Review - 3D Star Wars

[rich_jacko]

Don't go to see 3D Star Wars for the 3D. It's pretty good for a film converted afterwards, but it's nowhere near the quality of a film shot that way. The 3D is most effective in the space scenes. It's amazing the difference that simply putting the star field a long way behind the action makes. In other scenes it's mostly okay, although there's a few jarringly bad bits where 3D-ing the foreground but not the background just makes the background look flat and fake.

No, the reason you should see 3D Star Wars is that it's a chance to see The Phantom Menace on the big screen again. Aside from being big and loud and spectacular, it helps you to properly appreciate all the amazing design work that went into the worlds, creatures, costumes and machinery in this film. I'm once again boggled at how it failed to win any awards for this.

From a nerdy spot-the-difference perspective, Yoda has taken time out from selling mobile phones to re-shoot his scenes in CGI. This is an improvement, as the previous puppet just didn't look like the Yoda from Empire and Jedi. This is also the DVD cut rather than the original theatrical cut of the film, which means slightly more podrace and a slightly extended arrival on Coruscant.

Aside from that, it's The Phantom Menace as you know and love / loathe it. What was great before is still great - Qui-Gon Jinn (the archetypal Jedi), the lightsaber battles, Palpatine's machinations, Watto (still my favourite SW minor character), the podrace, BRIAN BLESSED. Its faults are still faults - some of the dialogue remains cringe-worthy ("Are you an angel?"), several main characters could do with being less serious and wisecracking a bit more, and the final battle set-up is over-complicated and disjointed. It is, and always has been, a work of flawed genius.

I was pleased to see that, much as people like to knock this film, it still managed to pull in almost a full audience mid-week, despite being nearly 13 years old and a fortnight into its re-release. I think most people like it really, whether or not they like to admit it ;o)

On a related, sadder note, Ralph McQuarrie has died. He was responsible for so much of the original look of Star Wars and lots of other sci-fi favourites, and will be missed.

Comments

[pharrap.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of the Phantom Menace - the overall plot is great - but I don't like the execution.

The script is horrible, Jar Jar is horrible, midichlroians are horrible, the pod race is horrible (it serves two purposes: one, to retrofit in a justification for Obi Wan's "already a great pilot" comment in Star Wars, and two, to sell computer games). In fact I'd say the only thing that remotely saves this film is Palpatine.

The second and third prequels have better action scenes and retain great plots but have even worse acting and even worse scripts than the first.

I'm neither the first to say this nor the last. If George Lucas had plotted these prequels, and produced them, and overseen design and look and feel, and delegated the screenplay and direction to someone else, then there could've been three great films made. But there weren't and that's a real shame to me.

[rich-jacko.livejournal.com]

I'm obviously not going to change your opinion about the film, but I do take issue with this comment about the podrace:

> it serves two purposes: one, to retrofit in a justification for Obi Wan's "already a great pilot" comment in Star Wars, and two, to sell computer games

The asteroid chase in Empire and the speeder bike chase in Jedi - both mid-film chase scenes that arguably do nothing to advance the plot and could easily be edited out. Were they just put in to sell computer games too? Or is it only since the advent of more advanced computer games that that sort of scene has become inexcusable?

The podrace is there partly because the flow of the film needs another action scene at that point; partly for Lucas to indulge his childhood nostalgia of cart racing; and partly because he just likes showing lots of big machines flying around really fast. But it's also there for plot reasons. Yes, it shows Anakin was "already a great pilot", but Episode I itself needs that in order to set up his being able to fly the Naboo fighter at the end.

More than that, the film needs both the podrace and the end space battle to give Anakin something to do. They ensure he plays a major part in helping our heroes get to Coruscant and in helping to win the day at the end. They show his strength in the Force, why Qui-Gon has faith in him and why the Jedi agree to train him. They also show his recklessness and stubborn belief that he knows best, both of which will be important character traits later on.

The final reason why the podrace needs to be there is because it's made of awesome :op

[dave-chimaera.livejournal.com]

The best thing I can say about The Phantom Menace is that the DVD has one of the best 'making of' docs I've ever seen.

Admittedly I had high hopes for new Star Wars - I fondly remember watching the trailer over and over (even running it through a projector in the auditorium). I even remember geeking out when I heard Vader's breathing in the background at the start of the trailer.

Then I watched the film and honestly I had never been so disappointed with a movie. For me it started badly and just got worse.

As with pharrap I thought most aspects of the film stank - Palpatine was interesting purely from a 'what is to come' point of view and I quite liked the lightsaber fight although it was a bit unreasonably flashy for me (and I have to say the spoiled one definite crowd pleaser moment in the trailer - they really should have saved Darth Maul's double-ended saber for the movie audience). I liked Liam Neeson in it and as far as CGI muppets go I wasn't overly offended by Watto. There was way too much CGI willy-waving for my tastes though and several drastically unnecessary sequences like the sub trip... As for the Pod Race... I have to say I thought it went on too long

The soundtrack was as ever amazing though, both the new stuff and how it wove in with the original themes - I do wonder how much of Star Wars' success is down to Lucas and how much was down to Ralph McQuarrie and John Williams...

All in all I was brutally disappointed with the film and really wished someone had reigned him in a bit.

Thank christ they got better. Although I do have to agree with pharrap that a lot of the acting and scripting was a bit... dodgy throughout :)

[dave-chimaera.livejournal.com]

Oh, I forgot the thing that annoyed me the most - the story!

A New Hope kicks off with a beautiful princess desperately fleeing a tyranical empire to get the secret plans to the heroic rebellion, getting caught just before she's home free...

The Phantom Menace starts with a planet under blockade due to a dispute over trade taxation.

Not exactly the stuff of the old sci-fi serials that inspired Star Wars is it ;)

[rich-jacko.livejournal.com]

The opening crawl has a lot to answer for. The story's really not about a trade dispute, but first impressions are important. The crawl should have mentioned less politics and more about a peaceful planet being surrounded by an armada of alien battleships, threatened with invasion, and two brave Jedi Knights being sent in alone to the rescue. That stuff is in there, but it gets overshadowed.

I agree with you that a lot of the success is down to Ralph McQuarrie and John Williams, though you ought to have mentioned Ben Burtt as well ;o)

[dave-chimaera.livejournal.com]

You're absolutely right about Ben Burtt - no argument there.

[pharrap.livejournal.com]

Whereas I loved the story. The Phantom Menace is all about Palpatine manipulating everything so that no matter what happens he wins, and leads the galaxy inexorably on a path to crowning him Emperor. It's a great big foreshadowing exercise, which a prequel needs to be.

Of course when you're George Lucas you have to foreshadow with the subtlety of a lump hammer. You have to have a muppet babies version of Greedo and tell him "you're going to come to a sticky end you no good meanie".

The difference in tone for me is that the first trilogy is set entirely in frontier worlds: Tatooine, Hoth, Dagobah, Bespin, Endor. The second trilogy is set mostly in civilised worlds like Naboo and Coruscant. We see shopping malls and public transport and factories: it just feels different. It's not so much the action itself, as where the action takes place.

[dave-chimaera.livejournal.com]

The overreaching arc is great, its the storyline within the film itself I have issues with - the very broad strokes of the prequel trilogy are very compelling - Palpatines machinations to allow him to take control, the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker and so on. Its the story of the film itself that I didn't like. It didn't help that I really didn't like Jake Lloyd as Anakin.

[dave-chimaera.livejournal.com]

There was a definitely lack of 'scoundrel' in the prequel trilogy as well - everyone is very broadly painted as good or evil - Even with Palpatine there was a strong division between the Senator that appeared to be working for everyone's interests and Darth Sidious moving pieces on a galactic chessboard - at least until Revenge of the Sith came along anyway. The prequels really needed some characters with more shades of grey like Han and Chewbacca getting caught up in events

[rich-jacko.livejournal.com]

Anakin stamps all over that dividing line, of course. And there are conflicts between the various good guys - The Jedi often disagree between themselves and with the Senate. Some of the bad guys aren't out-and-out moustache-twirling villains - Watto and Jango Fett are both a bit more nuanced than that.

I don't think the need for a 'scoundrel' is about needing shades of grey so much as needing the humour - hence my comment about characters needing to lighten up and add in a few more wisecracks. It doesn't need to be at Joss Whedon levels. The banter between Obi-Wan and Anakin in the first reel of Episode III was good. More of that would have been nice.

[rich-jacko.livejournal.com]

D'oh, and how could I forget Dooku? Although he turns out to be an out-and-out baddie, for most of Episode II he's a very ambiguous character who seems to be doing all the wrong things for all the right reasons.

[grok-mctanys.livejournal.com]

OK, which character from Episodes I-III would you (or anyone over the age of, say, 10) want to be?

In IV-VI, I wanted to be Han Solo, because he's cool. Even without the dark edge of killing Greedo, he's his own person beholden to no-one, fighting The Man by running a nice little smuggling operation. Without Han, I wouldn't mind too much being Luke. Yes, he's a bit whiny at the start of IV, but he grows up quickly, gets a training montage and cool powers, and saves the day.

So, from I-III, would you want to be any of the characters? Anakin is too young in ep I, and annoying emo jerkwad from hell in II and III. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon have awesome powers, but they've got this boring monastic lifestyle and have to be the party-pooper all the time. Palpatine and Dooku are too old to be people you would want to see yourself as. Jango Fett and Mace Windu are about the only interesting or cool characters in the whole thing, but they're not really in it that much. They're like the Boba Fett or Lando of IV-VI.

[rich-jacko.livejournal.com]

It's a bit harsh to criticise Lucas over a scene he (wisely) decided to edit out of the final cut...

Although this suggests you've sat through the deleted scenes on the DVD. Why would you do that for a film you don't like?