The official Star Wars III review
Thu May 19, 2005 3:04 am
I just got back and it rocked!
Thu May 19, 2005 3:10 am
Agreed. Just got back from the midnight showing near here a little bit ago and I can't emphasize enough how incredible this one is. It's the one prequel movie we all wanted to see and were hoping Episode I or II would be like. Do NOT miss this!
Thu May 19, 2005 3:56 am
Definitely worth seeing, even if you think the first 2 were aweful. A few things I didn't like, but it had some memorable, even epic, scenes, that original trilogy fans will appreciate.
Thu May 19, 2005 8:21 am
I love that we have star wars nerds here who have already waited in line to see it? Did you guys have costumes on too?
LOL
LOL
Thu May 19, 2005 9:43 am
Costumes, no (well, some others were in costume, but I was in tshirt and jeans). Lines? Nil. I waited about ten minutes before they let everyone into the theater. They opened the doors a couple of hours ahead of time... reserved my seat, people were playing PSPs and DSs, reading, chatting. And we could go in and out as we pleased, which was way cool since there is a Houlihan's across the way in the mall that stayed open and had drink and food specials. You can't beat that, man. Almost no lines, beer specials, and Star Wars.
Thu May 19, 2005 9:50 am
There were many costumes. My brother in law was Obi Wan and my cousin was Chewy 
Thu May 19, 2005 10:44 am
I'm not sure why it got so many good reviews. True, it was much better than the previous 2 movies, but it didn't live up to my expectations.
It seems like they tried to squeeze in to many things, a lot of which were unnecessary. The acting and dialog were horrible. Here's what bothered me:
1. The opening dogfight sequence. While the visuals were quite good it had a lot of stupid elements. Buzz droids? Fire ships? (equivelent space version of fire engines to put out fires) Come on. These were just dumb ideas.
2. Count Dooku was beaten a little too easily. I mean even Yoda couldnt kick his ass in the Attack of the Clones. If they were going on the fact that Anakin was twice as good, it didnt work.
3. General Grievius had a cough. WTF is that? If you have a limb cut off you can have it replaced with a bionic one, but the medicine is not advanced enough to come up with cough suppressant.
4. The whole substory with Chewbacca and the Wookie planet was totally unnecessary. It added absolutely nothing to the story. This shoulda been cut out. The time could have been much better spent on the actual story. Why does there need to be a back story of Chewbacca? He just growls.
5. No closure on the Boba Fett story line. Not a big deal, but I would have liked to see a young Boba Fett contribute to the downfall of Mace Windu, perhaps posing as a Clone and executing Order66 on him (since he looks exactly like all the other clones, being a clone himself)
6. Obi-Wan riding a Gila monster. OK this is a special effect that I coulda lived without. Maybe it wouldnt be so bad if there werent' SO MANY scenes of him riding this thing.
7. The lightsaber battles, while fast and furious, were actually kinda dull. The camera rarely pans away from the fight and basically you end up seeing headshots with lightsabers flashing.
8. Palpatine being disfigured by reflected force lightning? Again stupid. What is wrong with him just being disfigured when in Darth Sidious mode. The he appears before the Senate all disfigured and evil looking and noone seems to notice the fact that he looks..well..evil. Imagine George Bush showing up for the State of the Union address with say fangs, yellow eyes and greyish skin. I think I'd be concerned. But no...lets all cheer for him.
9. They left out the part where Palpatine also makes Anakin a bit suspicious that Obi-Wan is trying to turn Padme against him. This was sorta touched on when Obi-wan arrives on Mustafar, but orignially it was large part of the story in Anakin's seduction to the dark side. I guess Lucas didnt think it was necessary, although I think it was way more important than the Wookie crap.
10. The emperors disfigured face didnt look quite right. Looked a little too fat or something. Minor issue but I'm a big Emperor fan so it bothered me.
11. So many unecessary special effects. CG characters to make them do say a flip, The lava planet greenscreen background didnt quite work.
12. The security system in the Jedi temple. One press of a button and you can instantly jump to playback of Anakin slaughtering Younglings. Another press of a button shows Anakin bowing before his new master in Palpatine's office. Now hang on..How is the security camera picking up Palpatines office? And if there are cameras everywhere why do you need Anakin to spy on Palpatine in the first place. Duh!
13. An OB/GYN driod that says "goo-goo" to newborns. Also the fact that it was twins seems to be a big surprise. Again medicine is capable of replacing limbs, but Ultra sound is a little too advanced I guess.
These are just a few things off the top of my head. Dont get me wrong it had SOME good moments like the scene where Palpatine tells Anakin about the Sith and Darth Plegious.
What Palpatine doesnt mention is that he IS the apprentice that killed Darth Plegious in his sleep. He also mentions that Plegious taught his apprentice everything he knew, including the ability to create life and cheat death. Now...this could mean that Palpatine is the one who created Anakin in the first place, since Anakin was "immaculately conceived" by the midichlorians. This would make a very interesting subplot as the Emperor would sorta be Anakin's father. But of course Lucas didnt explore this and decided to do the whole Wookie planet thing. Ugh!
Maybe I'm just too picky. At least the original trilogy is still good
It seems like they tried to squeeze in to many things, a lot of which were unnecessary. The acting and dialog were horrible. Here's what bothered me:
1. The opening dogfight sequence. While the visuals were quite good it had a lot of stupid elements. Buzz droids? Fire ships? (equivelent space version of fire engines to put out fires) Come on. These were just dumb ideas.
2. Count Dooku was beaten a little too easily. I mean even Yoda couldnt kick his ass in the Attack of the Clones. If they were going on the fact that Anakin was twice as good, it didnt work.
3. General Grievius had a cough. WTF is that? If you have a limb cut off you can have it replaced with a bionic one, but the medicine is not advanced enough to come up with cough suppressant.
4. The whole substory with Chewbacca and the Wookie planet was totally unnecessary. It added absolutely nothing to the story. This shoulda been cut out. The time could have been much better spent on the actual story. Why does there need to be a back story of Chewbacca? He just growls.
5. No closure on the Boba Fett story line. Not a big deal, but I would have liked to see a young Boba Fett contribute to the downfall of Mace Windu, perhaps posing as a Clone and executing Order66 on him (since he looks exactly like all the other clones, being a clone himself)
6. Obi-Wan riding a Gila monster. OK this is a special effect that I coulda lived without. Maybe it wouldnt be so bad if there werent' SO MANY scenes of him riding this thing.
7. The lightsaber battles, while fast and furious, were actually kinda dull. The camera rarely pans away from the fight and basically you end up seeing headshots with lightsabers flashing.
8. Palpatine being disfigured by reflected force lightning? Again stupid. What is wrong with him just being disfigured when in Darth Sidious mode. The he appears before the Senate all disfigured and evil looking and noone seems to notice the fact that he looks..well..evil. Imagine George Bush showing up for the State of the Union address with say fangs, yellow eyes and greyish skin. I think I'd be concerned. But no...lets all cheer for him.
9. They left out the part where Palpatine also makes Anakin a bit suspicious that Obi-Wan is trying to turn Padme against him. This was sorta touched on when Obi-wan arrives on Mustafar, but orignially it was large part of the story in Anakin's seduction to the dark side. I guess Lucas didnt think it was necessary, although I think it was way more important than the Wookie crap.
10. The emperors disfigured face didnt look quite right. Looked a little too fat or something. Minor issue but I'm a big Emperor fan so it bothered me.
11. So many unecessary special effects. CG characters to make them do say a flip, The lava planet greenscreen background didnt quite work.
12. The security system in the Jedi temple. One press of a button and you can instantly jump to playback of Anakin slaughtering Younglings. Another press of a button shows Anakin bowing before his new master in Palpatine's office. Now hang on..How is the security camera picking up Palpatines office? And if there are cameras everywhere why do you need Anakin to spy on Palpatine in the first place. Duh!
13. An OB/GYN driod that says "goo-goo" to newborns. Also the fact that it was twins seems to be a big surprise. Again medicine is capable of replacing limbs, but Ultra sound is a little too advanced I guess.
These are just a few things off the top of my head. Dont get me wrong it had SOME good moments like the scene where Palpatine tells Anakin about the Sith and Darth Plegious.
What Palpatine doesnt mention is that he IS the apprentice that killed Darth Plegious in his sleep. He also mentions that Plegious taught his apprentice everything he knew, including the ability to create life and cheat death. Now...this could mean that Palpatine is the one who created Anakin in the first place, since Anakin was "immaculately conceived" by the midichlorians. This would make a very interesting subplot as the Emperor would sorta be Anakin's father. But of course Lucas didnt explore this and decided to do the whole Wookie planet thing. Ugh!
Maybe I'm just too picky. At least the original trilogy is still good
Thu May 19, 2005 11:37 am
Definitely lived up to my expectations and then some. And I hope anyone that didn't want to know too much about the story, didn't read your post, Man-at-Arms. This is exactly what I was afraid would happen so soon.
I don't want to get into too much detail here and now, but if you don't want to know too much, then PLEASE don't read on:
Your points 2 and 3 are explained in the Clone Wars cartoon and the game Republic Commando. If you haven't seen the cartoon or played the game, it doesn't take anything away from the casual viewer. Point 5 doesn't make sense since this is only something like a year after Episode II... Boba didn't get the advanced aging gene and would only be kid still. Besides, the Fett storyline is done. You know what happens to him next after Episode II. Does it really need to be fleshed out? Point 8: it's been stated in this and previous movies -- the senate is under the influential power of Palpatine. They are under his control. Everything else you mentioned just seems like you're being extra picky. Nothing wrong with that, IMHO. The Star Wars movies wouldn't have the fanbase it does without people being picky about the details. But, alas, to each his own. I loved it.
Oh, and anyone that says the dialogue and acting are horrible are (1) absolutely right but (2) absolute idiots to complain about that: ALL five other movies have horrible acting and poorly written dialogue. AND it's been stated millions of times over. Get over it.
I don't want to get into too much detail here and now, but if you don't want to know too much, then PLEASE don't read on:
Your points 2 and 3 are explained in the Clone Wars cartoon and the game Republic Commando. If you haven't seen the cartoon or played the game, it doesn't take anything away from the casual viewer. Point 5 doesn't make sense since this is only something like a year after Episode II... Boba didn't get the advanced aging gene and would only be kid still. Besides, the Fett storyline is done. You know what happens to him next after Episode II. Does it really need to be fleshed out? Point 8: it's been stated in this and previous movies -- the senate is under the influential power of Palpatine. They are under his control. Everything else you mentioned just seems like you're being extra picky. Nothing wrong with that, IMHO. The Star Wars movies wouldn't have the fanbase it does without people being picky about the details. But, alas, to each his own. I loved it.
Oh, and anyone that says the dialogue and acting are horrible are (1) absolutely right but (2) absolute idiots to complain about that: ALL five other movies have horrible acting and poorly written dialogue. AND it's been stated millions of times over. Get over it.
Thu May 19, 2005 1:04 pm
The acting and dialog certainly were not bad in the original trilogy.
I think part of the problem with the prequel trilogy is the effects. Just because you can do an effect doesnt mean you should. A lot of character/story devolpment time is wasted on silly special effects. I think this is my biggest problem with prequel trilogy.
Another problem is the characters. In the original trilogy, the characters are ones you can relate to, in the prequels, not really.
Dont get me wrong, I'm a huge Star Wars fan but I think maybe Lucas should have left the directing to someone else.
I think part of the problem with the prequel trilogy is the effects. Just because you can do an effect doesnt mean you should. A lot of character/story devolpment time is wasted on silly special effects. I think this is my biggest problem with prequel trilogy.
Another problem is the characters. In the original trilogy, the characters are ones you can relate to, in the prequels, not really.
Dont get me wrong, I'm a huge Star Wars fan but I think maybe Lucas should have left the directing to someone else.
Thu May 19, 2005 1:47 pm
where is Triumph the Dog when you need him?
LOL
LOL
Thu May 19, 2005 2:38 pm
cough suppressant...
Thu May 19, 2005 2:58 pm
Havoc, wanna see my light saber? Use the Force, and ill show you what a jump to light speed is really like. I c3po your r2d2 is up my deathstar.
Thu May 19, 2005 3:53 pm
MAA general grevious cough is explained....that is if you watched the clone wars series. Mace Windu crushed his torso with the force while he was escaping with Palpatine.
and im such a nerd.... Anakin has close to 27000 midichlorian count while Dooku has only close to 22000, the three years of the clone wars had developed him well.
and im such a nerd.... Anakin has close to 27000 midichlorian count while Dooku has only close to 22000, the three years of the clone wars had developed him well.
Thu May 19, 2005 4:42 pm
pssshhhhh im at like 9000000000 midichlorians bitches
Thu May 19, 2005 8:38 pm
My math teacher today dressed as George Lucas. Beard, plaid button up shirt and all.