STACK #133 Nov 2016

EXTRAS

FEATURE

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Redemption

Are there any redeeming qualities in the Star Wars prequels? That’s a tough ask. I once made a promise to myself never to return to Episodes I – III under any circumstances. I even floated the idea of raising a petition to lobby Disney into remaking them and casting the originals into the Great Pit of Carkoon. But this month I was Force- choked into picking one redeeming feature from each film. It wasn’t easy. By Paul Jones

Lucas truly miscalculated his audience with The Phantom Menace . This really is a dire movie, and time hasn’t been kind to its special effects. I remember thinking at the time it looked like a video game, and that filming with so much green screen would reflect poorly on the production in the not too distant future. After enduring the 136 minute running time, I could settle on only one part of the film – the lightsaber duel between Obi Wan, Qui-Gon Jinn and the excellent Darth Maul. There was a brand new energy to the combat here. It was frenzied, fierce and balletic; the intensity made for fantastic viewing. The laser gate sequence where Maul and Qui-Gon are forced to temporarily pause in battle proved that Lucas could control pace, tension and structure through his direction when required. The only negative is that Darth Maul’s appearance in the prequel trilogy was all too brief. And yet another forgettable prequel rolled off the Lucas production line. I know what you’re thinking: Yoda’s brief confrontation with Count Dooku is the standout moment, but I disagree. I actually found the entire melee quite comical, portentously remarking at the time that it was something Disney would do if they were making a Star Wars film. No, for me, the one memorable sequence in Attack of the Clones was shortly after Padmé, Anakin and Obi-Wan survive the monsters unleashed on them during the Geonosis arena fight. Within the stadium crowd, figures move to the fore and one by one, lightsabers spring to life. The Jedi Council has sent every Jedi Knight to Geonosis to fight the bad guys in a massive battle within the arena. This is the first time we’d seen so many Jedis congregated in a single space and it’s a real hair-on-the-back-of-the-neck moment as they charge towards the oncoming Battle Droid army with lightsabers flashing. The best of the three (just), Revenge of the Sith is the tendon that joins the prequels to the original trilogy. I’ve often wondered how Lucas cast the prequels and have images of him staggering around drunk, blindfolded at Skywalker Ranch throwing darts at a spinning wheel filled with photos of potential leads. Clearly one of these arrows struck the picture of Hayden Christensen. His diabolical performance across two films comes to a fiery end after Obi-Wan relieves him of his legs and sends him sliding towards a river of lava. Enter the Emperor, who rescues the charred torso, takes the stump back to a space station and sets a team of medical droids upon him on a restoration project that Andrew Winter would be proud of. It is here, as the black gloss pieces of Vader’s helmet are connected to Anakin’s head, that Star Wars fans finally get what they have been waiting six years for. We hear his ominous deep breath for the first time, as Vader rises from the operating table. We’ll forget the pathetic “Noooo!” scream of anguish when he learns of Padmé’s death, and focus our memories of him stood on the bridge of a Star Destroyer alongside the Emperor and a young Grand Moff Tarkin, arms folded, overseeing the early stages of the Death Star’s construction.

NOVEMBER 2015

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