Lucas is the hacks hack, the ultimate got lucky story.
On Star Wars original trilogy he had talented people around him and he let them add that quality, since then he has suck-ups around him or just won't let them do their thing.
People can be just a little ridiculous when it comes to the prequels. They are not bad movies, especially Revenge of the Sith, which is actually a pretty damn good one. They just have the unfortunate problem of following 3 of the most iconic movies of all time, with the largest fan base.
Lucas strikes me as a man who was not going to let anyone else mess with his baby, at least until Disney came knocking with their offer of 4 billion dollars. Hence, as he had such control, the prequels suffer from being massively overblown with special effects and with barley any attention being paid to the characters, with the possible exception of movie 3. Sure, the original trilogy has the iconic moments and lines, plus the whole Jedism thing, but fundamentally the movies would simply not have worked if it wasn't for the characters. We could get behind the hero Luke, the anti-hero Han, the Princess Leia, the wise old wizard like Obi-Wan, the evil Vader who is redeemed at the end.
I don't think Lucas made the prequels JUST for the money, but in all honesty money does seem to be a massive motivating factor for the bloke. He does have a story he wants to tell, that much is obvious, but its lost in a special effects spectacle and terrible dialogue that really brings the movies down. Selling toys did, it seems, take priority.
Its difficult to try and argue the bloke is not one of the greediest, if not the most greedy, director out there, when as soon as the 3D thing looked popular he jumped on the bandwagon and planned to re-release all 6 movies, after re-releasing them very recently on blu-ray.
I completly agree with what you said. The prequels arnt terribale movies maybe episode 1. But the problem was As i said in my first comment he seemed to focus far to much on CGI and thats one of the things that damaged the Prequels. He never really focused on the characters apart from some of episode 2 and 3. As a story teller i think he is really good. People need to realize he might not be directing episode 7 but im sure the characters will be thought of by him.
I think the trouble with the Star Wars prequels for GL was that he clarified things that didn't need clarifying, explained things that didn't need explaining and added things that contradicted what had gone before... which considering these were the prequels, meant that things in the original films now made no sense.
For instance in Star Wars - Tarkin says "Obi Wan Kenobi? Surely he must be dead by now?" to Vader... At the time this implies he is really old - but from the prequels we know that Obi Wan must be in his late 50's/early 60's by the time of Star Wars at most.
The same with Owen Lars - in Star Wars the implication is him and Anakin grew up together but grew apart when one went off to be a Jedi and the other stayed home to be a farmer. Then from the prequels we learn they aren't related and met once for about a day.
I'm not even going to touch "Midichlorians" :mad::D:mad:
I don't hate him - because that would be ridiculous - but I also don't think he is particularly talented. It's telling that the best star wars film by a country mile is the one he had the least involvement with. When it came to the prequels it became increasingly clear he is just a hack who got lucky, and one who doesn't really understand the appeal of the original films or even his own characters.
Thx-1138, American Graffiti & Star Wars are three solid films, well directed too.
I think as with most artists, age got to him and he lost creativity. He didn't direct a film himself between Star Wars and Phantom Menace. Something like 23 years.
I'm eternally grateful to the universe he created though. Not an easy thing to do that, create a universe.
Lot's of things sprung from their involvement with Lucasfilm. Industrial Light & Magic, THX, Skywalker Sound, Pixar even photoshop was developed there.
Movies wouldn't have been what they are today without him. Fact.
Comments
On Star Wars original trilogy he had talented people around him and he let them add that quality, since then he has suck-ups around him or just won't let them do their thing.
For instance in Star Wars - Tarkin says "Obi Wan Kenobi? Surely he must be dead by now?" to Vader... At the time this implies he is really old - but from the prequels we know that Obi Wan must be in his late 50's/early 60's by the time of Star Wars at most.
The same with Owen Lars - in Star Wars the implication is him and Anakin grew up together but grew apart when one went off to be a Jedi and the other stayed home to be a farmer. Then from the prequels we learn they aren't related and met once for about a day.
I'm not even going to touch "Midichlorians" :mad::D:mad:
I think as with most artists, age got to him and he lost creativity. He didn't direct a film himself between Star Wars and Phantom Menace. Something like 23 years.
I'm eternally grateful to the universe he created though. Not an easy thing to do that, create a universe.
Lot's of things sprung from their involvement with Lucasfilm. Industrial Light & Magic, THX, Skywalker Sound, Pixar even photoshop was developed there.
Movies wouldn't have been what they are today without him. Fact.