Anchorhead said:
Easterhay said:
We would always wonder, though, what happened before episode four. .....We would always wonder...
No - we would not.
In Star Wars, the audience were told what came before. Personally, I didn't need or want it shown to me in detail. My imagination was enough to fill in any back story I may have had an interest in. The mystery of the characters and the vastness of space served the story perfectly.
However, that's not how George works. Fleshing out every tiny detail of back story is how George controls - and it's also great for franchising a story. In my opinion, it also happens to be something he's not good at. He tends to get writer's block rather quickly and ends up having to ham-fist his way out of it, e. g., Vader as father, Leia as sister, second Death Star, Lando as Han II.
He also seems to have an issue - the control mentioned above - with wanting to explain every detail and nuance. The ridiculousness of Annikin Starkiller (who, by 1999, was an entirely different character than he was in George's original Grand Vision 1975 script) building 3PO is matched only by how completely unnecessary and pointless it is. It is, however, a perfect example of how George does things - the present at the expense of the past.
He also did it with Indiana Jones. Instead of letting the character remain a little mysterious and larger-than-life, he insisted on giving us too much information. No more pondering how he may have grown into the character we'd loved for years - turns out he got the hat, the whip, the jacket, the scar, and the fear of snakes all on the same day, within a few minutes of each other, when he was just a kid. Lucas story-shrinking at it's finest.
I saw Phantom, just out of curiosity, and disliked it. I didn't bother with the other two. I have zero interest in what came before Star Wars - not in 1977, not now. Not ever.
You dig all the films - good for you. You want to bait the board as you did in your Return thread - have at it. However, if you're going to attempt to speak for me ("We would always wonder...") - expect some push-back.
Now, in the interest of disclosure; I should point out that I really like all four Indiana Jones films. I'm an ongoing, from-the-start, fan of the franchise. However, the opening prequel portion of Crusade was done....poorly.
Sorry that you see my having an opinion that differs from yours as baiting (I don't disagree that some of my posts have come across as such). I'm not so stupid as to think that enjoying the prequels is a minority opinion on a website called originaltrilogy.com but I am entitled to my opinion.
My use of the word "we" was too generic, I grant you. As I say, I wouldn't expect to find too many PT fans here.
As it goes, I don't think Lucas comes anywhere Tolkien, though, when it comes to overegging the cake where backstory is concerned. Not that I want to introduce Lord Of The Rings and its increasingly dull spin-offs to the conversation.
