Yesterday was a long and boring day off, and so I watched two films including the above-titled (owned). We saw it in theaters in '99, and I've since rewatched it twice.

I think it's a good film. Aside from Jar Jar Binks (ugh ), who should have been nixed the second they left Naboo for Coruscant (except for maybe a very brief return at film's end), I don't know why it was so disliked. Maybe everyone expected the funny bickering and traded jibes between R2 and C3PO?

Darth Maul could have been written up a bit more. However, this time around I noticed the dueling scenes were longer/more involved than I'd recalled. I just love athletic young men dashing about with flashing lightsabers.

Okay, anywho: Jake Lloyd is a terrific child actor. I've always thought this. And how Anakin and Padme first met, the older sister/little brother -like relatedness between them: Who could have foreseen? Padme is my favorite female SW character; she's even-tempered and noble. Someone made a nasty comment elsewhere (years ago) about their apparent age difference, especially noticeable in the 1st film: But at their respective ages, it IS a world of difference then.

The scenes of Naboo especially are gorgeous. Of all the places in the SW universe, that is where I'd like to call home.

__________________
There in the valley of Scorpio, beneath the Cross of jade
Smoking on the seashell pipe the gypsies had made
We sat and we dreamed a while...in that crystal thought time in Mexico. ~Donovan

Being a Star Wars fan (Got one word for ya: Light Saber)...


(Ok... two words...)

anyway...

Being a Star Wars fan, I enjoyed all three prequels. They were not what most fans expected- which is, I think, the reason for dismissal.

I wouldn't mind, actually... If Lucas stuffed the gap- Between the 3rd prequal and prior to A New Hope.

The story is already written. I think it would make an interesting movie (Especially considering the speculation that Chebacca was a Secret Agent working with Yoda...)

I like the movie, hate the acting.

Some of the lines said by the wee Anakin just make me cringe. Same goes for Padme. It wasn't bad enough to stop me from watching it again, though.

__________________
Defining science can be difficult. It’s a method, a way of looking at things. It’s a compendium of facts, knowledge, data. It’s a tool, used to investigate the world and to make sure we don’t let our biases, egos, and wishes get in the way of finding what’s real. Science (and skepticism) boil off the dross and leave the pure nugget of reality. ~Phil Plait

Um...I Googled prior to posting and most returns are one word, including Wikipedia.

I prefer the prequels actually. I love Padme, grown (gorgeous) Anakin in II & III, young/ish Obi-Wan. Seeing Obi-Wan as a padawan in this film was especially interesting.

One other thing (besides Jar Jar ) is how weird Yoda looks in this film. His ears are too long, bumps on head too pronounced, eyes too bulging. And it can't be because he too is "younger," considering he's over 900 years old old and wouldn't age quickly (especially not at that point, I should think).

__________________
There in the valley of Scorpio, beneath the Cross of jade
Smoking on the seashell pipe the gypsies had made
We sat and we dreamed a while...in that crystal thought time in Mexico. ~Donovan

I'd like to point out the the above complaints fall squarely on the writing, directing, and editing. Not the acting.

__________________
---"Why do things have to suck so bad?" a friend once asked me.
"Because space is a vacuum and that's a lot of suck." I replied.
(Actual quote)---

I rock.
Yoda was immensely aged (Abraham Lincoln style) by the events following Part 3.

He did look weird in the first film, but by the third, he looked more like himself.
I consider that a gaff; they were trying a little too hard to show him as youthful, too.


ETA: I saw the second in the theater.
Watching Master Yoda drop his cane and pull out a light saber was literally- a high point in my life.

Having spent five years worth of evenings tinkering in the SW Universe, Naboo is actually pretty boring.

At least Sony Online Entertainment's take on it.

__________________
The last time I felt a warm fuzzy feeling, I was informed by my doctor that it was just gas.

Plus he is CGI in the three prequels not a Muppet.

__________________
All Moderation in Purple
To report a post (even this one) to the moderation team, click the reporting icon in the upper-right corner of the post:
─────────────────────────────────────────────
◄Rules For Posting To This Board ► ◄Forum FAQs ► ◄ Conspiracy Theory Advice ► ◄ Alternate Theory Advice ►

Hey, what's up with that scene where Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are chasing after Darth Maul, and those force fields come up which temporarily separate them all? What were those force fields for?

__________________
There in the valley of Scorpio, beneath the Cross of jade
Smoking on the seashell pipe the gypsies had made
We sat and we dreamed a while...in that crystal thought time in Mexico. ~Donovan

Suspense.

__________________
Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

Not to oversimplify but they were there for plot/effect. Sort of like in Galaxy Quest... the pointless pistons and fire.

__________________
---"Why do things have to suck so bad?" a friend once asked me.
"Because space is a vacuum and that's a lot of suck." I replied.
(Actual quote)---

Or in one of the 'new' Dr Who episodes the control button to reset some critical bit of a spaceship was on the outside of the hull.

__________________
All Moderation in Purple
To report a post (even this one) to the moderation team, click the reporting icon in the upper-right corner of the post:
─────────────────────────────────────────────
◄Rules For Posting To This Board ► ◄Forum FAQs ► ◄ Conspiracy Theory Advice ► ◄ Alternate Theory Advice ►

To make a level for the game.

That was what put me seriously off the movies, there where too many scenes of it that looked like they were written for the sole purpose of becoming game levels rather than being interesting and exciting.

__________________
‘To those who regard “crime fiction” as some sacred icon which must follow a rigid formula, I will always be the man who writes 18-syllable haiku.’Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

you wouldn't be talking about the pod race, would you?

__________________
"blacker than the blackest black... times infinity."- Nathan Explosion
The.. Best.. Thread..Ever...

Yes, and the platform jumping fighting in the other two movies.

__________________
‘To those who regard “crime fiction” as some sacred icon which must follow a rigid formula, I will always be the man who writes 18-syllable haiku.’Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

The pod race was the clencher for me. I sat there for what felt like 45 minutes bored out of my mind. Then, just as it looked like it the merciful end was finally in sight, they announced there were two more laps.

Another thing that bothers me about the prequels is the way they use the lightsabers. Maybe I just don't recall them being flailed around like that in the first films, but they seemed more like a length of rope than a solid "stick".

For the fight with Darth Maul, Just about with Ray Park doing action is going to be pretty good. He's one of my favorite action guys that most people have never heard of. (Top of that list is Al Leong.)

__________________
I'm not evil.
An evil person would do the things I think up.

I just couldn't see how a double-laser sword would be a worthy weapon. I guess if two guys attack you at exactly the right angles, but, heck, it'd have to be choreographed! More likely, you'd slash yourself up pretty badly.

__________________
Later . . .

This invokes memories. When The Phantom Menace debuted, my son was just that age, so I had to take him to the first –- midnight! –- screening. We had to wait in a long line, and then sit in the theater for the better part of two hours, just waiting.* One doesn't easily forget something viewed under such circumstances. I gathered that the true believers (who'd seen the other films dozens of times) were somewhat dissatisfied with it.

Though no fan myself,** I was impressed that the producers really went ahead with the effort to cope with the ultimate in pre-spoiled surprises. They had to put many cats back in many bags and work out explanations of things that had been tossed in years ago. You could almost see the lightbulbs going in audience heads as things were revealed. That's who that is! Yeah, right! That's how it happened! He won't get away with that! Funny how you can fear for someone's screen-life, when you know he'll be around 20 screen-years later.

I think they did rather well with it.

*You'd think that the theater could have shown something to the loyal patrons: another movie, a cartoon, some previews, a news channel . . . but no, all we got was that between-movies slideshow of advertisements, with the same Movie Trivia item popping up on schedule maybe 64 times. And it was too noisy to sleep.

**I remember the year when Star Wars and Rocky were the biggest pictures around. I bragged that I must have been the only guy in the country who'd seen neither.

__________________
Later . . .

Henrik: Really? I'm not a gamer so wouldn't know.

Tog: I definitely skipped it this time.

Tog: Yeah. He's...fine.

DonM435: Yes. I liked it though.

__________________
There in the valley of Scorpio, beneath the Cross of jade
Smoking on the seashell pipe the gypsies had made
We sat and we dreamed a while...in that crystal thought time in Mexico. ~Donovan

Double ended light saber = quarterstaff

__________________
"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." — Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

441!!!! :)

You watching "Heroes" this season?

__________________
SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2009 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

Hi SeanF: No. I don't watch much TV. But if he's on that program...I might start!

__________________
There in the valley of Scorpio, beneath the Cross of jade
Smoking on the seashell pipe the gypsies had made
We sat and we dreamed a while...in that crystal thought time in Mexico. ~Donovan

I was really disappointed at Darth Maul myself. All the buildup in the ads leading up to the premiere, and then he had that little screentime, even less lines, no character background, and got offed without very much ado in the end.

Not even Jar Jar jarred (pun intended) me as much as this did. (Hey... you gotta have an annoying sidekick, this is Star Wars after all.)

I hated the second movie though. I want to see Star Wars, not Star Romance.

__________________
Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses.

"Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you."

Well, he's not a major character, so it's iffy how much (if at all) he'll be in any particular episode. Good show anyway, though.

__________________
SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2009 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

As darkhunter pointed out- It's essentially staff fighting.
Someone who is adapt at using a staff is no more likely to whack himself upside the head than someone who is adapt at using a sword is.

I enjoyed the scene, actually. I was not bored by it. Maybe something's wrong with me.

This is the largest complaint I hear.

It's like- come on!

Ok so above people were bored or felt like action was made to look like a game. Then when the romantic part of the story was told; that's boring and they want action.
Poor ol' Lucas can't do anything right, can he?

I know a guy here that complained that R2D2 was too clunky in the original movies. When the new ones came out, he complained that R2D2 was too snazzy, firing off rockets in his legs...

My over-all impression ended up being this: Lucas failed to leave the audience wanting.
That's an old stage rule. If you try to please the audience, they will only disappoint themselves. Instead, leave them wanting so that they picture you as the genius that won't give what they want.

Because it seems to me now, that no matter what he does, people will just whine about it.

And the merchandising.

I remember some guy's comment in a comic book journal: "How am I supposed to be scared of Darth Maul when I've already eaten his head as a Fruit Snack?"

__________________
Later . . .

A quarterstaff is generally considered a match if not better than a sword if both fighters are matched in skill.
Admittedly part of the staff's advantage is that it can be used with techniques that gives it longer reach, which can't be used with the double-laser as you'd be holding one of the blades, but it still provides an advantage if you're skilled enough not to chop your legs off.

And this talk leads naturally to this clip. Note, language warning.

__________________
‘To those who regard “crime fiction” as some sacred icon which must follow a rigid formula, I will always be the man who writes 18-syllable haiku.’Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

Except a staff has a much greater area that can be safely held when fighting, which gives the weapon a great deal of flexibility. A double-ended lightsabre only has a small section in the centre that can be safely held rendering much of the additional length useless. Looks cool though ... and there is much in the prequel trilogy that seems to have got there because of the Rule of Cool rather than any great necessity of story or plot.

Darth Maul himself would probably also qualify given how little we know about him.

Wouldn't say that, but it certainly bores the pants off me about halfway in. Am I the only person who would have liked to see the Sandpeople polish off the field with their rifles?

My problem with the whole romance thing was that I really don't understand what Padme sees in a whiny teenager who behaves more like a stalker than anything else, and the further through the movie we get the less likely it seems to me that she would fall in love with him.

I think that is true ... to some extent. It is certainly true that there was so much hype and build-up that it was almost doomed to be a disappointment right from the off, regardless of how good it actually was.

I have seen it a few times, and checked it out again when it was on TV over the weekend, but it just does nothing for me. As an avid viewer of the original trilogy, Eps 1 and 2 just leave me cold and just feel dull and overlong. They just seem to lack that "X Factor" that makes a great movie stand out from a competent one. Can't fault the spectacle or the FX, but the whole just feels like less than the sum of its parts.

__________________
Dave

Anyone seen my marbles? Anyone ... ?

Mr. Gorsky: Yeah. Especially after he admits he's ruthlessly slaughtered Sand People.

He's gorgeous...but not a nice fellow. Looks alone wouldn't do it for me.

Also, wouldn't she be troubled by his willingness to break a serious Jedi oath in order to secretly marry her?

Lots of BIG red flags there. Poor Padme should have paid attention.

p.s.: I also don't believe Anakin would go over to the Dark Side out of love for Padme. It'd be more believable if he simply desired more power and outright betrayed her.

__________________
There in the valley of Scorpio, beneath the Cross of jade
Smoking on the seashell pipe the gypsies had made
We sat and we dreamed a while...in that crystal thought time in Mexico. ~Donovan

Which only means that the movie was accurate to reality.
I mean come on- can't we say that about every romance? "What does she see in him?!"
The story is trying to tell how Luke and Leia came to be along with how Anakin lost his path along the way.

By standards of reality, it's very plausible that she will love the man and love him increasingly the more he seems to stray from his path.