Hey all...just throwing together another Star Wars sticky since the last one was getting super duper long.

Feel free to continue discussions from the previous sticky and also to continue sharing your thoughts on "Revenge of the Sith" in this thread.

ok

The movie was o.k.


The dialogue almost made me want to throw up.

Anekin : "I hate you!!"
Obi 1: "I loved you!"



But the movie had very few dead or silly momments. And Yoda kicks butt.


/
[Edited 5/23/05 19:33pm]

"talkin more sith than a bit" makes me giggle.

Anekin : "you are poopie head!!"
Obi 1: "stinky breath!"

CarrieMpls said:

it's from the song Jedi Control.

took my jeddi to the

confeddy

but

confeddy they

fry

Yeah, Anx...I just saw EPII 3 years ago.

i finally got to see the movie last weekend with my mom, who of course took me to see the first star wars movie way back in '77, back when i was still in the womb.



okay, i was 7.


i've seen every star wars movie in the theater at least twice. i saw the first two a ridiculous number of times, and i saw 'jedi' four times, then 'phantom menace' three times, and - sheesh - i even sat through 'attack of the clones' twice, even though i thought it was complete and utter drek.

i didn't think i'd need to see 'revenge of the sith' again. i thought i'd get a minor thrill or two out of it, i'd have a nice, superficial sense of closure from it, and life would go on.

but now, i want to see it again. and again. and again.

i could be fashionably dismissive and shrug this movie off as geek junk food, and i could go on and on about how horrible lucas is with writing dialogue, and i could ramble about how wooden hayden christensen is, and how off-the-mark natalie portman seems to be about 80% of the time, and i could continue to harp about how yucky i think CGI is, and so on and so forth.

but all of these gripes ain't shit compared to the simple fact that lucas created some of the most iconic images of his six films in this movie. there are scenes in this film that will remain strong and fresh and alarming to kids generations from now...not because of any schlocky gore factor. not because of easy shock value. but because they're freakin' beautiful, even in their ugliness.

the scene in which chancellor palpatine morphs into the skankilicious darth sidious? that's up there with the most frightening wicked witch scenes in 'the wizard of oz'. and it didn't take blood or guts or the sound of ripping flesh to make it powerful. it was the eyes. the voice. the transformation. lucas captured what it means to be evil right there in that scene - not evil on any moral level, but evil on a supernatural level, on a spiritual level - the absolute absence of love manifest on the face of a man. holy crap.

and the scene on mustafar - the money shot of the entire star wars saga, as far as i'm concerned. from the time i was 7 years old and walking out of the first star wars movie for the very first time, right on up to the time i was 34 and walking into a movie theater last weekend, i've imagined what the scene would look like in which darth vader becomes who we all know him to be. and i know i'm not even close to alone in saying that not only was it not disappointing in the least, but it wasn't really that far away from how i'd pictured it in my imagination. i pictured it big and fiery. i'm sure everyone who pictured it, pictured it that way. lucas meant to lock in those mental images, to let them sit and ferment and be all but forgotten. and then WHAMMO: he serves it to us, all these years later. brilliant.

and the rest of the movie...oh yeah, that...the scene with yoda and sideous was one of the most deliciously campy moments of the six movies. the way those two were flinging each other around, it might as well have been crystal and alexis in bob mackie cowls. when they took their tiff to the senate chamber and started hurling those hover-desk thingies, though - THAT was deep.

don't have a whole lot to say about grievous - i thought he was a bit of a lame-o as a villain, but i guess that was the point.

loved the opera scene. loved it. subtext for days there. plus i loved palpy's little entourage, with the baldy sith chick from the 'clone wars' cartoon. (that was her, right?)

i wanted to kiss yoda on the mouth when he gave the speech about detatchment and death. joseph campbell must be doing a little happy dance in his grave, or urn, or wherever. the whole film was crammed with allusions to different mythologies and religions, maybe more so than any other of the star wars movies. i loved that. it's what those movies are all about, in my opinion: an amalgamation of storytelling, of mythology, of creation myths, all thrown in a blender and made palatable for today's audiences.

the ending, i felt, was a little forced. we didn't need to see the home depot version of the death star, especially since it didn't seem to take 20 years to slap one of those suckers together the second time around. it was nice to see some familiar settings and hear some familiar names at the end which would tie us to 'a new hope', but parts of it - okay, maybe just the tarkin/death star scene - seemed a little desperate. and i wanted to see yoda hit dagobah. i wanted to see him resign himself to life there. i don't think enough was made of how humiliated yoda was after sidious completely dissed him into the drainpipes. yoda ending up on a total shitball of a planet would just drive that humiliation home further, and would have made for some great pathos. ah well.

loved some of the allusions to the current political climate: padme's line about the death of liberty...darth vader saying "either you're with me or you're the enemy" (or somesuch) and obi wan replying "typical sith". very sly. and relevant enough to the story being told that the allusions to our current administration won't become outdated or irrelevant.

i was very happy with this film. very satisfied. there's no way to give spoilers on this movie, because the most revelatory moments need to be SEEN.

i'm really interested to see how this movie will hold up over the years.

i'm more interested in seeing it again, ASAP.

Adisa said:

the title of this THREAD is episode II. cuz it's, like, the second sticky thread. get it?

i know my sith from my clones, so don't EVEN.

Hey....does Mr Spock live?

althom said:

shut the hole! SHUT IT ON UP RIGHT NOW!

OK

althom said:

Used to make that mistake when i was 8, too.


I loved this movie --


Anx, u cant really expect this to be one of the most prolific pieces of dialogue ever-- u just cant. Sci- fi rarely ever lives up to that expectation. If they do-- they usually have some kind of error in it, something that doesn't make sense, they use words incorrectly...etc etc.


Aside from that-- the visuals, the suspense-- even though we knew the outcome, was fantastic. Ideologically- this movie was wonderful. Just a breath of fresh air from the average spiritual banter we usually find...hippie or christian, usually.(Not that theirs anything wrong with these-- they are merely examples.)

cinnamonjo said:

yeah, i know whatcha mean, and i don't really give a crap about that kind of dialogue - the whole 'tie the plasm rods to the turbo booster' kind of crap goes over my head whether it's something they studied in depth or just pulled out of their butts.

i'm talking more about the character development - the dialogue between anakin and padme - the human relationships in the film. lucas isn't the best with that kind of dialogue, and i find that frustrating, because i think that kind of dialogue is really easy and instinctual to write.

still and all, it's a minor gripe from me compared to everything i loved about the movie.

I saw it on Friday and give it a big

It was definitely better than I & II.

Anakin's lines were better and his acting was good...except for the parts where he interacts with Amidala. The worst part was the "I love you! No-! I love YOU! No, no...I love you!"

The part which really made an impression on me was when he is killing the Jedi in the temple...and he walks into the inner sanctum where the little Jedi kiddies were hiding...and he ignites his lightsaber. I couldn't shake that scene from my head.

One problem for me: [JediMaster - your assistance is requested] How could Obi-Wan know of the twins, when in Episode IV he tells Yoda, "That boy is our only hope." and Yoda tells him, "No, there is another." Wasn't that an indication that Obi-Wan didn't know that Leia was Luke's sibling? I always thought that Yoda told Obi-Wan, then Obi-Wan broke the news to Luke.

Nice review Anx!

PurpleJedi said:

I suspect that is a genuine continuity problem. When RTOJ was written i dont thing George had yet in mind that Obi was involved in hiding the twins.

Then again, I suppose that Yoda may not have been correcting him, but merely stating the obvious. But the fact that then "No" proceeds the rest indicates that this is unlikely. Alternatively, maybe he is just pointing out that Leia has powers of the force too which maybe Obi didn't figure into it.

i liked this one SO much more than phantom menance & attack of the clones, despite that i spent most of it crying like a stupid girl.

so beautifully tragic beyond my imaginings. and god, the music!

john williams

evenstar3 said:

Are you sure you didn't accidently walk into Million Dollar Baby or something?

donk said:

i saw that a while back, no waterworks then.

it was actually kinda boring to me...

The Empire Strikes Back - 5 stars(classic)

Revenge of the Sith - 4 stars(excellent)

A New Hope - 4 stars(excellent)

Return of the Jedi - 3 stars(good - f'n teddy bears keep it from being great)

Attack of the Clones - 2 stars(fair)

The Phantom Menace - 1 star(poor - aside from the lightsaber battle at the end, this is one big snooze-fest. And Jar-Jar Binks = Stepin' Fetchit in space. WTF was Lucas thinking?)

PurpleJedi said:

It could be that Kenobi didn't feel that Leia was up to the task of taking on both Vader and Palpatine like Luke could do. Perhaps it was some foresight on his part that he knew Leia would never be much of a Force user unless Luke really messed things up and she was the only one they could turn to in that case. Years after the events in ROTJ, Leia still doesn't live up to full Jedi potential because she's just too busy politically to have any time for training. It could also be that Kenobi knew that Yoda's days were numbered and wouldn't have the time to fully train another Jedi before passing on. They would pretty much be starting from scratch with Leia, whereas Luke was pretty far along in his training. Just some more options to think about.

OK, The Phantom Menace was not the best movie ever but...Revenge of the Shit ?? Come on!
It wasn't THAT bad

bkw said:

Unfortunately, the film is riddled with continuity errors.

SquirrelMeat said:

Not really. Most of the "continuity problems" are actually just people misunderstanding things.

Obi Wan knew of the twins, he had just invested all of his time and energy into Luke (after all, he lived on Tatooine just to look after Luke). Yoda is just reminding him that, if Luke fails, there is still the hope of Leia.

Anxiety said:

No, that wasn't Asajj Ventress. I can understand how you would confuse them.

JediMaster said:

I wish it was! The cartoons were definitly better than the movies. You got a real sense of adventure that I just didn't get from the the overly busy--visually and plotwise--films.

My ranking would be
Empire 5
Star Wars 4.5
Return of the Jedi 3.5
Revenge of the Sith 3
Attack of the clones 2.5
Phantom Menace 2

My ranking (and this may change in a few years):

1. ESB

2. ROTS

3. ANH

4. AOTC

5. ROTJ

6. TPM

JediMaster said:

You better see your doctor!