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Star Wars is pretty damn good.
With a warning like that, I suppose I SHOULD put some in. So there are some, starting...three graphs down.
Um...okay. Bear in mind, I didn't see all of AotC. Couldn't watch the romantic dialogue without gagging, and I think that might have something to do with the whole "omg I cannot write romantic dialogue" on the part of the screenwriter.
Having said that, the romantic dialogue is still AWFUL. If that's love, I'm staying AWAY.
But! The "sets" are pretty and shiny, and Hayden Christiansen is broody and scarred, and that shit's hot.
It's interesting to me - and suddenly a vast chunk of Empire Strikes Back makes sense - that Anakin believes that he can defeat the Emperor and he and Padme can rule the galaxy. Granted, the galaxy was unfair to them and they can change that. But in my opinion it makes the scene in Empire better, the scene where he offers to rule the galaxy with Luke, because it's NOT some kind of nearly-altruistic dark side taunt, it is nicely self serving. He wants to rule the galaxy and he makes that clear in this movie. The line "I have brought peace, justice, freedom, whatever, to my empire" is good. He's waiting to get rid of the Emperor, not because of some last-minute fit of nice, but because the Emperor stands in his way. I like that a lot. It's better that the movies go that way, that he really does have a last-minute change of heart in Jedi, not some sort of "Well, I've been mulling this plan over for the last few years and I think the best solution is THIS!"
The symbolism in the final sequence where the twins are born and Vader is built (nicely intercut though it is) is a wee tiny bit overstated. Okay, he's nearly dead and gets to live, and she's still alive and dies because she's lost her will to live. THANK YOU FOR HITTING ME WITH THE FIST OF SYMBOLISM.
Again, not having seen AotC all the way through, I don't remember how his mother dies. But the irony here is huge, that if he didn't do what Palpatine wanted, Padme wouldn't have died and yet he joins the dark to save her...ensuring her death. I love irony.
Saying that there was a special meeting of Congress undoubtedly put Lucas on Bush's "relocate to Guantanamo Bay ASAP" list. YES IT IS ALL ABOUT THE WAR IN IRAQ. THANK YOU, PUT THE FIST OF IRONIC POLITICAL COMMENTARY AWAY. BETTER YET, GO BACK TO VISUALLY QUOTING TRIUMPH OF THE WILL.
The scene where the children are killed is nicely shot. It's very off-camera, but the bits you do see are creepy. Very creepy. And omg I should not find Vader that hot when he's killing kids. But I do because I am morally flawed.
Ewan McGregor rocks my world even if he is not hot. He's very funny, though, and funny is even better than hot.
John Williams' score is, as usual, worth getting out of bed for. Listen for it in the scene when Obi-Wan gives Luke to Owen and Beru. FIST OF JOHN WILLIAMS, MAKE MORE MUSIC.
And the bow that ties up all the loose ends is wonderful. I like it a lot. It doesn't make Phantom Menace forgiveable, because that movie is still bad, but it does tie up some of the things that have been bugging all of us all along, like that the twins wind up on different planets. Not that any of that is really a shock, but it's nice to see.
Telling Obi-Wan that Qui-Gon has figured out how to defeat death and will be training him is either the setup for us to see SHINY DEAD PEOPLE in later movies, or else it is the biggest wanky moment in the history of cinema. Actually, it may be both. FIST OF QUI-GON, YOU CONFUSE ME.
No, wait, on reflection, it is. I don't think we ever saw a ghost for Qui-Gon at his funeral, so this must be how all the ghosts gather in Return of the Jedi - because wasn't Qui-Gon added in, or something?
Also, prophecies are not overrated, OH YE OF LITTLE FAITH, OBI-WAN. Anakin DID balance the dark and the light, and he got to kill Samuel L. Jackson to do so! Not that I have anything against Samuel L. Jackson. I'm just used to seeing him survive everything.
Yoda fighting rocks my world. Seriously, every time Yoda whipped out the lightsaber, everyone in the theatre clapped. And the comedy in the first scene of the movie is high. Mostly that's Ewan McGregor, but it still counts.
Artoo rocks my world even more than Yoda fighting. Artoo is hilarious.
There is some relatively serious buckling of swash, which I like.
So I guess in conclusion, the movie would be better if Hayden Christiansen could act and if someone who could write romantic dialogue had been hired to write the romantic dialogue. And if Lucas had been a bit LESS witty and self-referencing in the final scenes of the movie - the scene with Beru and Lars is EXACTLY that of Luke looking at the suns in A New Hope. While I don't think the movie's up there with Empire (which is the buzz I've seen) it's certainly one that I actually thought I might buy, which says a lot. I might even watch it if I buy it.
I think I'd give it four axes out of five.
With a warning like that, I suppose I SHOULD put some in. So there are some, starting...three graphs down.
Um...okay. Bear in mind, I didn't see all of AotC. Couldn't watch the romantic dialogue without gagging, and I think that might have something to do with the whole "omg I cannot write romantic dialogue" on the part of the screenwriter.
Having said that, the romantic dialogue is still AWFUL. If that's love, I'm staying AWAY.
But! The "sets" are pretty and shiny, and Hayden Christiansen is broody and scarred, and that shit's hot.
It's interesting to me - and suddenly a vast chunk of Empire Strikes Back makes sense - that Anakin believes that he can defeat the Emperor and he and Padme can rule the galaxy. Granted, the galaxy was unfair to them and they can change that. But in my opinion it makes the scene in Empire better, the scene where he offers to rule the galaxy with Luke, because it's NOT some kind of nearly-altruistic dark side taunt, it is nicely self serving. He wants to rule the galaxy and he makes that clear in this movie. The line "I have brought peace, justice, freedom, whatever, to my empire" is good. He's waiting to get rid of the Emperor, not because of some last-minute fit of nice, but because the Emperor stands in his way. I like that a lot. It's better that the movies go that way, that he really does have a last-minute change of heart in Jedi, not some sort of "Well, I've been mulling this plan over for the last few years and I think the best solution is THIS!"
The symbolism in the final sequence where the twins are born and Vader is built (nicely intercut though it is) is a wee tiny bit overstated. Okay, he's nearly dead and gets to live, and she's still alive and dies because she's lost her will to live. THANK YOU FOR HITTING ME WITH THE FIST OF SYMBOLISM.
Again, not having seen AotC all the way through, I don't remember how his mother dies. But the irony here is huge, that if he didn't do what Palpatine wanted, Padme wouldn't have died and yet he joins the dark to save her...ensuring her death. I love irony.
Saying that there was a special meeting of Congress undoubtedly put Lucas on Bush's "relocate to Guantanamo Bay ASAP" list. YES IT IS ALL ABOUT THE WAR IN IRAQ. THANK YOU, PUT THE FIST OF IRONIC POLITICAL COMMENTARY AWAY. BETTER YET, GO BACK TO VISUALLY QUOTING TRIUMPH OF THE WILL.
The scene where the children are killed is nicely shot. It's very off-camera, but the bits you do see are creepy. Very creepy. And omg I should not find Vader that hot when he's killing kids. But I do because I am morally flawed.
Ewan McGregor rocks my world even if he is not hot. He's very funny, though, and funny is even better than hot.
John Williams' score is, as usual, worth getting out of bed for. Listen for it in the scene when Obi-Wan gives Luke to Owen and Beru. FIST OF JOHN WILLIAMS, MAKE MORE MUSIC.
And the bow that ties up all the loose ends is wonderful. I like it a lot. It doesn't make Phantom Menace forgiveable, because that movie is still bad, but it does tie up some of the things that have been bugging all of us all along, like that the twins wind up on different planets. Not that any of that is really a shock, but it's nice to see.
Telling Obi-Wan that Qui-Gon has figured out how to defeat death and will be training him is either the setup for us to see SHINY DEAD PEOPLE in later movies, or else it is the biggest wanky moment in the history of cinema. Actually, it may be both. FIST OF QUI-GON, YOU CONFUSE ME.
No, wait, on reflection, it is. I don't think we ever saw a ghost for Qui-Gon at his funeral, so this must be how all the ghosts gather in Return of the Jedi - because wasn't Qui-Gon added in, or something?
Also, prophecies are not overrated, OH YE OF LITTLE FAITH, OBI-WAN. Anakin DID balance the dark and the light, and he got to kill Samuel L. Jackson to do so! Not that I have anything against Samuel L. Jackson. I'm just used to seeing him survive everything.
Yoda fighting rocks my world. Seriously, every time Yoda whipped out the lightsaber, everyone in the theatre clapped. And the comedy in the first scene of the movie is high. Mostly that's Ewan McGregor, but it still counts.
Artoo rocks my world even more than Yoda fighting. Artoo is hilarious.
There is some relatively serious buckling of swash, which I like.
So I guess in conclusion, the movie would be better if Hayden Christiansen could act and if someone who could write romantic dialogue had been hired to write the romantic dialogue. And if Lucas had been a bit LESS witty and self-referencing in the final scenes of the movie - the scene with Beru and Lars is EXACTLY that of Luke looking at the suns in A New Hope. While I don't think the movie's up there with Empire (which is the buzz I've seen) it's certainly one that I actually thought I might buy, which says a lot. I might even watch it if I buy it.
I think I'd give it four axes out of five.
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*hugs the fist of John Williams and give it candy* That's a good boy...
And yay for buckling of the swash!! I have to remember to tape our local news on monday b/c my old fencing teacher is going to be on there doing Jedi style stuff with one of the newscasters