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film criticism by maryann johanson | handcrafted since 1997
Geez, George, you didn’t have to take the money if you felt so bad about it.
It’s not as if he were blaming Disney for the way they worked their animators to death in the early days.
Yeah, it comes completely out of the blue, how Disney operates when it has a popular franchise on its hands. Who knew?
More details here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/31/movies/george-lucas-criticizes-latest-star-wars-installment.html?_r=0
So he’s criticizing the filmmakers for “emphasizing familiar elements of his previous work” rather than “innovation and storytelling of their own.” Which is HILARIOUS, considering that his own prequels literally told a story we already knew the ending to and repeated a lot of the imagery, themes, and plots of the originals (Lucas said he intentionally wanted the films to “rhyme,” like poetry). Pot, kettle.
Meanwhile, for all his fearless innovation with the prequels, Lucas somehow never managed to feature a woman as the central hero, or establish relationships we actually cared about.
And, yeah, the “white slavers” comment is just WTF… which, apparently he’s already apologized for, while also clarifying that he’s “thrilled that Disney has the franchise and is moving it in such exciting directions.” Whiplash!
I’m extremely glad Lucas created Star Wars, but I think I’m done listening to this guy.
A fact that I find interesting (though possibly no one else will) is that the Times article this morning, about the apology, appeared in the business section rather than the arts section.
Well, of course it did.
http://actioncoachchuckkocher.com/files/2014/12/ItsNotPersonal.jpg
Even so, he is still on the mark, *cough* Tomorrowland *cough*