Ahoy, squirts! Quint here! Now, we have the press junket for STAR WARS: REVENGE OF THE SITH next week (no, I'm not invited... I'm still crying) and, from what I hear, foreign distributors are getting the movie right this very moment, so expect a flood of reviews starting from this point on till the release of the film.
The below is very plot-heavy, so go at your own risk. I didn't read it all (I want something to be unknown when I finally see this flick afterall), but it seemed very levelheaded, especially when talking about not quite digging Grievous.
I'll be keeping an eye out for more screening reviews, so stay tuned! For now, we have this review that places ROTS next to TESB... tall order, that. "Please don't suck, please don't suck, please don't suck..."
Harry,
Can?t say where I saw it. When I saw it. With whom I
saw it. Just trust me, I did. Revenge of the Sith.
Final print.
Won?t bore you with ?I?m a big fan?, blah, blah, blah.
Rest assured, I am, and believe not much comes close
to Empire Strikes Back when thinking Star Wars. Except
maybe
for this movie.
Please note I also liked Alien 3 which might, for
some, call my credibility into question, but what the
heck, here it goes
As if you don?t know already, the opening battle above
Coruscant is absolutely breathtaking, with the camera
following Obi-Wan and Anakin in their starfighters as
they desperately try to get to Grievous? ship, with
all kinds of stuff blowing up in the background.
Still, while visuals are nothing short of amazing, I
kinda missed the militaristic approach to space
battles found in the Classic trilogy, especially
Return of the Jedi. Somehow, whether this particular
battle, or exciting but short assault on the droid
donut ship in TPM, or the Geneosis confrontation in
AOTC, the prequels never seemed to embrace the idea
that to care about the action a bit more we should be
given some indication of who is doing exactly what and
why. A sense of progression, if you will. This lack of
focus always bothered me in Attack of the Clones and
the beginning of Revenge is just the same: we are
never really told what?s at stake and then the battle
ends too abruptly. Ships blow up. That?s it.
In the
end I was left with the ?nothing to see here, move
on, people? feeling. A minor and rather personal rant,
but still The Obi-Wan / Anakin banter during the battle is
alright, nothing great or particularly inventive, but
fortunately nothing really awful either. In fact, it?s
worth to mention I never noticed strikingly bad
dialogue throughout the movie. Anyway, once our
characters board the Invisible Hand, the humor
quotient goes up, but contrary to the infamous C3PO
gags from AOTC I actually found some of the scenes
pretty amusing... except for the R2-D2 making the
fools out of a couple of super battle druids, which
seemed too slapstick and silly for my taste (though I
imagine Lucas thought this necessary to further
undermine the droids? effectiveness). In retrospect,
the lightweightness and a sense of adventure of the
first 30 minutes contrast and emphasize the darkness
that follows when things go bad for our characters.
Grevous is a non-entity for me. He?s supposed to be
this great and invincible master strategist but
nothing in the movie actually proves that he is except that the characters constantly say he is. I?d
say Grevous? cartoonish appearance and his manierisms
belong to the animated Clone Wars tv series rather
then to this movie. In the end the general is just
another droid and a plot point for Obi-Wan to follow,
not the Episode III Big Bad Lucas often touted him to
be.
Once the Chancellor is rescued, Revenge slows down a
bit to make room for the seduction of Anakin. I read
the movie novelization a while ago and must say I was
truly impressed by how THE transformation of Anakin
was handled. It just all made perfect sense and
resulted in a tragic, ?can?t escape fate? dilemma for
the character. I was rather afraid the movie would
simplify matters too much ? I mean, the book had so
much more time to concentrate on the slow and natural
change in Anakin. Fortunately there are enough
Palpatine / Anakin scenes throughout the film to
actually illustrate the process of Skywalker being
slowly dragged into the darkness. The signals of doom
are all there: Anakin?s pride and arrogance, his
prophetic dreams regarding the death of Padme, his
inability to keep those he loves but who are destined
to pass away, and in the end Palpatine?s promises of
power and control.
Speaking of Palpatine, Ian McDiarmid shines. To some
extend, Revenge is his movie. I particularly liked
subtle changes in his tone of voice and body language
during his shifts between the good Chancellor
Palpatine and ever-manipulative Emperor, especially in
the ?Squid Lake? opera scene which in itself was a
very eerie and unsettling moment in the movie. Of
course once he becomes the Emperor full time he?s
just, well, crazy evil, laughing like a lunatic even
when hanging and about to fall from one of those
floating senate platforms during the climatic duel
with Yoda.
Hayden Christensen, while not in the acting league of
Ian or Ewan, gets to perform some nice and emotionally
charged scenes, which was a nice surprise considering
Attack of the Clones. The rift in Anakin / Padme
relationship, a direct consequence of Anakin?s blind
and desperate search for a way to save his wife from
imminent death, is showcased with surprising
believability. A far cry from the overly forced love
between them in AOTC, indeed. Strangely enough, the
best scene between Anakin and Padme takes place when they are actually apart. While Anakin is told to wait in the Jedi Temple by Mace Windu (who goes on to
arrest Palpatine), Padme is looking out from the
window of her apartment and gazes toward the Temple
spears ? with rather nicely underplayed musical score
in the background and some nice editing, it is
immediately evident both characters feel each other?s
anguish and fear of the future, and suddenly realize
they cannot escape what awaits them, namely Anakin?s
decision to accept Palpatine?s offer. Definitely one
of the great emotional highlights in ROTS and possibly
the entire saga. Nice!
And then all hell breaks loose and the movie gets
better, and better, and better... Mind you, this is a
true PG-13 experience. When the Emperor activates
Order 66 and the slaughtering of the Jedi begins,
Lucas does not shy away from showing the brutal
reality of it. In one of the most shocking scenes of
the entire saga, the clones keep shooting at the
fallen and already dead Jedi, with the camera slowly
panning up to the sky. In fact, the whole montage of
the clones turning against their former masters is
extremely effective and emotional ? a disturbing
mixture of horrible images and truly sad music by John
Williams. A goose-bums moment at its best.
I could go on for hours how much there is to cherish
in the last 45 minutes of Revenge. The duels are
absolutely awesome. The only one I didn?t care much
for was Mace Windu vs. Palpatine ? I simply never
liked Mace and always thought Jackson should have
stayed away from playing a Jedi Master. His delivery
is somewhat wooden and instead of intended coolness we
get another ?this party?s over? stuff. On the other
hand, Yoda taking on the Emperor in the Senate chamber
is simply enormous in scope and I think at least in
this respect it overshadows the climatic Obi-Wan /
Anakin fight but just a bit. Sparks fly everywhere,
Senate platforms crash into each other, dark energy
explodes ? truly wild stuff accompanied by the only
bombastic part of the Williams? score.
Obi-Wan / Anakin fight on Mustafar is just too good to
write about. You need to see it for yourselves. What?s
worth mentioning is another uber-cool moment just
before the duel begins, when Anakin confronts Padme
and says something along the lines: ?You will rule
beside me in MY new empire?. That and the final ?You
were the chosen one!? and ?I HATE YOU!? exchange
between Obi-Wan and Anakin rule big time, no question
about it.
Obviously I have barely scratched the surface as there
is so much more to enjoy in Revenge of the Sith. Even
though I dislike Grievous, the bit on Utapau, with
Obi-Wan chasing the good general on Boga, was fun to
watch as an exciting adventure. Bail Organa, while
absent for the first 45 minutes, delivers some good
lines later on and is brought into the story
seamlessly. The final minutes of the movie ? the
cutting between death of Padme and the birth of Vader
in his mechanical form; Padme?s quiet and etheral
funeral procession; Bail and his wife lovingly holding
Leia in their arms on Alderaan ? all of it is just
heart-breaking, but cathartic and not without a sense
of hope. A new hope
Call me No One
|
