SF Signal: Its Official, Lucas Sucks

Its Official, Lucas Sucks

SCi-Fi Wire reports on the, um, changes in store for the Star Wars trilogy on DVD. Sigh.

Christanson at the end of RotJ - lame, lame, lame.
Han and Greedo - now shoot simultaneously. He just can't leave this alone can he? Lame.

But I'll still buy the DVDs...

WHY would you buy them if you know they are lame?
This is why the powers that be continue to shit down the throats of fandom with impunity, because they know they can sell it at a high price. Lucas is one of the worst offenders.
I have yet to watch any Lord of the Rings films, and will continue to do so until I am reletively assured that the version I'm watching is the definitive version. This will take years.

Posted by Jeff on Wednesday September 08, 2004 at 8:05 PM

Oh, I don't think the films themselves are lame, just the changes Lucas has made. I'm not sure if there ever will be a definitive version so I'm going with these and that's it.

Besides, I have the original original trilogy on LaserDisc. Now I just need a working player...

Posted by JP on Wednesday September 08, 2004 at 9:23 PM

Yo Jeff, lighten up - it's just a movie.

And LOTR is awesome on DVD now, it doesn't bother me if they change it in the future.

The only issue I have with Star Wars is that Lucas won't allow us to have the theatrical release, despite the fact that there is room on DVD.

Have you seen the Brazil collectors set? It's the model of how these things should be done - it has all the versions, even the version that Terry Gilliam hates!

Posted by Scott on Wednesday September 08, 2004 at 10:47 PM

"They're long, and the people talk too much."

I'd advise you to stay away from a Howard Hawkes film, then. As for books...well, there's lots of words in those things. Some of them don't even have (gasp) pictures!

Posted by Fred Kiesche on Thursday September 09, 2004 at 6:51 AM

Personally I like the idea of hayden being Anakin at the end. And also using Ian McDiarmid as the Emperor. It ties things up nicely. I also heard Mr. Lucas say that he wanted John Williams to rescore the whole 6 films at the end, so that the imperial march was in A New Hope.

Of course the Greedo scene is nonsense and should have been left alone.

Posted by James on Thursday September 09, 2004 at 7:35 AM

Yeah. I am so buying this. I'm surprised I haven't seen any TV ads yet - it's out in less than 2 weeks. When the super-duper gold limited-edition director's cut edition comes out (as it inevitable will) I won't care all that much. While interesting, I really don't buty the DVDs for the extras, nor do I really have the time to watch 'em.

As far as the changes...whatever. There's an interesting comment about revisiting completed work that Aldous Huxley makes in the foreward to (an older copy) of A Brave New World. Something to the effect that original stands on its own and any updates are not worth the time and or effort. I need to pull that quote...

Posted by John on Thursday September 09, 2004 at 7:50 AM

Here?s the excerpt from the 1967 Bantam edition of Aldous Huxley?s Brave New World that I thought was apropos of Lucas and the changes to Star Wars (Go, go gadget OCR!):

Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.

Art also has its morality, and many of the rules of this morality are the same as, or at least analogous to, the rules of ordinary ethics. Remorse, for example, is as undesirable in relation to our bad art as it is in relation to our bad behavior. The badness should be hunted out, acknowledged and, if possible, avoided in the future. To pore over the literary shortcomings of twenty years ago, to attempt to patch a faulty work into the perfection it missed at its first execution, to spend one's middle age in trying to mend the artistic sins committed and bequeathed by that different person who was oneself in youth-all this is surely vain and futile. And that is why this new Brave New World is the same as the old one. Its defects as a work of art are considerable; but in order to correct them I should have to rewrite the book-and in the process of rewriting, as an older, other person, I should probably get rid not only of some of the faults of the story, but also of such merits as it originally possessed. And so, resisting the temptation to wallow in artistic remorse, I prefer to leave both well and ill alone and to think about something else.

Posted by John on Thursday September 09, 2004 at 11:48 PM

Lucasfilm is George Lucas, he's a corporation now..a sell-out. He's become the Empire-in love with it's own vision, seeking more wealth and the manipulation of new minds
Whatever artistic edge he might have had is gone now and has been for some time. The first films from the 70s and 80s, I can sit down and watch pretty much straight through. They were cool back then, and introduced a new universe to everyone complete with a mysterious power called the Force, and had mostly believable characters that you cared about. The environments were gritty and believable. The original Vader was bad-ass. Yoda and Ben were wise.The originals drew you in and made you wonder and want more.
I just don't find the prequels very interesting at all. You mean to tell me that this whiny kid Hadyen becomes the guy from the originals? Where's the continuity? All the wise characters like Yoda and Ben are just there to pretend or look like they have wisdom. The new films have no depth at all. It's all about trying to look good on the surface..like the CGI Lucas loves so much. No depth, no believability!
Also, IMO Lucas was never that great of a director, and find it interesting that the Empire Strikes Back is my favorite which of course, Lucas didn't direct.

Original Trilogy: Mostly Kick-Ass
Prequels Trilogy: Mostly Ass

Posted by OT_Fan on Saturday February 02, 2008 at 7:54 PM

well mostly what makes a good story? for me its the simple yet true lessons in life. morals, time, lessons, consequences, keep it simple while letting the audience have a little taste of zing (you know effects and cool stuuf)...my opinion is that the prequels while having new effects which if you ask me old effects are a lot more interesting to look at...(dark crystal, krull, labryinth,) the prequels lacked good scripts and story lines. thats why the movie stand by me, will always smoke revenge of the sith just based on story line....so i can't hate on lucas just suggest to stick to the basics of a story to keep the reader or watcher
interested make em think, a hint of effects then flow the story don't give me a jedi counsel that can't sence s---t....yet can slay a whole army come on anyway it is still just a story which is why in the end of any movie or fictional thing i enjoy i think deep inside i just look for the moral lesson like in real life action and reaction interactions and yes a little adventure....not so much the fantasy part it but the underlying reality of emotions and life.... lucas is from planet earth?....at least i think. can someone check his work visa heh later

Posted by greg peyer on Thursday April 17, 2008 at 8:02 PM