I have now seen Star Wars Episode I and it has been a few days since I have seen it. Now that I have had some time to deconstruct it I will review it. To those of you who have simply written off the the new movies on principle be warned.. I actually plan to give this movie a good review. I do plan to see it again...So who knows I might like it even more or change my mind completely. But without further ado.....
The Good.....
1 It was dark dark dark and more dark. Ask just about any Star Wars fan and they will tell you they love Return of the Jedi. I get chills when Wedge and Lando fly into the huge reactor chamber at the end as they are about to blow up the Death Star. But I like most Star Wars fans believe that Empire is the best movie. Why because it is dark dark dark and more dark. Nothing goes right for the Rebels and the end is damn near depressing. Sith(episode III) is much the same way. That Mace Wendu fight with Emperor is so cool but deep in your mind you know that Mace is not coming out of this fight a victor. It sucked seeing all those Jedi cut down by Order 66.
2 Mace Wendu's death aside the wiping out of the Jedi was a really chilling scene the way Anakin just goes on a rampage even killing children and at the same time seeing the Jedi Master many of whom we met in the earlier films just being betrayed by their troops. Who perhaps were genetically programmed for such an order.
3 Why were those scenes so effective because John Williams reached somewhere in his bag of tricks and made some really nice new music. I even sensed some Arabic type themes at some point that was really cool .
4 Plot hole issues. Well in Part II of Blog Debate. I mentioned how the droids primarily 3PO might be able to figure out what the hell is going on(ie who Luke's father really is) unless he got his memory wiped. Well I entered the movie ready to gloat and take pleasure at having caught Georgie in a major plot no no. However he denied me that extra pleasure by wiping his memory. Way to go George.
5 Need I mention the awesome Light saber duels which actually had a little more dialogue in them.
The Bad.....
Now I have a number of complaints so do not take this to mean I thought the movie was bad.
1 Plot holes.
A) the First major plot hole is linked to a good plot hole issue. Why don't they wipe R2's memory. You would think both their memories should need to be erased
B) Anakin and Padme are trying to keep their marriage/child a secret. Why then are they living together. I mean aren't Jedi's supposed to sense shit. Don't you think Yoda and Mace would be able to have a conversation like this "Master Wendu Young Skywalker not in his room he is" "Damn straight he with that fine young senator from Naboo". I mean if a PI today can catch a cheating couple I think a couple of bad ass Jedi Masters can catch this affair.
C) Major plot hole 1. In Jedi (when Luke reveals to Liea there joint parentage) Luke asks Liea if she remembers her mother. And Liea explains how she remembers her being very sad but beautiful with long hair. All nice and good I think most of us assumed that the mom went with Liea to Alderaan and died sometime later. But in Sith Padme literally dies moments after Liea's birth. Explain that to me. Unless there is some Force induced womb memory Liea is not going to remember her mother.
D) Major plot hole 2. At the end of the movie there is a moment where Vader and the Emperor are standing on the bridge of Star Destroyer and they look out with a younger Grand Moff Tarkin at the skeletal frame of the Death Star. We had seen this design in Episode II. Now you are going to tell me that it took 20 years to build this huge station and then take only three years to essentially build the Second Death Star. I know Lucas has tried really hard to put elements from the first movies into the prequels but please that was so unnecessary.
E) Major Plot Question. Warning If you haven't realized I am a Star Wars nerd you will realize this now. At the end of the movie Yoda mentions how he is going to teach Obi-Wan how to be immortal through the force like his old master Qui-Gan. Sounds cool right but there is a major question I have. Obi-Wan and Yoda both vanished upon their deaths. This would seem to indicate they are now immortal in the force. But Qui-Gan did not vanish nor did Vader and both are seemingly immortal now. Qui-Gan because we are told he is and Vader because we see his spirit. Now both Vader and Qui-Gan were burned so maybe this jump starts the whole thing. I want answers!!!!!!
2 The first 45 minutes. Don't make me talk about this part of the movie it was slow, poorly shot and damn right boring.
The UGLY....
Cringe worthy moments
Any scene with Padme and Anakin together. This seems to be the major flaw of all three movies. This lame ass poorly acted and stupid romance. I mean that whole love makes you blind scene I almost threw up it was so bad. What editor let that piece of crap in.
I realize the negatives seem long but for the most part the bad points I mention are really just the rants of an obsessed star wars fan. They in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the movie.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
The Great Star Wars Debate Part III
Well Star Wars is about 24 hours away at this point and sad to say I don't have tickets to opening day but I will make do. Here is the final blog Debate before I actually see Episode III. (This Debate is more of a jumble of different topics so bear this in mind if it seems more random)
Article I the Lightsaber Duels. Better Choreography vs Better Dialogue.
You can bash Episode I all you want the Lightsaber duel at the end between Obi-Won and Darth Maul was so cool. Like wise when Yoda whipped out his little Lightsaber and when Mano e Mano vs Count Doku I thought I had died and gone to heaven. The technology alone allowed Lucas to not only make cooler looking lightsabers but have better fight scenes with them. But this comes with a drawback. All three original scenes had light saber duels and with the exception of Empire during most of the duels Darth Vader was talking with his opponent exchanging taunts etc. Some of the great lines from the movies come from these scenes.There is virtually no dialogue in the new films. Actually I take that back. There is NO! dialogue in Episode one. I for one like both aspects. But I can get my dialogue else where. Believe it or not folks but the films actually gain a positive point.
Article II. Too Many Scene Changes.
One of my major complaints especially about Episode II is that there are simply to many locations that the characters are going to. This causes many problems but most importantly it causes for poor plot development. The original episodes especially Episode three had really 4 main scenes. Hoth, Space(Asteroid) Daggobah and Bespin. That's it RTOJ had 5. The new episodes don't have an obscene number of extra scenes but it seems that there is so much more movement that there is little time for plot development
Article III: A return to Debate Part II
So in preperation for the movie I decided to watch episode IV again. And I realized a possible serious plot hole. C-3PO was not only built by Darth Vader but he actually lived with Uncle Owen for a good number of years when the mother got married. No 3PO never tells uncle Owen his name in episode IV but your telling me that some prissy golden droid is not going to bring back memories from your mid 20's . I am telling you Uncle Owen must be really off his rocker if he did not notice that.
Well anyway those are my thoughts. MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU
Article I the Lightsaber Duels. Better Choreography vs Better Dialogue.
You can bash Episode I all you want the Lightsaber duel at the end between Obi-Won and Darth Maul was so cool. Like wise when Yoda whipped out his little Lightsaber and when Mano e Mano vs Count Doku I thought I had died and gone to heaven. The technology alone allowed Lucas to not only make cooler looking lightsabers but have better fight scenes with them. But this comes with a drawback. All three original scenes had light saber duels and with the exception of Empire during most of the duels Darth Vader was talking with his opponent exchanging taunts etc. Some of the great lines from the movies come from these scenes.There is virtually no dialogue in the new films. Actually I take that back. There is NO! dialogue in Episode one. I for one like both aspects. But I can get my dialogue else where. Believe it or not folks but the films actually gain a positive point.
Article II. Too Many Scene Changes.
One of my major complaints especially about Episode II is that there are simply to many locations that the characters are going to. This causes many problems but most importantly it causes for poor plot development. The original episodes especially Episode three had really 4 main scenes. Hoth, Space(Asteroid) Daggobah and Bespin. That's it RTOJ had 5. The new episodes don't have an obscene number of extra scenes but it seems that there is so much more movement that there is little time for plot development
Article III: A return to Debate Part II
So in preperation for the movie I decided to watch episode IV again. And I realized a possible serious plot hole. C-3PO was not only built by Darth Vader but he actually lived with Uncle Owen for a good number of years when the mother got married. No 3PO never tells uncle Owen his name in episode IV but your telling me that some prissy golden droid is not going to bring back memories from your mid 20's . I am telling you Uncle Owen must be really off his rocker if he did not notice that.
Well anyway those are my thoughts. MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation
Well I am taking a break from Star Wars for a moment. Don't worry Part III is forthcoming. Rather I am writing here to endorse/stump for a great little book I just read. This new book Assassination Vacation. Follows Sarah Vowell as she and a variety of friends travel around the United States visiting historic sites that are related to the first three Presidential Assassinations(Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley). I loved this book. It was at all times funny insightful and most importantly it taught me quite a bit of trivia that I did not know about U.S History. For instance that JWB shot Lincoln on Good Friday(the day Jesus was killed) only to have him sermonized and martyrd on Easter Sunday. As Vowell says Moron!!!!. I agree. There are numerous other funny tidbits and anecdotes peppered through out the book. For anyone who is the least bit interested in history read this book.
Sunday, May 08, 2005
The Great Star Wars Debate Part II. Dumb Characters
So in the second installment I tackle the long debate of certain alien characters that will remain unnamed for now.
Article I Annoying Character. Jar Jar Episode I.
So the chants after episode I were kill Jar Jar. I have to say while I found Jar Jar just about annoying as most Star Wars fans my age I though those chants were perhaps unnecessary afterall I said to myself there must have been equally annoying characters from Episodes IV V and VI. Jar Jar's main role in my view was the comic relief. So I have decided to do a point by point comparision of Jar Jar to C-3PO (the comic relief for the first three films. Don't argue this point you know it's true.)
1 Voice and dialect: The main complaint about Jar Jar that I heard from many people was that he sounded like he was from the caribean. Since he said a lot of stupid things people were screaming racism. C-3PO did not have a partcularly ethnic voice put he did have a very prissy voice. One could argue that with his voice 3PO was a bit sterotypically gay a charge I would not dismiss outright. But 3-3PO actually said somethings that were actually funny. The Annoying point goes to Jar Jar.
2 Actions: There are two types of comic relief: Verbal and physcial. Jar Jar falls into both categories. In terms of his actions. We have acting him like an idiot while in the Gungan submarine. We have him acting like a real idiot when he starts attaking the R2 units while on board the star ship. But his real shining moments come on Tatoinne. He steals some food only to almost get killed by a podracer. He almost gets killed(why Lucas Why!!!) when his tongue gets zapped and he can't talk. I could on but I think you get the message. Jar Jar's antics are hardly funny and detract from the movie. 3PO does not have a lot of funny actions his humor comes from his voice. So once again Jar Jar gets the Annoying point.
3 So who wins the annoying contest. Jar Jar hands down. In fact the Jar Jar is so annoying/offensive he almost ruins the movie. The only character who I can say actually did that for me was Chris Tucker's character in the Fith Element. Ruby Roo I think his name was. He had that Penis hairdo thing going on. My response. Kill Jar Jar
Article II. Characters from the original movies in the prequels.
This is a problem that all sequels have but do prequels need to have this problem ? Lucas decided for some reason that with the exception of Luke, Leia, Han and Lando he was going to try and put every major character from the original in the prequels. Now some character like Yoda and Obi-Wan and Darth Vader I can understand afterall it makes sense. But 3PO and R2 give me a break. Your telling me that Anakin built 3PO only to have him years later help destory him. I would like to give Lucas credit for some dramatic irony but frankly I don't think he is that smart. I just don't think that droids could still be in such excellent physical shape 30 years after the fact. Also unless 3PO got his memory erased he would be able to figure out along with R2 perhaps who Luke and Leia's real father was. That seems to be a major critical error on the part of George Lucas.
Article I Annoying Character. Jar Jar Episode I.
So the chants after episode I were kill Jar Jar. I have to say while I found Jar Jar just about annoying as most Star Wars fans my age I though those chants were perhaps unnecessary afterall I said to myself there must have been equally annoying characters from Episodes IV V and VI. Jar Jar's main role in my view was the comic relief. So I have decided to do a point by point comparision of Jar Jar to C-3PO (the comic relief for the first three films. Don't argue this point you know it's true.)
1 Voice and dialect: The main complaint about Jar Jar that I heard from many people was that he sounded like he was from the caribean. Since he said a lot of stupid things people were screaming racism. C-3PO did not have a partcularly ethnic voice put he did have a very prissy voice. One could argue that with his voice 3PO was a bit sterotypically gay a charge I would not dismiss outright. But 3-3PO actually said somethings that were actually funny. The Annoying point goes to Jar Jar.
2 Actions: There are two types of comic relief: Verbal and physcial. Jar Jar falls into both categories. In terms of his actions. We have acting him like an idiot while in the Gungan submarine. We have him acting like a real idiot when he starts attaking the R2 units while on board the star ship. But his real shining moments come on Tatoinne. He steals some food only to almost get killed by a podracer. He almost gets killed(why Lucas Why!!!) when his tongue gets zapped and he can't talk. I could on but I think you get the message. Jar Jar's antics are hardly funny and detract from the movie. 3PO does not have a lot of funny actions his humor comes from his voice. So once again Jar Jar gets the Annoying point.
3 So who wins the annoying contest. Jar Jar hands down. In fact the Jar Jar is so annoying/offensive he almost ruins the movie. The only character who I can say actually did that for me was Chris Tucker's character in the Fith Element. Ruby Roo I think his name was. He had that Penis hairdo thing going on. My response. Kill Jar Jar
Article II. Characters from the original movies in the prequels.
This is a problem that all sequels have but do prequels need to have this problem ? Lucas decided for some reason that with the exception of Luke, Leia, Han and Lando he was going to try and put every major character from the original in the prequels. Now some character like Yoda and Obi-Wan and Darth Vader I can understand afterall it makes sense. But 3PO and R2 give me a break. Your telling me that Anakin built 3PO only to have him years later help destory him. I would like to give Lucas credit for some dramatic irony but frankly I don't think he is that smart. I just don't think that droids could still be in such excellent physical shape 30 years after the fact. Also unless 3PO got his memory erased he would be able to figure out along with R2 perhaps who Luke and Leia's real father was. That seems to be a major critical error on the part of George Lucas.
Thursday, May 05, 2005
The Great Star War Debate Part I. Muppet Yoda.
Okay I am about to let force my nerd herdness and start debating Star Wars. After all Episode III is coming out soon.
I am a big fan of Star Wars but Old School Star Wars. I liked episodes I and II but was disappointed to say the least. Episode III looks thight but then again so did the other two in previews.
So in installation one I start of with a big topic Muppet Yoda vs CGI Yoda(or more generally puppet/models vs CGI)
Article I The Yoda Debate
So Yoda the much beloved character from Empire and Jedi was essentially a muppet that had to be operated on a stage with the puppetier hiding below. He was needless to say cool. He had great expression and his eyes seemed so real.
Yoda of Episodes I and II was CGI. He could move around and fight with a lightsaber(I thought that was so cool) But Yoda had lost the cool befuddled grammer he had in V(Empire) and VI(Jedi). He was also much more green a fact that I might be mistaking due to my color blindness. Now George Lucas might say that the color issue is due to his age. But here is my issue. Roughly Only 20-30 years pass between the events of Episode II and Episode V. Yoda claims in Episode VI to be 900 years old. So 30 years is nothing. Yoda in theory should have already been an very old Jedi in Episode I and II. But I degress because I am getting away from my major beef with George.
George seems to be of the belief that CGI creatures and CGI ships etc are better then models/muppets. Why because it is a cool technology. Because he is putting all this CGI crap in just to show that he can. In my book(and this might change pending the Yoda fight scenes) Muppet Yoda wins hands down.
Article II the CGI environment debate
Why did millions of Fans actually think they were on Hoth in Episode V. Why did millions of fans think that Middle Earth could actually exisit in the recent LOTR movies. I will tell you why. Becasue they did(well sort of ) In both the movies but especially LOTR the directors/producers decided that instead of creating some bootleg looking CGI background or building. They would actually build said struture or film on said location. Middle Earth exisited because Peter Jackson(man do I hate him some times) filmed in New Zealand. New Zealand was Middle Earth.He also built the major ciities and castles. And guess what his movies rocked. Lucas used to be like that in Episodes IV, V and VI but now all he does is CGI. He would probably create a CGI actor and thus elimate the need for actors if he could. Again just to show that he can. Lucas needs to look back at his old self and realize that models and minatures and on scence shoot with huge sets(that take months to build) is not bad film making it is good film making.
There I have said my peace. Wait a few days for the next installment my blood needs to cool.
I am a big fan of Star Wars but Old School Star Wars. I liked episodes I and II but was disappointed to say the least. Episode III looks thight but then again so did the other two in previews.
So in installation one I start of with a big topic Muppet Yoda vs CGI Yoda(or more generally puppet/models vs CGI)
Article I The Yoda Debate
So Yoda the much beloved character from Empire and Jedi was essentially a muppet that had to be operated on a stage with the puppetier hiding below. He was needless to say cool. He had great expression and his eyes seemed so real.
Yoda of Episodes I and II was CGI. He could move around and fight with a lightsaber(I thought that was so cool) But Yoda had lost the cool befuddled grammer he had in V(Empire) and VI(Jedi). He was also much more green a fact that I might be mistaking due to my color blindness. Now George Lucas might say that the color issue is due to his age. But here is my issue. Roughly Only 20-30 years pass between the events of Episode II and Episode V. Yoda claims in Episode VI to be 900 years old. So 30 years is nothing. Yoda in theory should have already been an very old Jedi in Episode I and II. But I degress because I am getting away from my major beef with George.
George seems to be of the belief that CGI creatures and CGI ships etc are better then models/muppets. Why because it is a cool technology. Because he is putting all this CGI crap in just to show that he can. In my book(and this might change pending the Yoda fight scenes) Muppet Yoda wins hands down.
Article II the CGI environment debate
Why did millions of Fans actually think they were on Hoth in Episode V. Why did millions of fans think that Middle Earth could actually exisit in the recent LOTR movies. I will tell you why. Becasue they did(well sort of ) In both the movies but especially LOTR the directors/producers decided that instead of creating some bootleg looking CGI background or building. They would actually build said struture or film on said location. Middle Earth exisited because Peter Jackson(man do I hate him some times) filmed in New Zealand. New Zealand was Middle Earth.He also built the major ciities and castles. And guess what his movies rocked. Lucas used to be like that in Episodes IV, V and VI but now all he does is CGI. He would probably create a CGI actor and thus elimate the need for actors if he could. Again just to show that he can. Lucas needs to look back at his old self and realize that models and minatures and on scence shoot with huge sets(that take months to build) is not bad film making it is good film making.
There I have said my peace. Wait a few days for the next installment my blood needs to cool.
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Man do I hate Tom Delay
Well for all you democrats who already hate Tom Delay. Here is yet another reason to hate him.
His Cuban policy Now by Cuban policy I don't mean some guy living in Havanna. I mean those rather expensive tobacco products that are currently illegal in this country. I would say more but I think the photo speaks for itself.
His Cuban policy Now by Cuban policy I don't mean some guy living in Havanna. I mean those rather expensive tobacco products that are currently illegal in this country. I would say more but I think the photo speaks for itself.