Rumor of the Day
[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.]
They are denying it, but there is a rumor that George Lucas is contemplating another three Star Wars movies, this time set around 1,000 years after Return of the Jedi. The idea is to rerelease all six movies in 3D, and then launch the new ones.
You know, around 10 years ago, the idea of new Star Wars movies set my geek heart on fire. Now, I am like, “Meh. Maybe it won’t suck.”
I think one of the big problems Lucas has these days is no one can tell him no. I mean in the original movies, for instance, Carrie Fisher tells us she thought the hairdo she wore in Star Wars was kind of silly looking, but she was too afraid to disagree with him. That’s how everyone feels with Lucas these days, and the result is some poor and “wtf?!” decisions. You know, like making the Queen of Naboo 15 years old, and an elected official (which means it is incorrect to call her a queen—the correct term is “president”).
In semi-related news, the game “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II” is set to release this fall. The first one’s story was officially declared to be “canon” which in geek speak means that these are officially the way it happened in the Star Wars universe as declared by Lucas himself. I presume the same applies to this sequel. And actually the story was pretty good in the first one, so I presume that Lucas’ involvement was slight.
By the way, this thread is totally an invitation to debate the quality of each Star Wars movie. Go to it.
Update: Forgot to include IMAO’s wisdom on the subject: “I say, if you’re going to do another Star Wars trilogy, don’t tell Lucas about it.”
Update (II): This Cracked.com article seems relevant. Five Reasons Why Hollywood Needs to Stop Making Prequels.
[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]
The idea of a 3D release of a movie filmed only in 2D is alarming. I guess they could recreate the spaceship scenes — and Jabba the Hutt — in 3D CGI, but the filmed models really added a lot of character to the cinematography.
Han shot first!
roy (d946db) — 10/25/2010 @ 1:26 pmI have not watched a single follow up to the original. And I was kind of meh about the original.
JD (c8c1d2) — 10/25/2010 @ 1:28 pmA New Hope was my favorite, though that’s because it ripped off classic Japanese themes. Empire was great too. The rest have been progressively weaker, though my opinion is that this is because they decided to make them for younger audiences. The first two (IV and V) are simply more interesting for someone older than 6 years old. Though George is welcome to keep doing whatever he wants.
I’m not surprised more will be made. There’s a lot of money in doing that, so that’s all there is to it. I bet R2D2 and C3PO are in them. And I bet they aren’t very good unless you’re 6 years old. Maybe they should make them completely CGI with no actors.
Dustin (b54cdc) — 10/25/2010 @ 1:29 pmDustin
well, you know the theory of the star wars movies is this…
Chewbacca and R2D2 know everything, and in some theories they are manipulating events, especially in chewbacca shoving Leia with solo, to prevent her from accidentally getting jiggy with luke.
How does it work? well, chewie is in Revenge of the Sith. So he at knows alot more about what is going on than he lets on.
And R2D2 is present in all the original movies. at the end of “Sith” someone orders c3PO’s memory erased. but they noticeably don’t say this about r2…
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 10/25/2010 @ 1:34 pmIgnoring the film bait (Han shot first!), I agree The Force Unleashed had a very good storyline. I also understand that Lucas’ involvement was basically reduced to saying yes or no. As in “No, you can’t make a game about a force-sensitive wookie.” or “No, you can’t make the Secret Apprentice turn to Obi-Wan for guidance.” or “Yes, you can make ridiculously powerful force powers in the video game.” So that might explain why it didn’t suck.
Jay (4bbcc9) — 10/25/2010 @ 1:41 pmYeah, they looked much better to me, too. Perhaps this is because I subconsciously am also awed by the effort of the effect, instead of noting it’s just a computer effect (which always ages badly).
I wouldn’t be surprised if George’s people manage to made a convincing 3D effect, just going frame by frame and selecting fields to establish their distance. It sounds like a hell of a chore, which very well could lead to George’s company being hired to do this same thing with many more films. Maybe that’s the real goal here.
Dustin (b54cdc) — 10/25/2010 @ 1:42 pmThis woman at my work is a big Star Wars fan, but dislikes Star Trek. She came up with this theory that the people who worked hard were Star Trek fans, while the slackers tended to be Star Wars fans. She canvassed the office, and the results backed up her theory!
(No offense, Aaron.)
norcal (3d7d81) — 10/25/2010 @ 1:44 pmnorcal
what if they are fans of both, like me?
🙂
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 10/25/2010 @ 1:51 pmThen they work real hard at slacking 🙂
Some chump (4c6c0c) — 10/25/2010 @ 1:59 pmAaron,
My guess is she would say you work hard while goofing off.
norcal (3d7d81) — 10/25/2010 @ 2:01 pmScratch that. Some chump’s answer is better.
norcal (3d7d81) — 10/25/2010 @ 2:04 pmYeah, I always liked that secret plan idea. Really shows how much more interesting the series could be with just a touch of plot creativity.
Here’s those classic reviews of Star Wars movies by Red Letter Media. Much more worthwhile than the movies themselves, which interesting agrees that the problem is that no one tells George no.
A good boss keeps intelligent critics around.
Dustin (b54cdc) — 10/25/2010 @ 2:07 pmThe kiddification of the prequels was especially disappointing because they tried to do some really grown-up things. Anakin’s descent into evil, and the gradual betrayal, could have been epic. Anakin slaughtered women and children, sorry, “younglings” — something few R-rated films would dare to hint at. But they portrayed it all in such a candy-coated way that it was just silly. I’m not asking for more gore (the originals struck a good balance on that), but showing blood on his hands, or re-shooting a scene where the actors fail to show any emotion, would have gone a long way.
The one scene that was shown in a grown-up-way, Kenobi’s dismemberment of Anakin, was too little too late.
The romance was uniformly awful. Compare some key scenes between Han Solo and Leia to those between Anakin and Amadala. Hell, Luke Skywalker had better chemistry with his sister.
roy (d946db) — 10/25/2010 @ 2:12 pmIndeed, this is a peculiar problem because it’s so universal and serves no end, and someone had to have noticed it. I realize it’s hard to act in front of green screens, but these guys went to the Al Gore school of drama.
HAHAHA
Dustin (b54cdc) — 10/25/2010 @ 2:25 pmMy guess is she would say you work hard while goofing off.
The hardest work of all is to do absolutely nothing while appearing to be busy – it’s exhausting!
AD-RtR/OS! (61e7e4) — 10/25/2010 @ 2:40 pmWell since conservatives are always wanting to turn the clock back and all, I thought this was pretty funny. Esp the way they worked the Empire music in. Heh.
Comment by Dustin — 10/25/2010 @ 2:07 pm
Those reviews are better than the prequels themselves. Great stuff.
no one you know (325a59) — 10/25/2010 @ 2:48 pmI never fail to be shocked at the number of Trekkies and people that will camp out for days to see the next Star Wars show.
JD (c8c1d2) — 10/25/2010 @ 3:03 pmTo be fair, elective Kingship wasn’t that uncommon. It certainly wasn’t the norm, but both Poland and the HRE had elective Monarchs, for example.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 10/25/2010 @ 3:40 pmThat’s just weird, Aphrael. No doubt you’re right, but it’s just weird.
It felt like Lucas was changing his story retroactively to make it more appealing to his personal sentiments. Instead of royalty and magic powers, it’s something much more like the progressive Star Trek vision. Which I always found a little dull.
Dustin (b54cdc) — 10/25/2010 @ 3:44 pmAs I see it the problem with the prequils is that Lucas basically doesn’t know enough history or archaeology to make believable societies for background. This doesn’t affect the original three much because we basically see a frontier town and a bunch of military bases. In the second three Lucas choose to show us more of the “Society” that the Jedi belong to …. and it doesn’t work. It makes no sense, and even if we don’t recognize that immediately it nags at us.
C. S. P. Schofield (e4bd33) — 10/25/2010 @ 4:14 pmI can’t wait.
The original trilogy brought us the Ewoks.
The prequel trilogy introduced us to the Gungans.
I’m sure the next trilogy will ahve a race even MORE special!
malclave (1db6c5) — 10/25/2010 @ 4:36 pmChewbacca is racist.
JD (c8c1d2) — 10/25/2010 @ 4:49 pm‘Meh. Maybe it won’t suck.’ That’s what I thought about Indiana Jones 4. I was wrong. Lucas has been striking out since the middle of the 80’s, or whenever “Howard the Duck” came out.
Suburban Scarecrow (e9a5c0) — 10/25/2010 @ 5:18 pmIt will suck. I’ll watch it anyway. But I refuse to buy more than 2 versions of it on DVD / Blu-Ray / Brain-Tron.
roy (d946db) — 10/25/2010 @ 5:21 pmJD
To quote a poet:
“I’m kind of like Han Solo, I’m always stroking my own wookie.”
Suburban
That’s not totally true. Lucas did good with indiana jones 3. no he more like lost all his sh-t later than that. although howard the duck was a bad, bad movie.
Aaron Worthing (f97997) — 10/25/2010 @ 6:29 pmI believe the quality of the previous six movies slides downward on a chronological-by-production scale (4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3), for the most part due to Lucas’ hyper-focus on technological devices to the detriment of theme-and-plot. Anytime someone says 3-D, I shudder, and 2-D to 3-D is a huge gaffe. That said, I have been waiting and hoping for 7-9 ever since 6 came out way back when drive-ins were still plentiful.
John Hitchcock (9e8ad9) — 10/25/2010 @ 8:05 pmAnd regarding R2D2 and C3PO, I’ve “known” since Empire that those two characters were the only two that were in all 9 episodes.
John Hitchcock (9e8ad9) — 10/25/2010 @ 8:08 pmJohn
Well, first Darth has been in all 6 episodes so far, too.
As for the quality quotient, imho, here’s my ranking.
4, 5, 6, 3, 2, 1
Aaron Worthing (f97997) — 10/25/2010 @ 8:15 pmIt is very difficult for me to not make fun.
JD (c8c1d2) — 10/25/2010 @ 8:20 pmThere’s a reason I used scare quotes. 😉 There’s a huge difference between “know” and know. Just sayin’. I also know who the Balance is, down to one of two people we haven’t seen yet. heh
Is that uber-geek-y to have that much information?
John Hitchcock (9e8ad9) — 10/25/2010 @ 8:21 pmParity in Hollywood is when as many movies are made about the fans
EricPWJohnson (37198f) — 10/25/2010 @ 8:44 pmIf only Star Wars had dialogue worth of the name.
Len (143e4c) — 10/26/2010 @ 2:27 amPlease George, don’t. You’ve already screwed it up enough.
JEA (90eb9c) — 10/26/2010 @ 4:48 amI always thought the biggest problem with the Star Wars prequals was that the final endpoint was predetermined, and bad at that. With the prequals, we HAD to end up with Anniken Skywalker being seduced by the Dark Side and turning into Darth Vader. What could be more of a bummer than watching three full movies in which a cute, lovable, talented, good kid becomes an evil bastard? Who wants to see that?
The next biggest problem I had was with this perpetual “too old to begin the training” crap. OK, Yoda says that about Luke in the first movie, but Luke was at least a late teenager. How old was Anniken, eight? How much younger could he be? And the Jedi, in the last three movies, were a bunch of bureaucras in fancy offices sighing a lot and complaining. They all looked constipated to me.
I think Lucas should have done what he was rumoured to be planning when the first three movies were over—making a trilogy about Han and Leiah’s kids. Han was always more fun than Luke anyway. So was Leiah for that matter. An older Hans Solo (ideally, played by Harrison Ford) would have been cool and funny dealing with fatherhood. But, most importantly, the ending would not have been determined in advance, and didn’t have to be a bummer.
Some more criticisms…making the Force a strictly hereditary thing, like DNA….the extreme kiddifcation complained of above…too much campiness (like the Yoda light sabre battle), following the lame volume 6 more than the play it straight volumes four and five)…too much reliance on CG special effects to carry the story, the first trilogy relied on the interaction of the characters, the second, on the effects, and IMHO, the effects weren’t even that good…
ruddyturnstone (8ca92a) — 10/26/2010 @ 4:28 pm