honavery wrote >>
And he doesn't even get to the obvious stuff like how stupid Jar Jar was, and how the pod race was about 20 minutes too long.
Yeah, I'm really glad for that. It's just too easy to bash Jar Jar, and it's been done so often that he doesn't really even need to bother going there. What he does do is show that Jar Jar is just a symptom of Lucas trying to cram too much into the story[1], and pretty much leaves it at that.
The other thing he does that I think is excellent is talk about how it seems that Lucas stifled any dissent from anyone who could have helped him make a better film through actual collaboration[2], then goes on to point out that for all the problems the original Star Wars film (ep4) had during filming, it came out better through working around the filming difficulties.
This reminds me of a David Foster Wallace essay he wrote about "F/X Porn". In the essay DFS claims that access to unlimited CGI special effects can ultimately cheapen a film experience. While I don't necessary agree with him 100%, he hits a few things on the mark.
I know that it's possible to use CGI with a light touch, I can't say I can cite too many examples. Then again, if I can't tell, that's good, right?
I know that for it's wealth of flaws, people can and will still love Phantom Menace, I'll never be able to. It's just too much of a monument to hubris, and if I really need to see that, I'd rather watch a beautifully filmed depiction of it (Apocalypse Now, anyone?) than an example of it's devastation on a creative work.
Anyway, this horse is probably dead by now, and look how I've ruined this perfectly good whip.
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1: The reviewer even has Lucas on video right after the initial screening admitting that he tried to do too much. That statement is followed by one of the editors saying how the movie jumps around too much at the end, and both of them admitting that the plot is so tangled that they cant cut any of it out without creating plot holes. Ouch!
2: Again, shown through video of production meetings, everyone around Lucas looks very uncomfortable or downright scared. Could be creative editing, but I'd bet not.
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