TPM: A Decade Later — Page 3

Saw it in a small theater and left said theater confused more than anything. It didn't feel like Star Wars! Midichorians? Virgin birth? (please...) Annoying kid? Strangle-worthy CG idiot? Convoluted storyline? (which I still don't fully understand! Do I need to be a political expert or something?) ARGH!

The only positives for me were the pod race and the lightsaber battle (the closing force field thing was cool), two effects/stunt scenes, which are not what a movie should be about. It's supposed to be a big sweeping epic, not a tech demo. I do think that Liam Neeson did a nice job.

Anyway, despite all that, I don't hate the movie...just Jar Jar. To that end, I have enjoyed several fanedits of the movie and look forward to more! :p

ChainsawAsh said:

I'd watch the holiday special before I'd watch the prequels again.  At least the holiday special is funny in its own demented way.

I dunno if I'd go that far, but yeah, the HS is kinda somewhat sorta amusing at times. I did think the part where Korman is the robot that keeps breaking was funny. Oh, and Mark Hamill's makeup was funny, too. ("Shinier! More intense!")

Is Lucasfilm doing anything to mark the 10th anniversary?

The last anniversary was so unheralded, I dunno if they'll do much for the film that many hate the most out of the six. But then again, GL thought the way Jar Jar speaks would be the hot new thing for kids to imitate, so maybe they'll fool themselves into thinking people will want a huge celebration for the movie. :p

A new restoration would be good for the faneditors, I suppose.

ChainsawAsh said:

AxiaEuxine said:

okay now, I realize there is epic hatred of the prequels on these boards but you cant possibly hold them in the same league as the holiday special. come on now.

I'd watch the holiday special before I'd watch the prequels again.  At least the holiday special is funny in its own demented way.

 I dont, for one second, believe that. I havent seen the HS since it originally aired and you'd have to clockwork orange my ass to make me watch again. Even then I would find the will to either make my heart stop beating or my brain explode or something.

You got that right the only way they celebrated the 30th Anniversary Of Star Wars was with the Force Unleashed.  No Restored oot to celebrate.  Even if Star Wars 77 was only restored for it's 30th anniversary that would have been a big deal. 

20th Anniversary saw the release of the special edition versions of the original trilogy in 1997.

I can clearly remember seeing the trailer when i went to see Star Trek First contact .

The 10th anniversary i think was a vhs box set.  Plus a starlog magazine that celebrated ten years of star wars. I have mine signed by the Bearded one himself.  From a former person who worked for the magazine.

Unfortunately i never met Lucas. 

Also i think 1987 was the opening of star tours?

I was raised on Star Wars and had seen all of the movies tons.  I had lots of toys and model kits, all the books... I was a huge Star Wars fan.  I knew in the early 90's that "there was always supposed to (and therefore going to be) 9 SW films, and that they were making the prequels next."  So, when they officially announced the films in 95 or 96 (right?), it was not a surprise to me, but I was very excited.   

I left for Europe 6 days before TPM came out in theatres, and I knew it would be a couple of years before I could get around to seeing it.  I worked at Barnes and Noble just prior and I had early access to the books that were coming out.  I had been watching the trailers online in glorious 320x240 QuickTime (I even went to see the trailer before Wing Commander... what a terrible movie that was) and was concerned over what I had seen, but when I read the Terry Brooks novel... I knew the honeymoon was over.  Midichlorians?  Virgin Birth?  Jar Jar?  I started hanging out downtown with a sandwhich sign saying "The End of Star Wars is at hand" and warning people to lower their hopes.

My friends and family wrote me to tell me how they didn't think it was as bad as I had made it out to be.  My parents had bought the Widescreen VHS so I could watch it when I got back.  What shocked me, after two years of hating it without seeing it... was that Jar Jar was not my least favorite character in the movie!  IT WAS ANAKIN!  I thought that little boy was terrible!  I recall a lot of aplogists were saying "What can you expect from a child actor?" and "They looked at everybody, and he was the best!"  But the problem with that argument is that I has just watched Haley Joel Osment in the Sixth Sense.

I thought the lightsabre stuff at the end was exciting, but it sort of wrecked people's expectations of "twirling" in a fight.  It became "breakdance fighting."  I still hate Anakin.  Jar Jar is a huge mistake.  As others of you have said, the cartoonyness and poop and fart jokes are all misplaced.  The enemies are non-threatening...

It was terrible then.  It's terrible now.  The End of Star Wars was at hand then.  It's way past over now.  Unless you get that lobotamy I've been looking at...

ChainsawAsh said:

AxiaEuxine said:

okay now, I realize there is epic hatred of the prequels on these boards but you cant possibly hold them in the same league as the holiday special. come on now.

I'd watch the holiday special before I'd watch the prequels again.  At least the holiday special is funny in its own demented way.

Hear, hear! HS, though embarrassing, was nowhere near the death-blow to Star Wars that the PT was.

skyjedi2005 said:

You got that right the only way they celebrated the 30th Anniversary Of Star Wars was with the Force Unleashed. No Restored oot to celebrate. Even if Star Wars 77 was only restored for it's 30th anniversary that would have been a big deal.

20th Anniversary saw the release of the special edition versions of the original trilogy in 1997.

I can clearly remember seeing the trailer when i went to see Star Trek First contact .

The 10th anniversary i think was a vhs box set. Plus a starlog magazine that celebrated ten years of star wars. I have mine signed by the Bearded one himself. From a former person who worked for the magazine.

Unfortunately i never met Lucas.

Also i think 1987 was the opening of star tours?

You're forgetting the 10th anniversary celebration, held at an LAX hotel. The first "official" SW con ever held. :)

I find the Rifftrax version of the HS gut splittingly funny, I'd would definitely rather watch that than the PT.

Though the "PT" or "HS" thing is really one of those, "Would you rather eat a bowl full of dog snot, or a bucket of earthworms" sort of questions. I'd rather not have to participate in this sick sort of game if I don't have to.

Axia, you haven't seen the HS since the 70's? Wow, you really need to get a hold of a copy and give it another chance. Maybe it isn't as bad as you remember it... maybe it is worse...

^A festering bowl of dog snot?*

*UHF reference there. :)

Rifftrax are unfunny to me. I could invite a few friends over, and we could do a much better "commentary" to whatever movie than they could. And I can't believe they actually charge people for Rifftrax either.

Yeah, I agree, they usually aren't all that great. I guess what beckons me to check out the occasional RiffTax is nostalgia for MST3K, but it is rare a rifftax catches the same charm that show used to have. MST3K worked great because the movies were so awful, half the humor came from the quality of the crappy movie. That mixed with their commentary, you got some really fantastic stuff. Rifftrax on the other hand... well... most modern movies that they riff are pretty crappy, but they just are not on the same "fun to watch" level crappy things like Overdrawn at the Memory Bank are. 

I have tried to sit through the prequel riffs, but the prequels are a very unfunny kind of crappy, so their riffs really don't do on that much. There is the occasional laugh, but most the time it just feels like you are sitting and watching the prequels, which is painful.

That is why the HS makes such a great riff, it is Overdrawn at the Memory Bank level of bad, and the riff just makes it all the more humerous. The riffs of the HS's 70's commercials are priceless too.

The only Rifftrax I've watched/listened to so far was Plan 9 From Outer Space (which I like without any riffing). It was ok. Very hit-and-miss, which I imagine they all are.

"It was ok. Very hit-and-miss, which I imagine they all are."

Yeah, pretty much.

Do check out the HS if you ever get the chance, it is one of the better ones I have seen. Plus, the HS is such a bizzare thing, it is always interesting to hear other people's takes on it.

Yeah, I'd like to watch the Rifftrax HS. I brought the KCCI version over to my mother's place a few weeks ago and we watched it. Skipped the musical numbers (except Carrie), but watched the rest. Didn't hate it. :p I thought the part where Harvey Korman plays the malfunctioning android thing was funny.

Anchorhead said:

These days, I sometimes read comments on here about Phantom and I have to struggle to remember the scene being discussed or some of the character names mentioned.

Same here, and with all the fanedits of it I've watched, I've probably seen it 5 or 6 times more than you have. :p I've still only seen the theatrical presentation once, back in 1999. I bought the video and whathaveyou, but I only watched the pod race scene. The problem for me is the convoluted storytelling. It sorta killed my enthusiasm for new Star Wars projects. I had higher hopes going into AotC and while I did like it better than TPM, it wasn't by much. Going into RotS, my expectations were almost non-existent. It was just 'ok, I do know a bit of what to expect storywise, plus I'm going to have to put up with overblown CGI and grating sound effects.' I did end up liking it most of the three, but it's still nowhere near Star Wars or Empire on the enjoyment meter.

Even though they are years away, would you consider watching Adywan's versions of the prequels? He plans to make radical changes on par with his disappointment. ;)

Wow, I envy you two! The ability to repress the memory of the PT is one for which I have long sought, and which continues to elude me...

I don't repress it at all. In fact, I watched ADM's extended version of ROTS a few weeks ago. It's just story elements I've never understood that I don't care to research. :p To be honest, going into the theater to see ROTS, I was most interested to see new ship and character designs, especially as it was getting closer to the look of the OT. (stormtrooper outfits, for example) The plot was somewhat secondary, which is a MAJOR thing for me and goes against my reason for watching things.

C3PX said:

Axia, you haven't seen the HS since the 70's? Wow, you really need to get a hold of a copy and give it another chance. Maybe it isn't as bad as you remember it... maybe it is worse...

 No I havent. I own the damn horrible Ewok movies and I dont own any type of copy of the HS. I will NEVER watch that again. Carrie sings to the theme for fucks sake. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! DO NOT WANT

I thought Episode I and II were always going to be filler.  And that the only film Lucas really had the backstory sketched out at all was Episode III.  That film was supposed to be the real meat of the story.  But almost most of the film is wasted.  The most important part was making Anakin's turn believable.

The Vader hunting down the Jedi arc, and Rebellion arc should have been in this film but was not.  Only does the very end of the movie set up the original trilogy.  Something like the last 5 minutes or something.  You never really do see badass machine man Vader stalking Jedi and getting into heated lightsaber duels with them.

Only the dark lord novel and its eventual sequels if written set up things to come.  Only the EU sets up the rebellion era and a very poor job at that in the force unleashed.  I actually liked Lucas deleted scenes version in sith better. Padme sets up the rebellion and not palpatine to ensnare the senators.  That was so retarded it was beyond any stupid Lucasian plot i have ever encountered.  Worse than the virgin birth of Anakin.  Worse than midiclorians, and worse than Jar Jar.

We all know he is just making things up as he goes along.  Things could have been more artfully done without drawing attention to the patchwork stitched together plot threads.  If you see the author's hand at work or manipulating the plot to shoehorn things together you are taken out of the story.  You lose suspension of disbelief.  The Lucas of yesteryear was a magician who weaved tales magically without the audience being drawn out of the movie while watching it or being drawn in attention to the CGI and missing the story.

I would'nt say the story or plot is bad in the prequels or the ideas.  But the way of conveying things could have been more clear.  The prequels confuse the hell out of people looking for logic and consistency, when things are done just because it was in the script or was necessary to the plot.  The originals had very simple themes and ideas and did not try to be complex in a socio political way like the prequels in a pretentious way  while drawing people ears to the music and the cgi and saying this is epic feel.

Watching the original films and taken notes should have been done by Lucas or one of his staff prior to the start of making these films.  Nevertheless doing things in reverse is never easy.  The fact that no story exists for the prequels prior to nov 1, 1994 without any hard evidance makes that clear.  He may have had it in his head or hashed out a general outline verbally with Gary Kurtz.  But no outline for films 1-9 appear to be in existance.  And very much appear to be a fabricated myth that Lucas had everything figured out from day one.

The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi changed the original concept of what the prequels were by

A. Making Vader Luke's Father.  The Jedi trio of Lukes father, Ben Kenobi and Vader were replaced by only Ben, and Skywalker and vader were merged.

B. Making Leia the Sister.

C.  Having Luke confront the emperor earlier than he was supposed to.

To me it was more seeing the authors hand at work making the story up as he went than Palpatine being this puppetmaster controlling all these seperate threads.

I mean it totally reminds me of the Wizard of OZ.  "don't pay attention to the man behind the curtain".  Its only Lucas, rofl.