It has become commonplace for much of the revewing world and fans of George Lucas to rip apart any new work the writer/director releases post “Episode 1.” When the world first encountered Lucas’s penchant for radical ideas, or what some would call going bat shit crazy.
Growing up with the original Star Wars trilogy I found it hard to stomach some of the changes to the mythos Lucas made when the force changed from a spiritual well that any one with the right kind of training could learn to tap, to a microscopic parasite called Midichlorians, thus crushing any hope for becoming a Jedi, or Sith Lord. Also came the introduction of the Gun-gun race, and specifically Jar-Jar Binks, while appealing to the younger audiance, made legions of fans cringe at his pseudo-black face, and soft shoe dance antics. Lucas began cutting his role back in Episode 2, and making him a lynch pin of the formation of the Empire, to almost being a background character in Episode 3, but the damage was done.
Then came the re-edits of the original trilogy. Lucas made minor tweaks and enhancements to characters and special effects. And some changes that were not so minor; like Hahn shooting second, adding in a dance number to Jabba’s Palace, changing the Ewok song, Lapti Nek,” at the end of VI, and replacing Sebastian Shaw with Hayden Christiansen as the ghost of Anakin Skywalker. While many of the enhanced special effects, and reworkings of more of the rubber monster scenes was a great improvement and made it appeal to a new audiance, the changing of Han shooting first, and placating Christiansen by replacing the older ghost of Anakin, continued Lucas’s trend downwards.
Lucas’s latest two endevoures, Indy IV and Star Wars: Clone Wars, have been met with utter hate and vitriol, it would make a lesser man curl up with his Sarlacc plushie and cry to sleep. We’ll start with “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” Now besides the extra long name, there are three scenes that people hang on as the worst of the worst, the CG Prarie Dogs, the great fridge escape from a nuclear bomb, and swinging on the vines with monkeys. The latter two scenes are at the heights of two intense action sequences, and while are both hard to take seriously, how seriously could you take a mine car jumping a huge gap and landing safely back on track, or running away from a rolling boulder or rushing water. And the prarie dogs aren’t on the screen for more than a minute, and provided a moments levity, hardly worth daming a film over. Then there is the overall story arc of dealing with aliens. Why is it so easy to believe Indy can tackle anything involving religion and mysticism, but once the word Alien is bandied about, a film becomes a plague.
Lastly we have the latest foray back to the Star Wars universe, with the CG flick “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.” Aimed squarly at a younger audiance the goal of the flick doesn’t dissapoint in that regard, offering a fantastic action ride, with out any of the political intrigue of the prequel series. Though it wouldn’t be a George Lucas flick without something to hate. And apparantly Ziro the Hutt takes that pink frilly cake. With a voice that is described as Capote-esque, a skin tone of a purplish nature, with feathers and facial tatoo, the internet has found a new scapegoat. While the children seeing this movie won’t really understand that the character is gay or effemanent, they will see the humor that the character brings, and hopefully see the difference between Ziro and Jabba and that not all the Hutts are Crime lords.
Now. Wy does George Lucas do these things to his movies? Why make characters and plot choices that don’t always mix well with the majority of a viewing audiance, or at least the ones with interent access and a blog? Because it’s his world. He created the worlds, and can do with them what he wants. Those same people say that he should leave the Star Wars realm alone, would you say the same thing about Superman, or Batman? We’ve had 30-plus years of those characters, it’s time to leave well enough alone. We don’t need any new stories, just go ahead and stop writing new comics DC. It is time to let go. Right, let’s stop producing money. Because, you know, money isn’t all that great.
Lucas is doing the exact same thing as the rest of the entertainment world, trying to keep his worlds fresh and new, constantly reinventing them and adding new things. These new things may not always work, and some may even prove to have a neative effect on how we perceive the worlds. But its not the end of the world. Lucas is a film maker, and has lots of ideas that he’d like to share with the rest of the world, and because he has the money to do so, I’d expect to see more from Star Wars and Indy in the future. I’m already standing in line.
