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The prequels' influence on pop-culture? — Page 2

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Bingowings said:

TV's Frink said:

Thread Title: The prequels' influence on pop-culture?

twooffour's first sentence in the OP said:

Heh, nah just kidding.

Ok, so what is this thread about?  Tootsie?

I call this piece The Prequel's Influence On Pop-Culture.

It made me want to watch TPM again!

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rpvee said:

I personally find the Gungan shield effect and the shield over Hogwarts to be quite different.  The Gungan shield has a constant glow and color to it, while the Hogwarts one is more clear and vanishes as soon as it touches the ground.

It sure looks different (and better), but just the way it looks, and happens, is very similar.
But yea, it was an inside homage / rip-off by ILM, apparently.

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miker71 said:

I can't think of anything where the prequels have affected the culture to the extent the OT has (e.g. R2-D2 mailbox, Tom Tom SatNav voices, Trash Compactor book-ends, etc etc).

Yes, the prequels have influenced the Fox media (Simpsons, South Park etc) and generated a ton of short-lived merchandise, but that alone does not qualify as pop culture in my book - just narrow self-serving revenue generation, little "culture".

In the real world there's just no enthusiasm for the prequels amongst everyday people. The opposite was true with the OT and it's really hard to describe to people who weren't even born back then.

Maybe we should really limit this to movies (and possibly TV), as there certainly has been a visible impact in INTERNET CULTURE.

Various youtube spoofs (like the pretty hilarious Star Wars rap), memes (unlimited power, NOOO), and the like.
The "Ackbar talkshow" has Boba Fett talk in a prequel/SE voice ;)

PLINKETT REVIEWS!!!!!!!
MTV movie awards spoof, I guess, too.
The Insult Dog at the Clones premier...
Everyone will probably recognize the Jar Jar Binks, too.
Jedis in Desert Robes are due to the prequels.

Hell, of all the bland/bad movies out there, the prequels must be some of the most famous, and most widely despised, so OBVIOUSLY it has an influence in this sense.

So there's plenty of that kinda stuff, but I think I haven't seen any of those Simpsons/South Park spoofs (which episodes would that be), or in any movie I can think of since then.

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It sorta counts. I mean, Hardware Wars, Spaceballs, these were legitimate reflections of the OTs influence and status in culture.

The difference is that the PT doesn't have anything that mocks it out of respect that isn't Lucasfilm sanctioned or co-produced (i.e. Robot Chicken, Lego Prequels). The PT does have an influence, but it is only in the critical sense. You have Simpsons episodes where people argue about which prequel sucks more, etc. The PT has become a model example of "the bad film." Most actual bad films aren't remembered a year or two after they come out but the prequels seem to have endured in peoples minds in this respect. Noone really knows who Watto is, and he was one of the best characters from the PT, but everyone could spot Jar Jar from a mile away because he was so legendary for being annoying. If you ever see any lasting positive impact from the PT it is usually due to the OT references--Vader, Obi Wan, R2D2, stormtroopers, etc. The PT has kept the memory of the OT alive and well, but its own identity has not stood up well except in the parody department.

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The prequels are symbolic of our culture's percieved inability to produce anything even as simple as basic entertainment (forget about actual art).

I mean, that was the real failure of TPM; it wasn't even all that much fun.
I prefer my Star Wars more like, um, Star Wars rather than ESB. I thought George could make a movie that was at least...

Ah, fuck it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

 

“It is only through interaction, through decision and choice, through confrontation, physical or mental, that the Force can grow within you.”
-Kreia, Jedi Master and Sith Lord

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theprequelsrule said:

The prequels are symbolic of our culture's percieved inability to produce anything even as simple as basic entertainment (forget about actual art).

There's some delicious irony in the fact that, in the same year as EpI was unleashed at popular culture, the Matrix came out and influenced nearly everything in its path :D

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I once read a review of The Matrix that said it was what The Phantom Menace wanted to be.

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I don't think The Matrix has aged nearly as well as the original Star Wars film. When I saw it in '99 I definitely thought it was an A+, but only a few years later I could not really give it anything better than a solid B. Part of it has to do with my increasing distaste for elaborate and heavily choreographed action sequences.

“It is only through interaction, through decision and choice, through confrontation, physical or mental, that the Force can grow within you.”
-Kreia, Jedi Master and Sith Lord

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theprequelsrule said:

I don't think The Matrix has aged nearly as well as the original Star Wars film. When I saw it in '99 I definitely thought it was an A+, but only a few years later I could not really give it anything better than a solid B. Part of it has to do with my increasing distaste for elaborate and heavily choreographed action sequences.

Well we can disagree on that last one, but I was rather talking about its influence and impact, which I think is safe to say was pretty huge.

It's not a such "clean", all-around paragon of a great action adventure film like Star Wars.
But it's extremely memorable, and has wreaked its fair share of havoc :)

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twooffour said:

theprequelsrule said:

I don't think The Matrix has aged nearly as well as the original Star Wars film. When I saw it in '99 I definitely thought it was an A+, but only a few years later I could not really give it anything better than a solid B. Part of it has to do with my increasing distaste for elaborate and heavily choreographed action sequences.

Well we can disagree on that last one, but I was rather talking about its influence and impact, which I think is safe to say was pretty huge.

It's not a such "clean", all-around paragon of a great action adventure film like Star Wars.
But it's extremely memorable, and has wreaked its fair share of havoc :)

I don't think it's long term impact was huge. It's rather forgotten today IMO. For the first 3 to 5 years afterward; yes, it was highly influential.

“It is only through interaction, through decision and choice, through confrontation, physical or mental, that the Force can grow within you.”
-Kreia, Jedi Master and Sith Lord

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theprequelsrule said:

twooffour said:

theprequelsrule said:

I don't think The Matrix has aged nearly as well as the original Star Wars film. When I saw it in '99 I definitely thought it was an A+, but only a few years later I could not really give it anything better than a solid B. Part of it has to do with my increasing distaste for elaborate and heavily choreographed action sequences.

Well we can disagree on that last one, but I was rather talking about its influence and impact, which I think is safe to say was pretty huge.

It's not a such "clean", all-around paragon of a great action adventure film like Star Wars.
But it's extremely memorable, and has wreaked its fair share of havoc :)

I don't think it's long term impact was huge. It's rather forgotten today IMO. For the first 3 to 5 years afterward; yes, it was highly influential.

Well, I can't judge that far, but there was a bullet-time shot in the last Harry Potter movie for example :)

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twooffour said:

theprequelsrule said:

twooffour said:

theprequelsrule said:

I don't think The Matrix has aged nearly as well as the original Star Wars film. When I saw it in '99 I definitely thought it was an A+, but only a few years later I could not really give it anything better than a solid B. Part of it has to do with my increasing distaste for elaborate and heavily choreographed action sequences.

Well we can disagree on that last one, but I was rather talking about its influence and impact, which I think is safe to say was pretty huge.

It's not a such "clean", all-around paragon of a great action adventure film like Star Wars.
But it's extremely memorable, and has wreaked its fair share of havoc :)

I don't think it's long term impact was huge. It's rather forgotten today IMO. For the first 3 to 5 years afterward; yes, it was highly influential.

Well, I can't judge that far, but there was a bullet-time shot in the last Harry Potter movie for example :)

Yuck. But I have something worse; remember the bullet-time shot in Aliens versus Predator?

“It is only through interaction, through decision and choice, through confrontation, physical or mental, that the Force can grow within you.”
-Kreia, Jedi Master and Sith Lord

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Haven't seen the movie... is it any good?




:)

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twooffour said:

Haven't seen the movie... is it any good?




:)

No. Read the original comic miniseries instead.

“It is only through interaction, through decision and choice, through confrontation, physical or mental, that the Force can grow within you.”
-Kreia, Jedi Master and Sith Lord

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To be fair, bullet-time is its own animal.

It was listed by AVGN as one of the "worst clichés" around, and I kinda agree - it's been copied and spoofed all by itself for long enough, and should probably be viewed distinctively from whatever other influences the Matrix had on subsequent movies.


One of the positive long-term "influences", not so much on movies as on everyday communication, would be the blue pill - red pill allegory.

Is there any better, more compact imagery to express a view on "illusion vs. reality" in a conversation? I'd say it more or less beat the ostrich in the sand analogy, but that's just kinda my experience :)


But I digress...

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twooffour said:

So there's plenty of that kinda stuff, but I think I haven't seen any of those Simpsons/South Park spoofs (which episodes would that be)

I haven't watched The Simpsons since around the time The Phantom Menace came out, so I can't help you there. But as for South Park, just off the top of my head, in the season three epiosde "Jakovasours" they discover an extinct animal that talks like Jar Jar named Joon-Joon. This episode came out in 1999. The South Park movie (also from 1999) has an annoying Jar Jar quote randomly shoved into one scene. There is an episode called "Free Hat" where George and Steven plan on making a Raiders of the Lost Ark special edition theatrical rerelease, this episode heavily condemns the alteration of films (even though half the internet scratches their heads at us, it is nice to know Matt and Trey get it at least). Then there is the infamous "China Problem" episode, that takes the George Lucas "raped my childhood" thing and makes it literal. Both those episodes technically have Indiana Jones at the center of them, but they both reference Star Wars, the prequels, and the special editions pretty heavily. There are also PT references in the "Imagination Land" episodes.

None of the South Park ones are spoofs or parodies, but more harsh criticism of Lucas. Perhaps the Lucas criticism is more aimed at a minor sub-culture than pop culture, to be fair. But all the other prequel references and cameos throughout the series I think are decent example of the PT's influence in popular culture.

Even though Family Guy and Robot Chicken are Fox properties with Lucas sanctioned parodies and spoofs, I still think this flies as pop culture. Robot Chicken made the Star Wars special because its Star Wars clips were so popular, and since that was popular they made two more.

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theprequelsrule said:

twooffour said:

theprequelsrule said:

I don't think The Matrix has aged nearly as well as the original Star Wars film. When I saw it in '99 I definitely thought it was an A+, but only a few years later I could not really give it anything better than a solid B. Part of it has to do with my increasing distaste for elaborate and heavily choreographed action sequences.

Well we can disagree on that last one, but I was rather talking about its influence and impact, which I think is safe to say was pretty huge.

It's not a such "clean", all-around paragon of a great action adventure film like Star Wars.
But it's extremely memorable, and has wreaked its fair share of havoc :)

I don't think it's long term impact was huge. It's rather forgotten today IMO. For the first 3 to 5 years afterward; yes, it was highly influential.

People still dress as characters from the films at cons. I saw two life size statues of Agent Smith and Trinity at Monsterpalooza a couple months back.

It's a safe bet a lot of people have the movie on Blu Ray at this point. The DVD was the "disc you pop in to show off your HT system" for years.

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Where were you in '77?

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 (Edited)

The Matrix would have had more of an influence on pop-culture than the prequels, except for one small* thing:

Me.

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Ric Olie said:

The Matrix would have had more of an influence on pop-culture than the prequels, except for one small* thing:

They sucked.

Totally agreed, Olie. Totally agreed.

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CP3S said:

twooffour said:

So there's plenty of that kinda stuff, but I think I haven't seen any of those Simpsons/South Park spoofs (which episodes would that be)

I haven't watched The Simpsons since around the time The Phantom Menace came out, so I can't help you there. But as for South Park, just off the top of my head, in the season three epiosde "Jakovasours" they discover an extinct animal that talks like Jar Jar named Joon-Joon. This episode came out in 1999. The South Park movie (also from 1999) has an annoying Jar Jar quote randomly shoved into one scene. There is an episode called "Free Hat" where George and Steven plan on making a Raiders of the Lost Ark special edition theatrical rerelease, this episode heavily condemns the alteration of films (even though half the internet scratches their heads at us, it is nice to know Matt and Trey get it at least). Then there is the infamous "China Problem" episode, that takes the George Lucas "raped my childhood" thing and makes it literal. Both those episodes technically have Indiana Jones at the center of them, but they both reference Star Wars, the prequels, and the special editions pretty heavily. There are also PT references in the "Imagination Land" episodes.

None of the South Park ones are spoofs or parodies, but more harsh criticism of Lucas. Perhaps the Lucas criticism is more aimed at a minor sub-culture than pop culture, to be fair. But all the other prequel references and cameos throughout the series I think are decent example of the PT's influence in popular culture.

Even though Family Guy and Robot Chicken are Fox properties with Lucas sanctioned parodies and spoofs, I still think this flies as pop culture. Robot Chicken made the Star Wars special because its Star Wars clips were so popular, and since that was popular they made two more.

Ah, many thanks for that!

Watched "China Problem" so far, pretty hilarious :D

And oh, a Simpsons link has been posted earlier in this thread somewhere... it had Jar Jar with rasta hair... LOL.
Lucas gave Watto a hat and a beard in Clones (most probably as a take that), might as well have done that... but yea :D

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I wonder if the clone wars cartoon may end up having more influence in the long run, only because we've seen how a weekly cartoon can worm it's way into people's brains for years to come if they're the right age. Look at how Transformers and Thundercats and all that stuff never goes away. I can't really tell how popular clone wars is these days, but I assume it's pretty successful. (Although I don't really get it, it feels like I'm watching Veggie Tales or some shit to me)

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I've certainly seen a lot more Clone Troopers at Halloween than Jar Jars.

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TV's Frink said:

I've certainly seen a lot more Clone Troopers at Halloween than Jar Jars.

You mean Storm Troopers, right?  I'm trying to remove the neurons in my brain that refer to them as LA LA LA LA LA DA DA DA DA LA LA LA....

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