Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace
The movie starts with the traditional title scrolling and then we are on a ship with two Jedi knights, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). They are there to discuss negotiations with a group of aliens about how they operate or what not, it doesn't really matter because there's a light-saber fight soon enough.
For 1998 the CGI is amazing, yes some of the shots are dated by today's standards but not that much and even then the good shots could easily pass by today's standards.
When George Lucas was first developing and writing Star Wars he was working with his colleges such as Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola. By the time this movie went into production he was influenced by his children. There's nothing wrong with that but he seems to be playing the movie to what they want rather than what they need.
This was probably the reason for the character of Jar Jar Binks, one of the most hated, despised and loathed characters in recent pop-culture. It's not just that he's clumsy, its that never is he interested in doing the right thing or being brave, if you were to ask him what he wants he would probably say he wants a simple life of comfort, but he is dragged into the plot as an attempt to please the children viewers and all he does is done by accident. Not once is there a noble thought that drives him.
Later in the movie we are introduced to Anakin Skywalker. Jake Llyod delivers one of the most infamous child acting performances in movie history. He has been held as a staple of bad acting from a child. Personally I don't hold it against him, is he bad, most certainly, but he's a child, true there are other great examples of children actors but they are gems. This was a bad case of a young child just not being a good actor, ow well, its just something you'll have to swallow.
George Lucas writes obrolan in a very novelist way and that is perfectly fine way to write. I like many, many other people greatly enjoy reading novels, but therein lies the problem. This is a movie and as a movie the actors must read it out loud and a novel is not meant to be read out-load, you read it in your head because if you did say it out-load you'd sound stupid (which is how the characters sound).
The definite long lasting icon of the movie is the villain Darth Maul. A Sith warrior that wields a dual lightsaber. He looks very mean and threatening with red and black tribal skin and sharp horns around his head. Ray Pak provides great physicality in his performance, being slow and stoic to fast and threatening with is incredible acrobatic talents for the fight scenes. He comes in, he's awesome and he leaves, done great job!
Unlike with the original movies the film-making technology had reached a point where you could create an entire world like those from the concept artists boards. And here we do, we see vast cities and castles that look like the great fantasy and science fiction illustrations come to life and landscapes that are reminiscent Roger Dean's Yes album covers. But with the scale comes a lack of personality and character, the filmmakers now have a vast glorious backdrop for their characters but all their time went into the backgrounds that their characters are poorly drawn.
When it was all done and I walked away from it I thought about it and what I really remembered from the movie. I didn't come up with much. The pod race was cool, nothing great, the music and the Darth Maul fight was glorious I admit, but with that gone. There wasn't much I could think of to come back to or recommend. Go once and you will find good scenes, then move on to the original trilogy.
Rating: 2 1/2 stars out of 4

0 komentar:
Posting Komentar