**Official** First Reactions Thread

INCREDIBLE...

However, I must see it again, because, well, I was overwhelmed. I could here my heart pounding throughout the entire film.
I was so dumb-founded in certain scenes I forgot to listen to some of the dialogue.


Favorite scene:

When Anakin was confessing his sin to Padme, screaming that he hates them etc. In my mind's eye I saw the innocent young Anakin and then the withered yet redeemed Vader in ROTJ. Suddenly it dawned on me how tragic our hero really is. I must admit it brought tears to my eyes. The only other Star Wars scenes that brings that kind of reaction out of me is when Luke is cremating his father's remains on Endor. I think the music might have alot to do with that. Call me a hopeless romantic and I'll just agree with you.

"The force is strong with this one..."

P.s. How cool is Poggle the Lessers voice!!!

 

Poggle ruled!

Bump

 

first reaction:

Well Done George!


great SW-movie! it was more than i was hoping for.
i am sure there is a lot to discuss about the movie, but the plot was very very good put together.

i saw it for the first time today, just 2 hours ago.
gonna see it several more times!

 

So much better than TPM.
Gushes:
Anakin & Obi Wan's rapport
Anakin - Hayden is excellent
Padme - a real voice and personality!
Dooku
Yoda
The Death Star!
Qui Gon: mentions and his voice

Shrugs:
Pacing
CGI battledroid, clone battle

Shudders:
Love story - Padme's pre-arena line? Ugh!
JarJar
C3PO

 

i wanted to see padme naked.


whoohoo!!


or c3po...the second best thing to real nude excitement.

 

Thumbs WAY up from me!!

I really love this film! I'd say that at this point it ties with ANH in second place after ESB (though we'll see if familiarity ends up breeding contempt on this one as time goes by).

I had the good fortune to see it twice yesterday, which was good because the first time was utterly surreal. I loved it the first time, but there was SO much to take in.

And let's face it... AOTC begins on a very surreal note. First thing that struck me was that after the scroll... it pans UP to the action. World turned upside-down, eh? Then as the Naboo ships approach Coruscant, the city is blanketed in a creepy fog... those two elements got me to the edge of my seat immediately, minor as they may have been.

And it was certainly a wild, weird ride from there on in. I'd deduced awhile back that Anakin's mother would probably die in this movie (the voice-over in one of the trailers "It was just before dawn... they came out of nowhere..." kinda confirmed this for me, though I wasn't sure till yesterday) and a few other plot points weren't new to me, but overall it was a VERY surprising ride, and IMHO was one of the more well-done of the SW movies.

The romance scenes, though... the picnic and the fireplace were painful (especially the fireplace scene... it's currently got my vote for absolute worst scene in the SW saga so far!) and IMHO George really at some point needs to recognize his own limitations as a writer of romantic dialogue. This time Kershner and Harrison weren't there to rewrite it and breathe life into it and it showed.

BUT... the scenes did serve to give Anakin a very creepy character. Horribly-written as they were, they (along with many other scenes in the movie) showed a young man who was trying really hard to mask the growing seeds of something truly ugly within himself. There's always fear and anger under the surface with Anakin, especially when he's talking with Padme. Again, a couple horrible scenes, but not entirely without an ability to reveal something about the characters.

Other than that, I didn't find too much about to bitch about with AOTC. Yeah, it's a CGI-fest, but DAMN, is it a fun one! And Yoda... I'd heard that Yoda would probably fight, and I just prayed he wouldn't use a lightsaber because I couldn't see how it would work as anything but a bad sight gag.

How wrong I was!

Yes, it looked a little goofy to have little Yoda sword-fighting a full-sized man, but to the credit of Lucas, Gillard, and the animators, it came off VERY well! Contrary to what I would have expected, Yoda TOTALLY schools Dooku and for the most part looks damned good doing it. The BEST thing is the way he grabs his cane and goes back to his usual little old man act afterwards. A very well-done scene!

I'll be posting a lot more detailed analyses in the days to come, I'm sure. But suffice to say that AOTC surpassed my expectations in a big way and, aside from a few cringer scenes, worked very well IMHO.

 

Woah Patrick Russell liked it Thats pretty cool

 

Russell -- I agree 100% about the "Bearing My Soul to Padme in Front of the Fireplace" scene. I cringed more than I did during the "Rolling Around in the Meadow" scene.

 

^^ yeah whats up with that ^^

 

I thought AOTC was well done. The acting was good. the dialogue was better than TPM. The Love story worked- i thought. overall, I loved it!!

 

I loved the movie, and can's wait to see it again!!! I totally agree with the Tusken confession, wow! To see the rage/anger and the tears welled up in his eyes, it was a very powerful moment and Hayden did a superb job!!! And wow what a HOTTIE!

 

First of all I have to say that I watched the German dubbed version of AOTC because otherwise I´d have to wait till tomorrow to see AOTC. So I got tickets for the midnight showing. The synchronization sucked. Especially Anakin´s voice was HORRIBLE. So I won´t post an opinion about line delivery and the acting overall till I see AOTC again (on Saturday or Sunday, I hope)

Secondly I was "lucky" enough to sit in front of the WORST PSYCHO COUPLE since Woody and Juliette - Natural Born Killers.
She was an American (don´t get me wrong i´m no racist scum) and was on heavy drugs and yelled during the beginning "****ing Germans (I live in Austria by the way), learn some English, mother****ers." Geez, what a bitch. She complained about the German dubbing (like me). But baby, WHY THE HELL do you attend the screening of the German dubbed version when you don´t understand the language ?! Go to the English theater (like I´ll do in a few days). I really felt the Dark Side taking control of myself ...

HE was drunk (boy he smelled like he took a bath in a bath tub full of beer) and was very annoying too but I think he fortuantely got sick after about 30/45 minutes and had to puke (YESSS, there is a God !!!).

My buddy who sat next to me got very nervous during the romantic scene and for instance sighed every time the couple showed up; his behaviour was very annoying too.

I was tired and had to work three hours after the movie was over (not much time for reflexion)

So my first viewing experince of AOTC was a blurred one, for several reasons.

But this is the "First Viewing Experince" Thread so I´ll post my first reactions but I´ll come back on Sunday or whenever I´ll see the ORIGINAL version !

To put it in a nutshell:

I liked the movie.

But I´ll start with the negative points (probably they´ll be transformed to positive)

I was soaked in the action till Anakin rode on that creature (Shaak ?). The meadow picnic scene was enjoyable (I feared the worst) but that bit should have been cut IMO. From that one the pacing/cutting was irritating (till the arrival of Padme and Anakin on Geonosian) but probably it will grow on me after several viewings (I think so). I didn´t like the cut when Anakin´s dream POPS UP. That was cruel ! Really, I was shocked. Another cut I didn´t like was the one which starts the Obi Wan Jango Duel. That was too quick either.

The fireplace scene dialouge was a disaster (maybe because of the dubbing) this was the worst of the romantic scenes of the movie. But otherwise the romance scenes we´re O.K.

I didn´t like the fact that Shmi was still alive when Anakin enters the hut. That may sound cruel but it would have worked better if Anakin would have discovered her dead body. The fact that she got captured and died moments after he rescued her. Maybe the hope that her son will rescue and save her from the Tusken Raiders though. I thought that the Tusken slaughter was too short and brief but when I saw the confession scene I got it. Could have been a liiiitle longer though.

My biggest complaint is C-3PO. I LOVE the OT 3PO but I can´t stand the PT one. I didn´t like the fact that he was built by Anakin.
And now he served the Lars family for ca. one year and Owen doesn´t recognize him in ANH ?!? Oh dear, there ARE maybe billions of protocol droids out there in a galaxy far, far away. But wouldn´t Owen and Beru recognize him, especially when he´s accompanied with R2-D2 ?!
The idea that he became a battle droid is cute, somehow, but it was overused and seemed too forced.

I wasn´t THAT spoiled but it was obvious that too much stuff got cut. Gimme the special edition DVD.

Now the positive:

!The opening scene was incredible. Can´t wait to see it again.

!Yoda IS GOD. He looks fantastic and when he showed why he´s the master the audience was on their feet.

!Obi Wan Kenobi is COOL AS ICE. I love his character. I liked his conversation with Dex, loved the Archive section and the entire Kamino part (great atmosphere, aliens, clone factory TOP TOP TOP !!!)
I almost wet my p

 

General Observations:

1Dooku wanted a peice of Windu, And vice versa seemed to be jealousy there.
2Anakin's actor nailed the role..he just looked sneaky at times, at times he looked like a teen in love and puzzled..at times he loved his master, at times he does want to be "the death" of Obi wan.
3.Dooku did look disgusted be chopping anakins arm off..hmmm
4.The last battle was Fantasic...all those Jedi's...they did not totally get spanked..well the odds were ridiculous like a million geo's,droids and beast vs. about forty jedi. the jedi were hard especially the Jamaican one, just kidding, and the one Twilek(?) I believe they fought hard.
besides the one in the balcony, I saw about two Jedi fall amongst the chaos.
5. I did not think Windu would have that big of a part, but he was hard! Windu was definately one of the higher council members
5. Found it ironic that the clone troopers did come in handy...that battle was awesome..I like some of the camera angles they had like the closeups of the troop transports..Made it look sort of Saving private Ryanish.
Speaking of Cameras did not really like part of the Dooku scenes. What was that strictly facial shot fighting all about. It looked like they were in a techno club with diffent strobe lights. I best light saber battle is still between luke and pops and maul and ginn
6.The darkside has to be stronger to do all this and not be detected...mace and Yoda seem to know but are not speaking up about to much they just have this great non verbal communication.
7. LAst but not least YODA, That was the best the whole shadow thing and the little kung fu pose that he did was fantastic. He was like a little ball of energy. Dooku held his own but you could tell he did not want anymore the way he high tailed it out of there.

 

Just got back from the DLP screening of AOTC. Definitely liked it.

This was immensely better than TPM, which I was disappointed about, and it's probably on par with ROTJ. I'll have to see it a few more times before I make final judgement. ANH and ESB were still better...what can I say? I'm 30-something and they just had a greater impact on me as a kid.

The GOOD:

1. EVERYTHING involving Yoda (was it me or did he have the best personality of everyone in the movie?)

2. SFX - So much to process...Kamino...Geonosis...Naboo...Coruscant! DIGITAL ***KIN' ROCKS!!

3. Obiwan - He had a lot more to do and actually had some better humor this time around, close to how AG was in ANH.

4. The Aliens - the Kaminoans, Geonosians, Dex, Watto, etc.

5. The battles/fights/chases - all were top-caliber.

6. Count Dooku - great character, good screen presence. My God, if he is almost as powerful as Yoda, how powerful must Sidious be? Sheesh! I wished they spoke about the Lost 20, oh well. We needed a LOT more of this guy.

7. Jar Jar - I actually didn't mind him this time around, and I felt kind of sorry for him.

The SO-SO:

1. Acting/Writing - granted, Star Wars has never been known for its acting/dialogue but come on...by the 5th movie you would think it would at least be great. It was better than TPM but some of it still seemed forced. Didn't really have a problem plot-wise but some more lines that were cut would have been nice.

2. The Romance - WAY too forced...all they had to was spend a few more minutes on it. It would have been so much more believeable if Anakin says that they met months ago and he says "I've thought of you each day since then", and then Padme says basically the same thing. Putting her family scene back in would have been good.

3. Artoo/Threepio - some parts were just dumb ("what a drag") but I do see why they had to cut to their scenes together. It would have been one long drawn out action scene in the arena if we didn't get a quick break from the action to see some humor from those two. At least they weren't as stupid as Jar Jar's antics.

4. Mace/Jango/Boba/Sidious - too underused. Just a few more minutes of these characters would have been perfect.

5. Anakin/Padme - they had better dialogue but I would give the nod for acting to Anakin. Hayden did a pretty good job when he wasn't being cheesy. The Tusken scene gave me chills, even when I KNEW what was going to happen. Natalie was ok, definitely not as wooden as in TPM.

The BAD -

1. The Score - I only recognized parts of the soundtrack, and my favorite ("Love Pledge and the Arena") was SEVERELY butchered. There's a great fanfare in the middle of the song that I hummed to myself hoping it would be in there but it never happened. Sigh.....

2. Captain Typho - is he a clone of Panaka???

3. The Jedi Council - why didn't they have any lines? Ki Adi Mundi? Kit Fisto? anyone? anyone? Bueller? Bueller????

Anyway that's all I can come up with. I was definitely entertained and it was a very good addition to the Star Wars saga. For me, this should have been Episode 1.

Best line IIRC:

"I will not fail you again" - Anakin at his mother's grave...really foreshadows when he helps Luke in ROTJ...very nice!!!

 

My first reaction: odd. I know I like the film. I like it more than TPM (which I like quite a bit), I just came away feeling odd. I think it's too much to take in at once. I have to let it sink in for a bit.


!snap

 

I must admit that I walked out of the theater after the midnight showing disappointed. I just didn't feel that old Star Wars spark and I had cringed at some of the dialogue. So I definitely understand what some of you are saying. HOWEVER, I went and saw it again last night and let me just say, the second time made all the difference. The dialogue didn't jump out at me this time and the visuals were so much more interesting. I saw it the second time in a better theater with better sound and a larger screen. It made all the difference. I would now put this movie only behind ESB and ANH.

 

I LOVED THIS MOVIE!!! After reading some BAD reviews before seing the movie I had worries about certain elements of the film. Those worries were soon put to rest.
For about the first 20 minutes of the movie (the chase scene) I think my legs were shaking! either that or it was because it was cold. I loved just about every scene in this movie.. there were so many small things that only true star wars fans would catch. I loved the acting, i thought ewan mcgreggor and hayden did an excellent job. Hayden showed real emotion and had great face expressions. Obi wan was so caulm cool and collected. I thought the humor in this movie was great, it was perfect star wars humor. The love story didn't bother me at all, it was much better then I thought it would be. In order to find things in this movie i didnt like i would have to "nitpik" really hard.. for example: i didnt like how natalie laughed after hayden made the line about how its his first asignment alone but atleast they have Artoo with them..... or that i didn't like Anakins laughing when obi wan was telling him to pull up.. i mean their were a few other smallllll things like that.. but they were so few and its not like i HATED those things anyway(and besides my friends liked those small things that i didnt) Samuel L is a bada$$.. Jango is a Bada$$, palpatine was awesome, Dooku was awesome, yoda took me awhile to get used to but my god he stole the freakin show which wasn't an easy thing to do!
People have said they didnt like the humor in the arena, but i have to completely dissagree with that. C3PO was back to his classic self.. if you dont think so just go watch eps 4 and 5. Everyone in the audience ate his lines up, in fact the audience laughed at all the right times in this movie. (great audience) which surprised me considering i live in hicktown USA.

I have no complaints whatsoever about the Cgi.. People said dooku on the speeder didnt look good, but i didnt notice that at all. the anakin riding on the shaak scene wasnt as horrible as i was expecting.

My Expectations for this movie were so high and somehow this movie met my expectations and exceeded them! I was totally blown away.. there was so much to take in. Ill be much more relaxed watching it the 2nd time knowing that there is nothing to worry about I think my brother has already sene it three times so I think he liked it too.. the friends i saw it with loved it and its all any of us have been talking about since leaving the theatre. GREAT MOVIE and THANKYOU GEORGE! it made the phantom menace a better movie and in my oppinion pushed A New Hope past the empire strikes back. I can't rank this one yet except to say that i liked it more then phantom and RotJ. I'll be able to rank it after i see episode 3 and how that affects the other movies.

ps. i thought i was going to miss certain cut scenes, but i completely forgot about them because i was so caught up in the excitement! besides if they were cut, their must have been good reason. IM going spoiler free for the next installment of Star Wars.

 

up

 

Odd.

I came out of the theatre not feeling dissapointed, or excited. I was just numb. Too much expectation. I read too many reviews. I spent most of the movie dreading that it would suck. So rather than enjoy the moment I just thought "I hope the next part doesnt suck." I could never be a jedi. But, having said that, this morning I woke up thinking about all the cool moments in the film. Way better that TPM and better than ROTJ. But I just felt overwhelmed at times. Unable to concentrate on what was going on because of the FX. This is not a bad thing, it just means that I have to see it again to fully appreciate it.

Anyone else feel this way?!?!?!

 

This film was bad.

The script was awful, I was reeling after the first five minutes. George is obviously a pioneer in film-making technology, this I do not dispute. But for goodness sake that script sounded like it was written by a child.

I don't care about special effects, I don't care about cute whizzy noises. There was no emotion in this film, no sense of tragedy or impending doom. I would have traded all the redundant (not to mention recycled) special effects and bizarre landscapes for just a scrap of good old story telling. Make me believe that Anakin and Amidala are just so gut-wrenchingly in love. Make me believe that Anakin is tormented, angry, and disillusioned. Please? Nope. Nothin doin.

The love story was cringe-worthy. Anakin came off as a complete letch. This part of the film was shockingly bad.

Some of the CG effects were very ropey, others were excellent. But CG effects are so commomplace these days that it's getting a bit tired. And since when has cramming a film with GC stuff become a substitute for the basics like plot and dialogue.

Cristopher Lee an Yoda save this film. It's a pity that I had to wait 2hrs and 20 minutes to see that scene.

You know what? I don't care if I get bashed for stating my opinion. I loved the original trilogy. Always have, always will do. But I feel like I've been cheated. Star Wars fans deserve better than this. George should have left well enough alone.

 

I really wished after Ep1 lucas wouldve come to his senses. He didn't.

-editing. I mean, WTF? Ben Burtt needs to stick to sound design only. Aotc again, had some really bad edits.
-Dialog/romance. Lucas admits he hates writing. So why write at all? Let someone who knows his craft do it. Lucas cant write. And no the OT had not that many cheesy lines.
-Music. I think JW should refuse to work on EP3. Again, they buchered the score. I even thought during a couple of scenes the music distracted more then adding to it.

I realize that nothing will ever come close to the OT but those are all obvious points from someone who has no idea about film making. Im not saying i can do better but im saying its so obvious THEY couldve done better.

I still liked the film. Love dooku. Ewan and Hayden did a great job. Tusken scene gave me chills. Everything in the arena looked fake. The backgrounds never 'fit' within the actors. Too bad. And too much riding of things in this movie.

I know i sound fairly negative but its my opinion. I stand to what i said to a friend after watching TPM: The PT needed a diff director, better producer and his ex-wife as editor.

 

Why did Dooku try to have Anakin (Palpy's pet project) killed in the arena? Infact, why fight him at all?

 

I did not get to go to the midnight showing due to working the next day. I had advance tickets for the 7pm showing. The lines here in Bloomington were smooth running with no problems. I got decent seats but with just 2 problems. There ended up being TWO little children about age 1 or 2 ended up sitting behind us and next to us. This kinda of distracted my whole AOTC experience. It is disappointing when you have waited for this movie for so long and parents who think it is cool to bring young children who do not know how to behave at the movie theaters to a big movie like this. I am sorry for being like this but I believe if you are going to go to the movies...HIRE A BABYSITTER! or at least if you bring your child, walk away from the movie long enough to change the childs diaper so they do not stink up the whole theater!! Well, enough of ranting.

I thought the entire movie was truly great. It does get the prequals back on track. The dialogue was not too cheesy, the actions scenes were great and YODA!! What can you say!! He was down with the FORCE!! The love scene was well done and the acting was well done as well!!! I will have to go back again and get the full experience again as soon as I possibly can!

 

First Reaction: AWESOME,INCREDIBLE, AMAZING!!!!

THis is how a StarWars movie should be done.

 

On a scale of 17 to 31, I give this movie a 30!!! Almost perfect!!! Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, so I can't expect everyone to like it. I'm sorry that some people didn't enjoy it, but oh well.

Things I did NOT like though:

-Shmi's dying sequence, a little too over the top. People were gagging cynically when she learched over at the end with her mouth open and her eyes bugging out.

-The modernisms!! Especially the diner. This scene didn't belong.

-I didn't like Anakin's mechanical hand.

-Also, I thought Dooku was a little TOO invincible. First he spanks Obi-Wan, then he spanks Anakin, then he holds his own when Yoda pulls out all the stops, without even breaking a sweat. Instead I thought Dooku should have taken a blow or two to show he's mortal.


Everything else was fine by me!!!! MAJOR improvement over TPM in every regard!! Bring on Episode III!!