Posted on 06/01/2005 10:34:25 AM PDT by quidnunc
Vengeance is mine, saith the Sith, whith thoundth like Violet Elizabeth Bott. No such luck. Instead, it’s George Lucas, with what he insists is the final film in the Star Wars sextet. My guess is the first film in the new Star Wars septet will be opening circa 2008. Anyway, Revenge of the Sith is, so Lucas assures us, a ‘tragedy’. It might have been wise to have stationed an announcer at every movie house to announce this fact over the PA system since it eluded the audience I saw it with last weekend. When the Sith hits the fan, the fan bursts out laughing. Oh, to be sure, they were diverted by the opening dogfight and Obi-Wan Kenobi riding a wild four-legged space beast to hunt down General Grievous. But they were howling with laughter through all the so-called ‘tragic’ elements. When Senator-Queen Padmé (Natalie Portman) reveals that she’s pregnant, her secret husband Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) reacts with an eerie glassy-eyed expression as if he’s hypnotised himself trying to remember the next line. Eventually, Lucas prompts him and he utters the words, ‘I’ll have the club sandwich.’ No, wait. That’s just what it sounds like. He actually says: ‘You’re so … beautiful.’
‘It’s only because I’m so in love,’ says Padmé tonelessly, like a spy giving the reply password.
‘No,’ says Anakin. ‘I’m so in love. With you,’ he adds helpfully, just in case Padmé figures it’s the hot-looking Wookie strolling by in the background.
At this, my fellow theatergoers exploded with guffaws of derision. May the farce be with you! The final descent of Ian McDiarmid’s Chancellor Palpatine into Darth Hammitup brought on more laffs, as did the moment when Anakin attempts to talk Padmé into joining him over on the Dark Side: ‘Together you and I can rule the galaxy,’ he snarls. Well, tries to snarl.
‘Obi-Wan was right. You’ve changed,’ says Princess Padmé. ‘I don’t know you any more.’ He used to look like Princess Di flashing those big eyes from under his hair. But suddenly he looks like Princess Di with too much kohl and in a peevish mood. What can this mean?
-snip-
It's really wrong how just about everyone takes a dirty shot at Mark Hamill. He's the ONE member of the cast who didn't end up in the tabloids drunk, cheating on his wife( Ford) or strung out on drugs( Fisher). He married in 1978, is still with the SAME wife( how many can say THAT in entertainment?), raised 3 great looking kids who also never showed up in the tabloids as embarassments. There's never been any scandal about him, and he's never used his celebrity to criticize his country or even Lucas- who certainly didn't help his career as he did Ford's.
He is a personable, affable, genuine NICE guy who has never snapped back at the slaps he has gotten in the press. He also has made a good living on Broadway and in voice-over work when it was looked down on by celebrities. Now everyone is doing it and it's admirable.
Mark has never gotten the credit he deserved for making the original SW films as culturally immortal as they are- but HIS is the face, and the name, most associated with SW the world over.
He has his immortality, which I doubt anyone from the prequel films will achieve.The constant derision is undeserved .
I agree with Steyn about the film, but the cheap shot at Mark was reprehensible.
"To me, the greatness lies in the theme (as I see it) - the fall, salvation, and redemption through love. The related tie in of good vs evil, in epic terms. That is why although it has new age overtones, Christians tend to react strongly to it."
But according to Obi-Wan, "only Siths think in moral absolutes". So then what is good and what is evil? Lucas destroyed the whole premise to Star Wars with that line! That was one of the dumbest moments of the latest Star Wars.
BTTT - Unexcerpted, and you are a sweetie!
Ping post #9 on this Thread, Mark Steyn, the greatest writer in the English language, does Ep. III.
--Meanwhile, on stage, Mark, wearing his Skywalker costume with a top
hat, does another song.
Hamill: Luke, be a Jedi tonight!
Just be a Jedi tonight!
Hamill & Chorus: Do it for Yoda, while we serve our guests a soda.
Hamill: Uh, and do it for Chewie and the Ewoks, and all the
other puppets ...
Hamill & Chorus: Luke, be a Jedi tonight!
-- "Mayored to the Mob"
I love Jimmy Smits. He's grown so robust and dignified since "L.A. Law" ... the action figures I saw in Wal-mart today cracked me up :-).
Ouch!!
One of the problems with ROTS was that Lucas apparently couldn't keep his philosophies straight. Anakin killing Dooku when told to because he was too dangerous was part of the path to the dark side. But apparently begging Mace Windu not to kill the Emperor even though he was too dangerous was also part of his path to the dark side.
He also alternates between "Only the sith deal in absolutes" and "the sith are evil!".
See 131
"Life Of Bryan" has pretty much nothing to do with Jesus whatsoever. The movie is about a jew who joins and anti-roman resistance group, and winds up getting crucified in the end. There is, IIRC, only one portrayal of Jesus in the entire movie and all he's doing is preaching on a hill.
Did anyone else pick up on the "Wise Sith" story that Palapatine told Anakin. Seems there was a wise old Sith who was so powerful that he could use the force to create life. He taught his apprentice everything he knew and was subsequently bumped off in his sleep by said apprentice.
Palapatine never claims to have been that apprentice, but his familiarity with the story and the smile that plays about his lips as he "remembers" it led my wife and I to believe that he is claiming to have been the one who created Anakin, since Anakin's mom claims immaculate conception in Episode One. Did any one else get that?
Bump to what you said...and this:
"Oh, put a lightsabre in it, will you? The allegedly anti-Bush ‘subtext’ has won Lucas the unlikely approval of the Cannes Film Festival crowd, but honestly: how desperate do you have to be to applaud mockery of Bush for seeing everything in black and white from a guy who’s spent 28 years peddling a fairytale so basic the good guys and the bad guys are called the Good Side and the Dark Side."
Steyn is to column wordsmithing what Alexander was to world conquest.
Er, that would be "Virgin Birth," i.e., conception by a means other than sexual intercourse. In Catholic and Orthodox theology, "Immaculate Conception" refers to the Virgin Mary's being conceived by natural means, but (miraculously) without Original Sin.
(/theological quibble)
Thanks for the thought ... my kids, my mom, and I will be seeing the movie next week, and I will watch for the scene you mention!
Then I saw him in "Catch Me If You Can." Excellent film. Much better acting. He's off my "sucks" list.
The Ewoks were truely lame. However, I'd fix it by giving the feeling there were about 100 times as many of them as there seemed to be in the original, and including some scenes of mass Ewok casualties. (Easy enough to do with CGI.)
Can you tell I was raised Protestant?
Plenty of Catholics make the same mistake :-). I'm a Definition Fanatic.
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