open your mind, feel the force

Rating: Null/10 (14 June 2002)

They say that familiarity breeds contempt, well it certainly seems to cultivate arrogance, in between the thunderous fun i have experienced with the two latest editions to the Star Wars saga, (yes both of them),i've become aware of a truly cynical backlash against these films, a form of dyed in the wool fan, or casual viewer of the original trilogy, with a limited ,narrow view of exactly what constitutes a star wars film. Of course everyone is entitled to an opinion on any given subject, but the scorn being poured upon these films now seems a little disproportionate when one considers the neverending pants that flaunts itself each year, in the summer season. The most common complaint, the script. Re-watch the original trilogy, with your back to the screen, listen to the dialogue, not how it is read, but the actual words, then likewise for the new films, i think you will find an even match. The manner in which dialogue is performed is different in TPM,AOTC, because the characters are more formal, they would not talk in the colloquial fashion that the characters of Luke or Han did, although to be fair Lucas has tried to insert the odd glib line in AOTC. Watto is one of the few characters in the recent films who does talk in such a manner, cynical, sarcastic, and i do recall at the time of TPM release he was wideley recognised as the most "star wars" ,like character. The plot is too complex, well yes, there is more plot to these episodes , than simply goodies v baddies, as the originals were, the first three films were off and running from Star Wars opening scroll, the villains were in place, consequently the new films have to establish the empire, they have to show Anakin and Padme falling in love, and again given the social stature, and age of these people it would ring hollow if they flirted in the knowing ,nudge-nudge manner Han and Leia did, we knew he was going to show this, and here it is and yet some of us appear incensed by it.The computer animation looks false, to be fair sometimes it does, so lets return to jerky stop motion, which ultimately also looked false, look at Robocop2, (one of the last times i can recall stop motion in a big release), it still looked unconvincing, funny the year after that was Terminator 2 ,when CGI really kicked in. Please dont get me wrong Phil Tippett is a genius. Another complaint , in AOTC the droid factory sequence does not progress the narrative, again a fair comment , and strangely enough applicable to the chasm swing in Star Wars, or the trash compacter sequence, or the speeder bike chase in Jedi, if memory serves all very popular bits, ah but you would say they were character moments,(spoiler alert) i.e a moment of insite into who the character is ,or will be, so excepting that, it was shear coincidence the image of Anakins arm pinned beneath the robotic plating, echoed what we soon find out happens to said arm, hmmm?.Natalie Portmans swift recovery, after falling from a moving spaceship, at the films climax, again a fair observation, totally unlike somebody falling from a speeder bike moving at 80mph+, eh? Lucas is just making these films to sell toys, interesting that people, whom i'm sure laid their head on a Empire Strikes Back pillow case back in the mists of the 80's, have become such staunch socialists today. Yes i agree there are flaws in the new films, but take a second, and look back clearly at the originals, the problems were there too, just not as visible to a 5-12 year old, feel the new films, dont scrutinize them, because old or new, they never stood up to that.