![]() ![]() That opening crawl let you know you were being dropped into the middle of a story, into something bigger than the movie you were about to see. Seeing that opening crawl, with its "time of civil war" and references to battles and Death Star plan stealing and an evil empire and a princess racing home, made my toes curl. I was eleven, going on twelve, when I saw Star Wars the first time. No-one was ever going to get my money again by promising to polish up my childhood again. Jump forward six years later when I was sitting in a darkened theatre watching Darth Vader stagger around screaming "Noooooo!!!" I thought three things - 1) those were seven hours I was never, ever, ever going to get back 2) George Lucas should never be allowed to direct anything, even non-union ads for local used car dealerships in Rochester and 3) I was never going to be a sucker to nostalgia again. It's hard to describe the disquiet I felt in my gut watching that opening crawl for Phantom Menace, with its trade talks and embargoes and whogivesadamns. ![]() They're awful and you should feel bad if you enjoy them. They are disastrously bad films that future generations of film makers will use them as examples of what not to do when making a film, as examples of hubris run wild, of ego out of control. Hell, I think some new ways of being terrible were created with that series. They are bad in every which way it is possible for a film to be bad. Bad acting, bad writing, bad directing, bad lighting, bad editing, bad special effects, bad costumes, bad sound editing, bad craft services. I'm saying they are very, very, very bad films. And I'm not some crying fanboy going clickity clack about George Lucas beating up my inner child. Those three prequel films, they're so, so, so very bad. But, damn, I really didn't want to be a sucker one more time. Exciting trailers all around for The Force Awakens. And not learning my lesson for Revenge of the Sith. And then a couple of years later being cautiously optimistic about Attack of the Clones. But I remember back in 1998 getting excited watching the trailers for The Phantom Menace. I mean, yeah, the trailers had me excited. Let's get this out of the way first - I was not particularly looking forward to The Force Awakens.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |