From: YourName@YourISP.com   
      
   In article , Bill Anderson   
    wrote:   
   >   
   > The negative reaction to the STAR WARS prequels by so many fans was   
   > amusing to me. Not that I loved the prequels the way I did the first   
   > three, but really -- the prequels with their eye-popping sets, costumes   
   > and special effects and their wooden acting and dialogue were EXACTLY   
   > what George Lucas envisioned that they should be. Watching grownups   
   > who'd played with lightsabers and Luke Skywalker dolls as kiddies react   
   > with disappointment to the prequels made me laugh. From my perspective   
   > -- a fan who was 30 when he saw the first movie in 1977 -- the   
   > possibility of a raped childhood was never an issue. The prequels are   
   > exactly what they have to be in order for the whole story to make sense,   
   > and in order for the aura of cheesy old movie serials to be maintained.   
   > On that level, at least, the prequels work, George Lucas is the boss,   
   > it's his story, and that's that.   
   >   
   > My problem is that I got what I thought I wanted from the prequels --   
   > the whole back story -- and I just didn't like it. I had been so   
   > curious, so interested in how the prequels could be merged with the   
   > original three with no retconning, how nagging questions could be   
   > answered satisfactorily, how a story we always thought was about Luke   
   > Skywalker could be re-perceived as a story that had been about Darth   
   > Vader all along.   
   >   
   > Well, that's what we got, and while I now concede that the story is   
   > pretty much what it had to be, I don't have to like it. It was one thing   
   > to redeem Darth Vader into a character we'd never seen before, but   
   > something else entirely to redeem the Sandy Hook murderer. Did you think   
   > about that when you learned about Sandy Hook? I sure did -- well, not   
   > immediately, but I did -- and it reinforced my belief that the main   
   > story arc of STAR WARS just doesn't work, that it's just all wrong, and   
   > -- even worse -- that it is what it has to be in order for everything to   
   > make sense. There were really no surprises in the backstory of Anakin.   
   > All that surprised me was how quickly I went from excited anticipation   
   > to "eww" at the sight of his smiling blue ghost.   
   >   
   > But I did have a lot of fun trying to predict the story the prequels   
   > would tell. And I must admit I'm very interested in the direction the   
   > new sequels will take. What do I want to see, really? And what do the   
   > now middle-aged 10-year-olds from 1977 want to see? More   
   > advanced-into-middle-age Luke, Leia and Han? I'd like that to be part of   
   > it, I think. But then I thought I'd like to see the prequel backstory,   
   > so what do I know?   
      
   I can't see anywhere that George Lucas can sensible take the story - the   
   Emperror is dead, Vader is dead / redeemed, everyone lived "happily ever   
   after".   
      
   For a new Trilogy he has to do what the novels and animated TV series did   
   and create some rather ridiculous "bad guy" for the new movies: a clone   
   emperor, a resurrected Darth Maul, some new person never even mentioned   
   before, an invading alien race, ... none of it makes any real sense. The   
   movies' Saga was done at six movies, with the story of Anakin Skywalker.   
   Trying to extend it smells extremely badly of simply trying to cash-in,   
   which is only going to end badly and ruin yet another franchise.   :-(   
      
   It would have been MUCH MUCH more sensible to do more spin-off movies   
   covering other stories within the Star Wars universe.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)