51 replies to this topic

[Chad Vander Veen]

Uhhh....

A young boy dressed as the Star Wars character 'Yoda' sits on the shoulders of a man as he watches events in Leicester Square in London and joins in with the premier launch of the film Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith, Monday. (AP /Alastair Grant)

[nhardy]

Found this gem of a quote on Fark this morning:

"Dear MPAA,

Downloading a crappy copy of a movie off the Internet to watch at home on a computer/tv is like having sex with a blow-up doll in the snow.

Nothing compares to the real thing."

Ha!

Plus, a she-stormtropper!

Not too shabby. I'm sure she could choose from all sorts of Star Wars fans who have absolutely no idea how to please her.

[nomoser]

Okay, call me a nerd. I saw the film this morning with my two sons, age 13 and 10. The movie is great. While it will take me some time to come to a definite conclusion, it is definitely one of the two best films of the series. As soon as it was over, I found myself wishing I could sit through it again. It is definitely worth seeing more than once IMO.

It is very grim, however. I went thinking I would take my 7 year old daughter to see it next week ... and came out thinking otherwise. While the violence is still bloodless as it always seems to be in the Star Wars universe, the people dying aren't just clone troopers and droids. People your kids will recognize from previous movies get hurt and killed, some in pretty gruesome ways. I think the PG-13 is deserved, but I was not uncomfortable with my 10 year old son there. If you have any doubts, I would suggest seeing first without your kids and deciding.

If it helps, here is a short, spoiler-free clip from a family-friendly movie review site on this topic:

"The entire Star Wars series has been marked with combat and violence, most frequently consisting of clone warriors or robots going down bloodlessly. Episode III has no shortage of such battles, with lots of dispensable cronies biting the dust in blaster fire or at the blade of a Jedi.

"But frequent decapitation of hapless enemy droids isn't how Episode III earned its PG-13 rating (the most restrictive rating ever for the series). Instead, several flesh-and-blood characters lose limbs to those with better lightsaber skills. In its description of these violent elements, USA Today's movie preview read a lot like the ones we write here at Plugged In Online: 'Women and children are slain. The heroic Jedi Knights are all but slaughtered. Characters lose arms, legs and heads in lightsaber duels. One character catches fire, screaming in agony while the flesh peels off his body.' "

For all that, however, the movie was awesome. The special effects were incredible (a given, but these were even better than the previous films), the action sequences were intense, and (I am happy to report) I thought the drama and emotion relating to the story and characters were significantly better than in the last two films.

Go see it!

[nhardy]

Final 'Star Wars' film leaked to Web

http://www.cnn.com/2...reut/index.html

[Chad Vander Veen]

Jedi on the phone

[Chad Vander Veen]

If anyone is interested, my review of the SW can be found on my blog:
http://www.thewrongblog.com

[john]

Saw it tonight. It was awesome!!! Easily the best of the prequels, dare I say it's one of the best of all 6. Answers all the questions, I can't wait to watch IV, V, VI as soon as I can!


How long before Lucas has a change of heart and decides to do VII, VIII, IX? I give it 15 years. He'll be dead before all three are out but at some point somebody's gonna get the itch again.

[Chad Vander Veen]

Saw it tonight. It was awesome!!! Easily the best of the prequels, dare I say it's one of the best of all 6. Answers all the questions, I can't wait to watch IV, V, VI as soon as I can!
How long before Lucas has a change of heart and decides to do VII, VIII, IX? I give it 15 years. He'll be dead before all three are out but at some point somebody's gonna get the itch again.

There's so much money to be made on 7,8 and 9 Fox would be insane not to produce them.

[ngilbert]

There's so much money to be made on 7,8 and 9 Fox would be insane not to produce them.

I *think* Fox doesn't have a say in the matter because Lucas retained all the rights to the sequels (and merchandise - ka'ching) after the first movie and pretty much just uses Fox for distribution. So they would at least need Lucasfilm's go-ahead even if 7,8,&9 were made with a different director, and even if George Lucas himself died.

I agree with your review, and I came away with the same melancholia you did. I was happy because the movie exceeded my expectations, but I was sorry to see Star Wars end.

The acting was actually pretty good. In the previous two movies I got the sense that Ewan MacGregor was the only person taking his job seriously with his great Alec Guiness impersonation, but this time every one got into it. Oddly, the only acting I was disappointed with was James Earl Jones. His whole "Nooooo!" scream fell flat for me. Maybe Natalie Portman could have tried harder, though she did well with the dialog she was given. Also, the guy who played Palpatine really sold it. The movie would have collapsed under its own weight if he hadn't been believable.

That Palpatine - he smart.

[Chad Vander Veen]

I *think* Fox doesn't have a say in the matter because Lucas retained all the rights to the sequels (and merchandise - ka'ching) after the first movie and pretty much just uses Fox for distribution. So they would at least need Lucasfilm's go-ahead even if 7,8,&9 were made with a different director, and even if George Lucas himself died.

I agree with your review, and I came away with the same melancholia you did. I was happy because the movie exceeded my expectations, but I was sorry to see Star Wars end.

The acting was actually pretty good. In the previous two movies I got the sense that Ewan MacGregor was the only person taking his job seriously with his great Alec Guiness impersonation, but this time every one got into it. Oddly, the only acting I was disappointed with was James Earl Jones. His whole "Nooooo!" scream fell flat for me. Maybe Natalie Portman could have tried harder, though she did well with the dialog she was given. Also, the guy who played Palpatine really sold it. The movie would have collapsed under its own weight if he hadn't been believable.

That Palpatine - he smart.

Agreed on the Darth NOOOO! And anguished, nonsensical cry would have been better. JEJ should have allowed himself to be tazered and have his screams recorded...for the sake of the film.

[ngilbert]

Not content to leave well enough alone, I hear that George Lucas is again going back and "fixing" the original trilogy, by adding new digital effects and dialog. For example, here's a revised scene from "Return of the Jedi":

LUKE: Leia... do you remember your mother? Your real mother?

LEIA: Just a little bit. She died when I was very young. I was only about five minutes old.

LUKE: What do you remember?

LEIA: I was covered in goop, even though I was about the size of a four month old baby. Plus there was this green guy. I think he was an obstetrician. Or perhaps a puppet of some sort. Oh, and Obi Wan was there. But he was young though - maybe thirty-five tops. This of course was before he aged forty years in the space of twenty years while hiding on Tatooine. Just...images, really. Feelings.

LUKE: Tell me.

LEIA: She was very beautiful. Kind, but...sad. Of course, if you delivered two twenty pound babies after three weeks of pregnancy, you'd be pretty sad too. Why are you asking me all this?

LUKE: I have no memory of my mother. I never knew her, even though I'm two minutes older than you.

LEIA: Luke, tell me. What's troubling you?

LUKE: Just jealous. Your memory is way better than mine.

[Chad Vander Veen]

Curse you Lucas for failing to wrap up every single loose end in your imaginary world of which I had no part creating! Curse you!

/seriously, that omission is annoying.

[Ahnold]

*minor spoilers ahead*

Echo the Vader shout gripe... pathetic!

Obi Wan hears of the destruction of the Jedi and does he even stop to worry about Anakin's fate, despite that he's "like a brother to him"?

And just how long did it take them to build that first Death Star?!? Must have had a government contractor on that one - they sure seemed to slap DS2 together fast enough back in Episode 6! Oh and it was nice to see them exhume Peter Cushing and give him a cameo at Grand Moff Tarkin... no speaking part though.

What the heck was with the wookiee scene?? Useless. If you're gonna put that in the movie, then make it have a point!

And what is it with Lucas and campy robot humor?? That whole bit between R2 and the battle droids was annoying. Although I did get a chuckle out of the scene when Greivous snatches the captured light sabers out of the hands of a droid and the droid snidely retorts "you're welcome!"


Definitely one of the top six Star Wars movies of all time though! OK OK, top four at least.

[bishmasterb]

Echo the Vader shout gripe... pathetic!

Agreed, that was lame. He stepped off that platform like Frankenstein and screamed like Kirk in Wrath of Khan ("KKKKHHHHHHAAAAAAANNNN!!!!!").

And just how long did it take them to build that first Death Star?!?  Must have had a government contractor on that one - they sure seemed to slap DS2 together fast enough back in Episode 6!  Oh and it was nice to see them exhume Peter Cushing and give him a cameo at Grand Moff Tarkin... no speaking part though.

Union contractors I guess (see Clerks for more thorough explanation).

What the heck was with the wookiee scene??  Useless.  If you're gonna put that in the movie, then make it have a point! 

Agreed, should have done more with the Wookies.

And what is it with Lucas and campy robot humor??  That whole bit between R2 and the battle droids was annoying.  Although I did get a chuckle out of the scene when Greivous snatches the captured light sabers out of the hands of a droid and the droid snidely retorts "you're welcome!"

All the SW films have had campy robot humor, it's a staple. Perhaps we were more accepting of it when we were 12.

Definitely one of the top six Star Wars movies of all time though!  OK OK, top four at least.

My list:

1) Empire
2) New Hope
3) Sith
4) Jedi
5) Clones
6) Menace

[ngilbert]

Oh and it was nice to see them exhume Peter Cushing and give him a cameo at Grand Moff Tarkin... no speaking part though.

I totally missed Tarkin. Was that in the last scene where they're watching the Death Star get built?

I wonder if they had to pay his surviviors for rights to use his image.