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Attack of the Clones

I haven't been to a movie theatre in quite awhile. With 30K tied up in Home Theatre equipment what's the point? Crappy picture and terrible sound I think I'll pass.

But wait! What's this in the local paper? They've just opened up a new digital theatre just thirty minutes from my house and STAR WARS II is the feature presentation. Some buddy pinch me, this can't be happening.

What to do, what to do, ARE YOU KIDDING??? I love Star wars. This is actually a no brainier.

Fast forward three minutes later. I'm on the computer printing out two tickets for the next show (Smart move) Next drive to and arrive at said theatre 1 1/2 hours early (real smart move)

The lines were just starting to form for the Sunday mourning matinee. By the time the box opened an hour later the line was clear out of the parking lot.

The doors open with twenty minutes till Showtime. Everyone is jockeying for position, but I'm no rookie, I head straight for the center of the theatre at a rapidly accelerated pace. I position myself just slightly back of dead center and perfectly centered left to right. (YOU KNOW THE SWEET SPOT!) In my opinion I was now sitting in the best seat in the house (Phase two accomplished).

The lights dim and here come the digital trailers. THE MATRIX II, AUSTIN POWERS III and MEN IN BLACK II. That in itself was nearly worth the price of admission.

The next three hours were shear ecstasy. I was in total awe. A crystal clear digital video picture with fairly decent digital sound, what a concept. All I could think was " I got to get me one of these!!"

Finally a theatre I can enjoy a movie in. This will probably be the only theatre I ever go to until a few more digital screens pop up around my hometown.

I conclude by saying check out one of these theatres at any cost, it will be well worth the time and effort invested.

That's all for now and may the Shwarts be with you!!!
128x128glen
jbweaver
33 posts
 
I didn't manage to see the film in a digital theater but agree with Sugarbrie and Drubin about its artistic merits and with their specific criticisms. To this, I would add the following.

The earlier movies (IV-VI) reworked many elements from other films into a compelling science fiction adventure. From westerns there was the starkly drawn dichotomy between good and evil. Darth Vader in particular personified evil. The Emperor wasn't bad either. Darth Mal (I) didn't cut it nor do the other Dark Side figures in I and II. Irvin Kerschner, who thankfully directed "The Empire Strikes Back" in place of Lucas, did a great job on creating an ominous tone in that film to capitalize on the good/evil theme. Again, missing here.

Politics. There is unexploited potential for byzantine political machinations given that the Republic is being destroyed from within. While this might require some greater clarity about how the Republic functions, it could produce a much more gripping story that viewers felt more invested in (see previous point). Also, a more clearly defined set of questions about what is going on, who is aligned with whom, etc., would help set the stage for III. Doesn't Lucas watch old political films--or read the newspaper? I was very disappointed in I on this same point--though at least II is less of a rehash of IV-VI.

Final thoughts. It would seem the central issue in I and II should be the relationship between Obi-wan and Anakin. His turn to the Dark Side is the starting point for IV-VI. And Anakin later kills Obi-Wan (IV). Yet, their relationship is reduced to that of a rebellious teenager and overbearing father. And the dialogue for the "poignant" love story. . . .
ben_campbell
1,169 posts
 
Jb-depends what you want to see personaly you've confused me with your argument-you say the simplistic Western take for good and evil works for the first three movies( and you should note that the only dichotimy is within Anakin)-ok but now you seem to expect some big political complex plot for the new movies-er how come?
I thought Darth Maul was an excellent bad guy- Christopher Lee does okay but again you are competing with an iconic figure in Darth Vader.
And anyway isn't Vader meant to be the personification of evil?-you'd hardly expect anyone else to be as powerful and that is the whole tone of these new movies,it all leads up to Vader....
As regards Anakin's development there is a much more complex struggle going on here (and much more than you simplisticly state again depends what you want to see..) than any of the previous movies and again you contradict yourself-simplistic is good for the first 3 movies but not here.
Again the full story hasn't been told between Vader and Kenobi-again the known ending is getting in the way.
Finally I think part of the problem is indeed the fact that Star Wars was 25 years ago,it was a special but very simple movie-plot wise there's been nothing interesting in the movies since Vader was revealed as Luke's father.
Times have changed,Lucas was never going to live up to the expectation these movies were going to have,people seem to have gotten hyper-critical over these movies too forgetting that all the previous movies short comings.
The dialogue in these movies has always been duff as Ford himself said to Lucas "George you can write this s*&^ but you sure can't say it"........
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
Note the actors getting most of the praise are all the British actors, not the Americans. Roger Ebert has commented on this. The British school of acting is to work from the outside in. The British actors are able to invent and force a persona on a character they are going to play. The American school works from the inside out. Since Lucas has not given the characters much of a soul or motivation, the American actors are totally lost; there is no character to develop; where as the British actors know basically what there character is (bad, good, evil, naive, strong, weak, etc), so they just invent a character.

This is one of the reasons why the producers of the Harry Potter movie insisted on having an entire cast of British and British trained actors.

ben_campbell
1,169 posts
 
Sugarbrie,
Really with all due respect what tosh,that's such a wild generalisation it's not true,the main difference is that Lucas has went for experienced British actors for specific older parts,to a large extent he's went for unknowns for the younger parts who are mainly American it's hardly fair to compare McGregor with the young guy who plays Anakin,who does a decent job but not much more I admit.
Logically actually this makes sense since McGregor has got to try to become Sir Alec Guiness,he needs a bit of weight there and obviously he's went mainly for lesser known actors for the younger parts so not to detract from the characters-also Anakin has only got to get the black suit on later,not become Jimmy Stewart.
As for your Harry Potter analogy that's off too since the author Ms Rowling (she's Scottish)only allowed the book to be filmed if they stayed true to the story which is set in England and for British actors to play the part,since she is one of the UK's richest women-she didn't need the cash from the movie-quite simply if the studio didn't agree the movie would never have been made.
She certainly didn't want her movie Americanised but that wasn't to do with the quality of American actors rather she wanted the movie to stay very close to the book,most authors even the extremely rich ones do not usually fight to keep their vision uncompromised.
I agree to some extent that historically(British actors had the stage tradition a lot of Americans didn't) that may have been the case but surely nowadays the acting coaching,experience etc. must be closer....
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
Ben, I am just passing on Roger Ebert's comments from the Sun Times. Roger comments have no relation at all as to why Lucas chose which actors. It had to do with why in Roger's opinion it seemed that the British schooled actors faired very well as far as their performance in the picture; while the American schooled actors generally came across flat.

To repeat: The american school teaches actors to feel like the character feels inside; and to try to become them and project that out. Not given much to feel inside to project out by the script and the direction, they all generally seemed flat and wooden.

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