Memo To George Lucas.

[Certex]

Geo. Big man. I know you're an artist frustrated by his immense success and vast wealth. Life is a bitch. You could show your disdain for the materialist, capitalist contemporary entertainment system in one telling way: de-evolve your films. You have been upgrading them and adding FX to them that people who saw the original films when they came out think is blasphemy, myself amongst them. But what you could so is confound your critics, and public, and take the films back a step or two. Draw in stick figures instead of cool new FX on the old films. Animate plastic bags for Jabba The Hutt. Have Star Wars figures for some of the characters. Completely fuck with the old prints. You could thus pull off one of the biggest surrealist pranks the world has ever seen, and be remembered as an artistic rebel genius forever. Think of the amount of fanboys you would confuse with Yoda being essayed by a Kenner figure, or Darth Vader by...well big man, I'll leave that to you, cos your imagination is so much bigger and better and brighter and broader than that of an ex Star Wars fan like me.

Fuck with 'em George. they'll still buy it cos it has your name on it. And you'll regain your artistic self-esteem and die a happy trillionaire.

Think about it.

Yer Ex Youthful Fan Graham.

[Seedy Edgewick]

I've become convinced that George is no longer calling the shots. It's that goiter thing that's running the show.

[Ellen M.]

I've become convinced that George is no longer calling the shots. It's that goiter thing that's running the show.

God knows he has enough $ to have it removed!
It's not like there's a lack of good plastic surgeons out in California!

Ellen ;)

[Seedy Edgewick]

Actually, despite my last "humorous" comment, I had a thought about all this SW nonsense.

It seems as if most people are expecting perfection. Like the original trilogy was perfect, or something. It wasn't. It was riddled with flaws just like the new one.

Case in point: in the original SW, when Kenobi uses the Jedi mind trick to get past those stormtroopers ("these aren't the droids you're looking for"), there's a HUGE plot hole. There are TWO other troopers standing right there, watching the one guy parrot the old man in the cloak. Why doesn't one of those other guys smack the first one. "Yo, Jeff! What's up with the aping the old dude? How do you know these aren't the droids we're looking for??"

When Kenobi cuts that guy's arm off in the cantina, there's BLOOD on the severed limb, yet when Luke gets his hand cut of in Empire, it's cauterized -- no blood.

Where did the dewbacks that the stormtroopers ride on Tatooine come from?

How can R2D2's wheels operate on desert sand without getting gummed up?

There's an article on this very web site that describes how the Death Star is a death trap: bottomless trenches, retractable bridges, power controls accessible only by balancing on a four-inch ledge, etc.

My whole point is that those who are taking shots at the new trilogy have forgotten or overlooked all these flaws (and more) in the original trilogy. They didn't matter then; why do they matter now? Are we, as a moviegoing audience, more "sophisticated" in our old age? If so, why is the prevalence of CGI such a bone of contention? Having rewatched the original SW recently, I found myself seeing toys and miniatures, instead of the immersive environment I did years ago. CGI has become the de facto standard of special effects; older films now look quaint in comparison. I believe those who decry the prodigious use of CGI would be complaining just as much if the new trilogy still used toys & miniatures. "It looks so CHEAP!" they might say. "Why is George ruining my childhood memories?"

I personally can't see why a MOVIE is so damn important, in either direction. I've heard some vociferously declare their intent to NOT see the flick, as if doing so were some grand statement. I bet those same people have not seen a whole lot of other films, yet they find no reason to make the same declaration. A film shouldn't be so important that one needs to take a stand on it as if it were an issue of importance, like abortion or the death penalty. In the end, film is an entertainment and artistic medium. There are good films and bad ones. Like any work of art, different people will respond in different ways, but that doesn't mean the work itself is meritless.

[sonnyboo]

My whole point is that those who are taking shots at the new trilogy have forgotten or overlooked all these flaws (and more) in the original trilogy.

Amen, brother.

I firmly believe that people in the age bracket of 25-39 that saw the original trilogy in the theatre and hat the prequels are tainted less by the new movies as much as they are different people themselves.

We saw these movies when we were very young & impressionable. What we see is not just a movie, but a time capsule to our own mindsets buried inside sentimentality. No movie made could have possibly equalled what we wanted the prequels to be. Those movies can't exist because the expectation is too high.


I like the prequels. I'm no fan of Jar Jar or Jake Lloyd's immpersonation of a mannequin trying to act, but it's no worse than Return of the Jedi. Harrison Ford's lackluster performance of Han Solo in the 3rd movie was so awful, I'd ask him for my $12 back for the DVD. Carrie Fisher was so coke'd out of her mind, you can barely see a human being in there anywhere. Give me Gungans over those gruffy carebears known as Ewoks.

I just read the MAKING OF REVENGE OF THE SITH book. George Lucas has a strange methodology that only a crazy billionaire can have. He makes movies in a very non-linear way and it's ineffecient, but since he's paying - who cares? The first thing he says, and he says it himself often - "I can't write dialogue very well..." - THANKS FOR THE NEWSFLASH, GEORGE. I agree that Revenge of the Sith could have been a silent film & we would have gotten the exact same information from it. I saw the movie a 2nd time & I didn't even notice the bad dialogue. It's too visually encapsulating.

I don't really distinguish between OT or PT, it's all the same 1930's pulpy style and feel. It's just a movie or 6.

[Rory L. Aronsky]

What we see is not just a movie, but a time capsule to our own mindsets buried inside sentimentality.

Actually, the time capsule to our own mindsets is sentimentality itself, therefore it is not buried inside the emotion, but is the emotion.

No movie made could have possibly equalled what we wanted the prequels to be. Those movies can't exist because the expectation is too high.

And no doubt the mind created movies that were so emotionally overpowering, so attentive to everything that they had absorbed about the Star Wars universe that they also probably expected them to also be a set of the greatest films of all time. But, like people, George Lucas also changes, as 20 years of not directing proved the first time around.

[Certex]

fucking Star Wars. Who gives a shit. I want Bloodsucking Freaks 2 or bust.

G.

[Mr B Natural]

fucking Star Wars. Who gives a shit. I want Bloodsucking Freaks 2 or bust.

G.

That's the spirit. Bring on the bloody mayhem.

[Rory L. Aronsky]

That's the spirit. Bring on the bloody mayhem.

Yes! Because blood is bloody and we like blood! :D