George Lucas - cease and desist

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It has come to our attention that your actions over the past decade in the production of the films Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode 3: Return of the Sith (hereafter referred to as "Star Bores") as well as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (hereafter referred to as "Grandpa Jones") infringes upon the rights of millions of moviegoers to preserve their childhood memories unscathed. This is a clear violation of your contract with the public to create films worthy of the legacy that you, yourself, began in 1977. Your recent actions have been grossly negligent, displaying a complete lack of regard for taste and artistic merit. Star Bores and Grandpa Jones represent a failure to satisfy the duty of care mandated for a filmmaker of your status.

A partial list of the infringing acts are enumerated herein:


In Star Bores, you created a mise-en-scene so digitized and robbed of human emotion that R2-D2 was the most psychologically-realized character in the films.
In Star Bores, the romantic dialogue between your two protagonists, played by Natalie Portman (hereafter referred to as "Weepy") and Hayden Christensen (hereafter referred to as "Darth Fey-der") was so purple and hackneyed that it would not pass muster either in a) a nineteenth century operetta or b) a Lifetime Channel television movie.
In Star Bores, you cast Darth Fey-der, an actor so annoyingly petulant that it was nearly impossible to believe he would ever transform into James Earl Jones.
In Star Bores, you expected the viewer to actually care about bickering between the Galactic Senate, the Jedi Council, the Corporate Alliance, and the Trade Federation -- a dense political bureaucracy as entertaining to watch as roll call at a Congressional committee on tax code amendments.
In Star Bores, you promoted Jar Jar Binks to Senator. This act alone is an offense to anyone who ever purchased so much as a Star Wars lunch box.
In Grandpa Jones, you cast Shia LeBoeuf -- nerdy, mousy Shia LeBoeuf -- as a leather-clad 1950s "Wild One" greaser, a role so incongruous to the performer's skill set that the decision can only be regarded as an ironic joke. To add insult to injury, in an act of sheer recklessness, you then named the role "Mutt" (hereafter referred to as "Dog").

In Grandpa Jones, you could not resist having your Skywalker Ranch computer nerds bring their Crayola crayons to pixelate all over the screen, all but destroying the visceral verisimilitude for which the Jones series is known.

In Grandpa Jones, you wisely bring back Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood but then give the actress almost nothing to do, besides looking frustrated and delivering necessary exposition.
In Grandpa Jones, you filmed a scene where Dog repeatedly get his balls busted by CGI jungle flora whilst he stands astride two moving Jeeps like a castrated Colossus.
In Grandpa Jones, our hero, one of the most beloved screen characters in history, escapes a nuclear explosion by hiding in a "King Cool" refrigerator which is then propelled by the nuclear blast away from the atomic destruction, at which time our hero rolls out unscathed, admiring the mushroom cloud visible in the now-far distance.
For the foregoing reasons, we hereby demand that you cease production of any new films, retiring from the entertainment industry. If you refuse to comply, we will be forced to file a complaint in the appropriate court and commence a legal action. Mr. Steven Spielberg, your co-conspirator in the Grandpa Jones project, has received a copy of this correspondence.

If you choose to ignore this notice and greenlight further projects based on these franchises, you can expect millions of dollars in profit but everyone will hate you -- and you will ultimately lose in the court... of public opinion.

We expect a response from you or your representative within two weeks of receipt of this notice. And no, your Jedi mind tricks will not work on us.


You AUGHT To Remember: #44 - Star Wars and Indiana Jones Nuked the Fridge.

To be honest, he started fecking up when he introduced the Ewoks.
 
Revenge of the Sith was one of the best Star Wars films probably only second to The Empire Strikes Back, as for the latest Indiana Jones film I was a little disapointed as it was not in the same class as Raiders of the Lost Ark or Last Crusade but better than Temple of Doom which for me is easily the weakest in the franchise.
 
The last Indy film contained nothing praiseworthy. It was just fecking awful. At least in Temple of Doom you got some bloke having his heart ripped out as well as the chilled monkey brains.
 
That article tries to be funny but fails as miserably as Lucas did with his later work.
 
Is it not the real hardcore star wars fans who get upset at this shit, as in the geeks?
 
How about adding Phantom Menace in there too? That was probably the worst of the lot.
 
So he will make loads of money but all the public will hate him ?

How does that work then ?

Couldn't care less, both franchises are over-romanticised anyway, really not THAT good, the fact that most people have placed it on the highest of all pedestals is a mystery to me.
 
That article tries to be funny but fails as miserably as Lucas did with his later work.

Yeah, I have to agree with that. But I thought it useful to get the discussion going.

Lucas has tarnished my childhood memories of wonderment with his special editions and shit.
 
Revenge of the Sith was one of the best Star Wars films probably only second to The Empire Strikes Back, as for the latest Indiana Jones film I was a little disapointed as it was not in the same class as Raiders of the Lost Ark or Last Crusade but better than Temple of Doom which for me is easily the weakest in the franchise.

I didn't like Revenge of the Sith.

I thought it was going to be about Anakin struggling against the evil within himself, and slowly turning into Darth Vader. Instead, he basically just decided on the spot to be evil, then wondered off to murder up some children. Stupid

Attack of the Clones was funny because of the part where Yoda has a sword fight.
 
The things is Lucas has never been a very good director. The first Star Wars were good, but Empire and Jedi were much better and directed by other people. He hadn't directed anything in 22 years when he came out with Episode 1.
 
Revenge of the Sith was one of the best Star Wars films probably only second to The Empire Strikes Back, as for the latest Indiana Jones film I was a little disapointed as it was not in the same class as Raiders of the Lost Ark or Last Crusade but better than Temple of Doom which for me is easily the weakest in the franchise.

Revenge of this Sith was awful. It was just so contrived. I love Darth's part near the end, though - nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
 
The things is Lucas has never been a very good director. The first Star Wars were good, but Empire and Jedi were much better and directed by other people. He hadn't directed anything in 22 years when he came out with Episode 1.

Nail on the head. Kirshner is the main reason Empire Strikes Back is so awesome. Having watched his interviews, you can tell he was the one who wanted the dark tone.

But then again you could argue Lucas had the hardest job of them all for directing the first one. Especially with all the negativity surrounding the production.
 
I didn't like Revenge of the Sith.

I thought it was going to be about Anakin struggling against the evil within himself, and slowly turning into Darth Vader. Instead, he basically just decided on the spot to be evil, then wondered off to murder up some children. Stupid

Attack of the Clones was funny because of the part where Yoda has a sword fight.

The only thing I can remember was the cringeworthy love story. As for the new tril. . .Lucas clearly had too many toys to play with and forgot about everything else. Ole's probably right, though - he can't direct. His best film, Empire, was directed by Kershner.
 
Since film buffs Spoony and olesmyhero are both here, I'll ask-have either of you seen Lucas' early stuff, American Graffiti and THX 1138? Are they worth watching?
 
Since film buffs Spoony and olesmyhero are both here, I'll ask-have either of you seen Lucas' early stuff, American Graffiti and THX 1138? Are they worth watching?

Ole probably has. He's an uber buffed up film buff. I merely a wannabe film buff.
 
I watched American Graffiti recently and found it unremarkable. Mostly a fun reminiscence movie for 1970's grown-ups missing their youth.
 
Who could've directed the last three Star Wars and given the franchise justice? Peter Jackson?
 
I think anybody but Lucas would have added some decent elements.

Has anybody watched any of that cartoon series about Clone Wars?
 
Revenge of the Sith was one of the best Star Wars films probably only second to The Empire Strikes Back, as for the latest Indiana Jones film I was a little disapointed as it was not in the same class as Raiders of the Lost Ark or Last Crusade but better than Temple of Doom which for me is easily the weakest in the franchise.

I'm a middle-class, peace loving, Lib Dem voting, tree hugging, liberal vegetarian - but for opinions like that you ought to be shot.
 
David Fincher would have been interesting. Or maybe Chistopher Nolan.
 
Revenge of the Sith was one of the best Star Wars films probably only second to The Empire Strikes Back, as for the latest Indiana Jones film I was a little disapointed as it was not in the same class as Raiders of the Lost Ark or Last Crusade but better than Temple of Doom which for me is easily the weakest in the franchise.

Yeah I liked Revenge of the Sith myself as well
 
I saw the premier of Revenge of the Sith in Honolulu and there were probably a dozen army guys sitting right behind us.

Before the movie starts in walk a bunch of dudes dressed up as star wars characters to kick the "event" off. One of them was a guy with a crew cut as Han Solo, one of the guys behind us says "Is that Sgt so-and-so?" someone responds "Oh shit it is" then someone yells out the Sgts name and half the theater started laughing.

Best part of the movie.
 
I'm sure this flu is making me hallucinate, because i'm pretty sure I just read people rating Revenge of the Sith :lol:

I've seen more charisma in a bowl of fecking soop than watching that wooden piece of shit. (I didn't like it much).
 
Lucas should watch the recent Star Trek to see how you make something good even better.

ITs hard to improve on the original series though, where as star trek has originally been all about bad acting and bad special effects so it wasn't hard to keep the same stuff which everyone loved and just improve the acting and effects.

Lucas wanted to sell too much merchandise, thats the problem with the new series. The video games is where star wars is best seen these days.