Why, George?....
In an earlier post, I alluded to some dissatisfaction with George Lucas' Star Wars prequels, which won this comment...
Why is it, when you voice a dissenting opinion, people conclude that you hate something? ("Hater" only has one 't' by the way...if you're going to call me names, please spell them correctly at least.) My big problem with the prequels is the shortcuts that Lucas took in the telling of the story...it would not have been that difficult to make the characters more complex, the plot events less contrived.
So, here's the list--
Jar Jar Binks--I realize every story needs a little comic relief. When that appears to be the sole justification for a character to be in a story (Ep 1), it chafes me. One of the things that made the original trilogy so fun was the witty banter between the characters, the way the comedy was woven into the story, instead of being a sideline to the story. And I just can't accept that any being THAT completely inept, on every level, could ever survive for that length of time.
Besides, how much more poignant would it have been, in ep 3, if Jar Jar had STILL handed over the control of the Republic to Palpatine and he WASN'T such a simpleton and so easily manipulated?
Visual Design--I loved the look and feel of the original series...and when ep 1 came out, NOTHING looked like it had come from the same design school, except the lightsabers and Tatooine (more on THAT next). In fact, with those exceptions, nothing looked familiar until the end of ep 2, when the clone troopers were moving out. Then you saw intimations of the Star Destroyers to come. Ep 3 was full of foreshadowing designs. It was also, far and away, my favorite of the prequels. (And, I will plead guilty to the 'hater' title here...I thought the Naboo ship designs stunk on ice.)
Planets--Why is it that NOTHING happened on a familiar planet, except Tatooine? Padme couldn't have been from Alderaan? Tatooine HAD to be the nexus of every colossal upheaval that hit the galaxy? If you're going to make up a bunch of new planets, either stick with it, or else give an equal spread of old and new (which would be my preference, that 'sews' the two series together more effectively).
Character names--Jar Jar? Shmi? Count Dooku? (that one sounds like a four-year-old's nickname for taking a trip to the toilet!) Anakin's nickname being 'Ani'? (I realize that shortened names are supposed to be endearing...that one was annoying...as one of my friends put it, "It's no wonder he went to the Dark Side...I would, too, if people were always calling me 'Ani'".)
The 'Secret Marriage'--Anakin is in CONSTANT company with people who are trained to perceive the inner thoughts of beings from all over the galaxy, and can sense events happening hundreds of light years away. They couldn't tell he was keeping a secret from them? I don't buy it. I also think it was un-necessary, there are plenty of ways you could still have the marriage be the source of his downfall...
My personal favorite would have been to have Padme realize he was falling away, and turn to Obi-Wan for help. She realizes that her children are going to be born and their father is no longer the man he used to be, and she's got to take steps to protect them. Obi-Wan spirits her away to Alderaan, confronts Anakin, who is furious that his best friend has betrayed him...and THAT is the trigger to his fall. It's still spawned by love of Padme, it makes Anakin a stronger character because he's not led to his fall like someone's pulling him along by the lower lip, and it's an EXTREMELY easy fix to the story, that wouldn't have made the films any longer. (This is a big one...it's just bad storytelling to me.)
Contradictions to earlier references--it's one thing when someone writing a story in a universe you created screws up the continuity. That happens all the time. It's another thing when you can't be consistent with your own storytelling. Ben tells Luke that Yoda trained him, so where did Qui-Gon Jinn come from? (Not that I have anything against that character, he was one of the things about ep 1 that I really did enjoy) Leia REMEMBERS her mother, fer cryin' out...she describes her mother to Luke at one point! Not possible if Mom died in childbirth! He at least side-stepped the issue of Threepio being BUILT on Tatooine by having his memory wiped...but while we're on Threepio being kit-bashed together by Anakin...if he's a custom-built droid, why do we see other threepio units in the original trilogy? It's another plot contrivance...c'mon, Padme was a PRINCESS. She couldn't have a protocol droid of her own? She had to get hers from Anakin?
Why do the aliens keep getting more and more cartoon-like? Sebulba has legs, and walks on his hands? Wattoo looks like a combination of a cherub and a pot-bellied pig, with a long snout...and flutters around like a hummingbird? I realize you want to breathe a sense of wonder into the galaxy with characters like that...and show that there are other evolutionary paths than the human standard...but there's a certain point where flights of fancy become implausible, and a lot of characters (mostly in ep 1) went WAY over the line.
I also always imagined that the Clone Wars was the Republic fighting an army of clones, not fielding one...given the dubious ethics of cloning, I'm not sure how I feel about Jedi leading swarms of clone troopers. It does work...so I can't say he went wrong there. I'm just not sure it was, dramatically speaking, the strongest choice in the overall scheme of the story.
Yeah, there's probably more...but that would require me to sit down and watch the prequels again...and I'm not real eager for the experience. I have a hard time watching some parts of the Special Edition of the original trilogy, because there were subtle, but fundamental changes that shifted the whole dynamic of the character (C'mon, Han shot Greedo, the Rodian never got a shot off...and having Greedo shoot first cheapens Han's whole transformation, because suddenly he's no longer this hardened smuggler who'll take the first shot to save his life...) I wish they'd made the ORIGINAL cut of the trilogy available on DVD...I realize that there are things in there that didn't fit with what Lucas REALLY wanted to do...but they fit together. If it works, don't fix it...and they worked. Yeah, if you get nit-picky, they were kind of simplistic, morality stories, but they were well-done morality stories that took simple archetypes and breathed new life and dimension into them.
It was a real let-down to see him take complex archetypes and simplify them. Why'd you do it, George?
In an earlier post, I alluded to some dissatisfaction with George Lucas' Star Wars prequels, which won this comment...
If Lucas went wrong with the Prequels, then why did he make so much damn money off them? Why did millions go see them?Yes, I did go see them. And it's an intense measure of how disappointed I was that I only saw them ONCE. I have THREE copies of the original trilogy (four, of the original Star Wars) from different editions that were released. I have the novelizations of the films (the original trilogy). I have multiple characters in a Star Wars role-playing game that I've been playing, off and on, since late 1990. (Yes, I realize, this officially brands me as a geek. I've never claimed to be anything else.) I don't have ANY of the prequels. And the only one I'm likely to get is ep 3. If I buy the other two, it'll be for the lightsaber battles, to study the fight choreography (I DID like that...lightsaber combat in the prequels is far more exciting than it was in the original trilogy. It's one of the few places where I really felt there was an improvement.)
Sure there were flaws,but so did the originals. Get off the band wagon of hatters,cuz you know you went and saw them!
Why is it, when you voice a dissenting opinion, people conclude that you hate something? ("Hater" only has one 't' by the way...if you're going to call me names, please spell them correctly at least.) My big problem with the prequels is the shortcuts that Lucas took in the telling of the story...it would not have been that difficult to make the characters more complex, the plot events less contrived.
So, here's the list--
Jar Jar Binks--I realize every story needs a little comic relief. When that appears to be the sole justification for a character to be in a story (Ep 1), it chafes me. One of the things that made the original trilogy so fun was the witty banter between the characters, the way the comedy was woven into the story, instead of being a sideline to the story. And I just can't accept that any being THAT completely inept, on every level, could ever survive for that length of time.
Besides, how much more poignant would it have been, in ep 3, if Jar Jar had STILL handed over the control of the Republic to Palpatine and he WASN'T such a simpleton and so easily manipulated?
Visual Design--I loved the look and feel of the original series...and when ep 1 came out, NOTHING looked like it had come from the same design school, except the lightsabers and Tatooine (more on THAT next). In fact, with those exceptions, nothing looked familiar until the end of ep 2, when the clone troopers were moving out. Then you saw intimations of the Star Destroyers to come. Ep 3 was full of foreshadowing designs. It was also, far and away, my favorite of the prequels. (And, I will plead guilty to the 'hater' title here...I thought the Naboo ship designs stunk on ice.)
Planets--Why is it that NOTHING happened on a familiar planet, except Tatooine? Padme couldn't have been from Alderaan? Tatooine HAD to be the nexus of every colossal upheaval that hit the galaxy? If you're going to make up a bunch of new planets, either stick with it, or else give an equal spread of old and new (which would be my preference, that 'sews' the two series together more effectively).
Character names--Jar Jar? Shmi? Count Dooku? (that one sounds like a four-year-old's nickname for taking a trip to the toilet!) Anakin's nickname being 'Ani'? (I realize that shortened names are supposed to be endearing...that one was annoying...as one of my friends put it, "It's no wonder he went to the Dark Side...I would, too, if people were always calling me 'Ani'".)
The 'Secret Marriage'--Anakin is in CONSTANT company with people who are trained to perceive the inner thoughts of beings from all over the galaxy, and can sense events happening hundreds of light years away. They couldn't tell he was keeping a secret from them? I don't buy it. I also think it was un-necessary, there are plenty of ways you could still have the marriage be the source of his downfall...
My personal favorite would have been to have Padme realize he was falling away, and turn to Obi-Wan for help. She realizes that her children are going to be born and their father is no longer the man he used to be, and she's got to take steps to protect them. Obi-Wan spirits her away to Alderaan, confronts Anakin, who is furious that his best friend has betrayed him...and THAT is the trigger to his fall. It's still spawned by love of Padme, it makes Anakin a stronger character because he's not led to his fall like someone's pulling him along by the lower lip, and it's an EXTREMELY easy fix to the story, that wouldn't have made the films any longer. (This is a big one...it's just bad storytelling to me.)
Contradictions to earlier references--it's one thing when someone writing a story in a universe you created screws up the continuity. That happens all the time. It's another thing when you can't be consistent with your own storytelling. Ben tells Luke that Yoda trained him, so where did Qui-Gon Jinn come from? (Not that I have anything against that character, he was one of the things about ep 1 that I really did enjoy) Leia REMEMBERS her mother, fer cryin' out...she describes her mother to Luke at one point! Not possible if Mom died in childbirth! He at least side-stepped the issue of Threepio being BUILT on Tatooine by having his memory wiped...but while we're on Threepio being kit-bashed together by Anakin...if he's a custom-built droid, why do we see other threepio units in the original trilogy? It's another plot contrivance...c'mon, Padme was a PRINCESS. She couldn't have a protocol droid of her own? She had to get hers from Anakin?
Why do the aliens keep getting more and more cartoon-like? Sebulba has legs, and walks on his hands? Wattoo looks like a combination of a cherub and a pot-bellied pig, with a long snout...and flutters around like a hummingbird? I realize you want to breathe a sense of wonder into the galaxy with characters like that...and show that there are other evolutionary paths than the human standard...but there's a certain point where flights of fancy become implausible, and a lot of characters (mostly in ep 1) went WAY over the line.
I also always imagined that the Clone Wars was the Republic fighting an army of clones, not fielding one...given the dubious ethics of cloning, I'm not sure how I feel about Jedi leading swarms of clone troopers. It does work...so I can't say he went wrong there. I'm just not sure it was, dramatically speaking, the strongest choice in the overall scheme of the story.
Yeah, there's probably more...but that would require me to sit down and watch the prequels again...and I'm not real eager for the experience. I have a hard time watching some parts of the Special Edition of the original trilogy, because there were subtle, but fundamental changes that shifted the whole dynamic of the character (C'mon, Han shot Greedo, the Rodian never got a shot off...and having Greedo shoot first cheapens Han's whole transformation, because suddenly he's no longer this hardened smuggler who'll take the first shot to save his life...) I wish they'd made the ORIGINAL cut of the trilogy available on DVD...I realize that there are things in there that didn't fit with what Lucas REALLY wanted to do...but they fit together. If it works, don't fix it...and they worked. Yeah, if you get nit-picky, they were kind of simplistic, morality stories, but they were well-done morality stories that took simple archetypes and breathed new life and dimension into them.
It was a real let-down to see him take complex archetypes and simplify them. Why'd you do it, George?
posted by Curtis at 9:19 AM
5 Comments:
great analysis. i have a passing enjoyment of the prequels, that said i can't begrudge any one for disliking them. i have the rare ability to set my expectations for movies incredibly low, so i'm usually pleasantly (or unpleasantly) surprised by what i see. all the problems you listed are good points, and i could concoct a defense for some of the smaller ones listed, though there is no real point in doing so other than to reconcile the movies for myself. i do agree that your plot for Anakins fall is ALOT better than what lucas did.
you being a geek and all, have you played knights of the old republic (either game)? i don't know if you've the time to take up idle fancies like computer games, but i find that they strip the bad taste out of your mouth that the prequels leave behind.
another question: what version of the starwars rpg are you currently playing? no real reason really, other than to see if there are any other folks that share my prefrences for which version to play.
Whatever, you guys suck.
Your a fan or your not!
Never said I was a great speller. I can barely type, everyone here knows that. You just hate people who can't spell.
I still love you though. At least you post everyday. Frank and I need people to comment on. Yes he does a much better job. Thats cuz he's smarter. Me I'm an idiot, but a fan thone the less, I liked them ALL.
bruce, i can't begrudge any of them for liking them either. while i'll readily admit that i like them, i'm not terribly impressed with them, not the visual elements, but the plot elements.
as for you being an idiot, far from it bruce, nor am i really smarter than anyone, just more intrusive and opinionated. i should introduce you both to my buddy jeff, he's a die hard fan like both of you... man i know alot of geeks.
To answer your question, Frank, I play with the West End Game (d6) system. I've never played the new one, I have some friends that have and really enjoyed it, but I loved the D6 system from the moment I was introduced to it. Elegant simplicity, and all that.
I haven't played KOTR, but I did indulge in Jedi Knight 2 for a while. Some of it was really cool...some of it was kind of ridiculous. But I still enjoyed it.
And, Bruce...there's a big difference between constructive criticism and hatred. Trust me, if I hated you, I'd either completely ignore you, or spend my entire post cutting you down (not just mentioning it in passing.) Besides, you gave me the perfect intro to this post. Thanks. ;)
ahhh, d6! i figured that it was the case. i'm searching for books for the d6 system now and then on ebay, used bookstores, yard sales and what not. i prefer the d6 system too but nobody up in my area that i know plays it.i've noticed alot of sources on the internet that provided either new material, or converted material to the d6. glad to see there's still some old-school starwars roleplayers out there.
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