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Fri, May 15, 03:45:12pm [ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, [3], 4 ]

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Date Posted: Fri, Jun 24, 09:58:03am
Author: Flex Hammer
Subject: I've got a bad feeling about this.

STAR WARS, EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH



The movie was quite a bit better than Episode II. Better than Episode I as well. And I don't think I would have needed to see either movie to watch this one. Which kind of begs the question, why bother with the other two? Whatever.

The basic story that is there (awesomely cool Jedi goes bad to save girl, winds up killing girl, but spawns hope for all) is workable. While everything is pretty convoluted, some of what the Emperor is doing finally makes a little more sense here.

Ultimately, the problem comes from the character arcs, focusing on boring politics, and inconsistency in the Force "rules".

Anakin's transition to the Dark Side seemed rather sudden. One day he mercilessly kills an evil Sith Lord and a few days later he's killing Jedi children...er, I'm sorry, younglings. What spawns the drastic change? His love for Padme. A love that due to wooden acting (more on this later), never really supports the change in alignment. Furthermore, they do a decent job establishing the relationship that Obi-Wan and Anakin have in the first scene. And even have a witty rapport (with crappy dialogue and wooden acting) that says these guys have a history together. The transition from that to the two of them fighting to the death seems forced to me. That said, Obi-Wan seems to express this confusion which I did kind of like.

There was a lot of talking in this movie. The confusing politics play a key role again in what's going on. And because Palpatine is pulling an FDR, he's getting the evil eye by the Jedi. It would have been better to establish better reasoning for the Jedi's suspicion of Palpatine.

The Jedi confuse me a great deal actually. They can sense some things, but not everything (like a dozen blasters being aimed right at them). They can see into the future now? They should search their feelings, but not ever use them? They can use the Force to move heavy, floaty thingies, but not to brush off a handful of tiny droids that have hit their spaceship? I'm sure some Star Wars nerd has it all figured out, but I couldn't follow it.

Finally, the part that I suppose I found the most interesting was all the little bits that "set up" the original trilogy. Some of it worked, most of it seemed crammed in there. I would like to have seen a bit more time spent on key points, especially if it would have meant less boring talking earlier in the movie. (I also think it's weird that they don't save the Leia revelation for "Return of the Jedi." I think it'd be better to establish that Luke has a twin, but not give any more information than that. Storywise, to those watching it for the first time in "order," it gives that reveal some punch.)

Two huge non-story problems with this movie. The wooden acting and the insanely busy special effects.

I will give Hayden Christiansen credit for not being as bad as he was in Episode II...but he was still pretty bad. I'd actually be curious to see him in a non-Lucas movie. I'm curious how much of it is him and how much of it is Lucas. The romance and chemistry between Anakin and Padme just wasn't there. Even greats like Samuel L. Jackson and Christopher Lee were less charismatic than mannequins.

There were some great looking effects in this movie, but way too much. Space battles had too much going on and backgrounds were too complex. And, there were some effects that just didn't look good at all. The Greivous/Obi-Wan chase had some really bad stuff in it.

The ship designs seemed better overall, but then Wookies have laser crossbows and don't use their alleged claws, so that kind of cancels each other out.

At least 10 minutes could have been cut from this movie. It was edited to be way too long. There are too many shots of ships taking off and landing. It slowed down the flow of the story and wasn't necessary.

And, I know this is an homage to the 1930s serials, but let me state this very clearly, I HATE wipes that are used as transitions. This had way too many wipes.


I searched my feelings and am giving this a higher score than I thought I would, but I think it's fair.

4 out of 10









Flex

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