ORBzine - Subject: Re: BREAKING NEWS: Lucas trolls Star Wars fanbase! - August 1999

CardSafeNOSPAM@unix.asb.com (Rich Handley) wrote:

> Gerthein, while this is admittedly funny, I'm quite surprised to see
> you taking such a stance.  I consider The Phantom Menace a DAMN good
> film and can't help but wonder what those who bash the film were
> expecting.  It's so much like the other three in tone, acting, and
> content that I'm really at a loss to understand why someone would
> dislike the film.

Of course, as an employee of Lucasfilm, it's not surprising that you would affect this surprise that anoyone would take a negative stance on Lucasfilm. This is like your sad shaking of the head because solo couldn't find anything positive to say about Phantom Menace.

I'm just curious. Are you being paid to promote positive commenta about the Phantom Menace on this newsgroup? Your being at a loss to understand the dislike of this film strikes me as so disingenuous... Haven't you been reading this group over the last three months? All those messages, many long, and detailed, and you bring nothing out of it? You can't think of one reason why anyone would dislike this film?

Could you answer us this question, once and for all...are you being paid to be positive on this newsgroup? Because you are obviously a liar in your being at a loss. No one who has been reading this group, as you have, can truly be at a loss.

gerthein@wxs.nl (...and Gerthein Boersma) wrote:

>>This just rolled off the telex, folks! Shocking news!
>
>>-------------------
>>LOS ANGELES -- The nay-sayers who thought The Phantom Menace was nothing
>>more than a bad joke were vindicated today when George Lucas himself
>>announced that that was, in fact, the whole point. The supposed new
>>installment in the Star Wars saga which was released over three months ago,
>>the writer/director has now revealed, is actually an elaborate hoax on the
>>part of the powerful movie-maker.
>
>>"The Phantom Menace is a phantom movie," Lucas explains, "an in-betweener
>>that I scripted on the back of a napkin while dining in Planet Hollywood
>>just to see if I could get away with it and rile up a few people in the
>>process." Judging from the lukewarm critical reaction and the heated
>>debates that the project has caused on the internet between Star Wars fans
>>and film connaisseurs alike, it appears that the film has succeeded on that
>>level. "Now that it's out of the box office top ten, I thought the time was
>>right to reveal my true intentions."
>
>>Lucasfilm insiders insist that releasing the fake film was in fact part of
>>their much-rumored Star Wars misinformation campaign -- designed to prevent
>>the plot of the real new movie, entitled 'Jedi Defiance' and scheduled for
>>completion early next year, to be exposed beforehand. Says Producer Rick
>>McCallum: "You don't expect us to reveal the plot of a new Star Wars movie
>>to any two-bit geek who has seven bucks and two hours to spend, do you?
>>What do you take us for, morons?".
>
>>But George Lucas suggests he had other motives as well, motives inspired by
>>the very group of people that have complained so vocally about the (lack
>>of) quality of the phantom film: the internet community, usenet in 
>>particular.
>
>>"On these newsgroups there's a practice known as 'trolling'," the filmmaker
>>elaborates, "which I found to be a highly intriguing phenomenon. In short,
>>it's when you say or do something that annoys and aggrevates everyone that
>>sees it. That's what inspired The Phantom Menace -- it's my way of trolling
>>the Star Wars fanbase and indeed the entire movie-going public."
>
>>The internet itself  was a major inspiration on Lucas' faux screenplay. He
>>got the idea for the much-maligned midi-chlorians ('force-particles', so to
>>speak) from on outlandish rumor on gossip-site Ain't-it-cool-news. Says
>>Lucas: "When I saw how disgusted people responded to that story, I *had* to
>>add it in!". He admits to chuckling with glee when he saw how many fans
>>turned around to actually defending the laughable concept after they
>>believed it had become a fait a complis.
>
>>Even more directly inspired by the usenet trolls was the character of
>>Jar-Jar Binks, computer-generated idiot extraordinaire. Lucas: "One
>>particular breed of Internet-troll is known for their loud, obnoxious style
>>of communication, filled with typos and grammatical mistakes. They also
>>usually have simple, silly handles like 'Joblo' or 'Blinki'. I filtered
>>hundreds of their posts through a special computer application to come up
>>with a uniquely annoying brand of character and bingo, Jar-Jar Binks was
>>born." Indeed, Binks is a dead-on Star Wars equivalent of an AOL troll
>>writing in all caps with a slew of syntax errors, their posts punctuated by
>>a string of exclamation-points interspersed with 1's (the original draft of
>>the screenplay actually featured dialogue as such: "WEN YOUSA SINKEEN WESA
>>IN TRABBLE!!!!1!11!!!111").
>
>>TPM's budget of $120 million seems like a lot of money for a joke, but
>>Lucas claims it would have been worth the laugh even if the "bone-headed
>>ticket-buying masses" and all-to-eager merchandisers hadn't reimbursed him
>>ten times over already, "...though now that it's done so well at the
>>box-office, I may actually have to consider releasing this thing on
>>video!". Nevertheless, while shooting the film, the director kept a close
>>eye on the cost, realizing that ultimately, a joke's a joke. "I wanted it
>>to be a believable hoax, of course, but where I could, I cut corners",
>>Lucas explains, which is apparently why the Neimoidian aliens and the Jedi
>>Master Yoda looked so cheap.
>
>>As Lucas gears up for the release of the real Episode 1, which he promises
>>will feauture "No midi-chlorians, no Jar-Jar, no fart-gags and none of this
>>boring-ass taxation nonsense", the question remains: what about the not
>>unconsiderable group of people who truly loved The Phantom Menace? George
>>Lucas lightly shrugs them off, saying : "It just goes to show, some people
>>will swallow any old crap."

[Posted and e-mailed]

Et tu, Wes Hutchings?

>Well, a critical point of view needs to cover all of those aspects. While
>those here rarely have trouble with being critical or voicing a view. They
>rarely manage to actually make a point of any kind.
>Anyone who feels they can make a point then do so. If it has merit then I
>won't be able to refute it will I. Atl least not without sounding like one
>of you.

I don't know what kind of posts you're reading on alt.fan.starwars, but here on RASSM there have been many, many observant critical posts that have made some excellent points. As for myself, I'd like to think my criticism was at least marginally insightful as well -- if you want to read it, check out my replies to the threads 'TPM: "At least better than ROTJ?" Nah.' and 'Summer Movies: What's your pick as best?'.

There are several posts of mine to either thread, but below are just your starting points (on Deja), if you're interested. I look forward to reading any response that doesn't have, as its main points, "you just don't get it" or "your expectations were wrong".

Article 1

Article 2

There have certainly been a lot of ignorant fools that have spouted "TPM sux!" without making actual points. I hope your reading of my posts proves that I'm not one of those.

- Gerthein (-o-)
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g e r t h e i n @ w x s . n l
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