Chris Gore always has something great to say. I have come to hate modern movies for the reasons he stated, but I keep finding so many more amazing movies from the past that I’m okay with that
The idea that they think they know better is wild. Like Chris said before it’s completely fine to have gay films or political films but those are for mainly I smaller projects bc the audience is much smaller. So Disney trying to push or allowing writers to push certain subjects knowing these movies are for the masses is wild. You can’t have a polarizing political take for company the size of Disney bc you alienate the audience. Marvel has to go back to square one. Star Wars made a good move with filoni bc he was George’s padawan. And animation needs to worry about story and well written characters geared towards kids. I hope Disney gets it together bc it’s so sad to see a company that was really nailing 90% of their films that is now flipped to 10%.
Regarding why the original Star Wars was so successful, well, I was 12 when the film came out and saw it in the theaters, and just the opening five minutes were absolutely epic. Like nothing I had ever seen before. So they grabbed you right from the beginning and never let go. The way the words about what we were about to see scrolled across space at an angle. The epic score, which in itself was massively successful, maybe the most successful movie score of all time. And the absolutely massive ship and the camera angle scrolling across the screen that just made you realize we were seeing something on an epic scale in terms of size. Then it started with a battle scene where you could tell it was a scrappy group of underdogs against a might empire. Then Vader walked in and you knew this guy was a villain to be reckoned with. No wonder it was such a massive hit.
Indeed! And mostly the excitement for it, was word of mouth. The studios, in those days, didn't have the promotional departments of today. I enjoyed your comment.
I saw them for the first time in the 90s. The beginning really grabs you and before you know it, it was over. Opening with a text crawl that filled in the audience built anticipation.
Thanks for doing this, Chris. I want the next generation to be able to make stories. Not just because I want something to watch, but because I have doubts about the fate of a society that can't tell stories. We need stories to consider the world around us, and in the past 20 years we've had lots and lots of questions we could be asking through story that we're not asking. A society that can't tell stories is like a corpse with no thought, no interior monologue. Just a giant "id". To the young filmmakers, I would add to the recommended reading list Akira Kurosawa's memoir, Something Like An Autobiography. If you're not a Kurosawa fan (though you should be!) just skip to the end where he has advice for young filmmakers. The advice will seem trite and obvious the first time you read through it, but it is solid gold. If those pages were blown up and posted on the walls at Disney, we'd have better movies today.
Chris, Frank, whatever your name is, you can discuss almost anything and make it interesting I wish you would talk about your NFL career once in a while but this was a great topic too!
Setting a release date before the script is written is absolutely ridiculous. I almost wouldn't believe Hollywood would be that idiotic if I hadn't observed them.
@@Hollowshape sadly they might still do that! But why? why not have a finished product? I Understand that there could sometimes not be an adaptation of a character from a book or comic! but not today! and why change a working story from a prewriten book or comic?
That is a crucial point about the PT and ST, the prequel stories will age better because Lucas grounded them in similar historical events (3rd reich etc) and the ST is just a collection of scenes with no narrative. I loosely covered this on my channel but its echoed very well here so glad im not alone in seeing this!
Disney Wars has no theme. It isn't about anything. There is no thematic question. A story without a theme is most certainly a series of events that have no meaning beyond the occurrences within.
I disagree. The Prequels, and specifically the downfall of the Old Republic is an allusion to the birth of the Roman Empire, not the Third Reich. Any archetypal relations to Nazi Germany were strictly an OT thing, I believe 👺✨🗡👺.
what's cool about the prequels is that they aren't actually entirely grounded by the third Riech; its more grounded with events like the Rise of Napoleon III and the rise of Julius Caesar. But it still uses iconography from the 3rd reich when appropriate. And thats the coolest thing; Lucas wanted to emulate the rise of empires and the falls of republiics by looking at the cyclical nature of history itself.
@@REDDAWNproject meanwhile Disney asked a computer what Star wars was and used the first thing it gave them... lightsabers, battles, white armor, people screaming NOOO!, Dark lords
Spock’s death scene at the end of Star Trek II was so amazing that I couldn’t wait for the third film so I ran out to buy the book. The deaths of the legacy characters in the sequel trilogy of Star Wars were so grotesque and disrespectful to George Lucas and the fandom as a whole. The missed opportunity of having the legacy characters united onscreen will be talked about as one of, if not, the greatest film faux pas in modern cinema history. Great interview! Also Critics Court has been somewhat cathartic to watch. ❤😊
"Get into the garbage shoot, flyboy!" Well, that sold it for me. There's a strong female character, that's still feminine and sultry but can also be strong and clever. That scene showed her being clever - not overpowering, condescending or humiliating the males. She just thought and acted more cleverly and got them out of their present predicament. Now, what would have happened, if Rey showed that kind of balance in her character?
Chris, the stormtrooper breaking the program was an idea of George Lucas established in his outlines. Your idea about Finn inspiring the stormtroopers was in Colin Trevorwood script. Excelent program.
What I find funny is how many modern filmmakers in Hollywood think they're being so clever by "subverting expectations" end up being completely predictable.
I always loved the prequels, the crazy battles,they yoda fight!!! And i loved making fun of jar jar too! Vissually too the Beautiful vistas and getting to see Corosaunt
The diminishing quality of films, music and all forms of art in general is part of the ‘dumbing down’ process. We are heading towards a future where humans will be nothing more than dull, soulless, automatons devoid of any passion, creativity and originality. All this is not happening by accident.
Funny how at 12m25s when Chris said "lizard brains", Alan's webcam froze and the frame it froze on was an odd look, like he's from that alien reptilian race and they've just been exposed on national television!! 😂
One day it would be so awesome to read/watch and interview with George Lucas about what Disney did to Lucasfilm and how terrible the ST is. It would be just as satisfying hearing what Mark Hamill thinks as well, no holds barred. I know there's small tidbits here and there from each of them, but I want a full on honest spill your guts out interview. It would be kinda cool too if JJ Abrams was interviewed as well and told the truth about what the heck happened. Was it mostly KK? etc. Just air everything out, put SW on the backburner for a few years before doing anything else with it.
Well done interview and I hope there are some in Hollywood with some measure of intelligence and critical thinking skills that will watch listen and learn from this video. May the force be with us all.
Listening to Mr Gore speaking about Star Wars is (WAY) more entertaining than anything that franchise released except for the O.G. Ep4 Ep5 , and the Tartakovsky animated series. PERIOD
Excellent outlook by Chris Gore(with a great interviewer in Lee[who has a bright future ahead of him]) on both the STAR WARS Sequel Trilogy and what it takes to be a great film critic and film scholar,as sadly today there are way too many Harry Knowles inspired people who work on films and work as inexperienced(in terms of their lack on film history) as film critics and journalists on modern genre movie news sites,movie podcasts,and over at Letterboxd as their heavy usages of the ever-so-annoying terms of "I never heard of..." and the wrongful use of the word "underrated"(as well as people forcing themselves to like a film that they hate in their film reviews[to appease their harry Knowles-ian pagan god]) has me completely dismayed and drives me to immediately leave the spot(in terms of reviews,article,and interviews[whether in print or on podcasts]). Even Roger Ebert would have disapproved of these inexperienced people.
30:46 Chris is right about FINN being a very interesting character.. it is shame that Disney underutilized him and just created that disaster sequel trilogy.
Mark Hamill said the same thing. Tbh, that's something I hold Rian Johnson particularly accountable for. There was a wealth of storytelling opportunity there and he wasted it on Canto Bight, when Finn already seemed committal (or at least didn't seem non-committal) to the Resistance by helping destroy Starkiller base.
I always got the point of the prequels. Lucas wasn’t very subtle. I just thought and still think he could have done a better job if he had actually been criticized by people during the process.
Right? It was obviously there. Phantom Menace however remains one of the WORST films ever made. No amount of retroactive appraisal can make utter garbage watchable.
I absolutely agree with the point Chris makes about George Lucas's attention to detail. One of the worst moments in TFA is when Finn first ignites Anakin/Luke lightsaber by pressing the wrong button!!
NAILED it on the Sequel's ridiculously MASSIVE missed opportunity of not re-uniting the beloved characters from the original trilogy. Han's death didn't make me sad-it made me angry and immediately took me out of the flick. Crushing cynical disappointment.
Dead on. I'd go a step further with the character/actors where if you are doing a sequel or continuation, if you can't get the original actors back, you write those characters out. We have a connection with those actors playing those roles. Movies like Jaws 2, Poltergeist II and all of the Lethal Weapons understood this.
I like that! hire people that know their film history! if you make movies that seems like a must for a film maker! I feel like I don't know enought film history! but hey I could always watch netflix Cleopatra to get an accurate history leason, right?
I agree wholeheartedly that this whole representation revolution Hollywood is going through is missing the point of good storytelling. As a kid my favorite action movies were Aliens and Terminator, then later Bad Boys and Hard Boiled. I think the most touching romance I've ever seen is Brokeback Mountain. When I like a character and can empathize with them it doesn't matter if their gender, race, or sexuality is the same as mine.
I'm not one of those fans who thinks the prequels are misunderstood classics or that the sequel trilogy was terrible or anything, but there're many great points here and it's such a shame that it wasn't planned from the start, and Rise of Skywalker especially turned out the way it did.
Starting with The Force Awakens, the sequel trilogy completely defecated on George Lucas' Star Wars. Disney Star Wars is unrecognize-able to authentic Star Wars. Real Star Wars ended after the Prequel trilogy era (that is to say in 2005).
Back, when the original trilogy was released, there was a great deal of anticipation between movies. ( & in some cases trepidation when GL had some health issues and we didn't know IF they'd all get done. *Glad GL is doing well, in any case.) Now it seems there's new SW's content every month or so. In addition to poor writing, no character development, intentionally irritating original fans, there's no chance for any anticipation. Add in " The Message" with all the deftness of a 2x4 to the face, and you have a recipe for disaster.
Hard part about this: George Lucas...can be wrong. Using Ewoks instead of Wookies mostly to get himself teddy bear merchandise money. Misunderstanding the Greedo scene and its outlaw mystique for Han Solo. Going back to the Death Star again. Making the X-Wing suddenly able to travel between planets when it should be a short-range fighter. Having the Millennium Falcon go to another star system to fix their star drive because without it they can't travel to other star systems. And that's just original trilogy stuff where a good advisor might have helped make it better. Then you have the prequels, where he unwittingly introduces the idea that even Anakin is too old to begin training. I contend that he wrote Phantom Menace intending Anakin to be a teenager, then when it was done mused about what if he's an innocent little kid and cast it accordingly, but now even a child is too old to begin training because he didn't rewrite it to match his new age for Anakin. Also that Jedi are not permitted to marry, and they find candidates through blood samples instead of some kind of spiritual thing... and the outcome of all these separate ideas he introduced is that the Jedi are blood-testing infants to take them away from their families and draft them into an order of celibate monks, which is NOT what I was fantasizing about with my friends when we were playing Star Wars at age 7. So I get what Chris is saying about the original creator being involved, but none of these people are perfect. Lucas doubly so.
Great analysis! And I guess you could find more examples (midichlorians?). I wasn’t too sure I fully agreed about this point. Original creators can do a lot wrong too, another example would be Prometheus where Ridley Scott was involved. On the other hand I think James Bond is an example where a lot of new people came in and made, maybe not all great movies, but we got our Goldeneyes and Casino Royales. I think the actual answer is a lot simpler, albeit boring: be competent. Have an intrinsic interest in wanting to tell a compelling story, instead of delivering a factory line product. And of course even then, things can go wrong, unfortunately…
So many good things here but I will never understand why Luke, Leia and Han didn't have a least one damn scene together. I think it should've been a lot more than one scene but still blows my mind. That's one of the biggest failures in movie history.
aghh I think of the scene Chris painted of Finn and the other stormtroopers and I see Finn marking their helmets with red paint in honor of his friend who died in the opening scene of Ep7. So many missed opportunities.
Boy Chris unintentionally indicted George Lucas himself when he mentioned "too much modernity" and technology. Lucas is notorious for that, the entire prequel trilogy can be summed up that way, including shooting Attack Of The Clones 100% digitally just to be able to say he was the first one to do it.
On the first question, the points about "always involve the original creator" and "steer clear of too much technological innovation" are contradictory in the case of George Lucas. He obsessed over using the latest technology, as far as I understand.
The original creators of ALIEN were not involved in the movie James Cameron made, but clearly ALIENS is not fan fiction. George Lucas had nothing to do with Andor, but Andor is undoubtedly the best Star Wars released since 1983.
Well the sequels did give us Star Wars sections of 2 theme parks just like Bay’s Transformers gave us a good ride at Universal but maybe Disney could have themed it to the Age of Rebellion instead of Age of Resistance. I think of the sequels as a guy trying to make up lost time for a kid he never knew he had
@@christuffer Are you talking about decanonizing the EU to Legends? Assuming so... 1). It's easier to pretend it never happened then to write it in a way that's both pleasing to newcomers and fans who kept up. 2). Disney can make a lot of money with their "new" canon. 3). Disney probably has to pay royalties to those authors if it did use, say Jaina Solo, in their new trilogy. It was more of a business / practical decision then it was a creative / storytelling one.
At this point, SW (Disney) is pretty much dead for me, and that hurts coming from a huge fan (read all EU books, love the OT and prequels, have loads of merch, games, etc.) but Disney completely killed the franchise. Until someone with balls comes and retcons what KK did, I am done with SW for good.
Finn should have been trained by Luke to be a Jedi, after Rey turned to the dark side with Ren. It would have set up the 3rd movie for a final battle…So freakin obvious…….Disney destroys everything it acquires.
He sold the IP it due to his age, dude, but God willing, his recently newborn daughter will someday grow up to realize her father's vision. She will have access to so many script ideas and all of his story notes. 👺✨🗡👺
Ooh, appreciate you doing this, Chris (DEFINITELY not Frank!), and you hit the nail on the head, right out of the gate: in regard to getting the original creator involved for continuations. Problem with Lucas specifically is that he himself doesn't stick to many of his own rules, as he's shown starting with the Special Editions in the 90s, and, of course, the prequels. There were so many unwritten rules baked into the original movies that he just steam-rollered in his own later endeavours it was truly deplorable to watch. Having said that, I too would have much rather seen Lucas' sequels than Disney's. But I guess that's just the way the flatcake crumbles.;)
Haha!!! The absolute nerve! Who are YOU to say what HIS so-called "unspoken rules" are of HIS UNIVERSE if they're unspoken AND NOT SET IN STONE?!?!?You're just another Prequel hater, who can't see the forest for the trees! George Lucas DIDN'T break any of HIS so-called "unspoken" rules......... HE WRITES THE RULES FOR HIS OWN UNIVERSE!!! HE HAS THE FINAL SAY, PERIOD!!! HE SAYS WHAT GOES AND WHAT STAYS, WHAT WORKS AND WHAT DOESN'T, AND HOW IT WORKS!!! IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, GO ELSEWHERE, AND MAKE YOUR OWN STORY!!! I guess you think examples of him breaking his own so-called "rules" include what, Midichlorians? Ha! That didn't change anything! The Force is still very much "mystical" and powerful and works as it should! Or that Obi Wan was Padawan to Qui Gon, even though he was still instructed by Master Yoda, as all Jedi at the temple were! Or that whole "who shot first" nonsense b/n Han and Greedo, which ultimately changes nothing about GEORGE'S OWN CHARACTERS!!! They were both rough and seedy characters in a rough and seedy environment; George just wanted to show that Han was a little less ruthless. Or how about Boba Fett being present when Jabba the Hutt visits Han in the docking bay? Changes NOTHING! We all know he was a famed bounty hunter who preferred working for Jabba and had a grudge against Solo! Or the lightsaber fighting styles that were different when the Jedi/Sith were at their prime as opposed to what we saw from an old man with rusty dueling skills and an old half-man/half-machine and a young farm boy from a backwater planet who hardly knows what he's doing? Ha! Give me a break! Or perhaps the different variations of the designs of ships/vehicles? Well, I've got news for you: just like in our reality, our vehicles change in design every decade or so; some look a little sleeker in one era, and then in the next era they are a bit uglier. Case in point, '40s and '50s cars look different than the '70s and '80s cars; and George was a hot rod afficianado. Not to mention the 20-year gap between episodes 3 and 4, and also not to mention the rather drastic regime change, which also affects such things as culture and design! And yes, it was still a "lived in universe" if you actually cared to pay attention, as there is grease, grime, and weathering everywhere! Or you'll probably complain about the politics; well, guess what, YOU CAN'T HAVE WAR WITHOUT POLITICS!!! YOU CAN'T SHOW HOW A REPUBLIC TRANSITIONS INTO A TYRANNICAL EMPIRE/DICTATORSHIP WITHOUT THE RELEVANT POLITICAL SCENARIOS!!! Or how about Anakins' young Force ghost appearance? Well, simply put, like some religions here on Earth when a person dies, they are restored to their "best form" in the afterlife, and what we saw was Anakin in his "best form"! Or what about the scant few never-before-seen "new" Force powers we saw used in episodes 1-3? Well, guess what, we only got to see a very limited time frame in that galaxy in episodes 4-6 where the Jedi and Sith were practically non-existent! Thus, it only goes to reason that when we eventually get to see the Jedi in their prime, we'll get to learn more about them and their abilities. Not to mention that using said Force powers are very taxing on the body and require a lot of energy and effort! Or how about the little bit of lighthearted slapstick humor used to counter-balance the darker, more serious themes of the episodes? I would kindly direct you to C-3po and R2-D2, the Ewoks, Chewbacca, and numerous witty one-liners in episodes 4-6! There is no instance that you can provide me where he supposedly "broke" his so-called "unspoken rules" that I can't explain to you!
@@gordonmacdonald6442 No, I wasn't thinking about any of those. But I'm not having this discussion with the avatar of your outrage on a comment thread. Meet me in person and I'll be happy to buy you a beer and to lay out my own, silly arguments, as geeky as you'd like. Until that day, peace be with you.
To be fair, the only thing I actually liked about the Star Wars sequels is the cinematography/visuals in The Last Jedi. Everything else in this trilogy was garbage.
Sorry Chris, had to laugh - "...we're living in dark times right now." Not at you but at the thought of SJWs trying to make a better world by destroying Luke Skywalker (et al.), symbol of hope for four decades. To paraphrase Critical Drinker - That's a genius idea, no possible chance of backlash.
The sequels feel soulless They lack a unified vision and employ their own separate from the established 6 movies There are a handful of good ideas but the films squander all of them
The Last Jedi is what BROKE the Sequel Trilogy. Looking back at it, it doesn't even LOOK like a Star Wars film. Even the color grade was off and it used a lot of camera angles that don't work in a Star Wars film. AWFUL film and Rian Johnson is an AWFUL writer for this eternal trash.
I'm a 33 year old millennial who loved the original trilogy and remember how excited I was sitting in the theater waiting to watch the first episode of the prequels at about 10 or so years old and subsequently being utterly dissappointed at what utter trash I was watching as the ot's legacy was being smeared and killed before my eyes. The following two episodes only further established what garbage the prequels were aside from a few cool things like seeing Yoda fight. The sequels were even more trash and the only good modern Star Wars movie is Rogue One, so that and the OT are the only good SW movies, the rest is utter garbage and no the prequels "becoming better" hasn't changed with time and it never will.
What’s probably the thing that you think the prequels did the most poorly? Cause, with all due respect, to claim the prequels are objectively trash seems absolutely absurd. Come on, hit me with it. Cause I think I’ll be able to provide an explanation as to why that aspect in the prequels is objectively not trash.
@@pinroshan020 I'm being honest, and I'm saying that the prequels are good movies with or without the clone wars. I appreciated the prequels as a kid, and I actually appreciate them even more now. The clone wars is a great tv show and provided a lot of helpful and significant context about that time period, true. But, without the clone wars, the prequel movies are still wonderful space operas about how a society's institutions and individual people within them, even initially with a mix of good intentions, can be corrupted through selfish possession of things and people over time and then fall from grace. I think most of the complaints directed towards the prequels are really misunderstandings or misinterpretations of what Lucas was going for with the choices he made for each of the movies, and many fans still either simply haven't found out what Lucas' intentions were or they simply haven't bothered to find out what his intentions were. I highly recommend watching Rick Worley's How To Watch Star Wars series. He goes into great depth on what Lucas set out to do with the prequels and the saga as a whole, and he also explains why most of the complaints about the prequels are weak arguments. Here's the link to the 1st video in the series: th-cam.com/video/vqnjzVX8EKA/w-d-xo.html
@@michaelisland2047terrible acting, horrible cgi animation in lieu of practical effects that were in the OT and for the most part Rogue One, garbage story writing and cringe inducing absurd dialogue that is still memed in a mocking way to this day, dull drawn out political scenes that are completely out of place, horrible out of place cgi characters and the list literally goes on and on and on.
@@pinroshan020If we're honest the prequels were never fixed and can never be fixed, same as the sequels can never be fixed, they are objectively trash movies.
Compare how the Imperial officers act in the original to the Disney garbage. General Veers… cold, calculating. Disney guy… goofy bad satire. That one comparison shows it all.
Not gonna lie, Chris strikes me as a "surface" SW fan and nothing more, somebody who doesn't go past the movies, and I don't even think Chris could name ten SW species off the top of his head to save his life. I'm not talking about the played out stuff like Jawas, Tusken Raiders, or even Wookies, I'm talking Expanded Universe, Prequel, and other behind-the-scenes species. 👺✨🗡👺
▶9:00▶9:23 Annnnd that's why I don't (hardly) ever go to the Movies (Theatres) any longer: HoLLyWoOd is there to make 💵💲💵~&~ The Art of Film is a *_Tertiary Consideration at best._*
Chris Gore always has something great to say. I have come to hate modern movies for the reasons he stated, but I keep finding so many more amazing movies from the past that I’m okay with that
The idea that they think they know better is wild. Like Chris said before it’s completely fine to have gay films or political films but those are for mainly I smaller projects bc the audience is much smaller. So Disney trying to push or allowing writers to push certain subjects knowing these movies are for the masses is wild. You can’t have a polarizing political take for company the size of Disney bc you alienate the audience. Marvel has to go back to square one. Star Wars made a good move with filoni bc he was George’s padawan. And animation needs to worry about story and well written characters geared towards kids. I hope Disney gets it together bc it’s so sad to see a company that was really nailing 90% of their films that is now flipped to 10%.
@@Mmlujan well said
Really cool of Film Threat to give this guy an opportunity for an interview. I could listen to Gore talk movies for hours and hours on end.
Regarding why the original Star Wars was so successful, well, I was 12 when the film came out and saw it in the theaters, and just the opening five minutes were absolutely epic. Like nothing I had ever seen before. So they grabbed you right from the beginning and never let go. The way the words about what we were about to see scrolled across space at an angle. The epic score, which in itself was massively successful, maybe the most successful movie score of all time. And the absolutely massive ship and the camera angle scrolling across the screen that just made you realize we were seeing something on an epic scale in terms of size. Then it started with a battle scene where you could tell it was a scrappy group of underdogs against a might empire. Then Vader walked in and you knew this guy was a villain to be reckoned with. No wonder it was such a massive hit.
Indeed! And mostly the excitement for it, was word of mouth. The studios, in those days, didn't have the promotional departments of today. I enjoyed your comment.
I saw them for the first time in the 90s. The beginning really grabs you and before you know it, it was over. Opening with a text crawl that filled in the audience built anticipation.
Thanks for doing this, Chris. I want the next generation to be able to make stories. Not just because I want something to watch, but because I have doubts about the fate of a society that can't tell stories. We need stories to consider the world around us, and in the past 20 years we've had lots and lots of questions we could be asking through story that we're not asking. A society that can't tell stories is like a corpse with no thought, no interior monologue. Just a giant "id".
To the young filmmakers, I would add to the recommended reading list Akira Kurosawa's memoir, Something Like An Autobiography. If you're not a Kurosawa fan (though you should be!) just skip to the end where he has advice for young filmmakers. The advice will seem trite and obvious the first time you read through it, but it is solid gold. If those pages were blown up and posted on the walls at Disney, we'd have better movies today.
Chris, Frank, whatever your name is, you can discuss almost anything and make it interesting
I wish you would talk about your NFL career once in a while but this was a great topic too!
30m00s "When you drift away, from the original creator..."
That's humanity, let alone Disney Star Wars, summed up, right there.
Setting a release date before the script is written is absolutely ridiculous. I almost wouldn't believe Hollywood would be that idiotic if I hadn't observed them.
Hollywood has always done that.
@@Hollowshape sadly they might still do that! But why?
why not have a finished product? I Understand that there could sometimes not be an adaptation of a character from a book or comic! but not today!
and why change a working story from a prewriten book or comic?
They did it in Jaws and Jaws 2.
@@davidimrie6916 would their involment change the script of the Jaws3 movie???
Been doing that for decades.
That is a crucial point about the PT and ST, the prequel stories will age better because Lucas grounded them in similar historical events (3rd reich etc) and the ST is just a collection of scenes with no narrative. I loosely covered this on my channel but its echoed very well here so glad im not alone in seeing this!
Disney Wars has no theme. It isn't about anything. There is no thematic question. A story without a theme is most certainly a series of events that have no meaning beyond the occurrences within.
I disagree. The Prequels, and specifically the downfall of the Old Republic is an allusion to the birth of the Roman Empire, not the Third Reich. Any archetypal relations to Nazi Germany were strictly an OT thing, I believe 👺✨🗡👺.
what's cool about the prequels is that they aren't actually entirely grounded by the third Riech; its more grounded with events like the Rise of Napoleon III and the rise of Julius Caesar.
But it still uses iconography from the 3rd reich when appropriate.
And thats the coolest thing; Lucas wanted to emulate the rise of empires and the falls of republiics by looking at the cyclical nature of history itself.
@@REDDAWNproject meanwhile Disney asked a computer what Star wars was and used the first thing it gave them... lightsabers, battles, white armor, people screaming NOOO!, Dark lords
Lucas says on the DVD commentaries that the prequels were based on the Roman Republic's transformation into an Empire.
Great interview. This is a Chris Gore classic and should be mandatory watching for upcoming film-makers & script-writers.
Spock’s death scene at the end of Star Trek II was so amazing that I couldn’t wait for the third film so I ran out to buy the book. The deaths of the legacy characters in the sequel trilogy of Star Wars were so grotesque and disrespectful to George Lucas and the fandom as a whole. The missed opportunity of having the legacy characters united onscreen will be talked about as one of, if not, the greatest film faux pas in modern cinema history. Great interview! Also Critics Court has been somewhat cathartic to watch. ❤😊
Thank you Chris and company.
YES! Practical effects. GIVE US WORK!
Excellent interview with very insightful answers to good questions.
What a creative way to have someone interview you lol. I love it
"Get into the garbage shoot, flyboy!"
Well, that sold it for me.
There's a strong female character, that's still feminine and sultry but can also be strong and clever.
That scene showed her being clever - not overpowering, condescending or humiliating the males.
She just thought and acted more cleverly and got them out of their present predicament.
Now, what would have happened, if Rey showed that kind of balance in her character?
The world would probably explode if it wasn't in episode 7
Leia, Ripley, Sarah Connor, they had a strong supporting cast too and are smart.
Chris,
the stormtrooper breaking the program was an idea of George Lucas established in his outlines.
Your idea about Finn inspiring the stormtroopers was in Colin Trevorwood script.
Excelent program.
What I find funny is how many modern filmmakers in Hollywood think they're being so clever by "subverting expectations" end up being completely predictable.
I absolutely love long form Chris especially on film philosophy. This is the best stuff.
Great stuff and I will watch them all. Good work getting a fun look behind the scenes in authentic way
George Lucas started writing STAR WARS in 1974 🙂
Ps. Got no issues with the prequels and I love them.
Cool to do the interview with a student.
Excellent analysis 👍
This is completely spot on. Well done!
The scroll at the beginning of an episode is also used in Buck Rogers (1939)
I always loved the prequels, the crazy battles,they yoda fight!!!
And i loved making fun of jar jar too!
Vissually too the Beautiful vistas and getting to see Corosaunt
The diminishing quality of films, music and all forms of art in general is part of the ‘dumbing down’ process. We are heading towards a future where humans will be nothing more than dull, soulless, automatons devoid of any passion, creativity and originality. All this is not happening by accident.
Funny how at 12m25s when Chris said "lizard brains", Alan's webcam froze and the frame it froze on was an odd look, like he's from that alien reptilian race and they've just been exposed on national television!! 😂
Leave it to Kris Gore to give great advice 👍 Great Video
One day it would be so awesome to read/watch and interview with George Lucas about what Disney did to Lucasfilm and how terrible the ST is. It would be just as satisfying hearing what Mark Hamill thinks as well, no holds barred. I know there's small tidbits here and there from each of them, but I want a full on honest spill your guts out interview. It would be kinda cool too if JJ Abrams was interviewed as well and told the truth about what the heck happened. Was it mostly KK? etc. Just air everything out, put SW on the backburner for a few years before doing anything else with it.
Well done interview and I hope there are some in Hollywood with some measure of intelligence and critical thinking skills that will watch listen and learn from this video. May the force be with us all.
I love your interviews Chris! How I found you on YT doing the Film Courage interviews. ALAN!! Love you too buddy!
Listening to Mr Gore speaking about Star Wars is (WAY) more entertaining than anything that franchise released except for the O.G. Ep4 Ep5 , and the Tartakovsky animated series. PERIOD
Excellent outlook by Chris Gore(with a great interviewer in Lee[who has a bright future ahead of him]) on both the STAR WARS Sequel Trilogy and what it takes to be a great film critic and film scholar,as sadly today there are way too many Harry Knowles inspired people who work on films and work as inexperienced(in terms of their lack on film history) as film critics and journalists on modern genre movie news sites,movie podcasts,and over at Letterboxd as their heavy usages of the ever-so-annoying terms of "I never heard of..." and the wrongful use of the word "underrated"(as well as people forcing themselves to like a film that they hate in their film reviews[to appease their harry Knowles-ian pagan god]) has me completely dismayed and drives me to immediately leave the spot(in terms of reviews,article,and interviews[whether in print or on podcasts]). Even Roger Ebert would have disapproved of these inexperienced people.
30:46 Chris is right about FINN being a very interesting character.. it is shame that Disney underutilized him and just created that disaster sequel trilogy.
Mark Hamill said the same thing.
Tbh, that's something I hold Rian Johnson particularly accountable for.
There was a wealth of storytelling opportunity there and he wasted it on Canto Bight, when Finn already seemed committal (or at least didn't seem non-committal) to the Resistance by helping destroy Starkiller base.
I was really hoping he was going to be a jedi.
The greedy bigots wanted to sell the film to the racist CCP.
i mean they certainly baited it haed enough.
I guess filming mulan in the chinese slave-camp was more important. @@redactedc1928
The most interesting character ended up being a freakin stooge. So underutilized, so disgraceful.
Chris: We have someone from England… where are you from?
Lee: Scotland!
They should’ve consulted Marcia Lucas
I always got the point of the prequels. Lucas wasn’t very subtle. I just thought and still think he could have done a better job if he had actually been criticized by people during the process.
He was somewhat criticized by people, he just insisted that he knew he wanted and how he wanted to see it.
Right? It was obviously there. Phantom Menace however remains one of the WORST films ever made. No amount of retroactive appraisal can make utter garbage watchable.
I absolutely agree with the point Chris makes about George Lucas's attention to detail. One of the worst moments in TFA is when Finn first ignites Anakin/Luke lightsaber by pressing the wrong button!!
Would have loved to hear Gore’s thoughts on “Rouge One”, which I feel is probably the best Star Wars movie since “Empire”.
NAILED it on the Sequel's ridiculously MASSIVE missed opportunity of not re-uniting the beloved characters from the original trilogy. Han's death didn't make me sad-it made me angry and immediately took me out of the flick. Crushing cynical disappointment.
Kobra kai was the perfect relaunch
Dead on. I'd go a step further with the character/actors where if you are doing a sequel or continuation, if you can't get the original actors back, you write those characters out. We have a connection with those actors playing those roles. Movies like Jaws 2, Poltergeist II and all of the Lethal Weapons understood this.
The prequels were entertaining, & compared to DSW, are masterpieces.
I like that! hire people that know their film history! if you make movies that seems like a must for a film maker!
I feel like I don't know enought film history! but hey I could always watch netflix Cleopatra to get an accurate history leason, right?
I agree wholeheartedly that this whole representation revolution Hollywood is going through is missing the point of good storytelling. As a kid my favorite action movies were Aliens and Terminator, then later Bad Boys and Hard Boiled. I think the most touching romance I've ever seen is Brokeback Mountain. When I like a character and can empathize with them it doesn't matter if their gender, race, or sexuality is the same as mine.
The original STAR WARS was saved in the editing room
I'm not one of those fans who thinks the prequels are misunderstood classics or that the sequel trilogy was terrible or anything, but there're many great points here and it's such a shame that it wasn't planned from the start, and Rise of Skywalker especially turned out the way it did.
Chris Gore is the man 🤌🏻
Oh that's Lee Mcdonald from Aberdeen (it's a joke 😂)
respect mr gore
Starting with The Force Awakens, the sequel trilogy completely defecated on George Lucas' Star Wars. Disney Star Wars is unrecognize-able to authentic Star Wars. Real Star Wars ended after the Prequel trilogy era (that is to say in 2005).
Finn was sidelined in Last Jedi.
Back, when the original trilogy was released, there was a great deal of anticipation between movies. ( & in some cases trepidation when GL had some health issues and we didn't know IF they'd all get done. *Glad GL is doing well, in any case.) Now it seems there's new SW's content every month or so. In addition to poor writing, no character development, intentionally irritating original fans, there's no chance for any anticipation. Add in " The Message" with all the deftness of a 2x4 to the face, and you have a recipe for disaster.
Hard part about this: George Lucas...can be wrong. Using Ewoks instead of Wookies mostly to get himself teddy bear merchandise money. Misunderstanding the Greedo scene and its outlaw mystique for Han Solo. Going back to the Death Star again. Making the X-Wing suddenly able to travel between planets when it should be a short-range fighter. Having the Millennium Falcon go to another star system to fix their star drive because without it they can't travel to other star systems. And that's just original trilogy stuff where a good advisor might have helped make it better. Then you have the prequels, where he unwittingly introduces the idea that even Anakin is too old to begin training. I contend that he wrote Phantom Menace intending Anakin to be a teenager, then when it was done mused about what if he's an innocent little kid and cast it accordingly, but now even a child is too old to begin training because he didn't rewrite it to match his new age for Anakin. Also that Jedi are not permitted to marry, and they find candidates through blood samples instead of some kind of spiritual thing... and the outcome of all these separate ideas he introduced is that the Jedi are blood-testing infants to take them away from their families and draft them into an order of celibate monks, which is NOT what I was fantasizing about with my friends when we were playing Star Wars at age 7.
So I get what Chris is saying about the original creator being involved, but none of these people are perfect. Lucas doubly so.
Great analysis! And I guess you could find more examples (midichlorians?). I wasn’t too sure I fully agreed about this point. Original creators can do a lot wrong too, another example would be Prometheus where Ridley Scott was involved. On the other hand I think James Bond is an example where a lot of new people came in and made, maybe not all great movies, but we got our Goldeneyes and Casino Royales.
I think the actual answer is a lot simpler, albeit boring: be competent. Have an intrinsic interest in wanting to tell a compelling story, instead of delivering a factory line product. And of course even then, things can go wrong, unfortunately…
So many good things here but I will never understand why Luke, Leia and Han didn't have a least one damn scene together. I think it should've been a lot more than one scene but still blows my mind. That's one of the biggest failures in movie history.
I 100% agree! I’ve said this many times. It’s a blow to the stomach that makes me sick every time I think about it
aghh I think of the scene Chris painted of Finn and the other stormtroopers and I see Finn marking their helmets with red paint in honor of his friend who died in the opening scene of Ep7. So many missed opportunities.
Boy Chris unintentionally indicted George Lucas himself when he mentioned "too much modernity" and technology. Lucas is notorious for that, the entire prequel trilogy can be summed up that way, including shooting Attack Of The Clones 100% digitally just to be able to say he was the first one to do it.
I'm still baffled at how Disney just went ahead without a plan. Boggled and baffled.
On the first question, the points about "always involve the original creator" and "steer clear of too much technological innovation" are contradictory in the case of George Lucas. He obsessed over using the latest technology, as far as I understand.
The original creators of ALIEN were not involved in the movie James Cameron made, but clearly ALIENS is not fan fiction. George Lucas had nothing to do with Andor, but Andor is undoubtedly the best Star Wars released since 1983.
Well the sequels did give us Star Wars sections of 2 theme parks just like Bay’s Transformers gave us a good ride at Universal but maybe Disney could have themed it to the Age of Rebellion instead of Age of Resistance. I think of the sequels as a guy trying to make up lost time for a kid he never knew he had
Lee was just Critical Drinker wasn't it? 😂
An excellent breakdown of why the Star Wars sequels were just a disaster.
They rushed the sequel trilogy because Star Wars needed to make money NOW
They didn't need to relaunch Star Wars. It was already passed on to each generation. Just continue it with respect and good new stories.
@@christuffer Are you talking about decanonizing the EU to Legends?
Assuming so...
1). It's easier to pretend it never happened then to write it in a way that's both pleasing to newcomers and fans who kept up.
2). Disney can make a lot of money with their "new" canon.
3). Disney probably has to pay royalties to those authors if it did use, say Jaina Solo, in their new trilogy.
It was more of a business / practical decision then it was a creative / storytelling one.
Listening to Chris Gore talking about Star Wars makes me so sad to see the trash they are making now. He is so right.
👍
At this point, SW (Disney) is pretty much dead for me, and that hurts coming from a huge fan (read all EU books, love the OT and prequels, have loads of merch, games, etc.) but Disney completely killed the franchise. Until someone with balls comes and retcons what KK did, I am done with SW for good.
Finn should have been trained by Luke to be a Jedi, after Rey turned to the dark side with Ren. It would have set up the 3rd movie for a final battle…So freakin obvious…….Disney destroys everything it acquires.
5:25 well Lucas was the creator yet used too much CGI for the prequels to where it was jarring
"Hollywood loves money..."
Chris Gore-June 2023
Maverick did just shy of 1.5B global box office (not 1B)
Lets get lucas back and lets make knights of the old republic to bring back star wars to its former glory
He sold the IP it due to his age, dude, but God willing, his recently newborn daughter will someday grow up to realize her father's vision. She will have access to so many script ideas and all of his story notes. 👺✨🗡👺
Ooh, appreciate you doing this, Chris (DEFINITELY not Frank!), and you hit the nail on the head, right out of the gate: in regard to getting the original creator involved for continuations. Problem with Lucas specifically is that he himself doesn't stick to many of his own rules, as he's shown starting with the Special Editions in the 90s, and, of course, the prequels. There were so many unwritten rules baked into the original movies that he just steam-rollered in his own later endeavours it was truly deplorable to watch. Having said that, I too would have much rather seen Lucas' sequels than Disney's. But I guess that's just the way the flatcake crumbles.;)
Haha!!! The absolute nerve! Who are YOU to say what HIS so-called "unspoken rules" are of HIS UNIVERSE if they're unspoken AND NOT SET IN STONE?!?!?You're just another Prequel hater, who can't see the forest for the trees! George Lucas DIDN'T break any of HIS so-called "unspoken" rules......... HE WRITES THE RULES FOR HIS OWN UNIVERSE!!! HE HAS THE FINAL SAY, PERIOD!!! HE SAYS WHAT GOES AND WHAT STAYS, WHAT WORKS AND WHAT DOESN'T, AND HOW IT WORKS!!! IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, GO ELSEWHERE, AND MAKE YOUR OWN STORY!!!
I guess you think examples of him breaking his own so-called "rules" include what, Midichlorians? Ha! That didn't change anything! The Force is still very much "mystical" and powerful and works as it should!
Or that Obi Wan was Padawan to Qui Gon, even though he was still instructed by Master Yoda, as all Jedi at the temple were!
Or that whole "who shot first" nonsense b/n Han and Greedo, which ultimately changes nothing about GEORGE'S OWN CHARACTERS!!! They were both rough and seedy characters in a rough and seedy environment; George just wanted to show that Han was a little less ruthless.
Or how about Boba Fett being present when Jabba the Hutt visits Han in the docking bay? Changes NOTHING! We all know he was a famed bounty hunter who preferred working for Jabba and had a grudge against Solo!
Or the lightsaber fighting styles that were different when the Jedi/Sith were at their prime as opposed to what we saw from an old man with rusty dueling skills and an old half-man/half-machine and a young farm boy from a backwater planet who hardly knows what he's doing? Ha! Give me a break!
Or perhaps the different variations of the designs of ships/vehicles? Well, I've got news for you: just like in our reality, our vehicles change in design every decade or so; some look a little sleeker in one era, and then in the next era they are a bit uglier. Case in point, '40s and '50s cars look different than the '70s and '80s cars; and George was a hot rod afficianado. Not to mention the 20-year gap between episodes 3 and 4, and also not to mention the rather drastic regime change, which also affects such things as culture and design! And yes, it was still a "lived in universe" if you actually cared to pay attention, as there is grease, grime, and weathering everywhere!
Or you'll probably complain about the politics; well, guess what, YOU CAN'T HAVE WAR WITHOUT POLITICS!!! YOU CAN'T SHOW HOW A REPUBLIC TRANSITIONS INTO A TYRANNICAL EMPIRE/DICTATORSHIP WITHOUT THE RELEVANT POLITICAL SCENARIOS!!!
Or how about Anakins' young Force ghost appearance? Well, simply put, like some religions here on Earth when a person dies, they are restored to their "best form" in the afterlife, and what we saw was Anakin in his "best form"!
Or what about the scant few never-before-seen "new" Force powers we saw used in episodes 1-3? Well, guess what, we only got to see a very limited time frame in that galaxy in episodes 4-6 where the Jedi and Sith were practically non-existent! Thus, it only goes to reason that when we eventually get to see the Jedi in their prime, we'll get to learn more about them and their abilities. Not to mention that using said Force powers are very taxing on the body and require a lot of energy and effort!
Or how about the little bit of lighthearted slapstick humor used to counter-balance the darker, more serious themes of the episodes? I would kindly direct you to C-3po and R2-D2, the Ewoks, Chewbacca, and numerous witty one-liners in episodes 4-6!
There is no instance that you can provide me where he supposedly "broke" his so-called "unspoken rules" that I can't explain to you!
@@gordonmacdonald6442 No, I wasn't thinking about any of those. But I'm not having this discussion with the avatar of your outrage on a comment thread. Meet me in person and I'll be happy to buy you a beer and to lay out my own, silly arguments, as geeky as you'd like. Until that day, peace be with you.
how come Chris gave this student his time? not being rude just curious
The prequels had a purpose besides money. The sequels don't AND they destroyed the original characters.
why dont you make movies? they would be perfect
To be fair, the only thing I actually liked about the Star Wars sequels is the cinematography/visuals in The Last Jedi. Everything else in this trilogy was garbage.
Sorry Chris, had to laugh - "...we're living in dark times right now." Not at you but at the thought of SJWs trying to make a better world by destroying Luke Skywalker (et al.), symbol of hope for four decades. To paraphrase Critical Drinker - That's a genius idea, no possible chance of backlash.
Who?
The sequels feel soulless
They lack a unified vision and employ their own separate from the established 6 movies
There are a handful of good ideas but the films squander all of them
That abomination of trilogy will and should be forever known as *The Sequel Tragedy* 😡😡😡
A False Hope
Backed Woke Empire Strikes Again
The Last Straw
Trouble is trying to appeal to everyone. It's generic blah. Just write the esoteric dark soap opera that fits the tone. Not Disney garbage
He basically trashed the sequels. Agree.
The Last Jedi is what BROKE the Sequel Trilogy. Looking back at it, it doesn't even LOOK like a Star Wars film. Even the color grade was off and it used a lot of camera angles that don't work in a Star Wars film. AWFUL film and Rian Johnson is an AWFUL writer for this eternal trash.
I'm a 33 year old millennial who loved the original trilogy and remember how excited I was sitting in the theater waiting to watch the first episode of the prequels at about 10 or so years old and subsequently being utterly dissappointed at what utter trash I was watching as the ot's legacy was being smeared and killed before my eyes. The following two episodes only further established what garbage the prequels were aside from a few cool things like seeing Yoda fight. The sequels were even more trash and the only good modern Star Wars movie is Rogue One, so that and the OT are the only good SW movies, the rest is utter garbage and no the prequels "becoming better" hasn't changed with time and it never will.
What’s probably the thing that you think the prequels did the most poorly? Cause, with all due respect, to claim the prequels are objectively trash seems absolutely absurd. Come on, hit me with it. Cause I think I’ll be able to provide an explanation as to why that aspect in the prequels is objectively not trash.
Lets be honest. The prequel era was only fixed because of the clone wars animated series 2008😊
@@pinroshan020 I'm being honest, and I'm saying that the prequels are good movies with or without the clone wars. I appreciated the prequels as a kid, and I actually appreciate them even more now. The clone wars is a great tv show and provided a lot of helpful and significant context about that time period, true. But, without the clone wars, the prequel movies are still wonderful space operas about how a society's institutions and individual people within them, even initially with a mix of good intentions, can be corrupted through selfish possession of things and people over time and then fall from grace. I think most of the complaints directed towards the prequels are really misunderstandings or misinterpretations of what Lucas was going for with the choices he made for each of the movies, and many fans still either simply haven't found out what Lucas' intentions were or they simply haven't bothered to find out what his intentions were. I highly recommend watching Rick Worley's How To Watch Star Wars series. He goes into great depth on what Lucas set out to do with the prequels and the saga as a whole, and he also explains why most of the complaints about the prequels are weak arguments. Here's the link to the 1st video in the series: th-cam.com/video/vqnjzVX8EKA/w-d-xo.html
@@michaelisland2047terrible acting, horrible cgi animation in lieu of practical effects that were in the OT and for the most part Rogue One, garbage story writing and cringe inducing absurd dialogue that is still memed in a mocking way to this day, dull drawn out political scenes that are completely out of place, horrible out of place cgi characters and the list literally goes on and on and on.
@@pinroshan020If we're honest the prequels were never fixed and can never be fixed, same as the sequels can never be fixed, they are objectively trash movies.
Compare how the Imperial officers act in the original to the Disney garbage. General Veers… cold, calculating. Disney guy… goofy bad satire. That one comparison shows it all.
Hoping Lee doesn't have a Marxist/Activist professor.
I don't like Chris, he took part in "the people vs George lucas" movie
Not gonna lie, Chris strikes me as a "surface" SW fan and nothing more, somebody who doesn't go past the movies, and I don't even think Chris could name ten SW species off the top of his head to save his life. I'm not talking about the played out stuff like Jawas, Tusken Raiders, or even Wookies, I'm talking Expanded Universe, Prequel, and other behind-the-scenes species. 👺✨🗡👺
The prequels had a great overall story executed poorly. Anakin’s part sucked and made no sense.
FINN was a terrible character. He was too urban, too “funny” and not in shape at all for a child conscripted to be a killer.
Modern audiences demand more from stories? Lol. Really? That question was clueless.
Sorry, but he can’t even pronounce “Tatooine” right.
The sequel trilogy was so messed up
▶9:00▶9:23 Annnnd that's why I don't (hardly) ever go to the Movies (Theatres) any longer:
HoLLyWoOd is there to make 💵💲💵~&~ The Art of Film is a *_Tertiary Consideration at best._*