How come in the Star Wars prequels

[rcrush]

Why didnt Lawrence Fishbourne play Mace Windu instead of Samuel L Jackson? Because I thought Morpheus coulda been a jedi. And I only liked Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction and Die Hard With a Vengance.

[Richard Steele]

1. Because George Lucas never wrote those six scripts, he stole them from a dead man....

And he has NO IDEA why the first one filmed (Episode IV) was so great.

[flying rabbit]

2. Stole them from a dead man?

what's up with that?

[Archae]

3. Joseph Campbell.

[Deja Q]

4. He has no idea why the first one filmed was so great?

Join the club.

It worked because of all the pretty special effects. The plot so trite that the average second grader would find patronizing wasn't noticed...

[Orrex]

5. Yeah. And to think that it utterly transformed the culture and the industry

Must be a lot of below-average second graders running things in this world.

[Deja Q]

7. Not quite my point.

Everybody loves to complain about movies and TV dumbing people down. There's not much about the plot of "Star Wars" that has any intellectual value. "Star Wars" sold itself with big, shiny special effects. That was the cultural altering event. Just the effects.

Compared to so-called "Reality shows", I won't deny "Star Wars" is Shakespearean tragedy by comparison...

[Orrex]

11. Oh. Well, yeah.

It's pretty darned linear, I'll grant you that.

[Marr]

6. I think it was largely the cast as well.

The cast just worked very well together, somehow. Even though the script was pretty horrible, when you actually listen to it, the people have such chemistry that you kind of miss Lucas' shitty writing.

The second time around, he seemed to cast according to who *looked* right, and the chemistry just wasn't there. I can't even blame Jake Lloyd for bad acting-- Natalie Portman is an excellent actor and she seemed wooden. I blame Lucas' direction. I hear he treats actors like props.

The second series of movies could've been great if Lucas had the humility to realize his real strength was in visual design, and had relegated himself to the role of Art Director.

[Deja Q]

9. In that I agree.

The cast (of the only trilogy I'll ever bat an eyelid at) was excellent.

Some were more experienced than others, but given how "The Empire Strikes Back" has a uniform level of performance from the cast members, it's clear they were quick learners.

The "prequel" trilogy is an even bigger mess of hyperactive, OTT special effects... and genuinely bad acting to go on top of scripts to awful, a newly born infant's cries, once translated, mean "Turn this numbing garbage off!".

And, yes, Natalie Portman is a good actress... she also had to work alongside Hayden "I couldn't learn how to begin to act if my life depended on it" Christensen. Lucas probably had her acting that bad to make Hayden come across better... not an easy task...

[NewJeffCT]

10. Agreed - Episode 4 is rather simple, but it all worked

great together - the cast had great chemistry, and Harrison Ford & Chewbacca added a grittiness that was lacking in Episodes 6, 1, 2 and 3. (In Return of the Jedi, he was kind of wimpy and Chewbacca was more a big teddy bear...)

I thought there were excellent parts in the prequels, but they just didn't work in terms of chemistry and overall direction, plus the scripts kind of sucked. The final showdown between Obi-Wan and Anakin on the lava planet was terrific and was an awesome fight sequence, but the end with Anakin sliding into the lava shrieking, "I hate you!!!" like a spoiled 10 year old ruined the previous several minutes of epic light saber showdown.

[NewJeffCT]

8. Mace Windu was such a minor part

that they didn't really need an A-List star for it like Jackson or Fishburne, or anybody else.

I mean, basically, he had a couple of lines in Episode 1, came in at the end in Episode 2 in the clone fight & killed Jango Fett, and had the scene where he fought the Emperor in Episode 3, only to get killed.

He was supposed to be the ultimate light saber Jedi and almost as powerful as Yoda, but he was relegated to not much more than glorified cameos.