Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

My George Lucas Manifesto


George Lucas appeared just last night on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which seems to be the main source of news for my generation and younger these days. Lucas fielded some sticky questions about his creativity and fan reaction to his more recent work. Although his answers were somewhat vague, they caused a renewed flurry of anti-George Lucas fervor on countless nerd sites. Ever since the release of the Phantom Menace in 1999, Lucas has been the brunt of incessant complaints, which sometimes border on frightening threats to the man's personal safety.

I just want to come out and say that I'm sick and tired of it. As hard as I try to avoid sites with forums where internet users type out (in their mothers' basements probably) the most abusive insults towards Lucas they can think of, I usually end up reading at least one comment after I finish the article I'm interested in. That one comment then leads to another and another until I'm mad at all the haters and at myself for getting dragged into the conversation.

My main issue is with people who feel the need to bash George Lucas because he ruined their lives by making this movie or that movie. First, I want to ask them if they have ever tried writing a story, transferring it to a script, and then actually filming a movie. Then, I want to secretly find out how often they watch the Prequels because I'm pretty sure that behind all their big talk on internet forums, they actually enjoyed the movies for the most part. But, since it is cool to hate with a destructive passion anything that George Lucas has done in the past 10 years, I better keep quiet that I actually, maybe, kind of enjoyed the Prequels.

So please, I'm calling all you wanna-be haters out there to grow up and admit that George Lucas has not ruined your life and does not deserve to be killed in numerous creative ways. Clearly, your hatred for him is a symptom of some other problem in your life. Deal with it. Even though I didn't love everything about the Prequels or the new Indiana Jones movie, I will forever go down as a staunch defender of the Man in Flannel. The Force will always be with George Lucas.