Star Wars

So I saw Star Wars this weekend. I consider myself to be a fan of the movies, but I'm certainly not freakishly obsessed with it. Still, I feel it necessary to offer some detailed criticisms of Epsiode III. I realize this will probably set me up to get schooled by those more knowledgeable in Star Wars lore than I - I welcome any comments.

Overall, I thought Episode III was pretty good. I especially enjoyed the openning fight scene - very appropriate and effective to open the movie with a chaotic battle scene. I thought this scene did a better job with the special effects than anything in the previous Star Wars movie - definitely set up the spiralling chaos that engulfed the characters in the movie.

I was surprised by how dark Lucas made this one. The killing of the grade-school age Jedis was not necessary, was very disturbing, and worked well to convince the audience (or me atleast) that things were not well -- something that can get lost when you know that the universe would be saved in the next three episodes.

I thought Lucas made some mistakes with the ending. We all know what happens next, so its pretty difficult to complete this movie and have everything in its right place. Should Obiwan really be looking forward to studying under his previous master after his pupil tried to kill him and succumbed to evil in order to take over the world? I think Obiwan should be in a pretty dark place as he is getting ready to go into 20 years of seclusion. I would be pretty remorseful if, instead of saving the world as prophecized, my student became the face of evil and was beginning a twenty year 'Jedicide' (clever? go to hell - its my blog) .

The scene where Darth Vader rises from the surgical table was pretty flawed. First of all, its an obvious rip from Frankenstein, but it kind of works and would have been tolerable if it had been a little more subtle. The first question Vader asks is about Padme - this is a appropriate, after all, he decided to pursue his advance studies/professional certificate in the Dark Side in order to save her (plus, it speaks to the fact that he is still has feelings -- setting up episode 6...). The Emperor tells Vader that it was his anger that killed her. Vader starts destroying eveything and screams......then he happily joins the Emperor in overseeing the construction of what looks to be some sort of 'summer planet'. Now this is not right. George you fucked up!! Annakin's whole reason for pursuing the dark side was to protect Padme from dying. the emperor convinced him that he could save people from death if he used the dark force (actually, i think he gave Annakin candy and thats why he decided to kill everything in his path. It was evil candy - I will explain in a future posting). When Vader finds out it was his anger that killed Padme, shouldn't he be a little peeved at Uncle Emporer for deceiving him?? I think its appropriate for him to be angry (...in some of the future episodes he exhibits what psychologists call a "choking problem" - you know the type, the ones that go around choking everyone. My anger management classes taught me this is a sign of a chronic anger maniac...) but the scream is wrong. It suggests that Annakin recognized that he was deceived, but he doesn't turn on the emporer (again - this is my blog and I'll use whatever spellings I think apropriate), instead they start planning a vacation or something. Darth Vader should silently lower his head and use his powers to destroy everything around him. This would speak to his anger management problem and would suggest the existential angst under lying the anger, an angst which is only resolved by sacrificing himself in episode 6 (which, by the way, has tons of cute ewoks... rent Ewok Adventures, it never disappoints!). The emperor should not tell Vader that he killed Padme - he should tell him that the jedis killed padme. This would help convince us why Vader spends the next twenty years hunting jedi instead of playing pool at some crazy interstellar bar (remember the bar in episode four? Remember those crazy creatures? how crazy!). Lucas' ending suggests that Vader should be mad at the emperor -- clearly those two are still in love at the end of the movie.

plus, I was disappointed that episode three didn't end with an ewoks song. It could have been an ewok funeral dirge. It could have been the cutest dirge ever.