The Episode III spoiler-filled reviews and impressions thread

[A Black Falcon]

This make you happy, Darunia?

Chewbacca

He's a Wookie, Wookies live on Kashyyk... this is before the Empire took over and enslaved them... the Empire has to do it sometime... so why not now? (That's what I saw as happening in that film, the Clone troops turning on the Wookies and enslaving them at the end of the battle)... so why not?

I understand that the conflict was building for years, and that his angry-dark side are shown throughout Episode II (most notably when he slaughters the Tuskens), but it's the final fall that was too brief. All of that anger, building for years, should have had a huge zenith... it did not. Maybe it's just as well, because I don't think that Christenesen had the skill to perform it anyway.

Palpatine's hand was forced. With Grevious near capture, he had to act to be able to hold on to power, and that action required turning Anakin. So, he had to get Anakin to go over to his side, "ready" or not... and that is exactly what he did by telling him that he was the Sith Lord. Got him to do something he could not go back from. (And once Anakin had done it, he knew that it was final... so his reaction first of course is 'What have I done?', in shock essentially, but then he realizes what he has done, and does the only thing he can at that point: bow down to his new master.

Yoda never tried again--and in fact, it was with enormous, VAST reluctance that he agreed to train Luke. The fact that he simply leaves the hapless galaxy to the whims of Palpatine after a 5-minute battle makes me lose much respect for the wisdom of Yoda.

Because, as he said in ESB, he thought Luke was too old... remember what happened last time Yoda agreed to let a too-old person who he had questions about be trained?

Yeah, he turned into Darth Vader.

As for Yoda, he can't do much on his own once Palpatine had control of the galaxy... he could possibly have done more than he did, but he didn't want to risk being found. Come out of hiding and perhaps the Emperor would catch him, and he couldn't let that happen until he had trained someone...

Also, perhaps the years in isolation messed with his mind. :)

That one, above all, made me roll my eyes. I understand that this is a space fantasy, but they should maintain some level of realism... and that one was not at all convincingly well done. A matte painting might have served better, or maybe Lucas should have designed it to be less intricate... he has to live within his means, and computer technology, while very far, cannot create THAT convincing of a world. Not yet.

I am sure that there were real things in the movie you thought were CG and CG things you thought were real. It's not perfect yet, but it's pretty good... your unreasonable hatred doesn't change that one bit.

I see your point, but I still feel as though the Emperor from RotJ is almost a different character all together. Since this is only a difference of opinion, there is no point in arguing it.

Um... different character? I don't see how you could think that... in ESB and RotJ the Emperor is EXACTLY the same as how he is in the Prequel Trilogy! Manipulative, sneaky, trying to control all of the events that are occuring in order to get one specific ending... compare his encounters with Anakin in RotS to his with Luke in RotJ. They're strikingly similar. And in both cases, he had manipulated events on a massive scale just for force that confrontation... the difference was that in the 30-odd years since RotS, he'd lost something. He didn't seem to be quite as good as he used to... after all, the Rebels weren't caught, he didn't realize that the Death Star II was going to be destroyed (darned Ewoks, ruining all his plans... :))... while in the prequel trilogy he commanded both sides of a galactic war in order to kill the Jedi, sieze power and make one of the most powerful Jedis his successor.

Maybe that stuff about how using the Dark Side too much corrupts your mind (as well as how it clearly ages your body) has truth to it... :)

Oh, as for the acrobatics, look at the films. Lucas just wasn't as good at doing fights in the old films... the new ones have much, much more interesting duels, and the acrobatics are one aspect of this. Remember, he doesn't actually need to be agile, not with the Force... same way Yoda does his acrobatics, of course. Force propulsion. If Lucas was going to make the original trilogy now, instead of 25 years ago, I expect we'd see much more intricate and complex fight scenes.

Well maybe, but why didn't that occur again when he used so much more force lightning against Yoda a few scenes later; or on RotJ?

That might have been his first major use of the Dark Side in a long time, as opposed to using it again soon after... I don't know. I don't know the rules for how the Force operates. But it is true that using the Dark Side ages you... along stuff like the eye color change, etc.

Maybe what I mean here is that Lucas created an exodus of irrelevent characters. In ANH, there's the principal trio: Luke, Leia, Han.. (and Chewbacca and the droids.) They meet lesser characters, and fight Vader. In TESB, it's them all again... plus Lando, and maybe Boba Fett if you consider him a major character. In ROTJ, it's them all again; plus the Emperor. In these last three, he throws in major, colorful, CG-animated characters way too much. JarJar Binks? Boss Nass... Grievous, those Geonosians... I suppose it's just me, but I'd rather be watching actors than cartoon characters. That's what Star Wars used to be to me. Not a 2.5 hour-long videogame. OB1 will never understand that because he loves that new style of ultra-colorful, ultra-fake filmmaking that I loathe.

OT is about Luke, Han, and Leia.

PT is about Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme.

Both have large casts of backup characters supporting them, but in both trilogies there's a core group. There is absolutely no difference here between the two trilogies...

I know how good of a crafty politician he was, but a senate comprised of able-minded delegations from every civilized world, just applaudes it? I can't digest it. I'm being pessimistic maybe, but it's just not convincing to me.

Remember, the Senate is corrupt... Palpatine is hugely powerful at manipulating minds... he had a majority of them supporting him when he went into office, so should there be any surprise that after years of war the majority is even larger... opposition (such as Bail Organa and Padme) would not be so stupid as to boo... no, it makes a sad kind of sense. It's just like what happened in Germany in the early '30s. And on that topic...

Yes they did--because that was real-life. Lucas should have added that dissent in his movies to add some reality and make it more believable. Without this extra real dimension, it's just a children's movie. "Don't question it!"

There was minimal opposition in Germany to Hitler. Most people supported him. There was a small resistance, of course, but not much of one... most of the opposition that came up was from the military, when he made so many errors in judgement but kept doing things his way. And that was dealt with.



Actually, I'd say that Nazi Germany is a strong parallel to the Empire... except the resistance in the Empire was much, much more cohesive, organized, and popularly supported than resistance in Nazi Germany ever was.

I just would have liked to know where the names came from, if anywhere.

I'm sure she had been thinking about it for months.

Maybe; but I dunno... anesthesia isn't that hard in any emergency situation even in our world. I can't imagine it's difficult to come across in the Star Wars galaxy. Even just a glass of juri juice...

I do agree with you on one thing... the way Padme died was really, really stupid. Completely illogical.

Remember, the droid said 'there is nothing physically wrong with her', so you can't blame her medical treatment. It was just a stupid "romance story" plot device... you know, the one dies (or turns into a man/machine, in this case), after betraying the other, and the other dies of sorrow or whatever... lame. Unrealistic. It definitely hurt the film, I think... made it feel like a romance story element, not an event actually possible (much less likely) in "a galaxy far, far away" (that is, some other place that follows the rules of the Star Wars galaxy -- as a real, cohesive, and possible place).

OB1's response, of course, is that I don't understand romantic storytelling, but... sure, it's a common romantic storytelling element, but who says that that means it has any redeeming value? Not me!