Star Wars: Episode VII: The Nerd Rage Awakens

[theenglish]

I think he's okay as Anakin, he was let down by very poor writing and even worse direction.

In all fairness to Christensen, this needs to be taken into account in any review of his performance in the prequels.

He had some of the worst lines to deliver in any of the six movies, and let's face it, there were only two actors who managed to deliver the bad dialogue in any way approaching acceptable: James Earl Jones and Harrison Ford.

I'll be honest that while I did not love the acting in the PT, Ewan McGregor, Ian McDiarmid, and Liam Neeson (for what it's worth) all delivered fine performances. The OT is still a little rocky, but I think the main cast carries it better, and Alec Guiness gets a special mention.

Sorry, I disagree with the idea that only two actors were able to do something with the dialogue.

I will be going back to watching the PT with my son soon but I do include all of those actors in there. At some point, they all have lines that are delivered horribly or that at least are delivered completely without emotion as if they are just reading through them to get through the script. Alec Guinness might deserve special mention for the first two movies but not for ROTJ.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Do you all want to start a separate thread for Star Wars Rogue One?
If not, I'll post this here for good measure.

Composer hired for Rogue One

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Desplat is an excellent choice, but still, it's gonna be weird having a Star Wars film that's not being scored by John Williams (other than Kevin Kiner doing the theatrical release of Clone Wars, but even then Kiner used a lot of William's music too).

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I think Disney has a good handle on the music. Watching Rebels for example.. what a good mix of the old and new!

 

[Skywalker]

If John Williams had opted not to return for Episode VII, I'm sure Michael Giacchino would have composed the score for that movie, given his connection to Abrams. That would have been interesting...

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I think Disney has a good handle on the music. Watching Rebels for example.. what a good mix of the old and new!

Oh, no. like I said, Desplat is an outstanding composer, and I'm sure his work will be great. It's just kind of weird not having John Williams score a live-action Star Wars film, though, even if it is a spin-off.

 

[fireproof78]

In all fairness to Christensen, this needs to be taken into account in any review of his performance in the prequels.

He had some of the worst lines to deliver in any of the six movies, and let's face it, there were only two actors who managed to deliver the bad dialogue in any way approaching acceptable: James Earl Jones and Harrison Ford.

I'll be honest that while I did not love the acting in the PT, Ewan McGregor, Ian McDiarmid, and Liam Neeson (for what it's worth) all delivered fine performances. The OT is still a little rocky, but I think the main cast carries it better, and Alec Guiness gets a special mention.

Sorry, I disagree with the idea that only two actors were able to do something with the dialogue.

I will be going back to watching the PT with my son soon but I do include all of those actors in there. At some point, they all have lines that are delivered horribly or that at least are delivered completely without emotion as if they are just reading through them to get through the script. Alec Guinness might deserve special mention for the first two movies but not for ROTJ.

I'll concede that it was never consistent, but I still think they delivered performances that were decent (and given the directing and script, sometimes amazing).

I need to revisit the movies myself. I just can never bring myself to watch ROTS again.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

funny anecdote.. AMC movie talk restarted their Jedi Council Star Wars talk show. The whole episode is worth a listen but if you go to timestamp 11:47 OMG at a moment that is so damn funny...
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF_up5Tvzco&list=PLYNW0PN4_jrrNalTqcKp5Hm6xUkxgmAvf[/yt]

 

[Jedi_Master]

I think Disney has a good handle on the music. Watching Rebels for example.. what a good mix of the old and new!

Oh, no. like I said, Desplat is an outstanding composer, and I'm sure his work will be great. It's just kind of weird not having John Williams score a live-action Star Wars film, though, even if it is a spin-off.

In some ways John Williams' score is the most important element of the franchise.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I think Disney has a good handle on the music. Watching Rebels for example.. what a good mix of the old and new!

Oh, no. like I said, Desplat is an outstanding composer, and I'm sure his work will be great. It's just kind of weird not having John Williams score a live-action Star Wars film, though, even if it is a spin-off.

In some ways John Williams' score is the most important element of the franchise.

Well, to go along with that.. when the film was being made, even after production was winding down, Lucas felt that nothing was working.. let alone working on the level that he envisioned. ILM had used half their budget while returning no useable footage, the first cut had no energy, the studio heads wanted to shut tit down.. and it wasn't until /Lucas came back and started re-editing the shit out of it that it started coming together at all.. but during all that time, there was one aspect of the film that actually exceeded his expectations.. the music!

 

[theenglish]

I'll be honest that while I did not love the acting in the PT, Ewan McGregor, Ian McDiarmid, and Liam Neeson (for what it's worth) all delivered fine performances. The OT is still a little rocky, but I think the main cast carries it better, and Alec Guiness gets a special mention.

Sorry, I disagree with the idea that only two actors were able to do something with the dialogue.

I will be going back to watching the PT with my son soon but I do include all of those actors in there. At some point, they all have lines that are delivered horribly or that at least are delivered completely without emotion as if they are just reading through them to get through the script. Alec Guinness might deserve special mention for the first two movies but not for ROTJ.

I'll concede that it was never consistent, but I still think they delivered performances that were decent (and given the directing and script, sometimes amazing).

I need to revisit the movies myself. I just can never bring myself to watch ROTS again.

I don't think I criticized any actual performances in my first post--just who I thought managed to find a way around the bad dialogue.

 

[J.T.B.]

In some ways John Williams' score is the most important element of the franchise.

Indeed. I would say that Lucas's vision, Williams's music and McQuarrie's concept art were the essential tripod of Star Wars success.

I don't think I criticized any actual performances in my first post--just who I thought managed to find a way around the bad dialogue.

I thought Cushing was great, too. He could bring a villainous verve to lines about Imperial bureaucracy.

 

[fireproof78]

I will be going back to watching the PT with my son soon but I do include all of those actors in there. At some point, they all have lines that are delivered horribly or that at least are delivered completely without emotion as if they are just reading through them to get through the script. Alec Guinness might deserve special mention for the first two movies but not for ROTJ.

I'll concede that it was never consistent, but I still think they delivered performances that were decent (and given the directing and script, sometimes amazing).

I need to revisit the movies myself. I just can never bring myself to watch ROTS again.

I don't think I criticized any actual performances in my first post--just who I thought managed to find a way around the bad dialogue.

Well, I might have read too much in to it so apologies.

It just seemed, to me, that the remark of Ford and Jones finding their way through the bad dialogue was including the whole cast.

I don't know. Maybe some parts of dialogue in the OT are worse than others

 

[Masiral]

Desplat is an excellent choice, but still, it's gonna be weird having a Star Wars film that's not being scored by John Williams (other than Kevin Kiner doing the theatrical release of Clone Wars, but even then Kiner used a lot of William's music too).

Desplat did a great job with the final Harry Potter films, especially with incorporating Williams's original theme, so I have every confidence that we'll get a great score, but yeah, it's gonna be weird.

 

[theenglish]

I thought Cushing was great, too. He could bring a villainous verve to lines about Imperial bureaucracy.

Good call on Cushing.

 

[cooleddie74]

Peter Cushing was easily one of the great (if not best) aspects of the Original Trilogy. He managed to turn Grand Moff Tarkin into one of the all-time greatest and most sinister screen villains and overshadowed Darth Vader for much of the original film in a fashion very similar to how Emperor Palpatine was the most interesting villain and the most fun bad guy to watch in Return of the Jedi.

 

[theenglish]

Peter Cushing was easily one of the great (if not best) aspects of the Original Trilogy. He managed to turn Grand Moff Tarkin into one of the all-time greatest and most sinister screen villains and overshadowed Darth Vader for much of the original film in a fashion very similar to how Emperor Palpatine was the most interesting villain and the most fun bad guy to watch in Return of the Jedi.

I remember ESB when it came out and suddenly Vader was such a badass without Tarkin to control him. He just kept choking everyone who messed up and didn't stop until they were dead, which was a direct call back to the '77 film.

One of the most brilliant things about the OT was the redemption of Darth Vader. Every kid my age had nightmares about Vader for six years up to that point, and then he made us cry for him at the end.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I've never done screen time comparisons, but I'm pretty sure that EpIV spends more time on supporting characters than any of the other films. We have the wonderful conference room scene, the first scene aboard the Death Star. And, in the attack on the Death Star, there's a lot of time spent focusing on the other fighters and especially on the first two attack runs. With respect to the Rebel pilots, we never saw these guys before, and all but Wedge die before our eyes (we never saw who was in the other Y-wing). Yet somehow, they come across as individuals, in stark contrast to all the other films, in which we get largely just variations on, "I'm hit!"

I can imagine that if EpIV had been made later, say after the PT, it wouldn't have focused so much on everybody outside the main cast, and Tarkin would have gotten less attention as well, all to the detriment of the film.

 

[cooleddie74]

^
Most likely, as many secondary characters in the Prequels got only partial development and attention at best and it was rare to see sequences like the Death Star briefing room confrontation in Episodes I, II or III where supporting characters not only got to chew the scenery but had quite a bit of memorable and important dialogue. By the time Revenge of the Sith was filmed entire sequences involving the Senators opposed to Palpatine who would go on to form the beginnings of the Rebel Alliance (sequences rich with dialogue and screen time for supporting actors) were left on the cutting room floor and went on to become DVD and Blu ray bonus features.

George lost interest in developing supporting characters as the years passed and the PT was largely an Anakin-Padmé-Obi-Wan trifecta more than anything else with the Sith Lords lurking in the background.

 

[DWF]

The prequels were all longer movies than any of the OT, the supporting characters got plenty of attention but there was a need to rein in and keep the length of the movies down. But Nute Guray still got far more screen time than Tarkin and Wedge combined over the three movies of the OT. Plus there massive additions and refilming for Ep. III, Grievious was not only added but padded out on the second Clone Wars cartoon.