Rate Revenge of the Sith *SPOILERS*

[reveal]

I thought it was a missed opportunity in not developing Padme's character further.

SPOILER

[/spoiler]

Can you please add the word "spoilers" to the title of the thread? Not everyone is using spoiler tags.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

[spoilers]

[SPOILERS]

I gave it a 4, and I was pretty disappointed.

Phantom menace had one thing going for it -- Darth Maul -- and his 8 minutes of on-screen fighting time are the best in all three of Episodes 1-3. There are some very good fight scenes in this one, too, but they have the same empty, cartoony quality that Neo's fight with hundreds of Smiths in Matrix Reloaded.

But this one lacked what all three of the recent episodes have lacked -- character and personality. Every character that walks across the screen has the same lack of depth and feeling that has poisoned all three movies. This one really needed to be a character-driven piece, and instead we were treated to the same shorthand and charicature that has made it so hard to connect with the other two.

I mean, where's the banter? Where's the tension between characters. Wheres the crackle in the dialog. The writing was stilted and obvious, the acting was flat, and in both the real fault, I believe, lies in the director who has spent the past 10 years demonstrating a lack of interest in those elements of his filmmaking. I would have been relieved, happy -- ecstatic, really -- for just a few sharp lines, well delivered, like "Would someone get this walking carpet out of my way" or "let the wookie win" or "Who's scruffy looking?". Instead we get dull flat lack of feeling. I didn't feel Anakin's love for Padme. I didn't care about his confusion as he was manipulated by the Chancellor. I didn't feel obiwan's dismay at having to fight his student. I didn't feel ANYTHING for Padme, and let's face it, she's a hottie. I mean, it didn't even sound like they were writing for Yoda very well.

So, it's a pretty piece of science fantasy. Some cool fight scenes -- especially Obiwan's duel with the Robot General dude. But it's not what I'd let myself hope it would be, given all the hype.

-rg

 

[Dark Jezter]

Like John Crichton, I gave this movie a 10. Not only is this the best of the prequels, but it could very possibly be my favorite Star Wars movie yet.

[SPOILERS BELOW]

Things I loved:

• Artoo kicking much ass.
• Chewbacca making a cameo, and seeing the wookies going to war.
• Watching Palpatine manipulate Anakin into believing that the Jedi Council is using him and that the Dark Side of the force could solve his problems.
• The Sith naming ceremony after Anakin assists Darth Sideous in killing Mace Windu.
• The execution of Order 66: when the clone troopers suddenly stop and turn their fire upon the Jedi knights whom had been fighting with them side-by-side. And the scene where Anakin finds the children hiding in the Jedi temple was absolutely chilling.
• Obi-Wan and Yoda sending off the signal warning the Jedi to stay away from Coruscant; meaning that it's possible that they aren't the only Jedi who survived the purges.
• The Corellian Corvette making an appearance, and Bail Organa being an overall awesome character.
• Yoda casually walking in and taking out the Emperor's red-cloaked guards with merely a wave of his hand. Hilarious.
• The duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan interspliced with the battle between Yoda and the Emperor.
• The sad, defeated look on Yoda's face when he admits that he's failed to stop Palpatine and he must go into exile.
• Darth Vader being placed into his suit, and his anguished howl when he learned that killing the Jedi and embracing the dark side of the force failed to save Padme (and ultimately caused her death, as it's implied that she died from a broken heart caused by Anakin's fall to evil).
• The final conversation between Obi-Wan and Yoda.
• Grand Moff Tarkin having a tiny cameo at the end. It never says his name, but the resemblance is so strong that it couldn't have been anyone else.

All in all, I loved it. There were a few things I would have liked to have seen that weren't included, though:

• I would have liked to see the formation of the Rebel Alliance, or at the very least a scene with Padme, Bail Organa, Mon Mothama, and other individuals who aren't happy with Palpatine's formation of the Galactic Empire agreeing that he must be stopped.
• I also would have liked to see some mention of Han Solo. Virtually every other major character from the original trilogy has been mentioned in one way or another in the prequels, so why not Han? (Hopefully the Episode III DVD will have a deleted scene that mentions Han, just as Episode I DVD had a deleted scene that featured a young Greedo)

 

[Desdichado]

Why so many people feel compulsed to start threads about movies significantly before they come out blows my mind. People see a poll and they want to vote. They fail their will save and cast a vote just for the heck of it. If you don't want us doing that or babbling pointlessly, wait to start the thread until the movie actually comes out.

I know you did not start the thread, but this is becoming a trend on this board.

I quite agree; it's a bit of a pet peeve of mine as well.

But now that it's almost a full day out, we can get a fair number of legitimate votes. Although people will still vote nonsensically. Someone in another thread said it wasn't as good as Star Wars or Empire, but still gave this 10 out of 10. So what's Star Wars or Empire, then, if 10's the top of the scale?

Me, I gave it an 8. After a few more viewings, I might revise that down, though. I certainly did with both Menace and Clones. I still think it was quite a bit better than either of them, though, and the first of the prequels worthy enough to eke out a place next to the original trilogy.

 

[Desdichado]

I mean, where's the banter? Where's the tension between characters. Wheres the crackle in the dialog. The writing was stilted and obvious, the acting was flat, and in both the real fault, I believe, lies in the director who has spent the past 10 years demonstrating a lack of interest in those elements of his filmmaking. I would have been relieved, happy -- ecstatic, really -- for just a few sharp lines, well delivered, like "Would someone get this walking carpet out of my way" or "let the wookie win" or "Who's scruffy looking?". Instead we get dull flat lack of feeling. I didn't feel Anakin's love for Padme. I didn't care about his confusion as he was manipulated by the Chancellor. I didn't feel obiwan's dismay at having to fight his student. I didn't feel ANYTHING for Padme, and let's face it, she's a hottie. I mean, it didn't even sound like they were writing for Yoda very well.

All true, but it was still an improvement. If nothing else, I felt --for the first time in all three movies, mind-- the closeness between Annakin and Obiwan, and the pain of their mutually perceived betrayals.

That was the closet thing to emotion, as well as source of the closest thing to snappy lines in the movie.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Padme dying. I'm actually ok with it but Leia's line in Jedi about remembering her mother resonates differently now. She is remembering a foster mom at that point and not their shared mother. I guess her death has more dramatic weight but it did irk me a bit. Not enough to ruin or lessen the movie, but it still felt odd.

Actually, its been said by Lucas himself that Leia IS remembering Padme. Now, that does still work, just not in the literal sense. Remember, Leia only says she remembers feelings(even though she describe Padme as beautiful)

She's remembering through the Force. Its really that simple, and makes perfect sense.

* I would have liked to see the formation of the Rebel Alliance, or at the very least a scene with Padme, Bail Organa, Mon Mothama, and other individuals who aren't happy with Palpatine's formation of the Galactic Empire agreeing that he must be stopped.

Many of the deleted scenes were just these kind of things. Senators that weren't happy. So, hopefully, we'll see them back in the DVD.

* I also would have liked to see some mention of Han Solo. Virtually every other major character from the original trilogy has been mentioned in one way or another in the prequels, so why not Han? (Hopefully the Episode III DVD will have a deleted scene that mentions Han, just as Episode I DVD had a deleted scene that featured a young Greedo)

No Han was ever dealt with in any way for this movie...HOWEVER, there's a YT-1300 transport that's pretty hard to miss early on in the movie. Knowing Lucas, its the Faclon.

I don't have much to add, still...just...blown away by it. I knew it was going to be dark, but didn't expect it to be THAT dark. Probably the best line of the movie, and, for me, right up there with "I am your father", would be Obi-Wan's "You were my brother!"

 

[Desdichado]

No Han was ever dealt with in any way for this movie...HOWEVER, there's a YT-1300 transport that's pretty hard to miss early on in the movie. Knowing Lucas, its the Faclon.

I didn't see it. Where was it?

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I didn't see it. Where was it?

Very early in the spaceport on Coruscant, there's only ONE ship really moving. Down by the bottom right hand side of the screen and crossing almost straight to the center. Its one of the easier things to catch...much easier than it was to find Lucas(he was standing in profile...)

 

[Trickstergod]

I think I'll hold off until I've had a second viewing to decide whether or not I want to give it a 6 or give it a 7.

I think it's the best of the new trilogy and could possibly work as a weak addition to the original three movies. It was a lot of cool scenes interspersed with a number of bad ones. And for the most part, everyone needed to shut their cry holes. The dialogue was pretty bad at times - it didn't sound natural. It sounded scripted.

It also did the impossible - it made lightsaber battles bad. How can you even do that?!

Oh well.

With that said, I think Anakin becomes a good deal more three dimensional and his fall makes some sense, and in a tragic sort of way. I felt for the Jedi - though that might be, in part, because I was already familiar with them from the Clone Wars cartoons. Nameless Jedi going down is one thing, but having some idea about who they are changes things a bit.

Visually, it's spectacular. The CGI characters don't look anywhere near as bad as they have in other movies. The arena scene in Attack of the Clones made me think, "Gee, look at all those new toys rolling off the screen and onto the shelves," but I didn't get that sense here. I enjoyed many of the battles.

So, yeah. Seen it. About a 6 or 7. It's about what should have been expected out of the movie after the Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

SPOILERS

Spoiler

Anybody else realize that Plapatine ultimately screwed himself over by telling Vader that he had killed Padme in his anger? Because if he had not and Palpatine had said Padme might still be alive(even though she wasnt) Vader might have gone looking for her, and then found out about his children and then found them and who knows what would have happened. But since Palpatine told Vader that Vader had killed Padme, Vader did not go looking for her.