Topic: Movie thread.

Jumbif wrote:

Star Wars is perhaps one of, if not the, most beloved sci-fi series in the world. The first movie's release in 1977 brought praise by the masses. Its sequels also captivated audiences and made them fans for years to come. When Empire Strikes Back was released in 1980, it was subtitled "Episode V" and the year afterwards the original Star Wars' name had "Episode IV - A New Hope" tacked on to the end. Fans were excited for the backstory to be explained.
And then, in 1999, Phantom Menace came out. People had mixed opinions, but a large amount of them were negative. The next two films were liked a bit more - emphasis on the word "bit." Currently on IMDB.com Episode II holds a rating of 6.8 and III a rating of 7.7 - mediocre to average stuff. Five years after the final prequel came out, director George Lucas announced that he would be re-releasing the films in 3D, in order of timeline. He then went on to create a Blu-Ray edition of all six films, butchering moments in the original trilogy and causing an uproar among fans. Then, eight days ago, Phantom Menace 3D was released. Has 3D made it better? Was it really that bad in the first place? Read on.
The film opens with the "A Long Time Ago..." opening text - but this time with it jutting out from the screen. Then you see the spectacular Star Wars logo - but as it floats off into the distance, it... doesn't. It just appears to get smaller. What? Doesn't that defeat the ENTIRE PURPOSE of 3D?! How could they possibly mess that up?! Was that intentional?! Apparently so, as the intro text does appear to go into the distance. So you open with the ship, and the viceroys, and Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan and whatnot. So much talking... In fact, this is a problem throughout the whole film. There's more pointless blabbering than, well, anything else. But more on that later. Eventually they start slicing droids and awesome stuff happens - deflecting lasers, slicing doors, slicing more doors, usual Jedi stuff.
Phantom Menace looks fantastic, but the 3D doesn't actually help it that much. There's the depth and stuff, and there are some pretty amazing scenes which are made better by 3D - like the pod racing sequence. Oddly enough, I found the pod racing sequence looked best in the darker parts - literally darker, as in caverns and stuff. The 3D just looks the best when it's dark. Maybe that's just something wrong with me. Usually the 3D is consistent, but there were some weird parts. At a point relatively early on in the movie, it appears that shadows are at least half a foot off the ground - this is from a bird's eye view. Why? And in another scene later on, it appears that a hologram is inverted. Maybe that was intentional, as soon afterwards the hologram started glitching up. Without 3D, I think the movie looks mostly as good - because the movie wasn't made for 3D! The 3D is good - it certainly doesn't detriment from the experience - but it doesn't improve it either.
The dialogue, however, is simply horrible. The writing is astoundingly bad. What was Lucas thinking? The plot is complex, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the dialogue explaining said plot does a terrible job of it. The acting, while this may be because of bad writing, is pretty lousy too. Natalie Portman had been acting for 5 years prior this movies original release, yet her performance feels robotic. Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn and Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi are average, and they do complement each other nicely. Side characters are overall mediocre, but though they may not say much interesting stuff those aliens are sure cool. One side character who gave a great performance was Pernilla August as Shmi Skywalker. Jar Jar Binks, certainly the most hated character in all of Star Wars, I find not to be that bad - he just ruins the mood of a couple scenes. However his fellow Gungans are horribly annoying, definitely worse than Jar Jar himself. The worst character in the whole movie, in my opinion, is Anakin Skywalker. I feel sorry for Jake Lloyd for being associated with this horrible performance, although his horrible acting ability is definitely a factor. Lloyd's acting is the central reason why this movie is bad. His acting is so stunted that I wonder why they chose him to play the central character in the whole Star Wars hexalogy (yes that's a word). This isn't his first role; he was in 1996's Jingle All The Way, an Arnold Schwarzenegger Christmas "movie." Let's just say it wasn't good (maybe I'll review it). Lloyd delivers some painful one-liners, excruciating dramatic pieces and some equally awful lines in an alien language - although I wouldn't be surprised if it was gibberish Lloyd came up with on the spot. This is the worst child actor I've ever seen.
Though the writing is so bad, the rest of the movie is fantastic. John Williams' score is amazing, especially "Duel of the Fates", which also accompanies the scene that holds the best fighting choreography I've ever seen in any movie. The digital effects, as stated earlier, are great, despite the 3D not benefiting the film. All the action sequences are great, despite the Gungans' total annihilation of the quality of every scene they're in and Jake Lloyd's awful dialogue delivery.
In conclusion, this film has great visuals, music, and a good if not great plot. But the dialogue and delivery is so horrible it detracts from the movie enough to nearly ruin it. Keep this in mind though: while this is a bad movie, it is nonetheless entertaining to watch. This is lousy, but still worth watching - perhaps not though if you've already seen the original.
5/10