Will anyone stand up to George Lucas?

[RangerWickett]

If you'll allow me to dip into the dregs of Internet culture. . .

"The prequels suck, dudes. If South Park can with a straight face tell you you're a talentless hack who should be stopped from making movies for the sake of cinema, then you probably let someone else direct for a change."

 

[Ranger REG]

Heh. I dunno.

On one hand, if he didn't devote his time and energy before the Prequel, we probably would not have the foremost special effect production company in the USA, Industrial Lights and Magic (ILM).

On the other hand, because of the above, he didn't rack up any directing experience since he did The Empire Strikes Back up until The Phantom Menace. Even his buddy Spielberg, who used to do "Goonies" type films as well as "Indy Jones" surpassed him.

Or perhaps Star Wars is just an icon of the last millenium. It was great in the late 70's and early 80's, but trying to sell new films toward today's audience would be difficult.

Maybe it's the present attitude of today's audience. I must admit, escapism is the keyword. They want films whose story swept them along and offer them happy endings. I guess that's why Spider-Man did great in the Box Office, as well as LOTR, and an Oscar front-runner, Seabiscuit. For the Prequel, we pretty much know what will happen to Anakin and the old Jedi Order, which is a sad, fateful story.

 

[Hand of Evil]

The problem, people grow up and as said you never can go home again. A magical world is created and ah is created but later people look at it and go I don't remember it that way. The story is Lucus' and while there are some things I don't like, it is a good yarn he is telling, the big picture is greater than its parts and I know you can't have too many cooks in the kitchen.

 

[TiQuinn]

I think since Lucas is directing the films, he's certainly not going to let anyone tell him that he's doing anything wrong or that an idea sucks. The Lucas of the late 70's - early 80's was about 500 million dollars poorer than the Lucas of today. He doesn't have to listen to anybody.

They are Lucas' films, for better or worse. However, I won't buy into any more stories of the man's greatness as a storyteller. Businessman, yes. But I laugh when I hear about how Lucas' has had this latest trilogy planned out for years and years now.

 

[Numion]

I don't know if it's ever good that the artist (director, George Lucas) is also the leader of the project and owner of the company. No ones going tell him when it's crap, not the people that matter anyway. Samuel L Jackson should have a chat with George .. Shaft-style! But only thing Jackson is intrested seems to be the color of his pink lightsabre and not dying like a pussy . .

So EP3 will suck, and yes, George will eventually 'retouch' all his earlier works for the 'better'.

I'll still see EP3 in a theater

I'm his beeyotch ..

 

[cybermonkey]

Personally, I think it's just the state of the internet.

It has become "fashionably cool" to tell your junior high friends that you trashed George Lucas and Star Wars on the internet. The opinions of the thousands of wanna-be film critics are suppose to mean something, but all it amounts to is a huge pissing contest of who can find the biggest movie (in regards to box office take and hype) and trash it.

So, back to the original question: Can anyone talk sense into George Lucas?

Huh? If the prequels made as much money as it did, I think your question is answered.

Movies aren't to entertain us. Accept that fact. The true artist directors in Hollywoods make movies because that's what they (not you) want to see on the screen.

If George Lucas' favorite movie is Howard the Duck, that just shows the man is doing it to amuse himself. If everyone else likes, more money to him. If everyone thinks it "sucks," then everyone is entitled to an opinion.

Besides the Star Wars prequels must be a pretty good films if everyone keeps bringing it up into different threads on different boards throughout the Internet, or use it as a basis of comparison to other films.

When was the last time a comic book movie was compared to Howard the Duck? Think about it.

 

[TiQuinn]

Movies aren't to entertain us. Accept that fact. The true artist directors in Hollywoods make movies because that's what they (not you) want to see on the screen.

No, that's not a fact. The movie studios want to entertain us. In fact, they have a laundry list of sales reports, marketing reports, and customer satisfaction reports that are telling them exactly what we want to see. And so that's what they will turn out to a very nauseating degree. The artist directors exist because there will always be a group of people out there who want to see something (anything) outside the mainstream for the simple reason that they can't see anything like it anywhere else.

 

[Hand of Evil]

What is to say George has not listened to others...

 

[kengar]

Personally, I saw E1:TPM, was so disgusted at the offensive caricatures, bad acting, script & direction that I never even bothered with E2 & I won't with E3.

Curious as to whether I had simply "lost touch" with the Star Wars mystique since I was a kid, I watch Empire on video cassette not long ago (NOT the "special edition" nonsense). It was great. While I realize I can't go back the wonder of the first movie when I first saw it, I believe there is a real qualitative difference between the original films and the new stuff. I even disliked the effects in E1 because of GL's obvious over-reliance on ILM's digital playground. The movie looked like a video game and about as much thought went into the plot.

The old god is dead, there is a new god of Sci-Fi/Fantasy now, and his name is Peter Jackson

 

[Henry]

I'll put three opinions out there, and let the rest of the watchers and contributors to the thread judge their worth:

1) No one has a "right" to make George Lucas do ANYTHING about Star Wars; it's his baby, and his franchise. He can make it as good or bad as he wants. TO assert otherwise takes something away from someone on a principle I don't like one bit. It's his rightful property, right or wrong.

Now, the good artist knows when to listen to other opinions, and take them into account, and when to draw the line on his vision, and make the final decisions. It's the mark of any good leader to make the hard calls. But if someone is truly believing that all their ideas are the best ones, they obviously delude themselves.

2) The two prequel films aren't nearly as bad as some people make them out to be. The proof is self-evident: The movies are grossing hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide, children are pretending to be Jango Fett and Jar Jar, and merchandise is selling like crazy. I've definitely seen oversold SW merchandise, mind you - but then again, I saw it with the original movies, too. It's just that the stuff became collector's items worth lots of money AFTER most everyone threw their stuff away.

Is it MY Star Wars? Not really. But I can still see them as entertaining - heck, the Jedi battles are entertaining enough on their own.

3)According to IMDB, George Lucas from 1977 to 1999 directed a total of THREE films - Star Wars, a filmography in 1991, and The Phantom Menace. He has FAR more credits as a writer and producer - an idea man. It's small wonder to me that his vision did not turn out as the mainstream expects it - two thirds of our perception of what made Star Wars dynamic is done by different people.