Ziggy Stardust said:
I didn't care about any of the characters. Not because I found them uninteresting, but because they weren't the characters I was familiar with.
I found the Phantom characters uninteresting because, to me, they truly were uninteresting. Most of them seemed completely pointless. Characters for the sake of having characters on the screen, regardless of story.
I don't remember them all, but two that really stick out are Jar Jar and the Boss Hogg copy. In fact, that entire underwater portion of the film is where I fully realized that I wouldn't be following the last three films. It's one of many story elements that seem like nothing more than unused ideas that never made it past sequel idea sessions - or at least shouldn't have made it passed idea stage. I felt absolutely no connection, nor had any interest what so ever. Lucas didn't have a story, proceeded anyway, and it shows.
Ziggy Stardust said:
A Star Wars film without Luke? No thank you.
I'm fine with a Star Wars story without Luke. The Brian Daley novels are perfect examples of how a non-Luke story can work very well. Lucas is just the wrong person to attempt it. He's far too emotionally connected to Franchise, as opposed to good story.
Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:
I've never thought it was a good idea to watch Ep.4 in the context of episodes 1/2/3.
I agree 100%. The overall story weakness of Phantom is why I think the films should be introduced to a beginner in release order - not The Saga Of Darth Vader marketing order. I can't imagine someone getting drawn into a story that starts off with so many uninteresting characters and plot weaknesses & inconsistencies. At times, Phantom borders on software advertisement (big colored 3D balls rolling around a giant field chasing a Roger Rabbit knock-off), not Star Wars Film.
Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:
I've never thought it was a good idea to watch Ep.4 in the context of episodes 1/2/3.
And it's not at all surprising that many people these days are reluctant to watch Star Wars. The whole franchise and saga have gotten so silly that people assume the whole lot is a bunch of juvenile silliness.
Absolutely agree. Star Wars is nowhere near as respected as a film series as it was 25 years ago. And I'm not the least bit surprised. Hell, I'm an original fan and I don't respect it. How can I expect outsiders or newbies to respect it enough to give it a look. Way too much bullshit to wade through.
If I were to attempt to introduce a beginner to Star Wars, Kaminski's book would be required reading ahead of time. They would have to know the history away from the marketing spin.