el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
Originally posted on Nutkinland (edited for Language)
So, hell yeah! Now THAT was a Star Wars movie. . . I hardly know where to begin - so I'll go with the most obviosu thing. Hayden Christiansen who plays Anakin . .I kept cringing waiting for his awful acting and it never came . . .Even the most weird sounding dialogue from the trailers felt a lot more comofrtable and natural in the context of the film and the conversations. In fact, his slightly wooden and yet earnest delivery really helped to convey how sheltered his life has been from a social context. Anyway, the cheesy crap he said wasn't all so different from what a lot of 18 year olds say when they think they are in love. . . At one point I thought that their relationship woul benefit from some Han/Leia-like patter - but then I changed my mind - these are different characters with different experiences.
In the tradition of my viewing os SPider-man, I will lsit my likes and dislikes of the film.
What I Liked:
- Amazingly, Hayden CHristensen as Anakin Skywalker
- The politics get a little more in-depth and sticky and kind of echo some stuff going on in the real world (sacrificing freedom for security).
- Finally getting to see some Jedi in acction - esp. Mace Windu and Yoda (who you can see do a Darth Maul flippy move)
- Christopher Lee was great as Count Dooku
- Obi-Wan got to do some cool stuff and Ewan MacGregor did a great job with him again.
- Jar Jar Binks! I didn't mind him in the first film - but in this one his character is very subtely used for a omniously comic moment when he is manipulated by Palpatine to call for the votes for his emergency powers.
- Corascant and the chance scenes through it were great - A nice quick way to give hte impression of the height of life in the Star Wars universe.
- The movie was really a puzzle piece - I really love how it begins to glue in the story we all know and grew up with in terms of a) Boba Fett's origin, the long-term planing that would be required for the building od something like a death star, the evolution of costumes, armor and ships towards what we saw in Episodes IV thru VI (stormtroopers, star destroyers, imperial guard). Among these is the explanton of who Owen Lars is (I love that "This is my girlfriend, Beru" line)
- Anakin doing something questionable in his reaction to his mother's death and his slaughter of the Tuscan raiders.
- Anakin's loss of the arm - beginning his mechanization - I bet Count Dooku will be his first casualty in EP III and from there Anakin will turn. I can hear Palpatine's laughter now, "If you struck down the one who fought your master and master Yoda to a stand still, think of what you could accomplish. Join me and we will put an end to this conflict!"
- The relationship between Anakin and Obi-wan was well done - and you really get to understand why Obi-Wan felt that he failed as a teacher - he just didn't seem very good at it - and there really seemed to be 10 years of conflict between these characters when the movie opened - like there were already plenty of examples of Anakin not obeying his master and sometimes having bad consequences and sometimes having good ones.
- I just love the Palpatine character - how he manufactured conflict to gain power and his friendly demeanor
- The stuff that kind of make the Jedi look bad: Their short-sightedness about the Sith, their implied complacency and arrogance which leads to their downfall, and something about the scene with the child-jedi made me feel creeped out - like it is some kind of cult or something - esp. in regards to Anakin's prohibition against romantic relationship which helps lead to his downfall (antiquated ideas held on to blidnly can lead to corruption - see Roman Catholic Church).
- Cool Monsters. Remember: Never be an animal handler in the Star Wars universe!
- Lucas learned how to stage a ground battle - the ships and walking tank things and the storm-trooper-like clones were friggin’ awesome!
- Natalie Portman's open-backed dress.
What I Did Not Like
- Most of the scene in the robot factory. It was way too vidoe-gamey for me.
- C-3PO sucked in this film. Except for a cool moment of banter between him and R2 (which is the start of their adversarial relationship) he just *stuck* in there - and his own antics in the droid factory were supposed to be comic relief but instead they were just laughable, His awful puns, and the switching of his head with that of a battle droid and his participation in the arena battle afterward. I cringed every time they showed him.
- I loved R2-D2 as always - but it annoys me that have him doing stuff he never does later (like fly with little jet boosters). I know it could easily be explained that later they did not have the resources to refuel his jets or they were removed at some point or something - but still George needs to keep an eye out for continuity a little more.
- I wish they'd showed more of the Tuskan raiders everyday life for a few moments before Anakin slaughtered them all - just to show them in a less inhuman light and make his killing them all for what they did to his mother that much more powerful. I would like to have seen more of the slaughter as well - but I think the film barely made PG as it was - that would have pushed it to PG-13.
----------------------------------------
But overall, I highly enjoyed it am very psyched for Ep III - and I have confidence now that the six movies will link up nicely when all is said and done.
I'm not sure that this film would not hold much interest for someone who is not already a fan of the movies (and by fan I mean just anyone who liked the previous movies - i don't mean just fanboys) - because it fills in the blanks for questions we had from the "later" films - but honestly that is all it need do for me.
I plan to watch it again soon at a theatre with a digital projector.
So, hell yeah! Now THAT was a Star Wars movie. . . I hardly know where to begin - so I'll go with the most obviosu thing. Hayden Christiansen who plays Anakin . .I kept cringing waiting for his awful acting and it never came . . .Even the most weird sounding dialogue from the trailers felt a lot more comofrtable and natural in the context of the film and the conversations. In fact, his slightly wooden and yet earnest delivery really helped to convey how sheltered his life has been from a social context. Anyway, the cheesy crap he said wasn't all so different from what a lot of 18 year olds say when they think they are in love. . . At one point I thought that their relationship woul benefit from some Han/Leia-like patter - but then I changed my mind - these are different characters with different experiences.
In the tradition of my viewing os SPider-man, I will lsit my likes and dislikes of the film.
What I Liked:
- Amazingly, Hayden CHristensen as Anakin Skywalker
- The politics get a little more in-depth and sticky and kind of echo some stuff going on in the real world (sacrificing freedom for security).
- Finally getting to see some Jedi in acction - esp. Mace Windu and Yoda (who you can see do a Darth Maul flippy move)
- Christopher Lee was great as Count Dooku
- Obi-Wan got to do some cool stuff and Ewan MacGregor did a great job with him again.
- Jar Jar Binks! I didn't mind him in the first film - but in this one his character is very subtely used for a omniously comic moment when he is manipulated by Palpatine to call for the votes for his emergency powers.
- Corascant and the chance scenes through it were great - A nice quick way to give hte impression of the height of life in the Star Wars universe.
- The movie was really a puzzle piece - I really love how it begins to glue in the story we all know and grew up with in terms of a) Boba Fett's origin, the long-term planing that would be required for the building od something like a death star, the evolution of costumes, armor and ships towards what we saw in Episodes IV thru VI (stormtroopers, star destroyers, imperial guard). Among these is the explanton of who Owen Lars is (I love that "This is my girlfriend, Beru" line)
- Anakin doing something questionable in his reaction to his mother's death and his slaughter of the Tuscan raiders.
- Anakin's loss of the arm - beginning his mechanization - I bet Count Dooku will be his first casualty in EP III and from there Anakin will turn. I can hear Palpatine's laughter now, "If you struck down the one who fought your master and master Yoda to a stand still, think of what you could accomplish. Join me and we will put an end to this conflict!"
- The relationship between Anakin and Obi-wan was well done - and you really get to understand why Obi-Wan felt that he failed as a teacher - he just didn't seem very good at it - and there really seemed to be 10 years of conflict between these characters when the movie opened - like there were already plenty of examples of Anakin not obeying his master and sometimes having bad consequences and sometimes having good ones.
- I just love the Palpatine character - how he manufactured conflict to gain power and his friendly demeanor
- The stuff that kind of make the Jedi look bad: Their short-sightedness about the Sith, their implied complacency and arrogance which leads to their downfall, and something about the scene with the child-jedi made me feel creeped out - like it is some kind of cult or something - esp. in regards to Anakin's prohibition against romantic relationship which helps lead to his downfall (antiquated ideas held on to blidnly can lead to corruption - see Roman Catholic Church).
- Cool Monsters. Remember: Never be an animal handler in the Star Wars universe!
- Lucas learned how to stage a ground battle - the ships and walking tank things and the storm-trooper-like clones were friggin’ awesome!
- Natalie Portman's open-backed dress.
What I Did Not Like
- Most of the scene in the robot factory. It was way too vidoe-gamey for me.
- C-3PO sucked in this film. Except for a cool moment of banter between him and R2 (which is the start of their adversarial relationship) he just *stuck* in there - and his own antics in the droid factory were supposed to be comic relief but instead they were just laughable, His awful puns, and the switching of his head with that of a battle droid and his participation in the arena battle afterward. I cringed every time they showed him.
- I loved R2-D2 as always - but it annoys me that have him doing stuff he never does later (like fly with little jet boosters). I know it could easily be explained that later they did not have the resources to refuel his jets or they were removed at some point or something - but still George needs to keep an eye out for continuity a little more.
- I wish they'd showed more of the Tuskan raiders everyday life for a few moments before Anakin slaughtered them all - just to show them in a less inhuman light and make his killing them all for what they did to his mother that much more powerful. I would like to have seen more of the slaughter as well - but I think the film barely made PG as it was - that would have pushed it to PG-13.
----------------------------------------
But overall, I highly enjoyed it am very psyched for Ep III - and I have confidence now that the six movies will link up nicely when all is said and done.
I'm not sure that this film would not hold much interest for someone who is not already a fan of the movies (and by fan I mean just anyone who liked the previous movies - i don't mean just fanboys) - because it fills in the blanks for questions we had from the "later" films - but honestly that is all it need do for me.
I plan to watch it again soon at a theatre with a digital projector.
