Star Wars Episode III
June 23rd, 2005I realize that, of my regular readers of whose intentions I am aware, approximately 60% have no intention of ever watching this movie, 20% will probably never get around to seeing it, and another 20% have already seen it at least twice, with certain of their family members owning General Grievous action figures. You are all welcome to read on or not as interest dictates.
I found this last movie to be by far the best of the three newer movies, in spite of a few minor issues with dialoge.
Obi-Wan: I can’t fly this ship.
Annikin: Neither can I.
Obi-Wan: It’s going faster and faster.
Annikin: Pieces are breaking off.
Pause for outside shot of flaming ship shooting towards the planet surface.
Obi-Wan: So, what should we do?
Sorry…couldn’t resist. Anyway, it was a very compelling movie — the first one where I really found myself caring about Annikin and Padme. I thought Annikin’s transformation from Jedi to Sith extremely convincing, and Padme’s performance was much improved, though I have a suspicion that pregnant women generally do not get around quite as fast as she did at the end. The scenery and effects were also a lot of fun to watch.
Finally, it’s nice to have the last pieces of Darth Vadar’s history…I can hardly believe I had planned to skip this one. Episode’s I and II are recommended skips, but III is a must-see.
Now if I can just convince the individual in the second category named above to go see it, perhaps I can justify a third trip to the theater…
Wow!! I don’t recall ever disagreeing so strongly on anything with you before!! I was extremely disappointed in the third episode. Several loose ends that we expected to be tied up weren’t. The dialogue was dreadful, as in the first two. I thought the transformation of Anakin was too quick, mostly at the end of the film, and I wasn’t at all convinced. Of course I expect to watch it several more times. I’m not sure how I would rank it compared to the first two, but I definitely left the theater disappointed. There were a few memorable lines, such as “So this is how democracy dies–to thunderous applause” or something like that.
the transformation into vadar wasnt THAT convincing. it happened kinda fast. it was like ok, im evil now. plus that cheesy part where he first has the suit on and he’s like Nooooo! in james earl jones’ voice. so funny i started laughing loud in the theatre. glad u enjoyed it tho. c ya in class 2night.
Jess…I agree that the democracy line was pretty good.
My opinion of the dialogue went up the second time, actually, which surprised me. It wasn’t quite as bad as I had remembered it. I’m going to speak for Kiki here…she talks about how Padme talks like a 21st century American wife, which doesn’t quite make sense. “You’re too stressed, Anni!” There is a funny contrast there, because sometimes they talk much more formally. Annikin says something like, “Do not trouble yourself, my love.” The writers should have picked a conversational style and stuck with it.
As for Annikin’s transformation, it wasn’t at all perfect, but it had its points. He was very convincing as a nice young man in love in the beginning, they did a good job of showing the things that put him in turmoil — the council’s distrust (they gave him no help whatsoever, by the way) and Palpatine’s manipulation — and they did an excellent job of showing him at the end as an angry murderer. His “I hate you!” line at the end of the fight with Obi Wan was good.
Hey, Corinn! Welcome!!
Darth Vader’s “Nooo” was definitely a bit silly. I just placed that in the minor detail portion of my semantic map.
Sometimes I got frustrated at how close he was to being good instead…I thought some of the more important turning points were when he killed Palpatine’s first apprentice (don’t know how to spell his name!) and when he didn’t kill Palpatine.
Futher comment: interesting how useless the prophecies were. And frustrating. Like I said, at least this time I liked the main characters enough to be frustrated that they were so miserable.
Suppose I ought to leave pretty soon if I’m ever going to make it to class…
SWIII was a tall order:
Bridge two mediocre movies to a trilogy that redefined movie-making…and, oh yeah, the trilogy is 20 years old….and by the way, everyone knows everything that’s supposed to happen already…
I went with low expectations (due to I and II) and was happily surprised.
A simple list:
1. The special effects
2. Ani to Vader was spellbinding. I mean all of it–his tortured expressions, his anguished resignation when pledging himself to Palpatine…and yes, the surgical scene at the end(Though I did laugh out loud at Corinne’s post, and I’m afraid I’ll never be able to get through that scene again …)
3. R2D2 showing off his fighting skills
4. Padme’s outfits were fabulous.
5. Obiwan’s dealings with Anikin–I found this actually instructive! Seriously.
I could go on…
I will say that the dialogue was…well, all the things you’ve said it was. There was this one line of Padme’s–she says something like, “I don’t believe that!” but she says it exactly in the same way you’d say, “Get out of town!”
I have an idea that when a director is spending most of his energies on things like special effects, sets, etc, the scriptwriting gets neglected. I thought that Titanic suffered this problem, as well.
There you have it–a review from one of the action-figure-owning set!
It bothers me when a character’s hair when down isn’t long enough to do all the things that Padme does to hers to put it up. In that, at least, all six Star Wars movies are consistent!
I was involved in a discussion tonight on whether or not Annikin is a good actor. Here are a couple of the theories that were mentioned:
1)No. He only has 3 emotions: angry, angrier, and angriest.
2) He’s ok…there was such a wide range of emotions to be portrayed that one doesn’t need an actor who is good at subtle emotions.
What do you think?