05-20-2000, 03:42 AM | #1 | |
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My 1st year anniversary TPM review
Originally posted at my board. I have minor spoilers in here, so I expect that you've seen the film...
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05-20-2000, 06:35 AM | #2 |
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Re: My 1st year anniversary TPM review
This was a well written review, IronParrot . Overall I find myself agreeing with you.
In my opinion this was a great movie because it was entertaining and I think it did good enough as the first part of the new trilogy. It certainly had some flaws. But I disagree with you on Jake Lloyd´s acting. I thought he did a pretty good job, but I also tend to judge kids´performances not as hard as adult actors´. Very small detail, there are blood in the movie. When Maul is cut in half a spray of blood can clearly be seen, but only if you watch the video. Also, I thought the symbolic value of duel comes from the music. It makes it sound like a religious passage. |
05-20-2000, 01:41 PM | #3 |
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Re: My 1st year anniversary TPM review
I agree with emilsson.....I though Jake did a prety good job, and I think his best scene was around the dinner table when he was talking with Qui.
I also agree about the duel.....there is something about that music that packs such an emotional punch everytime I hear it. I forgot to mention how much I enjoyed the review....this one and all of the ones that you put up on Entmoot....keep up the good work! |
05-21-2000, 01:50 AM | #4 |
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Re: My 1st year anniversary TPM review
Some nice thoughts you have there.
I agree; the final battle pales in comparison to the other ones. I doubt that any of those pilots will get cult followings like Wedge and Biggs have . How did Anakin get past the Trade Federation ship's shield anyway? |
05-21-2000, 02:39 PM | #5 |
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Re: My 1st year anniversary TPM review
I dont think hanger bays have shields cuz ships need to get in and out. They might have sheilds that open when a ship reguests to go in or out. Anakin might have snuck in.
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06-11-2000, 09:13 AM | #6 |
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thoughts on Episode I
I was 10 years old when the orignal Star Wars movie came out; stood in line to see the premiere of Empire at the old Cinerama in Honolulu; was grandly entertained by Jedi; and was thrilled by each of the re-releases.
Then came The Phantom Menace, which my brother and I saw the first night at the Arlington in Santa Barbara. Most of the people gathered together that day were teenagers, college students, or persons my age deeply studied in Star Wars lore. Never before had a movie been greeted by a more enthusiastic audience. Everyone wanted to like it - an important point. For the first 20 minutes or so, we cheered at everything. Loud applause for the 20th Century-Fox theme music. But as the minutes ticked by, the banality of it all began to sink in. The applause grew infrequent and half-hearted. Some of the dialogue produced loud snickers. Then someone shouted "THIS SUCKS" - at last, genuine applause. On the whole, the movie was a horrible let down. After it was over, I talked about with my brother and some friends who had also gone. Universal disappointment. The main complaints: a tired trite script, bad dialogue, and annoying characters. We mostly agreed that some of the costume were nice though. The consensus opinion: it rated 2 stars (out of 4 possible). |
06-11-2000, 09:54 PM | #7 |
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Re: thoughts on Episode I
I'm watching this film again for the first time in a few months tonight on my new 61" TV set. I might write yet another review of it afterwards...
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06-12-2000, 01:53 AM | #8 |
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to IP: some further thoughts
You make some excellent points in your review, and maybe, taken on its own merits, Episode I is indeed a "good" film. But lots of oldtimers - including myself - went in expecting a lot more.
I was just a kid when I saw the first movie, and all of us kids of the original Star Wars generation at a deep fundamental level really believed in the Force. We used the Force to answer tough multiple choice questions on exams in school and to rack up big scores in Atari 2600 games. And we all identified with Luke, because he had stuffy parental figures who kept him from doing what he wanted to do and who didn't recognize what was unique and special inside of him. But most of us stopped believing in the Force about the time we got to vote; and Episode I offered no strong character through whose eyes we could be subducted into the drama via cinematic identification. Anakin was too young and much too annoying. The upshot is that we were lift watching The Phantom Menace with a very un-Star Wars-like clinical detachment. It turned out to be just a movie, either good or bad depending on one's point of view and to be evaluated like any other movie on the basis of its own cinematic values. For a lot of older fans it also had the adverse retrograde effect of de-mystifying the whole Star War experience. To tell you the truth, I never really noticed the dialogue in the original Star War series. Looking at it now, I'd have to confess that it isn't particularly witty. But that didn't matter at the time because the experience as a whole was so compelling. I believed in the dialogue because I believed in the total vision presented in the original trilogy. Because whether poorly or well expressed the words seemed to me "true." The radical untruth of The Phantom Menace came as a rude awakening. |
06-12-2000, 09:30 AM | #9 |
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Re: to IP: some further thoughts
i too expected more from TPM - the reason i love star wars is because of the epicity (second new word i made up this morning! ha!) & the intensity, the way the story just draws you in, keeps growing, then breaks the intensity without breaking the story & quiets down to make a really good ending. i was expecting that same sort of feeling from TPM, & didn't get it. 4-6 were an epic, 1 was a cartoon - there's no other way to say it really. TPM was sterile - i agree with ironparrot, it is definitely a flawed film & cannot stand on its own.
but the lightsaber duel was, i think, its best scene - qui-gon & obi-wan fight off darth maul to give amidala, etc. a chance to escape & continue fighting, the jedi have a visually & aurally incredible (if emotionless) fight, & in a few brief seconds, teh camera shows qui-gon's face & he has that jedi-sense in his eyes & i almost forget about how little feeling teh rest of this movie had in it. and i loved teh score. TPM seemed to me like it was prepared for the masses. ironparrot's comment on the lack of blood reminded me of the 4th time i saw the movie, when i counted the human death toll. 5 dead - 4 clean, bloodless phaser shots, 1 ship blown up. compared to the original 3, this was far tamer. and i have a very stron feelign that this tameness had nothign to do with the storytelling & everythign to do with the anti-violence fanatics who then & now protest that movie violence causes kids to kill other kids (NOTE: the link between TPM & fanatics is unproven - just what i believe. i also think the fanatics are wrong, but i won't get into that here). then there was the marchandising. for months, i couldn't help but see jar jar's face. ironically, i'd seen TPM several times & didn't find jar jar particularly annoying, but after the movie left theaters & the toys remained on store shelves did he become a pest. most of the time it felt like jar jar was put in the script solely to have a character to merchandise to death, which they did & still do. however, jar jar in the movies was not nearly as annoying to me as he was to many others. i disagree with ironparrot on the battle scene - that was jar jar's only useful scene, the only tiem he did something useful (despite his clumsiness & his obvious talent for screwing things up). jar jar should have been a very minor character, but he got dragged into the spotlight where we could see all his flaws. the effecs were beautiful, & brief flashes were very good, but it can't make up for a below-par movie. Entertaining, yes; but it won't stand up the way the original 3 will. hopefully, episodes 2 & 3 will be better. my score: 5 out of 10 - it was entertaining when i didn't over-analyze it. aryne * |
06-14-2000, 02:28 AM | #10 |
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Re: to IP: some further thoughts
easygreen, I LOVE your comments about how TPM doesn't evoke the "inner child" as much as the original trilogy... I'm of the younger generation, of course, but I still think that's an excellent point you made there.
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