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star wars
I saw the new Star Wars movie the other day and I have to say I was really impressed with it. The special effects were truly spectacular. I guess it has to be some indication of how things have moved on that I don't think there was a single moment in the film when I thought that doesn't look real. The script was poo though. George Lucas has never made any great claims for his ability to write dialogue, and there is some real clunky stuff in this film. I was also struck by the, at times, leaden performances of Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen. They both seemed to be struggling to provide their characters with any kind of emotional substance against the overwhelming backdrop created by the special effects. Having said that, I was still moved by Anakin's transformation into Darth Vader. It made some kind of emotional sense that he allowed himself to be seduced by the dark side of the force.
Now, whatever happened to poor Padme? Once Queen Amidala, ruler of Naboo, a political mover and shaker who was not adverse to getting involved in the action herself. In this film she is reduced to a poor whiny soul who spends much of the time wringing her hands over what has become of her man. She seemed to have very little to do in this installment of the saga, although her fate is certainly entwined with the creation of Darth Vader. In fact, now that I think about it, there were actually very few women in the film. I can't think of one, apart from Padme, although I do seem to remember that a female Jedi Knight was murdered towards the end.
Anyway, putting all that to one side, this is a great film and ranks up with the best that the first trilogy had to offer. I would probably even be tempted to go a little further to suggest that it may even be the very best film of the lot. Do yourself a favour, put aside all those misconceptions and predjudices and go and see it. You will be pleasantly surprised.
PS: is it wrong for me to like General Grevious so much? It's just that he reminded me of an ABC warrior from 2000AD. Now there's a comic that is just crying out to made into a movie.
mr mcmuffin on 26 May 2005 @ 12:30 PM ✲ Permalink
Comments
Perhaps Padme's "strength" isn't in her political will. Remember the end of Episode IV where Luke is whining about Han Solo leaving? Leia says: "He's got to follow his own path, no one can choose it for him." Maybe she got that attitude/out-look/personality aspect from her mom? But maybe that is just trying to forgive Lucas for such awful romantic dialogue.
Posted by: Doug | 26 May 2005 13:03:30
If loving General Grievous is wrong, I don't wanna be right. MECHA-KRISHNA!
Posted by: Nagl | 26 May 2005 17:09:18
While the romantic dialog does sound like it was written by a lovelorn twelve year old, let's not forget how horrible it's been in previous movies. Remember in Ep. II just before Anakin and Padme are brought into that colosseum for slaughter, she says something like, "I truly, madly, deeply love you?" I'm STILL vomiting from that God awful line. Ep. III was bad, but it's been worse. Much, much worse.
Posted by: dave | 26 May 2005 17:34:32
i loved star wars. it was awesome. all you people suck. i think it was great but you are also right. there were times when i didnt even want to look at the screen during the times that Anakin was with Padme because the writting was terrible. but im sad that she died and that Hot ass Anakin turned evil.
Posted by: Amira | 26 May 2005 20:46:31
Calm down dear... it's only a film.
Posted by: Keith | 27 May 2005 07:53:43
There were several moments in the theater where people laughed at the dialogue. I cringed a bit at times, but I think it was bad enough to warrant laughter.
I told my wife afterwards that I wasn't sure I wanted to see it again, at least anytime soon.
While I thought it was a pretty good effort and it was an important part to the story, it was quite depressing for me.
Posted by: Ash | 27 May 2005 14:17:50
