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Post #546118

Author
joelwatts
Parent topic
How would YOU re-do the prequels?
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/546118/action/topic#546118
Date created
14-Oct-2011, 12:15 PM

I’m 37 and grew up on Star Wars.  Naturally, I was one of the first in line for Episode I, and later Episode II.  I think I waited a couple of days to see Episode III.  While I consider the experience of seeing Episode I one of the best movie-going experiences in my life, I eventually developed a strong dislike of all the prequels.

 

I say I developed this dislike, because I think I wanted to like them, I tried to like them for a long time.  Finally, and I’m not sure what triggered it, but something snapped and I realized the movies were awful and that I hated them.  No more pretending that somehow they were good, worthy of praise and worthy of defending against critics.

 

Since that time I have given a lot of thought to why the movies are so bad.  The creepy Red Letter Media video reviews do a great job of critiquing the films as films, but don’t offer much in the way of remedy, or what could have been.

 

So, my almost daily obsession of thinking about Star Wars led me to develop a series of ideas regarding the prequels, the original trilogy and George Lucas.  I’d like to begin to lay out the theses and also offer some of my ideas about what the prequels could have or should have been.

 

My basic thesis stems from the idea that creativity thrives, and delivers the best outcomes when it is forced to work under limitations.  Limitations, or constraints force creative people to solve hard problems.  More time, more thought is put into the approach and the outcome, I think, tends to be better.  It’s one of the reasons I think hand made paintings are unique, better and more expressive than digital paintings.

 

George Lucas was forced to work under certain limitations when he made Star Wars.  These limitations, for the most part, constrained what Lucas could do visually. Given these limitations, Lucas was forced (it may have been that filmmakers at that time merely felt they had no choice, given the current visual effects technology) to work harder, and focus more on the other aspects of the movie.  He knew then, that he was not the best screenwriter, especially when it came to dialogue, and he got help in this department.  He paid special attention to the story and its mythical allusions.  He concentrated on creating a visual aesthetic for the movie, that would be important regardless of the limitations of the visual effects.  In many of these areas, he sought out help from others who had special talents and knowledge.

 

A lot of time could be spent pointing out all the limitations that Lucas worked under in the making of Star Wars, but suffice to say that Lucas knew he would not be able to re-create all the fantastic visual images he had created in his mind’s eye.

 

Now jump forward to the late 1990s.  Hollywood had reached the point where there was virtually no limitation to what could be depicted visually on the silver screen.  “Jurassic Park” was the first movie I remember seeing (since “Star Wars”)and being overwhelmingly impressed with the visual effects, especially the scene of the T-rex chasing the jeep.  However, as a movie, “Jurassic Park” was average and predictable at best.  The new technology didn’t help in that department.

 

So, now Lucas practically had no limitations on what he could dream up and re-create on screen.  But certainly he knew he had other limitations.  He hadn’t directed a movie himself since “Star Wars.”  He hadn’t written a feature movie screenplay since then, either, and he needed help with dialogue then.  He had a visual aesthetic from the same movies.  He had a canon of three previous movies with an established story and background. On top of this he had a long developed mythos surrounding the stories and characters he had created.

 

George Lucas, having the visual effect limitations removed, and with virtual free rein to create anything he could imagine on screen, set about to also remove any other limitations in his way.  I assert that he abandoned the previous mythos that had existed since the end of “Return of the Jedi.”  This mythos was created by Lucasfilm, through its licensed products, especially story related items like fiction and games.  It was also based on the history of the making of the movies and the evolution of writing of the story.  It is this mythos that delivered to fans the background stories, like how Kenobi defeated Vader in a lightsaber duel and how the emperor took control of the republic.  I believe he abandoned these things in order to put all of his grandiose visual fantasies on the screen.

 

If I were Lucas’ muse, I would have guided him to establish several self-imposed limitations, under which he would create the prequel story and visual feel.

 

(to be continued)