i was like 19 when that came out and i worked in a theater for its summer run. i used to pop in the back a couple of times each shift for the darth maul fight scene, starting with the "we'll handle this / we'll take the long way" as the brass section pops off the Duel of the Fates, all the way up to the part where obi-wan pulls himself up and over to slice 'em in half.
i have watched that fight sequence literally hundreds of times. ray park crushed that very minimal role. i used to drive star wars dorks nuts by claiming that darth maul was more of a badass than vader and "could definitely kick his ass". i would imitate vaders oafish lumbering movements and then pantomime mauls kicky kicks and spinning saber moves with my own mouth-formed sound effects.
fun fact: obi-wan and darth maul were both played by scots! they dubbed over ray park with some englishman, because too much scots-english overwhelmed test audiences with sexual desire.
Okay I will say this much about episode 1, that fight choreography was pretty good and I do have some nostalgia over the first movie and star wars galaxies the mmorpg taking place on naboo. Outside of that, idk I guess it had some good sets back before Lucas found out it was cheaper and easier to do everything in post with a green screen.
also it was shot on film and looks a million times better than episode ii and iii will ever look
Kind of sucks these movies got rehabilitated through the memes and Disney fucking up early on in it's reboot of the franchise that now SW dorks see the prequels as good.
Luke, Kylo and Rey were the best part of the film. The nerd rage over Luke's portrayal is
Nerd Mad Mad Mad at Rian Johnson: "Luke would never give up and fuck off to a planet to live like a hermit, a Jedi would never do that! Also, I've never heard of trauma!"
Force Ghost Obi-wan and Yoda: [kick at the dirt, look uncomfortable, avoid eye contact]
I hate the rehabilitation bullshit. If you want to enjoy them ironically or rewatch the handful of decent action sequences then that’s fine, but the whole “actually, the sequels weren’t as bad as people said” thing is infuriating. They aren't good. They’re bad. They were bad when they came out, and they’re still bad now. They haven’t “aged well” or “found a place in the current media landscape” or whatever. They suck, we spent two decades analyzing precisely how and why they suck, and the issue is closed.
I don't know if this comment is serious or not, I don't realy think George was that competent and able to "metagame" like that. He probably just wanted to appeal to kids because he knew the OG fans were too old and likely poor and if SW is to survive in the long term it would need a bigger multimedia platform and a much younger audience. He just failed for many reasons.
But in case this is serious, this also isn't entirely wrong, perhaps it is true because sadly this is exactly the same attitude from CBS wrt Star Trek. It is known at every opportunity that despite JJ/Kurtzman paying modest lipservice to the old Trek the fact is the writing room and producers all absolutely hate and loathed old Trek and the old fans.
They constantly pat themselves on the back for being the science show, the rainbow inclusiveness hope BS show etc. All while completely ignoring that old Trek did that 30-50 years ago and they demand you praise them for it. "Oh no people don't like nuTrek? Must be MAGA chuds!". Basicaly r/startrek is how the producers see themselves.
So yeah, maybe George did have that sort of contempt for old fans, I don't doubt it.
I would love to be a fly on the wall during the conversations Dave Filloni and George Lucas had during the production of the Clone Wars animated show. Filloni being a die hard fanboy of the series and Lucas just being kinda tired of the whole thing, making suggestions to put weird ass things in for shits and giggles.
making suggestions to put weird ass things in for shits and giggles.
In fairness to Lucas, that habit predated his apathy.
Auteur theory, but it's all the people around the auteur reigning in the extraordinarily stupid ideas (Marcia Lucas in this case) that make the great media.
It was much the same with Star Trek. When Gene Roddenberry stayed in his producer lane in TOS and don't have the personal fame and influence that came later, he was able to gather an amazing group of people to make some great high-concept sci-fi. There's a reason that the venn diagram of "worst TOS episodes" and "Gene Roddenberry decided to try writing" is almost a circle.
But his personal fame grew, he had less and less people around him to rein in his worst ideas, and the result was TNG seasons 1 and 2. It wasn't until he was too ill to micromanage that TNG found its feet instead of being TOS with find-and-replace'd names in the scripts.
Nah attack of the clones is funnier (if you skip “romance” scenes). The plot, the wipe outs, the actors floating through green screens
I was that age when a new hope was first released in theaters and for the rest of my life I would watch that movie any chance I could. It was the greatest theatrical joy I could experience pretty far into adulthood for me.
When the phantom menace was released my friends and I couldn't wait to see it.... And we didn't really care for it that much and some of my friends thought it was absolutely terrible. But that's because it wasn't made for "us" and our age group. It was made for you and your's. Lucas new exactly what he wanted to do with episode one and he did it.
You should love that movie as much as you want and never apologize for it. Watch it every chance you get so you can remember what that six year old felt the first time they saw it.
staged live reading of the script with esteemed actors such as Tony Hale and Haley Joel Osment
holy shit dawg this is so good
VIC IS IN IT?!? fuck yeah, I know what I'm watching tomorrow night
