agreed
7890
no problema, Lucky–thanks for suggesting it
As we say in the land ‘o the swamp Yankees: ahh yup-er (yes, roger, agreed, and you bet).
Great actors but wooden dialog. I mean are you going to say that is one of Portman’s best performances? No it’s the director trying to make a very specific tone for this era.
Anyways, thanks again. Looking forward to next weeks re watch.
Sorry y’all. Me daughter had a ballet recital today and I didn’t get home til a little while ago.
That’s just funny
My new hero. LadyD’s mom.
As soon as I got my HDTV, I popped Star Wars in.
Hutts are a race.
I’d rather have Maul’s bike. It wouldn’t fit my neighborhood. I’d probably hit a tree. Desert terrain seems suited, though.
And the Hutts… and well the whole hey! every planet is homogenous! Most of the commentary I’ve seen about it is very superficial… and the responses it gets at times borders on the irrational…
I love love love the music…
Are you guys going to do AOTC at the same time next week?
Ugh. I was disappointed with George for Ep. 3/6, but this one was a jaw-dropper. I am not the most culturally sensitive person out there (I grew up in a very mixed environment, and kids, though cruel, sort that stuff out themselves) but I was astounded at what could only be the product of a very insulated individual. Watoo the Jew, the asians in the Trade Federation, Step-and-Jar Jar…
This is when I started hating Lucas.
Yet another thing you and I have in common, my friend. My girls have their ballet/tap recital next weekend.
I gotta say, the Qui-Gon/Maul and Maul/Obi-Wan light-saber duels made the whole movie worth it for me.
That was Teh Awesome. Very much reaching back to the samauri flicks that inspired the whole epic.
Sadly, that was ten minutes.
Thanks, Mike… That’s exactly what I thought. In the first fifteen minutes, I thought I was in some poorly dubbed Kung Fu theater. Then, when we got to Naboo and met Jar Jar and his clownish cohort of underwater galoots, I thought I was watching some poorly scripted blaxploitation film. Then at the end when the villains were walking away, with the music and the stupid line about “you can kiss your Trade Federation good-bye”, I was expecting one of bad guys (names escape me) to say, “We would have been successful, if it weren’t for those meddling kids.” Of course, who can forget the future Darth Vader’s “yippee!!!”? (BTW, who the hell says “Yippee” anymore? I mean, I can understand, “Yippee-ki-ya, muthafrakkers”. That’s a cool line. But “Yippee!!”??)
I really hated this film. To me, the only redeeming quality was the lightsaber fight at the end.
But I really love the little bit just before this fight (it’s about the only thing I love about this movie). When Qui-Gonn and Darth Maul are separated by that energy field, we see the difference between the Jedi and the Sith (and the two sides of the Force). Both know that the fight will continue once the energy field is released, so what do they do? Darth Maul paces and gives in to his aggression and impatience, while Qui-Gonn accepts that, for the moment, he can do nothing about Maul, so he will meditate and conserve his strength until such time as he has an opportunity to use it.
Now, it didn’t turn out to well for Qui-Gonn in the end, but I always thought this was a really nice visual shorthand explanation of the differences between the Sith and the Jedi.
I think he did. I seem to remember reading something in a possibly-canonical source that said that after his encounter with Maul that Kenobi adopted a more defensive style of lightsaber combat, presumably as a reaction to a brush with the dark side and a desire to stay as far away from anger as he could.
Dang it, I missed the screening/Frak party? I hate moving!!!
Shoulda kept the movie to 10 minutes—or perhaps only the bare minimum of scenes to set up the fight.
Come on, no other podrace fans?
Next week same time for “The Attack of the Clones?” If anyone wants to change the time, hey, no problem.
Hey, I liked the podrace!
A couple of the scenes in this movie that I DID like…and they were few and far between:
Qui-Gon at the blast doors…He approaches and plunges his lightsaber in to the hilt (easy OG’s)…It was a new use for the weapon, and was very reminiscent (to me) of a scene in ‘Forbidden Planet’, when the monster burns through the huge doors…I loved Liam Neeson’s face in that scene, as he twisted the saber and the door began to glow and come apart…cool.
Darth Maul on Obi and Qui battle…took the lightsaber fight and force powers to a whole new, and awesome, level. Totally exciting and I can still watch it over and over and be amazed. And it’s almost comical to compare it with the Vader/Obi-Wan battle…old men with the gout and energy swords.
Yes, the lightsaber duel was cool (as was the podracing, frankly, I have to admit). I think Lucas’ “official explanation” of the clumsy by comparison duels in Eps IV-VI was that Vader was an old man by that point, trapped inside all that machinery. Again, though, that is just so much blatant retconning and shows Lucas didn’t really care about the series’ internal chronology. He just made the prequels because he could – and, as the Federation President in Star Trek VI says (no doubt quoting someone in the real world whom I can’t come up with right now), “Let us define progress as knowing that simply because we can do a thing doesn’t mean we must.” 
Let me start off by saying, yes, I am an old school fangirl. Been in love with SW since the first time I saw the Star Destroyer chasing the Tantive IV across the screen back in '76. But, I’m also an odd duck oldschooler cause I love the new series too. Maybe it just cause Ewan MacGregor’s hotness blinds me to the crap. Who knows.
What I do know is that if George Lucas ever really did have the whole series plotted out or written down like he claims then he lost the copy, got a bout of amnesia or just plain forgot cause the inconsistancies are glaring. Okay yeah, I’ve picked them to death with friends that are as big of SW geeks as I am so I won’t rehash here (much). Suffice to say, the man went into Ep I with no freaking clue what to do. He knew where he needed to get but he was completely unsure of how to get there. But think about it this way, authors do the same thing, they establish a cannon and then have to figure out how to expand upon it with no “instruction manual” on how to do it. However, they get the luxury of re-writes, editors and other people to help them along. Lucas didn’t have that, didn’t want that and didn’t think he needed that. Wrong. Hindsight sucks huh?
So, think about this, yes Jar Jar is the anti-Christ in the SW 'verse but in retrospect doesn’t he make you think the Ewoks were actually a pretty darn good idea?
shields self and prepares to be blasted
Hey Rowan!
No blasting here, no worries.
It’s interesting, I was born the year ROTJ came out, and I loved the Ewoks. We had all of the Ewok movies and watched them all the time. I got really excited when a store had a life sized stuffed Ewok toy. (I got excited seeing a DeLorean, too, but that’s another story…)
So, the ewoks never bothered me. But Jar Jar is just frustrating. I was a teenager when TPM came out, and he’s just obnoxious, racist (when I rewatch I’ll prolly have more to say), and a badly conceived character. The worst part is that he didn’t have to be. But subtlety isn’t a great strength of Star Wars to me, particularly not in the prequels (which I also like… )