[Galemp]

I just remember reading Anthony Daniels' (C-3PO) interview after he shot his final scene in Episode III- he was walking alone down a bluescreen corridor talking to an invisible character behind him. He was very bitter about the direction George has taken the franchise, totally alienating the actors by forcing them to act in voids. The subsuquent CGI is so overused and poorly done that you become acutely aware of the agony the human actors were suffering.
He's done so poorly in Episodes I and II, yet he's embraced them to such an extent that he's put his godawful CGI, acting and writing in the classic movies and insists they're the only versions. The inclusion of Hayden Christiansen in the conclusion of Return of the Jedi has cemented in my mind the fact that Lucas hasn't learned anything, and Episode III will take what should be the greatest of the six movies and turn it into a steaming pile of celluloid.

[Blitzerland]

Yeah...right.

I'd rather have my head bitten off by a vicious wolverine.

[Mongoose]

You're right on, Galemp.  That editing of the final scene in ROTJ is the one thing that has truly set me off.  Pardon my ignorance, but I thought that prequels were supposed to conform to the original material, not the way Lucas seems to think:  "Let's photoshop and edit the hell out of my original work so that it fits in with the masterpieces that are Episodes I-III!!1!"  How about this, Lucas:  **** off.  People like the real Star Wars, not the crap you're trying to shove down people's throats.  Star Wars isn't your "intellectual property" anymore; it's a cultural phenomenon, and it belongs to the fans just as much as you.  You've completely let down and alienated the very people who got you where you are today, and now you're even devastating the actors who have worked with you for twenty-some years.

Above all else, what I'd love to say to Lucas is, "Take a ****ing clue from Peter Jackson."  There's a reason Jackson used models for many of the shots in the Lord of the Rings films:  they actually look real, not like some cheap video-game animations.  Actually, this example doesn't hold, because even the computer-animated portions of Lord of the Rings looked real.  (Gollum vs. Jar-Jar, anyone?)  Seriously, I think Lucas just hired some low-budget animators from the Rogue Squadron games and set them to work on his "masterpiece" .

[Dark_4ce]

They're just movies people...

Geez, take it easy.

[Blitzerland]

I though episode II was good...I actually liked it. What do people hate about it anyways?

[Dark_4ce]

Dunno. Suppose its the fanboy mentality some people take about it. Cause they grew up with the originals and watched it so often, it became a sort of fetish. NOT SEXUAL FETISH. More in kind to a religeous fetish. An apitamy of perfection. Then when the person who originally made them, made something else that is "different" to first movies, they go into denial. Because more often than not, people are xenophobic and fear change and different things. And Episode 1-3 gave of changes and made of things different. They put a different spin on things when people got used to the fluff in the extended universe. Then ofcourse theres the whole "the dialogue and acting sucks in the new ones" well, look at the old ones too. The acting isnt anything special and the dialogue is as corny. Know why? Because its supposed to be. Like Lucas meant it, its just a saturday matinee movie. Not to be taken seriously. Watch the commentary for the orginal DVDs. You'll see what he means. But since people have seen it since an early age, and at those times couldnt quite grasp more complex dialogue, they pritty much grew up accepting the dialogue as good. And by god, they're his movies and he can do what the hell he wants with them. Who are we to tell him that he cant touch them.

And yes, I liked Episode 2 as well. In fact, I like all of them.

[mitac]

Originally posted by Dark_4ce

And yes, I liked Episode 2 as well. In fact, I like all of them.

Well said. They're just different, but none of them is bad. Though I'm sure looking forward to whatever shape the end of Episode III will take. It'll be evil, that's a sure bet.

[Mongoose]

Are you kidding?  Can you sit there, in cold blood, and tell me that Hayden Christiansen is anything but the singlularly worst actor of all time?  He played that character like he had been constipated his entire life .  Yes, the original movies were somewhat corny, but there's no way you can say the acting was at the same level.  Harrison Ford was great in those films, and both Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill gave good performances.  Plus, those films had something that the new ones don't:  humor that doesn't revolve around an imbecilic CGI character.  "You know of what I speak..." .  I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, but I really enjoy watching the original trilogy; twenty years later, it still isn't showing its age.  In fact, I think the special effects look infinitely better than the cartoonish CGI that Lucas has plastered all over the new films.  Thank you very much, but I'll keep the Millennium Falcon and the Death Star .

[Ford Prefect]

I greatly enjoyed the new movies.

Harrison Ford was great in those films, and both Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill gave good performances.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher are mediocre actors, and Mark Hammil was simply awful. Star Wars was good, but there was no first-rate acting going on besides the voice of James Earl Jones.

[Sandwich]

The way to tell a good acting job IMO is if you think of the actor as an actor, or you think of him as his character. Now of course that's harder with people who have been in multiple movies like Ford, McGregor, and Portman, but still... there's still a quality of how much of themselves they are able to put into the on-screen character.

IMO, in EP1, the best actor (actress, actually) in that regard was Anakin's mother. She didn't seem like an actress trying to fulfil a role, she seemed like she could acatually have been his mother, pulled off the streets of Tatooine for the movie. Of course, her competition wasn't much to write home about, but still.

The only other one in EP1 & 2 who came close was Portman.

Oh, and R2-D2. He rocks.

[Splinter]

Originally posted by Mongoose
Are you kidding?  Can you sit there, in cold blood, and tell me that Hayden Christiansen is anything but the singlularly worst actor of all time?  He played that character like he had been constipated his entire life .  Yes, the original movies were somewhat corny, but there's no way you can say the acting was at the same level.  Harrison Ford was great in those films, and both Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill gave good performances.  Plus, those films had something that the new ones don't:  humor that doesn't revolve around an imbecilic CGI character.  "You know of what I speak..." .  I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, but I really enjoy watching the original trilogy; twenty years later, it still isn't showing its age.  In fact, I think the special effects look infinitely better than the cartoonish CGI that Lucas has plastered all over the new films.  Thank you very much, but I'll keep the Millennium Falcon and the Death Star .

I LOVE YOU!!!! They are actually human in the first movies not... "robots"

I like Ewen as an actor and Liam is incredible and the rest but for some reason their roles in these movies are horrible weather they just lost it or they were told to act horribly either way its a load of trash.

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Mongoose
Are you kidding?  Can you sit there, in cold blood, and tell me that Hayden Christiansen is anything but the singlularly worst actor of all time?

Truly, he has a face you'd never tire of punching.

[Galemp]

Anakin's performance in both movies was so wooden, I wanted to spray him with Liquid Pledge.

But seriously: midichlorians? Fart jokes? Meadow picnics? A bouncing, saber-wielding Yoda?

[Dark_4ce]

So?

[Cyker]

I thought the acting by the younger members of the cast was terrible in the prequels.

I'll never get over that bit in EP2 where Portman has just fallen out of one of them transports and is lying in the sand doing a really bad impression of being hurt in the fall, then a Stormtrooper goes up to her and says "Are you alright?" and she goes "Yeah!" and just gets up as 'tho nothing happened! WTF?!

To be fair, the acting in the original series was pretty bad in the first episode, but the cast worked well together so they can just about get away with the cheesiness. However, in the last two the acting just felt sooo much better it was uncanny.
The biggest difference between the 4 mediocre films and the final 2 darn good ones is that GL didn't direct the last 2.

This has solidified my feeling that ANYONE EXCEPT GL should have directed those films. Produce, sure, but direct? Noway.

I really wish he'd got someone else, say Spielburg, to direct all 3 of the prequels. They could have turned out sooo much better...

[Dark_4ce]

I really dont understand this anger towards GL. He bloody WROTE Star Wars. He made it up. He produced them ALL independently (which I have to add is next to impossible in those days, and absolutely impossible these days. Its a miracle those movies EVER got made. So with that fact alone he should be given the highest respect possible). He picked the stars for the original. Let alone all the stuff he's done for film making.

So, they're his movies. He can do what he wants with them. I understand that things have changed and that ep1-3 are radically different from ep4-6, but so what? They're supposed to be like flash gordon. Supposed to be corny. Not taken seriously.

Seriously folks, they're just movies. Thats all. Plain and simple.

The new trilogy doesent tarnish anything with the old trilogy. His changes to the old trilogy dont change it at all in any way as well. If you hate the changes, dont go out and buy the copies that have em. Go buy the originals on Laser disc or vhs. Cripes, they're still around.

But this whole thing that GL is destroying Star Wars is just plain stupid. If anything, its the fanboys who have taken it so far to make it next to godly, thats destroying it. In the 80's it was cool to like star wars. Now its cool to hate the new ones. Bah. People just take it too far.

Its that whole l337 thing I guess. Meh.

[Galemp]

Feh! They're not just movies anymore; they've become a cultural phenomenon, part of our heritage. Replacing some classic landmark, groundbreaking special effects for their day with bad CGI is a travesty. It would be like giving Homer a word processor and letting him rewrite the Illiad and the Odyssey using new techniques in writing and formatting. They were great achievements for their day and should be viewed as such technically.

Mongoose has it spot on: "Let's photoshop and edit the hell out of my original work so that it fits in with the masterpieces that are Episodes I-III!!" And the fact that the two best movies in the series were the ones not directed by Lucas. The prequels have about as much mythology, character depth, and inner meaning as Scooby Doo, but since we're forced to reconcile them with the original trilogy everything wonderful about them has been discredited.

[Night Hammer]

Originally posted by Galemp
A bouncing, saber-wielding Yoda?

Oh you gotta admit even as hoaky as it may have been that the bouncing Yoda was the best part of that movie:nod:

[Splinter]

Originally posted by Dark_4ce
I really dont understand this anger towards GL. He bloody WROTE Star Wars. He made it up. He produced them ALL independently (which I have to add is next to impossible in those days, and absolutely impossible these days. Its a miracle those movies EVER got made. So with that fact alone he should be given the highest respect possible). He picked the stars for the original. Let alone all the stuff he's done for film making.

Dude we have been we give him the respect he deserves for the first three which is a whole lot.

Originally posted by Dark_4ce
So, they're his movies. He can do what he wants with them. I understand that things have changed and that ep1-3 are radically different from ep4-6, but so what? They're supposed to be like flash gordon. Supposed to be corny. Not taken seriously.

Seriously folks, they're just movies. Thats all. Plain and simple.

They are his movies and for that he above all others should understand what changing the universe to make it look more uptodate but giving up on the characters and thier humanity is sheer lunacy. They are supposed to be like flash gordon? wtf man. they are supposed to be like star wars. thus the titles

Not taken seriously yes I suppose that because the first 3 nightmare on elm street movies were serious that dosnt meen the others cant jsut be goofy movies almost completley devoid of all traces of the originals.  Hey guys The next Die hard is going to be a romantic comedy!!!111!!!

Originally posted by Dark_4ce
The new trilogy doesent tarnish anything with the old trilogy. His changes to the old trilogy dont change it at all in any way as well. If you hate the changes, dont go out and buy the copies that have em. Go buy the originals on Laser disc or vhs. Cripes, they're still around.

The new tirlogy changes the face of the entire star wars universe. it is now some liek superhero flick liek x-men or somthing with all these super jedis but like many superhero movies they have no humanity in the characters. you cannot honestly look at the recent movies and even called the acting decent. THERE WAS NONE! I'd be suprised if even one line was in improv. Why do the later star trek movies still work? because the characters still act. They still ARE thier characters. in episodes one and two I dotn see obi wan I see some fruity guy who sang to nicole kidman! dont even start on anikan.

Originally posted by Dark_4ce
But this whole thing that GL is destroying Star Wars is just plain stupid. If anything, its the fanboys who have taken it so far to make it next to godly, thats destroying it. In the 80's it was cool to like star wars. Now its cool to hate the new ones. Bah. People just take it too far.

Its that whole l337 thing I guess. Meh.

He is not destroying star wars... He is however destroying anybodys trust in him to carry on his own legacy which is in and of itself a crying shame. Its cool not to like the new ones? belive me I'd rather love them but you cant force yourself to love somthing you know is wrong. just dont work. I guess it depends on how much a person is able/willing to detach himself form the originals. to view the latest ones as seperate movies they arnt SO bad... they are entertaining but the acting still sucks.

[Splinter]

Originally posted by Night Hammer




Oh you gotta admit even as hoaky as it may have been that the bouncing Yoda was the best part of that movie:nod:

ill admit I got goose bumps at that corny stunt