Bill,wnazzaro wrote:Disappointing.
I went at midnight Thursday morning. The atmosphere was great. We had lightsabre battles break out and a fully armored Stormtrooper. The crowd was better than the film. Not that the film was bad, but...disappointing.
Remember the scene in RotJ when the Emperor and Vader are trying to turn Luke? That was the scene this film needed. Luke knew he needed to stop the Emperor or his friends would die. The Emperor gave Luke the means to kill him, turning to the Dark Side. Luke trusted the Force and with his faith, Darth Vader and the Emperor were defeated, redeeming Anakin Skywalker in the process.
The scene where Anakin helps to kill Samuel L. and then turns has no power. I never felt Anakin struggling like I felt Luke struggling. That scene needed to be much longer.
I felt no connection between the characters. Anakin loved Padme? I didn't feel anything between them, only words. Obi-Wan thought of Anakin as a brother? Didn't feel that either.
Some problems as I was watching the film: In Jedi, Leia talked of remembering their mother when talking to Luke. Padme dies in childbirth. Not a huge problem, maybe Leia is remembering her adopted mother who could die when Leia is young, or maybe the Organas had pictures of Padme they showed Leia.
In Star Wars, Obi-Wan tells Luke that Darth Vader hunted down and killed the jedi. The only jedi Vader kills are Samuel L. (hardly) and the "younglings" (stupid name, why not Padiwans?) Ohhhh, what a bad ***, kills little kids. How much cooler if Darth Vader in full black armor really did hunt down the Jedi, instead of them being killed by Stormtroopers who turned on them? Then there would be a reason for Yoda and Kenobi to go into hiding, because Vader was so powerful, they knew he would kill them. Instead, after battling to a draw with Palpatine, Yoda says, "Go into hiding I must." Which lets Lucas check off of his list the item: "Why is Yoda on Dagobah?"
Yoda does not always speak in flipped sentences!!! "Not if anything to say about it, I have," was the worst line Frank Oz ever had to say. That said, Palpatine and Yoda were the best actors in the film.
The lightsabre battles. In the original three films (IV-VI), there was no animation, just two guys in front of a blue screen with choreagraphed moves. That works so much better for story telling than all the flips and CGA they can do now. There's lots of cool in Revenge of the Sith, but not enough depth.
You and I agree on something. What is the world coming to?
That said, on your comment about Leia and her mother: Remember Luke asks "Do you remember your mother--your real mother?"
About Vader hunting down the Jedi--I got to thinking this weekend, that Ep III should have been episode II (with I and II put together), and then ep III should have been Darth Vader going around killing Jedi. Then they could have spent more time on those alien planets.
One more thing: why all of a sudden is "Darth" the title for a sith lord? In ep IV, it is used as a name. (Obi-wan: "You can't win, Darth.")
Die, George Lucas, nobody likes you.
