Lucas: "I sold Star Wars to White Slavers"

[Tribble puncher]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/new...to-‘white-slavers’/ar-BBo3Y9h?ocid=spartanntp


Is this his ego talking? or genuine regret at the direction others are taking the franchise he created? If Lucas had been in charge do you think we would have gotten the prequel trilogy 2.0? Something better? Worse? Think we will ever know what Lucas's plans were? I'm guessing he's not allowed to divulge anything he wrote, I wouldn't be surprised if Disney owns those scripts just so they could throw them in a vault somewhere....I enjoyed the Force Awakens overall, It's like Abrams Star Trek Films, It has it's way with you in the theater, but then the next day, You realize that it wasn't as amazing as you thought it was. It's like Cinematic Beer Goggles or something. Anyway, Interesting that Lucas isn't happy with the film (not entirely surprising, as he wasn't in control.) What do you guys think?

 

[sidious618]

I don't get the impression that Lucas hated the new film, just that he's now having second thoughts about giving up his creation and seeing it go in a different direction. That doesn't really hit me as strange.

The white slavers comment is just bizarre, though.

 

[M.A.C.O.]

Oh, it's just George being George.

It's not like Disney is subtle or shy about overexposing the IPs that they own. They plan to milk Star Wars for all it's worth.

 

[Gepard]

He's salty as fuck and I like it.

I can't say the prequels were better than TFA, but at the same time I feel like they had more artistic integrity than TFA. Certainly they were more idiosyncratic. Now that we've gotten a taste of Disney-era Star Wars I'm less thrilled with the sale than I used to be. I can only imagine how Lucas feels about it.

 

[Noname Given]

Seller's remorse (in that Mr. Lucas now thinks he sold it to Disney for too low a price)?

IDK - For me, had Mr. Lucas fully written, produced and directed this film; I probably would have waited to see the thing on cable. This film made money because we finally had what made "The Empire Strikes Back" a good film - a Director that wasn't George Lucas and who did script rewrites of lines that didn't fit the characters and who actually knew how to work and collaborate with said actors.

 

[M.A.C.O.]

I don't think Lucas cares about the money. Lucas did donate the 4 billion he sold Star Wars for, to charity.

 

[The Mighty Monkey of Mim]

He's salty as fuck and I like it.

I can't say the prequels were better than TFA, but at the same time I feel like they had more artistic integrity than TFA. Certainly they were more idiosyncratic. Now that we've gotten a taste of Disney-era Star Wars I'm less thrilled with the sale than I used to be. I can only imagine how Lucas feels about it.

Yeah, for all the prequels' faults (which were numerous and pronounced) I felt the new film lacked scope and imagination by comparison...which is something I never expected to hear myself saying.

I certainly don't blame Lucas for getting out—after all, how much of people taking cheap shots and saying you've raped their childhood can one take before saying f*** it—but I can see that SW has lost part of what made it special in his personal creative vision. Of course, maybe he himself felt he'd already lost that to some extent, and letting go was probably ultimately a healthy decision for him, as opposed to persisting in his seeming obsession with revising and tinkering with the original films. In any case, it was never realistic to think such a popular and lucrative property would die with him, so the torch had to be passed sooner or later.

(Nothing against the many who clearly love TFA, naturally. Enjoy away. I am looking forward to see what Rian Johnson brings to the table, as I enjoyed both The Brothers Bloom and Looper.)

 

[Mach5]

Yeah, for all the prequels' faults (which were numerous and pronounced) I felt the new film lacked scope and imagination by comparison...

We've been over this a million times already, but yes, the prequels lacked in execution, though the imagination part was fine. Lucas wanted to take Star Wars in new directions, introduce new things, while Disney pretty much wrote a love letter to the original trilogy.

Which is fine. They made a decision to play it safe, a perfectly logical one, especially from a business standpoint, and the insane profits this movie is making justify that choice completely.

This being said, I would have preferred a more original movie. Homages are okay, but Abrams took shit a bit too far. A droid carrying important intel is found by a force-sensitive orphan on a god forsaken sand planet, and needs to be delivered to Leia's secret base? Han is on the run from gangsters whom he owes money? A third Death star (which actually looks like Hoth), blown up in basically exact same fashion as the original one? Heck, they even threw in a cantina scene.

I didn't mind any of this all that much TBH, but I can certainly see why some people were annoyed. I could swear I heard sighs from the audience when Ken Leung started talking about that oscillator on the Starkiller base.

 

[Dream]

Lucas gets to sit on his ass and new Star Wars films will come out without him having to do any work.

Also Lucas can say he has nothing to do with these future Star Wars movies when they all inevitably start sucking. It's a win win for him!

 

[{ Emilia }]

I suppose I can forgive the lack of originality in the plot because the characters were so great, the movie was very entertaining, the visuals really good and I just expect the next movie to be different.
If the next movie ends up being a remake of TESB I'm going to start getting annoyed I guess.

 

[2takesfrakes]

I completely agree that STAR WARS: The Force Awakens has little to none of the artistic integrity that the previous STAR WARS entries offered, but I don't know what making nasty comments about Disney is going to get George Lucas. He voluntarily sold off the franchise and took the money - none of which happened overnight. He just sounds like somebody who got what they wanted but doesn't want what they got ...

 

[Mudd]

As much as I enjoyed The Force Awakens - and as much as I like nuTrek - this writer nails most of what's going on and what the shortcomings of modern franchise film production are.

http://www.latimes.com/business/hil...the-force-awakens-stinks-20151226-column.html

 

[Mach5]

Had the prequels actually been good, most people would hate The Force Awakens.

True or false?

 

[YellowSubmarine]

Had the prequels actually been good, most people would hate The Force Awakens.

True or false?

Spoiler: TFA

Had the prequels been good, there wouldn't have been reluctance to steer further away from the original story, and we wouldn't have ended with another ANH. Which could and would have been both good and bad – TFA could have used something more original story-wise, yet I think that being a carbon copy of ANH gave it a nostalgic feeling that cannot be replaced either. The place for such would have still been there had the prequels been successful, perhaps even more so. (Though those are not mutually exclusive, so...)

The change from the OT to the prequels I think in some ways paralleled the changes in-universe from before and after the rise of the empire. Since the new films take us back to the days after, it makes sense to go back a little, and open with a film that thoroughly reminds you where you are, one that feels like ANH – and that makes sense even if the prequels hadn't failed. I even think the storyline would still need to be similar. Despite the fireworks that were added in recent versions of the OT, I don't believe the universe turning into a jolly one and falling into darkness again would have worked, so in any sequels we'd need to work our way against the successor of the empire, step by step, in vein similar to ANH and TFA. Perhaps another Death Star was too much.

That said, the prequels were good. They were just bad at the same time. So it's more a question of them not being terrible, the good parts were already there.

Yesterday I was reminded of TPM and Keira Knightley playing Padmé's decoy, which got Anakin to unknowingly chat with Padmé the whole time. I don't quite remember the actual scenes, except that I was certain that had switched places before it was revealed, and that there was something awfully awesome about the set-up. Maybe that's even one of the silly moments – I was around 15, but I do remember liking it too much. At the time it felt quite in place with the surreal feeling of the SW universe, which I was seeing for the first time, and also felt good despite the fact I was completely lost in the story, which was all over the place.

And even the story, not really – the confusion was due to Palpatine's brilliant plot, which may have been horribly portrayed, but still brilliant.

I think it had all the good pieces, but they were put together like C-3PO's new red hand. I think I may even see them again one day.

Kinda like my thoughts today – except I lack the good parts.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Had the prequels actually been good, most people would hate The Force Awakens.

True or false?

I'd say false. Given the wide - yes, WIDE - variety of opinions on the prequels, it's hard to judge what somebody would think of TFA as a result of them.

Me, I liked TFA and all of the originals, I just like the prequels more. (Shocking! )

 

[{ Emilia }]

As much as I enjoyed The Force Awakens - and as much as I like nuTrek - this writer nails most of what's going on and what the shortcomings of modern franchise film production are.

http://www.latimes.com/business/hil...the-force-awakens-stinks-20151226-column.html

I think it's been linked before but I actually bothered reading it this time. I think it's overly preoccupied with trying to sound cynical and jaded. Of course much of it is true but that has been the case for decades now. And anybody who writes a sentence like this should reconsider his career choice:

Sitting in the theater at "Avatar," I felt like I was being pounded into submission by a giant hedge fund.

I'm very critical of Hollywood's sequelitis and franchisitis diseases, the lack of original content and the stupidity of blockbusters but give me a break. My reaction is just to go to the cinema way less than I used to.

I'll let the author know when I start feeling like I'm being pounded into submission by a hedgefund to go to a movie.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

There were elements in the prequels that could have made strong films. It was execution that was piss poor. The basic story of the prequels is much more interesting than the basic story of TFA. But, it also had lots of irritating slapstick, lots of awkward dialog and cringeworthy attempts at humor, poorly choreographed action scenes that suffered from Die Hard 4 syndrome, distractingly busy CGI backgrounds, unnecessary cameos that don't make sense with the original, coughing robots and Jar Jar.

With TFA it's kind of the opposite. The premise is lacking and way too close to ANH but the execution is fantastic.

It kind of makes me think the best movie would have come from George Lucas providing a broad outline for the story, then JJ Abrams writing that story.

I can sympathize with Lucas' feelings of seeing his story taken out of his hands. I remember a comment from Dan Harmon about Community season 4: "It was like seeing your children raped". All passionate writers feel that way about their creations. He may be regretting using the loaded word 'Slavers'.

 

[BigJake]

^^ Em has it right. And granted there are blockbusters where I have felt like I was being subjected to an assault on the senses designed to distract me from the lack of substance, but TFA and Avatar weren't among them. TFA quite obviously is a retread of the original Star Wars -- which improves on it in most of the ways I'd expect a competent modern filmmaker to do -- but then it's not like I was expecting Abrams to come along and use it to "change movies the way Taxi Driver changed movies."

Had the prequels actually been good, most people would hate The Force Awakens.

True or false?

False-ish, but TFA is certainly benefiting plenty by comparison with the prequels and (with justice) feels like a revival to a lot of people, not even just among the hardcore fans.

Is this his ego talking? or genuine regret at the direction others are taking the franchise he created?

It's just a joke about watching somebody else pimp out an IP you created. The "white slavers" remark came about because he was comparing Star Wars movies to "his kids," and he's sold them now.

Which, you know, I'm not exactly inclined to feel sorry for Lucas -- who has an assured place in cinematic history and could literally sleep with his trophy wife on piles of money if he wanted to -- but no doubt he is living a truly unique form of Awkward with this stuff.

 

[ancient]

Lucas is like an introverted Howard Hughes, he can basically say any crazy dribbling nonsense he wants at this point & no one even raises an eyebrow.

Lucas is definitely a better world-builder than Abrams though. Abrams rushes too much to bother setting anything up properly. I'm still a bit confused my Maz's world for example. Is it a forest with one bar on it and nothing else? If so, why is the parking lot so far away?? Why would you go to a beautiful paradise planet, then sit in a dank castle? It should be open air dammit! A dank bar makes sense in a hot, noisy, crowded desert city.

 

[Jedi_Master]

I think that most folks who have watched any documentaries about the prequels will recognize that George was a micro-manager. He had the final word on every decision that was made, even down to the tiniest detail.

Unless he had that level of control over the new trilogy, he would not have been happy, and I think he realized that and did not want to go through that again. So he walked away.

Now, after seeing the new film he realizes what he gave up, and feels a sense of remorse. I don't blame him, but I think he is mature enough to move on, although he will likely engage in some GR style retconning and try to burnish the awesomeness of his own sole creations.

As for the various critical comments on the film, I think we are just seeing a regression to the mean. Critics are the original hipsters - they love dense, difficult, "ground breaking", and inaccessible films, and innately distrust anything that makes actual money. They also revel in being "that guy" who breaks from the crown and boldly whines about something someone else made. It's a tough job. TFA came out to near universal praise, and that just won't do. It's time for everyone to reestablish their bonifides and ping it for SOMETHING. Thus the negative comments about it being derivative, commercial, etc.

So the whole "this is too commercial - films aren't smart anymore" comments are rather empty ways to fill column space and get some attention within and without the critical community.

There are dozens of smart, cerebral, interesting and challenging films released every year. But the chances of a blockbuster film fitting all those categories is almost zero because that is not the way the marketplace works.


So if you like smart, challenging, edgy, films - then the award season is the best time of year for you. Enjoy. If you like big spectacles designed to sell as much merch as possible, then the summer and holiday seasons are the best time of year for you.

But from time to time there is a film that is both - smart, entertaining, engaging, beautiful, a hoot from beginning to end, AND overwhelmingly commercial. TFA is all those things, and like Avatar before it, there will always be somebody who simply can't imagine that "good" and "commercial" can coexist in one film.