Episode 3 Thoughts (spoilers natch)

[Slacker]

Finally saw it last night. A few thoughts:

- Overall, much MUCH better than the other prequels. I'd rank the original trilogy movies 7s or 8s out of 10, Revenge of the Sith 7/10, and the first two prequels 0/10.

- George Lucas creates some pretty wild worlds in this one. The effects were just mind blowing.

- That said, Georgey can't coax good performances out of his actors at all. Hayden Christiansen really can act people (see Shattered Glass for evidence). Ditto for Natalie Portman (Garden State). They both ranged from mediocre to suck in RotS though. Especially the "I love you cause you're beautiful" stuff. By the way, Padme looked like a canned ham during that scene.

- Grevious? What the H is that thing? I gathered from the brief glimpse of his meaty parts he was a cyborg rather than a droid, so that explains the apparent health issues, but he wasn't explained too well.

- Vader learns Padme is dead: "NNNNOOOOOOOOOOEEESSSS!!!!" Worst line of all six movies. Vader is cool/menacing because he's understated. They should have had the room blow up around him while he sat still fuming.

- What was with the Wookie scenes? Talk about tacked on. Pretty much just: Hey look! Wookies! And now back to the story...

- Yoda was awesome. Much better CGI than previously. He really looked like a real character this time.

- Good humor level this time around. The droids did their thing, but it wasn't overdone.

- Jar Jar "Meesa sho shad" Binks: No dialogue. Thank you thank you thank you.

- That crazy lizard beast was sweet. I want to ride that sucker to work.

- Apparently droids need to be wiped on occasion to function properly. Hey, just like my Windows PC!

- Mace vs. Sidious. Can we assume Sidious took a fall there to convince Anakin to turn? The dude took out three other jedis and even Yo-yo-yo-yo-yoda couldn't beat him. Was Mace that much of a bad mutha?

- Speaking of Jedi death, I was a little surprised the whole Order 66 scene was handled so quickly. It would have been cool to see a little more fight there. Not too much more, mind you - it would have been easy to drag that out. But a little more would have been OK. That was quite a Godfather scene, BTW. They should have taken one jedi out while he was fishing.

- The elevator shaft scene. Gravity works how again? Ah nevermind, let's not dissect it.

- I read comments on another messageboard on the Vader/Kenobi fight that were hilarious. How it basically ended with "Ha! I am slightly uphill from you, give up!" Didn't seem to matter when the situation was reverse with Darth Maul....

- Auntie Beru was hawt back in her day. Y helo there....

[Gibb]

yes indeed, your point about the jedi slaughter was one of my biggest complaints storywise. it should have happened like this
1 jedi dies per 1000 clone troops. Once all the jedi are dead, pretty much all the clones are too. There are no clones in episode 4, so somebody's gotta kill em all off.

[Cop]

Originally Posted by Gibb Boy

are no clones in episode 4, so somebody's gotta kill em all off.

Growth acceleration. They probably all died of old age...

[Cop]

Originally Posted by Slacker

- Grevious? What the H is that thing? I gathered from the brief glimpse of his meaty parts he was a cyborg rather than a droid, so that explains the apparent health issues, but he wasn't explained too well.

I agree that character wasn't introduced properly in the movie. I guess Lucas figures everyone should have seen the Clone Wars cartoon. He's the star of volume 2 and is introduced at the end of volume 1. I recommend watching it if you can, it's really quite good and splendidly animated. And at least you can see Grievous be a real badass in it...

- Vader learns Padme is dead: "NNNNOOOOOOOOOOEEESSSS!!!!" Worst line of all six movies. Vader is cool/menacing because he's understated. They should have had the room blow up around him while he sat still fuming.

http://vadercoaster.ytmnd.com/

- What was with the Wookie scenes? Talk about tacked on. Pretty much just: Hey look! Wookies! And now back to the story...

Because Wookiees R TEH KEWL! But I agree, they served no actual purpose. Still, it was cool they were in it.

- Yoda was awesome. Much better CGI than previously. He really looked like a real character this time.

My little green friend rawks!

- Good humor level this time around. The droids did their thing, but it wasn't overdone.

R2D2 is the king of slapstick!

- Jar Jar "Meesa sho shad" Binks: No dialogue. Thank you thank you thank you.

He said "Exquise me" when Obi en Ani arrive at the senate.

- That crazy lizard beast was sweet. I want to ride that sucker to work.

Lizard > Tauntaun

- Apparently droids need to be wiped on occasion to function properly. Hey, just like my Windows PC!

Yes they do actually. It's explained in detail in some of the EU novels.

- Mace vs. Sidious. Can we assume Sidious took a fall there to convince Anakin to turn?

Yes, although Windu really is a bad motherfucker.

They should have taken one jedi out while he was fishing.

- Auntie Beru was hawt back in her day. Y helo there....

I already saw that in epi2. Too bad they didn't put her in some of Padmé's attire...

[DUKE HARDKNOCK]

Originally Posted by Slacker

- Vader learns Padme is dead: "NNNNOOOOOOOOOOEEESSSS!!!!" Worst line of all six movies. Vader is cool/menacing because he's understated. They should have had the room blow up around him while he sat still fuming.

I can't see that working very well, to be honest. He should've at least growled or something, but given the circumstances I don't think that would've been very convincing either. I think the basic setup of the scene is good, especially given Vader's performance prior to his defeat: Anakin doesn't immediately transform into the stoic Dark Jedi we know from the original trilogy, he still has emotional outbursts and everything. I feel that a really strong, (over)dramatic response to Padme's death is a fitting end to his persona: after that, there's really nothing substantial for Anakin/Vader anymore to care for or to hate (besides himself, possibly), so all that's left is this part-man, part-machine Sith who lives because he lives but without any real purpose in life. In the OT, he doesn't seem to have any particular motivation to crush the Rebellion besides being required to by virtue of being the Emperor's right hand. A final outburst works quite well in that context, in my opinion.

However, I do feel that it lacked conviction. I would've liked to see Vader's cry mirror Luke's at the end of ESB, when he's told Vader is his father (i.e. one great, heart-wrenching outcry, followed by a more pathetic, subdued and fading one), after which he clutches his head or drops to his knees in defeat. The scene is more comical than tragic, mainly because James Earl Jones' delivery is awkward.

- What was with the Wookie scenes? Talk about tacked on. Pretty much just: Hey look! Wookies! And now back to the story...

This is true, but does everything really have to have a point? As redundant as the scenes themselves might have been (apart from the inherent entertainment value of fighting Wookiees), they didn't really detract from the story and they were impressive to look at.

- Apparently droids need to be wiped on occasion to function properly. Hey, just like my Windows PC!

It's been a well-established Star Wars fact for years that droids need memory wipes from time to time to prevent them from overdeveloping their personalities and becoming too independent etc. Remember also Uncle Owen's instruction to Luke to take R2 to Anchorhead and have its memory erased, because he didn't want any trouble with it.

- Mace vs. Sidious. Can we assume Sidious took a fall there to convince Anakin to turn? The dude took out three other jedis and even Yo-yo-yo-yo-yoda couldn't beat him. Was Mace that much of a bad mutha?

Yes, it was all intentional.

- I read comments on another messageboard on the Vader/Kenobi fight that were hilarious. How it basically ended with "Ha! I am slightly uphill from you, give up!" Didn't seem to matter when the situation was reverse with Darth Maul....

Yeah, it was a little gimmicky. However, I can't really think of a way to end the fight and have Vader burned to a crisp that would clearly be better. They were so evenly matched that a "regular" defeat would probably have been rather anti-climactic, and of course it would be difficult to conclude the battle that way without Vader getting a lightsaber to the torso - which is pretty much fatal by default. Having Obi-wan knock Vader into the lava (as per the original backstory written way back when) would certainly put him out of the fight, but I always wondered how he was supposed to survive something like that. I'm glad it didn't end like that, really; the Force is too easily abused to make EVERYTHING possible already (see Kevin J. Anderson's books and KotOR II, for example), so this is a very reasonable plot device I think.

[Rockbuff]

I rationalize Vader's Nooooooooo! as that was the last bit of emotion left in him.............


On a side note, I think this movie was all about Obi-Wan. A true jedi master- not real powerful but he beat all of his challenges in the movie.

[Gibb]

Originally Posted by Green Lantern

I rationalize Vader's Nooooooooo! as that was the last bit of emotion left in him.............


On a side note, I think this movie was all about Obi-Wan. A true jedi master- not real powerful but he beat all of his challenges in the movie.

you're alone in your thinking (according to the cinema audience)

nobody applauded Obi-Wan.... ever, yet Yoda just had to shrug his shoulders, scratch his ass, whatever and people were cheering and applauding. Same was kind of true for R2D2. Obi-Wan got jack in the fan department.

[Rockbuff]

He gets no props.

He beat Grevious and Anakin\Vader, one of the last surviving Jedi, etc.................

[Cop]

Obi hataz!

[Gibb]

Originally Posted by Cop

Obi hataz!

well he sort of killed Padme (indirectly but it was his fault) so he sucks and nobody should like him.

[Slacker]

Originally Posted by Gibb Boy

well he sort of killed Padme (indirectly but it was his fault) so he sucks and nobody should like him.

How was it his fault (directly or otherwise)?

[Gibb]

Originally Posted by Slacker

How was it his fault (directly or otherwise)?

I was exhaggerating, but Anakin Force Gripowned her after seeing Obi-Wan and thinking she brought Obi to kill him.

[DUKE HARDKNOCK]

Originally Posted by Gibb Boy

you're alone in your thinking (according to the cinema audience)

nobody applauded Obi-Wan.... ever, yet Yoda just had to shrug his shoulders, scratch his ass, whatever and people were cheering and applauding. Same was kind of true for R2D2. Obi-Wan got jack in the fan department.

That's just because they're all dicks. There's been a huge SW3 thread going on for a few months now in GBS on the SA forums (over 6200 replies by now), and I've seen very much praise for Obi-wan. Almost everyone seems to love him.

EDIT: also, I believe it's pretty obvious Vader suffocating Padme didn't really have anything to do with her death. All signs point to Palpatine as the orchestrator of her mysterious demise, as the medical droid couldn't explain why she was dying, considering the things Palpatine said about her and of course the fact that her imminent death gave him the perfect tool for turning Anakin to the Dark Side.

[scottg26]

Excellent points in this thread


Of course, obiwan is kicking himself for not putting the lightsabre though anakin when he was buring...

He should have put him out of his misery...

[Indolentron]

http://vadergetsthetalk.ytmnd.com

[Icoop]

Yeah, Slack you needta pick up the cartoons off the interweb somewheres. Its like this Grevious kills like 9 Jedi without whincing, Windu pwns Grevious's chest in 2 seconds forces him to run off (and causes him health problems in Ep. 3) Thus Windu >>> Grevious >>> average Jedi.

Also your ratings are borked. orig. films 9s this film 4 other films 0. Theres a pretty good graph i can see in my head, as Georgey gets better special effects he gets worse dialogue and acting. He probably "got" most of his scenes on first takes.

[DUKE HARDKNOCK]

Originally Posted by Icoop

Also your ratings are borked. orig. films 9s this film 4 other films 0. Theres a pretty good graph i can see in my head, as Georgey gets better special effects he gets worse dialogue and acting. He probably "got" most of his scenes on first takes.

Star Wars isn't all that serious or important.

[dryass]

yeah lucas himself keeps telling interviewers that hes actually aware of the poor acting/dialouge in the entire PreTriolgy... he said it was more about "pretty scenes and awesome enviroments"

[DUKE HARDKNOCK]

Originally Posted by Tha Don Makaveli

yeah lucas himself keeps telling interviewers that hes actually aware of the poor acting/dialouge in the entire PreTriolgy... he said it was more about "pretty scenes and awesome enviroments"

Not too surprising, really. Even the original Star Wars films were supposed to be 'told' through the visuals and the music, rather than the actual dialogue. Besides, Lucas isn't really a natural screenwriter. It took him a ton of drafts to end up with the original Star Wars and Lawrence Kasdan did the screenplays for ESB and RotJ; Lucas is a conceptualist, not a natural screenwriter.