Star Wars Episode 3 to be darker than any other episode

[reveal]

Well so much for Lucas's "the series was always targeted at kids" excuse defending Ep 1 & 2.

Just remember this is the same guy who said he didn't have time to put out the original episodes on DVD but did have time to put out a dvd of Ep1 with a second disc full of special features AND included a commentary.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Which kids? Certainly not mine (and my oldest was only 3 when TPM came out; he's nine now and has little interest in Star Wars. I've never heard that any kid, even Star Wars fanatics (of which, sadly, this later generation is relatively impoverished... the new movies aren't even good enough to really engender the type of kid love that the older movies did) that really loved Jar Jar. I'd like to know why you think kids love Jar Jar so much.

Well, my 8 year old brother for one. Along with all of his friends in school and a bunch of other kids from where he and my parents live up in Georgia to here in Florida.

...of course, its anecdotal so it doesn't mean a thing.

I'm not really in the mood to get into yet another PT vs. OT discussion, or even a "I don't like the PT because..." one. I'll just say that I LOVE the OT. I grew up on them and can't get enough of them. I don't hate the PT, and I enjoy the two we have so far. Not so much, of course, but that's because I had my own idea of what things 'should' be like. But I will be there at midnight on May 19th to see Revenge of the Sith...and I'll go back as many times as I can if its as good as everything is showing.

 

[Raloc]

I actually didn't like the OT when I was a kid, my parents always watched it, and I thought it was boring. After I saw them when I was a few years older they were great.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Well, my 8 year old brother for one. Along with all of his friends in school and a bunch of other kids from where he and my parents live up in Georgia to here in Florida.

I know a couple kids that liked Jar-Jar. But most of the kids I know liked Obi-Wan in the first one and Anakin in the second one (though not as much). My nephew wanted to BE Obi-wan. Obi-wan is actually the only thing he's ever expressed interest in being other than a paleontologist. (Standard dinosaur-on-the-brain syndrome)

The strongest Jar-Jar demographic in my experience was high school and college-aged women. i.e. when the bunch of us walked out of the theater (college students at the time) the men were united in being on the irritation->hatred scale with Jar-Jar, whereas the women were a 50-50 split either irritated or liked him.

...of course, its anecdotal so it doesn't mean a thing.

You know, I hear that all the time. It's bunk. I'm a biologist, heavily trained in the scientific method, experimental design, etc, and I still think it's bunk. Ultimately, anecdotes are the basis for 99% of all opinions and lives. Most of my colleagues who believe in nothing without data are very sad people.

 

[KnowTheToe]

Lucas started the movies too early in Anakin's history. A quick intro to how Anakin was discovered would have been fine. From there you jump to his age in Epidose 2. You can develope his personality and introduce the relationship with he and Amadala. This leaves you more room in the second episode to set the dark mood and politics up instead of forcing a poorly written relationship down our throats. The second film also continues to enrich a relationship developed in the first film. And last but not least, get rid of Jar Jar.

 

[Truth Seeker]

Old news, really. And if you've been paying attention to some spoiler reports, etc, its no surprise.

But it still may get the usual PG rating. It could be close, considering some things, and post-duel Anakin isn't exactly going to be a pretty sight.

Blast you, just the mention of that. I went the hard way...scrolling through months upon months of news threads.

ROTS' rating was already decided a long time ago.

 

[CrusaderX]

Lucas started the movies too early in Anakin's history. A quick intro to how Anakin was discovered would have been fine. From there you jump to his age in Epidose 2. You can develope his personality and introduce the relationship with he and Amadala. This leaves you more room in the second episode to set the dark mood and politics up instead of forcing a poorly written relationship down our throats. The second film also continues to enrich a relationship developed in the first film. And last but not least, get rid of Jar Jar.

Exactly. I've said this before - we didn't need to see Luke as a child in Episode IV for the character to grow and to develop a strong story arc, so we didn't need to see Anakin as a child in Episode I.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Exactly. I've said this before - we didn't need to see Luke as a child in Episode IV for the character to grow and to develop a strong story arc, so we didn't need to see Anakin as a child in Episode I.

While I can agree with this, look at it from another point of view. Technically, seeing Anakin go from an innocent young child to Darth Vader has much more emotional impact that teenager Anakin to Darth Vader. Whether or not the execution of it was done well is another matter entirely, but the reasoning for starting out with Anakin being young is very sound.

 

[The Serge]

Anakin's age at the beginning of the prequels has nothing to do with his success (or lackthereof depending on your camp) as a character. The problem is Lucas' general inability to think too deeply about his characters, or more precisely, bring that depth to the screen.

Old or young, Anakin Skywalker is clealry supposed to be a fairly complex character. Unfortunately, Lucas not only failed in highlighting that complexity due to poor choices with scenes and dialogue, he also failed with his casting for Jake Lloyd and his ability to direct Lloyd or Christensen. Lucas had a great idea, but his inability to find the human element to drive the Anakin character is the problem, not at what point we end up being introduced to the character.

I will say that personally, I like the younger start. The whole (anti) Christ thing with the immaculate conception and so-forth works better with a younger person.

 

[Ranger REG]

I'm not one of these "Lucas destroyed my childhood" people, but I do think that the prequels do not stand up to the originals in terms of plot/script and emotion.

Well, I'm not one of those people too, but I am one of the "I told you so" group. I mean, though not directed at everyone but you know who you are, you HAD to bug Lucas to make another set of Star Wars films after the OT. Me? I was perfectly fine with just the OT.

So... I told you so.