The Hermit's Journey. To arms, prequel defenders, to arms!

[Yukaphile]

I haven't even seen The Last Jedi, but from what I've heard, I think it's pretty stupid.

So despite not seeing the TLJ your're going to pass judgement on it anyway. If your going to slag a film, go and see it first.

It should be obvious by now I'm a bitter Legends fanboy, lol.

[unknownsample]

If only TLJ featured the Hutts building their own Death Star Superlaser.

[Nevix]

There are other terms that apply to George Lucas that are less kind, and also accurate.

So, yes. Genius Creator.

And also rather derogatory and insulting terms, like "director who needs at least two people to keep him from running off into the fields and going crazy", apply too.

There are some that I won't post, mind you. I'm not as cruel as I once was, in my youth. Still more young at heart than anything else though.

I'd say more "Genius idea man." One thing I kind of disagreed on with the Hermit's Journey was that it seemed to try to explain away a lot of the faults of the piece and excusing the man who made those faults. I do GET the logic of where Lucas was coming from in some of his decisions for the Prequels... the problem is that they're still bad ideas, regardless. Anakin could still have been a teenager and been traumatized by being separated from his mother; Qui Gon Jin did not need to exist when it could have been Obi Wan, young and impulsive and fresh onto becoming a Jedi Knight, who saw this young boy and decided to train him when he wasn't ready; powerful Sith figures that he keeps needing to replace; the tragedy of Darth Vader being about losing his wife instead of being actually seduced by the dark side... in theory, these things do work with how Lucas' saw the logic, but in actual practice it just didn't work at all.

Lucas himself knew he wasn't a good writer... yet decided to take it upon himself to be the writer and set things in motion before the scripts had a first draft. And frankly, that attitude is completely mind-boggling for me as it is. Maybe it's because I'm a low-budget filmmaker where I HAVE to be conscious of that budget, but the idea of starting the construction of sets, props, and casting people and securing all these things before you actually KNOW what is and what isn't going to be in the movie is insanity to me, especially since it puts you on a deadline crunch where you have to cut corners EVERYWHERE and don't have time to revise your work to make it the best possible thing to film. He didn't NEED to start the ball rolling until he had this in hand. It kind of made sense for Empire and Return because they needed to strike while the iron was hot and logistics were still in the air especially since it wasn't originally designed as a trilogy, but there was no NEED to do the prequels at this point, meaning he could have taken his time to make sure they were the best possible thing for filming before a single speck of paint was put on a prop, but he didn't. And he should have known better.

Teach me your ways, oh wise guru of analysis and comedy! (I kid! A little. I've been a fan of your reviews for a long time. Oh, in addition to Nevix/Nevix Astari, I also post as Hariman on some forums. Durn confusing multiple online names. ;p )

But, seriously though, I actually do agree with your assessment. George Lukas has his calling as an auteur, and creative, but he NEEDS people with him to iron out dialogue and bad plot/character ideas.

SF Debris' documentaries on the production of Star Wars, and especially the Hermit's Journey, show that George Lucas DID have reasons, but your point also stands.

George Lucas' decisions WERE bad, especially starting production without a script, and making sets/filming before anything was done.

I guess I kind of want George Lucas to have more of a redeeming side to him. Because otherwise, my opinion of him is REALLY horrible.

It was difficult, and in retrospect I probably should've made it one part longer. The tricky part of it was that there is so much baggage connected to the perception of Lucas during this period that I felt any fair comparison demanded seeing things from his point of view, that it was the only way to remove the common, monolithic viewpoint for a moment and see the larger issue in how and why Lucas approached things as he did. This effort seems to give the impression that I'm excusing Lucas his mistakes rather than making clear that these were the reasons he made them, that in his mind at the time they were the right ones. I had hoped to make more clear that the same obsessiveness that allowed Star Wars to become what it was also was the reason for the issues you speak of. His experimental film desires overlapped with Star Wars so that he would focus his attention in the wrong places, and insist on personal involvement to a degree that overtaxed his abilities due to time. With the exception of Jedi, each of the films was an experiment for Lucas (Jedi's was only "can I get a puppet to direct for me" and learned "no" the hard way), and so that meant where he wasn't personally engaged wasn't given the attention it needed. Lucas had sound plans, but he stumbled sometimes because he was too often fascinated with what he could do rather than focus on what he needed to do.

Hey, no worries - while I criticize that bit of it, it probably did need to be said to help reduce the general hate he's gotten. While I still lay the faults at his feet, I really do appreciate getting to hear about the creative process and his logic behind the decisions - especially the idea of Jar Jar MEANT to be Toshiro Mifune in Seven Samurai. It doesn't make the character GOOD to me, but it clicks into place why at the time it seemed like a good idea.

And indeed these helped profile Lucas more and explain his directing style beyond "clearly he just wanted to play with special effects."

I think many of George Lucas' mistakes and missteps can be summed up with "It seemed like a good idea at the time!" and "It was the simplest solution to tie everything back together, instead of letting the metaphorical sweater unravel."

[Nevix]

Man, we need a full SFdebris/Linkara crossover video at some point.

And not just providing the Janeway voice for that one Voyager comic.

It IS both of ya'lls tenth anniversary....

Well, we DID also get the SF Debris cameo from the 200th episode of Atop the 4th Wall. Which is quite funny!

I wonder what Linkara and SF Debris would review if they did have a proper, full episode crossover?

[MithrandirOlorin]

At this point I'm long past defending my love of the Prequels. They are why I like Star Wars to begin with, the OT never appealed to me much same as most other Western SciFi of the era really doesn't.

The Prequels simply are the standard by which I judge all other Space Opera fiction. My mind can't even relate to the notion that their high quality is debatable.

[Yukaphile]

I prefer reading the pinnacle of the prequels, Revenge of the Sith, in the novelization form by Matthew Stover. I swear if the films had been written with that kind of dialogue, then I think people wouldn't have hated them so much.

[Karha of Honor]

Man, we need a full SFdebris/Linkara crossover video at some point.

And not just providing the Janeway voice for that one Voyager comic.

It IS both of ya'lls tenth anniversary....

Well, we DID also get the SF Debris cameo from the 200th episode of Atop the 4th Wall. Which is quite funny!

I wonder what Linkara and SF Debris would review if they did have a proper, full episode crossover?

PM Entertainment sci fi.

At this point I'm long past defending my love of the Prequels. They are why I like Star Wars to begin with, the OT never appealed to me much same as most other Western SciFi of the era really doesn't.

The Prequels simply are the standard by which I judge all other Space Opera fiction. My mind can't even relate to the notion that their high quality is debatable.

Clone Wars animated Anakin is more charismatic than Hayden Christensen Anakin.