Why I Hate George Lucas

Where is the Love, George?

Published on January 12, 2005 By Amitty In Movies & TV & Books

I think it all started back during Episode I.

Yeah, you all know what I am talking about. The excitment and the hype had built up over the year.." OMG, a new, brand new Star Wars Film!" The excitment in the air was too much. Like many people, I wasn't born to see the first one in the theaters and the other two I was too young to remember. Even the re-screening of the 'mediocre' Special Edition was fine, but the additions were not really worth the cash that was raked in. I personally loved the free Luke Skywalker toy.

So, after seeing the onslaught of movie tie ins..Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Pepsi, I still trudged on through what seemed like marketing magic and waited outside in the warm Spring night to be the first in line. Then, it happened.

Episode I kind of licked.

Not kind of...it really did. I mean, of course it had cool elements. Unfortunately, they also had Jar Jar Binks and Jake Lloyd. Not to mention the piles and piles of badly licensed toys. Consumerism had crept into my holy triology. After all, the next three star wars movies were supposed to be my generations epic movies. I still hurt from spending money on the movie.

Promises of a better time were inspired by Episode II, even after the release of the title, Attack of the Clones. A bad Annikan Skywalker was replaced by a worst one, and it made it hard to watch, sort of like Reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix the first time. Angst. Not that Natalie Portman was much better this time around. There was a better selection of action, and everyone watching yoda zoom around busted a gut. But, in all, not much better.

Did I mention the DVD yet? Of course I didn't. Let's talk about Jedi. Let's talk about eliminating the ghost of Annikan at the end and putting in Hayden Christianson. DUDE! George, I really started to wonder about you. Sure, I believe that things should sort of sync up, but why not dub in ol' Hayden into the death scene on the Death Star? Why not mess with the classics again? WTF is wrong with George?

Well, a lot apparently.

The final blow to my Star Wars loving was seeing the first trailer and noticing the rise of Vader. What is wrong with Vader's suit? Why is is curvy and strange? Lucus said he wanted to go back ot the original concepts of the Vader suit, and therefore the difference. Hell, it looks kind of lame. And before you lynch me, really take a look at it.

So Hayden wanted to play Vader? So they made this 5'8" guy into Lord Vader, the most reconizable villian in the universe....dang yo. Why ruin it all? George, are you seriously flipped out? I know it would be hard to make things as they were, but the Vader? I think that is crossing a line.

Unfortunately, all I can do is bitch, because I will pony up the money to see the movie, like the other two. I just wanted to get out wht I thought about the ruination of the series...especially with Epi. VII, VIII, IX on the horizon.

Why, you didn't hear about that? Sure, Lucus wants to continue, but have nothing to do with the continuation. They will be considered in animation form and continue the story, but without George's hand....talk about selling it all out..."

Comments

ParaTed2k

on Jan 12, 2005

George Lucas' true talent and magic is churning out tie in toys, games and advertising gimics. I may be wrong, but it seems to me that he invented the concept. If he didn't, he sure perfected it!!

With all the changes to the original three, all George is really telling us, is we were wrong for considering the Star Wars series as anything important to us in the first place. He claimed he was making memories for us all, then he messed up those memories by changing them.

He was poised to be remembered as one of the greats in making films. Instead he will be remembered as "The Toy Maker".

Rightwinger

on Jan 12, 2005

Well, if you want to go back a couple decades in time, Hopalong Cassidy and Roy Rogers started the marketing of their characters in the 50s, with boots, hats, clothing, lunchboxes and toy guns. Davy Crockett hats and rifles were very popularly marketed toys as well.
Gene Roddenberry continued the tradition in the 60s with his Lincoln Enterprises, marketing early Star Trek merchandise. This continued into the 70s as the show gained in popularity in reruns.

But, the more I think about it, PT2k is probably right.....Lucas really has perfected the art of merchandising by flooding all aspects of our society with his vision. There's Star Wars everything. All who've come after are simply emulating him.
The only rival, from what I've heard at least, would be Japan's "Hello Kitty". I guess that anime-looking cat is on just about anything you can think of over there.

As for the movies themselves, I was there in the Victoria Theater in Wheeling, WV in the hot summer of '77, nine years old, and loved every minute of it. I watched the whole phenomenon grow. "Star Wars" was THE topic of converstion among the boys on the playground that first day back to school in the fall.
I had thousands of Star Wars trading cards, I had action figures, a Darth Vader necklace, the soundtrack album....I had it all. I read voraciously anything I could find dealing with the movie and its (ohpleaseohpleaseohplease) planned sequel, which, "according to creator George Lucas" would "definately NOT be called "Star Wars 2".
I saw and enjoyed the sequels, though by the time "Jedi" came out, I was 15 or 16, and felt I was a little old for it. The teddy-bear-looking Ewoks, obviously included simply for the pure cutesy, warm-fuzziness they evoked, kind of made my opinion seem true.

Through the years, however, as I watched the movies on video and enjoyed them over and over, I grew to appreciate them again. The dialogue was often a little lame, I realized.....dialogue is not one of Lucas' strong suits. However, the basic storyline.....good versus evil, friendship, blood is thicker than water.....it all appealed, in a different way, to the adult in me.
When he rereleased them with the digital tweaking, I kind of had to admit that I liked some of the changes; added backgrounds, more activity in the streets of Mos Eisley, the stormtroopers riding their Dewbacks in the quest for the the Droids, the more powerful-looking explosions of Alderaan and the Death Star....I liked all that.

But it seems that Lucas is unable to stop in his quest for what he sees as perfection.....he keeps fucking with it all, and that makes me mad. For this reason, I will steadfastly avoid the DVD collection, wich features Hayden C. at the end of "Jedi" instead of the original guy (whose name escapes me right now), and God knows what other changes I haven't heard of. I'll stick to my VHS versions of the '97 rereleases. I used to have the originals, in a boxed set, on VHS, but my (now-ex) wife lent them to a co-worker to watch, and needless to say, I never got them back. She lent my boxed set of the first five Trek movies at the same time. I never got them back, either. Grounds for divorce if ever there was one.
I own the VHS boxed sets of both again, but had to buy the digitally tweaked version of Star Wars, rather than the original versions, which I'd love to have, but are not available any longer. This is due to Lucas' increasing megalomania.

Hey George! Why not just remake the entire series?! You could recast all the roles with newer, hipper, younger actors! Tobey Macguire as Luke Skywalker? Hillary Duff as Leia, maybe? Ben Affleck as Han Solo? Yao Ming as Chewbacca? Anthony Hopkins as Ben Kenobi?
Hey....why not? If you're gonna keep screwing it up, let's do it right!

bakerstreet

on Jan 12, 2005

G.L. reeks of the attitude "Just slop something together, they'll buy it because they are stupid and love the story.

There has been one good Star Wars film. Everything thereafter has relied heavily on how well done the first one was. He's a one-hit wonder whose one hit was so good it lent him the guise of professionalism.

A lurid example. The Mon Calamari. An aquatic people... named... for fried squid. Either he thought it would be funny, or thought people would be too stupid to know what it was. EIther way, suspension of disbelief crumbles. Over and over we see details of that.

Now, he wants to go back and ruin even his first hit. His pretentious "No DVDs other than the Director's cut" is the worst sort of egotistical bullshit, especially in the face of overwhelming opposition by fans. He isn't ignoring us, he's giving us the finger.

To George, though, fans seem to be shills, suckers, that will eat whatever slop he gives us and to hell with artistry. Screw you George, you're a hack with enough money to glam up your crap and a wasted mythology to exploit. If Episode 3 fails, you're just getting what you deserve.

Amitty

on Jan 12, 2005

true dat baker, we agree on little, but this time we coincide.

Lucus has for sure made his money on the smart marketing of his Star Wars stuff, but I think that whne he had the original idea, that he should hae stayed a little truer. His constant 'excuse' of perfection cuts zero ice, and you are right..he ruined his own one hit. good opinion all around.

Amitty

on Jan 13, 2005

unfortunately, I have to see it. There are few momentus occasions in life where something huge happens, and I think the birth of Darth Vader is a big thing. Yes, the movie will most likely lick ass in the extreme, but at the same time...cultural icon being born...I probably won't pay for it, that is my compromise.

Rightwinger

on Jan 13, 2005

Lucas has had more than one hit; you may be forgetting "American Graffitti", and let's not forget that he had a hand in creating Indiana Jones and the three movies, too (although he wanted Jones to be slick and aristocratic, kind of like James Bond, while Spielberg opted, thankfully, for the image we know and love).

It may well be that he holds his audience in contempt, who knows? I just know that I'll be seeing the last one-----why not? I saw all the others. And I agree that seeing how Darth Vader, the coolest and probably most recognizable villain in movie history was created, will definately be the shit (especially since James Earl Jones is doing the voice again). And I absolutely agree that "Attack of the Clones" was a stupid title. I've always thought that a simple "The Clone Wars" would have been a better one.

To Lucas, I say this:

"Your powers are weak, old man."

Zoomba

on Jan 13, 2005

There are certain unwritten, unspoken laws that every nerd, geek and dork must follow. To violate these laws is to deny a very essential part of our being. One of these laws involves Star Wars as a sacred and hallowed subject. If anything Star Wars comes out, we must see it. There is no room for argument. Sure Ep 1 and 2 sucked, and Ep 3 probably wont be much better (though the trailers definitely look better this time around), but we still have to go see it... it's the hope that the greatness from our childhood memories can be recaptured. It's the hope that maybe, just maybe, Anakin will be a bit more bad-ass, less whiney, and start to really become more Vaderesque. He has one movie to make the transformation from whiney, angsty brat to one of the most elegant and sophisticated villians in movie history. (There's no denying that Darth Vader has a certain power of presence, helped immensely by James Earl Jones' voice).

Also, this is likely the end of the Star Wars movies... sure there are rumors of a post OT set of movies, but everyone's getting too old to do this stuff anymore. The prequels have been running since I was a junior in high school (I'm now out of college). They had been in production a few years prior to that even. I doubt George will want to spend the remainder of his life working on SW.

One of my friends put it pretty well... Bad Star Wars is like bad sex, or bad pizza.... bad is better than NONE.

Amitty

on Jan 13, 2005

True, and the next episodes that are planned aren't live action, remember? So, in the real sense, this isn't hte last one. Maybe last live action movie, yes.

I agree with the laws of geekdom, which I follow, but come on..there has to be something worth being loyal to. For instance, look at the Friday the 13th movies. Past a certain point, they realized that tehy can't try and make legitimate horror movies within that vein. So, what do you do? You camp it up. Sure, it's not a scary movie, but it is still entertaining.
Star Wars has long been a sacred cow, and ever since remakes and remixes and special editions and 'director's cuts', it has been sliding. Imagine if the creators of the Matrix decided to start messing around with the original Matrix movie? *not that the second and third couldn't use a hell of a lot of work*. You would take that pure form and idea and twist it. Not nessisarily for the better.

I mean, once again, I will see it..but I won't like it....and May is almost here...

BTW, did I mention the messed up look tothe new vader suit? dang yo, it just isn't cool to mess with that!

Rightwinger

on Jan 13, 2005

BTW, did I mention the messed up look tothe new vader suit? dang yo, it just isn't cool to mess with that!

Yes, but remember.....you're going back in time to the "first" Vader suit......I'm sure there were "upgrades" as "time passed", bringing us up to Episodes IV, V & VI and the Vader suit we've come to know and love.
Anytime you show the past, you have to allow for these things. A good example, for us geeks and nerds is "Enterprise" and all the times the NexGen, DS9 and Voyager crews mixed it up with the oldies (a terrific example is.....shit, I can't remember the episode name right now. The DS9 where they went to Deep Space Station K-7 during the "Tribble" infestation and were "gumped" into "The Trouble with Tribbles" episode).

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