Klaus said:
The first time I cringed at this movie was when Count Dooku entered the room and, instead of walking down the stairs menacingly (which would be very much in character for Dooku and for Christopher Lee), he SOMERSAULTS down the balcony!
Talk about pointless use of CGI.
Considering he's a sith lord, I figure he could enter the room however he wants to. Personally, I find an old man entering the room in such a way rather intimidating. I thought it was cool. Some directors might have him walk down the stairs, others might have him flip off the walls with sparklers in his hands. GL made him flip down to the floor. Is it really that important?
This happened a lot during the movie, with so many CGI stuff going on at the same time that the screen felt crowded and focus was lost. Like showing the cockpit of a tri-wing fighter and using CGI t show the faces of two clones. Yes, we know they're clones! You didn't have to stuff another face in there, ILM! Now it looks as though one clone is sitting on another's lap.
The original trilogy would have been just as fx-heavy if Lucas had the time, money, and technology back in 77.
Anakin and Padmé were bad. Very bad. Cringe-inducing bad.
Agreed. Wasn't as bad as the previous films tho, so it wasn't a deal-breaker for me.
Anakin vs. Mace Windu: It would go well if Anakin delivered the killing blow and came to realize that the Jedi are indeed the evil ones. But then Palpatine goes "FENOMENAL COSMIC POWER!!!!". So much for playing the victim, Palpy!
There was a debate earlier in the thread (or was it another thread entirely?) that Palps was indeed doing just that: playing the victim. Nice move, I would say. At this point, I think Anakin was more interested in preserving Palpatine's knowledge (the power to save Padme) rather than who was more evil.
Speaking of Palps, his transformation into Gollum was one of the worst effects of the movie! And afterwards his make-up didn't fit well. He looked like rubber, not like The Emperor from RotJ. Plus he gets fried by his lightning and his hair remains silky white? At least go bald, man! His voice was weird as well.
I guess this kind of stuff doesn't bother me anymore. The fx and makeup seemed fine to me- I only notice it when fx are horrible. *shrug*.
Anakin's slaying of younglings was rushed. If he truly thought that the Jedi were traitors, he could've taken the children under his wing and trained them to grow up and become the Emperor's Royal Guards. THAT would be a blow to the Jedi.
This is one of my few gripes with the movie. Even though it was a long time coming, his final flip to the darkside was a bit abrupt. But as for sparing the children to be raised as guards or sith trainees or whatever, I figure the Emperor would have been annoyed. "What is this? I told you to not hesitate and to show no mercy. Kill them." Then again, I didn't help write the script. None of us did.
And the way Anakin lost his legs was so lame I couldn't believe my eyes! Since when did "high ground" matter to a Jedi? Obi-Wan was leaping farther than that in Episode I!
Hmm. I suppose your right. But even though Jedi are quite skilled, they aren't infallible. They make mistakes, especially if they lack the experience of a Jedi Master. I think that was one of the points of that scene, even if it wasn't executed the way a more experienced director would have done it. At any rate, I like the scene; its one of the many scenes that I can't seem to get out of my head.
Anakin's voice was too high-note in his Mustafar lines. It would be a simple matter of Hayden Christensen doing a voice-over with a lower tone, possibly modulated to give it resonance (I've seen interviews of Hayden, and his voice is deeper than that).
Meh. Voice sounded as low as a squeaky young man could go. If he went too low, it would almost sound like parody. I got the impression that Vaders menacing voice is mostly generated by his mask.
And Padmé's death was badly done. No mother would give birth, SEE her children, NAME them, and THEN die. Either her mother insticts would've kicked in, and she would raise Leia (and then die of a broken heart in Alderaan), while Obi-Wan spirited Luke away and claimed he died during birth, or she'd die before seeing her children.
Agreed, i suppose. Many people have issues with this scene because it doesn't jive with the scene with Luke and Leia in RotJ. It would have been nice if she had lived for a little while, went to live on Alderan, then maybe the TV series could have shown her ultimate fate. However, if she had turned up alive later, it would expose Palps false assertion of her death and would undermine his control over Vader. Also, If she had lived a bit longer, the twins existance may have been discovered by Vader, who doesn't seem to know of them until later in the series. That might have caused bigger continuity problems than we have now. Anyway, GL decided to off her at the end if Ep III, so there isn't much we can do about it now, unless he decides to fiddle with the scene in the DVD release.
Finally, Vader's birth was a joke. It's ok for him to break off his manacles, but he then should've fallen to his knees, slowly and steadily rising to his full height, not that Frankenstein step. And his "NOOOOOO!" was a joke. It would make much more sense for the raging, passionate Sith to pound the floor with his fists (bending the metal underneath them) and let out an animalistic roar of rage, brimming with fury that couldn't be articulated. Instead, we get "NOOOOOO!".
I liked the "NOOO". Totally worked for me. And if I had brand new cybernetic legs, It would take me a few moments to get used to them as well. I think pounding the floor into scrap would be a bit over-the-top; he's Darth Vader, not The Hulk. But like I said, we didn't make the film. Maybe we ENworlders should make our own Star Wars flik? What say you guys?
To me it goes V>IV>VI>I>II>III
Mine: V, IV, III, VI, II, I.
