logo Sign In

George Lucas calls Spiderman 3 'silly'

Author
Date
Author
Time
Post link
George Lucas Calls 'Spider-Man 3' Silly;
Wednesday, May 09, 2007

By Roger Friedman

E-MAIL STORY RESPOND TO EDITOR PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION
AP

George Lucas Calls 'Spider-Man 3' Silly


But of course, we were most interested in talking with George Lucas, the affable genius film director who occasionally graces us in New York with an appearance. Lucas is absolutely one of my favorite people, a lovely guy who seems unaffected by his enormous success.


Lucas told me he has seen all the summer movies since his company, Industrial Light and Magic, does most of the special effects. The only one they didn't work on was "Spider-Man 3." What did he think of it?

"It's silly. It's a silly movie," he said. "There just isn't much there. Once you take it all apart, there's not much story, is there?"

Well, it's not "Star Wars."

"People thought 'Star Wars' was silly, too," he added, with a wink. "But it wasn't."
Author
Time
Post link
No offense, but you left out the important part of the story:

Lucas, by the way, says he is readying "Clone Wars," an animated series for TV that's derived from "Star Wars." Many "Star Wars" characters appear in "Clone Wars," but voiced by other actors.

And here's a little news: Lucas tells me he will make two more live-action films based in the "Star Wars" era.

"But they won't have members of the Skywalker family as characters," he said. "They will be other people of that milieu."

The two extra films will also be made for TV and probably be an hour long each. But, like "Clone Wars," Lucas doesn't know where on TV they will land.

Hello, HBO and Showtime. It may be time to pony up.

Link
Author
Time
Post link
Thanks for attaching the link, I was going to post the Clone Wars part in another thread cause I was having problems for some reason attaching the link to this thread, so I thought I would just post Lucas' Spiderman comments.
Author
Time
Post link
"It's silly. It's a silly movie," he said. "There just isn't much there. Once you take it all apart, there's not much story, is there?"


Well, what about the PT? That's a double standard
Author
Time
Post link
I wouldn't take too much stock in what this reporter wrote, because Lucas isn't doing 2 live action films, he's doing a live action television series. I think he's probably taking what Lucas said out of context.
Author
Time
Post link
That's probably right. A "one hour film" doesn't make much sense; a one hour series is more believable. Still, it's interesting to read--even if it ends up being untrue--that it will be set in the Star Wars "milieu." Of course, that settles nothing as to whether it's PT or OT or between.
Author
Time
Post link
Originally posted by: kmcherry
Still, it's interesting to read--even if it ends up being untrue--that it will be set in the Star Wars "milieu." Of course, that settles nothing as to whether it's PT or OT or between.


Set in the Star Wars milieu - is what Lucas should have been doing since about 1980. Why in the world he couldn't come up with interesting stories outside of "The Adventures Of Luke Skywalker" is beyond me. Instead of continually shrinking the galaxy by making everything connected, he could have actually enlarged the already vast Star Wars galaxy by writing other stories that were loosely connected.
Forum Moderator
Author
Time
Post link
Lucas is only saying this because his company didn't get to work on the film, which means less money for him. However, I wish ILM had done the effects, because some of the film's effects shots looked like they were made of rubber.


Author
Time
Post link
Heh. And a collection of fragmented story elements culminating in a magical force causing a man to become evil completely against his own will isn't silly?

"Now all Lucas has to do is make a cgi version of himself.  It will be better than the original and fit his original vision." - skyjedi2005

Author
Time
Post link
You guys don't know WHAT Lucas said. That guy quoted him, but unless you hear it on a video or audio recording, I'd take it with a grain of salt. The guy could easily be interpreting whatever Lucas actually said.
Author
Time
Post link
Originally posted by: sunday256
You guys don't know WHAT Lucas said. That guy quoted him, but unless you hear it on a video or audio recording, I'd take it with a grain of salt. The guy could easily be interpreting whatever Lucas actually said.



I don't understand why he would be misquoted, when the reporters says in the previous paragraph that Lucas was one of his favorite people and he was a genius, what axe would he have to grind with Lucas?

Why can't people accept that he said it, and in some ways I agree with him, cause I think most Comic Book movies are silly, and there really isn't much story there, but in the same respect, Lucas did the same shit with the PT movies, and that is the whole irony of the quote! He is pretty much saying that the movie lacks any serious depth to it, and shouldn't be taken too seriously, and again I agree, but when we had a trilogy by Lucas that featured Jar Jar Binks, Jake Lloyd, Anakin/Padme AOTC romance, and Padme losing the will to live, I think Lucas should rename the backstory to the OT, "The Silly Trilogy."
Author
Time
Post link
No matter what Lucas says, the fans will never love him?
Author
Time
Post link
Think of it this way, it's possible that he heard what he wanted to hear, or he just plain didn't hear the conversation the way Lucas intended it. It's plausible since he got the rest of the story wrong about the tv series. That's why I don't necessarily believe Lucas said what he's quoted as saying. Could he have said exactly that? Sure, but this reporter's accuracy makes me sceptical.

Originally posted by: CO
Originally posted by: sunday256
You guys don't know WHAT Lucas said. That guy quoted him, but unless you hear it on a video or audio recording, I'd take it with a grain of salt. The guy could easily be interpreting whatever Lucas actually said.



I don't understand why he would be misquoted, when the reporters says in the previous paragraph that Lucas was one of his favorite people and he was a genius, what axe would he have to grind with Lucas?

Why can't people accept that he said it, and in some ways I agree with him, cause I think most Comic Book movies are silly, and there really isn't much story there, but in the same respect, Lucas did the same shit with the PT movies, and that is the whole irony of the quote! He is pretty much saying that the movie lacks any serious depth to it, and shouldn't be taken too seriously, and again I agree, but when we had a trilogy by Lucas that featured Jar Jar Binks, Jake Lloyd, Anakin/Padme AOTC romance, and Padme losing the will to live, I think Lucas should rename the backstory to the OT, "The Silly Trilogy."


Author
Time
Post link
I do have to doubt that reporters word simply based on the fact that he said Cate Blanchet looks great, yet the photo they have indicates otherwise. She looks like the skeleton of Daniel Craig. Eeeeee.

Anyway, one thing to consider, is that that story is from May 09, yesterday. While the one Sunday posted is from March 19 2006, over a year ago. It is entirely possible something has changed on the TV series front. Lucas is a pretty flacky guy (come on, no matter how much of a hard on you have for him, you simply can't deny his flackiness), tends to change his mind a lot. Though I could never bring myself to believe he would be making two made for TV movie of only an hour long each. That isn't even worthy to be called a made for TV moive, it would be more like a short lived two episode long TV series. I am sure this is not the case. But if the TV series did evolve into two full length made for TV movies, I for one would not be in the least surprised.

It is annoying they are taking place between 3 and 4, does anybody even really care what happened during that time? I think it would be more interesting pre TPM or post ROTJ.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

Author
Time
Post link
There's so little of a story there. Certainly the guy talked to Lucas for more time than those two sentences would indicate. Where's the rest of the conversation? Why not tell us more of what he said?

Forum Moderator
Author
Time
Post link
Originally posted by: C3PX
It is entirely possible something has changed on the TV series front. Lucas is a pretty flacky guy...tends to change his mind a lot.

Man, that's for sure. When Lucas says he's planning a TV series based on whatever, and it's going to be ready in a few years - damn - that could mean anything in Lucasspeak.

It is annoying they are taking place between 3 and 4, does anybody even really care what happened during that time? I think it would be more interesting pre TPM or post ROTJ.


That's how I feel about anything else he does in the space genre. He has visited the known Star Wars universe way too many times already. I'd be interested to see something of his (maybe) if it came from some other area of the galaxy. It's worked very well for Star Trek. It could work for Star Wars also. The next ship doesn't have to be purchased from a guy who stole it from someone whose mother worked on Cloud City and the co-pilot doesn't have to be someone Chewie sat next to in the cantina.

George - Let go of the Adventures Of Luke Skywalker for a change and write us an outer space adventure again. And for God's sake - get off of Tatooine finally. It went from being - "if there's a bright center to the universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from" - to being damn center stage in all that universe seems to be. Enough already. Take the advice of one of your own characters and "stretch out with your feelings".
[/rant]
Forum Moderator
Author
Time
Post link
Lucas is just a greedy old bastard who's taking advantage of a chance to kick a rival franchise below the belt when the critics choose to criticize it instead of gushing all over it with love. The guy who gave the world Jar Jar Binks - an insult to intelligent life as we know it - has no room to be dissing other popcorn films.
I'd like a qui-gon jinn please with an Obi-Wan to go.

Red heads ROCK. Blondes do not rock. Nuff said.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/greencapt/hansolovsindy.jpg
Author
Time
Post link
that lucas called spider man 3 silly shows just how much he is out of touch with the filmaking public. raimi has produced with the spider-man films what lucas should have with the prequels, fun entertaining movies with chraracters not just cgi.

what it reallly says is just how small a man he really is, and how big his ego is, he's insanely jealous of sam raimi's success. that what you get for taking a 20 some old year vacation from filmaking, hello.

and wow he spent a little over ten years producing one of the biggest turds in the history of trilogies, while simulataneously ruining the only good one he worked on, i'm talking star wars here folks.

he's got to step down from his soapbox or pedestal what have you, and start making good films again with feeling and story.

The i'm a hero, i'm a god, i'm a legend bullshit has to stop, he got lucky with star wars in '77, i wish i did not agree with his more vicious critics, but he is starting to look like a one trick poney.

“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.

Author
Time
Post link
My 1st thought is that he is having a dig at the CGI effects in the film. This is my major gripe with these flicks. And of course there are no poop jokes when using them.
Author
Time
Post link
Evidently he's bitter about something.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

Author
Time
Post link
It's interesting that every critic's opinion of this films seems to count except for Lucas'...even though he's dead on about his assessment of the film. The film, to put it bluntly, is a complete mess at the script level. And it becomes unintentionally silly because of it.

Say what you want about the Prequels but they are no where near the mess that Spider-Man 3 is, at the script level. I mean, it's just plain bad on a lot of serious levels...things that should've been caught before this film even started shooting.
Twisted by the Dark Side, young Skywalker has become. The boy you trained, gone he is. Consumed by Darth Vader.

-Yoda; Episode III Revenge of the Sith.
Author
Time
Post link
I honestly couldn't say I would rather watch Revenge of the Sith than Spidey 3. I really couldn't. You may like the prequels man, but plenty of people see them as crappy as they are. That is why it is funny to have a one trick poney of a crap film maker going around calling movies "silly" when he himself defined exactly how silly and storyless a movie could be and get away with it. Nothing in Spidey 3 was half as painful to watch an a single scene of General Greivous...

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape