Some TPM Comments & Questions......?

Having revisited TPM yesterday for the first time in a while I thought I'd share some thoughts. I know its hardly earth shatteringly worthy of a whole new topic but as I wanted to place my OWN thoughts together with queries and questions for the rest of you I thought I'd go for it.....

General thoughts.

Well.... to start with - it wasn't as bad as i feared I'd think. After watching it a lot after the dvd release i probably overdid it and ended up bored and frustrated by it. But it kept me pretty entertained throughout.

Jake Lloyd is very good as Anakin. Can't see how anyone can say otherwise.

"The Planet Core journey and Monsters" sequence still strikes me as completely tensionless, pointless and uninspired. Awful.

The whole Queen in disquise plot just wasn't needed. It was badly done.There was no reason for it. ANH proved a royal woman need not be disguised to be at the heart of the action. Just suppose the escape from Naboo had been more difficult and only the Jedi, Jar Jar and the Queen had got away....?

Th Droid/Gungan battle looks more and more like a cartoon with each passing month. Having watched the documentary "The Beginning" just before watching the film it was in my mind the conversation between GL and Spielberg - "a huge War and Peace battle" "Ohhh George, fantastic" etc. - It wasn't. It was rubbish.

Oh and if the Droids can walk through the Gungan shield (bad effects again b t w) why can't the tanks just roll through. The shield thing just looks awful.

The Duel is still exceptional from start to finish.

Why was the desert duel ended so badly. If QGJ could just leap up on to the ramp so could Maul. A kick to the ribs from QGJ just prior to the leap would of explained DM's inability to follow. Makes no sense......

Midichlorians. Pointless. Unnecessarry. The Force was perfectly adequately explained in the OT. It needed no more than that.

The pod race is very good I still believe.

Sebulba is good, Shmis good, Wattos great, Neesons superb (and not wooden even if he feels he was).

Darth maul would of been a better villain had he never spoken. The "revenge" line could of been uttered by Sidious.

Jar Jar I have decided is simply let down by one or two too many "weesa doin dis" or "Weesa doin dat" and silly antics etc. You know, the stuff in the bongo, the stuff in Wattos shop, the stuff in the end battle. Apart from that I don't feel he'd of been so badly recieved as he can be in places both amusing "steady..." and likable "My am afraid I've been banished..."

Captain Tarpals is an unsung great character "youssa in big do-do dis time"

The end parade is great. great music and ceremony tinged with sadness. The funeral is good ending on Palps with the "who was killed...master or apprentice line" line.

Why did all the other TF battleships dissappear at the end? I suppose cos they had control of the planet and only needed the Droid control ship. Still a bit handy for the good guys.

Threepio being "unfinished" was a bad move. It didn't feel enough like him, esp. considering the film desperately needed familiarity amongst all the new faces. Also considering his completion wasn't explained in AOTC. An alternative that could of been equally good could of been that 3PO was in the service of the Queen also, thereby placing him in the story for the whole film and linking him with R2 sooner.

R2s intro is the best of any classic character in the saga. Establishing exactly what hes all about, saving the rest of our heros time and again.

Good opening reaching its pinnacle with the sabre through the blast door bit.


All in all, not bad for a difficult movie to make and get right considering all the expectations etc. However a few minor changes at script stage, often to simplify the story - take away the disguised Queen element, move 3PO into the Naboo circle, remove planet core sequence, remove the excesses of Jar Jar, remove midichlorians mention, all allowing more time for a decent space battle and a better executed ground battle.

Just occurred that if the midichl

 

Ok fine...

If no-one wants to talk to me I shall take my comments and thoughts and post them in StarDudes thread: "

Things I, the biggest gusher ever, would change about TPM"

Then maybe he'll blank me too....


THREAD LOCKED......


I hope you're all happy!

 

We are happy!

 

DAMI-WAN-KENOBI,

Your post has about a dozen threads worth of points in it.

I could write a reply, but it would be not much more than "I agree with X, I disagree with Y", which isn't much fun.

You have presented your opinions on various subjects, most of which have been discussed to death over the last 4 years, but failed to explain why you feel the way you do about them. "Jake Lloyd was great." "Midichlorians were bad."

Those may be a couple of reasons you got no responses (at least, they're why I decided to click elsewhere...)
Hope they help.

 

The whole Queen in disquise plot just wasn't needed. It was badly done.There was no reason for it.

Not sure about this one. I thought it was okay. It represents the theme of duality that's so prevalent in TPM. Then again, I do see what you mean and it could have worked differently. What do you think of this? Queen Amidala (played by an older actress) and Padme (Natalie Portman) are 2 different people. The Queen gets killed during the final battle, handmaiden Padme assumes command of the group and captures the Viceroy, similar to what Luke does at Yavin. Padme's success propels her to Queen, Senator, whatever. Also, the 3 main characters of the PT (Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padme) would lose parental figures in the first episode but are defined differently by those events. This may have gone overboard with the "loss of parent" theme, however.

That said, I do like it the way it is.

 

Forcemaster101.....
How do I lock my own thread???? I seriously don't know! How can I make you happy until I am able to lock this thread?


Fair comments Scott3Eyez - I think that as I'd just seen the film again I wanted to spill my guts on it (good and bad) and didn't think much about wether it was a suitable structure for discusssion or not.

Although in my defence I have seen a trillion threads structured similarly, wherein posters just bite at whatever interests/enrages them.

Thanks for you comments anyway, and to answer your specific points Jake Lloyd was very natural, likable, impressive specifically in the emotional scenes and yet also captured the elements of Anakin that are essential and were carried through by Hayden in AOTC (the innocence, the emotionally led nature, being headstrong etc.). Midichlorians I felt were a clunky, clumsy and unimaginative way to try explain the force in a scientific/biological way when I just felt that the way it was, was adequate and in fact superior as the ambiguity was attractive.

Latorski - I think that sounds like a good alternative. I like the idea of all 3 central characters having a personal loss. Anyhow, however it would of been done, losing the "disguise" element would of been good I feel.


And finally to you all; I did intend to lock this thread (but dunno how) and I have posted my comments instead in StarDudes thread: " Things I, the biggest gusher ever, would change about TPM" as it seems a more free-for-all discussion.

 

I agree about Jake Lloyd. I think he's unfairly bashed around here.

 

"Also, the 3 main characters of the PT (Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padme) would lose parental figures in the first episode but are defined differently by those events."

This is pretty good point overlooked by most. The fate of the galaxy rests in the hands of 3 inexperienced heroes, much like the OT. This creates a whole new level to the PT.

 

The whole Queen in disquise plot just wasn't needed. It was badly done.There was no reason for it. ANH proved a royal woman need not be disguised to be at the heart of the action. Just suppose the escape from Naboo had been more difficult and only the Jedi, Jar Jar and the Queen had got away....?

That one got me! Must say I was more confused than surprised but when I thought about it, it was like, oh right yeah that could happen.

Why was the desert duel ended so badly. If QGJ could just leap up on to the ramp so could Maul. A kick to the ribs from QGJ just prior to the leap would of explained DM's inability to follow. Makes no sense......

I always felt it was meant to be done that way, there was no need for DM to follow QGJ he knew he would see him again.

Midichlorians. Pointless. Unnecessarry. The Force was perfectly adequately explained in the OT. It needed no more than that.

I never had a problem with the midiclorians, as far as I'm concerned it was just a scientific reason as to why the Force could work, not what the Force was, and therefore I never saw it as taking away from the mystic of the OT.

Good opening reaching its pinnacle with the sabre through the blast door bit.

The one part that sticks in my mind when I think of TPM. I just remember sitting in the cinema thinking "holy ****!"

I don't agree with quite a few of your comments but its interesting to see differing points of view