It's only because I'm so in love.
No, it's because I'm so in love with you.
Nuh-uh, I love you more!
Yuh-huh, I do to love you more!
No way!
Way!
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-
Somehow I can't get excited about going to see this movie. Part of it is that I lost the storyline around the second movie.
"Was this Death Star being built by union labor?"
LMAO!
"Some people have just got to get over themselves and realize that not everything has to be subjected to intensive analysis."
I could not agree more. I go to the movies to get away from everyday life, thinking about life in general...it is time to escape reality for a couple of hours. If I have to deconstruct a movie, think about a deeper meaning, debate over this idea or that, what the hell am I escaping from?
I don't want to think about a movie....I want to be entertained. I get enough deep analysis, at work, to last a life time....I don't want it while I'm munching popcorn.
The concensus was "boring and stupid". One guy started snoring in the first 3rd of the film. I love fantasy films such as LOTR and Star Trek but this movie was tripe. It was a bad cartoon with bad acting and directing.
Of course the acting (by the major characters) was bad. Lucas has found one Harrison Ford and a bunch of Mark Hammills. Yeah the plot was bad. The obvious way to plot Anni's turn to the Dark Side was Faust, selling his soul for immeasurable power, but that only comes into III as an afterthought, but Lucas wasn't capable of writing it and Hayden wasn't capable of acting it.
I know what you mean, my wife and I were trying to figure out the whole plot after walking out. Finally we decided it didnt matter. heheh
The special effects were pure eye candy. The plot sucked. Every five minutes there was either a fight or a battle, which went on too long. The actors protraying Anakin and Padme were pretty wooden.
Laughing uncontrollably at my desk over your post, I am!!!!!
Pray for W and Our Troops
LMAO!
A new career for you I see. In Hollywood, yessss....
Uh, no, the Death Star was just beginning construction at the end of Episode III. At the beginning of Episode IV it was almost fully operational. So it took ~20 years to build a space station the size of a planet. Not bad if you ask me.
Proud and unashamed to admit that I liked the story. I liked the acting. I liked the dialog. I liked the movie. I liked the fact that the hatred Anakin swims in through the dark side causes him to try to kill the very person he sold himself to save.
I also realize that building a planet-killing space station the size of a moon takes more than a few months, even in a galactic empire.
Oh, don't go blaming the actors. A ham can paste emotion onto lines; an actor works with the scene's subtext, and generates excitement by layering an unspoken statement behind the spoken one. But to do this, the writer has to give the actors something to work with. It can't be dialogue that consists of "I love you, you're so pretty," "I love you more," "No, I love you, more" "You hang up first," "No, you hang up first,"...
The mess of this movie (and the last two) is solely Lucas's fault. He simply can't write worth a damn, and it shows. And after re-watching the original trilogy recently, I am more impressed than every by Harrison Ford, because he was able to generate subtext even with some mind-numbingly flat writing.
And, at the end, they are stading in front of the "death star" that was just about at the construction point as it was at the begining of the original star wars. The only problem was that the kids still had about 17 years to grow. Was this Death star being built by union labor?
Well, it looked to me like it was the bare outlines of the Death Star, and nowhere near complete. But, even if you are correct, this was the least of the continuity errors in this series.
Yet for those of us that grew up with the first trilogy saw a entertainment standard that we expected to be sustained and even improved upon with the prequel trilogy.
And that didn't happen.
Instead, in this prequel trilogy, we got a god-awful lot of emotionally-soggy "Dawson's-Creek" nonsense, not to mention the fingernails-on-the-chalkboard JarJar.
Lucas, along with Spielberg, and a host of other directors have suddenly discovered their "duty" to enlighten us unwashed masses on certain political issues.
Well, guess what. Us "unwashed masses" can think for ourselves, so we're not gonna swallow the empty-headed pablum serving up as entertainment. Look back to the first trilogy; the subtle similarities to the Soviet Union were subject to debate, yet the Russian government often made silly statements about how "Empire Strikes Back" bashed the Soviets. Yeah, right.
Fast-forward 15 years. Now, we have an empire that presumably resembles the George-Bush/Republican America. So, which is it, George Lucas? Make up your liberal mind.
Personally, I don't care if there are subtle political statements here and there in a movie as long as the movie is well-made and entertaining. But when directors such as Lucas and Spielberg put out political editorials in movies with great eye-candy & crappy storylines, why waste my $9?
Sure it did. Ask you twelve-year old son. He'll tell you it was fantastic. Your problem is, you saw Star Wars as a twelve-year old boy full of excitement and wonder and Episode I as a 32-year old cynical adult.
***SPOLIER***
I sat through 15 commercials, and then 10 previews, before the movie even started. The medium popcorn bag is now the large, and the Coke was too sugary.
I groaned when I heard "Hold me like you did at Lake Naboo"
gack...I was about to nod off until the Jedis started getting sliced and diced.
Then the end....too violent. Sorry, but I dont need to see Darth Weber Grill to get the picture...and the screaming out of PADME'S name was hollow and unrealistic....the guy choked her for crying out loud...
No wonder she shaved her head for the premiere.
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