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StarWars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith

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  • Dio
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    Dio polycounter lvl 18
    This prequel actually lived up to my expectations, didnt exceed but lived upto. That said, its time to rip it a new one for the flaws it did have.

    I had respect for Natilie Portman as an actress up until this movie. Her lines were cheesy in true Star Wars fashion but still her performance was a detraction from the movie. The labor close up was laughable, infact a lady sitting behind me did.

    The only CG shot that bothered me was Dooku flipping down from the balcony and posing. The flip would have worked had they added in the actual actor at the finish of the shot. Instead they kept the CG Dooku on screen and his flesh tones were not as convencing as I'd expect from the Lucas people.

    As for my personal viewing let me say the following; If George Lucas isnt in the theater there is no reason to applaud, ecspecially mid-movie.
  • StrangeFate
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    *spoiler i guess*

    The GOOD
    Lots of dismemberments (horray!)
    Lots of clone troopers
    Lots of neat pre-star destroyers.
    Great CG sets.

    The BAD
    Vader's NooooOOoOOoOOoooo at the end, i can live with him standing up like Frankenstein, since he pretty much was spareparts anyway.
    'It's over Anakin, I got the highground' then Ani jumps right over him ...wtf. Ok, Anakin prooved enough to not be the brightest. He had some cool moments playing the evil hooded sith tho.
    ...Pregnant Amidala (9th month since she just gave birth few minutes later) running out of her spaceship with twins inside as if nothing, yay.
    Young Vader and Obi fighting 30cm over a river of lava, LAVA, not even their hair showed a reaction to the hot air going up when they both should have been burning right away anyway, but then Vader burns nicely after the '3 limbs in 1 swing' dismemberment.
    The funny robots simply weren't funny, to blatantly stupid instead of subtile humor.
    Noticeable bobbling superimposed clone trooper heads, not a big deal, but with the rest of the CG being so perfect it was quite lame that they failed in such an old and done to death trick.
    The first scenes with Obi and Ani fighting the standard droids were just lame, some droids fell down with no lightsaber damage and an almost human OooOooohh.
    Obi watches the security recordings and sees the scene where Ani switches to be Palpatines buddy, yet, with all the concern the Jedis had over Palpatine, they were to ever-dumb to just check the freaking camera recordings.

    The UGLY
    There was too much to tell in too little time, too many good but short scenes and too many boring but long scenes.
    Too many scenery and camera switches.
    With all the scenery ping-pong it was difficult to get used to the characters and accomoded in what was happening, leaving you with the same problem the previous movies had... They're just a rush of scenes that remain superficial do the lack of time to get into any of the 10 simultaneous presented locations and characters. The state of your popcorn supply gets more attention than the movie.
    No translation for what Chewacca had to say to his friend after Yoda left, it must have been important since we had to endure a close up of him Moooing for a while, while other scenes fell short.


    It was a nice flick full of awesome CG and art. I then went home and watched 'a knight's tale', which i enjoyed a lot more as a movie.
  • Neo_God
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    I loved it.
    I also liked the the Moff Tarkin Look-alike at the end.
    Portman's acting did suck a tad though.

    Plus, this movie had something I enjoyed a great deal, Fucking Jar Jar didn't say a single thing in his stupid ass lingo! It would have been better to see him Die though.

    Though speaking of lingo, the one thing Yoda said to Sidious concerning their views of the darkside was strange as hell. I mean usually his dislexia is sorta entertaining, but that was just fricking wierd...

    [ QUOTE ]
    As for my personal viewing let me say the following; If George Lucas isnt in the theater there is no reason to applaud, ecspecially mid-movie.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Yeah, I doubt I was in the same theater as you, but people were clapping where I saw it as well, That was annoying as hell.
  • sundance
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    sundance polycounter lvl 18
    that WAS tarkin at the end...
  • Neo_God
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    oh, I meant to say Peter Cushing Look alike...my bad
  • nitzmoff
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    nitzmoff polycounter lvl 18
    Good thing my ticket was free. Pure garbage... I just don't understand how people continue to swallow this nonsense.
  • Neo_God
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    Because some people still enjoy fun films?
  • Frankie V
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    Frankie V polycounter lvl 18
    For the same reasons they endured the five previous episodes that came before it.

    I went in with “low” expatiations to begin with and sat there “OK show me a story”

    Regardless to the movies flaws I was not expecting an academy performance in the first place and after two hours I was left with an enjoyable experience, worth the price of the ticket, and felt, although a bit rushed, tied into the other three.

    The one thing that irked me a bit was when Obi-Wan laid waste to Anikin then went into a dialogue on how much he loved him and how much a brother he was YET let him suffer through the pain of being dismembered and on fire.

    Granted Obi-Wan could not just put him out of his misery but the least they could have done was set the scene up in such way that it would have been imposable to finish him off instead of standing there going bla bla bla and then just waking off.


    I enjoyed it very much for my own reasons and meet my expatiations of what I expected from a Star Wars movie. Every thing else is the same thing being said that has been said about every episode that came before it.

    Now knowing this and you still laid down your money then as the saying goes “A fool and his money is soon departed” smile.gif
  • JonMurphy
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    I really enjoyed it. I wish the whole prequel set had been better balanced. So much was crammed into this last one, while there was so much fluff in the first two (podrace?). Having stuff from the clone wars mini-series would have further cemented Obi-Wan's and Anakin's friendship, more on the droid army and Greivous' kidnapping of Palpatine.

    Just goes to show how much Lucas makes it up as he goes along. Sure, there is a general idea and threads, but when it comes down to the details...
  • TomDunne
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    TomDunne polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    Good thing my ticket was free. Pure garbage... I just don't understand how people continue to swallow this nonsense.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    If you saw and hated Episodes 1 and 2, then you continued to "swallow" it by seeing Episode 3. The fact that you won't pay for a bag of dogshit but will accept a bag of dogshit given to you for for free doesn't exactly give you much room to gripe on this one.
  • sundance
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    sundance polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    Young Vader and Obi fighting 30cm over a river of lava, LAVA, not even their hair showed a reaction to the hot air going up when they both should have been burning right away anyway, but then Vader burns nicely after the '3 limbs in 1 swing' dismemberment.


    [/ QUOTE ]

    obviously they were using the force to absorb and disapate the heat from their bodies and anakin was thrown out of using the power when he was dismembered. duh.
  • nitzmoff
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    nitzmoff polycounter lvl 18
    I certainly acknowledge the 'popcorn movie' status that many grant the films, but I guess I just do not, nor do i think will I ever 'get' the whole star wars craze. Though the previous post did not imply it so, I stand by the phrase 'to each their own.'
  • oXYnary
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    oXYnary polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    a bag of dogshit but will accept a bag of dogshit given to you for for free doesn't exactly give you much room to gripe on this one.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Well neener, neener, I was offered a freebie to see this, and I told them for a raincheck to Batman Begins instead! So I guess I can speak. No wait. I cant because I haven't seen it. But the person who has you disregard what they say Verm. So other than those who did like the shit. Who can speak Vermillion the wise?

    Whats funny, it it seems alot of people are making excuses here. "It was good, but XXXXXXX". I remember making the same excuse for episode 1 until I had to go back and see it again, and realized how utterly superficial and dull it really was once I got past "Its Star Wars". Lets face it Lucas is terrible at directing, and not that good at writing either. He is though great as the man "behind" the scenes. If he had let his ego slide this time, he could have gotten better directors at least if not ghost writers.

    ...
    Having fun has nothing to do with it. Bad call. Killing young Star Wars fanatics could be my form of fun. Either way fun is not universal.

    All in all its a renter, not a theater. I already helped support Lucas's ego the last two. No reason to continue bending over for him.
  • StrangeFate
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    StrangeFate polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    obviously they were using the force to absorb and disapate the heat from their bodies and anakin was thrown out of using the power when he was dismembered. duh.

    [/ QUOTE ]
    Riiight, the other 2 humanoid workers they passed in the lava river working under the same circumstances must have been Jedis too then.
  • Frankie V
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    Frankie V polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]

    Just goes to show how much Lucas makes it up as he goes along. Sure, there is a general idea and threads, but when it comes down to the details...

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Well there is alwasy hope for the DVD smile.gif
  • TomDunne
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    TomDunne polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    [ QUOTE ]
    a bag of dogshit but will accept a bag of dogshit given to you for for free doesn't exactly give you much room to gripe on this one.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Well neener, neener, I was offered a freebie to see this, and I told them for a raincheck to Batman Begins instead! So I guess I can speak. No wait. I cant because I haven't seen it. But the person who has you disregard what they say Verm. So other than those who did like the shit. Who can speak Vermillion the wise?

    [/ QUOTE ]

    I can tell this is directed at me, but I honestly do not know what you're trying to say. I'll assume I'm being indirectly insulted for whatever reason and move on. HAND!
  • oXYnary
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    oXYnary polycounter lvl 18
    ?que?
    ?Como estas?
  • TomDunne
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    TomDunne polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    I certainly acknowledge the 'popcorn movie' status that many grant the films, but I guess I just do not, nor do i think will I ever 'get' the whole star wars craze. Though the previous post did not imply it so, I stand by the phrase 'to each their own.'

    [/ QUOTE ]

    See, that's different! I can understand not liking the movie - I thought Episode 2 was pretty close to unwatchable. But at the same time, I certainly understand why people keep going to see them. Star Wars has been a cultural icon in this country for nearly thirty years now - good, bad or ugly, people want to see how it turns out even if they don't 'get' Star Wars. That's why even the haters continue to "swallow" it, so to speak. Kevin disliking this film is only slightly more shocking to me than the sun rising in the east this morning, but I don't imagine he ever seriously considered not seeing it, you know?

    For my money, while I did have a few issues with the pacing, I was happy with the film. All of the obsessive nitpicking really makes me laugh, people 'hating' the film so much that they've attentively keyed on each explicit flaw - I wish I could do something so widely loathed that people were taking notes in the theater so they could post point-by-point internet rants later laugh.gif
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 19
    My random Star Wars thoughts

    Thought it was ok, it was better than the last two... I rank it on par with Matrix Reloaded. When I get it on DVD I'll probably skip right to the exciting scenes.

    The majority of the Jedi death scenes were lacking and you didn't really feel anything even though you've been seeing these characters in the Jedi council meetings since Phantom Menace.

    I liked the Emporer's sword fighting style, it was like he was trying to poke you with his lightsabre, which is a very scumbag thing to do.

    I thought the planet that Gen. Grevious was hiding out on was pretty cool and the creature design on the natives was nice, I always like seeing a new planet in Star Wars. After all the movies and video games, if I see Tattooine one more time I'm going to hurt someone.

    plot hole: Obi-Wan refers to Palpatine as the Emperor while Palpatine was still in the special senate meating announcing the formation of the galactic empire.
  • War_Destroyer
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    [ QUOTE ]
    The majority of the Jedi death scenes were lacking and you didn't really feel anything even though you've been seeing these characters in the Jedi council meetings since Phantom Menace.

    [/ QUOTE ]
    Agreed!!! In fact that's been a major beef of mine with alot of the prequel characters. So many of them just come across as underwritten, especially the separatist council. When Vader is offing them in ep3 I just felt no connection to them at all. In short it felt like a wasted opportunity.
  • Mojo2k
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    yeah just to clarify i had a lot of fun watching it, the same kind of fun you get from watching wo retarded kids fight over a candy bar. i can watch a movie and enjoy it, without forcing myself to think that because i enjoyed it, it must have been good. the movie was terrible, i most likely will never see it again. but i did "enjoy" watching it .. i did not enjoy hitchikers, or matrix reloaded. that was just painful to sit thru. now a lot of ep 3 was painfull but over all it was just cheesy and dumb, but a lot of explosions.
  • arshlevon
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    arshlevon polycounter lvl 18
    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
    OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

    seen it twice ... not because i wanted too.. first with "doc rob with the lid off" and second with my girlfriend and brother.. i gave my E3 pass to my brother and my girlfriend so i saw it once.but also promised to see with girlfriend.. so yeah twice... i just thought i would share the story of why i seen it twice because i think its more interesting than my opinon of the film.. i liked it..but not really much to discuss.. it was exacly what i thought it would be and how i thought it would be done.. bad part about making the ending first.. not too long into the story you pretty much figure everything out.. you pretty much know that every scene will cut with some crazy and everymore intricate than the last gemetric pan cleaverly revealing the next scene.. toward the end of the movie i really saw thats what george lucas put more effort into..he is all about the cuts and pacing of the film and he neglects the already well known stroy. he always said he intended starwars to be a silent film.. it was more about the visual drama and the movements more so than anything that the audio was adding(very funny quote from the daddy of THX!) but with that being said from the director i try to watch the film as it was intended to be watched.. how it was directed and conceived to be watched... and with out audio you never hear jar jar or anything else that any could not like abou the movie.. the nooooooooo is gone but you know what happened by the over exaggerated prefomence.. so next time you watch starswars turn the sound off.. its a much better movie in my opinon..
  • sundance
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    sundance polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    Riiight, the other 2 humanoid workers they passed in the lava river working under the same circumstances must have been Jedis too then.


    [/ QUOTE ]

    no, they're mustafarians, so they'd be naturally able to withstand the heat.
  • Asherr
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    arshlevon: a silent movie is not completely silent it has music with it.


    Asherr's review:

    loved every second of it. the opening sequence was great. Hayden Christensen made a great Anakin. padme's lines near the end, while silly, didn't bother me much. just made me grin.

    i thought the mustafar things where droids.... and if obiwan and anakin would have burned to death from the lava wouldn't frodo and sam also have in RotK? but i didn't hear any complaigning then tongue.gif lucas has always gone with the 'romantic' version of events instead of realistic.

    kashyyyk was fan service for the people who found out that there were supposed to be wookiees in RotJ ten years after they first saw it and were disappointed. wink.gif

    i like the implications that the Emperor is a thousand years old and that he is the 'father' of Anakin. the irony of Anakin going over to the Dark Side to save Padme and then Yoda tells Obiwan how to become immortal. i liked that almost as soon as he joined the Emperor Anakin began to plot to overthrow him and install Padme as Empress and himself as Emperor. Anakin did bring balance to the Force like Qui-Gon said. 2 Sith vs 10,000 Jedi became 2 Sith vs 2 Jedi

    someone asked about story. well the story has always been there. it seems to me that everyone who has hated on the prequels usually on had a superficial viewing. they never followed the threads of plot throughout the all the prequels. some reviewers have even said that Anakin fell to the Dark Side too easily and there was no precendent for it. apparently they didn't watch the other two prequels.

    the way the youngling addressed Anakin in the Jedi Consel chamber suggests that Anakin was a good friend to the children at the Temple and that makes what he did even worse.

    people have complaigned about the love story. apparently they think that when an 8 year old boy is taken into a monastic order that teaches celebacy and that love is an emotion to be controlled that he should come out as a great romantic. excuse me while i laugh. if you want perfect romance where everything that comes out of a characters mouth is witty and romantic then watch any number of romance movies that are released every year.

    apparently they filmed two endings for this film...

    now that the prequels are finished maybe now people will let me actually enjoy the films instead of making sarcastic comments and berating lucas everytime i mention something about star wars. lucas' arrogance someone said, where? the only arrogance i see is on the viewers side. 'i/anyone could write a better story that george lucas' they say well then do it. 'entertain me' 'make the prequels how i want them'. me me me mine mine mine. blah blah blah. it's not your story. eveyone seems to act like Lucas owes them something. tongue.gif frankely i'm just sick of it. can't enjoy anything these days without oh so cool cynicism being throw from all corners. life is a lot better when you sit back and enjoy everything.

    i have always been a fan of lucas' work and i always will be. so smile.gif

    in short best movie of the year until the next Harry Potter movie is released in November.
  • Major Clod
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    Well said Asherr, my thoughts exactly. I really enjoyed episode 3, and now watching the OT after it, it all feels a little different.
  • steady
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    hell yeah Asherr!
  • Neo_God
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    Yes, very well said Asherr.
  • TomDunne
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    Yep, great rant, Asherr! I agree completely (even though I stil lthink the end of Episode 2 was bad).
  • sundance
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    sundance polycounter lvl 18
    completely agree. i've just finished watching the OT today. heh. watched all 6 movies this week, TPM and AOTC wednesday, ROTS thurs, ANH friday, ESB yesterday and ROTJ today.

    i'm not too sure about the idea that sidious is 1000 years old. i thought that he was kinda suggesting he needed anakin's help to figure out how to keep people alive. of course, i realise that coulda been a bluff...

    i was telling my sister about it and she said, 'oh so it's all the woman's fault?' *doh* i said, no it's anakin's cos he wants more power and thought the jedi were holding him back. plus he gave into his anger in AOTC and for the twenty yeasr from TPM to ROTS, he's had palpatine seducing him and whispering to him about how wonderful and powerful he is.
  • moose
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    thought it was pretty badass at times. but it seemed to be a film full of kickass sweet moments, and the rest was poorly acted filler.

    terrible acting. terrible, bad, bad bad. there were times when i was cringing, wondering how in the hell they let it through.

    did not enjoy the editing either, was pretty horrid at times.
  • danr
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    danr interpolator
    bad acting is as much a part of star wars as the space battles :

    "could you tell Luke, is that who you could tell?"
    "I ..."
    "aaarh!"

    we're not in new territory here
  • oXYnary
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    Asherr. Episode 5 and 6 where not done by Lucas exclusively. So history shows us that Lucas is not the best always in the directing chair (especially Eps 5). Also note that both of those where co written as well! If it hadnt been for the success of these, your precious pre-equals would have never existed.

    So any comments about Lucas are extremely relevant. Since the past has shown us that when he got help, the film improved in depth (dont say the SW was deep). All I can see you doing is defending as a Star Wars fanatic. Can you look outside the realm of this to judge on it's own? As a film in and of itself? I havent seen one iota in your rant that looks at it objectively. The acting? The plot "connectedness". The writing? The editing?

    I just talked to someone who is in FX for hollywood. They compared it to one long trailer. It was all fast paced, and never allowed the viewer to absorb the situations. Something the old films still allowed for. They also said the editing sucked.
  • blankslatejoe
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    the only thing wrong with this movie was Lucas. He's a great, genius, producer. But get rid of his wedding-video-style directing, and give him a decent editor, and these -might- have been good movies. That's exactly what he did for empire and return. It's not the CG's fault, nor the actors fault, nor the editing. Just him and his army of yes men.
  • poopinmymouth
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    I loved every bit of it. I also loved the first two as well. When Padme announced she was pregnant, Tagheuer leaned over and said "Annie I'm preggers" and I lost it for about 5 minutes snickering.

    If any complaints I had, is that Lucas did too good of a job making Anakin a likeable character. It made me torn when he switched to the dark side, even though I knew it was coming. The part that got me the most was when Anakin and Obiwan were talking before Obiwan went on that mission, and they showed how close they had come. Then the contrast between that and at the end when Obiwan said that he loved Anakin, and Anakin said that he hated all of them.

    Overall though, I loved it.
  • Neo_God
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    I don't know poop, the second Anakin chopped off Wendu's hand , I pretty much despised him. I was happy to see him get his arm and legs removed.
  • NoSeRider
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    Did anybody notice how out of place Darth Vader(the costume) was at the end?

    I'm not certain if it was the bad camera angles, no drama, or the retro 70's ghetto costume design that fell flat?

    This is the best of the latest 3.....I felt some answers were resolved, but the film still seemed very childish in the 1st hour, and of course I didn't like the retro getto chest buttons vader costume.....somehow Vader seemed more impression in the 70's/80's films.
  • Daz
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    Urgh, I wasn't really impressed, so I'm a little sad. I 'sort of' had moment's of enjoying it, but I'm really not sure. They might have been indigestion or something. It wasn't a 'good' film. I saw Star Wars on its opening night in '77 or '78. I was seven or eight I can't recall. But anyway, ever since that day, the star wars universe has always been special to me. And now, as an adult, I found myself desperately 'wanting' to feel that this was an awesome and fitting end to it all, but not really feeling that way at all If I was really honest with myself.
    The biggest thing that hit me was that Lucas is a truly AWFUL writer. I mean absolutely atrocious. The dialog is just terrible, the plotlines over complicated and there were just gaping holes in the ill thought out plot.
    And the acting was just plain bad. Go back and watch Star Wars. Harrison Ford was just great in that film and you can sense real chemistry between himelf, Fisher and Hamill. Chemistry that is just non existent in any of the last three movies.

    *SPOILER WARNING*

    Some observations on the extremely poor writing:

    1) If Anakin loved Padme so much, you'd have thought that he might consider ( Jedis are intelligent right?! ) the fact that murdering kids in cold blood might possibly be something that could affect what she felt about him?!
    2) Most women have a pretty strong bond with the children that they have carried in the womb for nine months. So the twins weren't enough to give her a 'will to live'? She was physically fine but died because she wanted to? Seems horribly selfish to me.
    3) So Vader gets the new gear on ( and yes NoSe I totally see your point ), enquires about Padme, finds out shes a gonner ( Oh and StrangeFate, totally agreed. Vaders 'NNOOOOOOOO' was about the most painful thing I've ever sat through in a movie. I had to look away ) , and then what? He had every reason to hate the emperor, since he failed to provide exactly what he'd promised, the love of his life was dead. He had no legs and a fucked up face. Oh so he just sort of carries on with it all anyway? What the hell for? Now theres a perfect example of someone having good reason for having no 'will to live'.

    Oh and I hate the inconsistency in the technology. Science has produced ships that can travel light years in no time, robots with human like intelligence, etc etc, but it can't fix up The Emperor and Vaders faces just enough so they don't have to wear penis shaped helmets or cloaks all day? ;-) I dunno, it's just taken me a long time to realise that Lucas is a bit of a lucky hack. And dont tell me that because it's science fiction, it has to be cheezy and hammy. If Ridley Scott can make a futuristic world feel visceral and convincing, then there's no excuse.

    But yeah, I sort of 'enjoyed' it. Well, bits of it, kinda. But not really, If Im *really* honest smile.gif

    Oh and one more thing! What the hell was up with the Peter Cushing likeness?! I shoulda gave 'em my model! smile.gif
  • TomDunne
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    TomDunne polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    And dont tell me that because it's science fiction, it has to be cheezy and hammy. If Ridley Scott can make a futuristic world feel visceral and convincing, then there's no excuse.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    No excuse? I think you need to refine your position a bit. If Epic can make a virtual world feel visceral and convincing, then there's no excuse for cel-shaded or cartoony-styled games? Or does World of Warcraft fail because it lacks the attempted realism of the new Elder Scrolls IV? Visceral and convincing sci-fi is *a* way to do it, but it "cheezy and hammy" is also perfectly valid. The Fifth Element? Awesome. Brazil? Awesome. Et cetera, et cetera. I don't think Lucas needs an "excuse" for a deliberate stylistic choice.
  • Kevin Johnstone
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    Verm: Sometimes people have different opinions to you.

    In fact I think people will always have different opinions than you if you want to lump Brazil in with 2 no brainers like 5th element and Star Wars later 3 films heh.

    r.
  • TomDunne
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    Kevin, you can be such a trial sometimes - I *know* you understand what I'm talking about. I'm not trying to invalidate Daz's opinion, I'm saying he ought to differentiate between poor concept and poor execution. I hated the visual design for Corsuscant in Episode 2 precisely because it didn't do a good job of being either gritty or cheesy. That doesn't mean "hammy and cheesy" is bad, it just means that Lucas failed to pull it off.
  • Daz
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    Daz polycounter lvl 18
    Verm, I aint redefining anything ya cheeky bugger!

    I just knew that as soon as I posted my 'bad review' ( one of only 2 or 3 in this thread ) that I would have to duck as stuff was thrown at me. But I can't help the way I feel about the movie. I dont *want* to feel this way If that makes it any better?!

    Good call on the stylistic choice. But I disagree with you as far as this movie goes. Lucas has publically stated that he wanted this movie to feel darker. ( personally Im not sure how 'darker' works alongside cheezy and hammy. Unless you count the original Texas chainsaw massacre I suppose ) All well and good, but as far as Im concerned there aint nuthin' stylish about unconvincing dialog that makes me wince.
    When I was 7 years old and sat in the movie theatre in 1978 watching StarWars, I wasn't capable of wincing. So Im gonna go watch it now, and see what I feel about it! I know that you're passionate about the franchise ( as I am actually ) but as Ror say's, difference of opinion mate. It happens smile.gif
  • Kevin Johnstone
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    Kevin Johnstone polycounter lvl 19
    Hammy and Cheesy is fine by me too Verm, I love Flash Gordon and Sam Jones hammy one liners because of this.

    I enjoyed lost in space because of this.

    Star wars is just bad acting, bad plot plus tons of money, without the money it would just be a bad film Verm.

    I like writing, i think theres a point to having words that mean something, I liked Babylon5 for the many occasions it had words as well as action, I liked Farscape for the same reasons, they had their fluff too but still, they tried.

    Daz, Fate, myself, I expect we all dislike Star Wars for the same reason, because we liked the hammy cheesy GOOD star wars so now the plain badly acted, no story having multi million franchise just sucks in comparison.

    I'm fine about how many people like it, I'm not fine about what I perceive as your need to label those that dislike it as having been looking for the wrong things or having a faulty method of judgement.

    It's fine that you like it; that you are annoyed and confrontational to those that don't like it makes me want to belt you one.

    Is that better m8? smile.gif
    It's been a while since we had a pointless arguement.

    r.
  • TomDunne
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    TomDunne polycounter lvl 18
    Haha - hey, I'm not objecting to your opinion of the film, that's all cool with me. But I do think that the visual design can be judged independent of the actual film itself. I think the prequel trilogy visual design is largely boring and often overworked, but it has successes along with its failures. I'll take Darth Maul, the city on Tatooine, most of the droid designs amongst a few other things and put them in the 'good' drawer. Jar Jar (even just visually), the Coruscant nightclub, the abominably lame Jedi Temple and a few other things go in the 'bad' one. General Grievous was certainly cheesy, but I still think he looked pretty damned neat.

    Regarding the 'dark' aspect of this film, I had always taken that as meaning in reference to the storyline - everyone getting chopped to bits and the like. Lucas had the same concept artists and effects crew through this trilogy, so I wasn't expecting much difference there. Really, Lucas has never been one to do much with his cinematography anyway - I think manipulating the viewer's experience just through visual cues (the way Steven Soderbergh did in Traffic, for example) is simply beyond Lucas' skill. He leaves defining the look to others, something I think he's done since he wrapped THX-1138.
  • TomDunne
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    TomDunne polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    It's fine that you like it; that you are annoyed and confrontational to those that don't like it makes me want to belt you one.

    Is that better m8? smile.gif
    It's been a while since we had a pointless arguement.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Yeah, I can live with that wink.gif

    For the record, I'm not precisely a fan of the new trilogy either. I thought Episode 1 was alright - yes, it had an abundance of bad, but I did really enjoy the bits which were good. I thought Episode 2 was a complete waste of time, money and cpu render cycles. Episode 3 wasn't so much satisfying on it's own merits as it was in seeing the final piece of a puzzle put into place, and I can totally understand why someone wouldn't be happy with it. I still want to know what sort of drugs George Lucas put Sam Jackson on to make him that dull. Lucas has an amazing capacity to get flat performances from otherwise talented actors. I think I blame the green-screening - the original trilogy dialogue was just as bad, but at least that cast could sell it...
  • Kevin Johnstone
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    Kevin Johnstone polycounter lvl 19
    Cool!
    But I feel sort of cheated; shouldn't we try to misread each others opinions for a while and then have a bunch of people jump on one of our sides to gangrape the other into social stigma?

    I had likewise hoped that this one would have perked up, I mean, its a story about things going wrong and im morbid enough to love those stories so I had some hope for this one.

    I digress to the POV that George can't help but be insulated from reality and in his position I'm sure I would lose the plot also.

    That said, as always there was some inspiring eyecandy both on the character and environment side of things and that's always my fall back position with these films.

    I hope he lets it lie now. David Lynch and Mark Frost were smart enough not to go back to Twin Peaks and that's what I've always felt Lucas' mistake has been as none of us can return to our glory daze, noone understands their 20yr old self when closer to 50yr's old, they just idealise themselves so I'm sure the same is true of any recreation of previous creative endeavours.

    I was looking at my old Quakelord skins this last week because I was off work and updating my site.
    I was pretty nostalgiac to say the least and I still feel that although they were my first work in this medium they are possibly still some of my best, idea wise at least.

    I am not sure I could return to the theme though as I'm so out of touch with who I was just 8 years ago, I remember only the idea of my drives back then and as much as I would like to smooth out the rough corners of the theme which I'm so much more capable of now, I'd really miss out on the heart of the matter.

    It's better I should move on to something new, I think thats almost always the correct move for a creative person and when we try to reiterate old success' we will always miss out on the heart of it.

    But, if you or anyone else feel completly differently, thats cool too, just so long as I don't need to feel that way eh? smile.gif

    r.
  • Daz
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    Daz polycounter lvl 18
    Well yeah when I mentioned Lucas wanting the movie to feel darker, the storyline was exactly what I was refering to, not look at all. What Im ultimately asking is, how can you make a movie that feels 'dark' in mood when the acting is so hammy and the dialog so cheezy and unbelievable? Events on the Nostromo in 'ALIEN' are scary as hell, largely due to the excellent acting and dialog. People interracted with each other in a way that was convincing. But in Revenge Of The Sith, the acting is so hammy, and the dialog non believeable, that as soon as lightsabers start chopping limbs off people, it feels more like that scene from Monty Pythons Holy Grail than anything genuinely 'dark' in mood. Well, to me at least.

    Here's a very intelligent reviewm that sums up quite well what I feel about the movie, and it's mainly Lucas' parade Im raining on ( obviously I suppose )

    http://filmfreakcentral.net/screenreviews/episodeiii.htm

    "Lucas continues to make his original trilogy of Star Wars films anachronistic by rendering lines like Ben's "Nobody's called me that since long before you were born" from A New Hope or Leia's gauzy, romantic memory of her mother in Return of the Jedi obsolete and destined for revision the next time Lucas decides to digitally mutate his babies. What breaks my heart the most is that the one person in every conversation with the least respect for the legacy of this celluloid mythology appears to be Lucas himself: he's the one, after all, who doesn't seem to have been paying attention."
  • NoSeRider
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    NoSeRider polycounter lvl 18
    I just wish Lucas did not include that ET phone home slap stick kiddie comedy life is magic stuff in the 1st hour of the film.

    I think Lucas could have made a "Return of the Jedi" type film, but instead made something that seemed light hearted.......I didn't care that Natalie Portman died, nor did I care that Anakin got his legs chopped off.....I just didn't care.

    I've either become sophisticated and cynical, or it was a bad movie.......I guess the 3rd choice is I'm talking outta me arse, but don't we all.

    Basically, you have to ask yourself if "Return of the Jedi" was better then "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith"?

    I felt something for "Return of the Jedi"......but Lucas films lately have made me feel ambivilent....kinda like watching the 7th or 8th season of X-files....story gets bland and you dont' care.

    I think this quickly edited MTV low attention span film making is putting me off.....they should focus the camera on the characters once in a while....like before MTV was invented.
  • danr
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    danr interpolator
    daz - there's nothing necessarily anachronistic there, it's reasonable that Leia may have been talking about her adoptive mother, the only one she knew.

    And kenobi never stated "long before you were born", just "oh, before", quite non-specific. He's just lived 20 years alone in a desert igloo, we can't expect him to be bang on the money with every statement he makes ...
  • AstroZombie
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    AstroZombie polycounter lvl 18
    I really enjoyed it. Especially the cliff-hanger ending. Anyone know how long we have to wait until the next one comes out? I can't wait to find out what happens next!
  • Daz
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    Daz polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    And kenobi never stated "long before you were born", just "oh, before", quite non-specific. He's just lived 20 years alone in a desert igloo, we can't expect him to be bang on the money with every statement he makes ...

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Im afraid not mate smile.gif I watched it last night ( and it was awesome! ) and he definitely says 'since long before you were born'. Furthermore, If you go back and watch StarWars immediately after watching this movie, it really doesn't work.
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