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Plot |
Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) track Darth Maul (Ray Park) a Sith lord to the planet Naboo. They travel with a small boy who is extremely strong in the Force. Qui-Gon wants to train this boy, but first they must stop this dark force user. Kenobi and his master fight Darth Maul together at first only they get separated and Kenobi is forced to watch his master be struck down from a distance. When it comes time for Kenobi to duel Darth Maul it appears that they are evenly matched until Darth Maul gets the upper hand and pushes Kenobi down an open shaft. Inside the shaft Kenobi is able to hang on to something, but he is weaponless. Darth Maul has tossed his lightsaber down the shaft after him. Darth Maul seems determined to end this encounter only Kenobi is not entirely defeated. He can still sense his fallen master lightsaber nearby and uses the force to grab it as he springs over his opponent and slices him in half. Stopping this Dark Jedi earns Kenobi high praise and the rank of Jedi Knight. He uses this goodwill to train the boy that his master was planning to. For ten years Kenobi trains him and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) becomes a trusted and dedicated pupil. Their next assignment is to protect Padme (Natalie Portman), an old friend, who is now a senator. In order to protect Padme the Jedi Council directs Anakin to take her to Naboo, her home planet. Away from the prying eyes of Kenobi and the Jedi Council they become more than just friends and this is taboo for a Jedi because a Jedi is not allowed to have any attachments. Meanwhile Kenobi is in search of people who have been targeting Padme. The next night Anakin has a dream warming that his mother is in danger so he takes Padme with him and rushes off to save his mother, but he is too late and his mother dies in his arms. Overcome with rage he lashes out and kills the entire tribe of sand-people that she was found with. Anakin speaks nothing of it and returns to Padme with his mother’s body. Later Kenobi connects Anakin with troubles of his own. He has found the people responsible and he has been discovered. Anakin sends word to the Jedi Council and then rushes off to save his master with Padme in tow. This tack is short and both he and Padme are captured and sent off to be executed. It is at this moment that Padme expresses her undying love for Anakin and Anakin reciprocates it. Before their enemies have a chance to kill them the love birds first meet up with Kenobi who is there to be executed too. They all try to escape, but it takes the help of the Jedi to free them and then it takes the aid of the Republic Army to save them. Afterward on Naboo in secret Anakin and Padme get married. Three years later after fighting aboard Anakin meets out with Padme and she tells him that she is pregnant. He is happy about the news until he has another ominous dream, this time about Padme dying in childbirth. Anakin is determined to not let this happen and the only one willing to come to his aid is his friend Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) who he soon learns is the Sith Lord that the Jedi Council have been looking for the whole time. Now he must decide if his wife and unborn child are more important than the wellbeing of galaxy and the survival of the Jedi Order. |
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Character Development |
Much of the story is more focused now around Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen). There are less distractions and the camera moves mostly on him and his relationship with Padme (Natalie Portman). Where once there were insane antics of some comedy rejects there is now a path to a new possible vision using the source material provided by George Lucas. Key battle scenes and lightsaber duels have been removed, but if you try to make yourself believe that they never existed in the first place you can think yourself past their absence. It is only fitting that so much was removed in this movie, because George Lucas himself decided to leave so much out of the Star Wars prequels thinking that he go back to it in his video games, TV shows, comic books and novels. It was never in the cards that he was going to tell one coherent saga anyway. Unlike Disney that tries to make the best possible movie imaginable and then afterwards attempts to lore you back to their merchandise and theme parks, Lucas on the other hand leaves things unsaid and unexplored hoping that you will come to him so he will explain them to you for a price, like some demented drug dealer. His prequels were never intended to be self-contained films that could survive on their own. Much of the prequels were meant to be launching platforms. Every character is systematically trademarked and every plot hole is explained at some future point inside the Lucas Empire. The three year gaps in-between movies wasn’t enough for Lucas. He needed to find ways to make money inside the cracks that he purposely left in the films themselves. He didn’t care if it left imperfections. |
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Acting |
I am sure that all the actors did the best they could do with the dialog that they were given. Gladly some characters were minimized and others were completely removed for this re-imagining of the Star Wars prequels. All three of the prequels are condensed into one movie here. |
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Overview |
This movie illustrates what pretty much all lovers of Star Wars believe about George Lucas’s Star Wars Prequels – there is no end in sight of all the trouble they have caused with the mythos that underlines every Star Wars story. You don’t take something that is magical and spiritual like the Force and introduce science to it. That is rewriting history and that is something that you do not do. It was bad enough when Lucas reached back in time and made Greedo shoot Han Solo first. Lucas has proven as if proof was really needed that he has not been a good steward to the Star Wars Legacy. He should have had only an advisor status regarding the prequels and left the storytelling and directing to someone who could handle it. Lucas’s company has already introduced the public to a long line of authors that could have told any number of better stories with half their brains tied behind their back. I am reminded of watching the credits of Beauty and the Beast (1991) and seeing nearly a dozen writing credits. From my standpoint it would seem that Lucas wanted to be seen as the sole architect when in reality he depends on everyone else dearly to do their jobs and it was only hubris when Lucas decided not to ask for some help when he had been out of the game for a long time. |
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