Lawrence Kasdan and Richard Marquand should punch George Lucas in the face.

[Bolerathon Avant Guardian Find all posts View Profile Close Bolerathon]

Here's the thing......

He wrote the script for Star Wars.

Once other people started getting involved... it started becoming a collaboration. So I don't want to hear any bullshit about how we should all thank George Lucas for giving birth to these characters or this world. He wrote a script that was then turned into a movie by HUNDREDS of people.

Actors, special effects crews, puppeteers, editors, John Fucking Williams, set designers, costume designers....

There are so many things that went into making that flick tremendous that it's a monumental insult to suggest that it was all the brainchild of one man.

That's simply not how the world works. George Lucas is a visionary and a genius at one thing.

Promoting and profiting off of the myth of George Lucas & Star Wars.

Lets not forget his original designs were absolutly nothing like what was put on screen. Luke was to be in his 60's and have a robot head, Han was supposed to be some kind of man frog and C-3PO had the personality of a sleazy used car salesman. Had he had total artistic control it would have been the Plan 9 of the 70's.

[Parallax2814 Green Lantern Initiate Find all posts View Profile Close Parallax2814]

Lets not forget his original designs were absolutly nothing like what was put on screen. Luke was to be in his 60's and have a robot head, Han was supposed to be some kind of man frog and C-3PO had the personality of a sleazy used car salesman. Had he had total artistic control it would have been the Plan 9 of the 70's.

Which is why the studio didn't figure it'd make any money.

[TazzMission Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close TazzMission]

Oh and The Phantom Menace absolutely WAS a critical letdown.

That movie SUCKS!

EDIT :

A sampling....

The actors are wallpaper, the jokes are juvenile, there's no romance, and the dialogue lands with the thud of a computer-instruction manual. But it's useless to criticize the visual astonishment that is Star Wars – Episode I: The Phantom Menace.


There are no romance, no humor, ultimately nobody to care about in this oddly sterile movie.

There is nothing in this noisy, overdesigned bore to equal the excitement generated by the mere idea of the trailer.

Too busy and talky by half, overpopulated by a baffling array of aliens and robot 'droids,' The Phantom Menace fails to engage the audience in its mythic quest `to restore balance to the Force.

Who would have guessed that The Phantom Menace would be so incoherent, so completely bereft of a grand adventure's surging thrills?

Story. Character. They used to mean something to George Lucas.

Even without the pre-release hoopla, The Phantom Menace would be a considerable letdown!


Everything about this film is so mechanical you wonder if it was written, directed and acted by 'droids.'

Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace seems designed more as a promotion for Lucasfilm's billion-dollar merchandising concerns than a meaningful chapter in the Star Wars canon.

Many of the scenes feel shapeless and flat-they're not ended, but abandoned.


It is neither captivating nor transporting, for it lacks any emotional pull, as well as the sense of wonder and awe that marks the best works of sci-fi/fantasy.

only good thing from phantom menace was darth maul and liam neeson. other than that i agree the movie blew big time

[Bolerathon Avant Guardian Find all posts View Profile Close Bolerathon]

Which is why the studio didn't figure it'd make any money.

Exactly. You give George Lucas free reign over anything and it is a total mess. He has his uses but he's no good at what he does. The guy couldn't direct trailers for porn.

[Sylent_Asassin Black Lantern Find all posts View Profile Close Sylent_Asassin]

Frankly, I found Shadows of the Empire disappointing. I kind of wished they had expanded more on the (much longer) time between ANH and ESB, rather than the time between ESB and RotJ.

What I found most disappointing about Shadows was the build-up between Vader and Xizor not culminating in an epic, vis a vis duel. The way they ended it left a bad taste in my mouth.

[Agent Purple The Illustrated Man Find all posts View Profile Close Agent Purple]

Exactly. You give George Lucas free reign over anything and it is a total mess. He has his uses but he's no good at what he does. The guy couldn't direct trailers for porn.

What I found most disappointing about Shadows was the build-up between Vader and Xizor not culminating in an epic, vis a vis duel. The way they ended it left a bad taste in my mouth.

Someone mentions porn, sylent immediately posts.


...Very suspicious!

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker Moisture Farmer Find all posts View Profile Close Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

It was the bad taste in his mouth!

[Sylent_Asassin Black Lantern Find all posts View Profile Close Sylent_Asassin]

WTF?!? My post was about Star Wars! LOL!

[TazzMission Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close TazzMission]

What I found most disappointing about Shadows was the build-up between Vader and Xizor not culminating in an epic, vis a vis duel. The way they ended it left a bad taste in my mouth.

it was 100% better then episodes 1 and 2.

[Mister Ed Horse of a Different Color Find all posts View Profile Close Mister Ed]

it was 100% better then episodes 1 and 2.

I dunno. Episode 1 and 2, while embarassing and stupid in several ways, at least tried to tell stories I was interested in seeing, namely the history of Darth Vader, and the beginning of the Clone Wars. There are many things I would change about them (or rather that I wish COMPETENT people would change about them- I have no illusions that I am some kind of genius filmmaker), but I wanted to see those stories.

Shadows of the Empire presented a story that had no importance whatsoever to the ongoing narrative of Star Wars, a story I wasn't even interested in hearing about ahead of time (I never ONCE said to myself, "I wonder what happened between Episodes 5 and 6).

It filled a "gap" that I think most people didn't even think of as a "gap". And I can barely remember what happened in it, it was that unmemorable to me.

Maybe it had better dialogue than the prequels (I can believe it, even though I don't remember it), and I seem to recall Xizor being a more interesting character than some of the undeveloped villains from the movies (the Neimoidians, or General Greivous, or possibly even Count Dooku) but I think that may be due, in part, to the much greater opportunities for character development in a novel (I understand Greivous, and Dooku, are both much more interesting and fleshed-out characters on the page). I have no reason to believe that Xizor, if brought to the screen, would be any more interesting than some of those folks.

So 100% better? In some senses, maybe. But overall, I'd have to disagree, especially if comparing novel versions of the movies to the Shadows novel.