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Originally posted by: Regicidal_Maniac
So was that $20 each or do we all have to share?
I think the question of "which film is better TPM or AOTC?' is akin to 'which tastes better horseshit or dogshit?'
Either way it's still a pile of shit in your mouth.
For me I'd say that from a film making and narrative standpoint TPM emerges as the slightly better product. It's a more cohesive whole where AOTC feels like it was slammed together out of the poorly shot leftover parts of something better and edited by a Rhesus monkey with ADHD.
Not that TPM is in any way an enjoyable experience but it's a slightly preferable one, like having to choose the method of one's own execution.
I realise that in some ways AOTC is trying to pander to what it expects a Star Wars fanbase would like to see but I feel it does this at the expense of the narrative and characters. It's a bit like Star Wars porn; poorly written badly acted scene, ACTION, ACTION, MONEY-SHOT, *wipe*, atrociously written disinterestedly acted scene, MORE ACTION, MORE MONEY-SHOTS!! *wipe*.
Maybe I'm just a jaded OT fan who invested too much significance in the minutiae of films I saw in my youth in the late seventies and early eighties or maybe I know what I'm on about and George Lucas should never be allowed near the business end of a pencil, let alone standing behind a camera attempting to direct actors.
Now this is not to try to go after you personally Regicidal_Maniac, but to make a general observation. I had a debate with a friend of mine a long time ago about The Phantom Menace in this case. He thought it ruined Star Wars with Star Trek sounding "midi-chlorians" and a sacrilreligious virgin birth. I said ok, we can agree to disagree here. However he then brought up every other point pretty much I have ever seen about the prequals. This coming about a year after the theatrical release of TPM, I think I had my widescreen tape. But here was a big problem, at least I thought. Where as I went in to see TPM not hearing virtually anything review-wise or anything on the film, he had. ALOT of it. I told him I thought his opinion was influenced overtly and in cases completely by reviews and information of that nature. Now here are a few questions I thought would take this thread in an interesting direction for discussion and debate.
1. Do you think a negative opinion of the prequals is influenced by the explictly negative opinions you find on EVERY message board in some form or another?
2. Conversely, do you think going to more GL-support site message boards like TFN or watching alot of documentry material by Mr. Lucas influences positive opinions of the prequals?
3. For fans in the middle, do you think the combination of extreme opinions on both sides inclines them more to stay on the fence?
4. For those who do not like the prequals only, do you buy the DVD's?
And finally for what I can think of right now,
5. Do you think the impact of the theatrical box office and how many DVD's and VHS of both The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones have been sold has been primarily written off as "hype", dismissed, or other wise not discussed or considered that much?