Tank

The chamber was empty, but smelled of gunpowder and regret.

All his best friends failed him like high school poetry.

He first experienced derision in the form of a jagged twist of metal in his left foot. He tossed aside carelessly only to be toppled by it again 30 years later.

As his miniature train set ran at full tilt, with both hands on the throttle, he couldn't decide which need the most adjusting: his cowboy hat, the cigar in his mouth, or his scrotum-- which had grown sticky with sweat and stuck to the inside of his thigh.

He was born under omens, both good and bad. The caul was considered a curse by those in his sect, both familial and merely connected through interest. But he had emerged, wide-eyed and silent, from his mother's womb on a Friday, which his father thought to bee a portent of good things to come. At least for the weekend.

At first she thought it was her sexual prowess, but after fifteen minutes of him walking into furniture and drooling incessantly on her laminate floor, she started to suspect something was seriously amiss.

He fumbles with his turgid manhood, scrambling to tuck it back inside his gabardine trousers… but it is too late. A school bus full of nuns has already exploded.

He drove San Fernando in darkness, at an hour so late that he shared the road with only city service vehicles and cops, which of course led to driving well below the speeds he preferred. He drove so slow that he couldn’t outrace the partial melancholies and dot-to-dot failures tied to the rear of his car like tin cans on a wedding limo.

The cocaine had been snorted and the hooker was crying and this is when my cousin chose to let me in on his deepest secret, which involved the soft plush of childhood blankies and pieces of his own anatomy that were no longer viscerally connected.

Can I work for you, JC?

 

I do agree with you that taking a long lunch once in awhile isn't a big deal, but she did admit that she got a bit tipsy.

 

Agreed, we'll form our own company: The MJSJC Paper Company - featuring two-hour lunches. Okay, so Phyllis shouldn't have gotten tipsy, but I just hate to see Jim mess up when he's in charge - like he did when he wanted to have everyone's birthday on the same day or give only the salespeople raises.

 

I also liked Recyclops.

Recyclops was great-- I liked the evolution montage, which featured the various receptionists of the past few seasons in little cameos.

first episode this season I've felt the need to comment on! Felt like it was back to form.

HA.. yes. Geonosis. Genosha is from X-Men.

All the handheld work and random zooms during the battle of Genosha are the biggest offenders to me.

Thomas Alan says:

There’s a POV shot from Threepio that feels all sorts of strange given the way Star Wars in normally shot. It’s really the few moments that really feel non-Star Wars in the entire movie.

 

Tank says:

Shooting the talk between Valorum and the Queen from an angle that might be Anakin's POV is an interesting choice and has always stuck out to me as being very NOT Star Wars.

I meant to mention the 3P0 bit as well. That's two instances of a POV shot in Star Wars. Back in the day of bet-making and fake script speculation, my first attacking point was always against dream sequences, narrations, voice overs, and flashbacks because they violated the Star Wars narrative devices. Being made as a throwback to serials, the narrative and visual storytelling styles of the OT were very pure and straightforward. The were a grand view of a grand story, so these little devices never belonged.

I almost took bets in Lucas' favor saying he'd never violate these principles, and I would have lost. It seems in the PT he threw those rules out the window, and it REALLY bothers me. In addition to the two shots above, there's also the Saving Private Ryan style camera work in the Genosha battle, Anakins dream sequence and the psuedo montage in ROTS, and a couple more I can't recall.

Scene: In the post-race celebrations Anakin gets congratulated by everyone and Qui-Gon collects his winnings. Before they leave the planet, he still has one last thing to do

Thomas Alan says:

-A very distant shot of Jar Jar picking up Anakin in congratulations. It’s rather ugly and awkward. I think it only made it in the film because Lucas and company wanted to include another scene where human/CGI interaction is highlighted.

-Padme comes to hug Anakin, little boy leans in. Mom comes to give Anakin a kiss, little boy squirms away. That’s right little lady’s man.

-Shmi’s “You have brought hope to those who have none†might be the single clunkiest line in the entire saga.

-Watto’s hurting pretty bad from all the gambling he’s lost. The Jedi doesn’t seem the least bit concerned that his actions have caused the ruination of another being, going so far as to play hardball and threatening to take his ass to the Hutts. Neeson’s even got a stare-down going. Of course we’re talking about getting a child out of slavery here, so it’s morally not so bad. But Qui-Gon seems more interested in the boy for what he can get him than any outrage.

-Watto again proves himself the best of the CGI characters here with the strongest animation job in the entire movie (pretty good technically too as he goes in and out of shadow). Qui-Gon may not care that Watto’s predicament, but I do. Watto’s attempt to squirm out of the deal feels half-hearted, like he knows it’s not going to work. All the same, he’s got to try. When Qui-Gon plays the Hutt card, the character goes from forced outrage to resigned defeat.

-Nice little Easter egg with the Sith probe floating along in the background.

-Obi-Wan enters the movie for the first time in 20 minutes and proceeds to be a total douche about Qui-Gon’s plan to bring Anakin along. I’m starting to think that Palpatine’s right. Jedi just aren’t very nice people.

Tank says:

-- Jar Jar picking up Annie is one of those shots i thought looked good originally, but hasn't held up that well. Annie looks like a freeze frame image.

-- Padme and Schmi and Anakin all seem uncomfortable in this scene for some reason, and the dialog seems very wooden.

-- Watto and Qui-gon settle their bets, and Watto is of course screwed. He seems more willing to give over the parts than the boy, more evidence he has an attachment to the kid. Maul's probe droid hovers by in the background. Watto relents of course and I can't help but think he's going to take things out on Shmi-- even though I have no idea what she does for him considering that she never seems to go to work.

-- Hey look! OBI-WAN! Remember him!? He talks about picking up another "pathetic life form" which means he doesn't think much of Jar Jar, but more awkwardly, it implies Anakin is worthless as well.

Scene: In the post-race celebrations Anakin gets congratulated by everyone and Qui-Gon collects his winnings. Before they leave the planet, he still has one last thing to do

Thomas Alan says:

-Qui-Gon just sort of blurts out that Anakin’s been freed. Anakin’s all happy of course, but it was a bit cold of him to just blurt the news out to his mother. Pernilla August has her best scene of the movie (thank goodness, since these scenes are pretty much her only reason for even being in the movie) despite some clunky dialogue.

-The Jedi take children from their parents at a young age. It’s a rather cold practice, but one that has some merit given the utter disaster that Anakin became. This scene is really the only example of it that we are given. Qui-Gon, in typical arrogance for him, rather assumes that it’s all good and no way anyone would object. It probably came to a surprise that Anakin was the one to balk.

-We get another little recurring theme with Anakin’s “I don’t want things to changeâ€. Lucas once again displays all the subtlety of a Death Star, but again he at least follows through with it (in this case throughout the remainder of the Trilogy, and even retroactively to his actions in RotJ). Shmi gives him good advice on not be

-I didn’t mention it before, but Qui-Gon also shares Anakin’s weakness for change. Witness his mournful reply to Anakin when the boy suggests that no one can kill a Jedi. It may also be why he became the first to discover the Jedi ghost trick (in a crude form).

-Qui-Gon retroactively comforts Shmi. Yeah, those two had some fun the night before.

-There’s a POV shot from Threepio that feels all sorts of strange given the way Star Wars in normally shot. It’s really the few moments that really feel non-Star Wars in the entire movie.

I recall around the time of AotC people were complaining that Peter Jackson could have done such a better job with the Prequels. People don’t seem to realize that Star Wars was not built to have dynamic direction. Almost all the shots are basic, and that was done on purpose as a means of keeping the audience centered as a thousand amazing things appeared on film in the first movie. Since then there were some mild breaks (most notably the slo-mo cave scene in ESB and some dream stuff in RotS), but a massive break like the constant “Look at me, ain’t I a genius†work from Jackson in the LotR series would have been totally out of place in a Star Wars film.

-This scene with Threepio really feels like it was just put in because Lucas wanted to give him one more scene before he went bye-bye for the rest of the movie, and the first half of the next.

-The good-bye scene. I really don’t have too much problem with the performances. Lloyd’s acting is pretty much par for the course for him. Williams goes more than a little overboard I think. It probably would have been a better idea, though, for them to just shoot the scene from a distance and without dialogue. There wasn’t much said that added to the previous scene.

Tank says:

-- My bad! Shmi does have a job-- cleaning circuit boards or something. Qui-gon is pretty blase-- SURPRISE! YOU'RE FREE! EVERYTHING YOU'VE EVER KNOWN HAS CHANGED! TADAAA! I get that we're in a hurry here, but this wasn't very believable. Seems like we could have lost 6 hours out of the pod race to have a little more in-depth character scene here as Anakin realizes mommy won't be coming along.

-- Qui-gon is kind of a jerk when he blames Watto for Shmi not being able to come along. Like anyone really could stop a Jedi if he wanted to do something. This is where the whole slave angle falls apart for me. It was just invented as a vehicle to give Anakin angst over being separated from his mother. So much of the PT is centered around this one point, when there could be dozens of other ways to sell this. It'd probably been better if Maul had killed Shmi in this film then the pointless Sandpeople bit in the next one. At least then we'd feel sorry for Anakin, and we'd buy it a little better.

-- Anakin hates change. I wonder i this subtle line will ever pay off. HMMMM.

-- Qui-gon says Annie will become a Jedi, but Annie seems more excited to go on a spaceship. Small cool moment for the "finest starpilot in the galaxy."

-- YIPEEE!!!! Just... come on.

-- I hate the scene with 3P0. Lloyd gives a terrible performance and 3P0 is now ditched for the rest of the movie, supporting the fact that Lucas never knew what to do with him.

-- I JUST CAN'T DO IT MOM!!! Another terrible scene that is supposed to tug at our heart strings and make us feel bad for Anakin. But it's just so badly written and acted, that it annoys me. Never mind that in the next film when this scene pays off Anakin is performed by another actor with zero connection to this kid outside of the name. Williams is overdoing it again, and the dialog is pretty much the same as the last scene. The one line I DID like-- "I will come back and free you" is never paid off in the future films.

Scene: Maul discover’s the queen’s location and races to confront them before they can take off. After a brief duel with Qui-Gon, the Jedi and their charges manage to escape and head to Coruscant.

Thomas Alan says:

-Maul gets a report and off he goes on his little Sith motocycle. Pretty cool how he just falls off the cliff like that.

-We get the first real lightsaber duel here. It’s just a preview, so there’s a lot of sand in the say and shots of arms. You get the feeling that Maul is overpowering Qui-Gon, but it’s more an impression that a greatly choreographed fight.

-It’s interesting that Obi-Wan doesn’t just grab his own lightsaber and run out to help Qui-Gon. But I think it says more about the direction of the story than it does the character’s motivations.

There’s some rumors that there’s more to this fight scene that wasn’t shown of Maul following Qui-Gon onto the ship for a short time, but I’ve never seen any footage. It would have been nice, but I suspect it was little more than Maul jumping on and then getting kicked straight back off.

-Qui-Gon’s feeling old. And thinks “We should be patient†about the Sith he just fought. Translation, “You can go back there and fight him if you want, my butt’s planted on this deckâ€.

-Oh yeah, a minute ago Anakin and Obi-Wan met for the first time. That historic meeting was lot in the midst of a lightsaber battle, so let’s make up for it now with a bit of awkward greetings, fake laughs, and Artoo chiming in because he’s there.

Tank says:

-- I like to think Maul has been standing on the exact same spot for a couple days now. The droids reports something we don't understand and if ever there was a cut scene that needed to be added in, it's the one that goes in here somewheres where Qui-gon catches the probe droid and destroys it. It would explain why in the next sequence...

-- Qui-gon and Anakin are running from something. Seems awkward that they are running and Maul is there so quickly. This leads into the first ever (chronologically) lightsaber duel, which in my opinion is WAY to brief. There are tons of rumors of it being longer, and Maul jumping up onto the ramp as well-- but no dice here. If the Annie Liebovitz pics from the Vanity Fair shoot were indication (which weren't, but should have been) Obi-wan and Maul maybe also briefly dueled on Tattooine.

-- This duel makes me feel nostalgic for two reasons. First, as a kid, I could have sworn there was a duel on Tattooine in ANH. This is in the same vein as Luke having a yellow lightsaber, or the Boba Fett doll that shot the damn rocket-- one of those things you swear you remember, but didn't actually happen. So seeing lightsabers on Tattooine was cool. The OTHER thing, is that the very FIRST spy photo leaked from TPM was a long grainy shot of Qui-Gon and Maul near the set of the ship's ramp. It ran on theforce.net back when it was still the Star Wars page on the Texas A&M site and it took a good 40 seconds to load with my 28k modem. The sad part is, when the scene unfolded for the first time I realized how bittersweet the PT was. That grainy little spy photo looked like it could have been shot in 1977. The dust, Qui-gon's ratty pull-over, you could see Maul was not human, but you couldn't make out detail. It felt so shockingly STAR WARS and yet was new. Seeing that moment in the actual film with all the cg, the overly-choreographed fighting, and uber-sterilized look was the moment that I had to conceed that it just didn't "feel" like Star Wars to me outside of a few random moments.

-- That feeling was only made worse a few seconds later when Obi-wan and Anakin were introduced to each other. THIS was NOT how the heroes of the clone wars were supposed to meet. This is where I realized Ewan McGregor was short changed and went to Tunisia and got dysentery for a handful of lines that were still only delivered on-set-- never mind the point I've been repeatedly bringing up about Obi-wan driving the action... Prequel "haters" are often called whiners just because the PT didn't turn out to be the story we wanted. If that is true, than this scene is the moment where I realized that this was not the movie I wanted to see. Hitting the rough halfway mark, this is also where I gave up on hoping the film would turn around and get awesome.

Scene: A brief update on the Naboo situation.

Thomas Alan says:

-And now back at Naboo Sio Bibble looses about 80 IQ points and starts babbling on about democracy. Occupation, hello! And didn’t he send out an urgent plea asking the Queen to return? He looks more deluded than broken.

-A droid pops up to give the strange scene a purpose. The Trade Federation knows about the Gungans and are going after them. Qui-Gon’s little prophecy an hour ago came true.

Tank says:

-- pointless scene, nothing new is learned and Sio Bibble is a frickin idiot.

Scene: Anakin and Padme talk as the ship makes its way to Coruscant.

Thomas Alan says:

-And now back at Naboo Sio Bibble looses about 80 IQ points and starts babbling on about democracy. Occupation, hello! And didn’t he send out an urgent plea asking the Queen to return? He looks more deluded than broken.

-A droid pops up to give the strange scene a purpose. The Trade Federation knows about the Gungans and are going after them. Qui-Gon’s little prophecy an hour ago came true.

-And now we have the contradiction between Sio Bibble’s message and his demeanor in the last scene slapping us in the face as Padme reviews it. Is the message supposed to be a fake or something? I don’t get it.

-So Padme looking all worried when she notices Anakin. This serves as the last time the two of them will have a major scene together and it’s actually one of their better ones. Anakin’s pick-up lines start degenerating to AotC level as he talks about the weather. BTW, isn’t it often cold in the desert at night?

-Padme’s thoughts are still heavily on her queenly duties. Not a bad use of dialogue to express her concern that the Senate won’t help to Anakin. Her time on Tatooine (with slaves) has shaken her belief in the Senate’s ability to do absolute good.

-Anakin did some fast carving on that japor snippet. If I’m not mistaken, he basically met Padme the previous day.

-The scene ends with Padme acting more as a surrogate mother than a future lover, which makes sense given the age difference.

Tank says:

-- In case you haven't gotten it yet, this scene points out Padme is the real Queen. She reviews Sio Bibble's message and is annoyed over how we keep HEARING that the Naboo are suffering, and haven't seen a single frame of it... oh wait, that's me.

-- Annie and Padme have bad dialog about SO COLD OMG. He gives her a trinket that should have played a little heavier in the next couple films (we see it again at her funeral... after he kills her.) It supposedly "brings good fortune." HA. Good one, kid.

-- Genius Anakin deduces Padme is sad and she tells him that "The Queen" is worried about the senate doing any good. I think her time on Tattooine and the failure of negotiating with the TF has started to make her less naive.

-- "ONLY I--" So many times in this script Anakin's dialog is interrupted poorly because Lucas wasn't smart enough to give him extra words, and to have him actually interrupted as opposed to reading the interrupted line. Makes a huge difference.

-- Anakin misses his mom and is comforted by Padme, who he'll want to bone in ten years. This kid is jacked.

Scene: We finally arrive on Coruscant. Palpatine and Supreme Chancellor Valorum greet Amidala. Arrangements are being made for her to speak before the Senate. Meanwhile Qui-Gon must speak to the Jedi Council on urgent matters.

Thomas Alan says:

-And we now how our first daylight view of Coruscant in all its glory. Plus a travelogue courtesy of Ric Ollie. Looking back, the design feels a bit too gray. The traffic is a nice touch, but the buildings sort of blend together in the background. Any good architecture the may have improvised is pretty much lost.

-Palpatine is out waiting for the shuttle. I like how he turns away from the Supreme Chancellor as he walks out of his shuttle. Palpatine’s been in the shadows commanding his minions up until now. For him, this will be phase 1 in his attempt to rule the galaxy.

-Amidala/Knightly seems a bit dismissive towards Valorum. I mean, this guys sort of the most powerful person in the galaxy. Kind of strange for him to come all the way to see you and you basically say, thank-you and run off in your car without so much as looking back.

-Qui-Gon asks Valorum to speak to the Jedi Council for some reason. Don’t see why he’s addressing his request to a politician. And then he just sort of waves Anakin off. Good to know that he’s keeping his promise to Shmi.

-I don’t know why, but I find Jar Jar’s grin as he tells Anakin the queen’s being nice by keeping them around pretty funny. They try to get the idiot grin down in a few other shots, but this is the one where it really works perfectly.

-There’s a deleted scene here that got reincorporated back into the DVD release. I’m not sure what they think they were gaining by having a 15 second drive through of Coruscant. There’s really nothing new being added here.

Tank says:

-- RIC OLIE ladies and gentleman, a terrible actor reading exposition lines! We're told the sites of Coruscant outside of a window as we see them. Another cut scene that wasn't cut.

-- The design of Coruscant is seen in the daytime now, and is pretty cool. Still in line with what we saw in ROTJ, but to be honest Fifth Element did the Megapolis thing a little better. I suspect George knew his because the planet/city was greatly stepped up in AOTC and given far more detail.

-- And we meet Palpatine for the first time...OR DO WE. WHY DOES HE SEEM SO FAMILIAR OMG. His introduction shot is pretty cool. He looks devious.

-- The medium shot of flying over the landing platform is one of the best bits of CG/compositing in the film

-- Shooting the talk between Valorum and the Queen from an angle that might be Anakin's POV is an interesting choice and has always stuck out to me as being very NOT Star Wars.

-- Qui-gon and Valorum seem to know each other, which makes some sense given what the opening crawl said. of course, that crawl was an hour and a half ago so it might be hard for the laymen to connect the dots. Zod is totally snoozing his way through his performance.

-- Annie getting aboard the taxi with the Queen's entourage is odd. is he looking back at Gui-gon, or is he looking for George for some direction?

-- Did Jar Jar just call the Queen hot? Why don't I remember this?

Scene: Palpatine preps Amidala for her speech before the Senate.

Thomas Alan says:

-And now Palpatine tells Amidala how it is. The Senate sucks. They probably won’t act to save her poor planet and their best ally is currently fighting trumped up corruption charges (that Palpatine probably manufactured himself).

-And here Palpatine lays his cards on the table. He plants the thought of a vote of no-confidence in Amidala’s head and gives her the only other option of letting the courts decide. Amidala reacts badly to the suggestion of waiting. He’s plays her perfectly and keeps pushing, suggesting that they must accept Federation control. By the end of the scene she is completely resolute and prepared to do exactly as he wishes. A very effective manipulation scene with a logical psychology.

-Just to go back to an original plan question, it is obvious that Palpatine had always wanted to use the Naboo crisis to generate the recall of Valorum and have himself installed as Supreme Chancellor on a sympathy vote. Amidala’s presence was not a part of that plan though.

People have proposed a lot of complex theories as to what he wanted and why there was an attempt at a treaty to “make it legalâ€. I tend to fall on something relatively simple. When the Trade Federation showed the signed treaty to the Senate, Valorum would be forced to accept it. Palpatine then planned to call for the vote of no-confidence himself, making it easier for him to get nominated in the subsequent election. Amidala showing up just meant that he modified the plans a bit to manipulate her into doing his work for him.

Anyway, that’s my analysis of what this entire movie’s about and why everything on Naboo happened.

-Just to note, Ian McDiarmid is easily my favorite actor of the Prequels. In many ways I consider him the center of the movies and the person most responsible for keeping them from flying off.

Tank says:

-- Palpy tells the Queen their hosed. The Senate is corrupt and Valorum is a pushover. This is cool because it hearkens back to the original Star Wars novel, the one place before this film where Palpatine was called by that name and was described as a senator that took advantage of the widespread corruption to engineer his rise to Emperor. We're now seeing the beginning steps of just that. I think it's pretty core to the film to be able to recognize Palpatine and Sidious are the same person-- the plot would make even less sense without knowing that. So again, if you refused to buy they were the same guy-- you were a moron.

-- McDiarmond, like Neeson, really helps things on track with this film. Despite the poor writing and slip shod plot, he manages to sell what's going on here on multiple levels. He's manipulating the Queen into taking action against Valorum while still seeming as though he is her friend and that this is in her interest. At long last, again-- proof that we are supposed to realize Sid=Palp, the whole movie starts to make a little more sense now. The blockade was meant to contrive this moment. I still think we should know why the TF would have anything to gain with the blockade, but at least now the larger scheme starts to take shape. That said, it's coming pretty late at halfway through the film.

-- The question does arise though, how much of this did Palpatine plan, and how much of it is he rolling with? Did he really want to get his way as Sidious and have that treaty signed, or did he expect her to make it to Coruscant and force the no-confidence vote? There's both a WIN and a FAIL here. I think the fail comes from the fact that either way you'd go with that question, there are some pretty deep plot holes to jump over. On the WIN side though, this is par for the course with Palpatine. In AOTC, ROTS and ROTJ he plays both sides of a conflict, so in a sense, this is consistent. In AOTC, did he fake the order of the clone army to take for himself, or did he want Dooku to take them? I tend to think the idea here is that he plays both sides to win. He's like a guy who plays chess with himself. It's not playing one side up to take the fall against the other, he's worked it so that no matter which side wins, HE will enjoy the spoils. That said, I don't think Lucas is a good enough writer to show that alone in his scripts, but at the core i think that's the idea.

Scene: Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan appear before the Jedi Council to report on the arrival of an apparent Sith and their discovery of young Anakin.

Thomas Alan says:

-Ah the Jedi Council. Everyone in the theater was busy looking at that long necked Jedi. I remember there was some background info that he had an extra brain in his chest, which I hoped would mean that we’d see him runing around waving his lightsaber after being decapitated. Sadly, it was only seen in the movie theater of my brain (and now yours).

-I will say that Yoda looks like ass. There’s no way around it, I don’t care if the puppet is technologically superior to the one from ESB, he sucks. Why did they feel the need to make an 800-year-old look younger anyway? It’s not like 25 years is gonna make much of a difference at that scale.

-The Council is informed that their mortal enemies have returned and quickly wave off the threat because they’d surely have noticed. At least Yoda’s smart enough to realize that Qui-Gon’s not making things up.

-Funny how Qui-Gon didn’t give Obi-Wan a head’s up that he was going to talk about Anakin too. Nothing like being the idiot walking to the door when the boss lets you know the meeting’s still going.

-And now we learn that there is a prophecy that surrounds a person conceived by the Midichlorians who will bring “Balance to the Forceâ€. More Chosen One stuff. Once again, this sort of thing isn’t really my cup of tea. There have been so many Chosen One stories over the years that I find it a bit clichéd. I’d prefer Anakin to just be an exceptionally strong Jedi on his own merits.

-Yoda calls Qui-Gon out on his presumptions. Good for him. He’s even a bit mocking. But Qui-Gon does get his way, so I’m sure he can take it.

Tank says:

-- The establishing shot of the Jedi Temple were disappointing. Pretty weak architecture, lame sky traffic, and a flat boring horizon where for hundreds of miles every building is the exact same height. This is one of those shots that looks like a cut scene from a game.

-- The Jedi council is one big douche factory-- though I think that might be intentional. I'm pretty sure that the jedi's overconfidence is what allows Palpatine to throw them over. We're told the Jedi are noble and all powerful, but they come off as stuck-up and worse, stuck in their ways. They don't want to consider the Sith are real, even though Qui-gon has just scrapped with one (shut up, don't want to hear about your non-canon "dark Jedi.")

-- Obi-wan is mad to look like a dumbass when Qui-gon brings up Anakin. More proof that Qui-gon does his own thing.

-- And here comes the suck. The Force is again belittled by the midichlorians, and by a prophecy. I REEAAALLLY don't like the Chosen One crap. It's tired, played out, and over done. I KNOW it's pure Joseph Campbell, but I've never liked it. One, I think it muddles the nature of the force. More importantly, it ruins Luke. The transformation from Star Wars to being about an epic struggle of good and evil, to being about the life and times of Darth Vader is never one I favored. I know in the end Vader kills the Emperor, but it pisses me off that instead of it being Luke's belief that brings him about (when Ben and Yoda both tell him it can't happen) it's a roundabout prophecy coming true. Nevermind the endless arguments over what "balance" means in terms of the Force, I'm more bothered by the fact that Luke's arc as a hero is reduced to circumstance now, and not destiny.

-- And the aliens, including Yoda, in this scene all look like ass.

That's probably the case, yeah. There's one shot of agreen pod engine hitting a wall that I recall in the theater looking so so, and there are a few focus issues wih things look a little too sharp realistically in the final lap-- ut for the most part you're probably pegging what I am seeing.

-The human arrive on gratuitous CGI mounts, but somehow Threepio arrives at exactly the same time

In any given Star Wars film, OT or PT, the worst effect in the picture will always be a person riding a creature. I think Lucas has some weird obsession with the concept because it finds it's way into every film. Nevermind this is a galaxy with all matter of amazing methods of transportation.

A small list:

The stormtrooper on the Dew back in both the original and SE version of ANH

Tauns Tauns

the giant fle thing Anakin surfs in AOTC

the lizrd obi-wan rides in ROTS

WHAT IS THE POINT STOP IT GEORGE

-Utini. Heh.

It's funny, I agree... but part of me is annoyed the same way you were with the DIA WANNA WANGA line earlier. This great classic "alien" lines or sounds from the OT often get recycled pointlessly in the PT. The pit droid sucked through the pod engine re-used the Ewok-on-a-speederbike cue. Granted though, no one but people who've seen the film 34123245 times would realize that.

-And we end the pod race with waking up Jabba. Nothing like ending a long action sequence by telling your audience what they watched was so boring we understand if you might want to fall asleep.[/color]

Good point. It's funny you say this too, because in one of my screenwriting books Lucas gives the comment that you should never have somebody say the words "this is boring" in a script because it gives the audience a chance to agree. Forgot to take his own advice.

I agree that SEEING some of the evils the TF was wreaking upon Naboo would have helped in a ton of ways instead of just hearing about, and I also agree that most of the Tattooine scenes are contrived to tell us Anakin is special and to get us to the next big action piece, which is the pod race.

But that said, these are prequels. We know who lives and who dies (unless you're one of those tards that thought Padme had a chance... Ryn) and how it all ends, it's the fun of seeing how things fall into place.

I thought that the set-up between Watto and Qui-gon was WAY over complicated. Meeting Anakin and getting his help to win money for the parts could have been separate from dealing with Watto. But you know-- coulda woulda shoulda.

Slavery in the Star Wars universe is what it is. This is also a universe where Queens are elected!

I got that she was from someplace other than Tattooine, but had always been a slave.

To be honest, I'm not sure what the slave angle really paid off on with the story. Anakin's alienation had more to do with being a Jedi than a slave. All it it really did was serve the plot in separating Anakin and Shmi-- but that could have been done in other ways. Hell, Darth Maul coulda killed her.

Oh I don't recall him being a traitor over that particular event-- just that he was one.

i want to say that he was rumored to have joined Count Dooku's inner sanctum.

It was just amusing given that Hugh Quarshdie left because he thought he should be paid more, and wasn't a fan of Lucas' style of filmmaking. The response was to make his character into a bad guy.

The more I think on it, I think it came from the Star Wars website. There was that very brief time while they were in the midst of their re-design where starwars.com beame the holonet news, and the entire site was written from an in-universe perspective. It was one of the few EU things I thought was pretty clever and enjoyed it.

I THINK a newsbrief about Panaka being a traitor came from there.

-The shop owner’s got some of the less textured features of any of the CGI characters and looks pretty fake

 

-I love how Anakin’s first instinct with Padme is her his toys. It’s one of those little kid that totally fits with the age.

 

-But oh wait, now Darth Maul’s telling us they did get a trace despite no reply being sent. Absolutely no indication was ever given as to how this happened. This is where the “Captain Panaka is a traitor†rumors really got started I think because someone had to send out that signal. Too bad the guy was basically written out of the saga in the next movie in favor of the exact same character with an eye-patch.

 

-Here we have the virgin birth. It seems to be mainly a concept meant to fulfill a prophesy, but will also be lightly touched upon in RotS. I don’t have much use for it as Christ figures in movies are a bit overplayed, but it is an indication that Anakin is megapowerful.

1. i think that shop owener was a rubber mask...

2. I DO love that Anakin wants to show off his toys. Makes perfect sense for his age.

3. Was Panaka made a traitor i the Eu after all? I seem to recall hearing that.

4. Do you think Virgin Birth is iplied here as opposed to plain ol miraculous conception?

Scene: After being turned down by Watto, the small company make their way through the street searching for an alternative. Jar Jar runs afoul of Sebulba only to be saved by Anakin.

Thomas Alan says:

-Obi-Wan makes an appearance to tell the audience there’s nothing to barter with. I find it funny that they brought the Queen’s wardrobe with them. I can only hope it’s an emergency backup that was already on board when they got there.

-Qui-Gon believes something will come up which will get him the money they need. Another example of his trusting the Force to provide.

-Padme’s got a decent little walk scanning the dangerous city. Her character isn’t completely naïve, she might well be able handle herself on her own.

-Apparantly “Yo wanna wanga†means “Are you going to pay for that?â€. Which makes me wonder why Bib Fortuna asked that of Threepio in RotJ. Pretty lazy to recycle made-up dialogue and not even have it remotely in the same context.

-The shop owner’s got some of the less textured features of any of the CGI characters and looks pretty fake.

-And now Sebulba, another major CGI character. I like the concept of his design, flipping the functionality of his arms and legs. The execution is a bit rough but not too bad considering they had to guess at the physics and logic of such a character.

-I’m not sure how wise it was to have this supposed heavy get angry enough to start a fight, and have him back down because a child slave gives him a vague warning. That’s okay, ‘cause we’ll be settling this feud at the racetrack. Woot.

-Anakin’s lines here would be awful if they came from an adult. The thing is, children talk in that awkward manner fairly often, so it’s not completely out of place.

-Yes, Jar Jar’s walking a dangerous path Qui-Gon.

-This is also pretty much the first meeting between Qui-Gon and Anakin. He treats the kid with respect, but turns to leave nonetheless..

Tank says:

-- Qui-gon talks to Obi-wan via his Gillette razor phone and reminds me how much i wish Obi-wan were the one out there making rash decisions and being forced to grow up. The more we see Qui-gon go by the seat of his pants, the more obvious it is to me that Lucas wrote the first draft with Obi-Wan doing these things, and i so wished he'd stuck with it.

-- Joke about the Queen's ever changing wardrobe-- funny!

-- Jar Jar is a racist. He says Tattooinians are "KUHWAAAZY!!!!" I think part of the problem is Jar Jar is SO over the top, and Qui-gon replies so calmly. The performances are so off from each other it doesn't help sell Jar Jar

-- More clowning with Jar Jar leads to setting up Sebulba as the foil for the race down the road. Sebulba, much like Watto, is far more interesting of a design, and even better realized than Jar Jar. Interesting that Sebulba speaks in Dugese, and yet Jar jar, the tard from another backwater planet, understands him.

-- Anakin must have cleaned those racks double-time, because he joins them and scares Sebulba off. His dialog is terrible of course, and acted in even worse. This kid is just bad. Sorry. What I do like though, is Sebulba IS backed down. That says he actually either has respect, or a little fear for this kid. We'll learn more down the road, but as an introduction, it's certainly foreshadowing that the dug is kind of afraid of this kid. I don't think Anakin knows it-- clearly his lie about Jar Jar isn't fooling anyone, and Sebulba having to pay Watto for killing his slave doesn't seem like much of an excuse either... but I think Sebulba is willing to save face and pretend to buy what Anakin is selling. This is one of the few times I think George pulls off being subtle, and it works well despite Lloyd's acting ability.

-- Qui-gon notices Anakin for the first time, and isn't sure what to make of him.

Scene: A sandstorm hits and Anakin invites the group to his home where they meet Anakin’s mother, Shmi and a partially built See-Threepio.

Thomas Alan says:

-Obi-Wan’s back with the weather report.

-Qui-Gon’s trying to stay low, and yet he’s not exactly keeping his Jediness a secret. First he waves his hands around at Watto, then he lets Anakin see his lightsaber. Undercover work’s tough when you can’t just take everything you want.

-Slaves get pretty nice quarters on Tatooine. Jar Jar even remarks that it seems cozy. I know that the purpose of Star Wars isn’t to send a message that slavery is bad, but we’re heading into ignorant territory here. I’d think that it must cost Watto more to keep the Skywalker’s comfortable than it would be to hire a cheap assistant.

-Shmi’s awfully accepting up Anakin bringing home three people.

-I love how Anakin’s first instinct with Padme is her his toys. It’s one of those little kid that totally fits with the age.

-Portman’s fallen back into not knowing what to do in these awkward conversations again and is just smiling blankly.

-Ah Threepio. Can’t say I much approve of Anakin making him. Some coincidences I can handle, like R2 just so happening to be on the Queen’s ship as mechanic, but having him come out of Anakin’s mini-shop is pushing the bounds of an incestuous universe just a bit much.

-The naked Threepio joke only works because R2 was the one who pointed it out, though it always makes me cringe when they wipe on a joke. Reminds me too much of a Hanna Barbara cartoon where the show ends with all the characters laughing at some unfunny slapstick bit.

Tank says:

--Obi-wan has one of his two scenes on the exterior of Tattooine. Ewan McGregor went all the way to Tunisia and got dysentery to deliver two lines.. WHEN HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN DRIVING THE PLOT THE ENTIRE--oh never mind. We do learn that somebody from Naboo is sending a message though.

-- I LOVE the bit where Anakin spots Qui-Gon's lightsaber. I'd wish we'd seen a better reaction shot from him. In the comic adaption there was a tight shot of the saber, then a tight shot of Anakin. In a way, this is the moment where he might realize his life is about to change.

-- R2 prop must have been slow that day because as he passes and the scene wipes the film is obviously sped up.

-- Shmi: OH HI STRANGERS FROM ANOTHER PLANET MY SON BROUGHT HOME! COME ON IN! Felt her introduction could have been a little more interesting. And after being sped up in the last scene R2 is missing from the group until they are already inside.

-- Speaking of R2, I'm kind of bummed he has had zero character moments thus far outside of saving the ship earlier. No one talks to him, everyone is walking away from him.. granted in the SW universe droids aren't given much thought.. but this is R2 freaking D2 and he should have a little more to do. As much as I have always disliked 3P0, I see know how essential their interaction is to the OT and is sorely missed in the PT.

--Speaking of 3P0, Anakin builds him. That's retarded. Obviously, he didn't INVENT 3p0 as we've already seen two droids of the same model in this film, but rather has scavenged the parts and is following the equivalent of a chilton manual to put him together. I'm trying to figure out why George made this decision and what it adds to the story. As best as i can tell, he either just didn't know how to get 3p0 into the film, he wanted to show how tech savvy Annie is, or he just thought it would be cool. Well, he all know George's idea of cool is very NOT. Annie's tech ability easily comes out when we learn he's building his own pod racer and 3p0 would have been perfectly in place as part of the Queen's entourage. So I just don't GET why Darth Vader had to build 3P0... there's nothing to be gained. The idea of him lacking a body is further confusing-- the only point of it seems to be showing off special effects to mask out Daniels being his own puppeteer.

-- Also hate the repeating "entirely stable" joke off his line in ESB. And one again, Williams over does the music with his PAY ATTENTION! CUTE IMPORTANT MOMENT OF NOSTALGIA HERE music cue as 3P0 and R2 meet for the first time.

-- This may seem petty, but it's one of the little things that drive me insane and point to how poor of a writer Lucas is. In screenwriting, especially dialog, you really want to avoid repeating words close to each other. It sounds unnatural and clunky. Example, Anakin says "When the storm is over I'll show you my RACER. I'm building a pod RACER." It just sounds like bad writing. Any copy editor in the world would have made that sentence be "When the storm is over I'll show you the pod racer I'm building." The last scene had the word "outskirts" used twice in a row as well. Again, probably, petty to anyone but me, it's just this endless string of tiny little things adding up that makes this movie fail for me.

Scene:The Sith plan to use a transmission pinpoint the location of the Queen. The plan works and Sidious sends Maul to Tatooine with instructions to destroy the Jedi.

Thomas Alan says:

-Obi-Wan’s back again. At least he’s got something to do this time by ordering the faux queen not to send any transmissions for fear of being discovered.

-But oh wait, now Darth Maul’s telling us they did get a trace despite no reply being sent. Absolutely no indication was ever given as to how this happened. This is where the “Captain Panaka is a traitor†rumors really got started I think because someone had to send out that signal. Too bad the guy was basically written out of the saga in the next movie in favor of the exact same character with an eye-patch.

-This whole scene is theoretically pretty important. It’s the only time we ever see Palpatine with his apprentice before he sends him off to kill Jedi. Unfortunately, it’s a rather broad conversation where the only part of the plan that is revealed is that they want Amidala to sign the treaty, which we already knew. Otherwise, we just know that this is the first step in the Sith plan to have vengeance against the Jedi. Fair enough, but it would have been nice to give us a broad reason for that vengeance. But that’s what the EU’s for I suppose.

-Incidentally, the Nemoidians never did tell Sidious that it was Jedi who freed the queen. Guess he just knew.

-This is also the first scene where we get a look at Coruscant. It’s darker than I had imagined. I was thinking it would be a gray planet, instead of black with red streaks. We’ll see more of it later.

-Didn’t mention it before, but it’s nice that Timothy Zahn’s name and concept for the planet made its way into the movie. There are few instances of EU making its way into the saga, and quite a few examples of it being swept aside altogether without a second thought. But Zahn’s planet had entered the popular culture enough that Lucas went with it. Which was easy enough given that I’m sure he had a similar concept for the planet and keeping the name was easy enough.

Tank says:

-- Okay. Confusion. The Naboo crew gets a transmission from Bibble, Obi-wan senses it's a trick, and orders no reply be sent. He informs Qui-gon, who also says it's a trick to establish a connection trace, and no reply must be sent. Cut to Coruscant where the Sith congratulate themselves on establishing a connection trace! WTF? Did anybody read this script before shooting?

-- Coruscant is cool. The first two shots match what was established in ROTJ:SE, but I rather like the background the Siths walk in front of because for some reason, it reminds me of old Disneyland Tomorrowland concept art. Speaking of concept art, the city-planet concept was in pretty much every single draft of Star Wars Lucas has ever written from all the proto-Starkiller drafts, to the first draft of ROTJ. As a result, this is one of the things McQuarrie did concept art for, and I LOVE the fact Lucas went into the archives and dug out 22 year old art to finally realize.

-- Seeing Sidious in the flesh (vs. hologram) and seeing the architecture of the balcony really should solidify the fact that he and Palpatine are the same person.

-- The Sith want revenge on the Jedi for something-- but I want to know what... and I don't want to have to read a bunch of crap novels and comics for an answer. Odd to that he knows the Jedi are involved, and when we last saw him talking to the TF they were too scared to tell him the Jedi escaped. Oh well-- it's not like I wanted to see anymore calls between them. We can assume he's been filled in since their last talk.

Scene: At the Skywalker home, the group eat dinner and discuss how they plan to get off the planet. Anakin suggests he be allowed to enter a pod race so they can use the prize money. Shmi, though worried, agrees to the plan.

Thomas Alan says:

-At least the movie was kind enough to explain why slaves are granted as much freedom of movement as they are. Making a slave’s head explode if they run away makes for a rather effective deterrence.

-Padme’s getting her own little lesson here on the limitations of the Republic in regards to slavery. Her plans have relied heavily on the omnipotence of the Republic thus far. Hoping if she can just get to Coruscant they’ll sweep in and making everything right. This is the first real crack in that belief.

-Anakin takes the moment to brag about his pod racing skills. Another example of a little kid thing.

-Qui-Gon mentions Jedi reflexes (once again, not very subtle) giving Anakin the opening he needs to ask if he’s a Jedi. When Anakin declares that no one can kill a Jedi it’s provides three bits of foreshadowing. First that Qui-Gon will soon die. Second that he will not necessarily stay dead. Third that Anakin has a belief in immortality. It’s an echo of Obi-Wan’s “Strike me down†speech, except Anakin’s saying it instead of Obi-Wan.

-This dream of Anakin’s that he’d free all the slaves pretty much goes nowhere.

-And now we get to the main point of the scene, and getting the movie started again. Anakin getting his mother to agree to the pod racing scheme is a bit much. Yeah, she says that a problem with the universe is that people don’t help each other, but I’ve yet to meet a mother who accepts their child putting their life at risk no matter what the reason.

Tank says:

--Insert awkward exposition here: WE GOT BOMBS IN US AND IF WE LEAVE WE BLOW UP. I get that we needed to establish why Anakin and Shmi weren't shackled even though they are slaves, and the pseudo-tech answer works, this explanation just isn't very organic though. More student level screenwriting here.

-- I like Padme being ignorant to the world outside of the Republic. I can't help but think this informs her decision later to bring up the no-confidance vote. The Republic has already failed her planet, and it's even worse outside its borders. I wish she'd have had a few more moments like this, even through the next two films in the face of the empire growing.

-- Jar Jar is in this scene. yeah.

--Anakin brings up podracing so he can talk about himself and introduce the concept to the story. Both are awkward entry points, but a cocky little kid that grows into being a cocky adult WOULD do that sort of thing. Qui-gon makes a remark which leads Annie to calling him out as a Jedi and having a "lazer-sword" which for some reason is what George Lucas calls a lightsaber in all his scripts.

-- Anakin mentions he's the only "human" that can pod race.

-- Anakin's dream is important. We know he later has them and comes back, but here he talks about coming back and freeing the slaves as a Jedi. When this comes part true I can't decide if it was a missed opportunity to see that happen... or if the point is that Anakin makes a wrong decision somewhere, and that he SHOULD have come back to Tattooine sooner and the fact he didn't leads to his mother dying. I feel inclined to add Jake lloyd is a terrible actor. Not sure if I mentioned that yet or not.

-- Exposed, Qui-gon and Padme spill the beans as to why and how they are there. In a twist of cosmic coincidence Anakin has a pod racer and can help them win on a race TOMORROW which will give them the hyperdrive they need. Padme tells Shmi that "Qui-gon wouldn't want to put your son in danger" )which is kind of funny considering what transpires for the rest of the film), to which the galaxy's greatest mom takes 3 seconds to decide its cool for her 8 year old to strap himself to floating turbine engines and fly in a race against some gangsters to help some people that he dragged home out of the storm. It's all so absurd. This is supposed to be the call to adventure-- like Luke getting sucked up until Leia's plight. But for Luke, there was a lot riding on it. Turns out Ben knew his father, his aunt and uncle are killed, he KNOWS he's attached to Leia somehow-- it's truly destiny. Anakin's call seems to be based on coincidence and random choices under the guise of being "the will of the force." I call it, again, poor storytelling. There's other ways to get to this entry point in the story. Again, if Anakin were older, he'd have the hots for Padme and decide to help them on his own to please her (for example).

Scene: Qui-Gon goes to Watto and sets up the deal whereby Anakin will be allowed to race for the ship parts. If the child loses, the queen’s ship will belong to Watto.

Thomas Alan says:

-Here we have the most direct call on Padme being Amidala in disguise. By this point, I’m fairly sure Qui-Gon knows he’s speaking to the queen and intentionally tweaks her.

-I don’t think it’s unfair to call Qui-Gon reckless for offering someone else’s ship and only property of value on a racing scheme.

-This is the first scene where we see that Watto has a legitimate soft-spot for Anakin. Even when talking about an accident that, no doubt, cost him a lot of money, Watto credits Anakin with a good piloting job.

-Qui-Gon strikes a deal with Watto whereby the toydarian will win either way. Unfortunately, it also means that Qui-Gon has little leverage later on in the movie. Watto calls him foolish, and he’s not wrong.

Tank says:

-- I'm still not sure if Qui-gon knows Padme is really the Queen or not at this point. It's possible, but at the same time he's so cocky and sure of himself it's hard to say if he is blinded by his overconfidence, or just dicking with her.

-- The overly elaborate plan for Qui-gon to pretend he owns a pod anakin has built but we've only heard about and to enter a race using the ship with no hyperdrive as collateral to enter the race is laid out in a painfully expository way. It really could have been streamlined. Anakin's pod didn't have to be a secret, that gained nothing. We established earlier a ship without hyperdrive is worthless in theory. It's just so overly complicated. I think Lucas writes his scripts in a way where he knows the major plot points and action sequences, but it's just torture for him to connect them organically.

-- Backing up Anakin's "human" line, Watto says Anakin is a credit to "your race." This makes me wonder if aall humans in the Star Wars galaxy are from the same planet historically. That might make sense in terms of why the Naboo and Gungans don't get along. If the Naboo are descended from colonists, and the Gungans were indigenous you could see why there might be bad blood.

Scene: Qui-Gon and Shmi discuss Anakin’s powers and what can be done for him while watching Anakin put the finishing touches on his pod. Anakin’s friends stop by to let Anakin know he doesn’t have a prayer of winning.

Thomas Alan says:

-Qui-Gon’s been giving Anakin meaningful looks for a good 10 minutes now. While he’s checking in with Obi-Wan he expresses that he might be important for the first time in words.

-Now it’s time to start talking to the mother about her special little boy. This is really the only time we ever see how Jedi handle the delicate situation of telling a parent that their child has the potential to become a Jedi. In Anakin’s case he’s unusually old and has manifested his power more than most, but I think the method of breaking it to the parent would be generally the same.

-Shmi mentions that Anakin has a rather pure heart. In this movie, he’s as far away from Vader as you can get.

-Here we have the virgin birth. It seems to be mainly a concept meant to fulfill a prophesy, but will also be lightly touched upon in RotS. I don’t have much use for it as Christ figures in movies are a bit overplayed, but it is an indication that Anakin is megapowerful.

-Oddly, when Shmi essentially offers Anakin to the Jedi, Qui-Gon at first waffles because it’s not his primary mission.

-And here comes Boba Fett, I mean Kitster. This is one of the weirder rumors that got started and was accepted by way too many people.

-I can accept Anakin talking like a crackhead alone, but I really don’t need a whole gaggle of them interacting.

-I think this is one of the more effective little Jar Jar gags. Threepio commenting on it might be the reason.

Tank says:

-- The underused Obi-wan does more of nothing, playing the other end of the telephone as Qui-gon confirms Anakin is special. Shmi pops out and they shoot each other these little grins which tells me that last night they got it on. I'm sure of it. Given that Jedi have the best defense for one-night stands in the galaxy (hey baby, jedi code don't allow for no attachment) it's a forgone conclusion she was swinging his lightsaber all night.

-- Shmi and Qui-gon talk about Annie, and confirm he should have been a Jedi given his abilities. We also get our first clue as to how young Jedi are when they begin training. Hearing the Luke was too old wasn't a huge shock, but finding out Anakin is too old at 8 is very interesting.

-- I KNOW this is mythic storytelling that involves a prophecy, and that the concept of an immaculate conception goes part and parcel with that, but Shmi just throws it out there, and Qui-gon doesn't question it. I know he senses the force and what not-- but come on. Who's going to buy this realistically? Maybe he should have given HER a blood test. Then again, if he just bailed out on her with his "can't date, i'm a Jedi line" she can come back with "immaculate conception."

-- This kid scene is terrible. CHILD ACTORS GAAHHHH. Warrick as a midget proportioned young Greedo is creepy. I THINK this is where the cut scene is where it is confirmed that is a young Greedo, and Anakin gets mad and knocks him down. I think having that scene really would have helped define Anakin as a character.

--This is one of the scenes where Jar Jar looks phenomenal. There's barely any edge blurring when Padme touches his arm. The close up of his hand reaching for the wrench looks so good I'm not sure it isn't actually a prosthetic/make-up job. He's still annoying though.

Scene: Anakin tells Qui-Gon about his hopes and dreams. Meanwhile Qui-Gon secretly takes a blood sample to test his Force potential and discovers that the young man is off the charts.

Thomas Alan says:

-Talking about the stars…a rather banal “I wish†moment.

-This was filmed months after production wrapped. Anakin’s mostly shot in shadow here to hide his being older than he should be.

-Obi-Wan pops up to play the science guy.

-Midichlorians are brought up for the first time. I’ll save my comments on them for later when Qui-Gon explains what they are.

-Whatever they are, though, Obi-Wan’s mentioning that he’s got a higher count than Yoda is another big indicator that Anakin is unusually strong in the Force even for a Jedi. It also marks Yoda as the peak of Jedi strength. A concept not totally known in the Original Trilogy.

-Qui-Gon says he’s not sure what it means, but he has strong suspicions already.

-Shmi catches Qui-Gon on the phone and turns away. The Jedi gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar a bit there.

Tank says:

--This kid is killing me. He's 8 and he speaks like... I don't know what. My four year old doesn't sound this cheesy. This kid has no personality and just reads lines written by somebody who is giving him dialog that is just stock kid-stuff. The kid just isn't good enough to sell bad dialog.

-- Qui-gon does the blood test and we hear the word MIDICHLORIANS. No definition of them yet, but even on first viewing I was bothered by the fact there could be any scientific measurement of force potential. We already know he is special. George is once again TELLING us things instead of showing us. Showing Annie with fore-sight or Jedi reflexes would such a more interesting way then to TELL us by having Obi-Wan look at a microscope. More midichlorian hate when we get the filmic definition.

--The DVD version of this scene looks decent, but I remember in the theater it looked terrible. MAJORLY noisy/grainy with very poor contrast. I also recall an interview with Lucas and McCallum talking about shooting AOTC digitally as the technology was just coming up. They revealed they had shot one scene of TPM digitally as a test, but wouldn't say which because OMNG IT'S SO GREAT YOU PEOPLE DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE! Well I did. It was obviously this scene, and when they finally revealed that years later in another interview I wasn't shocked at all.

I actually love this show. Probably my favorite of the summer season.

And Tami-- I thought many times you'd like this show. cause of the drugs.