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Review: Star Wars Episode II, Attack of the Clones
Much of the cast from Menace is back. Unfortunately none of the major actors manage to pull of a standout performance. Anakin is little improved from menace. I know he's supposed to be full of anger and angst, but mostly he just comes off as constipated and bitchy. Amidala seems to be taking a bit of a nap. Their romantic scenes together are the Jar Jar binks scenes of this movie: It just pauses the action, and the acting is so bad that the movie stalls until something interesting happened.
The rest of the cast is much better. Ewan McGregor has finally grabbed onto the role of Obi Wan. He's a bit preachy, but it works. Samuel L Jackson is the badass Jedi we want him to be. Senator Palpatine is pretty much the same guy as last time around. And Dooku, the flick's major bad guy is pretty excellent too. Its nice having villians with faces since they actually get to act a bit. The Fett family felt a little forced, but it was interesting.
Most notable this time around is the CGI characters. Episode I of course had Jar Jar, Watto, and many other CG chars, but Menace is literally crammed full of them. And the technology and animators have improved substantially since the last showing. No longer do they stick out like sore thumbs- now they merely stick out like a thumb with a little bit of a sliver. Yoda is of course the most important of the CG chars- everyone probably remembers the horrible animation on his one CG scene in Menance, but in Clones he is CG all the way. This is a huge deal since unlike most of the CG chars we've seen so far, this one works almost perfectly. There are a couple of shots where it doesn't seem quite right... but those are the exception, and not the rule.
What I'm saying is that CG characters have finally come into their own. In Menace, all I could think about is the fact that they were CG. The fact that they didn't looke quite right. This time around they are just part of the show. Another cast member delivering mediocre dialog. Ironically enough, several of the CG chars outshine their human counterparts.
The movie as a whole looks great. Many of the costumes look a lot more like Star Wars. From the clone army, to Amidala wearing a white costume for the last act, things just look like I would expect them to. We get to see some sets familiar from A New Hope as well as Menace, and that all really contributes to making the movie feel like a Star Wars flick. It also helps that the CG has continued to improve.
I'd also like to note that I didn't get to see it on the digital screen. I plan on seeing it digital in the next week or 2... I figured I'd see it at the local theater and make sure it didn't suck before I bothered driving to Southfield to see it in full digital splendor.
The rest of the review will focus a little more on plot. You've been warned. The story is of course largely a love story. There has been a threat on Amidala's life, and her old friends Anakin and Obi-Wan have been assigned by the Jedi Council to protect her. Investigating the asassination attempt leads Obi-Wan to a far away planet where he discovered a clone army being constructed, and a conspiracy to suppress information about it. Anakin and Amidala spend time together and get closer through a series of awkward pseudo romantic scenes where they both look like they would rather have been in different movies. Their utter lack of chemistry is almost amusing.
Obi-Wan gets into some smack, and so Anakin and Amidala go to rescue him, only to end up compounding the level of smack around for the good guys. Meanwhile the Senate does its thing and a major shift in power occurs. We learn who is responsible for the clone army, and what the plan for it is.
The last hour of Clones is the Payoff. A battle worthy of the original trilogy. I'm not going to go into it becuase that might spoil it, but let make the following points. First, we finally have enough light saber action. The massive jedi fight that we all knew these prequels could offer us. And my god was it ever worth the wait. But we also have Mace Windu kicking ass, and at long last, Yoda gets his chance to prove why he is so highly regarded.
The parallels to other movies in the SW Series, especially Empire Strikes Back are many. I'm avoiding mentioning them here, but I will say that the film tries to end on a dark note which is cool.
The packed theater that I saw this really seemed to feel the same way as me. A few awkward laughs during the romance scenes- even snickers during the sound-of-music picnic sequence. But when the final battles came around there were cheers around.
And that really sums it up. It took 3.5 hours of prequel film to get us to the payoff. For some it might not have been worth the wait... but for me, I'm just happy to finally to see most of what was promised delievered. And I'm reinvigorated towards Star Wars. If Episode III can pick up where II left off, III should finally be the Star Wars Prequel that we've been waiting for.
I thought the worst part was the kiss between Jar Jar and Yoda. I just about hurled.
Sorry, it was utter tripe. I really can't believe I spent 8 bucks to see this movie. It really was as poor as Episode 1, I'm sticking with Ebert on this one, 2 out of 4 stars at best.
I'll try not to lone gunman the thing, but you've been warned.
Had ChrisD written the article, he would have just come right out and made the headline, "Luke's dad, a.k.a. Darth Vader, kills the Emperor, then some Ewoks dance around"
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Mod up a post Rob doesn't like and you'll never mod again
Lucas is just trying to cash in on the old stuff. but he's lost it. The "new" Star Wars is... well it just isn't!
The whole dance routine with MJ singing "Annie are you OK" (aka Smooth Sith Lord").
I almost wretched right there in the theater!
Aqui
escrita por un mexicano en USA, muy buena
Kilroy was here!
Boba Fett's father is...YODA!! Yup it's true, Boba's real name is "Yoda Fett", but to keep his lineage a secret he changed his first name slightly to "Boba". That's why he always has that mask on! Short green dudes with hair growing out their ears never get the hot chicks.
ow :-( now ill never know how the clones relate to 9 11 :-(
Is this Trainspotting II: Attack of the Junkies?
"What is the sound of one belly slapping?"
Did anyone else notice the "foreshadowing" that occured when Anakin was on Tatooine :)
Just kidding with the subject line -- overall, I thought it was better than the first one, but there was simply too much CGI. It didn't even look convincing when there was just two people sitting in a room, talking (which happened a lot during the first hour and a half!). There's still a lot to be said for conventional filmmaking, George...
And Artoo can fly? Since when? That would have probably helped Luke out in the swamp...
~jeff
Probably not, but we're going to take you through the movie anyway. Grab a bucket of popcorn and prepare yourself for the movie review of Star Wars: Episode II - The Attack of the Clones.
So the movie starts off with the requisite main score while the oddly skewed yellow text brings us up to speed on the goings-on in the galaxy. Something about unrest in the Senate, a separatist movement led by a "Count Dookie", Amidala being a Senator herself, yada yada yada. The main message is that the forced-perspective text looked lame as fuck in 1977, and seems downright abysmal 25 years later. One would think that with all the billions Lucas has made on the previous films he could afford a decent title sequence.
True to a movie made for kids and dysfunctional adults, we then jump right into the action. Senator Amidala is getting off her liqui-chrome spaceship on Coruscant when... kaboom! ...she blows up. Omigod, is she dead?!? Of course not, it was her stand in (you
remember her from Episode I, right?). This scene provides a great opportunity
for Natalie Portman to get all weepy
over her dead assistant and show us that Amidala
even cares for the little people. What an angel.
After that we see Yoda, Samuel "Mace Windu" Jackson and some freaky looking alien Jedi talking to Darth Sidious. Er, um, I mean Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, who of course is in no way connected to Mr. Sidious. I mean, he's obviously a good guy, right? Yeah, sure. If you paid any attention to Episodes IV-VI you already know who he is. Also, those subtle facial expressions and tones of voice suggesting devious intentions sure do lend an air of, shall we say, insidiousness, to him.
So do the Master Jedi Knights pick up on Palpatine's two-faced treachery? No. The eight year-old kids at the theater see it plain as day, but to the leaders of the Jedi Council, people who have undergone the most stringent of training for detecting such duplicity, people who have freakin' powers of mind control and are sitting right across the desk from this guy, to them Palpatine seems A-OK.
Anyway, the whole point of this scene is to set up Obi-Wan "Ewen McGregor looks goofy in a beard" Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker as Amidala's bodyguards since it seems like somebody is trying to kill her. Of course it is Palpatine who suggests this. My goodness, what sort of deviltry is he up to? We also briefly see Jar-Jar Binks stroll by in the background. No lines for him in this scene, though.
Prior to Amidala getting hooked up with her Jedi, we get to meet the two of them alone in an elevator. Anakin is now a moody teen and his pining for Natalie Portman's firm buttox is quite apparent. When the elevator door opens they are greeted by Jar-Jar and... he speaks! Nothing like a little racist, neo-Jamaican patois to tickle the funny bone.
Once the whole gang is reunited all the complex character development gets dumped, wholesale, in about 45 seconds of screen time. Obi-Wan is the wise yet caring teacher, Anakin is straining under the throes of pubescent hormonal lust and good old rebellion, while Amidala is distant yet maternal in her care for Anakin. Jar-Jar appears to be little more than house nigger.
The next scenes begin to suggest why Lucas chose Attack of the Clones as title for this movie. All of the visual imagery was stolen from other people's films. The super-dense high rise cityscape, complete with moody nighttime lighting through half-open blinds, is equal parts Blade Runner and The Fifth Elephant to such an obvious degree that it is painful. We get to zoom about this impossibly crowded aerial metropolis at high speeds in a futuristic flying car chase. It's all Luc Besson at this point, including people falling from building to vehicle. You could swap Hayden Christensen (Anakin) with Bruce Willis at any point and the transition would be seamless (admittedly, replacing McGregor with Milla Jovovich might be noticed).
During this chase Anakin and Obi-Wan banter amusingly and offer flip one-liners. It almost works, but not quite. After the necessary crash to end the pursuit we swing fully into Ridley Scott's corner with teeming ground-level streets and a seedy bar full of oddly dressed people.
There's some sort of plot development going on through all this, but it's not very important. What is important is that this movie tries very hard to drop little nuggets of joy for the aging Star Wars fan base. The first one occurs outside the aforementioned bar when a bounty hunter who looks an awful lot like the Boba Fett of Episodes IV-VI kills somebody and then zooms off with his nifty jet pack. It is at this point where the first real signs of plot strain begin to show.
Now for some reason Obi-Wan is going to a mysteriously undocumented planet to investigate whatever the hell it is that we're supposed to care about, while Anakin stays behind to give the screenwriter a convenient opportunity to have Amidala reciprocate Anakin's puppy love.
The mystery planet is actually a sterile looking clone factory run by tall, lizard necked folks. Hard to say which movie set is being cloned, since the sterile, white, space-based science facility has been done so many times before. It's probably safe to credit Kubrick with being the biggest victim of theft here. All the clones themselves look vaguely ethnic. Additionally, they are apparently the precursor to Stormtroopers. Basically, at the factory they quickly breed a bunch of brown-skinned people who are literally identical looking, dress them up in white armor, and now they represent a huge, sinister force. What exactly is George Lucas trying to say here?
The lizard-necked scientists are a bit daft and don't realize they are revealing details to the wrong person when they tell Obi-Wan that the clones were ordered 10 years ago by a supposedly long-dead Jedi. They are also oblivious to the error of revealing the presence of a bounty hunter and his cloned "son", named Jango and Boba Fett, respectively, at the station. People in technical professions like genetics and computer science are often socially and politically clueless that way, resulting in atrocities like nuclear weapons and peer-to-peer file sharing.
Jango and Obi-Wan have a tense little meeting where more plot details of some sort are revealed, including the fact that all the clones look just like Jango himself, and then they get into a fight. Neither one of them dies though, so they chase after each other in space ships instead.
Back in the world of sappy love stories, things are progressing quite slowly. Anakin is still behaving like the sort of teen you'd send to military school as punishment. This brings to mind another apparent failing of Jedi University. If they're so great at molding super-competent Jedi, how come they can't raise a teenager who isn't a whiny little brat?
Amidala stays cold and distant to the advances of "Ani", and it's hard to see how they're going to end up getting busy and squirting out two kids. Then, they kiss. Yes, that abruptly. First she couldn't care less, then she's probing for tonsils. Whatever caused her change of heart apparently got left on the editing room floor.
George Lucas seems to be awfully fond of himself, so eventually he starts cloning his own movies. First Anakin has a dream about his mother being in pain, so he disobeys his orders and goes off to help her (Luke, 1:2). Amidala tags along.
Of course helping Mom means dropping another joy nugget for the fans, so it's back to Tatooine yet again. We reminisce with Watto a bit, and then head out to an awfully familiar looking house. Yup, it's the same one where future whiny little Jedi wannabe Luke grows up, and we get to meet the aunt and uncle who will be so trivial in later movies. The plot strains become more noticeable.
But hey, what's the point of time spent on Tatooine of you don't get to see some Tusken Raiders? Seems they've kidnapped Anakin's mother, Shmi, so we get to bust a hang with a whole bunch of them. Hell, even the Jawas pop up for a cameo. Nothing like rehashing old ground when you can't come up with a decent plot device.
Oh yeah, Anakin's Mom dies in his arms just as he rescues her (how convenient), and then he goes bezerk and slaughters all the Tusken Raiders. Apparently this is bad. Even Yoda gets some negative Force vibes from it, and he's way on the other side of the galaxy.
Meanwhile, Obi-Wan's story line isn't doing much better. Lacking anything more exciting to do in a space chase, they fly into an asteroid field. They even venture into an asteroid tunnel. To be fair though, the absolute coolest part of the whole movie happens in this scene. See, Jango Fett has these bomb thingies, and he's hurling them at Obi-Wan's ship. Whenever one of them hits an asteroid and detonates everything goes dead silent for a half second and then a wonderfully flanged and modulated kwaaang! rings out while a pale blue shock wave radiates through space. Hearing that sound is almost worth the price of admission.
Somehow Obi-Wan ends up on a droid factory planet pursuing Jango and Boba and he gets caught by the dread Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus/Saruman the White/Christopher Lee. Count Doofus tells him about some plot involving the Senate and the separatists that is entirely too confusing for this sort of movie. In short, he asks Obi-Wan to join him, and Obi essentially tells him to go fuck himself. Count Doodu responds to the snubbing by amassing a huge army of orcs, er, droids, and leaving Obi-Wan trapped in a tower until he is rescued by a giant owl.
Over on Tatooine, Amidala is revealing herself to be quite the mischievous little minx, and she talks Anakin into going to save Obi-Wan. They arrive at the factory and proceed to battle their way through the exact same sorts of choppy, bashing mechanical bits that so flummoxed Sigourney Weaver in Galaxy Quest. R2-D2 has no problems with them though because he has jet packs. I don't recall him having jet packs before. I imagine they would have been very useful if he had managed to hang onto them for his later adventures.
I wish I could say C3PO did as well as R2, but his head gets lopped off and installed on one of those battle droids, while a battle droid's head gets stuck onto 3PO's ungainly frame. I don't want to ruin the movie, but I must tell you that much hilarity ensues from this manufacturing gaffe. But this movie isn't about droids, it's about clones, so let's get back to those.
The next clone returns us to Ridley Scott territory. Anakin and Amidala get captured, and are joined with Obi-Wan in a gladiator arena (yes, a gladiator arena) where they are forced to fight animals and robots to the death. It is at this point where Natalie Portman's midriff begins to receive significant screen time.
Things go well at first, then our protagonists get into trouble as the robots multiply. All seems lost until Samuel Jackson's bald head strides in, accompanied by a whole bunch of other Jedi. Jedi and robot go at it in great numbers and there's lots of glowing phalluses being wielded about and much carnage. Jango Fett flies on into the fray only to get beheaded by Mace Windu. His young clone Boba seems to find this upsetting, and presumably he'll be holding a grudge for some time over this.
Things go well (again) until our protagonists get into trouble (again) as the robots multiply (again). The next turn in the battle occurs when Yoda comes strafing into the arena with several ships loaded with clones and utters his most absurdly spoken line ever: "Around the survivors a perimeter create!" It made me want to beat Frank Oz to death with a copy of Labyrinth.
As the arena battle winds down and everybody leaves to chase the fleeing Count Dooker we see Boba Fett cradling his progenitor's severed head. Somebody should get the kid some counseling or he's going to have some real issues later on.
After a rolling battle across the plains of... whatever planet they're on ...Doochu gets cornered by Anakin and Obi-Wan. As anybody who's ever seen one of the other Star Wars movies can tell you, it's light saber time.
Anakin attacks. Anakin gets tossed in the corner like a sack of dirty laundry. Obi-wan attacks. Obi-Wan gets beaten down like a filthy Scottish actor. Anakin attacks again, this time in the dark and with two glowing phalluses! He looks a lot like one of those irritating Rave kids waving glowsticks about, but he must've forgotten to take his vitamin E because he gets his hand chopped right off. Yes, his hand. The right one. Just like his future son. Oh, the anachronistic irony! This is profound stuff.
Our protagonists are once again in trouble and all seems lost (again) until... ninja Yoda!
He comes hobbling in on his cane looking a bit feeble, but oh is he pissed. After a short hand gesturing bit of "My Schwartz if bigger than yours" they get down to the wand waving. But Yoda doesn't grab his saber. Nosirree, he telekenesifies it from his belt to his wrinkled green paw. Yoda is one bad mother fucker.
He flips, he spins, he darts through the air like a mosquito on crack. If you watch Iron Monkey on fast forward it still won't come close to the acrobatics of this little gremlin. However, he doesn't win. He's forced to chose between killing Count Doosey and saving the other two Jedi from a falling pillar, and he lets the Count go. Despite his ninja skills, Yoda is a humanitarian at the core. The next shot shows the Count flying away in a ship powered by some sort of solar sail (the "hard science" geeks are going to love that bit).
As the movie draws to a close we see Anakin flexing his new prosthetic hand, just like Luke does in Episode V. It might be chilling if it weren't so contrived. When a screenwriter/director has a decade and a half to come up with a prequel you would expect him to conclude with something a little less obvious. But, that's what you get when you focus on joy nuggets of nostalgia for a pathetic group of emotionally underdeveloped adults.
Of all the 8 and 9 year olds who will be able to see the series as a whole at nearly the same time, without having to accrue 20 years of cynicism, rose-colored retrospection and inflated expectations between viewing the older and newer trilogies. My feelings regarding the movies have been tempered and altered so severely by time that to expect "as good or better than ESB" (a common refrain in fandom) is simply ridiculous, due to the one thing Lucas cannot possibly do: make me an 9-year old again.
Lucas hasn't exactly redeemed himself this time around
I dunno about you but that just ruined it for me. I was going into AOTC totally blind and hoping for the best, now you've squashed it. Thanks slashshit!
A well written article that tackles the specifics of the movie, minus rants about open source. Thanks for the review. I don't care about spoilers, so anyone who has seen it please provide more detailed critique of the movie.
CORUSCANT -- Presiding over a memorial service commemorating the victims of the attack on the Death Star, the Emperor declared that while recent victories over the Rebel Alliance were "encouraging, the War on Terror is not over yet."
"We will continue to fight these terrorists, and the rogue governments who harbor them, until the universe is safe, once and for all, and the security of the Neo-New Cosmik Order ensured."
It was one year ago today that the Death Star, perhaps the greatest symbol of the Empire's might, was destroyed in an attack by fanatic Rebels, who used small, single-person crafts to infiltrate seemingly impenetrable defenses. Thousands of mourners were on hand to remember and pay tribute to the victims and their families.
"We lost our innocence that day," reflected one mourner. "I guess we thought we were immune from the kind of violence that happens in other galaxies. We were wrong."
"I lost hundreds of buddies that day," said one teary-eyed Stormtrooper. "Guys whose only crime was trying make the Universe a safer place."
Although the day was colored by sadness, the mourners found some relief in the news of a decisive victory over the Rebels.
In an attack led by Darth Vader, Empire forces were able to rout hundreds of Rebels from a network of caves underneath the surface of the planet Hoth. "We're not sure we got them all," says a Vader spokesman. "There are a lot of places to hide in those caves. But we've delivered powerful blow to the terrorist's infrastructure, that's for sure. Today, the Empire has struck back."
Initial reports are unclear as to the fate of Luke Skywalker, a hero among the Rebels, who is rumored to have delivered the fatal blow to the Death Star. Skywalker, a former desert-dweller from the planet Tattooine, became a part of the Rebellion after family members were killed. Skywalker was trained by a militant wing of the Rebels, known as "Jedi Knights." Fanatical in their religious beliefs, the Jedi Knights claim to derive their power from the mystical "Force."
It's believed that Skywalker was specifically trained by infamous terrorist O bin Wankanobi. Wankanobi, occasionally called "Ben" and easily recognized by his bearded visage and long, flowing robes, achieved near-martyr status among the Rebels after his death last year during a spy mission. His more fervent followers believe that Wankanobi lives on within them today, some even claiming to hear his voice during times of duress.
The attack on the Death Star came shortly after the Empire's destruction of Alderstaan, a planet whose government was known to harbor terrorists. Responding to criticism over the total annihilation of the planet, Vader stated, "There is no middle ground in the War on Terror. Those who harbor terrorists are terrorists themselves. Alderaan was issued ample warning. The fight for continuing Freedom is often burdened by terrible cost."
The cost of this war can still be seen today in the continuing efforts to build a coalition government on Tattooine. Longstanding animosities among the planets various ethnic groups, including the Jawas, Tusken Raiders and scattered human settlers, have been an impediment to the peace process. The Empire continues to maintain a small peace keeping force until a provisional government is finally in place.
Much of the difficulty in fighting the Rebel forces stems from their lack of a central organizing structure. "They don't play by the traditional rules of war," complained one spokesman. "They come in all shapes and sizes, united only by their single-minded desire to destroy the Empire before it destroys them."
The Emperor closed his comments today by stating that "the cowardly attack on the Death Star left a deep scar on the Empire. However, we will not stop fighting until every last evildoer has been brought to justice." He paused for several moments, wiping away a tear and then added with determination, "We will never forget."
"I wish we could all just get along," said one of the mourners. "But it's hard to offer an olive branch to a cult of religious fanatics whose main tool is violence and who insist on calling us the Dark Side."
Kilroy was here!
Ironically enough, several of the CG chars outshine their human counterparts.
Now the CG actors will demand higher pay and representino in Screen Actors Guild.
I am the evil aardvark!
But I'm going to. I just want to see the lightsaber fights. I mean really, isn't that what everyone really wanted out of the originals?
"Come on Luke, whip out that saber and put the smack down on someone."
I'll go see this one and I'll gladly pay $8.00 as long as the lightsabre fights rock.
Abiit, excessit, evasit, erupit.
So confession time, I still don't think Phantom Menace was that bad. If you mentally filter out every sequence that Jar Jar is on the scene, and maybe the midochlorians, and trim that Pod Race scene down, there's a good movie in there. Not great. Just not sucksville.
If the first movie hadn't sucked so bad, it wouldn't have sucked? Wow.
I just got home from watching it and I must say it really is quite good. One problem that Ihad though is that a lot of the minor characters ("uncle" owen, his father, amidalas security chief etc) are Australian tv actors, and it is a bit distracting. amidalas security chief specifically has been in an Australian childrens program called Play School so i kept imagining him singing the wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round....
otherwise,great
The Borg assimilated my race & all I got was this lousy T-shirt
Unbelivable crap.
In what scene in Menace was Yoda CG?
Does anybody know where I can find a list of digital theatres presenting the film?
The originals were full of those moments that stick in your mind forever. Name one from the new shite. George Lukas would have been better off to hand off the whole thing to someone else and then rubber stamp it. That way we wouldn't have to wade through a one man lake of mediocrity, looking for the good bits. Spoiler. There weren't any.
Is it better than Spider-Man?
Spider-Man rocked so hard that I'm having a hard time imagining that Ep. 2 will be the better movie.
Thus far, it's gotten very different reviews.
Roger Ebert ripped it a new asshole, saying that the characters talk "more like lawyers than the heroes of a romantic fantasy."
Other reviews, however, were very positive (FilmThreat.com had a cool review here and here.
If you've got the time, look at the smorgasbord of reviews on www.mrqe.com.
Go ahead mod this as flaimbait. It is. So just do it. It's not like I have any karma anyway.
What the hell was wrong with Jar Jar anyway? I liked him. I thought he was hilarious. And that begs me to ask, was it just Jar Jar that ruined Menace for you morons, or what? I thought Menace rocked, and I am sure Clones will too.
Anyone who hates these movies so much should just not go see them or buy the DVD's. I, on the other hand, will see all SW flicks and buy them all as well.
Maybe it's greed or maybe it's really rusty writing skills, but it looks like Lucas is doing a better job of dis-enfranchising fans than any other competitor ever could have.
Really is a pity.
I've heard that Episode I becomes a much better movie if you see Episode II.
If Episode III can pick up where II left off, III should finally be the Star Wars Prequel that we've been waiting for.
Version three is always the good one...
What? Spaceballs is probably the best thing to come out of star wars.
Hail to the king, baby!
You state that the CG has improved to the point that it's actually difficult to tell a CG from a real actor, with all of the new CG perfections ironically enough I think that the most important is probably the addition of small imperfections in CG actors, for some reason we just can't accept a perfect actor, it does'nt click with our brains right. I just wonder how long it will be before we have a semi-realistic all CG movie.
I found it ammusing that a case could be made that Jar Jar is responsible for the fall of the entire Republic.
XeoMage
Perhaps it's because I'm not a raging Star Wars fan. I haven't read any of the Star Wars novels, or anything else about Star Wars. I just watch the movies. ;)
I think what's neat though, is when you realize that our kids will be able to watch Star Wars from ep 1 to ep 6 straight through, and watching the story unfold more and more each movie. We've been seeing "spoilers" for what, 25 years? We already know what's gonna happen
Call on God, but row AWAY from the rocks!
...for me has always been the change from Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader. It seems odd on the surface, but the most interesting element of the first trilogy was a transition that occurred years before.
It's just kind of fascinating. How does someone become what they've sworn to oppose? From Obi-Wan's comments in the original trilogy, you see a picture of Anakin as a good friend, a decent guy who falls from grace and becomes a great force for evil (no pun intended). Sure, the "redemption" at the end of RotJ is good, but we want to see the fall. =)
Even before seeing Episode I, my money was on Episode III to be what I was really waiting for. I and II are important to set these things up--I'll know more when I catch the 10:40 showing tonight--but the real story is going to be in Ep3.
How to bring about such a dark (Darth?) result while ending in such a way that the audiences won't hang him in effigy (or in fact) is something that I hope Lucas can pull off.
I had a thought when I was watching it. I reckon Dooku will end up being Annikins father. That would be a surprise (to everyone who does not read this or forgets by episode III) and we could dispose of the crappy midiclorians. :)
If this happens I think i will get this comment framed
The Borg assimilated my race & all I got was this lousy T-shirt
the long lines, the sound systems cranked up, the beach balls...
I had almost forgotten what Star Wars could be like.
But the first flight of fancy in the buildings of Courissant (sp?) - i was hooked!
I'm sorry - but this was almost the best of the movies to date - just below Empire, of course..
It FELT like a Star Wars movie again.. when you were first taken to strange new worlds (sorry) and got to see aliens and battles.. villians who's asses you want to see kicked...
this movies has it all back.
I think one of the best things that Lucas has done with this one is the fact that there are actual twists and turns!
I mean, is the good-guy a bad-guy? Are the good guys fighting against the wrong person? The Good Guys fighting along side StormTroopers!?!
I won't give spoilers - but I will say that this movie does bring back everything I loved about seeing the first movie when i was 5 with my dad at Big Newport (70mm of holy-crap-its-so-freaking-big screen)... and maybe part of why I loved it so much WAS getting to see this one - opening night - in the same theatre...
i could be misguided.. but i'll be seeing this movie time and time again... just like the original 3.
guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
I really enjoyed EP2, though I feared it would suck.
Did anyone else think that it had the worst Star Wars dialogue yet?
(paraphrasing, but not exaggerating, [also perhaps a spoiler]) "I see that we cannot solve this dispute through our mastery of force powers, Master Yoda. We must settle this with our usage of the light saber." [Dooku]
This just made me cringe.
Also, the constant cutting back and forth between the huge fight and the droids was distracting to me. I thought C3PO's puns were funny, but it distracted from the enormous army of clones, drones, and Jedi raging in battle in the background. *shrug* That just kind of bugged me.
Overall, Episode II really pleased me. I plan on seeing it again.
Sharpies don't just sniff themselves.
Episode II was light years better then Episode I...while there were numerous scenes in PM that made me cringe at how bad they were, there's very little of that here...
some things to look forward to if you haven't seen it yet...
- Yoda's climactic fight scene...everyone has heard it's coming, but you can't be prepared to see Yoda in a lightsaber duel...the crowd in my theatre was literally cheering the whole time, at how cool it was...
- Mace Windu also has some quality Lightsaber action, and some pretty bad-*ss scenes...only thing that would've made it better was if his lightsaber said "Bad A** Mother F*****" (Pulp Fiction Reference)...
- Hayden Christenson is a huge improvement over Jake Loyd as Anakin (then again it would be hard not to be)...he's brilliant in the scenes where he has to show flashes of evil and flashes of the dark side...
- From the trailers, i thought that the romantic part of the movie was gonna be super cheesy, but it's actually not as bad as i expected...though, there is one point when they're in that big field on a picnic, when it looks like a scene out of "Sound of Music"...
- The worst part (IMO) was Lucas' attempts at some uneeded humor (much like Jar-Jar in Ep I)...in Ep II he uses C3P0 and R2D2 to deliver this humor both physically (in a ridiculous sequence with C3P0) and also in a series of bad puns involving the two of them...
- Natalie Portman looks great in the movie...and if you've seen the trailers, you know the tight white top that she wears...well, let's just say, that it must be cold on Tatooine...
well, that's my thoughts...
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
Well its starts slow but once you find out about the clones and ignore the love story the last bit is not bad.. It still looks funny but I think its hard to avoide.. Yoda looks funny kicking ass.. If you sit and imagin what yoda would look like kicking ass before you see the movie its kinda hard to imagin without laughing.. Jar Jar speaks again but not for long, even the other characters cut him off at times.. And the new Anikin is flat but not anoying like EP1
EA David Gardner -"... but the consumers have proven that actually what they want is fun."
Somebody said to me that George should just cut together a 45-minute special effects feature (like the Terminator 3D ride at Universal Studios) and call it what it is; a CGI ride.
Stop trying to shove this square peg into the round hole of drama and cinema; that's not what it is any more. This is not about human drama and character and emotion any more than the Bond films are about international politics. The action scenes don't dazzle because they're charged with emotion for the characters; they dazzle because of the technology, the pretty lights.
That's not a bad thing; I'm a sucker for fireworks. But save us the time; don't try to force awkward romance scenes, cobbled together from scenes from other movies into your effects feature. Do what you do best, George. Give us the ride and save us the hour and a half of plot setup.
Phallic Symbols in LOTR
We had the same problem with Geordi LaForge (LeVar Burton) from Reading Rainbow. =)
I'll probably go see Episode2, but Matrix2 is the one I really want to see.
Is Episode III, as the review suggests, likely to be the "Windows 2000" of Lucas' declining franchise? You know, "pretty good except for a few remaining legacy problems (Jar Jar)." I don't like to see movies that have to have apologetics any more than I like to run software that comes with a list of excuses. Windows Lemmings run Windows and claim it's the best, even if they don't really like it. Star Wars lemmings run out to see Lucas' latest (and then again on a digital screen 2 weeks from now) even though the substance of his films is insultingly weak.
The same market forces that have kept Windows so lousy are also at work setting up Episode III to be complete tripe (with great special effects).
Episode II will probably get nominated for best visual effects and I hope the next LoTR film bests it amongst the Academy voters.
The evil emperor turns Natalie Portman NAKED AND PERTIFIED in the closing scene by his dark force power !
THe review says that the council assigned Obi-Wan and Anniken to protect Amidala (I doubt I spelled those right). Why would they do that when they refused to make Anniken a Jedi in Episode I?
The pros are:
- impressive visuals
- impressive sound fx
The cons:
- the flattest story ever
- only one sentence dialouge sequences
- except for christopher lee and ian mcdiarmid the actors were really shallow (especially natalie portman)
mo
Actually, this is more true than you think. The title proposed title for Space Balls II (as stated by Yogurt in Space Balls) was "Space Balls II: The Search for More Money".
I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere yet, but did anyone notice how ATOC reveals why the Stormtroopers just plain sucked in ANH?
The clones were of Jango Fett, and the Kaminoans were keeping him around while this whole cloning project was going on. So apparently they needed fresh material from him to keep making clones.
After ATOC, they no longer have Jango Fett to clone, they started making clones of one of the clones. And you know how if you make a copy of a copy, it's not as sharp as the original....
See the movie Multiplicity to get a better idea of why the Stormtroopers are the way they are....
It's not as if there is a shortage of movies more interesting than the repetitive kiddie fantasy that is the Star Wars series.
Jesus, give it up already, it's for the kids.
Mod me down if you want, but it has to be said. And a preemptive "fuck off" to those who will say "don't click on the story if you're not interested".
I thought that exactly!!!! as soon as Palpatine made the comment in the chambers that they could've counted on Padame if she was there, and then they zoomed in on Jar-jar...i was like, no, Jar-Jar don't do it...
i could see it coming, then he was just so smug with himself when he got the senate to go along with it...it's his fault...he gave palpatine full power...first he ruined Ep I, now the galaxy...
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
And it looks good. Given the amazing special effects and storyline I expect the MPAA will be able to use the profits to buy off 2-3 more congressmen and take away computers just a little bit faster. It's a good thing that just about everybody on /. is a hypocrite because on Monday we can all come back here and bitch about how the **AA has too much money and how they're trying to take away freedom after we just spent a weekend gorging ourselves on the latest crap they flung up against the wall to squeeze a little more money out of us. Well folx. if you see this movie, you deserve to not have any computers. Have a nice day.
And yes I *DO* have a lot of karma to burn, and no I *DON'T* care so mod me down you little hypocrite for hitting a little too close to home. You know I'm right.
Best. Comment. Ever. Enjoy!
Clones starts off slow, and it takes half the movie to really start get going. But the final hour finally feels like Star Wars again.
I heard comments (from professionals) that final hour was NOT like you would expect Star Wars to be..
I know he's supposed to be full of anger and angst, but mostly he just comes off as constipated and bitchy.
yeah yeah, cheap shot
sig my booty, check my website
I can really see this happening. Lead animators (or animator teams) are incredibly talented folks, and it takes a true gift to pull off the subtleties of human action. I thought Yoda was "the best Yoda ever" -- in all the scenes, not just those where he was kung-fu fighting.
As CGI Characters come into their own, I could see truly gifted CG Artists becoming "unknown moviestars," demanding very high salaries for their work. They could one day be the most versitile actors in hollywood-- perhaps even garnering a "best actor" type oscar category.
Don't laugh, it could happen.
Oh my god,
I still can't belief how frigging bad
this movie was. Star Wars is ruined
forever...
Way beyond garbage...
Must have been the cheesiest peace
of shit I have ever seen!!!!!
The theater was sold out and I had
the strong feeling nobody could believe
how bad it was!!!
People were clapping and cheering not
at the good things, but at that cheesy
smack shit...
Cause it was soooo bad!!!!!
remo
Cue: ringing phone
"Hello? Yes. Are you sure? Yes sir."
% rm -f /data/episodeii/ohDearGod/insync*.mov
The reviews from rest of world seem more upbeat, check out the force dot net. I'll see it tomorrow, thanks to the girlfriend for picking up seats for the DLP viewing. Go digital.
there are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots
someone pointed that out to me after the movie, and when you think about it, it NEARLY.. just NEARLY makes up for having to listen to him again for a short while - which was faaaaar too long IMHO...
he was only meant to be a tiny character in this film, he still got waay too much airtime for my liking..
other than that tho - EXCELLENT movie... its starwars - of course its exellent!
lone gunman \'lon 'gun-mun\ vt 1: To spoil the ending of a film, television show or story by including details, which were meant to be a surprise by the writers, in a slashdot story title. 2: To make yourself look foolish by posting a story on slashdot which was poorly thought out, has more then 12 mispelled words, or mentions the DCMA.
"I'm nobody suspicious... That makes me sound even more suspicious, doesn't it?" - Spike (Cowboy Bebop)
I've always thought the clones were, you know, real clones. Of people. It seems that they're robots from what I've seen/read about AotC. Is this right or wrong?
I think I read a sequel book to Star Wars where a "clone" of one of some Dark Jedi Admiral was taking over what was left of the Empire... I assumed, or maybe read, that this was using the same techniques as in the Clone Wars?
Someone help me out with my understanding of the Star Wars Universe...
-Russ
Me
I keep hearing about problems with the transfer from digital media to celluloid, saying the projection is downright fuzzy in places. The best article is HERE quoting Roger Ebert and others, saying that even George Lucas wasn't happy that there is such a huge loss between digital projection and traditional. Has anybody noticed this? Is it irritating? Should I wait for the DVD?
Phallic Symbols in LOTR
Sadly this is the way alot of teenage angst comes across.
Angst and anger while being trained to be a member of the elite Jedi doesn't say much for his upbringing.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
To spoil a movie is to "Lone Gunman" it.
Setting his threshold to 5, Sparky eliminated most of the trolls on /.
I agree with most people that the movie was light-years ahead of Phantom. But to me, it shared Phantom's biggest flaw: the pacing was completely erratic.
Short, terrific action scenes, followed by looooong "love" scenes that grind the whole movie to a halt. Damn, that movie starts and stops more often than a bus.
Please, George, get professionals to script and direct ep. 3.
Ich werde nie wieder denken
Did anyone notice the use of the deus ex machina regarding Jar Jar Binks? You almost have to admire Lucas for having enough gall to pull *that* one off.
It'll take some very clever screenwriting (and this hasn't been suggested by the summaries I've read) between this and the next episode to prevent viewers reacting to the line "I am your father." with the phrase "Well, duh!".
I don't think it's Lucas' style to leave much to the imagination (I didn't know that they had Millenia or Falcons long, long ago in a galaxy far away) and he's going to have to compromise himself (and maybe lose money) if he is to make the series as a whole tie together.
So, did Subobu finally come back and turn Jar Jar into the pile of orange goo that Anni foreshadowed in Ep. 1?
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
All the jar jar haters should love life after this movie. Not just for his lack of appearance, but he makes the most of his opportunity.
I really liked this film. I'll give myself over to it. I'll allow my imagination to run wild and try to write my own story for episode III. God I love this stuff.
Enjoy this film.
What kills me about the entire discussion of SW is everyone's complaining about the dialogue and plot. In no case (with the possible exception of SW:TESB) was the plot all that great or the dialogue all that good. And the only reason people forgive and forget with Empire is because it was the 2nd scene - okay movie - and bad stuff happens to the characters or you have no real drama.
Lucas's dialogue is as bad as about any B movie you can find. But he has a fantastic mind for imagery and setting. His art directors have always made StarWars what it is - Eye Candy. Up until Midichlorians, he even made up some pretty cool names, technological ideas and drew from the coolest philosophical ideals.
So, my point? Why do people keep going back with these unbelievable expectations? The SW franchise (and let's get this straight, that's EXACTLY what it is) has always had the pleasure of good actors spewing out camp dialogue while dealing with herky-jerky plot moves. Can you blame them for crap acting? Sure... outside of some scenes in Episode IV, Mark H. couldn't act his way out of a bag. But They do bring life to the ideas and that's all that matters
Most people go to Star Wars with one thing in mind: Special Effects. From Light Sabers to Space Ships and more recently CGI actors and settings, we get a grand sense of Sci-Fi "feel". If you came to see an actual love story or anything more than a weakly fleshed out backplot you weren't thinking.
Go to Star Wars to see the kick ass fighting scenes, the action, the special effects, and the amazing artwork. I generally agree with Ebert on most stuff, and yes, all the 'Wars movies could and should have been better. But if a card carrying Jedi came around, we'd all want to join up. 'Nuff Said!
Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it. -Samuel Johns
OK, so this was a film that Rob decided that he absolutely had to see on the first minute. He went in hyped and ready to love it, probably with a bunch of Star Wars loving friends. And here's how I read his review:
"The plot, dialogue and acting really sucked for most of the film. Some of the scenes were almost unwatchable. The CGI characters were merely bad characters, not bad CGI as well. It got better towards the end, which (somehow) redeems the money that I wasted on Phantom Menace and on the crappy bits of this film."
This is the best we can do? You'll forgive me if I don't go rushing out to show the MPAA exactly how easily influenced I am by trailers and advertising. This review reads like a rationalization for wasting a bunch of time and money.
Rob, if you'd waited a week, would the film have somehow got worse? Would the crappy reviews from your friends have made you feel bad about going to see it? Would they have made it so much harder for you to pretend that you really liked a film that you actually seem to criticize more than praise?
I know that we all want everything that is Star Wars to be good and pure and holy, but it just isn't so any more. The magic has left Lucas. At best, he can give us an oh-so-brief glimpse of how great it used to be. But in twenty years time, who is going to be quoting lines from Menace or Clones? Not me, and not you either. Just walk away. Close the book, and don't sully your memories.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
... the review could have been summarized as:
/. movie reviews. :)
"Natalie Portman looked hot. We got to see her bellybutton. We got to see some leg. We wanted to see teenage boobs, but this movie couldn't show them. I would have liked to have seen some plot development involving Natalie's teenage boobs. This movie would have been better if we could have seen Natalie's teenage boobs. This would have been an excellent movie if only it were more like Not Another Teen Movie."
Thanks Taco for apparently taking the driver's seat with
Get off my virtual lawn, you damned virtual kids!
Lucas was not repurchased exactly this time around, but it eliminated the majority from worst from the phantom threat from my memory. Copy starts slow, and it takes half of film to really start to obtain going. But the final hour is smelled finally like star wars still. Lu above for my review supplements I will not test with the only gangster armed the thing, but you were informed.
Thus time of confession, I still do not think that the phantom threat was this bad. If you filter mentally outside each order which it flask of flask is on the scene, and perhaps the midochlorians, and it balances which scene of race of thimble to the bottom, there is a good film in there. Nonlarge. Right step sucksville. Thus I entered copy to hope that Lucas had learned its lesson, and it has most of the time.
Most of the cast iron of the threat is back. Unfortunately none the principal actors controls with the traction of an execution of standout. Anakin is improved little of the threat. I know that it is supposed being full with anger and the angst, but most of the time it is released just like constipated and bitchy. Amidala seems to be taken a little a small nap. Their romantic scenes are together the scenes of binks of flask of flask of this film: He of the right pauses the action, and the action is so bad that the film fixes until something to interest produced.
The remainder of the cast iron is well better. Ewan McGregor finally seized on the role of Obi WAN. It is a little preachy, but that functions. Samuel L Jackson is the badass Jedi which we want that it is. The senator Palpatine is the pretty more or less same type as the time passed around. And Dooku, type principal of the flick the bad one is rather excellent too. Its nice having villians with faces since they really obtain to act a little. The family of Fett felt forced, but it was interesting.
The majority of notable this time are the characters of cgi around. The flask have flask of episode I naturally, Watto, and much of other tanks of CG., but the threat is literally filled completion of them. And technology and the organizers improved appreciably since last appearance. Not more they stick outside as the inches endoloris now that they stick simply outside like an inch with a little a ribbon. Yoda is naturally most significant of the CG. carbonizes each one probably remembers horrible animation on its scene of a CG. in Menance, but is CG. all the manner copies it inside. It is an enormous business since different the majority from the tanks of CG. which we saw up to now, this one work almost perfectly. There are couples of the projectiles where it does not seem completely exact... but such are the exception, and not rule.
What am I it stating is that the characters of CG. finally inherited their clean. In the threat, very that I could think approximately is the fact that they were CG.. The fact that they not looke completely well. This time around they left the exposure just. Another poor dialogue delivering of cast iron member. Enough ironically, several of the CG. carbonizes the outshine their counterparts human.
The film as a whole seems large. Several of the costumes seem much more like star wars. Army of clone, in Amidala carrying a white costume for the last act, the things look at just as I would expect with We obtain to see some sets familiar of a new hope as well as the threat, and than all really contributes to make feel it film like a flick of star wars. It also helps that the CG. continued to improve.
I would like to also note that I did not obtain to see it on the numerical screen. I project on seeing it numerical in next the week or 2... I appeared I would see that it with the local theatre and to ensure itself it did not suck before I took the trouble to lead to Southfield to see it in full the splendor numerical.
The remainder of the review will concentrate little one more on the piece of ground. You were informed. The history is naturally mainly a history of love. There was a threat the life of Amidala, and his/her old friends Anakin and Obi-WAN were affected by the Council of Jedi to protect it. The investigation of the attempt at asassination leads Obi-WAN to a planet far part where it discovered an army of clone being built, and with a conspiracy to remove information on it. Anakin and Amidala spend time together and obtain more narrowly by a series of pseudo awkward romantic scenes where they both look at as they would have rather been in various films. Their total lack of chemistry amuses almost.
Obi-WAN enters some smack, and thus Anakin and Amidala will save it, to finish only to the top composing the level of the smack around for the good types. While waiting for the senate makes its thing and a significant variation in the power occurs. We learn who is responsible for the army of clone, and what is the plan for him.
The last hour of copy is the profit. A battle worthy of the original trilogy. I will not enter him the becuase which could damage it, but lets make the following remarks. Initially, we have finally enough light action of saber. The massive combat of jedi that we all knew these prequels could offer to us. And my god was him never in value waiting. But we also take the Windu mace to give to a kick the ass, and finally, Yoda obtains its chance to prove why it is so much strongly considered.
The parallels with other films of the series of switch, particularly strikes of empire behind are much. I avoid mentioning them here, but I will say that the film tries to finish on a dark note which is fresh.
The packed theatre that I saw this really seemed to feel the same manner as me. Some awkward laughter during the Romance scenes equalizes snickers during the order of picnic of noise-of-music. But when the final battles came around there were acclamations around.
And that adds it really upwards. That took 3,5 hours of film of prequel to obtain to us with the profit. For some it could not have been in value waiting... but for me, I am simply happy with finally to see that the majority of what was promised delievered. And I am reinvigorated worms of the star wars. If the episode III can begin again where II ceased, III should finally be the Prequel wars of star until we had waited.
The film that eliminated the cruel outdated stereotype of the Scottish kilt-wearing bagpiper, and replaced it with the stereotype of the Scottish amoral and AIDS-ridden heroin fiend.
"Well Sickboy lacks a certain moral fiber."
"He does know a lot about Sean Connery though."
"That's hardly a substitute!"
Phallic Symbols in LOTR
If Lucas spent even a fraction of his effect budget on writers and decent actors then maybe I'd be happy.
Flame me if you wish, but my feeling is that even though (as usual) this is a pretty movie to watch, it does not have any soul.
The writing is extremely poor... I don't care if it was geared towards 12 year olds, a kid can still tell good writing from bad.
The acting for the most part was poor. The only believeable characters were Owen and Peru..which seems kind of accurate in a way... Mix their gentle characters with the Annakin's insipid whining and you get Luke.
Even Yoda (to me) seems to have lost a slight edge on what he used to be.
This is only my opinion, but I would have rather donated my money to a fund for decent writers than have wasted my money and time on this film...
again only an opinion from a disgruntled fan... give it time to sink in a little and I may like it a little better.
That taken individually, the first three episodes (IV, V, VI), were all pretty good but became exceptional when they're all put together; I think this will be the case with the "second" three episodes (I, II, III). The story arch of the Star War's story is far too broad/great to fit into one movie.
Believe me, your age has little to do with it. I didn't see ANY Star Wars movies until about 4 years ago (when I watched Episodes 4-6). There was no time for me to accrue anything, but believe me when I saw that Episode 1 was a shithole compared to 4-6 (not that 4-6 were all that great).
i haven't seen it yet. what makes it so bad? and just for perspective, how much did you like any of the star wars series? i find that makes a difference.
you probably shouldn't have read this.
Episode 2 is almost as bad as episode 1. Episode 1-3 is really about Obi Wan and rise of the Empire, but nope we have be abused with the horrible acting and story of Skywalker. Then we have a movie that is so busy that it just annoys you. Lucus thinks everyone is an idiot so he inform you about every little detail, so there isn't anything to guess about. Last but not least are the scenes you know you have seen somewhere else. The first scene is a total rip off from Flash Gordon. There are plenty more rip offs.
On the postive note, the Obi Wan story is finally starting play a larger role. If you watch the movie like Obi Wan is the main character the story is much much better. So maybe Episode 3 will come together better than 1 and 2.
There was an article last week about the estimated cost to the economy of ~$300M. Just an observation from my morning commute, the traffic was very sparse and moved fast, I had the definite feel that there's a lot of people taking the day off to see EP2.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
lone gunmen (lon' gun'men)
verb
1. To prematurely reveal plot points.
2. To spoil the surprise, reveal spoilers without warning."I'll try not to lone gunman the thing."
3. To include spoilers in the headline.
insert photo of chrisd here
If you mentally filter out every sequence that Jar Jar is on the scene, and maybe the midochlorians, and trim that Pod Race scene down, there's a good movie in there.
I know where you're coming from Taco, but you're just wrong. It's not our job to "filter" jack squat. That's Lucas's job, one he's not doing.
FYI everyone, Rotten Tomatoes has it at "barely fresh", with 61% positive reviews. For the selected, more reputable reviews it's rotten at 47%. Doesn't bode well.
Like it matters. The jackass has us all by the nape of our childhoods. I'll be there tonight. Already got my tickets in my pocket. There'll be bits that make me happy, but they'll be like reflections on water, untouchable & disturbed if you try. Ah well. We should all just realize we can't go back again.
The only tool you've got against psychosis is experience.
there was a Matrix 2 trailer along with AOTC (atleast in the theatre i saw it at)...i was really looking forward to the Matrix Reloaded trailer, and everyone in the theatre cheered when the familiar "matrix-like" computer characters started scrolling down the screen...while i'm still really looking forward to the movie, i was a little disppointed in trailer...it was just really fast snip-its of action, none sustained long enough that you could actually see anything...that said, it still looked pretty intense...
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
I never managed to see any of the original films when they were in theatre, I was too young. I remember finding them in my video cabinet one day accidentally and just watching them...and re-watching them. Seeing all of the things as new, accepting them all as normal. Now I've seen Episode's 1 and 2 and I realized only partway through Episode 2 that I was dealing with things a little too harshly. As another member posted, had I seen these new movies as the first in the series I would have probably had a fairly similar reaction to them as I did the first trilogy.
As one member pointed out, Artoo uses little thrusters during the movie. I recalled thinking "Since when did Artoo get thrusters?" and a few minutes later I realized that when I saw Artoo going to town in ANH, ESB, and ROTJ, I never once questioned the fact that he just started whipping out all kinds of tools at any given point. My perceptions of what should be allowed to happen in the movie are fairly warped because of what I felt was right and wrong with allowing. If you've ever read any of the Zahn books or any large number of backstory novels, you know that Lucas just shattered pretty much everything about the past from them. I realized that they had to be slightly annoyed by the things that he did with the film before I also realized that he's allowed to do it in the first place. He let people write what they want how they want, but it's still HIS story. If Artoo gets thrusters, by god Artoo has thrusters.
Honestly, I still prefer 4-6 over 2. The acting has pretty much been consistantly bad throughout most of the movies in the first place. Some actors shine over others, but that remains true throughout. The biggest difference to me between one and two in terms of fan enjoyment came from my theatre audience:
When the Lucasfilm logo came up in Episode 1 everyone burst into cheers and yells. When the credits came up...there was some mild clapping and everybody just filed out.
When the Lucasfilm logo came up in Episode 2 everyone burst into cheers and yells. When the credits came up we were yelling and cheering all over the theatre. The general consensus was pretty much an unrestricted Hell Yes. NOWHERE in Episode One was there rampant cheering and celebrating during the movie like in Episode 2.
Was it perfect Star Wars? Nope. Never will be. Impossible to satisfy all of the millions of hopelessly cynical fans. Was it Star Wars? Oh yes. I felt like I'd just discovered A New Hope again by accident, and I'm sure as hell ready for Episode 3.
For those of you who've seen it, you'll understand this: Yoda. Damn.
Keiran
The first of two articles on sfgate.com (SF Chronicle) covers the prerelease piracy of this movie (and others) by internet file swapping. It's not heavy handed either way, thank goodness.
The review of the movie is by Mick LaSalle. An excerpt:
He looked at me and said, "Kid, we don't like your kind, and we're gonna send your fingerprints off to Washington."
The hard nipples and the half ripped off top of Amidala made it worth it! Three thumbs up!
Lucas has been over in the UK promoting Episode 2, and in the middle of defending Episode 1 in a press conference, let slip that an episode 7 might be in the works... It's near the bottom.
Also, there's an interview with Lucas here.
--------
Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
That had been bothering me ever since the first few scenes where we see them in training on Camino and then it clicked once I got home:
I recall seeing an early artistic sketch by Ralph McQuarrie in 1977 where the stormtrooper's uniform looks exactly like those worn by the clone army. AFAIR that was for some possible poster design and had appeared in Starlog or some other Sci-Fi fanzine.
Software is not supposed to be about how to work around a useability issue. - Ken Barber
The best, from The Washington Post
Salon.com hates it. The Onion isn't impressed, and Adequacy rips it as well.
Ninja Yoda sounds fun though.
Best Slashdot Co
If Episode III can pick up where II left off, III should finally be the Star Wars Prequel that we've been waiting for.
Hopefully in the future it will take less than 3 movies to get it correct. I really can't figure out how EP1 and the bad parts of EP2 got so messed up with 4,5 and 6 under his belt.
======== In the future, everything will be artificial. ========
I haven't seen the movie, but I own the Star Wars screensaver created by LucasArts in 1994. It gives bios on some of the major characters in Star Wars and a quote from George Lucas on what the prequels were going to be like. Below is the text of those bios (ripped out with a binary editor). It seems that Lucas is re-writing this history even though this information should be official having come from LucasArts (and having a quote from Lucas himself).
Names: Owen and Beru Lars
Sex: Male and Female, respectively
Race: Human
Height: 1.7 and 1.5 meters respectively
Owen Lars grew up in the shadow of his brother, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan always had the attention of his elders and superiors, blazing a trail through the Old Republic Academy and leaving Owen far behind. He decided to break away from his home and start a new life with his recent bride, Beru Weth. The newlyweds built a moisture farm on Tatooine, figuring that was far enough away from anyone they knew. Years later, however, Obi-Wan found them and asked them to take in the infant Luke Skywalker. Owen was against helping his brother in any way, but Obi-Wan reached Beru with the child's story. She exercised her great skill in reasoning with Owen, and soon he agreed. The couple raised the child as their own, but Luke kept his last name. They told their neighbors he was their nephew, orphaned recently when his mother died in a terrible accident. They instilled in him proper values and he became a strong, upstanding individual they were genuinely proud of. And their pride would have grown tenfold had they lived to see him become the Hero of Yavin. Unfortunately, the Empire traced two renegade droids Owen had bought and razed the farm, killing the couple with little mercy.
Name: Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi
Sex: Male
Race: Human
Height: 1.75 meters
As a youth, Obi-Wan Kenobi studied the ways of the Force under the tutelage of the great Jedi Master Yoda, broadening his power from an already durable inner strength. As a Jedi Knight for the Old Republic, he fought bravely in the Clone Wars alongside such excellent warriors as Bail Organa and Anakin Skywalker. Soon, he had gained the rank of General. During these adventures, Obi-Wan noticed in Anakin an innate tendency towards the Force. Seeking to pass on his Jedi knowledge, he decided to train the young pilot in its ways. Obi-Wan had never taken on a student before and teaching was more difficult than he anticipated, especially in such a sensitive topic as the Force. Having been introduced to this bold new arena of power, Anakin became excited and craved to learn as much as he could as fast as he could. This left him wide open to temptation from the dark side. Anakin could not resist. When Obi-Wan recognized the change, he tried to bring Anakin back, preaching the evils of the dark side, hoping to drag him back by the single thread of good left in him. But Anakin would have none of his "noble suffer the good" talk, and their discussion turned quickly to argument and even quicker to conflict. The fight was long and furious, ending with Anakin falling headlong into a pit of molten lava. Obi-Wan knew this would bear serious repercussions from Anakin's master, the Emperor Palpatine. He quickly shuffled Anakin's wife and twin children into hiding. The young girl, Leia, and her mother went to stay with the now Viceroy of Alderaan, Bail Organa, while young Luke was taken in by Obi-Wan's brother, Owen Lars. As the Emperor began to hunt and kill the Jedi, Obi-Wan took to hiding under the assumed name Ben. He decided to stay close to Luke by living on Tatooine, but kept a safe distance. Should the Emperor ever find his home in the Jundland Wastes of the Dune Sea, Luke would still be safely hidden away. Most people on Tatooine think Ben is just a crazy old hermit. He tends to stay in seclusion, although he has been known to help someone lost or threatened by Sand People.
Name: Biggs Darklighter
Sex: Male
Race: Human
Height: 1.83 meters
Born to wealthy food merchants on Tatooine, Biggs was raised with more advantages than most of his friends. In fact, it tended to keep him from making friends. His father gave him everything he could want, in hopes of occupying the time he didn't spend with his son. But money is no substitute for a father's love. Biggs started spending more and more time in Anchorhead with others his age. Many of them kept distant, allowing their parents' opinion of his father to taint their opinion of him. But Luke Skywalker was raised to judge by one's merit. The two became steadfast friends and pushed each other through unspoken competition. They raced T-16's through Beggar's Canyon, dreaming of the day the two of them would join the Imperial Academy. Their plan was to serve their time for the Imperial Navy then go into partnership on a starshipping route. But when the time came, Luke had to stay behind to help on the farm while Biggs' father got his son enrolled with benefits. After a sterling training record, Biggs graduated with honors. His first assignment was as first mate to the frigate RAND ECLIPTIC. He had a little time before his tour was to begin, though, so he returned to Tatooine long enough to update Luke on his plans. While he was at the Academy, Biggs met a circle of Rebel sympathizers who brought him into their ranks. The group of them were going to jump ship and join the Alliance and he hoped one day Luke would be able to find them. After turning AWOL, Biggs and the other Rebels made their way to Massassi station on Yavin IV by smuggling routes. There he served the Rebellion proudly until his heroic death in the Battle of Yavin.
Name: Chewbacca
Sex: Male
Race: Wookiee
Height: 2.28 meters
As a young Wookiee on Kashyyyk, Chewbacca excelled at most mechanical skills pertaining to and not excluding piloting. He was seen as gifted among his peers and topped that off by being in excellent physical condition as well. His hand-to-hand technique was matched only by his accuracy with a bowcaster. By the time he was 80, still young by Wookiee standards, he felt the call of the stars and decided to visit a few strange new worlds. Sixty years of intergalactic experience collected under his belt and he was happy. While he was away, Kashyyyk was overtaken by the Empire and the entire Wookiee race was declared fair slave trade. This meant that any Wookiee caught roaming free could be captured and sold. Chewbacca learned of this from within the belly of a slaver's tug and he spent the next thirty years performing heavy labor. Decades after his capture, Chewbacca met a young Imperial officer named Han Solo. Solo felt for this demoralized creature and, despite strict rules forbidding interference, helped the Wookiee escape. In return for sacrificing his career, Chewbacca offered the Corellian a life debt. And after quite a few years of shadowing the officer-turned-freelance, Solo broke down and accepted the offer. The two have run smuggling routes ever since, dodging the Empire for more charges than they can recall. Chewbacca, or Chewie as his friends call him, is quite often the voice of reason, tempering their rash suggestions with years of wisdom and honor. Not that he is all that philosophical, however. He has been known to get cranky over losing a game of cards or holo gameboard, and has even gone so far as to dismember droids out of shear frustration. As a rule, if he can't shoot it or rip it apart, he'll leave it alone.
Name: C-3PO and R2-D2
Sex: does not apply
Race: does not apply
Height: 1.8 and 1 meter respectively
After over 100 years in function, C-3PO has spent the last several decades in faithful service to the Senate. Through several reassignments, the droid has worked under some of the most influential political figures in the galaxy. During this time, it became acquainted with an astromech droid, R2-D2. The two shared base programming stemming from similar code and became close "friends". They didn't serve together very often, although they did find themselves assigned to the same ship or station on several occasions. Even then, R2 spent most of its time in mechanical subprogramming hangars while 3PO translated for the many species on the Senate floor. As it was fluent in over 6 million languages, it was loaned to many ambassadors many times. It was their fateful trip on the TANTIVE IV that truly brought them together. While 3PO was being transported to its newest master, Captain Antilles, R2 was being programmed to seek out Obi-Wan Kenobi and deliver the secret plans stored in its memory. The astromech droid was to be jettisoned to Tatooine alone in search of the Jedi Knight. Unfortunately, TANTIVE IV was overtaken by a Star Destroyer minutes before the droid was to leave. There was just enough time for Princess Leia to record a final plea before sending it off. What was not in the plan was to have 3PO tagging along, bailing with R2 to escape being melted down by the Empire. Very soon after landing, the two were captured by Jawas and sold on auction. Fortunately for both of them, they were purchased by Owen Lars and placed in the care of Luke Skywalker. They couldn't have asked for a better guardian. R2 didn't recognize Luke for who he was and had no way of knowing the role Luke would eventually play in the Battle of Yavin. It continued to seek out Obi-Wan on its own, prompting Luke to go after it, and eventually, student and master Jedi were introduced. The droids have remained with Luke ever since and their skills are put to use for the Alliance on a daily basis. Threepio's protocol and linguistic talents are used to monitor Imperial security bands and translate intercepted codes, while Artoo's mechanical programming skills are put to use in the rear pod of Luke's X-wing. The two are "spiritually" inseparable, despite their constant bickering, and when separated for long periods, actually begin to "miss" each other.
Name: Han Solo
Sex: Male
Race: Corellian
Height: 1.8 meters
Han was a spunky child, spunkier than most Corellian children. He did well in school and was immediately accepted into the Imperial Academy. After graduating with honors, he sailed forward towards a commanding rank in the Imperial Navy, where he would have been able to use his talents to their fullest extent. One day, however, he found a noble Wookiee being beaten in a nearby slave camp and compassion directed him to interfere. Imperial Law declared all Wookies fair trade, and Han was forbidden to counter that ruling in any form, but that didn't stop him. He rescued the Wookiee and was subsequently discharged. Although the Wookiee, Chewbacca, pledged his life to Solo, he found little reason to feel proud. He wandered the galaxy, accepting small contract work here and there, all the time being followed by the Wookiee. This annoyed Solo for quite some time, until he finally realized the sanctity of the Wookiee Life Debt, and accepted it. Before long, they were good friends and partners. The two have spent the last decade and a half two steps ahead of the Empire, eluding capture for any one of a number of accusations. They ran spice for Jabba the Hutt until one critical moment when their stocklight freighter, the MILLENNIUM FALCON, was threatened to be boarded by an Imperial Blockade. Solo was forced to dump the cargo, much to Jabba's regret. Now the pair are also being tracked down by Jabba's bounty hunters.
Name: Princess Leia Organa
Sex: Female
Race: Human
Height: 1.5 meters
Swept away from her home at a young age by Obi-Wan Kenobi, Leia Organa has few memories of her natural parents. She was told that they died and that Bail Organa took her in. In truth, Obi-Wan secretly placed her under Bail's care when her father, Anakin Skywalker, became Darth Vader. The Organas were as loving as foster parents could be, and she considered herself to be their own child. As Bail was Viceroy of Alderaan at the time, Leia received the best education from the best schools. She grew to be a strong political leader and became one of the youngest members of the Imperial Senate. From there, she fought for reforms, usually to no success. Soon she began to work for the Alliance. It was at her father's insistence that she departed on the mission that began the events leading to the Battle of Yavin. She was to find Obi-Wan Kenobi and, on the way, receive the stolen plans to the Death Star. Both missions were passed on to the astromech droid R2-D2 when her ship was overtaken by a Star Destroyer. Leia is a strong-willed woman with her ideas firmly rooted in her ideals. She knows the course of action that should be taken, although has trouble explaining it. This supports her "do it and they'll see" philosophy. Her primary concern is for the Rebel Alliance, but somewhere deep down, cries a lonely child searching for someone who truly understands her.
Name: Luke Skywalker
Sex: Male
Race: Human
Height: 1.72 meters
Luke never knew his real parents. He was raised by Owen and Beru Lars on a moisture farm deep in the wilderness of Tatooine. He was led to believe they were his aunt and uncle who took him in after his parents were killed. He was totally oblivious to the fact that his real father had become the Dark Lord of the Sith and that Owen was doing a favor to his brother, Obi-Wan Kenobi, by taking in the child. Owen tried several times to dissuade Luke from pursuing Kenobi and, in turn, the truth. While keeping Luke from joining the Imperial Academy was said to be for the good of the farm, in actuality he wanted to keep Luke as far from the Empire as possible, even if that meant locking him at home. Luke was an eager boy, talking large dreams with his friends Camie, Fixer, and Biggs. In fact, it was Biggs who turned Luke onto the Rebellion by jumping ship and joining up. Bright, eager, and unusually strong in the center, Luke was a model Rebel just waiting for his chance. And that chance came in the form of two droids jettisoned from the TANTIVE IV. Had Owen not purchased the droids on the Jawa market, the Battle of Yavin may never have occurred and Luke may never have become the hero he is today. The droids led him to Obi-Wan who suggested to Luke that perhaps he had a greater destiny, one that must be actively taken. Luke struggled with this until finding Owen and Beru slain by the Empire. Confident in his abilities, Luke trained to become the finest Jedi he could be, taking every bit of knowledge Obi-Wan could offer. It has become his single heartfelt goal to restore the New Republic by recreating the Jedi.
Name: Grand Moff Willhuf Tarkin
Sex: Male
Race: Human
Height: 1.8 meters
Little is known about the Grand Moff. He led a modest yet successful career in the Imperial Navy, eventually garnishing an impressive post as Moff in charge of controlling the outskirts of the Imperial Frontier. It was here that Tarkin made his mark as the Master Tactician, developing his philosophy of Rule by Fear. This worked phenomenally well, but the Outer Rim was such a large Territory, he needed a weapon powerful enough to threaten an entire system. Thus he began work on the Death Star. The greatest minds in the Empire were gathered to oversee its construction, all under the guidance of now Grand Moff Tarkin. Even the dreaded Darth Vader was placed under his command. Tarkin was confident and proud of his brainchild, right up to his death as it was blown up beneath him.
Name: Darth Vader
Sex: Male
Race: Human
Height: 2.2 meters
Young Anakin Skywalker always had a penchant for adventure. After joining the Old Republic as a gifted fighter pilot, he quickly gained rank and respect for his talent. He fought bravely during the Clone Wars alongside Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bail Organa. It was Obi-Wan who suggested he look into the Force. Anakin had been displaying a natural penchant towards the mystical and Obi-Wan hoped to develop him into a full strength Jedi Knight. This sounded just fine to Anakin. He was amazed at the power that the Force held. They began an extensive training routine that would last for years. Very soon, however, Anakin became overanxious. Obi-Wan wasn't teaching him fast enough and he wanted more. A meeting with Senator Palpatine quickly turned to a more personal nature as the small politician described to Anakin the wonders of the dark side and the incredible power it holds. Anakin saw the advantages such power could afford him and his pregnant wife. It didn't take much to convince Anakin to abandon Obi-Wan's teachings and embrace Palpatine, soon to be the Emperor, as his new master. Obi-Wan saw the change sweep over Anakin and tried desperately to turn him back from the shadows. But Anakin wouldn't hear it; he was too far gone. Their discussion turned violent and soon the two were fighting with the same passion they had in the Wars. They were fairly evenly matched, but Obi-Wan had more experience with the Force behind him. It was mere luck that Obi-Wan was able to back Anakin into an open pit of molten lava. But this didn't kill him. Obi-Wan pulled him out a breath away from death in full demonstration of the good side of the Force. Anakin underwent extensive cybernetic surgery while Obi-Wan whispered away with his wife. Yet Palpatine remained beside his pupil. Together they channeled Anakin's pain and anger towards the dark side, making him one of the most powerful warriors in the Imperial Navy.
Name: Wedge Antilles
Sex: Male
Race: Corellian
Height: 1.7 meters
Wedge grew up around freighters and starships. His parents managed a fueling station off the last planet in the Gus Treta system. They were used to dealing with both pirates and the police, as it usually wasn't over a very serious matter. But one fatal day while Wedge was away at upper division schooling, a smuggler got spooked while refueling and blasted free from the hanger without releasing the shiplock couplings. The ship and the station went up in flames.
Any time he comes onto the stage I just wanna stand up and shout "Yeah! Let's hear it for evil!"
His performances in this film and as Suruman (in LOTR) have inspired me so much that I'm going to go out and do terrible things to many, many innocent people, because when it comes down to it, good is weak, and evil is strong.
At first, I thought playing a semi-sympathetic misguided villain might be a stretch for Christopher, but he's just so delightfully vile it doesn't matter. His stage presence makes the appeal of the Dark Side all to clear.
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
CmdrTaco hasn't exactly redeemed himself this time around, but he has wiped out most of the worst of his last reviews from my memory. His review starts of slow and it takes until half the review to really start to get coherent. But the final paragraphs seem to really feel like English again. Read on for my full review- I'll try not to shoot down the lone gunman on this
/.ers. Meanwhile Congress does its thing and a major shift in power occurs. We don't learn who is responsible for the clone army but we can guess, and what the plan for it is ( Perhaps enforcement of the DMCA? )
I really don't feel the review was that bad. If you ignore every misspelling, and the occasional attempt at the 10 dollar word there's a really good review in there. I read this hoping to get an increased desire to see the movie this Friday, support that going wouldn't be a waste of time and he mostly has give me that.
Much of the same blah de blah is back. Unfortunately none of the 10 dollar words really seem to stand out.
Most notable this time is how notable he though the CGI characters were. With the occasional reference to Menance and a couple times where I wasn't sure if he was talking about Episode I or II I found some of the information curious and some that just didn't make sense but those are the exception, not the rule.
The review as a whole seems to work great. Many of the paragraphs bleed into one another where you can follow a coherent thought and altogether it wasn't too bad. I hope his reviews continue to improve
I'd like to note that I didn't get to see it on my nice 17" monitor at home. I plan on seeing it there after 5:00 but I wanted to make sure this review didn't suck before I thought of maybe using my Lunch break to drive home to read it there.
The rest of this review of the review would focus on the Grammatical and spelling insights, but was I found none I won't digress into that. A couple sentences were so awkward that they seemed like they would rather have been in different reviews. Their utter lack of chemistry is almost amusing.
As usual, with the posts CmdrTaco gets some smack, and so other posts go to rescue him, only to end up compounding the level of smack around for other
The last paragraph of this review is the Payoff. Several sentences that actually make sense together but I'm not going to go into it because that might spoil the shock of it, but let make the following points. First, we finally have enough correct spelling of words in one place. The massive amounts of coherent thoughts we all knew these reviews could offer us. I don't know if it was worth the wait but it's nice to see
The packed posts that I saw seemed to feel the same way as me. A few awkward FUNNY +3 even the occasion INSIGHTFUL +5 here and there.
That really sums it up. It took 11.75 paragraphs of text to get us to the payoff. For some it might not have been worth the wait... but for me, I'm just happy to finally to see most of what was promised delivered. And I'm reinvigorated towards CmdrTaco. If Episode III's review can pick up where II left off, it should finally be the Star Wars Prequel review that we've been waiting for.
Very amusing. Kudos, sir.
Was it me or did it have no sense of pacing?
The changling chase
Fight vs. Jango Fett
Now let's slow it down for 45 minutes!
Think about this.
Left in Latin is "sinister". Anakin gets his right hand chopped off. What's left (pun intended)...
his sinister side.
Damn. Well, I guess there's no reason for me to see Empire and RotJ, is there. Thanks for ruining it for me.
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Report: Star Wars episode II, attack of clones
Communicated by CmdrTaco on Thursday May 16, @12:00PM
of the department receive-this-take part-begun.
Lucas did not redeem itself exactly this times around, but he wiped off from most of the worst phantom threat of my memory. Start slow and it clone take half film, in order to really begin to keep going. But the locking hour believes finally like star wars again. Read for my full report I on do not try the thing to the lonely armed bandit, but you were warned.
So confessionzeit, I think not yet that phantom threat was this bad one. If you filter each order religiously out, the glass glass on the scene and possibly midochlorians and order the case running scene down is, gives it a good film in there. Not largely. Straight not sucksville. Thus I entered into clones hoping that Lucas had learned its lesson, and he has mostly.
Much the form from the threat is back. Unfortunately none handle the main actor for the course of an outstanding achievement. Anakin is improved few by the threat. I know that he should be full of the anger and of fear, but mostly get he straight as constipated and bitchy. Amidala seems, taking to be a little a hair. Their romantic scenes are together the Glasglasbinksszenen of this film: It straight tracing the activity and functioning is so bad that the film to something clamps an interesting happened.
The remainder of the form is much better. Ewan McGregor finally seized on the role of Obi Wan. It is one preachy point, but it functions. Samuel L Jackson is bath-ate Jedi, which we wish him its. Senator Palpatine is pretty much the same cord as last mark around. And Dooku, the bad main cord of the light impact is also quite distinguished. Its nice, villians with faces having, there it keep to function a point real. The family fat believed forced few, but it was interesting.
Most outstanding person of this times is around the cgi letters. Crammed had glass glass of the episode I naturally, Watto and many other CG charwomen, but threat literally fully of them. And the technology and the trickzeichner do not have essentially since the last agency improve no more it to cling out like wound thumbs, now, which it like a thumb clings only out also little a fragment. Yoda is naturally the CG chars reminded probably everyone of terrible animation on its scene with a CG in Menance, but clones themselves inside it is CG completely the most important. This is a very large agreement, since differently most CG charwomen, whom we saw up to now, these works nearly perfectly. There are pairs of the shots, in which it does not seem rather quite..., but those the exception are, and not the guideline.
Which I am, is Saying that CG letters finally came into their. In the threat everything, which I could think approximately, is the fact that they were CG. The fact that it not looke rather to the right. This mark around are they straight part of the appearance. Another form-member-supplying moderate dialogue. Ironically enough, chars several of the CG outshine its human counterparts.
The film looks as a whole largely. Many of the costumes look much more like star wars. From the clone army to Amidala, which carries a white costume for the last act, things just look, how I would expect them. We receive to see some sentences which are familiar of a new hope as well as threat and that everything really contributes to forming film feeling like a star war lighter impact. It helps also that the CG continued to improve.
I would like to also notice that I did not receive, to see it on the digital screen. I plan on seeing it digitally in the following week or in the 2..., I explained, I would see that he did not suck it at the local theatre and to examine, before I disturbed to drive to Southfield in order it in the full digital splendor to see.
The remainder of the report directs few more toward Plot. They were warned. History is naturally largely a love history. It gave a threat on the life to Amidalas, and their old friends Anakin and Obi Obi Wan were assigned by the advice Jedi, in order to protect it. Investigating asassinationversuchs leads Obi Obi Wan to one far away planets, in which he discovered a clone army, which was designed, and to a conspiracy, in order to suppress information about it. Anakin and Amidala spend those together time and receive close romantic pseudo scenes clumsy by a row, in which they look both, how they would have been rather in the different films. Their final lack of chemistry maintains nearly.
Obi Obi Wan receives in something smack and thus goes to Anakin and Amidala saving it in order up the level of smack around builds up for the good cords to only terminate. Meanwhile the senate does his thing and a main shift in the energy arises. We learn, is responsible whom for the clone army and which the plan for it is.
The last hour of clones is the Payoff. A battle appropriately of the original trilogy. I will enter not into it becuase, which could spoil it, but let the following points form. First we have finally sufficient bright Sabertaetigkeit. The substantial jedikampf, which we these could do all prequels, could offer us. And my God was at all worth it the waiting period. But we have also muskatbluete Windu to step donkeys and finally, receive to Yoda its probability to examine why he is regarded in such a way in high of degrees.
The similarities to other films in the switch row, particularly realm impacts back are many. I avoid, here mentioning it, but I legend that the film tries to terminate on a dark note which is cool.
The packed theatre that I saw this real, seemed, the same way as believing I. United clumsy laughter during the romance scenes smoothes snickers during the clay/tone of music picknick sequence. But, when the locking battles came around, there was applause around.
And the sums up it really above. It took 3.5 hours of the prequelfilmes, in order to arrive to us at the Payoff. For some it could not have been worth the waiting period..., but for me, I am to be lucky too finally seen straight that most of, which was promised delievered. And I am reinvigorated toward to the star wars. If episode can waive III, where II left away, III should finally be the star wars Prequel, which we waited.
I think Lucas needs to be educated about his crimes against humanity.
Alright people! Break out the pitch forks and torches! Bring the U-hauls and lets all head to Skywalker Range!
Here is Salon's take on Episode II.
As with the sun's light
My mom was magnificent
Unquestionable
This comment is probably too late to be noticed, but more reviews can be found here and here.
The parent review was stolen from adequacy!
*minor spoilers
If you fall a long ways, try to land on a vehicle, they won't hurt you, no matter how fast you're falling.
If you're in a vehicle, just stick you hand out to catch something, it won't even hit your hand hard enough to make you flench, even if you're going 200 mph.
Asteroids have atmospheres
If you age 10 years and are a woman, you won't look it.
Gravity does not apply to heads in helmets
So Taco, does this mean that you are retracting your previously largely positive review of Phantom Menace.
Or has that been wiped from that highly reliable memory of yours?
This is my review from: http://www.instantcool.com/reviews/scifi/star_wars 2.php
So I just got back for seeing Star War Episode II: Attack of the Clones. So, what did I think of it? I guess it's hard to sum up. Let me at least say this, it does make up for some of Episode I's deficiencies. But what is it about these new Star Wars movies that feels so foreign? Both sets of movies had great special effects. Both sets had questionable acting. Setting the film critic in me aside, there was just no joy in this movie. As with Episode I, Attack of the Clones "sounds good on paper," but something is missing.
Story wise, the original Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope if I must) had it locked up. The tale is classic and had all the underpinnings of an epic. It's Greek mythology style story of young normal lad that would ascend to greatness had a charm and innocence all it's own. Add a colorful cast of characters, some great special effects (even now if you ask me), a plot that isn't overly complicated and you have a movie that's interesting, original, and just plain fun. Not to mention epic making and the one of the most influential films of all time. The Empire Strikes Back just plain kicked ass. It was a proper continuation of the Star Wars story and left you wanting more. Return of the Jedi should've been our first hint at where the saga would take us. Jedi started to tell us that Star Wars was for kids. Ewoks saving the galaxy is just not a good way to end an epic, you know. Although I always felt Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker's final showdown made up for a lot of Jedi's problems. Still, it did make Star Wars feel like a kids movie and thus it sorta tarnished the series as a whole.
I know a lot of us hard-core fans were kids when we saw the original trilogy, but does that really make it a kid's movie? I think not. Kids are smarter than we think. They know when you are talking down to them. I'm sure George Lucas he was giving his audience (children) what he thought they wanted. But I think what he missed is that kids wanted an adult world. As a kid, when I saw Star Wars, I didn't feel like I was watching a kid's movie. If anything, I felt like I was invited to see an adult movie with my parents. That made it more special. Kids want to see an adult world that isn't boring like their teacher's or parent's. They want an adult world that's fun and exciting. Something that makes them feel like they can do whatever they want when they grow up. This why most of us in the so-called "Generation X" (I prefer Generation X-Wing) really live our lives differently from our parents. We are not Ward Cleaver. We still play video games. We still eat pizza for breakfast. We still have our imagination. We still have fun because we saw that we could do whatever we wanted when we got older. We could still have fun and excitement when we got older. Do we owe that to Star Wars? I think so. At least, that's what Star Wars has meant to me. I wonder if these new Star Wars movies will mean that much to the new generation? Or will they sit it next to the Power Rangers as their youthful entertainment.
Although Episode II had much less of the kiddy feel to it that Episode I had, it still felt like they were holding back punches. Don't want to upset the parents who brought their children. But is that the problem? Is it too much of a kiddy feel with Star Wars losing it's core audience? Is it just bad storytelling? Is it bad directing? Not completely. These things certainly didn't help, but I noticed something when watching a few scenes of R2-D2 and C3PO. Watching them made me feel like I was watching Star Wars again. It felt right. So is it the characters that make Episode I and II seem so foreign? Definitely. Even Ewoks couldn't kill the Star Wars feel of Return of the Jedi. So what's Episode I and II missing? I'll tell you.
Han Solo
That's right. Han Fucking Solo. There is just no character like him in the current movies cast. Han Solo's character added some color to the drab boring Jedi. Sarcasm to the whimsical droids. The smack down to whiney little upstarts that ask him what that flashing is. Han Solo represents the fun that is missing from the current Star Wars line up. Without him (or a character like him) to bring the rest of the cast alive, it just doesn't feel like Star Wars.
Conclusions
So did I hate this film? No. It was a much better film than Episode I. It does show that Lucas has at least tried to listen to the fans. Maybe Episode III will be more like the Star Wars I remember. It does make me want to look at the series as a whole when they are all completed. There were things I didn't like, but things I did. I did like seeing Yoda lay down some serious force powers, but I don't know if I care for a Muppet flying around fighting a light-saber battle. If he can do that, why does he need a cane? My girlfriend said, "why doesn't he just sit still and use the force to move his light saber?" Now that would've been cool! How come my girlfriend can think of that, but not George Lucas? The whole Jango Fett and Boba Fett dealy was just carrying the whole family thing too far. It just felt like the story was shoe horned between Episode I and the original trilogy. The story was very disjointed. But does that mean you shouldn't go see it? No. For one, the effects are incredible. The only way you'll see them in full glory is in a movie theater. And secondly, The Matrix Reloaded teaser trailer is worth the price of admission alone.
InstantCool
Some people think so.
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In EP2, the big B2 Spirit shaped Naboo ship sounds like a WWII Lancaster bomber.
So Taco, does this mean that you are retracting your previously largely positive review of Phantom Menace.
Or has that been wiped from that highly reliable memory of yours?
Space Balls is an excelent movie, and with a few modifications the new Star wars could pass as a Space Balls sequel. Take for example the part where Anakins mum dies. I laughed my guts out...
But the C-3PO thing is the one that always rubs me the wrong way... he clearly comes off as a shiny bureaucrat in the first films, a prissy droid with a cushy government paycheck (or however droids are compensated; you get the idea). We see other models walking around; he's clearly come from an assembly line.
That's the nature of his character. He winds up getting dragged all around the galaxy when he would rather be back at his robot desk filing robot forms or whatever. That's where the comedy comes from.
Now Lucas has turned that around 180 degrees, made him the crude invention of a moisture farming child on a rural desert planet... ah, don't get me started.
Phallic Symbols in LOTR
Choose the force. Choose a lightsaber. Choose a career as a Jedi. Choose no family. Choose a fucking big space cruiser. Choose washing droids, speeders, death star plans and blasters
Nathan's blog
There were a few things to like, but way more things to dislike about this film.
Actually, I'm starting to like "The Phantom Menance" after watching this. Seriously. Darth Maul was a MUCH better badass badguy they Dooku, and I liked the saber fight with Maul much better.
Things to like:
Mace Windu - Jackson was the only "Cool" part of the movie.
A few of the visual effects, especially the giant Ball shaped ship falling from the sky.
Things to dislike:
Yodas saber work - I laughed.
Obi Won and Anakin getting beat so quickly by Dooku.
Car Chase scene - Goofy Blade Runner ripoff.
The Love Story.
What really made me NOT like the film was that I felt it was a big stall. Nothing really seemed to happen. Anakin was not a bad guy, didn't go BAD at all...christ, a WHOLE lot of stuff has to happen in the next movie.
I sure wish Lucas would have added some new story arc, something new to surprise us. It's not to interesting watching Anakin, Dooku and Obi Wan fighting when you know there is NO WAY either Obi Wan or Anakin are going to die.
I haven't seen the movie yet, so maybe it gets cleared up, but something about all the reviews of this movie just doesn't sound right. During the clone wars, wasn't Anakin just a navigator on a spice freighter?
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Can a post be moderated both funny and insightful? I'd say it's more the latter than the former.
You can have my one-button mouse when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
Is Attack of the Clones worse than The Phantom Menace? Or putting it another way, is worse being kicked down there that getting a couple of teeth pulled out?
The acting of Attack of the Clones is utterly horrific and the sloppy script seems to have been written by a twelve year old. It's so bad you will laugh when people die, promise each other eternal love or describe their most cherished childhood memories. Oh yeah, and it turns out Jedi Knights are like James Bond on steroids.
Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker) is so lame I couldn't believe it and Natalie Portman is right there after him. They will likely be remembered as one of the couples with less chemistry in the history of moviemaking. Attack of the Clones is like Titanic set in space but George Lucas is no James Cameron. While Cameron has limitations George Lucas couldn't direct his way out of a paper bag. George Lucas is lazy and mediocre. It's time people smell the fucking coffee.
And BTW, the CGI of the interior of buildings lacks depth of field and looks shitty.
I thought it was great! I liked the first one to some degree, but this one was far better.
My big complaint about the movie is that it assumes too much knowledge about the Star Wars universe. I feel that I know a fair bit about it, but still much of the 'politics' eluded me, an effect that would probably be much worse for utter Star Wars newbies. Who ordered the clones ten years ago and how did he know they would be needed? Who erased the planet from the archives? Is Palpatine on the republic or the separatist side? It's all very odd, though perhaps they'll clear things up in the next movie. Lightsaber battles are more fun than long explanations anyway.
Ceci n'est pas une sig
But like the cherished passions of first love, the fervor called forth by the landmark film is never coming back, and no amount of prequels or sequels is going to change that. Paradoxically, the fact that the latest prequel, "Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones," is a bit better than its predecessor makes it clear how lacking in the things that matter these newcomers are.
Given its huffy 9-year-old protagonist and off-putting characters like Jar Jar Binks and Watto the junk dealer, "Episode I The Phantom Menace" was anything but a tough act to follow. Picking up the adventures of Anakin Skywalker 10 years later, "Clones" (which opens Thursday) has more menace and less Jar Jar, better battles and an impressive parade of eye-catching splendors. But like the Tin Man, "The Wizard of Oz's" C-3PO predecessor, it doesn't have much of a heart. Writer-director George Lucas' gift for animating the inanimate turns out to be paralleled by a tendency to deaden what should be completely alive.
As with "Phantom Menace," it is the pictorial element of "Clones" that makes the biggest impact. Production designer Gavin Bocquet, aided by four visual effects supervisors, three concept design supervisors, an animation director and a previsualization and effects co-supervisor (no, I don't know what that is either), has created some truly involving alternative universes, and costume designer Trisha Biggar has figured out what should be worn in each of them.
Some of the film's action is also well-done, especially a thrilling flying chase through the dizzying nighttime urban caverns of Coruscant, the "Blade Runner"-influenced capital city. But except for a climactic appearance by the venerable Yoda, whose computer-generated lightsaber skills got him on the cover of Time under a "Yoda Strikes Back!" headline, creating emotion is beyond this film's powers.
One reason is a script that feels, well, cloned, something Lucas and co-writer Jonathan Hales (TV's "Young Indiana Jones," story credit on "The Mummy Returns") threw together in their spare time. The plot is standard, and the dialogue, even for something intended for young people, is curiously flat. It ranges from the pious ("The day we stop believing democracy can work is the day we lose it") to the predictive ("Why do I get the feeling you're going to be the death of me," Obi-Wan Kenobi jokes to Anakin) to the pathetic, as when Anakin grumbles about Padmé Amidala, "I've thought about her every day since we parted--and she's forgotten me completely."
These stiff lines are matched by line readings so uniformly impassive that even such lively performers as Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan) and Natalie Portman (Padmé) can't animate them. Only the veteran Christopher Lee, with experience of doing things on his own during his long career, gives a worthwhile performance as the villainous Count Dooku. For what Lucas gets out of his cast, the actors might as well be digital too, as is the rest of the film.
This dramatic stolidity underlines yet again how fortunate Lucas--and the world--was in the Harrison Ford-Carrie Fisher-Mark Hamill troika that animated the original "Star Wars." Ford especially brought the kind of wickedly nonchalant sense of humor to the proceedings that has gone missing this time around.
To be fair to the current "Clones" team, there's perhaps something more at work here. When that first film was being made, it meant less than zero to say you were part of "Star Wars"; the eyes of the world were not on the production, to say the least.
Now, everything has been close to sanctified, and those currently involved seem weighted down by the knowledge that they're part of a phenomenon. There's an unshakable self-consciousness about "Clones" that does not work to its advantage.
Still, the picture does start promisingly, with Senator (and former Queen) Amidala coming to Coruscant to try and preserve the Republic against a secessionist movement. She's quickly the target of multiple assassination plots, and the Jedi knight Obi-Wan and his Padawan learner-apprentice Anakin are called in to protect her.
Judging by his performance here (perhaps not a wise thing to do), young Canadian actor Hayden Christensen was picked for Anakin strictly on his ability to radiate sullen teen rebellion, something he does a lot. Anakin chafes like a grounded adolescent at the restrictions Obi-Wan places on him, grousing that the master is "overly critical. He never listens. He just doesn't understand. It's not fair."
This High School Confidential in Outer Space tone is continued in the forbidden romance (Jedis aren't allowed to fall in love) that develops between Anakin and the senator. As the young people hide from danger in an elegant Naboo retreat, they're burdened by a formidable lack of chemistry. (Where are Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst when we really need them?) And they're saddled with dialogue that might have been ransacked from old Harlequin novels: "I'm haunted by the kiss you never should have given me."
Everything inevitably ends in a climactic battle, where the senator gets to fight bad guys while showing off a Britney Spears-like bare midriff. Impressive though the computer work is, it soon descends into video game overkill. Only a teenage boy could find this kind of stuff continually diverting, and only a teenage boy would not notice flimsy emotions and underdeveloped acting. It seems George Lucas, like Peter Pan, has never really grown up.
Kenneth Turan
Your pizza just the way you ought to have it.
OR maybe something along the lines of Bruce Willis's character is really dead and only the kid can see him
or perhaps Tim robins was digging a tunnel all along an Red knew nothing about it
or my personal favourite Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are the same guy
The Borg assimilated my race & all I got was this lousy T-shirt
Although theres one bit that just didn't look right...
:D
When Anakin was riding that animal (rather surfing it) the animation was abit too shaky and Anakin didn't fit in with the CG.
Also did anyone notice the way Padme ran on the sand after she fell off the ship towards the end?
(Posting as AC because Slashdot is losing my login between pages again.)
My friend said DLP is not being shown so the lists are wrong. :(
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I thought the diner scene was really out of place. Here we are, long long ago in a galaxy far far away, and there is a typical American diner being run by robots and aliens. The robot waitress even has the "How ya doin' hon?" voice and inflection. It was completely out of place and destroyed any sense of fantasy I felt about the Lucas universe.
I think Lucas is basically doing the same thing Shatner did when he said "Get a life people, it's just a show." Lucas is telling us he's not taking this Star Wars thing seriously. It's all a big joke. The title is "Attack of the Clones" for Christ's sake! What it comes down to is George Lucas is a big kid. He never grew up. He never went through puberty. Romance? That's icky! He was forced to put romance scenes in this movie, but boy, was if painful. He just wants funny characters and cool fight scenes. Dialog schmialog. Plot schmlot.
The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
Dammit! I'm a f***ing count again!
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
[Yoda Related Spoiler Warning]
Say what you want about forced dialogue, or annoying relationships, but seeing what Yoda does more than makes up for it. When the little green guy walked in on the Count Doku fight scene, I screamed like a little school girl. When he whipped out his light saber, I truly couldn't contain myself. And when he was flipping around with his saber blazing, I realized that I was jumping up and down in my seat.
Until that scene, I was wondering why I had spent two days in line, missed a few classes, gotten pushed and shoved, prodded and yelled at; all for some forced dialogue and a bitchy teenager. Then, when Yoda came in, it all seemed very much worth it.
Mod my comments down. It'll be fun.
+2000, best post on slashdot, year-to-date. woot!
...in the "romantic" scenes. (NOTE: SPOILERS) He keeps saying all these cheesy romantic emotional things... but I actually thought it was very in-character -- it seemed like Anakin had gotten his entire sense of romance from holodramas, since he probably had had very little in the way of real social contact with girls for the past ten years. Padme put up with the clumsy come-ons because she (for whatever reason, not really well-established in the movie) was falling in love with him, but her sense of duty kept her from acknowledging it at first. Kinda sucks for Anakin that it took imminent death for Padme to get past that. :)
:)
And can I just say that Obi-Wan is the worst Jedi ever? Episode IV, he gets killed by Vader (in what I always thought was a bit of needless martyrdom). Episode V, he acts all cryptic and unhelpful. Episode VI, he whines. Episode I, he nearly gets killed by Maul, and Episode II he nearly gets killed by Dooku. Not that I don't like him, he's just kind of incompetent.
And, yes, Blender-Jedi Yoda was the damn coolest thing ever. Like someone else said, it was awesome to see why Yoda is so highly regarded.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
First off, I am not usualy one to point out flaws in movies, but this one has just been stuck in my mind since I heard it. When Obi Wan was talking about where the planet should be he said "South of..." Can someone tell me how south relates to planets in space, South is a compass direction, influenced by the magnetic polls. Is there some sort of Force or galactic polls that give people in space a way to dissern North from South, if they even exist in space?
This is actualy the first time I have had a second thought about validity of things in science fiction, but it just kind of stuck out in my mind. Did they screw up, not realize it, or is there something I am not understanding.
On a different Note, Yoda in the Light Saber Battle was deffinately the saveing grace of the movie for me. I loved it when the entire theater exploded into applause when Yoda reached for his light saber and proceeded to do... whatever you want to call all that juming around and kicking ass.
-- Any comments seen here are not mine, but a mixture of alchohol and lack of sleep.
#include jarjarslam.h
#include notasgoodastheoriginal.h
#include whereisjonkatzinallthiscomment.h
Spaceballs is probably the best thing to come out of star wars.
Actually, there have been some other great parodies like Thumb Wars and Hardware Wars.
Some really decent fan films, too.
Spaceballs is the only one in my collection, so far.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
The link I posted mentioned that it should be fine on a smaller screen (like you get at many cinaplexes) but the reviewers saw it on big-ass screens and the graininess apparently gets worse with it... whereas with movies shot on film the size doesn't seriously decrease the clarity.
There's simply more visual information stored on a piece of film than can currently be stored in a digital format. That degredation gets worse with size...
But that said, the same reviewers claimed the picture was crystal-clear on a digital projector. Are digital projection screens smaller? IF not, wouldn't they suffer the same losses? Like playing a little 3x3 inch compressed mpeg movie at full screen on my monitor? Or are digital projection screens always the same size, thus allowing the filmmakers to plan around it?
I guess it's a moot point for me; I don't have a digital projection screen within 200 miles.
Phallic Symbols in LOTR
He said, and than put the spoiler "attack of the clones" in the title of his review. Now people won't be surprised when the clones attack. Bad Cmdr., bad.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
I just can't believe that with that much money they couldn't come up with some good writers... There were so many moments there which could have been really really good. Why wasn't Anakin's mom mad when he found her? Why didn't Anakin go on a real tirade and why did he smile when leaving right after that in his ship? How much money does one need to get a good script going???
just go rent yourself a porn flick
All this whining about horrible acting and dialogue makes me wonder if anybody has seen the original trilogy lately. Bad acting, long exposition interspersed with one-line scenes is what star wars is about.
The only person who consistently had good lines, or even acted well was Han Solo. But he rewrote lots of his dialogue, and we all know that he is a good actor.
Luke Skywalker presented us with an oscar deserving performance with his infamous "No! No! Thats no true! Thats impossible"
Princess Leia: don't even get me started, half her lines in the first movie are clunkers.
And wow those were some amazing lightsaber battles in those movies.
Swing swing swing die.
Swing push swing talk loose hand.
Swing jump talk swing jump talk swing lightning swing die.
But we have been watching these movies for 25 _years_ now. They are part of the childhood of most of us here. Give Ep I,II,III 25 years, and I am sure there will be a crop of 30 year olds singing the praises of the 6 movies.
What did yoda say in the end.
Ok I heard "begun this COLD war has" All my friends say "Begun this CLONE war has."
Ok I agree it makes more sense with the title and everything to say clones but man I heard cold.
Anyone else?
wah!
Loved this twist. But if Jar Jar hadn't done it, all the jedi's woulda been dead. And that would create a hole in the space time continoum which would cancel all past and future star wars movies as we know it!
-jcATcs.washington.edu
Severelyk s
Lacking
Any
Sense,
Hypocritical
Dor
Outside
Theaters
My biggest problem with the movie is not whether a character is CG or not, or even whether the story seems unecessarily convoluted or obfuscated.
My beef is with the dialogue and Christensen's inability to portray a conflicted young Vader as anything other than a spoiled youth.
Wooden dialogue and a decided lack of chemistry between Anakin and Amidala plagued this film.
I certainly hope the 3rd installment is able to tie together all the loose ends without seeming as disjointed and awkward as this film did.
Back in 1977, after watching years of cheezey films I sat in a theater in Midland, Michigan to see a film people were completely at a loss to describe, other than, "You just have to see this man, just go see it." I nearly dropped my popcorn at the start when the corellian(sp?) ship rumbled overhead firing away. The fairly new theater had Surround and Lucas put it to good use. Not since Tora Tora Tora had I been so impressed by a film, and George Lucas knew what few other filmmakers understood, effect when managed carefully can make up for a lot of short comings. I didn't pay much attention to some of the sets (which look pretty camp now) because I was so impressed, not hard when compared to a lot of films in the mid-late 70's. Now they put piles of money into flicks so overdramatic and littered with acting they make 50's B movies look like Shakespeare. The impression has lasted years and for that I'm content.
Kids today missed out, maybe Spider-Man or Independence Day would be their defining moment in cinematic memory. We'll have to ask them in about 25 years.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
He loved TPM, which I hate. And now he hates AOTC?? Whatever--I guess that means it'll be the best Star Wars since Empire.
Boba is supposed to be the first clone if I remember right, genetically unaltered. I understood this to mean that Jango is raising Boba like a son, though it's not specified whether Boba knows he's a clone or not; likely he does with hundreds of thousands of other kids that look just like him running around the place. Jango does get it in the end, not one of his clones, that much is clear.
The Star Wars series is getting a little tired in Lucas' hands. Maybe his next project should be THX-1138 ep.2...
HOT GRITS !!!!!
It is :
Moderation Totals: Insightful=1, Funny=3, Total=4.
:)
My journal has hot
Long lines, rowdy crowd of fanboys, lousy seats, technical difficulties, nice Matrix Reloaded preview, etc.
Hayden Christensen, as the petulent brat Anakin Skywalker, is possibly the worst actor in a major film in years. We finally learn how Luke got the whining gene.
Natalie Portman looked sedated. I kept expecting Hayden to slip her the tongue. No dice.
But I'm not sure you can completely blame the actors for the movie. George Lucas wouldn't know a decent script if it were shoved up his ass. Dozens of cringe-inducing lines. Audience of rabid fanboys snickered and groaned.
I felt embarassed for Hayden (he made me feel uncomfortable!) and Natalie. I felt embarassed for Star Wars fans. I felt embarassed for the movie. The long battle scene at the end was cool.
All in all, it's worth your $10--albeit for about 30 minutes of the film. As much as I'd like to see some of the action sequences again, I don't think I could sit through the rest of it. Except if someone MST3Ks it, which would be an immense improvement.
I remembered he had a pretty positive review of SW:TPM but didn't try to look it up...thanks. We now have Taco saying that if you cut 1/3 of TPM out then "it's not great" but not that bad either. Doesn't make me too confident that this is an unclouded review.
Did anyone see the headbutt scene that supposedly got taken out in the UK? I didn't but I might not have been paying attention...
Gnuyen
[cbg] Best Comment, ever. [/cbg]
Filthy human worm baby.
**sorta spoilers included**
/.'er requires electric shock therapy to feel love. (But I liked Jar Jar and the Ewoks, if that gives you any impression on the type of person I am.) And yeah, the dialogue leaves something to be desired.
I got the big privilege to see it this morning in DLP here in Cleveland. The digital system is not exactly earth shattering, but it is impressive (and I don't think I would even try going to see it on regular film.) There are no specks in the screen, and colors are indeed super bright (though the light sabers don't seem any more brillaint than they would be otherwise. I was disappointed by that.) Roger Ebert said that it looked disappointing on regular film, and I could how that would be , though I can't explain why.
One thing that bugged me is that, and I dunno if this was the result of dlp, or it just happened that way, i could see that some of the scenes were not of tremendous quality. Standing in Palantine's office, you could see the entrance way (a door or two and a little room leading to his office) is computer generated, and lacks depth. Also, when Amidala is in the factory and stuck in a molten core barrel, you could sense how it was done in a studio--it lost the factory's touch.
On an incidental note, I was a bit more touched by the romantic scenes, I'm just that type of person--I think the average
*applause*
Beautiful, beautiful! LOL
SB
It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
It's a heckuva lot more palatable when you cut out Jarjar binx dude. Look for "the Phantom Edit" and download it please. OTOH it still has a crap story, stupid kid Anakin, lame pseudo-villians and a half-hour pod race...
Enjoy!
Click here or here.
Thank you Dickinson Northrock 14! They have two digital projectors and I was there for their first showings. I have never seen DLP before and I also have not seen the same movie on Film and DLP (I may go see Ep2 on film just to see if its different). Here are some things I noticed:
1: The most visable improvement that me and my failing eyesight (at 19 too, fuckin 85hz) could see was on the green screen that said that this preview had been aproved for all audiences. That was friggen pristine!
2: MAJOR FUCKING ANOYANCE: There were these three rectangles 'on the screen' that made that section of the screen just a tid bit darker. I am guessing that maybe some color calibration decals were left on lens on the glass between the projector and the auditorium.
3: I have bad eyesite and I was about the 6th or so row from the from and I could not pick out pixelation - and I looked hard. However, my friend up in the row infront of me said he could pick it out big time. If that is the case then UGH, WTF!
4: Like I said, I have not seen this on film yet so its hard to compare the quality but light sabers in the dark were friggen amazing.
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!
DVD has significantly lower resolution than even 35mm film, not to mention 70mm. Besides which, unless you plan to watch your DVD on an LCD display with a 1:1 mapping of LCD pixels to DVD pixels, you are going to get digital-to-analog conversion and scaling artifacts anyway. If you are going to see it, it will probably be much better in the theater.
You may safely blow your $9.50, secure in the knowledge that it will still be better than what you'd see at home.
And you'll buy the DVD anyway.
Does Attack Of The Clones improve The Phantom Menace in retrospect?
I'll be seeing the flick on Friday, when it opens here and you'd think that by getting more overlap between the original movies and the "new" prequels, this would improve Star Wars as a whole.
And if III is done, would we then say: Star Wars is 6 movies, instead of 3+3? Just curious if the fans who saw it are now more ready to accept the whole package, including TPM, which indeed wasn't bad, just not great nor Star Wars either.
We want to understand about the socio-economic relationships clones introduce when confronted to droids, and the threat such a relationship is towards the current Guild commercial ventures and business models!!!!
It's "better" than TPM, but still a lousy SW movie. The love scenes are unbearable. Actually hearing some of those lines makes you want to cover your ears and say the alphabet to drown it out. Anakin is such a lecherous jerk it's astonishing. He keeps touching Padme and feeling her arm, as if that magic touch is going to make her go wild. Any normal girl would slap him in the face and tell him to keep his fucking hands to himself. I mean, it's almost sickening.
This is what Darth Vader is reduced to? Anakin is annoying in so many ways: embarrassingly horny, foolishly impulsive, recklessly stubborn. No redeeming qualities at all. Even bad guys have redeeming qualities, it's what makes them captivating. He has none at all. He is a horrible character. Darth Vader as a character is diminished by seeing this, although even now I barely connect the two together.
Ironically, while the audience will want the romantic scenes to be over as soon as possible, in the context of the story, it happens way too quickly. It goes like so: Horny Jedi sees the girl he's had a crush on for 10 years and drools over her in the most obvious ways. She repels his advances, but does give him the once-over. OK, he's aggressive and pestering, but SO DREAMY and INTRIGUINGLY DISTURBED. (Five minutes pass) He kisses her and she says it's a mistake even though she admits to feeling something too. More obvious fawning and pleading from the Horny Jedi. (Ten minutes pass) They go to Tatooine and she sees his sensitive side. The grieving son side, not the going-postal-with-revenge side. (Five minutes pass) They get captured and she professes her love for him because life is, like, too short, you know? (One big battle happens. Twenty minutes?) Having survived that, they return to Naboo and get married. (Good thing for him, because wanking off would have been damn near impossible after that saber battle...)
The early scenes on Coruscant are typical Lucas. Every frame is jam packed with too much to absorb. There are aliens walking around. Signs displaying messages. Trams zipping along. Droids performing tasks. And somewhere in the middle of this mayhem, two characters who you are supposed to be paying attention to. Man, he just doesn't get it. This overstimulus repeats itself over and over: in the speeder chase; in the city street; in the bar.
The movie's scenes are like index cards with ideas for locations, fights, or chases, with nary a bit of connective story between them.
The detective plot is silly. I'm sorry, but it is. Hmm, where did this mysterious dart come from? Of course it only comes from one planet. You know, the one in the Big Clue solar system. If you wanted to kill someone, wouldn't a nice sniper shot from a laser rifle be effective? If subtlety wasn't important, just spray a crowd with a blaster cannon. But no, use a stupid dart that will allow them to follow the trail of conspirators.
It bears mentioning that I can't believe the Jedi council continues to send one guy on critical missions when maybe four would be appropriate. Also, Yoda has never looked so unwise. Bad decisions you make! Cost many lives, it will!
The second half of the movie is somewhat better in that there is some action. However there are still problems abound. First there's the whole Tatooine trip. You're never told why Anakin hasn't in ten years been able to see his mother, so you're left to wonder why, other than to make it really dramatic, he only shows up when she breathes her last breath. Are the Jedi such assholes that they won't allow a four-day furlough for a trainee to go visit (perhaps even "free") his mother? OK, so now he's gonna do some serious kung fu on those Tusken Raiders, show 'em who's boss, yo! ....uhm, whaddayamean you aren't going to show it? You go from him taking the first swing (as seen in the trailers) to a fade/wipe to the next scene? Lame!
The fighting in the arena is pretty intense. I'm not entirely satisfied here either though, because some key matchups again get the short shrift. You'd expect Jango against Mace Windu to be a great fight. A Jedi Master versus Jango Fett? Sign me up! Don't get your hopes up, it's lame. Jango hardly puts up a fight before his head flies off. Really disappointing.
Plus, the Jedi in the battle are nameless and interchangeable. (Another of Lucas' big blunders. If he had any storytelling skill, he would've introduced at least one new Jedi character in this movie, if for nothing else than for the sake of getting some emotional response when he dies.)
For all the build up, the Yoda fight was a big letdown. As I feared, they have him spin around like Sonic the Hedgehog. The fight barely lasts a few seconds and then Dooku makes his escape.
One thing that really bugged me was the blatant Empire Strikes Back ripoffs. You'll see them continually throughout the movie. Lines of dialogue are so similar that you are forced to draw comparisons. There's a whole bit where Dooku is trying to get Kenobi to join him and I half expected him to say, "Yoda never told you what happened to your father. I am your father!"
So much of the action is cartoony. Anakin falling hundreds of feet onto a speeder with no injury and then having it crash and having him stand up with barely a wince is just one example.
However, at least this one doesn't crap all over the original trilogy the way the first one did. Which is my bitter way of saying Lucas didn't pull another "Darth Vader built 3PO" type of bombshell. So that was "good."
...because there are only 323 posts on /. about it. Stupid judgical rulings get more respone than that.
Yoda fighting was just goofy. With his little mini light saber, I kept thinking, maybe Yoda should have battled Mini-Me.
Maybe in Episode 3.
We shouldn't have to wait until the fucking second or third episode to start with.
if you want "No More Hiroshimas" then I say "You First. No More Pearl Harbors."
For those of you south of the Mason-Dixon, Sliver == Splinter. :)
as one of my friends said... at least in this movie he did something... he wasn't in this movie just for the sake of being in the movie, he actually advanced the plot.
--You will rephrase your request for me to go to hell. Goto statements are not acceptable programming constructs
I saw the first Star Wars movie opening night when I was 16 years old. I was honestly perplexed that anybody thought that it was other than shallow, contrived shit. I persevered, watching every SW film afterwards on opening night, wanting to understand why this derivative garbage had so captured the pysche of the nation. I wanted to belong, damnit!
For Phantom Menace, I attended just because I'd seen the other three. Of course, I was disappointed. Last night, I went to see Clones, KNOWING that it was going to be trash.
Happily, for the very first time, I was wrong. Lucas finally presented to me a world that I had never seen before. Sometimes the CGI was disappointing, but only occasionally and never to the point of distraction. It was fast-paced, but still contained enough of a story to hold my interest. The eye candy was fantastic. Almost every alien and every craft and every city was amazing.
Omit the Anakin masturbation scene, and the Sound of Music scene, and much of the dialogue between our two young lovers (no chemistry, and that is hard to imagine considering that Natalie is HOT and a capable actor), and the movie was the second best I've seen this year (Brotherwood of the Wolf being the first).
Of course, I was disturbed that Natalie's character simpers so often, and, even after Anakin reveals that he is a mass murderer of women and chidren, she still marries him.
Still, I enjoyed it more than anything I've seen Lucas direct since American Graffiti or THX 1138.
Thank you, George.
Neopets - the best free game on the Int
Dude, I saw Attack of The Clones last night... it seemed like the end wasn't totally finished... I almost think they are going to make a sequel to it!!!
-Alex
Remember, it's not the MPAA as a whole that you need to look at, moreso as the actions of its members. Star Wars is, as others have noted, done by LucasFilm, not associated with the MPAA.
Boycotting ALL movies will have no effect, however, a more meaningfull approach would be to boycott movies from members of the MPAA heavily in support of the legislation you don't want, and to see movies from more neutral/friendly studious.
IE: buy FOX instead of buying Disney.
This works in multiple ways: it shows the buying power that the slashdot crowd can create, it allows people to have pop entertainment and still stand for "the cause", and it damages the company that ppl do not support. A full boycott would be difficult to arrange, and very unpopular. A buy from this studio as they do not want to destroy your rights campain however, could possible work - perhaps even w/ the mass public, if you can get some media support.
(This entire line of reasoning however, exists souly because I want to see star wars(again). Yes i know, I'm a hyprocite. Bite me.)
------ 24.5% slashdot pure
"Where quality is like a dead stinking rat - you just can't miss it."
Wait I can't.
Too bad I didn't get tickets for tonight..
Well, working isn't too bad either.. I wish.
I'm going to wander a bit, but I think there's an important point that people are missing. People miss the context of these movies and Lucas has put a very subversive political statement in them- both in how they are made and in the story they tell.
I never quite understood the complaints from the Star Wars "fans" about Phantom Menace. It seems there's a lot of people who wanted A New Hope remade and hated tht Lucas released a movie with a different story! Jar Jar was the lightning rod for this.
But PM was a summer bubble gum movie, JUST LIKE Star Wars originally was.
Lucas has stayed true to his vision with this movie, as we move towards the period in which ANH takes place we can see how we got from PM to ANH.
This movie, shot digitally, and shown digitally, really rocks. It is a compelling argument for digital theater. Its unfortunate that the reviewer is reviewing the movie not as it was meant to be seen-- but film isn't the only issue here. When ships rumbled this morning I felt it in my legs. (Cinerama in Seattle, best theater I've ever been in.) The image was pristine the sound system THX and turned up.
The other is that this is not a Tom Clancy story. This is not a Wim Wenders story. This is not a typical movie saga-- this is Space Opera.
A lot of "fans" seem to have forgotten this. This isn't The Matrix-- they are different categories of movies. Unfortunately, there is so little Science Fiction that all Science Fiction is perceived to be the same genre.
I freely admit that I prefer the style of story and dialogue of Blade Runner and the Matrix over Star Wars-- but Lucas's does his job so well that I have to give his movies the higher marks.
Lucas is telling a Galactic sized story, and only has 270 minutes to do it in. That means each scene must convey a lot of information, and the result is tortured dialog... and even then it feels like there's a whole lot that we don't get to see.
I respect this ambition, and I accept that it means that finding a cast that can convey it is going to be difficult-- especially given the financial, and political constraints on Lucas. Remember, these movies are made outside the hollywood system and without union crews-- and I applaud that. Its the ONLY way to tell the story you want to tell.
Many "fans" seem to forget who the audience for these movies is. It isn't 35 year old computer geeks. Otherwise they wouldn't be popular. The audience is middle america who wants entertainment. And Lucas, consistently, delivers what they want.
That's why we have Jar Jar - kids love him. That's why we have a love story in this movie. (Not to mention it would be hard to conceive Luke and Leia without some love story somewhere.)
And the reason he "compromises" in this way is not just to get the big box office, but to serve his larger, ultimate goal. Notice how much politics there are in these films? There's a really subversive message. One that Marx made (before jumping to foolish conclusions) and most americans ignore, but is extremely poignant these days:
When given the chance, people will trade liberty for security.
Ben Franklin brought this up a long time ago, in a country far far away, and Lucas is making the point again, but a bit too subtly for most people to pick up on it.
Do you trade democracy for the perceived security of a clone army? Regular inspections at airports? Do you concede your inalienable right to self defense and rely on the Jedi? Notice that Amadala is a pretty self sufficient person when the going gets tough.
And when you do, ultimately, as all democracies seem want to do, trade liberty for perceived security, you get neither-- you get an empire.
As we react to being attacked by "seperatists" with increased government control over our lives, we move in the direction of the dark side- of fascism- does it need to be pointed out how similar the empire's soldiers in the first three movies looked like our Nazis? The fixation with Nazis shown in the indiana jones movies?
They do make great villains, especially visually. but there's a lot more going on here.
Hitler was freely elected in Germany. A chancellor, or senator, he was. Germans, after the defeat and Trade Federations imposition at the treaty of versailles, wanted a strong leader. One who would raise an army despite the prohibitions. Hitler was that leader. He raised an army of genetically pure "clones" with rigid behavioral conformity and turned the country into an empire.
Nobody thinks it could happen here, but difficult to see, the dark side is.
BitGeek
Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23
What part of me not wanting to read /. movie reviews does my preferences not understand? I MEAN NEVER. YOUR REVIEWS ARE HORRIBLE. I DON'T EVEN WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THEM!
fslg503-985-8686503-985-8686503-985-8686503-985-8
He Dies.
I am enrolled at a boarding school, 10-12 grade, we have strict rules about you can do and cannot do. One of the things you can't do is break the city curfew, some of the others include not walking off campus without permission to see Episode 2
My roommate decided to disregard these rules and walk to our local theater for the midnight showing, it's maybe 3-4 miles away, and you turn left once and walk and your are there. He decides that the best way to get to the movie theater is to walk in the wrong direction, get lost, and call me to get directions.
Little did he know that many of our "resident counselors" (people who tell us what to do) had been looking for him. He decides at 12:00 that he was going to give up and come back, and tried to use his mad "counterstrike" skillz to dodge the security guard, and needless to say he gets caught, now he's looking at expulsion
Now I ask you, what would you be willing to do to have gone to see Star Wars at midnight?
and
Would you have done something as stupid as my roommate?
I just have one complaint about the Yoda fight: instead of stopping the column in mid-air, why not simply yank Obi-wan & Anakin out of the way? Seems to me that would take less Force energy then suspending several tons of rock or whatever in mid-air...after that, he could have continued to kick the dooky out of Dooku (sorry, couldn't resist :)).
i admit i'm not the biggest star wars fan, but i really enjoyed the last hour or so. I was on the verge of falling asleep before that though... suprisingly, a lot of JOCKS came to see it, and for about 2 1/2 hours.. we all got along ;)of course everyone agrees around here, that the scene with yoda and dooku was the ultimate shiznit! it rocked.. you could hear the people in the theatre cheering when he whipped out his lightsabre :) kudos to lucas for redeeming himself partially.
see sig. see sig run. run sig run.
I saw it Wednesday at midnight and I completely agree with what Ebert said about the film quality. I was unfortunate enough to be in the fourth row at the theater for the movie... It wasn't a huge screen and normally I don't mind sitting that close to the screen. (The closest I've ever been to the screen was at the theater I used to work at. The basement auditorium had a small carpeted stage which was actually really nice. Since we're allowed to preview a movie after it was put together, I started it up and laid down on the stage. My feet were even with the bottom masking on the screen!!! It was great, made the 20' screen look enormous.)
Even though I enjoy sitting close once in a while, I'm going to make sure I sit in the back the next time I see AOTC. The picture looked really grainy. It's especially noticeable on the actors faces. It all just looks weird, like the resolution isn't high enough and you can see individual pixels. It really sucks to hear so many great things about the CGI in the movie then to have it all ruined by compromising the quality of the print.
It stinks.
I mean, sinks.
Oh nevermind, I guess they're both okay.
The Right Reverend K. Reid Wightman,
I thought that there were nine movies in the original "arc" envisioned by Lucas. Now, I've heard from many sources that the series will conclude with Episode 6. Anyone know why?
Just a note to say that I saw a DLP version of Star Wars and I hate to say this, but I think the digital projectors have a LONG way to go....Jaggies on the text - arrgghh!
Other than that, film was great, anyone else notice the dent that R2D2 got for no apparent reason?
*Spoilers Here Too*
I think you have nailed the low moments. Most people don't go to Star Wars for the love scenes but I don't think they expect to be TOTALLY EMBARRASSED by writing and acting that would feel more at home in a high-school senior project (frankly this is a cut to some of the talented high-schoolers I know). I couldn't stomach some of the plot holes either...
What is with this super-cloning race? Someone tells them to build an army 10 years ago, someone else totally unknown to them shows up in a robe and they tell him all. They then turn the army over to someone else they don't know. I'd think they'd be spending a lot of time in the Imperial Courtroom fighting off lawsuits for being totally incompetent! It is no wonder they have such tiny heads the most of which are filled with giant eyeballs. They must have brains the size of walnuts with two sections: silly walks and cloning expertise.
They have to come up with a reason why the queen isn't the queen any more. Get this, it is an elected position with term limits! Go figure... I guess they didn't want to spend a lot of dough on fancy costumes. Plus Amadala would have had a hard time fighting with all those strange hair get-ups in the first movie.
The reason for Amadala's initial spurning of Anni is super lame. It goes something like... "I'm a senator and, and you're a Jedi..." Get it? I didn't either. In the 70's love meant never having to say you're sorry, now it means never having to make a career change.
And speaking of senator Amadala, why is her vote so friggin important anyway? There are 100's maybe 1000's of senators. Is the vote really close? Are the Republicans planning a fillibuster? Has Newt Gingrich returned as an actual alien Newt? This is not explained. We just know her vote is really important... so important in fact that she leaves the mental giant Jar-Jar in her place when she must flee for her own saftey... what the!?
I think the writers of this thing must have just finished long stints writing for Days Of Our Lives or (put any WB sitcom here)!
In all honesty though, I was thrilled when Yoda kicked butt... it was cool to finally see what made him such a powerful master besides the fact that "wise is he".
I'd put the movies so best to worst:
Episodes 5, 6, 4, 2, 1.
grimzap
I enjoyed AOTC, but with some huge reservations, mainly due to the lack of depth in the film. I'm not trying to compare 'Clones' to any of the older SW movies - I'm just concerned that as filmmakers become better and better at creating artificial life using CGI, they seem to get worse and worse at giving us real human experiences in the movies. Think about it this way:
As we're watching this movie, do we really care about Anakin, Padme, or any of the other characters? I know I really didn't. I enjoyed the visuals and I loved seeing the whole SW saga start coming together. But the HEART was missing - the human factor - and so the movie came across as a little more than a great fireworks show: I was thrilled while I watched, but my life wasn't changed by the experience and I'm not going to walk around for days thinking about it.
And so my point - what is missing from this movie is ACTING. I'm not sure who's to blame, but it seems like a lot of time was spent on how this film LOOKED and very little was spent on how it FELT, and so all the moviegoer gets is visual stimulation. And I'm just very afraid that this movie will do well at the box office and future films (not just SW films) will follow the precedent, and we'll continue to be fed mega-blockbusters about space and explosions and guns and cars, instead of movies about people and life and love. And as movies like this continue to succeed, the ancient art of acting will continue to die away.
When empire came out, it was the "worst episode...ever" that I'd seen until that time. It seemed butchered...all for the sake of merchandise. In the final scene when the, let's face it, perfect-for-action-figures-Ewoks are dancing around, they weren't using what I'd call 'native' instruments- instead the music was contrived, focus-group-driven and sucked all the thrill of victory out of the thing.
But the other night it was aired again, I believe on USA, with a new soundtrack that I don't remember hearing before. It was perfect for the scene...and unlike the previous, it didn't bring to mind a song that would have third-graders humming all day at school the next day.
What I'm getting at here, is that maybe George has finally got enough boats/houses/baseball teams/private islands, and he's gotten older and more pensive about the thing. I've heard several things about the new movie, which I'll be seeing in a couple of hours, that suggest regret for the way they first came out, and a therapy of sorts to set things right.
What made episode 4 so great? No expectations. Little money, and a furious hope that people would enjoy the plot and these unknown actors to the point that they'd love the story. And we did- there was no "usual suspects" rounded up for the movie (Sorry, Sam Jackson: I love ya, but you're a known-quantity now).
It was all about the story: a kid like most of us, staying home to do what's right by the family. Then he learns about this hidden talent and before he can really control it, he's called upon to use it to protect his friends. And for a little vengence for his aunt and uncle.
But once it started earning megabucks outta nowhere, someone started messing with the formular and kinda forgot about the story. I hope to be able to report that we're back on track, with this movie.
Does Annikin fall into the acid and get the black suit at the end of this one, or is that the next one?
--- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
I feel a great disturbance in the force. Something must be terribly wrong for it to take 12 hours for the first review to be posted on /.
For the record, this review was written by zikzak and posted to Adequacy.org several days ago. It has been reproduced here without permission or attribution (and mention of Adequacy was actually removed from the introduction.) We're glad you enjoyed the review, but the least you could have done is explain where it came from.
We're going down, in a spiral to the ground
I know this is completely unrelated to the above post, but there are many comments in this story that give away significant portions of the plot. Read at your own risk.
Just thought I'd contribute my two cents. I know everybody else and their dog wants to...
:)
Overall, it was better than Ep I. But, in my opinion, some of the acting was so bad that it left an aftertaste in my mouth strong enough to numb some of the action scenes.
Very close to the beginning, when Anakin and Obi Wan are in an elevator, Obi Wan does a laugh that's so unnatural and amateur that I felt like I was in the audience of a high school play! Very disappointing for Ewan McGreggor.
Then, as with Ep I, so much of the plot seemed implausible. How on earth was the clone army kept a secret when whoever built them (didn't catch the name of the race) are so damned stupid? All you have to do is show up in a Jedi costume and they'll tell you everything!
Finally, Yoda with the lightsaber was cool. Nobody will deny that. But it was treated too much like a joke. So many people in the audience were laughing, and the scene in general did smack a bit of mockery. The way he did the little "kung-fu" stance at the beginning and then proceeded to "bounce" around during the fight, in a way sometimes reminscent of a basketball.
Don't get me wrong, the scene with Yoda did kick ass. But it could have kicked so much more ass if they hadn't been dinks about it and tried to make Yoda all "badass." Don't get me wrong, Yoda has some badass skills, but he's a serious character. When he mentors Luke he's always rational, demanding concentration and discipline. He's not some yoke who plays around with lame kung-fu stances. (That's Keannu Reeves' job, dontcha know?)
I'm not sure this flick is worth the $12 most places charge these days, although it probably is better than any of the other crap that's coming out this summer.
Just my two cents
"Caffeine is not an option. Caffeine is a way of life."
Whining endlessly about the tyranny of the MPAA, then slavishly promoting its most garish products.
Screaming for boycotts, then masturbating like crazed chimps whenever a movie about time traveling robots, hobbits, or jedi knights is released.
I will no longer post relevant comments to these discussions. The site itself has become a steaming turd, a shallow parody of itself. Its editors are hypocritical corporate shills, and the readers are mindless drones.
A troll is born today!
However... Anakin's father is not Dooku but Palpatine/Darth Sidious is.
Not through a direct relationship with Shmi but through a planting of genetically-enhanced(thus explaining the midichlorian thing) sperm while she was unconscious.
Sidious needs an apprentice who will be loyal to him (Do you think he really can trust Dooku?).
Who better than a son?
It would explain why Palpatine has such a liking for Anakin and sets us up for the scene in Ep. III where Palpatine says to Anakin "Join me and we shall rule the galaxy...Yada Yada"
Palpatine may have been planning on picking him up from Tattoine himself around the time Qing-Jong found him. Why interfere when he can have the Jedi train Anakin and then switch him over to the dark side later.
Obi Wan, we...must...join...with Sauron.
Lucas always said he filmed the middle trilogy because it was the most action packed one. Now that he's rich, he can do the other two trilogies.
Of course, we know he considers then inferioir to the middle one, so obviously no one is going to be as happy about them as with the ESB, the best movie of the best trilogy of the Star Wars epic.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Did you "notice" that 10 ton safe that just landed on your head? It was pretty subtle, after all...
*possible spoilers*
as a result of lucas' desire to forgo set-building and create everything using CGI, it shows that what really suffers is the acting. when all you're doing is standing in front of a blue screen looking at a prop that's supposed to represent a "character to be named later," i'd imagine it's difficult to know just what kind of emotion the scene requires. so you get the kind of wooden, i-barely-just-memorized-my-lines acting that, for me, was a real distraction during the movie. anyone else feel the same way?
A question. In the movie we are introduced to Owen. This is supposed to be Annakin's half-brother. Assuming that Annakin's half-brother is due to the same mother but different fathers. Given that there is at most 10 years between episodes. How can Owen be so old?
OK, first off, it's Jedi you're talking about, not Empire. The music that doesn't fit was added for the Special Edition of the movie. They aslo added cutscenes of celebrations on Tatooine and Coruscant. The version you saw on USA had the *original* music, that had the ewoks singing jub-jub, and without the CGI cutscenes. The original jub-jib music was only available on one CD-boxed set, I believe. The new soundtracks released for Jedi all include the school children singing.
Also, it's a lava pit, not acid, and it doesn't happen in Episode 2. Hopefully it will be included in Episode 3.
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
Maybe Lucas maybe should push filming with digital cameras and put the digital set creation on the backburner for now. There may very well be something to filming in real instead of virtual sets, I can see the actors performance being affected by their environment and the "atmosphere" a period set might create, as opposed to a sterile blue screen set where the actors have to imagine the world they are acting in.
If directors see the advantages during production and post-production to filming in digitial, and the image quality of the end result up there on the theatre screen is as good or better than film, then digital filming/projection will gain ground, and the use of virtual sets will grow in situations where they are appropriate.
SPOILER ALERT
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Lucas ALMOST has a plot twist here. He sets up the stunt. He calls in the press. He drives up the ramp, drives back to the starting point, then decides to cross the canyon by taking the hiking trail. In the end, there is no stunt and there is no real plot twist.
Of course... what I am talking about is Dooku (sp). Dooku warns (taunts?) that the Republic is now under the control of the Sith. Woa. Could it be a plot-twist? Did Dooku discover (perhapse in being part of the plot to create the Republic's new army) the influence of the Sith? Did he become a rogue Jedi, taking perhapse the wrong path in a noble attempt to resist the Sith? Will the Jedi be fooled in to destroying the last resistance facing the Sith? Is this really a plot twist?
No, no. Don't worry. Dooku is really in league with Sidious. Its all a part of that machivelian Sith plan-within-a-plan-within-a-tired-plotline. Its a false twist. Its there just to fool you in to thinking there might be some active thought towards plot. But there's not. Evil.
Strokings ,
Lucas'
Aging
Schlong,
Huge
Dumbshit
Obese
Turds
ROFLOL :)
+5 seems inadeqate points for this post - very funny.
Clones starts off slow, and it takes half the movie to really start get going.
Maybe so (I haven't seen it myself yet), but that's true of A New Hope as well.
Never take moderation advice from sigs, including this one.
According to a snippet in Empire Magazine which i can't be bothered digging out, Lucas visited the gangs of new york set and verbally took back his comments. He was stunned by the detail, and realised instantly that this was still impossible in the digital domain. Something along the lines of "who built your sets? he's cheap (-er than ILM), and good!" iirc.
For example, the digital scenery in AOTC etc still uses vast stretches of similar material (brickwork/colour etc). There just isn't the possibility for rich detail and zillions of textures and objects. Not yet, anyhow.
My point being, digital is great for the clean, smart look of the SW cities, but useless for 19th century New York. Who knows when it'll be possible, but i say Scorcese's still on the money.
hth,
a.c.
This was quite possibly one of the worst movies i've ever seen. the scripting is absolutely horrible and the story ... well ... what story?
It felt like Beavis & Butthead took a joint hit from their cgi-only crack-pipe and went like "he he. let's add another CG character -- no wait, let's put in some lasers!!! -- kickass, dude -- we need more lightsabers -- beavis, hand me over the pipe, i need more visual effects".
not that episode 1 was any better. at least we now know who fucked over the senate. jar jar is responsible at last. i just *knew* that when i first saw him.
It wasn't an attempt to reflect Luke in empire, nor does it have anything to do with latin (unless it did even in the original). In Jedi, when vader is fighting Luke, he gets his right hand sliced off. If you'll notice, there were mechanics and wires undertneith. He had to loose his right hand somewhere.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
Thank God episode one lowered my expectations.
Generally, I agree with everyone's comments: slow to start, epic scenery, mediocre acting, some good moments, Yoda really kicks ass when he gets going.
There's a larger problem, though, that Lucas hasn't managed to deal with. So far, the prequels add very little to Star Wars itself. In the name of filling in the backstory, Lucas has now created two movies that are nothing but Star Wars wankery: funky aliens, lavish sets, obscure details, and retelling old stories.
Think about it: have episode I and II really added anything to the overall story? There's been no surprise twists. There's been no deeper understanding of the forces at work. In other words, they're only backstory. These movies wouldn't matter without episodes 4 through 6. They're the Silmarillion of the Star Wars universe, with whoop-de-doo special effects.
Overall, my $8 wasn't wasted. The worlds themselves are believable, and impressive. The details of the past are somewhat interesting. But if I wasn't one of those people who saw the original three movies in that critical age when I was 8 to 15, I wouldn't really care about Star Wars after seeing these two.
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
Granted, James Franco (Harry in Spiderman) would have made a better Anakin with more emotional strength, but the people who think the first part is slow must've missed one of the major action scenes, and not be happy with actual story getting in the way of anything but chasing and fighting.
The CG is definitely improved, but not well matched --- it's way too bright. Though some of it was that way in Menace, it's all that way now and thus in that respect, it's actually a little worse.
We're definitely getting more linkage to the original movies, and that's a big plus as well.
WOW
--Standing ovation--
Lucas commented in the 80's that there would be episode 4, 5, and 6, followed by 1, 2, and 3 around 15 years later. Following this, 7, 8, and 9 would show up a subsequent 15 years later. Thus, you should envy your not-yet-concieved grandchildren, as they are truly the ones who will get to witness the complete 23 hours (if Lucas makes 1,2,3 special editions, haha) all the way through.
Often in Error, Never in Doubt.
Steven Spielberg !!
OK...so I'm gonna say more...but do we REALLY need to sit through 3 movies to see if Lucas can really his his directing stride again?! I mean...come on....the dialog is so freakin boring and VOID of emotion it's ridiculous !! In the first 3 movies (for the most part)you always had tension between the characters in one form or another, even among the good guys!! And THAT'S what drove those films!! If I want to watch bad acting and sterile performances...I'll watch an Aaron Spelling show!!
The bottom line is we shouldn't have to sit through 2+ hours of movie which only saving grace is CG characters and special effects !!
We need engrosing and engaging dialog along with a real story driven by real characters ! All the other stuff should just be gravy on my KFC mashed potatoes (Mmmmmmm.....*drool*)!!
And if not Spielberg...then how about Irving Kirshner....or would THAT be too much of a blow to Lucas' ego?!?!? Hey....it's not Kirshner's fault he directed the GREATEST Star Wars film of them all...at least HE could get an honest performance out of his actors and showed them a great deal of faith in their abilities !
While looking at a galactic 3d map Obi Wan says: "I'm looking for a system south of here".
Yes, George Lucas is a master comedian.
AKA Movie critics. These guys are jerks. They can't make their own movies, so they make fun of other people. You know that self-obsessed jerk at every party? The one with a "smart" opinion on everything who won't shut up? Well, critics are PAID to be that guy.
> Hey, they did it in an episode of Star Trek:DS9 in the mirror universe where we got
;-) There's actually a good deal of pr0n films featuring twins, though most are (generally)unavailable in the U.S. Something about incest being potentially obscene... There was a famous film from the European company Private, one of the biggest pr0nmakers in the world, which featured fairly attractive twins making out and even fisting each other in a bar, but the scene was "cut" in the U.S. release to have all sexual relations between the two left out. If you think I'm kidding, I'm not. :-) Unfortunately the U.S. pr0n industry self-censors way too much, for fear of obscenity prosecution--yet there's no way to eliminate outdated censorship if no one's willing to take a stand and push the envelope. I don't think it's so wrong for consenting adults to be able to see whatever they want, being done between consenting adults....
> to see mirror-Kira make a pass at herself.
That was really sexy, in a perverse way.
Anyway, add to the list of hitting-on-herself scenes in geek-friendly shows the luscious encounter between Willow and evil vampire Willow on *Buffy the Vampire Slayer*. Sexy sexy! Willow-stroking-Willow, and a nice ass-grab. I'll never forget the line where Willow was describing vampire Willow that went something like, "I'm so evil! And I think I'm kinda gay..." That, and when vampire Willow says "No! This is a dumb world. In my world, we have people in chains and we can ride them like ponies." A-hem...
Chasing Amy
(We all chase Amy...)
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws"-Tacitus
Version three is always the good one...
You mean like Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock?
IMSA? Nobody gets expelled for sneaking out once... specially just to see a movie.
The film was wondrous, and delivers big-time as a fantasy adventure. I was astounded at how completely the movie immerses you in a vivid fully realized fantasy universe. This film builds out the details of the Star Wars universe in a way I found mind-boggling. Creative and artistic people labored over every frame to breathe the realism of life into the story, and they succeeded brilliantly because you buy into most every scene without even thinking about it.
The practical limits of older movies are simply gone, and there are none of the gratuitous CG showoff scenes that marred Lord of the Rings. Remember the camera flying through the evil factory in LOTR? A cool shot, but totally incongruous. In Star Wars Episode II everything is subordinate and appropriate to the story; the story flows with an effortless and beautiful freedom that must have been incredibly difficult to achieve behind the scenes.
As an adult I have to admit there was one significant flaw -- the entire love storyline between Padme and Anakin felt forced and mechanical. There was some spark and chemistry between Padme and Anakin, and it certainly made sense that they would fall for each other. There were revealing scenes with insight into their emotional bonding showing why they would care for each other. However, the overall feel of the love storyline was amateurish; you never felt the passions of the characters, never empathized with their dilemmas, and never really believed these were real people with real feelings falling in love. Lucas is very clumsy with human emotions both as a writer and as a director. Lucas should simply admit this and have someone else write and direct the scenes for this critical plot line; the movie would be significantly better for it.
To a 10 year old the love storyline might be acceptable, but to an adult it seems artificial and half-baked. I felt the love storyline was far and away the least polished aspect of the movie; I wished the same degree of intense creative artistry had been applied to the love storyline as was applied to the visuals.
Fortunately, flaws in the love storyline were not fatal to enjoying the movie. Because the universe was so rich and fully realized and the story was so involving and revealed so much about the Star Wars universe, the whole thing just worked as a pulse-pounding fantasy adventure.
Go see it, enjoy the exciting rich fantasy world as a kid would, and don't overthink the whole thing. It was good fun!
Saw the movie at 12:01 am - and it was worth it.
Despite having some problems with it - ever-widening plot holes (WHY was R2 + C3PO on the moisture farm?), some wooden acting, etc. - I thought it was a damned good movie overall. The Coruscant scenes were absolutely amazing (although the other planetary scenes were pretty good as well), and I like how the storyline starts falling into place (Anakin starts on the road to becoming mostly machine - and towards the Dark Side, plans for a certain secret weapon wind up in the hands of the Sith...)
Overall, the movie kicked some serious ass - and I, for one, will wind up seeing it at least one or two more times.
I am also afraid of seeing the world differently. People should not force different ideas and perspectives on me.
Episode I of course had Jar Jar, Watto, and many other CG chars, but Menace is literally crammed full of them.
I didn't read the full review (afraid too), sheee-it I could have downloaded the movie a week ago.
But is there any fully animated scenes like in Episode One?
Two cents to whoever guesses what scene it was. (it's easy)
Get your Unix fortune now!
I'm sorry. The people I saw it with thought this scene was completely absurd. The CG-Yoda comes walking in with a cane, and all of the sudden he's bouncing around the screen like some green piece of flubber, while swinging a mineature light saber. Well, that much is forgivable, I guess. I mean we all knew that Lucas would incorporate a big "look what you can do with digital effects" commercial into the movie. Also, you shouldn't expect him to care that Yoda, the only character that managed to exhude a sense of dignity, should go bouncing around the room a green weasel to entertain children.
But seriously, this scence just exhibits the degree to which Lucas is out of ideas. I have no doubt that Yoda could always defend himself, but I expected him to do so in some more interesting way than just fencing. It's about as much of a letdown as watching a movie in which the Dalai Lama starts blowing away people who diss Tibet with a shotgun.
Even sitting here, I could come up with a much more interesting thing for Yoda to do than merely having an acrobatic sabre duel. I mean, we know that you can do a lot more with the force than telekinesis and telepathy, and I figured it would be Yoda, when his back is against the wall, who would show us. I'm talking about mind control, about creating illusions for Dooku, about working him into such a rage that he loses control of the force, you know, the sort of stuff that Yoda always talked about.
But no, instead Yoda takes out the "far far away" equivalent of the machine gun and goes at it. Never mind that he weighs about 20 pounds--he still manages to parry the kinetic energy of a strong man's blow without flying backwads like a batted muppet. This thought alone caused me to giggle when I saw this scene, and by the end, I was laughing. Not with Yoda, but at him.
That scene made the character lose a lot of credibility in my eyes, and I must say, I was always a fan of Yoda. I worry for the Jedi, because you just know that sooner or later, someone in that galaxy is going to discover actual lasers (you know, devices which emit energy that really travels at the speed of light!). I'd like to see Yoda parry that!
Ebert began lambasting Lucas in the press ever since Lucas went full-court-press for digital projection. Ebert loves film, and sees Lucas as a threat to that medium, which of course, he is. I think that Lucas' statement that the next installment of the trilogy would ONLY be shown at digital projection theaters gave Ebert the impetus to fire both barrels at Attack of the Clones.
Personally, I'm troubled by the whole digital projection / all-digital-shoot / all-digital-post-production mentality, even as I recognize that it may open up new opportunities for small filmmakers.
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.
The most tragic part of both episode 1 and 2 is that Lucas needs to learn that he has lost the knack for directing (some may argue that he never had it) American Graffiti was superbly directed with Star Wars being an acceptable directing. Episode 1 and 2 are to be honest amateurish directing. Before Episode 1 Lucas had not directed a major movie since Star Wars. One of the major improvements for 3 should be him turning over the reins to a better director.
Another major improvement should be the writing. The plot of this movie is superb. It shows that the sith have everything planned from beginning to end with very few surprises occuring throughout the entire set of movies (The only major surprise yet in any of these movies is when Vader kills the Emperor) other then that Palpatine has everything well planned. Lucas may have had a co-writer for this movie but frankly if he helped make the movie better then I'd hate to see the original script. Lucas needs to find himself a good writer and a writer who can write the type of material needed (the love story parts were very poorly written).
The actors that he used are all top quality actors he only needs better directing and writing to let them shine (and I believe they can if they're given the correct direction and good lines)
ILM is what saved this movie overall with the superb special effects. Yoda was superbly done after 5 years of trying to get him right they've done it.
So please Lucas next time find a good director and a good writer to give justice to your vision.
Lets see:
Bad Plot (Plot was get from episode 1 to episode 3)
Terrible acting, accept frmo some of the supporting actors.
STUPID JEDI (Lets face it they all act like idiots)
unbelievable characters
Poor dialogue
Soap opera behaviour
I could go on, basically the movie isn't worth more the about 4.50. The effects are nice, so are the set dressings, but it was material written and directed by a 5 year old. Lucas has clearly lost his mind.
He flips, he spins, he darts through the air like a mosquito on crack.
You see, he just used the same tactic I did in Jedi Outcast in every lightsaber-fight. Force speed+swing the glostick like crazy. My god those fights were over quickly. Actually one of the better parts of the game was to charge with force speed into a room full of stormtroopers, and cut them all down before the first one hit the floor.
One guy in the packed theatre raised his hand and asked for a Diet Coke.
"That'll be $4.00," said the manager. The entire theatre erupted in laughter. Someone threw a bag of popcorn at him. Someone else started whooping and swinging a lightsaber. Ah, it was beautiful.
[/sarcasm]
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"First things first -- but not necessarily in that order"
-- The Doctor, "Doctor
Obi Wan: "Your clones are very impressive."
*Amidala slaps him in face and storms off*
*Obi Wan turns to Anakin*
Obi Wan: "What are you looking at?"
my religion lies somewhere between buddhism and super monkey ball - pamphlet?
Heh, at least I don't feel alone now...
Bah, time to go into fanboy/fictionjunkie analysis mode...
a) he was still in combat "I need the speed to kick ass" mode, and was switching to "I need to save the loserboys on the floor" mode. That, and he needed to keep an eye out for Dooku.
b) In Empire, he had that entire spiel about size not being a factor in the amount of difficulty it is to move an object. Therefore, all things being equal, with the first aid academy on the floor, he had two objects to move, whereas he only had to move one pillar.
c) to nudge the pillar to a safe distance, he would have to nudge it a long way very quickly. Thick post.
d) John Ford was once asked about Stagecoach why the indians didn't merely shoot the horses during the big chase at the finale. His answer: "That would have ended the movie".
Anyway, first half: slow as frozen molasses, second half: good enough to (way) more than make up for it. TPM too, actually.
*honk*
Cappy Red
This is my sig. It's prescription, I swear. I need it for reading things... on the other side of things
I'm getting more infuriated with this movie.
Spoiler:
Anakin commits mass murder on the planet. He clearly jumps to the Dark Side by killing women and children. There is NO indication given that the Emperor has been prodding him to go there. He is apparently just an evil person.
You can kind of get past that because, after all, he is Darth Vader. But, what is Amidala's excuse? After Anakin tells her about his actions, she responds by hugging him and ignoring it. Next week on Oprah, Mass Murderers and the Queens who love them.
I do not think this part of the movie is going to hold up very well. In fact, it may lead to a big backlash.
And also, where IS any interaction between the Emperor and Anakin? There is ONE scene of them together where it is implied that they have been talking. Anakin seems to be jumping to the Dark Side all by himself just because bad things are happening to him.
Pay attention to anybody who is raving about this movie. They may not have any critical faculties left in their system.
I'm not raving. I'm ranting.
*****
What the hell is wrong with Amidala? Anakin tells her all about how he murdered an entire camp of Tusken Raiders in cold blood -- men, women and children -- and she still falls in love with him and marries him? I thought she was from good old peace-loving Naboo? Does she just have a shitty memory or what?
I finally put my finger on what bothered me so much about the film - the hamfisted way that Lucas seems bent on getting from point A to point B. We all know where he has to end up, but he could have handled it much more artfully.
*** Spoilers ahoy!!! ***
One of the shining moments in the film IMHO involved Anakin and the death of his mother. It was clearly a pivotal moment in the film and Anakin's life, and was one of the best acted sequences in the film IMO. Why then did he insist on portraying Anakin as the near-stalker psycho, and general bad egg from his first scene? He did not need to. Rather, he should have played up Anakin as a youthful, wreckless, and slightly irresponsible Jedi-in-training - with the death of Schmi and his subsequent retribution being a defining moment in his path to Sithdom. Anakin's admission to Padme was powerful enough to clue you in that he was sorely tempted by the dark side and at risk of eventual corruption. Instead, we're read a litany of examples throughout the movie that he's unstable, vain, egomaniacal, and probably enjoys watching puppies drown too.
In the hands of more talented writers this could have really worked for me and made the love story more believable in the bargain. Seriously, Padme must have real co-dependency issues to tag up with someone as obviously flawed as Anakin.
Oh well, at least the eye candy was fun.
Here's how it works, you sit down and watch episode 2 and have to identify which movie every scene was stolen from. The person who identifys them all gets to direct episode 3!!
clone
Speaking of...one of my friends who saw it says that N'Sync is in the big Jedi battle sequence at the end? Confirm/Deny? (I'm hoping for deny.)
Netjak.com independent reviews of domestic & import video ga
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT
- the whole saga is about an ambitious senator who creates a bit of havoc in order to be granted emergency powers, which he uses to eventually become emperor, and ends up being killed in Episode 6. Correct?
- there needs to be a prequel (or an Episode 0) in which it explains how an ordinary man becomes senator (SP), and how he avoided detection by a heap of Jedi for at least 10 years (before Ep1-Ep2). Somehow he manages to get the loyalty of Yoda's apprentice (Christopher Lee - CL), who disappears just before Ep1. Nobody notices how CL disappears and a new count appears - not even the Jedi, who are all-seeing.
- the galaxy is at peace for over 1000 years, with no army (only the Jedi to maintain peace) and a centralised government (senate) which is always quaralling. How the hell does one senator manage to persuade an entire fraction (Trade Federation) to start creating havoc? Episode 0?
- In order to avoid detection from the Jedi, the Trade Federation need to create a robot army, since an army formed of life forms are detectable by the Jedi. So why dont the Jedi detect the Clone Army? On a side note, the Clone Army are created on a planet 2 parsec away from "capital planet', which is a little over 6 light years away (basically suburbia in the SW universe). A parsec in a galaxy far far away is obviously different from an parsec in the Milky Way.
- Who finances the Jedi? Who finances the creation of the clone army? This Army is secret, started by CL on orders from SP while he was still a normal senator. So who financed SP?
- CL is loyal to SP, as are the Jedi throughout Ep1 and Ep2. The Jedi basically ask SP to take emergency powers in Ep2. They are still on the same side. So, storm troopers (a brain child of SP) are sent in to fight the drone army (also a brain child of SP). What the $#@%?
- Who the hell is Darth Maul (Ep1)? Wasn't there word that the Sith always come in 2's? If CL is the current dark lord, does that mean he is the 2nd sith. Since CL was trained by Yoda, who trained Darth Maul? My head hurts.
- In Ep4-Ep6, Anakin (AS) is loyal to the emperor (SP). In Ep2, he is loyal to SP. Most probably he'll remain loyal in Ep3, that is, he is loyal throughout the saga (Ep1-Ep6). So it's the Jedi who switch sides in Ep3. They join a rebellion. But who are the rebellion at this point? The only objection to the republic at this stage are the Trade Federation, taking orders from both SP and CL. But hang on, the central authority is SP (emperor). So who is the rebellion?
- So Anakin is there to bring order to the force. On one side you have the Jedi, who is on the other? SP? But the Jedi are working for him. My head hurts.
Revolution = Evolution
As we react to being attacked by "seperatists" with increased government control over our lives, we move in the direction of the dark side- of fascism- does it need to be pointed out how similar the empire's soldiers in the first three movies looked like our Nazis? The fixation with Nazis shown in the indiana jones movies?
They do make great villains, especially visually. but there's a lot more going on here.
Hitler was freely elected in Germany. A chancellor, or senator, he was. Germans, after the defeat and Trade Federations imposition at the treaty of versailles, wanted a strong leader. One who would raise an army despite the prohibitions. Hitler was that leader. He raised an army of genetically pure "clones" with rigid behavioral conformity and turned the country into an empire.
In 7th grade I bought a book which was all 3 of the original novelizations of the SW movies (including all the deleted scenes). But the thing that caught my eye was the prolouge. It described how the empire came into power. And I remember saying to my Social Studies teacher at the time, "This looks a lot like how Hitler came to power". Since then, I never looked at the Star Wars movies in quite the same way. There is a lot of political statements going on in the movies. It doesn't make the fact that they are just good fun stories first and foremost, but the politics are there.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
We want to hear Katz' insight into why a modern government military complex like the Jedi do not have e-mail and Internet access. Especially if Katz declares on behalf of geeks everywhere that If jodi foster did not have internet access in the panic room, then it must drive geeks batty that Jedi's in a galaxy far far away can't send instant messaging over secure shell back to coruscant.
Matrix Reloaded on Digital....drool...
Eddy.WriteLinux.Com
I'm not trying not to give things away, but Jar Jar sure does... Kinda makes you wonder if it doesn't all makes sense: having such a riduculous idiot around can have its advantages to the Dark Side.
Insert obligatory how to distract the clone armies with sheep joke here ;-)
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Clones starts off slow
Slow? The big Coruscant chase is slow?
Loved the movie. A few cheesy bits, but this is Star Wars for God's sake.
Read this one before, found it at Rottentomatoes
Tasteless? How, exactly? Tasteless to consider the friends and loved ones of the thousands aboard the Death Star? Tasteless to think that perhaps Stormtroopers are people too, rather than mere faceless lightsaber-fodder? Or, tasteless to think that perhaps some of our own have more in common with Darth Vader than we like to think?...
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
It sinks.
--- Jump!! Fire!! Bullet time!! - Lego version of the Matrix
I saw it at 12:01, like any geek who remembers seeing ANH when he was still in a diaper.
I enjoyed it a bit. It's definitely no LOTR, but it had its moments. And then they let the actors keep talking.
They start a scene on Naboo, I think it was, and Amidala and Anakin are there on the porch by the water (that scene where she has no backing to her clothing). It's beautiful scenery for a love scene. How can they fuck it up? Some line about sand being coarser than her soft skin. That wasn't romantic, that was pure rubbish. All of the foundation was there, and the dialogue fucked it all up.
Then there's the scene that looked a lot like the Han Solo, and Leia scene in ESB. They're about to be dragged out into the stadium and killed, and there is some acceptable dialogue about her dying a little bit every day - sorta dumb but still ok. And then there's the "I Love You". At this point, Anakin has about 8 words to use for a response and have it left as a powerful scene, as long as they shut up.
But oh no! He spends more words than that on a response, and then she responds yet again to him with a bunch of shit about really really loving him a whole big bunch, or something as absurd as that.
A few minor changes, and the love story aspect to it could have been impressive. But alas, no.
Now on to what they left out (as most of these issues are caused by what they left in).
The slaughtering of the Tuscan Raiders. He cuts down a few of them, and we hear about the total annihilation of their tribe from him as told to Amidala. That didn't work. It just doesn't. He's trying to build up the emotional side of this character, and we're left with hints of rage and a lot of tears. There needed to be more of a balance. We need to visualize more of the rage to feel even more of a connection with this character.
Those two changes, kill the anti-smoking campaign, and make the animated characters less painful to watch, and we're left with a great movie. Not even major work was needed, just some minor changes to the dialogue and addition of a key scene.
It's tough to go wrong with a plot this strong - the turning of a really good kid into the most evil badass in the universe. I just wish the writing would have been better.
I believe this could have been one of the greatest movies in a long time, but sadly, it wasn't.
~D
Okay well it was expected, every second character being CGI, but am I alone in thinking that Yoda looked a thousand times more real and believable back in the 70's???? Okay so sure some things you probably cant do so well with a puppet, but every scene with a close up of Yoda i just though, argh bring back the damn puppet!
Most of the other characters were not so noticeably cg, but i would say that's most likely because of lack of familiarisation, everyone remembers yoda from ep5/6..
When Anakin was being bitchy, I thought "yep, that's Luke's father!"
"Another of Lucas' big blunders. If he had any storytelling skill, he would've introduced at least one new Jedi character in this movie"
Lucus passed on an opportunity to make another action figure?! That's impossible.
[B]SPOILER ALERT - DONT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM.[/B]
[I]Its a Yin/Yan universe, we have the Jedi and the Sith, the 'good' side and the 'dark' side. Palpatine is the Yoda equivelant, but more powerful since me manages to deceive everyone. He somehow manages to splinter the senate into two factions, the Trade Federation and the Republic, although he's in charge of both factions. The TradeFederation know that he is leading a double life, they know that his goals are to create a clone army, so they create a cannon-fodder army called the Drone army (makes sense, you dont wont to risk the lives of your supporters, use robots instead). The senate give Palpatine emergency powers to end this crisis. Storm Troopers are recruited as the Army of the Republic.[/I]
Based on these facts, we can conclude that Ep3 will consist of the following:
1. The war ends when Palpatine negotiates peace between the TradeFederation and the Republic. The TF gets trade concessions (why else would they bother with Palpatines schemes), and even a priviledged position (Palpatines loyal friends). The TF may have financed everything (an investment so that they can make more profits later).
2. Palpatine controls an army of StormTroopers, probably to maintain the peace. Since he's in cooperation with the TradeFederation, he also starts building the Death Star to ensure peace is maintained. Think NATO.
3. Some planets want Palpatines emergency powers to end, but since he refuses (and is backed by a large army), they secede from the Republic and form the Rebel Alliance. The Jedi join the Alliance to restore things to the way they were.
4. Anakin doesn't like the politics and bickering of the Republic of old, instead he supports the 'strong hand' leadership of Palpatine and joins him to 'bring order to the galaxy'. Anakin decides to seek out and destroy the Jedi.
5. The Rebel Alliance is driven to the outskirts of the galaxy. Somehow, a spy manages to acquire the plans to the Death Star.
6. Episode 4 - A New Hope.
Revolution = Evolution
"It just pauses the action, and the acting is so bad that the movie stalls until something interesting happened."
I'd hate to hear what you would say about the acting in Episode 4, 5 and 6... it was just as bad, if not worse. Anyone know what was up with Amedala? Such a different person this movie (not just the sexier costumes.)
It also seems that these newer Star Wars are loaded because we all know what's going to happen next. I particularly didn't like the "future movie" jokes cracked throughtout the movie.
It's hard to tell for sure, but I think the key phrase is:
"I can change him."
A phrase that has ruined far wiser women (and men) than Padme.
--
Do I look like I speak for my employer?
While the snapple peach iced tea is very good, I prefer the Lipton Raspberry Iced tea. It is sweeter, and I have many fond memories of watching waitresses at Perkins drinking Raspberry Iced Tea, when I should have been doing calc homework.
um. wow. that was horrific. Halfway through, I was praying for some sort of divine intervention to end my misery. Anything to spare me from one more second of wooden cheesy dialogue and half baked special effects. I think I am going to be sick
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Is it just me or is R2D2 just a nexus of evil.
I mean when i look at the existing films in retrospect I think that the jedi could have saved themsleves alot of trouble by just issueing R2 with a jedi bodyguard of 50 or so jedi knights, The idea being to kick the ass of any bad guys that R2 runs into on his exploits.
here i'll write some script.
R2: "beep blip deep deep"
Obi-wan: "quick follow that droid!, it's much eaiser than working out whos behind all this evil going on."
Mace-windu: "Muthaf**ker!, thats a great idea. The dark side clouds everything, but R2 knows how to get into any shit thats goin down."
So lets go back to the theater. I'm sitting there, watching the reversal. Ani is missing an arm, Obi-Wan is chopped up pretty bad, and Dakoou is readying the death blow. The camera pans to the shadows and what do we see but the shadow of a short, stout little green man making his entrance to the sounds of the clicking cane. Dakoou and Yoda have a Jedi "pissing match" aka, who can throw the bigger object, and the shit is delt. Yoda extends his saber, and pow, collective orgasm within the theater. People go crazy and we see just why Master Yoda is said to have the skills. Short little gimpy man is suddenly bouncing off the walls, doing back flips and opening up a can of serious whoop ass on Dakoou. And those exact two words sum up my feelings on the movie. COLLECTIVE ORGASM .
The dialogue is lame and the "love story" is even tackier. But some of the special effects weren't right either.
I remember 2 scenes where the matted backgroiund just kinda looked stupid. I mean they were pretty paintings but they seemed to have forgotten / neglected to animate the moving bits. One scene where they first land on Naboo, the waterfalls in the background where dead still... Then on the landing of the raininy planet, the ocean was still and not animated... Is this just my screening (in Oz)? Lame direction / writing is a competency issue, I'm sure George didn't purposefully write lame dialogue but all these obvious special effects faults is pretty poor for a movie that is essentially a SFx movie.
Also, just about the funniest scene was when the princess fell onto the desert and was rolling around in agonising pain.. and then a troooper asks "Are you okay?". She then springs up and says yep and walks around as if nothing's happened. Very monty python, although I'm not sure if it was particularly intended.
Anakin is little improved from menace. I know he's supposed to be full of anger and angst, but mostly he just comes off as constipated and bitchy. Amidala seems to be taking a bit of a nap. Their romantic scenes together are the Jar Jar binks scenes of this movie: It just pauses the action, and the acting is so bad that the movie stalls until something interesting happened.
The romantic parts of the movie are the best parts. They are realistically awkward, slow, and mangled. Perfect romantic relationships dont just happen and Ep2 was an excellent example of what happens when you put 2 exceptional young adults together who like each other. Another important thing about Ep2 was that the human characters looked much more PLAIN (sans outrageous costumes and makeup and CG/movie lighting) and therefore real. Anakin was played perfectly by an excellent actor and we finally got to see some Amidala nipply-goodness!
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
It's hard to tell for sure, but I think the key phrase is:
"I can change him."
Which is my understanding of why women love "bad boys"
Saw pm the other day, or was it an aotc trailer recently? I can't tell, don't much care to recollect, but, I noticed that either one had some Damien {Omen} music score happening. WTF! No one else's mentioned it. How inappropriate.
Regardless. Lucas ought to have included, should include in the future, work somehow into the plot some Gregorain chanting, and some buddhist chanting as well. If you've ever heard Tibetan monks chanting, the aum mantra, man! that is the sound of the universe.
And arent't the Jedi really just warrior monks?
Did anyone think that the digital videotaping produced flat images that were very soft? It's especially noticeable on their faces. Real film has a harder, more realistic edge.
A bit too much "aseptic", i mean where is the blood ? No traces of blood on the ground... not even when Anakin's arm gets chopped off... and a bit of unrealism on how te bodies reacted to gravity... a little too much video gameish. ;). Aside from that i really had tears in my eyes when the jedi reveal themselves and the battle in the arena starts. Really an huge difference from Episode I.
Maybe there was a control to enable gore in the seat but i didnt find it =) Supermario platform and command and conquer
wtf I get so pissed off when I hear people saying blah blah ep 1 sucked and I hated jar jar fuck em ep 1 DID NOT suck it couldn't be action the whole time it has an important story to tell and jar jar wasen't that bad so just stop your bitching and be happy and now people are saying ep 2 isn't much better and the acting sucks wtf the acting dosen't suck and ep 2 was very good it moved between basically 2 stories at the beginning very well and went on to have a huge battle scene at the near end and then the end WOW it had 2 important parts which I will not say you have to see it to love it i've seen it 3 times so far and its been out 1 day its by far my favorite starwars yet :D but don't take my word for it or anyone else's go and see it for yourself and have your own opinion ;)
For me, and I suspect many people, one of the things that made the old series was Han Solo. He was the "rascal" a bit of a bastard who became a reluctant and yet impetuos hero. He was edgy but was really a good guy at heart. Whether it be Lucas's design or Harrison FOrd's spontineity, Han was a relactively interesting character in the black & white Star Wars world.
If we look at Annakin, it's a little hard to see him as ANYTHING but plain nasty. From the word go he was a petulent little brat. Unlike Han he had pretty much no redeeming features. It's surprising the Jedi order didn't pick up on this much earlier. IMHO, Annakin's meant to be a good guy that'd been drawn to the dark side but was essentially good. I liked the scenes in Tatooine as far as his character descent into evil goes but he was essentially on the Dark (or at least pretty murky brown) side of the force by then. It would've been better, and more dramatic, to have a more restrained Anakin, WANTING to break free, at the start before seccumbing to the path of the Dark side at Tatooine. IMHO, that would've also made ANakin's "romance" a little more plausible. It's hard to see anyone falling for such a wanker, especially one who uses "not like you, you're soft and smooth"... huh? what? Anyway, that's my rant.
I lucked out today and got to see AOTC at ten in the morning. The luck part was my friends and I bought our tickets on monday online. I was suprised by then the show wasn't sold out. When I saw TPM I had to wait in line for about four hours to get tickets and then another two hours waiting to get into the theater for the movie which filled the stadium. Today the stadium wasn't even close to full but I'd be curious to see how other theaters did. We picked the theater specifically because it has good quality screens but no oneever goes there because it is so out of the way.
I wasn't even positive last week that I would end up seeing the movie today because TPM disappointed me so damn much. The first time I saw it I was impressed mostly due to the anticipation of seeing it and the scale of the theater I saw it in. It was one of those ultra ginormous theaters with the sound cranked so high the speeder scenes caused your pants to massage your rectum. Subsequent viewings in other theaters and eventually getting the DVD spoiled the initial effect. TPM sucked ass. So in steps AOTC which had much less hype and I was less excited about. It turned out to impress me as much at it impressed Rob and many others here. It started off slow but it showed off lots of planets and lots of aliens and had plenty of Jedi action. All TPM had was abunch of pandering about mydoclorians by Qui fucking Gon and that damned pod race.
Things AOTC did right:
-Established Boba Fett, of all the characters from the original trilogy with possibly the exception of Han Solo he is the most interesting. Just by looking at him you can tell he has a past and has been there and done that. Han Solo was the same way, the Millennium Falcon had the same personal history effect as Boba's armor.
-Gives a reason why everyone goes on and on about Yoda being a badass Jedi master. Also gives Yoda a part in the movie that had some weight to it just like ESB had. Yoda's scenes were probably me favorite because I've always though he was a BMF.
-Goes back to Lucas' original desire to really show a full universe behind the story happening on screen. Originally he wanted to have the action take place indozens of different locals running a wide gamut of places in the galaxy. This is hard to do just using glass matte paintings and forced perspective shots. When the CG was used to really show off a big world that extended way past the reach of the camera it did its job well.
Things I didn't like so much:
-Poor use of CG characters in some scenes. Actually more like poor implimentation. Obi Wan's friend with the four arms just looked fake and stupid. If you want to use CG characters they need to look tangible. Some scenes felt like watching Roger Rabbit in space. When Yoda is seen floating by mace and Obi Wan he looks extra fake, in other scenes the CG shots are almost indistinguishable from puppet shots. Scenes with clone soldiers just look silly. In ANH and ROTJ the Death Star scenes with the stormtroopers in formation were done on glass mattes and look tons better than the CG clone soldiers.
-Crappy space scenes. While ESB didn't have a huge space battle or anything, it would have been nice for AOTC to have one or two. It did have the obligitory asteroid battle sequence but it was not nearly as tense as the one in ESB (baring the escape from the giant worm). Watching ESB for the first time it is a real possibility that Han and crew are going to end up staring at the walls of a Star Destroyer's brig. Star Destroyers were menacing and gave asense of forboding, the droid control ships just look comical and weak.
-Some shots like the view from Palpatine's office just look crappy. I applaud the effects guys for doing very good keying with all the CG augmented scenes. Characters don't have halos around them and it would be hard to tell that they were in front of ablue screen if it weren't for the fact the shots outside the windows looked way too weak sometimes. The twilight shots looked great and were massively detailed by the daytime shots didn't have nearly enough contrast. Something even old time directors have always done when using flat backdrops is add enough contrast to make it look like the backdrop is real. Too many soft shadows ruin the effect.
My gripes are just nitpicky visual details really because I really liked this movie. It was much better than TPM and gives me hope that Episode III willbe something really worth watching. Like Dante says, all Jedi had was a bunch of muppets. I'm looking forward to Episode III really jam packing in some action and maybe some real drama. I'm going to have to see it again on a digital screen just to compare and contrast the two formats. If you haven't seen it or are on the fence, go see it soon because Yoda's bad assery is worth sitting through the rest of the movie.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
Trying not to spoil anything but...... think what would have happened if the Clone Army did not show up.
The most implausible scene however was Shmi's death. She was holding out in captivity for a month waiting for a rescue she never knew would arrive. Yet after surviving for that long she then just magically dies a minute or two after Anakin rescues her. The timing of that is beyond coincidental.
A more plausible, and perhaps more fitting, scenario would have been for Anakin to try and carry her out of the camp, only to have a signle Tusken Raider catch them and shoot her.
For added dramatic emphasis, Anakin could reach out with the force in a moment of rage and strangle the Tusken, causing the trademarked cluthing of the throat and falling to the floor. Having quietly dispatched the opponent, Anakin could then have a few minutes for his mom to give him her dying speach before he goes on his rampage and kills everyone.
Along with showing more clearly his fall to the dark side, it would also make his failure to rescue her more pronounced.
(And on a sidenote, where are all the Jedi? If 10,000 systens is only minority of the Republic, there must be at least 100,000 systems. At a billion people each(?) that would be a population of 100 trillion. Yet there are only a hundred or so fully trained Jedi?)
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
The Bastard Theory: http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=377910 &lastnode_id=639773
Well the first half hour or whatever of Star Wars shows that C-3PO and R2-D2 had never met before.
When R2-D2 and C-3PO are talking to Luke about this Obi-Wan character C-3PO states that "Our last master was captain Antillies" Ours would imply that R2 and 3PO knew each other I would think.
Or at least that C-3PO was totally lost of Tatooine
Well, C-3PO did state that he didn't know what planet he was on, and Luke's answer "If there is a bright center of the universe this is the planet that it's farerst from" didn't actually reveal that they were on Tatooine.
For a much better dicussion about the droids check out the Star Wars Technical Commentaries. This explains a few of these nagging issues with the droids
Leg Godt!
I saw AOTC yesterday and was stoked with the second half hour. Lucus fucked up the romance with too many pretty scenes. Remember Leah and Han went at it in the middle of the battle, where the action was. Not much pussying around in long grass. Instead of wisking Anakin and Padme off to Naboo they should have kept them RIGHT in the action and let them act and improvise like the OT.
The romance was great during the battle scenes with the Hot young lovers showing flesh and kicking ass while keeping each others back - what more could you want?
The CGI was amazing in the battle scenes kepping it rocking and gritty. And only mace could behead with such fuck you energy. Cewl thanks George - stick to the action in epIII.
I'm going to come off as a Luddite here, but so here goes....
Personally, I think there was TOO MUCH CGI in Ep 2. Too much? Why, yes. Backgrounds, scenery, characters... it was prevailant. Unfortunately, that left very little for the actors to interact with. I'd say a good 80% of the film was done with actors in greenscreen stages, and/or interacting directly with computer-generated characters. This resulted in wooden performances. (Well, that and the fact that George Lucas can't write a love story.) The actors had nobody to act *with*, or they had no scenery to help them "get into" a scene.
If anything, shooting it digitally excaberated the situation. Okay, quick lesson: one foot of 75mm film -- about 12 frames, half a second at standard 24fps -- can run for US$1000. Film gets expensive quickly! Shooting digital means you can reuse the media for dailies, and it's releatively cheap, too. And when you get to editing, you can use all sorts of super-nifty non-linear editing techniques.
But there's a reason why editing and sound mastering is an art form and neccessarilly difficult. A good editor can make a good movie *great*, or can even make a poor movie tolerable. There are reasons why mastering and editing are done in expensive rooms that look like movie theaters that have multiple, hundred-channel consoles mounted elegently in them. It's as much an art form as directing is. I think something is lost when you move away from physical film as your editing medium.
Another point: Again, maybe I'm a traditionalist, but digital will never be able to compare to 24 frames/second, siver halide film. Any 'pixelation' is, frankly, microscopic, and the halides have an infinite range of color matching. You aren't limited by the picture format, by the compression format, by the number of bits per pixel used. It's natural color. Citizen Kane would have not nearly the impact that it did if it was filmed and edited digitally.
The computer animation student in me was thrilled and ecstatic, overwhelmed and overawed by the amount of CGI in the film. (And the miligeek in me was enthralled by the big battle.) Taco's right, CGI has come a LONG way, between Final Fantasy and Episode 2. The traditionalist in me, though, was dismayed and appalled by the way the CGI simply drowned out the actors.
"I am an Adept of Tantric VAX."
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA- Inspired by the blockbuster series of movies from the 1970's & 80's, aspiring filmmaker George Lucas has added his own project to the growing array of Star Wars fan films. While its production values far outpace other fan films, it bears all the hallmarks of garage cinema.
To prove that imitation is indeed the sincerest form of blatant copyright violation, Lucas premiered his "film" at a local Star Wars convention. Lucas' mother, in whose basement he has lived for the last twelve years, is reportedly proud of her son's accomplishment. However, she also felt the love story between Padmé and Anakin was forced and poorly written.
Like most fan-generated "films," George's was not a film at all. Lucas admits that he shot everything on digital video, about one quarter the image density of standard 35mm film. While he maintains that the choice was an artistic one, the issue of cost is undeniable.
During the screening, many patrons complained of the blurry look of the film print. A defensive Lucas reminded them that it looked much better on his computer monitor.
"If you look at color retention and light response, it would have looked much better on film," offered local film buff Wes Antilles. "I would have let him borrow my Super16 camera. He's too proud to ask, I guess."
The film suffers other ills common to fan films. Even the B-movie title, Attack of the Clones, is a dead giveaway of its amateur origin.
While some critics say that story elements take a back seat to flashy special effects, it would be difficult to argue that Lucas underwrote the film. The first two thirds of the film consist of nothing but mouths moving, gums flapping.
"I've seen this kind of thing ruin otherwise promising films," says UCLA film professor Leonard Calrissian. "Independent films often turn out too 'talky' because amateur directors are often too in love with their script to cut unnecessary or forced dialogue."
The most common complaint so far is that the film is not very much fun to watch. One walks away from Attack of the Clones wondering for whom it was made. Like most independent/amateur cinema, it is likely that the movie exists mostly for its own sake.
"I've got lots of other friends who do this kind of thing," said one local independent filmmaker. "Every time I run into them, they demand that I watch their latest project. It's getting to the point where I'm avoiding people. I haven't talked to George for over a year."
Unable to pay real actors and having run out of available friends, Lucas had to create many of the characters digitally. In spite of their obvious unreality, these digimuppets do a great deal to mask the awful acting and terrible direction common to such efforts.
There is no word yet whether the owners of the Star Wars trademark and franchise will do with Mr. Lucas. Clearly Attack of the Clones violates more than a dozen heavily-guarded copyrights while creating unsanctioned and [according to some] inconsistent backstory for established Star Wars characters.
In spite of its problems, most audience members agreed that Attack of the Clones was one of the best five fan films they had seen this year. Some even went so far as to compare it with the much-loved The Lego Strikes Back from 1996. Not bad for a first effort.
Inspired by the slightly-warmer-than-luke response to Attack of the Clones, Lucas announced plans to begin work on a sequel- as soon as he can come up with a better title.
[the above article is from ridiculopathy.com]
My criticism of these movies lies only with their success... please let me explain:
PEOPLE ARE EXPECTING TOO MUCH, and YES, this has been said before, so again, let me explain:
Star War Episode IV was the first Star Wars that was released for a reason! Give or take a few details (OK, maybe more than a few), the overall story was already formed before shooting of the original Star Wars began. But just like Back to the Future, the total concept for the plot and the characters and their adventures and the ultimate finale simply couln't fit into one movie -- this is why there was a Back to the Future I, II and III, and this is why we are still waiting for more Star Wars. So why was Episode IV released first, and why was it so much more positively received by the critics?
Episode IV was a success because of one simple fact: it had clearly defined "good guys" and "bad guys". The Empire was already formed, and it was bad. Darth Vader was bad. Luke was good. Leia was good. Obi Wan (Ben) was good. Simple.
But even still, there were hints at a greater scheme -- there was a history, there was an anxiousness at the end that made people wonder "whats next"? Well, with these "prequels" we already know "what is next" (in the long term anyhow), and although we in the audience really know who is "bad", it isn't really clearly defined. This is a much more subtle arena -- the title of Episode I was very appropriate, and for that reason (and yes, of course, even PeTA members would like to kill Jar Jar) it was highly criticized. I think Episode II answers a lot of questions, and given the enormous story that Lucas is trying to tell, I commend him for his efforts -- this has all the heart of the originals despite not having a cowboys vs. indians black and white story from the get go. We all knew there was a back story, and it amazes me that some critics have the nerve to complain that the material isn't "fresh".
I have read reports (Rex Reed, for example) that claim this is a boring movie. Get off the Vicodin -- this has more explosions, fight sequences, chase scenes, thrills and surprises than any other action movie I can think of. Sure it has its flaws (read: "love" scenes), but the movie's greatest flaw is that it is the latest in a series of wonderful movies -- I can't think of an easier and more obvious target for a mainstream critic.
Luke senses the good that remains in Vader. The Emperor can't sense Luke because he represents pure evil. Good is aware of good, evil is aware of evil. In the new trilogy, only the Trade Federation is aware of the existence of Sidious because it is the allegorical representation of greed. The Jedi Council is blind to the power of evil because it is represents everything that the Sith do not - evil, hatred, greed, lust etc.
But not for long... because the new films are all about this fall from grace. Anyone else do a double-take at the cognitive dissonance of seeing Yoda fight alongside a bunch of stormtroopers? Lucas had me grinning ear to ear!
Jango: w@+cH dI$ b0b@, i b3 0wnIn dI$ ph3w7
* shoots Obi-Wan's ship *
* BOOM *
Boba: heh heh heh
it loses a little appeal when you see one of your favorite bad guys from the original trilogy walking around as a kid ("Dad, shoot him!")
maybe in the next episode, Lucas will include Ponda Baba and his struggles as a teenage walrusman (while we're killing good characters, why not make him speak English too...)
SPOLIERS.
Did he, really...? Remember Palpatine was in the same room. Remember how Palpatine engineered for too-strong-willed (Anakin said so) Amidala to be escorted elsewhere? Makes you think again, no? We haven't really witnessed Palpatine's powers, but imagine him as an evil Prof. Xavier.
Real pity is that Amidala didn't reject Anakin outright and Lucas hinting Anakin using his vastly superior Jedi mind trick to push her into liking him after failing to win her through his horrible pick up (?) lines.
Or any villians/jedi hinting that they sold a former lover as a slave/had a romantic fling with a slave on Tatooine. ("He has no father").
Rashomon! (see imdb for reference on that) What happens doesn't matter nor as interesting as HOW it happened.
*sigh* Ep 2 is entertaining, but think of all the failed POSIBILITIES of making this so much better!
Yodas' great-great-great-great--great-...-grand-child is...
The Green Goblin!
What's the deal about "lone gunman the thing", anyway? What's that you say. LG are all dead? When did that happen?
BTW, JarJar and Yoda are gay. Oops, I should have said "Spoiler Alert" first.
After these three preqs are finished Star Wars episode IV is going to look stupid.
Imagine again, the first few minutes; Darth Vader is chasing his DAUGHTERs ship (and doesn't know it) and on that ship is also the first droid he ever built (C3-PO) to which he is also oblivious. Then his DROID crash lands on his home planet where his old master lives, and his brother (Owen Lars) and his son Luke SKYWALKER (who is "hidden" from him????).
Blah! Star Wars has more issues than National Geographic.
Lucas presents the Gungans as a violent and irrational race. They live underwater and are thus symbolically associated with the subconscious/id (the OTHER race on Naboo represents the ego if we stop to think). It was hardly accidental that the Gungans formed the "good" army in the first film.
So having Jar Jar propose the motion makes thematic sense. Scratch that.... it is the ONLY thing that makes sense. The point is that Palpatine COULDN'T have counted on Padme. Lucas expects his audience to pick up on this and realize the irony.
Incidentally, for those curious souls who aren't willing to dismiss Star Wars as a piece of popular fluff, the same logic tells us why Kamino is a water planet.
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.; (which is distributing SW)
That's why I don't make a distinction. They're all a part of it.
Yeah, it really is fscked. My husband wanted to take me to see a movie. I try to avoid anything but indies now, so I say "cool, let's go to see Dogtown and ZBoys. Indie film, no connection to the MPAA, a movie about some people who were sorta, kinda heroes for me Back In The Day...yeah, great idea.
Guess what. The film starts. What's the first thing you see? A title slide that says "Sony Classics Pictures."
GAAAHHHH!!!! EVIL FSCKN SONY STRIKES AGAIN!!!!
I really, really resent the MPAA. They have the movie distribution channels locked up so tightly that not even indie movies can get in theatres without kissing Don Jack "The Ripper" Valenti's ring.
That's it. I'll just wait for stuff like this to come out on DVD and get it on Half.Com.
PS: Dogtown thoroughly kicked ass. You gotta see the scenes of Venice surfers playing very dangerous games with the ruins of the Pacific Ocean Park pier. But wait until you can get a used DVD on Half.Com. Do it for the kids!
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
Maul comes from Pilgrim's Progress
thence came forth Maul, a giant. This Maul did use to spoil young pilgrims with sophistry, [asking] how many times have you been forbidden to do these things?"
Seriously tho, Natalie was the star. Look for the gratutous nipple shots too! Probabbly the only thing in the film that wasn't C.G.
Oh, good film too, worth seeing
:-)
Yeah, the rhymes don't really work, but I just wanted to express what I'm sure many other Slashdotters are feeling, a renewed crush on Natalie Portman, stronger than ever, once seeing her in reasonable(ly revealing) clothing and showing a half bit of emotion.
Check out NP's outfit on Dave as I type this. Full frontal assault!!!
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
Your idea of just force-pulling Anakin and Obi Wan is exactly what ran through my head while watching the movie (both times!). After some thought, however, it seems that the best course of action (from a preserve-the-Republic standpoint, not a storytelling standpoint) would've been to let them both get crushed.
Think about it- Yoda could've then finished off Dooku (is there any doubt about who would've won had the fight continued?), thereby destroying Sideous' right hand and link to the separtist movement, as well as preventing the Death Star plans from falling into the Sith's hands.
Additionally, the loss of Anakin would mean the "loss" of Vader, the benefit of which to the galaxy as a whole is obvious.
Cost benefit analysis:
Cost: Obi Wan, no continuation of the Skywalker line, and a few sleepless nights for our little green friend.
Benefit: Throws the Sith's plans into (possibly unrecoverable) chaos, preservation of the Jedi order (we know from Ep IV that Vader is instrumental in the eradication of the Jedi), prevention of the rise of the Empire, and the sparing of the lives of countless rebels and the *entire populace of Alderaan*!
All this from a single decision in the heat of battle.
Preservation of the Old Republic could be argued as either a pro or a con depending on your perspective. If you view the Republic as being inherently corrupt and impotent then it's a bad thing, but from my perspective it's Government That Really Works (tm) corrupted by the Sith influence (much like corporate influence in our own government).
Maybe it wouldn't have stopped Sideous permanently, but it certainly would've screwed his plans up royally.
Speaking of screwing royals, though, now that I think about it this would've also eliminated any chance of Episode III being the NC-17 Natalie Portman sextravaganza that I feel it should rightly be.
Hmmmm... Anyone wanna buy some beachfront property on Alderaan?
-Cybrex
Boundless Expansion, Self-Transformation, Dynamic Optimism, Intelligent Technology, Spontaneous Order- BEST DO IT SO!
Unfortunately the logic of the ending gets quite bizarre. Are Jedi that dumb? And how could the completely retarded trade federation heads manage to become so powerful after two jedis, a palace guard, and a little brat whooped their butts last time round? Did (padded) Padme get turned on by Anakin before or after she learned what a cold blooded killer he was? Yes, nice foreshadowing (literally) with the death star plans (any point to that?), Anakin getting riveted, and that lovely mechanical hand that probably really drove the Naboobian senator wild (call it an "engagement prosthetic"). Thanks for making such short work of Shmi, nice and predictable. Take a somewhat endearing character and give her 3 incomprehensible lines before she croaks. Clever placement of those facial cuts. They should have shaved her head and given her white makeup, stitches, and a black suit and cape as well. Ooh! And that dialogue! Loved all that explainery! Yoda:"Too stupid are Jedi to what Anakin and Padme are up to notice. Same for Dooku goes." Pity Mr. Lee didn't get more air time. He could deliver lines without sounding like he was reading off a cue card.
hahahahaha.........love it!! hahahaha....*tears up* hahahahaha........
never thought of it that way.......very funny
Anyone notice how Dooku and Anakin say almost exactly the same thing? "I am the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy". I guess it's expected, but I didn't think it would be so blatant, and Palpatine tells Anakin, "You're the most talented Jedi I've ever met".
I though the romantic scenes were a little sappy (but I always do, seen too many Hindi movies). But, they are much better the second time around, and you catch a few more nuances (they're there). I wanted to see whether they would be as embarassing the next time around, and they really weren't.
I could hear Lucas in the director's chair saying:
- Natalie, you're still thinking, is this the little 10 year old from Tatooine.
- Natalie, you're tocuhed by his declaration, but wiggle your shoulders a little more, and edge away from him on the sofa.
- Hayden, you're willing to tell her *anything* to her, you're 20 years old and you've been a monk for the past 10.
- Hayden, keep staring at her, you know she likes it.
None of the actors have the presence of Alec Guinness, Harrison Ford, or James Earl Jones' voice. Ian McDiarmid (Palpatine) and Christopher Lee (Dooku) probably come closest.
-- Equity lord of the Trill Consortium
Anyone else notice the reference to Indy when the Jedi leaps up to the Counts platform in the arena and waves his lightsabre around....only to have Jango Fett shoot him down and then run into battle. Kinda cheap, but I liked it none the less.
Maybe someone can confirm this:
I'm fairly certain I've seen concept art of the rhino thing, the hairy-lizard rat cat thing, and the beasts pulling the chariots. (I don't remember the crab thing)
I'm thinking it was from some old making of stars wars (orginal trilogy) type book, and they were in there as creature ideas that didn't make the cut.
Anyone else?
-- Our systemic servants do not good masters make.
Man, Lucas is such a money-grubbing bastard. I went to see when the showings were
at the local theater's website, and I found the following notice:
Sorry for any incovemience
Lucas films will not allow any discount tickets
for any showing of Star Wars
Sorry Lucas, this obvious record-breaking tactic
still won't get you the records you're after.
Try making a good film. Now there's a novel idea that just might work!
If i was Anikin Skywalker, and my movie was being blasted by the critics. I might turn to the critics, raise my hand in jedi fashion and say "I find your lack of faith disturbing" After which those who oppose my movie would fall to the floor gasping for air.
Anyone else see Natalie on Letterman tonite? What a delicious dress. What a babe. Turning 21 next month. Single and to drool for. Sigh...
Yeah, Letterman was looking down her dress - prevert!
gawd, samuel l jackson was sooo distracting, i was just waiting for him to say motherfucker. he looked like he was struggling to hold it back. someone like forrest whittaker would have been much better in that role.
and who else spent the whole movie trying to figure out when anakin and amidala were going to shag?
David Weber and Lois McMaster Bujold write far better space opera. Lucas should outsource the plot and concentrate on what he's good at: effects and production.
I hope you have an idea how close to the truth you are..
We also watched the 1978 Star Wars Christmas special. I can report that it is a lot of fun to watch when you're drinking gin.
Happy life day!
It's amazing how much the fantasies of one man, and the elaborate scrutiny of others. Who try to find connections between what is real and what is made-believe, and in most ideals that would appear to be slightly 'deranged' to others!
But when looking back to what I know of the ST series, and the events of the past year, I had to look up and wonder of the what if's? Plus the fact that the writer of this piece took a insight of a world from GL (you know who?), and took it to another degree.
In anway you look at it, this piece of written text is very thought provoking, and funny - Others may not look at it this way. But to me you've done a fine job...
when android soldiers are so easy and cheap to mass produce?
A witty saying proves you are wittier than the next guy.
To put it simply Yoda is a "Bad Ass". We now know why everyone was in awe of the little green thing with hair coming out it's ears.
--|gillham|--
It stinks.
Life isn't like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapenos. What you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow.
I claim anteriority on that one !
And I did not even get 1 point !
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=32292&cid=349
of course my piece was less developed and
more elliptic. Story of my life...
Google passes Turing test : see my journal
Fact is he never really had it in my opinion.
Nearly of his films have shown a woeful lack of ability in the areas that are the hallmarks of a good director - namely acting and tone.
Though has been blessed with brilliant ideas (Indiana Jones, for example), he isn't the best person to execute them.
He is all about effects, and seems to spend little or no time working with his actors to produce credible performances. On top of that he is an extremely poor scriptwriter, with a terrible ear for dialogue.
His best film is easily Amercian Graffiti, which is a brilliantly acted emsemble piece. However, a certain Francis Coppola was the prodcer on this film and rumour has it that he did alot more than just produce whilst on set.
Directing is much more than setting up fancy shots with your DP and cutting them together with a string of special effects. Its about character, emotion and atmosphere - something that these new films lack.
Whilst making the original Star Wars the young cast argued with him and as a result turned in performances that actually HAVE emotion. Now that he is revered as some sort of god, no one on set dares tell him that he is wrong.
He should have employed other screenwriters and directors to make these new films. (He does, I concede, have a shared credit on Clones)
Why is Empire such a good film? Put simply, its because the script was handed over to Leigh Brackett (who wrote Casablanca) and the direction was handed over to veteran director Irvin Kershner, who concentrated on the actors and let ILM get on with the effects.
At one point, new young directors were being considered to helm these films. One rumour had David Fincher directing Episode III.
It may have been a rumour, but I'm sure it would also have been a film really worth seeing.
rb.
Need inventive ideas? That's why they have officers - recruited from the general public....
I *KNEW* that this one would be better.
My reasoning was based upon the (intentional) correlations between the first Star Wars and Episode 1.
There are losts if you think about it: A princess in trouble, a battle against a large installation that culminates with a single ship/pilot (with the help of R2) destroying said installation, the "award ceremony" at the very end of the movie is a carbon copy. There are more, but you can figger em out yerself.
Anyways, Empire was to me the darkest and most intense of the first 3 and therefore the best. I postulated that AOTC would follow in the same format.
It will be interesting to see how my theory plays out over the whole series!
When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
Some say it's computer generated inside
the ships to help the pilots understand
what's going on....
in my opinion the propulsion system of the
ships distorts the fabric of spacetime
a little like the effects of gravity, and
this creates corrsponding gravity waves
which makes the vessels vibrate. When the
ships explode the brutal disruption of
those gravity-wave creating systems
makes a shockwave appear.
Google passes Turing test : see my journal
Based on SWI and II(particularly the last 30 mins of Clones), can we now expect to see what we have wanted in episode 4.
From the Internet Movie Data Bases's trivia about Star Wars, at http://us.imdb.com/Trivia?0076759
The episode number and subtitle "A New Hope" did not originally appear in the film's opening crawl. These were added in a later re-release to be consistent with those seen in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Pablo Picasso said,
"When there is something to steal, I steal it."
even great artists "borrow." great artists realize that even something original references things that have come before it in some way.
you probably shouldn't have read this.
- Yoda's climactic fight scene...everyone has heard it's coming, but you can't be prepared to see Yoda in a lightsaber duel...the crowd in my theatre was literally cheering the whole time, at how cool it was...
Unfortuneatly, the best part of the whole film, without a doubt.
- Mace Windu also has some quality Lightsaber action, and some pretty bad-*ss scenes...only thing that would've made it better was if his lightsaber said "Bad A** Mother F*****" (Pulp Fiction Reference)...
Hmm.. I must not have been paying attention to him at the right times. I just remember him making vague and fake looking saber moves in the background of shots where he wasn't the focus.
- Hayden Christenson is a huge improvement over Jake Loyd as Anakin (then again it would be hard not to be)...he's brilliant in the scenes where he has to show flashes of evil and flashes of the dark side...
At no point did I think he was brilliant. If you want to see some real acting watch Donnie Darko. The kid in this film goes from bat-crazy INSANE to the nicest kid on earth beautifully. Also, it'd be really nice to see some non-jedi non-politician characters in the movies that aren't robots or aliens. All the characters HAVE to be stuffy all the time because that's inherent in their characters! Didn't you notice that everyone in the film had a stick in their ass?
- From the trailers, i thought that the romantic part of the movie was gonna be super cheesy, but it's actually not as bad as i expected...though, there is one point when they're in that big field on a picnic, when it looks like a scene out of "Sound of Music"...
No chemistry whatsoever. Painful. Then to top it off with a marriage at the end? Jesus.
- The worst part (IMO) was Lucas' attempts at some uneeded humor (much like Jar-Jar in Ep I)...in Ep II he uses C3P0 and R2D2 to deliver this humor both physically (in a ridiculous sequence with C3P0) and also in a series of bad puns involving the two of them...
This scene was ridiculous, but I liked it. It seem s that the only inter-character dynamics lucas was successful at was with R2 and C3PO. But he worked that out 20 years ago, so - whatever. A little heavy on the puns though...
- Natalie Portman looks great in the movie...and if you've seen the trailers, you know the tight white top that she wears...well, let's just say, that it must be cold on Tatooine...
I was all about the push-up corsette...
"America, I smoke marijuana every chance I get."
The whole of the movie before Yoda's battle was kinda cheesy, and was making me a little uneasy. But after Yoda's battle I haven't been able to get the image of a little green, spinning ball sporting a light sabre from here to Malistair. I imagined a lot of stuff when I thought of Yoda kicking some ass, but I never could have conceived this. The Dark Side and Obi Wan be damned, Yoda IS the force!
"It's here, but no one wants it." - The Sugar Speaker
I saw at my local big screen 8:45pm. My thoughts. 3.5 of 5, here's my non-Lone Gunman Review:
Attack Of the Clones: "Hand Me My Lightsaber. It's Purple and Says, 'Bad Jedi Mother.....'"
Netjak.com independent reviews of domestic & import video ga
Brilliant
I turned to the Dark Side and all i got was this lousy comment.
you're absolutely correct...you r()()l d3wD....
Mad props to you for this. It's great.
Isn't this where we start quoting Clerks?
*appluse* I never bother posting, but this one deserves recognition. I agree that it should be get a modnod for both insightful AND funny.
Of course, there is still the very real fact that the Islamic extremists ARE deranged...
A rea=egypt&ID=SP37502
To pick just one example, here is a column that appeared in Egypt's official state newspaper. As you read it, keep in mind that this is not some guy passing out propaganda on the street, but the Egyptian Government Daily Al-Akhbar.
http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=countries&
Sure, it is always easy to write something which looks superficially like a parallel situation. I just hope people recognize the humor and do not confuse fiction and reality.
Vidi, Vici, Veni
I really liked this movie. This will contain some spoilers, but nothing serious. Lucas injected this with so much moral ambiguity its practically Barry Lyndon in space. The Jedi are revealed to be a lot more backward and 'secret police'-like than the knights of honor Obi-Wan described them as in the original.
Lucas continues to demystify the Jedi and shows them to be practially ineffectual compared to the dark-side. The jedi are shown to be a conservative group of assassins, thugs, and simply the fist of the republic. Their restrictions seem more trouble than they're worth, especially the celebicy rules for hormone-crazed Anakin. Lucas seems to be showing both the Jedi and the Republic to be structures that age very badly and are destined to collapse from dogma and corruption.
Lucas's political cynicism is all over the place. None of the other movies had this, at least in such an obvious way. The original three had a strong good vs. evil theme. TPM had some senatorial intrigue, but nothing on this level. We get to see how badly the republic is run and how vulnerable it is to dictatorship. The characters trust their government about as much as most people trust the US government.
A few people have compared it to ESB, but its a lot more brainy than that. The next film which shows the total decline and collapse of both the Jedi and the Republic may be the best one of all.
Obi wan kanobi or however you spell it died in an earlier movie, did he not? how could you let this slip past you buddy?
Very damned funny, insightful and will definitely be considered in bad taste by those who support the Empire and the decision to bomb the hell out of Hoth and/or voted for the Emperor. And that's just fine. Those types need to be assaulted by more bad taste.
Fortunately, I think there are a lot fewer of them since right after the destruction of the Death Star. But, there will always be those law and order types who'd rather see their tax dollar go to Star Destroyers instead of education.
May the Farce be with you!
In the original SW movies (Ep4-6) when a jedi died, their body disappeared. (Yoda, Obi Wan).
How come this didn't happen to Qai gon jinn in episode 1? And they burnt his body at the end of the movie? Apparently this was meant to be made clear in Episode 2, but i didn't see how or where.
Just curious.
D.
You can tell how powerful someone is by the magnitude of the crime they can commit and be able to get away with.
Palpatine already knows he wants Anakin- why do you think he was buttering him up all film? He's already got Anakin firmly on his side, and made Anakin distrust all other politicians and Jedi. He's even turned him against Obi Wan.
Also, note that it was Palpatine who maneouvered to make sure Amidala and Ani got back together. He wants Ani to marry Amidala so that he will have to leave the Jedi, and will hate the Jedi for not letting him stay.
Palpatine is fully in control, and knows exactly what he wants. He really succeeds in this film- getting himself full dictator powers (using the same method as Hitler), a whole army and ensnaring Ani.
I made this comment to my wife as we left the cinema after AOTC "Jar-jar is the Phantom Menace, there is no way Padme would have given emergency powers to the sumpreme chancelor". Overall I though it was good, but it hard to believe that Jedi went along with the clone army that has shaddy past which they found out about.
-Jasa -- Linux - The SOURCE will be with you, ALWAYS
Yeah, I guess 40 years qualifies as "more than 20" - way to sell Spidey short. He's been doing his thing since before the Force was a twinkle in Lucas's eye.
"Dave, I stand still--the conclusions jump to me!" - Bill McNeal, NewsRadio
ROFL
This article and several others are defendable, especially after seeing episodes 1 and 2.
... universe, or possibly not known, is that the story telling perspective is not from the point of view of the humans such as Luke, Leah, Anakin, or the aliens, Yoda, Chewie, etc. They're told from the perspective of the droids, plain and simple. That has always been Lucas's intention. I heard/read/saw an interview or something along those lines (I forget, I'm sorry) where he mentioned this explicitly. The droids are what make the real framework of the story - their antics make the movies interesting and fresh. I challenge everyone to go back through the Trilogy (and Ep2, really) and mentally remove the schenes where R2 and 3PO are present. The films are drastically lacking any sort of entertainment value. They're almost boring. The droids perform -so many- useful tasks in the films. Paticular emphasis on A New Hope and Clones, I feel. Notice how the plot didn't really start picking up until the droids started having a more active role. (Coincidence, but still, ironic coincidence. Also, I'm not sure of this, but I think that Lucas almost named the movie Droids initially, but picked Star Wars instead. Watch "The Making of Star Wars" - the majority of talk was about droids, and getting them to work properly, etc.)
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
"This is what Darth Vader is reduced to? Anakin is annoying in so many ways: embarrassingly horny, foolishly impulsive, recklessly stubborn."
I think this describes a good deal of male teenagers.
Episode II was awesome. True, the love scenes were flat and the plot was a bit choppy. But the action sequences rocked and the Yoda fight - BADASS. If you disagree...well, as Yoda said, you have much to learn.
real fans won't care if the movies are inferior...we want the entire serise in itf full complete self......besides...after 1-3 are done he can show 1-6 then anounce 7-9 then when those are done show 1-9
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
it is kind of interesting that palpatine's plane ends up to doom him. if the jedi had been finished at that point, then Luke would never have been able to do what he did.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
I personally thought that AotC was a huge improvement over PM, but I had one major gripe with the movie:
Whoever wrote the dialouge completely overused the "Yoda inverting his sentences" thing.
I mean, at one point, yoda says to some troops "A perimeter around the survivors we must form"
You might want to hold off on suggesting Lucas push digital cameras. I saw Clones on celluloid this evening, and there were many cases where the digital artifacts were bad enough to make it look like a home movie.
The one point that I noticed it most was during the picnic scene, where there are several closeup of both Christensen and Portman. It was so pronounced, that I didn't immediately notice how bad the rest of the scene was.
I have yet to see it on a digital projector, but I'll be making the trip back to the theatre to check it out, and see if they're there.
Has anyone else seen this? Has anyone seen artifacts in movies shot in film, then digitally scanned for post production? I can't think of anything myself, and one reason may be that the digital film scanners, combined with the technicians who usually fix up almost every frame by hand, are still of a much higher quality than the best digital cameras that exist today for the movie industry.
While I'm sure that filming all in digital brings down the costs, and is easier for the post-production teams, the quality is still below standard, as far as I'm concerned, for most movies. I'm sure if you looked at Clones frame by frame, you'd see that almost every frame has the digital artifacts, but that the action is moving by too fast, usually, for the eye to see it. However, when the action is slowed down, or there are closeups, the pixelation is obvious.
This works for the action sequences of many movies, but wouldn't work for many movies, including most dramas, where slow camera shots and closeups are necessities.
What does anyone else think? Have they seen these digital problems on a digital projector? What about on film?
Get your flamethrowers out boys.
;-)
George Lucas has set movie heroines back at least 50 years with the use of Natalie Portman in AOTC.
I know I know...you all think she's a hottie what with her exposed back in the infamous perilously draped bedsheet as dress number on the terrace scene, or the strapless black pleather dominatrix wannabe getup in the hokey fireplace festivities scene or even the white longjohns in the colliseum battle scene...once they've been conveniently slashed to reveal her tummy.
Take it from a real woman - Nat's a "nottie"
Meta-Quote "There are no jiggling breasts in space". --Carrie Fisher in 'Skywalking' quoting George Lucas's reason for mercilessly taping her breasts flat to her body for the filming of ANH.
Every second Little Miss 'I better use my only 2 talents 'cause I sure as hell can't act worth a crap' was on screen I secretly longed for Leia to swoop in and bitch slap the dumb blonde conveniently disguised as a brunette Amidala (I'm supposed to believe she's Leia's *mother*?!?! I don't think so...). Assassins kept trying to kill Amidala through out AOTC and what does she do? Change outfits, usually to something that would even have Joe Pesci's Vinnie saying a la My Cousin Vinnie 'Oh yeah Padme, you blend...not!' Here's a fashion tip: A shiny silver cape on a desert planet is about as subtle as Jennifer Lopez's Grammy Awards bathrobe in a mosque filled with Shiite Muslim clerics - nothing like the impractical outfit to remind the killers just where their target is at all times (see Kate Capshaw in Temple of Doom).
Leia Organa was and in my mind still is the only regal female character, a real Star Wars fan's princess. That Padme's now only a Senator says something (apparently even a pair of perky ones doesn't translate to a lifetime guarantee to a crown). And while we're on the subject of breasts, Carrie Fisher had to go through two and a half full movies before she was ever allowed to show a little skin and she still hooked up with Harrison Ford, Even fully clothed that relationship was damned sexy! Watching Padme half-naked and forced to keep saying 'no we really shouldn't Ani' while making cow eyes at him was beyond stupid and painful and sends the not so subtle message that George has forgotten what makes for a real heroine - the ability of a woman to stand up for herself and kick a little ass whether she's taped and covered in a white shroud and has her hair done up in to ear-covering danishes or whether she's chained half-naked to a morbidly obese slime slobbering lounge lizard.
While Leia would shove a Wookie into a stinking trash compactor to get away from imminent danger, Padme can't figure out how to crawl out of a big bucket. Where Leia would give Han Solo shit about being a money grubbing mercenary jerk, Amidala can't even convincingly defend her own politics to an escaped boy band look alike who is a cross between Wesley Crusher and any dreaded Mary Sue from any fanfic cannon you'd care to name.
And let's get to Amidala's taste in uh sullen teenagers. Hayden is certainly no James Earl Jones, he's not a Harrison, heck he's not even up to Hamill on Mark's worst day. Hayden has exactly two facial expressions: drool and pout and most of the time he doesn't know which one he should don. This poor little boy's character is saddled with the great task of becoming the menacing Darth-freaking-Vader and anytime he does something vaguely unsettling (like say committing small scale genocide to avenge a plot device...I mean his mother's death) our heroine's first instinct is to give him a cuddle?!?! Besides Anakin being ten years younger, a thousand times less smooth than the geekiest geek you can imagine, and a future mass murderer Padme all of a sudden finds Ani peachy keen and hints that she'll put out for him if he'll fight by her side when it looks like they're both going to be executed. Gag me with a lightsaber already! Or better yet Harrison appearing as Indiana with a big black revolver and shooting the creepy lovers the way he did with the big sabre wielding dude in 'Raiders' would have made me respect George Lucas again.
And there lies the crux of the problem: by using Padme/Natalie as the female protagonist in this first trilogy old Papa Skywalker Ranch is really saying he doesn't give a rat's patootie about his female characters other than as fashion accessories and plot devices. I'd like for Georgie Porgie to remember that the women in his audience young and old are all smarter than those Kenner action figures he's gonna retire on. It's sad that he's dumbed down his plots so that kids won't see too much death and bad stuff (ie why the Dark Side of the Force has been stripped from this first trilogy) but it's unforgiveable that Padme doesn't stand up for herself until very late in AOTC. The message this first trilogy sends to women and young girls is that we're not a factor in a major political and spiritual revolution except as a fetus factories and eye candy and for someone as smart as Lucas it's unforgiveable. He had better give Padme some honorary cojones for Episode III or he's gonna lose his female audience (you know the future mothers and grandmothers and ticket buyers for the generation of little urchins to whom the third Star Wars trilogy will be marketed) and lord knows he can't conquer the box offices or the Dark Side without us.
Besides every geek knows that smart is infinitely sexier than skin
I realize that filmmakers are charged with using innovative tactics in order to keep a movie audience at the edge of their seats. I also realize that producers need money in order to make a movie. However one thing should never change: at the core of a great movie lies a great story.
The greatest of all mistakes in AOTC was in the poor development of the story. The characters were all tolerable; some where even fantastic(Windu, Yoda, Palpatine,...even some of the lesser characters). The settings were breathtaking(you get the FEEL of Star Wars alot more than in Phantom Menace). The action sequences were quite nice....but where were the non-action sequences? Where were the scenes that delved into the angst of Anakin, outside of the action, so we can absorb it? Where was the build-up of the Anakin-Padme relationship?(How many people do you know, especially with the female 10 years older than the male, that after 10 years apart and some akward kissing over the course of perhaps a few weeks, decide to get married?!)
A good story requires rising action, wherein the conflict of the story builds to a crescendo, and then a small resolution is made. Watching AOTC, with its engineered wipe-transition-to-wipe-transition "action snippets", was like watching a horror movie without the suspense. Sure, its awesome to see Yoda flipping around and pulling off some crazy Bruce Lee martial arts, but I would have at least liked some indication that he might have been capable of this all.
To address those of you who feel that the love scenes are not classified as action; in the basest sense, they should be. Any scene with intense emotional action is classified as "active" in terms of the story, be it sadness, suspense, love, or "action" as we know and love in Hollywood cinema. The resulting comment from some less critical viewers is, "too much CGI/love story/action/politics/glitz."
The fact that anybody notices the minor details; i.e. cliches used in previous movies/Star Wars movies, CGI looks fake in certain part, Yoda walks on a cane...but can do triple backflip, etc, etc, proves that a non-immersive story can be a distraction. In an immersive story, you are so engrossed in the movie that you don't notice the younger patrons laughing at C3PO when his head gets interchanged with a battle droid's, or the teenage girls whooping for N-SYNC(thank god THAT didn't happen), or the countless continuity errors in the story.
While the movie is only 1/3 of the trilogy, it still requires build-up, climax, and resolution. No movie should require 3.5 hours of waiting for it to get good; it didn't happen in the original series...shouldn't happen in the new one.
What does it all boil down to? A movie can only be as good as it story. Why do you prefer to watch the original Star Wars trilogy over Episode I and II? The effects are definitely better in the newer films. The CGI can be used to construct amazing settings and worlds. The quality of the picture and color is much better in the latest movies. So why do we still like the older ones? Because a great story can make up for several weak visual elements, whereas no amount of glitz and glamour can make up for a bad story.
I have no desire to reach nirvana.
What a waste, one of the most entertaining and witty posts I have read on /. in ages, and an idiot like you has to come along a add what? Something that shows no wit or intelligence. Give up.
And of course, this white supremicist and this and Timothy McVeigh and all his friends, they aren't deranged, just misguided whites who aren't really going to harm or hate anyone.
Microsoft - Where would you like to go today, Maybe Jail?
I'd like to completely conquer and occupy Natalie Portman. She will receive extensive training in the proper use an handling of a Jedi's light saber.
That wasn't too obvious, was it?
the only thing worth seeing in this movie.
I'll watch it a few more times to try to confirm it for you. Please send tickets.
HOT GRITS!!!!
:)
Stormtroopers arent clones
It's not like the US is a peaceful nation minding its own business.
I have to agree with the point that the US is by no means a peaceful nation. And 'minding its own business'. ?? Get real.
Funny and creative writing but the analogies are so twisted as to expand the limits of contortion.
It is true that all rebellions and freedom fighters are labeled "terrorists" of one sort or another, until they ultimately triumph. The United States is a nation of revolutionaries (remember 1776?). However, that thread of connection does not warrant a blanket assumption that all self appointed revolutionaries hold the same moral high ground.
Al Qaeda deliberately targets innocent civilians, and the Empire of Star Wars is more akin to the totalitarian regimes of China, Cuba or the Taliban.
Sorry about posting anounymously, couldn't get the registration thing to work.
This is a very clever piece of political satire. But the author is seriously deluded if (s)he really believes in his/her own metaphors. Let's get this straight:
The problem with such cheap humor is that it fuels similar delusions in the American political process and by America haters abroad.
Americans during World War II (let alone Americans today) had more political rights and freedoms than citizens of the Republic at the start of the clone wars. We have not surrendered our freedoms to the chancellor (cum Emperor) in the name of dealing with a rebellion (Episode II), let alone seen a repressive regime sending Death Stars around the universe decimating entire civilizations. (If you seriously believe otherwise, ask the citizens of Afghanistan if they feel like the citizens of Alderon).
So it's a free country, and the Internet has even fewer restrictions. But it doesn't mean that the posting was insightful, responsible or even funny.
You are one fucked up dude, macfan1234.
In the analogical framework that this piece setup, you have missed the connection: Alderon is _not_ Afghanistan, it is Iraq.
Throughout the 1990's, the US imposed economic sanctions on Iraq -- as well as random cruise missile attacks on Iraq, Sudan and elsewhere whenever the domestic population needed the amusement -- killed a conservative 500,000 Iraqi children.
When asked about this, a certain Madeline Albright -- high official of your Glorious Empire -- acknowledged the loss and noted that "It was worth it". That is, the deaths were the unfortunate byproduct of a noble cause of Imperial foreign policy -- they were _acceptable_ collateral damage to make Hussein feel a little discomfort.
This comment both shocked and enraged the Arab world at the time it was made. This is the comment that, probably more than any other, led directly to the atrocity at WTC.
Maybe now macfan1234 realizes why the "rebels" hate the Empire as much as they do? Why they are willing to sacrafice themselves for their cause? Why people like _us_ -- non-combatants -- are considered legitimate targets by those who we have victimized?
Probably not. Empire can do no wrong in his whacked-up, Disney-land, view of reality.
Did anyone notice that the entire blame for the existance of the Empire can be blamed on Representative Jar-Jar Binks? In a pure display of political ambition, he grabbed the spotlight and convinced the other Senators to give all that power to Palpatine. I hope there are a few lines in Episode III given to characters who grumble under their breath about "that god damn Binks" when contemplating the enemy.
Curious as to how the Americans react to critism with such venom. President Bush doesn't make the sun rise in the morning and he doesn't make the world go round. So what's with the god like status? I was quite alarmed to see images of americans celebrating the fact that the vengence attacks on the afghan people were successful when they critisised the palestinians for being happy about the S11 attack. I'm quite ashamed that my own government is touting that our armed troops sent to help have killed over 300 taliban and AlQuaida soldiers. War is not something to be proud of. There is no glory in taking the life of another.
I ask you. What is a terrorist? really. And are you forgeting that it was the CIA that set up half these so called terrorist regimes in the first place. And killing them all off is not going to solve anything, violence begets violence and so the cycle begins anew. Its quite sad really.
The Islamic freedom fighters are fighting for their rights. Just because not everyone has access to hi tech american weapons of mass destruction doesn't mean they have to sit back and let themselves be knocked off one by one. They fight within their means just as the Vietnamese did. I think it was quite a stroke of genius to use the planes actually. You can't expect to stop every attack, and one was bound to get through sometime or other.
The way these American government people act like they rule the universe and that their way is the only way. Well, its no wonder everyone hates America. You're digging your own grave.
well, thats my piece. I really enjoyed that article. Keep it coming!
Beautifully written, and it's something for everybody. Not even Bush himself could argue with this one, because it sheds light on both sides of stories. Want more!
To: Curious as to how the Americans react to critism with such venom.
"The Islamic freedom fighters are fighting for their rights"
Wow. Now there's a deep concept. You sure have given this a lot of thought Please explain how deliberately slaughtering office workers, little old ladies and small children is an example of "freedom fighters fighting for their rights."
(not really anonymous - couldn't log in - mary83059)
If you ignore the technological comparisons and just pay attention to the ideologies, the philosophies of the Empire it has a lot more in common with the Taliban & Bin Laden's 'pure Islamic state', Afghanistan - repression, random executions, a twisted version of an established religion.
The attack on the death star is more like the attack on Tora Bora - soldiers vs. soldiers (of course, the attack on the Death Star was more successful)
If Luke Skywalker had slaughtered office workers and firemen, would anyone have bothered to show up for the sequel? I don't think so.
More importantly, can you imagine what the state of the world would be if Al Qaeda had the more advanced technology?
Not anonoymous - mary
He said the victims were innocents.
What happens in the next episode?
hmmmmmmmm....hilarious.
the funny thing is, is you, me, and everyone in this "Empire" is assumed to be with the "Dark Side", and those "heroes" won't even bother to ask whether you're part of it or not while they indiscriminately slice you, your parent's and children's throats. think i'm kidding? if i were to ever give Arab shitbag extremists a complement, a comparism to the noble Rebel Alliance would be the last thing i would liken them to.
the person who wrote this is typically deluded, not to mention unforgivebly talentless. sir or ma'am, if you're going to attept satire, at least make it somewhat amusing. this shit is rediculous.
anonymous motherfucker.
Excellent piece!
On missed opportunity though is a reference to:
support for the rebels by the Alderaanian royal family
Much of the contention about this article is centered on the message that the US is like the Empire which is bad. Another way to look at it (probably not intended by the author) is the Empire is like the US which is good:7 /101925 0&mode=thread&tid=101 t ic les/000/000/001/248ipzbt.asp
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/05/1
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Ar
This is one of the most brilliant pieces of satire that I have EVER seen. Bravo.
not a clue!
Why do you think people resort to terrorism?!
I appreciate your sentiment but you're targetting the wrong person. Portman's majoring in Psychology at Harvard. Not exactly the recipe for dumb. And the fact that she, with a budding movie career, decided to go to college just screams that she's on the ball in the intellectual department. I agree, her performance in Clones is poor, but come on - the script sucks, just like all the other Star Wars movies. Go ahead and blame Lucas all you want, but you're stereotyping Portman quite unfairly.
And besides, Lucas' script isn't all that sexist towards her character. She shows as much courage as Leia on multiple occasions. Who knows why the hell she falls for Anakin, but that's due to weak romantic understanding on the part of Lucas. Remember, the character of the relationship between Han and Leia is vastly different than the character of the relationship between Padme and Anakin....or at least the character as we might imagine it written by a decent scriptwriter. The Padme/Anakin relationship presents a greater challenge for Lucas, evidently, than the Han/Leia relationship....and he fails miserably. And the "whoops my shirt got ripped, here's my midriff" thing is dumb, but a lot less sexist-dumb than Leia at the beginning of ROTJ...and yet you call that Leia scene "ok" because she kicks some ass in it. But Padme kicks some ass in her scene, too...at least as much ass as one can kick armed with only a blaster against hordes of battle droids.
Don't flame from ignorance, please.
I must agree with this posting. A military on military attack is not an act of terrorism. Using civilian equipment, civilians as targets and accessories is an act of terrorism. Granted, the line between freedom fighter and terrorist is a fine one. But there is a big difference between the Pearl Harbor attack and the tragedy of September 11. Just one final point. The Rebels in Star Wars were literally defending their lives in Luke Skywaker had not made the final shot then the whole planet were the rebels were stationed would have been destroyed. So one might say that Empire was more of the terrorists and the Rebels were merely fighting for their lives. I am trying not to take the original posting to seriously but it is hard to draw such a conclusion to say that America was the instigator of what happened in September.
Excellent meta-humor. Too bad it got modded down.
I'm not a coward, I just dont want to bother making an account....You are a little..uhhh...psycho, calm down...past is the past, doesnt matter now, I dont understand why people are really so weepy about it now...Yes, I understand that if a loved one died in that you would stillbe sad and such, but if it didnt...calm down...its over...now instead we're killing innocent people...be sad about that...