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“The Star Wars Archive. 1999-2005”: The prequels were a failure – but not their design
There are three “Star Wars” trilogies, and the one that George Lucas brought to the cinema between 1999 and 2005 is considered the most unloved. Also because around the turn of the millennium, masks and models disappeared from the cinema and digital effects began to triumph. Special effects were replaced by visual effects that often looked more like paintings – they didn’t look like they were handmade, which at the time seemed carelessly staged, but now, like the spectacles in many VFX films, simply tires viewers out. Today, more and more sci-fi fans want the return of dolls and airplane models, as they last did in the 1980s.
More beautiful than the finished cinema product
Paul Duncin dispels at least the prejudice that the films “The Phantom Menace”, “Attack of the Clones” and “Revenge of the Sith” are soulless due to their CGI monsters and magnificent buildings created by computers in his second “Star Wars” illustrated book. Because one thing hasn’t changed in all the decades that fantastic cinema has enchanted us. The preparatory work for this cinema. Storyboards, spaceship designs and the creation of artificial creatures still require sheets and paper, and here they are even more beautiful than the finished cinematic product. Regardless of the fact that in the “Star Wars” world between 1999 and 2005, a number of models were used in places where one would not have expected it – for example in the skylines of Coruscant.
Behind-the-scenes photos reveal that the group of actors still unconditionally believed in the success of the thing, at least in episode one. Samuel L. “Mace Windu” Jackson loves laser swords, as does Ewan “Obi-Wan” McGregor, but Liam “Qui-Gon Jinn” Neeson already knew on his face that green screens weren’t really his thing. The prequel trilogy wasn’t good – but it was lovingly conceived, and that’s exactly what this coffee table book shows.
A new interview with George Lucas and information about the “Special Editions” from 1997 round off this second “Star Wars Archive”. The “Special Edition” treatment of the classics from 1977-1983 already revealed that digital effects would be a blessing and a curse for the genre.
The Star Wars Archive. 1999–2005
Paul Duncan
Hardcover, half-cloth, 41.1 x 30 cm, 6.88 kg, 600 pages
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150 euros