i thought it would be the pinkett-as-palpatine-then-relocking-her=in-the-basement gag as well but i guess it was just a mild parody of the ESB dagoba training scene.
I found the review tedious.
The prequels sucked, I get it (and boy did they suck a teet off a fat cow).
Could we as a race iust never speak of those shitty films again?
It kind of is, since he covered almost everything in the first two reviews.
I found what he had to say about the blocking of the shots to be insightful and new to his reviews. The film (which as I said above, I liked) did seem to be very dead on the screen in places and I could never articulate why but he nailed it. You don’t even realize it.
Yes, they should have built a bunch of sets and simply used effects to enhance the experience.
Merged Sablicious’ thread into the one started by Mahaloth.
Although they were indeed well below the standard the original set, ‘2’ and ‘3’ were still watchable from an action, effects and demouement standpoint in their own right IMO.
Transformers is where Plinkett should strike next! Utter schlock–both of 'em–in a similar vein to the childhood-destroying ‘prequels’. He’s dropped a few not-so-subtle hints to this effect in the past too, so it wouldn’t surprise me.
The grossly overrated [The] Dark Knight might also be in the works for a going-over; rightly so.
As far as the EpIII review was concerned, I found it very enteraining. The middle half-hour dragged a bit, but was still informative. The first third and the final 10-15 minutes were the most enjoyable for mine. The fact he managed around a 4-hour critique of this schlock that was more entertaining than anything that has spawned from the franchise since (and including) said prequels, speaks volumes for the guy’s abilities (…and/or for how bad the movies in fact were). The irony of the series’–and indeed of all-time sci-fi fantasy’s–most recognisable antagonist, Vader, in fact being the most attributable reason for the movies’ horrendous nature, was something I didn’t think about before in this context.
Lucas made ‘Vader Wars’. Yet, with everything from the script, character development, casting and acting, he afforded the character zero ‘character’. All adolescent Vader came across as was a whiny, petulant upstart who wanted his own way and was perpetually pissed at his mentor a la a child who’s denied candy by his mother! This flew directly in the face of the noble yet morally torn, laconic character the world has grown to admire. Maybe if Lucas hadn’t have gotten swept up in the Vader maelstrom the original trilogy fermented, the prequels mightn’t have required a mandatory barf bag to witness!.. but alas.
‘Prequels Vader’ is only Darth Vader in name (and, I suppose, image; at the end… NOOOOOOOOO!! :rolleyes:). Nobody in their right minds who grew up with the original trilogy would accpet the face-palm take on the character the latter three movies presented. Frankly, it was an insult.
The prequels were bad in so many ways it would exceed the SDMB word limit to list in even point form the fuck-ups from a single episode alone! I truely believe that once Lucas had announced he was doing the films, execs threw money at him, had all the pre-production, sets and casting done, with the cast standing around scratching their arses, all before Jabba The Lucas had even contemplated putting pen to paper! In fact, I think in one of the behind-the-scenes clips Lucas himself makes a quip (Freudian slip?) implying this very suggestion (to the asinine faux laughter of his lapdog retinue, of course :rolleyes:); after seeing some story boards or character design submissions, if memory serves.
Only the toy line and the schlock in question should be credited to Lucas. The (true) Star Wars legacy should be credited to Gary Kurtz; it would have been far better had Lucas turned his back when they split, not visa-versa.
He did mention Transformers in the review, claiming it was all CGI and no actors, like Toy Story.
i have a question… how is it that lucas was the same man who was responsible for both trilogies? i understand that money corrupts but marketing alone couldn’t explain the ridiculous dropoff in quality from the first three and the 2nd three.
Did you see a recent Coppola movie?
He was young and hungry and relatively poor when he made Star Wars and had tons of limitations. Limitations breed creativity and thus something amazing was born.
Empire was written and directed by people who were better than him at writing and directing, also everything was new enough that people probably still said no to him.
Jedi was where the wheels started to wobble.
My impression is that young-Lucas was surrounded by people who really knew movies. People like Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg. Lucas’s wife at the time was a very good film editor. He went through many drafts of his script before they finally made it into the movie.
In contrast, my impression is that old-Lucas was surrounded by people in awe of him. The scripts seemed churned out instead of cultivated and refined over time.
i guess what bothers me is that even established directors like coppola butt heads with studio execs. i remember in one specific interview, FFC was complaining about how much he had to fight to make movies that weren’t gangster films and scorcese has the same problem.
on the otherhand, neither coppola nor scorcese has a production company anywhere near what LucasArts is. maybe that’s it… it’s not like lucasarts has a great track record outside of indy/original trilogy. howard the duck?
The last segment of Plinkett’s Phantom Menace review goes over all of that from about five minutes in (linky).
Basically he didn’t have the power and money to fuck up the first film, but had plenty of that for the prequels.
yeah, but i’m not convinced that the lack of money and power would so fundamentally warp the WRITING the way it did.
He was talented back then, but now he’s not. He atrophied.
Plinkett’s commentary about how the role of Darth Vader has become way overblown is a good one, and not a point I’ve seen discussed at all, previously. Then again, I don’t often pay attention to Star Wars commentary.
Tangential to the OP, but relevant (I hope) to your assertion about creativity (with which I agree).
When De Palma was filming The Untouchables there was a big shootout scene planned on a train, but the studio nixed that because it was going to be too expensive; De Palma’s response was along the lines of “I’m going to need a large set of stairs… and a baby carriage”. 
(I’m guess the Lucas of the prequels would have used a CGI train, and thrown in an annoying porter with a Jamaican accent for good measure). 
It’s because Lucas wasn’t [solely] responsible for the original triology. Only RotJ, notably the ‘Ewoks’…! :rolleyes:
Truth be told, Gary Kurtz likely had more to do with the quality aspects of the orignal Star Wars movies than Lucas did. They both had input and had to be there for it to happen, to be sure. But it’s no coincidence that the ‘refrigerator nuking’ began when Kurtz turned his back. Were Lucas riding solo from the get-go, I’d wager the money I’ve spent through the years on the franchise in question that this thread wouldn’t exist, just as the ‘Star Wars phenomenon’ wouldn’t.
If you have not seen the “Mr. Plinkett” reviews of the Star Wars movies, you’re missing some awesome stuff. If you have, you’ll be happy to know that his review of “Revenge of the Sith” is out.
You can watch it here.
Mr. Plinkett is an old, profane man who is more dark and twisted than you can imagine. He has women tied up and screaming in his basement. In between murderous psychotic breaks, he reviews movies. His reviews are devastating in their accuracy and insight.
Watch his review of this execrable movie, and tell me if you don’t go, “Oh, man, exactly!” with just about every point Mr. Plinkett makes.
Okay, so Mr. Plinkett is actually a character played by the website owner, who is an artist and filmmaker who really understands this stuff. He created this dark character to make the reviews more interesting, and he makes them damned near surreal at times.
He saves his harshest attacks for his own sponsors, hilariously enough. His sponsor commercials usually involve him attacking the sponsor in some way, often in a very disparaging way. They’re great.
But mostly, his reviews are just really smart and insightful, and contain more than a little actual information about the process of movie making which is very interesting.
The overall review is almost as long as the movie itself, but it’s way more entertaining. Check it out.