So I went to see Phantom Menace yesterday and it was interesting going to see it with no expectations. It's still not a great movie but there are parts of it that are a lot better than I remember. Not sure if any of this would be considered a spoiler if you're looking at going to see it, I mean the movie is 13 years old now, but a couple of observations that I noticed. As we know I like to give my opinions so here you go.
Jar Jar - My hatred for Jar Jar is gone, why? Because I get it now, Jar Jar is supposed to be an annoying idiot in the movie. When you watch it, watch Qui-gon's contempt for Jar Jar and how he is basically stuck with him. It's great because for so long we all felt like Qui-gon, but then we were so distracted by Jar Jar and his antics that we missed the point, the character is intentionally annoying. I mean he still sucks, but I get it now. The best part about Jar Jar is that he becomes a hero which ends up putting the moron in the position to give the Emperor his first set of executive powers, which eventually leads to the totalitarian state of the Empire. Good job Jar Jar, you moron.
Midiclorians (however the hell you spell it) - The explanation is needed in the movie in order for the story as a whole to work. When Qui-gon meets Anakin he can tell that the force is strong with him, but that's nothing special, at that point he's just a force attuned child, like all of the others. But what sets Anakin apart is that his count is so high, higher than Yoda's, thus the boy is special for some reason or another, to Qui-gon it's that he is the child of the prophecy, the other masters not so sure. The prophecy about the midiclorians creating a lifeform on their own. Qui-gon believes it so much that he will defy the jedi council to take on and train the boy. My guess is that he wouldn't do that for any other kid, hence a way was needed to quantify Anakins potential powers, hence midiclorians. Then in #3 Revenge of the Sith, Darth Sidious tells Anakin about a story of a Sith lord that could create life from the midiclorians, it's a short leap to take in thinking that Darth Sidious's master was the one that created Anakin in the first place. Again without the midiclorians we could just take it on faith about how Anakin came into being, but looking at the overarching story of movies 1-2-3 it's more likely that it was all a plot from the beginning to take over the Republic and form the Empire, this fits into that story. And while the story telling could have been better in that we didn't need to connect the dots ourselves, I like that if you pull back and take a look at it as a whole, the bad guys were at work a long long time before they were ever discovered.
The Senate - Politics has no place in a Star Wars movie you say. After watching #3 about a million times, I get it now. Obviously the Emperor was using the Senate to grow himself into power but it's the subtleties in #1 that I missed or didn't remember or frankly didn't pay any attention to the first time around. The entire plot of the first movie is about the senate taxing trade routes and the fish people forming a blockade over Naboo in protest of those taxes. The taxes were undoubtedly a part of the Emperor's plan to gain power. He uses mind tricks on several of the senators and gets them to enact the taxes so that he can then persuade the trade guild to form the blockade in the first place. Then when the Queen is going to take her case to the Senate to have them come save Naboo, he suggests that the Canceler is weak and won't do anything. When he doesn't the Queen votes to have him removed from power, guess who gets nominated and elected, the eventual Emperor, most likely because he can control the votes to his election through his power. But that sets the stage of putting him in a position of power so that when the Clone War comes, which he creates by playing both sides of the conflict, he can grow his power under the eyes of the Senate and the Jedi.
I didn't get any of that the first time around with the eventual Emperor, I knew who he was and that he was the Sith master, but I didn't get the plot that then played out over the three movies. Hell I remember watching #2 and being completely confused on who the bad guys were, which I get now.
But the movie as a whole isn't great by any means the middle of it is really slow, still it was better than I remembered it. And you forget how much Liam Neison is in the movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment