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bLAZay00
Davis, California USA
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Me: My first issue lies with the overuse of CG. After seeing Hitchhiker's Guide, it was proven once again that non-pervasive use of CG along with well done puppets makes a much more acceptable image, than layering on computer images. Any deviance in natural movement screams out that we are watching something fake. The continuance of the illusion of reality is all important when trying to entertain people. However throughout all three it felt as though I was in a cartoon instead of an actual world.
John: I honestly don't think that there was much of anything wrong with Episode II, other than the fact that someone neends to tell George Lucas that we're still a good 2-5 years away from being able to create a believable 100% digital set. His over-reliance on CGI crippled a lot of what he clearly wanted to do visually in the first two episodes. Technology has almost caught up with him, which does Revenge of the Sith a lot of good. Episode II was, as a story, mostly flawless. The problem with the Prequels is a miscalculation in the scope of the first two movies.
Basically, Episode I should have never been made, and no, I'm not saying that because of Jar-Jar. It wasn't necessary to spend 2 hours on Anakin Skywalker's childhood...everything we learned about his life on Tatooine could have been told in short flashbacks. The good part of Episode I was the introduction of Palpatine, and the opportunity to see his earliest manipulations of the Jedi and the Senate. Had the movie been more about the political machinations that led to the Empire, and how the Jedi (and the Republic) were becoming increasingly ineffectual, it would have been a much better movie. Of course, it would have had very few lightsaber battles, and all the fanboys would have whined even louder than they did. Again, this is why novels/comics are a superior medium for relating non-trilogy Star Wars info.
Me: The major beef I've got is that were it any other director, he would have been run out of Hollywood on a rail. The Wachowski brothers barely made it out of the Matrix fiasco in tact. Episode 1 was basically 3 hr. product placement extravaganza. Episode 2 was tighter. And the manipulation of Anakin was pretty subtle.
The cameos did bug the crap out of me. Whenever I see someone doing that, it's usually because they believe that star power will help a weak idea stand on its own. Every cameo in the movie was meant as fan service. Why couldn't Boba Fett remain the mysterious bounty hunter? Why did the Backdoor Boys have to have even a walk on role? There are no good reasons other than to try and distract the viewer.
If he had repeated the nightmare images throughout Episode 2, it probably would have shown how much it truly affected him. He did remedy this in Episode 3 since he had Anakin brooding on it so much. But it shouldn't have taken 3 tries for him to get the brooding young man right. He is an accomplished director. And in the first two Episodes he made the most badass mofo seem like a whiny Bitch.
John: I don't really consider that to be a legit gripe with Revenge of the Sith...it's a gripe about the Phantom Menace. Attack of the Clones had it's bad moments, but it really wasn't anything to be ashamed of. Overall it told the story it should have told, with very little sidetracking. No following annoying sidekicks back to their homelands, no playing footsie with Anakin's mom, no pod racing.
And to be honest, I don't even think I saw the Backstreet Boys in the film. As for him being an accomplished director...keep in mind that he hadn't directed much of anything for several years when he started work on the Phantom Menace, and he was making a film largely without a template. A New Hope had Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress to draw from, and a host of other inspirations. With the Phantom Menace, he was basically hip-deep in his own mythology...and it's not easy coming back into that kind of work after such a long break.
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