E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial

[ArmyMatt]

I think he is just laying insult to what he destroyed. although, Disney does do wonders when it comes to fairy tale movie making (prolly even sci fi). maybe Mr Lucas realizes his story needs to be directed in more capable hands.

 

[inconsequential]

I wonder how they will do with it. Personally I kinda lost interest in the whole story when Han's/Leia's son, Jacen became a Sith. So much for Pawpaw Anakin restoring balance to the Force. lol

 

[Gxg (G²)]

I wonder how they will do with it. Personally I kinda lost interest in the whole story when Han's/Leia's son, Jacen became a Sith. So much for Pawpaw Anakin restoring balance to the Force. lol

That did bother me as well...and the same as it concerns the ways Jacen killed his aunt Mara Jade (Luke's aunt)---although I'm glad he got his butt beaten. But to see the ways that the Sith were shown to have taken over the Galaxy more times afterward made me think "This really isn't a series where good actually triumps over evil---and in reality, morality isnt' absolute since both sides think they're doing what's necessary for all, even though both sides are flawed."

 

[Gxg (G²)]

I think he is just laying insult to what he destroyed. .

Was SO upset. Don't ruin a classic. Just let it rest in peace. The plot was final. That is a magic that not even Disney will improve on. Ugh.

I think they did an alright job with the series before the beginning of Luke Skywalker---and I must admit that my favorite thus far is the Clone Wars saga, as it was so complicated and very impactful when it comes to examining the ways democracies turn into dictatorships---and yet people in their individual battles still grow in spite of it when thinking they're truly fighting for something.​

although, Disney does do wonders when it comes to fairy tale movie making (prolly even sci fi). maybe Mr Lucas realizes his story needs to be directed in more capable hands

I hope he made the right choice....although it should be interesting to see what happens from there.​

 

[ArmyMatt]

I wonder how they will do with it. Personally I kinda lost interest in the whole story when Han's/Leia's son, Jacen became a Sith. So much for Pawpaw Anakin restoring balance to the Force. lol

George Lucas seems to have a higher than normal tolerance for things like plot holes nowadays.

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

George Lucas is great at telling a story and coming up with fun, charming, wondrous worlds, but good grief the guy doesn't know how to choose actors most of the time, second-guesses himself constantly, and is horrible at bringing out the best in an actor/actress.

Take Phantom Menace. Shmi Skywalker, Anakin's mom...wow, talk about lousy, FLAT acting! And little Anakin's acting pretty much sucked. That scene where Anakin has to leave his mother and walk away from her, oh man, if that had been Steven Spielberg or Peter Jackson, you'd be laced with tears, goosebumps, and you'd feel an emotional impact. With Lucas, you roll your eyes there.

Or take Natalie Portman. She's a wonderful actress, but in episodes I and II, she had lousy direction, input, inspiration, she fell flat as HECK! Finally in Sith she shined more. And look at Lucas's choice for older Anakin--Hayden Christensen. Oh brother! If that had been Leonardo DiCaprio, those 3 flicks would've rocked! That's a guy who can mix heroic with a dark, disturbing anger and confusion. Far superior.

And look at Lucas for dialogue: "I've got a bad feeling about this!" How many times did he milk that? Or the R2D2 squeeling sound....

The suspension of disbelief is thin in the prequels, and we see Lucas second-guess himself way too much.

Disney might actually improve the franchise IF and only IF they can get someone like Peter Jackson or Spielberg or of the calibre of Christopher Nolan. Otherwise, it could actually get way worse!

 

[inconsequential]

If they're making another live action movie, I'd like to see the story of Revan from the Knights of the Old Republic game. Or at least give the Skywalker family a rest and go back to the Old Republic time line and mine it for stories. I'd like to see armies of Sith fighting armies of Jedi.

 

[ArmyMatt]

George Lucas is great at telling a story and coming up with fun, charming, wondrous worlds, but good grief the guy doesn't know how to choose actors most of the time, second-guesses himself constantly, and is horrible at bringing out the best in an actor/actress.

Take Phantom Menace. Shmi Skywalker, Anakin's mom...wow, talk about lousy, FLAT acting! And little Anakin's acting pretty much sucked. That scene where Anakin has to leave his mother and walk away from her, oh man, if that had been Steven Spielberg or Peter Jackson, you'd be laced with tears, goosebumps, and you'd feel an emotional impact. With Lucas, you roll your eyes there.

Or take Natalie Portman. She's a wonderful actress, but in episodes I and II, she had lousy direction, input, inspiration, she fell flat as HECK! Finally in Sith she shined more. And look at Lucas's choice for older Anakin--Hayden Christensen. Oh brother! If that had been Leonardo DiCaprio, those 3 flicks would've rocked! That's a guy who can mix heroic with a dark, disturbing anger and confusion. Far superior.

And look at Lucas for dialogue: "I've got a bad feeling about this!" How many times did he milk that? Or the R2D2 squeeling sound....

The suspension of disbelief is thin in the prequels, and we see Lucas second-guess himself way too much.

Disney might actually improve the franchise IF and only IF they can get someone like Peter Jackson or Spielberg or of the calibre of Christopher Nolan. Otherwise, it could actually get way worse!

this is true. Lucas is an idea guy, not a director. in fact, the two best movies, at least according to most folks I know, Empire and Return of the Jedi, are the two where he did not direct. you'd think he'd learn...

 

[Gxg (G²)]

George Lucas is great at telling a story and coming up with fun, charming, wondrous worlds, but good grief the guy doesn't know how to choose actors most of the time, second-guesses himself constantly, and is horrible at bringing out the best in an actor/actress.

Take Phantom Menace. Shmi Skywalker, Anakin's mom...wow, talk about lousy, FLAT acting! And little Anakin's acting pretty much sucked. That scene where Anakin has to leave his mother and walk away from her, oh man, if that had been Steven Spielberg or Peter Jackson, you'd be laced with tears, goosebumps, and you'd feel an emotional impact. With Lucas, you roll your eyes there.

Or take Natalie Portman. She's a wonderful actress, but in episodes I and II, she had lousy direction, input, inspiration, she fell flat as HECK! Finally in Sith she shined more. And look at Lucas's choice for older Anakin--Hayden Christensen. Oh brother! If that had been Leonardo DiCaprio, those 3 flicks would've rocked! That's a guy who can mix heroic with a dark, disturbing anger and confusion. Far superior.

And look at Lucas for dialogue: "I've got a bad feeling about this!" How many times did he milk that? Or the R2D2 squeeling sound....

The suspension of disbelief is thin in the prequels, and we see Lucas second-guess himself way too much.

Disney might actually improve the franchise IF and only IF they can get someone like Peter Jackson or Spielberg or of the calibre of Christopher Nolan. Otherwise, it could actually get way worse!

Argggh....I HATED Little Anakin in the Phantom Menance. He got on my last nerve, alongside Jar Jar Binks (who ended up dooming the galaxy in addition to messing up the series when he decided to be the one idiot who voted for Chancelor Palpatine to have Emergency Powers in "The Clone Wars" thinking it'd be a good thing...and having no idea he just signed the death of the Republic).

I thought they did a good job with Padme in Episode II, although it still seems bizzare that she had a relationship with Anakin--who was 8yrs old--while she seemed to be 16yrs and older at the time. In The Phantom Menace, Portman had to portray a character younger than herself. In Attack of the Clones, however, her character had aged 10 years. Portman had aged only three years between the two films. She remarks, "[Lucas] wants to make sure I seem older than Anakin in Attack of the Clones, so it's believable that I can be bossing him around, and he's a little intimidated. She looks at him as a little boy – at least for the first half of the film."

The only way I could see it working was if she was perhaps someone who simply looked older than Anakin and yet not that much older.

Episode 1
Padme = 14 years old
Anakin = 9 years old

Episode 2
Padme = 24 years old
Anakin = 19 years old

Episode 3
Padme = 27 years old
Anakin = 22 years old

​

As it concerns Hayden Christensen, he seemed to whine WAY too much throughout Episode II-III...and I cracked up on a number of times, especially seeing his transformation into Vader. At times, he seemed way too young for the part and way too emotional....and in the original trilogy, Vader didn't seem to be like that. ALthough overall, I came to like him and respect him at differing points.

Mace Windu could've been done differently at times...as his line of "This Party's over! when facing Dooku was so garbage. I thought "For real, Samuel L. Jackson, you might as well start yelling like in Pulp Fiction."

I also hated to see how much the technology was top-notch in the new series and yet the acting didn't seem that believable. I was thinking "Did the Empire like have a recession once the EMPEROR came into power? Because things don't look as bright or shiney as they did in Episodes I-III." To me, it made me realize that the plots were better because the technology wasn't the best and they HAD to make sure the script was better---and Empire Strikes Back was a good reflection of that.

Disney might actually improve the franchise IF and only IF they can get someone like Peter Jackson or Spielberg or of the calibre of Christopher Nolan. Otherwise, it could actually get way worse!

Sad but true...​

 

[Gxg (G²)]

this is true. Lucas is an idea guy, not a director. in fact, the two best movies, at least according to most folks I know, Empire and Return of the Jedi, are the two where he did not direct. you'd think he'd learn...

Interesting to consider that he didn't direct those films...

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

Yeah, I always laughed at that, too. Jar Jar is like the one Democratic senator needed to approve Bush's idiotic Iraq War and he does it to look tough on terrorists!

Jar Jar Binks (who ended up dooming the galaxy in addition to messing up the series when he decided to be the one idiot who voted for Chancelor Palpatine to have Emergency Powers in "The Clone Wars" thinking it'd be a good thing...and having no idea he just signed the death of the Republic).

I was thinking "Did the Empire like have a recession once the EMPEROR came into power? Because things don't look as bright or shiney as they did in Episodes I-III."

Dude, I about wrenched my guts out laughing at this!!!! Amen! Recession....LOL...Even Darth Vader's helmet was dull and scuffed-up looking, with smudges and stuff in Episode IV. Then when we go back to Episode III, that thing looks shinier than a Spartan shield LOL

 

[Gxg (G²)]

Yeah, I always laughed at that, too. Jar Jar is like the one Democratic senator needed to approve Bush's idiotic Iraq War and he does it to look tough on terrorists!

Hilarious but so true Lucas did state he was doing the CLone wars to illustrate the ways that democracies become dictatorships and how complicated things are.


As another said best:

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]In an interview with Time magazine, meanwhile, director George Lucas has explained that over time, all democracies become tyrannies. As Lucas told Time, [/FONT]​

All democracies turn into dictatorships - but not by coup. The people give their democracy to a dictator, whether it's Julius Caesar or Napoleon or Adolf Hitler. Ultimately, the general population goes along with the idea...What kinds of things push people and institutions into this direction?​

That's the issue that I've been exploring: How did the Republic turn into the Empire? That's paralleled with: How did Anakin turn into Darth Vader? How does a good person go bad, and how does a democracy become a dictatorship? It isn't that the Empire conquered the Republic, it's that the Empire is the Republic...One day Princess Leia and her friends woke up and said, ‘This isn't the Republic anymore, it's the Empire. We are the bad guys. Well, we don't agree with this. This democracy is a sham, it's all wrong.'​

​

The comments of the great director, himself as American as mom, apple pie, and, well, American Graffiti, should give Americans reason to think.

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]It cannot seriously be c[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]ontended that an American director such as George Lucas chose the name "Grand Army of the Republic" merely by happenstance. For those versed in American history, it is easily remembered that "Grand Army of the Republic" was the name of the Northern army in the American Civil War.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]What might Lucas be hinting to moviegoers about democracy in America?[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]In the Star Wars universe, where the original trilogy is concerned, the Republic was a thing of the past. It had been replaced by an Empire. And the rebels were the good guys.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Also, one man in particular had a hand in creating the Empire: the Emperor Palpatine, previously known as Senator Palpatine. The guy who created the Grand Army of the Republic to fight the separatists.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]It does not take a degree in formal logic to see what Lucas might be getting at about the relationship between democracy and dictatorship in American history.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Perhaps the American body politic is not the same Republic that existed under the Articles of Confederation. Perhaps it is not even the same Republic that existed under the Constitution as ratified in 1789.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Perhaps a certain politician, at a certain point in history, used his "emergency powers" to send a Grand Army of the Republic to battle separatists, also known as "secessionists," leaving in place of the Republic a centralized, national government, which now acts very much like an empire?[/FONT]​

​

Dude, I about wrenched my guts out laughing at this!!!! Amen! Recession....LOL...Even Darth Vader's helmet was dull and scuffed-up looking, with smudges and stuff in Episode IV. Then when we go back to Episode III, that thing looks shinier than a Spartan shield LO

Hard times for the Empire, but that's what happens when the dark side rules. Some could compare it to the U.S.S.R in how it looked...

 

[Gxg (G²)]

Startrek Out of Darkness rocks...