Last night Elizabeth and I finally got a chance to go see Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. I mostly agree with the reviews I've read: It's certainly the best of the latest three Star Wars movies, and even though you know how it's going to end, it is riveting to watch. Anakin's descent into the dark side of the force has some very slightly hard-to-believe moments, but overall it's well done. It's what you've come to expect in a Star Wars movie: the fight scenes are impressive, the outfits Amidala wears are ridiculous, you have to ignore some issues of character intelligence, the special effects are very believable, etc. Heck, I didn't even find the dialogue between Anakin and Padme as bad as others had said it was - their dialogue was certainly better than the last movie.
One thing to keep in mind: the movie is over two hours long, so if you have a sore throat and buy a big bottle of water to tide you over, don't drink any of it in the first half of the movie, or else you'll spend the last hour waiting for your bladder to explode (not that I have any personal knowledge of this problem...).
WARNING: There is a spoiler in the remaining section, so if you haven't seen the movie and don't want it spoiled, do NOT read on.
We were also discussing whether George Lucas had a childhood friend lose a hand or something - it's such a recurring theme. Let's review:
After we got home, Elizabeth pointed out that what Obi-Wan should have said in Episode IV, to the young Luke Skywalker about his father, was something like: "Darth Vader killed your father. But I cut off his legs and set him on fire."
I wonder - my memory of Epiosde IV claims that Obi Wan is pretty cut and dried about Darth Vader killing Anikin Skywalker .... and it wasn't metaphorical Vader really did the deed.
And wait, Kenobi is also pretty clear about never owning any droids. But he and R2 were pretty buddy buddy in this one.
If I were obsessed I'd dig up the original tape and watch it again. See how many continuity errors there are between a film made in 1977 and it's prequel made a quarter of a century later.
Ah! I know what Lucas is going to do to keep himself occupied. He's going to tweak Episodes IV, V and VI to bring them fully in line with Episodes I, II and III. And then he'll do the same for I, II and III when the inevitable conflicsts in the newly redone movies conflict with their prequels. He could be at that for a while.
Heck, done right he's set his estate up for a nice cottage industry doing nothing but tweaking 'Star Wars' until the whole thing implodes into a black hole.
Posted by: Brian at June 5, 2005 10:55 PMIn Episode IV, Kenobi tells Luke that Darth Vader "betrayed and murdered your father". In Episode VI, Luke questions him on this and he replies that he told the truth "from a certain point of view", but fails to elaborate, since Lucas had not yet finalized what was to happen.
Kenobi never personally owned a droid, though had an association with the two. I would suppose that he did not want Luke to suspect everything, as if he had admitted knowing them, C-3PO would have admitted knowing nothing, and suspecting a memory wipe might have distrusted Kenobi. I guess we assume thar R2-D2 kept quiet because he understood Kenobi's intentions.
Lucas has announced his next project will be to bring Episodes IV-VI into a 3-D format....though I suspect he will tweak them some too.
And no....I AM NOT OBSESSIVE!
Posted by: Tom at June 6, 2005 06:55 AMYes yes, I know that Obi-Wan was clear about telling Luke that Vader killed his father, and I know the "certain point of view" argument in episode VI pissed off Luke. I just think that Luke wouldn't have taken quite so kindly to Obi-Wan in the beginning if Obi-Wan had been fully forthcoming about having cut off Luke's father's legs and arm. And setting him on fire. :-)
Posted by: Tom Nugent at June 6, 2005 11:25 AMI'm not obsessive about Star Wars - I reserve my fanboy ravings for the new Battlestar Galactica - and I remain confused about droids.
Uncle Owen clearly bought R2 and C3PO in Episode IV. The droids running hither and yon in 'Sith' seemed to be free agents. Except that Organa ordered C3PO's brain wiped. Which doesn't seem like something you just do to a fellow self-aware critter. And the battle droids - did they enlist? Can they volunteer? Down your blaster and say "Roger roger those Jedi are killing us. I ain't gonna fight The Man's war."
So droids are outright slaves in the Empire? But in the Republic they're .. indentured servents?
Um. Maybe I am getting a bit fanboy about Star Wars ...
Posted by: Brian at June 6, 2005 01:05 PMI would pay to see Katee Sackhoff go a round with Natalie Portman....of course if the Republic hadn't fallen, "Battlestar Galactica" shows what can happen when robots are treated like indentured servants for too long.
They don't get mad...they get even!
In sword play, I'm told, it's very common to cut off your opponent's hands. If he can't hold a sword, he can't kill you with it, can he? I don't think Lucas was obsessed, I think he was just following logic.
And technically, Obi Wan didn't set Anakin on fire. The molten lava he was lying next to did that.
Posted by: Keith at June 7, 2005 11:14 AM