Solid Snake

Jesus. I'll never really understand fandom that blinds you to not see how bad something is.

JeremyM

I can sympathize with Lucas' tinkering to an extent. I've written three books. On the first two, I have tinkered with them since their release--sometimes just to fix typos that made it through, others to tweak a sentence here and there (I read one of them out loud to my kid so that forced me to take another look). So I get it. But, most of his changes have only made the films worse--I like to think mine were for the better. Tolkien, Twain, etc. were all guilty of doing the same with their works, but it was never as visible as say Jedi Rocks or Hayden in Jedi.

As far as his quote, that is unbelievably condescending. But it's also revealing, and seems to be the way he mentally deals with the criticism. "I knew what I was doing and it's their fault for not getting it." Criticism is tough and you have to grow a thick skin, but the danger in that is you might tune out what is constructive. My last book received a review on Amazon that simply said it had an "offensive storyline and badly written." I had to tune it out because of the vagueness of the review, but it is tough to see, and my first thought was to start dismissing all critics as "haters". I can see where you reach a certain point of success and would be inclined to do that. (I am not anywhere near that point!)

What Lucas doesn't seem to grasp is that part of being a successful artist in mass media is that you create something engaging that your audience can enjoy while still getting across points you'd like to make. So it's fine to have a "soap opera" romance or political intrigue, but your job as the artist is to package that in an engaging form. With anything, some people will like it and some won't. But it can be a tough road to walk, especially if you're entrenched with the belief that only you know the right way.

Another factor: when Lucas created Star Wars, he was told by most that it was horrible. It's no wonder he started to tune out any and all criticism. After all, so many people had been wrong before, and he was right. Virtually every studio turned him down. This has to affect your thought process, and it's probably why a lot of good artists seem to lose their "edge."

If he wants to stand behind the prequels, fine, but I have been rewatching them with an open mind and I can't blame the audience for their opinions. For example, Attack of the Clones doesn't succeed on any level beyond a great score. Ewan and Christopher Lee are fine. The rest is unbelievably bad. I honestly think it is one of the worst hit films ever made. The plot is equivalent to what an eight-year old with a box of Star Wars toys might have put together. "OK, Yoda fights now!!!" "All right, Jango leaves Kamino, and Obi Wan follows him to a planet where all of the bad guys just happen to be meeting, even though Jango has no reason for being there and wasn't heading there until Obi Wan came by and chased him off!" Very little of the plot holds up to any analysis. Coincidences everywhere.

Shazam

FIRST TWO MINUTES LEAKED! WATCH AT YOUR PERIL!

bunkaroo

I guess the name of the First Order base is Desconocido - all the villains appear to be from there!

bralph

I started watching it, and stopped when it seemed legit. (Not sure why I wanted to see it if it wasn't legit...) I want to see it all in person, in a theater. Not on some shaky handheld camera/phone recording.

Tom Creo

I was hoping they wouldn't forget about the Gungans.

TGM

how many times must I apologize for that?????????????

JeremyM

TGM

no opening ship shot? fake.

Timber

Damn it.

Sean O'Hara

You should watch. It'll leave you pumped to find out what happens next.

Solid Snake

that's a pretty good intro. Very classy and somewhat ballsy of them. Didn't know that Max von Sydow was that weird looking. Nice to know he kicks it off like that though.

Rob V

This is already better than the entire PT.

Brack

Since it's fake, no!

bralph

If I would have just given it another 10-15 seconds, I would have known it was fake. Glad to know that it isn't legit. If it were, I would probably cave and watch it sometime over the next 9 days...

Abob Teff

Holy shit! I can't believe that they went there ... I mean, it's ballsy to start with

(Spoiler] Gungans and Ewoks filibustering in the Imperial Senate.[/spoiler]

Never saw that coming.

dvdjunkie32

Well that article pretty much cemented my opinion of Lucas. He is a self centered prick. Doesn't matter that Star Wars is a beloved franchise, he wanted to make the movies that made him happy, not the fans. He wanted to make a dopey soap opera.

Lucas is just no longer a very good film maker. The pre-sequels shows he bombs at casting and dialogue and believes the backstory is very important even though fans don't care about learning details like how the senate worked. JJ Abrams obviously put his heart and soul into this project to make everything just right for the fans down to creating the perfect movie trailer. The movies should be for the fans, not a selfish director's wish list.

I'm disappointed that Lucas didn't give high praise to Abrams.

Abob Teff

JeremyM is right on so many fronts.

Regarding Attack of the Clones though, wow. I decided to rewatch the PT ... It has taken me almost a week to get through AotC. I remembered it being bad, but not that bad. Never mind Star Wars, it is just a bad CGI crapfest of a film in general. There is potential in some of the events, scenes, story elements, etc. but it is just poorly made.

I really felt as if I was watching a TV pilot that no network picked up so they added to it and made it a "feature" film. From the middling CGI to the crappy writing to the barely trying costume and character design.

Timber

When the movie gets to the made for video game scenes with Anakin, 3po and R2 in the droid factory the movie just grinds to a halt. Even more so than the horrible Anakin/Padme scenes.

Mabuse

First clue that the 2 minute leak is a hoax is when the first line of the opening crawl has a typo.

JeremyM

Oh man, that 3PO scene--on my last watch, for some reason it really irked me that he could talk while his head was disconnected from his body. We saw in Empire that without a body, he cannot function. Of all things, that was the final straw with me and that movie! It showed they had no respect for their material. "He shouldn't be able to talk here, but let's get in our 'what a drag' joke anyway."

It's not the worst movie ever, but it's the worst one I've ever convinced myself was good. I had thought that other than the bad romance, the movie was passable, but no, it is awful all around. I found it to be far worse than even TPM.

dex14

New pic of Carrie Fisher's daughter, Billie Lourd:

Solid Snake

The droid's name she's with is called PZ-4CO. She's in that image of Ford and Leia around some battle center planning table thing. So I guess she's some minor character working w/ Leia.

Mike86

Cute girl. The new droid is cool looking too. Looks like its seen use and has been around for a while.

Shannon Nutt

[Harrison Ford]"She was my WIFE!"[/Harrison Ford]