George Lucas: Broken Genius?

I've come to the conclusion that George Lucas is a cross between Orson Welles and Howard Hughes. Like Welles, he made his best work at a very young age, thus forever living in the shadow of it. Hughes, because he was a shrewd businessman who as well as producing big movies, also had other business interests, but grew increasingly eccentric as he grew older and isolated himself from the rest of the world. George Lucas will always be a genius to me, not for the prequels, but for what he gave the world early on in his career between the 1970's and early 1980's.

 

For the 20th time, I'm sorry you don't like the prequels.

 

I never thought he lost his touch. And considering he has provided me with entertainment for over 25 years, I doubt he'll let me down with Episode III, or Indiana Jones 4 for that matter

 

I agree, the prequels are not all they are cracked up to be.

For me, though that has more to do with the over-use of CGI.

I much prefer the puppets and models of the old days.

 

Shannon: So you're saying you think the Tauntaun looks better on film than say, the arena monsters?

 

Guys, I didn't create this thread for it become a basher/gusher debate; "I hate the prequels","Oh no, why do you hate them? You suck" etc, etc.

royalGuard,Please don't interpret this as my bash against the prequels and SW.

This is a serious debate; I don't want the mods to close it.

 

I'm saying that a huge part of the appeal, to me, is that it looks pretty realistic. Sure, some of the puppets looked a little weird but you could tell they were really there.... ON SET.

These CGI things look like 'stickers' (for lack of a better word) to me.

I don't like them, they take away rather than add.

And Yodaschem, my apology, but threads have this tendency to take on lives of their own, despite what it's parent may have wanted for it.

 

im jumoing in on shannon's side here.


i definently think that there was an overuse of CGI in the PT. sure its nice to know you can do whatever you want but i think that does a bit to make filmakers a little spoiled. rather thne work withen constraints of reality you have to edit everything in in years of postproduction. to me the PT just seems to be more stlye over substance.

 

Yodaschum maybe right. Have you heard how often GL washes his hands??? (just kidding)

 

I agree that GL likes to hide himself away at the ole Skywalker Ranch and isn't the most social creature.

However, I disagree with your point that he is living in the shadow of his previous work.

He is enjoying great success from his prequels and AOTC is right up there with ESB for example. The new cgi techniques gives him a new outlet to tell his story.

I'm sure that once he gets Star Wars out of the way he will go on to shoot some top quality "artsy" type films.

 

Yodaschum,

Tonight I was watching the preview channel. Lo' and behold, what's this?! Transformers: Armada?! I loved Transformers when I was younger!!! This will be awesome!! So away I go for a new spin on a nostalgic favorite.

So what should greet my eyes? Bad voice acting, overly flashy animation, and an utterly dismal storyline. (Sound familiar?) This isn't anything like what I would have imagined.

Y'know what I did? I simply stopped watching it.

After using it to make my point here, I won't even discuss it again other than to say, "Nope, that's not for me, I'll stick with the classics."

Some people feel that Lucas' best work is behind him (like your post points out), and some feel that AOTC is the saving grace of the PT and it heralds the second coming of Star Wars bliss. I guess since I like AOTC & TESB equally, I'm somewhere in the middle.

Episode III won't be any better for you, I'm sorry to say, as GL has created more questions than he could answer in a 6 hour film, much less two short hours. For me, that's ok, it's not like these films are supposed to be taken seriously anyway...I love Star Wars because it's fun. That's why I don't want to watch the new Transformers cartoon, it's not F U N.

I really think you should find the original, pre-SE Trilogy, burn it on DVD and enjoy Star Wars at what is, for you, it's finest and try and forget any of this PT rubbish ever happened. You're completly free to do so. Also, ignore any portion of any website that has any PT content what-so-ever.

For me? Well, I'll be at the midnight showing for Ep.III just like I was for I & II...It's all Star Wars, and George Lucas is still a genius to me, though admittedly and eccentric one.

Once Ep. III is over & done, it's not going to make any difference to GL if I like it or not, and it's sure not going to change the content of the film either way. That's ok, because he doesn't owe me anything.

Please don't take this post as flaming, because it's not meant that way. But for you, I would suggest that yes, George Lucas is a "Broken Genius" and like Humpty Dumpty, can never be put back together again...To me, no. It's a debate that can never be won.

 

The new cgi techniques gives him a new outlet to tell his story.


and in his words... the way he has envisioned the story in his mind.

I don't think he is a broken genius. part of his genius is the way he forges new paths in film making... the filming of a movie totally digitally, the grand use of CGI. We are seeing more and more of it... and he has paved the way.

in my mind a genius is someone who thinks of new ways to do things-not looking for what others have done.

 

IMO, genius is someone who makes something that is totally new and innovative that has not been done before. People like Einstein, Newton, Michealangelo, and Plato are geniuses and I seriously believe that Lucas is one as well. He is making up something new that no one has ever done before. What modern film-maker has made a compelling six-part story?

Even with using CGI, he is creating a great story that has complexities, a human feeling and a moral to it. The choices we make determine how we live our life. I can not think of many directors or visionaries that have done this as well as Lucas has, and his story is not complete yet.

There is genius in the PT, because it shows human vulnerability in the background of something larger. We all fall victim to our flaws, and we all succeed by our merits. That's the genius part of Star Wars.

I mean honestly, Star Wars has made our lives better has it not? We idenitfy with an aspect of the movies and that's what movie makers try to do. Although Lucas made this mainly as a popcorn flick, there's something larger at work. We all identify with Luke when he tries to cope with the true. We identify with Anakin when he finds his mother (Although we don't go and kill an entire tribe of people), we identify with Obi-Wan, because we try our hardest to follow the conduct and ideals of society. It's these things that make Star Wars so innovative and this is what makes Lucas a genius for doing so.

I know this argument goes off on several tangents, but Lucas' genius is not gone and he has only shown it more so with the PT, in my opinion.

Pada915...I am Jack's wasted life

 

"to hide himself away at the ole Skywalker Ranch and isn't the most social creature."

Um how can u comment on how social George Lucas is? Do you know him?

I'm sure hes as social as anyone else. You cant hide yourself away when your making a motion picture.

 

George Lucas will always be a genius to me, not for the prequels, but for what he gave the world early on in his career between the 1970's and early 1980's.

How many times have I heard you say the Prequels are not good?

"For me, though that has more to do with the over-use of CGI."

There is no way Lucas could create some of the Star Universe without the use of CGI.

Edit: entire post considered hostile so I changed it.

 

Jedi_Learner: Please drop your hositlity. This is SW Miscellaneous, not Prequels. I suggest you eave your differences there when you come here.

I wouldn't say GL is a genius but he's certainly shown some commitment and drive to complete this story he has. I mean, he broke a lot of Hollywood rules to get ANH made (throwing in with Coppola/Speilberg et al at American Zeotrope, moving the production to Tunisia etc), he risked a lot to get it done. It happened to be a commerical success and he made a mint off it.

Now he can do whatever is bearded little heart desires! Isn't the entire budget for the the prequels coming out his pocket personally (via LFL and ILM, of course )?

I guess GL doesn't need to be a genius when he surrounds himself with so many talented people (eg: Chiang, Hales. Knoll, Burtt, Gillard and the gang), where he can direct the flow of creative traffic until he gets what he wants, y'know? I dunno, I guess he's the multi-millionare creator and I'm the volunteer internet mod so what the devil would I know?

 

GL will be remembered for his contribution to the technical aspects of film making more than anything and also for reintroducing old genres with a couple of solid flix. His best movies were recycled ideas that needed polishing by other more gifted creative types. Movies are rarely the product of a single genius anyway, though the director always seems to get all the credit. Great music surely contributed alot to Graffiti, SW and Raiders. The fact that Star Wars has lost steam is because the best ideas from old serials have been used. So now George is borrowing from (of all things) the original trilogy! and pushing the idea of "rhyming verses". If somehow some glorious image appears on screen at the end of E3 and we all gasp "Wowww now everything makes sense!!" then I'll be the first to admit that George was truly a genius.

 

Now he can do whatever is bearded little heart desires! Isn't the entire budget for the the prequels coming out his pocket personally (via LFL and ILM, of course )?

thats what i heard.

I just don't understand why from what I have seen so many people are being hard on Lucas. I mean... never mind I stated it above... I learned a long time ago (in a glaxay far far away) that you can't argue with a brickwall or brickwalled theory.

I was wondering has anyone else noticed that hollywood really seems to follow lucas. his rerelease of the SW OT lead to the rerelases of other films: ET, Dirty Dancing, etc...

and slowly an influx of prequels....