Posted by S. Fu on 07/23/07 05:50

On 2007-07-21 04:42:21 -0700, "Jim Beaver" <jumblejim@prodigy.spam> said:

> STAR WARS. I saw the first three when they came out and was increasingly
> bewildered by what audiences could find to like in them beyond a certain
> (initial) fun with the special effects. Years later, I went back and saw a
> couple of them again and wondered why I had not hated them any more in the
> first place.

Ah, interesting. Yeah, by the end of the third S.W. flick I felt that
the plot development was so shaky that I was really having my doubts
about George Lucas as a filmmaker. And before someone shouts
derisively, "What plot?", keep in mind that his model was the old Flash
Gordon sci-fi serials which were, in a crude and obvious way, primarily
plot-driven. "Action in every scene," and plenty of it. The ability
of Lucas to pull off the "sci-fi" serial model dropped remarkably in
the first two sequels, but I gave him a pass since he didn't direct
those himself.

The second three Star Wars films destroyed any remaining doubt.
They're astonishingly dysfunctional films in very fundamental narrative
terms. The plotting erodes the basic willing suspension of disbelief
at every turn, and the character development is just ghastly. They're
stunningly bad films, even by pulp serial standards. I mean, one bad
film you can forgive, but when you take three more swings at a proven
franchise formula, with gobs of dollars to blow and seriously good
actors in your cast, and you jake it at each at-bat...wow.

I guess I'd disagree with Jim and say that the original premise of the
franchise was reasonably solid, although the execution was waning there
at the end of the third episode...and after that, well, I suppose we
all wish George had just rested on his laurels instead.


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