The Episode III spoiler-filled reviews and impressions thread

[OB1]

*activates the Goron/Weltall alliance*

I still disagree.

Now, I think that aside villains like Darth Maul don't need much, if any, backstory. He appeared for maybe twelve minutes. He was a henchman, a foil, and a vehicle to sell tons of licensed toys. After he's dead, he's meaningless. A backstory would pretty much be wasted on him.

But Palpatine is far more important to the story, and this is what I'm trying to impress. He's responsible for everything! He is REQUIRED to have motives of some sort! He doesn't just show up and disappear without a trace, he's there for every movie, except four. He is the catalyst driving the entire series of events. He is the Hitler, the Caesar, the Joseph Stalin. Each of those men were men of extraordinary power, and each of them has a laundry list of motives and back story. Stalin for example, fabricated his role in the events of the October Revolution, making himself seem far more important that he was, in order to seize power upon Lenin's death. He was driven by both his own desires and an attachment to his ideology, so strong that he slaughtered countless millions trying to build his vision. He wasn't some two-bit fool who liked to kill because he thought killing was fun, or ruled the USSR just so he could say he ruled the USSR. He had goals and motives abound. All three men did. Most such men do. As such, we find them incredibly interesting long, long after they are dead. Stalin and Hitler both go beyond themselves and are known as well for the ideologies they so fervently forced on others, but no one sees them as mere vessels for those ideologies. Palpatine's cause or goals are never well-fleshed, he just seems to be on a huge power grab for whateve reason, but he doesn't seem like anything but a vessel to advance this goal. Major, earth-shattering villains like this cannot get away with having no motive, even one that is merely semi-apparent. It's bad writing. After all, if not for Palpatine, nothing in the series would have happened. The people of the Republic would have gone about their lives normally, more or less. Palpatine came along and turned the galaxy upside down in a major way. He had to have had a somewhat decent reason for doing it. But we're never privy to that reason, if there is one. Thus, he's a bad character.

Palpatine's role in the OT is sufficient. You find out more about him in Episode III, but there is absolutely no need for that in the OT. You can figure out what his motive is in Return of the Jedi, but if you're too dense to catch it then Episode III will spell it out for you.

If you still have this complaint after you see that movie, then I suggest you just resign yourself to your narrow-minded perspective and stop thinking about Star Wars at all. For someone with such dislike towards the movies you sure do spend a lot of time talking about it. It's pretty sad, when you think about them...

No, I don't think so at all. If you think I'm wrong, you can try and find proof of it. But right now, I think he's most certainly the best selling novelist in the world.

That's the most absurd claim I've heard from you yet. Do you really think he's sold more books than say, Mark Twain? Come on now...

Also, regarding the cartoon comment I made. You misunderstood. I wasn't talking about power when I called him a wuss. (They seemed pretty much equal im power from cartoon to movie anyway if you ask me.) I was talking about something that actually matters, his personality. In the cartoon he was a badarse hunter that mercilessly killed many jedi. In the movie, he was a wuss that ran at every opportunity and could barely hold his own against ONE jedi, and he was comic relief! I thought I was supposed to be afraid of him, not laugh at him rolling his hands in a tribute to villians tying women to railroad tracks everywhere.

Well the reason for that was because the Clone Wars guys basically had to come up with their own ideas for the character because when they were making that cartoon Lucas was still working on the Episode III script. So they made him this ultra-powerful badass in Clone Wars when he really wasn't meant to be like that. Remember that he's basically the precursor to Vader, and making him much more powerful than Vader would be kind of weird, you know?

I also wanted to say one more thing. I am aware of what Lucas is doing. Here, more than the previous movies, though it was fairly obvious there too, it was VERY clear that it was meant as a nonstop tribute to cheesy 1940's sci-fi serials. But, he chose like the WORST things to make a tribute to. The acting in some parts was pretty nice. It was both good and a nice tribute to the past. For example, I thought Obi Wan and Anakin's shouting match after The Delimbing (apparently "having the high ground" is the greatest weakness of a sith/jedi, I should remember that) was very well done actually. It was the only part of the whole movie where I actually felt some emotion, and it was pretty strong. The scene where he took out the lightsaber in front of the "younglings" (cute word Lucas, what is that supposed to be a reminder that Galactic Basic isn't english? Wow, you are a genius) didn't hit home at all to me. This fanboy... er girl... next to me seemed pretty emotionally hit by it, but to me it was just... ugh. But, I don't think that's because the scene itself was badly done so much as the story leading up to it... well I guess I'll get to this point a little later actually.

You're acting as if your opinion is objective fact. Many people are quite fond of those "terrible scifi serials" as you put it, and with good reason. Indiana Jones is also a tribute to scifi adventure serials from the same era. If you have no interest in the source material then of course Star Wars isn't for you. Just like if you don't like Westerns and Yakuza movies, Kill Bill probably won't interest you much.

Final Fantasy 7's Sephiroth had a much better "fall from his role as the chosen one". At least there he spent a whole night constantly reading books after finding out something shocking that made him question his existance, and there was a show of him actually slowly "seeing" things and "realizing" the darkness was the way to go. Anakin just sort of said "eh, I've got nothing left to lose, why not?" even though he DID still have stuff to lose. That whole scene was akin to one of those caught on camera high speed police chases where some stupid teenager is afraid of getting caught so he instead just keeps doing more and more stupid things just making it worse and worse for himself, only even THERE there's a progression from bad to worse, even if it's quick, not "what have I done?!" to "yes my master I will MURDER CHILDREN". Having him mad at Palpatine and running off for a time to think about everything he's seen and actually come TO a decision would have been a lot better. Instead, with the entire saga of Star Wars told at last, my final opinion of Darth Vader is that he was a stupid punk teenager who went to the dark side, in the end, as the final straw, just because he was afraid of being caught helping a sith. Darth Vader is an idiot.

What? That's not what happened at all. Wow, you completely misunderstood the entire movie, and most likely the entire saga as well. Anakin did was he did mainly because of his love for his wife and his fear of losing her. His fall to the dark side was gradual and started in Episode II. He did not turn overnight. He was not afraid of being caught helping a Sith, that's absurd. His final turn was for the same reason that he helped kill Mace: because he needed Palpatine alive to help save his wife. And even then he had no real allegiance to Palps as he told Padme that he wanted to kill the evil Sith Lord and rule the galaxy along with her. He committed horrible acts, but taking into account where he came from and what had happened in his life up until that point, his fall is completely believable. People will do insane things for love, even murder.

As for Final Fantasy VII, and all of the FF games for that matter, to compare them storywise to even the most mediocre of movies or books out there is pretty silly. Every single one of those games has a very amateurish, fanfiction-like story to them with immature brooding characters that are only given any real respect by likewise brooding teens. Come on, I don't believe that you really think so highly of those stories.