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Star Wars II Trailer Online
Jager writes: "You can download the new starwars trailer here. Enjoy." Seemed to me as if Lucas was worried about the "love story" emphasis in the previous teasers, and wanted to make sure people knew there would be plenty of zapping and slashing.
There's so many odd tensions inherent in seeing the latest Lucas movie/product that it's tough to sort them all out...
- Lucas's movies from the 70's are the primary reason (debatably equal with Spielberg's movies) for the "blockbuster-centric" state of the movie industry today. (i.e. opening weekend-oriented, with receipts fading fast even for popular films, therefore "hyper-able" films with a fast return get the most attention). ergo, supporting a new Lucas film is consistent _not only_ with generally supporting the MPAA, but also with supporting the "big (and not necessarily smart, therefore often stupid) movies advertised with big $$" business model which the major studios are so slavishly following.
(hey! lucas started a tsunami of crap! he's indirectly responsible for tomb raider! lucas is bad!)
- OTOH, Lucas is in the ultra-elite group of filmmakers who is beholden to _none_ of the movie studios (i.e. MPAA). He doesn't _have_ to create "big blockbusters", this is the kind of movie he _wants_ to make. Lucas even has the clout to create his own distribution company (in addition to Lucasfilm's production end), ala the Spielberg/Geffen/Katzenberg Dreamworks, were he interested.
(hmm... lucas is powerful! but independent... therefore good?)
- Lucas has, in fact, been using his clout to push digital production _and_ display techniques (which would be going faster were it not for distributor/theater overgrowth and mismanagement... which is a side result of the "blockbuster mentality, but I digress...). Aesthetic questions of "digital film" aside), these techniques can dramtically lower distribution costs while increasing theater flexibility, and thereby create new opportunities for distribution and showing of "non-blockbuster" films (independent or otherwise low(er) budget)...
(yay! Lucas is good! he's undoing what he hath wrought! and doing cool digitial stuff! Lucas is good!)
- Lucas's narratives tend to reflect a rather benevolently feudal/fascist view of the world, in which an elite group (Jedi) rules over/provides protection to the general classes; he has furthermore stated his preference for "benevolent dictator" style organization for his businesses (Lucasfilm/ILM/etc.), as well as indicating that his films are very specifically his own (versus "for the fans")... this idealized feudalism is further reflected in his deity-like relationship with his (legions of) fans. i.e. Lucas' s "independent" streak is very much a part of a tendency towards complete control over his work.
(boo! Lucas is anti-democratic... but he's an artist, so it's OK... but he does this in business, too... and see how he treats his fans... but we love him! Lucas is, uh, is...)
Anyway, Lucas's position in Hollywood/business practices/audience relations/artistic bent are very much an integrated and consistent (but still complex) thing - at least to the point that it's hard to reduce it to pure "good" or "bad". Let's just call Lucas a unique, smart, lucky bastard and focus on more concrete matters.
Just something to chew on.
Actually what is most disappointing, is the constant non-stop whining about how the new trilogy sucks.
:-)
C'mon people, please come up with new reasons for not liking the prequels. Do we have to constantly read about "continue milking money out of the franchise" ?
The movie looks like fun, big battles, cool characters, etc. If you've seen previous star wars films you know what to expect. Just saying , "it's not creative" enough amounts to saying nothing. What do you want ? I really doubt that you could come up with anything more creative that the visuals and excitement in those few minutes of the trailer.
Oh BTW, your post is not "creative". Did I already mention that ?
- sigs are for wimps.
Instead he cranked out more fodder, really for nothing more than to continue milking money out of the franchise. Looks like it's continuing.
Let me take this opportunity to say this: Thank god that Peter Jackson filmed all three LOtR at once. Read why before you mod me offtopic:
Lucas had a dream. He made Star Wars. It was... a little campy, in retrospect, but rollicking fun nonetheless.
Years pass.
Lucas made The Empire Strikes Back. It was much more serious. Darker. There's Dagobah and stuff. The sets, the effects, the tone all change. Why? Because Lucas now had better technology, and a different expectation to film for.
Years pass.
Lucas made Return of the Jedi. It was serious, yet fluffy. Dark, yet light. Wonderful effects, of course, now that years have passed. But again, the tone had shifted to become completely different. It reflected years of hindsight and expectations that affected the original artistic vision.
And it's only getting worse with the prequels.
Which is why I'm glad Peter Jackson shot all three LOtR films in one big go. Sure, the CGI is going to still be cranked out for a while. Editing can be affected by time. But overall, he has the chance to make a coherent hole of the trilogy, which is something I don't feel Lucas has been able to do with the time he's had. As Prufrock would say, time for a hundred visions and revisions...
Yeah, it'll have some nice pictures. But that doesn't make it a good film. There's a quote from a guy who worked on Shrek along the lines of "People think that the holy grail of animation is to be able to animate a human. In fact, it's to tell a story." TPM didn't tell a story, it just filled in some lame links between CGI sequences, and the content of those CGI scenes was usually trite and uninteresting.
The pod race that you all drool over is nothing more than "Days of Thunder" with different pictures (and hey, did that film ever suck!) - nice speed effects, but nothing interesting happening to make you worry about the character. The ground battle scene sucked by taking place on a manicured lawn and the simple question "if they have bombs, why don't they get other better weapons?". The storming-the-palace scenes sucked by the "oh hey, they all suddenly get guns with ropes on, yeah right" bit. And the space bit was just "Home Alone" - kid lucks out with slapstick to save the day. Never mind the totally irrelevant fish-chasing-the-submarine sequence.
The only new and interesting thing in the whole film was the Jedi fight scenes - they finally worked out how a Jedi (who can use the Force to jump and stuff) would be able to fight.
Grab.