the problem that will never be solved, is that
nobody can agree what the story should have been like..
I agree with this sentiment. There are drawbacks to literally any interpretation of SW because we all have differing perspectives on the SW universe. So far, I'm with you.
some claim that the PT isn't as 'epic' as the original trilogy (despite
all the retcons, inconsistencies, and flaws that exist in it th e OT also)..
I also agree that no matter what came out of the PT, there would be some who would say the OT was much superior without even watching one PT film.
And no one, save the most ardent and unreasonable OT fan, would say the OT didn't have flaws. I've never seen a flawless movie and I doubt I ever will.
lucas faces a no-win situation, you can't please the old fans, because
it wouldn't 'match' what he wanted for the PT, and of course the people
that like the PT sometimes find the OT clunky, slow, and outdated....
Wrong. You can't please some of the old fans. I think most of us had an open mind about the PT going in. Hell, speaking for myself, I was a bit of an apologist for Episodes I and II - read my first post in this thread.
As for placating the sugar junkies with "faster and more intense" all the time, as the PT tried to do - well, in layman's terms, this is known as a pacing problem. The fast-moving actions scenes don't stand out if you've got too many of them. But Lucas, in his older, wiser years, seems to have forgotten about the law of diminishing returns. I still love lightsabres, but they're a lot less cool when they're in every other freaking scene.
you can't have your cake both ways, and eat it to..
This is my favorite mixed metaphor ever. Thanks for contributing a new phrase to my vocabulary!
i hear a lot of complaints (skyjedi2005, and vaderisnothayden) that nothing past
1983 is worthy of being star wars, or 'canon' etc.....
Some people do have a hard stance on this issue. Speaking only for myself, I have a "personal canon"; that is, the stuff I like is in my SW canon, the rest is stupid and forgettable. I like a lot of post-83 stuff, especially KOTOR. God I love KOTOR.
well that leaves a huge void doesn't it? who is supposed to write the story?
who's supposed to act it out? who's supposed to direct? do the music?
Lucas could have had almost as big a footprint in a better world as he did in this one if he would have just allowed some legitimate critique from producers, design people, screenwriters instead of evoking fear from a bunch of yes men like Prick McCallum. Star Wars (the first film, not the universe/franchise) was great because the younger Lucas was more flexible and open to suggestion - it received invaluable input from ex-wife Marcia, Richard Chew, Gary Kurtz, and others - but no one has ever doubted that Star Wars was a George Lucas film.
i don't think we could even find a majority of people on this site that could agree
on how it should have been handled? some like the EU stuff, others hate it,
same with the 'clone wars' (mixed opinions).......
That's true. For me, and I suspect others, it's not a problem that the PT failed; it's a much bigger problem that the man at the helm steered it wrong while ignoring so many principles of filmmaking he once championed.
The Phantom Editor showed it, plain as day: in 1984, Lucas says that sci-fi films fail because they build an elaborate set and spend film time to show off all their work; in 2003, Lucas admits in the AOTC audio commentary that they filmed a scene expressly to feature the Jango Fett suit.
it's pretty easy to criticize something that exists without supplying any kind of
alternate or substitute...yeah, you could say, just film the 'thrawn trilogy', or
just do episodes 7-9, and include the OT characters.... yeah, well someone
has to write it, and even stories from the EU that included the OT characters
aren't all liked universally....
Well, it's not like LucasFilm gave us keys to the SW kingdom and said "Go make a SW movie/write a SW novel" - no, LucasFilm lets assbags like Karen Traviss write SW novels...
But I do agree that a big problem with SW novels is that the original band of characters is always directly involved with some sort of galaxy-threatening doomsday scenario - I'd go insane if I had to save the galaxy that many times. One of my favorite EU series was the Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy - Luke and company basically didn't exist in those books.
do you really want to see han and leia married with kids? luke getting old?
chewbacca dying?
Honestly, not really. An adventure or two on occasion, fine. But it got to be a bit overdone after so many books.
i don't know.... i'd rather see the time periods inbetween
episode 3 and 4. or even the short time periods between 4-5 and 5-6....
Shadows of the Empire was very good indeed.