Poll: Are We Too Hard On Lucas?

[Hollock]

He has complete disregard for his fans. He said a million times that he just wants to make his movies and doesn't give a shit what the fans think. He says that his movies are kids films and that it shouldn't matter to his older fans. If all of a sudden he says you guys are to mean to me I'm not playing with you anymore! after years of nothing, well. Fuck him.

And as far as him retiring from film making. He's made 6 films in 30 years. Him no longer making films is like me retiring from dating.

 

[PhunkyPhazon]

By no means is he without faults, and he has most definitely made some poor decisions with his recent films. On top of that, he refuses to listen to fans or virtually any feedback whatsoever, just doing as he pleases with his movies. Normally that would be fine, but Lucas does things to his movies that drive a lot of people away from them.

However, when all is said and done, they're just movies. He's not murdering children or anything, he's just making unpopular decisions with his films. For that reason, I do think some of the bashing has gone extremely overboard with some people. I mean if you were to listen to a die-hard Star Wars fanboy, you'd think Lucas committed genocide and that he was the adopted child of Hitler and Satan. I mean good god people, I hate Jar Jar as much as anyone but it's not THAT big of a deal.

 

[maddog015]

Not quite. It's more like if JK goes back now and tools around the books to change the tone or introduce frivolous details. People would be outraged. For the most part, people like things the way they are when they originally saw/read it, flaws and all.

Its more like if JK went back to the first book now, and decided to re-write the entire book, by adding a goofy side-kick character that follows Harry around, then not change any of the other dialog, just randomly insert bad slapstick humor in EVERYTHING.

Then you have what equals to what Lucas did to Star Wars.

If you're gonna make an analogy, make it correct.

Hey, I like the way you think.

 

[Schmittler]

Jar-Jar Binks.
Midichlorians.
Hayden Christiansen shopped into the ending of RotJ.

JAR. JAR. BINKS.

No, I don't think people are too hard on him at all.

While I agree to an extent that we shouldn't let him off the hook so easily, if we ignore the Phantom Menace, I can forgive him.

I can forgive Hayden Christiansen being shopped into RotJ for continuities sake, but I do dislike that he messes with his original trilogy and makes decisions based on toys, etc. Throwing in CGI'd aliens is passable, but making Vader say "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" in RotJ was just silly, as well as having Greedo shoot first.

In conclusion, sure the guy has made some mistakes, but he gets a little too much hate for what he has done. Without the Phantom Menace it is at least respectable. He shouldn't be directing his movies in my opinion.

 

[Risingblade]

Yeah you guys are too hard on the poor guy, I feel sorry for him quite honestly.

 

[WeAreStevo]

I do not believe we are too hard on Lucas. He has driven his original, amazing series into the dirt.

Examples: Jar Jar Binks. Indiana Jones being nuked and surviving in a fridge.

Those god awful "new" versions of the original trilogy....

I'm glad he's stopped before any more damage can be done...

 

[Strain42]

As someone who doesn't see Star Wars as some "holy trilogy" and just sees them as semi-decent movies set in a fairly interesting universe, I think people are way too hard on him. It's one thing to get mad at a director for making bad films, it's another to literally insult the man into semi-retirement because of some altered effects.

I know some of this will come across as hypocritical (and it is) but there are better things to vent anger at than a man who decided to alter something that he made.

Seriously, people freaking out about Greedo shooting first is about as pointless as getting mad if someone plugs their phone charger into the top outlet instead of the bottom one.

Star Wars fans are the nerd ragiest of nerd rage, and watching them fling poo about it makes me embarrassed to be considered part of the same culture as them.

 

[Gennadios]

My impression on Lucas is that he was made by his limitations. Only his 70's movies were classics because greenscreen technology wasn't really available then and he needed to get creative with character actions and filler in between his epic but really expensive FX shots.

Now that he has all the money he'll ever need and most of his character dialogue happens on the greenscreen, actors don't have to carry out scenes and just do what he says word for word and let him fill in his inane backtrops. When he has full control of characters, the full extent of his inability to write them becomes pretty clear.

I say good riddance, he'll simply never be able to direct or write a good movie again because a lazy, greenscreen addicted hack, he's better off saving face and giving up while still relatively ahead.

 

[Ashannon Blackthorn]

Pretty much. The blunt honest truth is this.... nerd rage. How dare George Lucas fuck with what I like.

As I say in a lot of my posts, rampant self entitlement is a core part of the average person's makeup nowadays.

Fuck you, fuck your self entitlement.

And guess what? I didn't like Star Wars, so I never bothered ot watch it so fuck your obvious argument of I'm a George Lucas fanboi. Also, fuck your other arguement that as a fan you have more say in this than me. Actually I probably have better judgement than any nerd rager cause I'm not looking through tinted glasses while whacking off to memories of Leia in a fucking thong.

If you don't like how George screws around with the works stop watching it. Stop fucking buying the movies, games, clothing lines, cosmetics and Darth Vadar dildos.

You pissant fucking consumers are to blame for all this BS and instead of going, "You know, this sucks, maybe I should just forget about it and just remember what I enjoyed and maybe George would have stopped tweaking a long time ago.

This is a give and take. George tweaks, you guys buys, George sees the money rolling in, he tweaks more. You complain and keep buying shit. Fuck, McDondalds should try slowly tweaking their hamburgers into rat meat. Betcha you whiny fucks would still buy it while complaining the Rotten Ronnies exec's aren't true to the original vision and that you pay their wages so you have the say what goes in to burgers. Fuck you and eat your ratburgers.

Hmm, maybe I should watch George Carlin skits before posting on this forum...

 

[Braedan]

I'm shocked he didn't add a wilhelm scream to Obi-wan when Vader kills him.

more hate.

 

[TheBelgianGuy]

Star Wars fans are the nerd ragiest of nerd rage, and watching them fling poo about it makes me embarrassed to be considered part of the same culture as them.

Agreed. SOme of the comments in this thread make me puke.
"You thought the prequels were bad? You were wrong. Your opinion is wrong and you have bad taste, they were just very bad blablablabla."
"So glad I got Lucas to stop! I hate him and hope he dies. Let's play with my star wars dolls now! Yaaay!"

 

[shrekfan246]

Yes. I think the hate has gone overboard a long time ago. Do something else with your life. You come across as crybabies that only go WAAAHHH WAAAAH. I don't think the prequels are good movies by any means. They are ok.

I have to agree with this. It's an incredibly spoiled and entitled attitude that all of these self-proclaimed "fans" have that they think they should be allowed to demand George Lucas abandon the entertainment industry and return the original movies to how they were first released.

The industry doesn't revolve around you, Star Wars fanboys. Everything is not made to specifically cater to you, everything will not be sculpted and altered to meet your specific wants. George Lucas is not personally assaulting you by making edits to movies created by Lucasarts. He did not kill your dog and sleep with your sister/mother just because he added in a word and some pointless CGI. He did not cuss you out in front of the Pope by creating the prequel trilogy, he didn't set fire to your house by having Hayden Christensen cast as Anakin Skywalker, he didn't irradiate your entire neighborhood by unleashing Jar Jar Binks on the world.

He made a few movies, then decided he wanted to change bits and pieces in them years later. Yes, he's a hypocrite. Yes, he's a poor director/screenwriter/producer. Yes, he's selfish and thinking only of what he wants. But so are all of the fans. Every single time they ***** and moan, it's about how George Lucas "should've kept it the way I liked it!" If you don't like all of the digitally altered versions, don't watch them. If you're as hardcore a Star Wars fan as you appear, you've probably had the original versions for years. Nobody is forcing you to re-buy the Super Special Collector's Limited Director's Blu-Ray Edition.

 

[OutcastBOS]

We are way too hard on him. I know his films are what they are because of the fanbase, and I know it's how we like them. But they're his movies, who are we to say that he can't do what he pleases to them? The fans that piss and moan about little changes to the movies pretty much drove him into retirement. And for the record, I do find the prequels to be pretty bad, but with some good things about them, and I actually doubt Lucas had much to do with them himself.

Edit: I also agree with what these people both said.

Yes. I think the hate has gone overboard a long time ago. Do something else with your life. You come across as crybabies that only go WAAAHHH WAAAAH. I don't think the prequels are good movies by any means. They are ok.

I have to agree with this. It's an incredibly spoiled and entitled attitude that all of these self-proclaimed "fans" have that they think they should be allowed to demand George Lucas abandon the entertainment industry and return the original movies to how they were first released.

The industry doesn't revolve around you, Star Wars fanboys. Everything is not made to specifically cater to you, everything will not be sculpted and altered to meet your specific wants. George Lucas is not personally assaulting you by making edits to movies created by Lucasarts. He did not kill your dog and sleep with your sister/mother just because he added in a word and some pointless CGI. He did not cuss you out in front of the Pope by creating the prequel trilogy, he didn't set fire to your house by having Hayden Christensen cast as Anakin Skywalker, he didn't irradiate your entire neighborhood by unleashing Jar Jar Binks on the world.

He made a few movies, then decided he wanted to change bits and pieces in them years later. Yes, he's a hypocrite. Yes, he's a poor director/screenwriter/producer. Yes, he's selfish and thinking only of what he wants. But so are all of the fans. Every single time they ***** and moan, it's about how George Lucas "should've kept it the way I liked it!" If you don't like all of the digitally altered versions, don't watch them. If you're as hardcore a Star Wars fan as you appear, you've probably had the original versions for years. Nobody is forcing you to re-buy the Super Special Collector's Limited Director's Blu-Ray Edition.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Let me put it this way: I don't wish death on the man, but I'm in the camp that is just biding their time until he kicks the bucket, and hoping his heirs have a bit more sense about the movies than he does. We're never going to get a good transfer of the original original trilogy as long as the man lives. It's not because the original negatives have been destroyed; you don't really need those to get a good transfer when there's still three strip technicolor prints extant -- those things, along with vinyl records, are one of those formats that pretty much never decay as long as they're properly stored. What we're seeing here, sadly, is a man with a bruised ego who is too proud to admit he made a mistake. Until he either admits his mistake[footnote]meaning he gives the original cuts the respect they deserve; a transfer of a master made for laserdisc that looks worse than the fan transfers of the actual laserdiscs does /not/ count.[/footnote] or dies, I'm unlikely to ever buy a new transfer of the old films. And that makes me sad; lord knows the man has made a small fortune off of me alone over the years, and there would be plenty of money left if he would just give the fans (including me) what they want.

The infamous edit that puts Hayden Christensen at the end of RoTJ was released on a special edition DVD that included the original theatrical version of the film. I bought them just a couple years back, so I can't imagine that they'd be impossible to find.

Actually, it wasn't. That was a re-release in 2006, after I had already got my 2004 edition. I and everyone else who bought those DVDs would have had to triple or quadruple dip to get the original cuts, and they were included as a bonus disc with an edition we already had. Besides, you must have missed or not understood my footnote. The DVD with the original cut was not a new transfer. It was the transfer from the 1993 laserdiscs, loaded up with so much DNR that it actually looks much uglier than the laserdiscs themselves, and not even in an anamorphic format. That wasn't Lucas giving us what we wanted; it was more like "here, you want my sandwich? Well let me lick it, then you can have it."

 

[Smurf McSmurfington]

In short - yes and no.

Long version - he does deserve respect for everything hes done for the films in general over the decades, however the man has no business making films himself, or having too much control over films. Thing is he doesn't really understand people(nor do I really, but you don't see me directing films, now do you... I just watch 'em. A lot. Perhaps one could say too much even), the original prequels were also made by him but he was also challenged by others and wasn't in complete control. Also a chap (whose name I have by now forgotten) took up the actual director duty (instructing actors what to do, et cetera), and that's fine, it worked perfectly fine. In fact it worked extraordinarily well.

If Lucas didn't have complete and total control over his films, they'd come out much MUCH better.
I don't think he should stop making films(in fact I think we're all poorer for it), but I do think he shouldn't have as much control over 'em. We've all seen the prequels(and the latest Indiana Jones film, where mr. Lucas had too much influence over the film as well, and noone, including Spielberg, could really argue with him, for he was the boss of all bosses in that respect), and therefore we have seen how much of a difference it really makes whether he has some or complete control over it(by comparing the original trilogy to the prequels, respectively).

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

No you don't do about 4 separate versions of the same three movies because you want to complete them. Just leave them the fuck alone and do 1 director's cut if there was anything you want to put it when it is feasible. He made the point the changes were due to not being able to do them at the time but Hayden(as in a young Vader), the added in No and Greedo shooting first were all able to be done in the original release.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Let me put it this way: I don't wish death on the man, but I'm in the camp that is just biding their time until he kicks the bucket, and hoping his heirs have a bit more sense about the movies than he does. We're never going to get a good transfer of the original original trilogy as long as the man lives. It's not because the original negatives have been destroyed; you don't really need those to get a good transfer when there's still three strip technicolor prints extant -- those things, along with vinyl records, are one of those formats that pretty much never decay as long as they're properly stored. What we're seeing here, sadly, is a man with a bruised ego who is too proud to admit he made a mistake. Until he either admits his mistake[footnote]meaning he gives the original cuts the respect they deserve; a transfer of a master made for laserdisc that looks worse than the fan transfers of the actual laserdiscs does /not/ count.[/footnote] or dies, I'm unlikely to ever buy a new transfer of the old films. And that makes me sad; lord knows the man has made a small fortune off of me alone over the years, and there would be plenty of money left if he would just give the fans (including me) what they want.

The infamous edit that puts Hayden Christensen at the end of RoTJ was released on a special edition DVD that included the original theatrical version of the film. I bought them just a couple years back, so I can't imagine that they'd be impossible to find.

Actually, it wasn't. That was a re-release in 2006, after I had already got my 2004 edition. I and everyone else who bought those DVDs would have had to triple or quadruple dip to get the original cuts, and they were included as a bonus disc with an edition we already had. Besides, you must have missed or not understood my footnote. The DVD with the original cut was not a new transfer. It was the transfer from the 1993 laserdiscs, loaded up with so much DNR that it actually looks much uglier than the laserdiscs themselves, and not even in an anamorphic format. That wasn't Lucas giving us what we wanted; it was more like "here, you want my sandwich? Well let me lick it, then you can have it."

Pardon my techno-ignorance, but what is DNR. I Googled it and all I found was Department of Natural Resources and Do Not Resusitate. I'm confident that neither of those are what you're talking about.

As to what I bought, yeah, it was likely the 2006 versions as I bought them in late 2008. I can't comment on the quality of the "original theatrical cut" that was included as I haven't yet watched it on those discs. All I know is that that the back of the box promised the post-Episode III re-cut as well as the "original theatrical version" in one box.

 

[Hosker]

I do. There are plenty of worse film out there. If you don't like them, just ignore them.

 

[boag]

the man has been milking this cow since the tail end of the 1970s, Im glad he was able to make loads of cash on his property, but he should understand that he choose his path, he choose to stay confined and not grow beyond his niche.

 

[Random Argument Man]

Every time that we see "artists" uncapable of making the stuff that they wanted because the fans are raging, it's always sad. Sure, the prequels weren't that good, but I can at least respect the idea and him even if I didn't like it.