In the opening sequence of the new Star Wars movie, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, two Jedi knights fight their way through an enemy starship to rescue a hostage. Ever since I saw the movie, I have been annoying friends with a trivia question: “Who is the enemy? What organization owns this vessel?”
We ought to know. In 1977, we all knew who owned the Death Star (the Empire) and who owned the Millennium Falcon (Han Solo). But when I ask my question about the new film, everyone reacts in the same way: with a sudden intake of breath and a sideways dart of the eyes, followed by lengthy cogitation. Some confess that they have no idea. Others think out loud for a while, developing and rejecting various theories. Only a few have come up with the right answer.
— Neal Stephenson: Turn On, Tune In, Veg Out, New York Times (reg. req.)
"I can see you happy in the shadows I despise..."
Yeah, something that's been bothering me about Eps 1-3 is that they are needlessly complicated; it's like a chopped salad in there. It's okay to have a few good ingredients in large, understandable pieces!
ReplyDeleteI've actually been saying similar things about the space battles - most peoples' reactions have been "come on... it was at LEAST as cool as ROTJ." My response is that in Eps 2 and 3 we really don't care about EITHER side, let alone know who they are. We hear in Star Wars that Anakin Skywalker was an amazing pilot, but all we see in the prequels are the two of them flying THROUGH battles that we don't even care about.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's really true in the Prequels.
ReplyDeleteIn the initial three films, we had the Empire and the Rebels. Good fucking god, could it be any more straightforward (and COOL) than that? The Empire was bad, the Rebels were fighting for freedom from the tyranny of Empire... Neat. Simple.
The Prequels have the Trade Federation, The Old Republic, The Separatists, who have a Droid Army, and if we are to remember anything from Episode I (though I'd rather not) it is that the droid army is working for the Trade Federation as long as their server doesn't go down. In Episode II, we get that the Separatists, who are led by Count Dooku, are making trouble for the Republic. Somehow this is tangentially connected to the Trade Federation, because their droids are showing up in the fights, but it is otherwise unclear why the Trade Federation and the Separatists are connected. It took me a long time to figure out that the Separatists aren't the precursor to the Rebels in the subsequent movies. How did that happen?
Then it turns out the Separatists are a sham, just a manufactured red herring of the Sith to provide a war, which itself is an excuse to get a Grand Army of the Republic, rolling out a mess of clones to fight the droids.
It's so confusing that Lucas even had to write in dialog for Yoda to give it to us: "Begin, this Clone War has" or something close.
Yeah, basically there is too much going on, and all of it is the manipulation of the Emperor, so as much as I wanted to like the Clone Troopers and Commandos, I knew that they were just another tool to dupe the public, and they were never treated as having any more worth than a droid. Sad.
God, thank you; I had completely forgotten what Eps 1 & 2 were about by the time I saw 3 in Berlin. And MonkeyScientist hadn't seen 1 or 2, so I was trying to bring him up to speed, and I just couldn't, and felt like an idiot.
ReplyDeleteI just want Han Solo back. Is that so wrong? Is it just me, or is the fact that the characters in Eps 4-6 were sort of irritating part of their charm?
There is definitely nothing wrong with wanting a return to what made the original movies great, and Han Solo is part of that. I think the lack of a mythic shapeshifter is among the chief problems of the Prequels.
ReplyDeleteIt is clear in Ep. 1 and 2 that Obi-Wan is being trotted out as some kind of replacement for Han Solo, but with the naivete of Luke, and insufficient bad-boy-ness. It's empty, and happily it was mostly ditched in 2, and entirely gone in 3, though all three episodes have a problem where the mythic structure is not readily apparent.