So I saw Episode III Wednesday night. In a DTS theater, which Lucasfilm has had us put up to 7 (to put that in perspective -- we put the system to 5, and it shakes walls). The print was beautiful -- colors popped, clean between blackness and light -- it's a beautiful film, of course. More proof HD cinema is getting so much better than regular 35mm film. However, the contents of the film, I still haven't decided on. There's great, brilliant parts throughout it -- some truly powerful emotional moments, like when Anakin and Obi-Wan are revving up for the climactic Duel, pacing around each other, arguing their side of the story. Hayden does great with a lot of the movie -- my favorite line being "I have brought peace -- justice -- security, to my Empire!", to which Obi-Wan can only respond, "I serve the Republic, Anakin -- I serve democracy!" It's got to be some of the best dialogue in any of the six films (which isn't saying very much at all -- I mean, on the general, everything except the second half of Empire is awful in terms of dialogue).
But Lucas hits the best moments when there isn't dialogue. After Anakin's told Mace Windu (Sam Jackson, who didn't use the 1 "fuck" they allow in PG-13 films!) that he believes Palpatine is a Sith Lord, and Windu's ordered him to the temple -- we cut to Natalie Portman as Padme, sitting in her apartment. Back to Anakin, as he thinks about what Palpatine told him about saving Padme and what'll happen if the Jedi kill the Chancellor. He rises, and we cut to Padme rising. They both look out the window -- and we see shots of the Temple and the building where Padme lives. It ends with Anakin, a tear rolling down his cheek, making the decision that will lead to the end of freedom and the rise of fascism. It definitely propels the death of Mace Windu a few notches in terms of importance, to the point where I went "oh no" instead of "all right!" when Windu's body is finally disposed of.
This, of course, leads to Order 66. Which, thanks to John Williams's score and ILM's work on Yoda, is going to give me heartaches every time I watch it. Seeing everyone's frog-man clutching at his chest as the Jedi, fighting for freedom, are turned on without any emotion and killed ruthlessly, you can't help but go
.
I liked Grevious, the general of the Seperatist clone army, a cyborg with a severe coughing problem (thanks to Windu back in the Clone Wars cartoons, I hear). His voice is pitched like the old Universal horror villians -- not the monsters themselves, but the manipulators, like the guy in Bride of Frankenstein who forces the Doctor to create a bride for the Monster so they could perhaps start a new race of which they would be Gods. I also did dig the scumbag side of him -- the type of fighter who hates fighting, but only when he figures his chances of losing are much higher. If he thinks he has the distinct advantage, he'll go at you. And then run like a bug (literally, in one case) when it's no longer his game to play.
So what's wrong with the picture? For one, a majority of the dialogue. Sure, it's space opera. I set aside no expectations for the lines Hayden and Ian McDiarmind and Ewan McGregor have to say -- but for the love of God, the romantic dialogue that is basically all of Natalie's stuff is as good as manure spread on salted earth. It's bad dialogue on a character with no growth left. When they go back and forth on "I love yous", you're ready to just retch. Some of Yoda's dialogue, although written to be cool, just comes out very... ugly. "Not if anything to say about it, I have" is pretty awful, although "If so powerful you are... why leave?" is very well-placed and delivered perfectly.
The movie, after the initial kickoff action, slows down for nearly 45 minutes -- but I suppose that's excusable, to set up every single thing that's about to happen. No one said Lucas didn't understand political manuevering, and how that can be as great a skill to good or evil as lifting objects and weilding an energy sword.
The Wookiee battle on Kashyyk? Useless, even as it's only meant as a way to get Yoda off Coruscant, and thus make him not realize what's about to happen.
The other thing that bugged me: the editing, mostly right after Order 66. The scenes become ten seconds long each, it seems, cutting from one to the other to another to the first to the third with barely any realization. The timeframe also seems severely out of wack: Padme says she's pregnant and doesn't show it in the beginning, but by the end of the movie (which feels like it could've taken place in 48 hours), she's fully pregnant, yet you don't feel that it's been that long.
And of course, James Earl Jones has one line (out of four) of dialogue that you just wish he hadn't delivered. You'll know it when you see it, but the more I see it and hear it, the more I'm getting used to it as being perfectly B-movie for the biggest B-movie series of all time.
Overall? It's a spirited, drop-dead gorgeous, but flawed ride to the darkness that'll open A New Hope. The flaws aren't as bad as you think, at least from a certain point of view. If you go in minus all the expectations most Internet movie snobs go in with (Darth Vader has to kill every Jedi himself! Jar Jar has to die! Natalie Portman has to have sex with me in my seat!), you'll find it quite an enjoyable ride, worthy of the title and nostalgia attached to that phenomenon we call STAR WARS.
And you know, I have nothing else to talk about beside that. Star Wars kind of overruled this week.
But Lucas hits the best moments when there isn't dialogue. After Anakin's told Mace Windu (Sam Jackson, who didn't use the 1 "fuck" they allow in PG-13 films!) that he believes Palpatine is a Sith Lord, and Windu's ordered him to the temple -- we cut to Natalie Portman as Padme, sitting in her apartment. Back to Anakin, as he thinks about what Palpatine told him about saving Padme and what'll happen if the Jedi kill the Chancellor. He rises, and we cut to Padme rising. They both look out the window -- and we see shots of the Temple and the building where Padme lives. It ends with Anakin, a tear rolling down his cheek, making the decision that will lead to the end of freedom and the rise of fascism. It definitely propels the death of Mace Windu a few notches in terms of importance, to the point where I went "oh no" instead of "all right!" when Windu's body is finally disposed of.
This, of course, leads to Order 66. Which, thanks to John Williams's score and ILM's work on Yoda, is going to give me heartaches every time I watch it. Seeing everyone's frog-man clutching at his chest as the Jedi, fighting for freedom, are turned on without any emotion and killed ruthlessly, you can't help but go
.
I liked Grevious, the general of the Seperatist clone army, a cyborg with a severe coughing problem (thanks to Windu back in the Clone Wars cartoons, I hear). His voice is pitched like the old Universal horror villians -- not the monsters themselves, but the manipulators, like the guy in Bride of Frankenstein who forces the Doctor to create a bride for the Monster so they could perhaps start a new race of which they would be Gods. I also did dig the scumbag side of him -- the type of fighter who hates fighting, but only when he figures his chances of losing are much higher. If he thinks he has the distinct advantage, he'll go at you. And then run like a bug (literally, in one case) when it's no longer his game to play.
So what's wrong with the picture? For one, a majority of the dialogue. Sure, it's space opera. I set aside no expectations for the lines Hayden and Ian McDiarmind and Ewan McGregor have to say -- but for the love of God, the romantic dialogue that is basically all of Natalie's stuff is as good as manure spread on salted earth. It's bad dialogue on a character with no growth left. When they go back and forth on "I love yous", you're ready to just retch. Some of Yoda's dialogue, although written to be cool, just comes out very... ugly. "Not if anything to say about it, I have" is pretty awful, although "If so powerful you are... why leave?" is very well-placed and delivered perfectly.
The movie, after the initial kickoff action, slows down for nearly 45 minutes -- but I suppose that's excusable, to set up every single thing that's about to happen. No one said Lucas didn't understand political manuevering, and how that can be as great a skill to good or evil as lifting objects and weilding an energy sword.
The Wookiee battle on Kashyyk? Useless, even as it's only meant as a way to get Yoda off Coruscant, and thus make him not realize what's about to happen.
The other thing that bugged me: the editing, mostly right after Order 66. The scenes become ten seconds long each, it seems, cutting from one to the other to another to the first to the third with barely any realization. The timeframe also seems severely out of wack: Padme says she's pregnant and doesn't show it in the beginning, but by the end of the movie (which feels like it could've taken place in 48 hours), she's fully pregnant, yet you don't feel that it's been that long.
And of course, James Earl Jones has one line (out of four) of dialogue that you just wish he hadn't delivered. You'll know it when you see it, but the more I see it and hear it, the more I'm getting used to it as being perfectly B-movie for the biggest B-movie series of all time.
Overall? It's a spirited, drop-dead gorgeous, but flawed ride to the darkness that'll open A New Hope. The flaws aren't as bad as you think, at least from a certain point of view. If you go in minus all the expectations most Internet movie snobs go in with (Darth Vader has to kill every Jedi himself! Jar Jar has to die! Natalie Portman has to have sex with me in my seat!), you'll find it quite an enjoyable ride, worthy of the title and nostalgia attached to that phenomenon we call STAR WARS.
And you know, I have nothing else to talk about beside that. Star Wars kind of overruled this week.
