Revenge of the Sith!

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May 2012

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[Surtur]

Holy fucking shit.  That was freaking fantastic.  It's a little hard to get all my thoughts in order at the moment, but I'll try to give a little bit of a review.  Spoilers ahead, obviously.

First of all, this movie met, and just about surpassed all my expectations.  The duel was awesome.  Yoda totally ruled in this movie, more so than even in Episode II.  Mace's death was sweet, although I thought Anakin telling Palpatine right afterwards that he will do whatever Palpatine asks of him was kind of a sudden change.  I would have preferred if Palpatine had convinced Anakin that the Jedi would not take him back now that he's killed Windu, and that they'll try to kill him... so Anakin, in need of guidance, feels he has no choice but to continue working with Palpatine.  But whatever, that's basically what happened anyway.  Just... a lot faster, lol.  
Lucas did something with the Emperor I really wasn't expecting.  I always thought the Emperor was going to be this really badass evil sith lord, but Lucas actually made him sort of pathetic, and cowardly.  That's not a bad thing, mind you, but it certainly caught me off guard.
I didn't mind the dialogue too much in the last two, but I think it was a lot better in this installment, anyway.  There were only a few lines that I thought were cheezy (eg. "From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!").  I love all the Palpatine/Anakin scenes, I think they were written really well.
But most of all, what I love about this movie, and what totally surprised me, is how sad it all was.  I always thought I'd react to the Jedi getting their shit owned by like, clapping, and cheering on the Empire.  But this movie (and I think John Williams' score certainly helped in this regard) really made me feel bad for the Jedi.  When Yoda drops his cane, and starts holding his head, my eyes starting watering up.  And I really didn't want Anakin to turn at the end of the movie.  The end of the duel is heartbreaking (and man, Obi-Wan is really cruel to let Anakin die like that, lol.  Just chop off his head, jeez.  Do you have to let him burn to death?).
As for what I didn't like... a) I wanted to see Vader do more stuff (I mean, post-Mustafar Vader).  Like, you know, own a few people up.  As it stands, even his lines aren't that great ("Noooooooooooooooooooooo!", lol.  Couldn't he have just gone, like "Arrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh!".  That would have sounded a lot less lame.).  And b) The movie still doesn't resolve all the SW saga plot holes.  I still don't know why Obi-Wan doesn't recognize R2-D2 or C-3PO... or if he does, why he would lie about it.  I'm not sure who Leia is talking about anymore when she says she remembers her mother... I assumed we were going to get some moment where Padme holds Leia in her arms, or something, so there could be some explanation for why Leia remembers her.  That doesn't happen with Padme, but it does happen with Bail Organa's wife, so... I don't know what's going on there.  I don't know why the Death Star would take 20 years to build the first time, and only, like, 2 years the second time, lol.  And there were some other really nitpicky plot-hole complaints I had last night, but I can't remember them at the moment.
At any rate, Revenge of the Sith is easily the best of the prequels, and is one hell of an awesome fucking movie.   I find it hard to compare the two trilogies to decide which I like best, so I'll just compare the movies individually.  At the moment, I think my list goes something like this (and bear in mind that I love all the SW movies, even the ones at the bottom of the list):
The Empire Strikes Back
Revenge of the Sith
A New Hope
Attack of the Clones
The Phantom Menace
Return of the Jedi
Sith may overtake Empire, after I've had some time to think about it, but then, Empire is a really hard movie to top.

Grarrggh.  I want to see it again, dammit.

-Surtur'll have to wait till Friday, though.  A whole day without Revenge of the Sith?  Arrrrrrggghhhhh!

[MrVandemar]

Seeing it today in 2 hours.  Can't wait.  Although I don't know why on earth you would rank the TPM and ATC above Return of the Jedi...

[Surtur]

That's easy.  Because they were better movies.

I also just want to mention something I forgot to in my last post: I think this may be John Williams' best Star Wars soundtrack (and possibly his best soundtrack ever).  It's extremely stirring and emotional... and unlike a lot of his recent work, there's so much in here that doesn't sound like typical John Williams.  It's all incredible.  

It doesn't have any new theme quite as strong as Empire's Imperial March, or TPM's Duel of the Fates, though.

-Surtur still loves Battle of the Heroes however.  But it's even better in the movie than on the soundtrack.

[SLDFKnight]

Best moment for me:

Lock S-foils in attack formation

My only complaint was that the romance parts were still crappy. Luckily they were all fairly short this time around. And Portman was hot.

Also the James Earl Jones does Shatner thing made me laugh.

And what scene was mon mothma in?

[Surtur]

Some of the romance bits were better, but yeah, a lot of it was still pretty crappy (my least favorite being the hairbrush scene... although John Williams' music made it easy to tolerate).  But I liked all the stuff where Padme was sad, basically, heh.

I did not see Mon Mothma.  I'm not sure if she was cut from the movie, or if I just missed her.  I also didn't see Lucas.  I forgot about his cameo during the movie, so I wasn't really looking for him... but I'll try to spot him when I (hopefully) go again tomorrow.  I did see Jett... he was in the Stormtroopers turn on Bail Organa scene.  And I'm sure everyone saw the guy who looked nothing like Tarkin.

-Surtur can't remember what other cameos the movie was supposed to have...

[kostjan]

Deleting my post just because I called you a sad fanboy (and you know it's true) is kinda on-heterosexual, Surturian. And although you will prolly delete this one as well, it just doesn't hide the truth that you act liek an offended little kid...

But hey, if you do that, I reserve myself the right to mess with your posts as well, until TC settles us out...

[Surtur]

Uh... I think you might want to lay off the crack, kost.  I didn't delete your post.  You posted in a totally different thread.

-Surtur suspected that you meant to post in this thread, though.  He didn't quite get how his post about Spamusement made him out to be a fanboy.

[Sirus]

Ha ha, poor Kost is so confused these days. Maybe he's actually a senile old man who's been leading us on all this time.

At any rate, I thought the flick was great, though the Anakin/Padme scenes do kinda grate on me. I just don't get it, Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen have both acted very well on their own in other movies. What the hell seems to keep them from pulling it off together?

[BlurYamaneko]

I think the Padme and Anakin scenes were, dare I say it, my favourite in ep2, so I'm sure they won't grate on me in ep3, like they do, oh, everybody else on the fucking planet.  Their acting/chemistry probably does leave something to be desired, but the atmosphere of the whole thing just saved them both throughout the whole movie.  Maybe that's just me, but I didn't really mind their scenes at all.

Anyway, I'm glad that people are into RotS, the response seems pretty unanimously positive from long-time fans, new ones, and people who hated the ep1 and 2 alike.  I'll hopefully get to see it in a week or two, either way.  Yay me!

[kostjan]

...


...


...



- Kost feels dumb.. Surtur uis still a fanboy tho

[Surtur]

Agreed.  I take no shame in my fanboyism.

As for the Padme/Anakin scenes, I think it's really something of a mixed bag.  Some are fine, others are intolerable, and then some really got to me.  But I certainly think they had more chemistry in this one than in Episode II.  Supposedly, Lucas had an acting coach help out with the filming this time... I think it shows.

But if you really thought the love scenes in Episode II were the best part, you'll probably enjoy all of it in Episode III.

-Surtur is like a boy in a fan factory.

[Dace]

I think this outranks all of the SW movies.  We still had to endure Lucas' bad scripting (ie- the whole "I love you" bullshit between Ani and Padme.)  and there were a few lines that just seemed odd, yet hysterical.  ("Relations with the wookies, have I."  "My little...green...friend.")  

Surtur, my lover, I have to disagree with you about Empy being weak.  Really, he might have been more powerful than Yoda.  First time his true colors shine, he flips through the air and takes out three Jedi in like 5 seconds.  Then with the battle between Windu and him, he is just obviously playing with Ani's emotions.  "Oh, I'm weak Ani."  *chop*  *laugh, zaps more, kills*  The Empy’s face looked like he had just seen The Ring.  The political undertones during the Yoda/Empy fight were very nicely done.  When they travel up to the senate and battle, and Empy throws the senate disk-thingies around...priceless.  Something tells me that Lucas didn't plan that; he's an idiot.

The visual effects--dazzling  The people at Clanlucas sure do know how to work wonders.  Yoda looked real this time.  In the other prequels you could tell that he was done with a computer.  The people in scenes with him brought hm to life, believed he was there.  Ian Holm (Empy) just rocked when he fought the nothingness in those green screened shots.  

-Dace, Surtur's date for the second trip to the moves.
 

[White Phoenix]

Ok just finished watching the film last night and was very impressed by it.  I'd have to say this ranks a close second to Empire strikes back.  First the good, Lucas' dialogue has vastly improved from Attack of the clones and the love story aspect feels a great deal more believable though it does have a few glitches which I'll get to later on.  The scenes with Palpatine and Anakin are fantastic and very well written.  Gotta give Lucas credit for getting the dialogue down perfectly there.  

Next up the music, a definate step up from attack of the clones with some brilliant pieces (dont know their names) playing in the background of a few scenes.  I might let you know which ones later on.  Sound effects were brilliant with Lucas as usual getting it spot on with the surround sound of course we should we should expect nothing less from the man who pioneered THX

Visually the film is also vastly superior to previous installments, however there is a little too much CG used in the backgrounds sometimes which can be a tad distracting.  Yoda looks a lot more believable and not as fake as he did in previous installments.  

In terms of plot I was rather impressed with the turn to the darkside even if it was a little abrupt but what I really enjoyed was the fact [!--SPOILER BEGIN--][div onClick=\"openClose(\'a1dbae3b3dafd73baedd1e216020c738\')\" style=\"font-weight: bold\"]Click For Spoiler[/div][div id=\"a1dbae3b3dafd73baedd1e216020c738\" style=\"display:none\"][!--SPOILER END--] that Anakin's turn to the darkside was actually what caused his dream to come true.  Much like a Greek tragedy, his attempt to change the future destroys him and brings about that which he wishes to avoid [!--SPOILER DIV--][/div][!--SPOILER DIV--]  Next up the massacre of the Jedis brilliantly done, personally I never liked the idea of kids being trained there and it all made no sense in episodes one and two.  It was all a case of wtf?  Anakin looks about eight years old and he cant become a Jedi? albeit he does with the help of Obi Wan and Qui gon.  Now looking back it seems like the kids were mostly just there to explain how Anakin could become a Jedi at such a young age and to show how evil Anakin is now that he goes around hacking up children.  Sorry Lucas that was bad story writing.  Equally bad are the inconsistancies between this trilogy and the last.  Uncle Owen buys back C3PO without realising it (perhaps not so bad given C3P0 had his memory wiped)  but far worse is the fact Padme dies when Leia says she remembers seeing her.  Still I'll forgive him because that fit the story in this film brilliantly.

Sadly this film for me only makes it to four stars.  I'm not sure if it's bad directing or bad acting (possibly both) but Hayden and Portman dont deliver the performances needed to carry the material.  And there are a few cringe moments most notably Vader's "noooooo" when he finds out about Padme.  Did anyone else think bad B-Grade horror movie?  All we needed was Dr Frankenstein, a mob of villagers and a windmill and we'd have been set.  Like I said all that forgiven it is a brilliant film just not a perfect one.    

 

[Arcana (formerly known as Bob)]

[!--SPOILER BEGIN--][div onClick=\"openClose(\'91e50eece01e8881940beea34b9809c4\')\" style=\"font-weight: bold\"]Click For Spoiler[/div][div id=\"91e50eece01e8881940beea34b9809c4\" style=\"display:none\"][!--SPOILER END--]The line that made EVERYONE laugh?

Yoda wrote:
Have good relations with the Wookie, I do.[!--SPOILER DIV--][/div][!--SPOILER DIV--]


I thought Artoo was a WEE bit too powerful in this one. I mean, he does all of this magic in this version of the movie.

[!--SPOILER BEGIN--][div onClick=\"openClose(\'f79700787568f2b422512a6db1525f4b\')\" style=\"font-weight: bold\"]Click For Spoiler[/div][div id=\"f79700787568f2b422512a6db1525f4b\" style=\"display:none\"][!--SPOILER END--]And also - awesome idea to put Tarkin in on the ending scene when they overlook the Death Star. Grand Moff Tarkin was probably one of my favourite characters in the whole series. Cushing, back in the day, really had a lot of screen presence along with Alec Guiness. The dialog wasn't as obviously hokey back then - I think maybe it was shorter, or something.[!--SPOILER DIV--][/div][!--SPOILER DIV--]

Anyone else see the Corellian Freighter floating around in one of the shots around Coruscant? I like to think it was the Falcon.  For no reason.

However, one thing that piqued my interest was that the first half of the movie was made up of like, 10 eight minute scenes or something. That kind of annoyed me after a while.  It was silly how they had to hammer in our heads that Padme and Anakin loved each other in such a cheesy way.  Come on.  Make them go out on a date or something together, not exchange sappy love lines.

According to the local rumour mill, Fox is supposed to begin creating a Star Wars live-action TV series focusing on the 20 years between Episodes III and IV. So we might not yet see the end of Star Wars and Lucas just yet.

Overall? Definitely worth seeing, even if you're not a big fan of Star Wars. This movie to me had a similar feeling as Matrix: Revolutions did - it was basically ALL action sequences, although RotS had much more development and buildup than the Matrix did. It's a shame that Episode II and I weren't executed well, because you can see many ways you could have handled a buildup of the turning of Darth Vader.  People have imagined this moments for YEARS.  I know people who were disappointed because Anakin didn't actually PLUNGE into the lava and nearly burn himself.

Also, I was really, really wanting to see Anakin hunt down the Jedi himself, because that was the impression you got when Obi-Wan talked about it in AnH.

And... one friend of mine was bemused at the fact that the name Vader seemed to come out of nowhere.

"I name thee... Darth... uhhhh.... umm, Vader."

There's also this great quote from a CBC columnist that I have to share:

Katrina Onstad, CBC.ca wrote:
Lucas has admitted that he held out, stuffing the last two with filler because he wanted this one to be good. In other words, he screwed us like any other advertiser, and buoyed by nostalgia and a false sense of belonging to something bigger, we don't seem to mind.

[kostjan]

Just back from theater.. I kinda liked it, though I found it to be a bit cheezy...

Three things that annoyed me:

a) Robot General that coughts.. wtf?? he's a R-O-B-O-T ffs... robots dont caugh...
b) Wooden dialogs between Anakin and Padme (or whatever you spell her name like) with zero sincere emotion...
c) Cheesy pixelated special effects...


Oh, and Padme dies, yet in one of the older star wars, Leila clearly claims to remember her mother.. "she was always sad and crying".. So yeah, wtf?