Dave
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Post by Dave on Feb 3, 2012 15:32:08 GMT
Watched the trailer on the 3DS video channel and... it didn't seem very 3D to be honest.
Definitely the weakest of six but there's a few sequences I wouldn't mind seeing on the big screen again.
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kayevcee
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Post by kayevcee on Feb 3, 2012 15:33:41 GMT
And yet it seems to work for kids, if the rate at which Clone Trooper figures have flown off the shelves in TRU ever since ROTS came out. The clone troopers are the goodies and the droids are the baddies and apparently that's all kids care about. There's a reason why all the animated adventures and video games like SW:Battlefront are all set before the clones did their heel-turn and became the servants of evil.
-Nick
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Nigel
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Post by Nigel on Feb 3, 2012 16:17:36 GMT
If I go to the cinema this month, I'll want to see The Muppets and Ghost Rider 2 ahead of The Phantom Menace.
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Post by blueshift on Feb 3, 2012 18:34:35 GMT
And yet it seems to work for kids, if the rate at which Clone Trooper figures have flown off the shelves in TRU ever since ROTS came out. The clone troopers are the goodies and the droids are the baddies and apparently that's all kids care about. There's a reason why all the animated adventures and video games like SW:Battlefront are all set before the clones did their heel-turn and became the servants of evil. -Nick Oh I'm not saying it wasn't financially successful, of course it was. But so was Bay's Transformers, it doesn't mean it's good at all. I can't get emotionally involved in clones fighting robots. That was such a strange, mad filmmaking decision that it beggers belief. |
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kayevcee
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Post by kayevcee on Feb 3, 2012 21:31:45 GMT
I agree. It would be interesting to see what kids see in the clone troopers though, besides looking cool. I suppose kids generally have the imagination to give each faceless trooper a distinct personality regardless of what actually happens in the films.
-Nick
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Post by blueshift on Feb 3, 2012 21:43:46 GMT
I agree. It would be interesting to see what kids see in the clone troopers though, besides looking cool. I suppose kids generally have the imagination to give each faceless trooper a distinct personality regardless of what actually happens in the films. -Nick That's the thing though. The films at least are rather specific in that the clones are all pretty much personality-less clones. I'm sure some of the expanded universe stories have clones being all full of personality, but I'm talking about the screen here. But... why clones? Why? Surely it would be a thousand times more interesting if it was just regular people in armour rather than clones. Also it would make a hell of a lot more sense to the plot. But I suppose we have to have clones in the more boring way possible because Star Wars ANH mentioned 'The Clone War' The way everything is so subserviant to the original trilogy is really annoying. The characters seem to be servants to the plot in setting it up, rather than the other way round. That's why Revenge of the Sith is bonkers, in that every single character has to take their Idiot Pills in order for the film to actually work in setting up ANH, because George Lucas found himself written into a corner or just couldn't think of any cleverer ways of doing it. Obi-Wan leaves Anakin to burn horribly to death? Really? Yoda and Obi-Wan both shrug their shoulders at the end and give up? Really? Not... take another crack at the Emperor? No-one bothers to really try to stop the Emperor, not even, you know, releasing the damning security footage that they had to the galactic senate which was in session at the time. I mean come on!! They literally had evidence of him being evil but instead decided to keep it quiet? The entire galaxy completely falling for Palpatine's insane story about how he had to brutally murder all the Jedi and then become galactic overlord, all while looking like a horrible evil monster. Don't even get me started on the whole 'oh I'll take one of the babies to live in luxury, the other can go sit on a desert planet'. It's nuts! It's only cohesive if it is looked at in the light of being a prequel, it makes no logical sense taken as its own entity. |
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Post by Benn on Feb 3, 2012 22:41:38 GMT
Okay, but the moment anyone starts dissing Qui-Gon Jinn, Imma have to start busting heads.
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Post by The Doctor on Feb 3, 2012 23:09:03 GMT
If only it had been the Liam Neeson of today. He would have destroyed Palpatine with one punch.
-Ralph
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Jim
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Post by Jim on Feb 3, 2012 23:52:30 GMT
I was working in a multiplex as a senior usher on the day it was released. Utter chaos, probably the hardest shift of work I will do in my life (yeah, I know...), but it was still exhilarating.
I'm not as down on Episode I as a lot of people; it has some big flaws ("little Ani". Good grief.) but makes up for them in most with a great lightsaber duel (is two-on-one a duel?) and some nice design touches - I really like the Naboo starfighter and the Podracers. I also don't find Jar Jar inherently annoying, it's just the accidentally winning with slapstick which irks me (applies also to "little Ani").
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Post by blueshift on Feb 4, 2012 8:28:37 GMT
Okay, but the moment anyone starts dissing Qui-Gon Jinn, Imma have to start busting heads. Qui-Gon Jinn is wasted in that movie though. I mean, what does he actually do? You could pretty much replace all his actions with Obi-Wan doing them and the film would be the same with barely a change. That's not a good thing! Here's something that struck me though. What if Count Dooku's character was actually Qui-Gon Jinn. He's supposed to be a Jedi who grew disillusioned with the order and quit ten years ago (when Phantom Menace took place) and he's supposed to be a chap everyone trusts and respects, only the audience can't because we've never met him before! If he was actually Qui-Gon Jinn, the entire thing would suddenly become a lot more cohesive, and it would give more weight than 'nothing' to any sort of confrontations, especially as Lucas said Dooku wasn't overtly evil, he just didn't realise how evil he became (and then cocked it up by calling him Darth Tyrannus because villains have to be a Darth, right?) It just makes so much more sense story wise, and the fact Lucas didn't do that makes me really think he was making it up as he went along and suddenly realised that he needed a near-identical character in the second film. Don't even get me started on the non-point of General Grevious, who seems to only exist to sell more toys and pad the film out a bit longer. |
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Post by The Doctor on Feb 4, 2012 10:02:25 GMT
Neeson was unhappy with his experience working on Episode 1 to the point where he wouldn't do some voice work for the other prequels.
-Ralph
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Post by Benn on Feb 4, 2012 10:08:45 GMT
I thought the point of Grevious (aside from "to sell toys") was to get Skywalker and Kenobi separated. I suppose Dooku could have played that role, but then we wouldn't have had the beginnings/continuation of Skywalkers fall to the darkside...
Also: Gods, yes "little Ani" was by far and away the worst thing to hit the prequels. Over and above Jar Jar.
Having read "The Making Of Star Wars" recently, it is quite clear that a lot of the back story that is the prequels was already present in Lucas' mind even in '74/'75, but somewhere down the line he's changed to become more commercially minded (shall we say), and the story suffers for it. Also, despite repeatedly admitting he can't write dialogue he dispensed with any help on that front for AOTC and ROTS, which points to either a bad lack of judgement on his part, or that he has developed quite an ego. Neither of which are conducive to good film-making.
I seem to have rambled.
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Post by The Doctor on Feb 4, 2012 10:39:10 GMT
A Co-writer is credited for AOTC, yet strangely never mentioned in the DVD features!
-Ralph
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Post by blueshift on Feb 4, 2012 12:28:00 GMT
I thought the point of Grevious (aside from "to sell toys") was to get Skywalker and Kenobi separated. I suppose Dooku could have played that role, but then we wouldn't have had the beginnings/continuation of Skywalkers fall to the darkside... That's just a creative lapse rather than a necessity though. Lucas obviously (for some reason) wanted Dooku to die at the very start of the film (which was a rubbish decision given that he was the villain of the second movie!) BUT not end the war until near the end, so another villain had to be plucked out of nowhere. Seriously, watching the start of Revenge of the Sith made me feel like I'd missed a movie. Who was General Grevious? Why was he suddenly in charge of all the villains, when Dooku was obviously in charge in the last film. If these films weren't being made up as they went along, why didn't we see him in the last film. I don't even understand who Grevious is. Does he know Palpatine is Sidious? I mean, he doesn't SEEM to because we see him talking to the hologram about how the plan has all gone wrong when the Chancellor escapes and Dooku dies. But if he's not in on the plan what if he killed all the Jedi during the million opportunities he has to do so. What if he killed the Chancellor? What if his ship got blown up with the Chancellor on it? Why does Sidious even need a figurehead for the droid army who if they die the war is over, given that it is the war which is keeping him in power? Argh. I mean the Prequels are very good childrens films and pretty eye candy, but literally everything tumbles to bits if you try to think of it even in a slightly critical manner or try to understand anyone's motivations. EDIT: Oh god even thinking about it further, Grevious as a device to split up Obi-Wan and Anakin doesn't even work. Why would the Jedi only send Obi-Wan after the guy who if they kill it would end the entire war? Why not send him and Anakin? Why not send an army? Heck as we saw at the end they can already spy on Palpatine's office using their little hologram thing. Why do they need to send the creepy Jedi who they all think is horribly dangerous and obviously unhinged to go and get close to the really shady guy who they think is really suspicious. The Jedi deserved to all die! |
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Post by Benn on Feb 4, 2012 13:35:04 GMT
EDIT: Oh god even thinking about it further, Grevious as a device to split up Obi-Wan and Anakin doesn't even work. Why would the Jedi only send Obi-Wan after the guy who if they kill it would end the entire war? Why not send him and Anakin? Why not send an army? Okay, given it's been a while since I actually watched this... I think they say in the film that they're not sure if Grevious is on that planet. It's not confirmed until Kenobi talks to the Mouth Of Sauron. As for the rest of it... Even Anakin thinks that splitting the two of them up is a dumb idea. "Obi-wan, you know how that sinister guy in charge of everything that you all don't trust? And you know how I'm feeling kinda conflicted right now, what with the rest of the Jedi not trusting me, and that sinister guy kinda using me to spy on you spying on him, while he drops hints big enough to sink a ship about the dark side? And you know that I'm the Chosen One, whom even Yoda thinks could plunge the whole galaxy into darkness? And that you're the only thing keeping me even vaguely sensible right now because my secret wife is pregnant and keeping secrets from me? Why don't I come with you, to hunt down this droid designed to kill Jedi? It might help give me some time to calm down and think about things, you know?" Guh, at least the book makes an attempt to make all this make sense. |
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Post by blueshift on Feb 4, 2012 13:42:23 GMT
The thing is, you could actually cut all the parts with Obi-Wan going off to kill Grevious out of the film and it wouldn't really effect it much. It's all padding really. Padding to sell toys of robots and wheel-cars and stuff.
You could say 'oh but killing Grevious is the trigger for Palpatine's plot to kill the Jedi' but why? It's not like he needs the Jedi to kill Grevious, since Grevious is working for him and he could end it whenever he likes (and surely the real end is when Anakin kills the Seperatist leaders who are handily gathered in one place.)
All killing all the Jedi at the end of the war accomplishes is making Palpatine look really dodgy. The war going on was all that was keeping him in power as the supreme Chancellor with all his emergency powers, so the moment the war is over, he gets his private army to brutally murder everyone who could stand against him (including all the children!) and then says 'oh the Jedi were trying to take over so I murdered them all okay trust me on this' and everyone completely believes him. It's baffling.
See in some ways the later prequels are worse than the Phantom Menace, since in the Phantom Menace there's at least an attempt at a cohesive plot, even though I'm still not sure exactly what was going on.
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Post by The Doctor on Feb 4, 2012 21:48:20 GMT
If the Ewoks had been there, everyone would have died.
-Ralph
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Post by Benn on Feb 4, 2012 23:32:17 GMT
See in some ways the later prequels are worse than the Phantom Menace, since in the Phantom Menace there's at least an attempt at a cohesive plot, even though I'm still not sure exactly what was going on. Seeing as how I was saying that I quite liked The Phantom Menace anyway, we seem to have argued the same point... That's what I get for trying to play devils advocate! And yes, it is indeed lucky for Palpatine that the Ewoks went undiscovered until ROTJ. |
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Feb 5, 2012 3:59:39 GMT
If there had been an Ewok Jedi there would have been no Sith.
Andy
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Post by legios on Feb 5, 2012 12:40:05 GMT
Oh there'd have been Sith alright.... dead Sith....
Karl
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Post by The Doctor on Feb 7, 2012 20:09:17 GMT
Joy! Listen to it on headphones.
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on Feb 7, 2012 21:09:37 GMT
My mind is broken thanks to more YouTubage from Burns tonight.
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Nigel
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Post by Nigel on Feb 8, 2012 14:23:43 GMT
It's John Williams' 80th birthday.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Feb 8, 2012 16:37:13 GMT
My mind is broken thanks to more YouTubage from Burns tonight. Blame Ralph. He's just reminded me by text. |
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Post by The Doctor on Feb 8, 2012 17:52:34 GMT
Celebrate the love!
-Ralph
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Post by Shockprowl on Feb 26, 2012 8:22:11 GMT
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Post by Philip Ayres on Feb 26, 2012 9:26:39 GMT
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kayevcee
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The Weather Wizard
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Post by kayevcee on Feb 26, 2012 21:42:57 GMT
This is why TIE fighters are so shit and Stormtroopers have rifles that don't shoot straight and armour that doesn't stop anything. -Nick |
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Post by Shockprowl on Feb 27, 2012 8:50:48 GMT
This is why TIE fighters are so shit and Stormtroopers have rifles that don't shoot straight and armour that doesn't stop anything. -Nick HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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Post by The Doctor on Mar 4, 2012 20:54:45 GMT
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