Why Star Wars Failed

Do you really think episodes I-III were optimally structured, designed, and implemented? Because I don't. Not by half. Anakin was annoying, Obi-Wan was boring, and Amidala went from being a capable and independent woman to being a clingy nobody in the space of two movies. We got how much screentime revealing the secret origins of Boba Fett, versus how much time revealing the secret origins of Han Solo? Need I go on?

I think this is why we got so much of Boba Fett and so little of anything relevant to the main characters. Fanboys love Boba Fett. So, instead of trusting his otherwise well-developed storytelling muscles, George Lucas acquiesces and shows off Boba Fett's childhood.

What about Jar-Jar Binx? People hated him in the first film (with good reason, don't misunderstand me) but Lucas had set Binx up to make an important plot contribution in film III (when Jar-Jar votes to make Palpatine the Emperor). In Episode II, though, no development is devoted to Jar-Jar explaining why he did what he did in the next episode. Why? Lucas listened to the fanboys a little too much.

Can you think of other ways Lucas failed to trust himself?

What do we mean when we say "Special Effects"? Does it just refer to the aspects of the image on the screen that aren't technically real, or does it mean something more closely related to craftsmanship? Which, then, is a more special special effect, CGI or miniature ships in front of a green screen, shot with moving cameras? Puppets, or CGI cartoons? Prosthetics and costumes, or CGI cartoons? Stop-motion ice-creatures from Hoth, or CGI cartoons?

George Lucas is a gifted mechanic. Literally. Before he decided to head to film school, his hobby was working on cars. His mechanical know-how lead him to create a number of innovative solutions to the problems of special effects that had not been seen before. After he made the Original Trilogy, Lucas retreated from serious film-making for a number of years to create Industrial Light and Magic, or ILM, the company that pioneered digital CG effects. It was George Lucas granting one of his own dearest wishes: Freedom from the constraints of physical special effects. It also ruined him--it placed his talent as a film-maker on the same platform of CGI effects as a number of other directors who had used the technology already, and demonstrated that under the hood, George Lucas is basically a cartoonist. This is fine as long as the cartoon is disguised around actual, physical props, but once his toys are virtual, you get Jar-Jar Binx and Watto and Sebulba and the hoaky battle droids that say "Roger Roger", and you get a big ol' mess.

Obi-Wan defeats Anakin at the end of Episode III, yet Anakin is treated as the central protagonist of Episode II. Obi-Wan defeats Darth Maul and vows to train Anakin at the end of Episode I, and yet Qui-Gonn Jinn is treated as the main character in that film--a character who dies at the end of the movie, and who was never introduced in the Original Trilogy as ever having anything to do with Obi-Wan or Anikin in the first place.

In Episode I, Anakin is too young to make important decisions in the story. In Episode II, Anakin is too much of a whiny brat to be a palatable hero. In Episode III, Anakin is on his way to becoming a pedocidal madman.

Granted, in all three of the scripts Lucas generated, Obi-Wan is no better. He's boring, to put it simply. But that's just a matter of the writing. Had he been considered the main protagonist, more important decisions and better dialogue would have been provided for him.

It's a mistake in the basic storytelling choices of the writer (that being George Lucas). Can you think of any other basic storytelling mistakes made by Lucas and his team?

I'll be brief with this one. Jar-Jar Binx and the Gungans should have won the battle against the droids in Episode I. It would have paid off the themes of destiny and surprise, and the theme of underestimated people achieving great things given the right circumstances, which was clearly something Lucas was trying to get at in Episode I. Plus, had Binx managed to save the day, I think his character would not have been so spat upon by disappointed fans.

As for Qui-Gonn, and this is just my feeling, I don't think he should have been Obi-Wan's mentor at all, but a rival. Obi-Wan's mentor was really Yoda, we all know that. So where does this decision come from to have Yoda never accompany Obi-Wan into the field? Or if it's absolutely necessary for Yoda to stay behind for some unexplained reason, why not have him communicate telephathically with his pupil through the Force? It's just something that irked me about Episode I.

The new scores John Williams created for the Prequel Trilogy were nice, but if there was any part of the Original Trilogy that Lucas should have really held on to (as opposed to extended cameos by Chewbacca and Boba Fett) it would definitely have to be the adventurous, energetic, iconic orchestral themes from the Original Trilogy. Anybody want to debate that? Anybody? Didn't think so. Moving on.

In the Original Trilogy, some of the most interesting points in the story were really about things that had happened before Episode IV even started. What about "Luke, I am your father."? Without Episodes I-III this never would have occurred. But in telling the stories of Episodes I-III, Lucas painted himself into a corner. He felt he had to begin and the beginning--as though that's ever really possible anyway--and didn't leave himself any surprises to spring on the viewer. Moreover, even the ending of the Prequel Trilogy was no surprise, since anyone who has ever watched the Original Trilogy already knew that Anakin becomes Darth Vader, that Obi-Wan lives, and that Luke and Leia are born and sent to be raised separately. Even with a very climactic, elongated final duel, this leaves the viewer thinking, "meh."

 These are all just my own thoughts.  Care to tell us why you think the prequels stunk?  Care to write a letter to George Lucas telling him how you would've done it?  Here's your chance.  Leave a comment below.  And thanks for reading.