How do you feel about Episode 2 now?

[plo koon 200]

My least favorite film is AOTC. It feels like I'm watching a video game. Admit it, the special effects suck. The love story could also use development. I like TPM a lot more. It dosen't look as fake and Qui-Gon is a more developed character than any character in AOTC. BTW, LOTR is okay but not great. I personally find TTT to be boring and I find the Helm's Deep battle sequence to be lacking and that puts me to sleep. I can imagine and have imagined battles a zillion times greater than that. I know in the book the battle didn't amount to much and on film the battle does not amount much to me.

[plasticfetish]

Um, err ... it's one of my favorite Star Wars prequel episodes.

[derek]

i voted that it sucked........i would of choose stinksbut that wasn't an option. :happy:

[Turambar]

I voted it better than E1, but that's really a toss up.
There's just no substance beneath all the video game action.
LOTR rules! I read an article this summer about how LOTR is the star wars trilogy of this era. It has really satisfied me.

[plasticfetish]

Um, err ... LOTR is one of my favorite LOTR trilogies.

[JediTricks]

For those this is applicable to, just out of curiousity, what exactly makes you like TPM more than AOTC? I find TPM pretty painful to watch these days and that is the only SW movie I can say that about.

I find both TPM and AOTC unwatchable these days, but I viewed TPM 4 times as often as AOTC in theaters. AOTC has all the flashy effects and violence, but it lacks any cohesion, has the worst pacing of any SW movie to date, the direction is non-existant, and the artificial world of AOTC (the myriad of CG sets) repulses me when I see the actors who are supposed to be living within it - because mainly, they don't convince me that they do at all. Don't get me wrong, I didn't love TPM, but it had a little more spirit and more real sets and props, and I'll even claim it was a little more coherent. Like Plo Koon 200 said, AOTC is like watching a video game, it's not all that engrossing to watch someone play Mega Man for over 2 hours.

Oh, and I really do feel the film brought the whole saga down a little.

[Tycho]

I loved AOTC. I voted that it is amongst several of my favorite SW films, because from time to time my favorite changes.

I'll get into one SW movie (or even another good movie I like that's not SW), and I'll watch it a for a few weeks (that is once every few days, I'll put it on or pay it some or all of my attention at the end of a day I guess).

Anyway, that movie will be my favorite for a while, and then I'll get sick of watching it.

Know what SW movie I really like watching right now? Return of the Jedi.

I could easily sit through 2 playings back to back if I had that kind of time.

It once was that way with AOTC, and might be that way again if I don't have any other movie I'm into watching a lot. (Just got over a Civil War movie phase I was going through, Gettysburg, etc.)

What I liked about AOTC was its realism.

I totally relate to trying to get with this or that girl that I've always wanted - the way Anakin pursues Padme. "I'm in agony. My heart is beating so rapidly. I can't breathe." Of course I realize that if only my fortunes would change and I would get locked in a pit with giant monsters and I save my love straight from the jaws of death, I'd win the girl I want, too.

That fantasy is great, seen realized in AOTC.

That Anakin whines and complains "it's not fair" is so real. That's why kids in inner cities commit murders and turn to crime. You're supposed to work for things you want like designer basketball shoes? Nah! It's not fair! If you turn to crime and betray your society and live outside the laws you can have everything you'll want. First you might need a Gang. Anakin calls his the Imperials. Very logical.

That Obi-Wan doesn't have everything he wants - like Qui-Gon back - or to sit on the High Council and tell Yoda what to do for once - doesn't set him off.

People become who they're going to be as they shape their character at a young age. Darth Vader is a man out to have everything he wants when he wants it. So where does he get his motivation? From a balanced Jedi perspective that enforces complacency and acceptance of one's lot in life? Where the Force takes you?

No. Anakin is exactly the way he is realistically supposed to be.

There's more. The Clone Wars begin SW movies where WAR is the main focus, too. Remember the Prequels, they are NOT at war. Naboo was an isolated incident. It took a lot to provoke that fight. Speeder chases with small-time bounty hunters and isolated one-on-one fights with Jedi happen all the time, too. Until Geonosis, there was no reason for constant battle in the SW universe, as we see when the Stormtroopers board the Tantive IV, at Hoth, and a planned attack and trap such as the one layed out at Endor.

Understand this:

The galaxy is not at war. There is no Star Wars, until the last 20-30 minutes on Geonosis in Episode 2. Then there is a reason why the Original Trilogy is different.

[Darth Spectre]

Lightsaber duel was the only real highlight. I liked Geonosis battle much better than Naboo. Maybe Anakin was better in TPM, but they made Obi-Wan out to be more whiny than we had seen before (and I know he is younger, but still...he also was greatly underused). I saw TPM about 4 times in movies, and had trouble sitting through it after the 3rd. I saw AOTC 5 times in movies and never had that reaction. I just think it is simply a lot closer to what a Star Wars movie is supposed to be or what one was in the past, then the slow, drawn out Episode I. I think the Pod Race is more like a video game than Geonosis battle personally, and I found that scene (pod race) to be a lot more boring.

[Rogue II]

Lightsaber duel was the only real highlight. I liked Geonosis battle much better than Naboo. Maybe Anakin was better in TPM, but they made Obi-Wan out to be more whiny than we had seen before (and I know he is younger, but still...he also was greatly underused). I saw TPM about 4 times in movies, and had trouble sitting through it after the 3rd. I saw AOTC 5 times in movies and never had that reaction. I just think it is simply a lot closer to what a Star Wars movie is supposed to be or what one was in the past, then the slow, drawn out Episode I. I think the Pod Race is more like a video game than Geonosis battle personally, and I found that scene (pod race) to be a lot more boring.

Either way. Neither Episode 1 or 2 are all that great. I won't say "they suck," but they were both dissapointments. Sure, each film had a couple cool little things in them, but overall...meh. The only reason I saw TPM a 2nd time in the theater is because I couldn't believe I waited 17 years to see that. The pod race scene was ok, although it had a predictable outcome. I only saw ATOC once in the theater and that was plenty. This movie made Obi-Wan look like an idiot since he had to have a 6 year old tell him that someone deleted Kamino from the records. Not to mention Jango Fett having to bump his head so he could be like the stormtroopers in ANH.

...and the other thing LOTR has over the prequels...3 films in 3 years!

[2-1B]

I agree with the beatification of LOTR as "the new Star Wars" because I find the Hobbits to be as annoying as the Ewoks are to other SW fans.