Spielberg and AOTC

"Its just too short, and too flat. For the start of Anakin's fall, the emotional tension of the scene should have been phenomenal, instead we have a scene which feels like Lucas just wanted over and done with. The fact that audiences actually laughed during that scene, possibly the single most important scen in the saga, should be a pretty good indication that he did a poor job."


Personally, I think that says more about how many immature idiots go to the movies rather than whether Lucas did a bad job.
I remember reading an article about inner city school kids being shown Schindler's List and laughing at it. I guess that means Spielberg did a "poor job" with that film, too.
I don't deny that the acting and dialogue in AOTC could have been better, but that was more than made up by the film's triumph in every other area. Spielberg has made some real masterpieces in the last decade, but I don't think he's made a fun adventure movie since Jurassic Park. The Lost World seemed to indicate that he's lost interest in that type of filmmaking, so I don't see why he'd even want to direct a Star Wars film.

 

>>>Its just too short, and too flat. For the start of Anakin's fall, the emotional tension of the scene should have been phenomenal, instead we have a scene which feels like Lucas just wanted over and done with. The fact that audiences actually laughed during that scene, possibly the single most important scen in the saga, should be a pretty good indication that he did a poor job.<<<

See, I liked this. A few pages back, someone remarked that Spielberg would have made it a big schmaltz-fest, showing close-ups of Anakin's every tear. That is on the money.

One of the things I like about Lucas is that he doesn't over-do it. If Shmi's death were a big sad cry-fest, we would have been too emotionally exausted to get the full impact of Anakin's descent to the darkside.

Sure, Anakin's mom dying is a pretty emotional moment. But it's nothing compared to his REACTION to her death. The death itself was just sad enough, IMO. And then the emotional climax, Anakin's slaughter confession, was played perfectly. And then the funeral was a good resolution.

Same thing goes for action sequences. Lucas removed a good deal of the Arena Monster music, because it was too tense...leaving everyone too exhausted for the jedi/clone battles. Of course, all us fans who have heard the soundtrack beforehand see the movie, and we're furious that he'd get rid of John Williams' work. But in the end, it was a good choice. The finale's build-up from monsters to jedi to clones to lightsabers to Yoda worked really well.

 

Not sure Lucas removed that music during the arena because it was to tense, Vlad. More likely, it had to with last minute editing, and the music originally intended for the scene, no longer fit.

Either way, I sure missed hearing it. That was easily some of the best stuff on the soundtrack.

 

Perhaps GL wanted to save some of that music for EP3. I mean, JW is great but one of these days he's gonna run out of ideas! We wouldn't want that to happen for EP3.

 

>>>Not sure Lucas removed that music during the arena because it was to tense, Vlad. More likely, it had to with last minute editing, and the music originally intended for the scene, no longer fit.<<<

According to Ben Burtt(editor), that's exactly why they took it out. In some interview a while back, he mentioned that in an earlier cut, they were tired out after just the monster sequence, so they toned down the music and stuff. It was a pretty cool interview, I'll try and find it if you want.

>>>Either way, I sure missed hearing it. That was easily some of the best stuff on the soundtrack.<<<

I agree, it was good stuff. But I guess I understand that they took it out. And I'm glad they had a legitimate reason for it, rather than pulling a "oh we decided to add one more meaningless shot and the music didn't sync up, so we scrapped it altogether" type deal.

 

This thread is a lot like TPM. After all is said and done, all I can remember is Shelley/Jar-Jar's ranting.