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Was George Lucas sandbagging?

Posted: Mon May 13, 2002 11:00 am
by HighLordDave
I have been reading some articles from various entertainment news outlets and the general consensus is that Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones is a better movie than it's immediate predecessor, Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace. While this revelation in and of itself shouldn't be surprising, my question is this: Do you think George is so shrewd that he intentionally made a crappy movie with TPM so that expectations would go down?

Consider this: Star Wars (1977) is a franchise with a tremendously loyal following. It's adherents are eclipsed in fervor and raw numbers only by trekkies, who exhibit a rabidity all their own. Still, for many Star Wars loyalists (yours truly included), the only way for TPM to have been any good would have been for Luke Skywalker himself to walk through the screen and take us all to a galaxy far, far away. Twenty two years after originally being blown away in theatres by ANH, our expectations were impossibly high.

Still, TPM grossed $431 million in the United States (fourth all-time), and approximately $922 million worldwide (second all-time behind Titanic). That's with a crappy story, an obsession with eye candy and Jar Jar Binks.

My hypothesis is as follows: George knew that he could never live up to the hype. So he didn't even try. It was his money and his time, and he didn't have some studio exec looking over his shoulder all the time harping on how important the bottom line was. He used TPM as a showcase for all of the technology he's hoarding on Skywalker Ranch and at ILM in hopes of developing the "digital backlot" for his future movies (AOTC and Episode 3). Knowing that yokels like me would be disappointed at TPM, he didn't even try to appease his fans, because let's face it, the hardcore audience isn't going anywhere, no matter how bad the product is (this happened to Trekkies, too; witness Star Trek V).

We've known for twenty years what the basic story for E1 through E3 is going to be: Anakin turns into Darth Vader (sorry, if you're "spoiler free 'til Episode 3", or if you've been on another planet for the last 25 years). So in order to get us to buy into the story and characters, George sandbags the first movie, brings along Jar Jar Binks to be the lightning rod for all fan hostility, lowers the fan expectation from the Second Coming to just another cool sci-fi movie, and re-energises the franchise leading up to Episode 3. This is genius! Sheer genius!

Please post only Star Wars-related conspiracy theories.

Posted: Mon May 13, 2002 11:09 am
by Ned Flanders
Your theory is well thought out and makes good sense. I don't think TPM could have met anyone's expectations even if you remove jar jar. You mention the crappy story element as well. I don't know what they could've done to improve the story. Perhaps giving the sith front man villain a real part, replacing jake lloyd. Those are minor things.

I think Lucas knew as well TPM couldn't possibly live up to the hype. He's said it. If he did deliberatly sandbag the movie, then that is indeed, pure genius. Whatever the case may be, we're going to get our next taste in a few short days.

Good thread HLD.

Posted: Mon May 13, 2002 1:56 pm
by HighLordDave
In other Star Wars-related news (that's news, not conspiracy theory), a waitress at Hooters settled a lawsuit against her former employer in which she claimed that a contest offered a new Toyota as a prize instead of the "toy Yoda" that she was given on April Fools Day. Details here. The sad part is that it's true, not something that The Onion or Satirewire.com cooked up.

Posted: Mon May 13, 2002 2:01 pm
by Ned Flanders
Perhaps they could get her to be the latest avatar for the dark side of the force. She seems to have no love or appreciation of yoda. The movie would be under a different movie label, of course.

Posted: Mon May 13, 2002 3:05 pm
by Nightmare
Well, your theory is possible, but then again, Lucas doesn't know why people don't like Jar Jar... *shudders* :eek:

Btw, does anyone think he took a little too much from Dune? After I read the book, I was rather surprised at the similarities between it and Star Wars.

Posted: Mon May 13, 2002 3:24 pm
by Gwalchmai
Clever? Or ultimately not-so clever?

If your theory is correct, or even if your theory eventually is perceived as correct by the huge Star Wars fan-base, then won't they start feeling a little used? I mean, if thy start getting the idea that George didn't put his all into The Phantom Plot Line, then might they feel taken for granted? Doesn't a fan base of that size, of that loyalty, deserve the absolute best that Lucas has to offer? What's to keep them from rising up as one and storming Skywalker Ranch demanding a digitally re-mastered print of The Menacing CGI Muppet that meets their demanding standards? :D

Or worse: what if the fan gestalt realizes that George did try his best with Prequel Numero Uno and that maybe he's not really such a great director/story-teller, but merely lucky? I shudder to think what would happen then.... :o

Posted: Mon May 13, 2002 3:32 pm
by Xandax
Well I liked TPM (and didn't mind Jar Jar :p :) )
From a movie perspecitive there isn't much more to it that the fact that it is a Star Wars movie - but that is enough for me.......
(although that little Anarkin Skywalker actor actually did perform somewhat decent for a kid of his age - think he would get huge if he can keep it up :) )
Some people seem to like Lord of the Rings wich imo is similar - all "eye candy" and very little story - and I like TPM :)

Posted: Mon May 13, 2002 3:50 pm
by Ned Flanders
@Gwally,

I don't think the bulk of the fan base feels used because they feel lucas can do no wrong. I mean, after the release of TPM, there were people in this area who couldn't wait to see it again. It's a sort of blind devotion, not everyone is guilty, but there are a lot who are and that is who the media focuses on. The thing that serves to perpetuate the loyal and blind fan base community is the lack of convincing characters in TPM. Qui-gonn was quiet and reserved, obi-wan supressed, darth mail non existent, anakin the cry baby, queen amidalia (who incidentally does look better now, been several years since the release of leon), and jar jar the most annoying character since noober. The lack of compelling characters was one of the things that killed the movie for me, there was really no one to like except darth maul who had no lines and really nothing to do with the movie at all.

Posted: Mon May 13, 2002 4:17 pm
by Gwalchmai
@Ned: I agree with everything you said. I would only add that I pretty much lost interest in the series as soon as George renamed the original movie "A New Hope". Prior to that, I had spent my youth going to "Star Wars" a zillion times, dressed as a Jawa and memorizing every line. Once it was re-issued as "A New Hope" I saw it only once more, and I never went to see the digitally-enhanced version. *gasp* :o :eek:

Posted: Mon May 13, 2002 7:58 pm
by Nightmare
Originally posted by Gwalchmai
Or worse: what if the fan gestalt realizes that George did try his best with Prequel Numero Uno and that maybe he's not really such a great director/story-teller, but merely lucky? I shudder to think what would happen then.... :o
Well, The Empire Strikes Back was excellant, almost as good as Return of the Jedi, and Lucas had almost nothing to do with TESB...

Posted: Tue May 14, 2002 6:11 am
by HighLordDave
I think a lot of people realise that George isn't a very good writer or director. The original Star Wars was intended to be a stand-alone movie in the event that he didn't get the funding to make the rest, and it really is a rip-off of a bunch of other science fiction and Akira Kurosawa movies and archtypes. What ANH did was to do it all bigger and better than anyone else up until then.

George is a much better idea factory than he is a filmmaker. I think he has a lot of control issues related to the Star Wars franchise and when he has ventured out of the box, the results are generally less than spectacular (Howard the Duck, anyone?). However, we do have to give George credit for being the driving force behind ILM, digital filmmaking and Pixar (he founded the studio before selling it to Apple).

The people who were hardest on TPM were the fanboys who were shown the light that George isn't the greatest filmmaker of the generation (I wouldn't even put him in the Top 10), but the fact that the four Star Wars films sit comfortably in the Top 15 highest-grossing films (all-time, US box office receipts) shows that he's hit a chord with not just the hardcore audience, but the general public as well.

Posted: Tue May 14, 2002 8:18 am
by fable
George is a much better idea factory than he is a filmmaker.

And I think, above all, he is an incredibly savvy organizer and businessman. Before SW, nobody put together the kind of merchandising package that Lucas created, selling not merely the film, but hundreds of items tenuously associated with it. Just as Mel Brooks' Yoda character said in Spaceballs, it's all about "Moichendizing!"

Spielberg isn't a director I care for much, but he *is* one of the few modern ones in the US that's I've seen who has a strong understanding of film history (through long hours viewing 'em) and therefore an ability to use the screen better than many directors, who have been raised on nothing more visually epic than television. He's made terrible, lumbering pieces of trash--mostly comedies--but he's also capable of great images that refuse to leave the mind. IMO, Lucas' SW series would have been a disaster if it didn't have three things 1) an enormous budget; 2) computerized effects; and 3) Spielberg as director.

And just to be upfront and honest, I should point out that I've never seen any of the SW films through. My top score is about 15 minutes on both the original first episode and about 10 minutes on episode #2, before I laughed myself silly over the preposterous script and characters, and left. ;)

Posted: Tue May 14, 2002 1:24 pm
by Morlock
Are you kidding? a moderator here, has not seen the holy trilogy and its illigitimate child? Blasphamy! :eek: :o

Any way about the thread- it seemed obvious to me that Lucas made the first one bad on purpose.
See, my theory is that Episode 3 is the only one that measures up to the original movies, so in order to build for it, E1 was bad and E2 is good (hopfully), but not as good as it could have been.