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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 many fans disapprove of changes made to the original films in re-releases and of elements in the prequel episodes.

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Aspects of Lucas's work targeted by critics

Following is a list of topics which have inspired negative criticism from Star Wars fans.

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Ewoks

The earliest widespread case of Lucas-bashing 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 ROTJ and are the major protagonists of the final ground battle. Many fans and casual viewers felt that the Ewoks were a jarringly childish addition to a franchise that had many adult fans, and furthermore found it implausible that these diminutive savages could overcome the implacable Empire and their armored, high-tech stormtroopers. Many fans regarded the Ewoks as an example of Lucas's folly; some speculate that Ewoks were created for merchandising purposes.

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.

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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 retaliation, a change designed to make the protagonist seem less cold-blooded. Though it could still be said that he is quite nonchalant after killing someone. Fans derided the change as absurd, implausible, diminishing of Solo's character arc from rogue to hero and even insulting to the intelligence of fans who were more than familiar with the original version.

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Episode I

Lucas bashing began in earnest with the release of the first movie in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Although immensely successful at the box-office, the film had a mixed critical response, and some fans of the original trilogy regarded this prequel as anywhere from disappointing to appalling.

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 held accountable and was criticised both fans and critics alike.

Lucas clearly exerted significant control on both of the second and third films in the original trilogy even after handing them over to other directors, and the first film, over which he had the most control, was also the most successful; however, after being disappointed in Episode I and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, some fans theorized that the Star Wars franchise was at its weakest in direct proportion to Lucas' level of personal involvement and creative control. Such fans point to Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, widely regarded by critics and fans alike as the best Star Wars film in technical and artistic terms, as evidence of this thesis -- Empire being the film over which Lucas had the least creative control.

One 2005 article in Australian Empire magazine argued facetiously that Lucas had deliberately made Episode I and even Episode II to be terrible films purely as a strategy for making Episode III appear a masterwork by comparison. [citation needed]

For further discussion of the controversy surrounding Episode I, see the main article: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

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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.

However, some of the fans of the original trilogy feel that use of traditional special effects and filmmaking techniques would be just as good, if not better, than Lucas's extensive use of CGI. They prefer the mechanical effects used in the original trilogy, and feel that Lucas's computer effects tend 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.

Some of Lucas's own actors have complained[citation needed] over the years about the difficulty of "blue/green-screen acting", often having to perform in empty studios conversing with absent co-stars who, like the backgrounds, will be added in postproduction. Some, like Liam Neeson, were initially eager for their roles but became disenchanted by the CGI requirements of the filming process (see article on Episode I; others, like Natalie Portman, find the sensory deprivation of such environments to be a stimulating acting challenge[citation needed]. Samuel L. Jackson, on The Late Show with David Letterman and Parkinson has said that he actively enjoys such acting when it comes to chaotic fight scenes such as in the climax of Episode II, because it allows him to fully unleash his imagination as in childhood.

Many film aficionados and filmmakers have come to believe that CGI, for these and other reasons, is inferior to animatronics and "man-in-a-suit" creatures and 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.

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Poor 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's 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.

Significantly, Lucas did not direct the last two films of the original trilogy; some suspect that Lucas disliked directing so much that he passed off the responsibility of handling the actors whilst still retaining chief artistic control of the two films overall. Harrison Ford, who played Han Solo in the original films, said in an interview: "I think George [Lucas] likes people. I think George is a kind, warm hearted person, but he can be a little... impatient with the nature of acting, that need to work until you find something."

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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. Central actors such as Hayden Christensen apparently had no idea as to the specifics of his character's turn to the Dark Side until very late in the process, arguably putting his performance at a disadvantage by being stripped of adequate time to prepare.[citation needed] Ian McDiarmid has stated in interviews that his first inkling that his character would be involved in lightsaber duels in the final film was when he saw "fencing training" on a call sheet. Mark Hamill was only informed of the major plot twist that Darth Vader is his father in the Empire Strikes Back mere moments before his crucial reaction scene was filmed. He has stated retrospectively in the "Empire of Dreams" documentary on the 2004 Star Wars original trilogy DVD box set that had he known ahead of time and been given a chance to prepare, he believes he would have played the scene differently.

Vast anecdotal evidence found in various "making of" books and DVD features indicates that often even his preproduction creative collaborators will not know major elements of the films until the design and development process has already advanced considerably, such as the appearance of Anakin Skywalker and Palpatine in their full Darth Vader and Emperor personae and costumes in Episode III.

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 ADR 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.

The other, perhaps more extreme example was that during the making of the Empire Strikes Back the aforementioned plot twist was a closely-guarded secret, never printed in the script and only revealed to Mark Hamill moments before the specific scene was filmed. However, as David Prowse was to be re-dubbed anyway, it was technically not necessary for the actor to actually be speaking appropriate lines and thus it was decided not to inform him at all. Once again, Prowse was never notified of the deception and reportedly discovered this major element of his character upon viewing the second film's premiere.

As a minor coda it should be noted that Prowse apparently lobbied to be included in Episode III, reprising his role as the fully-armored Darth Vader, but his requests fell on deaf ears. In fact, there is anecdotal evidence from some statements made by Hayden Christensen that it was never even a question of Prowse versus himself, but rather Christensen apparently had to argue to wear the suit instead of Lucas finding an anonymous tall actor. Perhaps partly in response to this, as well as the fact that most casual viewers of the films primarily attribute the Vader role to James Earl Jones, Prowse has developed the habit of signing his autographs "David Prowse IS Darth Vader".

Although Prowse continues to associate himself with his role in the Star Wars films and is involved in the convention circuit, it should be noted that he has apparently not been included in any of the recent reunions of the original cast, such as for the 2004 DVD documentary "Empire of Dreams" and the 2005 Vanity Fair cover featuring Lucas and nearly all the major actors from both trilogies. It is unknown whether Prowse was invited and declined, or if he is indeed now effectively blacklisted from Lucasfilm endeavors as some Lucas bashers contend.

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Jar Jar Binks

Although a significant part of the previous topic, the Episode I comic relief character Jar Jar Binks was almost universally reviled, even inspiring websites that allowed visitors to "punch" Jar Jar in the face. Found by most viewers to be intensely annoying and outrageously childish (at best), 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.

Some believe that, due to the backlash, Lucas 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.

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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. For examples of the many other minor changes to the original trilogy even before the Special Editions, see the article: List of changes in Star Wars re-releases

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. For other changes, see: List of changes in Star Wars re-releases

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. Also, CGI "dates" quite rapidly to the attuned eye in a way to which animatronics and stop-motion are more or less immune, being stylistically consistent. It would seem that Lucas agrees, as evidenced by the aforementioned improvement of the CGI Jabba in the 2004 re-release.

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.

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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. This is a raging debate in some circles and this article does not presume to outline the veracity of individual claims. Here are some of these doubts; note that in each case there are many valid arguments both for and against:

  • Doubt that Darth Vader was originally intended to be Luke Skywalker's father, partly due to the lack of any explicit teaser in Episode IV.
  • Doubt that Leia was originally intended to be Luke's sister, given the romantic tension between the characters in Episodes IV and V, which is later revealed to be incestuous.
  • Doubt that the character of Yoda was conceived of prior to Episode V, given 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.)
  • Doubt 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, all due to the lack of any mention of them in the original trilogy.
  • Specific doubt 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, due to 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.
  • Doubt 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.
  • Doubt that the stormtroopers were originally intended to be the clones referred to in the Clone Wars as mentioned in Episode IV, due to the lack of specific (as opposed to contextual) indications. Whether the stormtrooper indeed are still clones by the time of the original trilogy is another source of debate.
  • Doubt that Boba Fett was originally supposed to have any connection to the stormtroopers.
  • Doubt that Obi-Wan was originally ever supposed to be a Jedi Master as opposed to merely a Jedi Knight, given the fact that prior to Episode III this had not been the case, including the chronologically "later" original trilogy in which Kenobi refers to himself as a Knight.
  • Doubt that Obi-Wan was to previously have been in contact with the droids R2 and C-3PO. In A New Hope, he has no memory of them. (however, breif flicker in Kenobi's facial expression may indicate that he may have been simply concealing the truth from Luke for undisclosed reasons.)
  • Doubt 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 adopted mother died just a few years after she and Senator Organa adopted Leia.
  • Doubt that Anakin was originally to have built C-3PO, given that he later does not recognize the droid.
  • Doubts about narrative perspective. Initially, Lucas claimed that the whole story was to be told from the droid's perspective, but this is not true of the prequels.
  • Doubts 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.
  • Doubt of 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 the film 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.
  • Doubt of the force being explained with midi-chlorians (episode I), and that jedi knights had a "high count" of them, rendering the mystical belief that all that was needed was to believe in the force in order to be a jedi(Yodas' long speech in Episode V).

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. The truth of the matter is usually quite hard to determine.

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Authoritarianism

Already partly discussed in the above section on marginalizing actors and crew, Lucas is criticised by some for being an auteur, a label he also applies to himself. Some argue that his apparently total creative control over his films, facilitated by his enormous success, wealth and ownership of Lucasfilm, Skywalker Sound, and Industrial Light and Magic, is not in the true collaborative spirit of filmmaking. His method of giving vague directions to conceptual artists and then picking and altering handfuls of the thousands of suggestions produced appears to some as a form of exploitation and an appropriation of too much artistic credit. Lucas employs similar techniques in most aspects of his Star Wars filmmaking process, for which he is viewed by some as authoritarian or even tyrannical.

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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 other examples are:

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See also

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References

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