STAR WARS is dying.

I just wonder what's going to happen to the "basher" crowd after Episode III, when they realize that Star Wars is over and they spent the last six years squandering away the only opportunity to enjoy Star Wars the way they did when they first saw it.

The nice thing about being a gusher, you'll have no regrets when all is said and done!

 

Bottom line, I don't care what anyone says about SW. I have my OT colectors editions, I have my SW books, and I have my PT videos. So to me SW is not dead, because through me it lives on

 

Durwood, if AOTC suddenly becomes a better film in the next three years, whether through divine intervention or temporal interference (perhaps on the part of a crew composed of a time-travelling Gary Kurtz and Joe Johnston), then I'd be the first to change my evil basher ways and accept that which is the Prequel Trilogy as quality entertainment. That said, I don't have my breath held or fingers crossed.

And come 2005, I'll be glad I spent my "AOTC glory days" watching and enjoying films from cinema history. Films like "Dirty Harry" or "Network" or whatever.

 

<<Star Wars is dying. More people went to see ANH, ESB, ROTJ, than TPM. Ticket sales of all movies>>

Hmmmm....interesting....as many people bought tickets to see AOTC in theaters as they did for FOTR or TTT......is that to say that LOTR is "dying"? No one would suggest such a thing.......so your point is not valid...SW is still very much alive.

 

if AOTC suddenly becomes a better film in the next three years, whether through divine intervention or temporal interference (perhaps on the part of a crew composed of a time-travelling Gary Kurtz and Joe Johnston), then I'd be the first to change my evil basher ways...

Would that be the same Gary Kurtz who produced the atrociously bad The Dark Crystal and hasn't done anything notable since? Yeah, I wouldn't hold my breath either.

 

It's also worth pointing out that Joe Johnston directed Jurassic Park III, which has been labeled by many people as the worst of the series. I personally enjoyed the film, because it was fun, fast-paced and didn't try to be too deep. But that doesn't discount how poorly received it was.

And where were the stop-motion puppets in JP3? And the models? And the optical printer cameras used on the OT? I mean, that's all he would ever use, right?

 

"I just wonder what's going to happen to the "basher" crowd after Episode III, when they realize that Star Wars is over and they spent the last six years squandering away the only opportunity to enjoy Star Wars the way they did when they first saw it.

The nice thing about being a gusher, you'll have no regrets when all is said and done! "

Well durwood, for me there´s no doubt how i will regard AOTC in the future. IMO it may be a good movie in the end, but it will always be a dissapointment compared with ANH and TESB. It had to be diferent from the OT, of course, but it could have been much better.

 

I just dont get that comment "It could have been much better"

I doubt AOTC could have been any better. To me its brilliant but thats besides the point.
I think given the story GL is trying to complete and what he did in the movie it couldnt have been better. Besides he isn't trying to top ANH or ESB, thats not possible (frankly you don't go making a film of the same series hoping it will be better but that it fits with the other films and makes sense). If you think it has to go out of its way to do better then you're on the wrong side of the tracks.

 

I loved the Dark Crystal!!!!

 

I loved the Dark Crystal!!!!

I'm sorry.

 

I like Dark Crystal too, but I credit that to Jim Henson and Frank Oz and the various puppeteers. NOT to Gary Kurtz. He was every bit as incompetent a producer of that as he was of ESB -- he guzzled down the budget like it was booze, and self-importantly told Henson what direction it should go in. Oz and Henson both disliked working with him so much that Henson wanted to remove his name from the credits as producer.

Thank all applicable deities that TokyoXtreme's fantasy of Gary Kurtz time-traveling back to produce AOTC will never come true.

SW is not dying, despite the best efforts of bashers to destroy it.

 

he guzzled down the budget like it was booze

Nice one Shelley!

 

Here's something about Gary Kurtz. I paied to go see GL's Star Wars nto Gary Kurtz. He's the Proudecer. SW is not Gary Kurtz story it never has been and never well be. And if he's so great. Name me a movie that he has been inovled in as of right know. Because I have only seen him proudce SW and ESB. Oh and Dark Crystal and that's as far as I can see.

 

I found an interesting letter and rebuttal over at Echo-Station.com, from September 02':

Letter is in italics
Rebuttal is in bold

Note-I don't necessarily agree with the two opinions listed, I just thought it should be posted as it relates to the topic at hand

Is Star Wars still the icon that it was not so long ago? I don't think so and here's why. 1) Lately on the Echo Station Board there have been very few posts. 2) The movie did do well but it was beaten rather soundly by Spider Man, and with the Lord Of The Rings coming out the Star Wars trilogy may be in danger of not being the most successful trilogy of all time. 3) The merchandise has not moved as well as it has in the past (at least in my area). 4) Let's face it, we all know what is going to happen in the next installment.

So lets address these things in order shall we?

Not as many posts on the boards as usual. Well it could be that school starting and/or work has caused this, but I have never in my almost two years here seen this much time go by with NO posts at all. Maybe after the rush and crush of Episode II's release everyone is just sitting back and trying to catch up. Or it could be indifference. When the last issue of the Star Wars Insider came out I flipped through it, but I didn't sit with it and devour each page like I used to. Maybe the SWI had nothing new, or maybe I just didn't care. Judging from the lack of response on the board towards the last issue, I wasn't the only one who felt this way. Also, the regular columns that had been appearing on Echo haven't lately. Why? Could it be that there just isn't much to talk about anymore? With every movie Lucas takes away some of what we have always speculated about, and it's not always as good as what we envisioned. Take Jar Jar ... please.

The movie did not crush all other contenders. When TPM came out three years ago, the buzz was so huge that all other movies backed off on their openings because no one wanted to get creamed by the Star Wars juggernaut. The exception was The Mummy which opened a couple of weeks before TPM and cleaned up because there was no competition at all.

The Phantom Menace opened, and the lines that had been there for months snaked into the theaters, and were treated to the spectacle that was and remains Jar Jar Binks. Now, TPM did clean up at the box office, and the video and DVD sales were huge, but watch the movie again and again and again and Jar Jar really starts to piss you off with his antics. None of it should have made the final cut because it just wasn't Star Wars. Fast forward to 2002, and the next installment is due in theaters, but unlike before no one is backing off around Star Wars. In fact, the most anticipated movie isn't even Star Wars, it's some tale about a nerd and his pet spider (or something like that). So at the box office for the first time a Star Wars movie gets trounced. And not only that, but the quality of movies coming out is so much higher than it has been in the past that AOTC doesn't stick around the top ten for as long.

Don't get me wrong, AOTC was an awesome addition to the Star Wars universe, with great effects, good one liners, and a half decent story line. I am, however, very much biased in my opinion and can't be trusted in this case.

Now we are in the midst of another trilogy coming to the big screen (something about a short guy and a ring) that people have been waiting years for. The first movie does very well and is stunning in its presentation and adaptation of the story. This virtually guarantees that the next one will be bigger at the box office. (Word of mouth is very powerful ... right, Pluto Nash?) So this new trilogy has the potential to overcome the original Star Wars trilogy as the highest grossing trilogy of all time. In fact, I would be surpassed if it didn't.

The merchandise has moved well but not as well as it has before. I think part of this is that for TPM the market was flooded, and also that there is some awesome stuff out there. In 25 years a Star Wars figure has stayed more

 

but people tend to forget that Tolkien revised The Hobbit to fit in with his new vision of Middle-Earth, to fit in with his new story of the One Ring. He rewrote The Hobbit to reflect this, changing dialogue to set up his new story. Lucas likewise did this with Star Wars in the Special Edition.



I've wanted to use that for a while as an example of an artist going back to revisit his work. Tolkien wrote the Hobbit, left it for a while until he was asked to write a sequel, started writing the sequel and realized that the story he wanted to tell could not be told with what he had done in the Hobbit. He had to go back and entirely re-write the Bilbo/Gollum scene into what it is today. Originally, it was that Gollum was going to give Bilbo the ring if he won the riddle game (Bilbo had already found it though) and when Gollum couldn't find it, he instead showed Bilbo the way out of the mountain as his reward. So remember kiddies, that whenever your reading The Hobbit your ACTUALLY reading The Hobbit: Special Edition.

Compare that to what Lucas has done and Lucases changes seem pretty tame.



Sorry about sorta drifting off topic

 

Skeksis kick the termite aliens' collective arse all over the GFFA. Cool film.

 

So remember kiddies, that whenever you're reading The Hobbit you're ACTUALLY reading The Hobbit: Special Edition.

Excellent point!

But I'm sure there are those who will find some way to justify Tolkien's revisions while still finding room to condemn Lucas for doing the same. Such is the nature of the double standard that surrounds Star Wars.