boingboing notes that neal stephenson has an op-ed piece in today’s ny times in which he claims that the first star wars trilogy isn’t as bad as you think because you miss the backstory and rich context:
Likewise, many have been underwhelmed by the performance of Hayden Christensen, who plays Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. Only if you’ve seen the “Clone Wars” cartoons will you understand that Anakin is a seriously damaged veteran, a poster child for post-traumatic stress disorder. But since none of that background is actually supplied by the Episode III script, Mr. Christensen has been given an impossible acting task. He’s trying to swim in air.
In sum, very little of the new film makes sense, taken as a freestanding narrative. What’s interesting about this is how little it matters.
this is bullshit. LOTR entertained millions of people who haven’t read the books and don’t know all the stories and the lore and the parts that peter jackson left out. while it’s nice to have a rich history and to be able to throw in references that people who are familiar with such things can pick up on, having a movie that allegedly depends on knowing the fan lore and can’t stand up on its own merits is ridiculous.
did you have to know the life story of william randolph hearst to enjoy citizen kane? did you have to read the secret wars issues of the amazing spiderman to enjoy spiderman 1/2?
hey, i’m no famed award-winning science fiction author, but i can tell you this:
the only good part of star wars III: revenge of the sith is when anakin puts on the mask and fully becomes darth vader, because THIS IS THE POINT WHERE WE NO LONGER HAVE TO WATCH HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN TRY TO ACT.
Posted at June 17, 2005 11:19 AMComments are now closed for this entry. Thank you for playing.