Wtf George?

[FarShot]

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/57917

[Vortex]

I... I actually found that rather damned amusing. 

[FarShot]

It's not that it wasn't funny (a good few chunks of it were), but the fact that Lucas owns it.  When you start making a parody of your own stuff, something's wrong.  If this isn't evidence of the continued decline of the Star Wars franchise and of George Lucas, I'm not sure what is.

[Shadowknight1]

Lucas owns Star Wars, plain and simple.  But that does not make him the mover and shaker of everything that comes out under the brand.  This is Seth Green's baby.  That's right, Seth Green.  His show.  Not Lucas's.  Don't get it mixed up.  Lucas is retired anyways.

And if you want serious animation, I highly suggest Clone Wars.

[FarShot]

I'm more of the type that thinks the prequels, Clone Wars, "The" Clone Wars, Force Unleashed II, and whiny emo Anakin were all terrible mistakes.  And I blame George Lucas for all of them.  About the only good things were the Dark Forces series, the Shadows of the Empire series, the KOTOR series, the X-wing game series, and the original trilogy.  And I almost hate VI thanks to the ewoks.

If a franchise owner/creator can't own up to the mistakes he and the people he put in charge made, he's still guilty of it.  My relationship with Star Wars is very love/hate at the moment.

[Joshmaul]

Don't get it mixed up.  Lucas is "retired" anyways.

Fixed that for you, heh...George is only gonna let go of his creation when he's dead, and possibly not even then.

[1DeadlySAMURAI]

 

[Bones]

I'm more of the type that thinks the prequels, Clone Wars, "The" Clone Wars, Force Unleashed II, and whiny emo Anakin were all terrible mistakes.  And I blame George Lucas for all of them.  About the only good things were the Dark Forces series, the Shadows of the Empire series, the KOTOR series, the X-wing game series, and the original trilogy.  And I almost hate VI thanks to the ewoks.

If a franchise owner/creator can't own up to the mistakes he and the people he put in charge made, he's still guilty of it.  My relationship with Star Wars is very love/hate at the moment.

My god, Farshot, you have a gift of word  ... I couldn't put this better myself, ever.

QFT

btw. cookie !

[Shadowknight1]

I disagree with almost everything you said FarShot.  Clone Wars, both the first animated show and the CGI, is fantastically well done and actually makes Anakin look like a real human being instead of a talking piece of wood.  The Force Unleashed games are great, but a terrible mark upon the saga because LucasArts decided to fire everyone that had anything to do with them, effectively killing any hope for an actual ending.  And you literally CANNOT blame Lucas for these things.  Why?  Because Lucas is shown the stuff that SOMEONE ELSE DID and says, "Okay, go with it."  Lucas doesn't care.  He occasionally tells them to do something, but beyond that, he doesn't interfere with anything outside of the actual movies.

That being said, I enjoy the prequels for the visuals and the action scenes, but not the story telling.  And the reason for that is simple.  George Lucas is a special effects man.  Not a story teller.  But Star Wars did so well that the fans believe he's a great story weaver.  He's not.  Hell, some of the biggest genius character moments in the original trilogy were done by the ACTORS.  Example: During the scene when Han was to be frozen in carbonite and Leia told him she loved him, Harrison Ford tried every variation of "I love you too" in the book before he finally just said, "I know."  Cut, print, GENIUS.  The fact of the matter is that the cast and the fans understand these characters better than the creators.   And I think that comes through even in some of the performances in the prequels, especially Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan.

This is a cartoon series that they're making.  Not just an animated series, it is a straight up cartoon.

[FarShot]

I was about to type an extremely lengthy reply, but I found this instead.  I'm pretty much in 100% agreement with this:  http://www.aintitcool.com/node/37951

I can blame Lucas for these things.  As you pointed out, he approves them.  Do we not hold the President of the United States responsible for whatever misdeeds occur due to him slamming his seal down on whatever he does, even if he doesn't read the fine print?  Yes, we do.  And if Lucas "doesn't care", that's even more evidence of the franchise's decline.  Do I hold Gene Roddenberry responsible for the terrible episodes of early TNG?  Yes, I do, and while I respect his original vision for Star Trek, he never was a good screenwriter or director.

[Vortex]

I actually really like The Clone Wars. Far and away I prefer a lot of it to the prequel movies. That's more of what the prequels should have been, rather than briefly getting the opening and closing of the war. I also really like the animation style, they should do the Romulan War like that for ST.

As I have grown, however, I've come to like the prequels less and less. Partially because of the story telling, partially because the effects look so dated. The CGI looks great for the most part, but the constant blue/green screening? It hasn't aged well, the Original's look to have better keying, rather than life action cut out and pasted over a backdrop with some bad light wrapping. And the lightsaber effects? They just looked plain awful and unnatural in the last two movies. Ewan McGregor has shown his displeasure at the prequels in an interview on Top Gear, so even one of the lead actors didn't think the movies were that good.

I could never get into Force Unleashed. That the guy could use the force to bring down a Star Destroyer, and nothing like that was done in the movies? That was way over the top.

[Shadowknight1]

I actually really like The Clone Wars. Far and away I prefer a lot of it to the prequel movies. That's more of what the prequels should have been, rather than briefly getting the opening and closing of the war. I also really like the animation style, they should do the Romulan War like that for ST.

As I have grown, however, I've come to like the prequels less and less. Partially because of the story telling, partially because the effects look so dated. The CGI looks great for the most part, but the constant blue/green screening? It hasn't aged well, the Original's look to have better keying, rather than life action cut out and pasted over a backdrop with some bad light wrapping. And the lightsaber effects? They just looked plain awful and unnatural in the last two movies. Ewan McGregor has shown his displeasure at the prequels in an interview on Top Gear, so even one of the lead actors didn't think the movies were that good.

I could never get into Force Unleashed. That the guy could use the force to bring down a Star Destroyer, and nothing like that was done in the movies? That was way over the top.

Agreed with the Clone Wars, of course.  And I definitely agree with you on the idea of the CGI being way too over the top in the prequels.  I mean, maybe 10% of what was onscreen was real?

And your example for The Force Unleashed is a misconception.  He technically does not use the Force to bring a Star Destroyer down.  The thing was coming down anyways.  He used the Force to alter its trajectory.  Not that hard a feat.  And need I remind you that we kept getting the "Size matters not" hammered into our heads?  Heck, in one alternate universe comic, Yoda brings down the freaking Death Star.

[Joshmaul]

Heck, in one alternate universe comic, Yoda brings down the freaking Death Star.

Aha, there's the rub. "Alternate universe".

[Tuskin38]

I don't know.. I kinda like this, I found some of it funny.

Someone mentioned Clone Wars above, I think Season 5 looks great

[Shadowknight1]

I don't know.. I kinda like this, I found some of it funny

That's what I like about it.  My biggest problem with this though, and this is also a problem I have with the idea of Teen Titans Go!, is the basic premise of the show.  What they're doing is taking what is essentially a 30 second to a minute long comedy sketch and expanding it to fill a half hour.  As with Teen Titans Go!, I'll wait until I see a few episodes to judge it, but I really can't see something like this lasting as long as the respective serious shows.  Both Clone Wars and Teen Titans had some really good storytelling.  Heck, I think any fan of Star Wars should at least see the Clone Wars episode "Rookies".  It's a great study of the clone troopers and how they're all individuals with personalities rather than the automatons that they're portrayed to be in the films because of how little time they're given.  As much as I love the main characters, the best episodes to me are the ones where Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Dooku, and the entire presence of the Sith are nowhere to be seen and we're literally seeing the war from the trenches.

EDIT: I will also say this on the subject of Lucas as a storyteller.  It's a bad sign when a college professor who loves Star Wars enough to have Star Wars merchandise in his office says that a FANFICTION is written better than the actual movies.

[B5]

i'm actually going to be looking forward to this

[Cube]

The Clone Wars is a brilliant series. It's also surprising just how dark the episodes get, and how varied the episodes are.

When a cartoon show can successfully pull off multiple episodes with none of the main characters, or with only the villains, then it's doing something right. There was even a 4-episode long arc where the main characters took a back seat and it focused on the clone troopers.

My only problem with it is how the timeline is all over the place. There are many arcs taking place over three or four episodes; however the seasons don't progress in a straight line.

For example, the earliest episode is in season 2. The "Rookies" episode mentioned above in season 1. There is a prequel and sequel to this episode in season 3. There's a similar case involving Ziro the Hutt.

[Vortex]

I just hope we get more of Quinlan Vos. Waiting for series 4 to come out on DVD now, need to catch up.