Posted on 06/06/2005 11:32:51 AM PDT by quidnunc
What can you say about a movie whose most engaging character is a two-foot tall, pointy-eared, green alien? "Star War III: The Revenge of the Sith" is heavy on special effects but sparse on drama, romance, and emotion.
It’s also filled with director George Lucas’s muddled thinking. And, yes, it’s science fiction in the service of Michael Moore’s worldview.
Despite its record-breaking opening, the last Star Wars installment is bad cinema, because it is a poor narrative. The light-saber duels are fun. The alien creations are cool. The attempts to portray passion or the corruption of the human spirit (how a man loses his soul) are pathetic.
In Christensen and Portman, Lucas has found a romantic duo who belong in a remake of "Beach Blanket Bingo." As Anakin Skywalker, Hayden Christensen is a sulking, pretty boy who scowls a lot and attempts to project angst. His transformation from the basically-decent-but-flawed Jedi Knight to the evil Darth Vader is Faust Light.
As former Princess, now Senator, Padme (Anakin’s secret wife), Natalie Portman seems perpetually bewildered. (A condition that probably results from reading too much Jedi philosophy — "Thus Spake Yoda.") Her expressions span the spectrum from looking moonstruck to being perplexed over her husband’s increasingly erratic behavior.
Then there’s Anakin’s less-than-credible conversion to the Dark Side of the Force. The sinister Chancellor Palpatine seduces our young Jedi by promising to give him the power to save his beloved wife from death (of which Skywalker has graphic premonitions). Then, in the climatic scene — believing Padame has betrayed him — Skywalker/Vader tries to strangle his pregnant spouse. "Luke, I’m your father — and I’m confused as hell!"
That’s about all the space the plot deserves.
-snip-
That's basically the only explanation that makes sense, since the object that Vader, Palpatine, and Tarkin observe in RotS is not the Death Star of ANH. It's perfectly spherical, whereas the Death Star was oblate. Also, the superlaser dish is wrong. It was probably a Separatist weapon, since we know the Separatists had such plans. It's called the Great Weapon in one of the Clone Wars novels, and is discussed on Dr. Curtis Saxton's great Death Star page.
I suspect the RotS object isn't the DS Prototype, either. I'm pretty sure the Prototype was constructed in the Maw, under the supervision of Qwi Xux (sp?), based on Bevel Lemelisk's plans.
We know the Empire can build a Death Star much quicker than a decade when it sets its mind to it. The first Death Star had a diameter of 160km; the second, which was fully operational if not complete after four years, had a diameter of 900km. (These numbers are from ILM and direct observation of the film.) I suspect the reason the smaller original Death Star took so long to complete is because the Separatist plans were reworked by Bevel Lemelisk to accomodate Imperial construction doctrine, Tarkin's Doctrine of Fear was necessary to convince the military of the necessity for a DS, and the Imperial Senate interfered with construction (particularly the ostensibly pacifistic worlds like Alderaan.)
Thanks
};o)
I loved the movie. But I saw that as the weakest part - one second Anakin's saying, "you are the enemy" and the next "I pledge myself to your teaching".
I had problems making that jump.
But I've come to the conclusion that Lucas had problems really defining Anakin, who in the hands of a really good scriptwriter would have been a fascinating character.
Episode IV - Vader is a villian.
Episode V - Vader is a tortured slave.
Episode VI - Vader is really, deep down, a good guy.
Episode I - Vader is a cute kid.
Episode II - Vader is a tortured teen who's made to feel guilty because he killed his mom's murderers. No wonder he's screwed up.
Episode III - In the end, turns out Vader is really just a paranoid psychotic. "Hmmm, Obi wan has always hated me, even though he tells me he loves me. I guess I'll just have to kill all these kids."
I dosed off a few times but I'm not sorry I saw the movie.
You hit the nail on the head. For years we've known that Anakin turns to the dark side and Obi Wan defeats him. The only thing left to be explained by the prequels was why Anakin would turn to the dark side. I was certain that given 25 years even Lucas could come up with a compelling conversion story.
I was wrong.
Other than that, I thought the movie was pretty good.
SPOILER AHEAD READ NO FURTHER UNLESS YOU'VE SEEN THE MOVIE!!
However, after the scene where the little children, the young jedis run to Anakin for help, and he kills them all with his lightsaber, my son's view changed. He gave his Darth Vader helmet to the kid across the street, tore down his Sith poster, and basically just changed his whole attitude. If nothing else, this movie showed that evil isn't some dark mysterious, wicked cool, fun thing. It showed evil for what it really can be: A sickness so encompassing that the one in its grasp can even hack apart small children.
I disagree completely. See 151
Bingo! There was an all star cast in this movie. When Samuel L. Jackson looks bad in a movie, I think the problem does not lie with the actors.
Sad part is, the plot is excellent, it's just very badly written, developed, and directed by Lucas, and that's solely where the fault lies.
With even a few tweaks to the script this could have been a dramatically better movie. With a top notch writing crew and director it would have been an instant classic.
It's the movie-that-could-have-been, and Lucas blew it.
The Endor Holocaust explanation is convincing. That must have dampened the celebration at the end of Return of the Jedi quite a bit.
We'll just have to agree to disagree.
Pray for W and Our Troops
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