Did Lucas take the easy way out of a potential disaster?
- Thread starter mluca
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyqlTi7lkhY
Honestly, I don't think it affected George too much with the alleged 'failures'. I don't hate the prequels, but I don't love them either.
I have mixed feelings on the sale to Disney. They've been hands off with Marvel and hands-on with the Muppets. Hands off with Bruckheimer and Pixar, but more to the point.... why do they need this? Why can't we have more companies competing rather than just megacorporations? How is THAT good for anyone?
George has made personally several billion dollars from Star Wars already by maintaining the merchandising and sequel rights. He gave a few billion away just a few years ago to charity with Bill Gates. This sale to Disney seems both odd and yet he modeled his business plan on Walt Disney's original one. Only the Disney of today is a distortion of Walt's dream.
Kathleen Kennedy is a great choice to run the company, so why need Disney? I think one of the reasons that the prequels failed to connect well with audiences was that George created in a vacuum by himself, with no real restriction or collaboration on the screenplay/editing/direction. No one challenged him. So now, a TEAM of people making new Star Wars can be good, but without the old man as anything but a powerless consultant? Hmmmm we've got a 70/30 chance of good new films.
Honestly, I don't think it affected George too much with the alleged 'failures'. I don't hate the prequels, but I don't love them either.
I have mixed feelings on the sale to Disney. They've been hands off with Marvel and hands-on with the Muppets. Hands off with Bruckheimer and Pixar, but more to the point.... why do they need this? Why can't we have more companies competing rather than just megacorporations? How is THAT good for anyone?
George has made personally several billion dollars from Star Wars already by maintaining the merchandising and sequel rights. He gave a few billion away just a few years ago to charity with Bill Gates. This sale to Disney seems both odd and yet he modeled his business plan on Walt Disney's original one. Only the Disney of today is a distortion of Walt's dream.
Kathleen Kennedy is a great choice to run the company, so why need Disney? I think one of the reasons that the prequels failed to connect well with audiences was that George created in a vacuum by himself, with no real restriction or collaboration on the screenplay/editing/direction. No one challenged him. So now, a TEAM of people making new Star Wars can be good, but without the old man as anything but a powerless consultant? Hmmmm we've got a 70/30 chance of good new films.
http://www.kaleo.org/news/billion-d...cle_2ee69e04-2639-11e2-a203-0019bb30f31a.html
This along with the $3 billion donated in 2010.....seems to contradict your theory.
This sale has gotten me thinking about why the prequels are lacking. I'm sure many have already put their finger on it, but I'll offer what I'm thinking it is. Someone at work was saying that he liked the prequels, all right, but that they lacked something...he couldn't put his finger on just what that something might be. I kinda wanted to speak up and ask: a heart? ...a soul?
But, why should it be that the prequels lack a heart or a soul? What makes that so? This is what I'm thinking:
The Originals were character driven.
The Prequels were not.
With the Originals, we had that core of characters whom we followed through the trilogy, not really knowing where they would take us etc. We cared about them. They were fun. A thrilling combination.
With the Prequels, we didn't have characters so much as plot points. The characters, mostly dour and sour and somber and sober and whiny and bitchy and insufferable (esp. Jar Jar Binks and Anakin), were all about taking us from point A to point B to point C etc. The one vaguely stirring character, Qui-gon Jinn, is dead before the end of the first film.
Okay, maybe Qui-gon Jinn isn't the only stirring character. Actually, I will say that the most stirring character and the coolest thing in all of the prequels, and really, one of the coolest of all of the Star Wars films, is Christopher Lee as Count Dooku. Give me a lot more of that!)
It really does seem like it's not that GL couldn't have done better. It probably was that, being the ultimate indie filmmaker, he was surrounded by only yes men, his employees. With the originals, as a friend says, they had to work harder. If they had had all that money and CGI back then too, then probably the originals would have been similarly...
But, why should it be that the prequels lack a heart or a soul? What makes that so? This is what I'm thinking:
The Originals were character driven.
The Prequels were not.
With the Originals, we had that core of characters whom we followed through the trilogy, not really knowing where they would take us etc. We cared about them. They were fun. A thrilling combination.
With the Prequels, we didn't have characters so much as plot points. The characters, mostly dour and sour and somber and sober and whiny and bitchy and insufferable (esp. Jar Jar Binks and Anakin), were all about taking us from point A to point B to point C etc. The one vaguely stirring character, Qui-gon Jinn, is dead before the end of the first film.
Okay, maybe Qui-gon Jinn isn't the only stirring character. Actually, I will say that the most stirring character and the coolest thing in all of the prequels, and really, one of the coolest of all of the Star Wars films, is Christopher Lee as Count Dooku. Give me a lot more of that!)
It really does seem like it's not that GL couldn't have done better. It probably was that, being the ultimate indie filmmaker, he was surrounded by only yes men, his employees. With the originals, as a friend says, they had to work harder. If they had had all that money and CGI back then too, then probably the originals would have been similarly...
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I remember reading that Lucas said he wasn't going to do anymore star wars films because he wanted to move on to different things. The franchise would have eventually moved to another owner in some fashion any way. Hopefully Disney will get the talent to write/direct the new films from a collection of "real" fans, famous or not.
They should take a few lessons from the Clone Wars animated series IMO...
They should take a few lessons from the Clone Wars animated series IMO...
Nobody makes a bad movie purposefully. It turns out to be that way in the end when things don't go the expected way. Disney has a rich tradition and long line of classics. I'm sure that they have the ability and what it takes to entertain the new generation of audience with Star Wars. George Lucas is a legend.
I can tell you what the originals had that the prequels lacked - 'reality.' Lucas took lots of real stories and ideas from the environment around him and used these to create a conncetion for the audience.
For example, I went to a dusty little town in Tunisia called 'Tataouine' which is pronounced 'Tatooine.' As I wandered around, everywhere I went, a hand was painted on the doors of buildings with waves coming out of it. I asked my guide what that was and he said - "It is the hand of Fatima. The waves coming out of her hand are like an invisible force."
I went into the desert and stumbled across a load of Berbers who lived in what looked like a replica of Luke Skywalker's home. We went in for some green tea (we paid, naturally) and inside, their traditional, clothes were unnervingly similar to the costumes in the original Star Wars, right down to the swords (light saber, anyone...?) and the flowing clothes. At some point, I wandered outside and saw what looked like a series of sandpeople in the distance only to discover they were Berbers coming out of the desert.
When I hopped onto a camel (single hump camel), my instant reaction was the d"mn thing moved like the big Walkers in the Empire Strikes Back. And the noises reminded me of Chewie... Not to mention visiting the troglodyte caves (again, sandpeople anyone...)
Etc...
It was at that point that the penny dropped... Lucas had taken large amounts of local mythos / lore and turned it into Sci-Fi. That was what gave it a certain realism - because the clothes were 'real,' the place names were real place names and this means the audience connected.
Don't get me wrong - I loved the original Star Wars and remember when it came out. There was absolutely nothing like it at the time and was on a completely different level to anything else out there. I was blown away as was the rest of the world because it was light years beyond anything else we'd ever seen. However, the 'connection' with the world and the characters came from the 'reality' of the world he was shooting in.
In my opinion as a short film maker who's never done anything of note...
+1. To the OP, Lucas doesn't owe you anything nor does he owe me anything! The guy didn't sell out 41 years ago and that's why he's a where he's at today.
He definitely deserves the opportunity to cash out.
I think Episodes 4 to 6 aren't his best work, but I'm glad that these movies exist, nonetheless. He is a good guy, donating a lot of his money to charity. And he doesn't brag about it like "Brangelina" with their 800 adopted children.
I hope that Lucas is still hungry to make movies some day in the future. THX 1138 is one of my favourite movies of all time and Lucas' best in my opinion. Too sad he went down the Star Wars franchising route instead of imagining other movies.
I hope that Lucas is still hungry to make movies some day in the future. THX 1138 is one of my favourite movies of all time and Lucas' best in my opinion. Too sad he went down the Star Wars franchising route instead of imagining other movies.