(This review contains about the same number of spoilers as your average review. In other words, it completely ruins the movie.)
I missed the snark party on Star Wars: Episode III. I got home on Thursday and sat down to write some zingers about the Force's mysterious inability to sense an extra loaf in the oven, and found that the Net was already littered with comments about the future's lack of ultrasound machines and OB/GYNs.
There are a hundred things to nitpick with the movie, most of which could have been fixed. And if you expect Lucas to have taken Love Scene Writing 101 last summer or have had an epiphany that creating amazing computer-generated visuals and working with actors isn't an either/or proposition, you will be sorely disappointed.
But flaws aside, Lucas does more things right, most importantly telling a story that not only fits in with the Star Wars mythos but enhances it in a few ways. The movie returns to many of the themes established in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, such as the apprentice rising against the master and the duality within the force. By doing so, I think Episode III will reawaken interest in the earlier trilogy in a way that Episodes I and II completely failed to do. And that sense of connection was really what people were hoping Lucas would do in the first two episodes and what he finally pulled it off here.
It is a strange movie in some ways. Knowing the fate of the characters beforehand shifts the focus from "What will happen?" to "How do they get there?" We know neither Obi-Wan or Darth Vader will die in the climatic battle at the end of the movie. But it's still interesting, along with similar moments in the movie where the events are preordained. Lucas deserves credit for that.
Lucas also deserves a few swift kicks to the nuts for certain scenes. You cannot lower your expectations for the dialogue between Anakin and Princess Ami-dilly-dala enough. It's like the entire 200-book series of Sweet Valley High combined into a dozen excruciating lines. It's like Lucas made a deal with the devil: I get to make my movies, and you get to write the cue cards for the romantic scenes. James Dobson should protest Episode III because the romantic scenes between these two will make questioning teens convert to homosexuality.
I'm also partially let down with how Lucas told the main story, Darth Vader's descent to the dark side. Up until the Emperor names him Darth Vader, his fall is surprising subtle and plausible. Emperor Palpatine is as aware of Yoda of the prophecy that Anakin will restore balance to the force and that his survival depends on converting Anakin. He plays on Anakin's fears and desires and works behind the scenes to create situations that will stir that allegiance. It's well done, building carefully and slowly until the Emperor names him Vader.
Right after that point, it's like Lucas said, "Oh, shit, I'm 2/3 through the movie and I have to make this conflicted kid completely evil." The next thing you know, Vader's downing cans of Puppy Juice and chasing after babies with a bottle of barbeque sauce.
And that's how much of the movie is. Compelling but filled with flaws that perhaps someone would have pointed out to a younger, less powerful George Lucas. But it's good, almost great, and restores much of the luster lost by the first two in the trilogy.
I love how the movie ends showing you the nearly complete Death Star, which they don't actually finish until the next movie -- 25 years later. Those storm troopers must have had a hell of a union.
2 comments:
(This review contains about the same number of spoilers as your average review. In other words, it completely ruins the movie.)
I missed the snark party on Star Wars: Episode III. I got home on Thursday and sat down to write some zingers about the Force's mysterious inability to sense an extra loaf in the oven, and found that the Net was already littered with comments about the future's lack of ultrasound machines and OB/GYNs.
There are a hundred things to nitpick with the movie, most of which could have been fixed. And if you expect Lucas to have taken Love Scene Writing 101 last summer or have had an epiphany that creating amazing computer-generated visuals and working with actors isn't an either/or proposition, you will be sorely disappointed.
But flaws aside, Lucas does more things right, most importantly telling a story that not only fits in with the Star Wars mythos but enhances it in a few ways. The movie returns to many of the themes established in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, such as the apprentice rising against the master and the duality within the force. By doing so, I think Episode III will reawaken interest in the earlier trilogy in a way that Episodes I and II completely failed to do. And that sense of connection was really what people were hoping Lucas would do in the first two episodes and what he finally pulled it off here.
It is a strange movie in some ways. Knowing the fate of the characters beforehand shifts the focus from "What will happen?" to "How do they get there?" We know neither Obi-Wan or Darth Vader will die in the climatic battle at the end of the movie. But it's still interesting, along with similar moments in the movie where the events are preordained. Lucas deserves credit for that.
Lucas also deserves a few swift kicks to the nuts for certain scenes. You cannot lower your expectations for the dialogue between Anakin and Princess Ami-dilly-dala enough. It's like the entire 200-book series of Sweet Valley High combined into a dozen excruciating lines. It's like Lucas made a deal with the devil: I get to make my movies, and you get to write the cue cards for the romantic scenes. James Dobson should protest Episode III because the romantic scenes between these two will make questioning teens convert to homosexuality.
I'm also partially let down with how Lucas told the main story, Darth Vader's descent to the dark side. Up until the Emperor names him Darth Vader, his fall is surprising subtle and plausible. Emperor Palpatine is as aware of Yoda of the prophecy that Anakin will restore balance to the force and that his survival depends on converting Anakin. He plays on Anakin's fears and desires and works behind the scenes to create situations that will stir that allegiance. It's well done, building carefully and slowly until the Emperor names him Vader.
Right after that point, it's like Lucas said, "Oh, shit, I'm 2/3 through the movie and I have to make this conflicted kid completely evil." The next thing you know, Vader's downing cans of Puppy Juice and chasing after babies with a bottle of barbeque sauce.
And that's how much of the movie is. Compelling but filled with flaws that perhaps someone would have pointed out to a younger, less powerful George Lucas. But it's good, almost great, and restores much of the luster lost by the first two in the trilogy.
I love how the movie ends showing you the nearly complete Death Star, which they don't actually finish until the next movie -- 25 years later. Those storm troopers must have had a hell of a union.
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