RotS

[neotoma]

Finally, I got to see Revenge of the Sith.

It was a pretty damned cool movie -- a lush space opera of the old school.

Anakin was rather good -- Haydensen does best when he gets to play broad and unsubtle. Anakin is a Gryffindor, going cross-fandom for a moment: brave and bold, even noble, but not good at books *or* cleverness. He is so good at what he does well -- pilot without equal, renowned fighter, lucky bastard -- that he can usually get by without such things as critical thinking and detailed attention to minutia.

Obi-Wan was just excellent -- MacGregor has nailed the character and Alec Guiness' performance.

Padme was robbed -- the one scene of her actually being a Senator was all too brief. For the rest of the movie, she could have been any random girl that Anakin met on the street, for the lack of interesting and important things she had to do.

My favorite parts were: the lizard (it chirped just like a baby gator! how cute was that?!), Obi-Wan's "We're smarter than this!", Anakin stubbornly defending R2D2, Bail Organa in toto, Palpatine's utterly brilliant manipulation of the situation, Padme's amulet, Obi-Wan's "There's a new sheriff in town, pardner!" pose, and the way Vader actually sounded *young* when he asked about Padme

Bad parts: the utter dullness of most of the Anakin/Amidala scenes, Palpatine's whine, Palpatine melting into his new make-up (wtf?! couldn't his look in RotJ just be age and accumulated Dark?), a birth scene that was ridiculous and improbable, and Vader's 'Young Frankenstein' lurch off the operating table.

I now have a lot to think on the world-mechanic of the Star Wars universe, but I'll probably post a lot on various topics, including : Jedi Culture, Class-structure in the Republic, the Republic as a society beyond the city/state level, the Status of Clones, and Vader as Ragnarok.

Comments

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Palpatine melting into his new make-up (wtf?! couldn't his look in RotJ just be age and accumulated Dark?)

YESSSSSSSSSSS. Oh, god, I love you--I've been bitching about that since I saw it.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Well, especially because in the fight scene, when he's monaing and changing, I rather expected him to go "what a world! what a world!" and melt like the Wickedest Witch.

I suppose that they might have been intending him to be a member of the actual Sith race, who had been concealing his appearance with the Force, but really, that doesn't jibe with his RotJ look either.

[murasaki99.livejournal.com]

Hee-hee! Palpatine 'melting' was great. The Wicked Witch of the West would've made a Sithly date for him. :-D

Yeah, I was disappointed in Padme, too. What happened to the gutsy girl who took on lions and beasts without flinching? Did she figure out Anakin was falling down the Dark Side rabbit hole too late? Maybe it was pregnancy hormones? (which is even a worse reason)

I think the 'cool lizard's name was Boga, and I hope she survived the fall into the water. She was neat, but I think Obi-Wan was going to need a chiropractor after all the jolting/jouncing/falling.
I had to laugh when Obi-Wan kicked Grevious in the knee (metal) and then went "Ouch!!" *snicker* I also loved, "We're smarter than this!"

I had to like the Madman's Duel in the Senate chambers with insanely!laughing Palpatine vs. Yoda. Eek. Also loved Yoda 'elbowing' the Imperial Guards.

And I adored Anakin's 'landing' the battleship. That was just over the top fun & Anakin was having such a good time (and I think Palpy was feeling a few qualms of fear, there). Yep, Ani's a Gryffindor.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

I also loved, "We're smarter than this!"

My reaction was : 'Obviously, Obi-Wan, you are *not* smarter than this.'

Yoda throwing the Imperial Guards into the walls was funny, but really, it just played up how Jedi didn't tend to use the Force in battle situations. Throwing things and people around seems to be a trick of the Dark Side.

Anakin's landing the battleship was very cool, but I do wonder about the debris falling onto Coruscant. It's not like there are any empty areas on that planet.

Also, the gravity on that battleship was STUPID.

[murasaki99.livejournal.com]

The battleship gravity was just plain weird. It should have been either off entirely - which would have been bad enough - or else randomly operational as in my earlier story with Jir.

You notice it took Yoda being *pissed* to body-toss the Guards. Heh-heh what were you saying about that being a Dark Side technique? :-D

I'm afraid Anakin's 'landing' the battleship probably caused a lot of civilian casualties. Glossed over in the Coruscant press? Or maybe the landing zone is an industrial area and so while there might be property/droid damage, few lives would be in danger? That would make more sense. At least he didn't pancake the ship down on the Senate. :-D

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

The battleship gravity would have made sense if they were an ocean-going vessel that was sinking, not a *space* ship that was *crashing*.

what were you saying about that being a Dark Side technique? :-D

Well, it still looks like only the Sith used their Force-abilities effectively in battle. We see Darth Maul, Dooku, Palpatine, and Vader toss stuff at people using the Force, but only Yoda does anything like that out of the Jedi.

Or maybe the landing zone is an industrial area and so while there might be property/droid damage, few lives would be in danger?

It did look like the crash was going on at a landing strip, at least the part that had the Jedi and Palpatine on it -- the rest of the ship landed who knows where, though. There probably isn't THAT much empty space on Coruscant, though.

[murasaki99.livejournal.com]

Oh, right, conveniently forgot about the nether half of the battleship falling splat on Coruscant. That would hurt if it came down in a populated area. But there did seem to be a lot of dense industrial areas - Sidious and Maul had a hangout in a scruffy industrial zone in ep. 1.

Jedi seem to use a Force-slam to push things away - witness Anakin and Obi-Wan's little Force-shoving match when they were dueling. But yeah, it seems it is mostly Darksiders who fling big objects. Maybe it's all a matter of what you practice doing?

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

See, while I can be distracted by the pretty images for a good long while, sooner or later I remember "Hey, what about the rest of the ship? It crashed too!"

That's why I do things like wonder what the heck *are* the ethics of the Jedi, seeing as how cheating, crooked gambling, and mind-whamming the unpleasant but non-violent are all okay, but stealing the mother of your apprentice from a life of slavery isn't?

Maybe it's all a matter of what you practice doing?

That's probably a good part of it. But that still says that most Jedi aren't very innovative thinkers, to me. Especially with the Dooku/Yoda duel in AotC.

If *I* had been flinging lightning and tearing the ceiling down on the little green troll, I wouldn't have politely waited to see if he could counter them. I'd have whacked him with my lightsaber while he was distracted.

[murasaki99.livejournal.com]

Ethics? I never heard any of the old-school Jedi mention them. So Ethics 101 might not have been on the list of classes for padawans. (Har! Maybe it was a Master's Class only?? And no one took it!)

Dooku was once a Jedi as well, so he and Yoda were rather locked into that more formal duelling - with a little tossing of objects just to make things interesting. I think if you had a Force-user trained only to use the telekinesis for combat, it would be pretty hard to beat that person with a lightsaber.

Hee! Yeah, smooshing Yoda with a chunk of the Senate and then waiting to see if it had any effect seemed a bit... funny. Especially for an evil guy like Palpy, who shouldn't have been worried about giving his nemesis a fair chance.