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The Phantom Menace • Virtual DVD Commentary


Tank
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When I first wrote that it was a bit longer.

 

I pointed out that a lot more Gungans should have died at the end of TPM to show that the zillions of battle droids, if inept, can at least cause casualties because of their sheer numbers. All those droids and tanks lined up and I don't remember one Gungan getting blown up. That's what I meant by GL not doing a decent job of it. In Clone Wars they are shown to be formidable in numbers. In TPM they're just cheap and nasty.

 

I don't think that it was a case of Palpatine realising that droids were rubbish either. I think he always knew that they were to be a stop-gap until the clones were ready. An army of necessity, if you will.

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This is a plot point, they aren't suppossed to be "sold as a fighting force". They are supposed to be inept. If you watch the real DVD commentaries of the prequels Lucas flat out says this he says "eventually Palpatine realizes that droids are of no use for fighting." They arent supposed to be menacing.

 

The Stormtroopers in the OT managed to be intimidating and inept depending on the situation. We bought it, we loved them. I think the droids could have been a bit more intimidating, but then I think they were much better in this one than, say, Revenge of the Sith. As for the DVD commentaries...what a chore to sit through. I'd listen again if it was just Lucas as opposed to Ben Burtt blabbing about sounds effects, Rick McCallum being himself and FX guys going on about how they perfected CGI cloth. Have LFL ever heard of separate commentaries??

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I don't think that it was a case of Palpatine realising that droids were rubbish either. I think he always knew that they were to be a stop-gap until the clones were ready. An army of necessity, if you will.

 

Not even that, really. They were a way of getting from point A to point B. The droids were part of the means to justify Palpatine's end - military creation on behalf of the Republic.

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That is also true.

 

However he needed an army to blockade and capture Naboo. I didn't diversify into your rationale because they served more than just that purpose. Your explanation was long-term and mine was short-term :)

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New stuff! And me and Tank are finally disagreeing on things of importance.

 

Scene: The Queen's ship leaves Naboo and tangles with the Federation Blockade. There's some chit chat on board the ship between the principles, we meet R2-D2 for the first times and he does what R2 does best-- saves everyone's ass.

 

Tank says:

 

-- The Queen's ship reminds me of the SR-71. Can't remember if I mentioned that. i KNOW that Naboo is an artisan world, and this is a pre-War galaxy, but the smoothness and cleanliness of this (and many other) ships of PT combined with being CG sort of add to the "slickness" of the PT that I'm not a huge fan of.

 

-- Minor quibble-- but R2's chronological introduction to the saga is marred by Jar Jar standing in front of him. He gets a more suitable introduction a few moments later when he barrels into Jar Jar before heading up top to make repairs. And I'm not afraid to say it-- CG R2 feels wrong.

 

-- Ric Olie. Worst. Actor. Ever.

 

-- the astrodroids on the surface of the ship making repairs seems awkward-- but at the same time I like it. It's actually a great way to introduce R2D2 and this scenes is one of the few times in the movie where he doesn't seem like set-dressing. And, I do appreciate the continuity here in that once again, R2 is show to be the only character allowed to break the fourth wall.

 

-- this scene also home to the line that sparks first official plot conjecture for Episode 2. "Here, Master... Tatooine." There was TONS of speculation about story, fake scripts, supposition etc etc etc about all the PT films, but unless you count me thinking Naboo had cloning tech, this line from Obi-wan was the first official scene that might have been a set up for later. AFTER this movie was seen and digested, and AOTC was in production AND Owen and Beru were cast, everyone looked back to this scene. Why? because according to semi-canon for decades, Owen as Ben's brother. Those who wanted to stick to this, even though it seemed more likely Anakin would end up being step-brothers with Owen, claimed that Obi-wan pulled up Tatooine on that scanner reaaaally fast. As if he already knew he was close to home.

 

Thomas Alan says:

 

-Obi-Wan tells Jar Jar to stay out of trouble and Jar Jar introduces himself to the droids. This was part of a planned piece of Jar Jar business where he manages to wreck some of the R2 units. That little humor bit was cancelled, but this was left in. I’ve no clue for what purpose.

 

-We stopped in the middle of an escape sequence. Getting onto the ship was part one, running the blockade is part two. The sad thing is that we have one of the few space battles of the Prequels and it’s the least inspired bit of work of the entire saga. They basically run straight towards a big ship while getting shot at. All the tension is put into R2’s maintenance heroics (which, in itself, was a repeat of the escape from Cloud City). No evasive action. No running to the turrets to fight off the (non-existent) fighters. No asteroid belt, just a straight line and danger stated through red graphics and dialogue.

 

-I like how Obi-Wan comes up with the idea of landing on Tatooine because it’s controlled by the Hutts. It always seemed odd to me that a nothing planet like Tatooine just so happened to be the same place Jabba lived in Return of the Jedi. Now we see that Obi-Wan chose this planet as a hiding place for Amidala specifically because it was controlled by Jabba. Now, when Obi-Wan needs to find a hiding place for Amidala’s son twelve years later, it makes sense that Tatooine remains an ideal place to remain secret from the Empire.

 

Scene: Sidious speaks again with the Federation leaders and they lament the escape of the queen. They claim she's beyond their range, to which Sidious introduces the solution-- Darth Maul.

 

Tank says:

 

-- At this point I feel like Sidious should be WITH the TF. Or maybe Darth Maul should have been. Or SOMETHING. I know he's better introduced here, and Sid needs to be on Coruscant to b Palpatine, but they have got to be racking up long distance charges. We're a half hour in and this is the 300th call they've made. i GET that the TF is incompetent, and that is Sid's problem, I just feel like I've been seeing the same scene over and over.

 

-- On the flip side, Darth Maul is bad ass, and this is a cool way to introduce him. Plus, he's a bad ass. The fact the Tf dudes are realizing they might be in over their heads is cool.

 

Thomas Alan says:

 

-The Nemoidians carefully disclose their failure. Still not mentioning the Jedi.

 

-Tank mentioned earlier about being disappointed by Sidious’s first appearance. Darth Maul gets a little better treatment appearing as a menace besides his master and crossing his arms. Still not a giant head, but he has plenty of weight.

 

-Maul’s appearance also causes another round of diaper wetting with the Nemoidians. They’re starting to realize that they’re evil benefactor probably wasn’t the best person to get into bed with.

 

Scene: The Queen and the Jedi talk about their plans while Panaka whines some more, and Padme begins to emerge.

 

Tank says:

 

-- we start with R2 being commended, which is cute. Padme is supposed to clean him, which is really just a smoke screen for her to go amongst the crew and get a feel for what is going on. To see if anyone isn't maybe telling the queen the full story.

 

-- Technical nerd thing: R2's speech is pretty unique in this film. Most of his noises were made for ANH. ESB recycled these noises, and in fact, there's a few scenes where it's recycled to obviously and bugs me. For some reason, all of R2's "dialog" was new (and more digital sounding) in ROTJ. TPM is recycling again, but with a bit more creativity, and uses samples from both the ANH voice and ROTJ one.

 

-- Panaka is a tool. I never liked him, but I pretty much decided here that there was no going back. I KNOW the Jedi are a little over-confidant. But Panaka just pees on every parade he can/ it might be his job, but it makes him a really flat character. His entire contribution to the film is LOVE THE QUEEN, HATE THE JEDI. It's no wonder that conspiracy theorists assumed he was a traitor.

 

Thomas Alan says:

 

-Why aren’t they in hyperspace? I thought they were low on fuel, not out. And, it’s probably silly to point this out given the precedent set in ESB, but wouldn’t it take several lifetimes to travel to another system if they didn’t have faster-than-light travel?

 

-We have the official unveiling of R2. It got a big round of applause at the midnight showing I was at.

 

-Miss Fake Queen takes some moderately evil delight in humbling Padme by ordering her to clean up R2. Probably Knightly’s best little moment.

 

-Qui-Gon insists that the Queen simply follow his judgment. A little piece of arrogance on his part that will be touched on again later.

 

Scene: Padme and Jar Jar meet.

 

Tank says:

 

-- I'm trying. Really. I just hate this character. This scene doesn't do much, other than establish that Padme knows what a Gungan is.

 

Thomas Alan says:

 

-While Padme’s busy getting her fingernails dirty in walks Jar Jar because we need to see the two of them meet (for some reason). Portman has absolutely no idea how to react to this unnecessary monologue from Jar Jar where he basically explains to her that he’s the peasant comic relief being brought along for the ride with in this movie.

 

-Interesting that she has to confirm that he’s a Gungan. The Gungans are apparently very well hidden from the outside world.

 

Scene: The ship lands on Tatooine, and the damage is assessed. Qui-gon goes off in search of repair parts, and Padme is pushed onto him and they head into Mos Espa.

 

Tank says:

 

-- Obi-wan and Qui-gon sense a disturbance in the force. They want to keep a low profile, so no transmissions, and the ship stays outside of town. Then... Qui-gon leaves and Obi-Wan god damn kenobi vanishes from the film more or less for a good 45 minutes. I'm projecting ahead here, but even the first time I saw this I felt the same way. WHY DOES OBI-WAN STAY WITH THE SHIP!? Obi-wan is supposed to discover Anakin. Obi-wan is supposed to be the man! This is what I've expected for 20 years! But noooooooo.. Obi-wan stays on the ship. The debate over Qui-Gon comes to a head here for me. As much as I liek Liam Neeson, and the Qui-Gon character-- this is the point where I think Obi-wan could take responsibility and should be driving the action. I really feel as if this should have been his film. Qui-gon (or Yoda, if you want to get super technical) could have easily stayed behind on Naboo to distract the TF while Qui-gon delivered the Queen. The story wouldn't have changed that much, and it would have felt more organic to the PT.

 

-- For reasons unexplained, the aquatic alien decides to come along for a stroll through the desert. Obi-wan has to stay on the ship, but Jar Jar gets to come along. GREAT.

 

-- Panaka insists the Queen wants Padme along as her voice. At this point, the double stuff makes sense. I like that the "real" queen is willing to head into danger a bit to educate herself.

 

-- Mos Espa is great. THIS feels like Star Wars. I'd have assumed it was Mos Eisley if all the tertiary material hadn't told me otherwise. One of few extraneous additions to the ANHSE that I liked was the drive into Mos Eisley, and this has many similar elements. Little easter egg-- there's a broken down protocol droid wandering about that's a re-use of the "shot" 3P0 suit from ESB.

 

-- Jar Jar steps in crap. That was certainly needed to tell the story.

 

Thomas Alan says:

 

-Not particularly great particle effects on the landing there.

 

-Qui-Gon senses a disturbance in the Force. Is he speaking of Sidious or Anakin?

 

-Padme’s going along for the ride. Does Panaka know he’s sending Amidala herself out? He seems to be not particularly happy with the decision even if he does argue in favor.

 

-Does Qui-Gon know yet? This is the first time he’s mentioned the queen in front of Padme and he does so in an insubordinate manner.

 

-As I mentioned when I first watched the movie, I didn’t know Portman’s face well enough to know for a fact that she was in disguise. Around this time I was starting to wonder pondering whether she was in disguise, or if there was some sort of bait and switch and another actress and character were actually more important than the Queen.

 

-Jar Jar steps in poop. My God the world’s coming to an end! Oh wait, it was relatively low key by Jar Jar standards and the shot quickly becomes about establishing the environment of Mos Espa. Get over it folks, it was a throwaway gag.

 

Scene: Qui-gon and company head into Watto's shop to look for parts. Qui-gon gets a little lesson in being over confident, Jar Jar act the clown, and the doomed star-crossed couple fated to produce Luke and Leia meet for the first time.

 

Tank says:

 

-- Wattos' shop is cool. It reminded me of the stills I had seen as a kid of the cut ANH scenes where Luke is dinging around with his friends at their junk filled clubhouse. Watto is one of the few CG aliens of the PT that i think works really well.

 

--Aaaand we meet Anakin. Everybody knows I think he should have been older. This kid just can';t deliver his lines. I don't buy the "he's a kid, you can't expect greatness" line. Look at Haley Joel Osmet. Look at Seth Green. Look at Jodie Foster. Hell, look at Natalie Portman. All of them phenomenal actors, even at that age.

 

-- Watto and Qui-gon outside is fun. When the mind trick doesn't work Qui-gon just looks suddenly hopeless. The re-occuring theme of the Jedi's overconfidence being their undoing shines GREAT here. When he can't mind-trick his way into getting what he wants, Qui-gon is out of options.

 

-- Okay. And now the part I DREAD. The half of this sequence that goes down between Padme and Anakin is probably one of the worst scenes in the entire saga, if not cinema in general. It's like a murphy's law scene, everything that could go wrong here does. First-- "are you an angel?" Is this kid retarded? If he's supposed to have a crush on her, which I could accept, that's not how it comes across. The idea here, is that she is the prettiest woman he's ever scene. Sounds like exactly the set-up you'd expect knowing where they end up, but instead of being a cocky teenager, it's a little kids who doesn't really know what pretty means, and he steps on his own lines with some terrible acting. "I'm a pilot and someday I'ma gonna fly away to the STARZ AND TELL YOU YUR SKIN IS SOFTAR THAN SAND" UGH, this kid kills me. The worst of it is of course "I'm a person and my name is Anakin!" That bit makes my flesh crawl. It's a terrible line, terribly acted and it's one of the few times I want to punch John Williams in the nads because the music behind this is SO over-stated it's obscene. Just terrible and embarrassing and to top it off, it gets worse. The best thing to do here would be to cut away, FAST back to Qui-gon. But instead, the meeting of Darth Vader and his bride to be is interrupted by Jar Jar getting kicked in the nuts by a robot. Fricking genius filmmaking folks. Final punctuation point on the terrible-- Watto tells Annie he can finish up and go home and YIPPEEEEEEEEE! My four year old doesn't even say that. At this point there's been enough going on to not think so much of the script-- but this was a scene of IMPORTANCE. Darth Vader meeting his bride to be is a HUGE deal to the mythos, so I was paying attention... and the script was terrible.

 

Thomas Alan says:

 

-I heart Watto, the first truly gray character of the saga. Classic shyster model. I found it funny how people accused him of being a racial stereotype, but couldn’t decide which race that was. No need to look too deep, he’s just an unscrupulous salesman.

 

-And enter Anakin, who seems to be having trouble getting up onto his little ledge. Out goes Qui-Gon and Watto leaving him with Padme so he can turn on his sweet eight-year-old charm. “Are you an angel†he asks. Sadly it’s a better attempt than his sand lines ten years later (or my own for that matter). Too bad Anakin and Padme’s trip in AotC couldn’t have had a stop-off on Iego to see some real angels. It would have been a nice little call-back or I’m a sap.

 

It’s actually a pretty important scene as it marks the first connection between the two love leads in future movies. It’s also one of Portman’s better scenes. She’s still got to deal with some odd dialogue (which sounds better coming from a child than Jar Jar) but she’s more engaged here and knows how to deal with a child (Portman was still pretty young at the time too) better than an imaginary alien.

 

-Anakin’s a slave, but in many ways he’s just a younger Luke wanting out of his life on Tatooine.

 

-The first mention of Pod Racing and betting the future of slaves on it. Apparently Watto did good for himself one day.

 

-The pitdroid kicked Jar Jar in the nads. Heh.

 

-The “hit the nose†thing will be revisited in Revenge of the Sith.

 

-Watto says that he has the only hyperdrive around that Qui-Gon needs. Who knows if he’s telling the truth there, but at least he’s honest about the price.

 

-Qui-Gon tries a mind trick, and fails. Watto’s treating him like a convention fanboy got some appreciation in all the audiences I watched with. And it solidifies the plot for Tatooine. They need a hyperdrive and don’t have the money to buy it.

 

-No need for random Jar Jar goofiness here. Ruins Qui-Gon’s purposeful walk-out.

 

-Oh yeah, Anakin’s got Padme nice and intrigued. And he gets to go home as soon as he cleans up the racks. Deserving a little happy cry. Never was sure what the big deal with “yippee†was.

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-I like how Obi-Wan comes up with the idea of landing on Tatooine because it’s controlled by the Hutts. It always seemed odd to me that a nothing planet like Tatooine just so happened to be the same place Jabba lived in Return of the Jedi. Now we see that Obi-Wan chose this planet as a hiding place for Amidala specifically because it was controlled by Jabba. Now, when Obi-Wan needs to find a hiding place for Amidala’s son twelve years later, it makes sense that Tatooine remains an ideal place to remain secret from the Empire.[/color]

 

That's a great point. It's not a random coincidence at all now. Obi-wan selecting Tattooine is what puts the place on the proverbial plot map for the rest of the saga.

 

-Why aren’t they in hyperspace? I thought they were low on fuel, not out. And, it’s probably silly to point this out given the precedent set in ESB, but wouldn’t it take several lifetimes to travel to another system if they didn’t have faster-than-light travel?

 

I thought the same thing and forgot to mention it. Truth be told, it bugs me in ESB too.

 

 

-Jar Jar steps in poop. My God the world’s coming to an end! Oh wait, it was relatively low key by Jar Jar standards and the shot quickly becomes about establishing the environment of Mos Espa. Get over it folks, it was a throwaway gag.[/color]

 

-Oh yeah, Anakin’s got Padme nice and intrigued. And he gets to go home as soon as he cleans up the racks. Deserving a little happy cry. Never was sure what the big deal with “yippee†was.[/color]

 

To both of these-- sure they may be small background things that have no bearing on the story, but they're just dumb. They're distracting to me because they make me wonder what the hell goes on in Lucas' mind. One is terrible acting and pulls me out of the scene, the other is toilet humor. In the case of the poop, you have a CGI character stepping in CGI poop. How many man hours went into that. I remember an interview with an ILM dude whose first job was months and months of animating the rotating fanengin of a dingle pod in the pod race. I feel bad for the guy who grew up on star wars and always wanted to work for ILM, hears he gets to work on the NEW star wars film, then pulls the task of spending 6 months animating a bantha turd getting squished.

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Thomas Alan says:

 

-Not particularly great particle effects on the landing there.

 

It's a visual effects shot from 1998. I think it holds up pretty well but regardless, development in VFX was still early when it came to photo realism. If we were talking about intro to the Coruscant skyline later on, then I'd agree with you. But that was a petty point.

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Oddly, I've never given that shot a second thought, but the last time I reviewed the scene before typing my bits up, I did so on my computer and watched from nches away. Didn't think it was bad, but i DID think "Boy, that particle generator is ranked up a little high!"

 

If we're on effects critiquing--

 

That twin Tattooine suns look terrible, the Queen's ship looks great, the skyline of Mos Espa and ship traffic in the BG of the ext deserts shots is subtle and great, the speeder effects in Mos Espa flawless, and in general, the hologram communication images in the PT look TOO slick compred to the OT.

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I think almost everybody prefers that Anakin was a bit older at the start, myself included. If only because it gives us more time to examine his downfall. His turn seems so quick in ROTS, but if there were 3 movies to explore it instead of 2, i think it would have been much better.

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Part of the problem is that there is a total disconnect between Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen. There is nothing other than their name to imply they are the same character. I'd have liked Anakin older, yes, but also for it to be the same actor for all three films.

 

I don't see any advantage to having him be so young. The stock response of "he needed to be removed from his mother before he was ready" could be as easily sold by somebody who was 14 or 15.

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His turn seems so quick in ROTS

 

Slaughtering sandpeople and moping around angry at the world was too subtle for ya?

 

Part of the problem is that there is a total disconnect between Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen. There is nothing other than their name to imply they are the same character.

 

That was my biggest problem too. I didn't have much of a problem with Anakin being so young, but TPM Anakin was fairly well-adjusted and made you wonder what could turn the kid to the Dark Side. AotC Anakin walks on-screen and you know he's easy pickings for Sidious.

 

One of few extraneous additions to the ANHSE that I liked was the drive into Mos Eisley

 

Funny, that was among my least favorites as it was one of the more obrtusive additions.

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I see the dark side hints in AOTS and those are fine.

 

But in ROTS alone he turns real real fast. At the start of the movie, he's being the republics hero. And at the end, he says the line that I find to be the most cringe worthy in the whole series. "From my point of view the JEDI are evil!" Wait what?? I could maybe buy him going along with the dark side because it has a power he needs. But to outright say the jedi are evil?? That's too much of a turn for me.

 

 

But I digress, I should save those comments from the ROTS commentary.

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His turn seems so quick in ROTS

 

Slaughtering sandpeople and moping around angry at the world was too subtle for ya?

 

Actually-- yeah. Because they had no weight. Luke already covered the angry at the world stuff-- the Tusken slaughter was far too understated. We saw exactly one second of it, and when he told Padme, she completely blew it off. Like he was just having a bad hair day or something. The rest of the movie they go back to being cutesy and coy.

 

If the love of my life just slaughtered a village of natives, I'd probably be wondering about him. But Padme, and the audience never hear another thing about it after his badly acted tantrum.

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-- Okay. And now the part I DREAD. The half of this sequence that goes down between Padme and Anakin is probably one of the worst scenes in the entire saga, if not cinema in general. It's like a murphy's law scene, everything that could go wrong here does. First-- "are you an angel?" Is this kid retarded? If he's supposed to have a crush on her, which I could accept, that's not how it comes across. The idea here, is that she is the prettiest woman he's ever scene. Sounds like exactly the set-up you'd expect knowing where they end up, but instead of being a cocky teenager, it's a little kids who doesn't really know what pretty means, and he steps on his own lines with some terrible acting. "I'm a pilot and someday I'ma gonna fly away to the STARZ AND TELL YOU YUR SKIN IS SOFTAR THAN SAND" UGH, this kid kills me. The worst of it is of course "I'm a person and my name is Anakin!" That bit makes my flesh crawl. It's a terrible line, terribly acted and it's one of the few times I want to punch John Williams in the nads because the music behind this is SO over-stated it's obscene. Just terrible and embarrassing and to top it off, it gets worse. The best thing to do here would be to cut away, FAST back to Qui-gon. But instead, the meeting of Darth Vader and his bride to be is interrupted by Jar Jar getting kicked in the nuts by a robot. Fricking genius filmmaking folks. Final punctuation point on the terrible-- Watto tells Annie he can finish up and go home and YIPPEEEEEEEEE! My four year old doesn't even say that. At this point there's been enough going on to not think so much of the script-- but this was a scene of IMPORTANCE. Darth Vader meeting his bride to be is a HUGE deal to the mythos, so I was paying attention... and the script was terrible.

 

You make some great points there T.

 

I never saw just how relevant that scene was until you put it that way.

 

About the Jar Jar stepping in **** bit: I think that's in there for the kids. I know my little one thought it was funny. From my slightly more adult perspective, I wonder about scenes like this in the films where things are a little goofy. I can understand the scenes getting storyboarded and shot because of the length of time this process takes, but I can't understand why they aren't edited out in post production. Who was the editing guy anyway?

 

There is a fair bit of needless cgi bull**** in all of the prequels. To be fair, some are just fluff, and some are nice cool little touches. Jar Jar stepping in bantha poodoo is nothing, and I repeat: NOTHING compared to the heinous crime of planting a horrible bloody cgi droid buzzing round the final duel between Anakin and Obi Wan in ROTS. That was horrendous.

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We saw exactly one second of it, and when he told Padme, she completely blew it off. Like he was just having a bad hair day or something.

 

Padme was a doll throughout the Tatooine sequence. If we get to AotC someday I'll expand on it, but there was a deliberate decision made that she would not react emotionally from the time Anakin decides to rescue his mother (on the balcony at Naboo) until she awakens when the droideka comes into view during Obi-Wan's transmission. She is never like that at any time before or after that long sequence, but during the sequence it is consistant.

 

The focus is on Anakin. Padme essentially ceases to exist as a real character for about half an hour. I thought it was a very effective director's technique as it served as a bookend to Anakin's little journey through hell.

 

If the love of my life just slaughtered a village of natives, I'd probably be wondering about him. But Padme, and the audience never hear another thing about it after his badly acted tantrum.

 

Actually, Palpatine brings it up in RotS, so Anakin clearly felt guilt about it and even confided in someone.

 

Padme not talking about it is understandable. What's there to say?

 

"From my point of view the JEDI are evil!" Wait what?? I could maybe buy him going along with the dark side because it has a power he needs. But to outright say the jedi are evil?? That's too much of a turn for me.

 

Anakin wasn't exactly the picture of rationality in that scene.

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Well, the other option is that Portman completely forgot the character she was playing for a specific period of the movie starting on one location and ending on another and Lucas didn't notice and correct her. Either it was intentional, or one hell of a combination of coincidence and incompetence.

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-I heart Watto, the first truly gray character of the saga. Classic shyster model. I found it funny how people accused him of being a racial stereotype, but couldn’t decide which race that was. No need to look too deep, he’s just an unscrupulous salesman.

 

 

Missed this, and forgot to say it myself. I think Watto is great, and probably one of the best realized cg characters in the film. I agree the racial stereotyping from him was pushing it. I can see it with the Niemodians, but Watto doesn't strike me as anything. I hate to keep jumping ahead, but he's also great in ROTS and there is some great animated acting there too. More than once Watto is better animated and acted than Jar Jar.

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I'd say it's consisitant. Looking back at Jar Jar, I don't think he's well-animated at all. It felt like the Jar Jar team was very young and looking to press every button they could find to increase the character's exageration in every scene. You can get away with that a bit in cell animation, but photorealistic CGI? Nope. Watto worked better because his face was more stationary (character being found by the simple decision to have him talk out of the side of his broken mouth) and his movements came from flying and not Ahmed Best's "funniest" mo-cap walk.

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You know, Tank and I are spending hours each putting together our honest views of this movie. I agreed to do it because I thought there would be a measure of respectability here and an exchange free of pettiness.

 

It's absolutely disgraceful that an Administrator is coming here to pick a fight and attempting to grind a thread to a halt to satisfy his need to get even.

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You know, Tank and I are spending hours each putting together our honest views of this movie. I agreed to do it because I thought there would be a measure of respectability here and an exchange free of pettiness.

 

It's absolutely disgraceful that an Administrator is coming here to pick a fight and attempting to grind a thread to a halt to satisfy his need to get even.

 

Word

 

I think this thread is incredible!! Been totally enjoying reliving TPM which I having seen in years.

It's cool to get 2 different views on it too and I'm finding that I agree with Tank and TA as much as I disagree with them. haha

 

Keep it up guys

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