The Pod Race is Boring - Page 2

I still haven't seen Sith, and have no real plans to.

So from where I'm sitting, yeah, obviously Phantom Menace is the best of prequels.

Impossible to control, so it swallows up all your money, you mean.

SITH makes some huge and insane mistakes, but it's still by far and away the best of the prequels.

I think I ultimately agree with Nick here, though there may be some bizarre seven-year nostalgia already kicking in. Plus by the time Sith came out my giving-a-shit had dropped about 60%. I've watched the first twenty minutes of TPM like a hundred times. I don't know why, I just love it. It is then followed by the worst sequence in all six movies. And then it's pretty boring for another hour, but if you stick with it you get to the best action sequence in the prequels. So it's sorta worth sitting through, or at least skipping chapters.

Sith doesn't quite hit the lows that the first two manage to reach, and the opera scene is nearly the most effective scene in the entire saga (bested by the Luke/Vader duel in Empire, I suppose).. but Christensen is just not good enough, McDiarmid throws his performance away in the third act, Portman is given nothing and tries even less, The Duel does nothing for me, and so on. I just find myself occasionally in the mood to watch some TPM and never in the mood to watch the other two.

My overall impression of the prequels is that, in some parallel universe, there are three brilliant prequel movies, and they share about 24 minutes in common with the films in our universe.

The pod race sequence from Lego Star Wars was really frustrating.

Just by coincidence I've been watching ROTS today, and I agree with the above. There are indeed good things in the movie, but for every one of them, there's a "From my point of view the Jedi are evil" to counter it.

I'm finding myself a little confused by Padme, as it's never clear just what she's thinking. She seems to believe Anakin that the Jedi have tried to take over the senate, but later when she talks to Obi-Wan, she's suddenly worried about the Sith, and then she can't comprehend that Anakin may have gone bad even though his newly-disfigured best friend Palpatine just crowned himself Emperor of Everything. But that's just me rambling a bit.

As for TPM and the podrace, I do still think it's the best of the prequels, and I agree with someone earlier who talked about the differences between the podrace in the theatre and on DVD. I really enjoyed it in the theatre, but in the DVD version, the second lap is pointlessly long and they spend a great deal of time starting their engines before the race. Like, I think they do it twice or something.

Since we're in summer reruns... Nick is 100% right in my humble. The mistakes RotS makes are too crucial to canon to forgive. Ultimate power is just unforgivable as is the cluttered nature of the final duel. The Phantom Menace's biggest sin is that it's a little to lacadasical and, of course, midiclorians, and yes, I agree with the initial assessment that the stakes weren't raised enough in the pod race to give much of a shit. But as a Star Wars movie it's the one that feels the most right. Maybe, maybe, because it was the last one shot on film. Dunno. But I think we can all agree that Attack of the Clones is the absolute worst Star Wars movie.

Obviously, yes. Clones is pretty awful.

I like CLONES more than JEDI (which is the worst Star Wars flick, IMHO).

****runs for cover****

There is no cover that can protect you from having no taste.

My cover's made of tungsten and copper iodide.

That and RETURN OF THE JEDI gets too much of a free pass for being apart of the original trilogy. The gap in quality between STAR WARS/EMPIRE and JEDI is too gaping to ignore.

The great thing about this subject is how it's in no way run completely into the fucking ground, and how absolutely vital it was that another thread be dedicated to the topic. Kudos to you, Werbal, for bringing such a vital and fascinating and all-too-often ignored subject of conversation into the light. Truly, not nearly enough time is spent griping about this.

Honestly, how can people be so personally wounded by not liking a movie that they still have to bitch about it incessantly years later? You people don't like movies all the time, but there's no other example of this. Batman and Robin, Star Trek V...nothing else inspires this kind of reverse fanboy mania. What you don't realize is that you're exactly like the hardcore Trekkie; you've just turned hating something into the same kind of obsession.

When you start a thread around here to talk about something everyone likes, you get twelve replies. Start a thread about how much you hate the Star Wars prequels, and it's a party. Is there nothing else to discuss?

And Return of the Jedi is still the worst. Take off the goggles.

Sure. And the gap in quality between JEDI and the Prequels is too gaping to even measure.

Amen.
I couldn't agree more. I actually enjoy this movie. Not the other two.

Saying JEDI is worse is incorrect though, opinion or not

Don't be daft. It's fun to talk about these movies, positively or negatively. That's why it happens constantly.

There's nothing new to say on the subjects. Everyone here has had this discussion fifty-seven times. Is it really that entertaining to have the same arguments on a six-month rotating schedule? My parents did that, and they're divorced now.

What did they think of TPM?

Nigel, didn't you hear, childhoods were raped, dreams dashed, innocence forever lost.

Apparently, they were too busy getting a divorce.

In defense of RotJ, which has problems don't get me wrong: Jabba's palace is about 70% good, and the same could be said of the throne room stuff. The ewoks - while sloppy in execution and all too cuddly - at least are meant to represent the Vietnamese, while the end space battle (which is arguably a repeat) is still the finest example of non-CGI special effects in cinema history. And, all things considered, it wraps up everything okay, even if the Han-Luke battle over Leia is a bit too neat.

The best thing about AotC is Natalie Portman's ripped shirt.

The JEDI space battle and the Luke/Vader/Palpatine stuff is worth it alone.

Plus, we have a catfish as one of the good guys.

I must have missed the 70% of Jabba's palace that was good. Maybe I was still stunned in disbelief at how awful the pig guards looked, or the fact that Jabba's house band was Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. Honestly, there was nothing in Jabba's palace that was good. Nothing. And yes, that includes the Rancor pit. In fact, there's precious little in Jedi that works in any way, shape or form until Luke boards the Death Star.

And how is the fact that the Ewoks are meant to represent the Vietnamese a positive factor? I don't care if they represent oral sex; they're still loathsome.

Sorry if I'm raping your childhood, but it has such a cute ass.

Sorry if I'm raping your childhood, but it has such a cute ass.


Stealing this.

I like how Nigel St. Buggering is aghast at the prospect of people wasting their time by still debating the merits of the prequel trilogy, and then goes on to waste his time debating the merits of ewoks.

I can't comprehend the mind that would claim CLONES is better than JEDI. It's a similar sensation to seeing a banana walk down the street in a bowler hat.

You had to go there...

That thing made me laugh reallllllly freaking hard. Good lord, that looks ridiculous.

Why in the name of Chocolate Jesus would a kid want to suck on Jar Jar's tongue?

Don't make fun of the gay kids.

Yeah, each of the prequels are miles ahead of JEDI in thematic resonance and inventive visuals, and much more structurally interesting to watch unfold. For all the problems that the prequels had, I can't say I was ever bored watching them, unlike JEDI.

Did you take LSD before watching MENACE and CLONES or something?

Nope, but watching JEDI as a kid made me want to do a variety of hardcore drugs. See, Carrie Fisher actually had something positive to contribute in the film after all.

Seriously, claiming that none of the prequels were boring is perhaps the most ludicrous thing I've ever read. That's the biggest strike against MENACE, in particular. It's totally inert for much of its running time.

Christ, even if you evaluated it from a purely technical standpoint JEDI bests the new trilogy. The soace battles are amazing, and better than anything the PT comes up with. You wanna talk abut reverse fanboyism, look no further. "Wah wah wah! JEDI wasn't the final movie that I wanted! It's the worst STAR WARS film eeeeever!".

There's a cult film and TV themed bar in the centre of Manchester that has one of these next to the toilets. I was amazed at how advanced some of the graphics are, but yeah, its pretty unwieldy to play. I've lost a few quid into it before now.

Sorry, that honor goes to the Battle of Hoth and the asteroid chase from Empire.

Aside from its necessity to the story to show a completely different Luke from the one who tore off to Cloud City with absolutely no plan whatsoever, it's worth just for the moment when Han and Luke are reunited:

Han: How we doing?
Luke: Same as always.
Han: That bad, huh?

Sorry, but that's Star Wars right there.

Which wacky criteria are you going to use to defend this one?

The political threads in the prequels were fascinating to watch, and Palpatine's entire arc bests just about any of the lazy storytelling in JEDI.

Talking in just a technical fashion, I think almost any of the PT's naysayers would even admit the new trilogy is beautiful eye candy. The space battle in ROTJ is gold, no doubt about it, but it's not worth enduring JEDI to get there.

If you want to continue to stick up for JEDI and claim "reverse fanboyism" on those who happen to not fall in line with what's considered the usual fan mantra regarding the quality of these films, go right ahead. As long as I don't have to watch JEDI in full, I really could give a rat's ass.

I'll go a step further and say if you don't like JEDI you were never much of a fan to begin with. Indian, I agree with you on the like for the prequels, but JEDI is not THAT bad. It's my favorite of the originals.

The Luke/Vader stuff owns it and the Sarlacc battle is tons of fun, not to mention the speeder bike chase and the race inside the Death Star. If all you got to bitch about is the Ewoks, well, that's about as old as Ted Kennedy's excuses for driving off a bridge.

Exactly. JEDI's worst crime is being a big dumb crowdpleaser. At leats it TRIES to have fun and entertain the audience whilst, y'know, paying off the OT. There's nothing anywhere near as good as the Luke/Vader/Emperor stuff in the PT. It's just a better movie, with more charisma and character than any of the leaden CG lumps that have passed as STAR WARS movies this decade.

Pretty much agreed. It's less consistent than Sith (which isn't saying much), but at least with the final duel it manages to hit a high note that none of the others even come close to. How they managed to make the final Anakin fight boring and anticlimactic is beyond me.

Jedi's still the worst. With Clones, Obi Wan's side of the film was good (primarily because it was finally moving the prequels along), I love watching Yoda realize little by little he's watching the Jedi Order crumble around him, the ground war was cool, and, as always with the prequels (except for the horrible mace vs Palpatine duel.), the lightsaber stuff is always a joy.

Jedi's saving graces are much, much fewer (Leia in a bikini, the Death Star battle, the Luke/Vader/Palpatine scenes), but it gets more shit from me for wrapping up the war against the Empire with fucking teddy bears. Clones' flaws at least have the advantage of being in the middle story, and still manages to raise the stakes for the entirety of Sith with the start of the Clone Wars, and Palpatine in total control.

But then you're ignoring the awful, awful, awful acting and dialogue that mars almost every second of SITH. You can say "well, the Ewoks sucked" and Hell, I totally agree with you. But JEDI still had Han Solo, and Leia, and Lando, and Chewie, and despite the film's shortcomings those character were and still are far more compelling than the awfully set-up, written and acted puppets of MENACE through SITH. Palpatine turns from intriguing villain to gurning ham, Yoda fucks off into exile for no apparent reason, Portman barely bothers to act even when on her death bed, Darth Fucking Vader yells "nooooooooooooo!". And CLONES....it's just a fuck-up from beginning to end. The love story, the dumbass robot antics, the Fett stuff, Yoda turning into a pinball, it's all just bad. And that's without the dialogue and performances even being mentioned.

Yeah, the Ewoks were dumb. But damn, they're one part of the movie. There are problems with all of the prequels on nearly every level.

Call me sentimental but I still get emotional when that Ewok get's killed and the other Ewok starts grieving.

I had an ewok teddy.

Lando got redemption and a chance to be a hero, which was great, but Han and Chewie were completely wasted, Leia had little to do when she wasn't with Luke. That's part of the REASON Jedi sucks, not a justification. Just because people we love are there doesn't make it good, as those severely-over-the-top Palpatine scenes in Sith prove.

The Hoth battle and the asteroid field are more accomplished and more artistic to me, and both are more emotional. The space battle's main strength is juggling hundreds of elements, and some of the time the seams show.

Plus the Executor crashing into the Death Star is a pretty lousy model effect, especially the flame jet spouting out.