John's Episode III review

All too true, at least in my opinion. You've nailed the hits and misses of the film the way I saw it.

Despite this being the "last" Star Wars movie and I didn't enjoy it all the much, it's good to know I won't be spending another 7 bucks on new Star Wars film anytime soon. Closure.

John,

While "Episode III" is a "dark" movie, I didn't feel that it was less cutesy than the other movies (I-II, IV-VI). There were a lot of crowd-pleasing moments courtesy of R2-D2, the stupid buzz droids during the opening space battle, the Trade Federation's droid soldiers, and the Republic's clone soldiers telling each other lame jokes. Also, C3-PO was as annoying as ever.

Eddie

Lucas does like to play to the crowd.

John

I think it's okay sometimes to be "cutesy", if done right. Unfortunately, all the stuff that Eddie mentioned isn't really fun. C3PO for example (hate him or not) had much better things to say than "I feel so useless" in episodes IV-VI. And damn...did you see him fly that starship LOL! Most of these cutesy moments lack the energy and fun in films, like, say, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Tim,

Good point about Lucas not wanting to detract from the "final dual". I had thought about that after watching the film, and it seems the most logical answer.

Depression,

Unfortunately, a lot of the details of the film have escaped me at this point. I don't remember much about the final dual, save the hopping around on lava skiffs, Hayden's "I hate you", and Ewan's "You were the chosen one" lines. I don't remember being distracted by anything in the fights though. Maybe I'm a little more forgiving of the fight scenes. Sure the "Maul vs. Obi-wan" fight looked choriographed, but I still really liked it. I didn't think it looked that bad. I was actually really impressed with the speed at which Ewan performed against such a renowned martial artist and fight choriographer as "Gregg Berger".

Ugh... I may just have to relent, and see Episode III one more time before DVD release. :(


- Josh

"I found the saber fights exciting enough and probably the most entertaining parts of the movie. To me, the worst saber fight ever is in “A New Hope” between Vader and Obi Wan. For the love of Pete, you could fall asleep watching that one. "

Thats funny because it's true. Bunch of old guys giving little pokes and swings. I think it'll have more value after seeing the two of them going at it in their prime though.

I thought the choreography in that final fight was ridiculous. It was like Maul vs Obi to the 10th power.

Reason I see no issue with the Windoo death is because we have never been drawn close to the character in the first place. Sure, he might be the big bad ass Jedi, but he's not a main character to the story. If you really think about it, he always had minimal screen time in each episode. He has his place in the trilogy but I have never weighed his importance to the tale.

Was his fight to quick? Perhaps, and who's to say a saber fight between a Sith and a Jedi should be long and drug out. Another reason for the short fight could simply be not to distract attention from the bigger saber fights at the end of the film (you know, save the best for last). I think this may be the reason more than anything, therefore I had no issue with Windoos death.

Depression,

I was just being overly dramatic to illustrate my point when I mentioned the "5 minutes" with Palpatine. ;) As for the Windoo scene... scratch that... as for "most" of the problems in the movie, I think you've caught on to something there. It all was just too rushed. There wasn't enough time to build the suspense, and have the ups and downs that a good drama requires.

I TOTALLY think the Emporer was sandbagging it for Aniken's sake. He HAD to know Aniken was on his way. Remeber in Empire and Jedi, the Emporer's always talking about "things are going exactly as I have forseen them". On top of which, he was being all crafty in the beginning of the show when Aniken and Obi-wan were fighting Dookoo, and every time either one of them scored a good hit on Dookoo, he did that little "yes!" move, like he was rooting for them.

As for the "tacked on scenes" issue... I'm sure that's the case. Lucas is fully aware how many of us would hunt him down if he didn't tie up most of the loose ends! ;)

Though there was a lot wrong with it, there were quite a few things I loved about the movie.

I'm trying not to do with this release as I did with the last 2. When "Phantom Menace" came out, I think I saw it 11 or so times in the theater. When "Attack Of The Clones" came out, I think I saw it 3 or 4 times in the theater. Both times I saw them multiple times in the theater, it ruined it for me when it ceme out on DVD. I couldn't touch the disc for at least 4 or 5 months after it came to DVD. So, I may wait until "Revenge Of The Sith" hits DVD before I see it again.




- Josh

Was it even 5 minutes? I don't recall much persuasion at all. But yeah, I was being a little brash. I understand the reasoning behind it all, I guess I'm just more so displeased as to how it was handled.

I would have much more enjoyed Anakin stopping his saber by blocking his swing with his saber and maybe commencing a battle between the two of them. An arm cut and then a cheap shot by the Emperor just felt sloppy.

But the bigger question about that scene would be, do you think the Emperor was sand bagging to make it look like the Jedi were trying to overrule the Chancellor when Anakin walked in? I can lean either way but I could probably think of other ways of turning Ani besides frying my own body.

This also leads to another problem I had with the movie. A lot of the scenes felt tacked on just to make the trilogies go full circle. Sids was most likely cunning enough to think of other schemes, but there had to be an answer for his change in features right?

I probably sound like I hate the movie as I've only been criticizing the things I disliked, but I went to the Wed midnight showing and saw the Sunday matinee as well ;)

Now that the film has had time to sink in, I'll admit that yes, there was a lot wrong with it. However, I stand by my initial opinion that I liked it. I agree the whole film was too rushed. I thought the droid "one liners", and R2's antics in the beginning were entertaining, and funny. I agree with Tim however, in that had they continued they would have easily killed the film. Remember all of C3P0's one liners one after the other in AOTC? Ugh... now that was bad!

I do have a problem with Mace Windoo's death. The guy is supposed to be the baddest of the bad when it comes to Saber battles! It was weak.

Leia's birth scene was so fast, my head was spinning. Portman named the babies so quickly, it's like she was trying to say the names before she forgot them.

Hayden's "I HATE YOU!!" line wasn't necessarily a bad line perse, but he acted it very poorly.

The space scene directly following the prologue was a bit chaotic in it's pacing, and camera motion. Even if chaotic is what Lucas was going for, you still have to abide by certain camera, and motion rules... even if the cameras and motion are CG.

I would have liked to have seen a little more time spent with the "Wookies". With as little screen time that the Wookies got, they could have just as easily been an "honorable mention".

I think I have to disagree with Depression on Anikens flip flopping. Though this was also rushed in the movie, and needed to be built up more, I think what was being portrayed, was Aniken's "struggle within". And in actuality Depression, Aniken DID have a problem with killing Dookoo in the beginning. He all but had a 5 minute conversation with Palpatine about how he shouldn't do it, and how it didn't feel right to kill him.

To my understanding "General Grievous" was supposed to be one bad mother of a cyborg! He was supposed to be this evil cyborg recently trained in the Jedi and Sith ways, and could out manouver Jedi because of his robotic reflexes, and ability to move in strange ways because of them. We saw a little bit of that in the fight with Obi-wan, when Grievous was doing the double lightsaber spin attack. This was another disappointing fight to me. I would like to have seen Obi-wan use a little more improvision with force powers, and adaptation.

I didn't have that much of a problem with the Anakin/Obi-wan fight. It was fairly well done, and exciting enough. I thought Ewan McGregor's lines were excellently delivered.

Yoda I thought looed better CG wise, than he has in the first two Episodes. Much better expression, and believability.

I really liked the scene leading up to Obi-wans fight with Grievous, when he was riding that lizzard bird thing. Quite well done.


There are still a few loop holes however: Why did Anikin revert to his younger self at the end of Jedi? Why is Obi-wan and Yoda their older selves when converted into the force?


That's all I can think of at the moment.





- Josh