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I think, like many other Star Wars babies, I was disappointed in The Phantom Menace.
Not because of Jar-Jar or that stupid wide-faced Anakin-mannequin.
But because it was boring. Lucas said this is the 1st instalment, designed to introduce us to the characters and set-up for the next two movies. But nothing happened.
And then I wondered why Star Wars/Empire/Jedi hold such a grip, even after 20+ years. For me, it introduced me to cinema. I saw Star Wars when I was 4, I remember sitting in the big cinema and watching the curtains go back, reading the scrawl at the start and not paying any attention to it.
And most of all, I remember the Star Destroyer coming into view with a huge rumble.
For a 4yr old, that is like witnessing creation itself.
And the ride that followed. Luke, Han, Chewie etc saving the universe, making friends and defeating the baddie. Everything a kid wants to do at that age. It had excitement, action, adventure, cool creatures, spaceships and Darth Vader. Good vs Evil, pure and simple.
Obi-Wan, the kind old man that looked out for Luke and taught him Jedi stuff. But he’s dead?! NO! This can’t be, me and my mates were just as shocked and upset as Luke was when Vader lopped Kenobi in half.
I wanted to be Han Solo, cocky and cynical, a loveable rogue with an 8ft dog for a sidekick.
Empire Strikes Back came out three years later, and it was like revisiting old friends.
This was before the invention of video, so you never saw a movie once it left the cinema screen again until 6-7yrs later when it appeared on tv.
You created Star Wars for yourself with the toys, made your own sequels on many an weekend and night with your mates in houses and gardens up and down the country.
And there was Han Solo again, and he was still rescuing Luke Skywalker from death, and there’s Chewie. And Leia! This is perfect.
And then AT-AT Walkers came and snowspeeders for the Hoth Battle. This is magic, pure nirvana for a kid. All those characters you loved and had the toys for were back in front of you.
And there’s Darth Vader, still being evil and with another Death Star being built.
And some green thing called Yoda? But here’s Obi-Wan again.
Oh can this get any better?
Han Solo gets frozen in carbonite and given to Boba Fett. Boo! Hiss! Bad Boba Fett.
Luke decides to smash Vader to bits and gives it some.
This kid was grinning from ear to ear at the thought of Luke Skywalker, who I had watched go from a farm-boy orphan on Tattooine to a Jedi apprentice finally going to defeat Vader.
But what? Vader cuts his hand off? This can’t be happening, 1st Solo gets screwed over and now Luke is going to get his?
And then the defining cinema moment for my generation, the lines that had playgrounds buzzing for months, “Luke, I am your father.”
?!?!?!?!?
Vader, the prince of darkness is Luke’s dad? This is worse than being told there is no Father Christmas.
He cant be Luke’s dad, no way!
So, I am 7 and I have to wait to find out what is happening to my friends?
Han Solo, my hero is gone, frozen forever.
Luke has his hand chopped off and finds out Vader is his dad? And Empire ends here?
This is torture, this is worse than Xmas Eve when you can’t sleep. What is happening to Solo and Luke? Surely Vader can’t win?
And we wait for 3 years to find out what will happen.
I can’t tell you the joy at sitting there with my mate as “Return of The Jedi” started. We had waited 3 years to find out what will happen. The events of Empire are still fresh in our minds, Vader is Luke’s dad, Solo is gone. God only knows what’s going to happen in this one.
And it starts with Jabba laughing at Solo in carbonite. And there’s Lando, and Leia! They’re going to rescue Han. No, they get captured and Leia is forced to wear that outfit? (A 10yr old boy suddenly realises that girls aren’t icky and boy, do they look different to us).
Doom, certain doom for everyone I have grown up watching and played the toys of.
But here comes Luke.
Rescues everyone, stupid Ewoks turn up and Luke has the mother of all showdowns with his dad, redeeming himself and this 10yr old boy watched Vader, childhood villain, die as an old man.
Three perfect films for growing up with. I started at 4 and finished at 10. These were characters that I had the toys of, the books, characters that me and my mates played out for ourselves (I always got to be Han, that was the rule).
I had seen a farm-boy go from a hopeful star-pilot wannabe to a Jedi Master. Vader, Dark Lord of Sith died a frail old man, begging for forgiveness from his son. Han and Leia got it together!
These people developed over 10 years, my formative years and yielded surprise after surprise. I knew these people well and went along with them on their journey.
And then The Phantom Menace came out.
And it sucked. Not totally, but it was just not good.
And I know why, for me, Phantom Menace failed as a Star Wars movie.
I already knew the ending to the story.
Phantom Menace, Attack of The Clones and Episode 3. Doesn’t matter how good they are, we already know what happens at the end.
It removes any element of surprise or “Christ I don’t believe it!” moments like Vader being Luke’s dad.
Obi-Wan is never in danger, we’ve seen him die already. We know Anakin will become Vader and die at the hands of his son.
We know he will have two kids, and we know their fates.
There is nothing you can surprise us with, simply because we’ve seen how it ends already.
We know The Empire will fall, we know Jedi will prevail, we know Yoda is The Daddy.
We know Boba Fett dies, we know every single outcome to the next 3 films.
They’re redundant.
Doesn’t matter how in jeopardy the main players get, we have already seen the end.
Sure, use minor characters and explain the history, but it’s like someone tells you the ending of a book and then starts to read.
Every little incident, you think “Oh right, so that’s why so-and-so happened”, but you’re just waiting for the end, waiting to see how it ties together.
The Phantom Menace/Attack of The Clones/Episode 3 are pointless. They may be nice films but the main characters that we grew up with are missing.
But most importantly for me, no Han Solo.
He doesn’t show up until Episode 4. And it’s the first time he meets Obi-Wan and Luke, doesn’t believe in The Force and has never met any of the other characters, so you can’t squeeze him into the prequals.
Phantom Menace just didn’t say anything or hold any surprises at all, same is true with Attack of The Clones and Episode 3.
You can’t get excited about something you already know the ending to.
Not because of Jar-Jar or that stupid wide-faced Anakin-mannequin.
But because it was boring. Lucas said this is the 1st instalment, designed to introduce us to the characters and set-up for the next two movies. But nothing happened.
And then I wondered why Star Wars/Empire/Jedi hold such a grip, even after 20+ years. For me, it introduced me to cinema. I saw Star Wars when I was 4, I remember sitting in the big cinema and watching the curtains go back, reading the scrawl at the start and not paying any attention to it.
And most of all, I remember the Star Destroyer coming into view with a huge rumble.
For a 4yr old, that is like witnessing creation itself.
And the ride that followed. Luke, Han, Chewie etc saving the universe, making friends and defeating the baddie. Everything a kid wants to do at that age. It had excitement, action, adventure, cool creatures, spaceships and Darth Vader. Good vs Evil, pure and simple.
Obi-Wan, the kind old man that looked out for Luke and taught him Jedi stuff. But he’s dead?! NO! This can’t be, me and my mates were just as shocked and upset as Luke was when Vader lopped Kenobi in half.
I wanted to be Han Solo, cocky and cynical, a loveable rogue with an 8ft dog for a sidekick.
Empire Strikes Back came out three years later, and it was like revisiting old friends.
This was before the invention of video, so you never saw a movie once it left the cinema screen again until 6-7yrs later when it appeared on tv.
You created Star Wars for yourself with the toys, made your own sequels on many an weekend and night with your mates in houses and gardens up and down the country.
And there was Han Solo again, and he was still rescuing Luke Skywalker from death, and there’s Chewie. And Leia! This is perfect.
And then AT-AT Walkers came and snowspeeders for the Hoth Battle. This is magic, pure nirvana for a kid. All those characters you loved and had the toys for were back in front of you.
And there’s Darth Vader, still being evil and with another Death Star being built.
And some green thing called Yoda? But here’s Obi-Wan again.
Oh can this get any better?
Han Solo gets frozen in carbonite and given to Boba Fett. Boo! Hiss! Bad Boba Fett.
Luke decides to smash Vader to bits and gives it some.
This kid was grinning from ear to ear at the thought of Luke Skywalker, who I had watched go from a farm-boy orphan on Tattooine to a Jedi apprentice finally going to defeat Vader.
But what? Vader cuts his hand off? This can’t be happening, 1st Solo gets screwed over and now Luke is going to get his?
And then the defining cinema moment for my generation, the lines that had playgrounds buzzing for months, “Luke, I am your father.”
?!?!?!?!?
Vader, the prince of darkness is Luke’s dad? This is worse than being told there is no Father Christmas.
He cant be Luke’s dad, no way!
So, I am 7 and I have to wait to find out what is happening to my friends?
Han Solo, my hero is gone, frozen forever.
Luke has his hand chopped off and finds out Vader is his dad? And Empire ends here?
This is torture, this is worse than Xmas Eve when you can’t sleep. What is happening to Solo and Luke? Surely Vader can’t win?
And we wait for 3 years to find out what will happen.
I can’t tell you the joy at sitting there with my mate as “Return of The Jedi” started. We had waited 3 years to find out what will happen. The events of Empire are still fresh in our minds, Vader is Luke’s dad, Solo is gone. God only knows what’s going to happen in this one.
And it starts with Jabba laughing at Solo in carbonite. And there’s Lando, and Leia! They’re going to rescue Han. No, they get captured and Leia is forced to wear that outfit? (A 10yr old boy suddenly realises that girls aren’t icky and boy, do they look different to us).
Doom, certain doom for everyone I have grown up watching and played the toys of.
But here comes Luke.
Rescues everyone, stupid Ewoks turn up and Luke has the mother of all showdowns with his dad, redeeming himself and this 10yr old boy watched Vader, childhood villain, die as an old man.
Three perfect films for growing up with. I started at 4 and finished at 10. These were characters that I had the toys of, the books, characters that me and my mates played out for ourselves (I always got to be Han, that was the rule).
I had seen a farm-boy go from a hopeful star-pilot wannabe to a Jedi Master. Vader, Dark Lord of Sith died a frail old man, begging for forgiveness from his son. Han and Leia got it together!
These people developed over 10 years, my formative years and yielded surprise after surprise. I knew these people well and went along with them on their journey.
And then The Phantom Menace came out.
And it sucked. Not totally, but it was just not good.
And I know why, for me, Phantom Menace failed as a Star Wars movie.
I already knew the ending to the story.
Phantom Menace, Attack of The Clones and Episode 3. Doesn’t matter how good they are, we already know what happens at the end.
It removes any element of surprise or “Christ I don’t believe it!” moments like Vader being Luke’s dad.
Obi-Wan is never in danger, we’ve seen him die already. We know Anakin will become Vader and die at the hands of his son.
We know he will have two kids, and we know their fates.
There is nothing you can surprise us with, simply because we’ve seen how it ends already.
We know The Empire will fall, we know Jedi will prevail, we know Yoda is The Daddy.
We know Boba Fett dies, we know every single outcome to the next 3 films.
They’re redundant.
Doesn’t matter how in jeopardy the main players get, we have already seen the end.
Sure, use minor characters and explain the history, but it’s like someone tells you the ending of a book and then starts to read.
Every little incident, you think “Oh right, so that’s why so-and-so happened”, but you’re just waiting for the end, waiting to see how it ties together.
The Phantom Menace/Attack of The Clones/Episode 3 are pointless. They may be nice films but the main characters that we grew up with are missing.
But most importantly for me, no Han Solo.
He doesn’t show up until Episode 4. And it’s the first time he meets Obi-Wan and Luke, doesn’t believe in The Force and has never met any of the other characters, so you can’t squeeze him into the prequals.
Phantom Menace just didn’t say anything or hold any surprises at all, same is true with Attack of The Clones and Episode 3.
You can’t get excited about something you already know the ending to.
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I'm sorry to disagree with a lot of you, but I though Episode 1 was a brilliant movie.
I mean, yes, you know what happens in the future, but it's interesting to see how it actually happens, and the movie also had its own plot.
It had emotion, great battle scenes, amazing special effects, the odd bit of comedy and the lurrrvely Natalie Portman. In my opinion, the best of the lot.
And I think we forget about the huge amounts of work that went into the movie. Did you know that the whole of the Mos Espa set was destroyed by a huge storm in Tunisia-most of the pod-race engines were split in half.
I loved it. The only thing I didn't like was the occasional bit of bad acting from Jake Lloyd, but what do you expect?
You can all have your own opinions, and I don't really care. I don't think it sucked, but some of you do. That's your choice.
But you're all wrong of course. ;D
I mean, yes, you know what happens in the future, but it's interesting to see how it actually happens, and the movie also had its own plot.
It had emotion, great battle scenes, amazing special effects, the odd bit of comedy and the lurrrvely Natalie Portman. In my opinion, the best of the lot.
And I think we forget about the huge amounts of work that went into the movie. Did you know that the whole of the Mos Espa set was destroyed by a huge storm in Tunisia-most of the pod-race engines were split in half.
I loved it. The only thing I didn't like was the occasional bit of bad acting from Jake Lloyd, but what do you expect?
You can all have your own opinions, and I don't really care. I don't think it sucked, but some of you do. That's your choice.
But you're all wrong of course. ;D
Goatboy wrote:
> Wait for Jay & Silent Bob Strikes Back for the Ultimate Mark Hamill cameo.
Go watch this film people. 30th November.
"Stop stealing monkeys"
> Wait for Jay & Silent Bob Strikes Back for the Ultimate Mark Hamill cameo.
Go watch this film people. 30th November.
"Stop stealing monkeys"
Wait for Jay & Silent Bob Strikes Back for the Ultimate Mark Hamill cameo.
Heheheh Mark Hamill. D'you that Simpsons episode with him in? Pure quality.
Still havent seen the Episode II trailor - Where can I get it??
You're just a fool.
:0)
Episode 2 trailer sucks too. At least the Episode 1 trailer was good.
:0)
Episode 2 trailer sucks too. At least the Episode 1 trailer was good.
I liked it! And I consider myself a Starwars 'True' fan too.
"Im a Starwars Know-all"
"Im a Starwars Know-all"
I reckon the fans could have wrote a better starting film.
Really.
Firstly, they would/have watched the films almost constantly. They know all the lines. They know everything about Star Wars.
They will not make stupid mistakes.
They also know, seriousness of being a Star Wars nerd aside, that it's all just a big bundle of good vs evil simple plot... and that's all it needs. We don't need a sodding trade federation. We don't need gungans.
Would a Star Wars fan have thought up a gungan?
Would a man stuck for ideas and trying to rip off his previous films come up with a gungan to try and appeal to an audience?
Stupid George. Even Mark Hamill is disappointed with him.
Really.
Firstly, they would/have watched the films almost constantly. They know all the lines. They know everything about Star Wars.
They will not make stupid mistakes.
They also know, seriousness of being a Star Wars nerd aside, that it's all just a big bundle of good vs evil simple plot... and that's all it needs. We don't need a sodding trade federation. We don't need gungans.
Would a Star Wars fan have thought up a gungan?
Would a man stuck for ideas and trying to rip off his previous films come up with a gungan to try and appeal to an audience?
Stupid George. Even Mark Hamill is disappointed with him.
The lightsaber duel in TPM was by far the best out of all the films! I thought TPM was awesome and cant wait for Episode II!!
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