The comments about Lucas dislike of Kershner's "character-driven" movie says a lot.
Useful comments. I'm trying to understand what makes a good movie good and a bad movie bad. That's a good point re: the pacing. If "Empire" was 2 hours and 15 minutes of fighting on Hoth, we would have grown numb to it. Instead we had an intense 14 minutes that left us gasping for air. Character development seems essential. Without it, we have no emotional attachment to the characters before us.
Sure a big clone versus robot battle looks visually spectacular the first time you see it, but these days huge battle scenes are a dime a dozen. Have them by all means if the story demands it, but you need to *CARE* about the outcome. It's the difference between Jackson's Siege of Minas Tirith in LOTR and Lucas umpeenth rendering of a Clone War (with all new Shaders!).
This is the crazy part. He's got a universe of possibilities, including good back stories by real authors. Instead he ignores that, and tells the same story again. Some of the reviews said "Don't Panic! George Lucas is not credited here!" but the script writer said Lucas got excited about this CGI series and took a bigger and bigger role.
Here's an interview with Lucas by TV Guide, published September 2007. Seems by this, and what we've heard in the reviews, he wasn't sure exactly what he was making. He talks about putting it on the Sci-Fi channel after 9PM due to its violence. Yet it lands on the Cartoon Network, with Ahsoka Binks and Stinky the Hutt.
TV Guide: Tell us about it.
Lucas: Well it's basically like Star Wars [in that it] takes place between, obviously, [the films] Episode II [Attack of the Clones] and Episode III [Revenge of the Sith], but it's the same kind of action. Unfortunately, it doesn't fall into the realm of what animation [typically] is, which is either adult, kind of off-color humor or kiddie stuff. This is, like Star Wars, sort of in between those two things. It's a lot of battle stuff, and it's obviously the Clone Wars, so it's a war picture. So it's kind of a PG-13 animated TV series, which is something that has never been done before and obviously doesn't fit in any of the conventional slots that these things fall into. In that, it's very different, and I think it's very exciting. It's got a very, very sophisticated look to it. It's very much like the features. We're still trying to figure out how to put it on the air.
TV Guide: And you're going to do a hundred episodes?
Lucas: We're going to do a hundred episodes. I think we're on [No.] 40 right now. We'll probably end up with 50 to 60 episodes before we start to put it on the air. We'd like to put it on next fall, in about a year from now, but we'll see what happens.
TV Guide: Where do you see it living? How do you see this playing? Obviously it doesn't sound like a Saturday morning cartoon.
Lucas: Right now, we don't know. It's out there to people, and people are talking about it, but so far, everybody's got the same conundrums — "How do we program it? Where does it live? Where can we put something like this?" You know, it has to go after 9 o'clock and it can't be on a kiddie channel.
TV Guide: So you see it on a more mainstream channel or the Sci Fi Channel or something like that?
Lucas: Well, it's one of those things. Television is sort of bifurcated up into small niches and unless you fit in one of those niches, no one knows what to do with you. And, of course, I'm always outside the box, so it's like, "Uh-oh, we don't have a box for you." [Laughs] But it's Star Wars and it's really good, so I'm sure somehow or another, people will also start thinking outside the box and it will find its home.
http://www.tvguide.c...rs-TV/070920-01
http://www.tvguide.c...erick/070918-01
How much more crap will people take? It's amazing how much time we have for Star Wars, even if that takes the form of bitching. I goes to that childhood-sweet-heart-turns-into-a-crack-whore analogy. But everyone has their limit: I watched an anime series called "Hack Sign" set no less in a MMO universe. It was a financial and critical success and I was really impressed by it, so when the sequels came out I bought the DVDs blind. They had made one kiddie sequel, "Legend of the Twilight" I think, that hugely sucked. (Anyone want to buy second hand DVDs? Watched once?) They made a few others I tried watching but never finished - they became pretentious, repetitive and dull. These days I ignore anything with the Hack logo...
Lucas said he doesn't listen to reviewers or listen to internet buzz (suck eggs, Lewinski). He measures success by how much cash he makes. Now Lucas made lots of money out of the PT. But will he reach a point with these where people won't watch them, even if they're on TV, for free? I haven't seen the Clone Wars movie personally, so I can't say for absolute sure it sucks, but the negative reviews for this thing sets a new record. "Revenge of the Sith", despite its faults and continued fan boy anger, still got reasonable reviews (as in, "it's okay to see this for closure"). Rotten Tomatoes (which amalgamates critics ratings) gave ROTS 80% which seems generous to me, but the Clone Wars Movie gets only 18%(!) Lucas says he financed the series on the assumption someone would buy them, but if it's as bad as its sounding I just hope Lucas loses a ton of money this time. A financial loss and flagging toy sales might beat some sense into him.
http://uk.rottentoma...m/m/clone_wars/
But he's the master of revisionism:
http://www.tvguide.c...rs-TV/070920-01
LOLWOT!?
This post has been edited by Toru-chan: 16 August 2008 - 02:30 AM