Star Wars Episode 1 Part 2 of 3

Star Wars Episode 1 Part 2 of 3

Between Return of the Jedi and Episode 1, something happened to George Lucas. His writing became disconnected, and the human touch was gone. It was as if the emotional levels within his characters seem to drop. His dialog, while never great, appeared to be lacking. In Episode one, almost all the characters talk in this formal way of speaking. A prime example of this is this line below.

Obi-Wan: I have a bad feeling about this.
Qui-Gon Jinn: I don't sense anything.
Obi-Wan: It's not about the mission, Master. It's something... elsewhere. Elusive.

When spoken, these lines seem dry. And yet, the acting is also wooden with the exceptions being Ian McDiarmid and Liam Neeson. George should have let someone else direct Ep1-3, the same way he gave up control of Empire and Jedi. The fire to direct movies left Lucas a long time ago, and it’s illustrated in his directing style in the Prequels. The scenes where people are talking to each other have no feeling or energy to them. Watch any scene from A New Hope and compare it to Ep1, and you’ll see the difference.

Then, there is the character of Jar-Jar. With a character this goofy, he pretty much made sure that every fanboy would curse his name for the rest of his life. I’ve already said many things about Jar-Jar in this blog, so I won’t get into too much of it. He was supposed to be the comic relief, but the problem was that Jar-Jar wasn’t very funny. I wished Lucas could have handled Jar-Jar differently. Lucas should’ve made the character more noble and edgier. Have him be an outcast because he believed that his people should talk to the Naboo humans, and open a dialog with them.