Could the SW film be compressed?

[El Moose Monstero]

I was watching Star Wars with the old man over the past couple of weeks, and he had one resounding criticism which he applied to all of the films. This was that all of them could probably have been compressed into 2 films - I think his main problem for the old trilogy was with all the ewoks, which I think bored him somewhat and he couldn't really see much relevance in all the tribal stuff.

His point seems to become more valid for the prequels, as let's face it, the first one has barely any connection to the others, and wasn't there a GL interview where he said that 60% of the prequel plot was in Ep III?

So my question is, could you compress the 2 trilogies into 2 films? Would too much be lost, what would be cut? Or is the old man simply missing the point, and the extra stuff gives the universe depth in the same manner as Tom Bombadil and all the poetry do for LotR?

[NecronLord]

They'd have to be arduously long films.

[Trooper TK12746]

Compressing it into two films is an exaggeration. Perhaps eliminating the Ewok section of ROTJ and replacing it with something else might work. And TPM can be cut out completely. Although I would miss Darth Maul. but I think five movies would be about all you could cut it down to and still make it interesting and complex.

[Stofsk]

For me, ROTJ slows down considerably when they go trekking through the woods and hanging out with the Ewoks. I just saw it as filler.

For the PT, I just don't see TPM as all that valuable. It has a few memorable scenes, but little else to speak for it. AOTC is much better and serves as a better 'introduction' to the saga IMO.

[Trooper TK12746]

Maybe they could make AotC the first of the PT trilogy, then make a film part way through the Clone Wars, then make RotS.\

Replace the Ewoks with commando action by the Rebels and more of the Space battle. Don't destroy the Executor with a stupid fighter crash. Give the galactic spanning Rebel Alliance a bigger fleet.

[Jaepheth]

Isn't there a flash animation online that's Star Wars in 25 seconds, or something like that?

[Trooper TK12746]

Maybe, but something that short would only make sense if you have seen the Movies before you viewed the animation.

[VT-16]

Maybe they could make AotC the first of the PT trilogy, then make a film part way through the Clone Wars, then make RotS.\

According to alot of people, that´s what SW: CW is.

Don't destroy the Executor with a stupid fighter crash.

It was never destroyed with only a fighter crash. First came the bombardment from the capital ships, then the concentrated fighter-attack when the shields were down, then the accidental A-Wing.

[Sam Or I]

The Prequels could easily have been cut down to 1 film. (I could not stand ATOC, even though it got certian plot points out.) The whole thing could have beendone with one long movie. There is no need, we did not need Maul, we did not need Grevious, Dukoo I would argue could have filled all the roles. The whole "Detective" work in ATOC could have been made into a half-hour. TPM was useless, except for introducing Palps starting rise to power. (Qui-Gon is still my favorite Jedi though!!). Remove the wookie scenes from ROTS, more useless stuff.

For the originals, it most it could be shrunk to 2 films. Many will disagree with this, but remove the Destruction of the orginal death star. Wait until the last film to destroy it. You do not need 2 DS, as cool as they are. I would end the first film when luke abandons Yoda to go save his friends. The Ewoks are faily useless as well.

So my opinion, it would make a kick ass Trilogy. Please do no get me wrong, I love te original Trilogy, and 2 out of the 3 prequels. (Hate AOTC) They are not perfect, but they are fun.

[pskouson]

I guess we have to figure either Lucas was trying to bleed the cash cow and make 6 blockbusters instead of 2, or he thought the stuff in the movies was important to put in there.

If you're asking this question in some kind of objective manner, I guess we'd have to go with Lucas, wouldn't we? I mean it's his story, for crying out loud, not your dad's.

Otherwise, condense it down to however many movies you like.