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| Star Wars Review |
| 05.31.05 (9:57 am) [edit] |
|
FINALLY saw the new Star Wars movie today. Here's my review. First Spoiler-Free Review: Go see this movie. Now. If you are a Star Wars fan, a sci-fi fan, and action movie fan, or a fan of cinema, go now and see this movie. WARNING!!! SPOILERS FOLLOW!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!! I am a Star Wars fan. A huge Star Wars fan. My brother and I grew up in a home without cable television, so during summer breaks the only thing we had to watch on TV besides PBS or Soap Operas were movies. My dad had a friend that would tape lots of movies off Showtime and HBO for him, and we had a ton. As a result, we watched Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back at least six times a year each. (We never had Return of the Jedi on tape, but we didn't like it as much as the others anyway.) We have the movies memorized. No one will play Star Wars Trivial Pursuit with us because its not any fun for them. We have a bit where we act out the scene where Luke tells Yoda "I'm not afraid" and Yoda replies "You will be...YOU will be..." It has to be seen, but its funny as hell (if you're a Star Wars fan.) I even like The Phantom Menace, despite my intense hatred of Jar Jar. My point is that, I am a little biased towards the Star Wars universe. Just want you to have that information in hand, on to the review... Movie code key: ANH = A New Hope (aka Star Wars), ESB = Empire Strikes Back, ROTJ = Return of the Jedi, TPM = The Phantom Menace, AOTC = Attack of the Clones, ROTS = Revenge of the Sith As far as special effects and production goes, ROTS is the best of the movies. But it should be, considering it is the last and most recent made. The opening battle sequence is probably the best space battle ever seen on the silver screen. Its a good way to start the movie. The sequence where Anakin shoots attacking droids off Obi-Wan's fighter may seem a little silly, but it establishes how good Anakin is as a pilot, and how strong the force is with both of them. Regular pilots couldn't do that. Kudos to the boys over at ILM, the fighters the two of them pilot are the coolest looking fighters from the Star Wars universe since the original X- and Y- Wing fighters from ANH. The scene concludes with the two Jedi storming General Greivous' command ship to rescue a "kidnapped" Chancellor Palpatine. The rescue is fun to watch, and you realize how much of a badass little R2-D2 is. An excellent way to kick off the movie, and it only gets better and more exciting. ESB is generally considered the best of the Star Wars movies, mainly for its character development, higher production values, and darker tone than the first movie. I generally tend to lean towards ANH as the best of the six, I think it was more original and more exciting than the others. I still say ANH is the best, and I think I will have to put the new movie on the list as number two, with ESB as the third one. Not to knock ESB, it is an excellent movie. If I was told I'd be stranded on a desert island and could only bring three of my DVDs with me, two of them would be ANH and ESB. I just think this movie was better. It's got better character development, better production values, and a darker tone than ANY of the other movies. The acting in this is great. I think the weakest link in the acting is Natalie Portman, and that's only because her screen time is so little when compared to the other main characters. First off, Ian McDiarmid has made Palpatine one of my favorite movie villains of all time, right next Hannibal Lector and the supreme badass himself, Darth Vader. McDiarmid was great as the Emperor in ROTJ. He got to reprise his role in the first three episodes and it seemed like he never missed a beat, he had the same intonations and same voice inflections he had 20 years ago. Ewan McGregor was a believable young Obi-Wan in TPM, but in AOC he really started coming into the role. In this movie, he seems to be channeling Sir Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan. This was particularly pleasing to me as Obi-Wan is probably my favorite Star Wars character. It's nice to see the character handled so well in all six episodes. Hayden Christensen is MUCH better this time around as Anakin. He did a competent job as a whiny teenage brat in AOC, but he does a great job showing you a young Jedi torn between his love for his wife and his responsibilties as a Jedi. Of course, Artoo and Threepio are there. They could have just been stuck into the movie, but Artoo, as usual, plays an important role during the rescue of Palpatine. Interestingly, these two droids along with Anakin and Obi-Wan are the only constant characters throughout the six movies. Pretty good for a bunch of movies with such large casts of characters. The final confrontation between Obi-Wan and Anakin is worth the nearly thirty year wait when you first learn that Kenobi and Vader know each other and eventually had a falling out. Hearing Obi-Wan's disappointment as he tells Anakin "But you were supposed to be the chosen one" is gut-wrenching. He's taken on this apprentice with the belief that Anakin would be the one to bring balance to the force, peace to the galaxy. Instead, he sees the Jedi order destroyed and the Republic crumble before his eyes because of this supposed chosen one. Speaking of gut-wrenching, watch out for the final scene of Anakin at the Jedi temple as he confronts a group of young Jedi. Brought a tear to my eye. There is just so much eye-candy here for fans. You finally get to see what Chewbacca's homeworld looks like. Not only that, you get to see Wookies in action. Their battle cry before they charge into battle gave me goose-bumps. Seeing Artoo fly around and kick-ass was awesome, too. Makes you wish Lucas had the ability to show this in the first three films. We also see the famed blockade-runner, with Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Bail Organa inside. Lucas did a great job re-creating the interior of the first ship we ever see in the Star Wars universe. We get to see Captain Antilles who, as Threepio informs us in ANH, was the two droids' last master before they escape the Rebel Blockade Runner to the surface of Tatooine. There's also a last-second cameo of Governor Tarkin looking with Vader at the construction of the Death Star. Interestingly, the actor who plays Tarkin in this movie was the actor who played Scorpius in the Sci-Fi channel's Farscape. There's also a much better job making the Clone Troopers look like actual Stormtroopers. The Clone Troopers in AOC looked a little bulemic. Now their helmet style has been change a bit, and they just look generally more stormtrooper-like. Its hard to see these guys go from allies of the Jedi Knights to their killers in just a split-second. But, as we are told in AOC, they follow their orders without question. Just a few quick complaints and I'm done. First, I wasn't satisfied with the way Palpatine when from looking human to slightly more alien-looking. The explanation in the film is that it was caused by the Force Lightning as he attacks Mace Windu and this is reflected back upon him. The original explanation was that the Dark Side does it to you, causes you to gradually decay over time. I sort of thought that Lucas was going for this effect as Palpatine goes from a spry seasoned-citizen to a much older looking person, but perhaps he was just showing us that he had aged as the years pass. The second thing I didn't like was how Anakin was "bestowed" the name Darth Vader. I just always assumed that he would choose the name himself. I guess that's sort of silly, but sometimes we build things up in our mind how they happed or should look and when we see it differently, its a little disappointing. (Sidenote, this was why I liked the Lord of the Rings trilogy so much. After having read the books 10-12 times, I had a mental picture of how everything should look, from the Shire to the Orcs to Mordor. On the silver screen, everything Jackson had visualized matched what I came up with in my own imagination.) I'll have to be honest and admit that I had to pee REALLY bad for the last half of the movie, so my recollection of particulars isn't as good as I would like (I'm going to see it again this weekend) but the overall impact and story is there. The bottom line, however, is that if you haven't seen this movie yet, go see it. If, for some reason, your faith in the Star Wars story has been shaken by the last two movies, this one should restore that faith. If you are a casual fan of Star Wars, you should love this movie. Outstanding, it was. Enjoyed it thoroughly, I did. AWM's Star Wars Movie ranking: 1) Episode IV, A New Hope 2) Episode III, Revenge of the Sith 3) Episode V, The Empire Strikes Back 4) Episode VI, Return of the Jedi 5) Episode II, Attack of the Clones 6) Episode I, The Phantom Menace As usual, I will add the disclaimer: Although I rank TPM at the bottom of the list, this in no way implies that I do not like this film. I like it very much, and would rank it in my top 25 favorite films. I didn't dislike Jake Lloyd like so many other fans, and while I detest Jar Jar (who, thankfully, has minimal screen time in the final film), the dual between Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan and Darth Maul more than makes up for him. This just shows you how strong he was with the force. Later this week, a look at all of the machinations behind Palpatine's plot to insert himself as Emperor. Next week, a Second Glance movie review of Episode III, Revenge of the Sith. |
| Just a few random thoughts |
| 05.13.05 (8:14 am) [edit] |
|
Just a few quick random thoughts, nothin' big: 1) I am SO glad the newest Cadillac commercial does NOT play the classic Led Zeppelin song, "When the Levee Breaks." It started out with the drum intro (which was also sampled in the Beastie Boys song "Rymin' and Stealin'") and I starting thinking "GREAT! Cadillac is going to ruin ANOTHER great song by one of my favorite bands!" A little back story: Led Zeppelin II USED to be one of my favorite albums. However, whenever I get to the track "Rock and Roll" I feel like I'm in a Cadillac commercial. I hate to be reminded of car commercials when I listen to an album. If you want to use Bon Jovi or Def Lepperd (sp?) or some other form of pussy-rock, that's fine. Don't take one of the best songs from one of the greatest bands of all time and use it to hawk cars that are normally bought by old people or gangtsa rappers. Or any other car for that matter. Car manufacturers of the world, hear me! If one of you bastards ever uses a Metallica song, I will NEVER buy a vehicle from you or your parent company. And I'll flip you off every time I drive by one of your dealerships. 2) While we're on the subject of rampant commercialism, fuck you George Lucas! You've taken one of my most beloved movie characters and turned him into a fucking potato chip salesman. He's the guy that has laid waste to galaxies. He picked people up by their throats and crushed their windpipes. He used his force choke and seemed to enjoy it. You didn't screw with Vader, lest you find yourself grasping and your throat and gasping for air...all the while staring into that cold and unphased mask. Now you've got him at some moron's apartment door, begging for potato chips, saying "I am your...uncle" and the dude just TURNS HIS BACK TO VADER! The real Vader would never beg for chips, he'd just force choke that bastard and take the fucking chips. Screw that, he'd use the Executor to blow the apartment building up, and storm the nearest Lay's plant and take as many potato chips as he liked. What's next, Darth Vader bubble soap? A soft and squishy Darth Vader plushie so my 4 year old and snuggle up with his favorite bad guy? The Vader selling me chips is about as scary as Megatron from the original Transformer G1 series, only not as retarded. Lucas, didn't you create that fucktard Jar Jar for the kids? Use his ass to sell chips. I can see the commercial now, Jar Jar knocks on a door and some kid opens it. "Mesa namesa Jar Jar, wouldsa yousa sharesa somesa Chipsa withsa mesa?" then the kid just kicks him in the nuts and slams the door on his floppy ears. Talk about slapstick! That commercial where Vader force chokes the yellow M&M is pretty funny though. |
WARNING!!
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