Word: mcgregor
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...plot is familiar to anyone with access to a computer or magazine. Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), hoping to settle a dispute between the flabby Republic and an insurgent Trade Federation, find Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) on the planet Naboo. Diverted to Tatooine, they meet the boy Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), who has a mysterious force--perhaps the Force. They amass for a fierce face-off against battle droids and the malefic Darth Maul (Ray Park...
...encounter two cloaked figures, Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), who are trying to prevent a war between the greedy Trade Federation and the small, peaceful planet of Naboo. Traveling along with the planet's teenaged queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) to appeal to the senate of the galactic republic, they pit-stop on the desert planet of Tatooine to make crucial repairs on their damaged ship...
...Which is not to discredit the performances. Neeson is a rock as the stoic Qui-Gon, an aging longhaired maverick among the Jedi who is uncannily certain of Anakin's great potential. And McGregor gives good Alec Guiness in a role that rarely gives him much to do but look concerned and buckle swash. Which he does splendidly--the lightsaber battles are perhaps the most authentically exciting parts of the film, and he and Neeson give us what we secretly missed in the original series--real fighting. We finally get a chance to see why the Jedi are considered...
Those of you with internet access probably have read the blurbs on the Internet Movie Database about Ewan McGregor making light saber-esque buzzing noises during his battle scenes and about Natalie Portman's having to redub all her lines in postproduction because the pitch of her voice had changed during shooting...
...movie offers such a scene, bad editing or poor acting cancels its effect. Watching the movie, one aches for a certain glory, but the camera never seems to linger long enough, and the awe and agony that pervaded the original movies never registers in the faces of Ewan McGregor or Liam Neeson. When those actors, respectively playing Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon, "swim" into an underwater metropolis at the start of the movie, one feels a tinge of wonder, but it is immediately muddled by over-done special effects. Often, the music is off (John Williams' score seems affixed...