Post by Bones on Dec 7, 2008 14:57:57 GMT -5
After hating it for years, I just watched it again with a fresh new perspective. Although I still don't like it much, it had some good qualities. My opinion now has gone from it being very bad to being very average. If I had to rate it from Terrible, bad, mediocre, average, good, very good and excellent, my rating would be:
Below Average.
So why doesn't it work for me?
Well, with a fresh perspective, I thought it did feel like a Star Wars film to begin with, despite the mediocrity of the background setting as laid out in the opening crawl (What a load of drivel!). All was fine until Jar Jar came in.
Now I'm not going to rant about Binks, as It's not just him, after watching the entire film again I think it's all Gungan that don't help. And that's only one of the problems. I just don't feel the Gungans, they just don't work for me. If you're two Jedi, in an underwater craft, the last thing you want is a screaming Gungan in your ear. That and all the antics on the battlefield By Jar Jar - who only helped by accidentally shooting or causing the droids to be killed. (But hey, at least the other Gungans fought seriously)
Liam Neelson Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman gave good performances on the positive, though with some reservations with the latter. As stoic as Queen Amidala was and was meant to be, sometimes it just felt a little too "forced" at times. Young Jake Lloyd also gave a mediocre performance, despite all the "yippee"'s at everything, I felt it was more because of one dimensional acting and emotion, he only had one emotion range, the others didn't quite just convince.
The positives which I've come to appreciate was 1) all the cameos of previous Star Wars aliens, wookies etc in the background and 2 the pod race, although it was a little stretched. Some of the trading/politics fiasco rescue was a little drawn but the Battle with Darth Maul made up for it, even though I think he could've been a bit more menacing, the pacing helped but in all he could've done with alot more screen time. I still don't think Maul was as "Amazing" as everyone makes out.
They could've been a few less gushy/kiddy feel scenes that could've been done without, some in the build up and during the pod race (Most to do with the aliens in the actual race), and alot of the Jar Jar battle scenes as mentioned. But just as all of the Prequels have their faults - Clone Wars rolling in daises/Christiansen on/off acting, ROTS - Windu's last fight, the dialogue during/after Annakin's fall into lava.
I do feel that it was a bit too heavy on the effects more than the plot itself, things like the ship storage station (Or whatever it's officially called), being taken out by, and let's face it - a fluke from Anakin who, let's face it, shot it accidentally. That said, I thought it was really lazy with the battle droids/gungan fight - green pastures and bright blue sky, it was like watching them fight on the Windows XP default desktop! Even a forest in the background would've made up for the lack of realism of the battlefield landscape.
The best things were probably Qui-Gon Jinn, pod race, final sith/jedi fight. I do feel it was disappointing and not all it could be, it had some good points but was ultimately quite lack-luster. I have come to appreciate it a little more, but I'll still think it would been alot better if it wasn't so heavy on effects over the plot, the Gunguns (Have a completely different race instead) and for the writing to be alot better. It just feel a little clumsy with a few enjoyable bits but could've been much, much more.
Below Average.
So why doesn't it work for me?
Well, with a fresh perspective, I thought it did feel like a Star Wars film to begin with, despite the mediocrity of the background setting as laid out in the opening crawl (What a load of drivel!). All was fine until Jar Jar came in.
Now I'm not going to rant about Binks, as It's not just him, after watching the entire film again I think it's all Gungan that don't help. And that's only one of the problems. I just don't feel the Gungans, they just don't work for me. If you're two Jedi, in an underwater craft, the last thing you want is a screaming Gungan in your ear. That and all the antics on the battlefield By Jar Jar - who only helped by accidentally shooting or causing the droids to be killed. (But hey, at least the other Gungans fought seriously)
Liam Neelson Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman gave good performances on the positive, though with some reservations with the latter. As stoic as Queen Amidala was and was meant to be, sometimes it just felt a little too "forced" at times. Young Jake Lloyd also gave a mediocre performance, despite all the "yippee"'s at everything, I felt it was more because of one dimensional acting and emotion, he only had one emotion range, the others didn't quite just convince.
The positives which I've come to appreciate was 1) all the cameos of previous Star Wars aliens, wookies etc in the background and 2 the pod race, although it was a little stretched. Some of the trading/politics fiasco rescue was a little drawn but the Battle with Darth Maul made up for it, even though I think he could've been a bit more menacing, the pacing helped but in all he could've done with alot more screen time. I still don't think Maul was as "Amazing" as everyone makes out.
They could've been a few less gushy/kiddy feel scenes that could've been done without, some in the build up and during the pod race (Most to do with the aliens in the actual race), and alot of the Jar Jar battle scenes as mentioned. But just as all of the Prequels have their faults - Clone Wars rolling in daises/Christiansen on/off acting, ROTS - Windu's last fight, the dialogue during/after Annakin's fall into lava.
I do feel that it was a bit too heavy on the effects more than the plot itself, things like the ship storage station (Or whatever it's officially called), being taken out by, and let's face it - a fluke from Anakin who, let's face it, shot it accidentally. That said, I thought it was really lazy with the battle droids/gungan fight - green pastures and bright blue sky, it was like watching them fight on the Windows XP default desktop! Even a forest in the background would've made up for the lack of realism of the battlefield landscape.
The best things were probably Qui-Gon Jinn, pod race, final sith/jedi fight. I do feel it was disappointing and not all it could be, it had some good points but was ultimately quite lack-luster. I have come to appreciate it a little more, but I'll still think it would been alot better if it wasn't so heavy on effects over the plot, the Gunguns (Have a completely different race instead) and for the writing to be alot better. It just feel a little clumsy with a few enjoyable bits but could've been much, much more.