Re-Watching Attack of The Clones

So I'm watching this film half-heartedly because I remember how much I hated this film even after the theaters, to the surprise of people who thought it was good at the time.

I feel like a lot of the mistakes about this film are already well-established so I can't really know how to start playing script doctor for this one without being a repeater, but here are a few things I would have done.

-The death of Amidala would have had another Amidala. she has multiple handmaidens for a reason, but we no longer see them for some reason. A stronger script would utilize them. Also, it would help enhance conflict between Padme and Anakin as they tease him as Padme's wingmen.

-As previously mentioned, a lot of Season 1 should have been reiterated. Obi-Wan should have acknowledged he was instructing a hot shot kid who won a freaking pod race against adults.

-Why does no one seem to mention to Obi-Wan that he's a dick? Like, he's always been a dick from Episode 1? Even Yoda in all his infinite wisdom seems to not realize that he's encouraging all that "fear leads to anger" not because Anakin is a hotshot, but also because his master is an utterly terrible person to him who never explains why he's this way to him.

-I kind of wanted the assassin to die from a failsafe "gift" that Jango knew the changeling would be wearing, perhaps a communicator or a piece of expensive jewelry.

-This is more of a cinematography concern, but Why is the coloseum so lacking in angles? We don't get any concept of disorientation or the thrill of what is happening because the scale of everything is so roomy and slow. This might be because of the CGI? But no, the camera angels are so roomy and there's no real sense of disorientation. Even the reveal is oddly staged like you're welcoming a football team. At least the amount of droids is better emphasized here. It's like there's no real attempt to create surprise.

I feel like a lot of what Lucas did for Episode 2 seems to be just that: no element of adding surprise and I think that's why it feels so weak. Anakin discusses how much he hates sand, so he must go to Tatooine. Padme talks about how they can't get together, so she must fall in love with him. There's almost a quality to this similar to "The Room" because of it.

I hate that the wedding scene is shot with the droids getting as much screen attention as Padme and Anakin. They should be in the center and maybe the droids are in the back as sole witnesses.

-So I guess in that regard, I'd add more surprise. Have the assassin die and we are never shown a suggestion of Jango. Have Anakin not try to mack on Amidala and they just end up together because of the tension they have together. Maybe Padme would tease him about being a little boy and Anakin being Anakin would defiantly say he's not and that tension would make them realize how much they really do love each other. Don't make Dooku visible until his robe is pushed away as a red herring to Sidius until we see him talking to Sidius after he is revealed and we realize he is just another chess piece to a much bigger game. The list goes on.

-When Anakin looks for Smee, I'd consider adding more of an emotional stake for Anakin. The visions are starting to manifest to him physically even awake while on Tatooine and this just adds more urgency and anger to his quest as he keeps showing strain through the quest. When he reaches the Tusken Raider site though, I would be tempted to see if he feels nothing at all, and that is when he knows he is too late and he really snaps. I don't know how this could be best portrayed in a script, but would lend a much greater impact.

-I feel like all the Trade Federation guys do is just say stuff and do nothing else. I want them to be cowardly. I want them to be around a group of droids because they're afraid all the time or, if the droids are not there, then I want them to be cowering in a corner, I just want them to be more than voices standing around. Does that make sense? Like if they hid behind the railing of a collosseum, I would find that oddly appropriate when surrounded by an enemy they have never wanted to face directly.

-I honestly also feel like the voice work was improvised through CGI. There's a lot of "look over there!" or "I'm going to___." A lot of the cast members seem to be afraid to move around and the cameras refuse to do the work for them. The "show don't tell" vibe needs to be practiced a lot more heavily throughout this film and although I can imagine why the cast were improvising by saying these things, Lucas could have trusted himself more by using CGI or whatever else to fill in those gaps.

-While we're on the subject of dialogue, I don't feel any sense of personal sentiment out of Anakin, which is annoying because his problem is supposed to be he's passionate. "You killed a lot of jedi today, Count Dooku!" could have been "Master Glibglog, Weeny, whateverwhatever; all of them. BECAUSE OF YOU!" Even if it is all him flashing back to his mother, I would have seen why he's the way he is throughout the film.

-Use footage from Episode 1 for Anakin's dreams and splice in maybe some Smee vocals about her crying for him. Even if it comes from a momentary doze while watching over Padme would be a great way to do more show than tell. At the least, it would give a momentary recap. Maybe Lucas didn't like that because he knew he'd do some retcon updating in the future, but it would really make for a nice reminder for the rest of us.

-Yoda's defeat by Dooku could have been organized better if he found a way to use Anakin or Obi Wan as a shield. Yoda, not wanting to see any more blood shed, would have given up or tried to throw his stick at Dooku to distract him and make him lose that trump card but also given him a chance to escape. It also wouldn't screw with original canon.

In terms of items through the film I would have liked to see get a callback:

-Death sticks. Maybe one of the Trade Federation gets a death stick and smokes it because he's scared shitless at the Jedi in the colloseum, which would again emphasize not only are they cowardly, but they would sooner choose dying from drugs than an actual form of justice.

-Waddo really sees so many jedi on a backwater planet that no one wants to live on that he would not immediately recognize that it's Anakin if it's a jedi? At the least, I would have rewrote his dialogue to tell the jedi to back off he knows one of them and then makes up facetious shit about how he helped raise one of their own into an awesome pod racer and this great warrior of their caste.

-I know people hated Jar Jar, but he was still technically a part of the whole tapestry of the story and deserved the opportunity to show that he matured into the wise politician when given a chance.

-Handmaidens. I know I keep coming back to them, but they deserved to be part of that whole as well.

-Anakin's mom, because I think she deserved to be there more, even if it was as some sort of connection to him.

-Jango Fett. He seemed underutilized. And although this isn't his story, it may have been interesting if he was there in the background, checking on Obi Wan without him visibly knowing it or hiding among his clones. If there was an unnecessary scene I would consider throwing in to replace Anakin and Padme's dating scenes, it would be Jango testing one of the clones through training and Obi-Wan being there to see it. Maybe Jango is brutal to him and forces Boba to watch, leading Obi-Wan to question further if this program is not as noble as intended.

Brace yourself, I probably will have one of these entries on Episode 3 later on.

Rewatching Revenge of The Sith

Episode 3 doesn't have as much that strikes me as a bad screenplay. The camera work that struck me as lazy in episode 2 is now reduced significantly and feels more like the camera is trying to create something more confining, trying to make the audience focus better on the action and really work to see all the minor details and wonder that makes for the fascinating and mundane between the cast. Plus, little nuggets of ideas through the film are implemented later on, although so much fewer of them seem to be around.

What annoys me the most out of all of this is the endless "tell don't show" tendency the actors have. For example in that assault on the battleship in the beginning, Obi-Wan and Anakin don't seem to show any sort of panic when they aren't interacting with particular characters, and while it reflects their veteran behavior, you can see the major difference when you have Obi-Wan calmly telling R2 to fix an elevator quickly falling to their death but will inflect emotion the next minute at a jab made by Anakin. Anakin didn't need to tell us why he shouldn't do certain things or what he shouldn't do. It would even fit better into the mold of Darth Vader that he is destined to become, who is not a very talkative man and shows more emotion with one gesture of the hand than what Anakin can say in a minute.

I'm still trying to figure out what Lucas's analysis was in terms of how to portray Anakin. He seems so oddly stiff at times as though he's repressing so much, but then there's scenes where he's expressing things all over the place. Maybe he'll be angry or upset but then apologize for speaking out of line and you can't really tell the difference in his tone. It's kind of weird because his expression of lines, his inability to express himself without words, his awkward laugh... it's reminiscent of two different film heroes.



Just saying!

Having said that, the first ten minutes of the battle is amazing and I still think it holds up really well and keeps relevant to the whole story of the film itself of an end to one conflict which will lead to a new ending.

I know at this point Lucas just wanted it to be done and fill in the holes between Attack of The Clones and A New Hope, but I wish he was willing to turn episode 3 into two parts. Back then it wasn't really conventional (I think Kill Bill was called selling out for making their sequel two parts, for example), but Lucas could have gotten away with it when Episode 3 was already filling in so much of a gap.

The visions Anakin has of Padme just emphasizes to me just how appropriate it would be to have shown Anakin those visions in episode 2. Lucas really would have made something great out of it. If episode 1 even had his first words to Padme been "are you an angel? I had a dream of you up in a sky among a gathering of others, and you're guiding someone to help lead them" referring to the council and how Padme would lead to Palpatine's succession. No one would really think about it because anyone can say things like that, but the audience would fathom that Anakin's real powers are legit.

I know Obi Wan and the jedi seem to be endlessly skeptical of Palpatine and the council, but would it have been bad of them to see more about the council that made them really unsure of them? I suppose the clone program would be one of them, but the jedi don't seem to be as upset about it as you would think.

I feel like everyone in this film except Palpatine really feels silly in this film. And yes, I snicker at Palpatine all the time when he goes "GOoOOoOOoood," but his "I'm obviously evil and will monologue about it all the time" is downright satisfying with the cheesiness of this film.

I know Grievous' weak performance against Obi Wan was explained through the much-praised Clone Wars miniseries, but it really hurts that such an insane character was neutered to such a point that we couldn't be promised an amazing fight scene between the two. It kind of makes me wonder if Lucas didn't think of how the three films would really work together since he could have had Kenobi obsess with becoming better with the lightsaber after losing Qui-Gon to make sure he can protect others.

Edit: My quest to figure out Christensen's awful acting came with this reminder that Lucas basically had his actors working in space without someone to reflect emotion with. This combined with some of the worst dialogue I've seen written in awhile just mismanaged some amazing talent.

So screen doctor changes this time:

-Dialogue tightening. At the least, remove redundant dialogue and just have the actors express what they're feeling. When Anakin becomes Darth Vader, his interaction with Padme can be shown as more emotional, more raw. When they kiss, he forces it on her. When Padme asks what's wrong, he tells her not to worry.

-Adding to that, the bond between Anakin and Palpatine needs to be more than friends to "please help me save Padme." I would consider having Palpatine instead blackmail Anakin even before Windu's death, perhaps through another assassination attempt towards Padme that he concedes only he can stop (which will be appropriate when we find out that Palpatine is the one who is sending the assassins). When Anakin, now attained as his Darth Vader form, finds the assassins and kills them, his emotional instinct is what makes him unable to tell Padme apart from his very enemies. Obi Wan would come just conveniently enough for Anakin to think that this was all a plan that Obi Wan did out of hatred, or maybe even jealousy (throughout the film it could be suggested to him that way as Obi Wan uses her to find a way to reach Anakin but as what he sees to be her betrayal to him.

-Order 66 seems more like a verbal command, but wouldn't it make more sense to emphasize this was a built in program for all clones rather than an immediate betrayal? I would, so scrap the order as a compliance from the clones and instead show the command going to a radio tower and all the clones behaving like defectively before acting out. Maybe someone complains that the program has not been perfected with the clones and Palpatine kills him and tells his second to execute the program. It would also explain how the clones become so much more useless in the later films. Otherwise, Order 66 being a verbal program all clones consent to just doesn't make sense with the clone war series. For the current animated series that features what normal clones are left, they could write in that they found out about Order 66 and got the program removed/reprogrammed out of their heads.

-Break Revenge of The Sith into two parts. The first chronicles Anakin's fall into Darth Vader. There's enough there to really fit into 90 minutes. The rest of the film could be filled in with Palpatine's corruption of Anakin and twisting him and his blackmail of Padme to make sure he twists harder until Anakin truly succumbs and accepts joining the Sith. At the same time, Qui Gon appears to Yoda or Obi Wan to warn him of what is coming.

The second part would chronicle a gathering of what jedi is surviving, Order 66, and their eventual revelation of who Darth Vader is and how to stop Anakin. There could be other jedi that could have survived and their slow attempt to survive and escape death from the patrols of clone troopers. Obi Wan could be angrily telling Qui Gon to go away for making this all happen thanks to him, while Qui Gon keeps urging him to save Anakin.

Padme in the meantime would notice the increase in security (that's no longer for her security but to make sure the jedi don't touch her) and the jedi's attempt to reach her to break the news of Anakin's behavior. Some jedi die in the process, which is to be expected. It also helps the audience and Padme see that Anakin is no longer the same person she remembers as she realizes Anakin's personality has either been completely fractured or he is trying to hide his real corruption through a fastly-crumbling facade.

In the end, Obi Wan and Anakin duel, and when the duel happens, it's through Qui Gon that Obi Wan finds himself and defeats Anakin and its Qui Gon who apologizes for never being there for him when he needed him the most, but then Obi Wan insists he can not be saved. Qui Gon would finally agree in the end, adding "Not yet." But even then, Qui Gon will stay there and watch him as he writhes in pain and Obi Wan leaves. As Anakin starts to lose consciousness, he sees Qui Gon and that is what finally curbs his rage and makes him come to his senses just enough to find himself again.

Edit: Someone else also pointed out to me that it could have been just as valid to make the second half about jedi trying to figure out how to fight this "Darth Vader" that suddenly appeared. I like how it would retain the impact of Episode 5 if that approach would come, although I don't know how to make it fit with the current material that was established for the third episode.

Anyway, I'm done with this. If anything sticks out for me with the original trilogy, I might make a point to post about it, but a lot of what I'm seeing is from an amateur filmwriter's perspective anyway.

(no subject)

Michelle's going up the timeline ladder for Star Wars, so went to Rogue One. I can't really criticize that one, there's not much in there to be frustrated at and any nitpicking I'd make with it are exceptionally minor and from someone who acknowledges that what's already there is pretty solid. It also follows a lot of the traditions of conventional filmmaking: the refusing of destiny, the ten minute establishment, Cassian "saving the cat," the changing of the mission, and the lowest point of the story followed by how they succeed it, etc. I know this all sounds formulaic and how much Hollywood is being Hollywood, but I would do the same technical readout for most lit theory pieces I would look at just to study why something works versus not.

Also, god, the angles. I am so glad that film has advanced so much when it came to the use of CGI and making its actors integrate with it.


Now that we've gone this far, I guess this means I can take a break to talk about what's happened to me in real life. Well, let me say that I've been contributing to the economy some more. My mouse's click button has been acting up and Michelle got her Mac rig set up and needs a mouse, so we both resolved to get a new mouse. I found a sale on a Steelseries 700; the freaking thing is gorgeous; programmable LEDs all over and it has a screen on the side that can play gifs. It's so unnecessary and yet that's what adds to the greatness of this blinged-out machine.

I feel like such a spendthrift this month, ugh.

Set up two packages to be sent out tomorrow. Going to be really busy in the office for the next two days, from what I can tell. I'll also be out on Wednesday, so there's that.

We spent today cheese hunting for another component for gifts: cheese! grass-fed cheddar cheese that has this really skunky flavor when it's sharp. Its pungency is unlike anything I've tried. The lady there recognized us when we were there. I think we go there a lot, which still surprises me since this is a two hour drive for us just to get it (but so worth it, plus I like getting the trim because it feels more like we put effort into finding these damn places).

Michelle thinks we should keep an open eye for any additional interesting things to give her friends aside from these things and I'm inclined to agree.

I also realized I may have gotten Michelle too many things for Christmas. I'm going to be an awful dad.

Okay, finishing up this post so I can go watch the rest of Rogue One and appreciate it more immaculately.