Star Wars is great!!!!!!!! (Spoilers Inside)

05/20/2005 05:23:52 AM · #26

Originally posted by magnon:

As a musician too, I'd have to say that John Williams' music for Star Wars is possibly the best film music ever made.

It's a strange thing with the soundtrack of EIII. I bought it on CD before the movie started, and I didn't like it that much. It just didn't sound as good as the soundtrack of the other five movies. But then, when I heard it during the movie, it was really good, and I liked it almost better than all the other ones (except for ESB).

For what concerns R2, it may be strange that he can do some things now that he won't do afterwards, but does that mean that he can't do them anymore? In EIV-EVI, R2 is never in a situation where any of the abilities he has in EI-EIII would have helped him.
I agree that there is a technical problem. Lucas had to make his design team come up with cooler ships, even though they were older for what concerns chronology. And then, technology seems to move backwards, which it never does.
Spoiler: Emperor Palpatine commands at the end of EIII that all droids be destroyed. Why the heck should he do that? He has a huge, powerful army and destroys it? And what happened to all the clones? I guess it's gonna be explained in the books and comics, but the movies should not leave out such important info, because it works against the plot. End of Spoiler.

They did manage to explain some remaining questions, like for example why C-3PO doesn't recognize Obi-Wan anymore in EIV, or why Palpatine/Sidious ever started the war at Naboo. I mean, when you saw EI, didn't you wonder why the Trade Federation started that blockade at Naboo?

For what concern's Hayden's acting: I agree that he lacks skill at some times, but the same is true for Nathalie as well. The scenes where she cries look too faked. But hey, I'm sure you all remember the scene where Luke finds out about his father? I didn't like the acting in that scene either. But it sure didn't ruin the movie! Everybody understood what was going on. The first time I saw the movie I was ten years old or so, it was in English and I didn't understand a word. But the struggle between good & bad, darkness & light was so palpable that you just couldn't get it wrong. John Williams emphasized that effect with his outstanding set of themes.

mocabela

Canon EOS-20D

05/20/2005 06:31:12 AM · #27

This post could potentially be a bit of a spoiler.

I actually thought both Natalie and Hayden did much better jobs at acting in Episode III than in their previous appearance(s) in the Star Wars movie(s). Anakin was, IMO, much more believable this time around - probably partly due to the bad '70s hair that makes him seem to fit better, and perhaps even resemble Luke a tad.

To me, this was by far the strongest of the newer trilogy; Episode 1 was silly and definitely my least favourite of the lot, and Episode 2 was (again, IMO) held together almost entirely by the fact that Ewan McGregor does a good job at making a potentially obnoxious character with some rather arrogant dialogue seem lovable, amusing, and recognizably Obi-Wan. If it weren't for him and the beautiful love theme (the musical love theme, that is - Across the Stars), I would probably not have liked the movie nearly as much. As it was, though, I actually liked Episode II quite a bit. Not as much as Episode III, but the difference between II and III is less than I and II in my book - I really thought I was disappointing, and was pleased with II.

Episode III does its job very well... it bridges the new and the old well - a lot better than I expected. And, being both a nerd and a girly girl, it made me a tad teary. I don't know if Episode III is really a movie I can watch by itself more than a couple of times though... it just leaves me wanting to watch the original trilogy so I can get over the fact that the movie is so sad (how could it not be?). At least Episode II ended on a bit of a happy note, even if there was doom in the air.

All that said, I think talking about the acting skills is a rather moot point. The acting in the original trilogy is atrocious almost across the board! As much as I love 'em, I can't deny that.

thewriterside

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

05/20/2005 07:46:36 AM · #28

What everyone is interpreting as bad acting is actually bad writing. Actors simply can't do any better than that when given poor material to work with (i'm talking about dialogue, not story). Portman was just as horrible as Christensen in some scenes, but look how great she is in every other film... Closer, for example. Christensen, fits perfectly as Anakin, but he just isn't that great of an actor. This "theory" is proven with viewings of Life as a House. The only time I've really seen him do a decent job in a lead role was in Shattered Glass. The only reasons Christensen gets casted are the look factor (during Ep. 3, five fifteen year old girls were sitting beside me, all of whom appeared to have heart attacks when he was shown shirtless) and because he owns the character he plays. It gets to the point where you couldn't imagine the character any different, which, in a way, can be viewed as good acting- just in the same type of round about way that Uwe Boll has become rich by consistently making films that can be described as candidates for the worst films of all time.

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

05/20/2005 11:22:06 AM · #29

You're right I didn't consider it that way. The lines I like the least (see previous post) were kitschy in themselves. It reminds me of EII: "I truly, deeply love you." WTF? From that point of view, the actors did a decent job. Big kudos to Ewan McGregor, he manage a seamless gradient from the young, restless padawan Obi-Wan to the old and wise Jedi Master Ben Kenobi.
However, there are some dialogues which are really good! The last scenes with Hayden and Ewan have a great script and are well acted.

Originally posted by mocabela:

The acting in the original trilogy is atrocious almost across the board!

I have to disagree. The only bad acting I have seen in the whole trilogy are the scene where Luke finds out about his father (which is saved, by the way, by the notorious "I am your father.") and the ewoks.
I mean, Harrison Ford as Han Solo was so credible that he never got rid of that reputation again. C-3PO and R2D2 are droids par excellence, even though they were acted by humans who were stuck in those metal disguises (I still feel pity for poor Kenny Baker).

And then, Lucas could easily have casted all those good actors in Hollywood, but they would have drawn too much attention. From the very beginning, he used almost only unknown actors for his main characters, except for one or two roles per movie (Sir Alec Guiness, Ewan McGregor, Liam Neeson, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Lee).
You all know what would have happened if Anakin had been acted by Leonardo Di Caprio. It would have ruined the movie, even if the acting would have been better.

cpurser

Canon EOS-5D

05/20/2005 11:22:28 AM · #30

Sorry, I couldn't resist :-)

theSaj

Canon EOS-20D

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

05/20/2005 12:23:15 PM · #31

Clones = storm troopers

R2 does use some of the same things...

1) the zapper he uses in Return of the Jedi against Jabba's little pet creature

2) the grapple he uses in the tug of war with Yoda in TESB with the food ration

So a lot of these things are not inconsistencies...just people not remembering. The one real added feature are the jump jets. Which make total sense for an astromech. But then, remember he is 50 yrs old by Episode IV. And now considered an out of date unit. They probably malfunctioned way back when and he was older and no longer doing the heavy astromech work and therefore didn't need them. And imagine trying to find replacement parts. Try finding parts to fix a model T. Not easy. And one must remember the X-wings and Y-wings of Star Wars were actually old out of date fighters .

05/20/2005 03:14:55 PM · #32

I guess that makes sense.
But X-Wings were not at all out of date, they were just simply "cheap". X-Wings are still used during the Suuzan Vong attack when Leia and Han's children are teenagers, and Luke is already married.
You saw those republic fighters in EIII, didn't you? The X-Wing fighters are an evolution of those.

mocabela

Canon EOS-20D

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

05/20/2005 03:17:04 PM · #33

I agree that dialogue is the majority of the reason that the acting is so poor in the SW movies... but I still think that the acting was pretty bad in the original trilogy, too. Again, this could easily be from the dialogue - I mean, come on, how many times does Luke really have to say, "Where could he be?" in the same whiny, exasperated tone? :) But as much as I love Han Solo, Harrison's acting was not always top notch, and Carrie Fisher/Leia.... come on :) Carrie may have been Leia, but that doesn't necessarily mean her acting was fantastic. All of these people were pretty new to the game aside from Alec Guiness, who did a great job, and they had imperfect dialogue to work with.

Perhaps it is the fact that Obi-Wan is such an interesting person, with his odd blend of being both lovable and a tad arrogant, that makes him the best-performed character; or maybe Obi-Wan just gets the best lines and actors.

The fact that Luke's character was rather annoying at first is the only reason I was able to accept Anakin being extraordinarily annoying in Episode II; Luke was much better acted (I think part of the problem with the new movies is that the actors were less suited to the dialogue; Natalie Portman's a good actress, but she really stumbled over some of her lines in Episode I/II simply because they weren't really written for her ("I will retire." comes to mind from Ep II - it sounds very, very forced, even though it's a very simple line; it just doesn't seem to be in her natural style, or something)) but perhaps the characters are just genetically whiny :) I still feel that both Hayden and Natalie did far better in Episode III, though.

And, of course, Ewan was fantastic. They really went all out matching his hair, beard, etc. for his transition into Alec/older Obi-Wan.

I liked watching the evolution of the eventual Storm Troopers, too... and the vague explanation of where Anakin came from. They pretty much covered all the bases and tied up all of the loose ends, which I really didn't think they were going to manage to do. Yay Episode III!

rscorp

Nikon D70

05/20/2005 03:49:08 PM · #34

I haven't seen it yet but looking forward to it, especially since the reports are that it's much better than 1 & 2. Which is not hard to do.

By the way, Lucas did not redeem himself in terms of the writing....he just finally realized that he can't write himself out of a wet paper bag anymore and hired third-party writing teams for this one.

So maybe no more lines like "I don't care what Universe you're from..."
Hmmm...thought there was only one of those. Galaxy maybe??

The one thing I'm hoping for is a slow-motion death scene for Jar-Jar, where they replay it over and over again from different angles so you can watch him die repeatedly for maybe 5 full minutes.

thewriterside

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

05/20/2005 03:59:54 PM · #35

Originally posted by gloda:

However, there are some dialogues which are really good! The last scenes with Hayden and Ewan have a great script and are well acted.

VERY TRUE! The dialogue wasn't bad throughout, it was just in a few large spots.