Comments on: The Phantom Menace Was Not a Very Good Movie

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 02:06:10 +0000

Actually all of the prequel movies were pretty bad, just how and why would fill pages. Yes the originals had their faults (made worse in the special edition versions) but they all had an undeniable charm that will live forever. The prequels actually have some pretty good actors in them, Liam Neeson (Taken is one of my favourite movies), Ewan McGregor (I am a huge fan), even Hayden Christiansen shows considerable talent in pretty much every non-star wars movie he’s in (see Life as a house and others) but he’s pretty much unwatchable in the prequels. So why did they look like rank amateurs in these movies? I mean, Mark Hamil is hardly the worlds greatest actor (except for his voice work, he’s great as Joker in the animated Batman) but I think he comes out of the Star Wars saga pretty well. Well, the dialogue in the prequels obviously didn’t help and I can only think that they gave the performances that George wanted. From what I’ve heard/read about Lucas he’s not really a people person, he just wants his actors to say his words then he’ll fix it up in post. I think he would be very happy if he didn’t have to have any actors at all.
My conclusion is that the originals were better than the prequels because Lucas had less to do with them. Lawrence Kasdan worked on the screenplays of both Empire & Jedi, neither of which was directed by Lucas. It seems like George had complete control over the prequels, these were the movies he wanted to make and this is how it turned out.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:56:32 +0000

I love how he describes how to make mashed potatoes, but it involves a packet, and no mashing..

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:37:18 +0000

Stu, I am forced to agree. George Lucas has many legitimate claims to revolutionising the way films are made, but his contributions to script writing are justly overlooked.
All the Star Wars films are filled with ridiculously unspeakable lines that nobody would say in real life. The original films had talented actors that knew how to project likeable characters despite the dialogue. Somehow the actors just come across as lifeless in the newer films.
For instance, Alec Guinness’ Obi-Wan Kenobi seems like a cool old guy who could spin a few stories over a beer and generally make himself popular. Ewan McGregor’s version is a good imitation, but would you want to hang out with such a wet blanket?

By: Stu

Stu — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:08:25 +0000

You know, after the second trilogy came out and I was soundly disappointed by them I went back and watched the original three. I am now quietly convinced that George Lucas has always been a pretty awful script writer.

In fact reading a biography about him apparently even his earlier films like American Graffiti had awful dialogue that was either ignored by actors or re-written during production by other screen writers.

I think his magnum opus wasn’t Star Wars: A New Hope, but was actually THX-1138. A movie with a fairly unique and consistent vision, minimal dialogue (much of which doesn’t make a hell of a lot of scene anyway, consisting largely of adlibbed ‘future gibberish’), and was hardly derivative at all. Unlike Star Wars which was largely an exercise in setting Kurosawa movies in Space, with a little bit of Rapunzel thrown in…

By: Bevan

Bevan — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:38:09 +0000

I have a fan edit of Phantom Menace which improves it substantially.
Can give you a copy.