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Attack of the Clones: Less Plastic Crap, More Story?
Newsweek has an article in which George Lucas states that there were parts of Episode One that were damaging to the Star Wars franchise. (shocker, I know) "The last movie did not live up to expectations." They'll cut the merchandise by two thirds, as they still have tons of unsold Episode One merchandise. Yahoo is also running an AOTC story. Mild spoilers in the linked stories, by the way.
Nice to see that Mr. Lucas realizes what a mess Episode One became - hopefully, this will mean a major improvement, both story- and character-wise, for Episode Two. Good for George, good for us, maybe some seven-year olds who never saw the originals will be disappointed that the film now lacks anyone they can identify with, but what the heck, I don't care.
The article (at MSNBC) does spoil some of the story but also sheds some interesting light. I don't think we can bet on Anakin killing Jar Jar for us just yet, though the co-writer, Jonathan Hales, promises no silly characters or kids. Personally, I expect Jar Jar to get screen time in Ep 2 as Natalie Portman's boobs, meaning a few seconds at most.
Quality, performance, value; you get only two, and you don't always get to pick.
After the DVD came out, I had the chance to revisit Episode one. It's strange, that when you strip away all the hype, the product tie-ins, the in your face constant advertising, and just go see the movie on it's own merits, it's not really all that bad.
And, for some strange reason, it seems to get better every time you watch it. You notice more of the details and craftsmenship that went into the movie.
Finally, if you can go into the film knowing the annoying parts (Jar-Jar, the announcers at the pod race et.al), you can pretty much tune them out.
When it's all said and done, the hype surrounding TPM hurt it more then the bad filmaking... which shows how media can so dramatically effect our expectations. The article mentions 'The Matrix'.. which I knew nothing about, and was blown away when I first saw it. But the more times I see it, the more it's luster wears off... it actually looses appeal every time I watch it, while TPM, strangly, seems to get better.
So Kudos to lucas for entering into this a little wiser. I don't think you're going to see nearly as many fanatic star wars geeks lining up for months in order to see this movie, you are'nt going to be pounded for weeks on end for advertisments for product tie ins... and in the end when we do go down to the theatre (and we will.. you know it) our expectations will have the chance to be a little more realistic.
The Internet is generally stupid
I think one of the main problems Lucas is running up against is the fact that single movies don't exert the influence on mass culture they once did. Simply put, for quite some time now there has been a lack of big movies that "everyone" goes to see. This is not exactly a bad thing, it just shows that movies are differently targeted.
For example, if you ask me, there's been a distinct increase in the quality of war movies over the past decade, even though less people are going to see them. Saving Private Ryan wasn't for everyone, but I think most would agree it was at least a better movie than Force 10 from Navarone.
To get back to Star Wars though, I really think a big part of the problem with Episode I was the attempt to appeal to a wide audience. Keeping away from flaming comments about commercialism, the objective should not be to make a movie EVERYONE likes, but to make a movie every will agree was not a waste of time, even if it wasn't their cup of tea.
Debate me if you will, but I see Empire Strikes Back in this vein. A bit darker then the other movies, but bad? No. It was different, and it was good. Did everyone like it? No again, but few claim to outright hate the movie. It was quality filmmaking, not churned out sludge for mass appeal.
"Isn't that the sweetest little well-balanced undergraduate-level philosophy of life."
They'll think we're morons
We are morons, you moron.
Think about this; The merchandisers are the ones paying to make all the SW paraphenalia. It's not like Lucas is shelling out - They're paying HIM. Lucas knew there would be a rush by people making sure they would get all the collectible crap (is it just me, or is everything but the action figures lower quality?) so they made a whole bunch of it. Sure, they didn't sell it all, but Lucas surely realized a big scrooge mcduck-sized pile of money from it.
So this movie, they're going to reduce the quantity of stuff dramatically which means - you guessed it! - there will be a huge rush on it again. It might take a little time to build up momentum, so toys r us might not have to call in the riot police to get people away from the empty action figure aisle, but it still still produce plenty of cash, and the collectibles will actually have value this time. Not that they don't already, because within just a few months many collectibles were going for over four times their purchase price. I mean, less than a month after they were off the shelves.
And while we're talking about things which could be intentional; Everyone was going to go see episode one whether it sucked ass or not, so Lucas just didn't have to try. Now, many of us will be waiting to see what our friends have to say about episode 2 before we go see it. Based on the trailers I've seen, It's going to suck, but I guess those are not necessarily static or representative.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
If you really must revisit this movie, I highly suggest you do so by finding yourself a copy of The Phantom Edit. It's not perfect either, but it gives a sense of how hard it wouldn't have been for Lucas to make the original not suck.
There's a quote from Lucas in the Time Magazine SWII article (hey, surprise, they got all the major news mags!) which really struck me:
It's pretty obvious that he still doesn't get it. I don't know anyone who complained about a kid being the hero -- a few who complained about the chosen kid's acting ability, and a bunch more who complained about the cutesyness, but this was the first I've heard the idea that the problem is that audiences can't cope with the idea of a child hero. Note to George: um, ex-squeeeze me, there are a few other issues.
If this film wasn't a "Star Wars" movie,... would I feel it is a good film?
And if Odysseus was just some dude on a ship, would it be as good of a story? Would Terminator II be as good of a movie without the first one? It's tough to analyze a story out of context.
Minor spoiler: If the movie follows this plot then George has forgotton the bottom line premise of the series: R2D2 and C-3PO are our witnesses (C-3PO tells us the story, as shown at the end of Episode VI). They are present at every major plot point, but in Episode II (as presented at the above link) neither is with Obi-Wan when he goes to Kamino and Geonosis, and I don't see any way around that in post-production. Oops!
(Yes, I know they can learn of those events from Obi-Wan, as they must learn of the minor side events from others in all the movies, but this is the first major story segment that one or the other of them doesn't personally witness. Watch I, IV, V, and VI again and you'll see what I mean.)
More minor spoilage: Oh, and why the heck doesn't C-3PO recognize his former home and Uncle Owen in Episode IV? R2D2 might recognize them, but he's keeping his mouth shut because he's looking for Obi-Wan; C-3PO knows nothing of Leia's instructions to R2D2 and has no reason to stay mum if he recognizes Owen, which means he doesn't. OK, Owen's older, but he should at least recognize Tatooine in general and the farm in particular. I wondered about that when I saw Episode I, and this plot for II confirms it.
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
Maybe their memory has been wiped. It is a standard practice afterall. I don't think they would have stopped having their memories flushed occasionally until Luke bought them.
C-3PO is not present at the battle of Naboo, not really a minor plot point. Maybe the midichlorians told him what happened.
C-3PO is a droid. Everything he sees, hears etc would be stored. Which would also mean that he would remember that Anakin was Darth Vader and that he had children, and that one of them had been left with Owen Lars on Tatooine. It would seem logical that parts of his memory would be deleted to avoid that information falling into the wrong hands.
You call me a pedant? I prefer the term "correct"
As an American trudging through 2002 I seriously like the idea that Lucas is using the mass media to put forth THIS idea for people to think about: that the well intentioned Republic can turn into the Empire through expansion, greed and expediency.
With any kind of luck WE won't have storm troopers by the time the sixth film is out...
Dude, the sole fact that you're comparing Star Wars to the Odyssey kinda makes my point...
Odysseus WAS some dude on a ship. Things happened to him, and it is a good story. Probably what you mean is "if th Odyssey wasn't one of the classics of literature, would you think it was a good story?".
The thing is, that thinking is backwards. The Odyssey is a classic BECAUSE it is that good. You see, Homer (he composed it) didn't have much of a marketing budget, so his works were preserved solely on merit.
Now, Star Wars is not rally bad, but it is not as good as they would have you believe. The difference is hype. And if you don't think Star Wars is about hype, well, I don't really know what to say to you, because it is pretty obvious to me...
If C-3PO's memory is wiped, how can he tell us the story? Naturally I thought of that, but it doesn't fit. C-3PO and R2D2 are the only characters present in all nine episodes (at least, according to Lucas). C-3PO must remember the whole storyline or he can't be the storyteller.
Anakin doesn't become Darth Vader until Episode III; we don't (yet) know if either C-3PO or R2D2 witness this transformation, or even know that Anakin has children. But I'll grant you that George Lucas will probably mess that up, too, leaving the droid's apparant memory loss in Episode IV a more obvious mistake.
Either that or Anakin's children are born sometime between Episodes III and IV (and not witnessed by either droid), which would leave a big gap in the story IMO. I've aways wondered how Anakin could have two children and only know of one. Leia is Luke's sister, but are they twins, and Anakin assumed there was only one child? Was Luke born before Anakin becomes Vader, and Leia after (Anakin didn't know Padmé was pregnant again)? We may never know.
Or perhaps Lucas will re-re-edit Episode IV to "fix" this error: C-3PO - "Master Owen, how good to see you again, sir!" Owen - "Good lord, not C-3PO. [turns to the Jawas] Are you sure you don't have any other droids that can speak binary to my condensers?"
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.