Yes. I expected much more, not so much in SFX, but in the silkiness of the characters. Heck Neocon, I don't see these sort of flicks for their dang philosophy. I want to see some real creative butt kickin'.
Vader was so dang silky it wasn't even funny. So were Obi Won, Solo, R2 and even Chewbacca. Luke was just a growing boy, but he had a good deal of silk too. When Vader was around, you just knew somebody's butt was gon get kicked good. I loved seeing Vader throwing junk around and chokin' folk just by moving his hand. When Obi Won was around you knew the good guys were gonna get where they needed to get. When Solo was around you just knew he was gon lie or trick his way to safety. And you knew that given half a chance, Chewy was gon break somebody's neck. You also knew there was no technical difficulty that could outmatch R2.
Yet Vader and his gang were outmatching them at times. Heck, when Vader knocked of Obi Won, everybody went "DANG!!!!!!!!!". This all heightened suspense and increased one's awe of the characters on both sides.
When the Emperor finally made his appearance, and we saw Vader kneeling to him, we went "Whoa! This guy must be unfrigginreal!" And when he finally started hittin Luke with all that purple lightening and junk, we went "Eeeyup. He IS unfrigginreal!"
Episode 1 had little of this in it. Lucas gave an awful lot of hype for an average movie in my opinion. Loved that Darth Maul, though. That sucka wuz good! Shoulda had him around more. Shoulda had him kick some of his underlings' butts like Vader used to do ("NO is NOT an acceptable answer"). They should have had some of them Jedi masters doing their thing too. Shoulda let us see why they deserved to sit on them thrones.
If a film aims to take me to another world, I want it to take me there. And I want it to be great fun. When I find myself saying "Yeah. These folks actually got dressed up in all this junk and there is a dang cameraman just outta my view," then I am not in that world.
Binx and his spit slinging leader kept taking me out of the world. So did little Ani, his muppet boss and at times even his mother. Heck, the kid was like mine. If someone is gonna threaten the peace of the entire dang galaxy, then I want him to exhibit at least a little dang mystery even as a kid, and I don't want to be able to relate to him so dang much. Ever see the "Boys from Brazil"? Mercy! Those boys will scare the dickens out of anyone, Jew or Gentile. (grin) |
