Can't wait to see Episode IV again!
After watching Episode III last night, I wanted to immediately watch Episode IV, to see how everything fit together, and I would have if I didn't have presentations to give a few hours afterwards.
The best thing about Episode III is the way it fills in the gaps of the Star Wars puzzle. All the little things that created continuity, like Bail Organa's ship (Leia's blockade runner at the beginning of Episode IV), Obi Wan grabbing Anakin's light saber after chopping him up (and giving it to Luke in IV), the Emperor getting his face mangled and looking exactly like in later episodes, Yoda telling Obi Wan to learn immortality, the emperor's Y-Wing, the tie-fighter-looking ship that Anakin flies, the star destroyers...all really cool.
There were three main issues I had with the movie, and they are all related.
1) Did anyone else get the sense that there were two or three Anakin/Padme scenes that were completely useless? They'd be on screen together for a couple of minutes, sharing some lame dialogue, presumably to establish their deep love or something, yet after the scene was done, you realize it didn't contribute anything, plot-wise or emotionally. AT ALL. Really bad writing. An awful job of establishing Anakin's desperation, which ultimately leads to his downfall. And this applies to the last movie, too.
2) Either Hayden Christensen is an awful actor or Lucas is an awful director (methinks neither is without blame). He had some of the worst line readings I've ever seen. "This is an outrage." Really? An outrage? Then why so deadpan? UGH.
3) The biggest issue I had was that I never really bought into it when Anakin succumbed to the dark side, and this is the whole point of the prequels! The emotion just wasn't there. Again, it goes back to the first two issues: a piss-poor job of establishing that emotion/development in the first place, and piss-poor acting by Hayden.
But I gotta say, once he does succumb, the rest of the movie (the last hour) really rocks. I want to go see it again, but I think I'll check out episode IV before I do. Anyone up in the Bay Area want to see it again, or for the first time if you haven't managed to see it yet? I promise, it's much better than the first two prequels.
Overall, the new trilogy falls way short. Each movie had cool moments and things that built continuity with the original trilogy or shed light on how/why things happened, but they didn't do a sufficient job of building up for Anakin's fall from grace and making us care about it anymore than we already did. I only cared about it because of what it meant for the rest of the series (he's Darth Vader now!), not because of what had come beforehand, and that's just sad.
What did others think?
The best thing about Episode III is the way it fills in the gaps of the Star Wars puzzle. All the little things that created continuity, like Bail Organa's ship (Leia's blockade runner at the beginning of Episode IV), Obi Wan grabbing Anakin's light saber after chopping him up (and giving it to Luke in IV), the Emperor getting his face mangled and looking exactly like in later episodes, Yoda telling Obi Wan to learn immortality, the emperor's Y-Wing, the tie-fighter-looking ship that Anakin flies, the star destroyers...all really cool.
There were three main issues I had with the movie, and they are all related.
1) Did anyone else get the sense that there were two or three Anakin/Padme scenes that were completely useless? They'd be on screen together for a couple of minutes, sharing some lame dialogue, presumably to establish their deep love or something, yet after the scene was done, you realize it didn't contribute anything, plot-wise or emotionally. AT ALL. Really bad writing. An awful job of establishing Anakin's desperation, which ultimately leads to his downfall. And this applies to the last movie, too.
2) Either Hayden Christensen is an awful actor or Lucas is an awful director (methinks neither is without blame). He had some of the worst line readings I've ever seen. "This is an outrage." Really? An outrage? Then why so deadpan? UGH.
3) The biggest issue I had was that I never really bought into it when Anakin succumbed to the dark side, and this is the whole point of the prequels! The emotion just wasn't there. Again, it goes back to the first two issues: a piss-poor job of establishing that emotion/development in the first place, and piss-poor acting by Hayden.
But I gotta say, once he does succumb, the rest of the movie (the last hour) really rocks. I want to go see it again, but I think I'll check out episode IV before I do. Anyone up in the Bay Area want to see it again, or for the first time if you haven't managed to see it yet? I promise, it's much better than the first two prequels.
Overall, the new trilogy falls way short. Each movie had cool moments and things that built continuity with the original trilogy or shed light on how/why things happened, but they didn't do a sufficient job of building up for Anakin's fall from grace and making us care about it anymore than we already did. I only cared about it because of what it meant for the rest of the series (he's Darth Vader now!), not because of what had come beforehand, and that's just sad.
What did others think?
posted by Chang Kim at Thursday, May 19, 2005
8 Comments:
I dug it.
Feel the exact same way about the acting. I also feel like they didn't utilize Natalie Portman as much as they could. She usually can act...they should have used that.
The coughing robot also bothered me...you know, General Grievous, coughing...I mean I understand it was because of his "human heart"...but it was weird. I need to see the cartoon that comes after Episode 2 and before Episode 3. I'm hoping that will fill it in.
js
it blew.
i was just happy to not have to hear jarjar, but seeing glimpses of him got me aggravated.
i think that now i know why you're my arch nemesis. you're from the Dark Side of the Force!!!!
And was it just me or was there a slight inconsistency with regard to Padme's death? I thought that at one point in the original trilogy that Luke asked Leia what she remembered about her real mom. Leia said that she remembered that she didn't remember much but that her mom was always sad. So if Padme died during childbirth, how would Leia have any memories of her? Maybe I'm wrong here...
But I did enjoy the movie and would like to see it again to piece it all together...
You're quite right, Lisa. Leia said that she was "very beautiful, and very sad," or something to that effect.
I too would enjoy seeing it again, also preferably after seeing IV again :)
Good call, Chang!
i agree with the comment about the inconsistency with padme's death. during the movie, i thought the emperor was somehow planting these dreams in annakin, making him think she'd die during childbirth because i remembered the luke and leia conversation.
overall, i thought the movie was mediocre at best. maybe a notch better than the previous two. in all fairness, i can't remember what happened in episode II. it was interesting to see how it would unfold, though, and so i enjoyed the movie on that level.
bad dialogue is something i expected coming into a lucas star wars film. it confuses me that lucas created some complex political trade embargo that turned into a droid war in order to create the chancellor's rise, while the actual dialogue in his script consisted of child-like speech, few sentences longer than 5 words long.
maybe not a nitpick at episode 3 alone, but if you wanted to hide a child, why hide him at his father's home planet with his aunt and uncle?
it was cool to watch. im glad i didnt have to pay to see it. :p i thought the best ending would have been if they stopped the movie just after annakin gets his darth vader face plate put on while on the medical table.
my 3 cents,
- heya
Tatooine is a great place for Luke to be hidden. It's out of the way, and it's the last place they'd look for him. Anakin/Darth Vader would never want to go back there, where he was a slave and his mother was murdered.
Leia simply says that her mother "died when I was very young." Nothing conflicting there. Emphasis on the VERY, I suppose, but technically still accurate. :) She may not have been told that her mom died in child birth.
When asked what she remembers about her, she says, "Just images really, feelings. She was very beautiful, kind, but sad."
So it's mostly just an impression she had, probably based on visions. The force is strong with her, after all. I don't see a huge discrepancy there.
Actually, I think the biggest discrepancy in the trilogy is the fact that Anakin reappears as an apparition alongside Obiwan and Yoda, yet he doesn't disappear upon death (Luke burns his body). And Qui Gon is the one who rediscovers the method, and yet he doesn't disappear upon death, either. WTF?
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