Posted on 05/04/2005 7:14:23 AM PDT by dead
Ask George Lucas about his hopes for the closing instalment of Star Wars, Revenge of the Sith, and he replies that he expects it to fail.
In an interview with TIME magazine, Lucas says that like everyone who makes movies, he is "always convinced the next one will be a flop".
"So right now Im thinking it probably wont make any money and will be considered a failure."
But in spite of his fears, he concedes he is very satisfied with the final product. "I think it turned out as well as I could have hoped, and at the same time I'm very glad that I finished it."
Others may be less glad the saga has finally come to an end. In the first published review of Revenge of the Sith, filmmaker, Kevin Smith described the film as "so satisfyingly tragic, you'll think you're watching 'Othello' or 'Hamlet'".
"This is the 'Star Wars' prequel the haters have been bitching for since 'Menace' came out, and if they don't cop to that when they finally see it, they're lying," added the maker of Clerks, Chasing Amy and Jersey Girl.
Despite the staunch enthusiasm of fans of the original Star Wars, Lucas said he never really entertained the fact that there would ever be more than one film. "I expected it to take me a year, year and a half to make, and then I expected to move on to other things."
Lucas considers the Star Wars storytelling format very stylised, and "very much in opposition to what my natural inclinations are".
He now hopes to explore more abstract forms of filmmaking that interested him in his days at film school. "It's vaguely in the land of music videos, I guess, but I don't even know how to describe them. I know they won't be mainstream movies. I'm sure they'll be just as criticized as Star Wars films are," he said.
Lucas also has a hankering to work in television principally to shift away from doing anything that may considered "important". He said television offered the chance to do "really great work" without all of the "megillah" that surrounds film.
Revenge of the Sith is being released around the world on May 19.
Am I going to have to put a freakin' disclaimer up?
Here...
The preceding post is my personal opinion, and no other opinions are suggested or implied!
There...is that better? :)
Incorrect. It was originally released simply as "Star Wars". When it was re-released just prior to the release of Empire Strikes Back, there were numerous articles about how SW fans might be surprised to see the new subtitle of the movie "Episode IV: A New Hope".
Yup!!
Come to think of it, compared with that Ep I swordfight, Lucas could do a LOT of "backfill" with the swordfights in IV, V & VI.
You are correct. I recall that it said "Episode IV" in the 1970's.
source? according to the documentary produced by A&E about the films, it was always Episode 4. There was no re-release before Empire strikes back.
Oh well...I was 3 years old after all. Though I remember it fairly vividly.
Chewbacca is in it. Why is that odd. Don't wookies live hundreds of years? Isn't it reasonable that Chebacca could have been General Kenobi's friend during the clone wars? What's the problem?
we are merely trying to reconcile your opinions with fact.
You must be remembering the re-release then. The Episode IV was added in a re-release just prior to the release of The Empire Strikes Back.
And even if it is some other Wookie, it's still pretty stupid.
Why else do you think they just happened to hook up at Mos Eisley? I've never thought about it before, but I suppose it makes sense.
Yep, and if I could grab a chunk of those billions I'd be the king of bling-bling with a sub-wolfer and 9mm with homeboy sights.
Hey, shouldn't Carrie be holding a bazooka?
Lol! We watched it also over the weekend. The fight was a let down. In fact, the effects were plain funny!
My husband, who is a huge Star Fans fan (not convention-attending type, but normal person type), says the Episodes 1 and 2 do very well in following the story lines presented in Episodes 4-6. I'm looking forward to the battle when the clones turn on the Jedi. The effects now make it almost worth going for themself.
JMHO
it makes perfect sense. The empire enslaved the wookies and used them to build starships and other things, among them the death star.
He is in the sequence on the wookie home planet, and he helps Yoda escape a trap laid for him by the sith lord.
That's no excuse for them to have stunk. Lots of authors and filmakers have made multi-installment stories without the first one or two being so crummy. I'd actually argue the other way. The third movie is the one that had to be crafted to fit into the beginning of things at the time of Star Wars. He had a completely free hand to do anything he wanted in the first two movies to get things to that point.
Here's my theory -- Lucas is not very good at happy stuff, but is very good at the darker stuff. The lasting icon from the first movie wasn't Luke Skywalker, but Darth Vader. And the happy little Ewoks were just horrible. The first two movies from this second trilogy dwelt largely in a "better time". This third movie, with evil triumphant, likely will be the best of the three for that reason.
Fort Worth Star Telegram Entertainment section (don't recall the date -- it was late 70's and my archives don't go back that far, though I remember the beginning of the article pretty vividly as I was reading anything I could get my hands on about SW at the time).
I have absolutely no problem with it. I'm looking forward to this movie!
And yes, wookies do live hundreds of years.
Too bad Obi Wan does't kill Anakin at the end of Episode #3, it would have saved the rebellion a lot of problems. ;-)
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