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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.
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.
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.
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.
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...