Too much of everything

Powerful

Absolutely the worst movie.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

When the new re-digitized enhanced versions of the original three Star Wars films (now called Episodes IV-VI) were released in the late 1990's, some fans were outraged about certain elements. While overall, the enhancements did improve on the original, particularly the scenes in space, a few little "changes" made hardcore fans literally scream in protest in theaters. The two biggest annoyances were from the first film: the killing of the agent in employ to Jabba the Hutt in the bar at Los Eisles Spaceport. In the original, Han Solo fires a single shot from a hidden gun and kills the agent. In the enhancement, the agent fires first, then Han fires his gun. Fans who had seen the original more times than going on dates during adolescents complained it diminished Solo's character from being "dangerous" and "unpredictable". Problem no. 2: the inserting of a scene with Jabba Hutt in discussion with Solo outside the Millennium Falcon. I think those two things might be questionable but they didn't really hurt the new enhancements significantly. But if fans were nit-picky about these aspects with the new versions, they didn't know what being unhappy with Star Wars was really about.Most fans would admonish the new films of the series, the prequels, Episodes I-III. Bad characterizations, particularly Jar-Jar Binks, bad writing, silly dialog, and terrible acting plague the more recent films. If these films had been not great but good, I think fans could have lived with that. But these films were for the most part god-awful. The visuals were good, but visuals don't make up for a bad story and really bad screen writing. Although the films made a zillion dollars at the box office, most fans, including myself, were beyond disappointed. The resulting Star Wars product appeared to be what a 12 year old might come up with, not a seasoned filmmaker whose creative control would supposedly make the films incredibly good without the interference of dimwitted studio executives. (See my review of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, where I gave it 2 stars out of 10.) I rated Episode III a mere 5 stars, that would be barely a C- without much entertainment value but still better than Menace. However my minimum for real entertainment value is 7.The present film, called The People vs. George Lucas, is a kind of cinematic hate mail response to Lucas from the fans of Star Wars in the form of a loose format documentary. The film is mainly about how the fans of the original Star Wars films, and a little bit about the 4th Indiana Jones film, felt betrayed by Lucas. The first part demonstrates how the original kids who saw Star Wars in 1977 (before it became Episode IV) and the two sequels energized a cultural phenomenon, now called "fandom". The first generation of kids in the late 1970's and early 1980's did more than simply see the films, they lived and reenacted them. They made their own videos, movies, and plays, even their own props, as well as buying all the merchandise for sale. Much of this documentary shows endless homemade videos and movies inspired by Star Wars, as well as interviews with the most hardcover of fans.These same kids were young adults when the new films were released in the late 1990's and early 2000's and felt betrayed by Lucas. I saw it during its first run at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood, and I remember there were screams of elation when the words "STAR WARS" in its special lettering took over the screen. But there was little to be happy about when by film's end, all of my group were talking about how dumb a film it was and how could Lucas have come up with something so ill-conceived and poorly produced. Some people regard it as Lucas' worst film since he became a high-budget filmmaker, right up there with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. It may be the worst film to gross over $1 billion.Some elements could have made the documentary much better. I didn't want to just hear endless fans talking about their disappointments. There's a few scenes where hardcore fans are tearing up their cherished Star Wars toy collections. Even one group of conspiracy theorists proposed that Lucas was in fact dead, having been killed by corporate executives circa 1990, and a corporate figurehead had taken his place which will do the studio's bidding! I wish the documentary had gone into more details about the releases of the original films and the newer ones, and offered box office and merchandising information. That said, the fans needed to have their say about why they were disappointed in Lucas. It shows that sometimes artistic creations can occasionally have lives of their own outside their creators. Lucas may be the creative head of the Star Wars Franchise, but he doesn't and can't own how fandom will either deify or vilify him for his next Star Wars creations. In a word, Lucas inadvertently created a Frankenstein's monster (the fans) when he made the original Star Wars movies, and now he can't seem to control them.

This failed to capture the psychology of the fandom. It didn't specifically say what they disliked about the prequels just that "raped their childhood" like all the other thousands of online trollers out there. I could give more detail than what this had to offer. George Lucas initially wanted to do a remake of Flash Gordon, an old serial he watched when he was kid, but couldn't get the rights to it. So he set out to make his version obviously. He was inspired by the writings of Joseph Campbell. He was practically ripping off other movies such as The Hidden Fortress, Metroplis, and, oh yes, Flash Gordon. So you see I possess better nerd knowledge than what these losers (no offense) had to offer. This brings nothing new to the table and is just pathetic little rants. I will have to side with another user that reviewed this, go watch Red Letter Media. We will get so many more laughs than this. Hell, I'll even recommend a few others just to give them a bit more recognition. Confused Matthew offers a similar review through the films but doesn't have the crude humor that Red Letter Media has. Belated Media has a video called "What if Episode I Was Good?". And another called Auralnauts does a parody of the prequels where they dub over the character's voices and provide for hilarious interactions that are SO much more interesting than what the characters actually say. Check out any one of those four. They're all worth it if you're a Star Wars fan.

No, this film is not 93 minutes of giving George Lucas the finger. It plays out as a bizarre, but highly entertaining, mash-up of love letter, trial, intervention, and therapy session, culminating in a general feeling of hope.I won't go into details, you're likely either going to really want to see this movie, or you won't. If you loved the original Star Wars trilogy and hated the prequels, you're going to want to see this. If you don't care about the Star Wars movies (and therefore, filmmaking in general) then I can't imagine you'd enjoy this movie.Personally, I really enjoyed the original Star Wars trilogy, and pretty much hated the prequels. However, I don't enjoy Star Wars enough to want to go out and try to make my own fan film, nor did I enjoy watching the bulk of the fan film footage included in TPvsGL. I think these amateur attempts to recreate Star Wars only serve to trivialize and dilute the magic of the original trilogy, in much the same manner as George Lucas' tampering, and subsequent self-destruction of the series. Actually, one of the most interesting things about TPvsGL is that the fans are guilty of most of the "crimes" they accuse Lucas of. It's a very dysfunctional relationship.The interviews make this movie. Almost all of the interviewees are excellent. They're, for the most part, keen, poignant, and funny. Sometimes hilarious. I laughed out loud a few times.A must see for Star Wars fans, of all types.

First of all I am a fan of Star Wars and I think you need to be to appreciate this documentary.It talks about the decisions George made to the Star Wars franchise and for many fans slowly killing it.We get an interesting discussion about the whole franchise and what it means to people and how hurt a lot of people were (including me) when George started to make one unnecessary change after another.It also deals with the disappointment of the prequels and the backlash that those movies got.It also question his intentions and shows just how little he actually cares about the fans and their opinions, and how he is making the original movies more kid friendly.And the part that really made me a little mad was when he basically gave fans the finger concerning the original cuts of Star Wars.It's and interesting story about a filmmaker that wanted to dazzle his audience but ultimately fell to power of greed.And to summarize I will quote a fan from this documentary: If I ever met the man I don't know if I would shake his hand or punch him.