Ice, when I made my earlier post, I was referring to the tone of the piece I was writing, not the length. However, for whatever it's worth, here are my thoughts on Episode III. Anyone out there who owns fire-proof or – retardant clothing may want to slip into it, as parts of this post are going to get a bit, ah, toasty, I'm afraid....
Well, after seeing Episode III on Saturday, I guess I'm four for six for the Star Wars films. Liked the Original Trilogy, loved Episode I, disliked Episode II, and was underwhelmed by Episode III.
I'm afraid I have to agree with MWoF and Ourchair. If I had to describe this film in one word, it would be "methodical". I could almost see George Lucas standing there with his list, checking off each required plot point:
- Dooku killed so Anakin can become the next Sith apprentice? Check.
- Palpatine revealed as the Sith Lord? Check.
- Kill off all Jedi? Check.
- Big fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan involving lava? Check.
- Darth in the Vader suit? Check.
- Twins named appropriately? Check.
- Leia shipped off to Alderaan (without any kind of Jedi presence or even checking in because, hey, she's just a girl and therefore of lesser importance than her male sibling, yet again reminding me that despite the fact I love these movies, they really are some of the most sexist films in existence)? Check.
- Luke sent off to aunt and uncle on Tatooine? Check.
That was pretty much the sum of the film — moving through required elements to set us up for
Star Wars: A New Hope, as though the events of that movie were going to take place next week, instead of in 18 years, so we needed to explain absolutely everything by the end of Episode III. For example, I really didn't think we needed to have the Emperor aged to the point where he looked exactly like his appearance 20 years later in
Return of the Jedi. Hints of it, yes. The full monte, no — that could have happened during the years between the trilogies. Nor did the construction of the Death Star make sense, either; it took them 18 years to build the first one, but they cranked the second one out in three years? Why did they even need a Death Star, anyway? Darth Vader had "brought peace" to the galaxy, right? The Seperatists were all dead, the Senators thought the re-organization of the Republic into the Empire was a good thing, and there's no Rebellion in sight. (There's a handful of people kinda sneaking around behind the Emperor's back, but that's it at this point.)
To be honest, this was pretty much what I had expected from III; what I had
hoped for was that some of the background characters or peripheral subplots would have provided some interest in the midst of a film that would deal heavily with a character for whom I had developed an active hatred by the end of Episode II.
No such luck. Not even the presence of Wookiees in the film could make it interesting. (I really, really wanted to go explore Kashyyyk and all those awesome treehouses and other sites of interest instead of watching the rest of Episode III. *Sigh*)
The one thing that might have saved this movie for me would have been allowing Padmé to behave in a manner consistent with her character in
The Phantom Menace, and to some extent in
Attack of the Clones. Alas, this not only didn't happen, but the whole "she's lost her will to live" garbage made me want to hurtle my popcorn container at the screen in disgust. This is supposed to be the same girl who, after failing to get any kind of support or help from the duly-elected Republic government, returned to Naboo and kicked the Trade Federation's collective posterior off her planet in TPM? The young woman who insisted on rescuing Obi-Wan and fought off a nexu in the arena in AotC? She just "loses her will to live" after giving birth to twins (apparently she doesn't feel her children need a mother) and finding out her husband has become an evil bad guy (the galaxy doesn't need saving)? Does getting married and being pregnant really cause a woman to change from an intelligent, self-confident individual into a weepy hand-wringer who just gives up? :furious:
For me, a much better ending for Padmé would have been for her to hand the twins off to the various surrogate parents (for safekeeping) and go on to form the early group that would become the Rebellion in later films. This would have been more in keeping with her character, would have given the Emperor and Vader a reason to keep the Imperial fleet and start building the Death Star, and would have shown us that she had come back to her senses after the major mistake of marrying an arrogant, whiny jerk. (I'm sorry, but I really feel that someone should have explained to Obi-Wan the disciplinary value of a rolled-up newspaper when he was training Anakin as a padawan....)
Given that fact that George Lucas manages to produce exactly one, count her,
one strong woman who has any major impact in each of the trilogies, he still succeeds in screwing this one up royally (if you'll excuse the expression). In my opinion he tried to do that with Leia, too, by putting her into that annoying "slave dancer" costume which seems to have had the sole purpose of giving the hordes of Star Wars fanboys a cheap thrill. (I mean, really, why would a slug-like alien find a human woman in skimpy clothing to be even remotely interesting or attractive? Unless it was done for the humiliation factor. And good for Leia for keeping her composure and getting even with the no-good louse in the end!)
Okay, there will be a brief pause while I take a few deep breaths and calm down. [Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale....]
Having it revealed that Yoda had apparently learned that trick of reappearing after death because he'd been communing with Qui-Gon Jinn and was going to put Obi-Wan in touch with him while on Tatooine had me rolling my eyes in exasperation. That one pretty much came out of left field. Besides, if Yoda and Obi-Wan learned it from "talking" with Qui-Gon, how did Anakin/Vader learn it by the end of RotJ? Did he have Obi-Wan's hut on Tatooine bugged? Evesdropped on someone's meditational conversations? Why didn't we ever get so much as a hint that Qui-Gon could do this before the end of this movie? What the heck has he been doing all this time? That just seemed like a poor set-up from a storytelling point of view.
Wracking my brain trying to find something good to say, here…. Okay, well, I don't know how "good" this is, but the back-stabbing slaughter of the Jedi by their supposed support troops and allies was heartbreaking to watch and was done well in little snippets of film. I knew some of those characters from either the Dark Horse comics or other Expanded Universe sources, so it was particularly painful to see.
Also, I take a certain satisfaction in knowing that the Jar Jar Binks haters in the fandom are probably disappointed by the fact that Jar Jar and his race survive, apparently all the way to the end of RotJ. (I had been doing some research over at StarWars.com in the databank, and the Gungans were listed as appearing in Episode VI. "What the heck….since when? I don't remember Gungans in that movie," I mutter, and go on to find that they were among the clips added to the end of RotJ in celebration after the Empire is defeated. Cool! I can plan out some post-trilogy Gungan stories now….)
Others of the Jedi may very well have survived the Purge, given that Obi-Wan changes the "distress signal" at the Jedi Temple and warns any survivors away. That's a good thing, at least.
Seeing Wookiees in action was pretty neat, although I wish we had seen more of them. I have a question for people who've seen the film more than once—is it my imagination, or did Yoda just kind of up and desert the Wookiees to the invading Clone Troopers after the troopers tried to kill him? I couldn't figure out what the military situation was on Kashyyyk at that point.
I can't say I really found the film a disappointment, as I was resigned to slogging through the whole "Anakin turns to the Dark Side" theme, but I don't know as I can point to any highlights, either. The space battles and special effects were excellent as always, and the music was good, although a lot of it seemed to be recycled from the other SW movies.
[shrugs] Not complaining, though — John Williams is a favorite composer of mine.
Whew. Sorry about the griping — I think I kind of soured the mood of the thread.
And as I did after writing my response to
Ultimates 2 Issue 6, I need to remind myself that I'm not really the target group for these movies, either; they again are geared more toward younger male audiences, and I'm just an odd visitor. (Although I bet that after reading this, Widdle Wade is now glad he went to the showing with his girlfriend and not with me…. :wink: )
