Originally posted by: TheCassidyBy no means am I a blind, accepting fanboy, but enough is enough.
Who the hell do you guys think thought up the stories in the first place?
Who created the characters? The ships? The planets? The tech?
George Lucas created the Millenium Fucking Falcon, and that's cool. He created TaunTauns. That's cool. He created Jabba. That's cool. Carbonite? Lucas. Pod Races (arguable the best part of EPI)? Lucas. The Clone Battle in EPII? Lucas.
It's not that I don't recognize the issues with Lucas or his filmmaking, but it's become so en vogue to bash him by saying "Well, he didn't do Empire or Jedi so he must suck." I call bullshit.
Yeah, Kersh and Marquand were great directors, and they helped forge amazing films, but their role was to interpret the scripts, block the scenes, coax the actors (who, let's face the facts, didn't win any Oscars for them) and compose the shots. They didn't make or break Star Wars. They were along for the ride. A ride that Lucas created - lock, stock, and smoking barrel.
It's the internet whining and Expanded Universe marketing that is killing Star Wars, not Lucas.
EDIT - @ Marvolo - where are the poop jokes and slapstick in Star Wars - sorry, EPIV: A New Hope?
Who the hell do you guys think thought up the stories in the first place?
Who created the characters? The ships? The planets? The tech?
George Lucas created the Millenium Fucking Falcon, and that's cool. He created TaunTauns. That's cool. He created Jabba. That's cool. Carbonite? Lucas. Pod Races (arguable the best part of EPI)? Lucas. The Clone Battle in EPII? Lucas.
It's not that I don't recognize the issues with Lucas or his filmmaking, but it's become so en vogue to bash him by saying "Well, he didn't do Empire or Jedi so he must suck." I call bullshit.
Yeah, Kersh and Marquand were great directors, and they helped forge amazing films, but their role was to interpret the scripts, block the scenes, coax the actors (who, let's face the facts, didn't win any Oscars for them) and compose the shots. They didn't make or break Star Wars. They were along for the ride. A ride that Lucas created - lock, stock, and smoking barrel.
It's the internet whining and Expanded Universe marketing that is killing Star Wars, not Lucas.
EDIT - @ Marvolo - where are the poop jokes and slapstick in Star Wars - sorry, EPIV: A New Hope?
I disagree regarding ESB. It is Kershner's film. Lucas stepped away and Kershner made the film his way, something that has led to resemtment from Lucas to this day. Marquand was along for the ride, which is why ROTJ feels so "Lucas" like, but ESB bold discontinuity from the rest of the series has mostly to do with Kershner. The whole fucking lame "the directors are just interpreting my vision" train of thought did not occur until ROTJ because Lucas was so displeased with what Kershner did with ESB, so instead of letting a director play in the world created with ANH Lucas instead opted for dictatorial control and used Marquand as a puppet for himself. He was on set every day, selected camera angles, was a consultant, directed second unit and directed main unit and had the same kind of sway that executive producers do over directors in the world of television. This was not so on ESB, where he only visited the set two or three times and let Kershner do his thing. The whole "Kershner interpreted Lucas' vision" thing is bullshit LFL propaganda. Theres a reason why the film is so utterly different from any of the others.
I give Lucas enormous credit as a filmmaker for his work in the 1970's, one of the most important artists from the most important era of american filmmaking but ESB is not his film. To his credit, he is responsible for some bolder story decisions, namely the decision to end the film ambiguously and have Vader be Luke's father, but the film works because of the cinematographry, the mis-en-scene, the directorial atmosphere, and the way in which the characters are portrayed, things which Lucas had nothing to do with.