skyjedi2005

The prequels failed mostly in execution of ideas and not the ideas themselves.

Lucas said going in when he started work in 1994 on the phantom menace that they would be tonally different than the original trilogy.  Darker than the middle act, at the time he was still considering making 7-9.   The middle act of course being IV-VI.  IV-VI followed heroes and a basic heroes journey as outlined by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a thousand faces.

Episodes 1-3 would be the opportunity to show a hero's fall from grace and turn to evil.  The real problems george had was making anakin liked and cared for by the audience.  The hero is usually proxy for the viewers fears and desires, the viewer or reader if it is a book goes on the journey the hero does.

Anakin's story should have had more resonance and focus because he is a mirror onto the fact that all human beings have the potential for evil within them.  You can reject evil and renounce it as Luke did or Like Anakin embrace it.

Luke Skywalker was easy to identify with as an everyman.

The audience cares for Characters Like Luke Skywalker in the star wars trilogy or Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy.   Lucas failed at connecting Anakin to his audience.

He was going in the right direction in episode 1 with a slave boy the audience felt somewhat sympathetic to, but by Episodes II and III that whole angle was forgotten.  Almost like Lucas was in a rush just to get the damn thing done and off his back.  We know what happened with the original trilogy when Lucas wanted to rush things, was a drop in quality between the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

The making of the films more kiddie and mainstream was a sellout.  Thematicly the themes touched on Vader in the oot and the prequels were very interesting. Man Machine Relationships, The Desire for Power to do good and in the end being corrupted by it.  Had he delivered that dark epic he promised with 1-3 i don't think people would complain. 

At the same time he deserves some slack at least as far as episode 1 goes.   That was a damn good script and movie for a guy who returned to Star Wars after 16 years, plus 22 years since he directed a film.  Star Wars in 1977 being his last.  In any Craft whether it be music, filmaking, or novel writing you cannot take twenty years off and not expect to get rusty.  He needed more help writing and directing these movies.  The friends he asked turned him down nobody wanted to do this project, so he was forced into writing them and directing them himself.

He could have looked outside his little intimate circle of friends at the expense of his zone of comfort and he would have had to loose some control over the movies and step back and take a producers role.   He had far too much invested emotionally, and financially to leave this  universe and its characters up to someone else.

Was there a possibility of bringing in some professionals who were fans of the oot to direct and write episodes II and III and make them better films, yes.  But there is also the possibility they would be worse than what Lucas delivered.

Don't forget Steven Spielberg did uncredited work on episode III. Supposedly he worked with the computer dudes who did the mustafar duel scenes.  Which is funny because Spielberg was originally offered Jedi but could not do it because of being a dga member.  He was also offered star wars again sometime during the making of the prequels and turned it down, rumored Lucas asked him to do Episode II.  I know for a fact that he asked Ron Howard to direct episode 1.  That is the funny part Lucas ended up directing all 3 prequels films when he never intended to direct any of them, and if need be only 1.

He told Spielberg his ideas for the prequels and Steven visited Skywalker ranch.  He told George his ideas were great on episode 1 behind the scenes footage.

Then watch Indiana Jones IV and it is clear Spielberg has not lost only his touch but also his judgement on what constitutes a good idea, or who are good actors.

Even Coppolas works have gotten worse as the years go on.  Scorceses work not as good either but they gave him an academy award for the departed which was a far cry from the brilliance of taxi driver or raging bull.   Spielberg has been Lucky that he made more good films and more evenly balanced between good and terrible films than Lucas.  Even the Lousy films he has made have had their moments like War of The Worlds, and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Speaking of Spielberg he is a lot like Lucas now producing more films than he directs.  He handed off trial of the Chicaco 7 to Ben Stiller, Jurassic Park IV to Joe Johnston.  And after he phoned in Indiana Jones IV decided to Take a full year off before making Lincoln, in 2010.  Also Producing Transformers Revenge of the Fallen and Ghost in the Shell.  He was supposed to direct one of the tintin films but no info is showing up on imdb.   Spielberg and Lucas best years are behind them.  Though audiences are more willing to give Spielberg a pass than Lucas, most have already forgiven Indiana Jones IV or blamed it on Lucas.

Lucas fans and critics are almost impossible to please and are more willing than ever to tear him to shreds.

Lucas not doing his little films but producing More star wars tales with Clone wars and the live action tv show.  Also producing that Tuskagee Airmen movie i forgot the name of, and will Produce Indiana Jones V is he can get a script together and Spielbergs Schedule is free in 2009.  But then he won't be free again until 2012.

Lucas answer for Young Anakin as a Force ghost is that was the age he went over to the dark side, ceased to be anakin skywalker and became darth vader.  You see Vader murdered Anakin from a certain point of view,lol.

It is a weird Idea but  my take on what Lucas wanted was that Anakin died when he betrayed the jedi and became a sith lord.  

So i saw the trailer and i am not at all impressed.  there is a lot of noise and fury in the trailer and stupid teen movie cliches all over. 

It looks like that transformers movie by michael bay.  The dialogue sounds stupid like the transformers movie but hey same writers.

Stupid action movie with girls thrown in to get the 12-14 year old male crowd.

Lots of stupid dialogue and explosions may be okay for ID4 but this is star trek.  Star Trek is supposed to be cerebral thinking man's science fiction.  Space Opera/Space Fantasy is Star Wars.

This feels like a bad robot jj movie and not like a roddenberry trek.

If people wanted that Alias flavor they would watch Alias seriously why do it with star trek?

This movie follows the same Militarism that Roddenberry hated that Nicholas Meyer introduced to the series in wrath of Khan and Undicovered Country.  But does not have the same class. 

The trailer just leaves me feeling empty angry and betrayed just like i felt from star trek nemesis and when enterprise was cancelled.  Enterprise may have screwed with Canon but the series had the same spirit of tos.  Gene's son embraced the show as a spiritual sucessor to star trek. 

I hope JJ is happy he ruined star trek to make a fast buck and bring in another empty bubblegum blockbuster full of fake cgi.

I'm not paying 10 dollars to see another one of my favorites be raped and violated went through that fairly recently with Indiana Jones IV, been down that road with episode III in 2005.  Attack of the Clones in 2002 and phantom menace in 1999, and 1997 when greedo shot first in star wars special edition.

It might be a slighly fun waste of 2 hours  that adds nothing to treks 40 years plus legacy.

The ilm cgi effects are more fake looking than the models were for treks 1-6. 

I am not at all impressed its like episode III and Transformers style effects in star trek.

Another movie that is just to show off how great CGI supposedly is. 

Can they make a single film these days that is not a complete cgi wankfest?

The casting is a joke Chris Pine as Kirk awful choice.  Now that i finally see some dialogue from spocklar bad choice on using Zachary Quinto.

The Child actor for Kirk as  a little kid worse than Jake LLoyd  as Anakin in Phantom menace.  Seriously I laughed out loud when he said my name is james tiberious kirk.

I laughed even harder when i saw that dude from Harold and Kumar as Sulu.  and the rediculous way he delivered his dialogue like he was in Harold and Kumar 3 meet spock.

The way this movie is they could have just as easily cast Hayden as Kirk.  You got the same angst thing going on, retarded.

Hayden Christensen canadian like William Shatner.

Why did they not get somebody who knew what the hell they were doing, this is worse, far worse than anything Berman ever did. 

Manny Coto's work on Enterprise season 4 brought back the old trek. 

This new incarnation is an abomination.

How awful JJ put his own stamp on trek to the point it is no longer trek but generic sci fi fantasy garbage.

Oh yeah the angry emotional spock in the trailer played by Quinto could not be any further from the Character of tos, acting more like a romulan than a  logical Vulcan.

When were Spock and Jim Kirk ever at odds and at each others throats, they were the best of friends.

The dvd rom script thing that went along with the movie was only done for star wars and empire strikes back.  I waited for ever for them to do the promised one for return of the jedi from the shooting script. obviously they never bothered to finish the content.  They did something similar at the Indiana Jones site promising more content that never was released.

All the fantastic matrial from the lfl archives they promised hyperspace subscribers never materialed either so i cancelled my membership and did not renew.

Probably took it down but im remember they promised the old documentaries and deleted scenes as a possibility.  Pablo Hidalgo probably wanted that but George probably said no.

First it was like specialeditions website, then prequeltrilogy website, and now clone wars website.

Even if it was special editions at least it was somewhat original trilogy related, and sometimes they would have material on the oot very rarely in insider or on the site.

I wish the official site focused on the real star wars trilogy.  But we cannot even get a quality dvd release in anamorphic.

Sadly it takes sites like starwars archives to make Lucas look like a joke.  too bad that sites interface is impossible to use and requires membership signup.

The official site is an absolute joke.  It is even more worthless than its sister site tfn.  It is nothing but a clone wars advertisement and links you to lucas own online store for overpriced crap merchandise.

Why do people still buy those plastic figures and give Lucas their money? 

People are contributing to the monster that is LFL.  The more money you give the dude the more he will bury the old trilogy.

Yeah the glass half full or half empty analogy is totally wrong.  How about the prequels were the glass fully empty leaving you thirsty for more star wars like the oot that Lucas will never give his fans.

To me personally star wars episodes 1-3 and Indiana Jones IV are the single biggest dissapointments in movie history.

Too bad Lucas won't give us the time or money back wasted on these hollow pursuits, the years waiting between Jedi and Phantom Menace.  16 year wait for star wars, 19 year wait for indiana jones.  And once you see what he came up with in the years between you want that those movies had never been made.

Is our collective society better now because of these films, if they never happened the George Lucas raped our childhood song would not exist,lol.

So he gives his money to Africa what does that have to do with the illegality of monopolies?  What does that have to do with Microsoft subverting free market economics and a fair competitive capitalist system for consumers?

Just because he is no longer chairman or ceo does not mean he does not get rich off of microsoft, he invented the company and is still the top dog whether or not he shows up and runs things or not.

Gates should be taken that money and reinvesting it in American industry and American jobs.  We should not be helping other countries first what about the poor people who live right in the usa?

You do realize gates gets most of the money back in Taxes.

You claim your donations on tax forms. 

If somebody told me tomorrow the guy has a foreign bank account to avoid hidden income being taxed i would not be surprised.

The rich who already dodge their taxes will dodge even more under obama.  Obama wants to tax all the people who make more than two hundred thousand dollars a year.  So unless he goes after the loopholes like philantropy, swiss bank accounts the rich will get away with what they have been doing all along.

Gates is no saint and furthermore he began his business on government grants which our taxdollars pay for.

This show cannot do anything worse to James Cameron's Terminator films than has already been done by Apted and is currently being done by MCG.  Mcg will do what Shusucker did to Batman.

At the end of the day it is Camerons own fault he went off and directed a chick flick starring decrapcrio instead of doing T3. 

Because of his divorce from Linda Hamilton and not owning the rights to the Terminator franchise, there will never be a canon T3 and that sucks.

I don't know if it is true but i read the studio making T3 went to cameron first and he turned it down.  He cannot complain about the bastardizations since it is his fault.

Cameron wanted to do something else and thought the story material was weak for a T3.  He decided not to make the sequel for the same cited reasons Lucas decided against making the sequel star wars trilogy.

In the case of T2 judgement day never happened so there was no future war or any story there.  I agree with Cameron.  But in Lucas case there is plenty of material for at least a continued story following the Mark Hamill Character of Luke after return of the jedi.  The Empire is not completely eradicated, a new republic needs to be set up and a new jedi order.  The trials and tribulations of a young democracy would have made plenty of good story.  with Leia as the chancellor of the new republic and luke as the new grand master of the jedi order.

I consider the new terminato films and movie as alternate reality or completely seperate continuity.  In the same way i view the new bond franchise or the jj trek.  For batman i think it is the opposite a return to basics of the comics that shumacher strayed from.  I really don't see begins and dark knight as a reboot or alternate universe because it is batman as he should be and a return to the materials source.

Forever and Batman and robin were aping the 1960's tv series which was a farce, thankfully in the 1970's the character was brought back to his roots in the comics.

The top five specials with the most votes will be screened at the Paley Center in New York and Los Angeles between December 10 and 24, 2008.

That is what it says on that site.  So  Unless the holiday special can win the bottom 5th spot i doubt it will be shown.  And if by some miracle it does they will get a c&d from Lucasfilm or Lucasfilm confiscates the print and has it destroyed.  If lucas does not allow screenings of the original versions of the star wars trilogy you can well believe he won't allow a showing of this.

Besides it is up against charlie brown, rudolph, santa claus is coming to town, the grinch who stole christmas cartoon, frosty the snowman.

All those rank and bass cartoons are considered classics.  I even have a soft spot for the God awful garfield christmas. 

Asking for a screening of the holiday special is like asking for a screening of howard the duck, the world should be spared such an abomination.  Next you will want a screening of more american graffiti.

I'll get behind a petition to have the 1977 star wars screened, but the holiday special is the worst moment in star wars history.  Far worse than the special editions or prequels, worse than ewoks or droids or ewok tv films, worse than 2008 clone wars.

The only good part was the nelvana cartoon and even that looks cheasy and dated.

Lumpy is almost as bad as jar jar binks, the whole special looks like everybody but harrison was high on drugs.  and princess leia singing the life day song, horrible.  This was before the days of jar jar the worst thing next to Jaxxon the Jedi bunny.

mention of jedi celibacy as far back as may 1974 rough draft:

Montross goes back to his station and a few moments later, Starkiller is paged over the P.A. system. The general waits, watching the big board. Eventually, Starkiller stumbles out of an enclosed computer closet, fastening his pants and tucking in his tunic. A moment later, the cute female aide rather sheepishly exits the computer closet. She is also in the process of putting her uniform back together. Starkiller rushes up to the general and snaps to attention.

The general lets him stand there for a moment, not acknowledging his presence; then, suddenly, without warning and in one masterful flash motion, the general stands, grabs a small baton attached to his belt (which immediately ignites into a four-foot glowing lazersword,) and swings at the young warrior's head. In an equally quick movement, Starkiller ignites his lazersword and blocks the general's blow. Everyone in the war room is surprised and startled. After a moment, they rush to the general. Starkiller and the general stand motionless for a few moments, with lazerswords locked in mid-air, creating a low buzzing sound. Finally, the general grins, and Starkiller hesitantly relaxes. They lower their swords and turn them off.

GENERAL

You are trained well, but remember, a JEDI must be single-minded, a discipline your father obviously never learned, hence your existence. Clean yourself up. Discipline is essential. Your mind must follow the way of the BENDU.

Well there is a tie to the star wars prequels here.  As the new enterprise was designed by Ryan Church who was the conceptual artist on Episode II and III of the prequels.  His Production paintings were not really paintings because Unlike doug chiang and Ralph Mcquarrie they were all done on a computer.

Doug Chiang is a real visual artist Church could not come close to.  and Ralph's original works can never be topped.  Church's sketches are all digital have zero detail and are a joke.  they are more pre viz than real art.

Ralph was not able to do the prequels.  It would have been awesome to see what a sketch like his old ones would have been like of vader and Kenobi dueling over a crevasse of Lava. 

Plus the effects for the new trek are from the same ILM cgi crew who did the prequels.  and not that old school crew who did the oot with models and traditional effects.

If you are fine with the work they did on the prequels, the pirates of the caribbean trilogy, and transformers by bay among others you should enjoy it.  Me i like the old school stuff done by doug trumbell, John Dykstra, and the old ilm crew that took over on 2, 3, ,4, and 6.

Plus JJ met with Lucas and Spielberg for advice on this movie and not trek luminaries or even the roddenberry family.  Don't classic tos trekkies have a right to get upset that it seems abrams is more a star wars fan than a star trek fan.  Why is he not directing star wars then?

A star wars by JJ would be horrible but could not possibly be worse than the prequels or clone wars movie. 

People that saw the Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Transformers franchises raped are worried that is exactly what Abrams is going to do.

I guarantee next year i will hear "jj abrams raped my childhood"

Not even original since i have heard it also said "Daniel Craig ruined James Bond, and Barbara Brocolli raped our childhood"

I guess we should not be too upset over the raping of Indiana Jones though because the rape could have been worse had they done what they originally wanted to do.  Have M Night Rammalama-ding-dong direct and write the movie.

It gets even more Hilarious when you find out a contributing writer for trekmovie.com who used to write for Cinenascape Magazine formerly known as sci fi universe magazine, Mark Altman who directed and wrote the film free enterprise is the one who originally coined in 1997 "George Lucas raped our childhood"  by saying after going to a screening of star wars a new hope special edition "that was like seeing 2 hours of your childhood being raped".

And if you use his own words on JJ you get banned from trekmovie.com

They did not like also how i brought up Orci writing the bad script for Transformers that had bumblebee peeing on a guy, and optimus prime saying "my bad".

The enterprise looks like a BMW, the bridge like an ipod store by apple, and Kirk looks like a metro and too young for the part.  Looks like trek 90210, Jeez even smallville was not the bastardization of the superman franchise this movie is gonna be for trek.  Spocklar is not as bad as others say but the kirk guy is like a unknown at least the other dude was on a show called heroes that was popular and good 2 seasons ago,lol.

There are some things i do like.  The chick playing Uhura Zoe Zaldana is better looking than Nichelle ever was on the original movies like star trek V, ugh,  They got Bruce Greenfield "thomas vale of nowhereman" to play pike, i say that has win written all over it.  Eric Bana as a villain is another plus, just don't like the shinzon look to the character.  Looks like a cross between shinzon and his viceroy reman. 

Things that are epic fail.  The design of the enterpise.  the bridge interior design, the uniforms except for the mini skirts,lol.  No models being used or built all fake cgi and most of the cast look like straight out of the academy years.  Kirk was not given command straight out of the academy.  The ship was not brand new, it had tours under robert april and pike before kirk ever took the center seat.  The ship should look like the precursor to that seen on the original series except modern update.  Kirk served on the farragut long before he was captain of the enterprise.   This IS JJ Verse and is not canon despite what paramount studios want to sell us.   This movie takes even more rediculous "artistic license with canon" than Shatner's Academy novel did.  And at least for that novel while a farce when compared against existing canon it was entertaining.

JJ will have a lot of work just to keep me in my seat and entertained, MIII was a joke, so was cloverfield.

Why in hell was he given the reigns to the franchise.  He buried another paramount property and delivered a bomb with mi3 so surely he deserved to direct this.

I mean they could have just as well had Joss Whedon do this movie instead of JJ. Both tv directors and writers and producers who have a single film under their belt.  Except Serenity was a better movie than Mi3 and of course was sci fi, with vampires thrown in. Lol seriously i expected Sarah Michelle Gellar to get a cameo as Buffy.

I mean are they trying to get Lost fans, alias fans, fringe fans in the theater.  Maybe people who liked cloverfield, Maybe fans of Felicity.lol.  That was a JJ show too.

I mean if Allias was not wrapped up an Alias movie would have been cool i would have been sold on that with Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow, even a Lost movie.  But Star Trek wtf?

I don't see JJ and Star Trek as being even in the same sentence.

What trek needs is a tv show set way in the future after nemesis and dark and gritty with lots of wars and battles and the federation crumbling.  People do not buy the hopeful outlook of the original series anymore they say.  Why not just cop out and go all dark, it worked for galactica, batman, and james bond. 

They are going to do a dark take on Superman next,lol.  I hope they do the non canon Kingdom Come storyline. Or they could do they death of superman.

Seems like in a post 911 world all our heroes have to be anti heroes and all fiction needs to be realistcally dark. They did it with the prequels despite the bad kiddy stuff thrown in there, they also did it in star wars in the njo and legacy series of books.

All heroes need to be nihilistic assholes or they are morally grey and objectionable.  I mean just ask Lucas the hero of star wars is now an emo goth, power monger douchebag.   Hayden mannakin skystalker.

Wait a fucking second are you telling me they did not even bother re-Hiring Darren Dochterman back to redo the effects in 1080p, wtf.

I also heard they did not even bother doing any full restorations of the movies. 

They had Lowry do partial restorations on only Star Trek IV and VIII First Contact. 

So they probably did not even bother going back to the negatives.  Same film prints with all the dirt, and problems.  You could already get these in 720p from the microsoft online service a while back.  Yes they look stunning when compared against their dvd counterparts, especially II wrath of khan.  But the higher the resolution the more noticeable the flaws.

I personally would rather have a little dirt and all the real film grain rather than having them all digitally scrubbed by Lowrys algorithm which has ruined so many films in the past.  Also i hope to god they did not do DVNR.

Hopefully this means we get the Theatrical Star Trek II without the re added back in scenes, or the utterly rediculous Redo of VI with the scooby doo reveal.  I am kind of torn on what earlier version of VI i want though,  because i want the theatrical without the major west revealed as disguised as a Klingon.  and The other added home video scenes.  But i would also like to see that cut as well.  The only version i hate is meyers third cut.

Sound to me they are going the bare bones route when they could release all the tv cuts of the films, theatrical cuts and directors cuts.  And they could have done all new versions with redone new age special effects for those who wanted them.  The films that had a low budget like II that used unused trims of the motion picture could finally get a full budget for special effects.  The film desperetely needing to be recut and reditted from scratch and could use better special effects is V.

This would not be the same as pulling a lucas because the older cuts would also be restored to the same state as the new updated versions.  My example would be the ridley scott blade runner boxset with 5 versions of the film in 1080p.   Still in the case of scott i find it a bit sad that only the final cut got the 4K remaster.  as I like the theatrical cut and the international cut (criterion) better.

The ship does not look half bad except for the nacelles on the back.  What Fucktard designed those.

My Favorite enterprise is the movie enterprise first shown in the motion picture.

Here is a comparison image of the new cgi ship, the cgi version approximation of tos ship, and motion picture again a cgi image probably from The Legacy Game since it says A.

I would like to see the new warp effect before i judge the ship too much.  The slitscan Effect from TNG was lame to me versus the warp from the motion picture and treks II onward to VI.

Without Lea Thompson in this movie i would say it is Star Wars Holiday Special bad.

My god those things beat the prequels and Indiana Jones IV, and the special editions hands down for awfulness.

Even Willow and More American Graffiti are not as bad.

Still those Pinball machines in the Indiana Jones gets Raped south park episode were priceless,lol.  Howard the Duck and Willow pinball machines.

To me personally the worse Case scenario is with CGI is what i would call the "george lucas syndrome"  not using cgi in believable or realistic ways or adding to the creators palette of creative tools, it equals overall lazyness and actually allows that.  The story suffers because you spend way to much of your budget building up these cg sets and environments, characters and spaceships and don't focus on the most important part the actors, the story or the human element.  All they are showing is the amount of money they spent and the efforts spent on it.  The effects should be used to help propel the story forward.  I hate movies that are all special effects and zero plot, after all A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing.

Doctor M said:

Out of curiosity I took a look at Kaminski's Imdb listing.  I think the list includes at least 5 of the most disappointing movies of the past several years (that should have been MUCH better).

Spielberg definitely is in love with this guy though.

Thats not saying Much.  Spielberg is in love with Michael Bay who destroyed transformers, he is in love with shia lebouf, and also enamored with George Lucas.  He also likes That guy koepp who wrote some of the worst scripts with war of the worlds and kingdom of the crystal skull.

I don't trust Spielberg anymore, his eye for talents these days is dubious at best.

Everybody on Indy IV phoned it in Including John Williams.   This movie should just have not been made.

Spielberg and Lucas destroyed Indiana Jones and Lucas destroyed star wars.

When i heard Spielberg Got the Rights to Ghost in the Shell i was horrified.  After raping Indiana Jones please don't ruin another classic.  Go wreck TIN TIN and stay away from oshiis classic masterwork.

Everyone waited for the day Spielberg would make a worse film than 1941 and he actually delivered his worse performance ever as a director here, He let Lucas ruin the story and add bad fake cgi.  Might as well have had Lucas direct it. A lot of people think he did it totally feels like from the jar jar creator.

Ox the retard and that stupid triple agent guy would fit right in with jar jar.

I don't have any problem with Kaminski.  The Guy worked on Saving Private Ryan and Shindler's List.  He also worked on Minority Report, AI.  He just is not the same as Douglas Slocombe.  But i did not have a problem with his cinematography in Indy IV.  He was obviously doing his job and what he was told to do.  Also i am sure the footage looked way better as shot and was more naturalistic than the final color grading and the fake cgi make it look.  The final color grading makes it look like it was all shot on HD video (overly saturated blown out colors and plastic looking) which is retarded why bother shooting on film at all then?

The only films i hated Kaminski did were War of the Worlds and Indy 4 and neither had anything to do with the cinematography.

How about it was just plain lazy filmaking.  It was in the movie because it was in the script.  Anakin has to turn to  the dark side. 

There is no choice in the matter he either goes bad or the original trilogy events are forever altered or never even happened.

One minute he's a good guy the next he's killing younglings. 

The movie and the prophecy pretty much state it was his fate to turn to the dark side, and as it was fated by the force anakin had no free will in the matter because he had more midi chlorians than everyone and was the chosen one, Plus he had daddy issues since he was conceived by the force and had no father.

The Force is neutral it is neither good or evil.  Being a nod to eastern Belief.  The force did not care about the murders of the younglings.  The suffering of billions in the Civil War, it did not care Padme was killed, or that Luke and Leia were put through absolute hell because of their dad.  It all simply happened because the force wanted balance because there were too many jedi in the galaxy and only 2 sith.

So basically Revenge of the Sith's message is that people have no free will at all and are only pawns of the fates like humans were in the greek myths.  Like Oedipus who by trying to deny his fate actually brings it about.  I reject this view whole heartedly because i believe Human beings have free will.

Still i don't think Lucas was trying to sell some overt message it was just in the script.  Things had to all go to hell to lead up to events in episode IV, or just star wars if you prefer. 

I thought peoples Grievances (no pun intended) with sith were that the turn scenes were basically unbelievable and happened on the spur of the moment.  Not the idea of Anakins Fall but the way Lucas botched it.

The slow kind of Build up to a fall for desire of power, the corruption, the addictive nature and Seduction that realistically would have taken several films to lead up to and explain.  It was beautifully hinted at and described in Empire Strikes back by Yoda and Obi wan in Return of the Jedi.  Why did Lucas have to ruin that.   He also ruined the scene of Leia remembering Padme from when she was a little girl on Alderaan.  Padme was not originally  susposed to die in Childbirth or of a broken heart.

Then again everything about the prequels stink.  Vader and Fett and the Mandalores were supposed to hunt down and kill all the jedi.  Lucas ruined the mandalorian backstory.  He also removed the cloned jedi subplot.

He ruined the fact that Yoda was supposed to Be Obi Wan's Master, then we get to episode 1 and some non existant character named Qui Gon appears.  

Jar Jar obviously was never one of the concepts for the original prequels ideas between Lucas and Kurtz.

Anakin was not going to be shown starting out as a little boy in the story or building C-3P0.

The threepio thing must be lucas humor because Vader becomes more machine than man and is dehumanized while the droid he created acts more Human than Vader. 

Anakin as a slave thing also is a wondefully neat idea because anakin is never really free.  First he is a slave on tatooine.  Then a slave to the jedi order and their ethics, then a slave to evil and the dark side and he even gets imprisoned in an iron suit and buries his Humanity within himself.  Even changes his name.

The only time he is free is when he saves Luke on the Death Star II and then in death.  Up until then he was always a slave in one way or another, like he was a slave to his passions for Padme.

Love and Marriage should be a very positive and liberating thing instead it was another trap for poor anakin.  Because the Jedi are not allowed to love.  are not allowed to feal.  are susposed to remain distanced from emotions.

The jedi rejected Anakin out of fear, and out of jealousy for his abilities.  But they also made him reject his essential Humanity.  Why should he be forbidden to Have Sexual relations with Padme,  Why are the jedi against Nature and the order of the cosmos.  I mean its not like he was not Married or was just shacking up with some random whore.  Where do jedi children come from if they are not allowed to pass on their dna to children.

I think its great that the old Jedi order and its ways died and Luke started a new jedi order built on love and tolerance.  I could care less if it is not canon since it is to me since Lucas is not going to make the sequels.  Luke Marries Mara Jade and they don't have to hide their relationship.  They are allowed to love and they raise their son Ben.

I mean the title Return Of the Jedi hints that luke must establish a new jedi order with Him as the First new Jedi.  Automatically being elevated to Grand Master just like Yoda on the Old jedi Council.  And the first person he would teach of Course would be his sister leia.

What you think Lucas is going to admit making the prequels to get rich and not caring about the material.  Never going to happen.

Although he had admitted it gave him financial independence. 

He was nearly broke based on the monies he owed marcia after their divorce and the success of the oot.

Also in the late eighties and early 90's according to him ILM was now no longer taking in enough money or working on enough films to keep Lucasfilm afloat.

Desperate for cash the games devision probably in the 90's also brought in necessary capital.  Then you have the special editions.  The books, and the comics, and action figures being reintroduced.

Lucas decided to diversify his portfolio and take full advantage of the star wars brand.   He made several wise financial decisions, maybe not wise for arts sake or creativity sake but he is the chairman of the board of Lucasfilm companies above all and not a filmaker.

Only recently when he realized with the Success of Indiana Jones IV is he now going to do the same thing with the Indy brand that he so recently did with star wars.

Young Indiana Jones, the novels and Games, as well as the comics earlier on were less than sucessful in the mid nineties.  They figured their was a small interest in the indy franchise, and a niche fanbase who only liked the first 3 films.  Well some of the games were sucessful earlier on like fate of atlantis, and the super nes game was sucessful.  But the Dark Horse Comics did not sell so well.  Young indy was bounced between 2 or 3 networks before being cancelled despite some critics praise and emmy noms.  The networks thought Lucas pulled a fast one on them they thought they were getting an action tv series like the movies not a historical educational piece.

Also Lucas was unhappy with the Marvel Comics for star wars and Indiana Jones.  The only Star Wars work he liked was the AL Williamson stuff.  So of course when those properties were revived in the comics and Lucas saw what they were doing at Dark Horse for the alien and predator stuff he gave them the license.

There were several missed opportunities for Star Wars and Indiana Jones in the Late eighties and Early nineties and Lucas seems to be rectifying that now.  The one exception would be the smash hit in 1989 for Last Crusade.  Temple of doom was a missed opportunity and a dissapointment despite being a hit in terms of gross box office receipts.  The middle to later eighties also gave us the dissapointing to George and most fans 2 ewok tv films and droids and ewoks cartoons.  Of course people know that the star wars sequels did not happen or the prequels in the decade of the eighties.  Lucas all but became a producer and dissapeared from Public Life.

He had Willow, Howard the Duck and Radioland Murders and Young Indy. But nothing exactly like his praised early works.

Now Lucas has the Clone Wars animated show and the live action star wars show in the works as well as Indiana Jones V in the Planning stages.  New Indiana Jones Novels, and comics.   Lego Game, legos and new action figures and childrens graphic books.  The one missing item is the next gen indiana jones game that seems to have been cancelled and was being developed by the same people who worked on force unleashed who have since been laid off.

Now that Lucas is well aware of Hunger for anything new Indiana Jones or Star Wars he will milk these two properties for all they are worth.

Coppola believes making movies is an art form Like writing good literature or painting a craftmens art.  Lucas truly believes It is a assembly Line process that is why he has replaced traditional effects and actors with CGI.  This way he can keep everything the same quality and put out the same product again and again.

"I am not a fan of sequels, cause essentially it is the same movie, and the studio want's the same movie.  It is OK to keep reproducing a can of Coke on the assembly line, but that is not good for movies, cause each movie should be original."   when Coppola said this does anyone else thing he is referring to the George Lucas way of making movies.  It totally reminds me of the prequels and Indiana Jones IV.  and how carelessly they were produced.  I guess it would not be a bad metaphor if the coke was the same as the original coke, instead if copola was talking about new coke then it would make more sense when applied to Lucas.

Fans are so desperate to fill that need or void in their lives they will accept any kind of star wars or indiana jones.

As triumph the insult dog said "Lucas table scraps".

People want to be entertained, people want to escape and such escapism is a good outlet.     I know i used to be the same way going to the comic shops to drop all my money on all the magazines and comics and graphic novels, which i enjoyed at the time.

These newer installments in the franchise will be forgotten as the current generation of kids they are marketed to grow up and latch onto other things.  and Lets be honest that is normal and healthy.

I would hope that peoples entire lives don't revolve around a space fantasy called star wars, any more than peoples lives should revolve around science fiction called Star Trek, or a fictional arkeologist and his adventures.

But i'll be the first to admit i am one of the ones who would be told to "get a life"  because i have such a hobby,lol.

I hate mp3 because Of apple treating it like some kind of revolutionary things when we should be embracing quality higher than cd's like HD audio.

CD's are still the de facto standard.  Except for the small release of Hybrid Audio, HDCD, SACD, or dvd audio supercd. 

Just becuase the us decided to get lazy and embrace napsters because poor college students preferred to steal music rather than buy it does not make it some kind of good thing.

I don't need my hearing checked ive done the blind audio test before and my ears can tell the difference between a low dvd encode and a full bitrate PCM track.

I don't even have the most expensive equipment either, and even i notice the better highs and lows on a higher bitrate encode.  Of course it does depend on the quality of the source to begin with and compression has gotten better but mp3 is still shit compared to cds and even old LP' or casettes.

HD audio might have failed in the usa due to shortsightedness but in countries who are pushing the limits of technology like japan they are still doing healthy business.  Americans really don't seem to care about 5.1 audio, lossless music or whatever.

A lot of the HD audio ideas have been incorparated into Blu Ray movies but that is still  a niche market because people just steal and download the rips of the movies rather than paying for them.

If it was not for apples Itunes things like Mp3 and other compression types automatically make me think of piracy and illegal use of bittorrent and bootlegs.  Naturally you can make the file sized much smaller.  And go for Quantitity over quality.  sure it makes music portable and you can carry it all around on your ipod.  I don't have an ipod as it is gadgedtry that is backwards video quality lower than dvd, and audio quality lower than cd.  Once they produce a product up to spec maybe i'll buy it until then steve jobs can shove it.

I don't care if it does not fit in my pocket or only fits a single cd my discman i'll take any day over the ipod simply because it sounds better.  You get a good set of bose headphones on top of that and your set. Fuck mp3 and ipod.

So uk and USA people like things backwards music as de-evolution rather than evolution or revoltionary step towards better formats and higher fidelity lossless HD encodes straight off of digital master tapes.

People who like youtube quality video won't have a problem with low quality mp3 audio as they are either retards or simpletons.

Moth3r has to be kidding that he thinks 128kbps MP3 is comparable to CD which can be several thousand kbps if not megabites per second.

MP3 is all well and good if you have a low quality dub off a casette tape to digital, but if you are a studio starting with a master that sounds better than what most people can reproduce at home why would you use mp3?

Even as a guy who does not have an HDTV or Blu ray player i consider myself an Audiophile and Videophile.  And was an Earlier adopter of DVD and i have a laserdisc player as well.  I'm not rolling in money, still does not mean i cannot appreciate quality.

Its true that the mathmatical quantifiers are way over my head when it comes to digital music and video.  After all is not digital just 1's and 0's and math.  Computers are called so because of their computations per second. All i know is what my eyes see and what my ears hear.

They should Animate that Grivous Comic where he is a reptile as a flashback.

Funny how his lifepreserving suit is the prototype for darth vader.

I cannot exactly remember the comic exactly but did'nt he wipe out his own people through genocide. 

He was recruited by dooku and sidious and they purposely sabataged his ship so it would crash and make him near death so the sidious guy could test out that freakish biodroid tech.

If you Like Like Anakin and Obi wan's conflict with ventress you should really watch the second genddy series and read the comic obsession.  Their is also a neat duel with Her in the 2008 clone wars movie.

I must say the voice actress for ventress is quite good.  Actually in comparison to ther kids shows the voice acting is really top notch,  Even the music seems to fit the mood of the series where it was hard to get used to in the movie.

I have to admit that in the artoo episode the animation has gotten better their is fluidity of movement now and facial expression.  Also In some parts it was scary how good the animation was almost like live action,  they got artoos character right.  And anakin caring for artoo brought back fond memories of Luke from the oot and artoos adventures together.  Overall this episode i actually give a passing grade to as a harsh critic.  Even Grievous Looked like he was straight out of Revenge of the Sith.  I like the comraderie the series is going for and the humor both were noticeably lacking in the prequels.  I cannot believe I am saying this but Matt Lanters Anakin sounds better than Hayden.

The one thing that pulled me out of enjoyment and only for a couple moments were the " i have a bad feeling about this line" and the "roger roger"  Though it was funny when Grievous Chopped that roger roger dude in half with his hand.

Now all i need is for Jar Jar to die like in Robot Chicken.

Can they  do a bonus episode where Vader just cuts him in half.

My favorite of all time is seeing Jar Jar on Alderaan when it Gets blown up.  Man i almost died laughing at that adywan clip.

You feel bad for Bail but Boy did Jar Jar deserve it.

I thought i made it perfectly clear that the backstory of star wars was an illusion it never existed.   Unless you count rejected prototype scripts as a backstory.

Rinzler in the Making of Star Wars gave a full account of what the journal of the whills actually was it had nothing to do with the young days or obi wan kenobi or anakin skywalker neither characters were even created yet.

Also Laurent B. who wrote the annotated screenplays was given access to all the scripts.

Unless Lucas has kept the prequel outline and sequel series outline from them i don't even think they were even written.  The facts from many sources pretty much make a solid case that Lucas made things up as he went along.  Though the Original Ideas Did exist in embryo in the first treatments and drafts for star wars.

Leia was never at first intended to be the sister, Vader was not Luke's father in the beginning vader was just some facist general and not even a fallen jedi or sith Knight.

Did he combine the concept of Kane Starkiller the dying father with prosthetic Limbs, The evil General Vader and the Valorum character.  I believe that he did.  I also believe Luke ended up having a sister because in one unrleased permutation of the story Luke was a female, and Luke also at one point had a brother deak starkiller.  Yes in one draft Leia was the cousin, but starting out and what ended up in the a new hope movie Leia was the Love interest.  Also in Splinter of the Mind's Eye she was not his sister.

The first angle they put in Empire that Fans guessed she may be his sister because Vader was his father and also could sense him through the force, happened when he was on cloud cities weathervane and asked her to hear him through the force.

I think Carrie Fisher said that was a happy coincidance because it could have just been womanly intuition.

I truly believe Lucas did not canonize Vader as the Father and Leia as the sister til return of the jedi.  Vader all along could have just as easily been lying.

Of course it makes the drama stronger when the heroes father is the villain he has staked his life to bring down, and the heroic image of his father he idolized was made up by Obi Wan.  I mean you saw the prequels the selfless Idealistic Young Man Of Anakin did not exist he was selfish asshole from episode II to III. 

I known Lucas likes mythological tales and figures so Vader really is Anakin's shadow self.  The Sith are taught to embrace passion and the Jedi are taught to remain calm and serene.

There is also the possibility Anakin was really Vader on the inside and just kept those bad emotions, hate lust and fears in check.  In the novelization they refer to it as the dragon inside him like some caged pent up beast waiting to escape and lash out.  If their is one word to desribe Anakin in the prequels it is Angst.

You cannot divorce the vader character from anakin as they are 2 sides of the same coin.

It is easier for Obi Wan to Believe Anakin died on Mustafar because the truth is painful to him.  There is some truism in his point of view that when he betrayed the morals and codes the Jedi stood by and betrayed democracy he killed the good man he was. He did not betray the prophecy, the jedi just misread it.  He did bring balance to the force through his son and daughter and by his final selfless act.

Puppets being replaced by Cgi, is in fact what is being done to the sequel of the dark crystal. 

Not sure if it is the same Henson Digital Artists who worked on Farscape.

Hopefully they don't take their cues from Lucas clone wars.  I mean doing that would make them wooden like puppets but i thought that they chose cgi because it is more limitless and lifelike.

Hopefully they will Use Pixar as the example.

The first full screen/pan and scan trilogy boxset was released in 1992.  The 1989 was just all three films with a cheap carboard band around them.  I have that set.  Neither set features the theatrical audio from the 35mm mix of star wars.  That was released in the 1982 rental tape and 1984 mass market edition. 

I paid about 50 bucks for the rental tape, and 4 bucks for the CAV laserdisc release.  The picture quality difference is staggering the vhs is washed out and flat looking way less resolution.  The 1985 CAV laserdisc Has nice colors i only wish the widescreen versions looked as nice though being zoomed in to the middle of the picture cropped cover up a lot of the problems prevalent in the widescreen transfer.  Sadly before the days of anamorphic  DVD,  full screen and pan and scan offered higher resolution than letterbox.  The image had to be further dumbed down to fit a 4:3 television set.

Despite being a rotter is you can find a non rotted copy of the 1985 it probably is the nicest of the transfers and the only thing it does not have is digital sound or the full uncropped image.  But what do you want this was 1985.  The first letterbox releases came in Japan in the late 1980's as the Japan Special Collection.  The image was shifted higher up on the screen to fit the japanese subtitles which are hardcopied into them.

Lucky enough America got its own widescreen releases directly from the same master as the japanese set but CLV instead of CAV.  The first release for star wars had the incrdible shrinking ratio problem but they released a fixed copy later.  Also Empire strikes Back and Star Wars appear to be properly centered.  Jedi however the picture is shifted to the top of the screen which is dumb because the subtitles were gone from the japan release.  Fox excuse at the time was it was for the Jabba Subtitles. lol.  The only fixed jedi widscreen release would come years later in the definitive boxset and the seperate clv release.  Though it had dvnr done to it and had a brand new sound mix.  It is sad that the closest you can get to the theatrical return of the jedi is the Japan Special collection release.

Star Wars had a pan and scan CAV as i already mentioned in 1985 with analog sound only.  Also the second Installment Empire strikes back was released in CAV in 1986 with its 35mm theatrical sound mix analog only and pan and scan.  No return of the jedi was ever released in 1987.  The Jedi Release is clv Only and is sped up to fit less discs.  I also have the Re-issue in 1992 taken from the same video master only now it had digital sound.

I think Van Ling who created the menus for the 2004 went and corrected the Luke's Saber Color on the menu.  Though in the movie it still remains incorrect.  They had quality control checking on the menus but not on the movie itself,lol.  The explanation the TFn guys came up with always gives me a laugh.  Perhaps Lukes Sword was Silver white, greenish on the Falcon because it was on a training stun only setting.

There are some butt ugly women on that list and the ordering is all wrong.

I also noticed Modern sci fi women.  Jean Rogers as Dale Arden from the Flash Gordon serials should have been on the list.  If we are talking about women in sci fi when they were young.  Not old ugly or dead.

women chracters from comics and graphic novel, maybe even video games could have been considered.

Most of this stuff is pretty Subjective i never found Sigourney Weaver to be hot at all.  Especially as the less than feminine ripley.  Even in ghostbusters doing the suductive thing still kinda okay but i can find better looking girls in real life.  Summer Glau from Sarah Connor chronicles should have been higher up on the list, they thought the homely woman who plays John Connors mom was better looking. 

The flatchested chick from the underworld movies should have been on the list.  The transformers chick went way down in my estimation when i saw those naked pictures she very clearly had a boob job. 

Starbuck from the new galatica as far as i know was not on the list.  six was and should be on the list.

Leia in star wars is overated because Lucas made fisher wear gaffer tape nobody ever really got that Carrie was hot.  Lucas friend Richie said it was a crime to have completely covered her up.  Even the pre codes got to show cleavage.

Is natalie Portman hot or over rated.  I think she is pretty, but i have heard people say Kierra Knightley is better looking.  I disagree that bare midriff from attack of the clones was pretty sweet,lol  And Leia in Return of the Jedi pretty much owns all.

Yeah i don't get how Scarlett Johanson and Angelina Jolie were so high numbers and that ok looking chick from ds9 was way up there.  The dabo girl on ds9 was better looking.  Chase Mastersen. 

I agree that the chick from Terminator 3 is a hottie she was also pretty hot in painkiller jane, and a couple of bad vampire movies based on some videogame. 

Where Charlize Theron and Scarlett Johansen, Angelina Jolie are easily hotter than everyone on this list.

I'm surprised that Deanna Troi was not on this list.  You get Dax who is not that hot.     The chick from enterprise, kind of a playboy type girl.  Very Overated.  Though she was smoking in that bad part 3 of Starship Troopers.

the woman of star wars are better looking than treks.  Secura was on the list as an expanded universe character but where was my favorite Mara Jade.

And if you are going to pick someone from Cleopatra 2525 why not Cleopatra. They picked  the less atractive woman.  where was that girl from farscape that ended up on sg1 and atlantis not even on the list.

Martin Campbell directed the 2 Best modern Bond films with Goldeneye and Casino Royale.

He also directed the Good movie Mask of Zorro and the not so good kiddie  sequel .  I was nervous at the time because Legend of Zorro was such a turd after Goldeneye and Mask of Zorro i thought Casino Royale would be awful.

there were things that i did not like about the movie.  It being a reboot and so not really a prequel to Dr No because not in the sixties, cell phones and mention of 911.  Not the Same Suave and cool dude as Connery Played, more like Jack Bower or Jason Borne.  In essence they wanted a more american bond than brittish High Style had to go.  They last time they  tried to Americanize bond we got the dalton bond.  Not the way i would have gone, but a different bond.  To each there own. 

My fave Bonds are Connery, Followed by Brosnan, Moore, Dalton, Craig, and Lazenby.

Moore put out the silliest Pictures until we got the world is not enough and die another day.  Die Another die could have been a better film but the screenwriters and producers who deserve all the blame shifted it onto Brosnan who is a fine actor in other films besides being the best Bond since Connery.

Brosnan Himself wanted to do more serious Bond and was waiting for them to give him a good script.  He wanted the more Fleming Bond last seen in the Dalton films.  He wanted more control and say over the script because of how silly the last film was.  They thought he became a problem and so fired him.  He  had a contract to make another bond film which they cancelled.

The only good dalton film which is decent but not the smash hit Goldeneye was is Living Daylights.  The Dalton films were the lowest money makers of all the bond films from what i have heard.  License to Kill with the hammy Villain from the Goonies and that Viva Las Vegas Dude could have not been a worse movie.

Dalton seemed to be a stiff.  He acted by not acting, he was very much  Like   a stage play actor and not a movie star.  He apparently still thinks he is james bond.  Watch his laughable performance in Loony Tunes Back in action.  So it goes for the dude who turned down Goldeneye.

The franchise Almost died with Dalton.  we had the Black years with no Bond films at all.  It's like George Clooney in Batman and Robin, and we had to wait so long for Batman to come back in the form of Christian Bale.

In the Dalton years filmgoers no longer cared about Bond.  Bond was no longer drawing in an audience.  Bond no Longer resonated with People, Bond no Longer mattered.  Until Brosnan saved the Franchise in Goldeneye.  Finally audiences got the Expensive blockbuster action packed kickass hero they were waiting for.  Better Special effects and more awesome gadgets.  Bond was fun to watch again and not snore inducing.  The Brosnan reinvented Bond was back to the fun of the connery pictures.  Then years later when Brosnans Paycheck got to big for the studios they reinvented bond again, for a more grim post 911 world.

Die another Day was a huge hit.  The studios made money.  They were taking a calculated risk in rebooting the entire series and throwing all previous bond out the window and casting an unknown.

While i liked Casino Royale to me it was a good action flick but was not James Bond.  It reminded me of the cuthroat american action star movies and tv.  We have our Rambos, John Mclanes, Our Jack Bowers and Jason Bornes.  I want Bond to be Bond.  A Ladykiller.  The consumate man Of style, the suave and debonaire Guy who is cool under all circumstances ready to make a comedic joke as he takes down another bad guy.

That is the Cubby Broccoli Bond and the Connery Bond.  It might Not be the Fleming Bond of the books who is "just a blunt object" as he put it.  They created a real character for the movies that existed outside the books. The Character that Terence Young created for the screen.  On the Silver screen our heroes are larger than life.  and are not supposed to be a projection of reality.  People who want  Literary can aways pick up a damn book and read it.

That being said Chris Cornells song was awesome and Alicia Keyes and Jack whites song is just plain awful the worst bond song by far even worse than madonnas.

 When i heard Jack White of the band the white stripes which i hate was singing this i wanted it banned.  A pussified band where the dude sings Like a girl.  I'll take Chris Cornell any day over that.  Alicia Keys is a very good singer but was just awful here.  The producers wanted a song Like Mcartneys Live and Let Die and tried to get him to wirte and sing one for this movie.  Instead they make a Mcartney esque song ripoff of live and let die mixed with some bizarre Jazz Hiphop fusion wanting to stop up my ears as they bleed the song was so awful. White's coked up zombie face in the video is creepy. and Keys sings off key. Also they have zero chemistry together as a duet.

Does anyone think the fans are too hard on Lucas though?

Look at the people who he worked with and what they did since.  Kershner Directed Never Say Never Again.  A non Ion Canon Bond Film.  Which sucked Hardcore other than It being cool to see connery again and the women in it.  Bad Knockoff of a pretty good film called thunderball.

Kasden went on to make a cheapie horror movie based on a Stephen King novel.  Never wrote another good script after Raiders and Empire Strikes Back.  The Critics Liked Body Heat's script and Direction but i never saw it so i cannot comment on it.

The Huycks went on to write Radioland Murders, Howard the Duck, and Temple of doom.

Kurtz did practically nothing after leaving Lucasfilm except Dark Crystal and Return to OZ.  That is more than the others have done sucessfully.

Hamill became a voice actor and never got the chance to be the leading star again of a movie.  Carrie Fisher gained weight and lost her mind to drugs and depression for several years.

The only Person i know of Who survived the Lucas/star wars curse was Harrison Ford. 

He made a lot of action movies and movies where he did actually act in them.

Once his career was in the toilet after Hollywood Homicide and Firewall he came back to Lucas to do Indiana Jones IV cause he needs the money from years of non money makers.

Star Wars almost cost Lucas his friendship with Francis Ford Coppola according to Dale Pollock, and Star Wars did cost him his marriage.

So you cannot stay young and at the top of your game forever.  Eventually your Later works become pale shadows of the successes of younger days.

Lucas is not the exception to the rule.  It happens with Movie Stars and Rock Stars too.

Lucas could try and go back to his Maverick Filmaker days and make those Experimental Films he's been talking up for years and Reclaim his street cred.  American Graffiti and Star Wars came out of being in touch with his youth.  THX 1138 and his student films came out of a sense of montage and cine verite of the french new wave experimental films.  He and Coppola at Zoetrope in San Francisco had a dream to make small personal films to effect a generation until Zoetrope died.  Coppola regrouped and made the Godfather a movie he did not want to make to get him out of debt.   Eventually Francis would reestablish Zoetrope but it was not the same old Bohemian Filmakers society of old.  The new Zoetrope was Hollywood and Lucas had his own company Lucasfilm LTd and wanted nothing of hollywood.  All his friends have to make their films on Hollywoods Terms.  To this day he remains independant from the system.  He has tried to get his friends to abandon the system and join him in his rebellion against hollywood.

He was confused as to why Spielberg Decided to work for Universal, and set up Amblin in hollywood.  and later dreamworks another studio following the set rules of hollywood.  Martin Scorcese makes his films also in the studio system he needs the studio backing and funding to get his films made. 

Lucas desire to abandon film and adopt digital High definition video is another point of being independant from the system as well as a cost cutting issue.  He wants Scorcese and Spielberg to do the same.

With HD Video he can develop the Rushes or the dailies on his own personal network of computers instead of having to go to a Film Processing lab.  The Turn around time is non existant he can watch what he films on monitors and watch the days takes later as he wants.  In the past Dailies were really weeklies.  With digital you can watch them within realtime.