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George Lucas quips he sold 'Star Wars' to "white slavers," criticizes tone of TFA

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chico

Member
he did 3 awesome movies that are now over 30 years old. the rest he did was ruining the franchise. ep 1-3 were absolutely garbage. im glad he has nothing to decide anymore.
 

Snake

Member
Lucas is a good guy, and there's no one here who wouldn't be a little jealous if their last three movies were heavily panned, only to have the inheritor of your legacy come out with a massive success.

I say give him a little leeway for this stuff. He may be a little hypocritical and bitter, but it's not like he's making far-reaching criticisms of the new film. We shouldn't act like there's a war of words going on here.
 

marzlapin

Member
If it weren't for the prequels, TFA could have been innovative. It was the movie it needed to be to earn back the goodwill of the fanbase and expand it, and it was massively successful in doing this.

We'll see what the next 2 movies do. If they're all rehashes of the OT that'll be hugely disappointing and a misstep.
 

Won

Member
It is what it is. Nostalgia seems to sell pretty well at the moment and Disney needed to justify the price tag.

Don't worry, Georgy. I do appreciate the prequels a bit more after TFA, despite your terrible script and directing.
 

Zukuu

Banned
They had to do that to get fans back after George shat and pissed all over them. It's a safe first movie. If TFA was experimental or unfamiliar it would have been a much riskier move.

We can probably expect more original SW movies coming down the pike, but for the first one? You can bet your ass they'd play it safe.
Well I mean, they could have done with a bit less retreat. The whole
new death star planet and the way it was destroyed
could have been an entirely new thing and the movie would still have been good and felt like the old ones.
 
Wait what is Georgie talking about ? He himself said he wanted poetry with the original trilogy in one of the behind the scenes videos of making of phantom menace.
 
Wait, have people really deluded themselves into thinking that the movie HAD to play it safe?

It's fucking Star Wars, it would have been successful one way or another (to the degree that it is atm is another discussion). This line of thinking that it had to "play it safe" in order to properly succeed is outrageous lol

there's merit to that, the brand name itself would have made mad money but you have to be safe as possible to get the real legs worldwide. If they took a lot more risks with this movie I don't think it would reach Jurassic World gross.
 
Before the deal came about, Lucas said he planned on writing and directing the sequels to his original trilogy. Then the sale occurred. Disney was not interested in his ideas for the follow-ups, so he stayed away from the production of Force Awakens, he said.

I am so happy that Disney did this.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
It is what it is. Nostalgia seems to sell pretty well at the moment and Disney needed to justify the price tag.

Don't worry, Georgy. I do appreciate the prequels a bit more after TFA, despite your terrible script and directing.

Me too. They're terribly flawed films... but I do appreciate their original vision far more now.
 

Blader

Member
I can understand loving TFA... but not even being able to see how Disney played it desperately safe...?

We all see it. We've all acknowledged it. TFA is an ANH clone, for better or for worse.

I'm saying if you've read or listened to a single thing with JJ or any of the cast, cynicism is the last thing anyone involved was thinking or feeling.
 

entremet

Member
I will never get the antagonism that Lucas gets.

He's just giving his assessment. He liked the movie.

Sure he created three bad movies. But damn. Let's not forget his achievements too.
 
Oh lawd.

If you had maybe said the final duel with Maul, I still wouldn't agree but I could see it. The podracing sequence was just pace-killing nonsense.

not as bad as that freighter scene with han and the guys from the raid. and man i love that race scene haha.
 

Alebrije

Member
George should star a new space adventure movie like Kojima doing a new project..

But Iam afraid part of the contract with Disney was that George was not going to do a movie with similar theme like in 10 years
 

Frodo

Member
To be quite honest, all of you criticizing Lucas to no end, the success of TFA is, like it or not, because it emulates to ridiculous levels the film that George Lucas made in the first place and started it all.

And to be fair, his criticism of wanting to change things, for things to be different is super valid. TFA relies (a little bit too) heavily on nostalgia and on referencing the original trilogy.

George Lucas should be happy, because if anything, TFA validates his work more than anything.
 
How is The Force Awakens retro?

The prequel trilogy feels more retro to me because it was the early 2000s when many companies had no fucking idea how to believably implement CG in their films.

I think the idea that many of the characters are done with practical effects and makeup actually sickens him. He fell in love with the green screen in the prequels.
 

richiek

steals Justin Bieber DVDs
If he wanted to do the sequels he shouldn't have sold Star Wars.

George, pls.

The man is 70 years old. Who know how long he has on this earth to make more SW films to his liking. He realized he wanted other things to do with his life so he sold Lucasfilm to Disney. He seems to have moved on, even though he's not happy with all of Disney's decisions.
 
To be honest, I expected more advanced tech to match our time similar to the originals matching the 70s/80s and the PT matching the 50s/60s. We got a rolling droid and...?

I'm a fan of the PT, btw.
 

Speevy

Banned
He should be on his knees thanking everyone involved with Star Wars The Force Awakens for helping to wash off the stink he left on a beloved piece of American cinema history.

There has been more written about the sheer awfulness of the prequel trilogy than any other 100 films put together.
 
This Charlie Rose dude isn't much of an interviewer. Spends half his time roasting George for not caring about the topics he's asking him about!
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I'm saying if you've read or listened to a single thing with JJ or any of the cast, cynicism is the last thing anyone involved was thinking or feeling.

Okay I get that. They did radiate passion all through the thing.

But I'm pretty sure JJ and crew were mandated to work within the boundaries of making it an ANH-nostalgia fest.

Someone set up that mandate. Disney? Kathleen Kennedy? The Lucasfilm story group? Or was it JJ and Kasdan? There was a cynical "we need to get this right and so we're clinging to what worked in the past" at some level of the production, clearly.
 

Afrocious

Member
I dunno about that white slaver bit but he's right about trying to do something different with each movie.

As garbage as the prequels were, they were at least trying to do something different.

TFA being too much of a retread of the OT (namely ANH) is my biggest criticism of the movie.
 

FZZ

Banned
The latest installment has been a massive success and will likely become the highest grossing film of all time.

Nah.

He isn't wrong about TFA. It isn't a terrible movie and I enjoyed it but it is nothing more than a recast and tweaked A New Hope with some elements of Empire and Jedi thrown in for extra flavor.

I would be interested in seeing his outlines for 7 8 and 9. People saying he is terrible are full of shit. He is fantastic on the creative side. Its the bringing the creative to life where he runs into trouble especially if there isn't people to reign him in.

Exactly.
 

antonz

Member
and this... a thousand times. he broke it and Disney fixed it.

and Disney decided we are all stupid people who cannot comprehend more than 2 ship types so decided to completely remove fleet battles from the movie because more than 2 ship types would confuse the audience. Apparently we all sat lost and confused during return of the Jedi unable to enjoy the space battles.

What are those things that aren't Tie fighters and X-wings. So confused!!!!!!
 

Jarmel

Banned
"They wanted to do a retro movie. I don't like that. Every movie, I worked very hard to make them different," Lucas told Rose. "I made them completely different -- different planets, different spaceships to make it new."

Is he wrong tho?
 

Shaanyboi

Banned
So that's why Princess Amidala had a new chrome ship in every movie.

and why he was keen to have everyone walk around new and exciting cg hallways big enough where they couldn't interact with anything... but it doesn't matter, because it's new!

temple_hallway01.jpg
 

Jobbs

Banned
Well I mean, they could have done with a bit less retreat. The whole
new death star planet and the way it was destroyed
could have been an entirely new thing and the movie would still have been good and felt like the old ones.

They could've, but clearly there was a mandate that affected everything about the construction of the movie -- "safe". Pure fan service. An apology. It's also why we perhaps see more practical effects and sets and props and costumes and alien masks than you'd normally expect to see in a movie of this sort these days. Fan service... And I love it.

I didn't like the death star 3 stuff either, I felt it was completely unnecessary, but it didn't stop me from enjoying the movie and "feeling the magic".

Agreed. And if he wanted people to want him to helm a new trilogy, she shouldn't have fucked up the prequels. He's got no one to blame but himself.

I don't feel like George took a shot at something [with the prequels] and missed the mark. He's simply a bad film maker. There's something about him that just doesn't "get it". The movies are awful. And his tampering with the original trilogy, adding shitty CG in? like.. what the fuck? Even 13 year old me was like "the fuck is this, george? why is a goofy cartoon alien with lipstick sharing the same reality as those other actual aliens?"
 

GDGF

Soothsayer
If he wanted to do the sequels he shouldn't have sold Star Wars.

George, pls.

Agreed. And if he wanted people to want him to helm a new trilogy, she shouldn't have fucked up the prequels. He's got no one to blame but himself.
 

Armaros

Member
Lucas crying about retreads when Attack of the Clones exists in the same reality that gave us Empires Strikes Back?
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Lucas crying about retreads when Attack of the Clones exists in the same universe that gave us Empires Strikes Back?

It's not as if it had a not-Hoth, not-Dagobah and not-Cloud City in it.
 

GSG Flash

Nobody ruins my family vacation but me...and maybe the boy!
Before the deal came about, Lucas said he planned on writing and directing the sequels to his original trilogy. 

We dodged a fucking bullet. A prequel-tier shitty sequel trilogy would turn me off of Star Wars for good.

It's only after watching TFA that I realized how much of a waste the prequels were.
 

Blader

Member
Okay I get that. They did radiate passion all through the thing.

But I'm pretty sure JJ and crew were mandated to work within the boundaries of making it an ANH-nostalgia fest.

Someone set up that mandate. Disney? Kathleen Kennedy? The Lucasfilm story group? Or was it JJ and Kasdan? There was a cynical "we need to get this right and so we're clinging to what worked in the past" at some level of the production, clearly.

Disney was creatively hands off on the film, and the Lucasfilm story group, lol.

If I had to guess, I'd say it has less to do with some corporate/producer-driven mandate to stay as close to ANH as possible, and more to do with JJ just not being super imaginative when it comes to plotting.
 

methodman

Banned
That's hogwash. All they had to do was create a good film, which can be done while recapturing the tone of the originals without straight up remaking them.
Gotta agree. I liked tfa but it was a fuckin replica movie. So many matching beats to a new hope
 
To be honest, I expected more advanced tech to match our time similar to the originals matching the 70s/80s and the PT matching the 50s/60s. We got a rolling droid and...?

I'm a fan of the PT, btw.
What?

Part of the problem with the Prequels was that the aesthetics didn't make any sense. Everything looked so much cleaner and advanced compared to the tech in the OT. TFA did a proper progression of tech and aesthetics for 30 years later.
 

ghst

thanks for the laugh
history will not be nearly as kind to TFA as the immediate hype fuelled aftermath. it's a decent enough night out at the cinema, but also a milestone for all the most cynical and cannibalistic hollywood trends.
 
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