Other Science Fiction Series

In defense of STAR WARS 1-3

POSTED BY: reginaroadie
UPDATED: Thursday, March 17, 2005 15:09
VIEWED: 10884
PAGE 4 of 4

THALOS

Wednesday, March 16, 2005 8:47 PM

The biggest problem I have with the sequals is that GL quantifies The Force.

In ep. 4-6, The Force is labeled as a "religion" and it is very mystical and undefined. In ep. 1 all the Jedi do is take a blood test to get the metaclorians(Sorry, I cannot spell) level of Anakin.

To me this is a huge travesty. Before the impression is that ANYONE can become a Jedi Knight if they can learn and appreciate what The Force represents. However, now if you do not have the prerequesite blood results, too bad for you.

Otherwise, I agree with most people in this thread the move storylines are not that bad, and I generally enjoyed the films. Am I disappointed by some of the decisions GL made in laying the foundation, yes, but hey to each his own.

"Whoa, good Bible."

SHAVEDAPE

Wednesday, March 16, 2005 11:57 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by reginaroadie:
But I would like to take an opposing stance to this fashionable crucifixtion of a pop culture institution.

I would take a stance against fashionable crucifixtion as well. I believe in judging everything on its own merits. That won't stop me from offering my views on how something could have been changed to have a better impact on me as an audience member.

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In all honesty, I enjoyed PHANTOM MEANCE and ATTACK OF THE CLONES.

Is there any reason to believe that people who did not enjoy them are not being honest?

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My childhood fascination and enrapturement with the perils of the Skywalkers were ignited once again when I saw the pod race on Tattooine and the chase through the streets of Coruscant.

We're probably not going to agree on much then. Which isn't a bad thing. But those sequences and most others did not evoke memories of the OT in me. I could try to rationalize why but I would probably write pages. I'll just leave it at "they did not work for me".

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And seeing the clues and hints laid down now which would pay off in re-watching the Holy Trilogy and future installments was a subversive pleasure for the geek in me.

There's some fun in this but at no point so far have I thought "Wow, so that's how that came to be". More like "Hmm, so that's how that came to be".

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Truth be told, the one complaint I have of Ep 1 was of the casting of Jake Lloyd as young Anakin, who was without a doubt the worst child actor I've ever seen.

I think Lucas originally meant to start with a 12 year old Anakin. I'm not sure why he decided to go so young in the end. I think it was rationalized by wanting to make his parting from his mother more poignant but that was a fairly weak reason to change the character's level of maturity so significantly. Locking yourself into having to go that young with a specific look makes the job too hard. They should have either stayed older or been more flexible on the look.

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Jar-Jar is only a minor character at best in the whole spectrum of the series, along the same lines as Watto and Mon Mothma. A part that has some value to the proceedings, but is not the central figure to the proceedings.

This is true except for not being the case. Jar Jar essentially took the role of Chewbacca as the "freaky alien" of the group. Though they are obviously very different characters, it can be argued that Jar Jar had a greater influence on the story line than Chewie. Chewie was never designated as a representative in the Senate who handed control of the Republic to the Emperor. The story would have been much more credible if the Emperor had simply used his dark force powers to influence or corrupt a senator into helping him.

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It's a bit stupid to label the entire failure of a movie to one character that probably had about half an hour to 45 minutes worth of screen time.

That is a heck of a lot of screen time. As much or more than a lot of major characters get in any movie, particularly ones with revolve around an ensemble cast. I have a lot of problems with Jar Jar but he's just one facet of why the movies don't work for me. I would never term the movies a failure because they made money and were enjoyed by a lot of people. But so did Meet The Fockers and I wouldn't necessarily term that a great movie from a personal standpoint.

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Boss Nass with that acid reflex/seizure thing he kept doing ticked me off. But it's still a minor complaint.

Jar Jar, Boss Nass, the alien announcer at the Pod Race, Dex the Diner manager with plumber's low riding pants. The decision to go with this cartoonish, childish tone in the CGI creatures really took away from the gritty and authentic feel of creatures in the OT. Lucas seemed more interested in appealing to a Saturday morning cartoon tone than the tone set down in the first three movies (pre-Special Editions).

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The wooden dialouge is another admittable problem. Lucas hi

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CALHOUN

Thursday, March 17, 2005 12:43 AM

The first 2 prequels SUCKED! I dont hold much hope for the third.. but heres hoping.

BENCHCOAT

Thursday, March 17, 2005 2:02 AM

qualifier first: I don't hate the new movies, etc. etc.

that being said, I do hate the "midichloran," the force is carried by organisms that live in the blood, too. I agree that taking that approach to the Force makes the jedi into an elite group by the nature of their birth, and not something that anyone could aspire to acheive.

The kid in Ep 2 did do a great job of selling me on the idea that he could be Luke's father. and while some people found it silly, fighting Yoda was great!

author David Brin has some interesting essays on his website on the new Star Wars movies (the first originally ran in Salon a few years back), which while very critical, are well thought out and raise interesting points. he managed to put his finger on what bothered me the most about Ep. 1--it didn't have a main character that really fit the role of the hero. I'll also admit that, while I think he can be harsh, I liked that Brin also enjoyed the Luke and the Emporer's face-off in RotJ didn't matter in the ultimate battle to defeat the Empire.

BENCHCOAT

Thursday, March 17, 2005 2:03 AM

forgot to add the link:

http://www.davidbrin.com/starwarsarticle1.html

for Brin's Star Wars articles

FINN MAC CUMHAL

Thursday, March 17, 2005 5:17 AM

“Fascinating.”
-- Spoke

One of his points, the one regarding the “getting mad will make you evil” construct, is precisely the thing that I found very ill-defined about the Tusken slaughter in Episode 2. We are supposed to believe that Anakin’s completely reasonable anger over losing his mother to the torture of a savage band of desert dwellers and subsequent lashing out is supposed to forebode his transformation into an evil supervillian, because supposedly getting mad will magically transform you into evil. Now I don’t really agree that Brin’s bleak portrayal of this construct is a logical necessity. I think it works, but it works only if one can recognize the “anger” that transforms one to the Dark Side as being fundamentally different in some way. But that distinction was never made in the movie. So I’m forced to concede that Brin’s analysis is quite accurate.

CYBERSNARK

Thursday, March 17, 2005 3:09 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by ShavedApe:
Emperor dude,

Ian McDiarmid. (I looked it up, 'cause if you're anything like me, that'd be bugging you all day.

)

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