Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Chelmsford, Essex, UK
Co-Admin
I'm hardly going to argue,.
Though other than the happy meeting of all the minds behind the creation of the final product that was ESB, it also benefitted from a. not having to set anything up and b. not having to tie anything up. Two things that cause trouble in a lot of films.
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"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
TPM and AOTC war probably the most difficult movies to make,they had to connect the PT to OT, they had to invent a lot of stuff, but still had to make it logically fit in. When making the OT George Lucac had complete freedom to write what ever he wanted, but in the PT he had to make interesting movies, that people will go watch, but still had to explain everything logically(like creation of stormtroopers, why did Anakin turn to the Dark side...) they wore much more challenging from the story point of wiev.
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General G made this sig, but i am going to keep annoying him.
Yeah, I’ve always thought AOTC was a very hard film to make...the hardest...and I think he failed to do a good job unfortunately.
He had to create a believable love story between two young people...
...create engaging drama by making the audience care about the main character, showing how TPM Anakin has started the transformation to where he’s going in ROTS...
...clealry explain a heck of a lot more about the SW universe than TPM did with just talk of a trade dispute...
...and bring the all important element of action, but more importantly, adventure into the mix.
I don't think Lucas did a particularly great job in either of those departments.
On top of that, there was pressure to simply outdo the letdown of TPM.
A huge undertaking…and he bombed.
…but I still love it!
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Last edited by EPIIIBITES on Feb 24th, 2007 at 04:10 AM
Well, I take is as SW. The thing that bothers me most about AOCT in particluar (and the PT in general) is that Lucas did not have any restrictions like he did on the OT. And yet, they fall short miserably to those ones, especially when one starts including the difficulties of getting something like SW made in the 70s and early 80s.
And I still rate ANH second and ROTS third. So why did AOTC and TPM nto even come close to those three? Lack of storytelling abilities on Lucas's part I think... and a yes-man for a producer.
It's pretty clear why AOTC is my second fave, and why Alliance always says it's the best.
I myself am a graphic artist...nothing compared to him (he's pretty freakin amazing actually), and I think we might look for something different in SW movies compared to what other people look for. Ans as far as the graphics and fantasy art go, that movie is out of this world.
I've said it before...I think it's most beautiful movie put to film....One Picasso after another as far as I'm concerned. And that gives an ethereal, other worldly feel more than the other movies I think. In that sense, I think it's an accomplishment.
There's no doubt it's the most visually impressing and appealing movie of the Saga, hell of all movies.
It's just that, it seems like overkill when you put such amazing scenery and artistry next to so much wooden acting, cheesy dialog, corny romance, and drawn out acts.
__________________ Recently Produced and Distributed Young but High-Ranking Political Figure of Royal Ancestry within the Modern American Town Affectionately Referred To as Bel-Air.
Yea. I feel as if the entire PT put visual beauty and special effects above the story of Star Wars. That's why I feel it falls short of the OT.
Now let me get this out there, I like every single Star Wars movie. If someone pulled out a Star Wars movie, I'd watch it. If I'm flipping through the channels and a Star Wars movie is on, I'll watch it. No matter what it is. However, I think ESB is best followed by ANH, ROTS, TPM, ROTJ, and AOTC.
__________________ Thanks to Pittman for the sig
"I don't care if I fall, as long as someone picks up my gun and keeps on shooting." -Ernesto Guevara.
I've been trying to stay out of this as I really don't want to spend the time debating opinion, but I'll try to clarify my position.
To me, all SW movies are defined by crappy acting and sub-par plot. I think the OT is on average better than the PT, but I accept this as part of the saga. I feel most people over-glorify the OT because its societally accepted (in the SW community and out) as a "classic." I think Lucas' flaws as a filmmaker have been apparent throughout the saga.
The PT is different than the OT. One of the great things about the PT is the art. The OT had a great artistic bend to it, but Lucas was limited by technology. He could still create atmosphere (the famous "used-future" that we all know and love) but he couldn't do it anywhere near the scale of the PT.
TPM was a reboot for Lucas in a lot of ways, but artistically the whole saga changed. Lucas was more willing to tolerate the "not-so-used future." Maybe he was just riding the wave of neo-romanticism/surrealism that dominated theatre was born in 1999, but Lucas created visions that the OT couldn't seemingly dream of. He kicked it right of the bat with the swim Ooth Gunga. I also still withhold that the Naboo space battle is the most beautiful space battle in Star Wars.
Yet TPM had its artistic weaknesses. Lucas was trying to make a new foothold and he hadn't yet quite packed down the groud.
Ignoring what he did wrong in TPM, AOTC was a slam dunk artistically. The rolling seascapes of Kamino, the Renaissance villas of Naboo, the twirling spires of Geonosis, even lesser sets like the rings around Geonosis or the rocky monoliths on Tatooine are among the most well developed and significant designs in the Saga. Kamino, imo, is perhaps the most perfectly designed race/culture in the history of film.
Not only is the art of AOTC stunning, but these sequences happen bang-bang-bang, one right after the other thought the entire film. Its just completely inspiring. AND, even better, they all FIT together. It doesn't have the sudden jolty switches of TPM or (especially) ROTS.
I know a lot of people don't watch movies for art direction or cinematography, but I do. NOTHING in the saga compares to the Geonosis sequence, which even outshines Hoth (which was my longstanding favorites since I first saw SW).
Registered: Sep 2006
Location: MANCHESTER - ENGLAND
Its a much needed sequence and very nicely done but the Geonosis sequence is like watching one up from a pixar flick at times
the human characters look like they are out of place on some mad 3D CGI planet...an update of Roger Rabbit or worse Space Jam
PT kids always moan about the ropey Tauntaun in ESB but that was a brief scene......this is CGI overkill for half an hour and id rather have a Ray Harryhausen job than Anakin riding the reek(apt name...........it stinks) its a low in the effects of the whole saga
all it is a ****ing expensive cartoon....the scenery is beautiful but the rest doesnt gel
and its the sequence that pretty much ****ed up any notion of the Jedi being great warriors.........all we get are a bunch of extras running about jumping on and off ships with the odd lightsabre swipe here and there
another major pain in the arse is the use of CGI for the troopers....something i never understood
ok for mass fight sequences but why use them for close ups
theres nothing as bad as the clonetrooper who picks up Obi Wans lightsabre in ROTS but it really is a pointless exercise when
there are dudes all over the world who can knock up Clonetrooper suits in a week with all the colours of the rainbow painted on (Hasbro again making money from the figure collecting fans....the different coloured troopers) im sure it would have saved a lot of time for ILM if they used men in suits and they could have spent the time saved working on making the non human CGI jedi e.g Duckface and Horseface look slightly realistic as opposed to something off a low budget cgi kids show
in my opinion i think ILM only pull of realistic Clonetroopers in one scene in the whole of the 2 movies and its in ROTS........the scene where they tell Bail to "do one" prior to despatching Lucas kid....i have my suspicions that they ARE men in suits...they look too good in comparison
as for the score its just a rehash of the TPM theme with odd bits from the TPM playstation game chucked in which is shocking.its ok to use motiffs but that was just lazy
add the line "excellent" quoted by Yoda which always reminds me of Bill and Ted and the cringeworthy "aggressive negotiations" bit and it all adds to the shit stew.
there ARE a few good things in AOTC
this being one of the few (please log in to view the image)
Feb 22nd, 2007 08:03 PM
Thanks to Pittman for the sig
