Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith *warning, may contain spoilers*

Saw it earlier tonight, and I agree with the overall sentiment--best of the prequels, but not quite up to the originals' standards.

To me, the beginning and the ending were the strongest parts. The middle, with all the corrupting of Anakin and the love story, was just bleh. Well...the corrupting part wasn't THAT bad, but the lousy love-scene dialogues really got to me. The thing that really made the middle feel weird, though, was the way they had so many 30-second scenes, and then cut away...would've been better if they had fewer scenes that were longer, and had more content.

My favorite part was the very end...seeing Anakin slowly slide towards the lava almost made me squirm, and the way they had Padme giving birth/dying at the same time Vader was being reborn was...creepy. The NOOOOOOOOO was corny...would've worked better as a wordless cry of despair or somesuch. Liked the way he was crushing everything in the room with the Force, though.

And I especially liked the set-up scenes, of Luke & Leia being delivered to their surrogate parents (yay, we got to see Alderaan in a non-being-blown-up way!), and the way they were playing Luke & Leia's music from the original trilogy was Nifty.



It was a very dark movie, yes...but it had a very hopeful ending. I just hope that, in the future, they show people the original trilogy before the prequels, because they work much better that way.

For the first time in my entire life, I got to go to a Star Wars movie in the theater...

My impressions:

Romance = cheesy. It just...didn't work. At all. Padme was a bit too wheepy, and her voice got on my nerves badly.

Grevious = MORE! The buzz-saw thing was so cool! Of course, he was a complete pushover....slice and dice and BOOM.

There were two part that actually almost made me cry and/or get the other people in the theater mad at me...

spoiler (highlight to read):

1. The younglings in the temple. That almost made me cry. the kid was so trusting and then psycho )(@&%^$ Anakin killed them all... 2. The volcano scene. ouch. ouch OUCH. and again, OUCH! I will admit that was the one thing I knew about in advance, and I had my hands over my eyes most of the scenes with the...er...bacon-esque Anakin.

All in all...it still doesn't beat Empire, which is THE best of the movies. It completely and utterly pwned the first two, though.

talking to some people, we all imagined that vader's first actions from within the suit would be to calmly kneel before The Emperor and pledge his alliiegance, instead of busting out frankenstien style and yelling NOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

hahaha, zop. or "this... is CN-NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" or "my manwich! NOOOOO!!!" or "What?!? I put it in for 3 seconds..... and it's still cold! NOOO!!!"
Vader's "NOOOO!" was the "NOOO!" heard 'round the world.

quote:

Originally posted by Zopwx2 talking to some people, we all imagined that vader's first actions from within the suit would be to calmly kneel before The Emperor and pledge his alliiegance, instead of busting out frankenstien style and yelling NOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Glad to see it wasn't just me who envisioned Vader as Frankenstein during that little part. I was expecting him to shout "Fire... BAADDD!"

I enjoyed the movie, but it was very uneven. wooden acting, cheesy lines, bad placement (Wookiees are awesome, but really, did they serve any real purpose in this moive?).

Personally, Palpatine totally stole the movie for me. He was so calmly malevolent, especially before he was disfigured. Ian McDiarmid and Ewan McGregor were basically the sole delights in a carnival of bad acting.

We need more Grievous! damn you, Lucas, for giving him such a bad showing.

spoiler (highlight to read):

I'm probably the only person to be sad to see Nute Gunray go. I always liked him for some reason.

And the Frankenstein moment was totally hilarious.

Yeah, the Frankenstein moment was weird, but you'd probably move awkward if your limbs were just replaced with mechanical ones.

OH! I noticed another thing. FINALLY, they made the Neimoidians' lips match their words. That really pissed me off about Episodes 1 and 2.

The old movies had wooden acting, too. Padme talks just like Leia. Luke's whiny scenes on Degobah were just as painful as his dad's whining. The love scenes with Han and Leia are only saved by Harrison Ford's undiluted awesomness. And the old movies' battles look like CRAP now, compared to the prequels' fast paced swordplay.

Wookiees, Jango Fett and lil' Boba, Alderaan, the Tantive 4, Tarkin, the star destroyer's bridge, all of those were put in for the hardcore nerds. Obi-Wan and Anakin's lightsabers even match those seen in ANH.

Also, I think I saw the Millennium Falcon, or a ship of the same type landing in the Senate building when Anakin and Obi-Wan's shuttle landed there after the battle.

I said in another thread that Grievous and Dooku should have been in all 3 movies. They could have had Grievous' original form in TPM kill Qui-Gon and then get mangled by Obi Wan. Then, he's rebuilt, kicks a bunch of ass in AOTC alongside the droids, and Obi-Wan gets his revenge in ROTS. Dooku could stay behind the scenes, at least until Episode 2, with Palpatine helping his plot. He could have even still been on the Jedi Council in TPM while at the same time be helping Palpatine. That would have made the prequels better, although it sacrifices Darth Maul.

quote:

Originally posted by GAT-X105 I said in another thread that Grievous and Dooku should have been in all 3 movies. They could have had Grievous' original form in TPM kill Qui-Gon and then get mangled by Obi Wan. Then, he's rebuilt, kicks a bunch of ass in AOTC alongside the droids, and Obi-Wan gets his revenge in ROTS. Dooku could stay behind the scenes, at least until Episode 2, with Palpatine helping his plot. He could have even still been on the Jedi Council in TPM while at the same time be helping Palpatine. That would have made the prequels better, although it sacrifices Darth Maul.

I still would rather have Darth Maul.

I almost got kicked out of the theatre for laughing too much. The NOOOOOOO made me crack up the worst. my friends are still pissed off at me.

quote:

Originally posted by GAT-X105 The old movies had wooden acting, too. Padme talks just like Leia. Luke's whiny scenes on Degobah were just as painful as his dad's whining. The love scenes with Han and Leia are only saved by Harrison Ford's undiluted awesomness. And the old movies' battles look like CRAP now, compared to the prequels' fast paced swordplay.

That's true. There was something about the first Star Wars Trilogy that made us look past that. I've been hearing a lot of critics talking about the clunky dialogue in ROTS but the OT's dialogue wasn't shakesphere either...it was something about the delivery of the actors that was entirely different. The actors in the OT really made the characters their own my favorite example of this was Harrison Ford's "Han Solo", NO ONE could have played Han Solo except him. Another thing about the OT is that I never once contemplated what could have been done better after ROTJ was over the series was complete. I think the new movies have their strengths and weaknesses ( I haven't seen ROTS yet I've been busy this weekend) but no matter how good it can never been as perfect as the OT.

You know what ruined the seriousness of ROTS for me? The fact that Greivous looked like a chicken.

Saw it, loved it, but a couple things...

spoiler (highlight to read):

Kit Fisto got 1 hitter quittered by palpatine. Very sad on that. Mace Windu got pwned like a little girl. Very amusing. Yoda ALMOST beating palpatine. Very nice battle. Greivous looking like a sickly coward... NOT HAPPY. Padme's funeral... almost cried. Seeing Alderaan in it's prime. Very nice.

Wow.



My local Radio Shack was playing the bootleg version over the entire store.

Ain't that illeagal?

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NO ONE could have played Han Solo except him.

One of the possible candidates for the role? Christopher Walken.

I'm aware there was a SNL skit about his audition tape, but he really was being considered.

Also I think Robert Englund (yes, Freddy Kreuger) auditioned or was considered to play Luke, and Cindy Williams was a possible Leia.

quote:

Originally posted by Sharpshooter005 quote: NO ONE could have played Han Solo except him. One of the possible candidates for the role? Christopher Walken.

I've got a better one...Nick Nolte!

The point is, though, that the original Star Wars movies had extremely talented actors who could make Lucas' dialog sound pretty good.

Most of Han Solo's most memorable lines were actually ad libs of Harrison Ford's, too.

But the worst sin in the more recent movies was the lack of a frantic headlong pace. In the original Star Wars (Episode IV), hardly anything was explained at all. We hear only a few lines of Obi-Wan telling Luke about the Force. All these scenes are interrupted in one way or another to keep them from becoming tedious.

In the later movies, starting with The Empire Strikes Back, we get far too much talk. Lucas is weak on dialog and should never allow himself to create any scenes where the conversation isn't interrupted by explosions.

Not to mention, that Ep.V and Ep.VI, the most beloved episodes in the entire series were not directed or produced by George Lucas, and Ep.IV was not directed?or produced? by George Lucas. I think the reason why the first two suxored is because of George.

I think the "NOOOOOO!" was definitely the corniest part of the movie. I agree with others: it would have been a more powerful scene if they had had the room get all wrecked like it did, but have Vader just drop to his knees and look down in silence or something like that. James Earl Jones just doesn't sound right trying to give an anguished cry of despair.

But I thought Obi-Wan had some pretty good lines and acting. "You were the Chosen One! We sent you to destroy the Sith, not join them! I loved you like a brother!" That part was very powerful, and you can really feel his pain.

Grievous was my major disappointment. I was expecting the guy to be cool. Instead, he was practically coughing up a lung for the first part of the movie, and then he systematically loses his limbs in a rather underwhelming battle with Obi-Wan, and we are treated to one of the weirdest chase scenes with a really weird vehicle and an equally weird lizard creature. I was expecting more from the most feared general of the Clone Wars. And his accent... What the heck was up with that really, really weird accent?

quote:

Originally posted by Sharpshooter005 quote: NO ONE could have played Han Solo except him. One of the possible candidates for the role? Christopher Walken. I'm aware there was a SNL skit about his audition tape, but he really was being considered. Also I think Robert Englund (yes, Freddy Kreuger) auditioned or was considered to play Luke, and Cindy Williams was a possible Leia.

A Stormtrooper that sat next to my brother at the premiere said that Walken is actually in Return of the Jedi as either the guy who yells "Concentrate all forward fire power!" as the A-wing is flying towards the Super Star Destroyer, or the guy that gets yelled at... I have no idea if this is true because... well, after the premiere, my brother stole my copies of the movies ...