Revenge of the Sith
May. 22nd, 2005 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shipperxSaw the show this afternoon. My thoughts:
-- Effects were... impressive. But, like the last two prequels, the compositions were cluttered. In some ways it's like Ancient Egyptian art... art before they learned perspective. Not everything should be rendered in perfect detail as then it's difficult to know the focus. Still have to admire the skill and the patience to render so much in such hugely complicated (chaotic?) compositions.
-- Yoda rocks and is a beloved little man. Love Yoda. Most animated thing in the movie (and that includes the actors.)
-- Padme really was a wuss. I mean... puhlease. Die 'just cause?' It would have held more power if either a) She had been allowed an equally strong confrontation with Anakin. Why couldn't SHE kick a little ass? Plenty of female characters do these days and she wasn't shown as just fluff in the previous stories. Sure, she was pregnant... but pregnant Aeryn kicked ass. And it wouldn't have had to be physical. If she had just been allowed to be more passionately outraged. b) The emperor had been right and Anakin really HAD killed her by accident through his use of power. Having her just will herself to die? Eh. Die for an actual reason or because he killed her, not just of a broken heart.
-- Hayden really CANNOT act. He's wooden and his line reading sucks. Now, his brooding brow works as well as any, so go silent and brooding, okay. But I do think it could have been better with a better actor (who was allowed to act because Ewan McGregor CAN act and it really wasn't used all that much). But purely on ability, Hayden isn't a good actor. In fact, he's a bad actor.
-- Palpatine, however, is a good actor.
-- The ending was great (ignoring the melodramatic 'Nooooo!!!!'.) Made me all nostalgic. Loved the sequeces giving the twins away. Loved Anakin becoming Vadar.
-- Anakin's fall into Vadar was well motivated and worked. It was multilayered. It was neither one thing or another. Part of it was greed for power. Part of it was his need to control his fate (probably
fueled by his having been a slave). Part of it was desperately trying to save Padme. Part of it was recognizing the flaws (dare I say even a little hypocrisy?) in some of the Jedi (Mace, I'm looking at you). Part of it was simply being manipulated by Palpatine. So it's not easily defined--which is a compliment.)
All in all, flawed but far, far, FAR better than the previous two sequels. Definitely works to tie the series all together in a way that is highly enjoyable to those who have grown up with Star Wars.
-- Effects were... impressive. But, like the last two prequels, the compositions were cluttered. In some ways it's like Ancient Egyptian art... art before they learned perspective. Not everything should be rendered in perfect detail as then it's difficult to know the focus. Still have to admire the skill and the patience to render so much in such hugely complicated (chaotic?) compositions.
-- Yoda rocks and is a beloved little man. Love Yoda. Most animated thing in the movie (and that includes the actors.)
-- Padme really was a wuss. I mean... puhlease. Die 'just cause?' It would have held more power if either a) She had been allowed an equally strong confrontation with Anakin. Why couldn't SHE kick a little ass? Plenty of female characters do these days and she wasn't shown as just fluff in the previous stories. Sure, she was pregnant... but pregnant Aeryn kicked ass. And it wouldn't have had to be physical. If she had just been allowed to be more passionately outraged. b) The emperor had been right and Anakin really HAD killed her by accident through his use of power. Having her just will herself to die? Eh. Die for an actual reason or because he killed her, not just of a broken heart.
-- Hayden really CANNOT act. He's wooden and his line reading sucks. Now, his brooding brow works as well as any, so go silent and brooding, okay. But I do think it could have been better with a better actor (who was allowed to act because Ewan McGregor CAN act and it really wasn't used all that much). But purely on ability, Hayden isn't a good actor. In fact, he's a bad actor.
-- Palpatine, however, is a good actor.
-- The ending was great (ignoring the melodramatic 'Nooooo!!!!'.) Made me all nostalgic. Loved the sequeces giving the twins away. Loved Anakin becoming Vadar.
-- Anakin's fall into Vadar was well motivated and worked. It was multilayered. It was neither one thing or another. Part of it was greed for power. Part of it was his need to control his fate (probably
fueled by his having been a slave). Part of it was desperately trying to save Padme. Part of it was recognizing the flaws (dare I say even a little hypocrisy?) in some of the Jedi (Mace, I'm looking at you). Part of it was simply being manipulated by Palpatine. So it's not easily defined--which is a compliment.)
All in all, flawed but far, far, FAR better than the previous two sequels. Definitely works to tie the series all together in a way that is highly enjoyable to those who have grown up with Star Wars.
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no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 09:51 am (UTC)I agree about Padme though. She was portrayed as a strong and idealistic woman in the first two but here she wasn't thinking clearly at all. Love made her bind, too. I can't help but wonder if Anakin fell the way he did if it was someone like Leia he was married to.
Ending was great, I cried all the way through the last half hour. Only bad thing about the movie is, my inability to watch the OT right now. I can't look at Vader for a while. It's too painful for me.
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Date: 2005-05-23 06:06 pm (UTC)fueled by his having been a slave). Part of it was desperately trying to save Padme. Part of it was recognizing the flaws (dare I say even a little hypocrisy?) in some of the Jedi (Mace, I'm looking at you). Part of it was simply being manipulated by Palpatine. So it's not easily defined--which is a compliment.)
Really good point. I've already seen this twice and I can't wait to see it again.
I thought Hayden was better in this one than in the previous. Which isn't saying much, I know, but he was painfully bad in that one, whereas here he had some redemptive moments. I bought into the character's struggle and genuinely felt for him, so that was a big improvement.
Ewan was awesome here--and I didn't think much of him in the previous two either. Finally he had a chance to shine! And Ian McDiarmid really helped carry the movie--looking back, he's probably my favorite thing in all three prequels.
Yoda... blech. ESB is my favorite movie, but I've never really understood the appeal of Yoda. He's so sanctimonious and self-righteous and dull; he never felt like a real character to me, just a faux-wise archetype. "Be passionless and passive and boring, and don't care that your wife is dying"??? Who says things like that?? And seeing a digital puppet thingy waving a lightsaber around does nothing for me, alas.
Padme was such a disappointment. It's like they went for the trappings of feminism this time around--look, she wields weapons! Look at all the female soldiers in the background! Look, Naboo is ruled by queens! But she was such a bloodless, dull, half-assed excuse for a character, filling nothing but "traditional" women's roles, defined solely by her relationships to men--wife, mother, etc. Though to be fair, plenty of the male characters were dull half-assed stereotypes, too... more a fault of Lucas' poor writing than any real agenda.