My gripe with George Lucas

whether he cares or not is irrelevant. From a critical standpoint, TPM is not as good as ANY of the previous SW movies. theres no nebating that. GL has lost his touch. He has changed since he produced the OT. He is directing all three movies. He himself admits that he sucks at directing, and writing for that matter. But hes doing it anyway on these movies. Whether its because he "cares" or not, the point is that the PT movies are not, and will never hold up to the high caliber set by his previous efforts.

There certainly IS debating that. I'm sorry, but I think TPM is better than ROTJ, and I am by NO means alone in that. You should be careful about making such broad statements.

And GL has never admitted to being bad at direction. Only writing.

You are absolutly right Ush!!!!

RotJ was for me a typical '80s movie...
And for the writing he has others helping him!

Wow - this thread came from nowhere!!!

😱

I just read Bigsef2's opening gambit and - before I read any further - I want to say how completely his view represents my own. It's sad to think that an entire generation of loyal Star Wars fans are being disappointed after so long waiting simply because they're not seen as the demographic with the highest order of disposable income.

😄

Lucas - you can't take it with you, you know... and now you're risking leaving nothing of value behind as well... what a shame...

[if there was a smiley shedding a tear I'd insert it here...]

TPM is just the beginning of a 12 hours movie, so it's normal that the beginning is a bit different...

DY, that final comment of yours is exeedingly unobservent. GL is NOT behaving like a man obsessed by money., Not by a long shot.

Plenty of us think he is leaving behind a great legacy indeed, INCLUDING the new movies and TPM.

Ush, you have remarkably bold and unflexible opinions about everything. These guys (and myself) are saying that Lucas IS influcenced by money. It is our opinion, and just because you don't agree with it, doesn't mean your ALWAYS right about EVERYTHING.

Plenty of us agree that Lucas knows he's going to make a truckload of money from the new films. And that seemed to effect how Episode I turned out. He wanted to sell the new ships, and the new toys, so he concentrated on that more than a compelling story. In IV-VI, he used effects as a tool to tell the story. In I, he used effects, then squeeqed in a story.

In his intereviews, all he talked about was setting the stage in special effects and breaking the barrier. He didn't care about all of that in the orignials.

ok; he knows that he is going to make money, SO??? he made SW!

and he said already that he had to make the OT first because the fx weren't that good in 1977 (heck, they had to improve a lot!) and now the fx aren't bad, they are very good, so now as he said before, can he make the PT

That doesn't make any sense. If that were true, wouldn't he make part I FIRST? Then as the story moved on, the technology would get better, as well as the special effects?

You gotta stop beleiving everything your told by Lucas, yers. You're more intelegent than that. I can't beleive you can't see past that.

heck, how would he make a whole planet like Naboo?
like the shot you see when Anakin and Padma arrive at Naboo

🙁 Come on yerssot.

If you looked at something that was green, and Lucas told you it was blue, would you beleive him?

Lucas made IV because it through us into the middle of the story. I don't doubt he had a vague idea of what happens in I-III. But you think he had all three movies perfectly mapped out?

Besides, why couldn't he acheive a task like making Naboo. He made an entire mechanical planet, the Death Star.

Originally posted by ToMacco
Ush, you have remarkably bold and unflexible opinions about everything. These guys (and myself) are saying that Lucas IS influcenced by money. It is our opinion, and just because you don't agree with it, doesn't mean your ALWAYS right about EVERYTHING.

you're telling ush that he has to respect other opinions, but now you're bashing on the ones that believe GL makes movies to make movies, not sell toys.

why are you so certain that GL are making the prequels just around the goal of earning money? have you had a chat with him and he revealed the secret to you? is it impossible for you to think that he just wants to continue his beloved project?
why are you so firmly trashing other possibilities??

djee To!!

A lot of the DS is just matepainting!
And with the new movies, they had to interact with the background

I don't know GL true motivations for making the movies, and frankly, no one other than him does. I will not debate that issue.

However, I am disappointed that GL is still directing the other PT. I would prefer that he spent all his time perfecting the story and leave the technical stuff to others. If there is a poorly told story, the movie will soon be forgotten. Remember Independence Day? Me neither.

Come George, please give one interview where you talk about putting your heart and soul into the plot and characters and not about how to make a more realistic Jar-Jar. 🙁

yeah! we need a more realistic Yoda!

mah, I never said he made these movies JUST to make money. But I think that is a large part of it. And, that is my opinion, and I respect anyone who disagree's with me.

I'm saying that Lucas was more interested in making special effects, rather than making a good movie. If you watch the DVD, he basically says it. "Jar Jar is the key to making this whole thing work". Well, Jar Jar is a rather insignificant character, in the grand scheme of things.

He wanted to set the tone for special effect movies. And he most likely acheived this. But he failed to present an interesting plot, in the meantime.

The Phantom Menace is a good movie, but it's not as good as any of the orignial movies (in my opinion). I think Lucas was far too hung up on showing off his effects. . . and he should have focused more on how the entire epic Star Wars saga began

respect? you called me an idiot remember?

"Jar Jar is the key to making this whole thing work". Well, Jar Jar is a rather insignificant character, in the grand scheme of things.
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
You haven't read the scriptment huh?

yerssot, if I called you an idot, I was kidding. I've never verbally bashed someone at this site without putting a 😉 or 😄 after it.

And no, I havn't read the scriptment. And I shouldn't have to! It has nothing to do with anything!

In my opinion, one of the main reasons (but not the ONLY reason) that Lucas is making the new trillogy is to have a monopoly over special effects rights. His effects in The Phantom Menace were BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!! But that doesn't make a great movie.

Lucas didn't know where to draw the line while making Episode I. And because of it, he had a movie based on special effects, instead of story.

I simply do not see where you think that GL is obsessed by the money. There is SO much stuff he would do if he was only after the money- all nine episodes and the tv series, for a start.

GL is huge on special effects, but that doesn't mean he wants a 'monopoly' on them. Why are people always criticised for being succesful? GL happens to have created the best special effects outfit there is. Other people want to make use of that. What's wrong with that? Why should he be accused of 'monopolising' special effects? I'm all for the advances he makes.

To, I am not simply saying my opinion is right because it is my opinion. I am saying your opnion is WRONG because GL is NOT acting like how you say. What he is doing does not fit what yo say, he is not following a profit-obsessed model. If you disagree, please accurately point out where I am wrong because you have so far posted NOTHING that shows that. And if all you can do is go on at me for being 'inflexble' (when I ALWAYS back a settled opinion like that with facts), you are only going to go on annoying people like yerssot and Mah.

To re-state my reasons why I say that GL is NOT obsessed with money:

1. He did not allow Star Wars to go on a 100% cinema distribution. This severely restriced opening takings and the resultant publicity.
2. He point blank refuses to let things like the tv series to be made because thay would dilute his storyline. That is the action of a man who cares about his work, not a profit-obsessed hack
3. He always pursues his OWN vision of what should be in the movies. He gives them titles like 'Attack of the Clones', to the dismay of the fanboys. He refuses to shovel in characters like Chewbacca and Han Solo into the new films, even though legion are the viewers who say they should go in. Likewise, he risks the anger of a million book fans by trampling over thier storylines and creating his own. And finally, he persists in using characters like Jar-Jar even though enormous amounts have demanded their removal.

Those are the actions of someone is is determined to tell HIS story, and the opininons of others be buggered. But if he made these concessions the movies would be a LOT more popular, and he would make a lot more money.

4. No-one seems to question his motivations in the Original films, these days. Yet he faced the EXACT SAME accusations then about being driven solely by profit. He wasn't then, and lots of people said he was. Not much has changed. By the same token, we have people like Tp saysing strange things like 'he didn't care about that in the originals' when it came to breaking effects barriers, which is TOTAL NONSENSE, and the only way he has of justifying it is to say that GL is lying, and yerssot is stupid to believe him. And he calls ME inflexible... tell me, To, why DO you think he made so much effort- against complaints from EVERYONE concerned- to make the effects in the original trilogy the best ever? And tell me how you think that has changed now.

GL fights the public, the critics and even his OWN company to make sure things are done his way. I state, this is often at the expense at profit he COULD make if he was populist. He is not populist because he cares about the STORY, not the money it makes.

In any case. I am pretty sure that GL likes to turn a buck as much as the rest of us, I am sure he is trying to write a popular story that people will like- and thjerefore pay more to see, I am sure he wants more money to do more film-work in future, and I would not even argue with the idea that the new ships were designed with easy merchandising in mind at SOME point in the process (thought I am sure wasn't the dominant theme).

I just dispute the idea that GL has turned from a man who cared about his stories into a money-obsessed dollar factory.

I have only just joined this thread and so this reply might jump off on a tangent. I have said many times that the pt and the ot are part of one long film and so all six films can only be judged after seeing all of them i.e. ep3.

If GL wanted to make money i wouldn't have made ep1 twenty years after ep6, put them straight after one another and keep the sw's fans, not have the hassle of having to make new fans.

The biggest problem with sw's is the expanded universe, people expect something to happen in the films that happens in the eu and their pissed off when it doesn't happen in the films, thats not gl's fault but the fans fault, i.e. ob1 brother being lars buru, dark jedi, i haven't of these happening in the films.

I am sure we have all had ideas about how these three films would have been, but our opinions count for nothing, there is only one person who can decide what is rght for these films and you know who he is.

If you don't like how gl is going don't go and watch the films, don't complain, if it wasn't for gl there woud be no sw's, no eu and this forum would not exsist. the most important personin sw's is gl, no one else, not even you ush 😄