Star Wars: Fox Execs Told George Lucas Young Anakin Would 'Destroy the Franchise'

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Hasn't Boyega kinda been abandoned since he spoke ill of Disney or whatever?

Last I checked, he was booked for 4 films and a TV show. Dunno if he is still working with Disney.

[schwank05]

Phantom Menace is like my 3rd Favorite Star Wars movie. I love the Prequels then again it is the only movie in my entire life Ive ever watched in theatres 2 times. I cannot watch the originals because the filmmaking did not age well for me. I love ROS it is my favorite movie in the Franchise followed by Rogue One, but at the end of the day The Mandalorian is how the movies should all play out as a series rather than movies it is damn near perfect.

[Rennadrel]

Lucas has kind of always been Star Wars' worst enemy, he created an amazing universe but as an actual storyteller he's too narrow minded and overall just not good. I'm no disney lover but he should have given up the reins to someone else a long time ago

You can only do so much in a film without dragging it out. The intention was always for the films to be a trilogy, but that he gave the films so much potential for back story kind of made it necessary to eventually tell that story. The series could have died with ROTJ with or without the prequel trilogy and that would have been fine.

Ultimately, young Anakin wasn't, to me anyway, what made the prequel trilogy bad. It was the interjected politics which were drawn out and didn't fit within the overall encompassing story and was flat out just dry and uninteresting. Not to mention Jar Jar Binks being a fucking awful character. Didn't mind some of the other stuff that wasn't part of the older films and didn't really help the main plot, but George Lucas wrote a crappy political plot and his script writing is pretty much what killed episodes 2 and 3, along with the terribly tacky plot of episode 3.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I don't go with the mob that hates the prequels I love them for what they are. People still moan about them and I think they are crazy. The sequels.... just feel like it dismantles what came before.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Was bullied in school. Turned to drugs. Was speeding and crashed his car, went to jail. Is now being taken care of at a mental facility IIRC/or was discharged to be taken care of at home.

That's heartbreaking to read. I always felt that he was always nervous during that movie. Could have been his particular style of acting or delivery of lines but I remembered thinking he was always nervous in every single scene he was in. Just gave off an aura of... nervousness.

[talwynn]

The Prequels were excellent from a narrative/story perspective, and were visually excellent too.

The scripts were simply dire, though. When you have an actress as talented as Natalie Portman and even she can't make the role work...

The Prequels were perilously close to being really good movies. If Lucas had brought in some talented script writers and had a few people around him willing to say no (including on casting decisions, such as Jake Lloyd, who was cast over a kid who nailed the audition), they could have been quite excellent. Lucas is one of those people who excels at a macro level, but fails on the more mundane. He needed to delegate and leverage people who had skills he didn't, and he failed to do so.

Excellent from a narrative/story perspective? Really? The first movie was about a trade disagreement. That's the story of the first movie. They also made the idiotic decision of killing their most marketable character since Boba Fett. They should have cut out Qui Gonn, had Anakin as a teenager/early twenties, and he should have been Vader by the middle of the second movie. Holding him back till the last 20 minutes of the 3rd movie was a horrific decision. People want to see Vader in action, why do you think the end to Rogue One became an instant hit among fans?

[oplawlz]

You can only do so much in a film without dragging it out. The intention was always for the films to be a trilogy, but that he gave the films so much potential for back story kind of made it necessary to eventually tell that story.

You realize the original trilogy was labeled 4,5, and 6, right? It was never intended to be a standalone trilogy.

[Newname1234567890]

The actual story arc of the prequels in amazing, it's the execution that's lacking

[arandomuser]

alot of people blame fox and disney for things lucas actually supported

[Selastan]

Are you crazy?
The originals, from the 70s and 80s, had some of the best effects for their time, and because they used so many practical effects, stand up to this day, still looking great. Please specify what effects were poor. For a low-budget franchise (they did not have the money they had available to them in the 90s and 00s for the prequels) they really did well back then.

Part of the entertainment of sci-fi is the spectacle. While Star War's practical effects, like the scale-models used to 'animate' ships, or people in robot suits do LOOK good, there are limitations to the action they can do with it. And the lightsaber battles were nowhere near as good as the prequels. (Although, at least it HAD lightsaber battles, unlike the sequels.)

Also, I AM judging them by current standards, not as they were at the time of their theatrical release. Not fair when treating them as standalone movies, but when comparing them to modern films from the same series, the difference in CGI is indeed important.

[George Lucas]

why do you think the end to Rogue One became an instant hit among fans?

Because Star Wars fans are retarded.

Flaming isn't allowed. Infracted.

[DeltrusDisc]

The way I see it:

Original series: Without post production and effects those movies wouldn't have been recognized by anyone. The story was okayish. The direction ranged from bad to a bit above average.

Prequels: The story was again okayish. The direction was bad and the effects at the time were average but aged poorly.

Sequels: The story ranged from okayish to horrendous. The direction ranged from average to irritating. The effects were average for contemporary movies, but how they will age only the future can tell.

Hey George, good to see you, thanks for gracing us with your presence!

Any reason you didn't sell Star Wars to a less ... problematic, company? Imagine if HBO had Star Wars. Yes, I realize HBO isn't about that theater life, but still.

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Because Star Wars fans are retarded.

omg music to my ears

[jellmoo]

I genuinely feel that Star Wars isn't terribly well suited to epic trilogy storytelling. The first nes managed to work despite the format, not because of it. The franchise is better suited to long form, episodic content that can dig into character and story a lot better (The Clone Wars and Rebels have some of the best storytelling in the franchise, and The Mandolorian shows glimpses of it) or one of movies that tell a very concise and specific story (like Rogue One).

[DeltrusDisc]

Part of the entertainment of sci-fi is the spectacle. While Star War's practical effects, like the scale-models used to 'animate' ships, or people in robot suits do LOOK good, there are limitations to the action they can do with it. And the lightsaber battles were nowhere near as good as the prequels. (Although, at least it HAD lightsaber battles, unlike the sequels.)

Also, I AM judging them by current standards, not as they were at the time of their theatrical release. Not fair when treating them as standalone movies, but when comparing them to modern films from the same series, the difference in CGI is indeed important.

The lightsaber battles in the prequels were just choreographed nonsense, showing little to no emotion.
If they had given the Revenge of the Sith duel between Anakin and Obi Wan remotely the same treatment and feel as Luke vs Vader at the end of Jedi... holy cow it would have been so much better.
Instead it's an age-long mess showing off as much lava-scenery as possible.

Something far more meaningful would have been Anakin angrily lunging at Obi Wan, screaming at him, with Obi Wan just deflecting and backing away. Less oooo how fast can they duel and more impactful moments. This is why the prequel fights are ultimately forgettable as shit, but the original trilogy's fights hold so much more meaning and are remembered so well, because they didn't focus so much on how the fights looked and more what they were about.

Your homework: The Mr Plinkett RedLetterMedia Star Wars prequel reviews.
Start with episode 1. Get back to me when you've finished.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

The way I see it:

Original series: Without post production and effects those movies wouldn't have been recognized by anyone. The story was okayish. The direction ranged from bad to a bit above average.

Prequels: The story was again okayish. The direction was bad and the effects at the time were average but aged poorly.

Sequels: The story ranged from okayish to horrendous. The direction ranged from average to irritating. The effects were average for contemporary movies, but how they will age only the future can tell.

Holy shit it's the man himself.

[DeltrusDisc]

I don't go with the mob that hates the prequels I love them for what they are. People still moan about them and I think they are crazy. The sequels.... just feel like it dismantles what came before.

I enjoyed the prequels a bit when I was younger, but something always felt off about them. Then I noticed when I was getting older over the next 5-10 years after episode 3 that I never really cared to watch the prequels, I only wanted to watch 4, 5, and 6. I could never quite place why, I just knew my interest in the older movies was far greater.

Then the Mr Plinkett reviews came out and I finally understood why: because the prequels were just bad and my brain didn't want to waste time watching something that was bad.

Incredible.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The lightsaber battles in the prequels were just choreographed nonsense, showing little to no emotion.

Huh? The duel in Phantom Menace showed a lot of emotion. There was a lot of nonverbal storytelling going on.




The Clone Wars ending duel fight against Dooku was short but had a lot of emotion as well, was very dramatic.

I do agree that the RotS ending duel drags on for too long, with an emphasis on flash over storytelling, but the character beats there are good (beginning of the fight when Obi-Wan steps out of the ship to confront Anakin, and, ofcourse, the actual ending).

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Your homework: The Mr Plinkett RedLetterMedia Star Wars prequel reviews.
Start with episode 1. Get back to me when you've finished.

His reviews were comedic but I didn't find any of his points valid or insightful.

[Kaleredar]

The prequels were not good movies and did not have a compelling story. None of the characters have arcs other than Anakin, and even his is done exceptionally poorly. In fact, other than Anakin for being the main character, Obi-Wan for being in the original films, and Padme for giving birth to Luke and Leia, none of the characters or what they did even mattered.

That being said, the elevator pitch for the prequels isn't bad. It's that the execution most certainly was.

[DeltrusDisc]

https://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/2019...20the%20novels.

as to what Disney has done with the canon they said all of the EU were legends and that like a folk tale it may have a grain of truth or may be completely made up, excluding post return stuff obviously. as to what they have brought into canaon there's been a ton of stuff with alot of fan favorites like thrawn.

Okay, fair enough.

Lord knows they'll probably ruin Thrawn. :/

[PACOX]

That's heartbreaking to read. I always felt that he was always nervous during that movie. Could have been his particular style of acting or delivery of lines but I remembered thinking he was always nervous in every single scene he was in. Just gave off an aura of... nervousness.

Some SW fans are extremely cruel to the actors. There's a reason why Hayden doesn't do SW events.