This essay is from Mart?n Javier Hermida
Published on March 18, 2001

Episode I -
Badly Directed and Boring

Seventeen years ago, the yoke of imperial tyranny saw its inevitable declination on the widescreen. Everyone thought it was the end for the political institution, which forged the largest domain ever to be imagined. And they were right. The empire was gone and the finale was written. George Lucas will never in his life tell us about the new republic and the fate of the Jedis after the apparent fall of the Sith.

Instead, he brought us a vision of the past. The empire was just a plan in a single mind taking its first material steps. The problem of this vision was the lack of such. We had a glimpse of what was really happening out there. We were diverted by an empty story, a collection of poor dialogues, and a deceitful commercial campaign, designed to make us believe we were going to the movies to watch a Star Wars film. Instead we got an FX movie, a bad one.

I saw it four times, not because I liked it, but because I was trying to find out what was the secret, the covered meaning of what I was watching, and the link to the entire plot. I think I found it. I'm not entirely sure, but I think I did, and it cost me four movie tickets.

What I couldn't find was the excellent work from the director of American Graffiti and Star Wars. I sincerely couldn't believe how bad the movie was. Explanations you ask? My heart resents doing so, but my fellows, Episode I had three things that messed up the movie project:

• It was (or became) an excuse to make money.
• It was badly directed.
• It was boring.

Movies are of course a business, but the real moviemaker seeks to use the system for movie making, not movies to feed the system. It doesn't seem to be the movie of a director who could plasm emotion to a washing machine that beeps (yes R2).

George Lucas left me without sleep after American Graffiti, it thrilled me, and it was made with the type of scripts that make pathetic movies. When I see Star Wars, I clap my hands at how it was directed (everyone thinks I'm crazy). That movie is a lesson in how movies should be made.

Most of my friends and many people I know left the theater during Episode I. You had to be a fan seeking sense to it, trying to link it with the whole plot, to swallow the movie. I haven't heard from anyone who really liked it. Knowing that the movie was going to lift dollars with shovels, regardless of whether it was any good, I don't understand how Episode I could have been so badly made.

My suggestion? Someone please tell Mr Lucas to look into himself, and go back to the time when he was (along with Scorcesse) acknowledged as part the generation which would revive Hollywood.

 

What do you think. Is Mart?n right? Was Episode I a badly directed, boring piece of filmaking, the sole purpose of which was to make lots and lots of money? Email us at rebel@theforce.net.

You can also tell us what you think and read comments from other fans in this Jedi Council Forum Thread.

Feedback welcome