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The Phantom Menace - 3D (1 Viewer)

WillG

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The Phantom Menace is the kind of movie that I swear gets worse with every viewing
Can't argue with you on that one. The sad thing is that even disregarding the somewhat bland characters and really just horrible story problems (and granted the very entertaining yet, very incisive Plinkett reviews opened my eyes to many of the problems that I didn't really consider before. But it makes me realize that there is hardly anything that anyone does in the story that makes any logical sense), it's really just 90% flat out boring. Many of the effects were cool for the time, but now that pretty much any geek with a McIntosh could reproduce this kind of thing it requires the movie to excel based on story and acting of which TPM fails miserably. I can't even understand why kids seem to like it so much seeing as how a good portion of the movie is watching C-SPAN. I think George Costanza said it best in this case "Without story, It's just masturbation"
....however, I was curious to see how well the 3D conversion was. Sorry to hear, that as well, was a disappointment.
I wouldn't necessarily say disappointing, but like others have said, pretty good in some parts, but not much to speak of in other parts. But at least it makes a bland film a little more interesting to sit through again. I thought that when something exploded and debris flew around in 3-D was decent. Thought the 3-D worked well in the Courisant shots for the most part.
then there's no hope for something like Star Wars or The Empire Strikes Back where they were limited to relatively small sets and almost no shots with any depth to them.
Granted, I don't know much about 3-D conversion and I'm not a film expert, but even with sets that were small, the were "real" right? Not Green Screen. Doesn't that by default make them 3-D in a physical sense while Green Screen is just the opposite? (seriously, I'm asking). Assuming, the OT makes it a 3-D release, I can't imagine the Battle of Yavin, in ANH, the Asteroid chase in TESB and the Battle of Endor in ROTJ alone not being worth the price of admission.
 

TravisR

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WillG said:
Many of the effects were cool for the time, but now that pretty much any geek with a McIntosh could reproduce this kind of thing it requires the movie to excel based on story and acting of which TPM fails miserably.
I know The Phantom Menace always gets nailed on its acting and for certain actors, it's a very fair criticism. However, I think the good actors (Neeson, McGregor, Portman, McDiarmid, August) are good but the rest of the actors are either not that good, flat out bad or not really given anything to do. That being said, the main performances in the prequels are still overall better than the ones in the original trilogy. In the prequels, McGregor is excellent throughout, Portman is very good in all three, McDiarmid plays his scenes right and while Christensen is bad in Attack Of The Clones, he's much better in Revenge Of The Sith. In the originals, Harrison Ford is only actor who is good in all three movies, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill range from adequate to bad in Star Wars, Carrie Fisher is terrible in Return Of The Jedi and everyone is good in The Empire Strikes Back.
Granted, I don't know much about 3-D conversion and I'm not a film expert, but even with sets that were small, the were "real" right? Not Green Screen. Doesn't that by default make them 3-D in a physical sense while Green Screen is just the opposite? (seriously, I'm asking). Assuming, the OT makes it a 3-D release, I can't imagine the Battle of Yavin, in ANH, the Asteroid chase in TESB and the Battle of Endor in ROTJ alone not being worth the price of admission.
I'm certainly no expert either but I don't think it really matters whether the sets exist in the real world or on a computer (and there's more practical sets in the prequels than you probably realize) but the smaller sets used in the original trilogy means that the shots can't have the same amount of depth that there is in the larger sets or CG-augmented sets used in the prequels. I'm sure you're right that things like the trench run (not the entire space battle because most of the shots have one or two ships) in Star Wars, the asteroid chase in The Empire Strikes Back and the space battle in Return Of The Jedi will be 3-D highlights but the 3-D in the rest of the movies will pale in comparison to the 3-D in The Phantom Menace (and the 3-D in TPM wasn't that great to begin with).
 

WillG

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I know The Phantom Menace always gets nailed on its acting and for certain actors, it's a very fair criticism. However, I think the good actors (Neeson, McGregor, Portman, McDiarmid, August) are good
Maybe I expressed that wrong. You're right, there's nothing necessarily wrong with the performance of the the Principal actors (if you're not counting Jake Lloyd) It's more that the characters are just rather dull most of the time.
 

mattCR

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I stick by my argument that prequels are almost always a bad idea; people want to see the story move forward. And there was a fully fleshed out trilogy with a great writer attached for sequels, but I don't think Lucas could go along with that .. too bad.
 

TravisR

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WillG said:
...there's nothing necessarily wrong with the performance of the the Principal actors (if you're not counting Jake Lloyd) It's more that the characters are just rather dull most of the time.
I feel bad for Jake Lloyd because he's not a good enough actor to carry the deliberately cornball dialogue that was written. The other actors are good enough to make it work better and not come off as silly as it does in lesser hands. I think Qui-Gon is a pretty interesting character but I think it's fair to say that, looking solely at The Phantom Menace, the rest of the characters aren't that interesting. However, I already knew Obi-Wan and Yoda from the previous movies and I knew that Amidala would be Luke and Leia's mother, that Palpatine would be the Emperor, that the Jedi were Jedi so I was already interested in them. That gave Lucas a leg up that he never would have without the previous movies. I'm not saying that it's right way to write a script but that's why the characters still work well enough for me in the movie.
mattCR said:
I stick by my argument that prequels are almost always a bad idea; people want to see the story move forward.   And there was a fully fleshed out trilogy with a great writer attached for sequels, but I don't think Lucas could go along with that .. too bad.
I guess it's a matter of personal preference but I'd much rather have seen prequels than sequels. The original trilogy was all I really need to of Luke Skywalker and friends on a movie theater screen so, despite the problems inherent in prequels, I'd rather see them fill in the blanks or leap to another time period in the same universe over The Further Adventures Of Luke Skywalker. Zahn's books are really good but if they're going to make a new Star Wars movie, I want to see something new and not an adaptation of a book.
 

Bryan^H

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mattCR said:
I stick by my argument that prequels are almost always a bad idea; people want to see the story move forward.   And there was a fully fleshed out trilogy with a great writer attached for sequels, but I don't think Lucas could go along with that .. too bad.
I agree 100%. Darth Vader, may be the most iconic bad guy in cinematic history. The character was dark, mysterious, and menacing. The prequels managed to make him uninteresting, not mysterious, and quite pathetic. Now every time I watch the original trilogy, Vader no longer has the coolness factor he once had for me. Thanks to the prequels! I was curious about Episode 1 in 3-D. I almost went to see it, then decided $14 is quite a bit for a movie I don't especially like.
 

Kevin M

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So now I can see the horrid writing-acting-directing shooting off the screen at me in 3 dimensions? Sounds grea.....nah...still sounds sucky. How the hell this man made THX-1138 I'll never understand.
 

SilverWook

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There are theories about that... I've been suspicious ever since George lost the beard temporarily around the time Captain Eo came out. ;)
 

Sam Favate

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Originally Posted by TravisR

[COLOR= rgb(24, 24, 24)]In the originals, Harrison Ford is only actor who is good in all three movies, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill range from adequate to bad in Star Wars, Carrie Fisher is terrible in Return Of The Jedi and everyone is good in The Empire Strikes Back.[/COLOR]


Have to disagree there. As much as I love Ford's work, he was not good in ROTJ. To be fair, his part was not well written, but he showed none of the spark or wit that he did in the first two movies. That carbonite really did him in.
 

TravisR

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Sam Favate said:
Have to disagree there. As much as I love Ford's work, he was not good in ROTJ. To be fair, his part was not well written, but he showed none of the spark or wit that he did in the first two movies. That carbonite really did him in. 
Maybe it's just because most of his scenes are with Fisher that his performance comes off as good to me. :) In all fairness to Carrie Fisher, she was in the midst of some really serious problems at that point in her life so I can understand how she wasn't up to par.
 

dpippel

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I think that both Fisher and Ford phoned in their performances in Jedi.
 

Kevin M

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SilverWook said:
There are theories about that... I've been suspicious ever since George lost the beard temporarily around the time Captain Eo came out. ;)
Oh man that explains it ALL!!!!! LOL:D
 

Bob_S.

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I actually saw this movie twice. Last Wed. I took my daughter and her friend to see Big Miracle at the local AMC. It was either see TPM or hang out at Barnes and Noble for 2 hours, so I decided to see TPM. First, let me say the AMC theater sucked. The seats were thinly padded, the screen was small and the sound only came from the front (no surrounds). In fact, the trailers had better sound than the movie. I'll never go to that AMC again. My son has been begging me to take him to see it, so I took him yesterday to see a matinee at the local Cinemark 16 (much better experience plus cheaper prices!) There were about maybe 30 people in the theater mostly parents and little kids. The 3D was okay for a 3D movie but being originally a 2D movie I was quite impressed. It still amazes me how they were able to get that much 3D from a 2D image. Anyways, my son loved it and wanted to see it again. I said "No once is enough, we have it at home." There is no way I'm paying that kind of price to see it a third time. We saw the 3D trailer for John Carter and he wants to see that too. Unlike many fans, I like the prequels. I understand many of the criticisms ( especially how Vader is not as menacing in the OT as he once was) but I don't dwell on them. It's Lucas' universe and I can't change it even though I wish I could. You have to admit though, the lightsaber duel in TPM is the best in the entire series. One thing I noticed, why does the Queen decoy make Padme clean up R2? If I was Padme, I'd be saying, "I'm the Queen, pick someone else to clean up that dirty droid!"
 

TravisR

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Bob_S. said:
You have to admit though, the lightsaber duel in TPM is the best in the entire series.
It's certainly cool but I think it's the second best one behind the Vader/Anakin and Obi-Wan fight in Revenge Of The Sith.
One thing I noticed, why does the Queen decoy make Padme clean up R2? If I was Padme, I'd be saying, "I'm the Queen, pick someone else to clean up that dirty droid!"
I like to think that she's kinda bitter about essentially being a target so she makes Padme do all the crappy jobs when she's the boss. :)
 

Kevin M

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For me, the ultimate saber fight will always be the climactic battle in Empire. Second being the final moments of Luke and Vader's fight aboard Death Star 2 in Jedi when the coral voices in the soundtrack raise as Luke gives into his anger to defeat his father....still sends chills up my spine thinking of sadness of the allegory.
 

Doug Miller

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One thing I didn't say about seeing it last week w/the girls but I wanted to bring up today -- It was cool seeing so many kids at the theater w/their parents, specifically their dads. I watched a commercial on Star Wars facebook post today, and it was all kids w/their dads talking about the family experience. Very cool. Now if only the movie had been any good. Doug
 

TravisR

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Doug Miller said:
I watched a commercial on Star Wars facebook post today, and it was all kids w/their dads talking about the family experience.
When I saw it, I was surprised that there were parents taking pictures of their kids before the movie started. When me and my buddy were in line waiting to buy tickets last Saturday morning, a guy came up with his daughter and we all started BSing and he said that he wasn't that into The Phantom Menace but he was taking his daughter so she could see it in a theater. Despite claiming to not like the movie that much, he said how he'd just seen it the night before and that the theater was pretty crowded. I was going to ask why, if he didn't like the movie that much, he'd see it two times in two days but I chalked it up to either trying to not sound like a nerd for seeing the same movie twice in about 12 hours or just the usual craziness of a Star Wars fan. :)
 

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