Go L8wrtr!
If nothing else you did remind me that AOTC has by far the worst dialogue. No arguments there. I can see what you are saying from your vantage point of having edited each movie. Well argued. The basic story arc of TPM does play out the most as a traditional, self-contained "New Hope" style movie. But the way it actually plays out is like a bad version of Fellowship of the Ring instead of A New Hope. They go here. This happens. They go there. That happens. All the time reacting, getting lucky, reacting, getting lucky. It is a bit like watching a rat navigate a maze for 2 hours trying to find some cheese.
The reason it feels this way gets back to a kernel of truth that I think Gaith was attempting to pin down. Yes, his description probably over-simplifies things a bit. The only character transformation in TPM that has any bearing whatsoever on how events unfold is Padme's decision to take a stand on Corruscant. Not surprisingly, this is the point in the movie when I start to actually enjoy it (right up until Anakin in the hangar bay... the fact that Anakin would even come along on that very dangerous mission back to Naboo is absurd). Compare that to ANH in which every character other than Chewy (arguably even c3po) goes through some kind of transformation that affects the outcome of the story narrative. (Though for all we know chewy might have professed his gay love for Han and we just couldn't understand what he was saying).
There are few lessons I still remember from my college writing classes, but simply remembering the word "transformation" can get one a long way with storytelling. Imagine if the pod-racing scene was re-written so that Qui-Gon had taught Anakin a little jedi concentration trick and at a decisive moment in the race he focuses like he was taught, which causes him through purposeful action to win the race. Sound a little familiar to the end of "A New Hope"? Such a simple little thing, and yet your children would probably still be talking about that scene in 20 years if that was the way it had happened.
I agree that AOTC's narrative doesn't fit into the ANH narrative mold as well as TPM. Instead I would describe its mold as a love story (which it fails miserably at). Because the Phantom Editor was somehow able to salvage this component in his edit and re-center the story onto it, the movie now works overall. TPM, on the other hand, I don't think the Phantom Editor succeeded as well with because I just don't think there is enough there to string together. And the reason there isn't enough there to string together is because so little of the narrative ties into anything we can emotionally connect with. If George Lucas wasn't insane, a halfway decent screenwriter could have taken his draft, which certainly had potential and probably made it quite good without having to make any major plot changes. So from that standpoint I guess I agree with you regarding TPM. But as it is, there is very little for a faneditor to work with to create an emotional payoff for the audience.
That said, I will have to checkout your TPM edit. Maybe you will convince me otherwise!
), I do tend to agree about The Phantom Menace having the best story out of the prequels, and not only that, I also think it feels the most Star Wars-y of all three.
