I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on this, dark_lord, in contrast to Harry Knowles' review, found here (profanity alert). As you probably know, Harry runs aintitcool.com, and is one of the biggest Star Wars fans / geeks in the universe. He loved all the other Star Wars movies, loved the previous Clone Wars animated series... and absolutely hated this.
I'd be interested in hearing your perspective in hearing why that is, and if you can relate to the criticisms he made. (The one I'm hearing most often, almost universally, is about how the Hutts were treated.)
(Interestingly enough, almost all the aintitcool Star Wars fans disliked the movie. That was a major surprise, since reaction to Star Wars movies over there is usually almost universally positive.)
thanks for the link hobbsy! all i can say is "wow"!
i strongly disagree with alot of what he complained about. although he claims to be a big star wars fan, i am surprised by his lack of knowledge going into the film. it has been widely publicized among the star wars world that the voices are all different (except for threepio, dooku, and windu). i am amazed he had any issues with ventress at all. she completely came off as a badass, which he claimed he wanted in the film.
ahsoko was a great character. again, if he was informed heading into the film, he would have known that lucas himself said he wanted a female padawan with appeal towards female fans. ahsoka comes off as a fearless, witty, and bold padawan, who you know will test anakin and question him along the way...while simultaneously building a strong bond between the two. the way in which she wields a lightsaber is completely different than any jedi we have seen to date. you leave the film thinking what adventures will anakin and ahsoka face, and you also wonder how she will develop into a jedi. i think she was a cool character and she definately left me wanting to see her battle more in the future. as i said in a previous post, the film did an excellent job building character development bewteen anakin and ahsoka....which you would expect as the jumpoff to an entire series.
with regards to the hutts, i agree with his views on ziro the hutt. i found him to be annoying, not menacing, and just bad. however, his involvement in the film is not a major one. i find that lucas always puts in lighthearted or "cute" characters in his films, bc he always claims it is a saga for the entire family. there is something for each member of the family to enjoy and gravitate towards (i.e. rd2, jar jar, ewoks, etc).
although i agree with his distaste for ziro, i disagree about "stinky". stinky is an infant. therefore he should do the things he was complaining about...pukey, farting, stinky behavior. it was done in a playful way and it did the job in making the viewer care for the little guy. that is what should happen, as the plot of the film is a rescue mission to capture stinky from being kidnapped.
the other thing i agree with was the opening. they didnt do the textbook opening crawl. but in a way, i thought it did a good job of gripping you in the beginning as to "this is different, whats going to happen in this film". the had action shots of battle scenes, as well as jedi battling against evil (plo koon and kit fisto together). it was different. i prefer the old way, but i dont think it was as bad as the writer explained. not to mention that you fogot about the opening withink minutes bc the first scene is a battle scene.
overall, i stand by my opinion that it was a great film. not the best, but i wasnt expectiing it to be that (episode 3 will forever hold that title!).
im willing to discuss it more in detail, but will wait a little while so that it doesnt spoil it for other bloggers. i am planning on seeing it again within the next week or two.