I suggest you revisit Mark Hamill’s… um… ‘perfomance’ in the original trilogy :D. While Christensen was worse, it wasn’t by much. And besides the original trilogy was ALL about Luke and his transformation. The new trilogy is about other people (TPM is about Qui-Gon, AotC is about Obi-Won) with the Anakin stuff going on in the background… big background I admit, but background nonetheless. That means that the story is going be a bit more uneven from movie to movie. You have to change the camera.
Anyway, I liked AotC. I put it with ANH as 2nd on my list (ESB is 1st, of course). TPM wasn’t that great, but I don’t find it that much worse than RotJ.
I think III will be not far from ESB. As said before by someone, Lucas does darkness well. Perhaps the best parts of TPM and AotC is the other background story, Palpatine/Sideous and his two apprentices.
I just hope the guy they get to play Anakin is a more established actor this time.
We know horrible acting, weak plot, and bad pacing when we see it (well, some of us do, anyway).
We’re (or I’m) just saying it’s irrelevant to the topic at hand; these are Star Wars movies, they’re supposed to be popcorn pieces of film fluff, nothing more.
Yeah, if you want ‘depth’ in storytelling there are plenty of Star Wars books or games :D. The movies are a very much generic good v. evil myth story with some nice wow stuff.
Sure some of the debates are fun, but Star Wars was never, even in the original trilogy, supposed to be anywhere near deep. They were always the matinee space fighting film.
Oh, I think you have to give it a little more credit than that. I think it’s pretty clear that more thought went into Star Wars than, say, Pitch Black or Alien or Lost in Space.
But some film fluff is good and some isn’t. “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back” are film fluff, but they’re terrific movies. The last two films are NOT terrific movies.
Hey, a lot of thought went into Alien! Maybe not the other three, but the first one was a big deep ball of psychosis.
And A New Hope wasn’t just a “big Buck Rogers”. There’s a lot more involved in it than simply a skeletal frame to hang cool shoot outs and silly costumes. Even if not completely intended, there was a great deal of underline religious tones set in the movies that aren’t just coincidence, and there does seem to be some deeper sense of meaning to it than “just have some fun!” It was a great mythological tale, and it despite all the bad acting (which was still head and shoulders better than anything from either of the prequils), it did seem to pull off a great story.
Even if the newer ones are just intended to be an amusement park ride, it comes off as one of those ones you feel terribly ripped off about for waiting an hour in line. “Just for fun” movies can still be incredibly well-made and enjoyable all the way threw, without having to result to bastardising something that’s been built up over time to have some pretty strong significance to people. I’ve never been a die hard fan of the series (I did have a lot of the toys, though), but even I felt ripped off by what Lucas has produced.
Of course, the next movie could be nothing more than a ten minute fight scene and two hours of Lucas dancing in front of a huge pile of burning money and people would still watch it multiple times in theaters just to see if it gets better. It won’t though.
I actually agree with this last sentence… the Star Wars movies are popcorn: light, fluffy, and without much substance. But they’re fun, for the most part (except for those damn kernels that get caught between your teeth… yes I’m looking at you Anakin!).
It’s when you start talking about the movies “portraying a frighteningly realistic world” and telling an “arching, mythic story” that I have to laugh. Frankly, I’ve never found anything realistic or mythic about the Star Wars universe. I enjoy watching the films, but that’s about it. I’ve never understood why people feel the need to make so much out of so very little.
Now, the Lord of the Rings films… there is some mythic filmmaking for you!
I mean, I am so tired of having defend the fact that I LIKE SW, including the prequels.
SW is supposed to be hoky and simplistic. And you know what? It still entertains me. And that’s all that matters. I love Ewan’s Obi-Wan-he’s probably THE best thing about the trilogy. And I like seeing the old Jedi and the Republic and how it all started.
LOTR has an entirely different feel to it-I for one would NOT want to see a SW movie that had the same feeling as LOTR. Because it wouldn’t be SW.
I’ll say the same thing I said over at the Jedi Council Boards: SW isn’t Tolstoy, you know. (Or Tolkien, for that matter).
Part of the problem is the hype, in my opinion-there was no way that the newer films would live up to the expectations.
Saddest part for me is I’m SURE there’s a good movie (or two) in the stories. The first movie had all sorts of interesting things. A blockade, political maneuvering, behind the scenes string pulling, Etc. But that was all ruined b/c every five mins every jumped up and ran around with flashing lights. I know it’s supposed to be an action movie but would it have killed him to cut down on Jar Jar and flesh out some of the plot points?
Back to Ep3. I think it will be better then 2 which was better then 1, and fans some fans will rejoice about how Lucas finally got it right. While the other fans will decry it b/c Vader didn’t fall exactly as they thought he would. Me? I’ll probably get it for an Xmas/Birthday gift by someone (like how I now own Attack of the Clones that I never asked for) sometime down the line but I’m not paying for it even for a rental.