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Lucas saved face as director?

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A while before the prequels were made, it seems like I remember media outlets saying George Lucas intended to "direct the first film" and presumably hand over the duty to others for the second and third episodes. After the poorly received Episode I came out, it was made known that Lucas would also direct Episodes II and III. Considering how everyone would have had a field day criticizing Lucas and his present-day abilities if another director had taken over for II and III and made vastly superior films, I believe Lucas did not relinquish directing duties in order to save face. He doesn't even like directing! He obviously knew that the remaining episodes would contain (slightly) more compelling material and likely wanted to preserve his integrity and respect by directing them, as well.

Any thoughts?
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I have less respect for him after AotC and RotS, so if that was his plan it backfired hilariously.

"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

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I must honestly say, I didn't have that much of a problem with the first two prequel movies - in fact I liked them a lot. I always thought: "Give it time, I've seen the making of thingies on sw.com it will all play out within the third movie - it all will make sense and it'll be great." ...boy was I wrong.
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I think you have a point, RealityGhost, but I also agree with TipTup that the plan backfired. And now that we have the whole trilogy to examine, I actually think Phantom Menace is the best of a bad bunch.

War does not make one great.

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Yep, the first bad prequel could have been brushed off as rusty-skillz. But two subsequent movies simply cemented the fact that George Lucas has become one of the worst film directors ever.
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Yeah, I actually thought GL was a good director until I saw the prequels, so if he was trying to 'save face' by directing them- it didn't work. The only thing he managed to accomplish was proving to everyone that he's lost his ability to direct.

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And that Star Wars should have been respectfully ended years ago rather than letting it become a parody of itself.

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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It didn't necesarily need to be ended in order to noit become a parody, it just needed to be handled better, by someone who has a clue. Me for example.

War does not make one great.

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And yet here we all are...still sucking on the Star Wars teat after all these years.
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Originally posted by: Yoda Is Your Father
It didn't necesarily need to be ended in order to noit become a parody, it just needed to be handled better, by someone who has a clue. Me for example.


You're right. It didn't have to. I still think it should have, though. We had a great trilogy that had a beginning and an end, several novels. And now, in addition to that, we have three new crappy movies a generation later, followed up by a... TV series?! Am I the only person thinking that it's going to go on forever? And I don't like that. All works of fiction that tell a cohesive story should end at some point.

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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Despite all the new junk coming out, I've found that it's delightfully easy to "go home." I pulled out my old P&S vhs copy of Star Wars a few days ago (pre-THX) and watched it all the way through. All the print imperfections, grain and bad colors didn't seem to distract me at all; in fact I think it helped me to go back in time for a couple hours. As far as I was concerned, it was a generation closer to the original. Surprisingly at no point did I really think about overall video quality, the prequels, or the special edition. It was just Star Wars. I'm starting to think that the older the transfer, your brain is quicker to accept the 70's/early 80's "look" after the first few minutes and just get into the story again.

Despite how much Lucas wants to shove his new vision of the Star Wars universe down our throats, we can always go back!
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In both TPM and AOTC their were subtle little mysteries that we all 'knew' would play out by the third film and surprise us all. Alas that never happened and these subtleties ended up being nothing but hot air which lucas put in there but in the end he couldn't deliver on. Ooooh the mystery of Syfo Dyas, the ordering of the clones, where did anakin and his mother really come from, and the explanation of jedi dissolving into ghosts communicating from beyond the grave.

Not only is he a crap director but he needs to see a doctor as I think he may have Alzheimer's.
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Heh, that's so true, eros, especially the Sifo-Dyas thing. He even stated on the AOTC commentary that that would be resolved in the next movie, but then it was later said he had to sacrifice it in terms of the bigger story... I suppose that bigger story is the compelling narrative about General Grievous, huh?

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.