I just realized What Lucas has done with the PT

It is all clear to me why Episode I is a kids movie, Episode II is a cheesey love story and Episode III is the darkest one out.

First of all, Lucas knew that he wouldn't have any trouble getting Star Wars fans to the box office, because they were going to go anyways. What Lucas was doing was obtaining a new generation of fans. The movies got more mature as the audience members grew up. The idea is that the kids that grew up with Episode I should be old enough to handle Episode III by now.

It all makes sense:
Target Audience
Episode I 1999 5-8 year olds
Episode II 2002 9-12 year olds
Epsidoe III 2005 13-Adults

It's no coincidence that the movies are made 3 years apart.

 

i dont know any 9 year old who likes 'cheesy love stories'

 

i dont think thats it! the whole saga is about Anakin. and it had to start with him as a child therefore TPM is going to have a more childlike feel to it because of course anakin wasnt going to get exposed to the dark side at such young an age. same with ep2 he had to fall in love as a teenager, so that is the theme etc

 

Everyone has good points here. However, we need realize the SW mythology and its place as a story in our minds is one of one person: Anakin. Him and only him. The episodes chronicle his entire like in it's most pivotal moments. From innocence to fall - the SW story is Anakin's story and how it correlates to the fate of both a religion (JEDI) and the political survival of a galaxy (The REPUBLIC).

GL's marketing technique and how it coincides with target audiences pretty much sums up the genius behind the original trilogy.

Now, I wish GL will release Special Extended DVD Editions of the Prequels...

 

i guess that could be true

 

Episode I 1999 5-8 year olds
Episode II 2002 9-12 year olds
Epsidoe III 2005 13-Adults

Most, if not all, 9-12 year old boys could care less about girls, and especially love stories.

I think the SW is geared toward all ages in its entire story arc, with each episode geared a little more toward certain age groups than other. Something like:

I: 40% kid/35% adolescent/25% adult
II: 50% adolescent/30% adult/20% kid
III: 55% adult/45% adolescent/5% kid
IV: 40% adult/40% adolescent/20% kid
V: 65% adult/30% adolescent/5% kid
VI: 40% adult/30% adolescent/30% kid

 

anakin and padme had to fall in love..plain and simple...so ep 2 had to have them interacting and all the romantic stuff...its not like anakin just says do me padme do me now...hes no han solo

 

"Most, if not all, 9-12 year old boys could care less about girls, and especially love stories."

I'm sorry to dissapoint you but that is not the case...at all. I teach third grade, kids between 8 and 11. Let me tell you, they REALLY LIKE each other. Heck, if anything, I have trouble breaking up their little love letter sending and gossip about who is who's bf or gf.

Kids between 9-12? Now there are many in that age group that have some serious relationships.

He he he..funny but true my friend.

 

III: 55% adult/45% adolescent/5% kid



Um, last time I checked, That's 105%. (And to think a teacher missed that one. GG public school)

 

While that's a good observation, i think it's just a coincidence.

 

well either way how you look at it, kids and adults are going to watch the star wars movies...i mean when i watch ROTS, kids as young as 5 were there with there parents, watch ankain getting fried...so yeah...

 

i dont know any 9 year old who likes 'cheesy love stories'

I don't know ANYONE who likes cheesy love stories 9 to 90

 

III: 55% adult/45% adolescent/5% kid

Um, last time I checked, That's 105%. (And to think a teacher missed that one. GG public school)

Episode III was so cool, it gets an extra 5%- you know, like "I'm going to give 105%!".

*Runecrow looks around*

Yeah, that's it.

*Looks around*

Really.

*Looks around*

Is anyone buying this?

 

I understand Anakin was a 9 year old in TPM, so Lucas was limited that way, but TPM is way too kiddy. When I saw ANH, I was 5 years old in 1977, and that wasn't a kiddy movie, but I was hooked.

I agree that ROTS had to be the darkest of all 6 movies, but Lucas didn't realize when making TPM that a large base of his fans that grew up with the originals still loved it! He thought most people in their 20's had moved on, and he could start with little kids all over again. Unforunately he had 2 demographics to deal with: 5-12 year old who are just getting into Star Wars, and mid 20's-early 30 year olds who will never stop loving the movies. By ROTS, he finally realized he could make a PG-13, and still make huge receipts at the box office. That is why we are seeing records every day for ROTS.

If Lucas made another trilogy, he would again have a new base of kids from 5-12 beginning to watch the 6 movies made, Late Teenagers/Early 20's who grew with the prequels, and then original generation now in their 30's. That shows how timeless Star Wars is, and nothing will ever come close to that in movies ever again!

 

There's one thing I noticed about kids growing up while the movies are being released:

TPM came out when I was in Grade 7. I remember shortly after most of us had seen it, we all thought it was pretty sweet. I remember this one guy who kept acting out the same scene when the battle droids were saying "'[...]I'll cover you.' 'Roger roger.'" and he obviously really enjoyed that scene.

Skip ahead a few years. I've spent nearly all of high school kind-of enjoying Star Wars in secret because every time it enters the conversation someone always says "The new ones suck. Jango Fett's head should have fallen out of his helmet when Boba picked it up." etc. One time in Grade 12 Calculus I brought up the conversation topic "I wonder what the title of Episode III will be?" and that same battle-droid kid from Grade 7 said "How about 'Just let the series die, already'".

So in this case, the elementary school kids enjoyed TPM, but had developed a very public, ruthless hatred for the new movies by the time they were about to graduate from high school. I guess they had matured to see that there were certain aspects they didn't............I'm sorry I can't finish that sentence constructively. I'm pretty sure a bunch of the guys I knew gave up on Star Wars because it was the cool thing to do.

And yes, Grade 7 was elementary school for me. There were no junior highs in the city where I grew up.

 

Meh i dunno at my high school going everyone went to go see Episode 3 on opening weekend heck all the older guys with there liscenses went and saw it at midnight or thursday, i unfortunatly had to wait till thursday.

 

It's all about the timing, I also forgot to mention that before the PT, there was the re-release of the OT-SE, which was meant to target the "middle generation", ME.

You see, you have three generations to deal with,

1:My parents who were there in 1977 blown away by the amazing star destroyer in the opening sequence

2:Me and my generation who grew up on the "VHS Trilogy" who never saw it on the big screen

3.Kids born after... say... 1988 (give or take) who didn't know anything about SW.

I already explained how Lucas lured the 3rd generation, but I recall when the OT came out with the special edition how excited I was because I had only seen Star Wars on my parents 26" old tube T.V.

I must say that I can't blame him, afterall he is a marketing genius, and there IS a business aspect to it. It is a little ironic that Lucas started out hating Hollywood and the studio Execuitives, and now he IS the system.

 

Iw as 9 years old whn TPM came out and i loved it. I still love it now, because when i was sitting in that theatre i felt the same way anakin did. I went into the theater seeing the commercials and i remember that i thought obi wan looked really cool. When i came out of the theatre, i wanted to be anakin. He was my age, and he all of a sudden got to go on this great adventure! He was this kid that had a terrible slave life, so he had to make the best of it. He flew in a ship in space and i just wannted to be him.

 

Actually, it has little to do with marketing, and more to with looking at the Saga in its entirety. Each episode in the Saga represents various stages of life - coinciding with Anakin's life, but also a metaphor in the purest mythological sense of the cycle of life.


EpI: The infantile. The infant. Young child.
EpII: Adolescence.
EpIII Early Adult
EpIV-V: Adult
Ep VI: Old age, death, rebirth.

If you look at each movie, the movie is filled with themes, characters and situations which echo each of those particular stages in life.

 

Lucas was too hung up on his Return of the Jedi shtick when he made Episode I, and slowly (though never admitting it directly) he realized what he was doing (pandering to the lowest common denominator) and slowly phased it out.

The number of questionable parts dwindle as you go through the trilogy.

The "target demographic" explanation/argument was a result of George slowly taking criticism seriously.

 

"it had to start with him as a child"

No it did'nt. He was a child because Lucas wanted a child character for child fans to identify with. If the Anakin refered to in the OT was a child it would have been mentioned. It is a new element thought up for the prequels just as Qui Gon Jinn was.

I do like the well thought out progression to maturity theaory though. If it was Georges intent or not, it is undeniable that young veiwers heve matured six years since TPM.