Plinkett's Episode 3 review!!!!!

[Starkiller]

The OT was groundbreaking, the films were trendsetting and are legendary now. The PT are computer generated soulless nonsense that will be forgotten and made no mark on cinematic history. They are stains are on the faces of all Star Wars fans.

George is driving the once beloved franchise into the ground.

 

[Deak Starkiller]

Oh man, I hate to say it but these reviews always depress me. I try and fight to like the prequels and I do but these reviews make them defenseless. They guy makes a lot of good points, here is what I doing with my prequel collection ala SPACED.

 

[Jmek]

Ok, I'll just give a couple of examples on things I disagree with just for the sake of argument:

- His constant harping on the motives behind the Chancellor's actions and whether Grievous or Dooku where in on it, or how much they knew. He goes out of his way to make it sound confusing with some good editing and a rationale that goes in circles, but he always (willingly) misses the point that Palpatine was simply using everybody to his advantage. It didn't really matter whether Dooku won or Anakin won. Palpatine was just looking for the best apprentice/ally he could get and if others died in the way to that, well tough luck. It was elimination process. I never had any problems with it.

- His "lack of setting the tone" tirade. Wait a minute, so silly slapstick mixed together with confusing battles and brutal deaths wasn't used in ANH's famous opening sequence? Let's see: space battle that nobody really knows why is happening, ship that gets boarded and ensuing chaos as white "robots" storm in and start shooting at everything in sight, a golden humanoid robot that makes silly comments to a little round robot that speaks in noises walk through the middle of a fire-fight and remain unscathed, a big dude in black armor breaks somebody's neck while asking about some plans and accuses a Princess of being part of a rebellion. Right, that really set a "tone"...

- The opening sequence. So the fact that it is CGI makes it less impressive than if it were real camerawork? So there's no thinking process, no planning, no artistry involved in CGI? He just picks on it because it's CGI.

- Bad acting, bad dialogue. Please. All SW films are rife with it. OT fans just pick on the prequel because they are seeing it as adults and not as kids anymore. My kids saw the prequel films at roughly the same age as I was when I first saw Star Wars (it wasn't Ep. IV back then) and they love it and see it with the same sense of wonder and awe. And BTW, all SW films have their moments of great acting and dialogue as well.

And that's just a couple of things I noticed in the first twenty minutes of the review.

I mean seriously, it's just a guy who seemingly has some understanding of movie-making tearing the movies apart by trying to point out every single defect he sees through his very biased point of view.
I'm sure you can do that to most movies if you really put your effort into it.

I'm not saying the prequel movies are fantastic works of art. But neither are the OT movies. All have their cringe-worthy moments and their great moments.
But that's just my opinion.

Very succinctly put and I agree with you entirely

 

[ShadowX81]

Good review like the others, but I definatly disagree with Plinkett that the focus needed to be less on Anikan. From the beginning Lucas wanted the prequels to have Anikan be the main character. And out of the many well deserved criticisms that the prequels have recieved, not once have any of them involved Anikan needing to be a secondary character.

 

[Starkiller]

Oh man, I hate to say it but these reviews always depress me. I try and fight to like the prequels and I do but these reviews make them defenseless. They guy makes a lot of good points, here is what I doing with my prequel collection ala SPACED.

I think a lot of people always try to tell themselves they aren't that bad, but they are.

Good review like the others, but I definatly disagree with Plinkett that the focus needed to be less on Anikan. From the beginning Lucas wanted the prequels to have Anikan be the main character. And out of the many well deserved criticisms that the prequels have recieved, not once have any of them involved Anikan needing to be a secondary character.

Not a secondary character but less emphasis on him being this chosen one.

Plus in order to be a main character you need to be likable and relatable. Then the fall to the dark side would be even more tragic since we liked who Anakin was. But I don't think anyone liked his character or the development between the 3 films. You can develop a main character more sometimes by developing those around them and watching how they react to them. It worked well for Luke in the first trilogy.

 

[SwedishHeat]

Good review like the others, but I definatly disagree with Plinkett that the focus needed to be less on Anikan. From the beginning Lucas wanted the prequels to have Anikan be the main character. And out of the many well deserved criticisms that the prequels have recieved, not once have any of them involved Anikan needing to be a secondary character.

His point about Anakin needing to be a main character was balanced by the argument that he wasn't (the main character). If you compare Anakin's character arc to that of Luke's we actually SEE Luke's training, the 2nd act of ESB actually SHOWS Luke training to be a Jedi. . . we never see Anakin become a Jedi. We never saw Anakin grow as a character. We went from him being an 8 year old kid, to an 18 year old Jedi. There was SO MUCH of Anakin's character arc and growth that wasn't shown, just implied or mentioned off hand in a line of dialogue, whereas in the OT we saw moments and events in Luke's life that forced him to grow from a young adult into the Jedi Knight.

The problem is the OT follows the Hero's Journey, all that Joseph Campbell mythology stuff (classic story-telling structure) and the PT doesn't, and that's why the OT is such a revered set of films and the PT is just a convoluted mess.

 

[Starkiller]

Exactly to me the PT started 10 years too early. Anakin should have been a teenager when they "found" him. Omit Qui-Gon, Make Obi a little older and have him training Anakin.

The TPM started it all wrong, and way too early. No one cares about how they found the kid, or why they had to give him a messiah complex birthed to a woman with no father.

We didn't need Obi-Wan sitting on a ship waiting for a good part of TPM. We need a troubled teen Anakin that was a good kid but just had a rough life, and him somehow falling into the jedi order as Obi-Wan's apprentice. And then we could have had 3 films where their relationship was evolving and growing.

Anakin's arc would have been so much more believable and likable as a character. He's a good kid but going down the wrong road so to speak, Obi takes him under his wing and sets Anakin right he grows into a just and strong jedi, then starting at the end of the 2nd film and to the third...the dark side starts to "seduce him".

So much wasted time in that first film.

 

[Azrael23]

Not a secondary character but less emphasis on him being this chosen one.

That gimmick should have been dropped altogether. It was just added to simply make Anakin more important than he needed to be.
The OT was far more modest when describing Anakin and not once was it ever mentioned that Anakin was some prophesied Jedi.

Exactly to me the PT started 10 years too early. Anakin should have been a teenager when they "found" him. Omit Qui-Gon, Make Obi a little older and have him training Anakin.

The TPM started it all wrong, and way too early. No one cares about how they found the kid, or why they had to give him a messiah complex birthed to a woman with no father.

We didn't need Obi-Wan sitting on a ship waiting for a good part of TPM. We need a troubled teen Anakin that was a good kid but just had a rough life, and him somehow falling into the jedi order as Obi-Wan's apprentice. And then we could have had 3 films where their relationship was evolving and growing.

Anakin's arc would have been so much more believable and likable as a character. He's a good kid but going down the wrong road so to speak, Obi takes him under his wing and sets Anakin right he grows into a just and strong jedi, then starting at the end of the 2nd film and to the third...the dark side starts to "seduce him".

So much wasted time in that first film.

My sentiments exactly. TPM comes off as a prequel to a prequel. Wasting an entire film to something that has no real payoff in the
final act was bad on Lucas' part and it resulted in a rushed finale
and a sloppy attempt at tying both trilogies together.

 

[Starkiller]

That gimmick should have been dropped altogether. It was just added to simply make Anakin more important than he needed to be.
The OT was far more modest when describing Anakin and not once was it ever mentioned that Anakin was some prophesied Jedi.

My sentiments exactly. TPM comes off as a prequel to a prequel. Wasting an entire film to something that has no real payoff in the
final act was bad on Lucas' part and it resulted in a rushed finale
and a sloppy attempt at tying both trilogies together.

Glad I'm not the only one that feels this way. I liked him just being another jedi and great pilot. He could still have been one of the stronger jedi but headstrong and brash. Instead they made him the jesus of the jedi. Someone should tell Lucas that in order to bring balance to something both sides need to be in check. To whip out the darkside all together would bring INBALANCE to the force.

And why was the force so unbalanced? They had a JEDI TEMPLE! A damn school filled with thousands of jedis and jedis in training and what two sith lords...and the force was out of whack? If anything they needed more sith to balance the force.


The prophecy was one of the many things that hindered these films from being great.

 

[ShadowX81]

Plus in order to be a main character you need to be likable and relatable. Then the fall to the dark side would be even more tragic since we liked who Anakin was. But I don't think anyone liked his character or the development between the 3 films. You can develop a main character more sometimes by developing those around them and watching how they react to them. It worked well for Luke in the first trilogy.

Oh yea, I definatly think that pretty much the entire portayal of Anikan needed a major overhaul in every aspect. Writing, casting, image, age, maturity level, personality; everything was wrong about him. But Plinkt seemed to be implying that Darth Vader should have been more of a background character in the prequels, which I disagree with. In the end this was always meant to be Anikan's trilogy, and that in itself is not a bad idea.

 

[OSCORP]

Anakin********

 

[Starkiller]

Oh yea, I definatly think that pretty much the entire portayal of Anikan needed a major overhaul in every aspect. Writing, casting, image, age, maturity level, personality; everything was wrong about him. But Plinkt seemed to be implying that Darth Vader should have been more of a background character in the prequels, which I disagree with. In the end this was always meant to be Anikan's trilogy, and that in itself is not a bad idea.

See I'm not sold on this half baked idea of George's that Star Wars is "Anakin's story", as if it was planned the whole time. He made Star Wars and no matter what he claimed it's evident that he had no idea where it was going and none of the background story was fleshed in. Darth Vader was just another Empire villain the SS commander of Tarkin's squad so to speak.

I don't think Anakin's story needed to be told. It should have been Ben's. he would have made a stronger character and we all liked him. Anakin could play supporting role.

 

[Boba Ben]

It makes no difference since everything is said and done considering the prequels, but I would have really liked to have seen the friendship between Obi-Wan and Anakin develop similarly to the way Luke and Han became friends throughout the original trilogy. I never really felt there was that real friendship between the two characters that Obi-Wan fondly remembered in the original Star Wars. It seemed like Obi-Wan was always annoyed with Anakin and Anakin was constantly complaining about Obi-Wan controlling him.

 

[Starkiller]

I never really felt there was that real friendship between the two characters that Obi-Wan fondly remembered in the original Star Wars. It seemed like Obi-Wan was always annoyed with Anakin and Anakin was constantly complaining about Obi-Wan controlling him.

I think a lot of us feel this way. The warm recollections Obi-Wan tells to Luke when they first met up in the beginning of the ANH doesn't match up to what the prequels showed us. I never saw them being good friends...it seemed Anakin was a pain to control and annoyed Obi, and the only reason he stuck with it was that lame promise to Qui-Gon. And Anakin was never ever really a good friend he challenged Obi-Wan daily, and was a little cocky bastard really.

 

[icruise]

And why was the force so unbalanced? They had a JEDI TEMPLE! A damn school filled with thousands of jedis and jedis in training and what two sith lords...and the force was out of whack? If anything they needed more sith to balance the force.

Actually, I think that's kind of what Lucas had in mind. While I agree that the whole prophecy thing was dumb, you can argue that Anakin did in fact bring balance to the force. As you say, it was skewed too far in the direction of the Jedi and through Anakin's actions (directly and indirectly) almost all of the Jedi died. At the start of the OT you only have two Jedi (Obi-wan and Yoda) and two Sith (Vader and the Emperor), which is pretty close to balance, although the Jedi are probably weaker. Over the course of the movies, this is whittled down until all you have left is Vader, Luke, and the Emperor. In the end Vader chose Luke, presumably bring balance back to the force again. At least that's one way of looking at it.

 

[Starkiller]

Actually, I think that's kind of what Lucas had in mind. While I agree that the whole prophecy thing was dumb, you can argue that Anakin did in fact bring balance to the force. As you say, it was skewed too far in the direction of the Jedi and through Anakin's actions (directly and indirectly) almost all of the Jedi died. At the start of the OT you only have two Jedi (Obi-wan and Yoda) and two Sith (Vader and the Emperor), which is pretty close to balance, although the Jedi are probably weaker. Over the course of the movies, this is whittled down until all you have left is Vader, Luke, and the Emperor. In the end Vader chose Luke, presumably bring balance back to the force again. At least that's one way of looking at it.

Well if you look at it like that, there's only one jedi left and no sith at the end of ROTJ? That's not very balanced either.

 

[ShadowX81]

See I'm not sold on this half baked idea of George's that Star Wars is "Anakin's story", as if it was planned the whole time. He made Star Wars and no matter what he claimed it's evident that he had no idea where it was going and none of the background story was fleshed in. Darth Vader was just another Empire villain the SS commander of Tarkin's squad so to speak.

I don't think Anakin's story needed to be told. It should have been Ben's. he would have made a stronger character and we all liked him. Anakin could play supporting role.

I actually meant the prequel trilogy. I remember an intervie from the mid 90s ith George talking about how he was writing the prequel trilogy to specifically be about the downfall of Darth Vader.
And I think there is nothing wrong with that idea. The downfall of a great Jedi does seem like an interesting story, especially considering that Vader was already a compelling character. The problem is that they screwed it up in every way imaginable.
While story structure demands that Ben be a huge role, I would have liked the prequel to feature them as duel potagonists with the structure of the trilogy being about thier friendship, from its formation to its destruction; with the audience intially relating to Anikan, shifting more and more to Obi Wan as the trilogy goes on.

 

[Starkiller]

I actually meant the prequel trilogy. I remember an intervie from the mid 90s ith George talking about how he was writing the prequel trilogy to specifically be about the downfall of Darth Vader.
And I think there is nothing wrong with that idea. The downfall of a great Jedi does seem like an interesting story, especially considering that Vader was already a compelling character. The problem is that they screwed it up in every way imaginable.
While story structure demands that Ben be a huge role, I would have liked the prequel to feature them as duel potagonists with the structure of the trilogy being about thier friendship, from its formation to its destruction; with the audience intially relating to Anikan, shifting moe and more to Obi Wan as the trilogy goes on.

Well the down fall of Vader could be fertile ground like you said, it's the way he did it (terribly) that makes it suck so bad.

I think everyone who saw Vader on the screen for the first time wondered about him, was he a man, a machine, how did he get like this, etc.

And when Ben sets up that he knew him before he became evil, everyone wanted to know how he becomes Vader, and what the hell the clone wars were. Too bad for us our visions of what it was and his past were far better than what Lucas half baked and served.

The PT is like a cheap computer game, it doesn't even look believable...and the character's don't act believably.

 

[Azrael23]

Well if you look at it like that, there's only one jedi left and no sith at the end of ROTJ? That's not very balanced either.

That's another issue I have, even after 3 recent films we still know next to nothing about the Jedi Order and Sith Order. (outside EU material)
Neither films bothered to address no real tangible aspect of either Order.

Questions arise like, what is this balance? how did it become unbalanced? Does the existence of a few thousand Jedi and
only 1-2 Sith Lords at any given time truly cause this unbalance? Considering that Lucas used it as such a plot device, one would
think it wouldn't be so vague. Add to the fact that Anakin's turn is treated like MacGuffin after ROTS.

Are you telling me that one 1 lone Jedi at the conclusion of ROTJ truly restored the balance as oppose to 2 Sith Lords and 2-3 Jedi
in the OT? Why on earth would the Jedi have a prophecy that basically results in their utter demise and why exactly does one
need a high midchlorian count to fulfill it? it wasn't even needed considering that all Vader did was toss Palpatine down the
reactor shaft, anyone could have technically done that

 

[icruise]

the vagueness of this "prophecy". I mean what does this balance entails? Its hard to believe that the
Jedi would have a prophecy that basically includes the eradication of their very Order

Well, not really. Why does a prophecy always have to be beneficial? The way I interpreted it, the Jedi just misunderstood the true meaning of the prophecy.