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Rating: 
Summary: Everybody gets a ride on the Star Wars gravy train
Review: EMPIRE BUILDING is a lightweight shoddy work tracing some of the history behind the making of the Star Wars Trilogy. Pieced together partly from new interviews, the book consists principally of pinches -- uncredited -- from the work of other writers. Even when acknowledging a source for his heavy-duty pilfering, the author usually manages to mispell the name of the magazine in question, suggesting the sort of heavy-duty committment to research that one might expect from a junior high schooler's first term paper. Don't bother with this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating, if somewhat biased, look at Lucasfilm's history
Review: I think Jenkins has a bias against George Lucas, but he does acknowledge Lucas' creative genius. Lucas' downside, according to Jenkins, is his desire to control every aspect of making a film and his general discomfort around other people. Despite this slightly negative undertone, the book appears reasonably well balanced, with a lot of material supplied by current and former Lucas associates, notably Gary Kurtz (producer on both Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back). Overall, the book provides a very good look at how Lucasfilm grew and evolved and how the Star Wars phenomenon affected the people involved in it, Hollywood, and the world at large.
Rating: 
Summary: Terse, packed with information, brilliant!
Review: I'm only halfway through Empire Building. But I could stop reading right now, and already I'd call it the most informative, well-researched meanderings yet laid to print about the the sci fi movie king George Lucas and the incredible cast of characters that made so colorful and lively his professional and personal lives. Good stuff. Not only is it a great biography of Lucas and a history of the making of his films, it can serve as an "Art of War" manual to the young filmmaker searching for inspiration or a new hope. Robert K S
Rating:
Summary: Not bad but a bit tabloid-y.
Review: Never thought I'd read a book like this, but I read the whole thing in a few hours. Jenkins has written an interesting account of the behind-the-scenes wrangling that created what is now the Lucasfilm empire. From the days of "American Graffiti" through to "Jedi," Jenkins paints a picture of Lucas's obsession, and of the trials and tribulations of bringing his vision to life. A little bit like reading a copy of the National Enquirer in some spots, but interesting and informative on the whole. Jenkins seems to have interviewed lots of folks, but none of the "biggies" like Ford, Fisher, Hamill, or Lucas, which gives the book something of a "hearsay" feeling. Worth a read, if you're a diehard fan.
Rating:
Summary: Want to know why Episode 1sucked compard to classic SW?
Review: This book is a great behind the scences look at how Star Wars Trilogy was made. It shows how George Lucas bulit an empire from a film that the stuidos were sure would flop. It describes how Lucas had to fight for every penny and try to keep the studio excs from butchering his film. However behind the scences it also showed how Lawarnce Kasdan, the producer, and the special effects wizards at ILM helped shape and refine Luca's vison. I love Star Wars BUT after reading this book and watching the embarrasment that was Episode 1 I no longer view George Lucas as the god that can do no wrong. I came away feeling cheated after seeing Episode 1. It was a lame movie. The villians were weak, the plot moved so s l o w ly, there was almost no Wars in Star Wars. The best villian Darth Maul gets little screen time and a big five lines. (The imperial officers had more lines in the classics) and Lucas directed this? What went wrong? Did he go senile? The I found this book and the answers to all my questions. The movie Lucas had the least amount of input (Empire Strikes Back) is considered by most the best SW film in terms of charecter delvepoment, humor, plot, etc. He hated how it was shot and kicked Kasdan out and picked a director that was bascialy his puppet, thus the subpar ework filled Return of the Jedi. This book is a great look at how SW affected Lucas, Kasdan, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, and Mark Hamill, and why did the acting in Ep 1 not even make it the level of the previous films? Lucas might be a visonary but as a direcor of actors he is subpar at best and this book will tell you why. Classic SW moments (i won't give it away after all buy the book)Lucas did not even and sometimes reisted thier inclusion into the films. There was no grey side (Fett, jabba, Solo) in Episode One, just black and white, good and evil. Also please in the next SW film give the bad guys more screen time, they had none in ep 1. and those weak droids make stromtroopers seem like snipers. The myth of Star Wars is George Lucas bulit it by himself, but as you will see from the book if it was not for a top fox exuctive, Lawarnce Kasdan, some freaked out 70's band of geek boys obsessed with models and computers, numerous rewrites to inject some humor (real adult humor not Jar *grinding of teeth* Jar Binks, the force would not be with us today.
Rating: 
Summary: Could've been much better.
Review: This book is packed full of entertaining information that is worth reading, but not paying for; so I suggest that if you want to read this book, try borrowing it from a library or friend, read it, return it, and be done w/ it. Gary Jenkins has a reasonably well-developed vocabulary, but there is the whiff of imaturity about his writing as well. This book is heavily opinionated in some respects and this little fact gets obnoxious after awhile. He also tends to get off track; for instance, no one cares about some dude's crumbling marriage (not Lucas') and the book is about the story behind Star Wars, NOT American Graffitti. This book reads more like a biography rather than a book based solely on the production of 3 movies as the title suggests. But it is all kind of worth reading just to learn the interesting story behind the movies--if you don't have to pay for it.
Rating:
Summary: A very interesting work
Review: This book was kind of a guilty pleasure for me. On one hand, I have been a huge Star Wars fan (pretty much since birth) and I couldn't put this book down due to the behind-the-scenes story of the struggle Lucas had to go through to put his grand vision on the screen. All of the adversity and drama that is very well described in this book would make a very good story for a decent fiction writer, but knowing that all of the seedy hollywood politics actually did happen makes the "making of the movie" story almost as powerful as the film itself. The guilty part of the pleasure is that I almost felt like I was betraying George Lucas by reading the book. Jenkins seems to write much of the story from Star Wars/Empire producer Gary Kurtz's point of view. This would not be a problem if Kurtz didn't come off like a bitter ex-producer who got booted from the set for conflicting with Lucas' demands. Many passages allude to Kurtz being the one who saved the production, and since Kurtz did have much input in the book, it looks like Jenkins is trying to downplay Lucas' involvment while trying to over-emphasize his buddy Kurtz's involvement. Even while feeling this, I could not put the book down. A must have for all Star Wars fans.
Rating:
Summary: A very interesting work
Review: This book was kind of a guilty pleasure for me. On one hand, I have been a huge Star Wars fan (pretty much since birth) and I couldn't put this book down due to the behind-the-scenes story of the struggle Lucas had to go through to put his grand vision on the screen. All of the adversity and drama that is very well described in this book would make a very good story for a decent fiction writer, but knowing that all of the seedy hollywood politics actually did happen makes the "making of the movie" story almost as powerful as the film itself. The guilty part of the pleasure is that I almost felt like I was betraying George Lucas by reading the book. Jenkins seems to write much of the story from Star Wars/Empire producer Gary Kurtz's point of view. This would not be a problem if Kurtz didn't come off like a bitter ex-producer who got booted from the set for conflicting with Lucas' demands. Many passages allude to Kurtz being the one who saved the production, and since Kurtz did have much input in the book, it looks like Jenkins is trying to downplay Lucas' involvment while trying to over-emphasize his buddy Kurtz's involvement. Even while feeling this, I could not put the book down. A must have for all Star Wars fans.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put it down.
Review: This is a book that I could not put down for a day! Then a month or so later after I read it, I had to read it again. Must read for anyone at all interested in Star Wars.
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