The STAR WARS MONTHLY MONDAY Thread

[ljacone]

I liked AOTC a lot when it came out, but I don't think it has aged well at all. Like Joe Anthrax said, the romance just sticks out like a sore thumb and Anakin is a whiner the entire way through.

[NewFun#6]

[ljacone]

Scott, Kamino is my favorite planet from the prequels. And Darth Tyrannus/Count Dooku is a badass, but that is the point, yes? </DeathsHead> I mean casting Christopher Lee as a Sith Lord? I mean, sometimes the obvious thing is the RIGHT THING. He had a pretty badass run there, playing Dooku AND Sarumon around pretty much the same time. The clones are cool, too. The scenes on Geneosis or whatever are cool. I like the intrigue stuff as well on Coruscant.

But the scenes on Naboo just drag on and on for me. Hayden Christensen is not a block of wood, he's more like a pile of humus molded into the shape of a young man and given locomotion through some arcane dark art. There's just nothing there. I often describe certain "actresses" as possessing "the vaccuous eyes of a doll," and Christensen is one of the very few men to actually have that dubious trait.

And elements which I liked when the film first came out -- like the scenes on Tatooine with the Sand People -- now seem really amateurish for some reason. Hard to place, especially since I still generally like The Phantom Menace, as I said in the commentary thread, warts and all. Like, I thought the bits with 3PO on Geneosis were funny initially, now I just sort of groan at them (except for the poor Battle Droid who gets 3PO's body -- "I appear to be malfunctioning!").

Still if AOTC is on I will watch it. Just that it starts dragging a lot in some parts.

[Bibliomike]

[quote="NewFun#6] I HATE the Yoda fight. HATE, HATE, HATE it! ... I agree, it's out of character. I always saw Yoda as a teacher, not a warrior. Plus, c'mon -- he's a tiny, wrinkled old muppet! Really, you're gonna turn him into a badass now? [quote]

I kind of agree with you and kinda don't. I do prefer Yoda to be the sage, but I also thought he probably earned a lot of his wisdom the hard way, through battling the bad guys; also, he's never been portrayed as a pacifist, so if the Clone Wars are ravaging the galaxy, he'd probably have to be a warrior sometimes. Where I agree with you, though, is that the AOTC fight kinda flew in the face of "wars not make one great" -- it was clearly designed to be an audience cheer moment, as you call it, and I think Yoda would not approve, either. Yes, fighting is sometimes necessary, but it's always regrettable.

That said, I did like "Ambush" -- the first aired episode of "The Clone Wars," where Yoda is also doing some awesome fighting (although it feels different being against robots, not people) -- and I also give a thumbs-up to his fight against Palpatone in ROTS. What do you guys think of that one?

[Arthur Ratnik]

AOTC probably would have edged out ROTJ in my list if it was the trimmed IMax version which cut out a lot of the awkward Anakin/Padme plot.

[NewFun#6]

[Bibliomike]

The no body = no death point is a good one. Perhaps it just goes to Palpatine's overbearing hubris, that he doesn't worry about the fact that his "little green friend" (a dumb line, but McDiarmid somehow pulls it off) has survived. He may assume someone (it turns out to be Vader) will go on the great Jedi purge as needed after the fact; or just that Yoda is too small, in every sense of the word, to be a threat -- I mean, Palpatine has just transformed the Republic into the Empire in a stroke. What I like about that Ep III fight is that Yoda keeps fighting after it is clear he can't win -- it's got a kind of "fight the good fight even though it's hopeless" Lord of the Rings vibe to it. Plus, the symbolism of Palpatine literally dismantling the Senate (i.e., democracy) in order to fight is cool, if a bit heavy-handed.

The fight in "Ambush" is a lot more of Yoda using his brains in addition to his brawn, so maybe that is the difference.

I don't have many kind things to say about either Christensen or Portman's performance in Ep II, so I will just leave that be. Yes, he's supposed to be awkward and clunky, but Lucas' screenplay forces the development of that romance/creepy obsession so quickly -- Padme hasn't seen Anakin or thought about him in 10 years, and yet she falls for him just like that? Especially when he's gone all moody creepy crushing-from-afar for a decade, and she's not spooked by that? Oh, well, I said I would leave it alone!

[Hair-Metal Hero]

Han and Leia's relationship developed naturally, and from far more earnest performances, Padme and Anakin's love story is 100% shit from the jump, and I think it stems from my biggest beef of the prequels, that is, Attack of the clones should have been the first prequel with something else in between that and Revenge. Baby Anakin is useless story time, its irrelevant who his mother was, and the planet he was from since the Midichlorian subplot gets dropped like a hooker with genital warts after its last mention in Phantom Menace. Qui Gon and Obiwan should have found Anakin as a wayward teen and tried to set the course for his life through his Jedi training. Plus it makes Anakin's obsession with a woman that's at least a decade older than him seriously screwy. But, hey, that's not what we got, so I can bitch all I want, because Lucas thought having Obi and Anakin sharing a laugh over a past adventure at the beginning of Clones makes up for not showing us the two of them actually having that relationship. Ranting aside, I can still watch any of the films at the drop of a hat.

[NewFun#6]

Note to Chris: We need to do an AOTC commentary ASAP.

[Dan North]

Yeah I was totally doing the math for how old Padme must be in AOTC. 9 years isn't that bad. It's not Billy Joel creepy.

[Dan North]

Did you guys see the Stormtroopers' 9 11 video on Youtube?

[JonathanCrites]

[janson]

Don't think it was mentioned yet but for me the best part about AOTC for me is the Obi-Wan Story. We finally get to see him have an adventure by himself for once without having to babysit some snotnosed Skywalker. His fight with Jango on Kamino in the rain is a favorite and is only trumped by the ensuing asteroid space battle. Obvious, nods in that sequence to ESB and thought it was really cool that Boba would use the knowledge from the battle later in life. It made me tolerate baby Boba being in the film.

[Arthur Ratnik]

[NewFun#6]

[ljacone]

Listening to episode #20 now... why am I not surprised that Chris owns a gorilla suit?

Also, in all seriousness, if you guys want to do the Ewok telefilms I will be down for guesting on that.

EDIT: Also, the old Lemur guy is nowhere near as awesome as Scrooge McDuck. If Scrooge McDuck led this clan of hedgehogs then this would have been a half episode at most. Because Scrooge is, as always, tougher than the toughies and smarter than the smarties!

[Bibliomike]

I like you guys and all, but I will not tune in for Ewok telefilms. Just sayin'. (Now, if you did the Holiday Special, that I would listen to. <g>)

[NewFun#6]

[Bibliomike]

[ljacone]

Another installment of The Mighty Sarlacc:

http://www.savagechickens.com/2011/06/t ... rlacc.html