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May 22, 2005
Is Lucas a Sith?
Saw the "new" Star Wars movie (Episode III) last night. Only George Lucas, and only the Hollywood's cult-of-personality system, could make a bad movie like this into a "hit".
Yes Mr. Lucas, you probably have read one book about Roman History and the fall of the Republic (Roman History for Dummies?) and had a catchy idea about presenting some philosophical ideas through a futuristic, in fact teleological, film. But that was 30 years ago, and it resulted in 2.5 good films ("Episode 6" was not that good).
Now, you are riding on nostalgia! Okay, yes, the special effects were great, and we certainly needed a sort of link between the goody two shoes Anakin Skywalker and Big Bad Darth Vader, and you presented it (although I did it better in my imagination, and with less cheesy dialogues!). But man, how hard is it to higher a screen-writer of some respect up in Skywalker Ranch? You can just pay for their Southwest ticket (ca. $180 max!) and import them from the screen-writer-wanna-be fertile land of Los Angeles!!
If it wasn't Star Wars, if it wasn't George Lucas (we still are nostalgic about our childhood George) and if it wasn't because of the constant references to characters in the original movies, this would have been labled a very bad movie.
In all fairness, it was less horrible than Episode II and less shamelessly commercial than Episode I. But whenever Anakin tried to get romantic with Padme, the whole audience laughed and said "oh, spare us" loudly!
R2D2 provided some comic relief, which is not surprising, since he did not have to put up with the horrible and childish dialogues, and so did Yoda, who by ignoring the grammar, made the dialogues at least interesting.
George: "screen-writing we must learn, our audience as fools we not must take..." May the farce be with you...
Posted by Khodadad at May 22, 2005 11:20 AM
Comments
Lucas is a Sith Master! His movies exist to sell billions of dollars worth of merchandise! :) Actually, I wish I had more stuff sold after the first movie. I could make a small bundle.
I know exactly who Lucas should have hired as writer: Timothy Zahn. In 1991, he published the first of a trilogy of Star Wars universe books in which the story begins five years after "Return of the Jedi". These are really awesome books! Very creative, imaginative, and well told stories. The first book in the trilogy is called "Heir To The Empire". If Lucas ever makes any postquel movies, he should definitely think about filming Zahn's creations!
I really like your message to George in the last paragraph! It sounds like sage advice from Master Yoda himself. :)
I haven't seen the movie yet. I am going to wait for the crowds to thin out a bit. I really need my elbow and leg room!
Posted by: David at May 23, 2005 10:56 AM