Star Wars: Episode VII: The Nerd Rage Awakens
- Thread starter cooleddie74
- Start date
And General Grievous was an interesting villain even if he was basically little more than a prototype model and foreshadowing of Darth Vader in terms of being an organic character turned into a malevolent cyborg with breathing problems.
I think Lucas is a brilliant idea man and story generator, but he needs someone else to write the dialogue and do the directing. The storyline of the Prequels are absolutely brilliant, work on so many levels, and are far superior to the comparatively simplistic OT.
Anakin was a failure of a character in the movies, but just look at the portrayal in the Clone Wars cartoon, where Lucas was the idea man but not the show runner.
Unfortunately, Lucas was the victim of his own success and was surrounded by yes men who wouldn't disagree with him. Hell, even Speilberg wouldn't criticize him and just said it was his thing he should do it (I believe we see this in the TPM docu).
Anakin was a failure of a character in the movies, but just look at the portrayal in the Clone Wars cartoon, where Lucas was the idea man but not the show runner.
Unfortunately, Lucas was the victim of his own success and was surrounded by yes men who wouldn't disagree with him. Hell, even Speilberg wouldn't criticize him and just said it was his thing he should do it (I believe we see this in the TPM docu).
I was just about the point this out. I think the Clone Wars was a perfect example of what kind of quality you could get when you had Lucas's ideas being filtered through other, really talented creators. It kind of makes me wonder what Underworld would have been like if it had actually been finished.
I actually really like AoTC and ROTS, and enjoy TMP. I guess I tend be more willing to overlook the problems with the acting and writing, and just enjoy the overall story and visuals.
Judging quality is highly subjective. And really the same could said for The Young Indiana Jones Chonicles, Indy was a far more complex character on the TV series than he was in the movies. And Kasdan was one of the writers on Raiders. The same is really true for Abrams Star Trek m ovies as well, the major conplaint about them is that they're action/adventure stories not the complex human drama of the TV series.
They are cool, but they don't feel like characters to me, as presented in the films. I think Count Dooku is fantastic in concept, but he shows up midway through AOTC, and is killed off rather unceremoniously early in Act 1 of ROTS. That's great hero fodder, but hardly a character.
Again, as a credit to GL as an idea man, the ROTS novelization does a fantastic job of fleshing out Dooku, and makes a viewing experience more enjoyable. But, I don't feel any of the villains are really characters.
My problem with Grievous is that he comes out of nowhere (if one just watches the films, which I did) to serve as the proto-Vader. Again, as I said above, its cool, but not a character.
Agreed, and I had the same issue with Dooku. I think I mentioned this before, in either this thread or another recent Star Wars thread, but I think Dooku would have worked out better had he first appeared in Episode I as a member of the Jedi Council, the lone member who supported Qui-Gon's request to train Anakin (since Dooku was Qui-Gon's own master). Then at the end of Episode I, Yoda or Windu could have mentioned quickly that Dooku resigned after hearing about Qui-Gon's death.
But I think that idea would have worked better if they kept Dooku's identity as leader of the Separatists a secret through the first half of Episode II, instead of mentioning him in the opening scroll.
I'm not sure if it was still an issue, but I seem to recall that Lucas directed himself because he was still in trouble with one of the guilds for not having any credits in the opening of the movie aside from the production house. No actors, producers, directors, or anyone is credited at the start. Only the ending.
The documentary of the ROTS DVD implies that Spielberg did uncredited work on the Obi-Wan vs. Anakin duel.
May 2005. Ten years ago.
Unless you count the theatrical feature that launched The Clone Wars in the summer of 2008, but I personally don't since it was basically an expanded, longer TV episode to promote a brand new television series premiering at that same time.
Unless you count the theatrical feature that launched The Clone Wars in the summer of 2008, but I personally don't since it was basically an expanded, longer TV episode to promote a brand new television series premiering at that same time.
Its been a long time since Episode III, but we're also less than a year away from Episode VII, and we're apparently going to be getting a much shorter wait between films with Disney. Its been a long wait, but I kind of assumed we'd never see another main SW film, so I'm betting the wait will end up being worth it.
I think the actual directing and camera work in the prequels was pretty darn good actually, and that Lucas not only came up with a lot of dynamic shots but made the movies look absolutely amazing as well. Which is no small thing. Especially given all the different elements and effects he had to worth with and edit together.
Yeah one could argue that part of directing is getting good performances out of the actors as well... but when you're stuck with such poor writing and bad dialogue as they had, there's only so much that can really be done in that department. And I think ultimately that's where most of the problem lies.
And George remembering how to direct and depict basic and believable human emotions onscreen, something he was never a master at in the first place but was certainly better and more effective at in American Graffiti and Episode IV.
I agree that visually the Prequels are very striking and interesting. I think that the films are enjoyable with all the variety of design elements that are brought together.
That said, I don't want to sound like I hate the prequels or GL. I just think there were a lot of missed opportunities to tell an interesting story from the characters point of view, and expand upon the OT and the world built there. But, the characters are by and far the weakest element of the PT, followed by the story.
Can't believe its been 10 years either.
On April 2nd it'll be precisely 10 years to the day since Episode III toys, collectibles and other merchandise officially premiered in stores (if you don't count the Hasbro Sneak Preview action figures and whatever other early goodies of different kinds leaked out before that day). For Star Wars collectors that was the last "Midnight Madness" toy debut and while the launch of The Clone Wars in the summer of 2008 had its own unique retail premiere events it didn't have the same massive national launch that Revenge of the Sith (and the two other Prequels) did.
