Where Star Wars Went (and keeps going) Wrong
I think everybody knows when Star Wars went wrong. Return of the Jedi is the movie and most people will point to the Ewoks as a clear sign that even then George Lucas didn’t understand what made his own creation so great. They’re wrong though.
Well partially wrong at least. The Ewoks were over-used and certainly over-marketed, but they didn’t ruin the movie in and of themselves. Return of the Jedi was the first Star Wars movie where spectacle started to overwhelm plot. It’s the movie where the effects became more important than anything else. It’s also the point at which Lucas seems to begin to believe his own press.
That problem became much more evident with the special edition re-releases in 1997 when George Lucas not only re-worked the special effects largely unnecessarily but also tweaked some plot points to the annoyance of many long time fans. This set the pattern for the next 10 years and the tweaking continued and special effects came to dominate even more.
Image by lamont_cranston via Flickr
The culmination was of course Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith where we are subjected to an opening sequence which is both breathtaking in its CGI sophistication and completely impossible for the brain to actually follow. By this stage special effects seemed to have become a reason by themselves with no plot justification needed.
If that wasn’t bad enough Lucas grew increasingly insistent that the 6 part Star Wars saga we now have is what he envisaged from the beginning. Never mind plenty of documentary evidence that at one point a sequel trilogy was floated. Never mind the fact it’s perfectly obvious that Leia was not Luke’s sister in the original Star Wars movie. Never mind that the prequel trilogy does not mesh well with the original trilogy even after all the tinkering.
And there’s no sign of this stopping. Now we have Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which is computer animated. Why? Because. There’s already been an animated version. We’ve seen the beginning of that war in one movie and the end in another. There’s really no reason to visit it again, except it’s an opportunity to play with yet more technology.
At the beginning of this article I said that George Lucas didn’t understand what made Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back so great. Sometimes I think other fans don’t realize either.
It’s not the brilliant story telling because honestly the only Star Wars movie with any real depth is Empire Strikes Back. It’s not the dialogue, because that’s always been hokey. It’s actually much simpler than that.
Star Wars pure old-fashioned adventure where the good guys ultimately triumphed. It was wrapped in modern packaging with fast pacing and a look that no-one had seen before. Archetypal characters following a classic quest plot. Plain and simple, it was fun. Now granted Empire Strikes Back did attempt to add some depth to the whole setup, but it never lost sight of what Star Wars really is. Even in Return of the Jedi enough of the formula remained to make things work.
By the time The Phantom Menace came along though, we were expected to take Star Wars seriously and it just doesn’t work. Star Wars works the same way Indiana Jones works. Take it seriously and it falls apart.
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7 Comments, Comment or Ping
Manxom Vroom
Yes, the major problem is that Lucas became too enraptured with the possibilities of digital effects. I read all of the “Art of” books that came out with episodes 1 - 3, and the designs are all beautiful, stunning, gorgeous. At times though Lucas had his people come up with the designs first, and then he shoehorned a story into the design. Wrong!
The other big problem is that none of his new characters have any real heart. Padme is basically a mannequin to hang costumes, especially in “Phantom Menace.” It whole “queen in disguise” subplot only muddied the waters further. How many costume changes did Princess Leia have in the first Star Wars? None! How many in “Empire?” Three. “Return of the Jedi?” Um, not sure on that. Three or four, I think.
I could go on about all the things Lucas did wrong, but I’ll spare you the dissertation. One good thing I will say about the prequels: when Fox debuted the trailer for “Phantom Menace” I recorded it, and watched it every single morning as I drank my coffee. Watching that made me feel like an 8 year-old kid again, and I’ll never forget that. The dizzy anticipation was intoxicating, and far better than the movie itself.
Jeff
Manxom Vrooms last blog post..Fractal Friday #28: Time Tunnel (1)
Jul 11th, 2008
James
Hmm.
I saw Star Wars in a cinema when I was 4 years old. As you can imagine it had a rather large impact.
A few years after ROTJ was released I went to see a triple bill of all three films. I remember thinking that Star Wars was a lot slower than I remembered. and The Empire Strikes Back was dull, and I couldn’t wait for Jedi.
Nowadays I appreciate TESB for what it is, but I also appreciate all the other films for what they are. I really like the prequel trilogy. I really like the Clone Wars animated series and I’m really looking forward to the new Clone Wars series.
I’ve seen kids watch TPM and love JarJar, and love the massive battle in Attack Of The Clones… (and then not be able to see Sith because it was a 12A).
What most, older, Star Wars fans forget is that they saw Star Wars when they were young.
Jamess last blog post..The Broken World Website
Jul 11th, 2008
Scott
Jeff,
I wholeheartedly agree with your comment about TPM and its trailer. I was 8 again, too. And the trailer (heck, even the trailer of AotC) hinted at a great movie with intrigue, mystery, and adventure. Then you get to the movie and, well, you know.
The first two movies are classics and ones where, if I catch it on TV, I’ll stop channel surfing and watch. The other four? Not really. Shoot, even now, 31 years later, I can *still* watch the Death Star battle and *still* get goosebumps when Han shows up and the DS explodes. Don’t know if that’s my 8-year-old self reemerging or what but I love it. Empire doesn’t have those kinds of moments for me (except when Artoo opens the door and our heroes escape in the Falcon). But the opening scenes, on Hoth, say, the first 10 minutes, still has that particular feeling I got back in 1980. You see, TESB was my first ever sequel and, as such, its special. It was interesting to see the characters alive again, after 3 years of comic books, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, and countless hours of playing with the action figures. Those two movies are, basically, special.
Scotts last blog post..Justice in H-Town (Reboot)
Jul 11th, 2008
Calimac
“Never mind the fact it’s perfectly obvious that Leia was not Luke’s sister in the original Star Wars movie.”
Equally perfectly obvious is that Vader was not Luke’s father in the original Star Wars movie. It’s a clumsy retcon, proven by Ghosti-Wan’s lame excuse when Luke tackles him in the third film about having lied to him about Vader having killed his father.
Jul 12th, 2008
Johnd
I think Lucas was under a lot of pressure to come up with a Vader orgin story. He really didn’t need three movies to tell it, so he used a lot of CGI meaningless filler stories.
Jul 12th, 2008
Ronald Stepp
I agree with the article and one other thing that annoys me to no end has to do with the latest 9-part, yes, 9-part book series, Legacy of the Force that I got sucked into reading and just finished.
Detail…. way to much detail. And not the neat detail like we saw in the original 3 movies. Well the Empire Strikes Back, and Last Hope.. the detail in the books is the kind you find in a non-fiction police thriller or CIA novel. We get away from the immersion in the actual Star Wars Universe and by the 4th or 5th Book of Legacy of the Force I feel like I’m reading something with Mack Bolan in it.
The most obvious of many is when “suspects” are “detained” and “handcuffed.” Handcuffed!? What happened to “Binders?”
It’s that kind of drop back to real world terminology that kicks me right out of a good book and into feeling like I’m watching CNN. Plus, and maybe I’m being too fanboyish here but in the Legacy books right from the beginning the Jedi, ALL the Jedi seem to be way to quick to get angry at just about anything. They are absolutely not the calm wise jedi knights like Quigon or Obi Wan, or even Yoda (the movie yoda).. you can’t get through a scene where they don’t lose their cool, fear for their partners, or let loose with a tirade like “He hurt my husband/father/son, now I’m going to hunt him down and kill him like a dog in the streets.”
So I think the whole series, movie and books likewise went to heck in a handcart after the first 2 1/2 movies. Sad… so sad…
Jul 14th, 2008
Ronald Stepp
If you want to see really hilarious revies of the “new” 1st 3 movies, Phantom Menace, etc… check out confusedmatthew on youtube.com, specifically his 3 3-part prequel reviews… I couldn’t stop rolliing on the floor in tears nodding my head in agreement.
If you want a taste of his humor, he refers to Darth Maul as Darth Timefiller, Count Duqoo as Count Dracula, and Princess Amidala as Princess Ooba Dooba. I might have misremembered the names slightly he tended to switch them a little.. H I L A R I O U S S T U F F !
Jul 14th, 2008
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