I decided to watch ROTS again today and my feelings for it have not changed and never will.
It is no secret that I am one of the few supporters of the prequels still left who doesn't have mustard stains on his shirt and one eye looking out the window and one at the keyboard. It's ketchup, ketchup on my shirt.. I have since found out it's silly to eat pizza with a spoon. But anyway.. stay on target!..
I have on numerous occasions posted in defense of the prequels, George and Star Wars in general, way beyond the narrow minded dogmatic view of the usually accepted love for A New Hope and ESB and under no circumstances any other!
Now, I remember when Attack of the Clones came out. Everyone was praising it, saying that it was a huge leap from The Phantom Menace and that it was basically an excellent movie. (it was), but sure enough as the hype slowed down it started to be picked apart mercilessly. Sure, there are a number of things that could of been improved in AOTC but like with the insane focus on Jar-Jar because, well, there was too much of an insane focus on him in TPM people felt like trashing it because it didn't live up to what they thought it should be.
What happened with the prequels and it's tendency to be trashed in 'civilized conversation' dates back before The Phantom Menace came out. It had been sixteen years since ROTJ had wrapped up the OT; Star Wars had escalated to such a fever pitch point of fandom that it had become the holy grail of cinematic enjoyment and escapism. There was nothing beyond Star Wars, it propelled the fantasy genre into before un-thought of heights. We would eventually see companies like New Line fund huge amounts for the LOTR film adaptations, and of course the huge Super hero/fantasy market is big bucks now. Star Wars showed us what was possible. It had moved way beyond being just a trilogy of movies. It had become geekism for the mainstream.
When that Phantom Menace trailer was released that was it. It was a huge event, Star Wars was back and considering what six hours of Star Wars had done to two generations of children and adults and the thought of actually baring witness to the next two hours in the series, fully updated and telling the origin story of one Anakin Skywalker and company was rightly so, a big fucking deal.
Fast forward past the release and hysteria over TMP and onto the well documented criticism. I have covered this before but lets have a look at some of the major gripes:
The Acting:
It was agreed among those who know about these sort of things 'hmm..', that the acting was pretty dire across the board, with most of the criticism being leveled at Jake Lloyd and of course Lucas who was clearly out of touch and unable to write for, or direct actors. Now, I tend to agree that the "Yippie's" and other assorted lines were eyebrow raising to say the least. Jake Lloyd was no Hayley Joel either and I am not going to try and spring the trap of some of the dubious deliveries in TPM, but it is indicative of how far people take things. Ok, Lloyd wasn't that good. But he wasn't as bad as people make him out to be. Likewise, Natalie Portman didn't do anything wrong in her performance but people ragged on it because it wasn't totally incredible. And this is the problem. This movie was under intense scrutiny. Everything was picked apart with a fine geek comb. Perfection or nothing.
In fact I thought Ewan McGreggor and especially Liam Neeson acquitted themselves very well, but hey, it is easier to moan.
The Writing:
Next on the hit-list was Lucas and his script. Now, again, I am not going to defend the script of TPM too intensely because it was nowhere near as good as it could of been. You're looking at about 25 minutes of TPM that could of been culled and changed for a more darker sinister foreshadowing of what was to come. Lucas was trying to paint a picture of a bright and innocent Galaxy before it was plunged into the darkness he knew we would be making our way into in the next two movies. Sidious, the Trade Federation and Maul are foreign elements in this Galaxy. They are the exception invading the idyllic paradise of Naboo and the Free Republic. In AOTC and ROTS the darker undertones would become the rule, not the exception. The problem with this of course was the movie was badly paced. The Trade Federation has a trade embargo on Naboo? W-t-f? hardly the most exciting of plot points to be going with. Of course for those who are paying attention the foreshadowing is actually done very well here and the manipulation of Palpatine is presented very subtlety. In this respect Lucas succeed, but the balance didn't pay off between such political intrigue, the Sith arising from the ashes and the beginning of the end juxtaposed with this fun loving comedy romp.
Jar Jar Binks:
Ah, yes.. I know you were getting restless for me to mention him. The number one gripe against The Phantom Menace. Now, what can you say about this thing that waltzed onto our screens, pulled the wide-eyed child from our hearts and raped it every time he dared utter a line or trip over something. Another classic overreaction by everyone of course.
Jar Jar was a bad call. He didn't work out and too much screen time was dedicated to him. I'm not going to contest this. Well, a little perhaps..
Jar Jar has spawned such a reputation of disdain amongst fans that if you want to understand the dismissal of any of the prequels as great movies in their own right then you should probably spend a moment looking at the media and fan reaction of one messa Jar Jar Binks. After that kick-ass trailer of TPM that got kids from five to fifty swishing their imaginary light sabers around the house like the lunatics they are. (sorry about that lamp I broke mum), this utterly un-cool gangly anthropomorphized platypus was wasting valuable time that could be far better spent watching Darth Maul massacre things. Never mind that he was a landmark in technical achievement and has like so many of Lucas's creations become a prototype of what can be done in films, he was basically annoying. Fans wanted action, suspense, light sabers, X-Wings, explosions.. 'Impressive!.. Most impressive!'
Come on, George. Anything but this!
Lucas clearly thought he had anticipated what Star Wars meant to people every time he saw his bank balance but it went even beyond that. People refused to accept that Star Wars was a kids movie. Something that Lucas has never forgotten. Now, that is not a full excuse and I won't pawn it off as one. Truth is Jar Jar was too much of a klutz. I am still against his eradication from Star Wars though because the character did have potential (quiet at the back!). He should of had less screen time and had a chance to prove himself in the final battle instead of accidentally killing some droids by being even more of a klutz. It just went too far. Hey, a bit of slapstick is fine by me but if that's the only dimension to the character then it will leave a sugary taste in your mouth by the end when you're still waiting for the main course.
Now, TPM is not a bad movie. It's just not perfect. And people wanted perfection. Lucas was under the microscope and through a few bad decisions and some mistakes along the way he ended up getting crucified for it. Many of the criticisms's were valid but many were not. In fact it just escalated from there, people started to actively find problems with everything and put the movie up against some impossible scale that it never had a hope of reaching. The OT has it's fair share of dubious moments, acting and outright stupidity in parts but it's brushed aside and in fact applauded because, well, ah, nostalgia!
AOTC was next. Now, I was really excited about this. This was the middle chapter, and it was going to be great. Again, everyone saw the trailer and the majority agreed that this was it, AOTC was going to be awesome and all will be forgiven.
Lucas had a vision of course and he had always intended to go in this direction, but the reaction of TPM was heard over at Lucas film. Jar Jar was drastically cut back and the pacing had been ramped up and refined.
I remember all the reactions on the message boards. For the most part they were very positive. At first..
Now for me, AOTC is an excellent movie. I do love it. Again, I have my personal gripes and things I would of liked done differently but overall I was very happy with it and it fits an insane amount into those two hours.
Yes, some of the line delivery is cheesy and there could be an argument for saying Hayden was a tad on the whiny side.
Actually, let us talk a bit about Hayden here for a moment. Stepping into the shoes of Darth Vader and portraying the fall we have imagined in our minds seeing ever since the first time we saw TESB is no small feat. You're going to hate me for this but I don't think Hayden did badly. The Blue Screen work took it's toll on the actors as is well documented and the lack of reference points did translate into some stilted performances for all but I thought he was more than adequate if not mind-blowing as everyone and their pet cat demanded from every nano-second of Star Wars. And he would yet improve drastically in ROTS.
And the Blue Screen work, yet another whinge point the haters want to jump on the bandwagon with. "Too much bloooo screen!"
Look, The prequels are some of the most technically impressive movies ever made. The CGI *IS* mind-blowing. So even when you get an aspect that is totally kick-ass it is still switched up by the "fans" and taken to extreme levels of whining and bitching. This went so far as to even saturate the Academy when they didn't even nominate ROTS for a SFX award while King Kong and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe would both be nominated due to being part of the Hollywood machine instead of one of George's crazy indie blockbusters that happened to blow both totally out of the water.
It has become cool to hate the prequels. If you like the prequels then there must be something wrong with you. Now, I'm sure there are a lot of things wrong with me but it's not because I like the Prequels. Trust me.
The Empire Strikes Back is still my favorite movie of the Star Wars series, but I see it as more of an all encompassing epic, and I have things I am not happy with and things I love in all six movies. George has made his fair share of mistakes but he does not deserve some of the criticism he gets.
I'm not against hearing or discussing the valid criticism that can be leveled against the prequels, but people seem to be trying to out-do themselves with some of the retarded shit they come up with these days. The addition of Hayden in ROTJ for instance. It makes PERFECT literary sense, yet everyone collectively bitched their socks off about it. Then.. the kicker: After years of moaning about having the un-fucked with OT - as it is so eloquently put - released, it actually is released and again people are bitching that Lucas is only doing it for the money, blah, blah, blah... Umm, he released them because everyone demanded he did.
A lot of it is silliness, and it has become the trendy thing to do since TPM. The prequels are not perfect, but they are being weighed on the scale of what everyone expected them to be. It's a scale that is impossible to balance. And while they may not be perfect they are still Star Wars. Geroge created this universe, and we should be thankful for it. The prequels on a bad day still decimate most of what Hollywood churn out.
Now, I did intend to write up a detailed synopsis and my thoughts on ROTS but I have *glances above* gone on something of a tangent.
I think I have written enough for just now so expect that ROTS review thingy sometime soon.
~Menty.
