Star Wars: Episode VII: Revenge Of The Septuagenarian

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I hope I never see any performances awful enough to make Hayden Christensen's Anakin look good.

The casting, direction and writing was problematic, but I see zero evidence of him elevating the material.
 
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Yes, but I don't think the material could be elevated. Ewan and Natalie were just as wooden.
 
Namkcur, I am absolutely astounded that you only just now saw Force Awakens. Didn't you have Yoda as your avatar for a while? Haven't you posted extensively in the Star Wars threads over the years? How could a Star Wars fan have taken that long to see the new Star Wars movie. That's fucking staggering to me. I'm sorry.
 
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Yes, but I don't think the material could be elevated. Ewan and Natalie were just as wooden.

I thought Ewan was OK. Neeson was doing fine. Jackson had his moments.

Lucas really didn't know how to direct less experienced actors, that was the big problem.
 
Ewan got better and better with each film. He had some great one-liners in AOTC, and really seemed to push himself on Sith, having fun in the action scenes but also giving more dramatic heft, culminating in a very emotional confrontation with Anakin. Not sure how you can call him wooden and then, what, give Mark Hamill a pass? No way was he better at the end of ROTJ.
 
Namkcur, I am absolutely astounded that you only just now saw Force Awakens. Didn't you have Yoda as your avatar for a while? Haven't you posted extensively in the Star Wars threads over the years? How could a Star Wars fan have taken that long to see the new Star Wars movie. That's fucking staggering to me. I'm sorry.

Yeah, ok, I know it looks weird, because I am a huge Star Wars fan. I think it's two things.

1. I had every intention of seeing it in the theater, but it didn't happen. I was initially waiting for the early crowds to thin, and then I got pre-occupied with other things. Then I was going to get the blu-ray as soon as it came out, but upon finding out that there was going to be a 3D blu-ray later on, I decided I wanted that one, especially since I didn't get to see it 3D in the theater. I'm a sucker for 3D. So I was waiting for that to come out(in November), but I cracked and torrented it earlier this week. I'm still going to get it as soon as it's released, but I couldn't wait to see the film anymore.

2. I suspect that I was subconsciously putting it off because I was afraid of disappointment. It got great reviews, but people here were somewhat critical of the fan service and re-hashed plot points and whatnot. Luckily, I wasn't disappointed.

I know all of that sounds very lame, but it's the truth. It won't happen again. I'll see Rogue One in the theater.

Also - I had totally forgotten about that Yoda avatar.
 
And this...



...is a total eye-roller. What an obnoxious way to begin a post.


I'm just stating where I come from...watching some decent Star Wars film does little for somebody like me that watches hundreds of much better reviewed films from cinematic history every year. I'm sorry but it's almost certain that anybody going to bat for that mediocre Godzilla remake probably isn't watching a substantial amount of films and/or great ones. Just trying to give this all some context...

And on the subject of being a fan, I too waited to see The Force Awakens since I don't have a theater closer than ten minutes driving away, my girlfriend had already seen it on opening day for a work party and I had no real interest in paying and squeezing into a massive crowd to watch what was said to be an overly reverential work. On the flipside, I find it strange that some people post often in this thread and never really mention engaging with the rest of the canon. I can't for the life of me wonder why somebody would be obsessed with talking about specifically a set of seven films, at least half of which aren't even great. It's like using this forum and pretending that U2 only releases albums and doesn't tour.
 
I'm just stating where I come from...watching some decent Star Wars film does little for somebody like me that watches hundreds of much better reviewed films from cinematic history every year. I'm sorry but it's almost certain that anybody going to bat for that mediocre Godzilla remake probably isn't watching a substantial amount of films and/or great ones. Just trying to give this all some context...

.

From what I know of Lance (which is strictly through this forum of course and the little bit of pillow talk from his Mom), he is a very prolific film viewer. Your post as GAF points out comes across extremely condescending.
 
And how many films from, say, Ingmar Bergman has he watched out of curiosity? Because if he's even seen five I doubt he'd ever press "play" on 2014's Godzilla.

And for the record, over a third of users on Rotten Tomatoes didn't even like the Godzilla remake and they're the people this stuff was marketed to in the first place. So to act like a guy who made a blockbuster movie the public didn't care for will surely give us gold with this re-shoot plagued and rushed Star Wars spinoff...
 
And how many films from, say, Ingmar Bergman has he watched out of curiosity? Because if he's even seen five I doubt he'd ever press "play" on 2014's Godzilla.

And for the record, over a third of users on Rotten Tomatoes didn't even like the Godzilla remake and they're the people this stuff was marketed to in the first place. So to act like a guy who made a blockbuster movie the public didn't care for will surely give us gold with this re-shoot plagued and rushed Star Wars spinoff...


Wait ... you mean people can't like arty films AND popcorn movies? Fuck.

it's probably a safe bet Lance has seen everything Bergman ever did.
 
Looks like I'm up to five Bergman films. My list of anticipated 2016 films just got a whole lot shorter.

Should have thought twice before watching Cries and Whispers.
 
I'm confused. Has bmp not seen five Bergman films and was therefore uneducated enough to watch Godzilla 2014, or is he just talking out of his ass?

Or what, a subsequent viewing of Through a Glass Darkly gave him enough exp to retroactively realize how 'mediocre' Godzilla was?

Or, given that he has obviously seen every great cinematic achievement the world has to offer, he had nothing else to do on a rainy Tuesday evening BUT watch Godzilla on Netflix?

I dunno. But his obnoxious schtick seems to be unable to allow him to discuss the film any more than pointing to some percentage scores online. For someone who claims to watch as many films as he does, he seems like an awfully passive viewer when it comes to critical examination.
 
And how many films from, say, Ingmar Bergman has he watched out of curiosity? Because if he's even seen five I doubt he'd ever press "play" on 2014's Godzilla.

And for the record, over a third of users on Rotten Tomatoes didn't even like the Godzilla remake and they're the people this stuff was marketed to in the first place. So to act like a guy who made a blockbuster movie the public didn't care for will surely give us gold with this re-shoot plagued and rushed Star Wars spinoff...


Even more condescending, as Bergman is like entry-level film school student material, what people watch when they first discover art films. Lance is very well-versed in international cinema, and has watched some pretty obscure stuff. That doesn't stop him from praising more mainstream directors, nor should it. I say this as someone who owns a region-free player, attends festivals with international selections, and has diverse viewing habits myself. You've chosen the wrong target.
 
I find Lance's taste in mainstream films to be.......unique, but I would never question his dedication to the medium.
 
My thought is just why on earth would anybody watch Godzilla? There's literally no point when there's hundreds upon hundreds of great films and you only live once (hell, go re-watch the original). Honestly, I can't even watch that crap if the only option is watching that on a plane or just going to sleep.

I don't think amalgamated critical reviews mean everything and there's certainly some great films that receive mixed reviews with certain supporters considering them to be one of the year's best and others outright hating it (say, Cosmopolis). But I'm sorry if a film like Godzilla for which practically no critics gave year-end list placement and that general audiences didn't like raises a few eyebrows for me...the record we have for this guy as a director is that he's a total hack and until he actually delivers what one can objectively say is a well received movie, I'll stay in that camp.
 
Even more condescending, as Bergman is like entry-level film school student material, what people watch when they first discover art films.

That's just not true. People may be shown The Seventh Seal or Wild Strawberries or Persona to give them a glimpse at art-film or foreign film or whathaveyou, but Bergman's overall oeuvre is considered to be endlessly thought provoking, challenging and intellectual although I would agree that the length of his films and his theater background make his work far more approachable than many avant-garde and experimental filmmakers.

But I'm just throwing it out there as an example (and maybe it's an apt one since Max Von Sydow was in TFA). Your average person seeing Rogue One will have never seen a Bergman film by about a 99-to-1 margin nor do most of those people want to see anything other than tie fighters, light sabers, etc. They really don't count in my book and these Star Wars films have yet to show that they can't just make like $300,000,000 regardless of quality for those very reasons. I'm not going to consider the opinion on Burger King from those who only eat solely at Burger King.

I stand corrected about some posters here for certain and their film preferences and I'm wont to consider people fanboys on the spot given that's most of what you encounter around the internet.
 
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When you're blithely dismissing the opinions of 99/100 people, I'm pretty sure the remaining 1 doesn't want to engage with you. Because you can't seem to help yourself from acting like an unrepentant asshole.

There's a wide range of tastes here, maybe less so than a few years back what with members posting less, but we all seem to maintain a level of respect for each other. I'm surprised that you've never noticed this.

We're all for healthy, sometimes heated discussion on any film, provided the content of the film itself is involved. All you seem to do is proclaim your trite opinion as fact and sneeringly dismiss the intelligence of every member of this board. You can take that attitude elsewhere.

But hey, if you can ever bring yourself to drop the asshole behavior and engage other people on the merits of a film, then that would be great. You don't have to agree with everyone, but listening would be a good start. I've already told you what I think about Godzilla and it shouldn't matter that I've seen about a dozen of Bergman's films for you to respect that.
 
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Loved watching Love & Mercy the other day and The Ice Harvest a few weeks prior and I'll probably always associate him with Say Anything.

I'll pick Bullets Over Broadway because I love Allen.
 
Bullets Over Broadway, nice. Reminds me I should rewatch Shadows and Fog, I can barely remember it.

It's a tie between The Sure Thing and Grosse Pointe Blank for me.
 
My thought is just why on earth would anybody watch Godzilla? There's literally no point when there's hundreds upon hundreds of great films and you only live once (hell, go re-watch the original). Honestly, I can't even watch that crap if the only option is watching that on a plane or just going to sleep.
.

So you haven't seen it yet figure you can give your opinion on it?
 
Bullets Over Broadway, nice. Reminds me I should rewatch Shadows and Fog, I can barely remember it.


I have a soft spot for Shadows and Fog. Great ensemble, beautiful photography by Bergman's longtime DP Sven Nyqvist, and the film itself is a overt homage to the director's Sawdust and Tinsel (which I still need to see).

The final shot of the films is sublime.

Also a big fan of Woody's other notable "magic" film Scoop, which is another oft-maligned work.
 
The stunning photography and sets are about all I do recall.

And I saw Scoop for the first time just recently, fun stuff. Had no idea Ian McShane was in it, he was a delight along with Scar Jo.

Looking forward to Cafe Society and his Amazon series. As long as he keeps popping out works like Midnight in Paris and Blue Jasmine at regular intervals I'll be happy.
 
Yeah, he's completely hit-or-miss lately, but his hits knock it out of the park. Cafe Society has a great strain of longing buried under what on the surface seems like another crowd-pleasing Allen comedy. The chemistry between Eisenberg and Stewart is just as strong as on Adventureland.

Sawdust and Tinsel is top five Bergman for me. It's cited as his breakthrough but the guy was producing fantastic movies from day one. Maybe it is his first masterpiece but I have a soft spot for To Joy.
 
So, finally seeing TFA has inspired me to re-watch the whole saga(haven't seen the OT in couple years and the prequels in longer than that). I'm watching in the prequel-flashback order(i.e. ANH, ESB, prequels as flashback, ROTJ).

This is going to be long. Apologies.

This was my first time viewing Harmy's De-specialized 2.0+ versions of the OT (which are sourced from the blu-rays, as opposed to the De-specialized 1.0 versions which were sourced from the 2004 DVDs), so this was the best the original un-touched pre-SE OT has ever looked for me.

ANH and ESB hold up as well as they ever have. ANH is the only starting point for the saga. I've never been a fan of watching the saga in episodic order because ANH is a much more engrossing way to start(plus episodic order ruins some plot twists). It's just a stone cold classic - a great stand-alone action-fantasy film that also does a great job of introducing the characters and the universe and setting up everything that comes next(and before).

Not the least of which is ESB. Empire is a fucking masterpiece from front to back, top to bottom, and is deserving of its place as the near-universally-regarded crown jewel of the Star Wars canon. I never get tired of the Hoth sequence(Hoth is one of my most favorite SW locations), the asteroid field sequence, Bespin/Cloud City is another one of my most favorite SW locations, Yoda and Lando and Boba Fett are introduced, Vader is arguably at his most menacing, the meat of the Han/Leia romance is here, and of course the climactic Luke/Vader showdown culminating with one of the biggest plot twists in film history. It's also easily the most quotable film in the entire saga:

"Laugh it up, fuzzball!"

"He's as clumsy as he is stupid."

"Apology accepted, admiral."

"Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately three thousand, seven hundred twenty to one."
"Never tell me the odds!"

"Do or do not. There is no try."

"No. There is another."

"I have altered the deal. Pray I don't alter it further."

"I love you."
"I know."

"No. I am your father."
"No. No. That's not true. That's impossible!"
"Search your feelings, you know it to be true."

"Bring my shuttle."

It deserves all the praise it gets.

Anyway, moving on.

------

I'm up to Phantom Menace, which I watched last night. I'm going to give an extended review because I don't think I've ever fully voiced my thoughts about it. It is a frustrating film. For as much grief as it gets, there are some great things in it, despite the bad things.

From the very first time I saw it in 1999, I always loved Neeson as Qui-Gon, I think he more than any other Jedi in the PT captured the Jedi essence of Alec Guinness's Obi-Wan, and I always wished he'd lived beyond TPM. I also loved the Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan dynamic. I always enjoyed them hacking shit up with their lightsabers on the trade federation ship at the beginning.

The trade federation story itself has been maligned by many, but I really don't mind it. It was a mechanism to show how the power-hungry Palpatine was already manipulating discord in the Republic for his own accumulation of power.

I do, however, mind the the trade federation leaders being those....things. They should've been humans. I believe that one change would've saved the whole storyline from much of the hatred it has received. Instead of humans that would've made the storyline more relateable and given more weight to the narrative of a political conflict, we're made to watch these stupid, annoying creatures with stupid, annoying accents.

So, once Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan escape the trade federation ship, they land on Naboo, where they encounter the single most hated thing about the PT: Jar-Jar Binks. Yeah, Jar-Jar and all of the gungans get annoying fast. They weren't necessary. They added nothing to the story. The whole sequence where they have to go the secret gungan city and ask the gungan king for help getting to Naboo City, and then the gungan king has to scratch his chin and think about it, and then Qui-Gon actually asks to take Jar-Jar with him...yeah I could do without that.

So after all of that, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan(and Jar-Jar) arrive at the city and rescue Queen Amidala from the federation and then convince her to go with them to Coruscant. No problems with this sequence. Good action, passable dialog, plot moved forward.

Then the ship is damaged getting past the federation blockade and so they have to make the emergency landing on Tatooine.

So here's another problem I have: The whole portion of the film on Tatooine is simply too long. Once they've rescued the Queen and decide that she must be taken to Coruscant quickly, there's a sense of momentum that has been created after the gungan drudgery, and it's killed when they end up just sitting around Tatooine. I have no problem with making an emergency landing and meeting Anakin by chance, and I even actually like the notion of Anakin and his mother being slaves, as I think it's an interesting mechanism for informing why Anakin would have the seeds of resentment and anger towards the system planted at early age. But they just spend too much time preparing for the pod race, and negotiating the terms of the bet, and then the actual pod-race - which I think is a cool visual and which inspired the greatest racing video game I've ever played - is polluted with all the stupid voices of the other racers, the dumb twin-talking-heads, and a Jabba that appears less menacing and more buffoonish than in his ROTJ incarnation. Oh, yeah, and there's also the midi-chlorian thing. I just think this whole part of the film could've been half as long.

So after all that they finally leave and go to Coruscant. I have no issue with this part of the film. I actually think it does a good job of briefly showing the nature and dysfunction of the galactic senate, Palpatine's manipulation of the "young and naive" queen, and introducing the Jedi Council, which is supposed to have a stick up its ass at this point and comes off as such. In short, I think this part of the film does a good job of world-building.

And then we come to the climactic portion of the film back on Naboo. For me, this entails one tremendous thing and two unfortunate things.

The first unfortunate thing is having to watch the gungans fight. The notion of even a young and naive queen trusting these child-like creatures to defend her planet is tough to take. I get the the whole thing is supposed to show that the queen is actually capable and smart enough to organize an army to fight the opposition, but why did it have to be the gungans? They didn't even do a good job. They were about to get destroyed by the droids when the droids were shut down. Which brings me to the other unfortunate thing.

Anakin accidentally taking off in the ship, and then accidentally blowing the trade federation ship up(while all of the more experienced pilots couldn't come close), all the while spouting off some really bad dialog, is just not enjoyable for me. First he's supposed to be a genius or something, building a pod and C-3P0, but in that ship, he doesn't seem to have any idea. He's just pushing buttons, maybe this, maybe that, and next thing you know he's in space. And then, as he's hurtling into a life-or-death space battle by accident like ten minutes after he left the only home he ever knew while tearfully bidding farewell to the mother he may never see again, all he can say is 'this is intense'. Not 'aaaaah this is scary as shit I might die I think I just shat my pants' or anything like that, just 'this is intense' delivered in a tone that says 'this is cool'. It just doesn't work for me. They should've just had the squadron of Naboo starfighters that were already up there destroy the trade federation ship.

Ok, finally, obviously, the one tremendous thing is the duel of the fates, Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan/Darth Maul. Maul is one of the most bad-ass looking villains in all of SW, and the choreography in this duel is out-of-this-world. It's like ballet. It's a gorgeous visual spectacle that has enormous replay-value. The Luke-Vader duels carry more emotional weight, but just visually speaking, there is no question for me that this is the greatest lightsaber duel the in the entire saga thus far. The film is worth it for this alone. Although, like I said before, I do wish Qui-Gon hadn't died. And that Maul had been allowed to live for at least one more film to give some more depth to that character. Still, tremendous duel.

On the whole, the film establishes some great Jedi characters in Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Yoda(and maybe even Mace Windu) as well as the Jedi Council and its nature, features some very exciting light-saber battle scenes and a duel for the ages, and does a decent job of world-building, giving an idea of the old republic was like, and how its political system worked.

The bad things are several. There is an almost suffocating over-use of CGI characters - the trade federation guys, Watto, the other pod-racers and twin-talking-heads, and, of course, Jar-Jar and the gugnans. It's like Lucas had new toys and no one around him with the ability to say 'No. It's too much.' and be heard. The Tatooine portion was overly long and slowed the story down unnecessarily. The decision to make Anakin so young at the beginning of the story will always be questioned, I think. And the climactic battle was very flawed(minus the duel). And midi-chlorians.

It's not the total piece of shit a lot of people make it out to be, but I can totally understand why old-school SW fans would've walked out the theater sorely disappointed in 1999. It really doesn't feel as much like the OT as it could've and is much too preoccupied with appealing to children. Still, it absolutely has its moments.

AOTC tonight.
 
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The Tatooine crap in that movie all sucks and kills any momentum they had going. The podrace sequence is widely considered to be boring by most people that aren't fans of the prequels and I intend to agree. I now solely watch TPM and AOTC in the edited versions from The Phantom Editor which cut about twenty minutes of each film without losing a single bit of important information or cool sequences. And even in that edited version of the podrace sequence it drags.

Those are well worth tracking down by the way. The guy did his edits focusing on the actual film and a bit of Star Wars continuity whereas the future fan-edits that he helped spawn just kind of chopped these films down egregiously just because the editors hated them so much. The commentary tracks for the whys of his edits are phenomenal and will give you a great lesson on professional film editing.

I also saw Attack of the Clones in IMAX and they cut out about twenty minutes to make it fit on two reels (or one IMAX reel - whatever it was). Didn't even really notice and they also wisely cut out some of the stupid dialogue such as the "sand is rough" nonsense.

I highly recommend the machete order where you watch IV-V-II-III-VI...The Phantom Menace really is The Hobbit of the six part saga in that it takes place way beforehand and doesn't really affect the main story whatsoever. Toss that one, watch some solid edited versions of the two prequels and you've got a nice couple of days on your hands that will really enhance the depth of ROTJ.
 
Yeah, I know about the machete order, but I've always kept TPM in. Like I said, for me, it's worth it for the big duel alone. Plus there's some legit world-building stuff going on amidst the crap, like I alluded to. Plus I'm nostalgic because was 15 in 1999 and seeing it was a big deal.
 
I do, however, mind the the trade federation leaders being those....things. They should've been humans. I believe that one change would've saved the whole storyline from much of the hatred it has received. Instead of humans that would've made the storyline more relateable and given more weight to the narrative of a political conflict, we're made to watch these stupid, annoying creatures with stupid, annoying accents.

I don't have a problem with them being aliens, but those voices were awful. Not only did Lucas oddly tell them to go with "Transylvanian" accents, but the voice actors were simply not very good, and wound up making a lot of people think they were doing these stereotypical Asian accents, drawing accusations of racism.

So, once Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan escape the trade federation ship, they land on Naboo, where they encounter the single most hated thing about the PT: Jar-Jar Binks. Yeah, Jar-Jar and all of the gungans get annoying fast. They weren't necessary. They added nothing to the story. The whole sequence where they have to go the secret gungan city and ask the gungan king for help getting to Naboo City, and then the gungan king has to scratch his chin and think about it, and then Qui-Gon actually asks to take Jar-Jar with him...yeah I could do without that.

Have to disagree here. While it appears that not much happened, one of the film's most important themes is about symbiosis. And I think you needed to establish the world and the attitude of the Gungans to draw this out, to illustrate the tensions between them and the Naboo. This will come into play again later with one of your other points...

But besides that, the underwater city is a visual delight, from a design and execution perspective. Plus there's the underwater chase with the monster fish which I thought was a lot of pure fantasy fun. Lucas wanted to broaden the SW universe and he definitely did so here.

So here's another problem I have: The whole portion of the film on Tatooine is simply too long. Once they've rescued the Queen and decide that she must be taken to Coruscant quickly, there's a sense of momentum that has been created after the gungan drudgery, and it's killed when they end up just sitting around Tatooine. I have no problem with making an emergency landing and meeting Anakin by chance, and I even actually like the notion of Anakin and his mother being slaves, as I think it's an interesting mechanism for informing why Anakin would have the seeds of resentment and anger towards the system planted at early age. But they just spend too much time preparing for the pod race, and negotiating the terms of the bet, and then the actual pod-race - which I think is a cool visual and which inspired the greatest racing video game I've ever played - is polluted with all the stupid voices of the other racers, the dumb twin-talking-heads, and a Jabba that appears less menacing and more buffoonish than in his ROTJ incarnation. Oh, yeah, and there's also the midi-chlorian thing. I just think this whole part of the film could've been half as long.

I agree. A major indicator of this problem is when the group sits down to dinner at Anakin's home and starts talking politics. I can't remember a single instance in the OT of things slowing down to this level. The conversation could have been trimmed and delivered while the characters were actually doing something under the umbrella of urgency that should have been stressed.

Having said that, I love the pod race. It's a SFX show off but I think it really delivered, with Lucas, Ben Burtt's sound design, and the CGI team in top form. Without a doubt it's too long, though it should be pointed out the DVD release added another 3-5 minutes or so to the theatrical version, which really wasn't necessary.

The first unfortunate thing is having to watch the gungans fight. The notion of even a young and naive queen trusting these child-like creatures to defend her planet is tough to take. I get the the whole thing is supposed to show that the queen is actually capable and smart enough to organize an army to fight the opposition, but why did it have to be the gungans? They didn't even do a good job. They were about to get destroyed by the droids when the droids were shut down. Which brings me to the other unfortunate thing.

Back to the point I was making earlier about symbiosis. The point wasn't that the Gungans were great enough fighters to defeat the invading army, but that they recognized they were inhabiting the same world as the Naboo and that it would be in both parties' best interests to defend and preserve it. Now, no native army would have been able to penetrate the Trade Federation's shield, but once it was shut off, the Gungans were successful to an extent. Ultimately technology and sheer numbers won out. What they could have done was better connect the geography of this battle area to the other parts of the fight. Let's say that this was taking place closer to the palace, and that the Gungans withstood the droid army for long enough that their allies had time to get inside the palace and take it over again. That would have increased the stakes and made the Gungan's efforts more impactful in a direct sense.

Anakin accidentally taking off in the ship, and then accidentally blowing the trade federation ship up(while all of the more experienced pilots couldn't come close), all the while spouting off some really bad dialog, is just not enjoyable for me. First he's supposed to be a genius or something, building a pod and C-3P0, but in that ship, he doesn't seem to have any idea. He's just pushing buttons, maybe this, maybe that, and next thing you know he's in space. And then, as he's hurtling into a life-or-death space battle by accident like ten minutes after he left the only home he ever knew while tearfully bidding farewell to the mother he may never see again, all he can say is 'this is intense'. Not 'aaaaah this is scary as shit I might die I think I just shat my pants' or anything like that, just 'this is intense' delivered in a tone that says 'this is cool'. It just doesn't work for me. They should've just had the squadron of Naboo starfighters that were already up there destroy the trade federation ship.

Not crazy about these sequences either, but I think what matters is that Anakin is completely in control and confident about flying. He's a natural. But what he's not used to is fighting and firing weapons, or carrying out some tactical mission. So I don't necessarily mind his naivité in this regard. Though while it was nice to see an echo of his son blowing up the Death Star, perhaps it could have been staged a little more dramatically and less humorously.

But it does bring up a larger issue with the last 30 minutes of the film: cutting between four different plotlines just doesn't work. Lucas had three plotlines going in ROTJ (the space battle, Luke with Vader and the Emperor, the Endor land battle) and it managed to work (on a pacing/tension-level, at least--the land battle was idiotic and often embarrassing). Here Lucas just piled on too much for us to care. It's hard to stay locked into the emotion of the lightsaber fight (particularly its climax) when it's intercut with the Buster Keaton antics of Jar Jar or Anakin's accidental achievements played lightheartedly.

On the whole, the film establishes some great Jedi characters in Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Yoda(and maybe even Mace Windu) as well as the Jedi Council and its nature, features some very exciting light-saber battle scenes and a duel for the ages, and does a decent job of world-building, giving an idea of the old republic was like, and how its political system worked.

It's not the total piece of shit a lot of people make it out to be, but I can totally understand why old-school SW fans would've walked out the theater sorely disappointed in 1999. It really doesn't feel as much like the OT as it could've and is much too preoccupied with appealing to children. Still, it absolutely has its moments.

I feel your review is very fair and open-minded, and it's unfortunate that so many of the film's detractors can't appreciate all the great material that is present. But it should be clarified that while a lot of it does appeal to children, the trade dispute/Palpatine machinations that Lucas introduces as well as the more detailed look at the Jedi and the government show an interest in making something considerably more dense than the OT on a thematic and plotting level, as well as pushing the series into a harder sci-fi direction (this continues even further with the Kamino material in the next episode). So the film was at once criticized by people for being too kid-pandering as well as being too "boring". In can be both of these in the same film, admittedly, but it does show the scope of what Lucas was trying to achieve.

I hope I don't come off as too much of an apologist as I have a LOT of problems with this film. Looking forward to your write-up of Attack of the Clones, which I think is the most underrated film in the saga and quite a unique one.
 
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