quote: "By needless I mean superfluous - beating us over the head with information we already know or simply stating the obvious."
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I understand you now-- ESB had a lack of "pointless" dialogue, emphasis on "pointless."
Totally agree, and Episode II goes many steps in the opposite direction-- not only do they say EVERYTHING, but they say it poorly, and in a way that undermines any interesting characterization. I mean, it's easy to want to like a young woman who's tough and capable enough to lead her people into war-- but when she talks like Padme does here, none of that matters. She's made uninteresting by what "the way she talks" says about who she is.
But I'd have to be shown what making them lovers from the start does to help things. You'd get to avoid all the "confessions" of love, more or less. That's a start in the right direction.
I guess I'm drawn more to the opportunity of trying to whittle down the dialogue until the scenes are full of subtext. The boy-meets-girl story here is one of the major dramatic forces of the movie. Shifting it so their romance has been going on longer may punch up the ending, but the middle will suffer a lot.
I see clearly how you get the concepts that foster good dialogue-- I'll have to think more about what you're proposing. Maybe I'm just not seeing the real benefits that are actually there.
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I'm glad you see something in my ideas for Dukoo.
You bring up a good point about cutting out all the Padme stuff from the duel. The problem, as I see it, is that while it's nice to see her again before the wedding-- everything we see is so bad.
Here's my solution: As Dukoo gets away and Yoda picks up his stick, looking pretty down in the mouth-- the music hits a somber key and we cut to the shot of Padme lying lifeless in the sand until a clone runs up to her and she stirs to life... Cut to Anakin lying in a heap and continue from there. Postpone their reunion until we hear that Anakin's taking her back to Naboo and then cut to the wedding.
With Trooperman's ability to add Anakin dialogue, I think that the one place it might be nice to add some is at the wedding. If Anakin said a great line of dialogue that was charming and at the same time indicated his change and resolution to dedicate himself to the Republic and everything Padme stands for -- it would bring a resolution to the film that is really lacking. The original cut really just kind of ends.