el_pombo wrote:
I have just seen the movie and I think that, by far, this is the best Star Wars movie ever made. I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, but I watched episodes IV, V and VI regularly as a teenager. Episodes I, II and III are an unpleasant memory, as for episode VII... I'll never forgive them for murdering Han Solo (my favorite character).
It's very, very, very, good - but the best? I'd disagree. And I think, solely, because these characters were all only in one movie (the main "heroes"). While others like Luke, Leia, Solo, even Lando, got more development by being in multiple movies.
el_pombo wrote:
The only thing I didn't like in the movie was the forced jokes hammered in the script at the request of Disney - suuuuure... the rebels would never let the destruction of an entire city get in the way of good laugh - but, apart from that, the movie had great rhythm right from the beginning and the ending was absolutely superb! No "happy ending" in the conventional sense, they were all martyrs against oppression, the scene were they were passing the disk to each other while being slayed by Darth Vader, sacrificing themselves for a chance to defeat the empire and end injustice even got me emotional. The final combat was great, with all sorts of things happening, I think that whole scene somewhat hinted a subliminal connection between the empire and nowadays imperialist and military agenda of some countries and between the rebels and the forces that resist them. I loved the ester eggs throughout the movie, at least the ones I caught!
I am with MusicallyInspired on this; I actually had no problem with any of the humor.
MusicallyInspired wrote:
Everyone keeps saying that Disney forced changes. That's simply not true. Lucasfilm made those changes. And I thought the humour was great. Humour's always been in Star Wars, not just since Disney bought Lucasfilm.
Well, to be fair, we don't know if Disney did enforce changes.
But I doubt that they did.
MusicallyInspired wrote:
And honestly, Star Wars is better off without George Lucas (who ALWAYS saw Star Wars as a kiddy series, which is why 80% of the prequels suck).
I think he intended the original (IV, V, VI) to be what they are - a space opera. But as he got older, adopted a metric ton of children, he probably changed what he envisioned for Episodes I, II and III - and wanted to make a film his kids could enjoy.
Because it's hard to say that Star Wars is better off without George Lucas, because without him, there'd be no Star Wars at all.
MusicallyInspired wrote:
To go into more detail, the prequels are a travesty. I enjoyed Ep1 to a certain degree. Felt like a great adventure. I was ok with the much lighter tone since things were only just beginning to go dark anyway. Jar Jar didn't bother me as much as others, but he is a pain. I liked the pod racing. I also think the duel with Darth Maul is the best and most engaging and tense duel (choreography-wise) in the whole saga. None of the other prequel duels are any good at all, though.
See, Episode I is the one I hated the most (of all the Star Wars movies). I think they missed the mark more than several times. Jake Loyd felt extremely stiff (even for a "kid actor" - if Stranger Things has taught me anything, is that there's kids out there that are young, and can act!) I felt that whole connection between him and Natalie Portman had little _no_ chemistry what so ever. It was painful. I also think that Liam should have been Obi-Wan (being older, it would have logically made sense to see the progression from there, to how Ben looks in Episode IV). Should have been Ewan who was Qui-Gon. In the short time Liam was Qui-Gon he over shadowed Ewan's performance by far. And while the lightsabre fight with Darth Maul was amazing; I have never been a fan of the double lightsabre. (Even now, I don't like it - and I was one of the people, before the movie who didn't like Kylo's three prong, but for that I've changed my tune). The podracing was cool - but felt so utterly out of place. (And Episode 1 has one of the WORSE lines in Star Wars history - "I don't care what planet you're from, that's gotta hurt!" ... which is on par with one of the worse lines in movie history, from the X-Men when Storm says, "Do you know what happens to a toad when it's struck by lightning? ..... The same thing as everything else!")
MusicallyInspired wrote:
There is nothing redeemable about Episode 2. What an awful awful movie. The pacing was completely off, the story disjointed, rushed, and ham-fisted. Count Dooku (besides being an incredibly stupid name) was not intimidating and had no build up whatsoever. We were just supposed to accept that he was the new bad guy like he was always there from the beginning. Christopher Lee is fantastic, but Maul should have been the bad guy throughout the prequels. At least for the first two episodes, though. I was way more impressed with him. I'm glad The Clone Wars and Rebels brought him back. And who was Master Sifo-Dyas? He should have been in Episode 1 it would have made way more sense. Then there is the incredibly god-awful dialogue between Padme and Anakin. I don't need to go into that. Actually no, I will. Hayden's acting was sabotaged by George's grubby micro-managing talentless directing fingers telling him how to say and deliver lines in ways that, in my opinion, were so bad that it ruined Hayden's career. Oh, and of course pinball machine Yoda with a lightsaber. *yawn* The great Jedi battle at the end was also underwhelming. There's something about the lightsaber sounds in these movies that just doesn't do it for me. In the original trilogy the clash sounds were very visceral and obvious. In the prequels they're just these random electronic sounds that have not "oopmh" or power to them when their strikes land. Disappointing.
Heh - so hold on - Count Dooku has a incredibly stupid name? But you're okay with "Han Solo"?
I had no problem with Dooku's name (it fit the unusual sounding Star Wars names that a lot of characters had... except, you know, "Luke Skywalker" who has a regular first name, and two English words combined for a last name... no one else has such a simple name...) I do agree, that they killed Darth Maul way too soon (like I think they killed Liam's character too soon). I don't think at the time, they realized what they had on their hands. While I didn't like Darth Maul's dual lightsabre, he looked intimidating, and felt like there was way more to his story that needed to be told. But his death was at least pretty good - Boba Fett, the most feared (and most liked) Bounty Hunter screamed like a girl, when his jet went off and he slammed into Jabba's barge down into the Sarlaac Pit...
It's interesting you liked the Darth Maul fight, but disliked the Yoda one. (Mind you, I hated the Yoda fight; I actually enjoy the original type fight, where the lightsabres were treated like lethal two handed swords, rather than super light sticks)...