PT Was George Lucas dissatisfied with Episode 1 ?

There's footage of him and several other people watching a preliminary cut of The Phantom Menace. Afterwards there is dead silence and Lucas looked close to panic. ...And then began rationalizing how, really, well it wasn't THAT bad imho. I loved it as a kid and still love it today. (I can only talk about the cut I saw of course.)





I know I know it's from the ****ing Plinkett "nitpicking" reviews. And God I hate them but it's the only short video with Lucas reaction.

edit: the comments under the video are embarrassing smh
edit take 2: FYI I make a lot of threads that indicate that I may not like the prequels, but that's not true. I actually love them, all of them.

 

It seems more that he was just dissatisfied with some of the editing choices regarding the finale. It's been said that the finale does mute some of the emotions, for example, the glee of Anakin destroying the TF ship and saving the Gungans, juztaposed with Obi-Wan clinging for his life against Maul.

As for the supposed silence, for one thing, these people have been working on the film for years at this point, so it's understandable they that aren't reacting as an average viewer would. They know what's going to happen. It's also a rough cut, as in not finished.

 

No. He and the production team have seen that footage for months, every day, at various stages of development. To expect any kind of surprise or emotional reaction is ridiculous. To use as evidence of anything regarding the movie or its quality is showing ignorance.

 

You might want to read posts properly first and recognise that the OP is asking a question
"Was George Lucas dissatisfied with Episode 1 ?"

, rather than taking a position for which they have evidence, before declaring that the OP should attract ridicule or are that they are showing ignorance.

Anyway. Since there have been several changes to it since its original release, it is perfectlysafe to say that Lucas was dissatisfied with some of The Phantom Menace, based on that evidence alone

 

You might want to read my reply properly and recognize that not only did I answer the question but addressed the rest of the OP.

It's not my fault that you only read the title of the thread. The rest of my reply is obviously addressed at the RLM "review" (which the OP mentions) from which that excerpt was made "famous".

Try again.

 

I read the whole thread. I read the opening question and then the motivation for asking it. You also ignored the fact that the OP has stated that the video is provided purely to show a reaction from Lucas toward the work in progress. Not to endorse or adopt the opinions of the RLM review.

They make that point quite clearly here but you seem to have missed it. Or perhaps you are just being dishonest.

You told the OP this about them., even though they were asking a question

"To expect any kind of surprise or emotional reaction is ridiculous. To use as evidence of anything regarding the movie or its quality is showing ignorance."

 

What "them"? To the OP question I said "no". And the rest of my post was obviously addressed at the source of the video and the obvious attempt to take the excerpt out of context to support a childish and fallacious argument. I stand by what I said. If the OP has a problem he's free to reply. I don't need to justify myself to you or your strawman.

 

Perhaps try and stay on topic in future then. The OP wasn't asking for your opinion on RLM and in fact made a point of disavowing it so as to avoid that kind of response.


Anyway. It's pretty insulting to any observer to claim that your only reply to the OP was a simple "No" to their question and that the bulk of your reply, which followed that no immediately, was directed instead at what the OP clearly stated was not the point of the thread. And then claim you read the whole OP after throwing around words like "ignorant" when you have demonstrably ignored the OP's intent.

The OP's free to reply. I'm free to reply. You don't need to justify yourself (Except within the rules of the board).

 

Creators are often disappointed with aspects of their work. It was true of Lucas for the O-O-OT, so very likely it's true of the PT. Other than the various tweaks we're aware of, though, hard to say exactly what Lucas thinks. An official bonus feature where professionals exhibit a muted, professional reaction does not convince me one way or another.

 

This video is taking something out of context. The original video is the "Beginning" documentary on the making of The Phantom Menace. In one of the segments, the crew were watching a *Rough Cut*(as you see here) of the film, not the film in its final glory.

So already this post is technically wrong with the link you sourced.

But to your question, I don't think so. Lucas had been waiting for many years for technology to advance so he could tell the stories he wanted to tell. As to my knxledge, he was very happy to have made the prequels.

 

Except that Lucas says that he was dissatisfied with the last act of the movie at that point in the production. Right after that reaction he says "I may've gone too far in a few places". Then he laments the fact that he can't change much bcs each element of the movie's climax affects the other. So it's not that he was bored with watching the same footage a hundred times. He recognised that there was a problem.

 

This is all covered in The Beginning.

Go to 54:43



What's really odd about it is of course all the time certain people who constantly talk about how there was no collaboration on the prequels get upset when it's clearly evident there was.

As usual they only want it the way they want it as opposed to what actually happened.

As for the larger question. As we know Lucas has what he admits are impossibly high standards so ANH was 30% or whatever. TPM did far better than that and he deliberately held back in places.

What is interesting that I note is that he's clearly talking about it being hard to follow in the editing. Lucas is a visual storyteller so he's talking about very specific points. As McCallum noted the same effect was used in ANH. Audiences then were left breathless by the movie because of the mass of information being presented on a visual and sound level.

Now it's all so familar that ANH is the slowest of the movies. TPM is much, much faster but it too over time slows down for the same reason.

I note some reviewers over time forget this and talk about ANH's pace as if was seen the way it's looked at now back then but this simply was not the case. Modern audiences simply are not going to be able to process the same way because what was totally unfamiliar and never seen before is now the standard.

 

There's only one thing I wished he never did and that was to kill off Darth Maul at the end.
If I remember it correctly Maul had a much larger role at first, and should be played by benicio del toro.

Such a waste

 

The clip has long been taken way out of context. They are watching a rough cut of the Duel of the Fates reel. When Lucas says he "might have gone too far" , he is likely talking about the fact that he attempted to combine 4 different action sequences at the same time. It was a very ambitious and monumental task and somewhat risky. Personally I think he pulled it off. I believe Duel of the Fates is one of the best edited reels of the entire saga.

 

I think you are right about the specific context.

Personally I think the editing if we are just talking about that section of the film was pretty good. It was pretty intense as a kid, fast and slick, despite the Jar Jar moments that tbh are one of the few Jar Jar scenes I didn't actually like. But I agree the pacing doesn't chop or anything.

Also there is some cool symbolism in Obi-Wan becoming a Jedi using his defeated Master's saber. And possibly some inverse "karma" with Obi-Wan being temporarily defeated as Anakin achieves victory. If I'm not imagining things.

 

You might want to watch "The Clone Wars" and "Rebels".