Critic Names Star Wars Prequel as World's Best Modern Art

[Yeager942]

She seems like an IRL troll

 

[Kontarek]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Paglia

Well I read through this lady?s wikipedia page and, with all due respect, she sounds like she might could sort of be? a little nuts. Her bio is filled with nothing but instances of her trash talking other people, making contradictory claims, and just being? well? a bit attention-grabby. I would also like to point out that this lady is neither a filmmaker nor a film critic but rather an author and social critic.

Also, I totally get that ?Modern? art is kind of high-brow and meta and that us normal folk ?don?t get it? or whatever (see the works of Piet Mondrian, Rothko, or Ellsworth Kelly for examples), but if what an artist is doing is so contrived and hipster-ish that literally no one (not even really the artist) gets it, then there isn?t much point is there? I feel like a famous artist could take a completely blank canvas, title it Untitled, and have some of these art critics wetting their pants over how ?Modern? it is.

Hell, I read a cracked article a little while back that mentioned how certain film analysts consider Michael Bay to be an auteur:
http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-dumb-celebrities-who-are-way-smarter-than-you-think_p2/

I?d also like to say that the prequels are objectively terrible and no amount of ?well they did their best? or ?Plinkett is wrong? is ever going to change that because?.well? they sucked? and Plinkett isn?t wrong.

What?s that? You haven?t heard what he has to say? Educate yourself please.
http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars/
Yeah I know they?re long but they?re the best damn explanation for why these movies are bad, and you?ll learn a hell of a lot more from them than you will from a few bullet points on a forum post. So sit right there on your lazy ass until you?ve watched all three.

Look, I get that there are always SOME PEOPLE (you know who) who get themselves crazy hyped over whatever?s coming out that they like. No, I don?t mean the people who simply get excited about these things, I mean the people who build ridiculous expectations in their heads for films and then ***** about them no matter how good they were.

Yeah, I get it, those people exist.

But here?s the thing, the existence of these douches doesn?t change the fact that the prequels objectively sucked. Nor does their existence mean you shouldn?t be allowed to feel dissatisfied with the prequels or even *gasp* complain about them.

Lastly, I keep seeing people that say stuff like ?The originals really weren?t that good, we just built them up in our heads and then demanded that the prequels do the impossible,? and it?s getting kind of old. Now I?m not saying there weren?t ANY people that did this, because there were. But the originals were good, memorable films regardless, which is why so many people were swept away by them and why Star Wars is still so goddamn popular. Anyone who says crap like the above quote is just making excuses for the prequels.

And those three films are the last goddamn things in the world that need to have any excuses made for them.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

In the prequel trilogy's defense, the acting and campiness in the originals was just as bad. *ducks for cover*

*Throws Molotov cocktail into your cover*

OT: Heh. That's funny.

I mean, yes, it was BY FAR the best of the prequels, but....... Really?

 

[Mr.Mattress]

I completely disagree. Up is the Worlds Best Modern Art piece, fallowed closely by Toy Story 3 and Wall-E.

 

[GameChanger]

No mention of the Scorpion King whatsoever? I am disappointed Escapist!

 

[Marter]

I'm very glad that Camille figured that voicing this opinion would be a good idea and that she had the gall to do it.

Isn't it a good thing that we live in a society where this is acceptable? =D

No mention of the Scorpion King whatsoever? I am disappointed Escapist!

Also, this. Assuming we're talking about the third installment.

 

[Frostbite3789]

The credibility of being a film critic far outweighs the credibility of angry Star Wars fans. Just because the fanboys scream with childish tears about the prequels doesn't mean everybody does.

Being quoted in a magazine most people have never heard of gives you credibility now? Boy, turns out I (and everyone else) has been wrong about the National Enquirer all along.

 

[Veylon]

I agree with the art critic that the long final lightsaber duel represents modern filmmaking. It's a hyper-choreographed, inconsequential CGI-fest interspersed with a handful of awful and bizarre one-liners standing in for dialogue. I'll admit that it's technically impressive and, no doubt, many an artist worked many a man-hour on it, but it's devoid of all meaning and purpose.

I'd have to disagree. It was there to show that the dark sides corruption on Anakin was stronger than his friendship with Obi-Wan. The lightsaber fight itself was to show their ability in perspective of each other (which is something a hell of a lot of people wanted) and the CGI was bonus.

Oh, I understand what it was there for (and maybe I was hyperboleous). It's just that the dialogue was so dialogue and the fight scene just so dang long that the impact was completely undercut.

Anakin's given everything to the Jedi Order. He left his family and has served in obedience to their code since childhood. He's spent years battling enemies, righting wrongs, shedding blood and risking life and limb without reward.

And what has it all added up to? His mother, the only person who he loved, abandoned to slavery on the dust-world of Tatooine while the Jedi live in a palace in the richest city in the galaxy. His fiance, the only joy in a life dedicated to self-denial and asceticism, turned against him, and himself declared a traitor and distrusted by those in whom he has placed trust and loyalty.

This moment, this final confrontation, is his time to lay at the Jedi Order's feet - in the person of Obi Wan Kenobi - all the wrongs they inflicted upon him over a lifetime of servitude. Every blow of his lightsaber should have the power of a name, a time, a place that the Order has be weighed...and found wanting. This is when Darth Vader emerges, lays out all the events of the entire trilogy, casts them in a new light, and declares himself to a new purpose.

If all that had been done, this would, in justice instead of in jest, be an amazing pinnacle of filmmaking that we could look back on in awe.

 

[afroebob]

To be honest I loved Revenge of the Sith. I mean, ya it was in no way near the original and no way in HELL Empire Strikes Back (my personal favorite, and I'm guessing a lot of your guys' favorite, too) but it was still really good. There were lots of noticable flaws, yes (mainly the medichlorian talk again) but Anikan wasn't so God damn whiny, Jar Jar was completely taken out (I admit that he would have ruined it if he stayed in), Grevous was actually a pretty cool villain, and that last fight scene between Anakin and Obi-Wan... I mean come on that was one of the greatest 1 on 1 fight scenes in movie history. Oh ya, John Williams' soundtrack kicked major ass.

BUT, it is nowhere near the greatest piece of cinema in 30 years, so the greatest art in general is a pretty big stretch. The Dark Knight, Matrix, Saving Private Ryan, Toy Story, Back to the Future, Terminator 1-2, Boyz n the Hood, THESE are the best and brightest that the last 30 years has had to offer. RotS was a great farewell for Lucas, but not the best we've scene since RotJ.

The credibility of being a film critic far outweighs the credibility of angry Star Wars fans. Just because the fanboys scream with childish tears about the prequels doesn't mean everybody does.

Being quoted in a magazine most people have never heard of gives you credibility now? Boy, turns out I (and everyone else) has been wrong about the National Enquirer all along.

Here I would have to say it depends on the critic. There are a lot of really good ones out there and I would take their opinion over most of the people on the internet any day. People on the internet... well... they like to be angry. And rude. And irrational.

 

[Narcogen]

I'd like to get through to the point where I can point out how ridiculous what she has said is, but I can't because of the mental roadblock put in my way by the fact that this article misspells Paglia's name, not once, but twice, in two different ways. Now it hurts behind my eyes. At least it stops me thinking about the prequels. Oh, wait...

 

[Thamian]

-snip-

If I'm honest, I'd never looked at it like that.

And that was the problem that the prequel trilogy had as Art, it had the right concepts and so on, but then it went and fluffed the lot of them with wooden acting, terrible writing and diabolical over-use of CGI. So no-one looked at it like that. Indeed, I'll still put my hand up and admit that the only bit which moved me in the slightest was the execution of order 66. Because that was brilliantly done. Mainly because no-one spoke much if anything and John Williams just went and did what he does best for a few minutes.

As Star Wars, it also had the problem of more or less completely re-writing the back story and established history of the setting (established in EU... yeah I know), and all of the other standard things (midi-chlorians for example).

Anyways, as far as the greatest Art of the current generation is concerned, if you want a film, I'll go with the extended editions of the LoTR films. Not just because they're longer and so even more kick-ass than the films were anyways, but also because of the appendices. If I'm being completely honest, those things moved me even more than the films themselves did, and as far as I'm concerned, art is about making people feel something.

Overall however... I really, really wish I could say the Mass Effect Trilogy. Indeed, if they'd gone with indoctrination theory, I'd say that without hesitation. But... they didn't.

Meh.

As such, I'm gonna go with the three part DLC arc of Fallout New Vegas (Dead Money, Old World Blues, and Lonesome Road). I'm serious. Play them back to back, and tell me that you felt nothing. Tell me that the outro for Dead Money at the very least (and Christine's radio message for that matter) didn't make you feel SOMEthing. If you can tell me that, you aren't human, you're a robot.

 

[bafrali]

This is such a load. That title belongs to the Evil Dead 3 :Army Of Darkness.

Seriously though how is this news? Anyone can say anything about anything. Why does her words carry such weight?

 

[1337mokro]

I agree as Satire these movies are truly masterpieces.

A story of a once idealist director, rebelling against the studios becoming what he hated and whoring out his own creations to feed his greed.

It is quite literally the Citizen Kane story of George Lucas' life. Idealist turned Corporate Businessman.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

I don't find this too much of an overstatement. Obviously its wrong simply because its subjective and nothing is clearly the best but I certainly enjoyed the movie.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Well she's a modern art critic, who seems to buy fully into the whole interpretation is in the eye of the beholder postmodernism that has invaded the art world recently, so I already despise her views for that, although this is correct:

"It's because the art world has flat-lined and become an echo chamber of received opinion and toxic over-praise. It's like the emperor's new clothes-people are too intimidated to admit what they secretly think or what they might think with their blinders off."

Go to an art gallery, walk around and study the reactions of the people, who are enjoying the art styles and pictures, impressed by the skillful depictions of the artists and even the styles and emotions that they can create purely through image. Then go to the modern art section of the gallery, and look at the people laughing, sneering and guffawing at the crap pieces of dung that have been hung and placed around the room. No one takes it seriously, no one gets impacted or impressed, there is no emotion stirred from any exhibit other than "I could do that".

Except there seems to be no criticism of Modern Art from anyone in positions of power, other artists or critics etc. because the con of Modern Art is that the meaning is in the interpretation, so if you can't find the subtle socio-political meaning in a shoe balanced on a rhino horn sticking out of a bowl of sick then it's you that is the closed-minded critic, too dumb to see the brilliance of the piece, not the piece that is a meaningless collection of slightly significant crap.

Personally I think she could have picked a better foil than Revenge of the Sith, although maybe that was her point... This rather flawed film is still better than anything modern art has come up with in two decades.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Oh, I understand what it was there for (and maybe I was hyperboleous). It's just that the dialogue was so dialogue and the fight scene just so dang long that the impact was completely undercut.

Anakin's given everything to the Jedi Order. He left his family and has served in obedience to their code since childhood. He's spent years battling enemies, righting wrongs, shedding blood and risking life and limb without reward.

And what has it all added up to? His mother, the only person who he loved, abandoned to slavery on the dust-world of Tatooine while the Jedi live in a palace in the richest city in the galaxy. His fiance, the only joy in a life dedicated to self-denial and asceticism, turned against him, and himself declared a traitor and distrusted by those in whom he has placed trust and loyalty.

This moment, this final confrontation, is his time to lay at the Jedi Order's feet - in the person of Obi Wan Kenobi - all the wrongs they inflicted upon him over a lifetime of servitude. Every blow of his lightsaber should have the power of a name, a time, a place that the Order has be weighed...and found wanting. This is when Darth Vader emerges, lays out all the events of the entire trilogy, casts them in a new light, and declares himself to a new purpose.

If all that had been done, this would, in justice instead of in jest, be an amazing pinnacle of filmmaking that we could look back on in awe.

Damn it, now you've just annoyed me that this wasn't what the final lightsaber fight became, in fact, if the whole trilogy had made this the central theme and kept clearly linking together these things in an emotional way, that would probably have saved them all, and made for one of the greatest lightsaber battles since Hotshots Part Deux.
But seriously, screw you Lucas for taking a concept with such emotional potential and giving us that.

 

[hazabaza1]

Well, I'm going to be staying far, faaaar away from this thread.
There's going to be so much rage.

 

[Quesa]

I thought this was going to be about the beautiful green screen backgrounds. Those really were impressive, crap for immersion to have people walking around on massive paintings, but really pretty. Emotional impact? A completely subjective metric. I can certainly see how various scenes could have been taken at the value Lucas intended them to, but they were so poorly written and felt so hollow most observers found them more comical than emotional.