Official Star Wars Episode II thread - (back from the theaters!)

[Korly]

Originally posted by Despair
Well, How was the picture quality on the regular screen. I heard its little on blurry side, when not used on digital projector?

Also does it have another Darth, or its only Duku who they fight?

The picture was fine, but I can't wait to see it on a digital screen.

SPOILER (maybe...)

Maybe I misunderstood this, but doesn't Dooku = Darth Tyrannus?

[Ragnarok the Red]

Originally posted by Korly


The picture was fine, but I can't wait to see it on a digital screen.

SPOILER (maybe...)

Maybe I misunderstood this, but doesn't Dooku = Darth Tyrannus?

No, Korly, you hit the nail on the head.

I personally thought the love story was a bit distracting, but Christensen handled Anakin's character well. Jeez, the guy has a couple scenes where he whines to Padme about the restrictions the Jedi and Obi-Wan place on him, forbiding him to be with the girl who makes his sausage go BOING! everytime he sees her...for Natalie Portman, even I'D tell a Jedi Master or two to fuck off

In any case, the film is lightyears better than Phantom Menace, and Hayden Christensen is lightyears better than Jake Lloyd was, he was just handicapped a bit by the way Lucas had written his character. *SPOILER* His delayed grief and sorrow at the death of his mother was perfectly captured by him I think in that scene where he was fixing a ship part.*/SPOILER*

A bigger review of the movie forthcoming, but I think you can safely assume I thoroughly loved it and will most definitely be seeing it in the theatre again

[RedTerrier]

Agh, my bosses would never give us the day off (could be because they are souless demons, but I digress)...we must see AOTC this weekend, spartan, maybe 2x...

[Nash]

i just got back from episode 2 last night as well. here are my impressions...

what i didn't like...

- love scenes of the movie. i'm all for a good love story, but i'll just say lucas doesn't know how to write love stories.

- like stormy said earlier, the last forty minutes were the best. i'm not saying it was horrible until then, but a little imbalanced.

- for some reason, natalie portman doesn't look as good in this one as she did in the last one.

what i did like...

*spoiler* (kinda, but not really)
- yes, yoda is the shit. he is the layer of the smackdown, big time! i just wished his light saber was a different color, like white maybe, to denote his badassness.
*end spoiler*

- mace windu is the man! see, he gets a different color light saber to denote his badassness.

- obi wan is the man as well. obi wan's always been my favorite jedi.

- fight scenes were great.

- battles were spectacular.

all in all, i enjoyed in a lot. it was better than phantom menace, however, not by much, since a liked phantom menace a lot.

[burgundy]

Some spoilers abound.

What I liked:

Everything involving Obi-Wan. Except for his Batman-like repetition of phrases like "my young apprentice," Ewan was spot-on. The scene on that missing ocean planet blew me away, both visually and storywise.

Jango Fett. What a badass. I was so upset when he died.

The action scenes and the duels. Obviously. I just wish they were longer. Seeing Ani with dual sabers and Yoda in action was worth the price of admission.

What I disliked:

Ani. Totally unconvincing, and always whining about either Padme or how is all-consuming power is being held back by Obi-Wan. If actors can't convince you that they're in love, any love scene they're totally sucks. I was literally laughing. I have a few years of children's summer theatre under my belt, and I would have been a better Anakin.

The whole obsessing over protecting Padme bit. Okay, she's a Senator, and she's hot, but why is protecting Padme the Jedi Counsel's number one goal for 2/3 of the film? Her vote is important, true, but if she's offed, doesn't the Queen send someone else to vote the same way? And why wasn't anyone trying to kill Jar Jar? I was really hoping he'd be killed, standing in for Padme. I also didn't see why the Federation wanted Padme dead, if they were the culprits. I think this would have been better handled if the Jedi ordered Ani to do something else, but he defied to protect Padme.

Shmi's death. I'll admit that her death scene was moving, but not because of Ani. I just didn't buy the whole "I had a nightmare, so I'm going to Tatooine" line. I think it would have been more meaningful if Palpatine had set up her death, to drive Anakin to the dark side. I wish they showed more of his Tusken rampage, to drive his anger home, rather than just a hint.

Dooku. He wasn't a convincing bad guy, no matter how much lightning he can shoot from his hands. I have no idea why he told Obi-Wan about Palpatine if in fact he was working for him. I was really hoping he was on the know about Palpatine but serious about trying to stop him - he seemed to be an man of principle, rather than the lackey he turned out to be - and it would have been a nasty twist for the Jedi to have defeated the one man who could stand up to Palpatine.

On the whole, it was good, better than Ep 1, but still nowhere near the original trilogy.

[stormy]

Originally posted by Despair
Well, How was the picture quality on the regular screen. I heard its little on blurry side, when not used on digital projector?

The picture is pretty bad, i think Ebert was right about it in his review. Dark backgrounds look especially bad, there is a lot of movement and colors shifting around in them. Some scenes turn out better than others, but occationally there are some that look almost camcorder-ish. Lucas should have gone with real film, any purist will tell you analog is better than digital when it comes to pure image or sound quality. The fact that there are so few digital theaters should have spurred him to at least be sure the transfer to film was top notch, which it is not. THX is pretty much a joke. It only became distracting a few times, but it's very much like watching a DVD with a bad transfer.

-stormy

[Nash]

*spoiler*

burgundy, i totally agree with the whole dooku thing. i would have been cool if the jedis ended up defeating the one man who could defeat the siths. i really thought it was going to happen.

oh, and the whole thing about why dooku told obi wan that the sith was in charge of the republic. i think it goes back to that saying, "the best lies are the ones that are true." if you throw them something very obvious, they won't believe you.

on a side note, i really wanted anakin to be the one to defeat dooku. he was doing all sorts of things throughout the movie that showed his greatness (jumping out of the hovercraft to catch the assassin, destroying the entire tusken raiders camp, etc.), but then he gets his ass whooped at the end. i really thought he was going to lay the smack down once he got his hands on both light sabers. the crowd was going wild. but then he gets his arm cut off. argh.

[Shin Johnpv]

man im telling you i read a little of the different reviews i saw and i have to say theyre way off base

some of them try to compare the movie to artsy type movies liekthe piano and well its not that kind of movie

then you have the idiots comparing it to the first star wars

god does no one realise mark hamill cant act to save his life in the first one

neither could carrie fisher but we all love the movies just the same


lets put it this way

if your a star wars fan youll love this movie

yoda is sooooooo bad ass in it

and theres just sooo many kick ass cool scenes that it far out weighs the few bad things

i will say the beggining is a little slow but the second half is sooooooooooooooooooo amazing


one other thing ill say is that luke deffinetly gets his whinning ability from his father
they both need some cheese with their whine *LOL*

its amazing though best movie ive seen in a few years

did any of you see the matrix reloaded trailer before the movie
we did and ill say this i was kinda a little bit excited about the second matrix movie and after seeing the trailer i really have no interest at all in seeing it on the big screen ill wait till it hits video rental to see it

[Despair]

What a coincidence, both father and son, get their hand/arm cut off during climax fight in the second films of the trilogies. Is Lukas repeats himself?

[Despair]

Why? I thought it looked pretty cool, plus its just a teaser, and there will be much much more when both 2 and 3 released next year.
I'm more exited about those, than EP2

On the lunch, went and got us tickets to see EP2 on Saturday. Just in case there will be a crowd.