The Plinket Trilogy Concludes
[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.]
Remember those very long, harsh, funny, insightful critiques of Star Wars Episode I and II? Well, the guy is back to complete his trilogy.
Big language and content warning. I mean at one point the man pretends to have sex with an animal. It’s funny, but you don’t want to have to explain what the hell is happening to the kiddies.
It’s in three parts:
I think some of what he said is not actually valid. But a lot is. But to critique the critiquer, for instance, he didn’t seem to understand that while the original storm troopers were all clones, the ones in the original trilogy (IV-VI) were by then regular people. And I think on some level the relative peace that Coruscant enjoyed during all of this was kind of the point, too. None of this felt real to the people so what was a little endless war by people who were grown in vats and had no families that cared for them? And I think in general there is less to criticize here, because it is a better movie. It’s not as good as the originals, but some of it, imho was actually pretty good. Still the majority of his criticism hits home, especially the fact that Vader was too much the focus of the movie.
Hat tip: Red letter media.
[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]
I don’t believe that it’s been established that “… the ones in the original trilogy (IV-VI) were by then regular people.”
“The clone troopers, now proudly bearing
the honorable rank of Imperial stormtroopers,
have tackled the dangerous work of fighting
our enemies on the front lines.”
—Emperor Palpatine
Can you please provide a source that supports your statement that all the Fett clones were replaced with regular people?
joh (c7d3b9) — 12/31/2010 @ 11:17 amwell, besides the fact that they were often different sizes and sounded different?
outside of the movies, this is also made absolutely clear in various games. For instance, in Tie Fighter you talk about your recruitment into the imperial military from civilian life. in the game Star Wars: Battlefront II, in campaign mode, you see references to how your unit was one of the last all clone units.
Aaron Worthing (1a6294) — 12/31/2010 @ 11:30 am“Even Sir Laurence Oliver couldn’t read these lines.”
Is this sarcasm?
DRJ (d43dcd) — 12/31/2010 @ 1:57 pmI do not get Star Wars. Or Star Trek. Or Battlestar. Or any sci-fi.
JD (07faa1) — 12/31/2010 @ 2:13 pm‘Is this sarcasm?’ Yes.
RNB (e9a2f5) — 12/31/2010 @ 2:13 pmHow clever.
DRJ (d43dcd) — 12/31/2010 @ 2:35 pmI can’t stand Star Wars and don’t think it’s really science fiction so much as just a kid’s movie, but I’ve seen a lot of references to the idea that the expensive clones were no longer needed after the clone wars.
If you google the issue, there’s a lot of discussion of the reasons, and I get the impression a lot of it’s from secondary sources like books and video games.
I think it’s just another example of why I don’t like Star Trek or Star Wars. It’s just a science fiction like idea, jammed into the story to be cool, instead of to explore people or feelings or philosophies with a concept that isn’t possible without science fiction.
I disagree with JD on Galactica. I think that show actually did throw in a lot of science fiction for the purpose of having an extreme or unusual exploration of various philosophies or even what it is to be a person. I think Galactica is very good science fiction for the most part. I only watched the show a few weeks ago when my wife was sick and found it on Netflix streaming, and I’m not a big watcher of TV programming at all, but at the very least I don’t think Star Wars and Star Trek are in the same genre, even though they also have space ships.
Dustin (b54cdc) — 12/31/2010 @ 3:18 pmAnd yet, in Star Wars episode 4 when Leia sees Luke in his ill-fitting Stormtrooper disguise, she says, “Aren’t you a little short for a Stormtrooper?” indicating that they are all very nearly the same height indeed.
luagha (8760c2) — 12/31/2010 @ 3:45 pmluagha
where would the officers come from, if not from the lower ranks. and the officers are clearly not clones.
Aaron Worthing (1a6294) — 12/31/2010 @ 3:48 pmThe best part of the review is putting a laugh track over the dialog between Hayden and Natalie.
SPQR (26be8b) — 12/31/2010 @ 3:51 pmThe officers were clearly mukluks from the planet Zarkon in the constellation Teondochoren in the galaxy 3 Musketeers.
JD (07faa1) — 12/31/2010 @ 3:52 pmluagha, when Leia says “Aren’t you are little short for a stormtrooper?” she is indicating that Luke is a little short for a stormtrooper.
She does not say “You can’t be a stormtrooper because they are all clones and exactly 5 foot 10 inches tall.”
SPQR (26be8b) — 12/31/2010 @ 3:52 pmMan, people are badmouthig Star Trek (TOS)? You guys are lucky we don’t blasphemy laws in this country.
Dave Surls (5f2251) — 12/31/2010 @ 4:18 pmStar Trek is Teh Suck.
JD (07faa1) — 12/31/2010 @ 4:27 pmCan’t stand Star Trek. Most shows I’ve watched are sloppy.
I guess the original series was much better on this count, though, and actually did the sort of theoretical exploration I was talking about.
but the later series tended to have some jargon problem solved by some jargon button on the ship.
It’s pretty clear that almost everything in the entire Star Wars universe is incoherent with itself. The older movies have storm troopers with different voices, if I recall, and there’s absolutely no indication the troops are cloned, despite the interesting point that someone apparently can’t be a trooper if they are as a short as Mark Hamill.
It does seem strange that they wouldn’t keep cloning troops when the rebellion is ongoing, taking victories, etc. they needed a good military more than ever at that point, than when they were in a fake war with the ‘trade federation’.
Anyway, an idea like a massive cloned army should give rise to some very interesting problems with identity and choice, but you get none of that. The movies were barely any different if you pretend these guys weren’t clones. It’s just that Boba Fett toys sell well.
Dustin (b54cdc) — 12/31/2010 @ 4:54 pmDustin
well, obviously star trek and wars were both pretty bad on the science.
but i never really cared that much about that. for me its about people not stuff. yes a little spectacle is fun, but if you don’t like the characters…. well you get the star wars prequels.
Aaron Worthing (1a6294) — 12/31/2010 @ 5:01 pmbad on the science….
AD-RtR/OS! (ac847e) — 12/31/2010 @ 5:08 pmas if we (today) know what the science is in the future?
That is why the call it Science Fiction, after all.
Battlefront is a great game. Star Wars has had a lot of pretty good games over the years. But they are just action games rather than thoughtprovoking, IMO. My wife would always kick my ass at Battlefront, and it’s a shame there hasn’t been one of those for a few years on the newer generation of consoles (it would be a major money maker, too).
It’s true, I don’t find the characters compelling. That’s a key part of it. I think Star Wars has been geared for little kids since the Return of the Jedi movie, but a lot of the games have been targeted at young adults.
Dustin (b54cdc) — 12/31/2010 @ 5:10 pmI suspect we won’t see many planets that are all 100% the same environment, like the cloud city planet, the desert planet, the ice planet, and the city capitol planet, the way Star Wars has things. I always thought that was really funny, even when I was a young kid.
Sometimes the science is just bad because of a lack of thoughtfulness. Star Wars originally was about magic powers, so it’s no real problem that it’s unrealistic. Star Trek’s warp drive is supposedly plausible, but a tremendous amount of their problems wind up being solved with some jargon deus ex machina.
Dustin (b54cdc) — 12/31/2010 @ 5:14 pmHey, I’m still waiting to find that planet with the winged warriors that Flash Gordon was on, the one ruled by the evil Ming!
But, for cheesy plots and effects, it was hard to beat “Space Patrol”.
AD-RtR/OS! (ac847e) — 12/31/2010 @ 5:16 pmDustin
the company that made battlefront, pandemic, was working on a third one, but they went under. no idea if anyone else would pick up the mantle. i sure as hell hope so. because it captured the dream of being in a star wars gunfight. dang that game was cool.
And tie fighter was an underappreciated classic. there is just something special about single handed destroying a star destroyer.
Aaron Worthing (1a6294) — 12/31/2010 @ 5:54 pmWRT the references to deus ex machina solutions and whatnot, I would refer the reader to:
The Particles of Star Trek.
Yeah… someone cataloged them all. Someone with, one assumes, no life.
Russ (91df94) — 12/31/2010 @ 10:23 pmStar Wars is fantasy, not science fiction.
The Stormtroopers in Ep 4 (and 5-6?) were different sizes cuz of a low budget. Ep 4 was a low budget film from start to finish.
(Original) Star Trek is about ideas. Yes the rocks are made of foam. It was crap 60’s TV, folks. Get over it. But to ignore the ideas presented is to miss out. The original series was pitched as “‘Wagon Train” to the stars”. If any of you remember that series. Racism, sexism, betrayal, etc. It’s all there and up front for your enjoyment. And no one broke out of prison more often than Kirk!
No, it’s not Dostoyevsky. But Fyodor isn’t on TV.
viktor (73db5e) — 1/1/2011 @ 12:00 amAll of his criticisms about how NOT to tell a story are dead on. There are lots of filmmakers working today who need to take those criticisms to heart. Really cool special effects are meaningless without a good, engaging story. The only exceptions are for first-time things, like Avatar.
I was especially impressed (and then appalled) by him pointing out the many, many times in those films that people have conversations either (a) walking or (b) sitting on a couch. A couch!
Linus (d2547e) — 1/1/2011 @ 9:10 pmI really had to agree with this guys criticisms but the thing that pissed me off about the movies, not just bored or meh like the rest, was how the characters completely failed to develop just to give him an easier way to tie into Ep. 4.
Padme goes from youngest queen ever elected(??) to won’t live without little Ani.
The story didn’t have to suck, the concepts didn’t have to be so poorly developed. The Extended Universe (books and games) had done a decent job of backfilling the universe in a mostly coherent way because of the Lucas IP continuity requirements.
Having said that, I do like that they gave a great template for this guy to do his thing and educate the masses about filmmaking. After having seen these about Ep 1 and 2, I could explain why I hated Avatar better. I could analyze and figure out that oh, this is boring because… A nice step up from “hated it” reviews.
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Tien Spiry (486ea4) — 4/16/2011 @ 9:24 am