Something made me think of the Star Wars "Prequel" films. (Probably, thinking about bad movies made me think of the infamous three.)I was there for the original release of Star Wars, the original. To this day I think it is grand entertainment and a pretty good film. Lucas is/was a good director. (He had already proven this with American Graffiti.) His story for the first on deck was broad but also carefully and efficiently condensed in such a way as to make it palpable for the masses. And to convince the masses that it was important. Perhaps it was.
Perhaps it still is. Recent history has proven the original to be of definite quality. In case you haven't guessed what I mean by "recent history" (and I don't expect everyone to be a Kenneth Clark), this is the period of 1999 to 2005 in the Star Wars timeline; the so-called Idiotic Period.
The truth is I was never a huge Star Wars fan, I just liked it (which is enough). The dead years between the first batch -- the "good movies", minus Return of the Jedi to a degree -- and the second were not too dead for me. I didn't care if Lucas made another installment in this franchise or not. Years pass and we become interested in other things. (Time is passing even quicker, now.)
So when the first of the second batch, that being The Phantom Menace (or "Episode 1"), came along in 1999, I had no strong urge to see it. I eventually did, on tape, and realized I was smart to stay home. The contraption was every bit as bad as I heard it was. What a mess.
Attack of the Clones exploded along three years later. I had no urge to run out and see it. Same as above; but thought it even worse. Surprisingly boring even though there were an awful lot of action scenes. (Which generally means they are boring anyway... something many producers do not understand.)
What?! Revenge of the Sith was next? Really?
It wasn't as bad, but...
The year was 1983: My Star Wars fan pal, Chris, had just seen Return of the Jedi. He saw it before I did; and at the stupendous University Theatre in Toronto.
Chris, remember he is a big fan, looked me in the eye and said, "I liked it, but I don't care if George Lucas never makes another Star Wars film again".
Oh, prescience!
9 comments:
yes
Yes I remember when the 1977 Star Wars came out too-- it was a momentous event for us impressionable ten year olds--- seeing that film at that age changed us. To this day I still love the first Star Wars -above and beyond all the others- it is perfect Saturday afternoon pulp. Whereas the two sequels I think drowned in a lot of metaphysical babble, the final twenty minutes or so of Empire Strikes Back are among the most perfect moments of fantasy film.
I haven't seen any of the prequels, and I'll get to them when I get to them. As much as I love the first Star Wars (or the fourth, whatever), I don't consider myself a Star Wars geek by any means. When they released the pictures in their new special editions in 1997, a lot of critics took this opportunity to lambaste George Lucas for how his 1977 film changed Hollywood.... they became more interested in blockbuster escapism than the little personal pictures. Fine- but I still think it's unfair to pick on Lucas for it, as by many accounts even he was surprised how the picture caught on.
The Empire Strikes Back is outstanding. And, I agree, the last reel is "among the most perfect moments of fantasy film".
I also agree on your point about it being unfair to pick on Lucas for making a film that changed Hollywood.
Lucas just wanted to make a fun movie... like the old serials he grew up with.
It's a part of Hollywood -- the moron branch -- that "changed Hollywood", when they saw a movie called Star Wars.
Lucas, as did Fox's financial department, thought SW would do minor Disney business: Around 30 million dollars worth.
We live in an odd culture where consumers of fictional worlds somehow feel that they have a stake or say in those worlds. This sense of "ownership" is commonplace, whether we're taking about SW, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Lord of the Rings, etc.
While I can't say the SW prequels are good on any level (The Force reduced to a biological mutation; CGI characters you can't possibly care about; space and ground battles that are visually incomprehensible) I have to marvel at those who become angry or upset that Lucas did exactly what he wanted to with his OWN creations. Good on Lucas for retaining control and creating his vision, however uninteresting I might find the results.
To say Lucas changed cinema for the worse is ridculous; the viewers changed cinema. It's like the argument that Chapters and Indigo caused smaller booksellers to go under when in reality it was the consumers. It's always the consumers, be the commodity books or films. Sure, marketers have gotten more manipulative. But I'd argue that the consumer has gotten stupider. How many people do you know who hated the first prequel, but went to the second two to "see how it ends"? For f's sake, we KNOW how it ends. Anakin turns to the dark side. Part IV told us that in 1977!
Anyone who says the prequels ruined their childhood experience of the originals should look up the meaning of the word "experience" and try to have some of their own, preferably in the real world.
Oh, and the Empire Strikes Back (original version) is still close to being a perfect film, save for the cliffhanger ending.
Total and utter BS.
I bet you'd think 2001 A Space Odyssey is a bore on a 13 inch screen. And as for that Mark chump, I'm going to pound him into mush!:)
From Vanity Fair this month.
Windolf: How did you feel about the reception to Revenge of the Sith? And did you complete the story to your satisfaction?
Lucas: I’m happy that the whole thing is finished, finally, so that was very satisfying, to have it complete and in one piece. It was a great sense of completion. I was happy with how it turned out—as well as I could have hoped. The reception is always lukewarm for those movies, so that’s not new.
There were a lot of great reviews mixed in.
I notice that people only remember all the good reviews. The only one that got better reviews than that and moved the needle slightly toward good reviews was Empire. That was the least successful of the movies.
In box office?
Yes. The most successful, in terms of worldwide box office, was Phantom Menace. So that’s the number one. [Laughs.]
Kids prefer the prequel trilogy.
People who are over 40 love [Episodes] IV, V, and VI and hate I, II, and III. Younger people like I, II, and III and don’t like IV, V, and VI, or they like I, II, and III better and think IV, V, and VI are kind of boring and slow. And of course the older people say, “Oh, I, II, and III—it’s too jittery, too fast, too complicated, it’s too digital,” or whatever they want to say. But definitely one generation has grabbed hold of one of them, and the other generation has grabbed hold of the next one. One of the key characters that helped us realize what was going on was Jar Jar Binks, because the kids that are under 10 years old, he’s one of their favorite characters. For people over 40, they cannot stand him—it’s a hate thing. You know, they’ve always been for 12-year-olds, and that’s never changed. People don’t want to think of it that way. They want to think those films are for grown-ups. Even though they were 10 years old when they saw it, it’s still very important to them, so, for them, it’s a grown-up movie, as opposed to a kids’ movie. The pre–Jar Jar Binks was 3PO. Everybody hated 3PO. I mean, it was like they couldn’t stand him. It really had to do with his character. They don’t like his character, and they don’t like Jar Jar Binks—but they’re not designed to be likeable characters.
They’re comic relief.
Well, they’re comic relief, and they’re kind of annoying, but they’re designed to be like that.
Lucas of all people should realize that 'box office' must always be adjusted for inflation!
I heard that Mark geek is scared!
I heard Mark is scared!
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