One problem of the prequels is that it was just Lucas, not Lucas and Company. He was the first and last say in everything.
Is the Star Wars saga better with Episodes I to III or worse?
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One problem of the prequels is that it was just Lucas, not Lucas and Company. He was the first and last say in everything.
I think there is also the fact the development for each movie of the OT went through multiple drafts and revisions before they got the story of what we saw. In AOTC and ROTS, there was little rewriting and revising. The rough drafts were essentially the movies with little changed.
Sadly in the case of TPM, the prior drafts of the story were actually better and had none of the objectionable elements.
Sadly in the case of TPM, the prior drafts of the story were actually better and had none of the objectionable elements.
I thought was only because Han lead them to Bespin.
In an interview Lucas gave in the special features of either episode 2 or 3, he said that he liked Hayden due to the fact that he reminded him of James Dean in his "bad boy" roles. That's not an exact quote, but it is the gist.
It seems that Lucas with constraints (American Graffiti, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark) is better than Lucas without constraints (The Phantom Menace, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). It'll be interesting to see how Red Tails does.
Yeah but Lucas seems to struggle with the notion that women can play roles unrelated to their sex in his films. Even if we ignore the clones, you have hundreds of men while you can probably count the number of women that appear in all six films on your hands, a good number of whom are wives, mothers, sex slaves, and handmaidens. I don't think any of the (two?) female Jedi even speak do they? The fact that Padme was reduced to the role of pregnant wife in the final prequel speaks very much to Lucas' limited ability to relate to the female characters.
Leia was awesome but trying to make Padme any kind of carbon copy was a mistake in my view - she's mentally tough but she didn't grow up during a time of rebellion - making her a gun-toting heroine just doesn't fit her role as a politician. He should have introduced another character (like in the Clone Wars cartoon) to fill the action heroine role.
I think Episode III adds to the series while Episodes I and II pretty much don't add or detract anything either way. The midichlorians bit is hogwash and I choose to ignore it. 
Star Wars isn't a saga - it's two fun adventure movies made in homage to the light-hearted serials of yesteryear. After that it's simply bad storytelling and cheesiness spinning out for years on end.
But Star Wars and Empire are great flicks, tremendously watchable and charming.
But Star Wars and Empire are great flicks, tremendously watchable and charming.
Nowhere Man
Commodore
I've got a bad feeling about this.
Whenever someone mentions the prequels, I clear my throat and hang my head, asking myself why, in God's name, did George Lucas have to start the story half-way through instead of, once success was clear, create the entire series back in the 70's.
Because he never had any actual story for the prequel trilogy.
If you mean Lucas himself didn't have the story planned out, then I agree. But if you mean there's no story to tell in that era, than I can't agree with that at all. There was plenty to see (the two Clone Wars TV series have done a pretty good job of it so far).
I think he had ideas, what brought them down was execution. The prequels sound great on paper, it was in part to poor directing that brought them down IMO. Lucas is a top notch businessman. What hurts him is that he's so reclusive, he's not in touch with the audience anymore. He doesn't have anybody to edit his ideas. That's why "Clone Wars" works because it's more than just him writing & editing it. Lucas has become what he spoke out against in THX:1138.
Okay, I'm in the minority of people who voted Yes!
I liked the first film Only because of Queen Amidala's costumes.
Liked the second film because of the Cloners home planet and the ever so brief glimpse of Christoper Lee.
Liked the third film because of one deleted scene -- okay, that means I didn't like the third film.
I also think of them as an almost completely different series than the first and wouldn't watch them in order.
Are they ever going to do a third series that takes place after these first 6 films??
I liked the first film Only because of Queen Amidala's costumes.
Liked the second film because of the Cloners home planet and the ever so brief glimpse of Christoper Lee.
Liked the third film because of one deleted scene -- okay, that means I didn't like the third film.
I also think of them as an almost completely different series than the first and wouldn't watch them in order.
Are they ever going to do a third series that takes place after these first 6 films??
If by "they" you mean George Lucas, then no. If by "they" you mean the people who inherit the rights after GL becomes one with the Force, then maybe.
One thing I hope for is that George Lucas takes Star Wars with him into his grave. NOBODY should ever be allowed to touch this again. It's good as it is. The original trilogy is PERFECT as it is.
No reboots, no prequels, no sequels, unless Lucas is involved. Same goes for Indiana Jones. That's one thing I appreciate, even if the outcome is not so well done (like the prequels or Indy 4). It should stay with the original creators and should never be touched by anyone else.
No reboots, no prequels, no sequels, unless Lucas is involved. Same goes for Indiana Jones. That's one thing I appreciate, even if the outcome is not so well done (like the prequels or Indy 4). It should stay with the original creators and should never be touched by anyone else.
Because at the time, he rightly believed that the best part of the story, and the only one that mattered, started with the rebellion.
No one would have cared back then about how the Empire was formed, or how Darth Vader got created. They just wanted to get to the FUN stuff, where you could watch the heroic good guys fight the evil bad guys.
Amen!
I would highly suggest trying to download or even order it from amazon the book "The Secret History of Star Wars". It's a fantastic 500 plus page opus about the origins of "Star Wars" and focuses on George Lucas's own "rewritten" history regarding his origins of the "nine" Star Wars movies. I've not read through the whole thing yet but the first few chapters start off with his early life and how that developed and influenced his writing Star Wars in the first place. Lucas also has commented in the past about not enjoying writing...and as an amateur writer myself I tend to agree with a lot of his views on the subject. It can be a frustrating, mind numbing process.
Yeah I remember seeing the interview from Lucas regarding Hayden and comparing him or at least being reminded of James Dean. Hayden was overhyped and like most of the actors not utilized well enough due to Lucas's bad writing. Hayden I've often argued is a fantastic actor who should have been able to pull off portraying Anakin Skywalker...with get small glimpses as was pointed out by another poster of Anakin as being likeable and that was indeed the start of episode iii. After that he's back to being his douche self again. Watch Hayden in his television series "Higher Ground" or "Life as a House" where he plays Kevin Kline's depressed emo son and tell me he can't act. Natalie was wasted in all three movies imo. Another problem of having Anakin be a boy is that I don't think there was enough time to really develop the romance part of the relationship. When we see Anakin next he's 19 and practically obsessed over Padme an obsession that turns almost possessive. Also there was no chemistry between Hayden and Natalie (which is weird since they were reported dating during the time of Episode II) and their characters were forced into a serious relationship. I never bought their romance due to these reasons.
Yeah I remember seeing the interview from Lucas regarding Hayden and comparing him or at least being reminded of James Dean. Hayden was overhyped and like most of the actors not utilized well enough due to Lucas's bad writing. Hayden I've often argued is a fantastic actor who should have been able to pull off portraying Anakin Skywalker...with get small glimpses as was pointed out by another poster of Anakin as being likeable and that was indeed the start of episode iii. After that he's back to being his douche self again. Watch Hayden in his television series "Higher Ground" or "Life as a House" where he plays Kevin Kline's depressed emo son and tell me he can't act. Natalie was wasted in all three movies imo. Another problem of having Anakin be a boy is that I don't think there was enough time to really develop the romance part of the relationship. When we see Anakin next he's 19 and practically obsessed over Padme an obsession that turns almost possessive. Also there was no chemistry between Hayden and Natalie (which is weird since they were reported dating during the time of Episode II) and their characters were forced into a serious relationship. I never bought their romance due to these reasons.
