Sorry, couldn't resist this one. It's what I thought the original thread was about when I first saw it.
Posted by mothertree (Member # 4999) on :
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
Every seems to hate North, but I have never seen it.
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
OSC is rough, sheesh. Episode One was better than he gave it credit for. If you ask me though, he analyzes too much into things that need to be taken as a given, just take it on good faith that this is happening in a movie, don't rip it apart looking for something to smash.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
"Episode One was better than he gave it credit for."
It was?
Posted by Speed (Member # 5162) on :
Sure... Darth Maul was a legitimately cool character, and he didn't mention that. It would have raised the average. Every Maul-less scene in the movie, though... if anything, he was being too kind.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
"Darth Maul was a legitimately cool character, and he didn't mention that."
Darth Maul only had, like, six words. How cool could he be?
Posted by blacwolve (Member # 2972) on :
I don't think we saw the same Darth Maul...
Posted by Amka (Member # 690) on :
I want to be cool. I think I'll paint my face red and black and wear funky contacts.
Posted by Speed (Member # 5162) on :
quote: Darth Maul only had, like, six words. How cool could he be?
That's part of what made him menacing. The other part was that he was played by an undiscovered martial artist who was a genius in both choreography and execution. Jet Li couldn't have done those fight scenes better, but the beauty of Ray Park is that no one had ever heard of him, so seeing something like that at the end of the most anticlimactic two hours of my life completely caught me off guard. Shyamalan has never made a film whose ending surprised me more than that did. That scene had no business being in a movie that bad. In fact, it only made Yoda's fight scene in Episode II seem that much goofier in comparison, so George may have been well served in leaving Darth Maul out.
quote: I want to be cool. I think I'll paint my face red and black and wear funky contacts.
Yes, the makeup may have been goofy, but I found every move he made and every word he refrained from speaking totally threatening. Like any trained martial artist, his movements even when he wasn't fighting conveyed enormous power. He played his role much better than Lucas had any right to expect and was by far the most compelling character in that entire film. Just because it was an obviously terrible movie doesn't mean that it was completely devoid of redeeming factors, and in this case, Darth Maul was it.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
You apparently have more of an appreciation for ballet than I do.
Posted by Amka (Member # 690) on :
quote: was by far the most compelling character in that entire film.
I think you may be right about this.
Posted by MyrddinFyre (Member # 2576) on :
I thought Darth Maul was dumb. He reminded me of an angsty thirty year old who lives in his mom's basement cosplaying.
I actually laughed at him! Usually my favorite characters are the ones with the most to say and who say the least. Darth Maul... he just had nothing to say so when he did talk, it was unnecessary.
Posted by Amka (Member # 690) on :
quote: I thought Darth Maul was dumb.
I think you may be right about this.
Posted by WheatPuppet (Member # 5142) on :
Darth Maul was a non-character. A throwaway. It's really too bad that it was written like that, because as a character, he had promise.
I don't see him exuding coolness, as Speed does. I certainly thought Boba Fett was a cooler character than Maul, even though he said less and his name is mentioned all of once in RotJ.
Posted by MyrddinFyre (Member # 2576) on :
@ everything Amka says.
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
Well I guess if you don't like Darth Maul or Episode One, that's your opinion. But I liked the movie, and refuse to rip it to shreds like the majority of people out there.
Sometimes you just have to enjoy something for what it is.
Posted by Carrie (Member # 394) on :
I'm with you, Lyrhawn. Sure, TPM wasn't the greatest movie ever made - in fact, far from it - but that didn't stop me from liking it. It's Star Wars. There doesn't need to be a reason anymore (unless they make 7, 8, or 9 - in that case, I'm done). It is what it is and some of us like it. Things don't have to be "good" in order to like them. Deal.
I liked Darth Maul as well. That end fight was the best part of the movie and almost-but-not-really made up for the lack of anything else. I guess that puts me in the minority, but I'm over it. In fact, I was over it almost 5 and a half years ago.
Posted by Dread Pendragon (Member # 7239) on :
I know it's obvious that people were likely going to have too high of expectations for episode one because of the popularity of the earlier movies, but to belabor the point:
I love the Star Wars movies, and there are certain characteristics of the movies that make a lot of us like them, but the original ones had a ton of flaws too. Harrison Ford was great, but most of the other acting was pretty bad (I'm no movie critic, but their subsequent careers speak for themselves). I don't think the lines were much better. And the ewoks? Don't hate me because they are lovable, but they were as absurd as the Jar-Jar character.
Posted by Dread Pendragon (Member # 7239) on :
I heard George Lucas was going to lock away the story for the last three films. Is that true? I think he should have a competition: let the Wachowski brothers do #7, and Peter Jackson do #8, and whoever makes the best film does the last one.
Posted by Zamphyr (Member # 6213) on :
Bleh, a flawed list of flawed movies.
As a reviewer, if those are the worst he's ever seen, he should count himself lucky.
Posted by Snowden (Member # 1660) on :
I have a question? Is "ripping x a new one" a curse if I supply the word ***hole in my head when I read it?
[ January 19, 2005, 05:34 PM: Message edited by: Snowden ]
Posted by Da_Goat (Member # 5529) on :
I like Toys. I didn't think it tried to be funny, so it worked. And even if I didn't particularly care about the characters in Mouse Hunt or It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, I still laughed a ton. You just have to roll with the movies.
Posted by Bella Bee (Member # 7027) on :
I watched 'Starship Troopers' yesterday and thought it was very funny. I think that if you've never read the original book and view it as a parody of all those dreadful, mindless shoot'em up space invader movies and games which have appeared in the last thirty years, rather than serious sci-fi you can appreciate that movie. It's not a work of art, but it's okay.
If you want a really bad sci-fi movie, try 'Lost in Space'. Someone made me pay to see that one.
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@ everything Amka says.
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