|
|
 - What we've been waiting forThis Star Wars movie is second only to The Empire Strikes Back which is my favorite. Everything was right about this. While my two favorite characters are Boba Fett and Obi Wan Kenobi I love anything about the Sith and their ways. Anakin's fall to the dark side was believable. The battle between Obi and Anakin was crazy. I think the music score was great. Ian McDiarmid performance was top notch. He truly is a great actor. This was a fitting movie to connect the entire Star Wars saga. Long live Star Wars. Rating:  - Who Is Really Beneath that Mask?Recall what Lucas himself has said about his relationship with the Hollywood power/money structure: in his early films he struggled against an "evil" corporate structure that tried to control and hinder his creative energies and goals; once the first three Star Wars films became block busters he was able to bankroll his own projects, set up his own corporate structure. In other words, Lucas himself was Anakin, now Darth Vader, and the filming of Episodes I-III was more about that power dynamic and Lucas's greed than it was about film making. Star Wars fans can hope he'll one day be "saved" a la Anakin and Luke. Episodes VII-IX have been supposedly canned, but who knows what Lucas will decide he wants his legacy to be. Episode III is vastly better than II, but that's not much of a compliment. The same nails-on-blackboard problems remain: terrible dialogue, weak script, unmotivated actors, over-reliance on special effects, and a seemingly complete rejection of the things that made the first three films so endearing to Star Wars fans. Natalie Portman is all but wasted in this film, and that is something for which I can't forgive Lucas. There is a scene in the Bonus Material DVD---cut from the film---that actually shows Portman's character Padme involved in the political discussions out of which the Rebel Alliance would be founded, showing the character as a concerned, dynamic, adult woman. Lucas cut this out in favor of showing Padme as utterly devoid of self motivation---after having been a queen and a senator---completely controlled by and dependent upon her boyfriend and unable to see the obvious in his behavior. (Recall that Anakin admits to her in Episode II that he has committed mass murder on Tatooine and all she can do is feel sorry for HIM.) In Lucas's view, women are models upon which fashion designers can hang their creations. Considering this film's plot---Anakin's descent into hell---our explanation for his transformation is almost completely bankrupt. He has dreams he'll lose Padme. He's not the Jedi he's supposed to be. The Jedi Council masters are "unfair." Good grief, is this all Lucas can come up with? Even so, in the hands of a more competent actor (Hayden Christensen remains an unfortunate choice for this role), the lame script's characterization might still have been persuasive, but that would have required the careful, patient direction of an interested, thoughtful director. It's a relief when petulant Anakin is absorbed by the black plastic and leather of Vader and we're given the expert voice acting of James Earl Jones. The best acting in the movie is delivered by Ewan McGregor; his ability to put at least a bit of a playful or dramatic spin on the worst of Lucas's comic book dialogue is truly proof of his talent. The action sequences in this movie are good, yet Lucas can't manage to sell even this aspect of his creation as well as Peter Jackson does with his adaptation of THe Lord of the Rings. The opening sequence's crash landing of Obi Wan's and Anakin's star fighters in the hanger bay of General Grievous's ship is Lucas at his best and worth many viewings. As disappointing as Anakin's descent is depicted in this film, as downright painful as most of the dialogue is, I have to say that the film's denouement, in which the twins are delivered to their foster parents, is surprisingly moving. But the effect is achieved not so much by its artfulness but because we know the story so well; and Lucas wisely (for once) chose to show rather than to tell. When Leia and Luke are brought to their respective foster mothers there is none of Lucas's heavy handed dialogue to ruin it. It works because we know that the beautiful Alps-like setting in which Leia will grow up will later be destroyed by the first death star. And it works because we know as we see Luke's young and hopeful foster parents staring off into the double sunset of Tatooine, reflecting Mark Hamill's memorable scene in A New Hope, that they will give their lives protecting his. It seems the best that Lucas can do now is to quote his own early efforts---when he was the restless, idealistic Anakin/Luke rather than the resigned and self-absorbed Vader. Rating: - The Real, but not Final, Battle BeginsThe tragedy foreshadowed in the first two episodes of George Lucas' Star Wars Saga takes form, and leaves the viewer with anticipation for yet another Episode to unfold. After all, after the terrible mess our favorite characters get themselves into this time around, you can only wonder what happens to them afterwards. The suspense is incredible, in every jaw-dropping scene after another, and keeps you hooked till the end, where you find yourself wondering the fate of our heroes and villains. Let me assure you, fans, another Trilogy awaits for those who are wondering, and the Final Battle has yet to begin. Rating:  - Not Even Close...George Lucas will be forever revered as the man who created the "Star Wars" saga, but he will also be forever reviled as the man who produced Episodes I, II and III. I keep thinking this movie will be better if I watch it one more time. What is that definition of "insanity?" Repeating a mistake but hoping for a different outcome? If so, then I am truly INSANE! =:-( Rating: - Lucas Gets ItA year or so before REVENGE OF THE SITH came out, I asked a Hollywood insider if there was any prospect of the movie being better than an oversize plate of Bantha-poodoo. His reply was a shrug. When I demanded an explanation as to why I should even have to ask that question, this is what I heard: "Lucas doesn't get it." He said. "He doesn't understand what he's created. To him, STAR WARS is nothing more than throwaway entertainment, Saturday Afternoon Matinee stuff. He has no real feeling for the material. Everything from him wanting to edit out Han's `I know' comment to Leia to the decision to retroactively make Guido fire first in the cantina sequence, from casting Jake Lloyd to creating Jar Jar Binks - it all says he's clueless and isolated. Frankenstein had a better understanding of his monster!" I had to agree. While admiring Lucas, I was, after two films, thoroughly exasperated with him. PHANTOM was turgid, lifeless, wooden, boring, silly, dreary, and horrendously written. CLONES, while much improved, suffered many of the same problems - sluggish pacing, clunky dialogue, inconsistent acting, visual clutter. So it was with considerable trepidation that I went to L.A.'s Arclight theater to watch the final (?) installment of my childhood passion, REVENGE OF THE SITH. My initial impression was grim. It seemed Lucas' propensity for dialogue "with the cadence of the typewriter" (to quote Harrison Ford) was unchanged, as was his almost obsessive desire to cram every frame of film with starships, fighters, explosions, robots, droids, stars, planets, clones, aliens, etc., until you felt you were half-nauseous. Very quickly, however, I realized there were fundamental differences in SITH that would elevate it above its predecessors. The first was the frequent presence of Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine/Darth Sidious (his supreme talents, showcased in RETURN OF THE JEDI, were barely touched in the previous two installments.) The second was that the plot convolutions of the first two films, at times almost impenetrable, now began to tie themselves together in very entertaining fashion. Last, and most important, was that Lucas..."got it." SITH is not merely the culmination of the prequel series; it is the bridge between that series and the original. It is the "backstory" that any 70s-80s kid who ever pondered exactly what the hell put Darth Vader in that helmet, how the Jedi were overthrown and the Empire came to be, who Luke & Leia's mother was, or exactly what the hell the "Clone Wars" were, always wanted. More importantly, it is a real film; the fact that I knew precisely the how the final duel between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi would end, and yet managed to be shocked by that ending, says everything on how effectively Master Lucas told his tale. SITH would have been a challenge for any storyteller. Unlike EMPIRE, which at least tacitly implied that all the wrongs done to our beloved heroes would soon(ishly) be put right, we all knew that there would be no happy endings here. Padimé would die and her children be hidden away; the Jedi would be wiped out and the Republic overthrown; Anakin would sumberge into the Dark Side and emerge, breathing heavily, as Darth Vader. Not quite as uplifting as, say, ROCKY. But by embracing the tragedy rather than sugar-coating it, and simultaneously weaving it into the redemptive story to come, Lucas made a masterwork which will stand all time and all criticism. SITH, despite its many warts and brown spots, is quite simply, a hell of a movie. In SITH, Lucas finally grasped that he wasn't grinding out a epileptic digitial cartoon, or an extended commercial for STAR WARS merchandise, but rather polishing off a mighty fantasy series that was dearly beloved by uncountable millions of people. By treating his material with respect, even reverence, he elevated SITH to a level previously only attained by A NEW HOPE and EMPIRE. In other words, he made a damned fine movie...the one we fans had waited 20 years for.
|
