Incredible 70min review of Phantom Menace

Roar · 11-10-2010 12:50PM

Goldstein wrote: »

Although strangely, I could live with it after he relegated it from Science Fiction to Science Fantasy, that was a well observed concession.

space adventure film! set in the future! of space!

pixelburp · 11-10-2010 01:01PM

Watched his Star Trek review; it's excellent & funny stuff, and thankfully kept the pyscho stuff to a minimum - hate that, though the cat jokes were funny. He makes a lot of interesting points but rather than come out with an overall positive opinion of the film, I thought Star Trek fairly awful stuff. Great SFX but terrible, terrible plot & characters

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar · 31-12-2010 02:43PM

http://www.redlettermedia.com/

review of star wars ep 3 is FINALLY up

not as good as the other two, there've been a few moments where I've thought to myself "well.. there could have been a good reason for such and such" and I'm not even a big star wars fan

still, moments of lol.

decided today that I'm going to give the first 3 movies another chance, they never blew me away when I watched them before but after seeing plinkett destroy the prequels and continously big up the original 3 movies I'd like to watch them again with some of his insight in the back of my mind.

jpm4 · 31-12-2010 08:08PM

Yeah the new one is pretty dissapointing....definite sense of it having jumped the shark. Doesn't really go into the film in an awful lot of detail either. No funny asides like the hooker-in-the-basement from Episode 2, except towards the end and it sucked really.

Still the first two were hilarious.

BopNiblets · 31-12-2010 09:54PM

He's spot on about the direction of people just talking and sitting on couches though, I'm no film school student but once it's pointed out to you it's really obvious why Lucas sucks at directing now.

I wonder has anyone made an effort to rewrite the prequels even on a fanfiction basis?
Surely there must exist a better story of our beloved Vader origin?
Where's Timothy Zahn when you need him?!

CornWallises38 · 31-12-2010 10:20PM

Sorry I just can't watch this review, his voice does my head in. He has some fair points and all, but he just sounds like an intoxicated version of Microsoft Sam.

loveissucide · 02-01-2011 02:27AM

BopNiblets wrote: »

He's spot on about the direction of people just talking and sitting on couches though, I'm no film school student but once it's pointed out to you it's really obvious why Lucas sucks at directing now.

It has to be borne in mind George Lucas spent much of the 80's and 90's a paranoid near-recluse.It's hardly a surprise a man who was never known for his dynamic personality might be a bit out of touch.

quarryman · 02-01-2011 01:00PM

loveissucide wrote: »

It has to be borne in mind George Lucas spent much of the 80's and 90's a paranoid near-recluse.It's hardly a surprise a man who was never known for his dynamic personality might be a bit out of touch.

link?

BopNiblets · 02-01-2011 02:29PM

I was going to say something about him iving in his own Skywalker Ranch out in the middle of nowhere but apparently he doesn't live there, he just works there.
I bet he spents a lot of time in it though.

ValJester · 02-01-2011 06:14PM

loveissucide wrote: »

It has to be borne in mind George Lucas spent much of the 80's and 90's a paranoid near-recluse.It's hardly a surprise a man who was never known for his dynamic personality might be a bit out of touch.

Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, which is admittedly very hateful towards him.

bonerm · 02-01-2011 06:29PM

BopNiblets wrote: »

I was going to say something about him iving in his own Skywalker Ranch out in the middle of nowhere but apparently he doesn't live there, he just works there.
I bet he spents a lot of time in it though.

This is right. The greatest 'trick' he ever pulled off (intentionally or otherwise) was somehow making people think he lived at Skywalker Ranch. His actual home is located in San Anselmo in Marin County and whilst not Skywalker Ranch is however is still quite impressive too. ( Bit of trivia I just learnt today is that the shot in ESB where the Dagobah slug creature swims by camera was actual filmed in the swimming pool out in his backyard!)

As to yer mans Ep3 review, I think the novelty has worn off. He's just looking for problems in what is essentially a fairly decent movie. Whilst he was able to point-out actual core problems in Ep1 and Ep2 here is simply nit-picking for the sake of it.

jaykhunter · 18-01-2011 01:12AM

One of the points Plinkett brings up in the Episode 3 review got me thinking. He postulates that the fans ruined the Star Wars Prequels -- because Darth Vader (basically just a scary general that goes in with the troops and TCBs) became so popular, he now wrote the prequels to tell the backstory of Vader, which wouldn't/(shouldn't?) have been the case. He let the outside world influence the world of Star Wars.

What do you think - Was it a huge mistake to make the prequel focussed on the character-arc of Anakin Skywalker? Or was it a good idea and Lucas is just a poor writer who isn't capable of doing something like that well?

Goldstein · 18-01-2011 01:50AM

jaykhunter wrote: »

What do you think - Was it a huge mistake to make the prequel focussed on the character-arc of Anakin Skywalker? Or was it a good idea and Lucas is just a poor writer who isn't capable of doing something like that well?

well, both is the answer to that but the biggest mistake imo from an overall perspective was the chronological positioning of eps I to III. Noone cares what protagonists/antagonists were like as children (caprica is another example). Huge error in judgement to devote a whole movie to that.

Instead start at epII and have the 3rd movie take place between eps III and IV - far more interesting as we didn't even get to see Vader do anything except the cringe-inducing "noooo". So Lucas even failed to tell darth vader's story properly, which was supposedly the central theme.

jaykhunter · 18-01-2011 01:53AM

Goldstein wrote: »

Instead start at epII and have the 3rd movie take place between eps III and IV - far more interesting as we didn't even get to see Vader do anything except the cringe-inducing "noooo". So Lucas even failed to tell darth vader's story properly, which was supposedly the central theme.

Jaysus, I couldn't agree more. That's something I always bring up when talking about Star Wars! Would you just drop "Ep I" completely or maybe do a nightmare/flashback sequence in "Ep II"?

One thing though. I liked the "NOOOOO!"
*grabs coat and runs out the door*

Goldstein · 18-01-2011 02:03AM

jaykhunter wrote: »

One thing though. I liked the "NOOOOO!"
*grabs coat and runs out the door*

I must admit, it does make me smile alright as it reminds me of the entire cinema erupting into laughter but I'm not sure if that's the tone Lucas was aiming for

mikhail · 18-01-2011 04:22PM

jaykhunter wrote: »

One of the points Plinkett brings up in the Episode 3 review got me thinking. He postulates that the fans ruined the Star Wars Prequels -- because Darth Vader (basically just a scary general that goes in with the troops and TCBs) became so popular, he now wrote the prequels to tell the backstory of Vader, which wouldn't/(shouldn't?) have been the case. He let the outside world influence the world of Star Wars.

What do you think - Was it a huge mistake to make the prequel focussed on the character-arc of Anakin Skywalker? Or was it a good idea and Lucas is just a poor writer who isn't capable of doing something like that well?

I think it was pretty natural for Lucas to focus on Vader. Plinkett's arguably correct about Vader's role in A New Hope, but that doesn't hold true thereafter. Vader is central to The Empire Strikes Back; his revelation to Luke is among the best known (and most misquoted!) lines of dialogue in cinema. Then the third film is about Luke's trying to save him.

Besides, Plinkett doesn't say that focussing on Vader is a fatal mistake. He just says that if you're going to do that, you might want to write a character people will give a damn about, and Lucas failed at that.

Incredible 70min review of Phantom Menace

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