Nerds think Lucas is a defiant man. They think he specifically ignores their pleas and continues to manipulate his films out of some blatant disregard for the fans, or worse, an actual malicious conspiracy to screw with them. None of these things are true, and they’re not true because Lucas doesn’t care what fans think. What most geeks fail to realize (at least, it seems) is that he doesn’t care out of some defiant maliciousness. They don’t realize how small they are. They are looking at the history of Star Wars from their very personal perspective, wherein they and all their friends have bitched and moaned about this kind of stuff for years. Lucas hasn’t been on your facebook, hasn’t sat in your basement with all of your friends, or crawled your message boards. He doesn’t have weekly discussions with a buddy about why he does these things. He sees sales figures and spreadsheets, and the world of Star Wars that he has lived in every day for decades. He sees cash. And when the American public votes with their dollars and makes the Star Wars Blu-Ray collection the most pre-ordered and best selling Blu-ray so far in the format’s history, well, he sees…
84 Million Dollars In One Week
…that quite effectively silences the tangential bitching he hears about CGI Jabba sometimes.
Nothing profound here. Just sayin.
And hey, if you want to add to that total by buying the set yourself, considering doing so through CHUD.
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42 comments
Well, the thing is that it doesn’t effectively silence them because people will still voice their opinions. So he made a lot of money; no one on the planet seriously predicted otherwise, but that won’t change attitudes about quality. So he makes a massive profit and the internet remains saturated in negativity. Nothing. Changes.
I don’t have a particular horse in this debate as I don’t care about the IP but saying that profit cancels comment is a little off. Just sayin.
So happy I declined to purchase it.
…but I did enter the CHUD contest to win it. I’m still morbidly curious enough to see how he dressed the corpses up this time around. Just as long as I don’t actually pay for it.
You’re disagreeing with a point that I didn’t make.
$84 million I’m glad I didn’t contribute to. Turkey neck gets no more of my money.
I don’t understand the complaining. Lucas brought us STAR WARS for cryin’ out loud, and millions of our childhoods were better for it. So he wants to tinker with it… who CARES? If a rich uncle brought me a shiny new Ferrari, and comes around every few years to paint little smiley faces on it, I wouldn’t mind a bit. After all, he brought me a FERRARI.
My bad, I could have worded that better. What I meant to get across was that profit will have very little to no impact on the validity, or the perception thereof, of the claims of nay-sayers. So to say that Lucas has somehow won (won what, that confuses me) something because of a profit is a perhaps narrow interpretation of the debate?
I don’t like the tone of this article. No one doubted this release would make a shitload of cash, but this is a douchey piece of writing. “Haha Lucas wins! Fuck the fanboys! Haha!” Renn, I hate to break it to you but you’ll never be Devin. Just a poor copy.
I’m so glad my own cash isn’t among that 84 million. I’m not interested in supporting Lucas’s eccentric revisions, not if he refuses to allow the original versions to be available on the same set, and DEFINITELY not in the midst of an economic crisis. The vast STAR WARS fanbase might complain about Vader’s “NO” in RETURN OF THE JEDI or Obi-Wan’s tribute to Homer Simpson in A NEW HOPE before they go out and purchase the Blu-ray anyway with their heads hanging in shame, but at least I stick to my guns.
Of course, that doesn’t include the average idiot who snaps the SW Blu-ray off the shelves on sight just because it’s SW. Shame on them for putting money in the pocket of a man perfectly content to undermine pivotal dramatic scenes in a movie (or any scene, for that matter) without the actual consent of said movie’s director – in this case, Richard Marquand. Good thing Marquand died back in the ’80’s, huh Lucas? One less schmuck who won’t interfere with your affairs.
You read it wrong. There is no lol involved.
I don’t like the tone of this reply. No one said anyone doubted this release would make a shitload of cash, so it’s a douchey piece of response. “Haha Renn sucks! Fuck him! Haha!” McGreedy, I hate to break it to you, but you’ll never be crassmonkey. Just a poor copy.
Uh, Renn’s point is that Lucas lives in an insulated world where the only form of critique he receives is his bank account. Renn wasn’t pissing on you fanboys, he was just saying that while in your circles it might seem like a mighty howl is rising up, in Lucas’ world, it’s barely the wind. Jesus.
Renn has never tried to be anyone else and has his own voice. A shame that you don’t see that.
I have to laugh to myself when I read online that scores of nerds have allowed themselves to get all into a frothy frenzy about all this. Even going so far as to cancel their pre-orders or boycott purchasing any star wars discs (regardless of format) until the blu ray of the original untouched original trilogy is released. Yeah, like you guys will ever win that battle. Oh well, too bad for them. I am loving the hell out of my blu rays, I am not going to allow the tweakings of the movies diminish my enjoyment. To each his own I say. I’m just happy to have HD Star Wars. Thank you Lucas.
MacGreedy has been making it his mission to tell everyone who is writing here that we aren’t Devin. Everyone except for former Chud writer Elisabeth Rappe, who he has a nerd crush for. Ignore him.
With the greatest respect Seb, do you have reading difficulties? I have a “nerd crush” on Elisabeth Rappe?? I said her articles were well thought out and argued, in stark contrast to your poor articles which are dragging the site down. How did you go from that to “nerd crush”? And how exactly is it my “mission” to tell everyone Renn is not Devin??? This is probably the first time I made this comparison. Your really reaching on both your “points” man. Let me spell this out for you – YOU ARE A BAD WRITER. Take that personally if you like, but don’t start spouting BS.
Do YOU have reading difficulties McGreedy? Nothing you accuse Renn of doing is implicit in his article. You are a garden variety know-nothing hypocrite interent troll with terrible taste and I take it as a COMPLIMENT that you don’t like my writing. Take that personally. Please.
This makes me happy. Though I didn’t contribute to the millions, but that is only because I still don’t have a Blu Ray player.
Lucas apologists, assemble!
I never “pre-ordered” or boycotted anything. When I heard about the further adjustments Lucas had added to the Blu-ray release, I declined to buy it. It’s as simple as that. I didn’t get involved in a campaign against the release, nor did I vent my disappointment by trolling online forums. The above post is the first time I’ve said a word about it. If you wanted to purchase the set, I couldn’t be more disinterested in stopping you. It’s just kind of sad that you’ll always value glitter and sheen over quality. Zack Snyder’s career owes its existence to you.
As for viewing STAR WARS at home, I already have the unmolested trilogy on VHS. No, it’s not in fetishistic HD, but that’s a minor drawback I can live with. Enjoy Blu-ray Jar-Jar, prunetracy.
I’m not shocked he made a boat load on this release. SW fanboys will bitch endlessly, but will ultimately pony up their money joylessly for this shit. It any of them honestly cared, they would’ve made themselves be heard by not buying this set.
Devin was a world class asshole. Fuck him. And I don’t say that lightly as some anon douche bag on the Internet. But devin at least edited his articles. Renn CLEARLY doesn’t. But you know what, for all the crap I’ve given Renn, the motherfucker is standup. She’s right you have a unique voice but it needs to read right. Also, stop cursing in your titles so I can read your shit at work dude. Peace out.
I have a nerd crush for Ms Rappe. Haha. Seriously though, where’d she go?
She was definitly one of the better CHUD writers of the past decade . . ?
No offense Renn, I have a nerd crush on you too.
I don’t care about the changes, it’s sad and amusing to watch the series decay into BrundleFly, he can tinker with it until he’s on his death bed with the keyboard for all I care, it’s his (sad and pathetic) perogative…what I am (or was) upset about is Lucas’ refusal to offer the unaltered originals in the same quality as his special edition releases. We got a shitty, non anamorphic laser disc port DVD with mono sound in 2007, scraps from the King’s table. It’s not an unreasonable request, as Blade Runner had every version available on blu-ray and dvd in the standard quality of those formats, same with Apocalypse Now and E.T. He really does treat his fans like scabies infected dogs, so I’ve stopped giving him money.
Looks like Renn bought the set.
Then wouldn’t he have been even happier selling $85m+ by doing this right?
The thing about Star Wars is that all of the films are childish and a wee bit silly. The promotion that Lucas has been employing for decades is what keeps this relevant to discuss as oppose ole say digitallly redoing the 90’s Batman series…
I wonder what it is like working at Lucasfilm? Far as I can tell, Lucas is surrounded by hundreds of Yes men. There must be more than a few Star Wars fans working there, with tears in their eyes every time Lucas farts his foul ideas in their direction.
Old Georgey boy is happily oblivious to crtitics and web fans alike. He is at the exact opposite end of the care factor scale to Kevin Smith.
The people who bought $84M worth of these discs don’t care about his little edits, they would’ve bought them anyway just on the strength of the title. He could’ve let well enough alone and sold just as many and kept the fanboyz happy.
There can be only one Devin Faraci in this timeline.
“Want” has nothing to do with buying this beaten-to-death franchise. Lucas apologists are compelled by some higher power to purchase this stuff. What other explanation is there? I work with a guy who KNOWS “Phantom Menace” is the best of the bunch.
If all Lucas cares about is money, he would make even more by just leaving the movies alone and putting out a decent release of the originals, So I’m still mystified by his motives.
As some who doesn’t give two shits about Star Wars, the whole phenomenon is weirdly fascinating.
“Nothing profound here. Just sayin.”
LOL. Switch The Blurays for AICN and the desire for the theatricals with CHUD and you pretty much have an exact comparison re: success vs quality. Hey, audience numbers are all that matters. Sad old dying CHUD has it’s supporters, but meh – who gives a fuck about them?.
What a fucking weird bit of slimy shit this article is.
I agree with everything here, but let’s be realistic. Anybody who spends their days trying to tell others if something from an extremely subjective subject is “good” or “bad” is probably an asshole.
I for one am holding out for the release that includes Grando Calrissian.
Won what? He won a whole helluva lot of money at the possible expense of alienating 0.05 – 0.25% of the people who buy his shit.
“Your really reaching… YOU ARE A BAD WRITER.”
That fucking rules. Jeesh.
You’re assuming they people will only buy one version, time has proven that wrong – Lucas has made hundreds of millions off of re-selling the original films (I can think of six versions so far). If we waits three years and then offers, “the original theatrical versions” on blu-ray, 50-75% of the people who bought this version will buy it again.
You say Renn will never be Devin like that’s a =bad= thing.
He won what? A heap of cash which he already has anyway. Time will be the ultimate judge and after Lucas is dead people will look on him as a joke as many do now. His prequels were terrible and anyone who has read about the making of Star Wars knows it got saved in editing and Empire and Return were not directed by him. People who love great films are not all ‘nerds’ and being annoyed or even angry at these changes which make it so that watching these movies can not simply be enjoyed as they used to be because we are forced to watch some ridiculous cgi ‘enhancement’ or some other change that makes no sense at all every few minutes of the fucking thing (more so with each release) is absolutely justified. Lumping everyone who thinks these changes are a joke in to the ‘nerd’ category is arrogant and makes it sound like you are talking down to people Renn, hence some of these negative comments. We come to these sites cos we all love movies and are passionate about them maybe more than most of the rest of the general film going public and don’t appreciate the tone you refer to some us with. Also Lucas won dick. A heap of cash from the sheep of the world who vote for the same idiots over and over does not constitue ‘ HE WON’ when it comes to art and what was once a great film series.
1. It’s a hell of a lot more than .05-.25% of Star Wars Fans.
2. People weren’t criticizing Lucas because they were afraid he was hurting the commercial viability of the franchise. In fact, one of the reasons people rage against Lucas so much is because he is perceived as a sell out. Lucas making $84 million in a week doesn’t change anything.
This is part of the reason I tend to avoid all Star Wars stuff (the main reason being that I find the IP terribly dull). The fans, not all but a considerable number, can be absolutely zealous about it, religiously so. And frankly, there’s enough of that crap in the world for me to willingly endure any more.
George Lucas not only gives a great deal of money to non-profit organizations, but he also has his own charity foundation, to which I’m sure a significant portion of that $84 million will go. So, I think it’s perfectly okay to say “he won” — as did the people who benefit from his charitable contributions and the jobs his various commercial enterprises provide. Like many Star Wars fans, I’m not particularly fond of the last three movies (and that’s putting it mildly), but my kids love them*, and I’m not naive or arrogant enough to think that my opinion or the whims of nostalgia matter more than the opinions of a great many others, who obviously don’t have the same problem with the prequels or CGI alterations.
* In their defense, they are very young and found the Star Wars Christmas Special to be completely unwatchable.
people with bluray players may as well just light their money on fire. http://wtflindseyp.blogspot.com/
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