I'm probably gonna get cut down for this but here goes. The digital effects work lacked polish. The post-production was just too rough for a license of this stature. The CG was good though. I just feel it looks as if it was rushed out a little too soon. The script was OK, IMO, but not outstanding or anything. As people have said, some of the jokes just weren't funny. George must be finding it difficult to get the old style of 3POs balance of comic relief back. On the plus side, I did like how Anakin was portrayed. How he differs from the other young Jedi in that he has the baggage of growing up outside the order for a while to contend with. How his turning is being shown as the natural reaction to tragadies that are befalling him, as the anger and frustration are building. Therefore, there is always a good in him, and it doesn't just pop up in Jedi.
If I had to choose, lets look at the raw data: 1) The dark side is more powerful than the light side 2) The light side makes you hide your feelings 3) The dark side lets you embrace your feelings of hatred, instead of burying them, and subsequently, you get more powerful 4) The dark side allows you to love someone which would you choose?
Define Lacking polish? IMHO the digital work was on par with any other CGI loaded film to date. As for C3PO's "comedy", well that was painfully false. It was his naivety that made him funny in episodes 3 through 6. In this episode he was trying to be the Jackie Mason of droids...not good. Overall though the film was definitely a hit. How many of you can honestly say you walked out of the screen without thinking, that was cool, I could watch it again?
Like I said, the CG was good. It just fell down in post. To be quite honest, I've seen work on par with that in some of the better TV movies.
Ok, What do you mean by "fell down in post"? I am not being funny but don't really understand what you mean... I am off to see it this weekend again and next weekend for the third time (keeping promises to various friends to go with them), so I'll keep an eye out. I am pretty much a movie affecionado and own over 200 DVDs and 90 LDs so I'm not a beginner in the movie world, but I'm always open to learning experiences. Give me something to compare it to!!!!
WARNING! big post. OK, soz. Was probably being a bit too hardcore techie, cos this is what I do and I've been at it for what seems like nonstop for the past few weeks. By post, I mean post-production, the final stage of visual compositing. Once the CG/sfx is done it has to be composited with the live action footage. Typically, any single shot in a film like (ep. 1 / 2) Star Wars can be made up of dozens of layers of composited shots. (scenes in Final Fantasy were typically made up of up to 200 layers!!). In a company like ILM, they'll have departments dedicated to doing post alone. It really is an art. If something isn't done right in post, you really do see it a mile away, and it just wrecks everybodies work. I'm sure you know what I mean, when something just looks 'pasted on' and badly stands out. Now in ATOC, it's not instantly obvious, so most people wont pick up on it (like a lot of people wont pick up on the CG clone troopers, especially on mid to close up shots). But the fact is, I can, and so can other people who work in this area that I've spoken to. When working on pieces of this ilk, we always use the motto 'the work that stands out best, is the work you cannot see' or something similar. Honestly, you'd be surprised at the staggering amount of work that goes into producing the CG in something like ATOC. So it's just a real shame to see it fall down at (one of) the last hurdle, in post. I wanted the film to be all that and a bag of crisps, but it's not. In many ways, it's a damn good film. But not what it could have been. George has one more chance to get it right, and I hope he suceeds. If you want an example, one that springs to mind is when Padme/Amidala and Anakin go through a door in the droid factory. (just before the they fall from the receeding bridge) Look at the area around their feet and you can see a crisp outline where they meet the backing plate. There are many more. Just look for when you can see crisp edges on characters against a background. This is a rookie mistake, which should never be seen, and I really expected better.
Looks great!!! I thought the last 40 min of the movie was excellent. The Yoda battle scene was Great, (Movie Spoiler) I just wished Yoda would've fought a bit longer.
i liked the fact that natalie portman was wearing a semi see thru and tight top for most of the end of the move
Dont you mean Natalie Portman ? I saw Ep 2 monday and still cant make my mind up about it. The action scenes were great (how many lightsabers !!?!?), but it just felt like they were trying to cram in too many semi-important things, to make Eps 4,5 & 6 make sense. An example of this I think would be near the end where you see the plans for the "ultimate weapon" - I mean were the hell did that come from all of a sudden !
doh! very true... me is getting very confused with lord of the rings *stupid* purple/lilac light sabre 0wns the others
So whats the deal with episodes 7, 8, 9 is that just a wild rumour conjured up in the minds of the fans or is there any truth behind it?
Well if the leader of the dark side imposed dictatorship like ways, and was the cause of death of millions of innocent people (blowing up Alderaan)...i dunno I like living..and i like my freedom
i was on the out side sets on filming i was swarn to sercetsy by the producers but i got a **** load of signatures and ****
If you want more Star Wars than just the movies, try reading the extended universe books. Which in the timeline start right after RotJ and extend to 21 years after RotJ.
I personally thought it was an excellent film, MUCH better than EP1. EP2 was obviously aimed a bit more at the fans, as it had a slightly more complicated and engrossing film line. the CGI looked solid, and i was VERY impressed by Yoda's model, as i did not even notice he was CGI for the whole thing The big scenes were worked very well, and the large battles were great I loved the way the film gave hints as to what will go on in EP3: [removed spoilers for EP3] Hate to be a spoilsport (pun not intended), but not ideal for those who don't want to know... Fly Also, did you notice at the end when Anakin had a gold hand? all very well done Ben
I finally got around to seeing it a couple of weeks ago... it was a Star wars film... no doubt about that... but then again... it was also sorta crap... the computer animated scenes with legions of clones and all that really got on my nerves. in the REAL star wars movies it was like 2 super guru's of the force, fighting together and it was like some sort of psychological battle:"your powers are weak old man!" or "luke; i am your father"... or "your overconfidence isa your weakness"..."your faith in your friends is yours!" and it was always a nice little duel. but in episode two... they're throwing stuff at each other using the force... and they're doing some fooking backflips and zapping each-other.... i mean come on!!! and what ****es me off even more is that chase in the beginning... like falling from the sky and all... it all seemed a little bit extreme! Then there's the awful love story... like if it were a real star wars movie they'd be saying something like "maybe you'd like it better in your cell... your highness"... not all that "bold and the beautiful" -style emotional crap like "my heart aches every day for you" the first hour or so; i nearly fell asleep! it wasn't all that bad... but far poorer quality than episode 4,5,or 6... at least in my opinion... i'm not saying i could have made it any better... just that i would have expected more from george lucas. Though i do also sorta see why he didn't make it like a traditional star wars movie... and that's because people would complain that he's just recycling old ideas.
what's wrong with legions of clones? It's a war, m8. That's what EpII was always supposed to be. What's wrong with back flips and force throw? It's the Jedi at their peak, m8. That's what it was always supposed to be.
yeah but i really did miss the classic battles with han solo, skywalker, and r2d2 against the empire... those classic "no chance whatsoever" situations for example :"but sir... the chances of successfully navigating an asteroid field are approximately 7823 to 1"... "never tell me the odds!"
