Snippitts of Illusions

Then you went and revisited it. 

Ok. Cool. We can dig it. I mean yeah you made Han shoot first and Jabba looked kind of cheesy in episode IV, but okay, the explosions were cool.  

Then you made the prequels. 

I hate on the prequels at times. I suppose a lot of people do. There are many who think they're okay though. A few even defend them. 

For a Phantom Menace hate is too strong of a word for me. I don't hate the movie. I find it incredibly beautiful to watch actually. There's even some of the humor I smile or chuckle at when it crops across the screen. 

I can level the same criticisms that everybody else does: Jake Lloyd is a poor actor. He's ten, so it's almost forgivable. Watching it tonight made me realize that some, if not most of his horrible acting can be laid at the feet of the director (George!). Some stuff was obviously coached. How it took this long for me to notice I'll never know. 

Another big criticism is of course Jar-Jar. Poor Jar-Jar. I think I've been more sympathetic to him tonight then I ever have been. He's a ridiculous character. I mean the concept of him hurts my head. He's banished because he's clumsy? Those Gunguns are real shitheads. George wanted to appeal to the younger crowd. That is at least what I read in one interview after the film came out and people began to ridicule him for such a ridiculous character. That's his defense for Jar-Jar. You know what George, it's your movie. Jar-jar is what he is. Don't defend yourself, if a character, or his actions on screen are ridiculous and wholly unbelievable take the criticism. And let it go. Of course he pretty much has since the Phantom Menace came out. Jar-jar doesn't make the movie un-watchable. Most of his shenanigans are easily lifted out in fact. I have never seen it, but there is a cut of the film with most of Jake Lloyds bad direction and Jar-Jar's shenanigans cut out. "The Phantom Edit" as it's called. You could apparently find it pretty easily on the torrents at one time. I'm assuming you probably still can. 

Then there's a lack of plot. There's the final criticism. I don't agree with it. There's a plot there. It's actually an intriguing one. It suffers from two problems: a complete lack of development. There's only the blurb at the beginning and then vague hints during dialogue scattered through out the movie. Why? Why not give us more? You're willing to give us unnecessary exposition through out the whole movie, primarily the characters explaining the world they live in to each other, but not more of the actual background to the plot? 

The whole plot revolves around the politics of the Republic and the Palpatine jockeying for position with in the senate. Yeah. That's actually what the movies about. Which leads to the second problem, why are the Jedi the protagonists? I mean, I know why they are. It makes sense in context of making the prequels, they are the most exciting characters, but really the plot doesn't involve them in a direct way. George could have made them more directly involved, which would have given Palpatine more screen time (which I'm in favor of honestly) as well as the Jedi council and a bunch of politicians. It would have made a less interesting movie for the kids. So instead we get the plot it has, which is the most important part of the film, going on in the background with two characters that have nothing to do but fight in the foreground. Funny enough, I can't help but think a little editing would help that out as well. 

Over all the movie's not bad. Not nearly as bad as I remember anyway. Not good, but not bad. That being said. If you're going to revisit the movies do yourself a favor and start with Episode 1V, then V, then go back to the prequel trilogy. Yeah, I know I didn't bring up the racism accusations with the alien characters, or the horrible acting from a few of the other actors (I'm looking at you Natalie Portman, I'm looking at you.) But if you've seen the movie, and if you're a StarWars fan you have. You already know all of this. All that being said, it's still a gorgeous film. I love that I can get lost in that world still. Yeah it might not be the same experience that the original movie was/is, but it's still magical.