Watch Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace Online Rating: 6,7/10 5945reviews
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Watch exclusive Star Wars videos, including movie clips and rare behind the scenes footage, previews, and featurettes. The May 25, 1977 theatrical debut of Star Wars --- on a scant 32 screens across America -- was destined to change the face of cinema forever. An instant clas. Welp, Colin Treverrow definitely isn’t directing the ninth film in the Skywalker saga, leaving a gap that Lucasfilm has yet to fill. In the meantime, this fake. Buy Star Wars Rebels, Season 3: Read 293 Movies & TV Reviews - Amazon.com.
So here it is, the new trilogy, the new Star Wars for a new generation whilst trying to appease the original generations (including the prequel generation that time forgot). The first Star Wars sequel set after the classic trilogy, made a mere 3. Rot. J. In comparison this movie comes along 1. Rof. S, was made in 2.
God knows how many years after the events in Rot. S, gotta be at least 5.
From TPM to this movie, its obviously even more years.. Now initially I wasn't gonna review this movie because some (classic) movies are [b]so[/b] big there is nothing more to add (hence why I have never reviewed the original trilogy or films like 'Alien', what more can I add or say? We all know they are nigh on perfect). But after a few requests and the fact I cannot contain my frustration any more, here we go. OK so the plot is generally unclear on some aspects so far, as we all know many parts will fall into place when we get the next movie and so forth.
So lets focus on some of the aspects that we do know right here right now, some things that, for me, just didn't really make sense or just seemed rushed. I say rushed because I genuinely do not feel like this movie was given time to lay out its characters and history, far too eager to get into big action set pieces, anyway. Lets start with Finn, new kid on the Star Wars block.
Now this guy is an Imperial Stormtrooper, he was stolen as a child and raised to be a baddie essentially, he knows little else, but he presumably does know his fellow troopers. I mean think about it, this guy has grown- up and trained with all these blokes, he must know them well, probably has friends, and pretty much only knows the Imperial way. Yet this does not stop him completely abandoning his unit and fellow troopers, freeing a rebel captive and running off in a stolen TIE fighter!
OK, he clearly gets a very stark first hand reminder of what the Empire does to innocents, but surely he must have come across things like this before? Imperial Stormtrooper! OK it might be his first foray into a ground mission.. Empire gets up to, at least somewhat, its not like they try to cover that much up. The fact that Finn even trusts a rebel captive is really quite a stretch frankly, considering his upbringing, his training, his possible brainwashing or conditioning to the Empire, I would find it nigh on impossible to think that a Stormtrooper would so easily be swayed (without the use of the force). To top that, he even merrily joins in on blasting his fellow troopers to kingdom come from within the TIE fighter!
How in the hell can one person make such a rash decision against his own so quickly! I felt this entire premise was not played out well at all, completely rushed and not looked into on a deeper level. Sure there might not have been time, but then don't use this angle if you can't do it justice. This continues throughout the film and is barely delved into, I believe Finn is called a traitor by a trooper at one point but clearly Finn hasn't ever let this issue cross his mind once. Its almost as unbelievable as the TIE crash on Jakku, how did Finn and Poe survive this exactly? Poe scramble off without a trace before Finn could find him in the scorched wreckage??
Beats the livin' sh*t outta me, don't question it. After crash landing on Jakku that led me to another very obvious question, why exactly is Jakku covered in crashed ships??
OK so obviously there was a major space conflict above the planet at some point, but would there really be that many wrecked ships strewn around the terrain? Yeah maybe the odd one sure but what they show just felt kinda ridiculous, overkill.
Moving on the story follows the other new kid on the Star Wars block, Rey, the plucky youngster living on this desert planet with dreams of something bigger (psst! Now whilst these two new main characters were perfectly fine, I still haven't really warmed up to either of them, probably because both are just serviceable and nothing more. Finn is a likeable guy that is well portrayed in a likeable, amusing way by John Boyega that's for sure. I certainly preferred his character over Daisy Ridley's Rey because he was more approachable, more regular. You could relate to him more as he was obviously the link into this unbelievable universe for us, the audience. Rey on the other hand I just found annoying, I'm not sure why but she just annoyed me.
Her drab appearance, the way she always grits her teeth as if she were a lunatic, the fact she was so skinny, and yes the way she was good at everything bugged me, she just felt unbelievable. But what about Luke in the original films you say? Well those films were made a long time ago now, times were and are different now, films weren't inspected to such a high degree back then (no internet) as they are today, and.. I've grown- up! I look at things differently now. Had the original films come out now I'd probably be saying the same sh*t about Luke in all honesty because the argument is similar. The movie fires along at a rapid pace and just as quick as we arrive on Jakku, we are leaving it at blistering speeds, strapped into the Falcon once again. I might add that the Falcon was picked up by Finn and Rey in a desperate escape attempt that was more humorous than thrilling really, but not in a particularly good way as this isn't supposed to be a comedy.
Like Rey knew all about the Falcon and its history.. Yep so the Falcon was owned by some fat alien guy, who apparently left the ship completely unlocked so anyone could enter it, oh and it fired up straight away despite having been sitting there for God knows how long and clearly being in a bad way. Even more incredible was the fact Rey could fly the thing so well and Finn could work the gun turrets, deus ex machina much? Yes it was good to see the old Falcon again no doubt about that, nostalgia target hit precisely, but what else have you got? By this point its clear to see how the plot is unfolding, you are indeed seeing a soft remake of 'A New Hope'. All the original beats were being hit step by step in almost the same ways..
The main difference being, amazingly, it looks worse than the original, yes that's right, worse. The entire sequence where we meet up with Solo and Chewie on- board their big space freighter thing was terrible, absolutely terrible. For a start the whole thing looked like something from a videogame in- game sequence, the big CGI alien with multiple eyes looked woefully bad, and the space pirates that are after Solo were horrendous stereotypes. You had a group of Asian space pirates that looked like extras from 'Big Trouble in Little China', and the other group was led by some Scottish bloke who actually had a thick Scottish accent. Nothing wrong with a Scottish accent but my God it felt out of place here. Its also here we discover Harrison Ford really can't run anymore and it was kinda awkward to watch.
This was the first cheapass looking sequence in the film, believe it or not there were more. Watch My Family`S Secret HD 1080P more. Things got even worse (in my opinion) as we reached the final part of the movie which was yet another Death Star attack because.. Remember before all this we did have the obligatory Star Wars cantina sequence which again looked worse than the original, somehow, and a Boba Fett clone in Captain Phasma who was utterly utterly pointless and a female because.. Empire have female Stormtroopers?). Apparently the cantina did get completely obliterated though.. I think? not sure but it seemed that way so..
