Fan criticism of George Lucas
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Fan criticism of George Lucas is a realm of amateur film and fandom criticism focused on the works of film director George Lucas, specifically concerning the Star Wars saga. The Star Wars franchise is one of the most popular and lucrative in film history, but some fans disapprove of changes made to the original films in re-releases and of elements in the prequel episodes.
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[edit] Aspects of Lucas's work targeted by critics
Following is a list of topics which have inspired negative criticism from Star Wars fans.
[edit] Ewoks
Early criticism was caused by the Ewoks in the final film of the original trilogy, Return of the Jedi. These teddy bear-like primitives featured prominently in Return of the Jedi and are the major protagonists of the final ground battle. Some felt that the Ewoks were a jarringly childish addition to a franchise that had many adult fans, and furthermore found it implausible that these furry tribespeople could overcome the implacable Empire and their armored, high-tech stormtroopers. Some believe that the entire trilogy loses all credibility at this point.
Some did not object to the Ewok species or the creatures' role in the film, but merely to the uncharacteristicly sloppy special effects that represented them. Even in close-up shots their eyes did not open or close, nor have pupils, and at times the seams of their costumes were visible. This was in stark contrast with the aliens in Jabba's palace which often employed sophisticated animatronic puppets for close-up shots which depicted facial muscles, opening and closing eye-lids and even sweat. It was hard for many to imagine that these were anything but dwarfs dressed in furry suits after witnessing the astonishingly vivid and life-like creatures in the first half of the film.
These criticisms do not take into account the fact that the third movie of the original franchise was subjected to huge time and money constraints and at times it seemed like it was about to be called off, evidently these hindrances were more stringent when it came to shoot the Endor part of the movie, affecting the funds with which to depict the furry aliens.
In the commentary for the film in the 2004 DVD release, Lucas describes the Ewoks as not being able to fight against the Imperial forces at first then slowly overcoming them. He cites the Vietnam war as an example of an army defeating a technologically superior foe.
[edit] Special Editions
The 1997 "Special Edition" re-release of the original trilogy included many actual changes (see: List of changes in Star Wars re-releases) to the content of the film, some unobtrusive and cosmetic, but many quite obvious and controversial. Using the digital technology which would become the hallmark of Lucas' later career, these SE versions of the much-beloved original films included some actual alterations of the narrative content.
Most infamous of these was the Han-and-Greedo shootout, in which Lucas had the footage of a scene digitally altered so that the character Han Solo no longer fires a pre-emptive shot at the bounty hunter who is holding him at gunpoint. The new version depicts the villain shooting first and Solo killing him in self-defense, a change designed to make the protagonist seem less cold-blooded.
[edit] Episode I
Episode I was significant in that, unlike the Special Editions of the original films, it was the first wholly original contribution to the cinematic Star Wars mythos in over a decade. As it was the first Star Wars film that Lucas had both written and directed since Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Lucas was the aim of criticism.
For further discussion of the controversy surrounding Episode I, see the main article: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
[edit] CGI
A pioneer of the use of computer-generated imagery (CGI) in filmic special effects, Lucas is one of the most prolific users of CGI in films. Since the Special Editions, Lucas has increased his use of CGI for backgrounds, sets, props, creatures, space battles, whole characters and many tiny details that escape the untrained eye. The volume of CGI effects shots has grown exponentially over the course of the prequel trilogy; according to DVD content, only a few shots in the whole of Revenge of the Sith did not feature some kind of CGI work.
Lucas himself sees no difference between CGI and other special effects technologies. In his DVD commentary on Return of the Jedi, he says
- "I'm still amused by people who somehow think that when you use cyber-technology or digital technology in movies, suddenly it's 'fake' — but when you look at a scene in here in Jabba's palace, now there's some digital characters in here, but they're no more or less fake than all the other characters in here. I mean, is a digital character more fake than a big fat rubber character? [laughs] I mean, there's nothing real here at all — and it's hard to say that a rubber character has more integrity than a digital character. What I try to do is just make the characters become believable — so that they look realistic enough where you have a suspension of disbelief and accept them as characters rather than tricks, which is what they all are."
However, some fans prefer the mechanical effects used in the original trilogy, and feel that the sheer amount of computer effects tends to overshadow the plot and content of the new films. Some also feel that too much CGI leads to a sense of fakeness: however sophisticated the process becomes, many viewers are immediately able to detect much of the CGI work, whether due to a trained eye or, in the case of impossible creatures, contextual logic. CGI work regarded as gratuitous or unnecessary has attracted criticism as well, such as the computer-generated clone troopers in Episodes II and III, which could have been rendered by actors in costume as in the original trilogy. For these reasons, some film aficionados and filmmakers believe that CGI should be used only when absolutely necessary; Lucas, as one of the primary CGI users in the industry, has also suffered criticism from this general anti-CGI backlash.
[edit] Directing
Some fans hold the opinion that George Lucas is a poor director for working with actors. This image is partially self-perpetuated; Lucas has famously quipped that his acting direction to his stars after a take is limited to "faster, more intense". He also has said, particularly on DVD special features, that directing on set is his least favorite part of the filmmaking process; editing, he says, is where he really feels he is creating the film.
The prequel films featured such acclaimed actors as Liam Neeson, Natalie Portman, Ewan MacGregor, and others; some viewers judged their performances as markedly inferior compared to other efforts and concluded that Lucas' directing was responsible for the change. Others dispute the characterization of the prequel performances as "poor" or most commonly "wooden," arguing that at the very least they are no worse than those of the original trilogy cast. Still others point to the actors' unfamiliarity with CGI-intensive filmmaking as a possible factor.
[edit] Intellectual marginalization of crew and actors
On a related note, some fans criticize Lucas' apparent tendency to keep his actors in the dark as to his creative intentions.
The most infamous and (comparatively) well-documented example of Lucas's tendency to withhold information is in the story of David Prowse, the actor who portrayed Darth Vader in the original trilogy. Prowse claims that he was never informed that his voice was to be dubbed over by James Earl Jones, and that the first time he learned this was by watching the film at its premiere, much to his embarrassment. Some fans regard not warning Prowse as an incredibly inconsiderate act, although others point out that the actor must have been fairly naive to not realize that the fact he was presumably never called in for any automated dialogue replacement sessions would obviously indicate that his voice was not to be used. As seen on the documentary "Empire of Dreams" Prowse's voice is less resonant and impressive than Jones's; several crew members state that they didn't feel the Darth Vader character come alive until James Earl Jones had re-recorded the dialogue.
Prowse apparently lobbied to be included in Episode III, reprising his role as the fully-armored Darth Vader, but was turned down. There is anecdotal evidence from some statements made by Hayden Christensen that it was never a question of Prowse versus himself. Rather Christensen apparently had to argue to wear the suit, instead of Lucas finding an anonymous tall actor. Prowse has developed the habit of signing his autographs "David Prowse IS Darth Vader", perhaps to counter the casual viewer's attribution of the Vader role to James Earl Jones.
Although Prowse is involved in the convention circuit, he has apparently not been included in recent reunions of the cast, for the 2004 DVD documentary "Empire of Dreams" or the 2005 Vanity Fair cover featuring Lucas and major actors from both trilogies. It is not known whether Prowse was invited and declined, or if he is indeed now blacklisted from Lucasfilm endeavors as some contend.
[edit] Jar Jar Binks
Although a significant part of the previous topic, the Episode I comic relief character Jar Jar Binks was reviled by a very large portion of the film's audience. He was found by most viewers to be intensely annoying and outrageously childish. Jar Jar's extremely prominent role in the film is considered by many to be a major creative blunder on Lucas' part. In fact, some fans who otherwise approve of Episode I argue that Jar Jar's presence colored detractors' experience of the entire film and led to harsher criticism. According to these fans, had Jar Jar been excised from the film or his role in some way significantly reduced or altered, Episode I would have had a more positive reception; several fan-based re-edits and re-dubs of the film, such as The Phantom Edit, attempt to prove this point by minimizing or eliminating Jar Jar's appearances.
Jar Jar has also been called a racist caricature. The character's notionally alien "Gungan" accent is reminiscent to some of a stereotyped Afro-Caribbean accent; Jar Jar's foolish clumsiness and subservience to Qui-Gon Jinn is similar to the character of Stepin Fetchit and other pre-Civil Rights Movement caricatures of African-Americans. Lucas and others associated with the project have denied racist intent, but the added stigma has done nothing to help Jar Jar's popularity, nor that of the first prequel.
Some believe that, due to the backlash, Lucas minimized Jar Jar's role in the following two films and made C-3P0 and R2-D2's involvement in the new trilogy much larger to fill in where he had originally intended Jar Jar to take part.
For further discussion of the Jar Jar controversy, see the main article on Jar Jar Binks.
[edit] Revisionism
Although Lucas' revisionism was most dramatically evident in the 1997 Special Editions, the filmmaker's tendency to retroactively tinker with his already-released films has existed both before and since.
Most commonly known of his pre-Special Edition changes is the fact that in the original theatrical release of the first Star Wars the opening crawl did not include the now-familiar heading "Episode IV - A New Hope". This was later added to early re-releases of the film and has been present for so long ever since that many younger viewers are unaware of its original absence.
With fans much more aware of Lucas' revisionism since the Special Editions, subsequent changes have been far better publicized within Star Wars fandom. The DVD and subsequent digital cinematic screenings of Episodes I and II have included minor changes from their original theatrical versions. In one of the Senate scenes in Episode I the Twi'lek senator Orn Free Taa originally shared his senate pod with humans, but for the DVD they were replaced with members of his own species. In the arena confrontation between Mace Windu and Jango Fett in Episode II the DVD added sparks and exhaust plumes to Fett's jetpack to indicate that it was damaged when he was nearly trampled by the Reek beast, thus providing an explanation for why the bounty hunter failed to simply fly away before the Jedi could behead him.
The 2004 DVD release of the original trilogy used many of the changes from the earlier Special Editions, in some cases with further enhancement to the 1997 additions, such as a revised version of the CGI Jabba the Hutt in Episode IV and alterations to the Coruscant skyline in Episode VI to include the prequel-era Jedi Temple and Galactic Senate buildings. However, there were various other entirely new changes, such as substituting the original Emperor (played by an unknown actress and voiced by Clive Revill) seen in Episode V with new footage of Ian McDiarmid; similarly, Sebastian Shaw was replaced by Hayden Christensen as the Force Ghost of Anakin Skywalker at the end of Episode VI. Both elements were shot during the making of Episode III.
It has been officially stated by Lucasfilm (and a clip is shown on the Episode III DVD) that future re-releases of Episode I will replace the puppet Yoda with the CGI model used in the later two prequels.
The issue of revisionism which perturbs many fans is a complex one. On an aesthetic level, many feel that the changes are jarring, especially when the CGI additions to the original trilogy appear incongruous with the more old-fashioned special-effects techniques which dominate the films.
Perhaps more importantly, many fans feel that Lucas altering his films is not actually his right, that he is "tampering with" them rather than exercising creative control, and that once released they "belong" to the public consciousness. This perspective is satirically but nevertheless earnestly argued in the South Park episode Free Hat.
It is important to remember that the same revisionism can be found outside the Star Wars franchise. In the 2005 DVD release of THX-1138, George Lucas revisioned his debut movie with new special effects and new scenes.
[edit] Lucas' "Grand Plan"
A similar view holds that Lucas' continual revisionism masks the perceived "fact" that Lucas is, contrary to claims, "making it up as he goes along." A cornerstone of much of Lucas' discussion and promotion of his three, later six Star Wars films is that they follow an epic, pre-planned story arc. On numerous occasions in sundry interviews over the decades Lucas has stated that the basic plot, back story and character arcs of the Star Wars saga were all mapped out before he made the first film, Episode IV.
Some fans, however, doubt this on the basis of deduction, intuition, anecdotal evidence and, in some cases, access to earlier drafts (or summaries of drafts) of the early scripts, fueling a debate in some circles. Among the arguments:
- That Darth Vader was originally intended to be Luke Skywalker's father, despite the lack of any explicit teaser in Episode IV. This can also be explained by the fact that it was meant to be a guarded secret (as has been mentioned, Mark Hamill only learned about this just before he had to act out the scene in Empire Strikes Back).
- That Leia was originally intended to be Luke's sister, despite the romantic tension between the characters in Episodes IV and V, which is later revealed to be incestuous.
- Further, that Darth Vader was intended to be Leia's father, despite him having spent a significant amount of time with her, and is even implied to have tortured her. However, this can be debated because Revenge of the Sith explicitly established that Vader did not know that his children had survived Padme's death, let alone that he had fathered twins.
- That the character of Yoda was conceived of prior to Episode V, despite the lack of any prior mention of his existence. (This is a comparatively verifiable case, however, as Lucas has openly admitted on various DVD documentaries and commentaries that he had not decided to kill off Obi-Wan Kenobi until during the actual making of Episode IV. Lucas presumably intended Kenobi to provide the further tutelage to Luke in the subsequent films. There is even speculation that Lucas possibly even intended Kenobi to eventually die of natural causes as Yoda does in Episode VI.)
- That many aspects of the prequel films were pre-planned, such as the structure of the Jedi Order, the nature of the Padawan/Master mentorship, Palpatine's rise to power and the political situations which gave rise to the Empire, despite the lack of any mention of them in the original trilogy.
- That the nature of Anakin Skywalker's induction to the Jedi Order was originally planned to take place as it was depicted in Episode I, despite the seeming incongruity of Obi-Wan Kenobi's "later" recounting of the situation to Luke in Episode IV. His dialogue makes no mention of Qui Gon Jinn and even seems to suggest that it was he himself who discovered Anakin, and many feel that it originally indicated that Anakin was older than a nine-year-old child upon their first meeting.
- That Qui Gon Jinn was supposed to be Obi-Wan Kenobi's instructor, or if the character was even conceived before writing Episode I. In the opening of Episode V Kenobi's dialogue gives the distinct impression that Yoda was the Jedi Master that instructed him, giving the distinct impression that Yoda was the only master that had ever instructed Kenobi; which of course is contradicted in the prequel trilogy with the introduction of Qui Gon as Kenobi's master. Lucas has argued that Yoda taught all the younglings as evidence in Episode II, however many would argue that Kenobi's choice of words should have been different if Qui Gon was indeed Kenobi's instructor for most of his training and Yoda's teachings were merely for the first few years.
- That Jedi Code's prohibition of "attachments" and thus romantic relationships was conceived prior to Episode II, on the basis that it is a major plot point for the final two films and yet is not even alluded to in Episode I.
- That the stormtroopers were originally intended to be the clones referred to in the Clone Wars as mentioned in Episode IV, despite the lack of specific (as opposed to contextual) indications. Stormtroopers in the original trilogy are made from new clone templates (not Jango Fett) and are also conscripted from normal people.
- That Boba Fett originally had no connection to the Stormtroopers.
- That Obi-Wan was to previously have been in contact with the droids R2 and C-3PO. Many people claim that in A New Hope, Obi-Wan has no memory of the droids. He actually says, "I don't recall owning a droid," which is true, as he never owned C-3PO or R2.
- That Padme was to die as early as she did. In Return of the Jedi, Leia states she has memories of her mother, yet in Revenge of the Sith it is shown that she dies in childbirth. With this in mind, it could be argued that Leia's adoptive mother died just a few years after she and Senator Organa adopted Leia. Possibly Leia had seen her mother using the Force, although this is unknown.
- That Anakin was originally to have built C-3PO, despite his failure to later recognize the droid. Though it is never seen whether or not Vader even came into contact with C-3PO during the original trilogy. It is possible that Vader might never have recognised C-3PO or vice versa, because C-3PO had his memory wiped, and there may be many 3PO Protocol Droids in the galaxy.
Vader could have been giving a clue he recognized C-3PO in The Empire Strikes Back. When Han is about to be frozen in carbonite, Chewbacca goes berzerk. Boba-Fett raises his blaster to shoot Chewie, but Darth Vader grabs the blaster and points it back down at the floor. This odd glimpse of compassion can be attributed to the fact that Chewbacca has C-3PO in a backpack over his shoulder, and Vader does not want to see his childhood creation damaged further. Chewbacca and C-3PO's lives also could have been spared for a future death used to trigger Luke to the Dark Side, as Vader tells Lando Calrissian to bring Leia and Chewbacca to his ship.
- Regarding narrative perspective. Initially, Lucas claimed that the whole story was to be told from the droid's perspective, but this is not true in any of the movies.
- Regarding Obi-Wan and Yoda's fates in Revenge of the Sith as, in the later films, it is clear that Vader expected them both to be already long-dead. This could also be explained by Order 66, which was supposed to eradicate all of the Jedi, although it is puzzling why Vader would not have demanded to be personally notified should his former master be found.
- That the Prophecy of the Chosen One was always intended to include the explicit prediction that the Chosen One would specifically destroy the Sith. Prior to Episode III this was never mentioned and the Prophecy was described more ambiguously, stating only that the Chosen One would "bring balance to the Force". This led some fans to speculate (prior to Episode III) that Anakin Skywalker would actually bring balance to the Force as a result of his hand in the extermination of the Jedi, because by the time of the Original trilogy there are only two Sith (himself and the Emperor) and two Jedi (Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi, later replaced by Luke Skywalker) in existence. Compared to the prequel era in which thousands of Jedi existed in "imbalance" to only two Sith, some fans interpreted this "two vs. two" scenario as the Force being "balanced", and thus speculated that this was how Anakin would, perhaps without realizing it, fulfill his destiny and bring balance to the Force. Although Episode III does not directly contradict this theory, (even given the amendment about destroying the Sith), the DVD release contains a featurette on the prophecy in which George Lucas effectively contradicts it by focusing on Vader's destruction of the Emperor in Episode VI. It could be explained that the Jedi simply interpreted it as meaning destruction of the Sith.
- Regarding the force being explained with midi-chlorians (Episode I), and that Jedi Knights had a "high count" of them. This claim rendered part of the mysticism of the Force - such as a claim by Yoda in Episode V that all that was needed was to believe in the Force in order to become a Jedi - obsolete. Though Yoda's line in Return of the Jedi, that the force runs strong in the Skywalker family, seems to indicate that the sensitivity to the Force is indeed hereditary.
Critics of the "Grand Plan" theory often refer to comments made by longtime Lucas collaborator (and Empire producer) Gary Kurtz as proof that the direction of the Star Wars saga was not always set in stone and has in fact been significantly altered through the course of production. Kurtz has stated on many occasions that the saga was once planned as a nine part series, rather than the six part series it ultimately became and has hinted that the additional time to tell the story could have been used to address subplots started in The Empire Strikes Back that were severed or heavily truncated after Lucas' decision to wrap up the saga with Return of the Jedi. These include:
- The "other" Yoda references in The Empire Strikes Back, who, according to Kurtz, was to be new character rather than Leia, although this character would still have been Luke's long lost sister.
- The answer to the question why Obi-Wan Kenobi lied to Luke about his father. Many fans were disappointed by the explanation given in Episode VI, feeling Kenobi's "certain point of view" line sounded more like rationalization than a reasonable explanation. Kurtz has hinted that the original plan called for a love triangle between an unnamed "Skywalker Senior" (not Vader), Luke's mother and Darth Vader, where Obi-Wan was unaware of the identity of Luke's true biological father. Proponents argue that this would at least go toward solving the absurdity of having Luke hidden under his own name. Also note that the name Anakin Skywalker was not mentioned in the saga before Return of the Jedi was released.
Kurtz has cited creative differences like the above as the reason he no longer wanted to be involved in the production of the saga. Critics of Lucas bashers argue that the loss of key creative collaborators such as Kurtz (but also Empire director Irvin Kershner and Lucas' editor wife Marcia) were instrumental in the decline in quality that the saga took in their eyes with Return of the Jedi and the prequel trilogy.
Many fans believe that Lucas has a tendency to retroactively exaggerate or tell white lies about the extent to which these and other aspects were pre-planned.
In contrast, another explanation for this overarching fan criticism is the tendency for fans, in general, to resist and resent further revelation in the Star Wars canon. Fans have enjoyed creating their own explanations and harmonization of threads of the Star Wars story. A certain fan-authored explanation of character motivation held as a conviction for decades can be shattered during the screening of new material. Fans who resist further revelation do so convinced that their beliefs, although long held, are the authority with respect to the Star Wars Universe. When a fan has interpreted a story element as unchanging, it may have been planned, from the writer's perspective, as ambiguous or arbitrary. Writers often make pre-planned variables in their work to fill in later for further development of story, character, and plot.
[edit] Whimsical creatures
By his own admission, Lucas includes various features in his Star Wars universe for purely whimsical reasons, such as the dewbacks of Tatooine (as he states in the Episode IV DVD commentary). Usually taking the form of exotic creatures or characters, these flights of whimsy are disliked and vilified by some fans as silly, childish or absurd. Some may argue that the inclusion of these characters would assist in populating an alien galaxy with non-humanoid characters. Some other examples are:
- Ewoks
- Gungans generally, and especially Jar Jar Binks
- Podracers and podracing generally
- Dexter the diner chef
- The bovine grazing creatures on Naboo with disproportionately large rear ends
- Geonosians
- The arena beasts in Episode II
- General Grievous' wheel bike
- Obi-Wan's lizard mount Boga
[edit] In popular culture
- The song "George Lucas Raped Our Childhood" by Hot Waffles is a direct reference to many fans' disappointment to the turnout of the prequels.
- Similarly, the song "George Lucas Raped My Childhood" by Christchurch rock band The Hairy Nobs tells the story of a Star Wars fan's disgruntlement.
- The South Park episode, "Free Hat", references directors and their remastering and rereleasing of Star Wars movies and others, as Cartman, Kenny, Stan, and Kyle are in a movie theatre watching The Empire Strikes Back's rerelease.
- The Website HanShootsFirst.org, though their mission is officially for "The Preservation of a Star Wars That Doesn't Suck," has become known as the website for fan criticism of George Lucas (Lucas Bashing).
- George was lampooned as "Randall Curtis" in Co-Dependent's Day, an episode of The Simpsons where the Simpson kids criticized the new Cosmic Wars movie and visited "Curtis" at his ranch in Northern California to register their complaint.
[edit] See also
- Han Shot First
- List of changes in Star Wars re-releases
- Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
- Jar Jar Binks
[edit] References
- Elana Sheffrin, "Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and participatory fandom: mapping new congruencies between the internet and media entertainment culture", Critical Studies in Media and Communication, Pages 261 - 281, Volume 21, Number 3, September 2004
- Alistair Harkness, Star Wars - Is the Force with you?, Scotsman.com, 14 May 2005
- C. A. Bridges, "Star Wars III: The long nightmare is ending", The Daytona Beach News-Journal Entertainment, 27 July 2004
- Rafe Telsch, "DVD diggers", CinemaBlend.com, 2 January 2005
- Mark Rhodes, Using the Force: Creativity, Community and Star Wars Fans book review, Echo Station, 7 June 2002
