RoosTah
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With the upcoming release of what is looking like a return to form for Star Wars now that its out of the incompetent hands of creator George Lucas, I thought it was worth exploring the question of when and how the prequels will be remade.
I say "when" and not "if" because in my view this is inevitable after this current trilogy is complete. Disney bought the rights for the films for a reported US$4 Billion, and so they're going to squeeze every penny out of it they can. But when this current trilogy is done, will they move forward, or will they go back to the beginning?
My view is they'll go back. They can't touch the original series, as they're rightly considered a master-piece of a trilogy (with the exception of all the Ewok shit in Jedi), but the prequels?? They're the most hated thing in cinema of the past 30 years, and so they're ripe for a bit of retelling.
In my view, whilst this would be a bit cynical of Disney, the fans would all universally welcome it. So how would you go about doing it?
The central pieces obviously would need to stay the same in terms of characters, but the details would all change fairly significantly.
One of my big gripes in films that feature a "hero's turn" to evil, is that the scene just isn't set well enough for it; it's often handled poorly, with the impetus for the character's fall being rushed or not given enough emotional trauma for it to be believable.
A good example of this is the turn of Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight. An otherwise perfect film, this turn was never terribly convincing to me. He got betrayed and lost his "sorta" girlfriend of two weeks and had has face badly burned. For a character that is posed as a man with principles that read like a modern day Jesus, this just feels insufficient... In my view for that to have made sense Dent and Rachel should have sealed the deal and she should have been carrying his kid, and the knock out blow to it all should be him realising that someone in his own family gave Rachel up.
Anyway, I'm getting side tracked, but you get my point: if a character is going to fall from a mighty height of integrity, the suffering the experience to get there has got to be some pretty f**ked up shit. I won't go into all the other detail about the stupid shit with the trade federation etc etc, and only focus on Anakin, but broadly, Anakin's problem was a lot like Harvey's only a crap load worse.
In the prequels he's a whiny brat, and whilst the revenge he exacts in retribution for his mother's death IS a good brick in the wall of his fall, it's just not enough. For it to be relatable and believable that he'd murder a bunch of kids (I mean seriously, that was some messed up shit) then he really needs to have suffered a heck of a lot more and been manipulated a heck of a lot more.
To achieve this, to start with in the prequel remakes they need to have him found by Qui Gon Jinn as a teen at least, and given his poverty he should already have developed some street smarts and had a poorly developed moral compass due to the cut throat nature of his environment.
In short, Qui Gon should find him as a misguided youth with incredible potential a readily apparent basic command of the Force that comes alive when he's in trouble/danger.
Then you could have Qui Gon bring him under his wing and to the council etc etc. They should reject him outright because of his upbringing and violent tendencies, but Qui Gon should show faith in him and help him develop as both a Jedi and as a more moral man.
This should all go fairly well for the first episode until when encounter Darth Maul, who will still kill Qui Gon, and will then cut off one of Anakin's arms as he tries to fight back. Obi Wan will then come in to save Anakin as Maul is closing in on him to finish him off. The difference will be that they both realise they're just no match and so bolt, leaving Maul to be the big bad for the series whilst the Emperor rises in the shadows.
In the following two episodes, we'll see the younger and less capable Obi Wan struggle to provide quite the direction of Qui Gon, and Anakin experience more losses along the way. During Episode two is when his mother should be killed, and nothing about that needs to change, but it should be revealed that Palpatine had a hand it in later (unbeknownst to Anakin of course).
Then of course, he should still get himself involved with Amidala, but it needs to be handled more subtly and they ought to do it all in more secrecy. Then in episode III as she's heavily pregnant with the twins she'll be murdered by Darth Maul in an attack on the Capital in which several other senators and other planetary leaders are also killed in an attack designed by Palpatine to appear like as though it's orchestrated from the federations enemies. Amidalas two babies being saved by doctors whilst they can't save her, and the federation will descend into chaos.
All through the background Palpatine will have been becoming chummy with Anakin, but it wouldn't be about the nightmares and Padme's death, but rather Anakin just trying to manage his pain and suffering and struggling to contain his anger. He'll set him up against Maul, and back Anakin in a battle that will see Anakin consumed by the weight of his loss and suffering.
He'll lose another arm in the process but will ultimately kill maul with his immense power over the force brought forth by his emotions. In short, he'll lose the bout, but his suffering and stronger potential with the force will see him let loose a power that will see Maul destroyed and a brutally vengeful and hate filled manner.
In effect, what I want in it is the level of hate, suffering and anger communicated so well in that line in Moby Dick about Ahab about how he "piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down."
Thoughts?
I say "when" and not "if" because in my view this is inevitable after this current trilogy is complete. Disney bought the rights for the films for a reported US$4 Billion, and so they're going to squeeze every penny out of it they can. But when this current trilogy is done, will they move forward, or will they go back to the beginning?
My view is they'll go back. They can't touch the original series, as they're rightly considered a master-piece of a trilogy (with the exception of all the Ewok shit in Jedi), but the prequels?? They're the most hated thing in cinema of the past 30 years, and so they're ripe for a bit of retelling.
In my view, whilst this would be a bit cynical of Disney, the fans would all universally welcome it. So how would you go about doing it?
The central pieces obviously would need to stay the same in terms of characters, but the details would all change fairly significantly.
One of my big gripes in films that feature a "hero's turn" to evil, is that the scene just isn't set well enough for it; it's often handled poorly, with the impetus for the character's fall being rushed or not given enough emotional trauma for it to be believable.
A good example of this is the turn of Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight. An otherwise perfect film, this turn was never terribly convincing to me. He got betrayed and lost his "sorta" girlfriend of two weeks and had has face badly burned. For a character that is posed as a man with principles that read like a modern day Jesus, this just feels insufficient... In my view for that to have made sense Dent and Rachel should have sealed the deal and she should have been carrying his kid, and the knock out blow to it all should be him realising that someone in his own family gave Rachel up.
Anyway, I'm getting side tracked, but you get my point: if a character is going to fall from a mighty height of integrity, the suffering the experience to get there has got to be some pretty f**ked up shit. I won't go into all the other detail about the stupid shit with the trade federation etc etc, and only focus on Anakin, but broadly, Anakin's problem was a lot like Harvey's only a crap load worse.
In the prequels he's a whiny brat, and whilst the revenge he exacts in retribution for his mother's death IS a good brick in the wall of his fall, it's just not enough. For it to be relatable and believable that he'd murder a bunch of kids (I mean seriously, that was some messed up shit) then he really needs to have suffered a heck of a lot more and been manipulated a heck of a lot more.
To achieve this, to start with in the prequel remakes they need to have him found by Qui Gon Jinn as a teen at least, and given his poverty he should already have developed some street smarts and had a poorly developed moral compass due to the cut throat nature of his environment.
In short, Qui Gon should find him as a misguided youth with incredible potential a readily apparent basic command of the Force that comes alive when he's in trouble/danger.
Then you could have Qui Gon bring him under his wing and to the council etc etc. They should reject him outright because of his upbringing and violent tendencies, but Qui Gon should show faith in him and help him develop as both a Jedi and as a more moral man.
This should all go fairly well for the first episode until when encounter Darth Maul, who will still kill Qui Gon, and will then cut off one of Anakin's arms as he tries to fight back. Obi Wan will then come in to save Anakin as Maul is closing in on him to finish him off. The difference will be that they both realise they're just no match and so bolt, leaving Maul to be the big bad for the series whilst the Emperor rises in the shadows.
In the following two episodes, we'll see the younger and less capable Obi Wan struggle to provide quite the direction of Qui Gon, and Anakin experience more losses along the way. During Episode two is when his mother should be killed, and nothing about that needs to change, but it should be revealed that Palpatine had a hand it in later (unbeknownst to Anakin of course).
Then of course, he should still get himself involved with Amidala, but it needs to be handled more subtly and they ought to do it all in more secrecy. Then in episode III as she's heavily pregnant with the twins she'll be murdered by Darth Maul in an attack on the Capital in which several other senators and other planetary leaders are also killed in an attack designed by Palpatine to appear like as though it's orchestrated from the federations enemies. Amidalas two babies being saved by doctors whilst they can't save her, and the federation will descend into chaos.
All through the background Palpatine will have been becoming chummy with Anakin, but it wouldn't be about the nightmares and Padme's death, but rather Anakin just trying to manage his pain and suffering and struggling to contain his anger. He'll set him up against Maul, and back Anakin in a battle that will see Anakin consumed by the weight of his loss and suffering.
He'll lose another arm in the process but will ultimately kill maul with his immense power over the force brought forth by his emotions. In short, he'll lose the bout, but his suffering and stronger potential with the force will see him let loose a power that will see Maul destroyed and a brutally vengeful and hate filled manner.
In effect, what I want in it is the level of hate, suffering and anger communicated so well in that line in Moby Dick about Ahab about how he "piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down."
Thoughts?
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