Star Wars

[lesbiassparrow]

Not quite the last person in America to see Revenge of the Sith, but close. Spoilers ahead if you haven't seen it.



The real tragedy of this movie is that it could be so much better with decent writing. It's such a great and time-worn (without being cliched) story, that of a man undone by many of the qualities that make him great: love, a desire to save those around him, loyalty (even when misguided). And while I think Lucas did a much better job this time around he still managed to write some of the worse dialogue I've ever heard.

Things I liked: that good and evil were both higly ambigious and their actions were so similar at critical points; I like a good murky story and this went down that route. It was a risk to descontruct the Jedi so that they were all (without exception, I think) highly flawed but I think it was well done. Without this Anakin would just have been an unnatural and ungrateful monster instead of someone who gets helped along the path to hell. And evil at least will come and comfort you (not to mention that it also has a really good health plan) while good leaves you horribly mutilated to die slowly by a lava pit.

Anakin's march o'doom on the Jedi temple was also great. His single-minded devotion to his new cause made me think that this was a man who'd been looking for a cause to believe in absolutely for a long time, and a cause that the Jedi could never supply. It also matched his obssessive relationship with Padme perfectly. He's not a man who does things by halves.

The action sequences were amazing and unlike the last two I felt that Lucas has once more gained the edge in special effects.

What I didn't like: The treatment of Padme. I know she's supposed to be a sort of mater dolorosa in this (with reason) but so much time was spent on Anakin's/Vader's motivations that there was no time for her. As she was the only woman with a role in this film that was a bit off-putting. Killing her off so quickly gave no time to examine what's it's like to be the other half of the equation, what it means to have someone do such things in your name. I get that it was probably necessary to frame the end of all that was Anakin and the birth of Vader but still I wish Lucas had found some way to work her into the story more. Though he is reflecting myth where women often don't have much to do except get destroyed by the hero.

And the dialogue. Oh my god, some of the writing was beyond awful. How can someone be so talented with ideas but so amateur when it comes to expressing them in dialogue?

I'm not sure if this goes in the don't like category or not, but the Jedi were not the brightest people around, were they? Their plan to deal with Anakin was: let's tell him we don't trust him, then try to get him to spy on his good friend and then when he turns him in point out we don't trust him some more. And then LEAVE HIM ALONE to think about it. In the chamber where we pointed out he wasn't one of us. Because that's not the dumbest idea ever. Mace Windu, you are officially a moron.

I must say that I really wanted Anakin to win that duel even though I knew he wouldn't. Because he was mighty good looking when evil.

And I came across this great Padme/Anakin story: http://www.livejournal.com/users/garnettrees/56286.html#cutid1

I've never read Star Wars fanfic before but I thought this was just great. If you like mythmaking you'll really enjoy it.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_eliza_b/]

I totally agree with you on Padme. She spent the whole movie sitting around talking about her pregnancy, and then she just dies of a broken heart, or something. It was pretty disappointing in that way, actually.