[MOVIES] Star Wars Episode I: The Pantom Menace 3D 2012

My problem with the prequels wasn't the overall plot. I thought it was well designed personally. I even loved the "So this is how liberty dies" line and think it was incredibly profound.

My problem was the kiddifying of it. The young Anakin was horrible and the whole concept of him being a child was disastrous in my mind. I think it was that single mistake that caused problems for the other two movies. The first one is the one that is brutal and it causes continuity issues and the like that plague the rest of the series and make it hard for hardcore fans to watch. It was also weak that Lucas allowed Star Wars to spend decades creating a sort of mystical/spiritual base for the force and then switch up into the midichlorians thing just so he could say he did.

The other problem is the lack of character development. In the other three movies you saw deep into the characters. In the new 3 there was no real development and all the character moments seemed so force.

 

Swoly, either you don't love your daughters or they did something really really really bad.

 

Not a bad person at all. They are only useful for target practice.

 

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Yup, they are hideous creatures. I've always thought them to be really repulsive. I don't see how some people find them cute or awesome. I would beat one to death if I ran into one.

 

I'd say this is true of the first one...but not of the other 2. Attack of the Clones is no more of a kids movie than the original trilogy...and Revenge of the Sith was darker than all of them except maybe Empire. That movie is hardly kiddified...in fact, there was all sorts of talk about whether you should take your kids to see that one at all given its tone.

The real problem with the prequels...we were adults when we saw them and we were no longer capable of being amazed by special effects the way that A New Hope and Empire was capable of amazing us.

My kids loved all of these movies...prequels and the original trilogy. I'm taking my 7 year old this Friday to see this one in 3D, and it's all he can talk about.

 

All that talk about severely harming or possibly killing Ewoks makes me sad and angry at the same time. A world where Ewoks are targets for hate and violence is not acceptable. Mankind is goin down the hill.

 

I have a view that is similar to yours - I think the over-arcing vision was good....but the execution fumbled things up. Lucas to a T. He was too involved in the productions this time and fails to accept his limitations as a director.

For me, the issues were:

Jar Jar as the new C-3PO type character for kids to love and provide humor. Idea is fine, the execution was awful.

Lucas' obsession with CGI - he's done well pushing technology, but the prequels were half-cartoon, and some of the aliens were even less believable than the original rubber mask types.


The entire trilogy was supposed to darkly mirror the original, but with Skywalker tragicly falling from the ranks of heroes. They screwed this up so badly that Anakin was almost an antagonist the entire time! Did ANYONE like him pre-dark side? Lucas undercut himself so badly here that the trilogy all but flops. It was the entire point! The acting by Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen was reprehensible, with blame to be shared with the casting and the directing. It's tough to get great acting out of a kid, so semi pass there...but Hayden was nothing short of annoying, all we got from him was Anakin as a petulant, whiny brat that you almost cheer when his arm is loped off and later given a lava bath.

It is a shame. And I did like a lot of what they brought to the table (Ewan McGregor, Ian McDiarmid, and Christopher Lee were all great, and the Mace Windu and Darth Maul characters were nice additions). But you just can't salvage a trilogy where your lead antagonist is so irredeemably unlikable. It only partially works as Obi Wan Kenobi's story...which isn't what they really intended.

 

Agree on the aliens being badly done. General Grievous was also a joke. I mean...really? It was like a bad joke about Vader. Just dumb.

But yes, the casting of Anakin was the ultimate downfall, both as the young boy (which was the ultimate mistake in mind) and as the teen. It didn't work with the original trilogy (Obi wan tells luke that his father was already an accomplished pilot when he met him. As a toddler? LOL what a stretch) and it led to the entire first film being about a baby saving the universe. Then the next two films are the young grumpy adolescence. And like you pointed out, there was nothing to like about Anakin. That all the characters are shocked as he turns bad is so bizarre because he was a petulant arrogant prick before he turns.

I really think the film could have worked so much better with the casting roles changed. Sean Bean as Obi Wan and Ewan McGregor as Anakin would have worked out.

In the end though, the script was terrible and it probably handicapped the films more than the actual acting did.

 

Lucas is a freaking idiot. Some of the set/characters/monsters designs in the art of Star Wars are freaking fantastic but Lucas decided to go with the kiddy designs he thinks it's going to make money with the toys.

 

I didn't find Luke all that likeable either. He came off as a whiny dork. Looking back on it...Mark Hammill couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. Of course, I didn't know that as a kid.

Again, I think if we had been adults for both sets of trilogies, we'd see it differently. These were ALWAYS kids movies. Lucas talked about them being space versions of the cowboy movies they showed for kids in the theaters during weekend matinees back in the 50's. We just have an aggrandized view of the original trilogy because we grew up with it. And I say that while also saying Empire is easily my favorite of all 6.

 

The first trilogy had some bad acting in scenes. It also had some fantastic top notch actors.

But even the poorer acting in the originals didn't bother me as much as it has in the sequels.

I know Natalie portman is a great actress now, but she really detracted from certain scenes she was in with her modern speech as she supposed to be playing a princess from a noble family.

I can't remember the exact line but in one scene it was something along the line of "gonna" and stuff that is just sloppy and shows someone without a lot of training or experience.

The ewoks were annoying, and Jar Jar Binks was annoying. I'll give those a wash.

 

Maybe when I'm about 70 years old they will remake all 6. Probably maybe. Maybe not

 

True enough. But I had such a big crush on Luke that I didn't care. When he was being whiny I just wanted to go hug him. I enjoyed arguing with the girls who preferred Han instead. lol....

Anakin was never that likeable and had a huge ego from the beginning. But I think that was the point.

 

I pretended to be Han on the playground in elementary school, because I was certain the girls preferred him. That and the vest. Only Marty McFly was able to pull off a vest so well.

Agreed on Anakin..the point was that he was the kind of person that would become what he became...obsessive...concerned about himself above all. Were he completely altruistic and above reproach his fall would have been unbelievable...and we'd complain about that instead.

 

I disagree. Thinking I was saving Natalie Portman could make me kill everyone on this board all my friends and family no matter how good and altruistic i was.

 

I forgot to mention earlier that i have seen the 3d trailer when i watched HUGO 3d and it was pathetic. It showed right after the Titanic 3d trailer which was really damn good and made Star Wars look like a regular 2d movie.

If anyone has a 3d tv at home, it's basically the quality of going 2d-3d conversion on any HD channel. Garbage.

 

I just disagree. I thought Hammil played the young, bright eyed, naive young farm boy who grows up through the series perfectly. He embodied the hero narrative very well.

I think Hayden failed miserably in his role.

I also echo the person who said that Portman failed. I love her to death as well, but this was probably a bad role for her at the time.

 

I don't think he needed to be altruistic and above reproach. Not at all. But the way he was portrayed was bad. And then ultimately his turn to evil didn't really work either in my mind because it was badly scripted.