Review: Star Wars Episode III 1265
The special effects question is easy: This is quite simply one of the most gorgeous films ever made. Everything is superb. Lucas has an incredible visual sense; he is a truly visual filmmaker, and his images hit home, are beautifully executed, and are technically stunning. Of course, we really and truly expect perfection here from Lucas, so this may not seem like news.
You are deceiving yourself. Lucas has frankly outdone what I thought possible. My jaw was on the floor the entire time.
But what about those tattered remains?
I myself am not a huge Star Wars fan. I enjoy the films, but I wasn't raised on them, didn't see any of them (except Episode II) in the theaters. I was one of those kids who knew Darth Vader was Luke's father before I had heard of Star Wars, because I saw the parodies before I saw the originals.
I will say this now. Episode III proves that "A New Hope" was a mistake. A freak accident of success, because Lucas seems incapable of doing fun action. How he managed to make "A New Hope" a delightful, playful, fundamentally fun movie is beyond me. Because when Episode III starts, it falls flat on its face, continuing the sad attempt in Episode's I and II to make the kind of joyous space opera that, of all six, only "A New Hope" managed to be.
Lucas however, can do myth very, very well. And once Lucas gets around to telling the Myth Of Anakin's Fall, the real story that Episode I and II have been leading to, everything works. Here we have the George Lucas of "The Empire Strikes Back" and "The Return of the Jedi." Hayden Christiansen goes from a pretty (if ineffectual) actor to being the tragic Darth Vader, and you believe. Darth Sidious is the villain that Darth Vader was in the original trilogy. Better perhaps, more sinister. The fall of Anakin is completely and utterly believable. I was shocked. I understood why he fell to the Dark Side. It's called the freakin' Dark Side for goodness sake! How could you freakin' fall?
Because of a tempter. Because of dark dreams. Because of love.
I don't want to spoil anything for those of you who, like me, went in not knowing exactly how it all happened. Some have always known the story, and are just watching it play out; some of us have willfully ignored the spoilers, and waited.
But I will say this for those who do know what happens. When order 66 is given, my breath was taken away. When the final battles occur, I was truly fearful. In other words, he doesn't screw it up.
I'm going to see it again.
Jamie also saw Revenge of the Sith, but it doesn't seem like he saw quite the same film. His thoughts:
I heard it might be good, so I tried to like it. I really did. Revenge of the Sith is one of the worst movies I've seen recently. It's Battlefield Earth bad.
It's not just that when Lucas tries to "do" myth he generates a world populated by generics. Nor is it just that the plot is absurdly thin (the movie exists to showcase the galaxy's most complete betrayal ever, brought on by two dreams and a promise from someone who couldn't be more obviously untrustworthy if he were twirling a mustache).
This movie is terrible first, because Lucas writes unbearable dialogue, especially in romantic scenes. And since the motivator is romantic love, we get a lot of bad lines. Remember "I don't like sand"? Episode III one-ups that. The climactic emotional moment, I swear to God, is a rip-off of Homer Simpson.
And second, Hayden Christensen is a lousy actor. There, I said it. Even with the silly script, Ewan McGregor is fine, and Natalie Portman brings life to a few scenes, but Anakin gets not a single believable moment. Even when all he has to do is look sideways, he's more fake than a losing high school forensics team. He's wooden like community-college Acting 101. I could go on.
Best I can say is that Jar-Jar doesn't speak. The special effects are there, and since they cover every square inch of the screen constantly, you will get many per unit time per dollar. If you like that kind of thing, you're going to go see it anyway, so enjoy.
Thanks go to erikharrison for his take on the movie.
About the childhood... (Score:5, Insightful)
When we were kids we used to "play Star Wars", which is a kind of no-fee intellectual property union we entered unto with Lucasfilm whereby our imaginations were ignited in exchange for our fealty as future consumers.
I liked the gritty grainy dirty realism of IV (Score:1, Insightful)
Extremes... (Score:5, Insightful)
to Jamie: It wasn't THAT bad.
I saw it. It was worth the price of admission, a soda and nachos. More importantly, it was worth my TIME, which to me is infinately more valuable.
Human physics (Score:4, Insightful)
For example, when Obi Wan and Anakin were fighting Dooku near the beginning, Dooku decided to do a flip off of a balcony type thing to get to the lower level. This looked horrible. There was no acceleration invovled in his fall, and his flip randomly sped up slightly while in mid air. Of course, he was a Jedi master, so he can probably do that, but I really doubt they had that in mind when creating that scene. Did anyone else notice examples of this?
NOOO (Score:5, Insightful)
That was like a real leap
beacuse if that puppet had not worked
the whole film would have been down the tubes
it just, you know woulda been a disaster, it would've been a silly little muppet...
the whole movie would've collapsed under the weight of it.
(quote from the bonus feature DVD in the original trilogy box set)
Now, apply this quote to what Hayden Christensen has done to Darth Vader, one of the most memorable and recognizable villains in all of cinema history, and what do you get?
Re:But where did you watch it? (Score:1, Insightful)
Now browse at threshold -1, and look for Score -1:Troll. AH, there's all the posts supporting copyright!
This place truly amazes me sometimes.
Death Star (Score:5, Insightful)
Amputated Hand: Slice of Continuity (Score:3, Insightful)
Luke immediately resolves to avoid the fate of Darth Vader and turns off his light saber. Luke then looks at the emperor and refuses to join him.
Did George Lucas provide a scene (in "Revenge of the Sith") where Darth Vader's own right hand was sliced off? If the answer is "yes", then Lucas has remained true to the original trilogy.
"Such insight, you have. The first steps to Jedi Knight, you have taken." observers Yoda.
I, for one (Score:5, Insightful)
I knew before going in, from what other people told me and from what I read online, that the acting was very bad, to the point of laughing during drama scenes, but I went to see it anyway just for the effects and the lightsaber battles.
Generally speaking I found the lightsaber duels too cluttered, without much definition in each move sequence.
A Darth Maul vs Qui-Gon Jinn style of fight choreography should have been used... IMO it's the best lightsaber duel of them all.
Contradiction (Score:1, Insightful)
Terrible reviews (Score:5, Insightful)
Political commentary in ROTS (Score:2, Insightful)
This is obviously an anti-Bush remark, but it doesn't fit at all in the movie. First of all, it's quite clear that by that point they are already mortal enemies, even Obi-Wan had already said they had no path left but to try to kill each other. Second, the "only a Sith deals in absolutes" is nonsense, especially considering lines such as these:
OB1: The emperor is evil!
DV: From my point of view the Jedis are evil!
OB1: then you are lost!
I liked the subtle (and unintended, since the plot was written in the 70s) critcism of ep2 and 3 to the current political madness in America, but that line was lousy.
Special Effects (Score:5, Insightful)
For example, Palpatine's room had a backplate entirely out of CG, and at times, the room itself changed from a live action plate to a CG plate when him and Yoda were fighting.
I felt a lot of it was just too synthetic. I hate to say this as a VFX artist. It would have been nice to see more sets and a more hands-on approach towards the overall look and feel --It was just too clean.
As another example, when Obi-wan and Anakin are fighting Count Dooku in that room, it was a in a movie set where everything was constructed except the back drop of the space battle. This was a similar set up that they had on Return of the Jedi during the fight between Luke and Anakin.
CG has to have a job of supporting the movie, not making an integration between CG scenes and live action scenes.
Don't get me wrong, I've seen great CG/live integration pieces. However, they were great because they were subtle and supported the concepts and ideas.
Re:How does Eps I-III Alter the Viewing of Eps IV- (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:But where did you watch it? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Special Effects (Score:3, Insightful)
I agree. My biggest beef with the CGI is that IMHO, VFX needs to be used to enhance the story or draw attention to important details. In this movie there is so much CGI/VFX that in many scenes it is distracting from the main story. The giant space battle looked awesome, and it would be fun to watch if the space battle were the story. But the story was Obi-Wan and Anakin trying to get to Grevious's spaceship, and that kept getting overshadowed. There are countless other instances in the first three movies. Someone should teach Lucas that making a movie that "looks great" does not make a "good movie".
Re:the tattered remains of your childhood... (Score:1, Insightful)
1. Most of us saw the 4,5,6 through the eyes of childhood and years of rewatching. It is not possible for these movies to have the same impact as others did on us as children. If you go back and look at the dialoge, acting, etc (often cited as complaints for ep 1,2,3) they were just as bad in the original eps. I can't overstate this, yet very few people acknowledge it.
2. The dialoge is done in the style of 30's serials, and is intentionally over the top. Apparently Lucas likes it, and many people here don't. Too bad...he made the movies and has enough money and power ("Druish women are often attracted to money and power, and I have both, and you know it") to make the movie he wants to make.
Re:Luke is "The One" (Score:5, Insightful)
Anakin was the one.
And how does removing half the force bring balance? With Lukes "less stuffy" ethic, he practices both light and dark side, and through one set of monks that embrace everything, there is balance.
Is it just me? (Score:2, Insightful)
I can count on zero hands the number of movies I have seen or not seen based on a review. Be it Ebert or some anonymous blogdude. If it looks interesting to me, I'll see it (theater or DVD). If not, oh well. At most, it will be the recommendation of a friend. "Hey, you should check this one out". And it may go on my Netflix list to eventually bubble to the top.
All these mindnumbingly long reviews are so many wasted electrons to me. "Oh...(according to me, The Most High and Important), Lucas can't write, he's a hack, blah blah...or "OMG! they screwed up the CGI, and in scene 42, timecode 1:42:02:0324, the lightsaber doesn't exactly follow Yoda's arm movement! The entire movie sucks!"
Get a life. It's a movie. Escapism.
I saw the original Star Wars in the theater when it first came out, and all the others since. I'll go see this one as well. I saw about the first 5 minutes of the copy that's floating around. Enough to know that I don't want to see it for the first time on a little screen, in far less that optimal resolution, with a timecode stamped across the top.
When you sit and overanalyse the thing, you ruin it for yourself. Enjoy the movie. Or not. If that's your bag to try to determine exactly what Lucas was thinking, and/or how bad he screwed it up, fine. But no one really gives a fark what you and your buddy think.
Re:Prepare to be flamed (Score:5, Insightful)
Effects rating
Episode I looked fairly realistic most of the time. While Jar-jar was an unpopular character, he was rendered fairly well most of the time. The biggest weakness was that the CGI was perhaps a little to sparse and too uniform. The battle-droid "pez dispenser" scene in particular didn't look quite right.
Episode II was a complete mess. Shot composition and cinematography were simply discarded and ignored in favor of making things look "high tech." The cartoon shots of Tokyo in "Ghost in the Shell" looked more realistic, and certainly less distracting from the main action. There were a lot of shots which simply could not have been done with stop-animation or puppets or other techniques, but it seems like they were done that way for no other reason.
Episode III... From the opening battle scene in the very beginning, I think you will agree that this time Lucas finally got it right. He begins with a nice close-up of a couple fighters skimming the surface of a larger ship, so when the "camera" pans back you have a much better sense of scale. (He also included one of those robot controller satellites in the shot, which not only helped the eye grasp the scale of the shot, but also reminded the viewer who they were fighting against.) Later scenes in other landscapes were also fantastic. At no point while watching the movie for the first time was I suddenly reminded that I was watching CGI characters or backgrounds.
Story review
God, what a fuck-up.
One of the things that made Star Wars so cool was that Lucas decided to make it feel like a 1930's 15-minute serial, in which most of the audience was not likely to have seen the beginning of the story. He wanted it to "come in at the middle", so he wrote an elaborate back-story which he never seriously thought he would get to film.
Having that untold back-story made the entire world seem bigger and more well thought-out.
When making Episodes 1-3, he did not have benefit of all that extra story, and it really shows.
Also, all the precious little inbred tie-ins to the the original series (C3PO was built by Anakin, "Red Five" was Obi-Wan's call sign, Chewbaca fought along with Yoda, etc. etc. etc.) were really tiresome, and had the impact of making what should have been a large-scale saga about a galactic struggle of mighty armies turn into a story where the fate of all civilizations for two entire generations were married to the actions of the same small small handful of people, many of whom were directly related.
Would it have hurt the story to have had Mace Windu (or some other Jedi) be the one who discovers the clone factory in Ep 2, instead of Obi-Wan being the only Jedi who ever does anything that matters? Did it really need to be Boba Fett's dad who was the genetic source of the clones? Did Chewie really need to be in the Wookie battle scene at all?
Why did Lucas think that all of these little "wink wink" connections would make the films more entertaing? If anything, they guarantee that children down the road who watch these films in 1-6 order will not enjoy 4-6 half as much as we did.
Re:I, for one (Score:3, Insightful)
A Darth Maul vs Qui-Gon Jinn style of fight choreography should have been used... IMO it's the best lightsaber duel of them all.
Yup, me too. And the reason why is that those two duels were done entirely with real people really fighting it out (well, mock-fighting it out). They didn't have tons of CG-animated bodies flipping nad flopping and twirling around and doing super-impossible "only mad Jedi skillz could accomplish this" feats.
Don't get me wrong, the CGI Yoda duels obviously have to be done digitally, but for everything else you're just upping the cheese and distraction factor.
Proper viewing order: IV, V, III, VI (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Dilema with my Young Kids (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why are Spaceships so easily OWNED? (Score:5, Insightful)
"There. Plug in. He should be able to interpret the entire imperial network!"
On the Death Star, in a control room overlooking a hangar bay where you berth captured freighters -- no, you reply completely on physical security. The assumption is that untrusted clients will never physically be able to access the network port.
This is the understandable hubris of the empire. It is inconceivable that enemy forces will be able to board your small-moon-sized space station and start poking around looking for the location of defense controls or which prisoner is where.
This is the same kind of thinking that leads to fatal-flaw design like a physical defense that assumes large-scale assault where smaller ships can easily slip through. What? A thermal exhaust port leading directly to the main reactor? Oh, don't worry -- the concept that enemies would attack with small fighters is so far-fetched that we don't have to worry about it.
Anyone ELSE see this in SPANISH? (Score:3, Insightful)
It wasn't bad. I didn't see too much of the crappy dialogue and acting that everyone's griping about.
So, anyone ELSE see this in Spanish here? Am I just not good enough at understanding Spanish yet to be totally let down by this movie? Further more, I'm HAPPY with episode III -- will I be totally let down if I see it in English???
Re:Luke is "The One" (Score:3, Insightful)
Then again, without Luke (in utero), Annakin would not have been tempted to the dark side in the first place.
Re:About the childhood... (Score:5, Insightful)
Kids my age at that time were still playing "cowboys and indians" in their backyards, just as their older siblings and parents had, but stories set in the Old West just didn't seem to connect to people anymore (that, or else Hollywood just forgot how to make them connect.)
Lucas wanted to make a genre picture which became part of our culture's "shared mythology" the way Hopalong Cassidy and The Lone Ranger once did. There was nothing like that at all in the late 60s and early 70s.
It worked really well. Most kids these days would much rather have a "Mace Windu Lightsaber" than a "pearl handled silver" cap gun.
I would not be surprised if Lucas considers the fact that kids now "play Star Wars" in their back yards (as we did, post-1977) to be his greatest triumph.
Wookies doing TARZAN impressions?!? NOOOOOOOOOO!!! (Score:2, Insightful)
It made me wanna shout NOOOOOOOO!! in the cinema hall just like Anakin does when he's told he killed Padme and Luke does in the "you're not my father scene". Okay so I got it off my chest.
NOOOOOOooooooooo
Re:How does Eps I-III Alter the Viewing of Eps IV- (Score:5, Insightful)
I see the important central idea around Star Wars in how Darth Sidious's attempt to turn Luke, ends up saving Anakin's sole.
If you look at how in episode VI, Luke is in the place against Anakin that Anakin was in episode II with Count Dooku.
That was where Darth Sidious realized he could control Anakin and make him his apprentice by having him kill Dooku.
That step was Anakins last chance to resist. The difference is that Luke stops short and refuses to fight.
It drives the Sidious to start killing Luke and it gets Vader to recognize and correct his mistake years later.
Look at Luke and Anakin when Sidious tries to convert them, they are both roughfully the same age, in extremely similar positions.
I think it adds to the whole experience.
Other problems... Spoiler-laced of course (Score:3, Insightful)
SPOILERS
1. 3PO and R2 have their memory wiped. Fine, but how does that explain that Vader doesn't exclaim upon first seeing the droids in the 2nd trilogy "3PO! R2! I remember you two!" It's not like they even changed their names so they could start 'fresh' in their lives as androids.
2. Luke and Leia are born and the grand idea to protect them is... drumroll please! a) place one in a senator's family, close to the Emperor and one would expect, Vader as well, and b) place the other with the only remaining living relatives of the Skywalker clan. Vader, given the 20 years or so that will pass, he will *never* visit his home planet during all that time, eh? To visit his mother's grave, see how his half-brother is doing, etc.?
3. Padme dies of a 'broken heart'? The first 2 movies let her demonstrate the qualities that her future daughter will possess: she's basically a strong-minded and smart young woman. Yet RotS demotes her to the cliche of weak-hearted wife that can't live without her husband's love. WTF?
4. Yoda 'failed'? How did he fail? What occurred during his battle with the Emperor that made him have to run? Surely he could've attacked again? You would think with the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance, he would have tried to get the Emperor while his defenses were down, busy trying to placate the Senate as he wrapped up his plan of domination.
5. What exactly compelled Yoda and Obi to go into exile? As far as they know, they are matched up quite well. Emperor and Vader to Yoda and Obi. So go run and regroup... but wait until the kids are grown? The kids are safe, they would have you believe... And as Obi already knows, Vader, as a young Lord of the Sith, makes brash mistakes (e.g. getting all his limbs chopped off) when he lets his temper get the best of him. Even the Emperor gets his ass handed to him by Mace Windu, it's only Anakin's surprise intervention that shifted the scales then. So why wait while the Emperor has all those years to train Vader?
The point is not to say these are problems that couldn't be solved, but indeed that they COULD HAVE been explained, but for some reason Lucas did not. Padme could indeed have been mortally wounded by Vader, Yoda as well, and a danger could have enveloped the remaining Jedi, thereby forcing them to leave and go into exile, and bury their 'force' fields in order to save innocent humans, etc.
But even further, there are other elements in this final movie that just make me so frustrated. The gravitas of the whole storyline is FINALLY hinted at, never mind with the Williams' score, but in the actual acting! Yoda, even as a CG actor, showed much more deep thought (gone are the simple platitudes that he was spouting back in 1 and 2) than practically any other actor in this film. And during the climactic lava battle, we're finally shown a Jedi's declaration of love for another, as Obi Wan, finally realizing that Anakin must die/is already dead, tells him that he loved him. Where was that during 1 and 2? Where was ANY counter to Anakin's angst that we all whined about in 2? Surely Anakin's cheese is all the cheesier when it's in a vacuum. With Obi expressing his fondness for his 'brother' it doesn't seem so 'cold' this land of Jedi. Even if it's *against* the rules for a Jedi to show emotion or grow attached, that Lucas could never (or chose not to) let us see beneath Obi's frosty mentor exterior and see how much he cared for Anakin, it's a crime that robbed the movies of the depth they were sorely lacking.
The surprising thing, I think for many of us long-time SW geeks, is that even with all the above, this movie still kicked 1&2's ass. I give it an 8 out of 10. With Empire a solid 10.
Re:I, for one (Score:4, Insightful)
I am a huge fan as many of you here. Grew up on star wars, saw the first 10 times when I was 7, saw empire 34 times in it's first run, I was obsessed with empire and it is my best movie experience ever. Then I saw Return only once. A part of my childhood died that day. So many things wrong with return, but this is more on the new movie. Well, it's been all downhill ever since.
The only thing that takes me there is during the star wars logo at the beginning and the opening crawl. And I really wanted to believe george got it right this time, but it just ain't so.
Besides the bad dialog, bad acting, and lack luster light saber fights, there is even a problem with the space battles. Just because you can put a million things on screen at once, doesn't mean you should. There are so many things wizzing around, which are way too colourful, and panning and 3d circle arounds etc. You need the grittiness, of the ships just looking grey. You need to subtract about 1000 ships. You need to lock the camera way more.
It reminds of Jaws, Speilburg wanted to use the shark way more but due to technical problems, they had to rely on 'building up' the fear of the shark. Needless to say it was prefect. This is probably the best example of less is more.
Someone needed to beat that lesson, and many other lessons, over george's head. But it's too late now, George shit the bed.
Forgot some detail (Score:4, Insightful)
Note the release dates: Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and The Return of the Jedi (1983)
Zero psychological insight. (Score:1, Insightful)
Why does Anakin hate the Jedi? It doesn't make any sense. He was frustrated by his lack of promotion, but is that reason enough to exterminate them, even the children (er, "younglings"?) and his best friend and mentor?
The movie is entertaining enough, but please. If anyone brings up the influence of Shakespeare on Lucas I'm gonna lightsaber 'em. He clearly didn't learn anything about character development from the Bard.
Who the fuck are Erik and Jamie? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Death Star (Score:3, Insightful)
Now, they'd probably go get asteroids and use those, and they'd probably have an enormous assembly fleet, but it would still be an unbelievable amount of work. Doing it in just 20 years would strain even a Galactic Empire. And having the skeleton built is about 0.01% of the whole job. Consider houses... they'll have the frame up in a couple days, but it still takes six months to build. Compare that to the enormous internal volume of a Death Star versus its relatively small surface area.
The fact that they had a second largely built in just a few more years strikes me as far less believable than the long timeframe to do the first. They would almost have to have started it halfway through the first project.
Rome wasn't built in a day, and I very much doubt the Death Star was built in a decade.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Viewing Order (Score:3, Insightful)
Personally, I'm willing to sacrifice some of the weight of that revelation in order to save the ending of the whole story for the end.
Re:Terrible reviews (Score:5, Insightful)
I thought it was more flawed than the original movies for one specific reason. In ROTS, I did not give one flying fuck what happened to any of the characters.
The original movie had some believable characters, clever dialog, and this thing known as emotion that made you care about what happened. You could see a little bit of yourself in their attitudes and situations. As a kid, it made your imagination run wild so that you could daydream about you yourself being in Lucas's beautiful world.
Not so in the prequels. Wooden characters with unbelievable stories reciting shitty dialog by actors unable to sell any of it - and for good reason. Any attempt to humanize the story in the prequels was laughably cheesy. "By God, Jar-Jar sucks. Oh look! A young Anakin single-handedly wiped out an entire fighting force by accident." And in this last movie we're supposed to care about these people? You simply cannot create a decent tragedy without characters worth feeling sorry for. When Anakin was burning up in lava with his limbs missing I did not care. When Padme died in child birth I did not care.
These three movies amount to just one big wasted opportunity.
Re:I didn't have high hopes about this but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Definitely agree with you, and more. As you said, it's difficult to tie to Leia's recollection. Her comments would have made more sense, and been more touching yet, if Padme had died of a broken heart just a couple of years later. But that's more of a fanboy nitpick.
The real problem was that it wasn't fair to her character. This is a lady who managed to get elected queen and senator, has been politicking in the Senate for probably ten years, is no pushover, but she dies in a unusually short time over the end of an imperfect relationship. (Yes, I know the circumstances were more shocking than just "see ya later.")
She was, to borrow from a character with a similar unexpected fate, "Boba-Fetted": Killed off before her time because she was no longer needed in the plot and without regard to her strengths. Sure, it tied in with Anakin's fears; yes, in a narrative way it makes sense; okay, he turned so completely as to be a serious shock. But I didn't believe it when it happened, and that's the problem there.
TSG
Re:I didn't have high hopes about this but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Zero psychological insight. (Score:4, Insightful)
And of course in the end, that fear betrays even his love. It's so much more powerful and ironic that Sidious is able use that failure to more tightly bind Vader to him.
And of course, in the "real world", we've all see what happens when you make powerful people and nations afraid. Scare a powerful group enough and everyone within reach gets crapped on, but of course some people just can't resist poking the tigers with a stick. When that happens, it may be better to stay out of the tigers way for a while. Lucas knows this...
Re:Luke is "The One" (Score:5, Insightful)
Dark Side: Palpatine/Vader
Light Side: Yoda/Obi-Wan
Thus being perfect balance.
Re:Viewing Order (Score:2, Insightful)
I had no prior experience to star wars... (Score:1, Insightful)
Later on I decided to see the original trilogy just to make sure I wasn't missing out on something that everyone knew about. I found them decent (well the *special effects* are obviously dated to me) and can now relate to why many people are such fans. But the order has got to be 4-5-6-1-2-3 or else they wouldn't even bother and preferably don't show those kids more advanced effects beforehand because they'll be pretty bored with *muppets*
Re:the tattered remains of your childhood... (Score:3, Insightful)
Subsequent experience with treasured childhood movies or shows is always a bad idea. Nothing is as good as it was when we were young.
I used to love Gilligan's Island when I was a child and I think that the shows are utter and irredemable cr*p now.
Does that invalidate my childhood memories? No it doesn't. It just means that I grew up, became a more critical viewer and now demand more depth to my comedies and TV show.
Face it folks, the original Star Wars movie were fluff and we all lvoed them when we were young but that just means that we had different tastes then.
As much as I liked the original trilogy I really can't watch them now because the acting is terrible (Harrison Ford in TESB is horrible) and the plots are really thin.
But I certainly cherish the memories that I had of watching them.
Frankly I'd be more worried if I actually did like the movies as much now as I did when I was younger.
Re:I didn't have high hopes about this but... (Score:2, Insightful)
Interestingly, the Return of the Jedi novelization wrote that "Luke claimed, 'I have no memory of my mother
In any case, Leia's quote in the ROTJ dialogue ("She died when I was very young" and "Just...images, really. Feelings.") is consistent with her only "knowing" her mother briefly (and not with real "memories" but "feelings") before she died, if only by being Force-sensitive.
Re:Another great review: (Score:1, Insightful)
Not bad acting (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is with the directing. Lucas seems to MAKE them do such a bad job.
Elsewhere in the posts there is discusson about how good the Spanish version is compared to the English version. I'm sure that was because the voice actors didn't have Lucas directing them.
Does anyone know why the acting is so bad in 1-3 and decent to good in 4-6? What made him go this route?
Re:Amputated Hand: Slice of Continuity (Score:4, Insightful)
His hand was sliced off in episode 2 by Dooku, and this fact was used by Palpatine/Sidious to goad Anakin into killing Dooku for purposes of revenge when he had him as an unarmed prisoner!
Perhaps if you actually watched the movies, you could be considered a score above 2 commentor; as is, you trolled some ignorant mods. Good day to you!
Re:I didn't have high hopes about this but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Physical security (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Prepare to be flamed (Score:5, Insightful)
You miss the point of the entire Prequel Trilogy. It is the backstory to the Original Trilogy, not just the story that came before the Original Trilogy.
Why is Boba Fett from the original trilogy the best bounty hunter in the galaxy? His dad was once the greatest; he happened to be chosen to be a source for clones.
Why is Obi-Wan depicted in the original trilogy to be one of the best Jedi; what accomplishments led him to this title? Back in the day, he did this, that, and some of those things.
Why is Chewie a famous wookie? He fought hard back in the Battle of Kashyyyk, his name known all around.
Why did Lucas think that all of these little "wink wink" connections would make the films more entertaing?
They are the connections that tell us why we love the characters from the original trilogy so much: the Prequel Trilogy is their story.
Re:Extremes... (Score:3, Insightful)
I could go into all sorts of reasons why it really is plausible, but honestly, it's a freakin' movie. If you're looking for that sort of accuracy, I suggest you stay away from SciFi (note that "Fi" is short for "Fiction" btw) and simply stick to documentaries.
Re:Is it just me? (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't seem to think art needs to be good, you don't think it's important whether or not it's a positive or negative contribution to American culture, and you apparently think we should stop thinking so hard with our brains and just watch what whatever a commercial can convince us (or our friends) looks cool.
If you don't think that art should aspire to greatness, or that people should view it from a critical or inquisitive state of mind, and collectively push our culture towards more inspiring and meaningful works, then maybe you should just watch Survivor? Or maybe you'd like to play with this keychain? They shine in the light....*jingles keys*
Or maybe you don't "give a flying fuck" because our entertainment culture is so dismal that calling it art is almost instinctively difficult to accept. I would agree if movies and television didn't hold so much potential, but they do, and so standards are important. It's difficult to take them seriously without imagining that it's somehow comparable to a tall slender man is standing in an art gallery, dressed in black with a goatee and non-prescription eyewear, pondering the significance of a pile of shit on a pedestal in front of him. Now maybe you missed Kangaroo Jack or the thousands of equally shitty productions out there that we call works of creativity, but either the implications of our particular pile of shit are of concern to you, or they are not. But you can't really argue that they shouldn't be.
Re:Physical security (Score:1, Insightful)
no, there are plenty other self-centered asshats (Score:2, Insightful)
Then don't fucking read it, you moron. Or try to waste other people's time complaining about it.
Re:Prepare to be flamed (Score:3, Insightful)
But that was always the way it was in StarWars. In Firefly its the ordinary unknowns that history forgets - but in StarWars it was royalty and those appointed by fate.
Re:I didn't have high hopes about this but... (Score:1, Insightful)
1) "There seems to be nothing physically wrong with her, but she is dying. We don't know what it wrong. She appears to have lost the will to live." Oh My God, how retarded was that?!? I burst out laughing.
2) When Padme discovers that Anakin has turned to the dark side on the lava planet, Anakin looks up to see Ewen McGregor standing at the top of the stairs, like Superman. Ridiculous... how could he let that pass?
3) When the Emperor was thrown into the chair, it looked like it was straight out of a 3 Stooges movie.
4) Lava-surfing a few feet above the lava surface would have burnt everyone. Even if the actual floating things were shielded, none of the air would be breathable, and yet, neither broke fighters broke into a sweat. Also, the Emperor was standing at the same location where Anakin burst into flames just a few scenes previous.
5) Why did they make sure Darth Vader was wearing a cape on the operating table when they finished putting the armor over his burnt body? They handcuffed him, but gave him a cape, cause he was bad-ass??!?
People will like the movie, not because the movie was good, but because they want to like the movie. The movie itself is horrible.
Re:Not bad but hardly great (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Younglings - another plot hole (Score:2, Insightful)
2) Of course Anakin cannot take a Youngling apprentice! "Always two there are," if you remember.
3) And yes, we are operating under the assumption that all people are basically good.
Re:Why are ... OWNED? Well.. (RL examples) (Score:2, Insightful)
1) Even tho the steel door was indeed going to be hard to get past, the drywall next to it was easily punched through.
2) Even tho the "man trap" did indeed close automatically, he could easily jump up, grab the edge and climb out.
3) Even tho the site was high security, he simply asked the person ahead of him to hold open the door for him since his hands were full with a couple empty boxes.
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So, I won't fault the empire there little pecadillos.
Re:Terrible reviews (Score:5, Insightful)
And, by the way, want to know my opinion about the movie your handle's namesake is from?
No. Not unless you give rational reasons for disliking it. However, you just call it "trash" without giving any reason why you felt that way. And seeing how you want to defend the Star Wars prequels, of all things, it would take a lot more than that to convince me that any of your opinions on movies are worth much of anything really.
Great Movie, Bad Star Wars (Score:3, Insightful)
Can't disagree with you there. Here's a draft of a review/analysis I'm working on (comments welcome). It's aimed at the Star Wars fan who's seen the movie. If that's not you, stop reading.
Revenge of The Sith delivers movie excitement, emotion, and experience not seen since The Empire Strikes Back. Ignoring obvious physics issues (e.g. the artificial gravity as the carrier lilted in low-earth orbit, the ambient heat over a lava flow) and some too-cute moments (excessive squawking of and irrelevant pans to the feathered dinosaur steed, or the "no I love you more" scene), overall, Revenge of The Sith is an excellent movie. The craft of movie making, the special effects (excepting the human/CGI cuts in the Count Duku rescue scene), the music, even most of the acting - all deserve an 8/10 rating or better. We also get an excellent new character, Senator Organa - the prequels' Han Solo. Revenge of The Sith has a captivating story and is emotionally involving - more than half of the ladies leaving the theater at the showing I attended were in tears, wrapped up in a bundle of thoroughly-stretched heartstrings. The guys hid it somewhat better.
That said, Revenge of The Sith is bad Star Wars.
First, there are jarring characterization inconsistencies. The ObiWan we've grown to know, even until the very end of the fight on Mustafa would have killed Anakin mercifully. You don't love somebody as your brother and then just let them die a slow agonizing death - especially if you're a Jedi. ObiWan wasn't after revenge or punishment - he genuinely cared about saving Anakin. He learned it wasn't possible, but that was his great disappointment, not a source of anger.
Next, Anakin's surrender to the Dark Side is without explanation - yes, Windu was going too far, and deserved to have his hand taken, but then without segue Anakin pledges his allegiance to Palpatine. He later says he thought Windu was assassinating Palpatine, but Windu explained his actions and if Anakin suddenly decided at that point that the Jedi Order was corrupt, despite his years of training and his force-enhanced ability to sort out truth from lies, he didn't mention it. He has reason to doubt the Jedi Council but not enough to completely distrust Windu. Perhaps if Windu had attacked him, we might consider it plausible, but Windu is clearly on Anakin's side until the end. The *entire point* of Revenge of The Sith is to explain Anakin's conversion to the Dark Side - and apparently it's on the cutting room floor.
Next, we have a torrent of events in conflict with the original trilogy:
ObiWan is not supposed to know about Leia. This is demonstrated in ESB when Luke is leaving Dagobah: ObiWan: "That Boy is our last hope" - Yoda: "No, there is another." Even after 16 years of communication with Yoda, until that point ObiWan didn't know about Leia - Yoda was keeping one last ace up his sleeve. Yoda's character was handled fairly well in the prequels and we could believe this kind of maneuvering from Yoda. ObiWan's lack of knowledge about Leia could have been handled pretty easily - have the ship under attack as Padme is laboring and have Obi Wan grab Luke and bolt, leaving Padme (and unbeknownst to him Leia) in Yoda's care. Speaking of which, are we to believe Padme hasn't seen a medical droid during her entire pregnancy such that she wouldn't have known she was carrying twins? Or did her instincts tell her to keep that from Anakin?
Speaking of Jedi inconsistencies, Yoda indicates that Qui Gon has achieved an ability unique, or at least highly unusual for a Jedi - he learned to commune with the living through The Force. Clearly he's going to teach this ability to Yoda and ObiWan over the next 16 years; so how in blazes does Anakin manage to show up for the group photo at the end of RoTJ?
At times Yoda is handled brilliantly - when he knocks the Imperial guards unconscious or defends himself from the Clones at the Wookie outpost. Then he ge
Re:How does Eps I-III Alter the Viewing of Eps IV- (Score:4, Insightful)
I have watched Ep 1 and 2 several times from DVD after seeing them in a theater and enjoyed them very much.
Episode 1 is simple, with good and evil very clearly defined, which is only appropriate - after all, the main character is a ten-year old kid. Episode 2 has a darker shade, with Anakin growing up and confronting the nasty facts of life - your loved ones die, no matter how mighty a hero you may be. And Episode 3 is dark, with Palpatine and Jedis putting Anakin into an impossible situation, and him losing control entirely.
The whole prequel trilogy works very nicely, with the viewpoint and representation fitting the general mood of each movie perfectly. It isn't the original trilogy, because it doesn't tell the same story. But it tells its own story very well.
As for the hammer... You really need to grow up a little and learn to tolerate differing opinions. Otherwise, you'll end up getting strangled to death with your own entrails, you sick hatefull heretical pervert.
Re:(Spoilers herein) Wrong order (Score:3, Insightful)
On a side note, Padmé took that baby-killing episode rather lightly.
It basically went something like:
Anakin: They are animals, and I slaughtered them like animals!
Padmé: There, there I'll just give you a hug and everything will be OK! It doesn't really bother me that much that my romantic interest is a self-confessed mass murderer.
Re:Great Movie, Bad Star Wars (Score:3, Insightful)
Nice review! Just a coupla points:
1. Speaking of Jedi inconsistencies, Yoda indicates that Qui Gon has achieved an ability unique, or at least highly unusual for a Jedi - he learned to commune with the living through The Force. Clearly he's going to teach this ability to Yoda and ObiWan over the next 16 years; so how in blazes does Anakin manage to show up for the group photo at the end of RoTJ?
I was wondering about this too when I came out of the theatre. The answer (I think) is that Qui-Gonn had to do-the-ghost-thing to teach Yoda the trick in the first place. So, once you're dead, if you're smart, you can figure it out - and in the ways of the force, Anakin is really, really smart.
Of course, that doesn't explain why a ghost army of Jedi doesn't turn up at Yendor just to fuck with the Stormtrooper's minds, but eh.
2. "Hiding in plain sight" doesn't pass the laugh test.
Agreed. I guess they were hoping that Vader would not realise he had children. Still, they'd better be hoping he never visits the in-laws
3. Did Windu just grab some trainees from the cafeteria to arrest the Dark Lord of the Sith?
This must go into the review unchanged. I mean, wtf? Four Jedi go to confront a possible Dark Lord of the Sith, THREE get chopped up in about ten seconds, and the last one SINGLE-HANDEDLY kicks Imperial butt? Makes no sense.
4. This is demonstrated in ESB when Luke is leaving Dagobah: ObiWan: "That Boy is our last hope" - Yoda: "No, there is another."
Yeah, the Special Special edition is going to change to that to: "Good thing we've got a spare, huh, Master?"
5. The ObiWan we've grown to know, even until the very end of the fight on Mustafa would have killed Anakin mercifully.
The Obi Wan of the later years, definately. The Obi Wan of the ROTS, maybe, if all Anakin had done was turn to the dark side. I think the death of the younglings (what a funny thing to call Jedi children!), the extermination of the Jedi, the destruction of the Republic, the almost-murder of Padme, and the to-death battle with his own, beloved Padawan took it out of Kenobi. And yet, Padme is the one who dies of the mysterious yet fatal "broken heart"
6. Anakin suddenly decided at that point that the Jedi Order was corrupt, despite his years of training and his force-enhanced ability to sort out truth from lies, he didn't mention it
Agreed it was rushed, but the way I saw it, right from the moment Anakin rushes to see for himself, he knows what he's going to do, and which way he's going to turn. It felt like he was going against hope: maybe Palpatine wasn't a Dark Lord, after all; maybe Windu would have killed him already. But if it came down to Anakin to make that decision, he knew he would choose the Emperor and Padme. His speech to Padme later on about "they were trying to kill the Councillor, I had no choice
Two other things struck me as odd about the movie:
1. Anakin's face (somewhat silly, i know)
So he gets horribly mutilated, burnt, etc. and ends up looking like a boiled egg. But he looks like a boiled egg at the end of ROTJ! Did the Emperor's final lightning attack have no effect on him? Look what it did to Mace Windu, after all.
Possible explanation: Dark Lord of the Sith, Palpatine, against his apprentice, The Chosen One, most-powerful-Jedi-in-years Anakin Skywalker. No contest.
2. Jedi Destruction
Like you said, the Jedi were a real let down in the movie. I found all the surprise the Jedi showed to be a bit odd - aren't they supposed to be able to feel when people are attacking them? I would have liked to see more badass fighting, as the Jedi - even as Order 66 is going out - turn around and attack their would-be attackers, even before the order is properly transmitted - but slowly get bogged down by enemy fire. Or e
Re:Physical security (Score:3, Insightful)
One does expect technologies to have limitations. I don't think every limitation needs to be explained...
He wouldn't be that powerful then, would he? As Yoda says: "Difficult to understand, the Dark Side is." or something to that effect. If it was as easy as "Oh yeah, that guy there is dark." it wouldn't have made much of a movie.