All Things Star Wars

I want the story to *relate* to the main character in some way from the start, or, failing that, from very early in the film.

Episode IV is a good example of very early. Luke isn't on or mentioned early in the first few scenes ; but he walks into the story very early in after what is essentially a brief prologue that ultimately establish how the droids came to be on Tatooine.

Ep I attempts to do the same, but it's bogged down with far too many elements that don't serve to set up the story at all: if the point is to show how Amidala and the Jedi came to be on Tatooine, then what you need to show is
1)The Trade Federation attacking Naboo
2)The Queen and her party escaping
3)Damage forcing them to Tatooine.

That's it. That's what you need to understand where that party is coming from and how they come to erupt in Anakin's life.

What you don't need include :
1)Nearly everything Gungan (if you still want He Who Issa Very Bad, you can throw him in with a single scene)
2)Every last second of the submarine chase idiocy
3)The Jedi's embassy to the TF spaceship.

Then you have a working brief prologue that set the stage for Anakin's introduction.

IF, on the other hand, you want to have half the film *about Anakin* happens before they meet Anakin, then you need to make that first half relevant to Anakin (or the notion of the chosen one) in some way.

Building off Oda and warpus, Ep.I may be cursorily similar to Ep.IV, but the biggest difference for me is that I never felt 'embedded' with any of the characters. In the Original Trilogy I knew their motivations both plot-wise and psychologically, and thereby I felt I was in there with them; I was immersed. In Ep.I, though, partly due to the poor script and partly due to too many incidental subplots, I never got a feel for individual characters beyond their basic role in the plot, and thus I never felt emotionally invested in any of them, only assuming the Jedi were the leads because the film is shown mainly from their point of view. It may have been billed as Anakin's origin story, but within the film itself he comes across as a side character at best.

Speaking of subplots and Traditional Narrative Frames, I think I've figured out one of the reasons the Prequels feel so tedious. ANH basically revolves around a single common goal (destroying/protecting the Death Star) with Luke's coming-of-Force technically a subplot thereof, and everything traces a direct relational line to this main thread. (Admittedly this weakens in the later films, but by then Luke's Journey has taken over as the binding theme.) In Ep.I, though, outside of Theed and the Galactic Senate, the side plots are incidental: they detour to Tatooine by accident; Qui-Gonn discovers Anakin by accident; Annie blows up the control ship by accident. Assuming we aren't subscribing to the Darth Darth Binks theory, there's very little that ties these subplots to the main story (Invasion of Naboo) beyond fortuitous Dickensian coincidence. Watching the Prequels (at least until Revenge of the Sith when character-driven story becomes a thing again), I feel like a neutral observer watching different social spheres bump into each other, not a film with a unified purpose. AotC is even more scatterbrained in this regard, and Anakin's alleged character development lacks the spiritual intimacy we see on Dagobah.

Lohrenswald said:

I didn't know people not liking politic talk in episode 1-3 was as thing.

What is people's beef with it?

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Probably nothing in of itself, just how shoddily it was written (like everything else). In retrospect the Prequels could've made a nifty political thriller, given it took me a second watch of Ep.I to realize Sidious's master strategy. Darths & Droids did a masterful reimagining of Anakin as the Machiavellian schemer and Palpatine as his unwitting pawn.

A photographer who is also a Star Wars fan and a former U.S. Marine has produced a fun series of photos, using Clone Trooper action figures to illustrate his and other veterans' experiences in real war zones. Photo titles, quotes and captions were written by the photographer.

No spoilers here, I just used the tags because the photos are a little large.

Why??

Why what?

There's a Pythonish quality to the hand with the coffee cup coming out of Kylo Ren's mouth.

Why on earth would someone go to the effort of animating that, especially if they're going to be bizarre and throw in Darth Coffee as well?

if this crashes there will be no apologists like the ones for Lucas and the franchise will die and there will be lots of executives in Hollywood about that .

It won't crash in the slightest. It might be critically mauled, but it will still make tens or hundreds of millions (probably).

there is always a "first" for everything . Not saying it will crash , but if it does there will be a lot of cheers ... That's the why , merely taking a position and stuff . Though one could up with a yub yub of the Ewoks , who utterly failed to sink the franchise .

I cannot crash. By now it is impossible. If it is exceptionally terrible, the next movie might crash. But it is too late for this one to.

the 4.5 Billion or so the Disney paid might be a lot of money but it's not that big an amount . George Lucas rebelled at the Studios of his time ; he might have become a Studio himself now but there's still the odd chance that Episode VII might kill it if there's a will . Not saying it will , but ... This one grossing hundreds of millions , a billion or two even does not matter . (Seems we are about the meaning of what constitutes a crash .)

Gah! How do I avoid spoilers on the internet after it comes out?

Of course you can't. The only solution is to be there for the first session.

Mouthwash said:

Gah! How do I avoid spoilers on the internet after it comes out?

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Yeah, good luck with that.

I find your lack of aid disturbing.

save all the mags you end up having ... until you have seen the movie . Kylo whatever it is name intends to match something the Palpatine did and ı hate that ı had the misfortune of checking pictures ...

That's hardly a spoiler in Star Wars - evil Force-user attempts to pull off even more evil scheme: good guys rally round.

Truly. The "No, I'm your father" was pre-internet; but I heard about it weeks before I saw the film...