Star Wars fans - Anyone have a link to the review rebuttal?

[Edmond Dantes]

Okay, here's the sitch.

Some guy named Plinkett did stupidly long video reviews of the Prequel trilogy.

A guy named Jim Raynor wrote a PDF that clocked in at 108 pages and replied to the Phantom Menace review.

I'm looking for that PDF.

The problem? All the download sites I find for it are simply not there anymore--Rapidshare gives me a "file not found" error, Megaupload no longer exists, and the only online source I can find is Scribd.... which censors pages to force you to register, and you have to pay money to do so, and I don't see why I have to pay for something the author released for free.

I was gonna sign onto stardestroyer.net and ask Raynor personally for the file, but guess what... their registrations are closed this week -__-.

So I'm wondering if anyone here has the PDF and can simply upload it for me, please?

Thanks in advance.

[Skykid]

Someone did a 108 page written rebuttal to the Plinkett Phantom Menace review?

What is he, a complete idiot? That review is more entertaining than the film.

[Friendly]

Sorry, can't help you with the rebuttal; why would anyone in their right mind want to read it anyway? No amount of mental gymnastics can make the Phantom Menace not suck donkey dick.

The Plinkett reviews were the best thing to come out of this whole prequel mess; note that Harry Plinkett is not a real person; it's a character played by Mike Stoklasa of www.redlettermedia.com

[Edmond Dantes]

From what I understand, the rebuttal was NOT defending the Prequels--he simply took issue with Plinkett's technique (you might say its similar to how some of us feel about AVGN and Nostalgia Critic--we don't necessarily like the things they criticize but that doesn't mean we're okay with the outright falsehoods in their reviews).

And to be honest, I take issue with how lots of people are totally fine with Stoklosa making videos that are almost as long as the actual movies, but a written response (and keep in mind writing takes far less effort) is somehow "lame" and "nerdy" according to most of the internet. Gotta love double-standards.

[Lord Satori]

I'm sick of people who are incapable of appreciating things despite a few faults. Give something enough time, and people will start to think it sucks if it is cast in a certain light.

[BryanM]

The Phantom Menace is exactly as good or better than Episodes 4 and 6.

It's a subpar movie with pretty things to look at.

There I said it.

(you might say its similar to how some of us feel about AVGN and Nostalgia Critic--we don't necessarily like the things they criticize but that doesn't mean we're okay with the outright falsehoods in their reviews).

Honestly that's the great thing about being a people; when you make a mistake you can cop to it later on. (On that note, really disappointed we never got that bullshit of Bullshit! episode..)

Now the lack of skill at Metal Slug, that's something that's unforgivable.

---

As for the pdf, it appears it is not publicly available. Automated search engines haven't indexed it, so it probably doesn't exist.

There are a few ways I can think of to go about attaining it; most efficient course of action is to register at stardestroyer.net and PM the author himself. Also advise you to inform him of DropBox, which is where we pros store our files at.

And of course, it's kind of like a nuclear missile. If you ever get the file, you must never read it.

[Edmond Dantes]

For the moment, StarDestroyer.net has their registrations closed--apparently they were getting overwhelmed with spammers. But as soon as it opens again I'll register and speak to Jim.

I was on a Star Wars kick just recently and re-watchd A New Hope and Phantom Menace. In all honesty, I can objectively say that A New Hope was a good movie, while Phantom Menace was hard to sit through. Largely my issue with TPM was that once they go to Tatooine, the plot gets completely derailed so they can focus on Anakin. It feels like one of those RPG sidequests which you wish would hurry up and end so you can get back to the main plot, and by the time it does, the movie has lost all momentum.

By contrast, in A New Hope eveything that happened felt like it was necessary and moved things along. There were no pointless tangents, and it made it easy to keep focused on the story because there was no point where things got sidetracked. It was a fine example of how to do an action movie.

[trap15]

I'm sick of people who are incapable of appreciating things despite a few faults. Give something enough time, and people will start to think it sucks if it is cast in a certain light.

Are you defending the prequels?

[Mischief Maker]

Well I can show you plinkett's response to the rebuttal:

http://youtu.be/jTpWzg4aiEU

[BryanM]

Just excellent.

[Skykid]

The Plinkett reviews are some of, if not the, best informed critical analyses of film on the internet. Perhaps in general media full stop. Their length is not an obstacle: they're entertaining, easily digestible, and funny cos true. He savages the films and quite rightly so.

[Xyga]

Lol that thing's real.

http://www.slashdocs.com/tnznp/red-lett ... idity.html

Epic nerdism.

[dan76]

The Phantom Menace is exactly as good or better than Episodes 4 and 6.

Er... What?

[Ed Oscuro]

The Phantom Menace is exactly as good or better than Episodes 4 and 6.

Er... What?

Thought I was going insane for a second there. WB, by the way!

[Skykid]

The Phantom Menace is exactly as good or better than Episodes 4 and 6.

Er... What?

Thought I was going insane for a second there. WB, by the way!

You mean he wasn't joking?

Bejeesus.

[Skykid]

Lol that thing's real.

http://www.slashdocs.com/tnznp/red-lett ... idity.html

Epic nerdism.

Mother of god, what a waste of living tissue. Some nerds are smart and nerdy, some, like this, are simian-grade nerdy. It's obvious from the opening paragraphs he knows nothing about film, has no real critical understanding of film as a medium, and doesn't actually realise the review he's 'reviewing' is actually extraordinarily well-written and executed despite the thematic pretense of a psycho-ward patient tying people up in his basement.

Which begs the question, if you know nothing about anything except butthurt nerd whining, why write 108 pages utilising the foremost skill of ineptitude.

You wanted this drivel why, Dantes?

[antares]

Er... What?

Thought I was going insane for a second there. WB, by the way!

You mean he wasn't joking?

Bejeesus.

Well, it really depends on how old someone is. I've made the experience that most people, who were still kids when Episode 1 came out think that the new trilogy is as good or better than the old movies.
Of course if someone who is now over 30 has this opinion I would strongly question that persons sanity!

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

I think I read a really angrily written essay on how easily the Empire could wipe out Star Trek's Federation on this site. Dude must keep having arguments online an writing these articles to "win" them.

[burgerkingdiamond]

Someone did a 108 page written rebuttal to the Plinkett Phantom Menace review?

What is he, a complete idiot? That review is more entertaining than the film.

Damn, straight. I've been a fan or Redlettermedia ever since I saw the prequel reviews. They're amazing.

[Mischief Maker]

You know what? That 108 page essay convinced me.

When I watched the Phantom Menace for the first time, I wasn't bored, I was enrapt. When my jaw dropped, it wasn't over the horrible story choices and terrible characters, it was the jaw-dropping special effects. When everyone watching shuffled out of the room in silence as the credits rolled, it wasn't because we just went through an incredibly unpleasant experience, it was because we were rendered speechless by the bold, stylistic choices of George Lucas.

Anyone got any essays to convince me I enjoyed the Matrix Reloaded?

[BryanM]

Of course if someone who is now over 30 has this opinion I would strongly question that persons sanity!

Maybe over 40; you've gotta be a child of the 70's to have nostalgia goggles stapled on that hard. Luke is almost as much of a potato as Hayden Christensen is. We had fuckin' Ghost Busters, why would we waste time on some effeminate kid in a desert hanging out with gay droids and strange hairy men.

Empire Strikes Back is the only one in the entire series that's an on-par 3/5. The others barely ascend past a bad godzilla movie in quality.



But yes, the underlying premise of the prequels was broken from the beginning:

* There's only one film's worth of material to cover: "Guy becomes emperor, guy becomes Vader, The End." Those re-cuts that take all three of the films and build a 75ish minute flick out of them are almost watchable.

* The very nature of a prequel squeezes any pretense of tension out the window. Obi-Wan isn't going to get eaten by a space walrus.

So I really had no idea why anyone thought they'd be awesome at the time, though it was highly amusing to watch everyone lose their minds. The TV series can seriously only turn out better. By virtue of being a story you don't know already.

Anyone got any essays to convince me I enjoyed the Matrix Reloaded?

Man, I'm not the only one who thought Agent Smith was just a mid-boss mook knocked off for the first movie and thought there'd be bigger big bads, right?

The scene where Neo fights a hundred guys at once, that could have been done with just an army of normal agents, right? That would have worked out fine, correct?

[Friendly]

Look at me, I don't like the original Star Wars trilogy!

[Crafty+Mech]

I remember after I first saw TPM thinking that I just needed to see it again to appreciate the nuance and complexity. Nope, saw it two more times and it just kept getting worse. My brother was with me the 3rd time and he summed it up best by muttering "George, George, George..." under his breath every few minutes.

As for the 108 page rebuttal, all I have to say is that crack is a helluva drug.

[Edmond Dantes]

Really, I'm kinda surprised that the Shmups forum--a place where we constantly make fun of others for being sheepish and automatically believing online reviewers--nevertheless has members who jump to asinine, unsupported conclusions based on skim-readings (or more likely, mere knowledge that the thing exists) and just assume--like the rest of the internet--that written rebuttal = likes the prequels and = nerdish fanboyism, yet are willing to turn around and defend a 70-minute review (which must've taken MORE work and thus, technically, is MORE nerdy) on the mere basis of it being "entertaining."

What's more interesting is that Raynor apparently knew this was going to happen, and the fact that all the people bwahahahing him here (and on most of the internet) are making the arguments he clearly predicted and in fact, answered pre-emptively, just further prove that nobody bothered to read the damn thing.

Just one example:

Isn't writing a hundred-page response really geeky?

Yes, it is. It's very geeky. So is making numerous video reviews of scifi movies, many of themwell over an hour long. So is arguing about decades-old movies on internet forums. So isinvesting so much emotion and expectations into a movie series that you regard a newinstallment as a major life event, and cry about how it "raped your childhood" if it so much asunderwhelmed you.

I just want it to be known that I didn't obsessively work on this response nonstop. It was writtenintermittently, over the course of more than half a year. I stopped numerous times, eitherbecause I had something better to do or because I just didn't feel like working on this. Listeningto Mr. Plinkett over and over again wasn't my idea of a fun night or weekend afternoon. Therewere entire weeks or months when I didn't touch this at all.

So if any RLM-lover says that I've gone too far by doing this, he's full of crap. Especially if he'sposting from a scifi, fantasy, or comic book forum

And yet, what are 99% of the responses this guy gets?

Also, this:

Praising a movie isn't even the same exact thing as refuting criticism of it. If the RLM reviewmakes some stupid claims about how the movie doesn't make any sense, then it's not necessarily praising the movie to point out the review's errors and omissions

And yet, how many people are automatically assuming this must be a defense of TPM just because its a refutation?

I'm honestly not surprised that Friendly and Skykid jumped on this guy like rabid dogs and clearly didn't read it (Indeed, if they had, I'd have to suspect the apocalypse was around the corner), but the rest of you surprise me. I kind of expected more objectivity than this.

This is the exact kind of response that allows people like AVGN and sites like Hardcore Gaming 101 to convince people that old games are unrealistically hard when they're really not, you know that right?

To answer Skykid's question, "why did I want to read this?" Probably for the same reason I watched Plinkett's original review--I like hearing opinions. and unlike SOME people, I like hearing more than one.

EDIT: And just adding this in, because based on previous responses I know people are gonna draw this assumption despite that I've already said otherwise--I don't like the prequels. In fact I'm not even a huge Star Wars fan. To the point of finding discussions more interesting than the movies themselves.

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

We'll played, E.D.

[Xyga]

Hey, I said it's epic nerdism (and god it is) but I didn't actually criticize the work itself.
Icarus's insane Garegga strategy guide goes even deeper in nolife-ism IMO, and it's fucking a-w-e-s-o-m-e.

At least I hope you are happy I used my superhuman google skills for you !?
(else I'm going to cry for my lost 5 minutes )

[BryanM]

that written rebuttal = likes the prequels and = nerdish fanboyism, yet are willing to turn around and defend a 70-minute review (which must've taken MORE work and thus, technically, is MORE nerdy) on the mere basis of it being "entertaining"

Yeah, the original video did take vastly more work than just typing up some stuff. But it's a matter of utility - the video was created for people who've seen The Phantom Menace. The essay is for the one (1) guy who made the video and anyone who saw the video. An audience of ~2% of ~2% of however many people saw the movie.

We all have different thresholds where the effort put into saying "you're wrong" begins to get a little creepy and worrisome. My threshold is ~30-40 pages, more than a couple afternoons. That's when I'm personally concerned for someone's asperger's (and note we're all sperglords already, otherwise we wouldn't be here); 108 on the surface of it is terrifying.

Please tell me the font's ginormous and lots of pages are just diagrams and such

I'm too afraid to look : (

This is the exact kind of response that allows people like AVGN and sites like Hardcore Gaming 101 to convince people that old games are unrealistically hard when they're really not, you know that right?

I didn't know they were convincing anyone of anything.

[Mischief Maker]

I kind of expected more objectivity than this.

When the 108 page behemoth is subtitled, "A study in fanboy stupidity," I don't think objectivity is on the menu for anyone.

[Xyga]

I kind of expected more objectivity than this.

When the 108 page behemoth is subtitled, "A study in fanboy stupidity," I don't think objectivity is on the menu for anyone.

You can see this from two different perspectives;
- Raynor drags Stoklasa through the mud from pages 5 to 108, repeating himself a lot, with an outstanding overuse of the word 'stupid', so it's kind of painful and boring to read.
- At the same time, if you are patient enough to read about the details it makes sense most of the time, and one can think Stoklasa really asked for it.

Obviously they're both way to much into this stuff, it might be worth reading for hardcore SW fans but for the average candid viewer it's just two people going mental over an average movie.
Actually paying attention to their rants might convince most people not to watch TPM ever again if they don't want to have nightmares.

[Mischief Maker]

it's just two people going mental over an average movie.

The Phantom Menace is not an "average" movie. Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull was a better movie and fucking NOBODY is defending that pile of crap. Stop trying to out-hipster one another.