The choices that sank Star Wars
Before I completely let go of movie week ... and I'm certain I will always find my way back to talking about movies ...
I expect I'm probably too old to expect to be there when someone in Hollywood decides to remake "Star Wars" - and maybe that day will never come. But I think someday someone will try again at least to tell the story of how Darth Vader came to be. More precisely, I think someone, someday, will recognize that Episodes 1-3 comprise a brilliant story that was badly executed on multiple levels.
In some ways George Lucas left us with good enough movies that they could be salvaged as is with one massive job of redubbing: If the dialogue of Jar-Jar Binks and the other Gungons, and the ambassadors of the Trade Federation, were redone without those clever but almost unintelligible alien accents.
Lucas did such a realistic job of making the aliens alien that on first viewing we can't understand what they're saying. (That, and Jar-Jar's voice is grating on the nerves.) Try to watch "The Phantom Menace" and imagine not working so hard to hear the words - and with, say, a deeper voice on Jar-Jar. It's a pretty good flick if you use your imagination.
I believe Lucas completely botched the character of Anakin Skywalker, but again, if you imagine different choices, you can hear that it's not the words of the script that betray the future Darth Vader (OK, except for the love scenes with Padme) - it's the actors and director. I think Jake Lloyd had the moxie to pull off 10-year-old Anakin, but I think Lucas was the wrong director and as a result Jake had too many moments where he was just saying his lines instead of acting. If Lucas had had the insight to hire, say, Steven Spielberg, who has had enormous success directing children in big movies (think "E.T."), I think Jake's performance would have been a lot better.
Lucas and Hayden Christensen also made plenty of wrong choices with the late-teen and mature Anakin. When we meet Anakin the Jedi in "Attack of the Clones," he seems to be seriously stuck in adolescence. He whines about not getting his chance to be a full Jedi, he whines about not being able to make it with Padme, he whines about everything. When the Jedi Council denies him his rightful place as the greatest Jedi of all time, we the audience should be able to feel the injustice of it - but the arrested development of his personality is so obvious that all we feel is, "Good for the council, who does this jerk think he is anyway?"
To fully experience the tragedy of Anakin's descent to the Dark Side, we needed to feel the glory of his ascent. Lucas and Christensen didn't do it for us. Again, I fault Lucas the director more than Lucas the writer - the words are there, especially in "Revenge of the Sith," which despite this major shortcoming is still the first Star Wars film since "The Empire Strikes Back" that's in the same league as the original "Star Wars." (To me the series "jumped the shark" at the first appearance of an Ewok.)
"Sith," in fact, may be the best-written film of the six (except for the aforementioned love scenes). Its themes are certainly the most interesting: The danger of handing too much power to one individual, the chancellor aka emperor - but also the danger of placing too much power in the hands of a small group of individuals. The emperor actually makes a compelling case to be wary of the Jedi Council. The movie is a triumph for Lucas the writer and Lucas the effects-blockbuster movie maker; if he had done a better job of directing his cast (or perhaps, perhaps, a better job of casting), it could have been the best movie in the whole series and perhaps the best science fiction adventure movie ever made.
But he fell short, and as a result it's not even the best science fiction adventure movie of the year. That title, of course, goes to "Serenity."
I expect I'm probably too old to expect to be there when someone in Hollywood decides to remake "Star Wars" - and maybe that day will never come. But I think someday someone will try again at least to tell the story of how Darth Vader came to be. More precisely, I think someone, someday, will recognize that Episodes 1-3 comprise a brilliant story that was badly executed on multiple levels.
In some ways George Lucas left us with good enough movies that they could be salvaged as is with one massive job of redubbing: If the dialogue of Jar-Jar Binks and the other Gungons, and the ambassadors of the Trade Federation, were redone without those clever but almost unintelligible alien accents.
Lucas did such a realistic job of making the aliens alien that on first viewing we can't understand what they're saying. (That, and Jar-Jar's voice is grating on the nerves.) Try to watch "The Phantom Menace" and imagine not working so hard to hear the words - and with, say, a deeper voice on Jar-Jar. It's a pretty good flick if you use your imagination.
I believe Lucas completely botched the character of Anakin Skywalker, but again, if you imagine different choices, you can hear that it's not the words of the script that betray the future Darth Vader (OK, except for the love scenes with Padme) - it's the actors and director. I think Jake Lloyd had the moxie to pull off 10-year-old Anakin, but I think Lucas was the wrong director and as a result Jake had too many moments where he was just saying his lines instead of acting. If Lucas had had the insight to hire, say, Steven Spielberg, who has had enormous success directing children in big movies (think "E.T."), I think Jake's performance would have been a lot better.
Lucas and Hayden Christensen also made plenty of wrong choices with the late-teen and mature Anakin. When we meet Anakin the Jedi in "Attack of the Clones," he seems to be seriously stuck in adolescence. He whines about not getting his chance to be a full Jedi, he whines about not being able to make it with Padme, he whines about everything. When the Jedi Council denies him his rightful place as the greatest Jedi of all time, we the audience should be able to feel the injustice of it - but the arrested development of his personality is so obvious that all we feel is, "Good for the council, who does this jerk think he is anyway?"
To fully experience the tragedy of Anakin's descent to the Dark Side, we needed to feel the glory of his ascent. Lucas and Christensen didn't do it for us. Again, I fault Lucas the director more than Lucas the writer - the words are there, especially in "Revenge of the Sith," which despite this major shortcoming is still the first Star Wars film since "The Empire Strikes Back" that's in the same league as the original "Star Wars." (To me the series "jumped the shark" at the first appearance of an Ewok.)
"Sith," in fact, may be the best-written film of the six (except for the aforementioned love scenes). Its themes are certainly the most interesting: The danger of handing too much power to one individual, the chancellor aka emperor - but also the danger of placing too much power in the hands of a small group of individuals. The emperor actually makes a compelling case to be wary of the Jedi Council. The movie is a triumph for Lucas the writer and Lucas the effects-blockbuster movie maker; if he had done a better job of directing his cast (or perhaps, perhaps, a better job of casting), it could have been the best movie in the whole series and perhaps the best science fiction adventure movie ever made.
But he fell short, and as a result it's not even the best science fiction adventure movie of the year. That title, of course, goes to "Serenity."
posted by B.W. Richardson at
4:31 PM
2 Comments:
Pal, you hit the Lucas problem squarely on its head. I agree with every single point you made. Thus far, I've avoided buying the DVDs of the "prequels," but being a completist, I'll probably spring for 'em when they come out in the 3-in-1 package this winter. Regardless, it's the original three that I'll recall fondly and watch again and again.
The next time there is a Movie Week around here I'm traveling to some remote, desolate spot on the globe that has no internet, or movie theatres.
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