Support NeoGAF

[Kev Kev]

I love pretty much all of the SW movies. I genuinely never saw any of them as “bad” and still scratch my head when I rewatch them because I just think they are pretty good. I like the story, the characters, the music (duel the fates is so boss) and more. the special effects aren’t the best and it hasn’t aged well in some ways, no doubt, but I dunno man I just always liked them as films and I guess I always will.

I just love to be entertained and I didn’t go into the phantom menace at the movie theatre with any expectations. I wasn’t even sure what the new SW movies we’re about. I didn’t even know that anakin was Vader and senator palpatine was the the sith lord! Imagine my surprise when all of that stuff started to come together. It was fucking awesome and I kinda feel bad for people who were let down. Sucks to be you! Lol I kid I kid we coo dog we coo

 

[Stiflers Mom]

Man, all I know is: I watch the Mandalorian and I'm cheering for the characters and absolutely drinking every scene like a fine wine. I can't remember the last SW movie made me feel that way.

This.

Sorry, but whatever happened that made the original movies what they are, it seems up to Mandalorian nobody understood what that magic was.
Not even George Lucas himself.

The OT is a product of its time, and they are not really what George Lucas had originally in mind. He complained about them so many times afterwards, and tried to change them again and again.

It's so interesting that somebody comes along who understands what Star Wars after the OT should have been after 36 years of weird shit, and it's so successful it almost hurts.

 

[dr_octagon]

worth it for the memes

plus who doesn't enjoy trade talks, blockades, the sacrifices of people and destabilising of the system which are meant to keep people safe. the use of force to keep order, oppress people political manoeuvring to consolidate power and the wielding of religious metaphor to signal the imminent collapse of freedom. the slow step toward dictatorship, fear and war weakening society which turns to drastic measures for the pursuit of security.

i love democracy and lightsabres

 

[llien]

Ok but why the cartoon rabbit that steps in doo doo?

That's the thing that comes to mind, when someone gets picky about "dialogs".

Although, I had no love for that oversized orangutan that was making annoying sounds either.

 

[Sorcerer]

Sorry George, terrible dialogue on top of bad directing and trying your damndest to try to do everything in one take. These poor actors never stood a chance.

 

[Sorcerer]

worth it for the memes

plus who doesn't enjoy trade talks, blockades, the sacrifices of people and destabilising of the system which are meant to keep people safe. the use of force to keep order, oppress people political manoeuvring to consolidate power and the wielding of religious metaphor to signal the imminent collapse of freedom. the slow step toward dictatorship, fear and war weakening society which turns to drastic measures for the pursuit of security.

i love democracy and lightsabres

Who doesn't love blockades in space, where one can fly over them, under them, to the left and right of them to get where they are going lol!!!

 

[Sorcerer]

The problem with the prequel trilogy is tone. On one hand you have this dark political story about trade federations (what kid is not going to fall asleep at that?). On the other hand you have this really goofy tone with Jar Jar Binks to make a feel good movie for kids. (He sucked, not even kids liked him). You cannot have your cake and eat it too. The sequel trilogy had a possibility if it had stuck to its darker tone from the outset. Going from Jar-Jar binks to Anakin slaughtering Tusken Raiders, children, and burning in lava, what the fuck???

 

[Scotty W]

I actually don't think he is wrong. The original trilogy is pretty hokey and stilted too.

Yes.
The hero is named Luke Skywalker, after George Lucas. He fights a villain called Dark Father. Dark Father lives on a planet called the Death Star. He teams up with a mercenary who prefers to work alone named Han Solo. Solo has a hairy beast sidekick named Chewie.

 

[AJUMP23]

That lack of sincerity was a big part of what killed the Disney trilogy for me.

You mean it wasn't the lack of a cohesive story?

 

[Spokker]

I guess Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford didn't understand it either.



3:37

 

[T8SC]

I'd rather watch the prequels than the soulless Disney trash that we've been left with.

 

[theclaw135]

The original films encouraged curiosity. Motivating audiences to want to discover more of the universe. Viewers who saw Star Wars in 1977 knew nothing about the emperor, the Clone Wars, Jabba the Hutt, Alderaan...

 

[carlosrox]

I guess Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford didn't understand it either.

Neither did Alec Guinness. It's known.

But George proved everybody wrong with Star Wars.

 

[carlosrox]

Mandalorian

Super overrated and it amazes me people act like this is some Star Wars masterpiece. Feels like one big bandwagon to me.

I was expecting way more from Mandalorian, I was super disappointed with it and have taken a break since maybe halfway through the first season. Simply did not grab me. It's...okay, but does not deserve all the attention it's getting.

Dark Crystal is what this show should have been. Show was so good it totally stole Mandalorian's thunder. It does everything better. Music, characters, visuals, budget, length, tone, etc. Too bad that show got canceled and fucking Mandalorian gets to continue

 

[desertdroog]

To be fair a lot of the hokey B.S. Prequel trilogy was fixed in the Clone Wars Animation by Genndy Tartakovsky... I mean the second Clone Wars 3D Animated series. Seriously, good story telling happened in the animation realm, all things considered which has salvaged the bad taste in my mouth from no one telling Lucas...it is time to put down the writers pen.

Rogue One and Han Solo are the only recent good flicks that came out of Disney, in my opinion. The last three main Star Wars movies only proved that J.J. Abrams is a hack and only does well when he has a heavily scripted story to crib from. (That includes his Star Trek work. I think Super 8 was an ok movie, but he tries to channel Lucas and Spielberg and only creates stuff that comes off as a simulacrum of what their output is).

The Mandalorian has really turned into something special and the numerous offshoots that Disney is launching because they think STAR WARS = $$$$, had better think of why FIloni and Favreau are pulling off what could have been disaster. I have high hopes for the Obi Wan series, don't give a rats ass about the Ahsoka Tano spin off, and the new Clone Trooper 'The Bad Batch' animation may be ok..who knows? Honorable mention to the Rebels animation, it got better in the later seasons however that Resistance animation series was phoned in on all counts. Utter trash.






I really. REALLY. FUCKING REALLY want a Darth Vader series that is Rated R and has all the eldritch space horror, murder, terror and misery that we know Darth Vader got up to between Revenge of the Sith and a New Hope. I want a story pov that has nothing but dread and the good guys are NOT going to win. May never happen, but damn it would be something if ever given a green light.

 

[Weiji]

There are plenty of movies that do what he’s describing quite well. To bad the prequels don’t.



Maybe he should check out the original Star Wars trilogy, those were actually in line with the type of movie he was trying to make.

 

[Cherry Sonoshee]

Nah, I just think Star Wars is bad. Everything after the original 3 is whatever. The prequels were garbage movies with shit characters and shit writing. The sequels were safe unchallenging movies with no vision and shallow characters.

 

[desertdroog]

To address Lucas claiming the prequels are akin to Saturday Morning Serials. Yes, he attempted to do it and achieved it in a way he doesn't think he did. He made high tech movies with grandiose scale of both environments and music with a adventure, but he also did it in a so bad, it's not good sort of way due to having too many yes-men/women surrounding him.

What I mean is the first three Indiana Jones movies (really the first one due to Empire Strikes Back writers making it work), and other movies like The Rocketeer, Extraordinary Gentlemen and Sky Captain & The World of Tomorrow all hit that Saturday Morning serial because they know what they are. Except these movies are really well done, campy, tongue in cheek but no wooden acting or ridiculous explanations that leave the audience feeling abused and embracing the outlandish science fiction in a old tymie type of way. Give those movies a once over if you haven't, it's kind of like Jules Verne writing pulp novels in his free time just to get some side cash in a pinch.

George Lucas has some gems in his story telling, American Graffiti is still a classic snap shot in time of his teen-aged years, and as a car guy, it is the pinnacle of taking one night in a California city during the golden age of Hot Rodding and putting it on screen. So, I am not dressing down George Lucas for his failures, just pointing out that the cheap entertainment of his youth as an inspiration are not a crutch to account for his terrible hands on everything mistake that is the prequels.

There are some good scenes in the prequels, I don't totally hate it, but it took Kathleen Kennedy, Rian Johnson and the fumbly copy-cat J.J. Abrams to get me to appreciate it.

 

[Nester99]

I did not know that people turned to star wars for acting and dialog. For me it was always about cool laser swords, space magic and the spaceship battles.

 

[Stiflers Mom]

Super overrated and it amazes me people act like this is some Star Wars masterpiece. Feels like one big bandwagon to me.

I was expecting way more from Mandalorian, I was super disappointed with it and have taken a break since maybe halfway through the first season. Simply did not grab me. It's...okay, but does not deserve all the attention it's getting.

Dark Crystal is what this show should have been. Show was so good it totally stole Mandalorian's thunder. It does everything better. Music, characters, visuals, budget, length, tone, etc. Too bad that show got canceled and fucking Mandalorian gets to continue

Aren't you that twelve year old posting here?

 

[carlosrox]

Aren't you that twelve year old posting here?

I'm the one who's right about everything.

 

[Stiflers Mom]

I'm the one who's right about everything.

That goes along with being twelve years old.

 

[carlosrox]

That goes along with being twelve years old.

Okay Stifler's Mom.

 

[bender]

look, Star Wars fucking sucks and it took 8 consecutive bad movies to prove it

 

[Unknown Quantity]

The Legends (what was Canon) were the best thing for me after watching (ep 4-6 on VHS) & the hype that came with phantom menace. The characters, writing & timeline were great for me. What's the point of great stories & writing. Sideline them & stick with wooden acting & dialogue.

Cheers George, there's still time. Wraith Squadron could still happen. Make Correllia great again & I'll see ya there. The dialogue & acting I always found wooden. The setting & world still has potential.

 

[DGrayson]

The Legends (what was Canon) were the best thing for me after watching (ep 4-6 on VHS) & the hype that came with phantom menace. The characters, writing & timeline were great for me. What's the point of great stories & writing. Sideline them & stick with wooden acting & dialogue.

Cheers George, there's still time. Wraith Squadron could still happen. Make Correllia great again & I'll see ya there. The dialogue & acting I always found wooden. The setting & world still has potential.

Legends was the best. There was some crap, sure. But the characterizations were most true to the original trilogy most of the time.

 

[carlosrox]

I did not know that people turned to star wars for acting and dialog.

Only for the prequels apparently.

 

[Jon Neu]

The prequels had a lot of flaws, but compared to the sequels, they are like The Godfather.

For starters, they have a lot of cool characters: Qui-Gon, Obi Wan, Palpatine, Watto, Grievous, Sebulba, Darth Maul, Mace Windu, Dooku, Yoda... Even teenage Anakin had it's charm, certainly much more than Kylo Ren or Finn.

Also the movies have an actual cohesive story. The execution could have been better, sure, but there's substance and actual meaning in it. And most importantly, they feel like Star Wars, the sequels just don't.

 

[sol_bad]

I'm not sure why JJ Abrams gets so much hate. I really enjoy his films and adore Super8 as it makes me think of the older 80s films. I think he is very good at directing camera movement and directing his actors.

Mission Impossible 3 was a massive jump up from the first 2 films.

Star Trek and Into Darkness are very stylish films and exciting to watch. Star Trek Beyond on the other hand is very forgettable.

I really hope TRoS hasn't hurt his reputation too much and I hope he can make some more original films.

 

[Ballthyrm]

I'm not sure why JJ Abrams gets so much hate. I really enjoy his films and adore Super8 as it makes me think of the older 80s films. I think he is very good at directing camera movement and directing his actors.

Mission Impossible 3 was a massive jump up from the first 2 films.

Star Trek and Into Darkness are very stylish films and exciting to watch. Star Trek Beyond on the other hand is very forgettable.

I really hope TRoS hasn't hurt his reputation too much and I hope he can make some more original films.

JJ Abrams is a talented filmmaker that doesn't understand the franchise he is taking on.
The main problem is not that he lack talent or he is not competent at his job, the problem is that he doesn't seem to understand or value what made the previous movies great.

 

[Ballthyrm]

George Lucas and James Cameron have the same qualities and the same problems.

Both are amazing at pushing tech forward.
Both are amazing at Art direction and getting great VFX.
Both really understand what it takes to do worldbuilding and their worlds don't feel shallow.

Both suck at picking decent scripts for their movies.
Both suck at casting and actor direction.

Both are giants that really pushed the film industry forward and we owe them both a lot of respect.

 

[notseqi]

OT > Prequels >>>>>>>>> The Shit they are releasing now

Prequels were good enough after being starved for new content for way too long. Hate the shmaltzy parts but eh, it's 2020, I can skip ahead. Current movies suck and I never expected to say this, I didn't watch the last few.

Mandalorian S1 is baller though, hope S2 is similar.

 

[HE1NZ]

Lucas is right of course. All Star Wars movies have a very consistent style. Prequels were made during the slow-mo rush and didn't feature any of it. When Disney took over they immediately tried it.

 

[Sorcerer]

The original films encouraged curiosity. Motivating audiences to want to discover more of the universe. Viewers who saw Star Wars in 1977 knew nothing about the emperor, the Clone Wars, Jabba the Hutt, Alderaan...

The magic of the first film especially, is its breakneck pace, its just one magical set piece after another, for its time it was pretty stunning. There is so much to see that you have to watch it multiple times to catch everything. I think that definitely contributed to its huge success. Here is a case where George's bad writing is overcome with his marvelous technical skill and the movie is better for it. It works here. Luke's Aunt and Uncle are fried to death, Luke dwells on it a few seconds and moves on. George couldn't write a grieving scene properly so in this case it works for the benefit of the film.

 

[INC]

The magic of the first film especially, is its breakneck pace, its just one magical set piece after another, for its time it was pretty stunning. There is so much to see that you have to watch it multiple times to catch everything. I think that definitely contributed to its huge success. Here is a case where George's bad writing is overcome with his marvelous technical skill and the movie is better for it. It works here. Luke's Aunt and Uncle are fried to death, Luke dwells on it a few seconds and moves on. George couldn't write a grieving scene properly so in this case it works for the benefit of the film.

He grieved more for ben, who he'd only really just met lol