So HBO On Demand has all the Star Wars movies available this month. The other day I sat down with my 5-year-old daughter to watch a bit of The Phantom Menace just to see if she would be interested. I discovered four things:
Pan and Scan blow. It blows hard.
When Jar Jar got some screen time my daughter appeared to be more than a little put off by his buffoonish ways and said, “He talks like a baby.” So I discovered that she is indeed the fruit of my loins.
After reading the Episode One prologue text and trying listen to those two trade federation dudes fail at exposition, I realized that I don’t really have a clue what the hell this whole Naboo, Trade Federations, Galactic Senate thing is all about. There’s something about taxation, trade embargos, and treaty signing, but can anyone explain how all of this is supposed to work as some grand scheme to get Senator Lieberman… uh, Palpatine that Chancellor position. I mean isn’t the whole thing ridiculously convoluted?
Fuck Star Wars! (Not really… that one’s just for Tom)
My general understanding is that the entire Naboo/Trade Federation encounter is instigated by Palpatine in order to get himself elected Chancellor.
To the best of my memory, Palpatine does this by convincing the Trade Federation to protest the taxation of trade routes by blockading Naboo. The current Chancellor’s (Valorum) rule is undermined by his inability to deal with the situation as well as other rumors about his corruption. Palpatine then has the Trade Federation invade Naboo, further escalating the situation and causing a desperate Queen Amidala to call for the vote of no confidence.
Choosing Naboo as the planent to blockade gives sympathy votes both to Queen Amidala in her call for new leadership as well as to Palpatine when he runs for Chancellor.
Palpatine’s alliance with the Trade Federation (purely for his own goals of course) will later form the foundation for the Confederacy of Independent System’s (CIS) move against the Republic as a whole, which gives Chancellor Palpatine the excuse he needs to expand his power.
That about covers it. The most confusing thing about the plot in TPM is that it’s borderline impossible to tell what does and does not go according to Palpatine’s plans without knowing what happens in E2 and E3. Near as I can tell, he did not expect the Jedi to make it to Naboo alive, and certainly didn’t expect them to accompany Amidala as bodyguards. He had Dooku already on the hook, but probably wasn’t expecting Maul to fail like he did. He also didn’t expect Amidala to go back to Naboo to kick droid ass, although he doesn’t really try too hard to stop her, you’ll notice. He probably thinks she’ll die in the attempt, which can only be good for him in the sympathy vote department.
This is probably why he tries to have her killed repeatedly in Episode 2, as well.
I’m very interested to see what Greg’s daughter thinks of Star Wars In Story Order. One of the big hooks for kids in the original trilogy (I think) was that it was black and white. These guys are good, these guys are bad. The prequels are so muddy in terms of who’s on which side and what everybody wants that I wonder how well a young child would be able to follow it all.
I love all Star Wars, so I of course will disagree that it’s a pretty poor film. And even though Ep. 1 is of course my least favorite of the 6, I still enjoy it (except for Jar Jar). Criticisms aside, it does do a lot for setting up the epic stories to follow, which is reason enough to watch it, especially if you plan on watching the rest of them :)
I snagged a copy of the Phantom Edit the other day; it shaves about 20 minutes out of the film. Hadn’t seen Phantom Menace since it first came out, though, so I couldn’t really tell you what was clipped – it was pretty much the same movie I remember, except I don’t think I cringed anywhere near as much.
I’ve always thought that Lucas neutered the Jedi somewhat in the prequels. This is an interesting article that explores that idea as well, though it was written before the release of Attack of the Clones.
I’m kinda neutral about the prequels for the most part; I think it’s hard to argue that TPM is a pretty redundant, mediocre film with some brief flashes of inspiration (the three-way lightsabre duel is still great to watch) but the two later films are - in my opinion - much better. AotC certainly has some cringeworthy dialogue as well as some plot dead-ends (the whole Sifo-Dyas thing seems like it might go somewhere interesting and then doesn’t get mentioned again) but the last third of the film (the eponymous attack, more or less) is absolutely fantastic stuff. Pretty much anything that doesn’t involve Anakin and Padme onscreen together is fine.
‘Revenge of the Sith’ is great almost from start to finish; it’s not without some problems (again, anything involving Anakin and Padme having a conversation is dire) but it does benefit from having gotten most of the ‘rise of Palpatine’ stuff out of the way in the previous two installments. At this point it’s pretty much all about Anakin turning and that’s the kind of straightforward narrative that Lucas is good at handling.
For me, the big problem with the prequels - as others have mentioned - is that it’s not really clear who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. The exposition is confusing, the Trade Federation’s blockade and its impact (on Naboo itself and on the wider galaxy) is never adequately explained and the inadequacies, bureacracy and corruption that is apparently inherent in the Republic leaves us feeling pretty ambivalent when Palpatine starts to seriously undermine it.
Plus, we only know who the bad guys are because a) they’re signposted using generic Bad Guy stereotypes and b) they’re the ones fighting the Jedis and we only know the Jedis are goodies because we’ve seen the original trilogy. By the time you get to RotS things are better delineated and it’s a more enjoyable film for it.
At this point it’s pretty much all about Anakin turning
The version I saw handled all of that in about 30 seconds with some vague promise that the emporer immediately admits he can’t fulfil. ROTJ spent 1/3rd of the film on Luke’s struggle. ROTS even taking into account the vague groundwork laid in the first two decided to skip over it almost entirely. That said it’s the best of a bad lot, I nearly forgave it until Frankenvader.
Heh, I’ve actually only seen the film once and that was in the cinema so my memory of it is a bit sketchy. I do recall that there was a lot more about Anakin’s tumultuous state of mind and his increasingly fascist outlook on the galaxy’s political landscape prior to the point where he turned completely. And don’t forget his summary execution of Count Dooku at Palpatine’s urging. I don’t think it’s entirely fair to write Anakin’s turnabout off as a 30 second narrative even it wasn’t handled as well as Luke’s temptation.
Speaking of Dooku, that was one woefully underused character - why wasn’t he in the entire trilogy instead of being introduced at the end of AotC and then despatched at the start of RotS? He could have served as the main exponent of the baddies’ agenda and the focus of the audience’s boos and hisses in the same way that Vader did in the original trilogy.
I think Lucas actually crafted a really good tale of political intrigue in the prequel trilogy. What a pity his ability to tell the story couldn’t live up to it.
Yeah, Lucas slowly builds up Anakin’s doubt with the good side and lets him throw a few tantrums as explanation for why Anakin would turn over to the dark side as soon as Palpatine gets all seal-eyed. And then doesn’t even blink when Palpatine kills Mace Windu, who was Anakin’s ally not two seconds ago.
ROTS was mostly awesome because of the great visuals. The huge fleet shot in the opening is pretty much the only reason the movie exists for me.
I did my own ‘phantom edit’ a few years ago. You know, if you cut down the Jar Jar stuff, make the pod race longer (thanks to the outtakes) and cut out some key lines of Boy Vader it isn’t all that bad. It is actually kind of creepy if you take out his ‘go left thats a good move’ crap and just allow him to blow shit up- and put in the scene where he pounds on kid Greedo - now he looks like a baby Sith. Much more sinister.
Some things you can’t save-but I did end up making it tolerable.
Unfortunately that edit was one one of the servers at work that went belly up- and I just can’t bring myself around to do it again.Although I have thought about editing I-III together as one film- which really is what it should have been.
Visually and thematically i thought Episode 1 was fantastic; i loved how they captured the retro-but-better-in-the-past look almost perfectly, and they had great set and art designs. Now the movie itself, yea, it sucked. It really revealed Lucas as a hack director imo, or one more concerned with toy sales or something. Everyone went in expecting the biggest movie of the decade, and he gave us a movie meant for 10 year olds. Which, i suppose, reveals what he intended all along. For all his money Lucas doesn’t seem to respect the Star Wars universe or take it very seriously, and feels free to alter and throw stuff in and out at whim and dumb it down for the elementary school kids to understand.
I regret more the lost opportunity as a movie fan than as a star wars fan. He had it in his hand, and he laughs and tosses it away muttering something about merchandising being all that’s important.
I’d buy that if it weren’t for the endless scenes of trade embargo and so forth taking place in the films. Obviously, these are meant to appeal to adults. The irony, of course, is that they are dull and appeal to nobody in the end.
The political stuff in the original trilogy? “IS IT CAN BE DEETH START TIEM NOW PLZ?” Even if you miss the nuances, you get the big picture easily.
Ok, here’s where I’m confused. So the Senate want’s to tax trade routes. The Trade Federation no likey this and the solution to their woes is to blockade some remote backwater planet? And then invade in order to force Queen Portman to sign a treaty? Sign a treaty for what? Presuming she does sign this treaty, wouldn’t that put an end to Palpatine’s plan? I think I understand what the the whole trade thingie is trying to convey, but none of it really makes any logical sense.
I think Lucas would have been better off going for a simple “one planet agressively invading another” at the behest of Palpatine. It’s a simple problem that the ineffective senate could wring their hands over giving Palpatine the ammo he needs to take control.
Yeah, the whole thing seems like a ridiculously convoluted and half-assed way to gain the upper hand. But the big question for me is, why does the Trade Federation partner with Palpatine? What’s the benefit?
Well we haven’t finished watching it yet. She enjoys the actiony bits. While not keen on Jar Jar, she likes watching young Anakin speak his lines in an unconvincing monotone.
She thought underwater bit with the giant monsters was cool. And she picked up on my favorite line in the movie: “There’s always a bigger fish.”
The pod race was probably her favorite part so far. She also liked Yoda and kept calling him a little goblin.
The political stuff went right over her head (and mine apparently) so I don’t think she’s getting any sense of narrative from the movie. To her it appears to be several neat action scenes surrounded by an incomprehensible plot.
I’m going to hold off on II and III for a while because some of the imagry is probably a little too intense.
Oh, and I’m already getting a ton of flack from my wife because I’ve tainted our daughter’s experience by letting her watch TPM first. But hey, what’s the point of having children if you can’t experiment on them.
Yeah - Palpatine needs it to be Naboo so he gets the sympathy vote, since that’s where he’s from
And then invade in order to force Queen Portman to sign a treaty? Sign a treaty for what? Presuming she does sign this treaty, wouldn’t that put an end to Palpatine’s plan? I think I understand what the the whole trade thingie is trying to convey, but none of it really makes any logical sense.
The contents of the treaty don’t matter - as soon as it’s signed, Palpatine has the ammunition to show that the Chancellor is ineffective (since the treaty would be outreagous, his emissaries were murdered), and he should be elected instead.
Yeah, the whole thing seems like a ridiculously convoluted and half-assed way to gain the upper hand. But the big question for me is, why does the Trade Federation partner with Palpatine? What’s the benefit?
They get control of a backwater planet for free (Palpatine promised to make it okay with the Senate, which he obviously wasn’t going to follow through on).
