The Shadow's Journey

[rickgriffin]

because GL was building the ideal, and the IDEAL is an opulent shining bastion to what you want

Do you need a Fancy over opulent reference library when you can make a functional archive for probably a fourth of what you paid to furnish it

Need No, Want yes... cause to extent GL was building a Disney land for filmmakers

He just never realized what he had to pay to get it.

Which is really weird because in so many other things Lucas was a very canny businessman. On the other hand, he's always been protective of His Babies, of which this was one, so that's almost certainly his personal blind spot . . .

[zugabdu]

I'm not gonna sit through a whole "Lucas turned the Dark Side by making the Prequels" narrative.

OK. If I ever see one, I'll be sure to let you know.

But seriously, when I eventually do the prequels, I plan to continue doing what I am, which is to try to present an honest assessment of the man and his work, warts and all. I've only written about 15% of it, but I have already planned to lay out what I feel are a list of unfair assertions about the man Lucas was as he made the prequels and attempt to demonstrate why these are wrong. At the same time, I will speak frankly about where Lucas stumbled.

I'm doing this series because I found it fascinating to look at everything that happened from the creation of Lucasfilm to Disney tossing away his sequel trilogy plans, that the life of George Lucas reflects his creation in some ways, and to see this juxtaposition of quirks, his flaws and fixations alongside his creativity and decency. To just see it all lying there, stretched out from end to end and ask, what does this all mean? What is it about, if your life is all about making a company to create film, but having your life be defined by your company?

The Shadow's Journey is about these early years of success, when Lucas was dazzled by what he had in his hands and fell into the temptation of exploring it while ignoring the collateral effect it was having. It covers the Empire Strikes Back-Return of the Jedi years, and the argument that could be made that his own pride and need for control are responsible for the disasters that happen. This covers six years. The next covers more than thirty; there's not as much drama once you've made some mistakes and learned from them.

Chuck your work on these Star Wars histories has been some of your finest. Normally, I find making-of type retrospectives really dull, but I wait with bated breath for every one of these.

I'm especially looking forward to your treatment of the prequels. There's really not much more interesting to be said in a typical "the prequels suck!" kind of treatment and every imaginable joke about them has already been made. While I don't care for the prequels that much myself, I'm much more interested in some critical analysis of the thought process that went into making them, what went right, what went wrong, and why and how they didn't connect with audiences the way the original trilogy did and I'm hopeful that will be your focus.

[rickgriffin]

Apropos of nothing, I have tried my best to give the Prequels a fair shot. I will even admit--Episode 1 came out when I was in middle school and I thought it was fine. My opinion of it dropped over the years mostly because, unlike the originals, they are really difficult to rewatch, and I don't think it's because the stories are inherently broken. They just completely missed having a serious pass by eyes other than Lucas's.

There are a couple "fix the prequels" re-editing attempts I've seen, and there's a key issue among all of them: the best you can do is remove the most egregious problems. It ends up giving vast swaths of the movies "people talking boredly in hallways" to go along with the beige veneer on everything. I don't think you can get a better lens to what the problem is with Lucas's writing style; he knows what all needs to go INTO a movie (for the most part, another portion of his brain is fixated on merchandise for the kiddies), but on his own he had such trouble getting the pieces to actually play nice with each other.

[MithrandirOlorin]

"people talking boredly in hallways" are my favorite scenes.

[zugabdu]

Apropos of nothing, I have tried my best to give the Prequels a fair shot. I will even admit--Episode 1 came out when I was in middle school and I thought it was fine. My opinion of it dropped over the years mostly because, unlike the originals, they are really difficult to rewatch, and I don't think it's because the stories are inherently broken. They just completely missed having a serious pass by eyes other than Lucas's.

Indeed. I feel like if it weren't a Star Wars movie, Episode I wouldn't have the infamy it has today. It probably would have been seen as a flashy but messy adventure movie for kids that would have been praised for its special effects but largely forgotten. And while it has its own problems, I didn't hate Episode III - it had an effective tragic center to it. It would have worked so much better of Episodes I and II had been really good. While that "NO!!!" scene at the end was awful, it takes more than one bad scene to wreck a movie for me.

Episode II is the real train wreck of the bunch. I can sit through the other two. I can't sit through that one. What a disaster.

[MithrandirOlorin]

If Episode I weren't a Star Wars movie, I wouldn't be into Star Wars.

Attack of The Clones invented the modern action movie.

[rickgriffin]

The Matrix invented the modern action movie

[MithrandirOlorin]

No, the Matrix is dated as hell, clear 90s nonsense. The far superior sequels have a clear AOTC influence.

[PerrySimm]

No, the Matrix is dated as hell, clear 90s nonsense. The far superior sequels have a clear AOTC influence.

It's pretty unusual to speak too glowingly of the Matrix sequels. What makes you see Star Wars in them?

I don't really see The Matrix in the prequel films, or vice versa. The Matrix series had deep roots in cyberpunk fiction, 90s dance rave and new age culture. Episodes I and II read much more like the spectacle films of the 50s, complete with a Ben-Hur chariot race and a very much not-up-to Hays Code romance.

Lucas clearly had a vision of "cram all the CGI you possibly can into the frame" but rather than doing slow motion for cool action shots, basically the entire run dragged on as if it was slow motion.

Matrix characters were dead inside because everything they ever thought they knew was a lie, a fantasy for the imprisoned, and the reality is more bleak than anything anyone could have guessed.

Star Wars characters don't have a clear reason to be dead inside and stare blankly at the camera. The Jedi are supposed to be stoic, but everyone else is supposed to be a real person, right? Where's the passion?

[Robovski]

Attack of The Clones invented the modern action movie.

If that's true George has a lot more to answer for.