Buzz Bumble
Furry Ewok
From the weekly opinion column in the New Zealand Herald newspaper (7 December, 2015) ...
From the weekly opinion column in the New Zealand Herald newspaper last week (7 December, 2015) ...
Genius Lucas deserves none of the whinger's crap
So you didn't like the prequels? Without a creator there'd be no Star Wars at all.
A new Star Wars movie comes out next week and I couldn't be more excited. The trailers look amazing. A return to the look and feel of Star Wars we loved as kids. Director JJ Abrams is a great choice of director. His rebooting of Star Trek was bloody good, as was Super 8 and Mission Impossible 3.
The Force Awakens is set 30 years after Reurn of the Jedi, meaning old Luke, Han and Leia are back. Mark Hammil, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher now appropriately massively old. My best mate Spooge and I have booked three sessions already. A midnighter, the next day and a weekend one for our families. Bloody exciting!
The one downside to the release is the abuse being handed out to original Star Wars creator and director George Lucas.
Internet whingers and smug critics unhappy with the prequels crap on Lucas relentlessly, forgetting that he created the whole thing. The Star Wars universe would not exist if it wasn't for the great vision and perseverance of the man.
He could burn down my house and I would forgive him because he made Star Wars. He could steal my car, eat my dog and defecate in my lounge and I'd still shake his hand and say "thanks George, you rule."
Yet people say idiotic things like "George Lucas raped my childhood." Simply because they don't like Jar Jar Binks. Don't watch the prequels if you don't like them. No one has a gun to your head. The originals still exist, watch those, you muppets.
George Lucas changed the world with his crazy space opera vision. Throughout the making of Star Wars: A New Hope, actors, friends, crew and the film studio laughed at him.
Having spent our whole lives with Star Wars it's hard to comprehend how unlikely it was to succeed. At the time, most people thought it was going to be a terrible pufnstuf type of kids' film. A crappy space Wizard of Oz. Saving a space princess from the hands of an evil black-capped space lord in a massive space castle. The journey to a farm of a super camp golden robot and a big whistling can. A smuggler, his monkey and their beat-up flat nonsymmetrical space plate.
But George had a vision. He had to create a whole effects company, ILM, to bring that vision to film. Nothing like it existed in Hollywood.
Credit is given to Raplh McQuarrie for the amazing look of the movie but he gives the credit to George. It was Lucas' designs drawn in biro sketch that McQuarrie rendered into the TIW fighters and X-wings we all love. George worked so hard against grumpy British crews, skeptical actors and brutal elements that it literally hospitalised him.
What have the internet haters and film reviewers done with their lives?
I feel bad for Lucas. In a recent interview with the New York Times he said, "Why would I make any more when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?" That's the thanks he gets for inventing Star Wars. Sure, he made a bunch of money, but even there he is a good guy, giving most of the $4.2 billion to charity.
I have faith that the new Star Was is going to be great. My young sons, 6 and 8, are equally as excited as me. They have Star Wars posters on their walls just like I did. They play with Star Wars toys just like I did (of course theirs are much cooler). It's an amazing, cross-generational universe.
We go on another amazing Star Wars adventure next week. A lot of credit can go to new director JJ Abrams, but so much more should go to the man who invented the whole shebang, George "The Genius" Lucas.
- Matt Heath, The Monday Column, The New Zealand Herald (7 December, 2015)
From the weekly opinion column in the New Zealand Herald newspaper last week (7 December, 2015) ...
Genius Lucas deserves none of the whinger's crap
So you didn't like the prequels? Without a creator there'd be no Star Wars at all.
A new Star Wars movie comes out next week and I couldn't be more excited. The trailers look amazing. A return to the look and feel of Star Wars we loved as kids. Director JJ Abrams is a great choice of director. His rebooting of Star Trek was bloody good, as was Super 8 and Mission Impossible 3.
The Force Awakens is set 30 years after Reurn of the Jedi, meaning old Luke, Han and Leia are back. Mark Hammil, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher now appropriately massively old. My best mate Spooge and I have booked three sessions already. A midnighter, the next day and a weekend one for our families. Bloody exciting!
The one downside to the release is the abuse being handed out to original Star Wars creator and director George Lucas.
Intern whingers and smug critics unhappy with the prequels crap on Lucas relentlessly, forgetting that he created the whole thing. The Star Wars universe would not exist if it wasn't for the great vision and perseverance of the man.
He could burn down my house and I would forgive him because he made Star Wars. He could steal my car, eat my dog and defecate in my lounge and I'd still shake his hand and say "thanks George, you rule."
Yet people say idiotic things like "George Lucas raped my childhood." Simply because they don't like Jar Jar Binks. Don't watch the prequels if you don't like them. No one has a gun to your head. The originals still exist, watch those, you muppets.
George Lucas changed the world with his crazy space opera vision. Throughout the making of Star Wars: A New Hope, actors, friends, crew and the film studio laughed at him.
Having spent our whole lives with Star Wars it's hard to comprehend how unlikely it was to succeed. At the time, most people thought it was going to be a terrible pufnstuf type of kids' film. A crappy space Wizard of Oz. Saving a space princess from the hands of an evil black-capped space lord in a massive space castle. The journey to a farm of a super camp golden robot and a big whistling can. A smuggler, his monkey and their beat-up flat nonsymmetrical space plate.
But George had a vision. He had to create a whole effects company, ILM, to bring that vision to film. Nothing like it existed in Hollywood.
Credit is given to Raplh McQuarrie for the amazing look of the movie but he gives the credit to George. It was Lucas' designs drawn in biro sketch that McQuarrie rendered into the TIW fighters and X-wings we all love. George worked so hard against grumpy British crews, skeptical actors and brutal elements that it literally hospitalised him.
What have the internet haters and film reviewers done with their lives?
I feel bad for Lucas. In a recent interview with the New York Times he said, "Why would I make any more when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?" That's the thanks he gets for inventing Star Wars. Sure, he made a bunch of money, but even there he is a good guy, giving most of the $4.2 billion to charity.
I have faith that the new Star Was is going to be great. My young sons, 6 and 8, are equally as excited as me. They have Star Wars posters on their walls just like I did. They play with Star Wars toys just like I did (of course theirs are much cooler). It's an amazing, cross-generational universe.
We go on another amazing Star Wars adventure next week. A lot of credit can go to new director JJ Abrams, but so much more should go to the man who invented the whole shebang, George "The Genius" Lucas.
- Matt Heath, The Monday Column, The New Zealand Herald (7 December, 2015)