25 Comments

  1. 10 minutes? I guess it’ll have to wait due to “off-topic” developments.

    Here in South-Central PA, we’ve cleared the driveway several times and there are currently two rabbits in a box in my bedroom because snow was entering their cage. All of this in the days after Obama’s “breakthrough” at Copenhagen.

    I love it when God has a sense of humor.

  2. Different Movie reviews: Finally saw “Taking Chance” last night on DVD.
    Excellent! Thanks for the recommendation, Frank.
    Also watched “Terminator: Salvation” – “If you can hear this, You Are the resistance!”
    Tonight, “102 minutes that changed America” on the History Channel. (9/11 review) Grim.

  3. It amazes me that 70 minutes of quality entertainment was born of one of the second-trilogy Star Wars movies.

    I have to think it would be fun to have Rocky Horror style screenings of The Phantom Menace, where people could scream likes from this review at the screen. (“Put it in the tea! Put the rat poison in the tea!”)

  4. This is quality entertainment, I agree, and Anakin IS a weak protagonist — but his best point is that Lucas was too unquestioned in the moviemaking craft. There were some definite ideas he was going for — they just didn’t happen right.

    Qui-Gon and Amidala are both MEANT TO BE strong characters who could be described in the way 3PO & Solo are. They just don’t come across. Qui-Gon takes his career very seriously; you could say that he lives for it, at the expense of his personality and personal life. He is also success driven and not one bit afraid to bend the rules to reach his goals, nor to flout authority when he sees a historic opportunity. He is respected by his protege, who finds him inspiring, but tends to spend more time finishing business than training or coaching. As a character, he shows how the Sith are using the Jedi’s own proclivity towards the Dark Side to take down the Republic.

    Amidala is a strong, confident woman who is a prodigy. Her youth, however, contributes to her impatience, which is an avenue to manipulate her. Unlike Qui-Gon, she is driven less by career than by compassion, and is much more risk-averse.

  5. I loved the scene on the end, when Lucas and everyone were sitting around, having just watched the movie, and you could see the look of devastation on their faces. Hopefully the same look Nancy Pelosi won’t have (she has too much botox) save on her soul next fall.

    Also Lucas is too much like Obama. He is the glory boy who can not be disagreed with at all cost. Sadly, whereas Lucas destroyed one of the greatest movie franchises of all time, Obama will be destroying the greatest country of all time.

  6. I’ll watch the rest tomorrow but damn straight. It’s a running joke in the industry that Lucas can’t write dialog to save his life and doesn’t give a crap. He’s purely visuals and music. At Celebration 3 I saw Carrie Fisher on stage and her description of helping him write an episode of Young Indiana Jones was… Well it explains the issue…

    “George, PEOPLE don’t talk that way.”
    “*I* talk that way.”

    There you have it. He looks at everything through the prism of his non-personality. Maybe he had one, or a better one, in the 1970’s, but it died somewhere, probably with his divorce or something.

    Also, one of the making of Star Wars documentaries had some of the original edit and footage. The original cut SUCKED – it was INCREDIBLY dry and boring. It was only when the raw footage went to someone who could actually edit that it was brought to life, and John Williams soundtrack didn’t hurt either. Imagine how crappy the opening scenes would be without the music if you had never seen it before. The Star Destroyer would have been laughable like in Spaceballs, not incredible.

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