- Joined
- Nov 9, 2014
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- 2,271
- Reaction score
- 297
This is an easy one to kick around, and there are many obvious flaws, like Jar-Jar, and sub-par performances by Jake Lloyd and Natalie Portman. I blame the directing for that, since she's otherwise a good actress. Also the writing is often bad on a line-by-line basis (often too on the nose), which can make the performance look bad even if the actor is doing the best they can.
But an overarching flaw I noticed is that the movie tells rather than shows its stakes. The main external conflict of the plot is the blockade of Naboo, which they keep telling us is starving the people, but we never see any starving people on Naboo. And the main external conflict driving Anakin is that he and his mother are enslaved. But we never see any slaves on Tatooine being mistreated. Anakin's mother seems to live a comfortable domestic life with no obligations other than taking care of Anakin, and Anakin works as a technician in a shop. We don't see anyone doing hard labor in mines.
Versus in Episode IV we see Luke's foster parents incinerated in act one.
But an overarching flaw I noticed is that the movie tells rather than shows its stakes. The main external conflict of the plot is the blockade of Naboo, which they keep telling us is starving the people, but we never see any starving people on Naboo. And the main external conflict driving Anakin is that he and his mother are enslaved. But we never see any slaves on Tatooine being mistreated. Anakin's mother seems to live a comfortable domestic life with no obligations other than taking care of Anakin, and Anakin works as a technician in a shop. We don't see anyone doing hard labor in mines.
Versus in Episode IV we see Luke's foster parents incinerated in act one.