Prequel rant
Aug. 1st, 2005 08:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
orangerfulOkay, this was spawned by a comment on an X-Play rerun I was watching today. Morgan said something about convincing star wars fans that episode I didn't suck. I've already been convinced. I feel that of the prequel trilogy, RotS is the best, but second best has to go to TPM. Here's why I think that.
Phantom Menace actually follows the classic Star Wars outline better than AotC, especially near the end. One of the things I find discussed a lot is how Lucas jumps from Luke vs. Vader, to the Endor Battle, to Lando in the Falcon throughout the end of RotJ. In fact, the end of all three of the OT jump around like that, building tension and keeping things interesting. TPM does it as well - jumping from the Gungan's in battle, Anakin in the starfighter, Obi and Qui-Gon chasing Darth Maul, and Padme's attempt to get into the palace. AotC gets stuck in the battle on Geonosis. When there are cuts, it's just more battle with different people. RotS does it TPM way and cuts between Obi/Ani and Yoda/Palpy as they duel.
Jar-Jar is merely standing in for threepio, who usually provides the "i'm so clueless" commentary. And actually, he's far less annoying than Boss Nass, who I felt was just hard to watch in several ways. I think this is why we see less of Jar-Jar in AotC and RotS, threepio is now part of the group. Yet in AotC, 3PO's joining with the group feels sorta forced. And then, his "adventures in the droid factory" just make no sense as he managed to move and do things that he physically can't (grabbing on to the side of the floating panel etc).
In TPM, Padme was a bit more feisty too. She was queen, she was a strategist, she planned out a battle and how to storm the palace. She stands her ground. In AotC, she begins to de-evolve into just a love interest for Anakin. She is still very resourceful (when she picks her lock in the Geonosian Arena) but the whole wishy-washy love story begins to take away from that. (I'm sure if Lucas could actually write romantic dialogue, this wouldn't have happened). In RotS, she's pretty much just Anakin's wife, which is sad really. I wish they could have left in the "creation of the rebellion" scenes, where she meets with Mon Mothma and Bail to discuss how to stop Palpatine. It would have given her the character she had in the first film. Padme's in there. Somewhere. It's easier to see when you read the novels, stories written by actual writers. They find ways to write the romance that makes it less heavy handed. In Secrets of the Jedi, which I just finished, and which is actually juvenile fiction, had some lovely moments between the two of them, moments that I wished could have been translated into film.
The duels at the end of TPM and AotC are really the deciding point for me. The Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon/Darth Maul duel is FAR more interesting in the rewatch than the Anakin/Obi/Dooku/Yoda battle. Yes, it was cool the first time Yoda started hopping about, but eventually the novelty wears off (and after seeing him really move in RotS, it's just not the same). The fight with Darth Maul is elegant, a dance with flips and twists and weird ballet moves that Maul does because it looks damn cool. We moved through the underbelly of the palace, from the hanger to that weird bridge area (why is this here? this serves no purpose!) and finally in the core shaft surrounded by the force fields. The fight with Dooku is in once spot. And for someone who claims to have "mad skillz" with a lightsaber, Anakin doesn't do much.
Eep! the library is closing in 15 minutes! I'm going to post this but I'm not really done with it! Tell me your thoughts!
EDIT
Blargh, I lost my train ofwank thought. It's not that I think TPM is the citizen kane of the prequels. It's more like...season 8 simpsons vs. season 6. Both have their moments, but the earlier one is slightly stronger because they had some new tricks to show us.
Yeah. That's it.
Phantom Menace actually follows the classic Star Wars outline better than AotC, especially near the end. One of the things I find discussed a lot is how Lucas jumps from Luke vs. Vader, to the Endor Battle, to Lando in the Falcon throughout the end of RotJ. In fact, the end of all three of the OT jump around like that, building tension and keeping things interesting. TPM does it as well - jumping from the Gungan's in battle, Anakin in the starfighter, Obi and Qui-Gon chasing Darth Maul, and Padme's attempt to get into the palace. AotC gets stuck in the battle on Geonosis. When there are cuts, it's just more battle with different people. RotS does it TPM way and cuts between Obi/Ani and Yoda/Palpy as they duel.
Jar-Jar is merely standing in for threepio, who usually provides the "i'm so clueless" commentary. And actually, he's far less annoying than Boss Nass, who I felt was just hard to watch in several ways. I think this is why we see less of Jar-Jar in AotC and RotS, threepio is now part of the group. Yet in AotC, 3PO's joining with the group feels sorta forced. And then, his "adventures in the droid factory" just make no sense as he managed to move and do things that he physically can't (grabbing on to the side of the floating panel etc).
In TPM, Padme was a bit more feisty too. She was queen, she was a strategist, she planned out a battle and how to storm the palace. She stands her ground. In AotC, she begins to de-evolve into just a love interest for Anakin. She is still very resourceful (when she picks her lock in the Geonosian Arena) but the whole wishy-washy love story begins to take away from that. (I'm sure if Lucas could actually write romantic dialogue, this wouldn't have happened). In RotS, she's pretty much just Anakin's wife, which is sad really. I wish they could have left in the "creation of the rebellion" scenes, where she meets with Mon Mothma and Bail to discuss how to stop Palpatine. It would have given her the character she had in the first film. Padme's in there. Somewhere. It's easier to see when you read the novels, stories written by actual writers. They find ways to write the romance that makes it less heavy handed. In Secrets of the Jedi, which I just finished, and which is actually juvenile fiction, had some lovely moments between the two of them, moments that I wished could have been translated into film.
The duels at the end of TPM and AotC are really the deciding point for me. The Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon/Darth Maul duel is FAR more interesting in the rewatch than the Anakin/Obi/Dooku/Yoda battle. Yes, it was cool the first time Yoda started hopping about, but eventually the novelty wears off (and after seeing him really move in RotS, it's just not the same). The fight with Darth Maul is elegant, a dance with flips and twists and weird ballet moves that Maul does because it looks damn cool. We moved through the underbelly of the palace, from the hanger to that weird bridge area (why is this here? this serves no purpose!) and finally in the core shaft surrounded by the force fields. The fight with Dooku is in once spot. And for someone who claims to have "mad skillz" with a lightsaber, Anakin doesn't do much.
Eep! the library is closing in 15 minutes! I'm going to post this but I'm not really done with it! Tell me your thoughts!
EDIT
Blargh, I lost my train of
Yeah. That's it.
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-02 01:10 am (UTC)is it just me? or is the duel between douku and them rather short?
i mean
stab obi
watch ani turn the lights off
cut off his arm/force push
then the yoda sequence is a little better
but still rather short
at first i didnt like the darth maul duel
cuz it seemed too scripted
almost too much like japanese sword fighting
cuz u can go to luke and vader
and that has none of that really
luke does a flip here and there
yet that fight is so awesome
but after seeing ROTS and those duels
i like TPM duel better and think they should have done something more with both anakin and obiwan
obiwan was taken out like a complete pussy
and anakin doesnt last much longer
he fights with 2 sabers for like 2 seconds
that should have lasted like 5 minutes
i dont know if i'd say that TPM is better though
they both have throwaway scenes that are so tempting to just fast forward through
(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-02 03:11 am (UTC)yeah, they do both have their fastforward moments (*coughpodracecough* *coughfireplacescenecough*) but I felt that, if I kept track, I'd do less fast forwarding in TPM than AotC.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-02 04:33 am (UTC)oh, snap!
K, so Darth Maul is the baddest badass in the galaxy, the most agile and powerful Sith seen to date (even more so than Pic and Boc in the Jedi Knight computer game), and at one point, he took on both Obi-Wan and MASTER Qui-Gon Jinn in a sabre battle. At the half-way point, he BESTS the Jedi Master, proving he IS the baddest badass, and Obi-Wan's moments are numbered.
And some time after that, he goes down from a suckershot that a blind Hutt could have avoided. From a padawan, no less!
As for the rest of it, the acting, dialogue, and characters of TPM were awful. Even of that trilogy, I think that film was the worst.
I've only enjoyed one of those films in the theatre, and that was AOTC, because of the action-packed third act.
I can't watch it anymore, though.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-02 05:10 pm (UTC)I just get bored at the end of AotC now. The battle scenes were mostly just people running around. When I saw it in the theater, I thought it was the best thing ever. Then I watched it on TV over and over and I was just so bored with it by the third time around. I find the Maul battle has more nuances that keep me interested. Perhaps because I felt a stronger connection to the characters in the battle.
But, to each his own.