Episode 3 mini-review

[xmatt]

Comments

[scheisse_adc]

i've read the books - but the series wasn't really "originally" a series of novels - as far as i know, the release of the book version of a new hope only came out a couple of months before the movie did, and the other two followed that.

i thought the movie wasn't bad, but i also didn't think it was amazing (some of the people i was with were claiming that it was "better than episode IV!" and that really annoyed me, because it *so* wasn't...) - there were a lot of things i wasn't pleased with (but i was actually ok with most of the CGI stuff! and i generally hate it, so i guess the movie gets points for that...), and i'd be glad to discuss them (i may write my own review of it) at some point, but i have an exam in 10 hours that i've barely studied for, so now is not that time. :)

(were there any fun, dressed-up people in your audience or anything? we only had a couple of guys with toy lightsabers, and they didn't even whip them out until AFTER the movie... i was bummed.)

[scheisse_adc]

and by "the books," i mean the original trilogy + "shadows of the empire."

maybe someday i'll read the others, but i'm not that desperate for reading material yet, or that obsessed with the backstories of star wars.

[texaspickle]

I also saw the midnight show and liked it quite a bit-- but all this movie does for me is fill in the blanks.

The books, beyond those written for the original trilogy are quite unique, though. As opposed to other science fiction franchises, there is actually quite a bit of restriction placed on them, no one book can contradict anything written in any other book, and through this, the books flesh out this story to a ridiculous extent.

[retributionaura]

I think you might be looking for a little too much out of the movie - this movie isn't about the SW milieu, it's about Anakin and his fall from the light. They'd be telling a very different story (like LOTR does...) if they wanted to explore some of those issues. It'd also detract quite quickly from the pacing and plot to slow it down looking for information on "what happened".

[scheisse_adc]

yes, it *is* about anakin's fall from the light, and this is exactly where i feel that the movie failed. to me, the fall seemed too rapidly-paced and lacked the detail and emotion necessary to make it truly *understandable* to the viewers (or, at least, it seemed this way to me, and from what i get out of matt's review, it seems that he felt the same way...). i didn't really see anakin's motivations and reasons for making the particular choices and decisions that he made - i knew what they were supposed to be, but the movie didn't really make me identify or sympathize with anakin the way that i think it should have. perhaps it's partly because i can't buy the supposed love he feels for padme (bad lines and bad acting...), but it's also because the pacing really *did* need to be slowed down at certain critical points (a few of which are named by matt in his entry). the issues, in my opinion, *needed* to be explored, and weren't, because lucas and the rest of the movie-makers were trying to cram in *too much* other information.

[kessel]

Agreed 100%.

[girlziplocked]

excellent point.