[barend]

Wait a minute, i'm just going through the film scene by scene here...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

QUI-GON: Perhaps I killed a Jedi and took it from him.
ANAKIN: I wish that were so.
QUI-GON give ANAKIN a strange look.

[BinarySunset]

Old thread but I gotta add my $.02 (I can't believe I'm going to write this):

I actually like the scene in AOTC where Anikan is standing looking at the sunrise, before Padme comes out and tells him she heard he had another nightmare.

Why?

In that initial moment of seeing him standing there with his hands clasped behind his back, I thought: there's that Darth Vader stance we saw at the end of ESB! Yes - some connection here!

It's small, but it works for me.

My other "good PT moment" is also from AOTC:

when Anakin rides off into the Tatooine sunset on the speeder and he "leans into the turn" around the canyons. I know he was in front of green screen and all, but I just love it anyway. I'm not usually into "the bad boy" (have always been and always will be a Luke gusher , and not a Han Solo groupie) BUT...

I love the "bad boy speeding off on motorcycle" element of that scene w/ Anakin.

[Chefelf]

I actually like the scene in AOTC where Anikan is standing looking at the sunrise, before Padme comes out and tells him she heard he had another nightmare.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'll agree with BinarySunset on this one. That scene (or visual, I suppose) is pretty well done until the dialogue starts up and ruins it completely. If we can pretend the whole exchange about sand didn't happen we can almost remember it as a single moment of goodness in that boredomfest known as Attack of the Clones.

[Vwing]

Binary both the scenes you mention are scenes I thought were very good from AOTC as well. Unfortunately the former is preceded by Anakin masturbating and precedes some terrible dialogue. The latter, however, is a fabulous scene. I know what Chef said about the shadows in his list, but I actually didn't care about seeing Vader's helmet in the shadow, and I thought it was a great parallel to the binary sunset of ANH, and is possibly the most emotional part of the movie when he gets on the speeder and we see the beautiful sunset and duel of the fates in the background (which is great chase music btw). So those are two very good scenes (moments) from the movie.

[HeckHouse]

Well, the trailer for TPM beats out anything in the actual movie, so I'll put that as one of my favorite prequel moments. For some reason the dialog just works better in the trailer, most notably, "The boy is dangerous. They all sense it, why can't you?".


I loved the lightsaber duel in that movie as well.

I didn't like much in AOTC.

I'm really looking forward to ROTS. Some of the TV spots have revealed more bad acting and dialog, but maybe it can still pull through.

*Crosses fingers*

[ernesttomlinson]

I wonder if I should rewatch AOTC. Maybe there are some genuinely good moments that I'm not remembering because, the one time I did watch the movie, I strode out of the theatre angry and, for the first time in a while, feeling that I'd been ripped off and that I wanted my money back. TPM, on the other hand, I have seen a couple of times more. I simply don't think it's nearly as bad, Jar Jar or no.

And in the nightmare scene it looked more to me like Anakin was, erhm, being serviced.

[Lord Aquaman]

The three way lightsaber fight in TPM was very well done, but marred by the fact that we had to keep cutting to Natalie Portman, her guards and those stupid frog men fighting the anorexic Daffy Duck Robots in the palace and out on Middle Earth - respectively (even though we all know the anorexic Daffy Duck bots would get pummeled very easily by either the Orcs, the Uruk-Hai, or the Riders of Rohan).

Ewan McGregor was tolerable in AOTC, as was Christopher Lee and even - prepares to duck - Samuel L. Jackson (I'm sorry but I can't find it in me to hate him spewing the bad Jedi dialogue - there are much more worthy things to hate in the film than that). The quiet standing scene was nice before the dialogue started, I agree, as was the lighting being shock absorbed by Obi-Wan's lightsaber. I actually liked looking at Young Aunt Beru more than what's-her-name... oh I said it before... oh right, the Portman girl.

[Mnesymone]

I have to admit I didn't mind Liam Neeson being Liam Neeson in TPM - I didn't like the carefully constructed Qui-Gon Jinn stuff but his "I wish that that were so" and something, probably purely unintentional, was how well his character meshed with Shmi for all she had a stupid name.
I liked Darth Maul's initial attack in the desert. Particularly when he goes to run over Anakin.

Christopher Lee, for all he is brilliant and steeped in serious acting talent and experience, for all his pathos and sheer physical presence was fairly wasted. I don't blame him though.

I quite liked Natalie Portman - but it had nothing to do with Padme.
MacGregor soldiered on in Clones and was refreshing in moments, particularly him on Kamino, when he's told about the clone army - his "that's why I'm here" worked for me.
The Nemoidians "Why don't you shoot her... or something" - not much of a great moment but hell, it was a good point.

[barend]

Hmmmm... a good moment in the PT? Yoda saying: "Fear is the path for the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering!" was a great moment for me. (when I heard this for the first time I thought Yoda would remain the wisest and greatest Jedi for all the next movies... what obviously didn't happen!)

You know, I think Yoda only learned that the day before the council meeting.  He's a late-bloomer Jedi Master and all....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

fear leads to loathing, loathing leads to Las Vegas!

[ernesttomlinson]

I didn't like Natalie Portman at all in AOTC. Maybe if I were ten years younger? -shrug- In any case she was supposed to be almost thirty in her role but instead came across as maybe half that age and every bit as immature as her whingeing suitor. She actually fares better in TPM and seems, in a few moments, convincingly decisive in that movie. Does she do anything decisive in AOTC? she seems to be mostly in damsel-in-distress mode.

[BinarySunset]

Vwing Posted Yesterday, 03:22 PM
Unfortunately the former is preceded by Anakin masturbating and precedes some terrible dialogue.

ernesttomlinson Posted Yesterday, 08:11 PM
And in the nightmare scene it looked more to me like Anakin was, erhm, being serviced.

All right now, "gentlemen", let us bring the conversation back to an adult level, shall we? I thank you, kind sirs - signed LADY Vader

OK, another "good moment" for me:

I did get a "warm fuzzy feeling" when I saw the Lars homestead as Anakin and Padme went to find Shmi; however, it was ruined the minute C-3PO showed up because... Anthony Daniels' voice is aging and, to me, he now sounds like a Drag Queen who is past his prime (not that there's anything wrong with that ).

but initially seeing the Lars homestead, I almost - almost - expected Luke to enter the scene... sigh

[civilian_number_two]

I don't want to be an asshole, but I must state the obvious: the scene you're describing (which I haven't seen) is no good. Your reasons for liking it are that it reminds you of scenes in the original trilogy, which are good.

I have thought long about this, and I can't come up with anything I really liked in TPM.

[Just another wretched fan]

you know what? I'm going to be the asshole and say that i liked the battle droids. Just mute them exept for "Roger Roger," which i really liked for some reason.

When it comes to exploring science fiction concepts, the idea of totally robotic armies is an important idea. Remember the episode of classic trek where kirk beams down to the planet where computers just calculate what outcome a war would have and tell who died and whatnot? That's pure science fiction. No one had seen an alien cantina on screen until 1977. Star wars was cutting edge.

Now, in the 2000's we have all sorts of drones replacing manned military aircraft. Star Wars...which should be focusing of wars, could show us what two large automated armies fighting each other would look like. (No casualties! etc) Maybe many people think that the Terminator universe already controls this concept...but i think star wars could have done a really good job of it.

Skipping right to clone troopers that resemble storm troopers in episode one would be too much, in my opinion. I think the battle droids were a welcome change of face for the mindless henchmen.

[Mnesymone]

That is an asshole thing to say JAWF - no offence intended.
The idea of a totally robotic army could have been done well - but it wasn't... especially "Roger Roger" - we know, from the Original Trilogy, that the only droids capable of speech are droids designed specifically for interfacing with humans and other sentient beings - human-cyborg relations. All other droids just speak in their own "code" or "binary language" - the rather cool scene in Star Wars (ANH to some) with the maddened droids in the sandcrawler all chattering in their own little languages - the big dumb Gonk, the impartial Asp, the grinning alien-made droid - all in their own little babble. The battle droids should have, if they ever needed to speak should have spoken in code - also they should have carried guns or binoculars or driven tanks - fully robotic tanks should have driven themselves, guns should be built in to the chassis of the droids, the binoculars were unnecessary, as were the gestures and ranks. The bigger Techno-Union droids, for all Techno-Union is a lame name and the Techno-Union leader was especially lame, were cool though. I might add to what I liked with the design of them, but not the scenes they were used in.

[Just another wretched fan]

That is an asshole thing to say JAWF - no offence intended.
The idea of a totally robotic army could have been done well - but it wasn't... especially "Roger Roger" - we know, from the Original Trilogy, that the only droids capable of speech are droids designed specifically for interfacing with humans and other sentient beings - human-cyborg relations. All other droids just speak in their own "code" or "binary language" - the rather cool scene in Star Wars (ANH to some) with the maddened droids in the sandcrawler all chattering in their own little languages - the big dumb Gonk, the impartial Asp, the grinning alien-made droid - all in their own little babble. The battle droids should have, if they ever needed to speak should have spoken in code - also they should have carried guns or binoculars or driven tanks - fully robotic tanks should have driven themselves, guns should be built in to the chassis of the droids, the binoculars were unnecessary, as were the gestures and ranks. The bigger Techno-Union droids, for all Techno-Union is a lame name and the Techno-Union leader was especially lame, were cool though. I might add to what I liked with the design of them, but not the scenes they were used in.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

damn...i really can't argue with that. Why didn't the foreman droid speak binary in ROTJ though?

Anyway, can we at least agree that the Destroyer Droids made sense? I mean, a mobile shield generator with building in heavy weaponry? Awesome. Quite honestly I would rather order a bunch of them then Clone troopers for my army.

Agreed that the battle droids shouldn't vocally communicate with one another. I had the same line of thinking when i said "mute them."

I think that battle droids should be able to understand vocal commands and be able to give verbal reports to their owners. Security droids would need protocol programming, for obvioius reasons. And yes, I agree with you 100% on droids driving tanks. I mean, the fighters were autonomous, why weren't the tanks?

When it comes to built in weapons on the droid chassis, i poin to the destroyer droid. But with the military flexibility is always desirable. The idea of having a customizable droid skeleton makes sense, and from a tacticle point of view, an opposable hand may be more desireable than a gun arm. That's why i think it was plausible to have droids with hands who can pick up different forms of weapons made for hands, as well as grab something, etc.

The battle droids, as they were presented, were flawed, but are by far not the worst part of the movie. They had a ton of potential and I liked them.

This post has been edited by Just another wretched fan: 25 April 2005 - 11:18 PM