hagren

While I like(d) the books when I was younger, the first three were inconsistently directed, there was simply no tangible coherence in editing and pacing in my opinion. Some scenes dragged on, others flew by, combining redudant exposition and flash. This was somewhat repaired with GoF and OoP, but I found Ep. I and III far more watchable with the exception of everything before the Coruscant crash landing in RotS and, naturally, almost the whole Tatooine scene in TPM (Let alone Jar Jar). The abhorrent acting from virtually every child and some weird design decisions made them (HPM) even worse, not to mention the peculiar colouring differences. Now Episode II (AotC), that's another story, since not only is it far lousily paced than any of the above mentioned films, it's also completely unnecessary and uninteresting. I cringed in way more instances during the first three HP movies than while watching Episode III however. Also, there are some truly exhilarating scenes in both Ep. 1 and III, and I can't say the same about the discussed HP flicks.

Revenge of the Sith :P Imho the battle- (Utapau, Kashyyk, Mustafar) and dramatic scenes (Anakin finally turning to the dark side and betraying everyone he knew, Palpatine playing him like a violin, the slaughter of the Jedi and of course, Anakin burning to crisp) made it worthwile, as well as the acting talent of McDiarmid (only as Palpatine), the character of Obi-Wan and the art design. I never expected solid writing or tight direction from Lucas (Which lack of was perfectly demonstrated with the very first scene up until Dooku's death), but it was leaps and bounds over Clone Wars or Attack of the Clones, mostly enjoyable and felt pretty epic at places (Episode I, on a side note, was saved by some top-notch battle sequences, Jinn and the wonderful sets). At the very least, it wasn't as embarrassingly realised as the Potter movies. Plus, Order 66 is one of the most powerful scenes in the entire saga- and it's just one of the high points in RotS.

 

These varying viewpoints remind me of my impression of the Spiderman films- sometimes I'm entertained by them, other times I'm in terrible, awful agony by all the cheese. Depends on the mood, I guess.

I knew that one, saw it linked some time ago at EA's twitter- Quite silly, but moderately funny.

Star Wars is one of those things (like the work of Gerry Anderson and Filmation Cartoons) that I enjoyed greatly as a child but seems utter tosh now.

Ironically, I wasn't a great fan of SW before, only now am I captivated by the innovation of the original- and the entertainment value by Ep. I and especially III. All of them are indeed flawed to various degrees, so I can relate to disliking them.

 

Venkman: Thank you. Imho Ep. I and III aren't remotely as bad as such atrocities like the Wickerman (remake). But as said, I'm actually not expecting much from the genre. "Duel of the fates" is indeed a great piece of music, and unusual for him.

Meh, I found I and III entertaining despite their many shortcomings, especially due to the music, visuals and some story elements/scarce acting talent (And of course, the action). I wouldn't say that Ep. VI is bad either- Sure, the plot seems to be filled with events that we already had similarly in Ep IV and V, and the Ewoks should have never been put in the film, but it's still an ok movie imho.

 

Now Episode II, on the other hand...one of the worst, most unnecessary films of all time.

That's pretty fucked-up right there, isn't it (Or clichéd, from a certain point of view)? On the other hand, I am always glad for the omission of adolescent characters :P Or were you just pulling my leg? ;)

Testosterohne: Yes. It may be a bit inflated since I was really positively surprised how satisfying it felt after the tremendous disappointment of Episode II. It could go down after a second viewing, but it's at least in the "above 7.5."-range for me. I was sufficiently entertained and perfectly immersed into the world of Star Wars, and there's not much more I expect from this genre. It's no The Empire Strikes Back but hey, that's a movie in the 8.5-9.0 range. However, numbers can be tricky, so nevermind them and just focus on what I wrote :P

 

Mark: Hm. I'd say the original trilogy is pretty consistent in quality (except the menace that is the Ewok race) from episode to episode, but I like Ep. V the best, simply because of the faster cuts, more diversity, the Imperial march and of course the Hoth battle scene which is still awe-inspiring. Ep. IV balances this out by sheer innovation and originality, and VI, finally, by Luke's maturity and Vader's longer presence. I really like them all equally, but for pure entertainment value or movie gatherings I'd pick TEsb or RotJ over AnH any day, since the Deathstar scenes were dragged on for far too long for my tastes.

 

With the prequel trilogy, I definitely disagree- Ep. I is indeed better than many give it credit for, and somewhat close to the enjoyment level of Ep III, that I second, but there's no way that the latter is worse than the sneeze- and cheese-fest of Ep. II (See my brief review above). Maybe I had high or uneducated expectations for AotC, but it had almost nothing worthwile in my opinion and was terribly executed. For almost the complete runtime of the film I looked at the screen with a sunken heart and bored out of my skull. Heck, even the adaptation comic was better. The audacity!

Hahaha, yeah, the "Nooooo!" part was really weak and cringe-inducing, as was Palpatine shouting "Unlimited...power!!!" and hissing like some kind of pervert all the time.

 

Oh and it was "Order 66" :)

Revenge of the Sith exceeded my expectations and had extramerital children with them. I can't believe it was made by the same man who released that godawful excuse of a film that is Attack of the Clones- The setpieces were mesmerizing, the battle scenes exhilarating, the touchier moments less painful and in general just far more professionally directed, conceived and executed. Even such a childish character as General Grievous could redeem itself by the 4-handed-swashbucklery of Doom, only Palpatine was as ludicrously silly as ever. I have almost no quarrels with the film because it felt so much like Star Wars should, with the sensation of adventurous myths and wonder- Vader shouting "No!", for example, was lame, as felt the very first space battle scene, which came off as passive and flawed, and of course, some cheese remains, but hey, Star Wars is not avantgarde after all- a visually pleasing, well realised and epic fantasy thrillride however it was, and truly a reasonable and interesting prequel, thus:

 

8.2/10

 

Addendum: Seeing the clones in action was something I've wished for since first hearing of them. Yay! I almost cried when they betrayed the Jedi...

 

I hope I'm not alone with this :P

Attack of the Clones was possibly one of the worst and most tepid films I've ever seen in my life- not only was it utterly and terribly boring, the plot insignificant, the dialogue more often than not stilted and Anakin's sudden and inexplainable change in mannerisms (without even a morsel of character development in this chapter) appaling, they also managed not to live up to the title twice:

 

First off, there were almost no space battles (Fett throwing sonic grenades was one of the very, disappointingly few ups of the movie), but there were even only brief and quickly paced/cut confrontation scenes between the droids and the Clone army that was meant to attack...something. And the pod sequence on Coruscant? My most loathed scene of any Star Wars film, hands down. There were so many cringe-inducing scenes in general my brain just couldn't catch up with all the downsides of the film- Christensen's awful acting, Boba's clichéd and unfitting heritage, the nauseating and cheesy romantic sequences, Lucas' poor and limited knowledge of politics, the yawn-inducing Jedi council, heck, even the light saber duel at the end was pathetic as well as some new, ugly designs. And how can the force be clouded? Jeez...

 

This film was so abysmal, so forgettable, that not even Lee's presence, the clone army, Portman's perky boobs (:P) or the awe-inspiring Geonosian setpieces could bring this stinker to the light side of the force.

 

1/10

 

I can only hope Revenge of the Sith will be better...kind of ironic that despite Episode's 1 silliness, it was a much better executed and conceived movie, let alone a far more enjoyable one. I now feel ashamed of owning Ep. 2...

Yeah, I can imagine how the fans reacted to the films sillier moments, which I despise as well (Except the battle droids stupidity, that always cracks me up). But the visuals and some stronger acting/fighting moments balance it out for me. I heard about the Phatom edit before, is it available in good quality?

The Phantom Menace wasn't nearly as dreadful as I have feared, mostly due to the stunning Italy-inspired Naboo setpieces, the beauti- and tasteful wardrobes, the sense of royalty both emitted by Queen Amidala and her kingdom, as well as all the new toys and the acting skills of Neeson and McGregor combined. Sure, Anakin was a tad annoying at times, Jar-Jar held the significance of an extra and almost the entire Tatooine scene was far too silly and juvenile for my tastes, but the new, colourful, shiny and stylish look made it quite epical and enjoyable- even though, unsurprisingly, this film could not hold a candle to the original trilogy when it comes to innovation- Episodes IV, V and VI still compare well to modern sci-fi films, and that's not a small accomplisment for a 30-year old franchise, although, to be frank, the computer generated imagery of Ep. 1 hasn't aged much either- especially the droids looked very realistic. Even more puzzling why Yoda looked far worse than the puppet from Ep. V and VI.

 

My main gripe with the film, apart from its blatancy and silliness is that even though it's set before Ep IV, V and VI, the universe isn't much clearer to me, and I probably have more questions than I had before, mostly regarding everything Jedi, Sith, and politics (Is there any site that explains the political and economical situation of that galaxy?). The characters also became less significant than in the original trilogy, rendering them a bit pale and the film less a character piece than its successors. And of course, there's all that nonsense even I disagree with, like the podracing (bar the top-notch-as-ever sound-effects), Anakin building 3CPO, being born immaculatly and all that bullshit about medichlorians (Jar Jar was so unconceivably annoying that even mentioning him makes my head ache). Also worth noting is that aside of "Duel of the fates", the soundtrack does not set the mood as functionally as before, albeit thankfully, that also means less dependancy on the main theme. The lightsaber duel, on the other hand was absolutely fantastic, regardless of Maul's shortcomings (he's cool, but similarly undefined as the rest of the cast).

 

Having said all that I was entertained sufficiently, thus I grant it 6.8/10 points.

Hehe, yeah, not a great fan of Family Guy myself, but that a Star Wars parody is actually worse than the already mediocre show is just boggling the mind to say the least. There are home videos funnier than that junk, and that's a poor testimony for a show that's running on television. The thought that there are people who think this is brilliant makes me a sad padawan.

 

Edit: Episode II was even better. A real howler! Skyhigh attention to detail, too. Even cooler is that some of the original cast members helped out.

Robot Chicken Star Wars I was way funnier than that bland and unimaginative Family Guy two-parter. You could really feel that true fans wrote these skits with wit and thoughts out-of-the-box. I dug how they blended pure randomness with tongue-in-cheek references only fans could get. Good job, Green and team! I'm curious wheter Episode II will hold up to these standards.

Blue Harvest

 

There were a couple of chuckles in it, but I was disappointed that they didn't cover the whole trilogy and one could have done so much more with the concept. I felt that they were torn apart by sticking too close to both universes, remaining dry and uncreative. Says a lot about the film that the funniest running gag revolved around a couch...hearing Williams' score was great, however.

 

Chad Vader on the other hand? Absolutely fantastic stuff.

Clone Wars

 

Once, I have to agree with the critics. Immature tedious dialogue, a plot that has not enough depth for more than a short show (and even so tearjerkingly dull), and, most apparently, no sense of direction, tension or pacing. Most of the film felt like a cheap videogame cutscene setting the stage for repetitive third-person action, but with ludicrously outdated animations and crude texture work, respectively undetailed modelling. The only redeeming features were the moody colouring and lighting effects, as well as some briefly entertaining battle scenes. What a waste of time and bandwidth.

I've given up trying to decide which is prefer out of Alien and Aliens. I just love them both. They're both great. Highly original (which gives Aliens some points what with it being a sequel) and just both do exactly what they set out to do.

 

I'm also actually quite interested to see Ridley Scott's prequel to Alien in 2011 - although as I was saying to a friend yesterday, this is probably because we know that franchise has gone as low as it can go with AVP 2: Requiem*

 

 

 

*Famous last words?

 

I've yet to see Aliens. I absolutely love the first one, though.

I demand you to watch that film immediately and report subsequently to me, commander!

 

Abhi: Didn't it whet your appetite when I watched and reviewed most of these films in the not so distant past? :P

And I agree- Aliens, the Fly (remake, in my case), Terminator and Robocop are as close to perfection as possible. I'm not a big fan of 80's clothing, but damn, did that decade spawn some classic and well-crafted movies!

 

I'm currently in a Star Wars craze. Watched the original trilogy once in its 1977, unedited version, and, in parts, the 2004 DVD edit. I also purchased the prequel trilogy from Amazon UK; hoping to get it soon. Review of the former could possibly surface here in the next few days. Short summary: The vehicle and weapon design is bloody brilliant, but the Ewoks, on the other hand, should be slowly roasted on a spit and die a horrible death in the process.

Oh and Alice in Wonderland should have been inspired more by American McGee's rendition. Now that was awsome sutff.

 

I don't know, the trailer looks bizarre (way too much Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter though) and the Cheshire Cat (voiced by Stephen Fry!) looks suitably freaky with those nasty teeth... I hope this'll be good. I think that with Comic-Con hitting this week, we can expect some more trailers for next year's big blockbuster contenders soon.

Compared to American McGee's twisted tale, Tim Burton's version is an oversaturated cheese-fest. I dig Tim Burton, but he's not unmistakeable. In American McGee's game, Alice gutted henchmen with a kitchen knife, for chrissakes! Which is awsome.

Now I'm really looking forward to District 9.

Just wanted to make that recommendation as well, it's a very unique and interesting concept.

 

TimC: Californication from RHCP is pretty good though. Maybe their only album I can listen to without skipping every second song (or worse), but hey, that's better than nothing.

 

Oh and Alice in Wonderland should have been inspired more by American McGee's rendition. Now that was awsome sutff.

Really? Right after the police entered I knew that there was something fishy about the weapon(s).

Fracture was probably the biggest waste of celluloid film I've ever seen in my life. Dialogues that tried to be witty but ended up forced and unnatural, unconvincable characters and acting, a "reveal ending" you smell a mile away right after the crime happened, and a generally uninspiredly dull film to boot. Felt like a C flick but got 7.1 at IMDB. I fear the state of humanity.

Indeed.

"The last king of scotland" was a shocking and depressing motion picture. Amin was scarily and wickedly switching between personalities, and at two parts (You know which ones) I almost got physically sick, which does not happen often with my stomach of steel. Whitaker's performance was brilliant, by the way.

Ah, I remember this trailer. *barf*

What was the message you did not like, hagren?

"Death shouldn't worry anyone because one's decayed body will make an exquisite soil for various plants and trees" :P

 

That isn't the message.

Well, the other one I got is "Immortality is vain"

 

What did you deduce?

 

Since, as far as I understood, it's all about the sacrifice of our lives, and the lives before us, the parallel significance and insignificance of our existence.

 

I don't think it's about that. They say all that stuff, but I think the most important thing is the scene at the end where Tommy goes after Izzy instead of going back to work: him realizing that death is a natural thing and that he should be happy with the time he's got. He's constantly blowing her off/focusing on his work (to cure her, yeah). I think the ending with him standing over Izzy's grave is him accepting her death (after finishing the final chapter of Izzy's book in which space-Tom saves the Tree of Life, accepting his own death), accepting that death is a part of life, and that it's important to make your peace with the death of a loved one. more a spiritual rebirth than actually killing himself to let the tree live. Basically, it's the same ending as The Wrath Of Khan.

 

Also, sorry, didn't mean that "that isn't the message" thing to sound so definite. This all clearly my interpretation (and I love the fact that the movie allows for a multitude of interpretations).

 

also: really good soundtrack.

Yeah, it felt like a Tool music video at places :D

Actually, what you said about "making peace" with our mortality and living for the day is pretty much what I thought, only put in different words :) The only gripe I have with this message is that life itself can be arse.