Hoth-Nudist said:
He had PLENTY of time to come up with something, anything, better than what we got.
Ultimately though, isn't that really telling of who he is as a creator? Which, in my opinion, is not a talented one. He had decades to come up with new stories that could have existed within the Star Wars universe, but he couldn't do it. Instead, he stayed married to that same film from 1977 and tried to expand it into five more movies. He just isn't a great writer. After Star Wars became a phenomenon, he decided to make a sequel. So, he hired two people to write sequels - Brackett and Foster. He had no ideas left. Too bad he didn't use either of them. It might have kept him from shrinking the universe into a bed time story. To me, Brackett's original story was much more in keeping with the mystery and far away feel of Star Wars.
As I've said before on this board and on an Indy board; He's a great idea man, but he really struggles to flesh them out. American Graffiti, Star Wars, & Raiders Of The Lost Ark are fantastic films, all from his ideas. They're three of my favorite movies. However, he had to have help in all three to get them right. Without Marcia, Kurtz, Spielberg, & Ford (and many others) - his films most likely wouldn't have been as successful. Reading interviews from years past, some of them were close to not being released at all had other people not come to his rescue - Marcia with American Graffiti.
If you guys have read any of his early drafts for Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, it's as ridiculous & out of place in the Indy world as the prequels are in the Star Wars world.
A squadron of flying saucers chasing Indy across the desert while firing lasers at him?!!.........
Thank God he's only a third of the Indiana Jones team. I honestly believe that's why the Indiana Jones franchise is consistent in tone and quality throughout - there are checks & balances (Spielberg & Ford) that don't exist in the Star Wars franchise, at least not after 1980. Which is exactly the time that franchise went to shit.
My point with all this blathering is that it doesn't matter how much time he has. If George is the sole voice of a story, it's likely to be a bad one.