Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace 3D

[Gonk]

Make sure you stop him from inventing Ewoks when you get there bigjobs.

[bigjobs67]

LUKKKAASSS!!!!! "Biggo fire up Proteus and pack a bag. We've got a movie mogul to kill".

[vzzbux]

Slightly off topic and may put Lucas in a different light.
Is order 66 from RotS a play on executive order 9066 signed by President Roosevelt.
Just a thought.





V

[bigjobs67]

Slightly off topic and may put Lucas in a different light.
Is order 66 from RotS a play on executive order 9066 signed by President Roosevelt.
Just a thought.

? Can u just post pics of your wife in her unmentionables. Pronto. Cheers.

[TordelBack]

I suppose this is the most relevant current topic for the trailer for the not-at-all-cynically-timed return of Darth Maul in The Clone Wars cartoon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqjLUABYeew&feature=youtu.be

I have a bad feeling about this.  It's Boba Fett all over again, with added ridiculous resurrection. 

That said, I was quite surprised on my TPM-3D viewing to realise just how little Darth Maul features in the movie that is sold almost exclusively with his image.  Stripping away the multimedia mystique of being a pure disposable weapon of the Sith, he is sort-of wasted there. 

It's also interesting to see from the trailer how TCW is blending obvious Lucasian money-spinning fiat (Maul and his brother) with their own ongoing on-screen re-working of Expanded Universe elements such as Ventress (beautifully voiced by Nina Futterman) and the Nightsisters, and of course the movie characters. 

In other words, I expect to hate this, but the last 3 or 4 story-arcs on TCW have been superb, so I suppose I should have a little bit of hope.

[Satanist]

Not meant to be cheeky but is TCW actually any good? My kids love it but I have never tried to follow it.

From what Ive seen it looked a bit naff at the start but now appears to have ongoing story arcs?

Oh and I saw one where Anakin had a vision of himself as Vader which seemed to be handled much better than the films.

[radiator]

I tried to watch the Clone Wars pilot/movie recently but couldn't warm to it at all and switched it off after 10 minutes. It just seemed very videogame-like (as in literally "defeat the boss robot by hitting its weak point!") and very much aimed at children.

Maybe I should give it another chance but I suspect that it's not for me.

[TordelBack]

It's all a bit simplistic and cynical to be sure, and definitely pitched at the younger end of the market, but it is frequently very good fun, and by the middle of the 3rd season the animation had scaled incredible new heights and has only improved from there. 

The movie itself is some of the weakest material, and was generally a bad decision, IMO.  There are still occasional bad, nonsensical and plain dull episodes, but plotwise it has really stepped up its game.  The most recent Season 4 story arcs (generally 2-4 episodes, although sometimes building on an arc from a previous season too) have been:

Nomad Droids: A sort-of combined homage to the Droids cartoon, the Wizard of Oz and Gulliver's Travels, where R2 and 3PO bounce about the galaxy getting shipwrecked and overthrowing local petty tyrants.  Silly and childish, but great fun over 2 episodes.

Darkness on Umbara:  A genuinely grim 4-parter focusing entirely on a group of clone troopers in a difficult planetary invasion, and how they deal with the decidedly cold and unorthodox Jedi general in command.

Slaves of the Republic: An uneven 3-parter about the enslavement of Ahsoka's people - some beautiful design and good character moments, but the end is a bit weak.

Deception:  Obi-Wan goes undercover as his own murderer to foil a plot to kidnap Palpatine, 4 episodes of pure backstabbing caper-movie fun, with some mild character development thrown in.  Probably the most consistently enjoyable screen Star Wars in ages.

All that said, the beginning of Season 4 was quite weak, with an interminable underwater story set on Mon Calamari which failed to be better than the one from the Genndy Tartakovsky shorts at about 20 times the length. 

There are ongoing arcs, particularly for the new characters (clones mainly), but I'd recommend picking and choosing rather than sitting through the whole thing, so to give you a flavour of what's worthwhile in my opinion:

Season 1 highlights include the opening Yoda episode Ambush (my favourite of the lot), the 3-part Malevolence arc (attacking Separatist superweapon), the introduction to many of the clone cast in Rookies and uneven-but-fun Ryloth trilogy, a planetary invasion liberation.

Season 2 highlights include the Saving Private Ryan homage Landing at Point Rain,  the Seven Samurai homage Bounty Hunters the amazing Godzilla homage The Zillo Beast (lot of homaging going on in Series 2), and the suitably sinister Children of the Jedi.

Season 3 has the controversial Mortis arc (no relation) which Satanist alludes to, where a mysterious nexus in the Force exposes our heroes to visions and personifications of various mystical things, as well as the force ghost of Qui-Gon Jinn,  Padawan Lost a great version of The Most Dangerous Game featuring Chewbacca and some of the finest alien jungle designs you'll ever see, and Hunt for Ziro, featuring Sy Snootles as the love interest!  Also, the introduction of Maul's people and the Nightsisters, and some rather cool Sith betrayals in Nightsisters/Monster, which is where the current Maul stuff starts.

[von Boom]

Damn it TordelBack, are you trying to suck me back in to Lucas' dementia? I've turned my back on all of this, but you're playing the crack dealer, 'C'mon. Little bit won't hurt you.'

Please don't be so rational about this, I prefer bloody minded ranting about Lucas and his creations thank you.

Good day sir.

JvB

[Beaky Smoochies]

Damn it TordelBack, are you trying to suck me back in to Lucas' dementia? I've turned my back on all of this, but you're playing the crack dealer, 'C'mon. Little bit won't hurt you.'
Please don't be so rational about this, I prefer bloody minded ranting about Lucas and his creations thank you.

I wholeheartedly agree Sir, the whole Star Wars thing is dead to me now, Luca$ has systematically crushed every last bit of joy out of it for me - with the exception(s) of the Trilogy's original theatrical versions - and no amount of pretty CGI animation series' will undo that... it's time to give the whole thing a rest, it's not only dead, it's corpse is starting to stink!!!

[Gonk]

[Adrian Bamforth]

Finally, as the director always intended...

[Beaky Smoochies]

And the Luca$ pension plan continues - http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=34991 - sigh, enough already, for the love of grud...

[judgefloyd]

Damn it TordelBack, are you trying to suck me back in to Lucas' dementia? I've turned my back on all of this, but you're playing the crack dealer, 'C'mon. Little bit won't hurt you.'

Please don't be so rational about this, I prefer bloody minded ranting about Lucas and his creations thank you.

Good day sir.

JvB

Rant away, mate! Everything after movie number three has been phenomanally boring.  I couldn't finish it even when trapped in a small flat with a three year old who was up for a bit of spaceships and robots - it would have to count as cruelty to children to make my son sit through the Liam Neeson/Ewan McGregor bits (can't remember what we watched instead. Probably the Wiggles or the old Batman movie)