Friday, May 20, 2005

Revenge of the Sith

Did Lucas redeem himself? Mostly. But not completely.

I'll try to keep this spoiler free (but consider the comments a spoiler zone). The first half kind of dragged, as in pacing. I know, there was a lot that needed to be set up, but it was slow.

And Lucas can not resist the urge to be cutesy. OK, I can accept the comical, high tinny voices for the skinny battle droids, but the beefy super-battledroids need some base in their voice. Since fan hatred has exiled (rightfully) Jar-Jar to the land of lineless extras, Lucas used the droids for comic relief, and of course over did it. And no one in Lucas Films had the balls to say "George, that's just too silly."

And did it seem to anyone that Palpatine was channeling the Joker during the big fight with Yoda?

The action in the second half was much better. My only complaint about the final duel was there should have been less time spent on balancing acts... it's like Lucas can't resist a chance to use more CGI and greenscreen.

I did like that I saw several parallels between this movie and the later ones. Several key scenes remind you of the original trilogy.

At the end, most fans will be fairly satisfied, but not standing up and cheering. For that, the following scene needed to be added...

Jar Jar: Ani, wassa you doing? Yousa killing Jedis, yousa killing your friends?
Anakin: That's right... old friend (snap, hiss).
Jar Jar: Ani, no...
(Anakin runs Jar Jar through, then strides off as Jar Jar crumples to the floor).

That would make people cheer.

My rating: Three and (snap, hiss, splork) a half flying monkeys.

2 Comments:

Blogger CeltiaSkye said...

Are you grading on a 4 or 5 monkey scale?

I'd grade a little harsher than you, I'd only give it 2 1/2 stars out of 5. The fight scenes were good, but it was a big drawback that you already knew who was going to win because they had to be in the next movie.

I also found the droids very annoying, especially the General Grevious coughing fits.

I want Mace Windu's lightsaber!

6:03 PM  
Blogger Oz said...

I use a 5 monkey scale. I didn't mind Grevious so much because it was like he was a prototype for Vader. The other droids did get on my nerves. The buzz-droids (the little gremlin droids in the opening space battle) were stupid and pointless, other than to give R2 more screen time. They should have been able to flick those droids off with the Force. But no, Lucas had to be cutesy.

6:54 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home