6.22.2005
STILL MORE BULLSITH
A good friend wrote to discuss my take on Revenge of the Sith. Mostly to say he was at first surprised, but then wound up agreeing with a lot of what I said. He also poised certain possibilities as to why we had become so disenchanted. Were these three films so much worse than the first three, or did we simply remember them as better due to where we were in life (young) when we first viewed them?
I had to stop and really consider this a goodly amount to try and come to a clear conclusion.
Ultimately, I think my take on the first three is that they peaked with Empire Strikes Back, and a good hard look at Return of the Jedi should leave us not the least surprised at how the "prequels" went. Star Wars (EP IV) was a fluke. A joyful, incredible, dazzling fluke. That's not to say it was a bad film, but it makes no sense that it achieved the success it did. Now Empire had George in a position where he still had to proove he had the goods. He wrote the treatment, and did some work on the final draft of the shooting script, but wrote very little of it in between. Pay attention to the dialouge of that film and tell me it isn't head and shoulders above the others. Empire also had Irvin Kershner as Director - that's right, George was not behind the lense the whole time. Notice how Empire fed our desire for those spectacular battle scenes (and the Hoth Battle is something I could probably watch over and over and never tire of), while still keeping the intimacy of smaller sets for many of the interpersonal scenes. Think of how basic Daghoba was - the area of that planet they showed us is only slightly larger than the average schoolyard playground. The clautrophobia of the rebel base (corridors, low ceiling control rooms) even the final saber fight between Luke and Vader was mostly indoors and in a relatively small space. The focus was on the charachters - they just happend to live in a galaxy far far away. Jedi is where Lucas seems to realize that this baby is his legacy and pulls in a little more control for himself, The result? Ewoks, some of Lukes hokiest lines to date, and surprise! Death Staer Mark II! Except with a gazillion more spaceships and explosions. Cute cloying characters, stiff grade school dialouge and visual overload would be the formula that Lucas kept on simmer for 20 years, and then unloaded it on us as no one could have imagined. They stand as some of the most visually stunning bad movies ever made. I'll keep the original trilogy, but I hold no illusions of the creators abilities as a storyteller. Fair to middling.
go and tell me all about it
I had to stop and really consider this a goodly amount to try and come to a clear conclusion.
Ultimately, I think my take on the first three is that they peaked with Empire Strikes Back, and a good hard look at Return of the Jedi should leave us not the least surprised at how the "prequels" went. Star Wars (EP IV) was a fluke. A joyful, incredible, dazzling fluke. That's not to say it was a bad film, but it makes no sense that it achieved the success it did. Now Empire had George in a position where he still had to proove he had the goods. He wrote the treatment, and did some work on the final draft of the shooting script, but wrote very little of it in between. Pay attention to the dialouge of that film and tell me it isn't head and shoulders above the others. Empire also had Irvin Kershner as Director - that's right, George was not behind the lense the whole time. Notice how Empire fed our desire for those spectacular battle scenes (and the Hoth Battle is something I could probably watch over and over and never tire of), while still keeping the intimacy of smaller sets for many of the interpersonal scenes. Think of how basic Daghoba was - the area of that planet they showed us is only slightly larger than the average schoolyard playground. The clautrophobia of the rebel base (corridors, low ceiling control rooms) even the final saber fight between Luke and Vader was mostly indoors and in a relatively small space. The focus was on the charachters - they just happend to live in a galaxy far far away. Jedi is where Lucas seems to realize that this baby is his legacy and pulls in a little more control for himself, The result? Ewoks, some of Lukes hokiest lines to date, and surprise! Death Staer Mark II! Except with a gazillion more spaceships and explosions. Cute cloying characters, stiff grade school dialouge and visual overload would be the formula that Lucas kept on simmer for 20 years, and then unloaded it on us as no one could have imagined. They stand as some of the most visually stunning bad movies ever made. I'll keep the original trilogy, but I hold no illusions of the creators abilities as a storyteller. Fair to middling.
go and tell me all about it
6.21.2005
AN ANAGRAM FOR SITH
Well, you're all bright kids so I'll assume you figured out the anagram part of this post. That along with yesterday's post give you a very clear idea about how this final installment of the "Star Wars Saga". I'm going to warn you right now, I'm about to talk about Star Wars a great deal. Please bear in mind that, though there once was a time when I pretty much lived/breathed/ate Star Wars, that time has long since past. Puberty is a fine thing.
Still, I enjoy the memories of the original trilogy, and was originally excited about the foray by Lucas to bring the first three "episodes" to the big screen. I can recall downloading the trailer for Phantom Menace (and watching a fairly raucous party fall to total silence when i fired it up for all to see), Things were looking good.
Alas, that was 6 years ago. We've seen Jar Jar, Bad Acting, Good Actors with horrible dialouge, and some very slick computer generated graphics. I recall Dave's review of Phantom Menace: "The second one will make twice the money if they just call it 'The Death of Jar Jar Binks'. I thought that summed it up well.
Still the fanboy in me held out hope that Lucas would get back into the groove and Attack of the Clones would make up for the first's shortcomings. In some ways it did. A decidely reduced role for Mr. Binks was chief among them. Still Other than Ewan McGregor as Obi Wan, and the fun of seeing Sam Jackson with a purple lightsaber, there really is not a lot of nice things to say about EP II, other than it did not suck as bad as EP I. This is not the metric we want to be employing with the stuff of fond childhood memories.
At this point I am pretty much assuming that Lucas is just going through the motions of filmmaking while focusing primarily on all of the technical innovations he has come up with. My expectations for EP III do not go much beyond the anticipation of spending 8 bucks on a ticket. I had heard a few reviews, and was happy to hear that they were positive. I really tried to minimize exposure, so as to not spoil the fun. What was I thinking?
Revenge of the Sith starts out as all the rest, with the music and slow yellow text crawl. I'm pretty sure I could milk an analysis of the various prolouges of the Star Wars films into a full fleged Phd. Dissertaion, so I won't go into them now, but it is my opinion that this was the weakest of the six. We then go directly into a furious battle with our protagonists on a rescue mission, essentially an excuse for an effects laden battle scene and a mild plot device to remind us of some basic dynamics between characters. These dynamics are so simple, that the only people who really need this refresher are those who have not seen the last 2 films. Guess what those would be the same folks who did not go to see this one.
Have I mentioned that this film clocks in at 2:38? That's what it said in the listings anyway. It will be the fastest 2:38 of your life I'm betting. Lucas makes a point to try and draw so many things to closure (or to make other connections to EP IV-VI that are not really needed) that we really don't get to develop any one concept enough to really enjoy them.
The 'Love' scenes are some of the most painfull ever witnessed outside a highschool drama class, and in this case it's almost entirely because of the pathetic writing of George. Seriously his dialouge is intended to simply push a painfully bored cast around a movie I am quite certain he really didn't want to have to make. I think he would have rather baked a cake or something. Anything but make a movie. The Inclusion of Chewbacca was one of the strangest of all. I think it's cool that Chewie and Yoda are down by law and whatnot, but WHY???? Why deid it have to be Chewbacca How the fuck did he go from an apparent leadership position of wookiedom, to first mate on a low rent smuggler's ship? It's this desire to connect everything and everyone that really made this last film exasperating.
Key to this whole Movie is of course the transforamtion of angry youth Annikan Skywalker into heart of stone bad mother Darth Vader. This too is less than gratifying. when you stop and look at all the actions, and all of Annikan's reactions, you basically come to the conclusion that this kid is a spoiled brat who probably needed Mace Windu to get TNT Superfly on him. The logical lapses are so fast and constant that you start to just ignore them. One saving grace - the final transformation was satisfying. But George messed that up with a single word. The new smug sci-fi nerd catch phrase for 2005 is "Nooooooooooooooooooo!" Truly sad.
Oh but at least the effects were good right? Well yes and no. The attention of detail was definitely nice. However just because you render farm can put 60 gazillion ships / explosions / lasers / whatever in a scene does not mean you should. Dramamine would not be out of the question for some viewers. Tip to Lucas, but some of the computers away and hire a few model makers if you ever want to do a sci-fi epic again. Trust me. Oh and a screenwriter, you definitely could use a good screenwriter. Also see if Irvin Kershner is in the rolodex. That guy knows how to direct one of these things.
So it's a disjointed review, but it mates up nicely with the thrown together crap that Lucas has unleashed on the masses these past few years. George, your reputation as a master of classic storytelling, mythmaking, and cross genre influences is now officially destroyed. Kudos.
go and tell me all about it
Still, I enjoy the memories of the original trilogy, and was originally excited about the foray by Lucas to bring the first three "episodes" to the big screen. I can recall downloading the trailer for Phantom Menace (and watching a fairly raucous party fall to total silence when i fired it up for all to see), Things were looking good.
Alas, that was 6 years ago. We've seen Jar Jar, Bad Acting, Good Actors with horrible dialouge, and some very slick computer generated graphics. I recall Dave's review of Phantom Menace: "The second one will make twice the money if they just call it 'The Death of Jar Jar Binks'. I thought that summed it up well.
Still the fanboy in me held out hope that Lucas would get back into the groove and Attack of the Clones would make up for the first's shortcomings. In some ways it did. A decidely reduced role for Mr. Binks was chief among them. Still Other than Ewan McGregor as Obi Wan, and the fun of seeing Sam Jackson with a purple lightsaber, there really is not a lot of nice things to say about EP II, other than it did not suck as bad as EP I. This is not the metric we want to be employing with the stuff of fond childhood memories.
At this point I am pretty much assuming that Lucas is just going through the motions of filmmaking while focusing primarily on all of the technical innovations he has come up with. My expectations for EP III do not go much beyond the anticipation of spending 8 bucks on a ticket. I had heard a few reviews, and was happy to hear that they were positive. I really tried to minimize exposure, so as to not spoil the fun. What was I thinking?
Revenge of the Sith starts out as all the rest, with the music and slow yellow text crawl. I'm pretty sure I could milk an analysis of the various prolouges of the Star Wars films into a full fleged Phd. Dissertaion, so I won't go into them now, but it is my opinion that this was the weakest of the six. We then go directly into a furious battle with our protagonists on a rescue mission, essentially an excuse for an effects laden battle scene and a mild plot device to remind us of some basic dynamics between characters. These dynamics are so simple, that the only people who really need this refresher are those who have not seen the last 2 films. Guess what those would be the same folks who did not go to see this one.
Have I mentioned that this film clocks in at 2:38? That's what it said in the listings anyway. It will be the fastest 2:38 of your life I'm betting. Lucas makes a point to try and draw so many things to closure (or to make other connections to EP IV-VI that are not really needed) that we really don't get to develop any one concept enough to really enjoy them.
The 'Love' scenes are some of the most painfull ever witnessed outside a highschool drama class, and in this case it's almost entirely because of the pathetic writing of George. Seriously his dialouge is intended to simply push a painfully bored cast around a movie I am quite certain he really didn't want to have to make. I think he would have rather baked a cake or something. Anything but make a movie. The Inclusion of Chewbacca was one of the strangest of all. I think it's cool that Chewie and Yoda are down by law and whatnot, but WHY???? Why deid it have to be Chewbacca How the fuck did he go from an apparent leadership position of wookiedom, to first mate on a low rent smuggler's ship? It's this desire to connect everything and everyone that really made this last film exasperating.
Key to this whole Movie is of course the transforamtion of angry youth Annikan Skywalker into heart of stone bad mother Darth Vader. This too is less than gratifying. when you stop and look at all the actions, and all of Annikan's reactions, you basically come to the conclusion that this kid is a spoiled brat who probably needed Mace Windu to get TNT Superfly on him. The logical lapses are so fast and constant that you start to just ignore them. One saving grace - the final transformation was satisfying. But George messed that up with a single word. The new smug sci-fi nerd catch phrase for 2005 is "Nooooooooooooooooooo!" Truly sad.
Oh but at least the effects were good right? Well yes and no. The attention of detail was definitely nice. However just because you render farm can put 60 gazillion ships / explosions / lasers / whatever in a scene does not mean you should. Dramamine would not be out of the question for some viewers. Tip to Lucas, but some of the computers away and hire a few model makers if you ever want to do a sci-fi epic again. Trust me. Oh and a screenwriter, you definitely could use a good screenwriter. Also see if Irvin Kershner is in the rolodex. That guy knows how to direct one of these things.
So it's a disjointed review, but it mates up nicely with the thrown together crap that Lucas has unleashed on the masses these past few years. George, your reputation as a master of classic storytelling, mythmaking, and cross genre influences is now officially destroyed. Kudos.
go and tell me all about it
6.20.2005
BLOGGING 101
...in honor of this being my 101st post.
Thanks for suffering through another long hiatus of yours truly at the keyboard. I'm back now, and totally revamped with some hype new bling and all the hot moves the kids are talking about.
Yeah.
Time for a random bulleted list of shit. I know you love it, because bulleted lists are easier to find new ideas, as opposed to those meandering paragraphs your English teachers used to get all lathered up about.
go and tell me all about it
Thanks for suffering through another long hiatus of yours truly at the keyboard. I'm back now, and totally revamped with some hype new bling and all the hot moves the kids are talking about.
Yeah.
Time for a random bulleted list of shit. I know you love it, because bulleted lists are easier to find new ideas, as opposed to those meandering paragraphs your English teachers used to get all lathered up about.
- I finally saw "Star Wars: Episode Thank God It's Finally Over, and I Can Get on With My Life Without George Lucas Ever Having to Fuck With it Again". While most reviews were very positive, I have to say that those reviews were almost universally comparing it to the previous two travesties. On that scale the latest was indeed an improvement. However if we review it in the scope of Film as a whole, or even just Sci-Fi films, our review would have to conclude that it is one of the shiniest pieces of shit to hit the cineplex. Reruns of Buck Rogers are like fucking Mmasterpiece Theater compared to the latest effort from Lucas.
- Where film lets you down, music may be able to pick you up. The latest efforts from Beck, Mike Doughty (formerly of Soul Coughing), and Gorilaz, are all quite refreshing in their own ways.
- Part of the reason for the light posting did actually involve me not being near a computer (which is a very very rare occurence in my life these days). I headed to Glenwood Minnesota for a week at Pellican Lake, with some of the fine folks I know via the interweb. It was the third get together for the group, and the second I've attended. fantastically refreshing, and relaxing. Ann decided to find out exactly who the hell I've been talking to on the PC for the last few years, and amazingly has not revoked my on-line privilages. I suspect that the fact she spent 5+ years with the Red Masquers helped immensely. Although I have to admidt, I don't ever remember anyone at a cast party blowing fireballs.
- If televised news is your primary source of information about what goes on in the world, please let me assure you that you probably haven't a clue about much of anything. Of course, if you are reading this blog, chances are good that you don't watch TV news. If you do watch, stop it. You are so much better than that.
- Well those are a few things popping in and out of my mind lately, hopefully I'll tray and flesh some of them out soon.
go and tell me all about it
