AoTC - four months later (related spam only)

Morlock · Post by **Morlock** » Thu Sep 12, 2002 5:51 pm

If there was a thread similar to this in the past few weeks- please forgive me. (havn't been here in a while)
OK- I'm just wondering- On May 16th Star Wars: Episode 2: Attack of the Clones came out.
The movie got a thread dedicated to it, and was seen (I believe) by a large percentige of GB's members (Excluding Fable, of course

who still has me

as to why he religiosly stays away from this).

I can't recall what the concensous was about Spiderman, but as far as I can remember, AoTC got pretty decent reviews. Now it is widely (at least in my circles) concidered not a very good movie.
So to keep this orderly please just follow suit, but feel free to add or subtract any categories:

AoTC:
Favorite scene: One before the last, The Emperer, with his entorauge of corrupt sentors watching the Clones reorganize, with the Imperial March playing.
Least favorite scene: toss up between Nightmare and Fireplace
Favorite preformance: Christopher Lee (Ian McDiarmid close second)
Least favorite Preformance: Natalie Portman (Boba Fet second)
Favorite plot element: That the fly people are building the Death Star
Least Favorite Plot element: Entire Love story, top to bottom
Bottom line: from a movie making point of view- bad in most respects. Terrible script and too much eye candy. And the Crouching Tiger Hidden Yoda thing was, on second thought, pretty bad too.
Yet for Some inexplicable reason I still love the movie. Maybe just for McDiarmid, Lee and mainly, John Williams (having one's idol involved in a project tends to raise one's apritiation for the project) .

So I was pretty vague, but since I only did this for YOUR opinions, I clear myself of any wrong doing.

Tybaltus · Post by **Tybaltus** » Thu Sep 12, 2002 6:51 pm

Originally posted by Morlock

The movie got a thread dedicated to it, and was seen (I believe) by a large percentige of GB's members (Excluding Fable, of course who still has me as to why he religiosly stays away from this).

I havent seen it either. I dont go to the movies. The last movie I saw in a theatre was "Cast Away". And what a great movie that was.

But I avoid theatres for many reasons. Its too expensive. Im patient enough to wait for the DVD. I hate crowds. I hate sticky floors. There you have it.

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Thu Sep 12, 2002 7:23 pm

Worst "Acting": Hayden Christensen is horrible. I've seen better "acting" in Vivid Videos productions. The "love story" especially blows.

Worst Part of the Movie: The dialogue. Take your pick. It's all bad. "Vapid" is the nicest word I can think of to describe any of the speaking parts. I don't want to hear even Christopher Lee speak; it's horrible.

Coolest Part of the Movie: The clone troopers vs. the battle droids. Sure it was all eye candy, but what cool eye candy it is.

What Episode 3 Needs: More lightsaber battles. Less talking. More skin from Natalie Portman.

Aegis · Post by **Aegis** » Thu Sep 12, 2002 8:28 pm

Originally posted by HighLordDave
What Episode 3 Needs: More lightsaber battles. Less talking. More skin from Natalie Portman.

Amen to that.

At least Jar Jar got a much smaller role in this one...

Kayless · Post by **Kayless** » Thu Sep 12, 2002 8:30 pm

Kayless' Vaunted Opinion

Originally posted by Morlock
I can't recall what the concensous was about Spiderman, but as far as I can remember, AoTC got pretty decent reviews.

Spider-Man rocked. The only people I've heard say otherwise are quacks and those being contrary for the hell of it.

AoTC:
Favorite scene: Anakin's confession to Padme after he's slaughtered the Tusken village. "I ... I killed them. I killed them all. They're dead, every single one of them. And not just the men... But the women, and the children too. They're like animals, and I slaughtered them like animals! I HATE THEM!!" Say what you want about Hayden's performance elsewhere in the film, but he was dead on here. This was an extremely powerful scene for me, especially thanks to the music, which starts off with a low insinuating version of the Emperor's Theme and gradually transforms into Vader's full-blown Imperial March (Honorable mentions go to the runners-up; The Tusken Massacre itself and Yoda's Ass-kicking scene).

Least favorite scene: Hmmm... Most of the love scenes were pretty awkward.

Favorite preformance: Yoda.

Christopher Lee was great too (Did he make some kind of deal with the Devil to end his career on such a stratospheric high note?

B-Horror movies and bit roles for 50 years and now he gets in Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings).

Least favorite Preformance: Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman are fine by themselves, but put them in a room together...

Favorite plot element: The Death Star bit was pretty fricking cool.

Least Favorite Plot element: Love story, 'nuff said.

Bottom line: Just because a guy is small, ancient and green doesn't mean he can't kick your ass.

Locke Da'averan · Post by **Locke Da'averan** » Fri Sep 13, 2002 1:06 am

hell, i would've dealed with the devil too to get those parts(not that i'm an actor but still, it would've been so cool to just be there when they filmed LoTR

fav scene: same as morlocks... i got chills of excitement when that scene got played...

least fav scene: especially the part of the love story where they are on some plains with wild animals and hayden pretends he got hurt when he tried to ride one of them, and they rolled down some small hill etc.. yech...

Originally posted by HighLordDave:
What Episode 3 Needs: More lightsaber battles. Less talking. More skin from Natalie Portman.

touche

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Fri Sep 13, 2002 8:32 am

Re: Kayless' Vaunted Opinion

Originally posted by Kayless
Favorite scene: Anakin's confession to Padme after he's slaughtered the Tusken village. "I ... I killed them. I killed them all. They're dead, every single one of them. And not just the men... But the women, and the children too. They're like animals, and I slaughtered them like animals! I HATE THEM!!" Say what you want about Hayden's performance elsewhere in the film, but he was dead on here.

I thought this stunk just like the rest of the dialogue. I thought it was more of the wooden "acting" that is the result of George Lucas's "directing". I wasn't moved at all.

The Two Best-Kept Secrets in the Movie: I tried to avoid spoilers and didn't read the book when it came out; I waited for the midnight showing of the movie. So when Mace Windu decapitated Jango Fett and Dooku cut off Anakin's arm, I was part of the collective gasp from the audience. It made being spoiler-free worthwhile. I read on theforce.net's message boards about how some of the fanboys wished they had been able to see the movie without knowing how it was going to end, and I just wanted to reach across the internet and slap them; if you really want to enjoy the entire experience of the movie, don't read the book first.

Also because of all the eye candy and visual effects, the book doesn't do the movie justice. There are some important (but not crucial) story elements in the book that are missing from the movie, but for the most part, the book is superflous.

Most Gratuitous Cameo: Jimmy Smits as Bail Organa. I know he's going to be a mover and shaker in the Senate and his character plays an important role in the pre-Empire days, but why the hell was he in this movie? At least he didn't die or show his partner's ass.

Kayless · Post by **Kayless** » Fri Sep 13, 2002 11:23 am

Re: Re: Kayless' Vaunted Opinion

Originally posted by HighLordDave
I thought this stunk just like the rest of the dialogue. I thought it was more of the wooden "acting" that is the result of George Lucas's "directing". I wasn't moved at all.

Just no pleasing some folks.

You want good dialogue, go see a fruity play.

This is about as good as Star Wars gets (and I thought it kicked ass).

Originally posted by HighLordDave
The Two Best-Kept Secrets in the Movie: I tried to avoid spoilers and didn't read the book when it came out; I waited for the midnight showing of the movie. So when Mace Windu decapitated Jango Fett and Dooku cut off Anakin's arm, I was part of the collective gasp from the audience.

Yeah the sudden starkness of the violence was very well done. I got the same feeling when Aragorn took Lurtz's head off in LotR. You knew he was going to kill him, but not in such a swift and brutal way (no extended death scenes for Uruk-Hai). One minute he's growling and fighting, then BAM, off with his head. He and Jango have a lot in common

P.S. I don't think we need the black font, since this whole topic is about what people thought of the movie. If they haven't seen it or don't want to be spoiled they shouldn't be in this thread.

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Fri Sep 13, 2002 11:32 am

My opinions on AotC hasn't changed at all in the last four months, I will edit in some links to my thoughts on AoTC, full of vitriol and more than a few prods at Lucas' expanded belly

Kayless · Post by **Kayless** » Fri Sep 13, 2002 11:43 am

Originally posted by Mr Sleep
My opinions on AotC hasn't changed at all in the last four months, I will edit in some links to my thoughts on AoTC, full of vitriol and more than a few prods at Lucas' expanded belly

Why are you prodding Lucas' gut?

Granted, he's not as trim as he once was, but isn't that the sign of a great director? Hitchc0ck was a lard, Orson Wells blimped out in his later years, and Peter Jackson is quite portly as well.

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Fri Sep 13, 2002 11:45 am

Don't forget Rob Reiner; he makes Lucas look svelte.

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Fri Sep 13, 2002 11:56 am

and he also makes lucas look like an idiot when it comes to directing. Meathead been a part of many fine pictures.

My feelings on AotC. It was ok. Natalie Portman is a good reason to keep watching. Hayden is a chump. Ewan McGregor played a pretty good role of the jedi who is in over his head.

the eye candy was cool of course and the musical score did quite a bit of good.

My final feelings on this new trio though only affirm that first three movies weren't very good. I think this entire new saga has trivialized the first trio.

Robnark · Post by **Robnark** » Fri Sep 13, 2002 3:24 pm

thoughts on the movie?

well, i really could have used £4 better. buying a couple of bricks to bang myself over the head with, for example.

Bloodmist · Post by **Bloodmist** » Fri Sep 13, 2002 4:44 pm

i liked the movie, and i still do. I could have managed without the love story, but you can survive it for a couple of hours.

Aegis · Post by **Aegis** » Fri Sep 13, 2002 4:53 pm

My initial reaction to the movie was "Sweet! New Star Wars film! Light Sabers! Yoda hopped up on coco-puffs ajnd bouncing around like aBjork on a suger buzz! Natalie Portman!" Saw the movie, liked it.

Now, it's more like, it was alright, though the acting was subpar, as was the script. IMHO, Lucas isn't putting the same devotion and dedication into it as he did with the original movies.

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Fri Sep 13, 2002 5:12 pm

Originally posted by Aegis
IMHO, Lucas isn't putting the same devotion and dedication into it as he did with the original movies.

He is putting in the devotion and dediction, and that's the problem. Lucas has become a control-freak micro-manager. Remember that he only directed ANH. ESB was directed by Irvin Kershner and ROTJ was directed by Richard Marquand.

While neither Kershner nor Marquand are fit to be mentioned in the same breath as Ron Howard or Rob Reiner, they each did an adequate job and kept Lucas from ruining the actors's performances.

I believe the Lucas is obsessed more with the process of making a new kind of film (ie-the "digital backlot") than committing himself to turning out a overall high-quality product, because he is, in fact, a subpar director. He is a much better idea factory and businessman than he is a filmmaker.

By taking the helm for TPM and AOTC, Lucas is torpedoing his franchise by relying on technical merits and not getting enough out of the actors. It is horrifying to see quality actors like Portman, MacGregor, Lee and Samuel L. Jackson relegated to delivering wooden dialogue and muddling through poor scripts which could be fixed fairly easily (maybe by Carrie Fisher who is pretty good at that sort of thing).

Despite my ramblings about how bad Lucas is as a director, I don't hate Star Wars; in fact, I like it a lot. I've paid $6.50 to see worse movies than TPM and AOTC. Part of the problem is that the new Star Wars movies will never live up to fan expectations, but that's still no excuse to put a poor product in theaters, especially with the budget that LucasFilms has.

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Sat Sep 14, 2002 1:19 pm

Originally posted by Kayless
Why are you prodding Lucas' gut? Granted, he's not as trim as he once was, but isn't that the sign of a great director? Hitchc0ck was a lard, Orson Wells blimped out in his later years, and Peter Jackson is quite portly as well.

I don't like Peter Jackson either

Kayless · Post by **Kayless** » Sat Sep 14, 2002 6:50 pm

Originally posted by Mr Sleep
I don't like Peter Jackson either

Well you've just branded yourself a pariah towards the nerd population of the world.

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Sat Sep 14, 2002 7:28 pm

Originally posted by Kayless
Well you've just branded yourself a pariah towards the nerd population of the world.

The die hard Tolkien geeks didn't like Jackson either, so Mr Sleep should be safe.

Kayless · Post by **Kayless** » Sat Sep 14, 2002 7:39 pm

Originally posted by HighLordDave
The die hard Tolkien geeks didn't like Jackson either, so Mr Sleep should be safe.

Really?

Most of the fanatical Tolkienites I've talked to (Both in RL and online) loved the films. Only about one in five didn't like it (and they wouldn't like any movie version of the books).