Re: Star Wars Episode VII
Yeah, I agree...there's a fine line that you need to walk to make the character restless, straining against the restrictions placed on him by the dogmatic Jedi, and willing to, at the right moment, choose the Sith, without making him a whining ******. How do you make a teenager whine about authority without making them instantly unlikeable? Again, I'll argue to my demise that the story is a brilliant piece of plotting; epic, mythological, contemporary, precient, and timely. But the execution? That's the real crime in the PT - there's SUCH a compelling, intelligent story there and it got SO badly bungled that people miss what Lucas was really trying to do and write it off, a la Red Letter Media's BS 'reviews', as juvenille and nonsensical. They're not good by any stretch of the imagination, but they also certainly are not brainless fluff.
I may differ with you on this point, but I appreciate what you're saying.
I think plot-wise, the overarching concepts work. You could rejigger a bunch of Lucas' ideas, and make the films leagues better. But Lucas was interested in telling a particular emotional story, and ultimately, that's what undermines the piece.
It may be that he started out without much of a plan, just knowing that Anakin would fall, but not really knowing why. And knowing he wanted to show him as a child to show he was innocent once. But, assuming he "planned it all along(TM)" then I'd say the big failing is Anakin's motivation. Anakin, as written, is essentially a petulant child with godlike powers and some serious attachment/abandonment issues.
That's it. That's what motivates him. Everything we see him do is motivated by that. In executing that, I think Lucas is largely successful. Anakin comes across as someone in need of serious couch time, who also happens to be a demi-god. Imagine an angry 11-year-old who could crush your larynx or toss a spaceship around with his mind. That's what Lucas gives us.
Now, I think you could still have changed that and told a terrific story of a man who does bad things out of good motivations, while simultaneously raising some interesting questions. The Operative in Serentiy is a good example of this. He does terrible things in the service of what he thinks is the greater good, and believes himself to be a monster. He never shows remorse, but if he did? He ain't far off from a version of Darth Vader that we never got.
Lucas does a good job of telling a story, instead, of a scared little boy who never quite emotionally evolves, and what happens when an evil man plays him like a fiddle. It's just...not a particularly interesting story (nor does it seem to track to what we saw in the OT, which strikes me more like the Operative).
I do, however, see the potential for a different story with otherwise similar plot points actually working.
And Solo, I never really thought about it, but you're right about TPM. It's nice that it introduces us to everyone, but literally all we need to know about Palps we get in the last 5 minutes of the movie. Oh, and RLM was right about one thing - Qui Gon/Obi Wan should have been Obi Wan. Obi Wan should have been the brash, iconoclast Jedi to start, and there's no need for Qui Gon. He could have matured over the films ("Was I any different when you taught me?") into the more staid, conservative man we saw in the PT, but the middle film should have been Obi Wan having so far been an example to Anakin as to how you can take chances, and have these awesome adventures, making choices that would slowly put him at odds with that mindset and becoming a more responsible man. It gives Anakin a reason to think that it's everyone ELSE that's changed, and he's the only one fighting the good fight, while the rest won't do whatever is neccessary to win the war. THAT'S how you drive that critical wedge between them, and how to embody that contest between doing what's morally palatable and doing what's neccessary.
I've said for years that you could sum up all of TPM in the elevator ride at the start of AOTC. Literally. Or you could spread it out with a bit of exposition throughout AOTC, with bits from different characters. And no need for Qui-Gon, like you said -- just Obi-Wan, trained by Yoda, who thought he could train Anakin better and blew it with his maverick ways.
Oops.
