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Hey there.
So what did you think guys? I saw it at the midnight showing last week. Then again the otherday. I have to say I loved it. I can see it had problems, but I just had a great time. Yoda was the star of the show in my opinion.
What do you think?
Despin out.
I allready got into trouble saying this, but I didn't like it.
Personally I think George is loosing his movie magic touch. Especially when it comes to actors.
I went and watched it last Thursday and I thought it was alright, I agree with Despin, Yoda was very good and the audience was cheering and slapping through out the whole fight scene.
The dialogue was painfully bad. Everything was so serious. There was one meeting after another. It was good near the end when they just shut the fcuk up and started kicking arse .
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ May 21, 2002 11:12 AM: Message edited by: Rar ]</font>
It's a ride man. Looks beautiful - the car chase near the start is jawdropping, it looked REAL,get me. true the acting's dry - How does Lucas get such weak performances from a talented cast? - but if you expect deep charactr studies from a starwars film you're a bit lost really.
And Yoda is the star of the film (the audience were all cheering when he starting getting Jedi'd up) But Christopher Lee was the only actor to come away with reputation intact. He's enjoying a bit of a return to spotlight lately - just a shame he can't meet Peter Cushing in the next episode...although with CGI of this quality anything's possible.
It's just sad that the whole thing is literally wall to wall sfx. It made it very clynical and lacked the atmosphere of the middle trilogy. I dont care if most of the dialogue was wooden, the fact is that all the key actors in AOTC were very good when they didn't have to say anything. Particulalrly Hayden Christensen, who really had me after his mother dies and you just know what he's going to do, and what is actually behind that and its consequences. Similarly, when he returns with his mother on the Speed bike.
Don't say Star Wars isnt deep and 'just a bit of fun' because it is actually more than that, but George Lucas hasn't handled it very well in the past 2 films because of a strange obsession with special effects. Whenever you started to feel for the characters in anyway Lucas either wipes to a CGI snail or c3p0 giving some camp joke or wail.
Generally I though it was very poor as a film with some shining moments of greatness and what it could be. Yoda did kick *** but in my opinion the final duels had nothing on even the 3-way fight in the finale of TPM, even if it was intercut with Jake Loydd, accidentally blowing up the Trade Federation control ship.
The only thing this film emphasised was that 'wall to wall' SFX dont equal a good movie, and even the sequences that did work were too clynical to be emotive or have any atmosphere. Lord of the Rings looked so much better, even if a lot was in the dark it was still far more naturalistic (and I'm not talking about the cgi characters themselves).
Finally, I dont think Lucas ever had anything to lose in terms of skill. This is the first Star Wars movie he has directed since A New Hope. Maybe it because I have aged more over the last three years but I found myself enjoying the Phantom Menace, ten times more than AOTC on a pure level.
Hope to see Hayden Christensen do some work with a better script soon, though.
Holy **** !!! Heres a film that sacrificed all for action.....and it was worth it!!!!! [img]smile.gif[/img] [img]biggrin.gif[/img] Who cares if the acting was stale, the dialogue trite and full of exposition, or even if jar jar is still there. Yoda kicking serious @ss made up for all of that. What did tick me off was when they would seemingly stop right in the middle of the action to deliver some cheesy B-movie cliches "I've got a bad feeling about this" or "this is aggressive negotiations"...This film should have been an epic, it should have revolutionised sci-fi....but it didnt and i'm just going to have to live with it.
I think it puts the Star Wars saga back on track. It's a shame the saga is weighted by TPM.
I remember when the original Star Wars came out (it was just called Star Wars then, no chapters since they had no idea it was gonna sell) and people took that too seriously and slagged it off. Let's face it, the acting is reasonably appalling in all the films except for the old school actors.
I think AOTC really helps you understand Darth Vader, and adds so much more emotion at the point where he chucks palpatine down the reactor chute in Jedi (what a dumb place for a reactor chute!), when his son cries out to him ...
Sure Lucas has had some magic in him. American Graffiti was a good movie, so was the original Star Wars (compared to previous Sci-fi films). He worked as a producer for the rest two movies.
I think he should have given the script and direction to some other guy in AotC. Think about a Star Wars movie directed by Jan Kounen or Katherine Bigelow, or written by David Mamet or Quentin Tarantino.
Some fine examples that came into my mind:
Jan Kounen -Mace Windu races toward Jango Fett and strikes Jango down with the other end of his lightsaber. Mace kicks Jango in the stomach about twenty times untill Jangos helmet comes off showing Jangos bloody face. Mace takes a theral grenade and drops on in Jangos helmet and putsa the helmet back on Jangos head. Jango screams and screams as his head explodes with Mace next to him laughing at the huge mix of fire and blood that used to be Jangos head.
Katherine Bigelow -Anakin and Obi-Wan have tracked the assassin to the cafe. Anakin goes for to search her while Obi-Wan orders a drink. POV-We see somebody walking toward Obi-Wan through the whole room pushing people aside as he walks. A weapon is raised infron of the POV pointed toward Obi-Wan. Suddenly Obi-Wan turns around and turns on his lightsaber. He swings it, hitting a halogen lamp at the ceiling and cutting the assasins hand, with the weapon still in it, off. In slow mo we see the halogen lamp waving in the ceiling and the assasin falling to the ground.
David Mamet -
INT. AMIDALAS ROOM
Amidala is packing and Anakin examines her from a distance.
AMIDALA: I see you are looking at me, Ani.
ANAKIN(embarrased): Yes, I'm sorry, it is much fun to see you again after these years.
AMIDALA: Fun to see me? I see myself everyday in the mirror and I can't say I would call it fun. If I'd like to have fun, I just rent a holovid or listen to some music.
ANAKIN: I believe that would be entertainment, if you'd do it yourself it would be called fun.
AMIDALA: Perhaps... So what do you do for fun?
ANAKIN: Think about you. In a private place.
QUENTIN TARANTINO -
INT. AMIDALAS ROOM
A holovid is playing some old 30-year old blaxploitation film. Amidala is looking at it from the bed. Her eyes are hazy, like she just doesn't care. Anakin is sitting next to her smoking some pot.
ANAKIN: I can't ******* believe that ******* Obi-**** -Wan! The ******* guys like my ******* father if I'd ever knew that ******* bastard.
AMIDALA: Relax, just let that **** smooth in your lungs. Let it get to your mind, thing'll clear out.
ANAKIN: I quess you're right, ***** . This here's some nice **** , where'd you snatch it?
AMIDALA: I grow my own **** back at Naboo, what do you think our clothes are made of? ******* Chewie-cotton?
ANAKIN: Man you're wicked ***** , I think we should go for a ******* ride and cap a couple of 'em bad guys at the same.
AMIDALA: Whatever ya say, pumpkin.
Well I had fun, it was well ahead of phantom, with a good start, a dodgy middle and a good ending. Yoda was superb CGI wise and Binks was barely in it.
As for the acting I thought it worked. Natalie had a little more freedom this time, and Christiansen actually impressed me. Ewan Mcgregor has always had a certain charisma for me regardless of his dialogue. Perhaps the most important thing to remember and where I sympthasise most with the actors is that they are acting to nothing. A lot of conversations happen with cgi creatures, so it would take a greater director than lucas
to draw out a jaw dropping performance from the cast.
asfor wall to wall CGI the only CGIthat bugged me was the creature Anakin rides on Naboo (not portman) and "Senator Binks." Just didnt look right. And what do you have to do to become a senator anyway?
But what really dissapointed me about this film is the action figures. I mean theyre way too small!
I totally agree with what Rar said. It lacked humour. The dialogue was **** . The plot, okay.
It was better than Episode 1.
And all I have to say is;
HAR HAR!! JAR JAR BINX YOU **** ! YOU STARTED THE CLONE WARS!!
LoL.
[img]smile.gif[/img]
Mods
I'm back! ah well.... no one noticed i'd gone
Yeh, i went to see it the other day, in my opinion it was very good, yet lucas seems to concentrate too much on the FX and shots and doesn't get a performance out of the actors/actresses. Well at least Ewan Mcgregors (sp?) performance was better than his phantom menace Obi Wan, :-P
oh and there were a few bits of humour, for example, C-3PO's camp outbursts "i'm beside myself" and "this is a bit of a drag" - I was splitting my sides laughing *ahem, not*
although it was kinda funny when he was on the battle droids body
oh.. and PURPLE LIGHTSABERS ROCK
so, anyone got any idea what will happen in the next one, how all the jedi die and how anakin goes to the dark side etc etc.
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ May 23, 2002 04:34 PM: Message edited by: Vlad the Impaler ]</font>
Thinking a little more about it, I see the shadow of Hamlet lingering over Anakin's charachter, although as noted, Lucas is no shakespeare in the storytelling or dialogue stakes.
Also ,on an unrelated but more important note: Roy Keane has kicked off my summer in the worst possible way... [img]mad.gif[/img]
Have not seen it yet - but will go - watched Terminator on the box the other night - I think James Cameron to direct Star Wars - even Timecops, on box as well, with the muscles from Brussels was a better story than the last Star Wars - grafics excepted.