(no subject)
Been utterly routine lately, just work and food and sleep. Marking time till our trip to the US. Most exciting thing of late has been finally getting to see the famous Phantom Edit -- the recut of Star Wars Episode I which loses about 20 minutes of midichlorians, Jar Jar, and political reiteration. It's incredibly polished, and the film now easily held my interest until after they hit Tattooine. Sadly, it's a not ruthless enough edit -- there were still more bits I felt could easily have been lost, and the miracle of making Jar Jar bearable only means that Jake Lloyd moves up to pole position in the Most Strangle-able stakes. (Honestly, aside from being prepubescent he meets pretty much every point on the Mary Sue checklist.)
I have some thoughts about how else the film could be improved -- mostly to do with dramatic character beats -- but I'd love to hear other peoples' ideas first (since I don't have a lot of time to finish this posting). Given that my friendslist includes both people who reflexively spit at the name of the Phantom Menace, and people who find mythic significance in its characters, this should be fun. :-)
I have some thoughts about how else the film could be improved -- mostly to do with dramatic character beats -- but I'd love to hear other peoples' ideas first (since I don't have a lot of time to finish this posting). Given that my friendslist includes both people who reflexively spit at the name of the Phantom Menace, and people who find mythic significance in its characters, this should be fun. :-)