Nooooo!!!

Written by 

Wargamer and RPG'er since the 1970's, author of Adventures Dark and Deep, Castle of the Mad Archmage, and other things, and proprietor of the Greyhawk Grognard blog.

16 thoughts on “Nooooo!!!”

  9. The Ewoks blinking is actually pretty cool IMO, not to mention they fixed a lot of other small things from the original (bad mattes, visible Wampa arm poles, incorrect insignias on uniforms, buried SFX, etc). Granted, no one noticed most of these in the first place, so whatever. They also went back and fixed some mistakes from the DVD editions such as the lightsabers and some bad music mixes. All good so far.

    But now he's back to tinkering with characters and destroying nuances of performance again and that's just not cool. Some people want to say, "they're his movies, he can do what he wants with them"? Fine, and so he can. However, I thought that Irvin Kershner directed "Empire" and Richard Marquand directed "Jedi." Shouldn't they get a say?

    And finally, though I disagree with many of the changes Lucas has made, I at least understand where he's coming from. He thinks he's making them better, even if no one else does. But why not afford the same opportunity to anyone else? John Williams wanted to do a little work on what folks are now calling 'A New Hope', to bring the music more in line with the rest of the series (ostensibly he wanted to incorporate the Imperial March into the score). But George wouldn't let him do it. How is that different than anything *he's* doing? And, frankly, it makes a lot more sense than many of the other changes that have been made: 'ANH' now is the only film from 2-6 not to use the Imperial March – hell, Episode II uses it and it doesn't even have the Empire in it!

    Aren't movies supposed to be a collaborative effort? George Lucas would be a bad DM.

  10. Clangador: It goes to the notion that Lucas's earlier instincts were, generally, better than his later ones.

    In the original version, you can see the inner turmoil; the "conflict within" that Luke speaks of earlier. We in the audience aren't privy to the exact thoughts coursing through his mind at that moment, and that's what makes it powerful. Like a creature from an H.P. Lovecraft story, what we imagine Vader thinking at that moment is infinitely cooler than anything that could have actually been put into the film.

    As it is, all that potential subtle nuance is washed away by a simple and direct statement of negation.

    What was a (probably unintentionally) brilliantly executed opportunity to show the final growth of the Anakin/Vader character as he returns from the Dark Side is reduced to "No!". It's almost petulant. And the fact that it harkens back to the goofy and rightly mocked "nooooo!!!" at the end of Episode III further reduces the impact of the scene.

    You might not care, but to my mind it weakens the scene and the character, just like having Greedo shoot first.

    That said, I agree with baronkohinar that many of the updates and changes have been improvements. Mostly the ones that were purely technical in nature; removing matte lines, adding TIE fighters, etc. But when he thinks that he's improving the series by changing dialog, Lucas is generally wrong.

    And don't get me started about Boba Fett suddenly developing a New Zealand accent, or flirting with the dancers in Jabba's palace.

  12. Vader before the prequels = Ultimate Bad Ass

    Vader after the prequels = Ultimate Whiny Bitch

    Thank the gods I still have my original VHS copies of the movies.

    Nuff Said

  14. Let's face it. According to the actors, Lucas was never an actor's director. He cared about the myth, the legend, the story, the effects, and more or less told the actors 'just do…stuff.'

    The problem here is, he had some big creative ideas early on, and that is it. All he can do is add and alter.

    Also, he was never the 'artist' as much as the 'tech-geek.' It was the technical innovations that took the original Star Wars off the charts. Most people missed some of the smaller issues back then so dazzled were we by the casual use of these state of the art effects.

    And yet, what little talent he had in the artistic/acting category was left on a shelf while he focused on the tech industry, mostly centered around his couple of creations.

    It's like a runner who breaks records in a race. But only one race. Then he decides he's going to open up a training center and focus on coaching. Fine. But every couple decades, even as he gets older, he gets the itch to get back into the race even though he has long since ceased training for the big event. And each time he does, it becomes clearer that he may have had the rigbt talent for that one race all those years ago, but those days have long passed. And each time, the results are worse than the last.

Comments are closed.