One Problem: WHat the hell were you thinking, George???

In order to keep a common theme across all SW fanatics "fans," the story has to be compelling and historical in nature. George sold his soul to the "dark side" in order to cash in on basic economic endorsements. Episode 1 should have been the darkest of the SW saga to date.

George instead, chose to market his Episode 1 venture, and to money-making, child loving, mattel, toys-r-us, pepsi and pizza hut consuming, large ADVERTISEMENT ADVENTURE.

And that is why, folks,and my fellow SW fanatics, George please.

 

"Episode 1 should have been the darkest of the SW saga to date."

Why exactly do you think that?

 

I thought GL said Episode III is supposed to be the darkest.

 

I don't think E1 should have been the darkest to date. E1 should have showed how peaceful the Republic was, and how cuturally diverse it was. I feel that it suceeded in that. E2 and then E3 should have been the dark movies of the PT. E2 is reasonably dark, and I think you'll see E3 was the darkest SW ever.

However, E1 was a little too kiddy for my tastes aswell. I would have preffered a more adult movie myself, but then again, the saga is for kids aswell, and it would be selfish of me to forget this. I think we could have had a little less of the kiddy humour, and made Jar-Jar more adult friendly. That said, E1 is still a good movie.

 

cause it is the tale of the fall of anikin skywalker. I agree TPM could have been summed up in 5-15 minutes at the beginning of aotc which should of been the first episode, and completely rewritten, but thats another board.

 

Episode I definitely should not have been the darkest film. In fact, I'm glad it was the lightest film. Yes, the saga is the story of Anakin Skywalker, but look further than that. It's of his fall from grace and his redemption. Episode I was there to show how an innocent, helpful boy could turn out to be someone so terrible.

 

"Episode 1 should have been the darkest of the SW saga to date."

But then you would be complaining about how we never saw "Before the dark times. Before the Empire." This seems to be a clear cut case of your preconcieved notions getting in the way of things.

Cometgreen

 

Episode 1 should have been the darkest of the SW saga to date.

Actually, by necessity it had to be the lightest. If he'd started in the darkest place the only way the story could have progessed was in a lighter direction. He had to start light and then progress toward the dark.

 

Episode 1 was fine ..except it should have started with anakin being 17 yrs old..Instead of being a kid.........Same story.just older anakin.....More adultish...






AND also rated PG-13

 

Wow, deja vu all over again.

Ep1 shoudl have been the darkest. Then Ep 2 should have been even darkerier. and Ep 3 should be the darkerierestest of all!

Then GL should redo Ep 4 and make it even darker! With the Everybody Dies ending:

Death Star Blows up Rebels, then
Luke fires the torpedoes, then
Vader fires at Luke killing him, then
Han fires at Vader, killing him, then
as Han and Chewie are flying away
the Death Star blows up killing anyone who's left!

It would be so..... dark!

 

Episode VI should be opaque.

 

That's hilarious, Darth23.

Perhaps all of the prequels should have had brutal, graphic violence. And all lightsaber deaths involve being split in two (vertically, that is). And have slow motion, detailed deaths that show every drop of blood and entrail. And all main characters in each movie should die through the aforementioned violent means. And be rated R.

I mean, we all know that would make the saga a million times better! Dark is OMG TEH K00L ADN AWSUM, right?

Bet no one could complain they were "kiddie" then!

In a more serious vein, I just don't get this obsession with "dark". There is absolutely no reason why "Episode 1 should have been the darkest of the SW saga to date," and, in fact, a whole host of reasons it shouldn't (contrast with the Empire, "before the dark times", leaves the other prequels somewhere to go, etc.). Why is it that some people want Star Wars to be so dark? Do they forget that the original, the one just about everybody loves, is about as far from dark as you can get? Star Wars is based on a concept of fun, a sense of adventure seen in the old science-fiction serials. They say ROTJ should have been dark. I say it's the end of a fun saga, it should go out on a happy, if somewhat bittersweet note. They say TPM should be dark. I say, it's the start of it all, it needs lightness to contrast with how the saga changes. ESB is dark! AOTC is dark! Episode III, from what I've seen and heard, will be the darkest of them all! Isn't that enough? Or should the original be the one that sticks out like a sore thumb in a dark saga of dark darkity darkness?

Now, some will misinterpret my words. I'm not saying that it shouldn't be mature. ANH was mature. I feel that TPM, while lighter, was plenty mature. ROTJ was as mature as ANH. AOTC was definitely mature. Not "mature" as in "This film is for mature audiences", but as in "Adults want to watch this film". It seems to me that people, having liked ESB, want every other movie to be an imitation of it. ESB was the downpoint of the saga (in terms of mood, not quality); it is at this point that our heroes are in their deepest peril, and in ROTJ, they come out of this peril to triumph. It makes no sense for an expositional movie, or a concluding movie (in what is ultimately supposed to be a happy tale) to be as dark as this.

 

Episode 1 should have been the darkest of the SW saga to date.

I'm not sure who decided that dark SW automatically means good SW, but 'dark' is the most overused word on these boards and I am going to kill whoever started the trend.


Rick McCallum loves you!

 

Besides, if you really pay attention to the undertones of the story, you will find that episode 1 is darker than you think. When you think about the very sinister plot that is happening underneath all the light images and beautiful pictures, when you think about all the corruption and evil that is hidden under the amazing technological city of Coruscant, it sends chills up your spine. The cognitive dissanance is very compelling. Also, the freakin villain gets what he wants at the end!!!!!! Infact, did you know that the music played during the celebration end scene is actually just a variation of the emporer's/darkside theme? In fact, the villain is standing there right beside our heroes during that scene, and is in the very last shot of the movie. What other SW movie had the villain in the very last shot of the movie? That is my favorite end scene of all SW movies.

 

what i am trying to say here is that we are looking at eh fall of anikin skywalker. Personally i think that he should have fallen completly by the mid point of the triology. THat way we could have a more in depth look at ANikin/vader. This way you could see his training and even get to see jedi hunting and the rise of the empire. I think that GL tried to hard to make it a kid freindly film that transistions into an emotionally enthralling piece that touches on more adult themes. This process, in my opinion, has really left the movies with out an identity. and caused what feels to be a rush in trying to cover events.

I dont know it just feels like george is trying to make us have a good time, without at the cost of what could have been exceptional movies.

 

Is mattalgrand going to reply to his claim?

And I hardly need to add my voice to the chorus, but Ep1 really benefits the entire saga by being the 'lightest'. Gives us a central starting point, to show how things go downhill from there.

 

"TPM could have been summed up in 5-15 minutes at the beginning of aotc"

How could TPM's story be possibly reduced into that amount of time?

 

"what i am trying to say here is that we are looking at eh fall of anikin skywalker."

Yes, but seeing a "fall" is pointless if you don't know exactly where they fell from. We need to see that Anakin started out as an innocent child. He wasn't even a bully, he was a normal, kind child.

"Personally i think that he should have fallen completly by the mid point of the triology."

I don't think that a film and a half would be enough of a look at the events leading up to his fall. It wouldn't give enough time to show that he started out innocent, but gradually descended into the darkness.

"THat way we could have a more in depth look at ANikin/vader."

How would it have been more in depth? We've seen plenty of Vader in the OT, we know what he's like. Now, we get to learn about Anakin, where he came from, and what events lead up to his eventual fall.

"This way you could see his training and even get to see jedi hunting and the rise of the empire."

We're probably going to see all that anyways. We've seen parts of his training, we've seen the foundation being laid for the Empire. Episode 3 will show us his actual fall to the Dark Side, and I'd be quite surprised if Anakin didn't kill any of the other Jedi in Episode 3.

"and caused what feels to be a rush in trying to cover events."

How can it feel rushed, especially since you wanted all the events leading up to his fall summed up in a film and a half? Wouldn't that make things even more rushed?

 

While I don't agree with the original post, mattalgrand did say TPM should be the darkest SW movie "to date" -- meaning darker than the three OT movies that preceded it. III would still be the darkest (whatever that means) when the whole saga is complete. There is some logic to that since you might expect a tragic trilogy to be more dark overall than a triumphant trilogy. I disagree for some of the reasons stated above, but there is still some logic to it.

Some of the replies, however, seem to have misunderstood what mattalgrand was trying to say (in my opinion).

 

rpeugh has it right. TPM does have a pretty dark story if you've watched the other films. The bad guy really wins.


I don't think E1 should have been the darkest to date. E1 should have showed how peaceful the Republic was, and how cuturally diverse it was. I feel that it suceeded in that.

We could debate how well it succeeded, but I agree that it needed to show the peak of the Republic, then the beginning of the fall(Clone Wars) at the end of the film.

We should have Fincher direct them all. Yeah, that would be great. He uses very few lights. Darky, Dark, Dark.

 

I don't think that Ep. I should have been the darkest to date/dark at all - I think it would have been nice to really see the Old Republic in its prime, before the Emporer. As it stands, we see a Republic beginning to unravel, guarded by rather ineffectual Jedi, blind to the danger manifesting itself. I do think that the film made it obvious that "the bad guy won" both with the visual and musical cues (the triumphant music becoming ominous when Palps talks to Anakin). There are darker elements to be found, to be sure.

That being said, I don't think that it was necessary to begin Anakin's story as a child - it is entirely possible to show virtuous and innocent people who are adolescents/young adults. Traumatic separation is traumatic separation, regardless of the age (yes, kids will likely feel it more, *but* it would still be effective). I don't agree with the story arc that is being taken (Anakin turning to evil because of mother/mother surrogate issues), and I think that having an older Anakin would sell the love story more (at least to me - I still think the Anakin/Padme thing is icky, especially in light of the obsession it becomes in AOTC).

Just my .02

 

I just wanted to jump in here and say for AdamBertocci; dark, darker, darkest, dark'ed.

Only cause I know, Rick really does hate me.

Actually to the orginal poster, I think it would of been great if the first movie had started in the middle of the Clone Wars. Or shortly before the Clone Wars get going. After all, we didn't need 2 hours to 'get' that there was an Empire running the Galaxy in A New Hope. I think it would of been great to see Anakin fighting in the war with Obi-Wan, the relationship with Padme in between, and through War his down fall. (Plus why Obi-Wan was called General Kenobi and the realtionship with Alderan <sp?> etc.)

But, that's just me.

 

In my opinion, the timeline of the movies is perfect, and so is the "darkness" level. Episode I definitely needed to be the lightest Star Wars film, if only on the surface. It is the beginning of the Star Wars saga, and is therefore the beginning of the story of Anakin Skywalker. The purpose of the saga, IMO, is to show how someone like the young Anakin we see in Episode I can take a fall to the "dark side" because of the bad choices he makes, and end up as someone aweful like Vader. It's showing that Anakin wasn't always the evil guy in the black suit. It's showing that he was once the good kid who liked to help people.

Therefore, Episode I should be the "lightest" film. We go from the innocence of Anakin at the beginning of his life to the evil he became as Vader. Episode I portrays a more lighthearted view of the galaxy before the dark times, before the Empire. And really, it shows the beginning of the deterioration the galaxy: Palpatine being elected Supreme Chancellor. This is probably the darkest moment in the film with the rest of the story in mind, but it appears as a good thing in the movie.

 

ok i am not going to live and die on the whole should of been the darkest point, but i will argue that it should have been darker, or at least more adult than it was.
I have mad e the statement that TPm could be summerized in the first 5-15 minutes of the the first movie, and you could move right into the AOTC time period. First of all you dont need to show ani as a doofy little kid to show that he is innocent. THe same effect can be created and solidified by showing him exactly as he is mentioned in the OT excelling at the Jedi Academy. Also u add to that a sense of great courage and intergrety. THis can easily be shown through missions that Obwan and Anikin going on missions that conclude wiht aniken savign the day and exibiting great pilot skills that are mentioned in the ot and not yet shown in the pt, if anyone refers to POD racing as piloting star crafts please start another thread cause i will debate you on that and this not the thread to do it on. Also by having aniken being the savior esk character you give reasons why the prinbcess might fall in love with him. cause no women i know would fall for the stocker that he is in AOTC, please love with that i wanna rape youi look in his eye, reference to the night conversation at naboo. Also you elliminate the whole ackward he is ten she is 16 scenes from TPM, aka are you an angel, or here is a japor snippet.

secondly, you doubt that it would be to soon to have already seen him fall by the end of the second movie. at this point gl has a to cover the fall, the training of anikin as a sith, the twins, the clone wars, the rise of the emporer, the hunting of the jedi, and more all in around two hours... to me not enough time.
This also allows for the greater development of characters, something that is lacking in the in the PT in my opinion. With this you get motre face time and more emotional time between characters. also with aniken being likable in the beginning, not weird/annoying youngster, or stocker adult. the fall becomes an even more emotionally driven event something huge has too happen in order for him to turn, yet again another way to bring fans an emotional attactment to the charaters. I dont know about you, but i wasnt feeling sorry for him when his mom died, i was like well you should have gone and got her. or at least checked up on her...
i will agree that it should have not been the darkest, but it should have been much darker, the viewer should have been lead to feel that there was a great threat in the universe and should have had an established hero on whose shoulder to ride, until he crashed and crashed hard.

 

There's a development arc that Lucas is following which required that TPM be the most innocent of all the films. That arc really ends with Ewoks saving the day in ROTJ.