PT Should Lucas Have Done More to Ensure TPM Didn't Disappoint Some Fans?

I don't think so. He created Star Wars lock, stock, and barrel. And since it was his vision, I feel he knew the galaxy and characters better than anyone else.
I can't speak for anyone but myself, I think the reason I was disappointed was because I had 16 years of waiting and expectations in between ROTJ and TPM and obviously there was no way it was going to be exactly as I pictured it. And I realized that looking back on it.

 

TPM is my favorite SW film, so I’m very leery to say it should have been made differently. That being said, I can understand why it gets criticized so much and I think most of those criticisms fall under three categories: 1) Open-ended experimentation with CGI effects and especially characters, 2) Complicated, exposition-heavy writing that prioritizes world building over drama, and 3) A light-hearted tone that encounters the GFFA from a child’s perspective.

Most people would say that some of these elements needed to be scaled back and GL needed to better conform to audience expectations, and I can understand that criticism, but I think a lot would be lost as well. Yes, his experimentation with CGI characters lead to Jar Jar, but it also lead to Sebulba, and the journey through the planet core. The exposition heavy writing may have buried some characterization and drama that could have emerged through more traditional dialogue, but it also made a film rich with details about the politics, sociology, and history of the GFFA, details which would inspire a decade of new material, like TCW and KOTOR.

And yes, casting an unproven child actor as Anakin was relentlessly optimistic, but it mattered in making the spirit of the film truly innocent, especially considering the legacy it was inheriting. The Gungans could have been less goofy and animalistic, but then would Darth Maul have been so purely demonic? Padme could have been a young adult, but then would her faith in the solidarity of life over industry carried through in setting up the Battle of Naboo? Lucas was certain that TPM was going to be a film not for adults, or even teenagers, but children and it mattered that the protagonist was one.

Could any or all of these creative impulses been reigned in to better to conform to audience expectations? Possibly, yes, but it would ultimately compromise the auteur spirit of the project, and make it less challenging as well because as it stands, it is totally uncompromising. Part of its excitement comes from seeing its ambitions even when they’re not entirely achieved. Its execution is not perfect, but its vision is.

 

Yeah, but how whiny was Luke? And Kylo? Must be a Skywalker thing. Or a thing with yutes. Glad to see this film is getting a lot more love. I was disappointed and either it or ROTJ is my least favorite SW film. But it’s a great film. The problems were the 16 year wait; it’s a 2 hour-plus first act; it contradicted head canons; we had internet and cable access to negative reviews when it was reviewed no more poorly than V and VI; and I like dark SW. But it has definitely grown on me.

 

The Phantom Menace was not disappointing to me because I understood some of the things that Lucas was trying to do. I believe many that Jar Jar was for young children and not adults.
This is the reason Jar Jar acted as he did in TPM. I believe the backlash he received about Jar Jar was one of the many reasons Lucas did not want to continue making Star Wars movies which is sad.

 

What could he have done other than convey the story that he wanted to tell? Either people are going to accept it or not. Many people rejected it. And many people accepted it. What else is there to say?

 

I can understand the backlash from a hype perspective especially when ya read threads about what Episode I would be like on forums from the early to mid 90s where adult Anakin and Obi-Wan would be swashbuckling, killing evil clone Mandalorians, and suited Vader would be killing Jedi throughout II and III.

However, TPM is a legitimately well-made film that reached a level of worldbuilding that arguably only ROTS has achieved. Qui-Gon Jinn was an amazing new character that adds layers to Obi-Wan's story and the Trade Federation was a tangible threat for an Old Republic with a legitimate government.

And I think AOTC and ROTS turned out to be better than any speculation could offer. Lucas managed to take two "PG-friendly" armies (clones and droids) and enwrapped it in a super dark, complex post-9/11 narrative about the right for separatism/insurgency when the government fails its citizens. Sure, there is a clear good side and evil side but the Clone Wars is a war that isn't noble like the OT and ST. It's an ugly, unnecessary conflict with two neutral factions manipulated by a Sith to be the good guys and bad guys.

Much cooler than the evil clones from Mandalore kill because they are evil and evil is bad and good is good like most Clone Wars speculation imagined.

 

It's Lucas' gig and what's done is done, but yes, I think he dropped the ball with TPM, and the rest of the PT. It was a missed opportunity in terms of making TPM revolve around an annoying child-character, and also relegating the actual "Clone Wars", so heavily promised, to a mere cartoon series.

 

By "mere cartoon series" do you by any chance mean the wildly popular and beloved Emmy Award-winning cartoon series?

 

Two top-of-the-line cartoon series', let's not forget. Which were redefining the genre from all aspects.

"Star Wars isn't about monsters, it's about human frailties." The films needed to revolve around the central characters and their personal arcs, not clones shooting droids. What's important as far as the war is how & why it started & ended. And for the surprising cherry on top, how the clones played into the genocide of the Jedi.

This is largely why he went the series route with the war.

Nor did it need to revolve around the Darth Vader we already know slaughtering Jedi, which we already know about.

("There's nothing new [in TFA]") - GL

 

Yes. I think it should have been the main focus of the movie trilogy.

 

We saw more Clone Wars battles in the prequels than we did Galactic Civil War battles in the original trilogy--and much more spectacular ones, at that.

The wars weren't the main focus of either trilogy. The wars were backdrops for the personal journeys of the main characters.

 

Maybe backdrop should have been my choice of words, but I would have liked it to have been thus across the three installments, rather than just catch the beginning of it, and the end of it between parts II and III. Just my preference.

 

I was literally just about to say this. We had 0 ground battles in ANH (unless ya wanna count the Tantive IV skirmish), but didn't get infantry battles until Hoth. Even then, the film is more concerned about vehicular combat between ATs and Snowspeeders. Endor is really the only battle in the OT where the ground war is shown between infantry.

In II and III, Geonosis, Utapau, and Coruscant all play major roles in the plot of the films and we got to see Kashyyyk.

 

Not to mention all the glimpses we get of battles on various worlds during the Order 66 sequence.

For some reason there's this perception that just because we only saw the very beginning and end of the war, we barely got to see the Clone Wars in the prequels. But that's not really a fair assessment.

And there's also the implication that the huge ending battle of TPM is bad or doesn't count or something, just because it's not technically part of the official Clone Wars conflict.

The prequels were a really good trilogy for cool Star Wars battles.

 

It would have been better to have the Clone Wars form the backdrop across all three installments, with Hayden in all three. Would have made for better time to develop his story arc. Just what I reckon anyway.

 

I don't really see the need to have the Clone Wars in all three films. The war was basically one of many tools that Palpatine had used in his rise to power. There was no real urgency on who would win that war, considering that he was the leader on both sides.

 

Nearly Two Decades of Hype.
Nothing Lucas could have done would have made everyone happy.

As someone who grew up with the prequels, I have no issues with any of them and I am happy he told the story he wanted to.

 

At the time, I had issues with TPM. All through my years as TPM and PT mod, I had issues not only with TPM, but also AOTC and ROTS. I still to this day have issues with TPM. But none of that changes the fact that I enjoy TPM, the PT and all of the Star Wars films. I love some more than others, I watch some more than others. I have never subscribed to the thought that one should find perfect the things they passionately love.

That said, I also have never subscribed to the idea that creators should somehow cater to the fans or "do more to ensure" that fans are not disappointed. Creators should make what they want to make, they should make films they want to see, films they would themselves love. If others love them too, great. But the creative process can so easily be warped and poisoned by thinking about, and catering to, the fanbase(s). So no, George should have not done anything to ensure TPM or any other SW film did not disappoint fans. He should have been true to what he wanted to see and what he wanted to do, as should any filmmaker or creator of any type.

 

The thing is, Lucas himself has said that he tries his best to please the fans. But he views that within the context of also doing what he wants to do. So he might alter his approach to make certain things come across more clearly or in a more enjoyable way, but he's not going to fundamentally alter his vision. So he's not going to rewrite his movie so that Anakin is in his twenties instead of being a nine-year-old, because that's fundamentally at odds with the story he wants to tell. He's going to do his best to tell that story in an audience-pleasing way, but he's gong to tell that story no matter what.

 

Lucas never promised to show the Clone Wars in all of its glory. He only ever said that he would show the events that lead to the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker, and how it would affect those important to him. Even when Lucas was at one point considering twenty some films, he never mapped out centering a whole film or a group of films to the Clone Wars. The fans assumed that the war would be the subject of an entire trilogy. This was never promised by Lucas.

 

For sure, there is a fine line to walk between making something that people want to see, that they enjoy... vs. fan service. It can be a very easy thing to fall into fan service. I think Lucas mostly makes the stories he wants to make, but he does a good job of keeping in mind what his fans might like/want, without being consumed by it and falling into fan service.

 

Honestly, while I don't understand in general the hate towards the prequels, the hate towards TPM baffles me the most.

I was 18 years old when that movie came out, and I watched it in the movie theaters with 3 good friends of mine. I had discovered Star Wars when I was 12-13, and I had watched the Special Editions of the OT in 1997-1998 in the theaters. So after I watched TPM, I was ecstatic, much like every single one of my friends. It wasn't a fanboy thing though. I don't think we would have been ecstatic no matter what. We were just captured by the magic of that film for 2 hours, and fell in love with Lucas' movie, exactly for what it was.

It's the beginning of the saga, it starts to build everything. The political background, Palpatine's scheme, the state of the galaxy, the Jedi Council. It has one of the most interesting Jedi ever, Qui Gon, it has Kenobi as a young padawan, it has Darth Maul, arguably one of the best Sith to be shown in the saga, and I don't even need to mention the visuals and the photography in this movie, with Naboo claiming the 1st spot.

Now if people want to ignore all of that and focus on the 10 minutes where you actually see Jar Jar Binks on the spotlight, that's of course their right, I just don't see why I would do that even if I hated his character (I don't).

It wasn't until many years later, that I discovered how TPM had received a lot of hate in the US (for the most part), and I was honestly shocked. Looking back at it now, I think it was the cool thing to do. Much like it was the cool thing to hate on Metallica because of Load and Reload. So, to answer the question, no, I don't think Lucas should have done more to ensure TPM didn't disappoint some fans. I think that time is working in his favor, and now people are much more accepting of what he did, which was quite spectacular. It's easy to dismiss these movies 20 years later, but all the prequels were groundbreaking in so many ways when they came out. I had not seen anything like it ever before, in terms of space battles and world building.

 

I mean I could spell out the issues I have with TPM, but I am sure it would all be stuff you've heard before.

 

Well, considering that I have probably heard a complaint for every single minute of the 133 minutes of the movie (sometimes more than 1 complaint per minute!), yeah, I guess that's a correct statement. It doesn't change the fact that the movie reeks George Lucas' personal style in every single one of these 133 minutes, and that gives me all the feels, whereas I cannot say the same for the non-GL movies.

 

You sound like someone back in the PT days describing their feelings about the OT vs. the PT...