Nope.... him lifting Luke's entire x-wing out of the swamp was more impressive than CGI lightsaber Yoda.
It's a wonder some of you are Star Wars fans when you seem to hate on everything but IV and V. The prequels are enjoyable and got better with each one. Hayden Christensen I think did fine with the material he had. Not his fault he got stuck with crappy dialogue and a director he was too focused on the cgi. I think if he had been cast from the beginning in Phantom Menace, it would have made the love story sublot work better and give him more time to get comfortable in his role. That's something you can clearly see with Ewan McGregor and to an extent Natalie Portman. The story isn't perfect (far from it in Menace), humor is too childish at times, acting is all over the place, cgi makes things a bit too sterile, etc, etc. But honestly I don't give a damn. The original trilogy has flaws too. A New Hope is a bit slow and ROtJ has ewoks beating elite stormtroopers. But the franchise succeeds at being escapist fun. In any case, I'm liking everything I've seen from Abrams so far and Disney is definitely protective of the brand. It's possible Force Awakens may not match the hype but I think it's a sure bet to be solid.
I remember the collective "ohh... ahh...!" in the theaters when Yoda pulled out his lightsaber and jumped around like a monkey. Then there were scattered awkward applause after the fight was done. I wanted to clap, but no one in close proximity was doing it. I thought it was awesome, but I was a coward.
Well I didn't hate on all except those 2, but I was the one who talked bad about Christensen's acting. And I stick by that. He's bad. Ewan McGregor was given terrible dialogue and bad director and all that, but he did as good a job as anyone could have possibly done*. Natalie Portman did good until her character just started worrying and crying 24/7, at which point no one could have done much. Ian McDiarmid did very well. Samuel L Jackson arguably mailed it in and just played Serious Samuel L Jackson The Jedi, but whatev that's ok. Christensen did the best he could. But his best wasn't all that great. In the grand scheme of things though, eh. It definitely didn't ruin the movies for me. I am still a big Star Wars fan, who has probably devoted far too much time and money towards the franchise. I just think Lucas was too heavy-handed in the prequels, when he probably should have got more help on the writing and casting... and probably many other things. * In fact, I dream of a one-off Obi-Wan centered film starring McGregor. Seeing what Obi-Wan did directly after Episode 3 would be awesome IMO. As for the Yoda fight... for some reason I really liked it in AotC, but not so much in RotS. Probably because to a 15 year old that was really cool.
The prequels had their moments, I for one really enjoyed The Phantom Menace and Revenge of the Sith and I think the vitriol is unwarranted. Didn't enjoy Attack of the Clones at all. While I thought most of the light saber duels were a little too "flippy", the fight at the end of the Phantom Menace was one of the best fight scenes I've ever seen. Unfortunately it was punctuated by a ridiculous ending. I enjoyed the Pod Race, I enjoyed seeing the Republic in it's prime, and I loved seeing Anakin's transition. But Anakin's acting was bad in all 3 movies, most of the dialogue was pretty mediocre (cringe worthy at times), and Lucas seemed too interested in explaining the events that led up to the emperor seizing powers, which resulted in some very thin characters with little personality.
My only problem with Jedi was, like most others, the ewoks. I've always thought if they were wookies instead of ewoks, it would have been right up there with IV and V. I thought the Luke/Vader duel while the Emperor watched was pretty compelling and a great way to end the saga. Also loved the opening scene when Vader visits the Death Star and tells the commander that the Emperor is coming. "We shall double our efforts..." Jedi - ewoks + wookies = great film
Agreed. The Ewoks were the only issue with Jedi. The prequels were just an outright abomination and I don't even hold to most people's opinion that Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan is a worthwhile takeaway. As far as my view on the Stars Wars mythology goes, the prequels don't even exist. They are akin to all of the Lonesome Dove tv stuff that came out after the successful Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall version. I'll never rewatch them, don't care about any of the "redeeming moments" and I even thought Revenge of the Sith was weaksauce as well. Every single "big" aspect of the prequels was awful.
Speaking of terrible choices in the prequels...THIS revised new trailer made me laugh.... <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yo7_qW4pPrc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Let's be honest here. I don't think there is an actor in existence that could have saved the dialogue in the script.
I already have tickets for the first weekend. A single ticket on Friday morning for myself, and tickets to a Sunday showing for all of us at our local Drafthouse. Can't wait!
Maybe if they'd added the dialogue, "So, Dooku, see you can....short I am, but as big as yours, my Schwarz is...."
Sure, the prequels weren't the worst movies ever.... there was some good in them... but pretty much everybody universally agrees that it did not live up to the hype and did somewhat damage the overall brand (which seems to have all been undone with they hype and good vibes from the new movie). On a similar note, ROTJ was not as good as its two predecessors... but there was more good in that than there was in the prequels. Palpatine, the 2nd death star fight (complete with the kamikaze through the super star destroyer), Luke vs. vader part II, Vader unmasked, the Vader cremation/funeral, and Leia in the bikini all outweigh anything in the prequels.
in the first of the prequels when he shoves that light saber into the blast shield and starts melting.... damn it was such a cool moment. I was like DAMN I didn't know you could do that with one of those. I was 8 when the first starwars came out so i'm just hoping they finish with the 9 before I die.
Eh, I don't know. If someone wanted to argue that first two prequels were the worst movies they'd ever seen I wouldn't think that was crazy. They were terribad. The little kid being the hero of the first one and the awkwardness of the fact that he was like 10 years old macking on Natalie Portman...Jar Jar Binks? The Gungans? The droid armies? Midchlorians? Splitting Obi-Wan into two characters (Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon)? It didn't get better as it went on with the horrible Grievous and the pathetic Count Dooku. (Dooku? Really? That's the best he could come up with?) I feel like any amateur film writer could redo the prequels and make them infinitely better. 1) Start the prequels off with Anakin already 16-20 years old 2) Cast someone other than Hayden 3) Darth Maul stays the bad "general" throughout the prequel series instead of getting killed off in the first one 4) There is no General Grievous 5) Actually give the actors some directing Boom, already better.
