universe with unique and interesting archetypes. George should cash out, sell off the rights to a studio, and let a new generation of filmmakers take a swing at bringing the Star Wars universe to life. Heresy to some, but I love Star Wars and would love to see it brought to life through someone else's vision.
Originally posted by chelan Originally posted by Eliandal He is right though, and does bring up a valid point...they are HIS - and frankly I think most of us would react the same way considering the vitriol levelled at him. I'm one of the odd ones that didn't mind the prequels. Even Jar jar doesn't bother me. The only thing that really annoys me is the money grabbing constant re-release of the movies every few years - but of course business is business and 'new shiney' will always outsell 'been on the shelf for a few years'
see this is where you are mistaken. even great artists recognize this and amongst them Mark Rothko the painter made it most clear by describing the letting go process for his work. with each work he recognized that once it was 'out there', once it was public it was no longer really his. and he's right. the physcial material, the idea even may 'belong' to him, but in a very unique way ideas and feelings cannot be kept, they cannot be owned, but only shared. anyone who thinks that they 'own' a story that has had such world wide appeal and has embedded itself so deep into the psyche of the population at large (star trek would be another good example) is a fool or blind or both.
He did indeed own all the rights to the stories, but didn't take into consideration any of the people who were going to watch the stories. "Would my fans like this?" is a good question to ask yourself. Even, "What do my fans really want?" is a decent question to ask when you have a product to sell.
I think it would have been enough with the original 3 movies if he didn't so adamantly refuse to release the original theatrical releases alongside the updated versions of the movies. Especially with the DVD releases. It was like he was trying to change history and take away what people remembered and loved about the original movies. Even if it wasn't arrogant, it came off as arrogant.
The new movies were just stupid, but I can understand why he did what he did. My kids loved the new movies and thought they were great. They watched all of them and still remember them as good movies. My kids wonder why I think the original movies were so great.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
My only hope is that when George Lucas dies (hopefully many years from now for he and his families sake) that his kids will sell the rights to make a new trilogy, a sequel trilogy, to someone who still has vision and really understands what made 4-6 so good and 1-3 so mediocre (at best.)
Don't think so. This generation of kids think the old trilogy was terrible and boring but love the new ones. This generation would have no idea how to continue the saga in a way of creative vision that 4-6 had. Lucas is taking it to the grave and that it.
I understand where he's coming from, anything you create... ANYTHING, ends up just getting ripped apart, mostly by people who have no ability or drive to create themselves. He's made a ton of money, and I'd rather bow out then keep releasing movies that people will see and then bitch in very exaggerated terms about how horrible it was.
Maybe GL is a little too sensitive... but you see these complaints all the time about how everything sucks and nothing is good anymore. People are just not happy with anything, we're like one big society of whiny children.
I understand where he's coming from, anything you create... ANYTHING, ends up just getting ripped apart, mostly by people who have no ability or drive to create themselves. He's made a ton of money, and I'd rather bow out then keep releasing movies that people will see and then bitch in very exaggerated terms about how horrible it was.
Maybe GL is a little too sensitive... but you see these complaints all the time about how everything sucks and nothing is good anymore. People are just not happy with anything, we're like one big society of whiny children.
With the first 2 films of the series Lucas had no FREAKING clue what he was doing as far as making a movie goes... so he hired a bunch of people that did. They took his vision and turned them into masterpieces of film history. By the time "Return of the Jedi" came around he thought he had a pretty firm grasp on what he was doing and took more control of the franchise away from the very people that made the first 2 films a hit. This is why a lot of SW fans will say that the third film was inderior to I and II. In films IV, V and VI he decided that he knew what the hell he was doing and took TOTAL control. ...so we got what we have now.
George Lucas is without a doubt one of the greatest Science Fiction creators of all time. ...he just REALLY sucks at making movies and refuses to let other people have any say in the process. He created the universe... the LORE... if he could just kick back and let people that know how to take good stories and turn them into good movies he would have another successful trilogy.
I don't really have that much vested in Star Wars. To be honest, I don't even like the franchise anymore. I can't speak for the books, but everything since the original films have been complete crap, so when I see stuff like this:
He's retiring? great, now I don't have to wince in pain thanks to the crap that he's been producing. I can't believe that he thought his earlier success made him forever infallible. He's right that he is perfectly within his rights to make the movies as he wants to, but it is within our rights to be severely disappointed as well.
I don't suppose that he'll be willing to lease the IP out to a filmmaker that hasn't lost their touch.
Ooh, give it to Peter Jackson, now theres a man who can weave an epic.
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. Hemingway
There was no way to follow the first three movies with such a time gap between the first three and then the next three. You are never ever going to achieve the same success if you wait that long to continue the story, unless you do things exactly by the book and don't change anything. Case in point, Mega Man 9. It went back to the original NES graphics and sound, had the same gameplay, and people loved it. You can't do this with movies however without a new cast or a time-lapse to explain why the characters have aged so much(assuming you get the original cast together).
If he did the next three right after the first three, even if they were the same movies they probably would've faired better. I think this is a classic case of too much hype making the movie impossible to live up to.
Now Playing: Mission Against Terror, Battlefield 3, Skyrim, Dark Souls, League of Legends, Minecraft, and the piano. =3
I'm really not a fanboi i used to like them when i was a kid and frankly other then updating the music a tad and maybe improving the picture quality nothing else needed to be done to the original ones.
If he has anything to complain about it would be how he destroyed his own work by making stupid changes to the original movies. It was just as bad as changing the guns the government officials had in ET to walky talkies when we ALL know they are more gun happy now then when ET came out and it would be more likely to have a "The Day The Earth Stood Still" Scenario with aliens visiting earth now then when ET was made.
/rant off
It's fine they would probably cut corners anyways with the new movies if the game is ANY indicator of how the movie projects would be handled.
It gets pretty annoying when fan critics think "dark" makes for a better SW. ESB was just the best scripted, acted and directed movie in the series. That it had darker elements didn't make everything about the movie better.
It's like the next Batman preview showing Comissioner Gordon on his death bed. Boy...I can't wait to see that! I'm giddy with anticipation. Just the idea that Batman could have his back broken--fun!
The LOTR series was done right. The first Matrix movie was done right. The Star Trek reboot was done right. None of them were dark movies. Star Trek was closer to Star Wars than any movie has since the original trilogy and it wasn't dark at all.
It gets pretty annoying when fan critics think "dark" makes for a better SW. ESB was just the best scripted, acted and directed movie in the series. That it had darker elements didn't make everything about the movie better.
It's like the next Batman preview showing Comissioner Gordon on his death bed. Boy...I can't wait to see that! I'm giddy with anticipation. Just the idea that Batman could have his back broken--fun!
The LOTR series was done right. The first Matrix movie was done right. The Star Trek reboot was done right. None of them were dark movies. Star Trek was closer to Star Wars than any movie has since the original trilogy and it wasn't dark at all.
You are absolutely right. "Dark" doesn't automatically make it a better movie but good writing and directing does. Something niether episodes 1 or 2 had in my honest opinion. Don't get me wrong... they were good 'Popcorn movies' but not what you'd expect from the same guy who made episodes 4,5 and 6. Episode 3 was the only movie in the newer trilogy that was almost as good as the original 3 because it had decent writing and directing and not because it happened to be darker then the previous 2.
i liked the prequels and i didnt mind jar jar either, the only problem i had was the casting of hayden christenson (terrible actor even for star wars standards). Problem with star wars is you have all these die hard fans who think they know how to make a better movie than lucas. It's a shame we wont see anymore star wars movies.
Playing: EVE Online Favorite MMOs: WoW, SWG Pre-cu, Lineage 2, UO, EQ, EVE online Looking forward to: Archeage, Kingdom Under Fire 2 KUF2's Official Website - http://www.kufii.com/ENG/ -
Empire Strikes Back will always be my favorite, but yeah the actors defintely annoyed me in the newer films. Not so much the Jedi characters (Samuel L was good, so were the guys who played Qui Gon and Obi Wan whose names escape me) but everyone else.....why.
Natalie Portman does nothing for me, shes attractive but not enough to cover up her mediocre acting. Both young Anakin and emo Anakin pissed me off. All in all he's just trying to cash in on his baby and I would do the same thing
I understand where he's coming from, anything you create... ANYTHING, ends up just getting ripped apart, mostly by people who have no ability or drive to create themselves. He's made a ton of money,
Not entirely true. I've watched hundreds of fan movies that blew Lucas' Prequels out of the water in terms of plot. If these amateurs had millions at their disposal like Lucas has, hundreds of these amateurs would outshine him in any given day.
My only hope is that when George Lucas dies (hopefully many years from now for he and his families sake) that his kids will sell the rights to make a new trilogy, a sequel trilogy, to someone who still has vision and really understands what made 4-6 so good and 1-3 so mediocre (at best.)
Don't think so. This generation of kids think the old trilogy was terrible and boring but love the new ones. This generation would have no idea how to continue the saga in a way of creative vision that 4-6 had. Lucas is taking it to the grave and that it.
It's probably best for Star Wars to just get planted into the ground. Fat chance of that happening though. We'll continue to see Star Wars get raped over the table. Nothing since TPM came out has been decent. Yeah, I said it.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
My only hope is that when George Lucas dies (hopefully many years from now for he and his families sake) that his kids will sell the rights to make a new trilogy, a sequel trilogy, to someone who still has vision and really understands what made 4-6 so good and 1-3 so mediocre (at best.)
Don't think so. This generation of kids think the old trilogy was terrible and boring but love the new ones. This generation would have no idea how to continue the saga in a way of creative vision that 4-6 had. Lucas is taking it to the grave and that it.
It's probably best for Star Wars to just get planted into the ground. Fat chance of that happening though. We'll continue to see Star Wars get raped over the table. Nothing since TPM came out has been decent. Yeah, I said it.
I was around 12 when The Phantom Menace came out and obviously I saw and loved The Original Trilogy as did most of my friends, however technically I grew up with the new trilogy. I remember going to see Phantom on my mates birthday and we all hated it, lots of people left the cinema and people boo'd at the end. It's the only film I've seen where that has happened to because it was so bad even us 12 year olds hated it.
What I never understood was he was obviously aiming at getting kids liking the film and yet there are so many boring scenes with politicians talking about a load of bullshit that doesn't make sense. You never saw any of that in The original Trilogy and there was heavy talking scenes it was always well written and witty. In the new films the characters have no personality, they aren't likable and the acting is all wooden with the worst script.
I hope Lucas dies, I really do so he doesn't Star Wars anymore because I just know he'll do something stupid in 10 years like remaking the Original Trilogy lol.
Comments
Call me crazy, but personally I'd love to see more SW movies. It's a very rich universe with unique and interesting archetypes. George should cash out, sell off the rights to a studio, and let a new generation of filmmakers take a swing at bringing the Star Wars universe to life. Heresy to some, but I love Star Wars and would love to see it brought to life through someone else's vision.
anyone who thinks that they 'own' a story that has had such world wide appeal and has embedded itself so deep into the psyche of the population at large (star trek would be another good example) is a fool or blind or both.
He did indeed own all the rights to the stories, but didn't take into consideration any of the people who were going to watch the stories. "Would my fans like this?" is a good question to ask yourself. Even, "What do my fans really want?" is a decent question to ask when you have a product to sell.
I think it would have been enough with the original 3 movies if he didn't so adamantly refuse to release the original theatrical releases alongside the updated versions of the movies. Especially with the DVD releases. It was like he was trying to change history and take away what people remembered and loved about the original movies. Even if it wasn't arrogant, it came off as arrogant.
The new movies were just stupid, but I can understand why he did what he did. My kids loved the new movies and thought they were great. They watched all of them and still remember them as good movies. My kids wonder why I think the original movies were so great.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
I once hoped for Star Wars episodes 7, 8 & 9. Bah.
Kids movies are so easy to make that the argument that kids liked the prequels is irrelevant.
Oddly i agree with you.
I just want Kungfu Panda the other day. It is a kid movie, and it is 100x better than the prequels.
Don't think so. This generation of kids think the old trilogy was terrible and boring but love the new ones. This generation would have no idea how to continue the saga in a way of creative vision that 4-6 had. Lucas is taking it to the grave and that it.
I understand where he's coming from, anything you create... ANYTHING, ends up just getting ripped apart, mostly by people who have no ability or drive to create themselves. He's made a ton of money, and I'd rather bow out then keep releasing movies that people will see and then bitch in very exaggerated terms about how horrible it was.
Maybe GL is a little too sensitive... but you see these complaints all the time about how everything sucks and nothing is good anymore. People are just not happy with anything, we're like one big society of whiny children.
We have no obligation of not speaking our minds.
OTOH, he has no obligation to make anything.
A perfectly free world.
With the first 2 films of the series Lucas had no FREAKING clue what he was doing as far as making a movie goes... so he hired a bunch of people that did. They took his vision and turned them into masterpieces of film history. By the time "Return of the Jedi" came around he thought he had a pretty firm grasp on what he was doing and took more control of the franchise away from the very people that made the first 2 films a hit. This is why a lot of SW fans will say that the third film was inderior to I and II. In films IV, V and VI he decided that he knew what the hell he was doing and took TOTAL control. ...so we got what we have now.
George Lucas is without a doubt one of the greatest Science Fiction creators of all time. ...he just REALLY sucks at making movies and refuses to let other people have any say in the process. He created the universe... the LORE... if he could just kick back and let people that know how to take good stories and turn them into good movies he would have another successful trilogy.
How come George Lucas own the Star Wars IP? he did'nt write the books, did he?
what a fucking douche.
I don't really have that much vested in Star Wars. To be honest, I don't even like the franchise anymore. I can't speak for the books, but everything since the original films have been complete crap, so when I see stuff like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0EUjobdavw
... it doesn't really bother me.
In fact, some criticisms are pretty emjoyable. like this:
http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars/star-wars-episode-1-the-phantom-menace/
He's retiring? great, now I don't have to wince in pain thanks to the crap that he's been producing. I can't believe that he thought his earlier success made him forever infallible. He's right that he is perfectly within his rights to make the movies as he wants to, but it is within our rights to be severely disappointed as well.
I don't suppose that he'll be willing to lease the IP out to a filmmaker that hasn't lost their touch.
Ooh, give it to Peter Jackson, now theres a man who can weave an epic.
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Hemingway
he wrote them as screenplays. there have been a lot of people who wrote books and helped to expand the universe but it is GL's IP.
great article!!
everyone must read this article about george lucas and star wars.
http://movies.msn.com/paralleluniverse/george-lucas-talks-star-wars-critics/story/feature/
There was no way to follow the first three movies with such a time gap between the first three and then the next three. You are never ever going to achieve the same success if you wait that long to continue the story, unless you do things exactly by the book and don't change anything. Case in point, Mega Man 9. It went back to the original NES graphics and sound, had the same gameplay, and people loved it. You can't do this with movies however without a new cast or a time-lapse to explain why the characters have aged so much(assuming you get the original cast together).
If he did the next three right after the first three, even if they were the same movies they probably would've faired better. I think this is a classic case of too much hype making the movie impossible to live up to.
Now Playing: Mission Against Terror, Battlefield 3, Skyrim, Dark Souls, League of Legends, Minecraft, and the piano. =3
Visit my fail Youtube channel(don't leave me nasty messages!): http://www.youtube.com/user/Mirii471
I'm really not a fanboi i used to like them when i was a kid and frankly other then updating the music a tad and maybe improving the picture quality nothing else needed to be done to the original ones.
If he has anything to complain about it would be how he destroyed his own work by making stupid changes to the original movies. It was just as bad as changing the guns the government officials had in ET to walky talkies when we ALL know they are more gun happy now then when ET came out and it would be more likely to have a "The Day The Earth Stood Still" Scenario with aliens visiting earth now then when ET was made.
/rant off
It's fine they would probably cut corners anyways with the new movies if the game is ANY indicator of how the movie projects would be handled.
It gets pretty annoying when fan critics think "dark" makes for a better SW. ESB was just the best scripted, acted and directed movie in the series. That it had darker elements didn't make everything about the movie better.
It's like the next Batman preview showing Comissioner Gordon on his death bed. Boy...I can't wait to see that! I'm giddy with anticipation. Just the idea that Batman could have his back broken--fun!
The LOTR series was done right. The first Matrix movie was done right. The Star Trek reboot was done right. None of them were dark movies. Star Trek was closer to Star Wars than any movie has since the original trilogy and it wasn't dark at all.
My youtube MMO gaming channel
He should be blaming the absolutely horrible Director he had for episodes 1 and 2... I forget what his name was...
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}
He made too much money thats why he killed it
You are absolutely right. "Dark" doesn't automatically make it a better movie but good writing and directing does. Something niether episodes 1 or 2 had in my honest opinion. Don't get me wrong... they were good 'Popcorn movies' but not what you'd expect from the same guy who made episodes 4,5 and 6. Episode 3 was the only movie in the newer trilogy that was almost as good as the original 3 because it had decent writing and directing and not because it happened to be darker then the previous 2.
Bren
while(horse==dead)
{
beat();
}
i liked the prequels and i didnt mind jar jar either, the only problem i had was the casting of hayden christenson (terrible actor even for star wars standards). Problem with star wars is you have all these die hard fans who think they know how to make a better movie than lucas. It's a shame we wont see anymore star wars movies.
Playing: EVE Online
Favorite MMOs: WoW, SWG Pre-cu, Lineage 2, UO, EQ, EVE online
Looking forward to: Archeage, Kingdom Under Fire 2
KUF2's Official Website - http://www.kufii.com/ENG/ -
Natalie Portman does nothing for me, shes attractive but not enough to cover up her mediocre acting. Both young Anakin and emo Anakin pissed me off. All in all he's just trying to cash in on his baby and I would do the same thing
Not entirely true. I've watched hundreds of fan movies that blew Lucas' Prequels out of the water in terms of plot. If these amateurs had millions at their disposal like Lucas has, hundreds of these amateurs would outshine him in any given day.
Formally known as Enigma
It's probably best for Star Wars to just get planted into the ground. Fat chance of that happening though. We'll continue to see Star Wars get raped over the table. Nothing since TPM came out has been decent. Yeah, I said it.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
I was around 12 when The Phantom Menace came out and obviously I saw and loved The Original Trilogy as did most of my friends, however technically I grew up with the new trilogy. I remember going to see Phantom on my mates birthday and we all hated it, lots of people left the cinema and people boo'd at the end. It's the only film I've seen where that has happened to because it was so bad even us 12 year olds hated it.
What I never understood was he was obviously aiming at getting kids liking the film and yet there are so many boring scenes with politicians talking about a load of bullshit that doesn't make sense. You never saw any of that in The original Trilogy and there was heavy talking scenes it was always well written and witty. In the new films the characters have no personality, they aren't likable and the acting is all wooden with the worst script.
I hope Lucas dies, I really do so he doesn't Star Wars anymore because I just know he'll do something stupid in 10 years like remaking the Original Trilogy lol.