Took the day off as leave today to go see the film. Alli, my wife was coming with me, but just had a big project deadline brought WAY forward, so couldn't make it (bummer), so I had to fly solo (no SW pun intended).
Here's my take on the film and comment's on E's thoughts... Be warned MINOR (and one MAJOR) spoilers ahead (wouldn't want to wreck it for anyone). > Special effects - AMAZING! Yup. WAY amazing. The star map in the Jedi class is out of this world. And the asteroid/planet ring field is just unreal! > Story - slow at first, but really picks up later Not really any different to any other SW film. Look at the pacing in TESB, for example, a couple of big, early events to suck you in, some exposition, another big event, more exposition, BIG close. The twist in the tail in AotC, however, is very cool. > Battle scene - FANTASTIC! Yes. I'm still a fan of the stop-motion school of SFX used way back in the early SW films, I still remember reading how they did the "crush the chicken-walker between the logs" scene in RotJ and thinking how clever the guys at ILM were. Now it's just a BIG CGI shop. I realise and accept that's where the industry is going, but I'm a little disappointed that SFX now entirely relies on clever computer modellers and artists rather than REAL innovation. > Jango Fett is very cool It's interesting as an Aussie to see a few well-known faces from our industry appearing, thanks to the filming of AotC in Oz: - Jay Laga'aia, who my 4-1/2yo daughter loves on Play School (http://www.abc.net.au/children/play/faces/actors/4.htm) - Temuera Morrison, if you haven't yet seen Once Were Warriors (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0110729), see it now! - and Jack Thompson who has been a mainstay of the Australian film, TV and theatre industry for well over 20 years. He's almost like our Michael Caine - he makes a few outstanding films and plenty more absolute shockers. There's plenty more I didn't spot, but I recognise the names from the cast list. > Christopher Lee really is good in the roll of Dooku Saruman the Jedi! Hehehe. To my mind, he wasn't quite evil enough. What was his true motivation for splitting away? > Ewan is cool as Obi Wan Yes. He needs to work on sounding more like Alec Guinness. But still, probably the best acted and best realised character overall. > Natalie Portman is almost as wooden as Keanu Who cares! She's a goddess! Not to mention she's been given dorky lines to work with. If you look at her body of work outside the SW stuff, she's definitely a talented young woman. Hayden Christiansen is no better, but equally, his stuff was weak in the script. I would like to understand more of his motivation for being such a hardhead, without having to extend myself to the extra SW material beyond the films. He seemed to be the angry young hothead without any particular motivation for being so. The exposition offered in the film didn't satisfy me enough to believe he had justification for being such a loony, while still being dedicated overall to the Jedi cause. - Oh, and Yoda - he da man! The little guy is like Jackie Chan on speed! Just watch and enjoy. > Jar Jar, he's so cool! I just wuv him! **** says Erika **** I was never bothered by him in the first film. Sure, he was a clown, but deliberately so. He's no different here, except he gets way less time. My bother comes with the fact he's so easily sucked into being the scapegoat that ultimately brings the Emperor to power and the Empire into existence. Overall, I thought it was a better film than TPM, and that it fit nicely into the Star Wars universe. The naughty little twist at the end made the film for me (those who've seen it will know what I mean). Steve ______________________________________________________________________ Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-community@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
