Well, after being spoiled by movies like Inception, of course the original Matrix is going to look a bit silly by comparison. :P

I suppose that could also be why Lucas feels like updating Star Wars every year...

I think Lucas forgot that he didn't actually make Starwars.

He made Ep IV, wrote, directed, edited it… but the success of ep V which many feel is the best of the original trilogy he did not screenwrite or direct iirc. But once that made bocoups bux then please refer to my favorite saying: "Nothing sucks like success." This is very well proven by Ep V and what happened to Star Wars after that point. Ewoks, anyone? Ep 1-3 anyone? The re-edits anyone where Han shoots 2nd?

But… remember Lucasfilm and Skywalker Ranch are very responsible for those Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes that came out every week or so. Without that enterprise (excuse the pun) funded by the success of Star Wars films and special effects technologies used in those films and others applied to the TV shows, they might not have been made - or might have been made to the Dr Who level of SFX at the time...

I've read some of his origional ideas for New Hope. It's clear to me that his success has come from having good people around him to help.

Not to say he should get ZERO credit. Just that others should, too. :)

Indeed, but he does have a talent similar to mine, being very decisive and being able to visualize what he wants. It may be wrong and suck at times, which is why you need other people that are good like when he hired Ralph McQuarrie et al., but in those days many of these people were hardly HUGE names. He had to have a vision these people fit that he wanted to spend money on (some were pricier than college interns and totally unheard of people, although of course his stars were unheard of people).

And of course he did edit, and you must agree that crappy editing could kill a film like Star Wars, making it cheesy in a hurry. It was edited well, especially considering there were cheesier scenes that never made it in, and stupid ideas that never got filmed, and I guess some self-indulgent eye candy he couldn't show that would've made it awesome and talked about even more, but quite impossible for its time, so that point is moot.

All in all, he had vision and did make a fantasy that people MISTOOK for science fiction for that entire decade. It's probably also a great shot in the arm to Henson studios as well come Ep V too, and of course so many people know "Use the Force," and "Dark side" and lightsabers these days despite the original film being 34 years old now... We're about to begin a 3rd generation of humans starting to be exposed to this genre. It's basically the American mythological equivalent of Lord of the Rings, and very likely more popular... especially more commercialized.

George's life splintered as most successful people's have, and only too late did he realize to put more attention on family (no, pulling back on responsibility on Ep V wasn't enough in the least - not for decades iirc). So he has mansions, ranches, wealth, but a broken home - and just now a bit better tie with family, children actually just not starting to like Star Wars, having been perhaps more liking Star Trek because of when they grew up and television. Lucas likes the shows a lot, too as was revealed in interview during Trek Nation.

I would be excited at a chance to meet the man, but reading his unauthorized biography was sufficient, and seeing many of the various documentaries about the films and interviews with him has helped calm the fanboy in me. I may have Jedi robes and a lightsaber, but that's as far as it goes. I've played various Star Wars games over the years and bought various toys Kenner et al., not to mention own the full blu-ray set and have paid to see the films in movie theatres 100+ times grand total screenings approx. So, he's gotten a fair amount of royalty cash from me personally. That's plenty of fan tribute, I'd say.

Ya don't have to be a jedi to appreciate a good robe.

Define "Old"

Generally I would define it as anything pre-1975 but in this case I am referring to a style of moviemaking / storytelling that's no longer used. The Matrix 'style' is no longer used.

The Matrix movies had a "Style"?

Damn it Arath now I have to watch Commando.

Good job on the running, I should really start doing that.

I can summarize commando in this single youtube clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inTRblYTevk

Extra credit though:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd1kzNBt4f4

Where are you actually going to do this running? I find the idea of running around on the street or in a gym in front of people quite unappealing

I've a treadmill, actually. :)

I should get me one of those, make Valindil run on it all day

This journal isn't appropriate for me to give you dragon hugs! >.=.>

But the Matrix is awesome ^.=.^

I once saw somewhere someone had re-edited the sequels together so they weren't terrible. I should try to find that. The first one was super-awesome though, yeah.