The morning after watching AOTC, my nephew put Star Wars (ANH) on, the TV, the unedited version. When I heard it go on, I ran through the house to sit with him, and enjoyed every minute. I even got goosebumps watching Luke making his canyon run. Luke manages to be a shy, clumsy teenager without being a creepy stalker, or being as wooden as pinocchio.
The acting and writing in the original trilogy was better than it was in the last two. We can agree to disagree, but I can’t imagine not being able to notice the difference.
Excellent points, all. I still think that Star Wars should have an advantage, because its popularity is built on the movies themselves, rather than a comic book. But that’s certainly debatable.
It’ll be interesting to compare box-office receipts between Spider-Man, AOTC and The Two Towers once each has finished its theatrical run. Although I wouldn’t place bets on it, it’s possible AOTC won’t even be the second-highest-grossing film of the year. As you note, that would be a definite deviation in the juggernaut that is Star Wars’ box-office domination.
But then again, Sauron, AOTC has a lot more competition in sci-fi/fantasy than it did for the original trilogy (can you name a comparable film to the power of LOTR?). Also, AOTC was competing with Spider-Man on its opening weekend (but not vice-versa), so I’d wait a bit on those numbers.
Besides, money doesn’t mean everything. Didn’t Harry Potter make quite a bit more than LOTR:FOTR? Does that mean that it’s clearly a better fantasy film than LOTR? Obviously not.
TPM succeeded mostly on the basis of its own hype. AOTC, so far, seems to have succeeded despite the general disappointment in TPM. I wouldn’t be surprised if sales kept up quite a bit more. I know I’m planning to see AOTC again.
I’m not arguing which film is better, and I have no idea which movie made more money, Harry Potter or LOTR. I’m just saying it will be interesting to compare box-office receipts at the end of each movie’s theatrical run. If AOTC doesn’t finish first (or even second) for the year, it might be an indication that Lucas’ vision doesn’t exactly jibe with what the fan base wants it to be.
On your point regarding opening weekends, I would think that would actually favor AOTC. It can be argued that the audience for both films is essentially the same demographic. AOTC came out 13 days later, so theoretically the primary target audience had already seen (or had ample opportunity to see) Spider-Man. That would allow them to turn their full attention to AOTC. (This is my completely uninformed opinion. Folks who study movie attendance patterns are free to rip that analysis to shreds.)
Having said that, I seriously doubt that even if the Spider-Man franchise has enough legs to make four more feature films, the fifth installment will come anywhere near the success that AOTC has already enjoyed.
I just saw Attack of the Clones and I think that it is great! I am amazed that Lucas could invision a story that was so detailed and well put together. He had an entire universe built in his mind that can best anything that the best writers have come up with. I can see how others can be critical of the acting or the dialog but that only takes a little imagination to overcome.
I am sorry, he did NOT have whole universe or story ahead of time. He is making it up as he goes along. As more of the prequels come out, they open up more and more plot holes:
If R2 can fly, why doesn’t he do it in the OT?
How is it that C3P0 doesn’t remember being on Tatooeen, when he was BUILT there?
If luke can sense Vader, why can’t YODA sense Sidious?
I am sure there are people that can point out many more. Lucas is just writing the new ones as he goes, and looking back to the old to throw in some references. He may have a braod outline (He Knows Anakin is Darth Vader, and Darth Sideous is the Emperor), but the rest he is pulling from a dark crevass.
That’s true, Sidious was trying to hide himself, whereas Vader didn’t need to. If you could sense him coming, you should get the hell out of Dodge anyway. Also, Luke was related to the person he was trying to sense, and that may have given him a edge.
A side point is, apparently the light side of the Force can hide people too, since Kenobi hid from Vader, as did Luke from both the Emperor AND Vader.
Not completely. If you read his original Star Wars scripts, you can see that he had general ideas, an outline of sorts, of what he wanted to in the prequel trilogy. And like most writers, details in a story change over time, especially 25 years.
As you find on IMDB, I don’t think that any plot inconsistencies are definitive quite yet. We’ll have to wait for Episode III: Now I’m Calling It The Clone Wars to come out.
Well, apart from the other reasons pointed out, Vader and Luke have this really neat bond known as the father/son bond. Hopefully, Yoda and Sidious don’t share that same type of bond.
I think the dialogue in the OT was much stronger than it has been in the last two movies. As evidence, I point you to the final arbiter of social acceptance: the catchphrase. Almost every line of Star Wars and Empire has entered the cultural phrase book. “May the force be with you.” “That’s no moon, that’s a space station!” “A dreadful hive of scum and villainy.”
Now, name one line from TPM (AOTC being to recent) that has that kind of recognition. Aside from generic Jar-Jar speak (which is not usually used in a complimentary way) nothing in it has had the kind of staying power that the dialogue had in the original movies.
I think the problem is that George Lucas didn’t make any movies for a quarter of a century, and then thinks he can step right back into it and start making quality movies again. Sorry, but making a major motion picture is not like riding a bike. Unpracticed skills are lost, and Lucas has clearly lost the skills he used to have. Even people who liked the more recent movies mostly agree that the writing and acting is awful, and the only thing that saves it are the special effects. So, since I don’t think Lucas spent much time in front of a Silicon Graphics Workstation animating Slave One, pretty much all the stuff in this movie that Lucas was directly involved in stinks. Only the computer stuff was any good, and that’s because these are the most talented and experienced people in the field: the animators who work for ILM.
Kirkland brought up the old canard, “If you can do better, why don’t you?” That’s the problem I had with AOTC. I really felt that I could do better, given the resources Lucas has. Look beyond the multi-million dollar effects, and this film looks like the work of a talented amateur.
And finally, yes, this is a popcorn movie. But there’s fresh, air-popped popcorn with real butter, and then there’s stale, pre-popped popcorn slathered in lard. Star Wars was in the first category, Attack of the Clones is definetly in the latter.
At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have revenge.
Communications disruption can mean only one thing: invasion.
Well, master, you were right about one thing - the negotiations were short.
I don’t care what planet you’re from - that’s gotta hurt!
I will make it legal.
I agree that there aren’t as many good lines this time around, but I don’t think they were all that great in the OT either. Those lines enterered into the phrasebook b/c Star Wars was so hugely popular. Is “I’m the king of the world!!” a great line? No, but tons of people say it b/c Titanic was a huge success seen by millions of people.
His last film before TMP was in 1994. Eight years ago.
He worked worked on Indiana Jones in 1989. 13 years ago.
Even the last Star Wars movie was 19 years ago.
The original Star Wars was exactly 25 years ago- Do you think George Lucas fell into a coma after that?
Lenin, I just checked IMDB, and what I think Miller is getting at is that Lucas hasn’t directed a movie between Star Wars and TPM, 22yrs. Amazing, but true. He’s been the producer on a zillion things since then, but hasn’t sat behind the camera.
Well, at least that word’s used, like, seven times over the course of TPM (yes, it’s THAT bad).
Anyway…
“You assume too much.”
“Why do I get the feeling that we’ve picked up yet another pathetic life form?”
And just about any of Darth Sidious’s lines. Granted, none of 'em are as cool as “I was gonna go down to Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!” (that was sarcasm, by the way :D), but nobody’s claiming TPM is the Instant Classic that ANH was.
Well for one thing my original point was an ARTISTIC failing of connecting to an audience. I remember very well walking out of ANH and how everyone in my family felt about the film. The people I know sure don’t feel that way walking out of ATOC. This was the point I was trying to make when the 80 million dollars was thrown in the mix.
Of course I never artistic success with box office. So do you?
But I did talk about it so if we can settle some terms we can have a bet.
Out gross - domestic or world wide. I think ATOC could do better world wide than TPM but if you want to talk domestic than I think we can have a wager.
Adjusted dollars. How do you want to figure this. Do you want to figure total admissions based on average ticket price for each film or just an adjustment for inflation. (here in NYC it was 9 dollars to see TPM and 10 dollars for ATOC but YMMV)
And DVD of choice. I would want to limit it to a two disk set tops. I don’t want to end up buying a whole season of Star Trek Next Gen if for some reason I’m wrong.
A couple of interesting things to ponder.
With TPM the other studios stayed clear and didn’t release any thing for THREE weeks, and then it was Austin Powers who stepped up and did very well. ATOC will not get such a free ride this time and Fox will have a much harder keeping the number of screens and the larger houses for as long as they did with TPM.
When I saw that scene I started singing “The hills are alive with the song of music…” I got a dope-slap from my brother since he could barely repress a laugh.
I can actually accept AOTC as a Star Wars movie. TPM was mostly just a space movie with some Star Wars trademarks thrown in. Although some AOTC CGI was OK, I didn’t like several of the special effects. Every scene with Anakin riding any animal that was bucking looked terrible. Also many scenes of the clonetroopers’ ships looked as good as a Hasbro commercial for the tie-in toys shown on Saturday mornings.