In fairness the state of the crystal skull and rhc stereotypical Russian accent on cate blanchett would suggest Lucas was solely focused on Cgi and actors didn't matter at all.
Thats the thing with Lucas, he is a great conceptualist. He has good ideas regarding story, for the most part. But his writing is very impatient, he has a very difficult time bringing his stories to fruition, setting a pace and building tension. The Phantom Menace aside (as it makes no ****ing sense), his stories aren't bad, he just finds it hard going from the concept to the actualisation of his ideas. He cannot work with actors, he is a terrible cinematographer, and when he directs, the films just unfold at break neck speed (faster, more intense). He should definitely stay away from Directing, especially when his friends are some of the best directors in Hollywood (Spielburg, Francis Ford Copolla, Robert Redford, Martin Scorcese) he really should have got one of his mates to direct the Prequels. Notice how, in Revenge of the Sith, no talking scene has any urgency, and every dialogue scene is shot either with two people sitting down face to face, with shot/reverse shot cinematography, or two people walking and talking, then they will stop, then walk again, occassionally one of the people talking will walk away and look out of window with his back to the other. Its painful cinematography. He had gotten so lazy by that point, he just wanted to rush to the Darth Vader reveal. Guy is a liability in the Directors chair.
My main wish would have been for the capture of rey to have been an extension of the trailer where the bad guy runs through a night time forest scene with the fog and the red saber. First person perspective and some real drama to it. Here scrabbling to get away, sound of her own breath and heart beating then that ren hollow breathing coming for her. Scare the tweenie girls watching.
Also all the best original battles were day time. A night battle was done early in film but I felt the battle after finding the sabre first should have been in dark... a confused night time battle would have been more real
It's been a good few years since I watched it, but I remember one of my main impressions of V for Vendetta being that Portman was absolutely terrible in it. No comment on the other films. Wasn't she supposed to be good in Black Swan as well? I also thought she improved considerably for ROTS compared to Eps 1 and 2.
I thought she was very good in V, and Black Swan too, forgot about that, she won an Oscar for that. I don't put much stock in the Oscars these days, but you don't win one if you cannot act, its not gotten to that point yet. Point is, she can act, as can Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor......so it wasn't the actors at fault, it was the directing, the writing, the dialogue and the overuse of CG.
Not doubting your general point, just that I thought she was terrible in V. It's been a while though.
SW7 is missing another important thing: a good villain. I had high hopes in the trailer that Kylo Ren would be one. He's such a bloody sissy though. From the vanity of long permed hair to the sobbing to being out-forced by a complete neophyte. He isn't a convincing Sith Lord. Maybe Spoke? Will be a decent baddy in the next one.
You're right but tbh that's the only real difference between the prequels and The Force Awakens. And in all fairness, the plot development and story made far more sense in the Phantom Menace and Return of the Sith. What let those films down was the CGI and one massive piece of miscasting. As for Plinkett, I guarantee he'll be pulling this film apart at some point.
They made such a basic school boy error in revealing his face. Why do it so soon in the trilogy?? The fear and sinister aspect of him was immediately lost. They shouldn't have revealed he was Solo's son either imo. The minute the giant Gollam said it, I was like "oh fck off!"
Are you ****ing kidding me? The story in the Phantom Menace makes no sense at all, from start to finish, it's a total mess. Revenge of the Sith? Yes, I fear losing my wife so much i will turn in to a homicidal maniac and start murdering children, all because some guy said he would be able to teach me to stop her dying, only then once I had killed the head of the Jedi order and committed to say "Well, I kinda know how, but havent perfected it, maybe with your help we might be able to do it." Then once I have killed the order that raised me, betrayed the democratic senate that my wife loves and is a member of, I will render the whole thing pointless by ****ing choking her to death anyway.........jesus christ!!
Stop regurgitating Plinkett and apply the same principle to SW7 and you'll find much bigger gaping holes in the plot. Phantom Menace was simply to introduce Anakin to us and Obi Wun. The 1st and 3rd prequel were a simple story to build up to A New Hope. The Phantom Menace was simple as well. A sinister macheavelian character orchestrates a political plot to gain a position of power. He uses the impotency and weakness of the senate (which we see very much so in real life) to manouvre events to gain said power. During these events two Jedi knights who are trying to prevent this, come across a young boy who has the ability to weald the force moreso than anyone else. Simple. The Revenge of the Sith develops on that to the finale. Obi Wun is an experienced Jedi but is not an experienced Jedi trainer. His training is flawed in that he does not sufficiently recognise the inner turmoil, fear and self-doubt emerging in a grown up Anakin. The macheavelian character however, does and having identified early on the power Anakin possesses (which will help him gain the power he wants) he uses this to twist Anakin's mind further, so much so that he can no longer recognise good from evil, or his friends or enemies truly are, and thus finally pull him over to the dark side. Simples. Bods you can finger point the same silly minor points in the first 3 films. Here's one very similar to one you've highlighted in Revenge of the Sith. In Return of the Jedi the sole strategy of the emperor in getting Luke over to the dark side is to have Luke kill Darth Vader? In the end scene when Vader is beaten and the emeror says, finish him and your journey to the dark side will be complete... and somehow, Vader had agreed to this eventuality? In this latest film, Han Solo is tracking the Millenium Falcon. He also states that it won't take long for the First Order to track the Millenium Falcon when they arrive on the planet.... but errrrrm in Empire Strikes back when they're scouring the atseroid field, Vader and all his battleships can't track them once they land on one? Come on fella, we can all play this game. Look at the overall plot, the adventure and excitement of the film, but particularly how the story sequences together. It doesn't have any of that in Star Wars 7.
Mate Plinkett is right, thats why, Its like saying "Stop regurgitating Hawking, or Einstein". They nailed it and its why people still use their names today. No idea wtf you are talking about in the last paragraph, neither of the two "problems" you mentioned in ESB and ROTJ make sense. Its quite clear Vader was at first trying to turn Luke against the Emperor and make him his apprentice. Also Vader had started to give up at that point and was resigned to his fate. The Falcon isn't being tracked in the Asteroid field because its not on. Inactive ship = Nothing to track. They cant track a hyperspace signature if the ship hasn't gone to hyperspace, its inactive in an asteroid, they know its in the asteroid field, but cannot physically find it because its not moving. If you think anything that happens in the Phantom Menace makes sense then you......No I will refrain. Palpatine orchestrates a political plot to gain power, reasonable, except everything he does actually hinders him from getting any power. He orders a trade blockade of a planet, Why? Whats being stopped from getting through? Why and how were the Trade Federation involved, how was he able to convince them to do this, what had he promised them? Why kill the Jedi when they come to force a settlement? Tell them no, we are invading, go tell the chancellor. Then he wants her to sign a treaty to legalise the invasion (like thats a thing you can do ), so if she had done that.......no emergency senate hearing, no call of no confidence in Valorum, no Palpatine as Chancellor. Valorum sent two Jedi to end the trade dispute yet when they return and told him the Trade Federation had invaded, he doesn't believe them and insists on a delegation to go to Naboo to "Explore the validity of their claim" What? The testimony of the Naboo Queen and the two Jedi you sent to settle the whole thing in the first place not good enough no? Jedi have loads of incentive to lie about a Trade Dispute since they are a greedy and opportunistic bunch? What? No, they are ****ing monks with no possessions and no political ambition? Oh okay, well lets appoint a commission anyway. I wont continue, because presumably you have seen Plinketts review....but if you think anything in the other 4 SW films comes close to the level of ******ed writing in the Prequels, then we really have no reason to continue talking....they were a travesty in movie making and need to be forgotten.
And seriously, in Return of the Jedi, you didn't get that Vader knew that if Luke didn't do as the Emperor told him, The Emperor would kill Luke, and Vader was prepared to let his own son kill him so Luke could survive? You didn't get that? And you also didn't get that that act was what convinced Luke there was still good in Vader and what ultimately lead him to reject the darkside "There is still good in you, you couldn't bring yourself to destroy me before and I dont believe you will destroy me now". Hence the Vaders dying line "You were right about me, tell your sister.....you were right!"
