Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Star Wars

[Michael <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

I really like Phantom Menace but the first couple times I watched it I
really didn't. It was sort of a growth on my brain. The first time I
watched it I think my expectations were just so high after years of
waiting that no movie could have seemed to pull it off. I'd also recently
seen The Matrix which I think in a lot of ways topped Phantom Menace as
far as excitement and fighting sequences. To drive the final nail in it's
coffin there were lots of people cheering and clapping and having light
saber battles in the theature and generally making pests of
themselves. The second time I wasn't quite happy with it because Jar Jar
seemed to break the mood of the later three Star Wars movies, The Force
was no longer a spiritual thing (it's a science),  and there are some
minor defects in the graphics and actting.

Having seen it over a dozen times in the theature and owning copies of it
which I've watched even more I now think it is a really good movie. There
are logical reasons that it isn't like the later movies (partly explained
in the book of the same name). Okay Jar Jar is sort of goofy and at times
annoying but he is funny and does help connect the plot here and
there. Star Wars always had funny bits to it. They were just usually fewer
and further between. This makes sense because in the future things are
dark and under the Empires rule. As Jennifer points out it also makes
sense that in this enlightened time they knew The Force as both a
spiritual and scientific entity and in the future they've gone back into
sort of a dark ages and only remember the spiritual part. The graphics
have minor defects simply because hey it's new technology. I suspect
they'll eventually do a clean up on them similar to that which they did on
the first three movies. The only real actting problem I had was that in
the scene where Anikin blows up the control ship he just doesn't seem to
do a very good job. He's a kid so it's not surprising but rather than
doing retakes til he got it right they tried to cover by making the bit
part actors in that scene seem over-the-top cheeseballs.

I actually like the characters from Phantom Menace better than from the
first 3 movies. Darth Maul is much nastier than Darth Vader -- put him
next to the future Empiror and you'd have a scary combination. Qui Gon and
Obi Wan are awesome. Annakin and Amidala are somewhat charming (and
Amidala is hot.. mmm).

My biggest question is that the Jedi Knights seem to use the force in
attack.. throwing droids around and so forth. Isn't that against the
rules? I seem to remember Yoda saying so.

*^*^*^*
Michael McGlothlin <EMAIL:PROTECTED>
http://mlug.missouri.edu/~mogmios/projects/


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