What's up with Star Wars?

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Truer words were never spoken...

 

Let's clear this all up shall we?

I love Star Wars. Yes it was silly of me to start another Topic regarding the issue, for i thought there where too many at the present time. However, i do like the films and especially the first 3 original.

Don't have a go, im just a gopher making a living.

 

AOTC -- A GREAT STAR WARS MOVIE

Just like the rest of them, AOTC delivers. The birth of the Empire, the beginning of the fall of the Jedi and Anakin, and Anakin's relationship to Padme, it's all there. In all the flash and bang style of Star Wars too. I know I've been a bit deep in my discussion of the film above. Now I'm going to break out and talk about the other goodness of AOTC...

A fellow fan at the Force.net pointed this out...
A famous actress from a bygone era, Rosalind Russell, once said:

"IF YOU CAN SEND A MOVIE AUDIENCE HOME WITH FIVE OR SIX MAGIC MOMENTS THAT WERE MEMORABLE, YOU'VE GOT A SUCCESSFUL MOVIE.
THAT'S ALL YOU NEED. "

Here's my 6 magic moments of AOTC:

1) Yoda lifting the falling column and saving Obi-Wan and Anakin
2) Shmi's death scene and Anakin's Tusken Slaughter
3) Anakin's confession to Padme at the Lars' homestead
4) Padme's vows to Anakin and the Arena entrance scene
5) Yoda teaching the younglings and helping Obi-Wan find his "missing planet"
6) The birth of the Empire as Palpatine, Bail Organa, and several senators look on to thousands of troops and transports readying themselves for war.

But it doesn't end there, here's my 6 favorite action moments in AOTC:

1) Yoda pulling his saber to his hand and the subsequent fight
2) Anakin and Dooku's duel in the dark (close-ups)
3) Dooku's wicked grin and his slick and efficient cuts into Obi-Wan's leg and arm.
4) Anakin calming the Reek (that's the monster that acted like a bull) and using it to kill Padme's attacker (the Nexu) complete with a peck by Padme ("for luck" )
5) Obi-Wan's high-kick to Jango in mid-air on Kamino
6) Anakin's impressive use of the Force to detect and time when Zam will be passing beneath them, and then jumping out and landing on her speeder.

Here's my 6 favorite little details of AOTC:

1) Anakin's foreshadowing of becoming "more machine than man" on the conveyor belt, when his arm gets welded to the belt. (And yes it's the same arm he looses.)
2) Padme getting scratched on the back by the Nexu
3) The hypocrisy of the serving droid on the refugee ship, telling R2-D2 that droids aren't allowed in line.
4) The smug look on Zam's face when she thinks she has lost her pursuers, and the morphed out look she slips when she fails to loose Anakin off the top of her speeder.
5) The explosion of the Queen's ship at the beginning hits one of the Naboo fighters, sending it flying off the landing platform.
6) Seeing the Clones learning at the terminals, eating, waiting in line for their helmets, and combat training.

And last but not least, six favorite qoutes:

1) "Much to learn you still have Dooku." - Yoda
2) "Why do I sense that one day you'll be the death of me?" - Obi-Wan
3) "You're asking me to be rational. That is something I cannot do." - Anakin
4) "Shut me down! Machines making machines. How perverse!" - C-3PO
5) "I would have thought you Jedi would have more respect for the difference between knowledge" (big grin) "...and wisdom." - Dexter
6) "Around the survivors a perimeter create." - Yoda (this one brought tears to my eyes I was laughing so hard -- backwards backwards Yoda talk)

Honorable mention: "I love the Republic..." - Palpatine
"Say, maybe you can help me with a couple of deadbeats I know." - Watto
"You dissapoint me Master Kenobi, Yoda holds you in such high esteem." - Darth Tyrannus
"I'm just a simple man trying to make my way through the universe." - Jango Fett

If I could pick a five minute scene that I could see on it's own without the rest of the movie, I'd pick the droid factory/conveyor belt scene. It's so chaotic and it's classic Star Wars. Anakin and Padme in peril. C-3PO getting himself in trouble and R2-D2 saving the day. And about R2's rockets - he may loose them in Episode III, and since oh you know about 20 years pass in between the two trilogies, it's no stretch of the imagination that the rockets wear out, need to be repaired and never get repaired or something along those lines. No big deal, it's only twenty years. For shame if something actually happened during those twenty years! If you have braces when you're twelve does that mean you have to still have them when you're thirty two?

I would argue that the acting is on par with the acting in any of the other Star Wars movies. No more no less. Right on the dot for Star Wars. I would also argue that who are you (no one in particular, I'm just throwing this question up in the air) that you can say the acting is wooden?

"Wooden? Wooden acting you say? Just who are you to be judging an art form that has been around since man first discovered it? For shame if characters act differently then you had expected. Need I remind you that not yours this story is? Hmmmm? When 900 years old you reach, then and only then can you have something to say about the various forms of acting and storytelling!" - Yoda (behind the scenes)

The criticism I find most laughable is that people want "more character development" and then they complain about Anakin's romance scenes and the scenes where he gets angry. Hello? Character development is slapping you in the face! Constructive criticism is one thing, jumping on a bandwagon and spouting out lines that the Joe Smoe in front of you said is another. Does anyone not think for themselves these days? The criticisms sound like someone copied and pasted them. Someone said one thing and many more just blindly follow? Ok...

Kudos to those of you who have kept your head on straight and actually thought about this film before walking into theatre determined to hate it just because you didn't quite see eye to eye with Lucas on the last one.

Let George Lucas write his story the way he wants. Let him direct it the way he wants. His Star Wars movies are now what they were then: imaginative, thrill-seeking, mulit-culutural, action movies with dramatic scores, exotic characters and locales, and themes that relate back to the real world even though they take place in a galaxy far far away. If he started with Episode I in 1977, it would have been just as famous as it really was. If he had started Episode I or Episode IV today, without any prior Star Wars, it would be nowhere near as famous. Like it or not Star Wars had a major impact on film-making. If it hadn't come into play when it did, something else would have, and Star Wars today wouldn't be the same. But there's no need to talk what if, when we have what is. And what is, is that Star Wars is the most successful film franchise to date, George Lucas is the most successful independent film-maker, and the Star Wars movies are just plain fun.
Star Wars is imagination at its finest. If you've lost it, then do what Yoda tells Obi-Wan and the kids in AOTC, "Look to the center of gravity's pull and find your missing planet you will."

"Look to the center of imagination and find Star Wars you will."

Only one more after this. You still have a chance to come back to the light side, all you Anakins out there.

 

BigB, I really liked AotC. However I will not try to justify the extremely dodgy dialogue in the 'romance' scenes. I don't mind the presence of them, it's the way they are done. They don't feel like romance dialogues - they feel like two extremely embaressed young actors trying their best.

Other actors seem to fare better - some becuase they have better dialogue, some because they have more acting experience (e.g. Samuel L and Christopher Lee).

In any case, I think your arguments might carry more weight if you displayed some sort of objectivity - for instance acknowledge that some of the lines are bloody horrible (I don't like the sand...???)

[This message has been edited by Vukodlak (edited May 29, 2002).]

 

haha! Vukodlak I think that sand trick was hilarious. Anything to get a chick, right? I might use it one day..


(We can pay you two thousand now plus fifteen when we reach Alderaan)

 

Oh, yeah. As a chat up line it's right up there with: "Hi, I'm nobleman but they call me the human tripod"

Obi wan's gonna kill me :groan::colon: