I haven't watched the prequels since they were in the theater. Figured I'd rewatch them to see how they've held up.

I remember The Phantom Menace as being pretty decent when I saw it at the movies. However, after watching it yesterday, I'm much less impressed. Lots and lots of actions scenes, and next to no plot or even decent dialogue.

The pod race was WAY too long. It should have been cut down to only a couple minutes (I think it lasted at least five minutes in the movie). In any case, it was just way too long.

Jake couldn't act for shit. It's not really his fault, since he's just a kid. It just pisses me off that Haley Joe Osment was busy making The Sixth Sense at this same time, and he was a great actor. (Also, it's been 13 years since Ep I was in theaters! How the heck did that happen?)

Jar-Jar was bad. If he'd been toned down a bit, I think most people would have been ok with him. Stupid crap like his taking fruit off the table with his tongue was annoying, though.

Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor both did good jobs, but Natalie Portman was kind of bad. Ray Park was awesome as Darth Maul, and I think he only had 5 or 6 lines in the whole movie. Ian McDirmid was very good as Palpatine.

I loved the gungan and droid armies. Very cool tech. Costumes were extremely well done overall, as well.

Again, they could have cut out one destination or some scenes, and added some actual character development to the movie. It just seemed to jump from one action scene to the next, with the exception being the initial half of the Tatooine location.

Overall, the movie did not hold up well. It was flashy and bright, but had little substance.

Quote from: danbuter;560951I haven't watched the prequels since they were in the theater. Figured I'd rewatch them to see how they've held up.

You know what's even more fun than watching the prequels?  Watching the Red Letter Media reviews of the prequels!

Star Wars Reviews

Quote from: danbuter;560951I haven't watched the prequels since they were in the theater. Figured I'd rewatch them to see how they've held up.

The prequels have the exact same flaws as the Special Editions of the original trilogy. The difference is that we haven't seen the non-stupid versions of the prequels, so we have a more difficult time pretending that all of Latter Lucas' idiocies don't exist.

With Stormbringer posting the Redlettermedia link I am absolved from watching these once more to do a Spike's Take review.

Thank yew.

Quote from: Spike;561146With Stormbringer posting the Redlettermedia link I am absolved from watching these once more to do a Spike's Take review.

Thank yew.

:hatsoff:
Any time!

Something I never saw clarified:

In the scene in the theatre where Palpatine is talking to Anakin about Darth Plagueis there's a bit where he turns and looks directly at Anakin and says something about having the ability to create life.

Anakin, the boy that was conceived 'by the force'. He has no father.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;561895Something I never saw clarified:

In the scene in the theatre where Palpatine is talking to Anakin about Darth Plagueis there's a bit where he turns and looks directly at Anakin and says something about having the ability to create life.

Anakin, the boy that was conceived 'by the force'. He has no father.

Things that make you go "Hmm...".

Of course, it was my understanding that there were a lot of unresolved loose ends in the movies that Lucas just kind of waves off. "Nevermind that... look! We released Ep 1 in 3D!"

Qui-Gonn did say Anakin may have been "conceived" by midichlorians during the movie. Seriously.

Quote from: danbuter;561941Qui-Gonn did say Anakin may have been "conceived" by midichlorians during the movie. Seriously.

That's very possible. I really haven't been able to bring myself to watch the movie since. It wasn't a very good movie.

Quote from: danbuter;561941Qui-Gonn did say Anakin may have been "conceived" by midichlorians during the movie. Seriously.

No wonder kid turned into Darth Vader. You'd have daddy issues, too, if your father was a collective of psionic mitochondriae.

Episode II: The Clone Wars was actually much better than I remember. I liked it more than Ep. I, for sure. I think my biggest disappointment in the theater was that the movie was really "The Lead-Up to the Clone Wars" and not the actual Clone Wars, themselves.

Anakin was whiny immediately, which was a mistake. If he'd started out a little more humble and gradually twisted to evil, it would have been more believable. Instead, one of his first scenes is him bitching about how Obi-Wan is keeping him down. Very poor decision on Lucas' part. Hayden was actually a better actor than I remember, but his script just sucked in most places.

Ewan McGregor really stepped into the role of Obi-Wan in this movie. I think he did a fantastic job. His big fight scene in the rain against Jango was well done. Especially considering that neither won, it just ended up a stalemate.

I liked that Jar-Jar was used by Palpatine to gain control of the Senate. Now we know why that goofball was even in Ep. I.

This was not Christopher Lee's greatest work. He did ok, but I could tell that he wasn't comfortable with the role. Also, he just didn't pull off the sinister Sith vibe very well at all, which is surprising, considering how many villain roles he's done so well in.

I like Natalie Portman running around in a tight white spandex outfit with no bra. The scene where she was sitting with Anakin in the spaceship watching the computer message from Obi-Wan was very "interesting".  

I really didn't get Padme getting all excited and horny after Anakin told her he killed a bunch of women and children. Then again, she's in full cougar mode, so who knows?

The big battle at the end was pretty good. A bit deux ex machina, considering just how fast they managed to get the clone army together and ready to fight.

The big lightsaber battle at the end was good, but not great.

The wedding scene was good, though the metal hand looked way too cheesy.
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I think that Return of the Jedi kind of showed that denying love is a really bad idea, and it was one of the big reasons for the downfall of the Jedi. Balance in the Force really means not denying yourself completely, but also not diving in headfirst and using emotions to fuel everything you do. Both Jedi and Sith are wrong.

I never could wrap my head around Anakin and Padme's romace because of Ep 2. I think that Christianson and Portman had pretty much no chemistry, so the endin left me with this Lifetime movie "I married my stalker!" feeling.

Quote from: JamesV;562195I never could wrap my head around Anakin and Padme's romace because of Ep 2. I think that Christianson and Portman had pretty much no chemistry, so the endin left me with this Lifetime movie "I married my stalker!" feeling.

Her line "this is the real world, get back to it" nearly ruined the series for me. Portman, who I ususlly think is a good actress, was awful in this role. The dialogue was cheesy, but then so was the dialogue from the original trilogy (yet it worked in the later's case). Whether the fault was her's or the director's in this case I don't know.

I agree McGregor did a good job here. As much a I love Christopher Lee, he felt miscast to me (which is odd because my understanding is the role was created with him in mind).

All that said, i do remember enjoying this one.

Quote from: danbuter;562134Episode II: The Clone Wars was actually much better than I remember. I liked it more than Ep. I, for sure. I think my biggest disappointment in the theater was that the movie was really "The Lead-Up to the Clone Wars" and not the actual Clone Wars, themselves.

Anakin was whiny immediately, which was a mistake. If he'd started out a little more humble and gradually twisted to evil, it would have been more believable. Instead, one of his first scenes is him bitching about how Obi-Wan is keeping him down. Very poor decision on Lucas' part. Hayden was actually a better actor than I remember, but his script just sucked in most places.

Ewan McGregor really stepped into the role of Obi-Wan in this movie. I think he did a fantastic job. His big fight scene in the rain against Jango was well done. Especially considering that neither won, it just ended up a stalemate.

I liked that Jar-Jar was used by Palpatine to gain control of the Senate. Now we know why that goofball was even in Ep. I.

This was not Christopher Lee's greatest work. He did ok, but I could tell that he wasn't comfortable with the role. Also, he just didn't pull off the sinister Sith vibe very well at all, which is surprising, considering how many villain roles he's done so well in.

I like Natalie Portman running around in a tight white spandex outfit with no bra. The scene where she was sitting with Anakin in the spaceship watching the computer message from Obi-Wan was very "interesting".  

I really didn't get Padme getting all excited and horny after Anakin told her he killed a bunch of women and children. Then again, she's in full cougar mode, so who knows?

The big battle at the end was pretty good. A bit deux ex machina, considering just how fast they managed to get the clone army together and ready to fight.

The big lightsaber battle at the end was good, but not great.

The wedding scene was good, though the metal hand looked way too cheesy.
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I think that Return of the Jedi kind of showed that denying love is a really bad idea, and it was one of the big reasons for the downfall of the Jedi. Balance in the Force really means not denying yourself completely, but also not diving in headfirst and using emotions to fuel everything you do. Both Jedi and Sith are wrong.

This is a detailed and fair analysis of Ep. 2. I wasn't fond of it, though I did think it better than Ep. 1. Like others, I thought Portman and Christiansen had *NO* chemistry, and it did seem a little weird, her supposedly being so much older than him.

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is a decent movie, but I liked Ep. II better.

Once again, Anakin's dreams push him to the Dark Side. His own actions trying to avoid Padme's fate brought about what happened in his dreams, which I always love to see when it comes to prophecies.

Palpatine finally makes his move. He is nearly destroyed by Mace Windu, but Anakin saves the day. Mace was definitely going Dark Side, which was shown by his wanting to kill Palpatine instead of just arresting him. I suspect Mace was always struggling with being a good guy. Anakin saw this and wasted the motherfucker.  :cool:

I hate the world "younglings". Whoever came up with it should be banned from writing forever.

Anakin went full Sith in a hurry. He always had anger issues, but it didn't take a big push to have him running around killing little kids.

Order 66 was handled well, in my opinion. I actually felt sorry for the Jedi, even though I'd only seen them on screen less than five minutes over three movies. That guy leading troops across the bridge and then turning around as he realized he wasn't being followed was a great scene.

I love scout biker armor painted camouflage.

Wookies should not do Tarzan yells. I can't believe I had to write that.

The big battle scenes were well done. The whole panorama lasted only a few minutes, but it really showed the scope of the war.

Anakin choking out Padme was interesting, as he thought she'd completely betrayed him when he saw Obi-Wan in the ship.

The Yoda-Palpatine fight was ok. It was kind of funny watching two old guys fight.

I didn't think the Obi-Wan vs. Anakin fight was all that great, other than the very end. It dragged on, and was more about the scenery than them fighting.

Obi-Wan letting his supposed brother slide into lava and cook was fucking cruel. He's crying about how he loves Anakin, but he wouldn't even pull him away from the fire. At least stick him with your lightsaber so he doesn't cook to death, asshole.

Padme lost the will to live. Bitch.

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!