Star Wars TV Show Tainted By Memories of Jar Jar

bowman9991 writes "Can George Lucas' new Star Wars TV series, the first Star Wars spin off with real actors, atone for the flawed follow-ups to his original classics? Producer Rick McCallum calls the new series 'much darker,' a 'much more character-based series' and 'more adult,' while George Lucas himself calls it more like the first Star Wars film. The new TV show takes place in the 'dark times' between the last prequel Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, when most of the Jedi and anti-emperor politicians were hunted down and killed. The characters of Boba Fett, C-3PO, and the Emperor Palpatine will return, and casting has now begun. Mark Hamill, the actor who played Luke Skywalker from the original movies, believes George Lucas lost his way, 'making it bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger until you're just exploding with special effects all over the screen like some fireworks display,' but thinks the new show is a 'positive' step forward. Hopefully George Lucas can wipe the memory of Jar Jar Binks, Anakin and Padme's romance, his shameless merchandising, and some lame attempts at humor from everyone's minds once and for all."

Comments

Humm

[Hognoxious]

Hopefully George Lucas can wipe the memory of Jar Jar Binks, Anakin and Padme's romance, his shameless merchandising, and some lame attempts at humor from everyone's minds once and for all.

I find your excess of faith disturbing.

The first is still the best

[aurispector]

I recall watching the original Ep.4 as a 12 year old. The bar scene was particularly intense because it showed humans as a bit player in a big, bad universe. Fast forward to the updated remake with the CGI singer - just another funny looking alien to laugh at. The two headed announcer in the pod race scene is another example - funny aliens who exist primarily for the amusement of a human dominated universe. I don't think Lucas ever grasped this difference.

Re:The first is still the best

[CrackedButter]

No, I think the parent makes a good point. The aliens are remarkably different from the two different trilogies. It doesn't matter if you're a child or not, as an adult we can see the difference between the treatment of the aliens.

Re:The first is still the best

[sammy baby]

There's an easy test to your theory. Go find some people who saw all of the movies as adults and ask them what they think. So far, everyone I've asked who was an adult for both sets of movies (including a bunch of friends in the office and my dad, a lifelong sci fi fan) thought the original films were much better.

I'm not saying they were masterpieces. But chalking it all up to the audience having grown up is just willfully denying what everybody really knows.

Re:The first is still the best

[ibwolf]

Have a 30 year old watch Star Wars for the first time and, on the few times I've been able to find someone who has never seen it, gotten the same 'meh' response I had to the Phantom Menace.

Anyone who hasn't seen Star Wars by the time they turn 30 are not going to enjoy it. Not because it doesn't appeal to 30 year olds, but because if that person was likely to enjoy fantasy/sci-fi movies he or she would have watched the movie a long time ago. It's not like the Star Wars movies are a well kept secret.

Back in 1977 there were literally millions of 30+ year olds queuing up to see the movie (and enjoying it!).

The thing is, the original Star Wars was a movie for all ages. Episode One (in particular) was a kids movie with little regard for the kids' parents.

Re:The first is still the best

[NEW22]

I think a good test is to explain what Episode 1 and Episode 4 were about, and which seems most likely to appeal to kids. I don't see how someone could honestly expect children to understand the plot to Episode 1, or even adults or George Lucas himself.

Episode 4: A poor water farmboy has dreams of leaving the farm, visits a hermit who exposes him to an exciting greater world that needs saving. Returning home he sees his family has been killed, leaving him with no ties to home and thrusting him into a grand adventure where he meets a rogue and a princess, learns magic and blows up an evil Empire's greatest weapon, saving untold planets.

Episode 1: Some warrior diplomats come to discuss a trade dispute, trade federation blockades planet, then for some reason starts a war. Diplomats try to warn the princess, but instead end up coming across some aliens before getting to the princess and leaving the planet. Princess needs to convince the Senate to intervene. On the way to the Senate they stop at a planet and come across a little kid who races pods and has potential. After the Senate does nothing, these same people, with a kid in tow, go back to the planet and start a big fight. The day is saved when the kid they picked up accidently flies a ship into a space station and blows it up.

The only reason I could like one over the other is because of the age I was when I saw it...

Re:The first is still the best

[curare19]

I'm in a very rare group. I saw both sets of movies as an adult - within two years of each other. Although I love sci-fi, I grew up with parents who had zero interest, and somehow got through high school and college without ever having seen Star Wars. I think it never even occurred to my friends that I hadn't seen it.

I went to see the first set of Star Wars when it was re-issued to movie theaters. When Leila kissed Luke, someone in front of me said "Ewwww! They're siblings!" I said "WHAT?! They are?? Thanks for ruining it!"

At that moment, my friends came to the realization that I had never seen the movies before. At subsequent movies, they announced to the surrounding moviegovers that I had NEVER SEEN IT and to make SURE to not reveal any upcoming secrets (including the "big one").

It was great, actually - my friends, who were born around the time of Star Wars, were super excited to see someone's first reaction to the movies.

Anyway, as a perfectly controlled experiment, I agree that the first set of movies was far superior to the second set. The prequel seemed hacked together in order to resolve things from the first set, and over-reliant on special effects and lame jokes to the exclusion of the storyline.

Memories of Jar Jar

[Anonymous Coward]

Memories of Jar Jar sounds like a fragrance that George Lucas would put on the market.

Release Date

[CFBMoo1]

"There is no fixed release date for the show, but it's expected sometime in 2011 or 2012..."

Lets see, the Mayans called it in 2012.
Nostradamus called it around 2012.
People are all end times for 2012.
Then we had Jar Jar... DEAR GOD NO!

Re:Hey, Polyanna

[dkf]

Don't bet on it.

There are worse things. The Star Wars Holiday Special. Absolutely nothing in episodes I-III is as bad as that...

"Jar Jar Binks, Anakin and Padme's romance"

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a 3-way my mind could have done without.

"Much darker" my ass

[elrous0]

These days "Much darker than its predecessor" has become Hollywood doublespeak. It means nothing. "This Harry Potter movie will be much darker than the last one" is just the studio's way of trying to get more adults to come see it (at the end of the day, it still ends up being the same PG-13 rated CGI-fest).

Here's a good rule of thumb, if they have to *say* it's much darker, it probably isn't. If you want to see if it's just doublespeak, ask the simple follow-up question "But it's still suitable for kids, right?" If they fall over themselves saying yes, then you know the "much darker" thing is just a con.

Re:"Much darker" my ass

[jzarling]

"Much Darker" just means more poorly lit sets.

Gritty means there will be rain, garbage strewn about, and major set pieces will be taking place in either abandoned industrial complexes, or abandoned buildings.

Re:OMG, Luke Skywalker is right!

[Rary]

Hopefully, this show will get it right, and have a little bit of depth to it.

Well, for starters, it is set in the best possible time frame. Rather than the time of the wooden Jedi Council and the useless Senate holding endless meetings, it's set in the time of the rise of the Rebel Alliance. There's so much potential for a good show in that era.

Also, George plans to hand the reins over to someone else after writing and producing the first season. So, it might have a slow start, but the possibility of a decent series growing out of it is actually fairly high — depending, of course, on who takes over in season two.

Euwww

[Chrisq]

Hopefully George Lucas can wipe the memory of Jar Jar Binks, Anakin and Padme's romance

I must have missed this perverse threesome when I watched the film.

Re:OMG, Luke Skywalker is right!

[Dachannien]

Mark Hamill is probably just bitter because he never did get those power converters.

It's far too late...

[fuzznutz]

I was a huge fan of Star Wars until the abomination that was episode 1. I watched episode 2 at the theater we affectionately call "The Welfare Flicks", a second run theater. For the third, I just rented the DVD and that was just for closure. Now, I have no more interest in Star Wars. He f*cked up the originals, and I just don't even care anymore if he ever releases a decent DVD of the originals.

As for my kids, their only interest in Star Wars is a video game with little characters made out of Legos. They couldn't care less about the movies. If they run any of the movies on cable, their attention span is about 15 minutes.

George Lucas killed Star Wars.

Re:OMG, Luke Skywalker is right!

[jalefkowit]

Assuming it survives to season two. One season is plenty of time for Lucas to drive it into the side of a mountain.

Re:meh

[Arthur Grumbine]

David Caruso: Judging by the scorch marks and angle of trajectory, you could say that, even with eyes like that, this Rhodian...*puts on sunglasses*...never saw the shot coming...
YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!