Alright, I watched Episode II. Given my pleasant surprise at how much I liked Phantom Menace, I went in optimistic that I may also like Episode II more than the reviews here suggested.

It sucked. WTF at Anakin starting the movie as basically a 90% heel already. Fully agree with GeoffRas that Hayden Christensen was pretty bad and had non-existent chemistry with Natalie Portman.

Definitely the worst viewing experience of the five I've watched so far. Which I did realize was a strong possibility going in, but actually having to endure it is another story. There were little spikes of enjoyment, but a lot more to complain about. Maybe Episode III is strong enough to make me feel differently, but more than anything it felt like Episode II already singlehandedly made the Anakin arc of this prequel trilogy a pretty uninteresting one.

Also sort of feels like you have to cast someone besides Christopher Lee to play Count Dooku? He did a fine job, but it just felt like they were doing some weird cross-over project where Saruman joined the Star Wars universe. Was just weird that he had basically identical sequences with Gandalf and Obi-Wan Kenobi. "Join me." "Nope." "<sigh> Alright, battle to the death then, whatever."

How is cat ownership these days LKJ?

Not even LKJ owns a cat.

He's settled way down since the days that I bitched about him when he was an obnoxious kitten. He's a good creature. I still get annoyed with him frequently, of course, and I'm still not really sure that I'm wired for cat ownership, but he's as good of one as I would have been able to get.

Lets have a look at him

He looks like this.

Lol. Is he orange?

That a ****ing gorgeous generic cat.

Yeah, he really does look just like that cat.

5 episodes into Ted Lasso, some funny bits. But just watch Blue Valentine?

I blame the stilted dialogue and Hayden’s shitty performance solely on Lucas.

He clearly has no idea how to write dialogue (a frequent complaint from the actors of the OT) and especially has no talent in directing performances. We’ve seen Hayden act well in plenty of other films (Life as a House, anyone?). Gifted performers like McGregor, Neeson, McDiarmid, and Portman deliver some great scenes in spite of the terrible script, but it’s clear that Christensen is the type that needs the guidance of a talented director. Lucas’s dialogue is so ridiculous, like no normal person would actually speak like that. Even Sam Jackson struggles to muddle through it.

tl;dr: Hayden gets way too much hate for what is ultimately George’s failure.

I definitely felt like the movie's directorial work lacked also; obviously it's believable that Anakin would grow up to be a young punk even absent any presence of the dark side, but I still think it was a terrible choice to have him play it that way so overtly. I assumed his arc would be a slow burn, and it was anything but.

That said, when the defense of the actor is "unlike the good actors, he needs a talented director," it's not much of a defense.

I just meant that we have plenty of proof of him giving a good performance under appropriate direction. I’m not trying to justify his acting in AOTC as good in any way.

I think people don’t blame Lucas enough for writing a terrible ****ing love story between Anakin and Padme. These are two people that were ACTUALLY DATING IN REAL LIFE at the time of filming, and he managed to suck the soul out of every word of their shared dialogue.

But since Hayden is the face of that result, he unfortunately receives the bulk of the blame from most audiences.

People give Lucas too much credit in general. Without Ford/Fisher/Hamill rewriting the dialogue of A New Hope on set and Lucas’s wife editing the mess of footage into a passable film, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion today. He is amazing at worldbuilding and big picture plot, but terrible at the finer points of filmmaking. This is ironically the opposite in the sequel trilogy where the acting is amazing but the story is a mess.

Additionally, I think Lucas picked the wrong ages for the prequels. IMO, we would have been much better served either having Anakin already be a Padawan in Phantom Menace or just having a fourth film.

The Clone Wars TV series shows how much more of Anakin’s development we really needed to see in the films. Having him as a kid in the first really lopsided the weight of the prequels.

Wow, had no idea those two were dating at the time. That blows my mind. I see that they're the same age too. The whole thing had a big-time cradle-robber vibe because of the age gap in Episode I, and I thought that was part of why they were just a spectacular fail as an on-screen love connection in Episode II.

Is it just me or does work seem to be a total shitshow the week leading up to whenever you take a vacation? It seems as certain a trend as an impromptu battle royal taking place to close RAW before the Royal Rumble every year

Anyone ever watch The Wrestlers docuseries on Vice? I'm almost through watching all of them, great stuff all around.

https://www.vicetv.com/en_us/show/the-wrestlers

Wait, Kacey Musgraves wore just a guitar on SNL?

That show has long ago turned into an unwatchable greasefire, but suddenly I’m seeing new potential.

Wow, I'm in tears after the Lucha ep. Rey Fenix has an insanely heartfelt moment. Whewwww

Seems like something I'll watch at some point.

Dammit mariners!

Nice run by the Mariners. Glad that this unfortunate performance didn't ultimately matter and cost us a spot.

Good time to be a giants fan if you ask me

3 historic Septembers and two of the teams are wildcards lol