Tuesday, May 31th, 2005.
The Star
War Prequels
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RyanMcBain.com
Yes this entire Flow Check is about Star Wars. So if you are a hater, you might want to leave
now. And yes this column has spoilers.
Before I go any further
let me say that I am a huge Star Wars fan. The first memories I have as an
infant was watching Star Wars IV: A New Hope at the drive in with my family
in 1977. I couldn't have been much older than a month old but I remember.
The original Star Wars
trilogy is a masterpiece as far as I'm concerned. The greatest Trilogy ever
put together. George Lucas' movie budget (more like lack there
of) forced him to be very creative with his story telling and character
interaction. Which helped make the original Star War movies so special.
I think you get the point now. The original Star War films are goooooood.
That being said, after
watching the new films (Episodes I-III) I can't help but feel disappointed.
Some people say George Lucas was too obsessed with special affects and not
enough with the story. Perhaps. I think Lucas might of become lazy and just
decided to use the same formula he used with the other films. That's why
he kept on reusing some of same ideas in the prequels. But honestly Lucas
had no real reason to try to out do himself with these new movies. People
were going to go see them regardless.
So why am I disappointed
with these new movies? Well a few reasons...
Characters like Count Dooku, Jango Fett, and General Grevious should of been shown earlier in the prequels. Having Dooku and Fett in Episode I really would of helped out the film. I was excited to see Episode I when it came out. (Hell every Star Wars fan was) But it was let down. I felt like Lucas was telling the audience, "This is Star Wars, I know you want a new film so I'm going to throw you a bone. I don't care if it is a bad film. You will see it and I will make money." Qui-Gon Jinn was given the most character development in Episode I: The Phantom Menace, which is fine but they killed him off in this film and they barely mentioned him in the next 2 movies. Attack of the Clones,
was better than Phantom Menace, but that's not saying much. Even though the
story was better than the previous film, I didn't care for it that much.
When Lucas decided not to go into detail about the Jedi in Episode I, I figured
he would in Episode II. He did, but not enough in my opinion. And besides
the Yoda vs. Dooku duel, the saber dueling was horrible. Not because I didn't
care about who was fighting, but because the camera angles were horrific.
When Dooku fought Obi-Wan and Anakin at the end of AOTC the camera man needed
to take a few steps back. I want to see more than just the faces of the characters
when they are fighting.
I enjoyed the duel between Anakin and Dooku in Revenge of the Sith, but I felt like Anakin killed Dooku too soon, and too easily. I would of liked to have seen him struggle a little more. I think Lucas should of
talked about the fighting styles in these movies. The prequels show the Jedi
when they are in they're prime. And talking about the fighting styles such
as Mace Windu's Vaapad would of been interesting. Plus it would of helped
to make Windu more popular with the audience. He doesn't really get that
much camera time in these movies, so every bit would of helped. The Revenge
of the Sith novel explains how much of a bad ass Windu is when he uses Vaapad
against Palpatine/Darth Sidious...
In the book the duel
between Mace Windu and Darth Sidious ends on page 332. Basically the
fight is described as Mace having to completely let go and fall into Vaapad
like he never has. That he is fighting for his very life and that he needs
every ounce of energy and power to fight Darth
Sidious. In the movie,
there's no mention of Vaapad and it's hard to tell that Windu is doing
anything different from any other Jedi but the book makes it very clear that
Mace has the greatest light saber skills of all the Jedi when he enters Vaapad.
It says he invented the technique. Hmmm sounds like Vaapad is another name
for Black Rage is you ask me. But I digress. Palpatine is equal to him and
is able to match his moves thereby creating a stalemate. It's not until Mace
smashes the window distracting Palpatine that Mace gets the upper hand. There's
some mention of rain and wet surfaces that make Palpatine lose his balance,
but it doesn't seem to be an issue in the movie.
If Lucas cared about describing Jedi fighting styles, maybe the Windu vs.
Sidious battle would of been more interesting. But who knows. The camera
angles in this battle were almost as bad as the Count Dooku vs Anakin and
Obi-Wan duel in AOTC. Also I didn't like the fact that Windu and Sidious
are so powerful but the battle didn't last very long at all.
Also I wish these lines from the book after Windu defeated Sidious were in
the movie, but alas Lucas dropped the ball...
Mace yanked his arm free. "He's too dangerous to be left alive. If you could
have taken Dooku alive, would you have?" Skywalker's face swept itself clean
of emotion. "That was different
---"
Mace turned toward the cringing, beaten Sith Lord. "You can explain the difference after he's dead."
In my opinion this would of helped put over Windu as being a real bad ass
before he died.
A lot of people think Anakin's turn to the dark side happened too soon. I
agree. I liked in the book that the reason he wanted the rank of Master so
bad was so he could gain access to the Jedi holocrons which talked about
how to possibly save people from dying if one is strong enough
in the force. Having that in the movie would of better described Anakin's
fear of losing his wife.
Also Jedi are not suppose to get married, but Ki-Adi Mundi (the cone head guy) did not follow that rule and was not punished. Ki was a Cerean. He followed the Cerean custom of polygamous marriage, taking a bond wife, Shea, and four honor wives. He fathered seven daughters. Ki was granted this exception because of the low Cerean birthrate.
I think having Anakin getting kicked off the council or even expelled
from the Jedi order because of his marriage would of helped explain
why Anakin betrayed the Jedi. Think about it, Anakin could of then been
upset because Mundi was not punished for his marriage and several wives.
I wonder if Cerean is another word for Mormon. Hmmm fishy.
I also didn't like the fact that certain things were rushed in ROTS. Such
as the birth of the twins, and Yoda mentioning Qui-Gon to Obi-Wan at the
end of the movie. Fans such as myself were dying to know more about the whole
Jedi disappearing ghost thing, and Episode III spent like 15 seconds
talking about in. There should of been a scene with Yoda and or Obi-Wan talking
to Qui-Gon's spirit.
Even though ROTS had its faults it was the best out of the prequels. I enjoyed
the film but it had room for improvement. Lucas somewhat redeemed himself
with this movie. Especially with the duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan.
But if Lucas ever decides to make more Star War films, I hope he gets help
writing them. Hey George I'm free give me a call on my cell :)
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Ryan McBain
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