Tuesday, June 26, 2007

THIS DAY IN STAR WARS HISTORY

JUNE 26, 1997 - George Lucas steps behind the Director's Camera for the first time since Star Wars and begins shooting STAR WARS: EPISODE 1: THE PHANTOM MENANCE. A great disturbance in the Force is felt, as if millions of future movie-goers suddenly cry out in terror and then suddenly silenced.

6 comments:

Andrew Glazebrook said...

For all it's problems it's still leagues ahead of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Shit...I mean Sith !! :)

Jim said...

I have to disagree with you, man.... but we are rating 3 turds.

Jim said...

ok, phantom and clones is debatable... haha... for me, Sith has less groanful moments.

Andrew Glazebrook said...

A quick list of what I think TPM has in it's favor, Liam Neeson,probably the best performance of any of the Jedi in the Prequels. Darth Maul, tons better than Dooku, Grievous, Jango Fett etc... Best Lightsaber fight in any Star Wars film, really superb choreography, I think AOTC and ROTS fights suffered from not having Ray Park helping, Gillard fights seem boring in comparison. Pod Racing, even with a kid in the scene it was a great sequence. John Williams score, he really pushed the boat out on TPM, AOTC and ROTS scores are terrible. Filming on location for both Mos Espa and Naboo,Theed City,Woods etc... these places have a much more real feel than say Geonosis or Utapau etc... Production design has a more coherent feel, too many artists on AOTC and ROTS gave a very choppy feeling to the designs.
Downsides of TPM are obviously Jar Jar Binks, Anakin as a kid and Midiclorians.

Jim said...

well put, andrew!

Personally, the only redeeming thing from TPM is the Darth Maul fight scene.

Everything else just annoys the shit out of me; acting, dialogue, editing.

Their time on Tatooine is torturous for me.

AOTC has some pretty stuff in it, but its so poorly put together.

BAH! My blood pressure is rising. How could he fuck up those movies so bad?!!

I actually edited EPI and EPII into one movie.... I'll send ya a dvd once I finish the dvd making tech crap in my spare time.

Yes, I am a dork.

Andrew Glazebrook said...

I've always said had he made the Liam Neeson character 'Obi-Wan' and had Ewan McGregor 'Qui Gon' as his apprentice it would have been better, he'd have not only lost 'Qui Gon' his first apprentice to Maul but he loses second apprentice Anakin to the Dark Side, this would have made Luke his 3rd chance to redeem those mistakes.Neeson would have seemed a better choice age wise to eventually become the Alec Guinness character. I still think Kenneth Branagh would have been the best 'Obi Wan'
http://tinyurl.com/37k7v6

Also had Anakin been around 20+ instead of a kid I could have believed that Padme might fall for him then, but it seems ridiculous in TPM that she doesn't have the hots for Obi Wan but would rather hang around with the kid.

Regarding Jar Jar, you can tell that Lucas bowed to public hatred of him, in the origianl screenplay and novel by Terry Brooks he and Anakin are much more like pals, like they would have had adventures together when they grew up, but Jar Jar was acrap design and Character even though the FX for him were pretty good. He seems such a main character to suddenly become chopped by 75% in AOTC to a cameo in ROTS.