star wars I: the phantom acting

Rating: 3/10 (4 July 2007)

The spoiler for my _comment_ is that you probably won't read anything in it you've not read in the myriad of other comments on this film ...
... with the possible exception that I for one don't think the other installments of _Star Wars_, e.g. the 70s-80s ones, were all that. If that offends you beyond belief, you should probably stop reading right now.
In 1977 I was 16 years old and had been reading science fiction for years. I'd heard about _Star Wars_ and had read all the criticisms coming from the "real science fiction" camp (simplistic plot/philosophy, spectacular but physically impossible -- that is, impossible via the laws of physics -- effects, etc etc etc), so I knew what to expect. I went, turned off my brain and had fun.
HOWEVER. Even at that time I did not think I was seeing something "great." A lot of people use the word "epic" to describe these movies and I think that is stretching it - I use the word "epic" to refer to things that have considerably more, well, _gravitas_ than these large, expensive, moving comic books (don't get me wrong, I love comic books).
And so, with that out of the way ... I guess my confusion is not so much about what Lucas has "lost" or "forgotten" as about what he ever had to begin with. For example, I agree that Jar Jar is intensely annoying, but I found C3PO annoying, too, in a kind of "less nefarious Dr. Smith" kind of way.
I'd say the big problem with this film is that it is completely unfocused: unfocused story, unfocused acting (good lord, the acting), unfocused visuals): it just keeps throwing brightly colored, ill-thought-out stuff at you and expecting _that alone_ to keep you entertained. Several fine actors are completely and utterly wasted. Most "epics" have at least one character you can follow and care about - do we really care about any of these people? My own answer is no, and the reason I do not care is that I have no idea what makes any of them tick, what drives any of them. It isn't really the actors' faults, because they are given nothing memorable to do (apart from the brightly colored crap with light sabers and so on) and very little memorable to say. Did any of what transpired in this film come as a surprise? as a revelation of character? This is the complete triumph of spectacle (in an Aristotelean sense) over any other of the six dramatic elements: no plot, no character, no diction, no thought, no music.
I'm being somewhat hyperbolic there. Of course there is a plot. A plot ... exists. It's just that here -- as with the other items in that list -- we don't care about it, because it is not made to be intrinsically interesting. The point here is simply the brightly colored crap. Again and again and again and again and again. It is supposed to entertain the kids and keep them quiet, not make them ask questions, for gosh sake.