When Did Star Wars Start to Suck?

At what precise moment did Star Wars Jump the Shark?

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[MegaPoone]

George Lucas can't seem to write tragedy well and shies away from the truly monstrous. He could show an entire planet being blown to bits by the Death Star but not the attack on the jedi temple and Anakin's massacre of the jedi cadets. Doesn't mind showing cute Ewoks getting massacred though, which should be a regular feature in all Star war movies.

[mokwella]

Well - in THX 1138 there were some well done segments about police brutality that didn't shy away from anything. Lucas used to be able to do this stuff.

[AudieHolland]

Read Garry Jenkins' unauthorized biography:: Empire Building. Lucas was not involved with the editing, directing and most of the script writing in Empire Strikes Back. When he first saw the finished cut, he was very unhappy and tried to cut it himself, making everything... Faster.

Fortunately, his creative staff talked him out of that and he grudgingly accepted Kershner's version. Perhaps it was just after THAT moment that SW started sucking. Lucas would never let go of the reins again after.

[mokwella]

Well -- if we dial in closely on the Kershner thing, Lucas was also despondent that due to a ruling over how the credits were done (no names at the start of Star Wars films) both Lucas and Kershner were not allowed to keep memberships in the Director's Guild. So Hollywood helped in making Lucas even MORE of a control freak than he was.

[AudieHolland]

The question is NOT: when did Lucasfilm start to suck? It's solely about Star Wars.

I remember that when I first watched RotJ, I was underwhelmed by the lack of pacing during the first half hour or so of the movie. There was no "Wow" moment like there is with the first two films. While that was partially compensated by Leia in slave outfit, it's still the OT's weakest part.

Then there are the abysmal cast performances and "FX over story" and we finally get to the Ewoks... It started here: RotJ

[mokwella]

Hmm. No, I'd have to say when Jabba's sail barge blew up I was legitimately wowed. I don't agree the first half of ROTJ had bad pacing.

[funkleman]

lucas and movies of the 80s wich were terrific generaly involve secular humanism values with dry humor. from the 60s through the mid 80s great movies had some sense of value other than mindless voilent special effects fiasco with stories created by people like rod serling and gene rodenberry introducting secular humanism values in films. i think star wars started to suck with jedi when lucas realized star wars was a toy machine and plummeted further with the prequel trilogy.

[kwanlifu]

I think the character of anakin is very annoying. He is not well written on these prequels. He was just a cocky and impulsive kid turning to psycho.

[kentforbes]

I was at the Regency Theatre Westwood, CA premier of "Phantom Menace" in '99. So many Star Wars geeks - camped out, dressed up, and ready for movie goodness. The roar at the opening sequence was deafening. Then, slowly, it all came apart. There was polite applause at the end with lots of questions and murmurs. May 19, 1999 - the day that Star Wars started to suck.

[AudieHolland]

Hey everybody - (re)watch "American Graffiti." Now there's an excellent movie, featuring believable, likable characters plus superb editing.

All the male characters are alter-egos of Lucas. Dreyfuss and Howard as the Lucas he wanted to be, Martin as the Lucas he feared he was sometimes and Lematt as the Lucas he could have been.

Personally I think that since working on the OT ruined his personal life (divorce, health) he couldn't care less about it. It was and is just a milkcow after that.

[AudieHolland]

@mokwella

Jabba's sail barge suffered from badly executed FX at the start. In the original, watch how jerky the crew onboard move as the it sails over the dunes. So when it blew up I was more relieved than impressed.

Even though it may have seemed to last that long, it wasn't the first half of RotJ. RotJ also features two lethal enemies that both suffer an embarrassing and shameful death/exit: Boba Fett and the Stormtroopers.

Stormtroopers = hero cannonfodder ok, but Ewoks = heroes!?

[MegaPoone]

@mokwella Yeah, Lucas's THX 1138 was pretty bleak.The 60's sci fi movies were pretty pessimistic about the future, Clockwork Orange, Fahrenheit 451 and the early 70's Soylent Green, Omega Man, In a way Lucas was tapping into the anxieties of 60's and 70's, nuclear destruction, the Cold war, the dehumanising effects of rampant technology, ect ect. Somewhere along the way Lucas took a turn into Pleasantville and never went back.