George Lucas is "Retiring" From Film

[Baldry]

Though I do feel sorry him having to give his greatest work I can only rejoice at the fact he won't taint Star Wars any further.

 

[TheAIOverlord]

*slow clap* nice job, everyone. you have just made George Lucas retire his star wars altering ways. i hope you are happy, because i'm sure not.

 

[Treblaine]

The galaxy's reaction:


You know who is representative of who here.

He can't compare dedicated fanbase to pushy publishers who are purely interested in mass appeal to milking most from their products at cost of artistic integrity. If anyone is guilty of compromise for money grubbing it is Lucas himself with his shameless milking from merchandise to pointless spinoffs. e turned to the dark side of force film.

Only unlike Vader he doesn't seem to have realised how wrong he has been.

I find the implication that we're torching Lucas on a pyre now that he's done as being undescribably hilarious.

Incidentally, nothing of value was lost.

I'm certainly not endorsing the immolation of a person who is clearly still very much alive.

Just that symbolically his dark side has been vanquished and put to rest and that this is great news to celebrate the end of a terrible era.

Though the reference isn't perfect, while Vader finally saw the error of his ways abs sacrificed himself, Lucas is still playing the victim after making billions upon billions of dollars being an utterly shallow, selfish, uncooperative and hypocritical hack.

Do we have to watch the Red Letter Media reviews [http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars/] again?

I wonder if Lucas realises how much he has become Vader, a young talented hero who looked like he would change the world for the better, instead chose the selfish path to corrupt and destroy all that is good. But Vader realised he was evil, and put a stop to it. Lucas is just giving up, the fans have picked him up and thrown him down the ventilation shaft and even as he falls he curses everyone but himself. I still think he sees himself as Luke (Lucas?) who can do no wrong.

 

[Callate]

In the immortal words of Homer Simpson, "If you're going to get mad at me every time I do something stupid, then I guess I'll just have to stop doing stupid things."

Look, I understand it's got to be frustrating to have so many people act like trying to improve something you created is somehow the equivalent of taking all the world's holy scriptures, wrapping them up in all the national flags, and stuffing them into your toilet. And yes, it's true that some of the vitriol directed at George Lucas has gotten way too personal.

But if the Red Letter Media reviews of the prequels (which are excellent, if occasionally disturbing) made one thing clear, it's that George Lucas the young film-maker who was struggling to get his vision onto the screen in any form created a very different product than George Lucas the founder of the multi-billion dollar empire who was too big for anyone to possibly say "maybe that's not such a good idea" to.

Popularity is like this. You don't create something that makes billions of dollars just because you crafted a good product; you create something that makes billions of dollars because, in a sense, the fans feel a sense of ownership, too. Going back and making changes, in the sense of both the prequels and the revisions of the earlier films, is not unlike grabbing back someone's Christmas present that they've been happily using for a month, and saying, "Hang on, I just want it to be perfect for you." And God help you if when you finally return it, it isn't as good.

In any case, it's hard to draw out too many sad violins for someone whose made that much money because essentially they feel they aren't allowed to be the creative visionary they always wanted to be. His extremely harsh dealings with regard to his "intellectual property" and many of those who helped make the original trilogy what it was haven't helped raise sympathy either.

 

[InvisibleMan]

Im glad he's finally pulling the plug on Star Wars...i mean, it's been almost 40 years (already ? Geez...)... so it's time to move on. Don't be upset George you made yourself a Billionaire out of Star Wars.

Im honestly looking forward to his next project, after such a long time without directing a movie, im looking forward to what he will do.

I, for one, also welcome having Lucas go back to smaller, independent films! I always thought his best three films were Star Wars, THX 1138, and American Graffitti, in that order. Lucas is at his best when dealing with small budgets and story lines and no major special effects post-production, ironically...

 

[tehweave]

Finally.

 

[Zach of Fables]

Honestly I would rather have seen him redeem himself. Maybe not with Star Wars, but the potential for greatness is still there.

Sigh. It's just depressing all the way around. There's no joy in my heart for any of this.

 

[razor343]

God damnit for some reason I feel sorry for him.

Honestly, if his 'true' vision for Star Wars could only be achieved by 'tweaking' the original trilogy, then us Star Wars fans should really shut the flock up, if it wasn't for him there would be no Star Wars in the first place.

 

[Timmaaaah]

Honestly, I liked the special edition in 1997 (besides Greedo shooting first). It involved deleted scenes and thigns that were meant to be in the originals. It completed it and made it better in my opinion. It was all that retconned bullshit in the DVD release that fucked me off. I am so glad that Lucas is "leaving business behind". Maybe he will regain some credibility as a film maker. But probably not seeing as Star Wars was art from adversity and the product of a TEAM, not just one guy. Nobody dared to cross him in the production of the prequels. Also, seriously, dick move allowing those CGI abominations of films to be created.

 

[Timmaaaah]

If you 't like the 1997 version, just watch the endings of ROTJ and tell which one sucks and which one doesn't. Just saying.

 

[Zen Toombs]

I don't despise the man, and actually didn't mind the prequel trilogy. However, I think that this is something of good news, if Lucas can get his head back on straight.

 

[TheDooD]

Lucas is just jelly that KOTOR and SWTOR's storylines are better then all 6 of his movies.

 

[personion]

Well, I can feel for him.

It's not right to call George Lucas the spawn of Satan because he mucked around with his films, even if he didn't make great choices. It's sort of sad to see him go, and it's a shame that nobody's really sad about it. He made a hugely successful franchise and people are cheering that the films aren't going to be desecrated anymore :/

Ooon the other hand I'm not a star wars fan so maybe I would have called him a terrible person along with everyone else if I was. Still seems a bit unjust to me.

 

[Android2137]

I'd be more sympathetic if he would just retire gracefully.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Lucas made one of the greatest trilogies of all time, and he made one of the worst trilogies of all time.
So in that way, I guess he broke even...Oh right, we still had to put up with his Star Wars Christmas Special...and Howard the Duck*.

Oh well, at least he won't be burdened with the weight of mass-merchandising anymore. Now his movies can be made without the obvious studio mandate of absolute greed. The Prequels were specifically designed for marketing licensing fees and selling merchandise, nothing else.

When Lucas announced that he was going to do the prequels, the temptation to sell out completely must have been tremendous; there was no way any sane businessman would pass up an opportunity to make BILLIONS solely for the sake of art/quality.
Result: George Lucas is worth over 3 billion (USD).

So yeah, no more of that...I hope.

It should give him the freedom to make a movie that isn't doomed to be some blatant commercial for a bunch of licensed crap, or the continued pillaging of fan-loyalty. I'm guessing that his new films might not necessarily be original (his best films are steeped in homages to older serials, aka, other works), but for him, it could be a fresh new start.

*[sub](*warning*Movie contains inter-species flirtation/romance...and duck tits*warning*)[/sub]

Congratulations internet you whined so hard you made an artist give up.

Based on his work in the last decade, I'm of the opinion that Lucas ceased resembling an "artist" a long, long time ago.
It's up to him to prove me wrong, and I would be most pleased if he did.

 

[Pandaman1911]

It's his property and his alone, and he can do whatever he wants with it, and he doesn't need approval from his fans to do what he wants with his intellectual property.

I call shenanigans.

No one person owns culture. Culture is owned by the entire populace.

Copyright exists to ensure a creator is able to make a return on their investment in the creation. It does not exist to give the creator eternal, unending, unilateral control over their individual contribution to the cultural gestalt. Copyright being held by unaging, undying corporations, existing for ninety years after death, are aberrations of the intent of copyright. It was never meant to be unending; it was never intended to lock creations away from the public indefinitely.

This is what Disney has done to us; it's created a generation of people (fortunately not everyone of that generation holds this belief) that feel no ownership at all of their own culture.

An idea is not something you can own; a story cannot be caged once told.

Star Wars belongs to all of us (George Lucas has been well compensated for his contribution), and we are well in our rights to be upset with what the law has allowed George Lucas to do to it.

You own the experience, he owns the property. How you experience things is within your power. What he does with the property is within his.

 

[SimGrave]

Who the hell cares that Lucas altered his films? Is he not entitled to create his stories as he wishes? Further, his edits are so minor that they're barely noticeable at all, and any person who hasn't seen the unaltered versions wouldn't think any less of the altered versions. I really don't see why Lucas is so hated despite everything he has accomplished.

Thanks for being the odd one. I'm with you on this and will add to it that all 6 movies are in the Top 100 movies with the highest revenue. If the more it went the worse they were, why did they keep making money? The answer is easy... most people didn't care so much about the Star Wars legacy when going to see them. Here we have the loud geek voices speaking angry. But most people just go see a movie and that's it. Not everybody cares about expressing themselves over the internet. The same way as 99% of the people won't ever complain directly to a filmmaker. They either love or hate the movie they just saw, talk bits of it with friends around a supper and that's it. They don't make a big deal out of it as if it ruined their life. You guys have to realise that you don't represent the majority. That the original versions of these movies still exist. That there are no reasons to feel like your childhood memories were soiled. I know, I'm not going make friends with this post, but please be honest with yourself before hating me. I'm not saying "get a life"... I'm saying "life goes on". There are more important things in life than movies to let it ruin your life and generate so much hate.

NOTE: I mean no disrespect when using the word "geek". I consider myself to be one and here I am expressing my opinion over the internet. So I'm not passing judgment on it. I simply accept that I am not the voice of the majority.