Your Overall Thoughts on TPM

[JediTricks]

Welcome aboard Whitey.

As for myself, I didn't love Ep 1 as a Star Wars movie, nor did I love it as a movie by itself. I don't much like it, there are elements I like, but there's just so much slop around it that the movie suffers greatly. I totally agree with you about Lucas pandering to the kiddies here, as if he's done with the current generation of SW fans and needs to get the next generation of kids hooked.


You guys, how does the hype have anything to do with the movie? Really? And if you are fans, how do you know the hype affected the general public?

[White-Bread]

I couldn't agree with you more... I don't really think the hype had anything to do with my opinion of the movie. Was it talked about too much before it's release?... maybe, maybe not.

In a reply to the comment about Jake Lloyd, and trust me this is just a shot in the dark... but I have seen a number of kids who have had a better ability to act. Of course, only one comes to my mind right now... Haley Joel Osment. I have only seen one movie with him in it (The Sixth Sense) and he was unreal. His acting ability FAR exceeds that of lil' Anakin. Of course... this is my opinion and everyone is entitled to what they think.

But on the basis of my original post let me bring up this. Think back to when we are first introduced to Boss Nass in TPM. (This relates to another post I read about Who's your favorite Gungan?) The part that sticks out in my mind about him is his weird dialect. AND the fact that he does that thing where he shakes his head and makes that absurd noise. But anyway... I liked him as a character... though I don't think he needed all the nonsense.

I can't remember offhand but I am almost positive there are no languages other than English used in TPM (please correct me if I'm wrong). Look at ANH and ROTJ. We, the audience, were exposed to GL's idea of alien communication. In ANH we had Greedo talking in some jibberish to Han Solo. And then in ROTJ we listened to Jabba the Hutt speaking in another foreign dialect. I think this was intentionally avoided in TPM because subtitles can take a person's attention away from what's happening on screen. When these different languages are removed I feel that a certain level of originality and creativity are removed as well. I thought it was amazing in Ep. IV, V and VI that Lucas came up with these different forms of communication and exposed us to them.

( I just remembered... Sebulba spoke in another language... there goes that theory.. but please refresh my memory of any more!!!)

[El Chuxter]

Sebulba, Wald, and either Fode or Beed (anyone able to distinguish those two?) speak Huttese (the same language spoken by Greedo and in Jabba's palace).

Ody Mandrell speaks Spanish. Why, I don't know.

I believe some of the background Gungans speak a non-Basic language.

And if you wanna get really geeky, Artoo and the Pit Droids speak two different droid languages, and the Wookiee senators speak Shirywook.

[stillakid]

TPM was a poor work of filmmaking on it's own and as a part of the greater whole. Lot's of plot holes in and of itself and in conjunction with the other three films.

The acting was poor on the whole. I was particularly disappointed in the terrible acting from Jake Lloyd, Sam Jackson, and Liam Neeson. Just dreadful. Liam looked like he was bored senseless most of the time and Sam had no idea how to act in front of a bluescreen.

For excellent quality kid acting, check out the performances given by a growing up Eric Lloyd, seen in several films but most notably in Heart and Souls. Once you've seen just how well a kid can act, you'll see just how terrible Jake did.

While the CG is getting better, in most cases it is still easy to pick out who is wearing a rubber mask and which characters weren't really there. The differences are too jarring to allow total immersion into the story. The hardware, like spaceships, look great, but organic entities don't cut it yet.

The dialogue was utilitarian and lacked that clever familiarity that we all were fond of hearing in the original trilogy. Everybody knew a Han Solo type guy from high school, etc. There was nobody in TPM to relate to.

The adult oriented A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back really hit home across the generations, but the kid centered ROTJ started rubbing people the wrong way. TPM went way way way over the line to try to please the kiddies with the toilet humor and the banal and simplistic plot devices and dialogue.

There were a few redeeming qualities, like the overall production design and the music, but overall just not the kind of Star Wars film everyone on the planet was hoping to see.