MovieChat Forums > Mike Stoklasa Discussion > Stoklasa was wrong

Stoklasa was wrong

posted 24 days ago by greenvelvet (176)
3 replies | jump to latest

While Stoklasa's prequel reviews are entertaining if you just watch the movies blind, he doesn't really bring any proper film criticism and misses most of the references to other films (see this for a better analysis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mArj6WvqzE )

The Darth Jar Jar theory (based on The Mule) kills a lot of Stoklasa's Star Wars prequel issues and it's surprising he never picked up on any of it when he went into so much detail elsewhere. While Stoklasa's criticisms become more valid for II and III where Lucas moved away from his initial plan, rewatching the prequel reviews they feel excessively mean spirited compared to the other reviews he's done. I don't recall any of the others being so hard on the directors.

I wouldn't be surprised if the reviews were one of the nails in the coffin that led to Lucas selling Star Wars, despite seeming unhappy about it. Stoklasa also pushed for JJ to direct though later insisted he could not have influenced JJ being picked.

In general, Stoklasa seems to prefer movies and shows released when he was young (Gremlins, Ghostbusters, Star Trek TNG) and not older critically acclaimed ones. While he's seen as an expert in Star Trek, he has poor knowledge of TOS and often gets details wrong.

He's also largely to blame for the overload of video essays on youtube, especially movie video essays. Too many people think they are experts because they saw a movie and turned on a camera.

[–] Tam87 (1592) 23 days ago

rewatching the prequel reviews they feel excessively mean spirited compared to the other reviews he's done

That's because for star wars kids of the 70s/80s like Stoklasa, the prequels were a bitter disappointment. They obviously mean more to him than other films, hence the harsher tone.

One interesting thing you will see now is prequel fans who hate the Kathleen Kennedy star wars. I always tell them that they now know how fans of the original trilogy feel. It's the same criticisms.

He's also largely to blame for the overload of video essays on youtube, especially movie video essays

His ones are pretty much the only good ones, though. As a filmmaker, Stoklasa was able to explain, step by step, what went wrong with the prequels, but did it with humour, and they were well scripted and edited: https://youtu.be/dVCxtq8XYkc?feature=shared&t=164

[–] greenvelvet (176) 23 days ago

They were entertaining, yes, but he completely misses what Jar Jar was doing and why Jar Jar continued to show up in the second and third movies despite being unpopular and why Jar Jar was “the key to all of this”. Same for The Phantom Edit guy. They think they know Star Wars better than Lucas even could. There’s so many subtle details in TPM once you know how to look for them, not just Jar Jar but film lore, and I don’t understand why these so-called critics didn’t pick up on any of it despite poring over the films for hours.

[–] Tam87 (1592) 23 days ago

The fact that Lucas removed Jar Jar almost entirely from the two sequels (after being a main character in Episode I) proves that he knew he went too far and couldn't stick to his principles.

As Stoklasa said, Lucas wrote a rushed first draft of a script, filmed it shortly after completing it, and then hoped he could cover up any deficiencies in post production. Any Star Wars fan with a keen interest in film will notice this right away, as important scenes are rushed while sfx scenes take precedence.

The prequels were the middle part of a three way Lucas cluster fuck, preceded by him eradicating the theatrical cuts of the originals and then finally compounded by putting the saga into the hands of the anti-male woke hack Kathleen Kennedy. Lucas lost his touch after the 80s. I don't think he made any good decisions after that.