Re: The Phantom Menace, re-revisited

I've been saying for quite a while that Lucas has plenty of great ideas,
which all make perfect sense TO HIM, but he has trouble translating them to
the screen; look at how the films considered the best are the ones where he
had a co-writer.

Watch one of the re-edited versions of TPM. I particularly recommend "The
Balance Of The Force," by Magnoliafan77. Despite the unnecessary fanwank
title, it does an incredible job of bringing out certain ideas while cutting
way down on the unnecessary silliness. It's like a whole new, but familiar,
movie.

B.
"The Other John" <spamblock@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:mieuk1pcp8e2oqitl8e6c362vfp3cobmqh@xxxxxxxxxx
>I watched The Phantom Menace last night for the first time since
> Revenge of the Sith was released. It was the most fun I've had
> watching it since the DVD came out (the DVD was the first time I saw
> it since the theaters, having boycotted the VHS).
>
> My least favorite part of the film, the entire Tattooine sequence, had
> a more melancholy feel to it. The boyishly weak acting of Jake Lloyd
> and Jar-Jar's inane antics no longer had my attention. Instead I
> noticed Liam Neeson's portrayal of Qui-Gon, the scheming of Palpatine
> and the incompetant tool that the Trade Federation really was.
>
> The relatively straight forward, optimistic and light storyline serves
> as a stark contrast to the depressed and nearly hopeless events of
> Episode III. Even the final line of the movie, the triumphant
> "Peace!" yelled by Boss Nass, goes against the first word of the
> scroll of ROTS: "War!" This contrast, I believe, was Lucas' intention
> all along. The Phantom Menace needed to establish the Old Republic;
> the way things were just before its sudden and startling decline.
>
> The Star Wars prequel trilogy as a whole has combined animation and
> live action into an entirely new art form. The scenes rendered in TPM
> are beautiful. Occasionally too fake and too much of a cartoon
> (especially the Gungan vs. Droid battle), for every misstep there are
> a dozen breathtaking visual compositions. The Theed Palace, the
> lightsaber duel, the pod race, the Gungan city and their secret
> meeting place, Coruscant and the final space battle -- Star Wars has
> always been a spectacle, and TPM delivers.
>
> The movie has flaws, some serious ones. But there are so many stand
> out moments that the film can not be dismissed out of hand as it so
> often is.
>


.

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