Readers Digest Assessment:
...What a travesty. Loud, obnoxious, overbearing, cheesy.
Some Random Observations:
- There were several times when the theater absolutely burst out laughing - when Palpatine changed into the "scary" Emperor and first gets up and talks to Anakin. I too felt uncomfortable, like I was watching a B-flick horror film. Post-Electroburn Palpatine (that's probably what they'll call the action figure) was a real ham and hard to watch. Dreadful. Of course there were other guffaws during the predictable moments that users have already mentioned - the Padme/Anakin scenes, the birth of Darth Vader, all that. There were a couple of groans of protest when Yoda referenced Chewbacca.
- I actually didn't mind Anakin in this one. I thought he was done well and actually felt bad for his character. Everyone on the Counsel shit on him in this film and I could tell that at first he was really trying to be a decent Jedi. So despite his performance in the last movie, I thought Hayden did well in this one.
- General Grievous was a joke. He didn't need to be in the film at all. His little spinning vehicle that he drives was the yet one more "cool-factor" contraption that annoyed the hell out of me. Why not have him get on a normal speeder bike? Again my complaint is with the consistency of vehicles from movie to movie. This was an example of a very loud and overbearing scene, one I found almost unbearable. And that creature that Obi Wan rode was also one of the most annoying things I've ever seen or heard - what with its constant honking and squealing.
- Kashyyyk. Yoda induced mocking laughter when he bounced on one of the Wookies backs. It only made me mad. Oh and call me Eddie Fisher but wasn't Chewbacca wasn't in the Command Bunker during most of the battle? If so does this mean he was a high ranking officer during the battle now too? Or perhaps he was just a guard? My money is that he was now a Wookie Officer during the Clone Wars. I just cannot take all the connections and coincidences. And the attacking vehicles in this scene make the newer vehicles in the OT look like technical dinosaurs. My dream when I was kid was always imagining the invasion of Kashyyyk with Walkers and Speederbikes and Star Destroyer bombardments. Not stupid droid vehicles based on 19th Century Water Wheel designs. Oh and I noticed the Wookies did a tarzan yell again when swinging from a vine. Is this just another example of George Lucas feeding the loyal fans a great, big shit sandwich?
- Space Battle at the beginning was very confusing. Couldn't tell what was happening half the time. Vulture Droids and Buzz Droids, huh? Cute. They seem more dangerous than Tie Fighters and far more cost-effective too. So...uh...I dunno, if you're the Imperials, why use Tie Fighters (which I love by the way - I only ask for consistency sake) at all in the OT at all when you can have swarms of droids gangbang an attacking Fighter instead?
- R2D2. I'm too pissed off to touch this one in depth right now. Oh look how funny it is when he vertically flips out of the Jedi Starfighter when it lands. And I won't open another can of worms with Jedi Starfighters themselves...
- Opera scene was cool. Not very original, but I still liked it. Pre-Electoburn Palpatine was good, very seductive.
- Mace Windu can go to hell.
- I actually thought it was kind of funny when the Younglings met their demise. The way I see it, this leaves ten or so less shitty child actors out there in the world now.
- Jedi's getting capped off by Clone Troopers. All Jedi have "Spidey" senses don't they? So a bunch of clod-hopper soon-to-be inept Stormtroopers kill them all off using the "element of surprise"? Not believable. It's only fair to mention that the rabble cracked up when the Emperor ratified Order 66. Instead of saying Order Six-six, he said it like Order Sixty-Six...it just seemed like the delivery was akward and clumsy.
- Plenty more observations (complaints) but I won't bother.
Overall, I'm not sure how people can say it was a better movie than ROTJ, but yes it is a matter of "opinion". My opinion is that this one wasn't even close to the caliber of ROTJ. Anyhow, I've now seen the film and I can now officially wipe the PT from my mind and leave the origins of Anakin Skywalker and the Clone Wars to the far more capable hands of my minds eye.
Now that I've seen the movie, I'm definately looking more forward to the "82 Reasons To Hate Episode III"
This post has been edited by diligent_d: 02 June 2005 - 12:09 PM