neotoma: Neotoma albigula, the white-throated woodrat! [default icon] (Star Wars)
neotoma ([personal profile] neotoma) wrote2006-01-19 11:42 am
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TPM extras and rambling...

I broke down recently and bought The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones on DVD. It's been interesting, browsing through the extras -- the making-of featurettes, the promo photos, the trailers.

Does anyone else think that the TPM trailer plot would have made for a *much* better movie, what with the implication that the Jedi are going into the haul out a queen and a senator during an invasion?

What about the 'tone poems' tv spots? Am I the only one who thinks 'One Love' reads like a Kramer vs. Kramer with added spaceships? Admittedly, that would probably have been a more interesting story... but seriously, in this spot Shmi and Qui-Gon come across as a still-amiable divorced couple making hard decisions about the future of their son than a woman sending her son off into the unknown with a virtual stranger. What was the designer thinking?

'One Dream' certainly makes me wonder what happened to Anakin's dream that he would come back to Tatooine as a Jedi and liberate the slaves. Did that future die with his mother? Or was it never a precognitive dream in the first place? Given how strong Anakin is in the Force, I kind of doubt that.

'One Destiny' and 'One Truth' are interesting viewed together, as they are respectively a Jedi and a Sith. The Jedi philosophy embodied in the spot is quite different from what we were shown in the movie -- 'it will be a hard life --one without reward, without remorse, without regret' and 'but you will find out who you are' is a lot different from 'attachment is forbidden' and 'every human emotion you have ever experienced leads to the Dark Side'.

I wish we heard more of Sith philosophy over the course of the series, because very few people believe that they are Evil, Totally Evil, and take cackling delight in it (Palpatine by RotJ, is an exception, of course). I love the idea that the Sith *like* fear because they regard it as their ally -- both using it exploit and to corrupt.

'One Will' would be more interesting if more of Padme's interior life had appeared in on screen in the movie. She's brave and kick-ass, but frankly, her costuming sometimes overwhelms her.


It's really easy to see why fans write fic, and even make personal edits (The Phantom Edit, among others)... the film has *so* much potential, and you're left scratching your head over why it's so *dull*.

[identity profile] neotoma.livejournal.com 2006-01-19 06:13 pm (UTC)(link)
I think that is a lesson to all aspiring film makers. Don't piss off one of your better actors in the first movie so badly that he won't come back for the third to tie up the dangling plot threads for you.

And there are *several* good movies buried in TPM. They just can't be reconciled with each other, which is why it's such a mess.

[identity profile] rabidfangurl.livejournal.com 2006-01-19 06:36 pm (UTC)(link)
If you check the IMDb film trivia section, I swear there was a bit about Liam Neeson recording voice-overs for RotS that got cut out because the movie was too long...

(also, the uncut version of the script has said voice-overs included in the dialogue)

[identity profile] neotoma.livejournal.com 2006-01-19 06:39 pm (UTC)(link)
hat got cut out because the movie was too long...

but weren't put into the Deleted Scenes on DVD?