Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999) - Worth the Rewatch?

<v Speaker 1>I will state from the beginning that I am the
<v Speaker 1>least Star Wars obsessed of all of the members of
<v Speaker 1>this firm.
<v Speaker 2>You've been yelling aloud us so far, well.
<v Speaker 1>Because because I appreciate the ability to write and direct
<v Speaker 1>and make good movies, and I get frustrated when people
<v Speaker 1>who should know what they're doing do it.
<v Speaker 3>That me too, Amen, Brother Jason, He's the least obsessed,
<v Speaker 3>the most passionate.
<v Speaker 1>That could be. That may turn out to be completely true. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>so let's begin. Let's take it off. Yeah, we're actually
<v Speaker 1>going to start now, all right, all right, here we go.
<v Speaker 1>Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Surely You Can't
<v Speaker 1>Be Serious Podcast. I am here with my all time
<v Speaker 1>I'm co host mister Jason Colvin. Jason, I you doing,
<v Speaker 1>I'm good. D Hey you do me. I'm doing great,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm so happy to be joined by three awesome guests.
<v Speaker 1>We have Jeff Johnson from the A Film By podcast.
<v Speaker 1>We have Dayton Johnson no relation Bye from the Docking
<v Speaker 1>Base seventy seven podcast. And we have mister Deaf Dave
<v Speaker 1>David Wright from the Apples and Oranges podcast. Welcome, gentlemen,
<v Speaker 1>Thank you guys for joining us.
<v Speaker 4>That's a great drilled to be here.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you for having me.
<v Speaker 5>Always a pleasure.
<v Speaker 6>This is where the fun begins. And I just want
<v Speaker 6>to point out I'm the only one wearing a Star
<v Speaker 6>Wars T shirt.
<v Speaker 1>I'm just saying for this particular episode, there might be
<v Speaker 1>a reason for that, is if you are just joining
<v Speaker 1>us for the first time. We cover movies that typically
<v Speaker 1>Jason and I pick what we call winners. We compare
<v Speaker 1>one winner to another winner to decide who is the
<v Speaker 1>biggest winner. In this particular episode, however, we're comparing a
<v Speaker 1>couple of movies. We're comparing Star Trek the motion picture,
<v Speaker 1>which came out in nineteen seventy nine, two Star Wars
<v Speaker 1>Phantom Menace, which came out in nineteen ninety nine. And
<v Speaker 1>they are movies that in their own realm, in their
<v Speaker 1>own genre, are somewhat hated upon, ridiculed, dismissed other things
<v Speaker 1>by the fan elite of those particular storylines. Okay, And
<v Speaker 1>so what we're doing is saying, are these movies worth
<v Speaker 1>the revisit? Sometimes Jason and I do a what the
<v Speaker 1>heck happened? For movies like Jaws three and Beverly Hills
<v Speaker 1>Cop three where we can all agree that these are
<v Speaker 1>dismal movies and they're not worth revisiting. But in this scenario,
<v Speaker 1>we're asking the question, Hey, we know you hated it
<v Speaker 1>when you saw it the first time, but now that
<v Speaker 1>it's been twenty or forty years ago, should you go
<v Speaker 1>back and check it out? Right, we just got done
<v Speaker 1>with this the episode for Star Trek the Motion Picture
<v Speaker 1>and made our decisions about that one. We will have
<v Speaker 1>our final judgment at the end of this one as
<v Speaker 1>to whether Star Trek the Motion Picture is worth revisiting.
<v Speaker 1>And the movie that we're here to talk about today,
<v Speaker 1>Star Wars the Phantom Menace. That I say Star Wars
<v Speaker 1>the first time. To mess that up, it I got
<v Speaker 1>so hard because not only is it Star Wars a
<v Speaker 1>Star Trek, but you've got TMP and TPM and it's
<v Speaker 1>all very confusing. But anyway, I'm sure I'll get that
<v Speaker 1>wrong as we go along. But before we get there,
<v Speaker 1>just real quick, Jeff Dave Dayton, in that order, tell
<v Speaker 1>us about your podcast real quick for the guys who
<v Speaker 1>are listening for the first time, so that they can
<v Speaker 1>know where to check you out and what you guys
<v Speaker 1>are all about.
<v Speaker 3>Thank you The The Film By Podcast is coming to
<v Speaker 3>you every Tuesday, Friday.
<v Speaker 5>And sometimes Wednesdays.
<v Speaker 3>We love to talk about directors, typically underrated films on Tuesdays.
<v Speaker 3>On Wednesdays we have our Star Trek themed series Phasers
<v Speaker 3>Set to Stun.
<v Speaker 5>And on Fridays we.
<v Speaker 3>Do Flashback Fridays where we are celebrating the forty fifth
<v Speaker 3>anniversaries of movies. This year we're doing nineteen seventy nine,
<v Speaker 3>of course, and we also like to do a little
<v Speaker 3>series called nineteen ninety six where we're looking at some
<v Speaker 3>of our favorite films from nineteen ninety six and having
<v Speaker 3>a good conversation about those.
<v Speaker 5>So you can check us out. We're streaming everywhere.
<v Speaker 3>You can go to a Film by podcast dot com
<v Speaker 3>to get the entire library.
<v Speaker 4>Very good, all right, excuse me, very good? All right,
<v Speaker 4>So thanks for giving me a chance to speak about this.
<v Speaker 4>Apples and Oranges Podcast is a podcast that I do
<v Speaker 4>with my eighteen year old son and we're having a
<v Speaker 4>great time with it. It is actually a comparison of
<v Speaker 4>the discographies of the Beatles and the Beach Boys as
<v Speaker 4>we step through the decade of the nineteen sixties. And
<v Speaker 4>one thing I'm pointing out with over the course of
<v Speaker 4>the series is how the bands kind of ran parallel
<v Speaker 4>to each other throughout the decade. How they started out
<v Speaker 4>with kind of these simple record rock songs, they stepped
<v Speaker 4>up their production and their artistic ambition, and then they
<v Speaker 4>also scaled back toward the end of the decade. And
<v Speaker 4>we're having a lot of fun that we're gonna take
<v Speaker 4>it through the nineteen seventy and then shut the show down.
<v Speaker 4>But just as we're recording this, most recent episode was
<v Speaker 4>our Smile episode. So if you're familiar with the discographies,
<v Speaker 4>they had kind of a bell curve where they peaked
<v Speaker 4>in the middle of the decade. We just went through
<v Speaker 4>all of those. We had today versus Rubber Soul, Pet
<v Speaker 4>Sounds versus Revolver, Sergeant Pepper versus Smile. All those episodes
<v Speaker 4>are available now if I've got this right. The episode
<v Speaker 4>that will come out tomorrow is our Magical Misterytour episode,
<v Speaker 4>so you can be sure to look for that. We
<v Speaker 4>release every single Wednesday, and it's just a lot of fun.
<v Speaker 4>Pitt I totally stole the format from Surely can't be serious.
<v Speaker 4>We put these albums against each other in one v
<v Speaker 4>one matchups, and we go through a track by track
<v Speaker 4>and then at the end of the matchup, we give
<v Speaker 4>our final judgments on which band won that particular matchup. So, So,
<v Speaker 4>I'm a Beach Boys fanatic. I'm deep catalog guy. I
<v Speaker 4>know all their stuff. But at the same time, this
<v Speaker 4>series is chronicling my own journey through the Beatles albums,
<v Speaker 4>their album discography, which is not something I was totally
<v Speaker 4>familiar with. So I'm having a whole lot of fun
<v Speaker 4>with that. I'm learning about a whole bunch of stuff
<v Speaker 4>and discovering a whole bunch of new songs for me. So,
<v Speaker 4>and it is something that my son and I are
<v Speaker 4>doing together, and it was kind of his idea to
<v Speaker 4>really push forward to make it happen. So we're having
<v Speaker 4>a good time with it. And it's available on all
<v Speaker 4>your streaming platforms Spotify, Apple Podcasts. You can look forward there.
<v Speaker 4>If you go to link tree slash deaf Dave, you'll
<v Speaker 4>find all my links.
<v Speaker 6>So the Document seventy seven podcast, Yes, the name was
<v Speaker 6>inspired by Star Wars. We talk about a lot of
<v Speaker 6>different things, mostly pop culture references, stuff like books, movies, music.
<v Speaker 6>We cover a lot of albums seventies, eighties, and nineties,
<v Speaker 6>but the biggest selling point I think is the fact
<v Speaker 6>that we have multiple guests on, so a lot of
<v Speaker 6>different voices from a lot of different backgrounds. So I'd
<v Speaker 6>been telling people, you know, come for the topics, but
<v Speaker 6>stay for the great discussion. A lot of it's inspired,
<v Speaker 6>some of it's energetic. I use that when we start
<v Speaker 6>to kind of argue a little bit too much. But
<v Speaker 6>all on, we have a lot of fun and we've
<v Speaker 6>covered everything from Anthrax and you know, we did Public Enemy.
<v Speaker 6>Dave was actually on that episode. We did an episode
<v Speaker 6>on the Public Enemy. We've done Who Framed Roger Rabbit
<v Speaker 6>with you, Jason and d So we had a lot
<v Speaker 6>of different things. We had a sci Fi Month where
<v Speaker 6>we covered a bunch of sci fi movies over the decade,
<v Speaker 6>to a Forbidden Planet from nineteen fifty eight, which actually
<v Speaker 6>turned out to be a very popular episode. So we
<v Speaker 6>had a lot of beats and we have a lot
<v Speaker 6>of fun, and yeah, we are streaming free everywhere and
<v Speaker 6>on socials at Docum based seventy seven.
<v Speaker 7>Dave sounds like you got a garage band.
<v Speaker 5>You got music playing someone.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, So my eighteen year old son is a rock
<v Speaker 4>musician and his whole band is here right now, so
<v Speaker 4>you're probably gonna hear they're probably banging away on some
<v Speaker 4>chili peppers right now. It's not exactly Ma's Rebo execs.
<v Speaker 4>I think the canteen is scene all right.
<v Speaker 2>Before we get started, let's let's just talk briefly about
<v Speaker 2>when you guys saw Fanimis for the first time. You
<v Speaker 2>know what your experiences with Star Wars, and you know
<v Speaker 2>just kind of what your general thoughts were when you
<v Speaker 2>left the theater.
<v Speaker 7>Jeff, why don't you start us off?
<v Speaker 3>A huge fan, I saw one of the first show,
<v Speaker 3>the Midnight Show when theaters used to do those. I
<v Speaker 3>had stood in a line with several hundred people outside
<v Speaker 3>of a movie theater, me and David Burns. That was
<v Speaker 3>a great experience. I've talked about that before a couple
<v Speaker 3>of times.
<v Speaker 5>We you know, the news is there.
<v Speaker 3>We're we're clearly not prepared, and you know, we're just
<v Speaker 3>getting we're getting destroyed by the heat. We didn't bring food,
<v Speaker 3>no water, and here comes the here comes the news reporter,
<v Speaker 3>and you know, I'm all excited to talk about Star Wars.
<v Speaker 3>And her question is you tube have been out here
<v Speaker 3>for hours and the temperatures are triple digits. Why aren't
<v Speaker 3>you better prepared? And like an idiot, I just responded,
<v Speaker 3>I love Star Wars and that's it. So, but I
<v Speaker 3>felt it was gonna be worth it. Two days later
<v Speaker 3>when we did go to the midnight show, I did
<v Speaker 3>not feel it was worth it.
<v Speaker 5>I was very confused and let down.
<v Speaker 4>Anybody got, oh, so my petom menace experience, Okay, I'm pure.
<v Speaker 4>You know generation Star Wars. I saw the very first
<v Speaker 4>one in the theaters in probably nineteen seventy eight or
<v Speaker 4>so on a rerelease. I was nine years old, between
<v Speaker 4>third and fourth grade. When Empire Strikes Back came out.
<v Speaker 4>I saw that a dozen times that summer. I was
<v Speaker 4>there opening up with my dad, Return of the Jedi.
<v Speaker 4>It was it was just exciting times. I was. I
<v Speaker 4>lived with the toys. I mean, I was that kid, right,
<v Speaker 4>that was my sweet spot for my childhood. And I
<v Speaker 4>get to college and everybody there's my age and they
<v Speaker 4>all had the same experience, and we were all Star
<v Speaker 4>Wars fans. And we were in school there when the
<v Speaker 4>Timothy's On novels came out and that was like a
<v Speaker 4>huge deal, right because the property had been dead for
<v Speaker 4>several years, and we were all excited about that. We
<v Speaker 4>were always geeking out on Star Wars, and we made
<v Speaker 4>a solemn pact in college there in our dorm room
<v Speaker 4>at the University of Georgia, nineteen ninety one, We're like,
<v Speaker 4>if they ever do more movies, no matter where we are,
<v Speaker 4>no matter what we got going on in life, the
<v Speaker 4>three of us are gonna come together again, and we're
<v Speaker 4>gonna go see that movie together. Nineteen ninety nine. I'm
<v Speaker 4>in Birmingham, Alabama. A buddy of mine is in the Athens,
<v Speaker 4>Georgia area. The third one of our group was in Dallas, Texas.
<v Speaker 4>We did it. They both flew in and they came
<v Speaker 4>to Birmingham and we got together nineteen ninety nine and
<v Speaker 4>went to go see Phantom Menace together and made good
<v Speaker 4>on the vow that we've made in college in nineteen
<v Speaker 4>ninety one. And let me tell you, that was the
<v Speaker 4>highlight of the evening. We had a blast. We loved it.
<v Speaker 4>But we went back the next day to see it.
<v Speaker 4>We were all like, we were caught up in the excitement,
<v Speaker 4>in the nostalgia and seeing each other and all that stuff.
<v Speaker 4>And it was on the second viewing the very next
<v Speaker 4>day that we were like, oh, you know what this is. Uh,
<v Speaker 4>this has got some problems. I had developed my own
<v Speaker 4>coping mechanism already by that second viewing on day two.
<v Speaker 4>You know, I have an inside pro tip for people.
<v Speaker 4>Just don't look directly at Jarjar at any point, you know,
<v Speaker 4>just don't look at them on the screen, and it's
<v Speaker 4>a lot easier to get through it.
<v Speaker 7>All right, Daden, how about you?
<v Speaker 1>So?
<v Speaker 6>I like to tell people I am old enough to
<v Speaker 6>have seen every single Star Wars film in the theater
<v Speaker 6>because that's me. And at first I saw in seventy
<v Speaker 6>seven for my birthday, and so when this was coming out,
<v Speaker 6>I was super jazzed, you know, I was looking forward
<v Speaker 6>to it. I watched all the stuff they put on MTV.
<v Speaker 6>I watched all the commercials and YadA YadA, Yadh even
<v Speaker 6>had the stap droid toy that was released early.
<v Speaker 1>I got that, so I was all in.
<v Speaker 6>Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get tickets for the midnight showing,
<v Speaker 6>so we went to like the two Am so which
<v Speaker 6>was a weird experience because you're coming out the song
<v Speaker 6>was starting to come up, so that was kind.
<v Speaker 1>Of weird, and.
<v Speaker 6>I had a lot of mixed emotion. When the movie
<v Speaker 6>was over, and even from the very first utterance of dialogue,
<v Speaker 6>I was like, oh no, oh no, And so I
<v Speaker 6>walked out going I'm not sure what I saw. I
<v Speaker 6>wasn't mad, but I also wasn't sure. I did go
<v Speaker 6>see it two more times that summer, and there's things
<v Speaker 6>I really like and there's things I really really don't see.
<v Speaker 1>Why don't you go first? All right?
<v Speaker 2>So I saw the midnight screening in Oklahoma City with
<v Speaker 2>my buddy Roman. We had a guy on the inside
<v Speaker 2>at the movie theater. We were friends with this guy
<v Speaker 2>who worked at the theater. He was able to get
<v Speaker 2>us tickets and we felt like we had scored big time.
<v Speaker 2>And I don't know if you guys remember this. The
<v Speaker 2>trailer that had come out preceding the movie. I still
<v Speaker 2>believe is the greatest movie trailer of all time because
<v Speaker 2>what I saw in that trailer made Phantom Menace look
<v Speaker 2>like the greatest thing I could imagine it. And it
<v Speaker 2>took three hours to download that trailer because that was
<v Speaker 2>back in the early days of the internet. So we
<v Speaker 2>went we saw the midnight screening. I actually got teary
<v Speaker 2>eyed when a long time ago in a galaxy far
<v Speaker 2>far away came up. I was wiping tears. I was
<v Speaker 2>so excited. Then I got punched in the balls for
<v Speaker 2>the next couple hours. Now, there are things that I like,
<v Speaker 2>but overall, I had a sour experience, Dee.
<v Speaker 1>I said a bit earlier before we really started going here,
<v Speaker 1>that I am the lowest ranking fanboy in our group
<v Speaker 1>meeting today, right Orlando, I'm I mean, I feel like
<v Speaker 1>an old man because I'm like, I'm less than two
<v Speaker 1>years away from fifty. But the fact is is that
<v Speaker 1>I the first movie of the Star Wars trilogy that
<v Speaker 1>I remember seeing in the theater was returned to the Jedi.
<v Speaker 1>So Star Wars was in my consciousness and I had
<v Speaker 1>Star Wars sheets, but I was never an obsessed.
<v Speaker 4>See.
<v Speaker 1>I wasn't taken aback when he said no, I'm your father, Like,
<v Speaker 1>I don't remember that experience. That was too young. I
<v Speaker 1>was too young for that. And so I liked Star Wars.
<v Speaker 1>It's a good trilogy, and I was excited when the
<v Speaker 1>new movies were coming out. I remember in Tulsa. I
<v Speaker 1>was in Tulsa after Jason had left. Weird coincidence, That's
<v Speaker 1>where I saw the re releases of the first of
<v Speaker 1>the First you know, the New Hope Empire and Return
<v Speaker 1>to the Jedi, and I was I had mixed emotions
<v Speaker 1>about what they added to those things. So I don't
<v Speaker 1>have this big memory of going and seeing a Fantom Menace.
<v Speaker 1>It was nineteen ninety nine, so that I know that
<v Speaker 1>I was living in Norman at that time. I don't
<v Speaker 1>remember if I saw it with somebody else, I don't
<v Speaker 1>remember if I was alone. What I remember was, Hey,
<v Speaker 1>I'm excited to go see this, And I remember thinking
<v Speaker 1>he's not looking at jar Jar Binks's eyes, like, what's
<v Speaker 1>going on here? I don't this is not I don't
<v Speaker 1>know what the technology here, but I'm kind of disappointed
<v Speaker 1>in this. And when I walked out of the theater,
<v Speaker 1>I was like, huh, well, okay, yeah, okay. Now since then,
<v Speaker 1>I have developed a more passionate opinion, because since then,
<v Speaker 1>I've gone to school, I've studied storytelling and writing and
<v Speaker 1>movie making and all of these things, and I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>now I'm mad. Now I'm genuinely mad. But at the
<v Speaker 1>time that I saw for the first time, I was
<v Speaker 1>just like, okay, well, whatever that was it. That was
<v Speaker 1>my reaction.
<v Speaker 7>All right, Well, I think our audience a lot.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, if you're listening to this, you've seen The
<v Speaker 2>Phantom Menace and you've got your own opinions. But let's
<v Speaker 2>talk about what worked in this movie. Okay, what actually
<v Speaker 2>did a good job.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, I'm sorry to do this. I did it in
<v Speaker 1>our last episode two. But since I'm not the fanboy,
<v Speaker 1>I have to take over for just a second and
<v Speaker 1>tell a story. Can I tell the story again? Okay?
<v Speaker 1>It was a different story for Star Trek, and you
<v Speaker 1>guys bear with me. But in Star Wars, you know,
<v Speaker 1>just think about the canteena scene alone, and you have
<v Speaker 1>to ask the question, is this possible? Right? Is their
<v Speaker 1>life on other planets? Right? And So when I started
<v Speaker 1>looking at this episode and I started looking into the
<v Speaker 1>things that I liked and disliked about it, I stumbled
<v Speaker 1>across this story. And here's the story, all right, And
<v Speaker 1>I want you to keep in mind while I tell
<v Speaker 1>this story, the final scene in Return of the Jedi
<v Speaker 1>when the Emperor is using his power against Luke, and
<v Speaker 1>and what's going on when he ultimately meets his what
<v Speaker 1>we thought was his demise. Save that topic for another day.
<v Speaker 1>Your mouth, right, okay, So, so scientific theory, we're just
<v Speaker 1>gonna talk about scientific theory. You're going to say something.
<v Speaker 1>Go ahead, I feel free to interrupt me on all
<v Speaker 1>of this. Go ahead, interrupt, no, no, no, keep going okay.
<v Speaker 4>All right, I feel like your low key just set
<v Speaker 4>our but go ahead.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, okay. So like so it's so, there are three
<v Speaker 1>big mysteries on the existence of life, right and and
<v Speaker 1>and then and the first one is how did life
<v Speaker 1>itself happen? And that's that's a mystery, that's question number one, right,
<v Speaker 1>and then the third one is how did we develop consciousness? Right?
<v Speaker 1>And and basically those two things that happened, as far
<v Speaker 1>as scientific theory goes, are about four billion years apart. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>like about four billion years ago is whenever they they
<v Speaker 1>think that life first became, and they don't know how
<v Speaker 1>it happened. They don't know the answer to that, but
<v Speaker 1>they they this is life became. And then for two
<v Speaker 1>billion years nothing happened, like life was just these little
<v Speaker 1>balls of little sacks of chemicals. That's all life was
<v Speaker 1>for two billion years. And then something happened two billion
<v Speaker 1>years ago where a big sack of ca mmicals and
<v Speaker 1>a little sack of chemicals. Their eyes met and they
<v Speaker 1>begin to cross the room towards each other, and then
<v Speaker 1>they they met I love you, I know, and the
<v Speaker 1>litical chemical went inside of the big chemical. And this
<v Speaker 1>wasn't the first time that this has ever happened. But
<v Speaker 1>what happened because ninety nine point nine nine percent of
<v Speaker 1>the other times when that happens, like the organism just
<v Speaker 1>fails and dies and that's it. But this one moment
<v Speaker 1>in this you know, two billion years ago, like it
<v Speaker 1>hasn't didn't happen for two billion years before, hasn't happened
<v Speaker 1>in the two billion years since. So whether you're religious
<v Speaker 1>or scientific, you can you can absolutely say this is
<v Speaker 1>a miracle that happens at this moment. So these two cells,
<v Speaker 1>they one goes inside the other, right, and for the
<v Speaker 1>first time, the little cell is able to replicate itself
<v Speaker 1>inside of the big cell. And then the big cell
<v Speaker 1>splits and it's got the two new cells have big
<v Speaker 1>cells and little cells together, and it's the first time
<v Speaker 1>that this has ever happened. And all life that existed today,
<v Speaker 1>whether you're a honey badger or Jason Colvin, or a
<v Speaker 1>giant redwood tree or whatever. You share nearly half of
<v Speaker 1>your complex DNA and cell structure from these things that
<v Speaker 1>happened two billion years ago, right, Okay, miracle like in
<v Speaker 1>four billion years. It happened one time and worked one time, right,
<v Speaker 1>And so what was it? What was this thing that
<v Speaker 1>happened that allowed these things to go together and thrive. Well,
<v Speaker 1>it turns out that the little cell that went inside
<v Speaker 1>the big cell had you ready for it, electricity, It
<v Speaker 1>had electricity, and so now the big cell had the
<v Speaker 1>capacity to make things because of the liqu the electricity
<v Speaker 1>provided by the little cell. And that is the reason
<v Speaker 1>that we have, according to science theory, we have all
<v Speaker 1>life that exists today. So the chances are, if you
<v Speaker 1>are able to go to another planet, the chances are
<v Speaker 1>that you might find life. But it's probably not going
<v Speaker 1>to be life that's going to kill you. It's probably
<v Speaker 1>going to be a little psycho chemicals that you don't
<v Speaker 1>have to worry about because it was a miracle that
<v Speaker 1>led to this combination. Now, let me tell you what
<v Speaker 1>we believe that little pack of chemicals that had that electricity.
<v Speaker 1>Let me tell you what we call that today. Are
<v Speaker 1>you ready for it? It's called mitochondria. You might have
<v Speaker 1>heard a similar name in this new movie called The
<v Speaker 1>Phantom Menace, because that's what inspired George Lucas to add
<v Speaker 1>to the story Medichlorians. That was his inspiration for Mediclorians,
<v Speaker 1>which apparently, according to my research, happened well before A
<v Speaker 1>New Hope Ever was released. Midichlorians, I guess, were a
<v Speaker 1>part of the plan from the beginning. Now, I will
<v Speaker 1>tell you when I saw that in the movie, I went,
<v Speaker 1>what the Sorry, Sorry, sorry, Jason Stanley, I'm sorry. I went,
<v Speaker 1>what the heck?
<v Speaker 2>Why?
<v Speaker 1>Why?
<v Speaker 2>Why?
<v Speaker 1>Because I didn't like that, But now that I know
<v Speaker 1>the history on it, I still have to say that
<v Speaker 1>was a bad decision. But I thought you guys would
<v Speaker 1>like to know the history, and I'd like to I
<v Speaker 1>thought you'd like to know that you're not likely to
<v Speaker 1>be killed by an alien.
<v Speaker 2>We did all that to get to Midchlorians.
<v Speaker 1>Medichlorians, mitochondria all together, electricity baby.
<v Speaker 2>Oh man, yes, minichlorians. Pe you we all freaking hate Midichlorians.
<v Speaker 2>They took the mysticism out of the Jedi force. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>come on, that's stupid.
<v Speaker 1>It's spiritual, it's scientific and amazing.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, he tried, he tried to give it a scientific
<v Speaker 4>explanation and then did nothing with it, Like it's never
<v Speaker 4>picked up again and it had zero impacted the story.
<v Speaker 4>He could have just not said those words and everything
<v Speaker 4>could still be the same, right, So why mess with
<v Speaker 4>the mystical fascination of the force and tried? Yeah? Terrible,
<v Speaker 4>terrible decision. Terrible decision that I have to think he
<v Speaker 4>had more to that that he just decided to not
<v Speaker 4>go with. It doesn't make sense to me that that
<v Speaker 4>was truly all there was to it. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>I like this all the time, Like, oh, I had
<v Speaker 2>planned it since the beginning.
<v Speaker 1>I don't believe that now now pushing the BS button right, Yes.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, well let's back up. Let's talk about what does work.
<v Speaker 1>We're gonna talk about what does work first, should we?
<v Speaker 5>Well?
<v Speaker 4>What did you?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah? Okay, yeah, let's talk Yes, yes, talk about let's
<v Speaker 1>talk about that.
<v Speaker 7>I mean, really, this is going to be the shorter part.
<v Speaker 1>Can I just just I'm sorry too late, Jason, Right, Like, Peenie.
<v Speaker 2>Is out of the bottle at this point.
<v Speaker 1>So Jason and I went to see this movie. They
<v Speaker 1>re released this in the theater. You're in our hometown
<v Speaker 1>because we are at the twentieth twenty twenty fifth anniversary
<v Speaker 1>of this movie, and so Jason's like, I've seen this
<v Speaker 1>a million times. I don't have to think about this hard.
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, I have seen this once. I have been
<v Speaker 1>in the room while this has been on several times,
<v Speaker 1>but it's just like in front of me, and I
<v Speaker 1>didn't This time we went to watch it in the theater.
<v Speaker 1>Was genuinely the second time that I quote unquote watched it,
<v Speaker 1>and I went in with an open mind. I was like,
<v Speaker 1>I so disliked this the first time that I saw it.
<v Speaker 1>I want to open my mind and say what works
<v Speaker 1>about this movie? But we're starting off with that, right.
<v Speaker 7>Yes, what works the start?
<v Speaker 1>And my answer is short. My answer is the fight
<v Speaker 1>between Darth Maul and Qui gon Jin and Obi Wan
<v Speaker 1>Kenobi works. It's not spectacular, but it works. Darth Maul
<v Speaker 1>is a fantastic villain. That's all I got. Okay, I
<v Speaker 1>wait a minute, there's more than that. Come on, Oh,
<v Speaker 1>I'm sure that you guys will had stuff to do it.
<v Speaker 4>Okay.
<v Speaker 1>So, as I said, I watched it with an open
<v Speaker 1>mind and that was all I could attach. That's all
<v Speaker 1>I could latch onto.
<v Speaker 4>Wow, well, so just let me jump on Darth Maul. There.
<v Speaker 4>Darth Maul is awesome. I mean, what a cool character.
<v Speaker 4>When you see him in the trailer, you're like your
<v Speaker 4>mind is blown. Another classic character. You know, you're looking
<v Speaker 4>forward to years and years of having him in Star
<v Speaker 4>Wars stories. So it was kind of brutal to the
<v Speaker 4>ending we got with him. And then of course that
<v Speaker 4>shot in the trailer, you know where boom, that second
<v Speaker 4>half of his saber comes out. We're all just losing
<v Speaker 4>our minds, right, This is awesome and I would say
<v Speaker 4>that fight, it might be the best one of the
<v Speaker 4>six movies that Lightsaber Duel. What's interesting is like it's
<v Speaker 4>kind of called Duel of the Fates. The piece of
<v Speaker 4>music is called Duel. The face the fights called Duel
<v Speaker 4>of the Fates. What's duell of the Fates? Referring to
<v Speaker 4>I've seen it suggested that that fight is for the
<v Speaker 4>fate of Anakin. And while you think that the good
<v Speaker 4>guys win, that with Obi Wan, you know, survived being
<v Speaker 4>the one to survive. Dave Filonia suggested that Anakin's fate
<v Speaker 4>was sealed the moment Qui gon Jim was killed, and
<v Speaker 4>that without having Qui Gon his his father figure. Qui
<v Speaker 4>Gon recognized he needed to be that father figure for Anakin,
<v Speaker 4>and now with him eliminated from the picture, we got
<v Speaker 4>what we got. It just took longer. Took longer to
<v Speaker 4>get there than if Darth maullowd.
<v Speaker 1>Won agree with that theory.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, absolutely, because Qui Gon is my favorite Jedi, So
<v Speaker 6>of course I agree with that theory.
<v Speaker 7>So what works for you, Dayton? Tell us what worked
<v Speaker 7>for you?
<v Speaker 6>So I actually have quite a I have more than
<v Speaker 6>just that, because I personally don't think that's the best.
<v Speaker 2>Well, but you know, let's go one at a time,
<v Speaker 2>like you throw one in, Okay.
<v Speaker 6>So honestly, I love the pod Race. I think the
<v Speaker 6>pod Race is a lot of fun. I love the
<v Speaker 6>detail and that every single racer has a very distinct
<v Speaker 6>sound to their engine. I like the effort and put
<v Speaker 6>it into the track. I enjoy everything about it. It's
<v Speaker 6>it's a little long at times, but I like the
<v Speaker 6>effort he put into with the with the action. I
<v Speaker 6>love having the Tusken Raiders, you know, taking pot shots
<v Speaker 6>at them as they go through that big turn. It's
<v Speaker 6>just it's a fun. It's something we hadn't really seen
<v Speaker 6>on that scale. I mean, he took other racing movies
<v Speaker 6>and said, Okay, that worked, let's put that in here.
<v Speaker 6>That worked, Let's put that in here. And it was exciting.
<v Speaker 6>I really enjoyed it, and I and I'm happy that
<v Speaker 6>we actually got video game versions of that that I
<v Speaker 6>could play too. So yeah, I love the pod Race.
<v Speaker 1>I think it's fun. I honestly thought at the time
<v Speaker 1>that I was watching it, I was like, Oh, this
<v Speaker 1>is where they're putting in their their setup for the
<v Speaker 1>video game that's going to come out. Like I I
<v Speaker 1>you can totally see it coming. And that happens in
<v Speaker 1>a lot of movies, and until.
<v Speaker 6>I thought, they're not the only ones that do that.
<v Speaker 1>Come on, right, No, yeah, I mean that happens a
<v Speaker 1>lot of movies. Let me because you brought up the
<v Speaker 1>pod Race, this is a discussion that Jason and I
<v Speaker 1>have been having and we haven't reached the final conclusion on,
<v Speaker 1>but well, I want your opinion on this. So in
<v Speaker 1>the pod Race, there's this moment where one of the
<v Speaker 1>hoses separates from Anakin's podracer and he adjusts and he
<v Speaker 1>takes this kind of you know, magic arm or whatever
<v Speaker 1>it is, and reaches out and grabs it and puts
<v Speaker 1>it back where it's supposed to go. Now, Jason's theory
<v Speaker 1>is is that this time, this is where we first
<v Speaker 1>see the foreshadowing of the force being used by Anakin.
<v Speaker 1>And I just looked at it and I just said,
<v Speaker 1>I don't think that's what they're trying to do. And
<v Speaker 1>I don't think that's what happened. Like from my perspective,
<v Speaker 1>he's using a tool that maybe he's good with the
<v Speaker 1>tool and he gets it back in. But I just
<v Speaker 1>felt like if this was a moment that we're supposed
<v Speaker 1>to see that hey he's got he's got the force
<v Speaker 1>within him already, that there would have been a change
<v Speaker 1>in the music because something would have slowed down. We've
<v Speaker 1>gotten some sort of hint. But Jason, whatcher to tell
<v Speaker 1>us your theory on it?
<v Speaker 7>Yeah, I mean he sticks his arm out.
<v Speaker 2>He's got a stick and it may have like a
<v Speaker 2>magnet on the end of it. But they make a
<v Speaker 2>big deal about him focusing on it, the hoses flapping around,
<v Speaker 2>and all of a sudden it just goes and he
<v Speaker 2>uses it to Reattach.
<v Speaker 1>And can you do the sound effect again?
<v Speaker 2>Now you don't get the force musical key that I
<v Speaker 2>think you should have if that's what's happening. But hoses
<v Speaker 2>just don't stick to things when I stick my hand
<v Speaker 2>out the windows.
<v Speaker 7>So I think that that was the force that he
<v Speaker 7>uses for.
<v Speaker 3>I think it's when I watch that scene, I just
<v Speaker 3>feel like it's like a common a common occurrence for
<v Speaker 3>a pod. It's a it's a magnetic tool that he
<v Speaker 3>had readily available, so he could just Reattach a coupling
<v Speaker 3>for the thruster.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I agree with that, I think.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, I'm gonna say you're I.
<v Speaker 6>Think the force using part of it is the fact
<v Speaker 6>that he's able to stay calm while it's happening. Okay, yeah,
<v Speaker 6>know that focus on the moment and use your instincts
<v Speaker 6>that you know he got the advice from Qui Goron.
<v Speaker 6>That's the part of the force he's using. But no,
<v Speaker 6>that's just a tool that they have. So I agree
<v Speaker 6>with Jeff on that.
<v Speaker 1>I'm glad that you said that because I feel like
<v Speaker 1>that's an important feature for a later Anakin event in
<v Speaker 1>the movie. I think that's a very very important point
<v Speaker 1>as far as Anakin is concerned for later parts of
<v Speaker 1>the move.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, So obviously the pod the pod race is like
<v Speaker 4>the big climax to Act two, and it's the big
<v Speaker 4>set action piece. And George Lucas being a car guy,
<v Speaker 4>you know, this is obviously something that he would have
<v Speaker 4>gotten into. And of course this we get this from
<v Speaker 4>George Lucas. I think I'm on team D here on
<v Speaker 4>this question. I think this is purely establishing Anakin as
<v Speaker 4>a mechanic and a confident pilot. You have to establish
<v Speaker 4>now in order to buy his actions at the end
<v Speaker 4>of the movie. At the same time, you know, Qui
<v Speaker 4>Gon was the only Jedi who espoused this philosophy of
<v Speaker 4>the living Will. I mean the living Force, as if
<v Speaker 4>the Force had a will of its own. Nope, that's
<v Speaker 4>not a Jedi philosophy. That's not coming from the Council.
<v Speaker 4>This is only Qui Gon's thing is that there is
<v Speaker 4>the living Force, and Qui Gon would suggest that the
<v Speaker 4>Force has a will, like the Force probably made sure
<v Speaker 4>Anakin won that race, and if he needed to fix
<v Speaker 4>that hose, it was gonna get fixed. But so I
<v Speaker 4>don't think it's I don't think it's Anakin channeling the
<v Speaker 4>Force himself. But Qui Gone would tell you that it's
<v Speaker 4>the living force manifesting its will.
<v Speaker 1>The will.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah yeah, okay, there you go. Jeff Will worked for
<v Speaker 2>you man.
<v Speaker 3>I think one thing that works really well for this
<v Speaker 3>film and carries on throughout the prequels is the casting.
<v Speaker 5>Of Ewan McGregor as Obi wan A Nobie.
<v Speaker 3>I think he does an excellent job paying tribute to
<v Speaker 3>Alec Guinness and his portrayal while also making it his own.
<v Speaker 3>And say what you will about this prequel trilogy, one
<v Speaker 3>thing I can always take away as a positive is
<v Speaker 3>the performance of you McGregor throughout Hell and even even
<v Speaker 3>twenty five years later when we get him in a
<v Speaker 3>you know, Disney Plus series. I think he's fantastic and
<v Speaker 3>he's always something I look forward to when I'm watching
<v Speaker 3>these prequel trilogies.
<v Speaker 7>You feel that way about the wooden performance of Nellie Portman.
<v Speaker 8>Oh, shut your mouth about the mother.
<v Speaker 5>About things we liked?
<v Speaker 2>Sorry, sorry, I.
<v Speaker 6>Like how she does. She is working with what she
<v Speaker 6>was given and considering what she was given is not
<v Speaker 6>very much because we know George is not good with actors.
<v Speaker 6>She did a very good job.
<v Speaker 1>That's you know. Jason and I talked about that. Because Dayton,
<v Speaker 1>you've you've you've talked about this movie before on your podcast, yep,
<v Speaker 1>and and kind of came out of the gate with
<v Speaker 1>you know, we're not going to bash on the actors
<v Speaker 1>that that played Anakin or voiced jarge R, which I
<v Speaker 1>get a step back, I'm a wholeheartedly behind because it's
<v Speaker 1>not their fault. It's not their fault. And what what
<v Speaker 1>the what the what the Star Wars fans, a large
<v Speaker 1>part of them did to those guys is terrible. It's
<v Speaker 1>terrible that that happened. But it's like they they got
<v Speaker 1>handed something. And I mean, if I'm the if I'm
<v Speaker 1>a what it was eleven twelve year old nine nine
<v Speaker 1>year old kidate gonna say, George, I really don't feel
<v Speaker 1>like this is the way this character would treat this em. No,
<v Speaker 1>you're just gonna be like, yeah, okay, I'll do whatever
<v Speaker 1>you say, George. Same thing for the guy who's voicing
<v Speaker 1>the THEE whatever jarge R. I'm at best.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I mean, Lucas was not an actress.
<v Speaker 1>The rest of fun for the kids, Okay, George, Right,
<v Speaker 1>However you say.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I mean, look, when you're getting stiff performances from
<v Speaker 4>people like Mattalie Portman and Samuel Jackson. Then you know
<v Speaker 4>it's not the actors fun, right, So the Lucas is
<v Speaker 4>clearly not an actor's director. His attitude is you're the actor,
<v Speaker 4>you act, you do your job. I'm gonna do mine.
<v Speaker 4>And if that makes him uniquely ill suited to handle
<v Speaker 4>a child actor, you know so. But I think it's
<v Speaker 4>more than just being given bad material. It's the way
<v Speaker 4>George probably interacted with the actors. And it's also just
<v Speaker 4>the sterile environment. We know he had very little practical
<v Speaker 4>sets and in the other prequels he didn't have any.
<v Speaker 4>So and how does anybody act in this vacuum?
<v Speaker 1>You know? So?
<v Speaker 4>I don't the acting is bad in this movie, but
<v Speaker 4>I don't really blame the actors.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, don't forget this. We're still in the category
<v Speaker 1>of what works. Oyeah, what happened to what works?
<v Speaker 2>Jason?
<v Speaker 7>Yeah, I don't know what.
<v Speaker 4>I haven't given my history yet.
<v Speaker 2>I've got my list here, so just quickly I think, well,
<v Speaker 2>I mean just kind of retreading what you guys have
<v Speaker 2>already said. I think qui Gon works, Darth Maul works.
<v Speaker 2>I think Darth Maul works excellently. I think Lightsaber Battle
<v Speaker 2>at the end is awesome. I think the pod race
<v Speaker 2>is good. I think the world building in general is
<v Speaker 2>pretty good. I think the story in itself had the
<v Speaker 2>pieces to be good. Okay, Yes, you have young Anakin
<v Speaker 2>as the upcoming Chosen One. You have the rebirth of
<v Speaker 2>the Sith kind of behind the scenes. You have this
<v Speaker 2>bad guy pulling the strings behind the surface. You have
<v Speaker 2>the introduction of Anakin and Obi Wan and their relationship,
<v Speaker 2>and you have the mother of Luke introduced. All of
<v Speaker 2>these pieces should have been a great kickoff to another trilogy.
<v Speaker 2>And then I think the trailer was incredible, and maybe
<v Speaker 2>because it showed the pieces of the movie that work
<v Speaker 2>to basically nothing else.
<v Speaker 1>I thought you were going to say because it showed
<v Speaker 1>a puppet Yoda, not a we're.
<v Speaker 7>Not there yet.
<v Speaker 2>We're not there yet.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, so let me run down real quick for me,
<v Speaker 4>what's on my list that has not been covered yet.
<v Speaker 4>I love the new environments that we got. I thought
<v Speaker 4>it was very maginative, whether it's both sides of Naboo right.
<v Speaker 4>The city and the underwater stuff was amazing. And the
<v Speaker 4>pieces we saw of Corrouscant I thought those new environments
<v Speaker 4>and the Senate I thought the Senate, you know, was cool,
<v Speaker 4>So I give it. I give thumbs up to that
<v Speaker 4>casting Ian McDermott as a young Palpatine when he's when
<v Speaker 4>he's an old man. Yet he was playing an ancient
<v Speaker 4>man in the original trilogy, so you get to use
<v Speaker 4>him and that was that was awesome that that worked out. Now, anyway,
<v Speaker 4>there's something more I could say about him, but it
<v Speaker 4>goes in the other category of what didn't work, so
<v Speaker 4>I'll wait on that. So what absolutely worked for me
<v Speaker 4>the first couple of times I saw the movie. Now
<v Speaker 4>it doesn't work because it's just I can't unsee it
<v Speaker 4>and whatever. But when they had Kira Knightley as the
<v Speaker 4>decoy for Natalie Portman like that totally, that totally worked
<v Speaker 4>for me initially. Now I can you know, you're not
<v Speaker 4>You're not fooling me anymore. But at the time I
<v Speaker 4>thought that worked really well. The other thing, I'll say,
<v Speaker 4>and Jason, you touched on this a little bit, so
<v Speaker 4>this isn't quite the story I wish George had gone with,
<v Speaker 4>Like I think he started too young, like when we
<v Speaker 4>knew the prequels were coming and we didn't know what
<v Speaker 4>he was gonna do yet I was not thinking we
<v Speaker 4>would see Anakin as a child, right, So, I mean, honestly,
<v Speaker 4>you know, you like McGregor as Obi Wan, and obviously
<v Speaker 4>he did an awesome job, but my dreamcasting was already
<v Speaker 4>set before we knew how young George was gonna go. Now,
<v Speaker 4>imagine this, all right, nineteen ninety eight, you say, probably
<v Speaker 4>when they're making the movie cast for Obi Wan Kenobi,
<v Speaker 4>you cast Kenneth Brona. How awesome would that be? I mean,
<v Speaker 4>that's that's perfect, right, and then again not knowing how young.
<v Speaker 4>All right, all right, I'll say that for later. So
<v Speaker 4>we're talking about all So my point is that's the
<v Speaker 4>story I wanted, and I have a Cassie Towye for
<v Speaker 4>Anakin too. I'll tell it later.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, hang on to that, Bode.
<v Speaker 4>Wait wait, So but we got the story we got right,
<v Speaker 4>And what I want to say. You said, the broad strokes,
<v Speaker 4>the big pieces were there, and what we have to
<v Speaker 4>do is we have to give that to George. You know,
<v Speaker 4>this is his creation, this is his story. We've seen
<v Speaker 4>what's happened to Star Wars since it's left his hands.
<v Speaker 4>So whether it's the story we would have chosen, we
<v Speaker 4>have to give credit to the creator. He's the guy,
<v Speaker 4>he's the originator. This is his baby. So if this
<v Speaker 4>is the story he wanted to tell, we got to
<v Speaker 4>give him that. And I think given that that it works.
<v Speaker 4>Like the story works. I'm not saying the screenplay works.
<v Speaker 4>I'm not saying the execution of the designs work. But
<v Speaker 4>I'm saying the bones, the story, the big pieces of
<v Speaker 4>the Star Wars mythology, this putting into place that works.
<v Speaker 4>And you have to give it to him because he's George.
<v Speaker 5>Lucas deaf Dave.
<v Speaker 3>You are on this council, but we do not grant
<v Speaker 3>you the rank of what the heck happened?
<v Speaker 2>Master?
<v Speaker 1>We'll play Jeff. So are there are there? Are there
<v Speaker 1>more what works that we need to discuss before I
<v Speaker 1>have something else too.
<v Speaker 6>Everybody hates on the Gungans, and I don't think that's fair.
<v Speaker 6>Oh MOI I love you, like I said, not their fault.
<v Speaker 6>But what I really do love.
<v Speaker 7>About their CGI fault.
<v Speaker 6>That's no, it's not and it's not there. It wasn't
<v Speaker 6>their dialect. They didn't come up with it. It was
<v Speaker 6>like I said, it was anyway. I love their technology.
<v Speaker 6>I love the city of out of Gunga. I think
<v Speaker 6>it's cool. I love when they go to war with
<v Speaker 6>the with the battle droids. They have the giant shield,
<v Speaker 6>which is cool. They have the handheld shield which bounce
<v Speaker 6>the laser blasts off them. They have the boobahs which
<v Speaker 6>they throw, and they're just balls of energy that just
<v Speaker 6>like the when the catapult them. They like take out
<v Speaker 6>ten battle Droids at once, and they hand throw them.
<v Speaker 6>And I thought that was really cool, considering they're supposed
<v Speaker 6>to be, you know, not quote unquote as evolved as
<v Speaker 6>an Aboo. I honestly thought with that in mind, the
<v Speaker 6>technology was very cool and great and made a lot
<v Speaker 6>of sense considering their level of development. I really thought
<v Speaker 6>their technology was really cool. I thought that was well
<v Speaker 6>played by Lucas. It was interesting.
<v Speaker 7>So I've been there, Jeff.
<v Speaker 3>One thing I would like to comment on that I
<v Speaker 3>thought really did work for this film is the I'm
<v Speaker 3>going to use this word lightly, the realism of the
<v Speaker 3>Lightsaber duels, and what I mean by that is what
<v Speaker 3>we got here is uh And I'm talking like when
<v Speaker 3>Qui Gon and Obi Wan are bash and droids, and
<v Speaker 3>even the duel of the Fates moment, it's a little
<v Speaker 3>more aggressive than what we saw in the original trilogy,
<v Speaker 3>a little more physical, not too insanely absurd. You know
<v Speaker 3>that we'll see in a movie or two later when
<v Speaker 3>Yoda's jumping all over like he's in a bounce castle.
<v Speaker 5>I really like the fact that you could.
<v Speaker 3>It was tangible, like the fight scenes, the dueling was
<v Speaker 3>a little more tangible than what what we will get
<v Speaker 3>later in in these in these films, so I like,
<v Speaker 3>I like the realism of the saber duels.
<v Speaker 1>I'm adding bounce castle to my what could make this
<v Speaker 1>movie better?
<v Speaker 4>So one more thing for the positives. And this is
<v Speaker 4>a double edged sword because it.
<v Speaker 2>Double edged lightsaber.
<v Speaker 4>The same thing about George Lucas, that's awesome, That is
<v Speaker 4>probably his biggest contribution to the history of filmmaking is
<v Speaker 4>also the exact part of him that led to so
<v Speaker 4>many bad mistakes and bad choices in these prequels, and
<v Speaker 4>that is he's more focused on pushing the technology of
<v Speaker 4>filmmaking than he is with working with actors and telling
<v Speaker 4>a good story in front of him. And you know,
<v Speaker 4>keep in mind that coming out of Lucas, like lucasfilm
<v Speaker 4>is largely responsible for the develop of nonlinear editing. They
<v Speaker 4>partnered with Avid in the early nineties and revolutionized nonlinear
<v Speaker 4>editing and made it the industry standard for film and
<v Speaker 4>television editing. We don't get that without George Lucas. He
<v Speaker 4>revolutionized theater sound with THHX. He's the ILM and Skywalker
<v Speaker 4>Sound has been serving Hollywood for decades with all the
<v Speaker 4>best movies. And it was his focus here to push
<v Speaker 4>digital technology with the CGI stuff, which we know. I
<v Speaker 4>feel the same way about it that you do. But
<v Speaker 4>he chose to use this vehicle to push filmmaking technology
<v Speaker 4>and it's the only reason he went back into the
<v Speaker 4>director's chair. On top of that, the biggest positive, direct
<v Speaker 4>positive like immediate payoff that we got from him in
<v Speaker 4>this area was it was because of his efforts with
<v Speaker 4>Phantom Menace that we got digital projection in cinemas. So
<v Speaker 4>it so he pushed all of that technology and read
<v Speaker 4>to find how everybody experiences movies, and that can never
<v Speaker 4>be taken away from him, and he used Phantom Menace
<v Speaker 4>to get there.
<v Speaker 7>Yeah, that's true.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, are true? I agree with that? All right?
<v Speaker 7>Are we ready to downshift.
<v Speaker 1>Any more positives? No more positives out there?
<v Speaker 3>I don't think we need to discuss John Williams dropping score.
<v Speaker 1>We all know that's a gaming so and that is
<v Speaker 1>an excellent point. I mean, it is a part of
<v Speaker 1>the Darth Maul duel that they are playing that kind
<v Speaker 1>of Carmena Barana style of music that John Williams came
<v Speaker 1>up specifically for that movie. So I feel okay that
<v Speaker 1>I didn't include that in my one thing that worked,
<v Speaker 1>but that John Williams delivered like a freaking pro that
<v Speaker 1>he is, especially especially for that scene.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, and they got R two D two right came upon.
<v Speaker 7>It didn't screw him up until it go to that
<v Speaker 7>they did not mess him up.
<v Speaker 1>That is a better, yeah, better way.
<v Speaker 2>All right, Well, let's let's get down and dirty here.
<v Speaker 2>Let's find out what did not work Jeff. Why don't
<v Speaker 2>you stress off with.
<v Speaker 3>Something I started what did work with the casting of
<v Speaker 3>you and McGregor. I'm gonna start with what didn't work
<v Speaker 3>for me was the casting of Anakin Skywalker. And I'm
<v Speaker 3>gonna go ahead and say I think Jake Lloyd's a
<v Speaker 3>wonderful He was one of the wonderful child actors that
<v Speaker 3>we had in the nineties. If you need any reference,
<v Speaker 3>just watch Jingle all the way he's an adorable kid.
<v Speaker 3>The problem I have with it is that we're in
<v Speaker 3>we're in production, we're in print, we're doing principal photography.
<v Speaker 3>In nineteen ninety seven, Natalie Portman is sixteen years old.
<v Speaker 3>Jake Lloyd is eight years old, and that is painfully obvious,
<v Speaker 3>not only on the screen, but even in the dialogue
<v Speaker 3>that's written for him. You know, I'll cite their first
<v Speaker 3>space voyage where she's kind of really giving him a
<v Speaker 3>motherly type of vibe. She's, you know, he's cold, so
<v Speaker 3>she wraps it in a blanket and I'll always care
<v Speaker 3>for you, and you miss your mom. It just it
<v Speaker 3>feels so wrong. And meanwhile, Hayden Christiansen is also sixteen
<v Speaker 3>years old. He's doing stellar work. He's over with Sophia
<v Speaker 3>Coppola doing the Virgin Suicides. I don't understand why we
<v Speaker 3>couldn't have just had an age appropriate Anakin Skywalker from
<v Speaker 3>the beginning. That's a serious issue I take with the character.
<v Speaker 4>Well, to your point, I totally agree, it took me
<v Speaker 4>out of the story. When when you get to episode two,
<v Speaker 4>Jake Lloyd has turned into Hayden Christmas and Nellie Portman
<v Speaker 4>has stayed the same. It's like, what kind of weird
<v Speaker 4>time warp is happening right here? Because it just I
<v Speaker 4>couldn't work it out. I couldn't rationalize it in my head.
<v Speaker 5>It didn't and.
<v Speaker 4>Since and it makes no sense. And if what you're saying.
<v Speaker 1>You knew what you were doing.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, And if your point is that Lucas you know,
<v Speaker 4>started Anak in a too young of an age, I
<v Speaker 4>agree with that. And you know, and this whole thing
<v Speaker 4>about young lings and you have to because they were
<v Speaker 4>saying that Anakin was too old to start training at eight.
<v Speaker 2>Years old, is like he's got to be negative.
<v Speaker 4>Art. That's like an artificial thing, like he could have.
<v Speaker 4>You don't have to have young wings at all. This
<v Speaker 4>you didn't have to go with the child. So yeah,
<v Speaker 4>I don't like going so young.
<v Speaker 3>Look look at look at Hayden in the Virgin Suicides,
<v Speaker 3>and he looks like he'd be a perfect match with
<v Speaker 3>her in this film, and he hits like you think
<v Speaker 3>about this three. Yeah, A couple of years later we
<v Speaker 3>have episode two. He's hit that gross spurt, so you know,
<v Speaker 3>he could put on a little muscle and he looks
<v Speaker 3>a little taller, and he looks a little more intimidating
<v Speaker 3>because he's going to become a vader. But yeah, bad
<v Speaker 3>mistake to cast such a young actor from the get go.
<v Speaker 1>So so let me ask this question, why do you
<v Speaker 1>guys think he did that? Like, why do you think
<v Speaker 1>he chose to go with nine instead of thirteen, fourteen, fifteen,
<v Speaker 1>any of those? Why would he choose that?
<v Speaker 6>He wanted to tell us And I saw this in
<v Speaker 6>an interview. He was he wanted to tell a story
<v Speaker 6>of like because you know, he referenced Hitler about what
<v Speaker 6>a horrible individual Hitler was, what was he like as
<v Speaker 6>a kid, So he wanted to see a young, very young,
<v Speaker 6>innocent you know, sweet freckle faced kid turn into one
<v Speaker 6>of the galaxy's most horrible villains. And when you're a teenager,
<v Speaker 6>you're kind of already going one way or the other,
<v Speaker 6>and you can already kind of see which way you're leaning.
<v Speaker 6>So I think with the eight nine years old, you
<v Speaker 6>have a better chance as truly being innocent versus when
<v Speaker 6>you're a teenager, your innocent is starting to fade already.
<v Speaker 6>So I think that's why he chose so young. I
<v Speaker 6>agree Portman should have been younger, and I also agree
<v Speaker 6>if you watch the behind the scenes, there was three
<v Speaker 6>kids narrowed it down for that part, and Jake Lloyd
<v Speaker 6>was the worst of the three.
<v Speaker 2>So that's on Lucas too. He chose the wrong kid.
<v Speaker 1>Or the other two anybody have known?
<v Speaker 6>No, they were not. And I disagree with you, Jeff Jingle.
<v Speaker 6>All the Way is a terrible movie.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, So all right, all right, So Dayton, so you
<v Speaker 4>you bring to mind industry point. Perhaps Lucas was trying
<v Speaker 4>to make us ask the question, if you had a
<v Speaker 4>chance to kill Hitler as a child, would you do it?
<v Speaker 4>You know, maybe that's factoring into a little bit. But
<v Speaker 4>here's a thought. What if as Lucas is developing this
<v Speaker 4>mythos of the Jedi and the force that he made,
<v Speaker 4>he decided that something that needed to happen when training
<v Speaker 4>for sensitive individuals is you got to catch them before puberty,
<v Speaker 4>because you know, puberty kicks in and you've got emotions
<v Speaker 4>and hormones and now and you've got the force, you're
<v Speaker 4>you're you're unpredictable, and you're dangerous and who knows what's
<v Speaker 4>going to happen. So I can see him rationalizing needing
<v Speaker 4>to start young with that too.
<v Speaker 7>Words for you though Luke Skywalker.
<v Speaker 6>But yeah, here's the thing. Though Luke had already lost
<v Speaker 6>his parents, he does. Everyone knew so by taking Anakin
<v Speaker 6>away from his mom at that age, what's the first
<v Speaker 6>thing he noticed. He's missing her already. And as soon
<v Speaker 6>as I saw this movie, I knew in episode two
<v Speaker 6>that what was going to trigger him to start going
<v Speaker 6>dark something happened to his mom. So the reason they
<v Speaker 6>take him so young is so that separation from the
<v Speaker 6>parents is does not impact them as much as as
<v Speaker 6>much of it did with Anakin, because that's what happened.
<v Speaker 6>He was he was he lost his mom, you know,
<v Speaker 6>he was away from her and that tore him up
<v Speaker 6>the entire time. So that's that's why he was too old.
<v Speaker 3>So to clarify him being eight years younger has nothing
<v Speaker 3>to do with George having a kink.
<v Speaker 5>For picking up Cougar's at the bar. That just just
<v Speaker 5>making sure.
<v Speaker 4>Okayjay said, My answer to Luke Skywalker is the Jedi
<v Speaker 4>Order had been destroyed at that point, so they were
<v Speaker 4>just trying to figure it out and put it back together.
<v Speaker 4>So I think Rull out the window at that point.
<v Speaker 1>So I mean, I'm split the baby here, but it
<v Speaker 1>seems to me that my twelve year old is the
<v Speaker 1>perfect spot to have access to both of those categories
<v Speaker 1>where they haven't quite hit that. You know, I'm against
<v Speaker 1>my parents and I know better than they know, but
<v Speaker 1>they're mature enough to have longings and strength, you know,
<v Speaker 1>Like by the time you're twelve to thirteen is when
<v Speaker 1>you're developing physically, mentally, and emotionally, and it's the perfect
<v Speaker 1>time to introduce a love interest and not have a
<v Speaker 1>situation but still have an innocence where you can go
<v Speaker 1>this kid is still a good kid, Like all of
<v Speaker 1>us know people that you know that we knew when
<v Speaker 1>they were little kids that were like, man, he was
<v Speaker 1>the sweetest kid, but man, when he hit thirteen he
<v Speaker 1>was awful. Right, But if you catch that moment right
<v Speaker 1>before that, you get both edges of the sword. You
<v Speaker 1>get the good and the possibility of bad, which is
<v Speaker 1>what you needed with him. It was so sugary sweet,
<v Speaker 1>it became unbelievable.
<v Speaker 2>Are you an angel?
<v Speaker 5>It was too.
<v Speaker 1>Unbelievable to make that jump that you get in part two.
<v Speaker 1>But if you'd had him at twelve ish thirteen, then
<v Speaker 1>it's like, oh, here's an interesting lady. I've got longing
<v Speaker 1>for her. That's more than a mother figure. But I'm
<v Speaker 1>also still young and I can be good and you
<v Speaker 1>can still love me. Eight and nine is awful. That's
<v Speaker 1>too too young.
<v Speaker 7>Okay, So.
<v Speaker 2>Am I gonna be the first guy that says Jarjon
<v Speaker 2>arbinks doesn't work as maybe one of the most awful
<v Speaker 2>characters in all of cinema.
<v Speaker 1>His streets, you can kick it off.
<v Speaker 2>Let's let's do it all right, jar j R. Let's
<v Speaker 2>bring up jar Jar because I mean, do we all
<v Speaker 2>hate jarger we had?
<v Speaker 1>I don't.
<v Speaker 6>I don't hate it as much as I used to
<v Speaker 6>because I started I started to ignore the his main
<v Speaker 6>dialogue and just kind of enjoyed his little under the
<v Speaker 6>breath comments because that was a lot more that those
<v Speaker 6>were funny. Whereas every time he did anything when he said,
<v Speaker 6>go this way, had to twirl around, or when he
<v Speaker 6>jumped in the water, I had to do a big
<v Speaker 6>old summer like all this stuff, all his main stuff
<v Speaker 6>I ignore. I just listened to is under the breath
<v Speaker 6>comments like when they first go into the hallway, goes, oh,
<v Speaker 6>this is cozy. Things like that. That didn't bother me.
<v Speaker 6>It's it's all the his actual lines that got annoying.
<v Speaker 6>So I've learned to just to kind of tune him
<v Speaker 6>out because it doesn't bother me as much as he
<v Speaker 6>used to. There's other things as far as writing and
<v Speaker 6>structure and editing that bothered me a lot more.
<v Speaker 1>I was telling Jason, they have a fan you know,
<v Speaker 1>a fan at it of Phantom Menace that's out there
<v Speaker 1>where they remove the voice of jar Jar and they
<v Speaker 1>have him speak in an alien language. And I don't
<v Speaker 1>remember if they put subtitles on it or what it was,
<v Speaker 1>but and maybe they didn't. Maybe it was just like
<v Speaker 1>you just see the response, very much like Hans's response
<v Speaker 1>to Chebacca, right, you know, we never know what Chebacca
<v Speaker 1>is saying except what we hear Hans say in response.
<v Speaker 1>That's how we know what he's saying. And so I
<v Speaker 1>watched this fan adit where it's like garbleed deep like
<v Speaker 1>language for jar Jar, and it works, like him as
<v Speaker 1>a character actually works. The problem is that voice, the
<v Speaker 1>voice and the the you know, the Oki day and
<v Speaker 1>all that other weird crap that he says. If you
<v Speaker 1>take out that and those weird kind of mannerisms of
<v Speaker 1>voice that come with it, and you just say here's
<v Speaker 1>alien speak. You know what do you know? Call it
<v Speaker 1>Klingon speak or whatever. You have him talk like a
<v Speaker 1>Klingon in that same voice and language, and then subtitle
<v Speaker 1>or don't subtitle what he says. His character works.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I will pick up on that and agree with
<v Speaker 4>both you and Jason, because the problem with jar Jar
<v Speaker 4>is actually writ large across all the alien creatures in
<v Speaker 4>this movie. If you think about the original trilogy, you
<v Speaker 4>think about the CANTEENA scene, Right, what do we have?
<v Speaker 4>We have we have aliens that are in practical costumes
<v Speaker 4>and they're scary looking, and there's not a single scary
<v Speaker 4>alien anywhere in this movie. The scariest it gets is Subulba.
<v Speaker 4>And all of these aliens, including the Gungans, including jar Jar,
<v Speaker 4>are kid friendly, which don't do that. And so and
<v Speaker 4>now the Trade Federation guys, they may have been costumes.
<v Speaker 4>They look kind of real to me, but there's obviously
<v Speaker 4>a lot of CGI aliens here and you never believe that, never, no,
<v Speaker 4>not for a second. And they're speaking English in racial
<v Speaker 4>stereotype accents, and jar Jar is the worst with this
<v Speaker 4>steppen fetched minstrel show accent. The Trade Federation with the
<v Speaker 4>stereotypical Chinese Asian accents. It's I'm offended by that, and
<v Speaker 4>it goes against the logic d that you were talking
<v Speaker 4>about that was already established in the Star Wars movies,
<v Speaker 4>like a conceit of this universe is that the Aliens
<v Speaker 4>speak their language, our humans speak English, and they're understanding
<v Speaker 4>each other and having a dialogue like that's the rules
<v Speaker 4>of Star Wars and you should have done that here,
<v Speaker 4>and instead we get offensive racial accents that that was
<v Speaker 4>completely unnecessary. And so everything about the design of the
<v Speaker 4>Aliens and that choice with how they're speaking, all of
<v Speaker 4>that was is just a big category of big mistake
<v Speaker 4>capital m.
<v Speaker 1>You've hit on a great point here, which is you
<v Speaker 1>are never in fear at any point in this movie.
<v Speaker 1>And the canteena scene where Luke is being confronted by
<v Speaker 1>two guys we've never seen before, and one of whom
<v Speaker 1>looks mostly human and speaks just straight up English. You're scared, like,
<v Speaker 1>what's going to happen in this scene? Right? That's a
<v Speaker 1>scary scene for anybody watching, whether you're a little kid
<v Speaker 1>or more. And there's nothing scary. And then the second
<v Speaker 1>point is there are characters that could be scary, but
<v Speaker 1>because they're CGI. I will tell you a story. My
<v Speaker 1>oldest boy is nineteen now. I think he was probably
<v Speaker 1>eleven or so, maybe younger, maybe nine when I watched
<v Speaker 1>this movie with him for the first time, and during
<v Speaker 1>one of the Jedi Council scenes, he turns to me
<v Speaker 1>and he says, is this animated or is this real?
<v Speaker 1>And I was like, it's real, buddy, I mean those
<v Speaker 1>are real actors. And he's like, well, why is Yoda
<v Speaker 1>a cartoon? And I said, exactly, son, that is exactly right.
<v Speaker 1>Why the heck is Yoda a cartoon?
<v Speaker 4>He doubled down on that Attack of the Clones.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, because in the in the trailer that we got,
<v Speaker 1>Yoda was a puppet. He was he was a he
<v Speaker 1>was a hand worked puppet. We did not see that
<v Speaker 1>CGI crap in the trailer that Jason alluded to earlier.
<v Speaker 4>And there are a couple of shots in Phantom Menace
<v Speaker 4>where Frank calls is operating the puppet, but most of
<v Speaker 4>it is CGI. Attack of Clones. It's all CGI.
<v Speaker 6>Well, actually the original release, most of it was. The
<v Speaker 6>only CGI was actually at the end when he was
<v Speaker 6>when he was talking over one last time, he was
<v Speaker 6>sitting in a seat and everything else. It was all
<v Speaker 6>a puppet and everybody hated Trust me, I yes, I will,
<v Speaker 6>Diana Hill. There was no Friend that was released due
<v Speaker 6>the face found stuff that's on Disney Plus has the
<v Speaker 6>changed Yoda. This has the puppet Yoda in it. I
<v Speaker 6>promise you that you're.
<v Speaker 1>Talking about the original. So like when I watch it streaming,
<v Speaker 1>am I going to see CGI? Or I'm going to say,
<v Speaker 1>am I.
<v Speaker 2>Going to see you see CGI?
<v Speaker 6>Because he changed it? Okay, this is the original release.
<v Speaker 1>That's fair because I don't remember exactly the experience whenever
<v Speaker 1>I was whenever I was whatever, twenty five years younger.
<v Speaker 1>I don't remember when I was twenty three years old.
<v Speaker 1>I do remember watching it with my son when I
<v Speaker 1>was thirty something years old and going, yeah, why the
<v Speaker 1>crap is he a cartoon?
<v Speaker 6>Why everybody complain that he didn't he didn't look right
<v Speaker 6>as a puppet. Yeah, but how they aged him? They
<v Speaker 6>didn't look right. So he fixed it and made him
<v Speaker 6>Segi and whatever. Blah blah blah, you know.
<v Speaker 4>Freaking of Yoda. Yoda was off model. He didn't look
<v Speaker 4>like Yoda to me. I thought. I never believed it
<v Speaker 4>was Yoda, and they should have just kept him the
<v Speaker 4>same as inpuct Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>He he's been around for what was it six hundred
<v Speaker 1>years years? He's change So why yeah, why is twenty
<v Speaker 1>five years earlier really gonna make him look significantly younger? No,
<v Speaker 1>it's ridiculous, Dayton.
<v Speaker 3>I'm glad you clarified that because I you know you
<v Speaker 3>were going to die in that hill because he had
<v Speaker 3>the high ground figured it out.
<v Speaker 2>But I have the proof.
<v Speaker 7>I will not help you, all right. Who else has
<v Speaker 7>got something done?
<v Speaker 1>Work?
<v Speaker 7>Jeff?
<v Speaker 1>What you got?
<v Speaker 5>Or Dayden?
<v Speaker 2>Who's up?
<v Speaker 4>Daydon?
<v Speaker 1>What do you got?
<v Speaker 6>Okay? Well, so, honestly my biggest complaint, as much as
<v Speaker 6>he did so many things right for this universe, it's
<v Speaker 6>George's fault. Everything that's wrong with this movie is George's fault.
<v Speaker 6>And this is why he directed X one, one three eight,
<v Speaker 6>He directed American Graffiti, which I love.
<v Speaker 1>Okay.
<v Speaker 6>He had help with the screenplay on both of those.
<v Speaker 6>He writes quote unquote rights and directs Star Wars. He
<v Speaker 6>had help writing that screenplay because don't they don't get credit.
<v Speaker 6>The two guys that helped him got points no credit, okay.
<v Speaker 4>And his wife saved him in the editing.
<v Speaker 6>And the editing and everything. The pacing was saved by
<v Speaker 6>some other people. Okay, So fast forward twenty years. He
<v Speaker 6>has not directed a single thing or written anything else,
<v Speaker 6>and all of a sudden, he goes, you know what,
<v Speaker 6>even though I abandoned this because I was tired of it,
<v Speaker 6>I want to bring it back just because, you know, hey,
<v Speaker 6>this was fun making the special editions. Whatever he is not,
<v Speaker 6>he's barely a filmmaker at this point, and he's taken
<v Speaker 6>on this giant project. And it's a giant project. You
<v Speaker 6>have hundreds of people working for me, You have artists,
<v Speaker 6>you have everything, you have people doing costumes, and he's
<v Speaker 6>in charge of everything. It's all his brain child, it's
<v Speaker 6>all his idea.
<v Speaker 1>How about this? How about that?
<v Speaker 6>And as I said earlier before we started recording, when
<v Speaker 6>you're the writer, when you're the director, when you're the producer,
<v Speaker 6>when you're the bank, Nobody's gonna say, hey, George Jeor
<v Speaker 6>j R. Is stupid, Hey George, those accents are terrible.
<v Speaker 6>Hey George, that scene is five minutes too long. You
<v Speaker 6>need to cut that. They're not gonna look at their
<v Speaker 6>paycheck and tell the boss you're wrong. George, because guess
<v Speaker 6>what nobody did. He was surrounded by yes men and
<v Speaker 6>he didn't care, and he made what he thought was
<v Speaker 6>gonna be made.
<v Speaker 1>And that's fine.
<v Speaker 6>The fact is it took three movies, it took two
<v Speaker 6>swings in a miss before we got a good movie.
<v Speaker 1>And everything that's wrong with.
<v Speaker 6>This from the horrible dialogue, like, okay, the very beginning. Okay,
<v Speaker 6>the Viceroy and his buddy, are you know, the Jedi
<v Speaker 6>show up and he goes, you go in there and
<v Speaker 6>distract him while I get called Arcidius or whatever. He goes,
<v Speaker 6>are you brain dead? I'm not going in there with
<v Speaker 6>two Jedi. Awful, just terrible, Okay, And then they they
<v Speaker 6>call up they call it Sidiath and he goes, you know,
<v Speaker 6>he starts whining at Cidious. He goes, I don't want
<v Speaker 6>to see this stunted slime on my side again. I'm like,
<v Speaker 6>stunted slime. Good, good try, George. I don't know what
<v Speaker 6>that what that even means? You know, watch your line
<v Speaker 6>to their buddy. It's not even it's not even blasted.
<v Speaker 6>It's not even Star Wars slang. It's just stupid. And
<v Speaker 6>then later when they're at out of Gunga and you know,
<v Speaker 6>and Boss n Ask gives them Bungo, you can leave,
<v Speaker 6>go ahead. They're walking away and Charger says, you know,
<v Speaker 6>you're getting set up whatever and he and He's like,
<v Speaker 6>we need a navigator to get to the planet Core,
<v Speaker 6>do you and what makes you think this idiot's gonna
<v Speaker 6>get you there? And then they get in the ship
<v Speaker 6>and their crews around.
<v Speaker 1>Jarger goes, where are we going?
<v Speaker 6>Oh, the forest will take us?
<v Speaker 5>What is it?
<v Speaker 6>Is he the navigator or is it the force taking
<v Speaker 6>your what's wrong?
<v Speaker 1>Just things don't make sense?
<v Speaker 6>And then later and the council Mace Window says, we
<v Speaker 6>don't have time for this, you know, go back to Naboo,
<v Speaker 6>you know, the little draw out of the Queen's Attacker. This
<v Speaker 6>is the key to unlocking the mystery of the Scyth?
<v Speaker 6>What what Darth mauls showing up? Is something gonna give
<v Speaker 6>you the answers to the Scyth? Are you trying to
<v Speaker 6>figure out who he is? Is that the mystery? What's
<v Speaker 6>the mystery? Where they've been for the last couple hundred years?
<v Speaker 6>What's the mystery they never come back to? That never explained?
<v Speaker 6>That statement doesn't make any sense. He does it throughout
<v Speaker 6>the entire movie. He drops lines here and there that
<v Speaker 6>have no ending, no reason, and they don't come back
<v Speaker 6>to it. It's so frustrating because nobody went, George, this
<v Speaker 6>doesn't make sense. You need to fix this.
<v Speaker 1>So okay, I'm off my soapbox. I'm done. So I
<v Speaker 1>just want to touch on this because I'm confident that
<v Speaker 1>ninety five percent of the people listening to us right
<v Speaker 1>now probably know this little tidbit already, but just for
<v Speaker 1>those five percent that don't, and Dave alluded to it,
<v Speaker 1>and Day and you know, leveled it up significantly when
<v Speaker 1>the original Star Wars a New Hope, the very first
<v Speaker 1>one was done. When they had completed the filming and
<v Speaker 1>the editing of that movie, they screened it and every
<v Speaker 1>single person that saw it went, this is terrible. This
<v Speaker 1>is terrible, and by you know, the will of the force,
<v Speaker 1>if you will. George happened to be married to Marcia,
<v Speaker 1>and Marcia happened to be a fantastic editor, and Marcia said,
<v Speaker 1>let me see what I can do, and she took
<v Speaker 1>it and she rearranged all of the pieces and she
<v Speaker 1>took out a lot of the garbage that didn't need
<v Speaker 1>to be in there, and she's the one that made
<v Speaker 1>it a good movie. He he brought all the pieces
<v Speaker 1>and she chopped it up and made it into a meal.
<v Speaker 1>And unfortunately, in the next twenty years they got divorced
<v Speaker 1>and he amassed an unreasonable amount of money and power
<v Speaker 1>because he had developed ILM, and they became the go
<v Speaker 1>to for all things like this, like you said, like digital,
<v Speaker 1>Like he was pushing the science of movie making more
<v Speaker 1>than he was pushing the creativity and the essence of storytelling.
<v Speaker 1>And so once we get to twenty years later, once
<v Speaker 1>we get to twenty years later, there's, like you said,
<v Speaker 1>a date and there's nobody to say, George, let's let's
<v Speaker 1>rework this. Let's let's tweak this, just the hair, it's just.
<v Speaker 6>Let's break this scene down. This doesn't need we don't
<v Speaker 6>need to have four underwater creatures during the planet core.
<v Speaker 6>We don't need, we don't need this. Just because you
<v Speaker 6>can doesn't.
<v Speaker 2>Mean there's always always a bigger fish.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, another bigger fish, and then there's a bigger fish
<v Speaker 1>that was bigger than the bigger fish that was bigger
<v Speaker 1>than the last fish that was almost eating us.
<v Speaker 7>Yeah, all right, Jeff, how you doing. What do you
<v Speaker 7>got for us?
<v Speaker 3>Well, I'll talk about one more thing, you know, because
<v Speaker 3>we've we've we've kind of talked about jar jar binks
<v Speaker 3>and and everything that makes that character wrong. But once
<v Speaker 3>you can see the fact that, you know, George Lucas
<v Speaker 3>has said, hey, I'm making these movies for kids, So
<v Speaker 3>I can accept that, and I can accept someone like,
<v Speaker 3>don't shake your head now to me dating. I just
<v Speaker 3>watched a freaking no no, no, I'm just saying I
<v Speaker 3>just watched an interview with him and he.
<v Speaker 7>That's what he said.
<v Speaker 5>He said, that's what he said. That's what I'm saying.
<v Speaker 6>I'm not disagree with that, but I want to wait
<v Speaker 6>for kids too.
<v Speaker 3>But no, alls, I'm saying is this is what George said. Okay,
<v Speaker 3>if you if you can, if we're gonna wrap our
<v Speaker 3>heads around that, then why are we watching a movie
<v Speaker 3>where this central plot is bogged down with taxation and
<v Speaker 3>trade routes and Senate meetings because kids don't want to
<v Speaker 3>see kids don't want to watch c SPAN. Yes, so
<v Speaker 3>you can't have it both ways, Coruscent News Network, Yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I can't have it both ways.
<v Speaker 4>George. If Jeff if Et showed up with c Span.
<v Speaker 4>I would be watching.
<v Speaker 1>Jason. Jason can tell you that as we're watching this
<v Speaker 1>movie in the theater, and we didn't even realize that.
<v Speaker 1>We thought, you know, we've got to you know, kind
<v Speaker 1>of we've got to be quiet because there are other
<v Speaker 1>people here. It was about three quarters into the movie
<v Speaker 1>that I was like, I'm gonna go to the bathroom
<v Speaker 1>because I don't care if I miss more of this movie.
<v Speaker 1>I went to the bathroom. I came back and I'm like, Oh,
<v Speaker 1>we're the only ones in the theater. We are the
<v Speaker 1>only ones who decided that we're gonna rewatch this movie.
<v Speaker 1>And it became an open forum. But even when we
<v Speaker 1>were whispering, I was like, why are they sitting down?
<v Speaker 1>Like over and over, scene after scene, they're sitting in
<v Speaker 1>a circle. Like if you look at the original Star Wars,
<v Speaker 1>does anybody sit down? Yes? Is everyone sitting down? No?
<v Speaker 1>Because there are guys who have power, like Darth Vader
<v Speaker 1>and the General who are exhibiting their power by standing up.
<v Speaker 1>We've got we've got seen after scene of people sitting
<v Speaker 1>in a circle talking. That's not kids stuff, that's not
<v Speaker 1>even grown up stuff. That's just the movie making Sorry Jasey.
<v Speaker 4>He is not gonna be allowed.
<v Speaker 2>That's right, Okay, Okay, I got I got a few, Jeff,
<v Speaker 2>keep going? Are you finishing?
<v Speaker 5>Jason was?
<v Speaker 3>Jason was gonna ask you, like, aside from Joe, you
<v Speaker 3>kick this off with with jar Jo, what do you
<v Speaker 3>got to bring us.
<v Speaker 4>Home the way? I haven't gone yet either. Now give
<v Speaker 4>me a second, go ahead.
<v Speaker 2>You haven't gone yet four times to talk about the
<v Speaker 2>things that didn't work during our things that didn't Hey.
<v Speaker 4>I'm doing I'm just listen, listen. I am yes ding everybody,
<v Speaker 4>but I haven't.
<v Speaker 2>Given Okay, Dave, go ahead, go ahead, Okay.
<v Speaker 4>Let me tell you what doesn't work. You don't make
<v Speaker 4>ben Kenobi's desert clothes the Jedi uniform. Can I get
<v Speaker 4>an amen?
<v Speaker 5>I mean amen?
<v Speaker 7>He hasn't changed clothes in forty five years.
<v Speaker 4>Those robes fit the color palette of Tattooine. He was
<v Speaker 4>a desert hermit. That's why they made it that costume.
<v Speaker 4>And now we see all the Jedi the height of
<v Speaker 4>their powers, and they're all wearing desert grubes. Give me
<v Speaker 4>a break. That's not that doesn't work at all. That
<v Speaker 4>color palette was meant for Tattooine. It was never meant
<v Speaker 4>as a Jedi uniform, and play out that logic, what
<v Speaker 4>does it mean? It means even though Obi Wan is
<v Speaker 4>in hiding, he's not changing his last name. He's on
<v Speaker 4>Anakin's home. Play in it, Luke still has the name
<v Speaker 4>Skywalker and he's still wearing his Jedi uniform. Like, you're
<v Speaker 4>not hiding, No, we're anybody is.
<v Speaker 5>This is this?
<v Speaker 3>What does it work for Phantom Minister? The saga over
<v Speaker 3>like it doesn't.
<v Speaker 4>Work for Phantom Menace? You don't make that the Jedi uniform.
<v Speaker 4>That it was a bad decision.
<v Speaker 1>It was a look at that first movie. That guy
<v Speaker 1>he's dressed like Obi Wan Kenobi. Yeah, but he's got white.
<v Speaker 7>His name's Ben.
<v Speaker 1>His name is Ben here that cannot possibly be the
<v Speaker 1>same guy.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I'll tell you what. Nineteen years was rough on
<v Speaker 4>you and McGregor from McGregor to Guinness, and it's kind
<v Speaker 4>of brutal. Now that's the name I have not heard
<v Speaker 4>in the long Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>I also haven't. I haven't. I haven't said my things
<v Speaker 1>that don't work either. I just oh, the Podra doesn't
<v Speaker 1>want you to go ahead and go I really just
<v Speaker 1>want to get I'm going to keep yes, ending, but
<v Speaker 1>so you go ahead.
<v Speaker 2>I got I got a couple of just a few
<v Speaker 2>things that we haven't covered yet.
<v Speaker 1>Right for me?
<v Speaker 2>The podcast announcer Greg Proops from whose lines an? The
<v Speaker 2>pod race announcer, Some of these podcast announcers, I don't
<v Speaker 2>work all the time either, that's right. The pod race announcer,
<v Speaker 2>who's Greg Proops from whose lines it? Anyway, he's like
<v Speaker 2>Anakan's guy. We all that crap, cut all that crap
<v Speaker 2>and do the same thing, give it, give an alien
<v Speaker 2>voice whatever, and it's much more serious instead of stupid
<v Speaker 2>and comical. And they got two heads and all that
<v Speaker 2>stuff sucked and then it sucked. Yeah, that's right, suck.
<v Speaker 2>And I can't remember who said it earlier, but there
<v Speaker 2>maybe as you d there are no real bad guys
<v Speaker 2>in this movie. The the Battle Droids are about as
<v Speaker 2>menacing as C three p O. They suck, they can't
<v Speaker 2>do anything. Roger Roger Roger like, they're stupid. They're not
<v Speaker 2>even fun toys because they're too skinny. They won't stand
<v Speaker 2>up up right. And Darth Maul listen. For as awesome
<v Speaker 2>as Darth Maul is, I have two complaints about Darth
<v Speaker 2>Maul He's an amazing bad guy that they completely wasted
<v Speaker 2>because they kill him off in the first movie. He
<v Speaker 2>should have been the main battie for three Pictures where
<v Speaker 2>Anakin finally kills him instead of stupid old krusty Darth
<v Speaker 2>Tyrannus freaking Dooku. So Darth Maul should have been the
<v Speaker 2>bad guy over three pictures. They wasted that opportunity. They
<v Speaker 2>blew it there. And what was my other complaint.
<v Speaker 1>Was Darth Maul two Darth Maul complaints.
<v Speaker 2>Darth Maul complaints. Oh and Darth Maul really doesn't commit
<v Speaker 2>any real sin in this movie.
<v Speaker 5>He doesn't really do it.
<v Speaker 2>We know he's a bad guy. The only thing he
<v Speaker 2>does is he lightsaber fights with Qui Gon for a
<v Speaker 2>little bit and then they're like out to kill him
<v Speaker 2>the entire time. And I get it, we know he's
<v Speaker 2>the bad guy. But if you kick off this movie
<v Speaker 2>with Darth Maul trying to kill Mace Windu or the
<v Speaker 2>Queen or Qui Gon something where we know right off
<v Speaker 2>the bat this is our baddie, this is what he did.
<v Speaker 2>We've got to kill this guy or else, and they
<v Speaker 2>don't ever do that.
<v Speaker 3>Point of order, there is one thing that he does
<v Speaker 3>do that is that is a terrible thing, you know,
<v Speaker 3>Okay that but I'm gonna spin this because it's an
<v Speaker 3>awesome thing, and I freaking love it. I'm not you know,
<v Speaker 3>it's mean and it's cruel, but it's awesome. I love
<v Speaker 3>the fact that he is sent to tato Wine to
<v Speaker 3>go after some Jedi and his first act is attempted
<v Speaker 3>vehicular homicide of Anakin. Skywalker almost mows this kid down
<v Speaker 3>for no reason at all other than just to do it.
<v Speaker 3>And I cheer every time I see that Qui Gon
<v Speaker 3>had not turned around and said.
<v Speaker 1>Anakin town man that the force was strong.
<v Speaker 5>I love the fact that Ami tries to run him off,
<v Speaker 5>run him down. That's awesome.
<v Speaker 3>So while it's why, while I approve of it, it
<v Speaker 3>some people might look down on him for attempting.
<v Speaker 1>That call that bad behavior. Okay, So there's there is
<v Speaker 1>a very innocuous scene that I think kind of sums
<v Speaker 1>up a huge part of what's wrong with this movie. Whenever,
<v Speaker 1>Whenever Amidala and her people are like trying to escape
<v Speaker 1>there and they you remember, they'll go out the window
<v Speaker 1>and then they they use little cables and they go
<v Speaker 1>down to the next level, and then they're outside and
<v Speaker 1>there's a window in front of them, right, and she
<v Speaker 1>points her gun at the window so that they can
<v Speaker 1>blast their way in. And in this movie that they
<v Speaker 1>have spent, however many million dollars they've spent to make it,
<v Speaker 1>you see her point the gun and then you're in
<v Speaker 1>the hallway and you see an explosion from behind a pillar.
<v Speaker 1>And so what they've done is they've given us the
<v Speaker 1>parts that we don't care about, and they've cut out
<v Speaker 1>the really cool parts. So you've got these senate scenes,
<v Speaker 1>you've got these meetings among the council, you've got these
<v Speaker 1>trade war things, conversations going on that they're giving us
<v Speaker 1>that we don't want to watch. And then they've removed
<v Speaker 1>all of the fun stuff that made all of the
<v Speaker 1>original trilogy good. They've removed getting us getting to see
<v Speaker 1>the glass blasted open. I want to see that laser
<v Speaker 1>go through the glass and it explode in my face.
<v Speaker 1>That's the fun part. But what you did was you
<v Speaker 1>gave me the before and the after that are both
<v Speaker 1>boring and you didn't need to do that. That is
<v Speaker 1>a big picture complaint for me for the whole thing.
<v Speaker 1>Now onto a complaint that Jason and I shared together.
<v Speaker 1>And this goes along with how young Anakin is. When
<v Speaker 1>we got to that final battle scene and he kind
<v Speaker 1>of accidentally takes a ship and kind of by accident
<v Speaker 1>ends up in space with the mothership and is just
<v Speaker 1>randomly blasting things away, there was an opportunity there for
<v Speaker 1>us to see the future Darth Vader. There was an
<v Speaker 1>opportunity there for us to see Anakin, even though he
<v Speaker 1>may only be eight or nine years old, to be
<v Speaker 1>kind of a badass because he is a great pilot.
<v Speaker 1>Like they've already discussed it, he is a great pilot.
<v Speaker 1>So we could see him come into that moment and
<v Speaker 1>know what to do and like he's not worried, he's
<v Speaker 1>not fearful. He is like I am in my zone.
<v Speaker 1>I know what I'm doing and I can be awesome
<v Speaker 1>at this. But they didn't do that. And then to
<v Speaker 1>top it all off, as he's blasting away the culmination
<v Speaker 1>the destroying the death Star of Phantom Menace is an accident.
<v Speaker 1>Anakin Skywalker is shooting at these little, tiny, insignificant droid
<v Speaker 1>beings and accidentally hits something really important that blows up
<v Speaker 1>their whole space station. Why would you do that, why
<v Speaker 1>would you make it an accident? Let us know, give
<v Speaker 1>us the foreshadowing that this guy has the capacity to
<v Speaker 1>be a badass, and when the going gets tough, he
<v Speaker 1>is willing to take some serious action and say that's there,
<v Speaker 1>that is their core, that is the thing that will
<v Speaker 1>destroy this ship. I'm gonna shoot it. I'm gonna get
<v Speaker 1>the heck out of here, and I'm gonna save everybody else.
<v Speaker 1>That was the moment and they lost it again, so
<v Speaker 1>real quick, I want to I want to argue with that.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, I want to respond to both things that you guys,
<v Speaker 6>that Jason indeed has said. So first of all, you
<v Speaker 6>mentioned Darth Maul that he they were wasted. You're you're
<v Speaker 6>one hundred percent right, they wasted him completely. But if
<v Speaker 6>you notice at the very end his life, Sabers magical
<v Speaker 6>because when he's standing above Obi Wan, it's in his
<v Speaker 6>right hand, and then when Obody One flips over and
<v Speaker 6>his swings at him, it moves to his left hand
<v Speaker 6>because it was his still in his right hand, it
<v Speaker 6>would have blocked Obi Wan's swing. So notice that that
<v Speaker 6>bump that pisses me off because you know what millions
<v Speaker 6>of dollars pay attention. Okay, you have a continuity person
<v Speaker 6>for a reason, and then we have the battleship, you know,
<v Speaker 6>the spaceship that at the end that gets blown up.
<v Speaker 6>Cool beginning of the movie, the blockade has six seven, eight,
<v Speaker 6>nine battleships out there blocking the way. Right when they
<v Speaker 6>come back, knowing they're coming back, there's one ship in
<v Speaker 6>their way. One where'd the rest go?
<v Speaker 1>They could?
<v Speaker 6>They didn't leave because all the all the troops are
<v Speaker 6>on the planet.
<v Speaker 5>Where'd they go?
<v Speaker 6>It's like, well, let's make it easier for him to
<v Speaker 6>get back instead of leaving. I'man that was this. Those
<v Speaker 6>are continuity mistakes to fix problems they didn't see when
<v Speaker 6>he was writing the story, and that just it's just
<v Speaker 6>lazy writing, is what it is. That makes me angry.
<v Speaker 3>I don't want to defend him, but the continuity person
<v Speaker 3>had a very low Midichlorian.
<v Speaker 5>Count, so I don't think we should be picking on him.
<v Speaker 4>Real quick. I'll just bullet point these the last two
<v Speaker 4>things I had that did not work. The pod race
<v Speaker 4>for me, absolutely did not work. Did I mean, it's
<v Speaker 4>exciting and blah blah blah, but zero stakes, zero suspense,
<v Speaker 4>zero mystery of how it was going to turn out.
<v Speaker 4>It was just it was just holding place, holding time,
<v Speaker 4>and I was just waiting for it to be over.
<v Speaker 4>It just I didn't I didn't feel anything watching that race.
<v Speaker 4>The other thing is, I think it was a mistake
<v Speaker 4>to show Darth Cidius. I thought it had been waterfully
<v Speaker 4>subtle to track Palpatine without seeing Darth Cidius. I think
<v Speaker 4>Palpatine's arc is the most important one actually in this movie.
<v Speaker 4>I think that was really the Phantom Menace, was the
<v Speaker 4>rise of Palpatine. Nobody knew it at the time what
<v Speaker 4>he was going to be, And I think you could
<v Speaker 4>have played that mystery a little closer to your vest
<v Speaker 4>if you don't also show Darth ceedis just don't show them.
<v Speaker 4>You could have the trade Federation of talking to him,
<v Speaker 4>have the voice off camera, But as soon as you
<v Speaker 4>see the dark hood in the nose coming out of
<v Speaker 4>the shadow, you know exactly who it is, and you're
<v Speaker 4>killing any suspense that you're that you may be able
<v Speaker 4>to build. So to me, it was a mistake to
<v Speaker 4>show Sidious or even have city like why even have
<v Speaker 4>a named alter ego just having been talking to a
<v Speaker 4>voice that we eventually find out as Palpatine. So anyway,
<v Speaker 4>that's what I got.
<v Speaker 1>Yep.
<v Speaker 7>Okay, guys, anything else when I get off your chest?
<v Speaker 7>Been twenty five years?
<v Speaker 6>Well, real quick. Lucas keeps saying, well, there, these movies
<v Speaker 6>were made for kids. Okay, fine. He over explains everything,
<v Speaker 6>which we didn't do in the original trilogy. He over
<v Speaker 6>explains everything. His argument is, there's made for kids. Well,
<v Speaker 6>you know what, why don't you take a clue from
<v Speaker 6>Jim Henson, take a clue from Walt Disney. They did
<v Speaker 6>not talk down to kids. Okay, don't treat them like
<v Speaker 6>they're morons, all right, Just tell a good story and
<v Speaker 6>they'll pay attention. So no, I call BS on that too.
<v Speaker 4>Sorry, Yeah, I was six in nineteen seventy seven, and
<v Speaker 4>I don't think New Hope talks down to anybody.
<v Speaker 1>It does.
<v Speaker 4>I was fine, right, yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, okay, I'm not going to bring up, you know,
<v Speaker 2>Jergia jumping on the chest of a battle droid while
<v Speaker 2>shooting other people.
<v Speaker 7>We can just move on past that. Is this.
<v Speaker 2>Here's the question. Is this movie fixable? And how do
<v Speaker 2>you fix it?
<v Speaker 4>Yes?
<v Speaker 1>Yes, absolutely?
<v Speaker 7>Okay, who's leading off?
<v Speaker 6>Well, you just remake it without George being in charge.
<v Speaker 6>Of everything. Get a news screenwriter. No, seriously, I'm not.
<v Speaker 6>I'm just he is the story guy. He's the one
<v Speaker 6>that created the universe. He's the one that created the characters. Cool,
<v Speaker 6>this is what I want you to do. Lawrence Kasden,
<v Speaker 6>please write this. Yes, find another director, say do me favorite,
<v Speaker 6>because I am not I am not a George Lucas
<v Speaker 6>has said it many times. He is not an actor's director.
<v Speaker 6>You can ask you know, Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill,
<v Speaker 6>they had all kinds of complaints when they're making the
<v Speaker 6>first movie because he never he said, just faster and
<v Speaker 6>more aggressive.
<v Speaker 1>You know, he didn't tell him me.
<v Speaker 6>So hire another director, hire a writer, and then this
<v Speaker 6>is the story I want you to tell. I'll just
<v Speaker 6>I'll be the overlord and watch everything. That's what That's
<v Speaker 6>how you fix.
<v Speaker 1>It in the story.
<v Speaker 4>The secret weapon in the original trilogy was Lawrence Kasdin
<v Speaker 4>and every if you look at the original trilogy, the
<v Speaker 4>less Lucas had to do with an individual picture, the
<v Speaker 4>better it was. He had the least to do with Empire.
<v Speaker 4>It was the best one of the trilogy. So yes,
<v Speaker 4>you take George Lucas's story. You got to give him
<v Speaker 4>that right.
<v Speaker 1>You have to agree.
<v Speaker 4>All right, Lucas, this is your story. Now give your
<v Speaker 4>draft to Lawrence Kasden, okay, and he'll punch it up
<v Speaker 4>and he'll get it to work. So I absolutely agree
<v Speaker 4>Lawrence Kasan needs to be the screenwriter here. But I
<v Speaker 4>figured out a director. Does emails have a director they
<v Speaker 4>want for this? Because I think I got the perfect
<v Speaker 4>guy from nineteen ninety seven ninety eight to take over
<v Speaker 4>this picture. I nominate Roland Emmerich. He had already given
<v Speaker 4>this Independence Day, he'd already given a stargate, and I
<v Speaker 4>would put him on Phantom Menace. And I can see
<v Speaker 4>this is going over like a turn in a punchball.
<v Speaker 4>Nobody else here agrees with me. I think this. I
<v Speaker 4>think he would nail it. Tell me why I'm wrong.
<v Speaker 2>That's a whole other podcast time.
<v Speaker 6>As much as I love Independence Day, that that dude
<v Speaker 6>is all flash no substance.
<v Speaker 4>That's J. J Abrams.
<v Speaker 1>But gos Michael bay whoa no, no, no, no no, no.
<v Speaker 7>Let's not start this again.
<v Speaker 1>No no, no, it's not all flash of no substance.
<v Speaker 2>Wow.
<v Speaker 4>Hey, there are no lens players of Phantom Menace, so
<v Speaker 4>we know it's not J. J Abrams, all right, I
<v Speaker 4>like my pick. I can tell none of you like it.
<v Speaker 4>That's fine, I'll own it. But I do know we.
<v Speaker 2>Do love the Lawrence casting idea though that may have
<v Speaker 2>taken care of ninety nine point nine percent of the problem.
<v Speaker 4>Yep, yeah, yeah, just not having Lucas in charge and
<v Speaker 4>maybe sweet talk Marsha into coming back to edit it.
<v Speaker 1>That won't happen either.
<v Speaker 6>That's honestly, That's why never get the original Chilody released
<v Speaker 6>on Blu rays, because he'd have to get it her money.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah's exactly why.
<v Speaker 2>So all right, Jeff, how do you fix this movie?
<v Speaker 5>I'll tell you what, guys.
<v Speaker 3>I have been with you too, to fix Beverly Hills,
<v Speaker 3>Cop three, Alien three, Jawls, The Revenge Superman four.
<v Speaker 5>I've been around you know.
<v Speaker 3>We talked Start, we talked the Star Trek the motion
<v Speaker 3>picture just last week. So I'm gonna look at this
<v Speaker 3>from a point of what can we do right now
<v Speaker 3>with what we've got. I'm gonna give you two things
<v Speaker 3>that I think would help this. First off, reduce the
<v Speaker 3>jar Jar Binks screen time to Nabo scenes only because
<v Speaker 3>he doesn't really serve any purpose other than selling toys.
<v Speaker 3>For the majority of the movie. So if we could
<v Speaker 3>just cut him to the Nabus scenes where he helps
<v Speaker 3>them out in the beginning and then helps them out
<v Speaker 3>again at the end with the battle, that I'd be
<v Speaker 3>okay with that.
<v Speaker 5>The other thing, if we could get.
<v Speaker 3>A good editor, let's open the film with the Jedi
<v Speaker 3>being dispatch to rescue the queen who's either seeking political
<v Speaker 3>asylum or to investigate an assassination attempt because she won't
<v Speaker 3>agree to terms with the Trade Federation. I think just
<v Speaker 3>doing those two things gives this movie a much better taste.
<v Speaker 9>Like it.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, d Man, I hesitate to say anything because Jason
<v Speaker 1>is so freaking good at this. I'm I'm like on
<v Speaker 1>the edge of my seat to see what Jason's going
<v Speaker 1>to say. No pressure, no pressure, no boy. But so
<v Speaker 1>I agree with you. I think that that's starting off.
<v Speaker 1>It needs to be that Amidala's life is in danger
<v Speaker 1>right then, Like we start off that she is being
<v Speaker 1>pursued not by guys who are Trade Federation blabadah, but
<v Speaker 1>like some ominous thing, like something that's truly you know,
<v Speaker 1>out for bad stuff. Maybe it's Darth Maul. That's how
<v Speaker 1>it starts off, is that there is an evil that
<v Speaker 1>is pursuing her, and that's the reason for the jedis
<v Speaker 1>to come in and to start doing things, and that
<v Speaker 1>they're stuck on that world battling those evil things instead
<v Speaker 1>of what they end up battling. And then remove all
<v Speaker 1>of the scenes that you have with this political battle
<v Speaker 1>and just make that I mean, I think legitimately, I
<v Speaker 1>hate to say this, that's better done through exposition because
<v Speaker 1>I don't care to watch the scene play out over
<v Speaker 1>the course of ten minutes. Tell me in one minute,
<v Speaker 1>tell me what's happening in one minute, as things are
<v Speaker 1>as the action is going. And you know by how
<v Speaker 1>much I hate Episode nine that I don't want pure
<v Speaker 1>action the whole time, because Episode nine was pure action
<v Speaker 1>the entire time, and it is the worst of the
<v Speaker 1>nine episodes. But this one had so little and so
<v Speaker 1>little fear, so little ominous. You know, somebody is genuinely
<v Speaker 1>in danger. I mean, you just take a tiny little part,
<v Speaker 1>you take a new hope. The scene where the black
<v Speaker 1>ball comes in with the needle and Princess Leiah is
<v Speaker 1>being you know, made to talk. Oh, that's terrifying. And
<v Speaker 1>that is a round plastic ball with a needle on
<v Speaker 1>the end of it. It's so simple to create these
<v Speaker 1>ominous situations and not a complicated way to create boring situations,
<v Speaker 1>which is what we had with this. And I'm I
<v Speaker 1>would rattle on too long and try to dissect the
<v Speaker 1>whole movie. I want to hear what Jason's going to say.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, well, I've got a bold idea and it's I
<v Speaker 2>don't know that it would work, but at least it
<v Speaker 2>at least I would freaking try to fix this thing.
<v Speaker 2>So Jeff and I have already talked about opening the
<v Speaker 2>movie as a part, you know, a third act from
<v Speaker 2>a different story where something exciting is happening and Mace
<v Speaker 2>Windu and Qui gon Are've got their lightsabers out and
<v Speaker 2>they're issuing justice, and you know, maybe you have the
<v Speaker 2>assassination attempt on the Queen early and you have a
<v Speaker 2>battle with Darth Maul to start the movie off, where man,
<v Speaker 2>this is the bad guy and this is the sin
<v Speaker 2>that he has committed in that this is what he does.
<v Speaker 7>But if you decide not to do that, I think
<v Speaker 7>my two Birds with one Stone fix is when mal
<v Speaker 7>is on Tattooin and he comes after he tries to
<v Speaker 7>commit vehicular homicide on Anakin, but instead he jumps off
<v Speaker 7>and lightsabers and strikes down jar Jar and murders him
<v Speaker 7>on tattooy. Okay, you've got Darth Maul committing a horrible sin,
<v Speaker 7>and every five year old is now crying, and every
<v Speaker 7>person in the audience is now like that.
<v Speaker 2>Dude's got to pay now. I mean, I didn't like
<v Speaker 2>jar Jar, but now he's got a go. We gotta
<v Speaker 2>get him now, right, you take out jar Jar, Darth
<v Speaker 2>Baul commits his sin, and now we've got a revenge
<v Speaker 2>plot and we've got something to work with.
<v Speaker 1>I told you guys, it's fan freakingtastic.
<v Speaker 6>He's always only that is how do they find the Gungans.
<v Speaker 1>At the end, we hut all that crap out.
<v Speaker 2>We don't care about it.
<v Speaker 6>But at the top with that is they have no
<v Speaker 6>They have no army. You know, Nabu has no army.
<v Speaker 6>So that's another issue which I.
<v Speaker 5>Don't have security volunteers.
<v Speaker 6>I don't understand why the Federation has a giant army
<v Speaker 6>while the Gungmans have an army, But why the Naboo
<v Speaker 6>have a few guys is with uniforms.
<v Speaker 1>I don't understand.
<v Speaker 6>I found your nineties director by the way I found
<v Speaker 6>your nineties director.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think Frank Darabont would do. Yeah, I definitely
<v Speaker 1>just don't like that's a great one. That is a
<v Speaker 1>great Frank to do anything with the fifth element.
<v Speaker 6>So I don't know what we mean by that.
<v Speaker 2>You're thinking, yeah, I think do.
<v Speaker 4>They work together on something? I have that name totally
<v Speaker 4>associated with it. Hey, Jason, cut that out. I sound
<v Speaker 4>like an idiot there.
<v Speaker 1>Hey, I gotta I gotta tell you guys that this morning,
<v Speaker 1>Jason's like, so you think you can edit this episode
<v Speaker 1>because I'm going on vacation. I'm like, you're giving me
<v Speaker 1>five people to edit. But so, yeah, this is going
<v Speaker 1>to be a very raw episode. Gentlemen. I'm sorry you
<v Speaker 1>got the time to make this call good. Okay, I'm
<v Speaker 1>going to say one more thing about how to fix
<v Speaker 1>a problem in this and that is bring in a
<v Speaker 1>truckload of dirt and smear it on everything. Because one
<v Speaker 1>of the beautiful factors of Star Wars that they absolutely
<v Speaker 1>keyed in on when they made Alien is man. Things
<v Speaker 1>are messy, things are not pristine, and somehow they forgot
<v Speaker 1>that over the course of twenty years, and they gave
<v Speaker 1>us this shiny silver thing that looks like a mirror
<v Speaker 1>as a spaceship, and everybody, even in the desert, is clean,
<v Speaker 1>like they're why why are they clean? Make it dirty
<v Speaker 1>because Star Wars is a space opera, but it's also
<v Speaker 1>a Western, and if you're doing a Western, it needs
<v Speaker 1>to be dirty. You're out on the frontier and you're
<v Speaker 1>fighting on the frontier, and that is not a clean,
<v Speaker 1>pristine thing. You can have those moments, I don't think
<v Speaker 1>people should be sitting down. You can have those moments
<v Speaker 1>where you've got the pretty civilized world that other people
<v Speaker 1>are in, but that needs to be a small part
<v Speaker 1>of the story. And things need to be dirty because
<v Speaker 1>we need to know that this is rough and this
<v Speaker 1>is without law. This is a lawless world.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, and you just don't get that in an empty
<v Speaker 4>green room. You have to be on location.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah yeah, okay, so dirty. Sorry, let's just.
<v Speaker 2>Recap real quick. I think this is good stuff right here.
<v Speaker 2>I think this is all pretty reasonable stuff.
<v Speaker 1>Right.
<v Speaker 2>You make everything dirty, you get rid of jar Jar's voice,
<v Speaker 2>you age up Anakin a little bit, you dump all
<v Speaker 2>the political crap, you do something a little more exciting.
<v Speaker 2>You don't waste Darth Maul. And we've got a great star, right.
<v Speaker 4>And listen, you don't use racial stereotypes for alien languages.
<v Speaker 2>You know you've done all the English speak.
<v Speaker 4>Hey, think about this. This movie came out in ninety nine.
<v Speaker 4>Planet of the Apes comes out in two thousand and one.
<v Speaker 4>Now think of tim Roth in that movie. He's in
<v Speaker 4>a practical costume. He's a chimpanzee, but he's scary and
<v Speaker 4>he's mean, and he's bad of the bone. That could
<v Speaker 4>have been jar Jar. You know, you believe Peter Mayhew
<v Speaker 4>is Chebacca because he's reel and in a costume, and
<v Speaker 4>on the set, you believe Tim Roth is that dude Thane.
<v Speaker 4>You could have made jar Jar that bad and put
<v Speaker 4>him in a real costumee, giving him a real attitude.
<v Speaker 4>You take tim Roth's Thane and you put him into
<v Speaker 4>the charge o role. I'm happy, I'm good. I mean,
<v Speaker 4>why not do that? Go practical? I'm holding that up
<v Speaker 4>as an example of proof that costume technology was on
<v Speaker 4>point in nineteen ninety nine, and you could have totally
<v Speaker 4>pulled it off and it would have worked.
<v Speaker 1>Planet of the Apes is I mean, it's the It's
<v Speaker 1>the top of the line as far as those things go, though,
<v Speaker 1>I mean, I'm just as far as making things real,
<v Speaker 1>they did a great job. In two thousand it was
<v Speaker 1>terrible movie. Tim Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes was
<v Speaker 1>a terrible movie. But the costumes were on point and
<v Speaker 1>they were real. And they have they have done the
<v Speaker 1>I would say the one good job the Plan of
<v Speaker 1>the Apes that have come since I've done the one
<v Speaker 1>good job of doing CD CGI. They have devoted so
<v Speaker 1>much time and energy to making it real that I
<v Speaker 1>as much as I hate CGI, I like those mosques
<v Speaker 1>and I'm not distracted by it.
<v Speaker 6>Watch Wat's the creator the CG and that.
<v Speaker 1>Oh I did. I saw it in the theater. Think
<v Speaker 1>you can touch it.
<v Speaker 6>It's it's beautiful.
<v Speaker 1>And I think I think the Rogue One, I mean
<v Speaker 1>I think the Rogue One, same director, what's his name? Edwards?
<v Speaker 1>Thank you, you're welcome. I think that he brilliant. The
<v Speaker 1>creator fell flat as far as story and acting went
<v Speaker 1>for me. But but you're but you're right. The the
<v Speaker 1>realness of the world that they're in is perfect, just
<v Speaker 1>like it was in Rogue One.
<v Speaker 7>Okay, last question, last question, is this movie worth the rewatch.
<v Speaker 4>D?
<v Speaker 2>Why don't you start us on onn't you you'll you'll
<v Speaker 2>close us Dayton.
<v Speaker 7>Is this movie worth the rewatch?
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, just because, like I said, I've watched it and
<v Speaker 6>I don't hate it as much as I used to.
<v Speaker 6>I mean, I have issues with it, but there is
<v Speaker 6>enough in there that I enjoy that. Yeah, I watch
<v Speaker 6>it from time to time. I probably watch it at
<v Speaker 6>least every couple of years, Dave.
<v Speaker 4>I will say, ultimately, yes, it is worth it because
<v Speaker 4>of the larger story being told. You have to squinch
<v Speaker 4>your eye and forgive a lot of the execution and design,
<v Speaker 4>but the big block storytelling of the Star Wars Mythos
<v Speaker 4>and its role in the larger picture of the Six movies,
<v Speaker 4>I think makes this an important watch. I do not
<v Speaker 4>watch it every couple of years, but I think it
<v Speaker 4>does have a place in the six.
<v Speaker 5>Jeff, I do not feel it is worth a rewatch.
<v Speaker 3>I subscribe to the machete cut format when I watch
<v Speaker 3>the trilogy, which I think works so much better. When
<v Speaker 3>you watch a New Hope Empire, then you go back
<v Speaker 3>to Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith
<v Speaker 3>as a flashback sequence and then jump to Jedi.
<v Speaker 5>That's the way I enjoy it.
<v Speaker 3>And aside from watching ten minutes of Darth Maul and
<v Speaker 3>the Duel of the Fates. I see no reason to
<v Speaker 3>ever go back to watch this one again.
<v Speaker 2>All right for me, As much as it hurts me
<v Speaker 2>to say this, this movie is not worth the rewatch.
<v Speaker 2>I think if you watched the trailer, you get everything
<v Speaker 2>you need. You get awesome bad guy Darth Maul, cool
<v Speaker 2>clips of the Lightsaber battle. Now, the Lightsaber Battle is
<v Speaker 2>the only thing really worth revisiting. You go back and
<v Speaker 2>watch the trailer, save yourself two hours.
<v Speaker 1>You're good. It is not worth the rewatch. D Well,
<v Speaker 1>when you started off what you said, you use the
<v Speaker 1>words for me, and I think that that is the key.
<v Speaker 1>Having rewatched it. For me, I would rather watch any
<v Speaker 1>of the movies, even episode nine, before I would put
<v Speaker 1>myself through watching episode one again. I was. I went
<v Speaker 1>in hopeful that I had been wrong about it for
<v Speaker 1>the last twenty five years, and was even madder when
<v Speaker 1>I left. But I'm mean right, I've got my own redispositions.
<v Speaker 1>My son, who is fourteen at this point, grew up
<v Speaker 1>with this movie and he loves it. He loves it.
<v Speaker 1>We have a mutual friend who is an adult. He's
<v Speaker 1>thirty thirty thirty eight. Yeah, and he loves it because
<v Speaker 1>he was a you know, twelve year old or whatever
<v Speaker 1>whenever it came out. And so.
<v Speaker 2>For Tristan Martin, that's you.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, that's you, Tristan. I need to talk to
<v Speaker 1>you about what you love it. I talked to my
<v Speaker 1>own about why he loved it, and I'm like, you're long,
<v Speaker 1>but okay, my boy, that's fine.
<v Speaker 4>But anyway, you lost him in the second bleep, but
<v Speaker 4>go ahead.
<v Speaker 1>Yah. But I think that it largely depends upon you
<v Speaker 1>as a person, and so I think there are some
<v Speaker 1>people who might have not been that interested in it
<v Speaker 1>when it first came out. We'll rewatch it and feel
<v Speaker 1>the way that I did, which was you got mad,
<v Speaker 1>got literally mad at what they did with your beloved
<v Speaker 1>Star Wars and storytelling. But there are other people who
<v Speaker 1>I think can rewatch this movie and go, you know what,
<v Speaker 1>this wasn't that bad. They had some good bones to this.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, maybe they didn't execute it well, and maybe
<v Speaker 1>that voice was kind of dumb, and maybe the kid
<v Speaker 1>was kind of hard to watch or whatever, but overall,
<v Speaker 1>it was a good story or they set up things
<v Speaker 1>that meant something. And so there are some folks out
<v Speaker 1>there who are listening, who I'm like, maybe you can
<v Speaker 1>rewatch it, right, but for me, no, stick it. Stick
<v Speaker 1>the negative in the funeral pyre for Darth Vader at
<v Speaker 1>the end, and please it never let it regenerate.
<v Speaker 4>I would say that in any case, you can skip
<v Speaker 4>the movie and just listen to the saga begins by
<v Speaker 4>weird ow and you're fine.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, I'm glad we didn't miss an episode of weird ow.
<v Speaker 7>Hey really quickly. I don't know if you guys are
<v Speaker 7>prepared to do this or not.
<v Speaker 2>Final judgment, Star Wars The Phantom Menace versus Star Trek
<v Speaker 2>the Motion Picture, You guys, can you do that?
<v Speaker 6>I haven't watched that movie in like twenty years, so
<v Speaker 6>I can't really speak to that. I remember not liking
<v Speaker 6>it very much the first time, so I have not
<v Speaker 6>rewatched it since.
<v Speaker 1>So, if so, only having watched it twenty years ago
<v Speaker 1>and having watched it once, having watched The Phantom Menace
<v Speaker 1>once a year for the last twenty five years, are
<v Speaker 1>you gonna say you would pick watching The Phantom Menace
<v Speaker 1>again as opposed to watching the motion picture again? More
<v Speaker 1>than likely? Okay, sir Dave?
<v Speaker 4>Okay, So I don't like. I mean, let me put
<v Speaker 4>this away. I'm a casual Trek fan, and I there
<v Speaker 4>are several Trek movies I love. The first one is
<v Speaker 4>not one of them. The appeal of Star Trek and
<v Speaker 4>Star Wars are very different. They've pilled different fandoms for
<v Speaker 4>a reason. Star Trek was always more cerebral and socially
<v Speaker 4>conscious and all those things. It tried to be a
<v Speaker 4>little bit more serious sci fi, where Star Wars are
<v Speaker 4>just a fun space opera and the Old West. So
<v Speaker 4>there are differences. And here's a case of where Gene
<v Speaker 4>Roddenberry was kind of still in charge of what he
<v Speaker 4>wanted to do with this first movie. And I would
<v Speaker 4>say that it's very true to Roddenberry's vision of what
<v Speaker 4>Star Trek should be. I just feel like his vision
<v Speaker 4>is kind of boring and there's just nothing happens in
<v Speaker 4>the first movie. I get the appeal, you know, they
<v Speaker 4>save the show. Fans were able to keep it alive.
<v Speaker 4>They brought it back, probably because Star Wars was a hit.
<v Speaker 4>Now we get the cast back, the novelty of seeing
<v Speaker 4>them back together. Hey, that was probably enough for the
<v Speaker 4>first movie. But the story doesn't work. It moves at
<v Speaker 4>a glacial pace. And I would say that even though
<v Speaker 4>Phantom Menace watches every aspect of execution, it's at least
<v Speaker 4>not boring the way Star Trek in the motion picture is,
<v Speaker 4>so I get it. It was the rodn Berry's kind
<v Speaker 4>of a stree bowl approach to sci fi, and it
<v Speaker 4>was slow on purpose and blah blah blah, but it
<v Speaker 4>does work for me as a piece of entertainment.
<v Speaker 1>I'm hoping to move the needle for you two guys,
<v Speaker 1>because you weren't like the other three of us. We
<v Speaker 1>were a part of the Star Trek episode where we
<v Speaker 1>talked about that movie. And what you may not know
<v Speaker 1>is that there has been a I don't know what
<v Speaker 1>they call it, extended cutter, director's cutter, exactly what you
<v Speaker 1>call it, right, But it came out in twenty twenty two. Now,
<v Speaker 1>don't get me wrong. There are still some very long scenes,
<v Speaker 1>but they have done some very good work with it.
<v Speaker 1>And I watched it when I was a teenager for
<v Speaker 1>the first time, and then I rewatched it a month ago,
<v Speaker 1>you know, and as an adult who can have an
<v Speaker 1>attention span that's a little bit longer, I actually enjoyed
<v Speaker 1>what they did in this twenty twenty two recut of
<v Speaker 1>the movie, and it's not like it's some huge dramatic change,
<v Speaker 1>but they have changed it in the right spots to
<v Speaker 1>make it a little less dull than it was before.
<v Speaker 1>There's still lots of extended sequences. But if you think
<v Speaker 1>about the fact that you can enjoy two thousand and
<v Speaker 1>one a space odyssey despite the fact that they're extended,
<v Speaker 1>you know, scenes of nothing but music and space creations
<v Speaker 1>and all of that, and you go in and you think, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to watch Star Trek, and I'm going to
<v Speaker 1>think that they're trying to be more like two thousand
<v Speaker 1>and one than they're trying to be like Star Wars.
<v Speaker 1>I think you will really enjoy it. And that is
<v Speaker 1>the cut that is currently out on Max right now.
<v Speaker 1>You can watch it streaming on Max if you want to.
<v Speaker 1>I would encourage you, gentlemen who haven't seen it in
<v Speaker 1>twenty years, to check out this new edition of it,
<v Speaker 1>because I was surprised and impressed when I rewatched. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>so I've interrupted the flow. I apologize Jeff.
<v Speaker 2>Star Trek or Star Wars in this matchup.
<v Speaker 3>I think the answer is subjective and it depends on
<v Speaker 3>what you're hungry for. One of these films is going
<v Speaker 3>to pair well with a happy meal and one of
<v Speaker 3>them isn't. And because I don't want to eat chicken
<v Speaker 3>nuggets and apple slices, no matter how good the toy is,
<v Speaker 3>I have to choose Star Trek the motion picture.
<v Speaker 4>That's I totally get that.
<v Speaker 1>That's a great answer you brought.
<v Speaker 4>You brought it down to where I can reach.
<v Speaker 7>It makes sense, all right, So I guess.
<v Speaker 4>You have to.
<v Speaker 1>We've said, have we done the versus party? Yeah? Oh yeah,
<v Speaker 1>Well yeah, I guess I did because I said that
<v Speaker 1>I wouldn't rewatch and what we watch, I guess it did.
<v Speaker 1>So my hand is it's on the table.
<v Speaker 7>Okay, So I guess that leaves me.
<v Speaker 1>So wait, wait here you go, Chuck.
<v Speaker 7>Let's hear what every buddy Chuck had said.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Chuck was with us on the on the Star
<v Speaker 1>Trek episode. Let's listen to what his opinion is between
<v Speaker 1>these two movies first, and then we'll come back and
<v Speaker 1>hear Jason's final judgment. Chuck, now we're talking the Phantom Menace.
<v Speaker 1>What do you say? Is it worth the rewatch or
<v Speaker 1>just leave it in the DVD case And never open
<v Speaker 1>it again.
<v Speaker 9>You know, I'm I'm going to rewatch The Phantom Menace
<v Speaker 9>because I always want to see if it's as bad
<v Speaker 9>as I remember it being. I mean, it just can't
<v Speaker 9>possibly be that bad.
<v Speaker 4>I mean, when I was a kid, I thought being
<v Speaker 4>a Jedi would be fun.
<v Speaker 9>When I was a kid, I thought the Force was
<v Speaker 9>something natural and not just Meticlorian counts. You know, it
<v Speaker 9>gets kind of fun with pod racing, and I just
<v Speaker 9>at the end of the day, it just really let
<v Speaker 9>me down.
<v Speaker 5>So is it rewatchable?
<v Speaker 9>It's more meth for me. So when it comes to
<v Speaker 9>watching either Star Trek the Motion Picture or Star Wars
<v Speaker 9>The Phantom Menace, it's going to be Star Trek the
<v Speaker 9>Motion Picture all the time.
<v Speaker 1>Excellent, Thanks Chuck. Chill was awesome. Not a big surprise,
<v Speaker 1>but yes.
<v Speaker 7>Jack, Jack was a great guest.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah he was all right.
<v Speaker 2>So it leaves it up to me. Okay, well, I
<v Speaker 2>am now fifty one years old and I no longer
<v Speaker 2>eat happy meals. But yeah, it's Star Trek the Motion Picture,
<v Speaker 2>particularly the director's cut that we just watched. It's beautiful,
<v Speaker 2>it's gorgeous, it's interesting. It does get the gang all
<v Speaker 2>back together, like Dave said, so it does get a
<v Speaker 2>lot of credit in the bank with me because of that.
<v Speaker 2>It does move slowly, but man, their parts in Phantom
<v Speaker 2>Menace they are super boring too. So other than the
<v Speaker 2>Lightsaber Battle, which is absolute must see Star Wars after
<v Speaker 2>watching and revisiting Star Trek the motion picture, it's the
<v Speaker 2>better movie.
<v Speaker 1>All right, Well, I know what I'm watching this weekend.
<v Speaker 2>Hey, I'd love to hear what you think after watching
<v Speaker 2>the director's cut. All right, guys, that is gonna do it.
<v Speaker 2>Thank you guys so much for being here. Jeff again
<v Speaker 2>with the Ahilabi podcast, Dave with Apples and Oranges and
<v Speaker 2>Dating with Document seventy seven. Thank you guys so much,
<v Speaker 2>and of course we are sure you can't be serious podcasts.
<v Speaker 2>We are coming back next week the with the matchup of.
<v Speaker 1>The Cult versus Great White.
<v Speaker 2>That's right, two big albums from nineteen eighty nine. We're
<v Speaker 2>doing Sonic Temple by the Cole versus Twice Shy from
<v Speaker 2>Great Rights, Great White.
<v Speaker 1>Wait, wait what bings us to Heaven? Now?
<v Speaker 2>Age?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah?
<v Speaker 4>All right, I'm i go out here and go watch
<v Speaker 4>Fifth Element.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, thank you guys much for joining us again.
<v Speaker 2>No, I had a blast.
<v Speaker 7>Thanks for coming, guys. We will see you guys down
<v Speaker 7>the road.
<v Speaker 6>I'm sure, bye, guys, We'll see you all, guys, toodles.
<v Speaker 1>Even though Jeff isn't here, we're we're recording there so
<v Speaker 1>I can catch anything like this.
<v Speaker 4>So all right, do it sound good?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Dave, we were just talking, so I you know,
<v Speaker 1>of course we immediately immediately jump into quality and the
<v Speaker 1>problems with these with this movie. And I was shocked
<v Speaker 1>because I thought Dayton was a fan. I thought Dayton
<v Speaker 1>was going to be the the you know, the sole advocate.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe there's gonna be one middle of the road guy
<v Speaker 1>and and then everybody else is gonna hate on it.
<v Speaker 1>But even Dayton is this is it's so hard to
<v Speaker 1>find something good to say about this.
<v Speaker 6>See, I I'm not a hater. Okay, I'm not a hater.
<v Speaker 6>I didn't cry like a little like so many people
<v Speaker 6>did when Last Jedi came out. I actually really liked
<v Speaker 6>Last Jedi. Your mouth there's a lot of yeah, well
<v Speaker 6>you know, I also, Dave's with me. No, no, you're
<v Speaker 6>not with me.
<v Speaker 4>I'm not a total hater of Last Jedi. I have said,
<v Speaker 4>I have said that I hate Last Jedi. The least
<v Speaker 4>of all the sequels. And I I am not saying
<v Speaker 4>it's what's wrong.
<v Speaker 5>With the Force Awakens, the Force Awakened.
<v Speaker 1>I love the Force Awakens.
<v Speaker 6>It is it is everything the prequels weren't.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, listen, listen. When Force Awakens came out, I would
<v Speaker 4>love it, and I was excited and I thought they
<v Speaker 4>got it right, but that I was caught up in
<v Speaker 4>the excitement of the moment, and upon reflection you realize
<v Speaker 4>it's a Beat for Beat remake of a New Hope.
<v Speaker 4>It is not anything, is not it?
<v Speaker 6>Well, that's just that's.
<v Speaker 1>If it is a Beat for Beat remake, because I
<v Speaker 1>totally I agree with you. Like I'm like, oh, well,
<v Speaker 1>they're doing the exact same thing that they did in
<v Speaker 1>a New Hope, but they did it with a new crowd,
<v Speaker 1>and Beat for Beat remakes sometimes can be freaking good,
<v Speaker 1>and they did. JJ Abrams nailed.
<v Speaker 6>It was a road to nowhere though, no, they the
<v Speaker 6>overall story got lost. I mean, Finn was supposed to
<v Speaker 6>be for Sensitive and become and become a Jedi. They
<v Speaker 6>completely abandoned that.
<v Speaker 1>They but they didn't do that until the until the
<v Speaker 1>last Jedi, right.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, they had no idea where they were going.
<v Speaker 1>No, they had an idea where they were going. It's
<v Speaker 1>just that whenever what's.
<v Speaker 4>His name that came in, John Ryan Johnson.
<v Speaker 1>Ryan Johnson came in. He was just like, I don't
<v Speaker 1>like any of these ideas, So I'm just gonna say
<v Speaker 1>screw it, none of that really, yeah, and I'm gonna
<v Speaker 1>go with my own complete different deal.
<v Speaker 4>First of all.
<v Speaker 1>But again you're not you're not stealing beat for beat,
<v Speaker 1>So you got that going for you. You're doing something different.
<v Speaker 6>Just that like, hey, guys were upset because it was
<v Speaker 6>too different. They complained that Force Awakened was too similar. Well,
<v Speaker 6>it was complained that that was too different. And I'm like,
<v Speaker 6>on which is it do you want? Do you want
<v Speaker 6>the same or do you want different?
<v Speaker 1>What the hell do you want?
<v Speaker 4>Right?
<v Speaker 1>Well, if you already established, hey, here's here are the seeds,
<v Speaker 1>here are the crumbs that we're gonna lead you down
<v Speaker 1>this trail. And then all of a sudden, you're like,
<v Speaker 1>this trail leads to a brick wall, and I now
<v Speaker 1>have to climb the brick wall. That's that's disheartening. If
<v Speaker 1>you start something, then you've got to finish it. You
<v Speaker 1>can't just go no, never mind, we didn't really mean
<v Speaker 1>anything that we said in that first movie.
<v Speaker 7>And then.
<v Speaker 4>All right, y'all not let me wordy. So first of all,
<v Speaker 4>where Awakens loses me is that I can't even remember
<v Speaker 4>the character's saying. Ray rays a total Mary Sue as
<v Speaker 4>soon as she was automatically better at flying the falcon
<v Speaker 4>than Han Solo.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know what Mary means.
<v Speaker 4>What is that you you bring in a like a
<v Speaker 4>what do you call it, and like an avatar character
<v Speaker 4>to represent yourself, and you just make this person suddenly
<v Speaker 4>better at everything and flawless, and they're just the here.
<v Speaker 4>It's like fan fiction. Is you're playing out this fantasy
<v Speaker 4>with with the character inserted.
<v Speaker 6>My question is would you have that same complaint if
<v Speaker 6>it was a guy instead of a girl.
<v Speaker 1>And I'm pretty sure you wouldn't. And I don't know
<v Speaker 1>that way, but that yes, I would.
<v Speaker 6>The whole thing was nobody nobody complained about.
<v Speaker 1>It was a disaster.
<v Speaker 4>How was it a disaster?
<v Speaker 5>It was?
<v Speaker 2>It took us down a road to nowhere.
<v Speaker 1>It took somewhere. Johnson, Ryan Johnson hadn't decided to totally
<v Speaker 1>abandon He blew up the.
<v Speaker 4>Bridge absolutely it's not only that, it's worse.
<v Speaker 1>If you take Force Awakens in isolation. I like great
<v Speaker 1>beginning to get start that nobody delivered on.
<v Speaker 4>Right, that's that's true.
<v Speaker 6>I agree with that.
<v Speaker 4>Then, So the so the problem is, here's the problem.
<v Speaker 4>They went into the trilogy with no plan. That's not
<v Speaker 4>like it's not like they said, all right, here are
<v Speaker 4>the clues that are going to pay off in the
<v Speaker 4>second and third act. He walked away not knowing what
<v Speaker 4>was gonna be in the second and third act. I
<v Speaker 4>agree with you. Ryan Johnson came in, so look, there's
<v Speaker 4>this exercise, improv exercise writers do. It's a lot of fun.
<v Speaker 4>You write your part and it's a story prompt for
<v Speaker 4>the next guy, and you just kind of like, this
<v Speaker 4>is improv exercise and you don't know where it's gonna
<v Speaker 4>end up. They did that with Star Wars. You don't
<v Speaker 4>do that for a property that you spent four billion
<v Speaker 4>dollars on the whole world's in love with. Okay, so
<v Speaker 4>here exactly what happened because came back and he didn't
<v Speaker 4>know what he was gonna do.
<v Speaker 1>Here, let me say this, because you brought up improv
<v Speaker 1>the the for actors, I'm a theater, major performance, major
<v Speaker 1>drama degree. If you're doing improv, you never say no,
<v Speaker 1>that's not what we're gonna do. You The words that
<v Speaker 1>you say are yes and yes, and that's the way
<v Speaker 1>you lead off if you were an actor in improv.
<v Speaker 1>And so if they've decided to improv this, okay, I
<v Speaker 1>don't really think that's what they decided to do. But
<v Speaker 1>if that's what they decided to do, Ryan Johnson has
<v Speaker 1>to go yes, and but he didn't. He went, no,
<v Speaker 1>that's not really what we're doing here. We're doing something
<v Speaker 1>completely different, and so he bombed the beauty of the
<v Speaker 1>improv if that's what it was.
<v Speaker 5>But there's no friggin'.
<v Speaker 1>Way that they started this idea of three sequels, a
<v Speaker 1>trilogy of sequels, and didn't have an idea what the
<v Speaker 1>arc of the story was. It had to have happened.
<v Speaker 1>What had to have happened is jj Abram said, I
<v Speaker 1>will come in for the first one. I just you know,
<v Speaker 1>I need to know where this is going. He looks
<v Speaker 1>at the scripts ideas and says, I like this arc.
<v Speaker 1>We can go there, and he delivers on Force Awakens,
<v Speaker 1>and then Ryan Johnson comes in and says, I don't
<v Speaker 1>like these ideas. I'm gonna I'm gonna totally go in
<v Speaker 1>a separate direction of this, and the powers that be
<v Speaker 1>at Disney at that point needed to say, no, no, Ryan,
<v Speaker 1>we're letting you direct this. We're not letting you rewrite
<v Speaker 1>the entire trilogy. That's absurd. But that's what happened. They
<v Speaker 1>sat on their heels and they did nothing to stop
<v Speaker 1>him from rewriting everything. And then whenever Jason Colvin called
<v Speaker 1>him on the phone and said, you guys are all
<v Speaker 1>a bunch of idiots, they said, oh gosh, we gotta
<v Speaker 1>we got to backtrack. We gotta put the eggs back
<v Speaker 1>in the brownies. And it was a miserable experience.
<v Speaker 2>This is the best time for me to ever walk
<v Speaker 2>into chat is Aya.
<v Speaker 4>So do you blame Ryan Johnson, who's approved talented filmmaker,
<v Speaker 4>or do you blame Kathleen.
<v Speaker 3>Kennedy yes, letting him do it, yes, yes, okay, And
<v Speaker 3>George Lucas.
<v Speaker 2>For selling it okay. No, Well, I thought that was
<v Speaker 2>a good idea at the time.
<v Speaker 6>George Lucas has already taking a shit on his own creation.
<v Speaker 6>Everything he can slap that Star Wars logo on, he
<v Speaker 6>put it on. You know, it didn't matter if it
<v Speaker 6>was underwear, toothpaste, whatever he was. There was one hundred
<v Speaker 6>different novels. There's all kinds of Hey, let's make more toys,
<v Speaker 6>let's do no, no.
<v Speaker 1>No, no, no, no no.
<v Speaker 6>He he was already not happy with his movie. He
<v Speaker 6>kept messing with him, tweaking them, doing them over to oh,
<v Speaker 6>let's do this, let's do the special istions.
<v Speaker 5>So I used to that.
<v Speaker 2>He was just as he's not inno sense.
<v Speaker 6>No he's not.
<v Speaker 2>He's not innocent, but he comes out smelling like roses.
<v Speaker 2>After seeing part nine.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, I still thinks are better than the pre series.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, hang on da no Jeff's answer answer. You can
<v Speaker 2>set fire to episodes one, two, and three and they
<v Speaker 2>never exist, or you can set fire to seven eight
<v Speaker 2>nine and they never exist.
<v Speaker 5>What do you do, Dave?
<v Speaker 4>I'm setting fire to seven, eight and nine.
<v Speaker 7>Thank you, Jeff flamethrow seven eight nine man.
<v Speaker 1>No way, no, no freaking way. Yes, I hate nine
<v Speaker 1>above all of the other people. I mean, I hate nine.
<v Speaker 1>You just said you hated eight too. I don't hate eight.
<v Speaker 1>I'm mad at what he did, but I don't hate it,
<v Speaker 1>you know, I don't it was. It was acceptable if
<v Speaker 1>you can finish it. If you can finish if you
<v Speaker 1>are the if you're the kad who in the improv
<v Speaker 1>class said no, you're in my house, man. If if
<v Speaker 1>you're the jerk who says, well, no, we're not doing that, JJ,
<v Speaker 1>we're doing something else, and you go down that road. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>but if that.
<v Speaker 2>Doesn't matter though we here we are he hit.
<v Speaker 1>Say you can't say no and again. You have to
<v Speaker 1>go yes, end because if you say no and again,
<v Speaker 1>then you're just like, let's.
<v Speaker 2>Just then is burning all the ground burn?
<v Speaker 4>And episode nine felt like a reaction to fan reaction.
<v Speaker 6>It was the right way to go.
<v Speaker 1>I understand all of that. It's suggest that one, two,
<v Speaker 1>and three are so bad, so bad.
<v Speaker 6>There's definitely a lot. There's, like I said, there's one
<v Speaker 6>really good movie in the prequels, and there's two that
<v Speaker 6>there's a bad one, and then there's an average one
<v Speaker 6>which
<v Speaker 2>Is basically the same as seven, eight nine, except they
<v Speaker 2>take us nowhere.