PT What was your Worth The Price Of Admission Scene in the Prequels?

Maul vs. QGJ / OWK.

 

It is better. Opening scene ROTS is basically as you've described uncannily is the impact of what I was going through . In fact I thought to myself " This is too much entertainment...George don't do this to me!"

MJ

 

I honestly cannot think of just one scene. I feel the same way about the other five films.

 

Practical Effects of course!!! Fun Fact: Did you know the PT was shot in a desert? I mean a REAL DESERT!!!!!!!

 

Except for ROTS.

Which is also consistently rated the highest of the prequels on fan polls, not to mention having the highest rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, IMDb, etc.

Oh, the inhumanity!

 

You win this thread!!!

 

Yoda vs. Dooku​

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In a way, this may be the single most relatively obscene moment in all of Star Wars. This is it. All or nothing. Go for broke. This is the moment where Lucas usurped the sacred: fandom nostalgia for the humble, minimalist, Zen-stoicism earthen Yoda of the OT—transforming said 900 year-old Jedi Master into a whirling, Nintendo generated, Star Wars wuxia-superhero. And it was glorious. It was...forward, all ahead flank; space myth warped with digi-painting technology. Puppets and animatronics are great for musty storybook, tableau-like imagery, but this was the first time Lucas could invigorate his pulp fantasy laser swordsmen at pulp speed, and with stagey master shots evoking Chinese theater. Does it look silly? It looks absurd! ...yet with pride.​

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Sure, in one sense Lucas was adamant that audiences not laugh at the sequence incredulously, out of mockery; and, sure, many hip-cynics with no zest have since done just that. But there is no doubt a kind of celebratory giddiness to be embraced here in watching Christopher 'Hammer' Lee semi-morph into a CG double of himself to engage in light show melee with Super Mario Yoda. And Yoda is so bizarre here, he's simply amazing. It's as if midichlorians are, in essence, pixels themselves, and in his moment of pure combat, Yoda becoming martially one with the former is to become wholly materialized by the latter and let loose across the screen with what would have been surrealistic effect, if not for the fact that it all happens too fast to even be surreal. It's more like a dizzying burst of comic art splash-page.​

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This was the moment when, in retrospect, I was sitting in the movie theater not wanting to be anywhere else. Price of admission, hell yes.​

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Wonderful pick, Ingram_I -- and beautifully-articulated!

I have to say, this shot of Dooku looks a little odd, though...




The best bit of the confrontation, in my opinion, remains the "wizards duel" preceding the actual lightsaber engagement. Something that George had to be talked into adding to the movie!

So glad he did.

And I love that trash-talk dialogue from Dooku: "You have interfered in our affairs for the last time."

Mean, cheesy, and awesome. Exactly the kind of line and delivery that makes Star Wars endlessly rewatchable.

The symphonic B-movie extravaganza of our age.

I also like the Matrix-y/Don Davis-inspired musical cue that initiates the moment Yoda reaches for his Jedi weapon. Perfect cross-contamination.

Star Wars at its craziest, pastiche-driven, self-knowing best.

 

Now this is what I was looking for in this thread. Brilliant thoughts there Ingram.

I picked out my two favs parts though. The first pic Yoda is locked with Dooku as their sabers clash and hold. What I think is awesome here is Yoda would have non of it! He pushes away Dooku's saber not willing to try outmuscle the "younger" opponent into mano mano "im stronger than you" kind of thing. Yoda isn't falling for that temptation. We see Dooku try that with Anakin early at the start of ROTS "you have hate, you have anger...". Obi Wan for that matter also tried to outdo Dooku as he locked swords and FAILED miserably because Dooku was able to graze his arm and leg.

Second pic, Yoda says my fav line ever by Yoda in SW. "Fought well you have, my old Padawan". Exemplifying Obi Wan's line to Luke " ..weapon of a civilized age". This point I remarked in sometime back in another thread.

Well done Ingram. Thank you!

MJ

 

Well, I was only old enough for ROTS in theatres, so to that I answer:

All

 

Not really a scene, but I don't know any other threads to share great shots, so:

Anytime I watch this wide shot of the Senate building with the Coruscant sunset (great imagery and symbolism by Lucas - the sun is setting on the Republic after Anakin has killed the Separatists), I just fall in love with RotS all over again. I've watched the movie like 50 times now, and this shot always gets me. The music that plays along also adds to the effect.

 

Very nice, Thiazzi. I agree that the shot is quite incredible. Good reading, too.

The prequels certainly have some very beautiful establishing shots, in my opinion (and much else, too, of course). A visual odyssey.

One similar to your pick -- and, at the same time, nothing like it (actually, it makes a nice contrast, I think) -- is the establishing shot of the queen's ship coming in to land in the forest on Naboo as our heroes return to recapture the planet. It's an incredibly stirring, romantic shot. At its barest essence, it's three elements: a blue sky, acres of trees, and a gleaming chrome ship, shaped something like a chevron, sleek and bold. I love the way the camera follows the ship as it zooms across the screen and descends through the trees. Completing the shot, a flock of birds flies off, disturbed by the strange vessel's mighty wake. The music that accompanies the moment is suitably regal, too. It's a magnificent homecoming. One of those moments that really sets TPM apart from the rest. And yet, at the same time, it's tremendously Star Wars-y and Kurosawa-esque. Gorgeous, stunning wide shots are a prime visual fixture of the saga, and the prequel trilogy especially, and your mind can just drink them up. There is no set of films that can really rival these. IMO, anyway.

 

Ha! Good wording to accompany a very good observation.

Well, indeed. Really sets the tone.

A couple of things linking (specifically) the start of TPM and AOTC:

i) A peaceful ship coming in to land with "good" guys and being destroyed: toward Naboo (TPM) and from Naboo (AOTC).
ii) The presence of fog/vapour marking a killing/assassination attempt.

In TPM, these things take little longer to manifest. AOTC presents them "straight up", in the first scene, and things quickly move on.

Interestingly, in all three prequels, the first ships we see the heroes in actually get destroyed before the opening act is through.

In I and II, these ships have a bespoke quality, and are not replaced. In III, however, both heroes get a new-coloured variant (mass-produced war gear?) to depart to new worlds in.

And all six Star Wars movies have some kind of smoke or vapour effect very early on:

I: The Jedi being gassed.
II: Fog blanketing Coruscant.
III: Jedi flying through an explosion.
IV: Stormies cutting the door of the Tantive.
V: Probe droid impacting surface of Hoth.
VI: Vader walking down a ramp as jets of gas are venting.

The rhyming.... on and and on it goes.

 

Another excellent observation. Everything kind of goes wrong for the characters in the middle installment of both trilogies. I'll be really interested to see how the middle installment of the sequel trilogy handles this.

Wow! Very interesting catch. I hadn't really slammed those moments together before. I guess, in a way, the fog and the confetti are one (someone make a Buddhist joke out of this). One coloured, one colourless. Is it all just confetti? Have the characters any clue? Can we grasp anything here; or is it all just fog/confetti that only has life when you don't reach in and disturb the pattern?

Just thinking on this for a second, by way of extension of what I just said, you could also link up the confetti at the end of TPM with the clones at the end of AOTC. Or children throwing colourful pixels contrasted against white-suited clones (growth-accelerated children) with guns. Darth Sidious is "humanly" present as Chancellor Palpatine in both scenes, while the other characters have now split off.

The series, to me, is very rich in these remarkable rhymes and transitions.

 

TPM-all scenes with QGJ "your focus determines your reality" duel of fates and shimi

AOTC- anakin going super sith on the tuskens

ROTS- Every single second of that movie is amazing it's non stop action while adding depth to the SW mythos. This movie is Hayden's best performance he really portrays a young conflicted hero who ultimately makes the worst choices possible.

 

Yes!!! Etymologically, as well, the word "spectator" (this is definitely a big theme in AOTC: spectatorship/watching) is related to the word "spectre"/"ghost", which is what Palpatine is in his "true" form: the phantom menace.

Good observation with the suns and then blackness overtaking. This also means (again with the splitting) that there are actually (LOL this is crazy!) two suns in AOTC and ROTS (maybe more). One for the celebration at the end of TPM, two for Coruscant/Naboo at the end of AOTC, and two more, the "classic" two, at the very end of ROTS (although, if you include the full montage, I guess there are more than two).

And I like the fact that the galaxy "shrinks" in each movie with the closing shots. The celebration on Naboo is packed with people. Four people plus one officiator at the wedding on Naboo and characters not facing the camera. Two (plus baby Luke) at the end of Sith and characters again not facing the camera.

Much agreed.

"My story's in the visuals" is a direct quote of GL's. Of course, there are many others.

Few seem to take the man that seriously, though. It really isn't a cover. He clearly means it!

A remarkable design feature of AOTC (which I didn't consciously notice for ages) is how the movie begins with a lot of blues in many of its shots, but transitions to an intense orange in its latter half. It was only after I heard of Lucas pointing this out that I started looking -- and wow! This almost makes it a movie unto itself; I'm not aware of any other Star Wars movie being so conspicuously (or not -- like I said, I didn't notice for ages!) divided like this. When you see it, you can't stop. One thing I really like is how the blues in the first half are sometimes undercut by amber/orange in crossing-of-the-threshold moments for Anakin. One is the club when chasing Zam (the flashing yellow light around the entrance); another is the ceiling of the airbus when Anakin is leaving Coruscant with Padme. Both times are marked by Obi-Wan pulling him aside and essentially telling him to remain cool. Lovely visual design. Truly outstanding when you see how far it is taken.

I'm also a fan of the "pollyanna" look of TPM as you describe it. Love those Earth hues combined with a "storybook" flair. It's really outstanding (if you care for these things) when the heroes touch back down on Naboo (after that establishing shot I just described). Look at all those muted reds and browns when the heroes arrive at the Gungan sacred place. Now, this is just one colour scheme, for one movie!!! They all have their own. What's especially beguiling about the prequels, in my opinion, is that they are visually variegated -- or "dense" to use Rick McCallum's wording -- but also very controlled and unified (e.g., the aforementioned blue/orange thing going on in AOTC). It's quite surreal. Lucas' use of colour throughout these films, in my opinion, is spell-binding. And then there are all the other visual layers at work. I truly think these films are extraordinary.

Glad to have had this little diversion.

 

Spoiler: potential TFA spoilers

We've seen there are some jets of gas from a shuttle Kylo Ren gets off of too! Keeping up the patterns

 

I have several:

Qui-Gon meditating during his fight against Maul and Obi-Wan watching helplessly

Obi-Wan's death sticks moment in the club

Obi-Wan vs. Jango Fett

Obi-Wan and Dooku's psychological battle on Genosis (where Dooku tells Obi-Wan the truth)

Obi-Wan on Boga in RoTS (yup.)

Obi-Wan vs. Anakin in RoTS

 

Padme's Ruminations. I've said it many times around here, but once more can't hurt: this scene defines Star Wars for me.

 

It's a remarkable interlude. And the effect in the theatre was powerful.

I would just like to make another shout-out to the meditation scene in AOTC (kind of that movie's "ruminations" -- that or the scene between Anakin and Padme at the homestead before Anakin takes off on the speeder).

Not only visually-arresting, but I've realized how well this line connects onto Vader in the OT:

"Don't go. Your presence is soothing."
"I find your lack of faith disturbing."

That Vader guy. Easily gets all shook up.

 

This is an easy one for me...



When the PT was announced this is what I was waiting for. Oh boy were my expectations not only fulfilled but Lucas, Hayden and Ewan and everyone that worked on that scene just went above and beyond.

Who here doesn't feel even a little sympathy for Anakin as he lies there in torment, right before the only thing he can say to Obi Wan is an "I Hate You". That's it, that's when Darth Vader betrays and murders Anakin Skywalker.

Then Obi Wan, not being able to finish the task he was sent to perform, to destroy the Sith because Obi Wan still sees his friend Anakin down on that lava bank.. "I loved you Anakin...". A decision that would have powerful consequences for decades to come.

That was worth the price of admission for all 3 movies!

 

I was too young to remember much from any of the films or what I thought, but I do still remember the opening scene of RotS. I remember that it made me smile and I thought something along the lines of: "whoa, I'm really excited to be here and watch this., because it's totally awesome."

I guess that was my only true worth the price of admission moment, even though I didn't pay for the ticket