George Lucas will, of course, always be remembered for his masterpiece; the Star Wars series, and for good reason; as he hasn't done much else. While American Graffiti was a nice non-Star Wars film for the man, this one; THX-1138 certainly isn't. For a man who made such a big impact on the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genres with Star Wars, you would expect his first foray into those territories to be at least an acceptable film; but this isn't. Plodding along with an astute dullness, it's hard to be left anything but cold by this film. It's obvious that Lucas wanted to throw in as much Sci-Fi as possible into the film, and this has resulted in the movie resembling a mish-mash of science fiction orientated sequences, which comes very much at the expense of the story. The thin plot follows two people, living in the distant future where sex and love in general have been banned, who have found themselves in jail for breaking the laws of the place they live in. They then decide to breakout with the help of some guy they meet in there.
Lucas has seen fit to give the film a style similar to that of Sci-Fi masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey and this style-stealing is somewhat ironic considering that this is the same man that would go on to revitalise the genre six years later with his masterpiece. The people in the film all sport white uniforms and shaved heads and while this enables Lucas to present a regimented vision of the future that compliments the plot and style of the movie, it also means that none of the actors stand out, and since all of them, even the great Robert Duvall and the normally solid Donald Pleasance, find themselves with not a lot to do; it can't be said that this is an actor's movie. The way that the plot meanders and never really allows the audience the plug into it, is the film's major downfall. Unlike Star Wars, which relied on storytelling to be a success; this movie relies more on atmosphere and visuals and while Lucas can do these things, he's far too set on doing them and this kills the movie. The same thing happened with the first two Star Wars prequels. Overall - a major disappointment!
Lucas has seen fit to give the film a style similar to that of Sci-Fi masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey and this style-stealing is somewhat ironic considering that this is the same man that would go on to revitalise the genre six years later with his masterpiece. The people in the film all sport white uniforms and shaved heads and while this enables Lucas to present a regimented vision of the future that compliments the plot and style of the movie, it also means that none of the actors stand out, and since all of them, even the great Robert Duvall and the normally solid Donald Pleasance, find themselves with not a lot to do; it can't be said that this is an actor's movie. The way that the plot meanders and never really allows the audience the plug into it, is the film's major downfall. Unlike Star Wars, which relied on storytelling to be a success; this movie relies more on atmosphere and visuals and while Lucas can do these things, he's far too set on doing them and this kills the movie. The same thing happened with the first two Star Wars prequels. Overall - a major disappointment!