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LucasArts Embargoes "Clone Wars" Reviews
An anonymous reader writes "George Lucas CGI 'Clone Wars' movie has premiered to reviews ranging from MSNBC's 'Ugly animation and an uninspired storyline drag down the film' to AintItCool's 'I hated the film. HATED IT. REALLY HATED IT.' Critics have noted the animation style, music and slapstick humor had more than a passing similarity to Pixar's Toy Story, and wondered if the introduction of new action figures (sorry, characters) like Baby Jabba Hutt and Jabba the Hutt's Gay Uncle may have taken the franchise a bridge too far.
Lucas responding by enforcing an embargo, forcing the reviews to be taken down. While sites like AintItCool.com responded, by then it was just a little too late.
Still, the CGI eye candy will make it popular with kids. If the 'Clone Wars' movie can't save the galaxy, can it at least save the franchise?"
Can suck my dick.
I think the franchise was lost among the faithful a long time ago. Somewhere between Mesaa and Jar-Jar Binks.
11 was a racehorse
12 was 12
1111 Race
12112
If Lucas really wants those bad reviews out there front and center, he's doing a bang up job of ensuring that.
that star wars may have more or less jumped the mynock... the thing that really aggravates me about Lucas with star wars, is he allowed hundreds of "official" works of fiction to be written, wherein, the authors who wrote them worked very hard to follow and/or stay true to the original movies. These books really flushed out the story and universe, and then Lucas comes along with his prequels, and basically says "screw you all" and ignores all the history and back story that was created on his behalf.
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
Lets not forget that episodes 1-3 were not exactly cheap to produce. If Lucas had sold out, he would have had the movies made in hong-kong on a shoe-string budget and then raked in the cash based on the brand alone. THAT is selling out.
What he did instead is forget what made the original movies such a success, not just with kids but with adults as well (it was my mom that introduced me to Star Wars and she was an adult mother when it was released) and instead attempted to make the movie appeal to kids without understand what kids want.
Basically, he ignored his matured fanbase and tried to appeal to a new demographic that just didn't exist.
Lets face it, kids today got better entertainment then 3 films that are nothing but a punch and judy show (KIDS: look out punch BEHIND you PUNCH: where KIDS: BEHIND YOU), the jedis never being able to spot the baddie until it is way to late.
It might have worked as high fantasy with a doomed ending with just a tiny bit of hope remaining but that doesn't work in a kiddy movie.
I like the ending of episode three were you see the would be rebels dispersing, but everything before was just... Well not bad exactly, just that the actors could not act, Lucas can't write or direct and just who was the story aimed at anyway?
The most obvious failure? Nobody quotes the new star wars to honor it. "These are not the droids you are looking for" "I am your father" "I find your lack of faith disturbing" "It is a trap".
Where are the episode 1-3 quotes?
George Lucas one had luck producing a movie, it is known by fans that this was not his own creation, his wife for instance seems to have played a large role. Other directors did ESB. He should go back to producing but frankly, his most crowning achievement, getting Star Wars made in the 70's is no longer anything complex with the fortune he has know and the standard high special effects movie we got know. People forgot just how ground breaking A New Hope was from a producers job. That is gone now. Lucas has nothing to do but sign the checks and so he gets involved with other things that were previously left to others.
Lucas did not make A New Hope, he produced it. He did make episode 1-3. That's the problem.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
The franchise was already lost. A new Star Wars movie is coming out to theaters and its not even close to being the #1 geek movie of the summer. Even if you took out the superhero movies and Star Trek, its still lagging behind. Ten years ago that would have been inconceivable as even re-releases were huge.
You can't live off past glory forever.
WOOKIES DONT LIVE ON ENDOR!
Actually, this is another quote from South Park. The Halloween episode, where everyone dresses as Chewbacca.
Okay, which one of those crappy websites went ahead and committed a capital sin?
The web designer of one of the websites linked in TFA took it upon him/herself to resize my browser.
You don't touch my browser without permission. I really wonder who the fuck tought it was a good idea to even allow such crap to take place.
I have my browser set just the way I want it, centered exactly where I want it on my widescreen desktop. Whenever some crappy website goes ahead and wrecks this up, I end up not viewing it. It infuriates me to no end.
Sorry for the rant, feel free to mod me offtopic, but I felt it had to be said.
I am not in any way a Star Wars nerd anymore, take note of that.
I saw a link to the trailer on a website I frequent back in May this year, I didn't even know a SW animated movie was coming out and honestly didn't care.
However, I'm open to try a movie of any kind, animated, puppets, I don't care if it's good - I like pixar movies, I once liked Star Wars, I even tried the final fantasy movie.
When the link was posted, within minutes people mocked it and laughed, it's got nothing to do with being untrue to the Star Wars franchise, if anything that may make some hardcore Star Wars fans 'forgive it' - I just saw a trailer for an absoloutely laughable looking kids film, not what I'm interested in, when "Jabba's son has been kidnapped!" is a plot element they feel worthy enough to put in a movie, I figure it's not going places.
http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=16928277#itemanchor_16928277
Here is something of note which I figure most of you will agree with and sadly hollywood will never read, nor understand.
Ever since the 3 new movies, Star Wars has been forever tarnished, changing from a great story and universe I am interested in, to something I look at in my mind as simply a 'franchise' or a product.
It's a fascinating transition and one I'm sure marketing people would love to know more about, maybe it's to do with my age or cynicism? Ultimately from my perspective the entire universe is now un-interesting to me, they've caused themselves a massive dis-service as I do not salivate at the thought of any Star Wars products, I don't even fondly remember the originals as I simply can't watch them in the same way.
Yes they are still good but deep down I know that whole universe is diluted.
I had the same feeling from the Matrix sequels, I have no interest even in the first film now.
Just to clarify my stance, I was never ever a huge SW nerd, but I was I guess a light fan (I'm 30 btw) so I saw ROTJ in the cinema, too young for ANH and don't recall empire.
I was never a major hardcore fan, I never purchased the toys or anything but I did like the universe, I did really love the movies and I would've purchased them on DVD for example.
Even the changes to the old 3 movies, made it feel like a product (A New hope 1.01, buy it now!)
Anyhow people go check out the new movie, word on the st is JABBAS SON HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED (oh noes!) :/
Seems to me that if you're a reviewer, your reputation for independence is more important than early access to films. Who cares if you review a movie early, if that review is nothing but a mouthpiece for Lucasfilm marketing?
Every reviewer with integrity should publish what they want, when they want. If the entire industry bars them from reviewing films until they're open, then people will learn not to see films on opening day. I don't think the industry wants that.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Perhaps thats the case in magical pixie land, but here in the real world people care about getting the news first rather than about getting it right, and more about style than integrity. Roughly speaking, the general public approaches journalism the same way a sugar-starved 4 year old approaches nutrition.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
...but in the past, he had interference.
Note that most of those films were made after Star Wars made his reputation, that the first two Star Wars films were clearly either constrained by the studio or largely handed off to other people, and that despite its resounding success Return of the Jedi - the film over which Lucas had the most creative control - is widely regarded to be the worst of the first three films. His then-wife also apparently had quite a bit of creative input, if this interview with Mark Hamill is accurate.
I think this one is indeed more for kids.
I've never understood why this is considered a viable excuse for being terrible. "Oh, this movie sucks, but it's ok. It's intended for kids."??
Not to call you specifically out for this, but we wouldn't accept this excuse in other things. "Oh, it's ok that this baby food isn't nutritious at all. It's just for babies." That wouldn't really fly, would it? Or, "Our school system is terrible, but that's ok because it's just for kids."
I understand that kids might be more easily fooled into thinking that a movie is going to be great than adults. I also understand that, as a parent, you can't be on constant guard and fighting every one of these battles. But in my opinion, the fact that it's for kids means that it really should be *good*. And it's not as though it's an impossible feat to make a good movie that's kid-appropriate. Pixar, for example, has been doing it for years.
Most of the reason I'm making a point of saying this is that Lucas seems to be making horrible and stupid movies on the idea that it's appropriate to make dumb, meaningless, brain-dead movies because morons and kids will really enjoy the cheap humor. Part of the reason Ep 1 was so awful was because it was "for the kids", but if I had kids, I wouldn't particularly want them to be watching that sort of crap. I'd almost rather that kids were watching good movies that had a little sex and violence than shitty movies with absolutely no value. A lot of times, the adult themes go over the kids' heads anyway, and there's not much harm done. But if you expose them to movies with any kind of value, then some of that value might sink in.
Let's all post it in the talkbacks en masse.
Seriously, if you have a few thousand Slashdotters posting it in the talkbacks, the moderators will have to spend all day banning people. Remember, it'll only take a few seconds for one of us to post it; whoever has to remove thousands of posts and ban thousands of people will have their day ruined.
I wish AICN had balls like the Inquirer. The INQ laughs at embargoes and openly mocks people who try to enforce them.
I support the Center for Consumer Freedom
Given how awesome TIE Fighter was? I'd take that.
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
Being told there's an embargo is different from agreeing to shutup.
It has been statistically shown that helmets increase the risk of head injury.
Should have bought stock. Had you put that same $670 in a DJIA tracker back in '81 you'd have $8262 right now. Had you had amazing foresight and put it in Apple stock, you'd have almost $41,000!
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
I know exactly what's driving Lucas on this. Cash. Period. Whatever motivations he may have once had for this story and this franchise, his sole concern now seems to be the bank account.
Supposedly the new movie was supposed to be televised first and then straight to DVD, and during preparation of the movie Lucas' people said he lit up and said something like "This is so good it needs to be in theaters!".
I think it was more like "Hey, I think we can squeeze another 90 to 100 million out of the suckers if we put this in theaters".
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Gotta say, I've gone back and watched those as an adult and been shocked at how mediocre they really are. I guess nine year olds are an easy audience to please.
I don't think the original is mediocre at all. Simple, maybe, but that doesn't equal mediocre. I think your opinion may be colored by the fact that for 30 years, competitors have tried to ape Lucas' original genius, by adding more and more special effects, and by making the story more complex, adult, and "real".
But that's missing the point completely. Star Wars struck such a universal chord in us because it's essentially a fairy tale with a moral story at the center. The simplicity was actually part and parcel of why it was so effective. Simple was a virtue in that movie. We didn't want nuance and intrigue and grey areas. After Vietnam, Watergate, Pol Pot, Jonestown, Charles Manson, urban riots, and Soviets stretching across the globe, we had all the nuance, intrigue, and gray areas we could handle, thanks. What we needed was a simple, old fashioned, black and white tale that showed good guys should still beat beat guys. Lucas gave us exactly what we needed, what our souls were craving; a cut and dried heroic epic with a moral to the story. He just did it with spaceships and wookies.
And maybe that's why the last few movies were so abominable. He went from a straight up "good guys are better than bad guys" allegory to "only the Sith deal in absolutes"; he took away our simple heroic fairy tale, and gave us... nuance, intrigue, and gray areas.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
When Lucas made the first 3 his people developed new cutting edge special effects, but because it was all so time consuming and difficult they had to be frugal in their use. The effects were there to support the elements of the story. The movies therefore had to bring their points across with real storylines and acting ability. Elements had to be left to the imagination.
Now, since CGI effects are a dime a dozen, he can throw them in everywhere he wants. Now the storyline and characters are just supporting elements for all the "cool" visual effects. He doesn't want anyone to imagine anymore, he wants to spoon feed you everything the way he sees it.
Maybe a braindead audience is easier to sell "made in taiwan" toys to?
The guy already had enough money for several lifetimes. He was in a position to make any movie he wanted with the prequels, he could have taken it anywhere, it was going to make money anyway...and he fucking cashed in, then he cashed in again.....then he cashed in AGAIN.
How much money is enough?
Fuck you Lucas.
> Lastly, the problem isn't money, the problem is that he's pushing yet more crap in the guise of quality.
You people really need to get a grip and take a second look at
a) what he was ripping off to begin with
b) what happened when people tried to make "knock offs" of his stuff.
It's STAR WARS. It was never Shakesphere.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.