Movie Review: Star Wars Episode III
Well actually it’s not. It’s more like a mindless rant but hey, most of my posts are.
Most people know that I am a Star Wars fan of eps IV-VI but not of I & II. These new ones that Lucas has put out just can not hold their own against the original three. Only the special effects are superior but even they can get to be distracting. Since Star Wars is such a cultural phenomenon, I had to go see these movies even if they were ten times worse than they are. It’s been about a week since Episode III was released and it was a good time to go now that the crowds have died down. I don’t know about the rest of you out there, but I just can not sit in a crowded theater. The last time that happened was when I was in third grade and The NeverEnding Story 2 came out and I had to be separated from my Dad in order to find a seat. If the movie is a comedy, I like a larger crowd because my embarrassingly awful laugh is easily drowned out. For anything else, I like to have some space. My cousin, Jason, saw it two times already when I IM’d him on opening day. He’s a fanatic, I swear. I asked him about it and he told me just enough to make me want to go a little earlier than I had planned. He said that it was really good but still dark.
I’m going to start talking about the movie now, so if you haven’t seen it. STOP.
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So the movie opens up with the a battle scene over Coruscant. Chancellor Palpatine has been kidnapped by the droid General Grievous. It seems to be quite a leap from ep II but that’s what I get for not watching the animated series. Coruscant seems to be in these movies a little too much, I have to say. Anyways, Anakin and Obi-Wan make it onto the ship where the Chancellor is being held captive by Grievous and Count Duku. They make it to the place where the Chancellor is be kept (in a place that looks just like the imperial throne room in Return of the Jedi) where they fight the Count. Obi-Wan gets brushed away fairly soon and Anakin is the one that defeats Duku. When Duku is defeated, the Chancellor orders Anakin to kill him. He does. Perhaps this a reference to the situation that will happen when the Emperor pretty much tosses aside Vader in favor of Luke.
After the battle, Anakin is pulled off to the side by Senator Padme Amidala who says that she is pregnant. The audience, of course, knows that she is having twins Luke and Leia. The music for the scene was a little more sinister than it should have been. Sure, there should be sense of foreboding in the music, but it just didn’t fit.
The war with the separatists seems to be based in the outer rim territories. The Jedi are dispatched the various different worlds to continue the campaign with their clone army. Why they found it necessary to be little generals in the war, I can never understand. I would have let the clone commanders handle it. Jedi are a precious resource.
Chancellor Palpatine requests, or rather names, Anakin to be his liaison to the Jedi Council. That effectively means that Anakin would have to be a member of the Jedi Council and to be a member of the Jedi Council requires the rank of Master as well as an election by its members (of which Obi Wan seems to be a member). They reluctantly make him part of the council but will not grant him the title. By now, however, the council is growing concerned about Palpatine’s extended stay in office and tries to use Anakin to report on the Chancellor’s activities. This puts Anakin in a difficult position. On one hand, there is his loyalty to the Jedi Order as well as to his master and friend, Obi-Wan. On the other is his loyalty to the Republic and the Chancellor.
Eventually, Anakin finds out that Chancellor is the Sith Lord that the Jedi were looking for. I tell you, subtlety is not very prevalent in this film. Anakin starts wrestling whether he should do the right thing or take what the Chancellor is offering him. You see, Anakin has had this issue of being afraid of losing those he loved. He had lost his mother and his dreams now indicated that his wife, Padme, was going to die as well. Palpatine explained that their was a technique that a Sith lord had discovered that allowed him to keep people alive. If Anakin would cross over, Palpatine promised that they would work to find that technique. That was the clincher. Anakin would do anything to keep Padme alive. So he crossed.
Anakin, now known as Darth Vader, goes to the
With the Jedi eliminated, the emperor now betrays the separatists. He has them all together on a planet and sends Vader to kill them. The Imperial Era has begun. Padme and Obi-Wan go to the planet. Padme gets off her ship to find Anakin. She finds out that what Obi Wan had told her was the truth. That he had crossed over. She recoils in horror. Vader looks past her to see Obi-Wan and he feels that Padme has betrayed him. He chokes her and she passes out. Then the fight scene begins with Obi Wan. Sufficely to say, the battle ends up with Obi Wan leaving Anakin for dead. He gets Padme to a medical place to give birth to Luke and Leia. Vader is rescued by the Emperor and is put into the life-support suit that he known for.
The ending sequences show Luke and Leia being split up. Leia is taken in by Senator Organa to live on Alderaan. Luke is taken by Obi Wan to Tattoine and is placed with his Aunt and Uncle. Obi Wan stays close by to watch over him and to receive further training by his dead master Qui-Gon Jinn. Padme’s body is sent to her planet of Naboo. During the march scene we see that she still appears pregnant leading people to believe that her and Anakin’s children died with her.
There was one aspect of this story that I really liked and that was with the character of Obi Wan played by Ewan McGreggor. I could feel the heartbreak and loss when he finds out what Anakin has turned into. He practically breaks down when he finally beats Anakin. The love, friendship, and brotherhood could be seen and it had to be some of the best of scenes out of all the Star Wars movie.
Now for the things that I didn’t quite appreciate:
1. Palpatine’s quite overt statement that the Republic was going to be “reorganized” into the Empire and he gets a freakin’ applause. Again, no subtlety in this movie. I can buy the Senate being slowly suckered into giving up its power to the Emperor but c’mon…
2. Mon Mothma. Where the hell is Mon Mothma? Stores are selling little figurines of her and yet, I don’t recall seeing her in the movie much less having speaking lines. Just incase, Mon Mothma is a senator who eventually ends up heading the Rebel Alliance. You may remember her in the Return of the Jedi.
3. General Grievous’s coughing. Every little thing in a story is supposed to have meaning. What was with the cough’s?
4. The fact that it was clear that Chancellor Palpatine was evil and that he wanted Anakin to join him. Couldn’t they have made the grey area between the light and the dark a little more wider? It was so damn cheesy and obvious that even a Filipino would know the moment he was corrupted.
5. Yoda telling Obi-Wan that he was going to get some more training from Qui-Gon. I had always wondered why those Jedi weren’t disappearing when they were killed and why they weren’t coming back to haunt the living. If Obi-Wan could do it, why couldn’t the others?
Episode III is the best movie of the three new ones. It was far better actually.
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