I've got to admit that after living through years of speculation and all they hype, actual demonstrations of the Force in the movies have been considerably lame. Barring the chilling fight between the Emperor and Luke, the depictions of "real masters" using the Force has been anti-climactic. Lucas should have known, that audiences want more than blasts of light and gravity manipulation. Especially in the post-Dragonball Z world, where demi-humans regularly blow the region they fight in to bits.
What the SW crowd has always wanted to see, in some part of their minds, is a true Jedi Grandmaster shaming everyone who merely thought to take him/her on. Yoda and Dooku were supposed to rise to this challenge and in the end all I took away from the encounter was, "look how cool Yoda can move." Not what we have been looking for. What we got was more of the use-the-environment-as-a-projectile stuff and lightning blasts we've seen since the beginning.
Perhaps this was intentional in order to set us up for a larger display of the Force in the final movie. Perhaps Lucas has choosen to reign in the percieved power of the Force in order to emphasize the human element at work. And of course, there may be more available to read in some of the mountains of novels published, but I've never read any of those and consider the movies to be the main center of contention and attention.
The second movie had the promise of Big Drama due to the nature of the material presented. We got an over-hyped fight between Dooku and Yoda, an embarassing presentation of Jedi fighting and coordinating tactics, and Natalie Portman in tight clothing.
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I thought it was obvious sir that Star Wars no longer has any real meaning to Lucas other than finishing something he started long ago and in a galaxy far far away. If anything it should say something when the Matrix, a film by relative newcomers, created far more excitement and anticipation for a sequel than episode I did in the same year. And this year is no different since Spiderman has come out and people want a sequel to that more than one to Episode II.
Honestly, I feel that Lucas has stopped wanting to make stories and just make marketing blitzes. However if it makes you feel better, a lot of insiders in hollywood are referring to Episode II as the first $300 million flop since it was the first Star Wars installment ever to fail to be the top grossing film in its year.
Posted by: Dan Morris on February 10, 2003 01:20 PMI tend to agree with you, Mr. Morris. While I certainly can't say whether or not I'd be capable of re-creating the same level of excitement and energy the first trilogy did (not to mention simply being able to create those initial movies!), I do think it's a fair assessment that Lucas has lost his ability to enrich the SW universe. No skin off my back. I just hate getting bought by hype. Each experience is a new lesson. :)
Posted by: Drizz on February 10, 2003 05:56 PMSince when did anybody but me comment here? Now Im pissed. My 'first post' status has been removed!
The force was never supposed to be an almighty power like a nuke, but rather a powerful force in terms of destiny.
Posted by: Ken on February 11, 2003 01:30 AMSince I clicked Drizz's homepage button and saw he had something about which I had a response, Mr. Ken Ohki :)
As for your comment on the force being something that changed the course of destiny, I tend to disagree. The force was used quite heavily in combat in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. However they weren't using acrobatic kung fu moves and the fight sequences seemed to have a bit more grace to them. In fact if anything could be called a highlight of Episode I, the fight between Darth Maul was just this. Unfortunately, Lucas felt he had to compete with films like the Matrix and thus we have the fight from Episode II which while cool watching it, in the long run doesn't compare.
As for your comments about hype, sigh we can either give in or ignore it. And sadly sometimes it's too much to ignore *cries that he actually fell for the hype with ####
Posted by: Dan Morris on February 11, 2003 07:44 AM