Greatness soured......

Rating: 10/10 (23 December 2002)

I have just seen the Two Towers, so I thought I should come and give this movie a ten while it is still in me to give it one. Star Wars, A new hope, was once great. It should still be a great movie. But it is not. As I watch and read the Lord of the Rings, I realize that George Lucas has been a lucky hack. He has borrowed (I am being nice here) from other great works (RIngs being only the most obvious example), Dune, Kurosawa's works and on and on. The original release of Star Wars was absolutely perfect. Everything that hit the cutting room floor needed to be there. Han should have shot first. Not Greedo. Tatooine does not need giant dinosaurian creatures that no desert ecosystem could support. It does not need goofy little robots flying to and fro for absolutely no other reason than the fact that Lucas owns ILM. Special effects that do not further the story simply distract.
George Lucas proves that he does not know what was good about his films by the fact that he thought he needed to "fix" them. The things that he contributed to the movies was the basic story shell. Better writers than he are responsible for making hi stories utterly enjoyable. And better directors than he are responsible for making "Lucas" films watchable (as his new films aptly demonstrate). What I find most annoying about this is that I can not now go and purchase the original theatrical release of Star Wars, Empire or Jedi. Now I am stuck with the version's Lucas deems worthy.
Worse yet, the beautiful mythology that so inspired me as a kid is now being stamped out by the silly thoughtless prequels. The idea of them was awesome. The story of Anakin's rise and fall. It is the execution that has failed fans. We knew enough about the story ourselves and that, I think, was the magic. We knew enough, the rest was, appropriately, shrouded in mystery. Anakin was tragic because he was good, and kind and Obi Wan' s dear friend.
The Anakin presented in Clones is whiney, selfish brat, utterly unlikable, and un-approachable. This Anakin can go nowhere but to the dark side. At any rate, these were once great movies.