I think he had the potential to be a really good character. And that potential sets him aside from the rest of the borderline mediocrity in the movie.
Poll: Was Darth Maul a good character in a bad Starwars film? Or a mediocre character in a really bad film
- Thread starter The Consequence
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I'd argue that the entire prequel trilogy had tremendous potential, and it turned into nothing more than a gigantic money-grab.SycoMantis91 said:
I completely agree with this. If the same time and effort had been put into character and story development as special affects and sleek looking ships, they could have been classics in their own right. I still like them, but compared to the originals and a lot of other sci-fi films, as well as all the things it could have been, just doesn't measure up.Atmos Duality said:
How about, he was a really fun villain played by a talented stuntman in a 'not as good as we hoped, but that's our fault for hyping it up' film.The Consequence said:
He had one the greatest fights in cinema history followed by one the lamest and easily avoidable deaths in cinema history.
Notice that people still talk about Darth Maul and not the pod racing or...the rest of the movie. Hell, look at the advertising for the rerelease. He has top billing, Star Wars Ep1: Darth Maul vs some dudes.
Notice that people still talk about Darth Maul and not the pod racing or...the rest of the movie. Hell, look at the advertising for the rerelease. He has top billing, Star Wars Ep1: Darth Maul vs some dudes.
He looked great but was just fodder. Just a reason to fight, he had no character. Also his fight with the two was two choreographed - was just 10 minutes of clever blocking skills. Zero emotion.
I think the biggest problem with Darth Maul was that he died in the first movie. If he had lived into the second, or even the third, and had been given time to develop he could have been a good character.
Instead he's killed off in the first movie only to be replaced by Count Dooku, whom the audience knew was just going to get killed too.
All in all, it was just simply bad story telling. Here's a villain we know very little about and he's gone before we get a chance to care.
If Darth Maul had lived, I think you could have had more enjoyable sequels. An established villain fighting the Jedi, spreading chaos in the galaxy, all the while serving Palpatine. And who wouldn't have wanted to see a big duel between Anakin and Maul to become Palpatine's new apprentice?
Instead he's killed off in the first movie only to be replaced by Count Dooku, whom the audience knew was just going to get killed too.
All in all, it was just simply bad story telling. Here's a villain we know very little about and he's gone before we get a chance to care.
If Darth Maul had lived, I think you could have had more enjoyable sequels. An established villain fighting the Jedi, spreading chaos in the galaxy, all the while serving Palpatine. And who wouldn't have wanted to see a big duel between Anakin and Maul to become Palpatine's new apprentice?
Darth Maul looked cool. It's hard to have an opinion on a character that you don't see much during the entire movie. Altough, he had a lot of potential. I think it would've been cool if Darth Maul would've been the main villain in the prequel trilogy but George Lucas was so pushing the Anakin Skywalker storyline that there was almost no room for him.
Not even really a "character" at all. More of mobile prop.
Terrible film. Truly one of the worst films of its generation.
Terrible film. Truly one of the worst films of its generation.
Like the rest of the film, he had potential. I think all the ground work was there for him to be a bad ass Sith, a forerunner and equal to Vader.
As it stood, he was just a mute angry ICP/Juggalo reject.
Like I said, it's the same for the rest of the film. The only thing Qui Gon's got going for himself is he's played by Liam Neeson and even then I think it's a huge waste of the actor's talents. The only person who is perfect in their role is Ian McDiarmid.
Saying that, I am part of them minority who enjoyed the prequels. Maul turned out to be the text book mysterious broody bad guy. That doesn't make him bad by any means. But lack of characterisation made him easily disposable.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that what could have been epic and excellent turned out to be average and meh. It was good but could've been better.
Also, I don't understand the poll, so I'd go meh.
As it stood, he was just a mute angry ICP/Juggalo reject.
Like I said, it's the same for the rest of the film. The only thing Qui Gon's got going for himself is he's played by Liam Neeson and even then I think it's a huge waste of the actor's talents. The only person who is perfect in their role is Ian McDiarmid.
Saying that, I am part of them minority who enjoyed the prequels. Maul turned out to be the text book mysterious broody bad guy. That doesn't make him bad by any means. But lack of characterisation made him easily disposable.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that what could have been epic and excellent turned out to be average and meh. It was good but could've been better.
Also, I don't understand the poll, so I'd go meh.
This is bizarre. In the Uncyclopedia entry for Drow elves, they actually say that their goddess Llolth was created by sticking Darth Mauls upper half onto the body of a spider. And now they have actually done it. Trippy...Soviet Heavy said:
Maul was an intriguing character. Since we didn't see much of him we wanted to know more. Plus his appearance was strikingly different from previous things in Star Wars.
I must censor myself because I firmly do not believe in "Episode 1-3".
So I'll just contribute this little notion to your super funtime:
While truckloads of Jar Jar Binks merchandise ended up almost instantly in bargain bins (and, rumour has it, the Atari landfill), the Darth Maul action figure was almost instantly sold out, and the price for one figurine jumped to 80$ in no time. People thought he was extremely cool, even though his complete lack of story, back story, dialogue, or pretty much anything else beyond flying Sith, crouching Jedi should have legally disqualified him to achieve any popularity in a proper movie.
However, he - or more specifically, his well-designed image - basically turned into Darth Vader 2.0, as which he could have gone on to live and kill throughout "Episodes 1 to 3". As we know, that didn't happen. Instead, we got something more hormonal, more moody and more deconstructive than Woody Allen on crack withdrawal.
I personally think that the guy who came up with the character design of Darth Maul did a very, very good job. If he also did Jar Jar, then his Karma, sadly, remains neutral. What the writers made with Darth Maul is sad. But in the shiny stream of piss that Episodes 1 - 3 sadly are, Darth Maul was an empty shell, his excellent design had to make him poster boy together with Barbie doll princess Amygdala, who I really wanted to be able to root for, but I ended up really, really disliking her for basically being written to be quite amazingly emancipated, yet she was basically utterly useless and nothing more than a walking coat-hanger.
Also, I was a bit confused with Princess Amidala obviously not aging, while the annoying little kid from Episode I turned into Hayden Christensen overnight, probably because someone fed him after midnight. Ah, I let myself get carried away there. Where are my happy pills.
So I'll just contribute this little notion to your super funtime:
While truckloads of Jar Jar Binks merchandise ended up almost instantly in bargain bins (and, rumour has it, the Atari landfill), the Darth Maul action figure was almost instantly sold out, and the price for one figurine jumped to 80$ in no time. People thought he was extremely cool, even though his complete lack of story, back story, dialogue, or pretty much anything else beyond flying Sith, crouching Jedi should have legally disqualified him to achieve any popularity in a proper movie.
However, he - or more specifically, his well-designed image - basically turned into Darth Vader 2.0, as which he could have gone on to live and kill throughout "Episodes 1 to 3". As we know, that didn't happen. Instead, we got something more hormonal, more moody and more deconstructive than Woody Allen on crack withdrawal.
I personally think that the guy who came up with the character design of Darth Maul did a very, very good job. If he also did Jar Jar, then his Karma, sadly, remains neutral. What the writers made with Darth Maul is sad. But in the shiny stream of piss that Episodes 1 - 3 sadly are, Darth Maul was an empty shell, his excellent design had to make him poster boy together with Barbie doll princess Amygdala, who I really wanted to be able to root for, but I ended up really, really disliking her for basically being written to be quite amazingly emancipated, yet she was basically utterly useless and nothing more than a walking coat-hanger.
Also, I was a bit confused with Princess Amidala obviously not aging, while the annoying little kid from Episode I turned into Hayden Christensen overnight, probably because someone fed him after midnight. Ah, I let myself get carried away there. Where are my happy pills.
He wasn't even a real character. He had maybe two lines. His fight scenes were amazing and all, but that doesn't make him a character. He was only there to look badass and slice shit up with lightsabers. There's nothing wrong with that, and he's certainly a better character to deify than Bobba Fett, but still guise.