PT "Concentrate all your fire on the nearest starship"

Aside from this AOTC line not being in typical "Yoda Syntax," does anyone else think it sounds like they used a bad take? I was watching it tonight, and it just struck me how it seems like Frank Oz almost gives up on the take towards the end of the sentence. He starts off all enthusiastic, and by the time he gets to "starship," he's like, "Oh, damn, bad take... let's try it again."



(yes, I know this is REALLY, REALLY nitpicking! ha.)

 

Well remember, we're talking about a nearly 900 year old green guy who's used to being a mediator of peace, not a war general. It probably felt a bit awkward for him to suddenly be commanding the clone troopers in a loud battlefield, in a hectic battle that would start a galactic war. I'm sure he's under a lot of stress too, given how many Jedi had already been killed by then

So yeah. A somewhat strained command, almost dare I say with a touch of uncertainty, doesn't seem that ooc, to me at least

(Oh don't worry about nitpicking. We're Star Wars fans. We tend to do that)

 

Then you weren't really watching it.

Play it again (and again, and again), and note how surreal absolutely every element in that micro-moment really is.

 

Meh, doesn't bother me. What really sticks out now though is the fact that it's so obviously CGI. Ugh

 

So he's "holding the prequels wrong?"

 

I refer you back to my previous post.

The prequels can't be held by anyone.

 

Steve Jobs? IPhone 4 antennagate? No? Not funny?

 

There *is* something very Apple-y about the clones, and the way Obi-Wan's discovery of them is both broadly and tightly intercut with Anakin's dalliances with Padme -- including Anakin levitating and cutting into an assortment of pixels that, in relation to other pixels, magically seems like a piece of fruit -- isn't there?

 

Kamino always struck me as Apple design fantasy land

 

It seemed to me, when I first watched this movie, and when I've watched again a couple of weeks ago, that something didn't seem right with that line coming from Yoda. Now that you mention it!

"On the nearest starship concentrate all your fire." Yoda should have said...

 

To be fair, he isn't always consistent with that speech pattern

"Will he finish what he begins?"

 

"What he begins will he finish?"

Yeah, the use of the Yoda syntax for this line in Empire would have been a little weird.

 

or

"Finish what he begins will he?"

I guess if it's written in standard English or Yoda's pattern depends on just how the line sounds to the ones writing it

Couldn't quite imagine Yoda saying "Create a perimeter around the survivors", even if "Around the survivors a perimeter create" sounds a bit odd even for him

 

He could've just said: "Surround the survivors, you must!" As he said it in the movie, I bet it was confusing to a lot of people.

 

As opposed to obvious rubber, latex, plastic, etc...?

True, and there's a common misconception that such inconsistency originated in the PT. Which is obviously not true.

 

Off topic. This scene holds up really well IMO. The clones look fantastic.

 

"Around the survivors a perimeter create" sounds ok to me. It's very "Yodaish" if I could say.

 

Good spot.

Yoda often tries to sound a bit magical, and even articulates with his hands, in gentle, subtle movements, which looks like he's casting these magic spells.

But maybe, in the case of the line under discussion, he just couldn't get his mind to obey those principles (he is, after all, calling for the obliteration of an enemy vessel). It's a small "tell" on his part.

And that's merely one reading on the "character"/"motivation", level. Not always the most reliable of levels to read these films on.

"This R2 unit has a bad motivator, look!"

 

The real inconsistency is between the OT and the PT. In the OT Yoda uses old, but gramatically correct archaic English. Lawrence Kasdan deliberately wanted him to sound medieval. In the PT Yoda's grammar is just plain wrong. It turned into a gimmick to make him sound funny.

PT Yoda would have said:

Do or not do, no try there is.

Doesn't sound so great, does it...

 

Ive never even noticed they speak somewhat grammatically different. And if they do, i doubt it was done on purpose so they could try to make yoda sound funny.

 

Maybe not, but it appears GL didn't know what LK was going for, or didn't care.

 

Really, the syntax doesn't bother me (it's obviously meant as a throwback to "Concentrate all fire on that Super Star Destroyer" from ROTJ), it's just Oz's delivery of the line that seems questionable, the way it kind of drops off when he says "star-ship." It reminds me a bit of how in Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, they used a slightly off take of Harrison saying, "Part time!", despite the fact that a better take was obviously available since it was used in the trailers.

Again, I know this is nitpicking to the extreme, and it doesn't ruin the scene for me at all. It's just something that jumped out at me.

Haha... very diplomatic of you! "Surreal" certainly sounds nicer than "fake." (Although, maybe I'm in the minority here, but I actually think that shot holds up fairly well.)

 

I also like the shot. Looks great. In fact, the only time the clones looked off for me was their introduction on Kamino, the rest of the scenes they look great.

 

One of the best looking clones scenes in all the PT is the one with the clones advancing and firing through the dust. That never looks CGI to me, truly amazing job.

 

I agree, that scene looks amazing.