Jared wrote:
I never got the impression that people would or were cheering for darth vader
Japan Today wrote:Reaction at advance screenings was effusive, with festival-goers, critics and journalists at Cannes applauding at the moment the infamous Darth Vader came into being.
Ian McDiarmid single-handedly saved this film. I had wondered why he played Palpatine so stiffly in the first two--clearly he did it so that his transformation would be even more striking. And he succeeded.
Still too much CGI for my taste. And I doubt the screenplay will win any awards (Lucas really should have let a pro do the writing).
I would be satisfied if Lucas went back and brought ep 1 & 2 up to the level of this film. Not thrilled, but satisfied.
Doug "saw it at midnight too and will now be sleepy all day"
"It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged."
~G.K. Chesterton
Like Chris said, Vader was most likely part real part CG. Mostly real, I'd guess.
Unfortunately, Mr. Lucas must not think his actors are very athletic. Any time a character had to jump or move faster than a walk, they became little CGI crap things. It was worse than The Matrix Reloaded.
Still, when Palpatine says "I can feel your anger..." Man. Chills. That guy rocks my socks.
"It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged."
~G.K. Chesterton
I don't think that Episodes I and II could have really been any different. They were there for story progression, not swashbuckling action. It's a multipart series, not a collection of films like the James Bond flicks.
When my friends & I went to see Ep. I's midnight premiere, we went back home and tried to figure it out. The biggest fan hated the movie. Then, we started talking about what we saw, and tried to piece together what needed to happen until Ep. IV picks up the story. We started to get really into the discussion, and that same "biggest fan" became really excited about the movie.
Anyway...
I've heard another person complain that Anakin turned to the dark side too easily. I thought that Anakin was always borderline to begin with; it wasn't going to take much of a nudge to get him to turn.
I dug all the movies. Yes, the acting usually sucked, and Lucas can't write romance to save his life, but it was a fascinating story. Last night, I kept realizing that my jaw was hanging open because I was so amazed by how thoroughly the Republic, Separatists, and Jedi were all torn to pieces. The Sith definitely got its revenge, that's for sure.
This film is better than the last two but not as good as the first 3 by any stretch. The one word I would use to describe this film is: BUSY. It's a mile wide and an inch deep, skimming over hundreds of topics in order to cut to the big, huge, busy fight scenes. Like a bad porno, there are a few quite boring segues between action scenes with wooden acting and a story that just barely makes sense. If I hadn't seen the other 5 movies, I wouldn't have enjoyed this one at all. This entire movie could have been replaced by a few extra paragraphs of yellow text at the beginning of episode 4.
Shockwave wrote:This film is better than the last two but not as good as the first 3 by any stretch. The one word I would use to describe this film is: BUSY. It's a mile wide and an inch deep, skimming over hundreds of topics in order to cut to the big, huge, busy fight scenes. Like a bad porno, there are a few quite boring segues between action scenes with wooden acting and a story that just barely makes sense. If I hadn't seen the other 5 movies, I wouldn't have enjoyed this one at all. This entire movie could have been replaced by a few extra paragraphs of yellow text at the beginning of episode 4.
-Eric
Couldn't have said it better. Lucas should have hired a good screenwriter, and made the three prequels from this single story line.
"It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged."
~G.K. Chesterton
Like watching the Ring in many ways. The thrill comes, not from seeing Siegfried kill Fafner (this is actually a really lame part of that saga) but knowing what the implications of such an act are.
Sigmund is not a great character (ie Annakin) but his existence is essential for the drama to occur. They are, in a sense the same person...the dialogue in this case doesn't matter (although the acting in III is much better than I or II-thanks for workshopping that role Mr. Christianson!) The crappiness that was Eps I and II seems only to justify this last one.
While the first three Star wars films seems sacrosanct, it is hard to justify IV and VI as being beter than III.
I was quite pleased to see Mr. McGreggor portraying a much more
Guiness-esque version of Kenobi (what took him so long?).
Jonathan Fowler wrote:I was quite pleased to see Mr. McGreggor portraying a much more
Guiness-esque version of Kenobi (what took him so long?).
I feel that Kenobi had some growing up to do of his own. He was young in I, and started to feel some pressure in II. Anakin changed, too -- he went from a whiny brat to a whiny, dangerous brat. Luke started in IV as a whiner, too (just like his father.. lol).
I think they progressed their characters just fine.
Nobody's as bad of an actor, though, as Matt "Guitar" Murphy. Then again, he was so bad that it was practically funny.
I thought it was a great movie. (I saw it at midnight, because I'm a nerd, dammit) There were still some issues, but in general I thought it solved some of the problems of the other two prequels.
One thing that struck me though... was anybody else amazed at the scenery of the planets on which the Jedis were killed? It just flashed to these breathtaking planets only to move on to another within ten seconds. That whole sequence must have cost a fortune, and I would have love to have seen more of those environments.
I was also disappointed with the quality of the crowd at the midnight showing. Midnight screenings are getting so mainstream that a guy behind me was making fun of my plastic lightsaber. C'mon, why wait in a line a quarter of a mile long to see a movie the first night at midnight if you're not enthusiastic about it, or at least enough to loosen up and let some geeks be geeky.
I liked the movie. IMO it was better than the first two. Now I have to go see the original 3 since I haven't seen them since I was about 10. Overall it was good stuff.