in defense of the prequels.

before i get to the nerd heresy that is the purpose of this post, i've got a brief review of "Public Enemies" to throw out there. (just in case anyone still reads this little sounding board i like to occasionally nerd out on) so if you aren't familiar with Mr. Michael Mann, he's a madman, and one of the best directors in the game today. his films offer complete immersion, super stylized cinematography, and the best gun battles in hollywood. he directed thief, manhunter, last of the mohicans, heat, the insider, ali, collateral and miami vice. so now comes public enemies, starring johnny depp, christian bale and marion cotillard, among others, as the primary figures in john dillinger's one year crime spree across the midwest from 1933-34 that famously ended in a hail of gunfire outside of a movie theater in chicago. the film is not exactly what i expected, the trailer having me expecting an action based shoot-em-up gangster flick a la the untouchables. public enemies is not that film at all. it is extremely artistic and beautifully made, with terrific shots, set design, camera angles and of course, acting. it's not so much a gangster movie as it is a biopic of the last year of dillinger's life and a love story, a surprisingly touching one at that. depp and cotillard are terrific, bale is solid, and the supporting cast is very good. film making 10/10, acting 9/10, plot 8/10, script 7/10, for a final grade of 8.5. something tells me this film is only going to grow on me on re-watching. if you're an adult with a mind that wants more out of films than silly jokes, shit blowing up and pretty people, go see Public Enemies.. you won't regret it. [p.s. this movie made me sad b/c it demonstrated how amazing an actor johnny depp is, and how much of a fucking tragedy it is that he wastes his time wearing clown makeup and appearing in clown ass disney movies and everything tim burton even farts on. the guy really should be up there with Leo competing for the incredible dramatic roles that are out there, instead he's playing a pirate caricature and singing while cutting throats. come on john. you've been donnie brasco, you've been john dillinger, give us something memorable... before its too late and you've become gary oldman.]

now, the heart of the matter. defending the seemingly un-defendable, the three star wars prequels. i think the problem with the prequels first and foremost, is people's ridiculously high opinion of episodes IV-VI, and thus the expectation that the first three chapters are going to be just as good as the unrealistic opinion of the last three. the star wars films can be ranked in this way: 1. The Empire Strikes Back (9.2), 2. A New Hope (8.7), 3. Revenge of the Sith (8.1), 4. Return of the Jedi (7.1), 5. Attack of the Clones (7), 6. The Phantom Menace (6). It is my opinion that there are in fact 3 good star wars movies, but they aren't the ones that you may be thinking. III, IV and V are all excellent, I, II and VI are all merely average to above-average. the mistaken belief that all of the prequels are shit and all of the original trilogy are golden is ridiculous and the source of all of this nerd propaganda. a new hope and empire strikes back are both outstanding. truly, like on an all-time level. return of the jedi is not. return of the jedi is a two hour toy commercial, with new characters, aliens, creatures and spaceships introduced every 35 seconds without any explanation whatsoever (hm, sounds kind of like phantom menace and attack of the clones to me). yes, the giant space battle is awesome, but we're also forced to sit through mark hamill's empty emotionless acting (hamill was ok as a whiney teen, not as a confident man), the ewoks, and like i said, the introduction of all sorts of new characters for no purpose other than to sell action figures. is anyone expected to believe that midgets wearing carpet and bear masks are taking on the galactic military with rocks, sticks and logs? i mean come on george, that's the dumbest thing to happen in any of the star wars films. in ROTJ, you can see the problem developing that would plague the first two prequels. Lucas' focus gets too macro and grandiose, and he loses focus on what made people love star wars in the first place, the characters. he forgets that trees even exist while shooting the whole fucking forest. for that reason, ROTJ gets a 7.1, and is only slightly better than attack of the clones, the 2nd best of the prequel films. attack of the clones has its problems (jar-jar, the less than compelling "love story" between anakin and padme), but it also has an awesome battle scene, and a badass jedi fight between anakin-obi wan-yoda and count dooku. really, the problems with Episode II are the stupid, stupid dialogue, emotionless acting and reliance on effects and cgi. revenge of the sith is fucking good. i don't care what anyone says, it's actually somewhat compelling, has some awesome (awesome) fight scenes, and really brings everything full circle, who wouldn't like that? i've said repeatedly that if George Lucas put 30% of the work into story and characters that he did into sets, effects and creatures, the prequels would be 3 of the top 10 films of all time, and Revenge of the Sith is the only one where it comes together. Empire Strikes Back is the best... i've talked about that already (see the top 20 list), A New Hope is 2nd, just purely for what it brought to film and the movies, it really changed everything (a great sense of adventure, a quest, classic good vs. evil, great characters. so really, there ARE in fact two trilogies that are separated by quality. and that's III, IV and V vs. I, II and VI. there is really only one BAD star wars movie. and that's a phantom menace. i give it a 6 and that's being generous. the only things that save it are the always awesome liam neeson, darth maul, absolutely gorgeous CGI (the pod-racing scene looks amazing) and effects and a solid performance out of natalie portman. on the other side is the shitty acting out of everyone else, (including you little boy), the infamous jar-jar (who really was just playing the C3PO part, but it didn't work), and just a dumb story that isn't at all compelling. so the next time you're hating on star wars, don't just blindly split it into the originals vs. the new guys. look into return of the jedi again, it isn't really very good by the standards of a new hope and empire strikes back. there ARE three good star wars movies, but they aren't the ones you think. i'll argue this shit with any nerd anywhere.