Tam-tam-ta-tam…

[avrelia]

As you may notice I saw the third Star Wars movie.

Anakin did become Darth Vader. Who would have thought?

I skimmed through my flist reading the reviews and I can see – obviously – reactions from “blah” to “wow”, but for myself… I am not sure. I enjoyed the movie and was annoyed with too many things when I was starting to think, and ultimately I am just not that passionate about the whole thing. I did come out of the theater with the desire to watch the whole bunch again.

So, bad things:

• Dialogue. It is as painful as usual, I might as well get used to it, but I am burned with desire to rewrite it.


• Padme. I generally liked her, but she was way too passive in this one – does pregnancy affect this much? She was meek and gentle and stuff. And then she died too easily. I was, of course, sure she wouldn’t die – I remember the touching moment when Leia shares memories of her mother with Luke, and I loved it, and I was sure it was Padme she was talking about. And then it wasn’t. Pity. I was hoping she would be more of a fighter spirit.


• Another thing – connected to pregnancy – I couldn’t figure out the timeline of the events. Did it happen in a week? A month? Months? Who knows? In her quarters Padme hardly moves, and she hopped into the flying thing so that I thing she had forgotten her belly at home.


• The turning point. It went too easily – one moment Anakin is here, another he’d changed completely. No more doubts and confusion.


• Many silly and unnecessary things – like Padme sleeping in a nightgown with pearl strings. It’s painful, man! Let George Lucas try it first. What were wookies there for? Just to be there? And so on.


• General clumsiness and broad strokes. Subtle GL is not.

Good things:

• I liked what actors were doing. All the main characters were nicely done. Some are better than others, but I cannot complain.


• I liked the seduction of Anakin to the Dark side. I said, the turn itself was too abrupt, but before, it was good. I wish there were more of arguments between Anakin and Padme, but they were perfect sweethearts with only hints of troubles. Could have been…


• I liked the chase scene. I am easy in this regard.


• I liked the relationship between Anakin and Obe-wan.


• I liked that the fall of Jedi was their own fault.


• I liked putting everybody in the position for the episode IV. I only hoped to see Yoda on his swamp in the Dagobah system, too.

Other things:

• I cried during the fight between Anakin and Obe-wan, and as Anakin burned.


• I laughed when Darth Vader rose.


• I was impressed by the unsettling feeling when the helmet mask is lowering on his face.


• I cheered seeing the Death Star. And mindwiping C3PO and the braids of Lady Organa.

The most surprising thing: in the theater I saw a poster for the "Night Watch" (Nochnoy Dozor). This make sense to couple of people reading it, but I write it anyway.

Comments

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Anakin did become Darth Vader. Who would have thought?

My friend heard some people in his class talking about how they were going to see the movie that night and one of them "heard that Anakin turns into Darth Vader". This seemed to come as a surprise to them...

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

I should be surprised, but I am really not. On the other hand, it would be intersting to watch it not knowing what is going to happen. For us it is forever 4-5-6, then 1-2-3. But if someone watch 1-2-3-4-5-6, how the story would look for them?

[gobi-rex.livejournal.com]

Hee! I'm waiting for my friend to come back to town... and then we'll do a Star Wars marathon, only without the first two episodes.

I saw posters for the "Night Watch" when I went to see Hitchhiker's. It was fluorescent green/black and it had "nochnoy dozor" spelled backwards, perhaps in an attempt to make it look like cyrillic script. Nice try ;-) but heartwarming nevertheless.

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

YYep, this very poster. I wonder how the movie would look from here? I mean, it was okay in the dearth of decent Russian movies, but I am not sure it will stand on its own here.

[gobi-rex.livejournal.com]

The Night Watch generated a lot of excitement on Ain't It Cool News (http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/) back in winter. It seems that there's already an underground fandom for the film... in N.America.

There was talk that Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez are big fans. Some people (inevitably) already saw the pirated version and noted that the subtitles were well done.

We'll see.

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

My national pride would be all swelling, if the movie were really good, instead of barely decent. I mean, it is better than mane of the movies made in nineties, but I am not sure it can hold its' own against most - even more stupid Holliwood products.

[asta77.livejournal.com]

I liked exactly three things about this film. Ewan, who did an amazing acting job with crap material. The moment when Palpatine suckers Anakin, leading him to kill Mace Windu, and turning to the dark side (though, I agree, this seemed to happen fast and with very little reason). And the Anakin/Obi-Wan lightsaber battle. Other than that, I thought the movie was garbage.

I remember the touching moment when Leia shares memories of her mother with Luke, and I loved it, and I was sure it was Padme she was talking about. And then it wasn’t.

Yes, it was Padme she was talking about. To me it was very clear she was talking about her biological mother. Luke even asks her if she remembers her "real" mother. This is another example of either George Lucas's stupidity or complete lack of interest in his own material that he couldn't be bothered to review his previous films for continuity.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the film and am fairly unlikely to but the idea that Leia might have been mistaken about her memories sounds like quite a good twist on paper. My dad has a Scottish uncle who was shot down in the war before dad was ever evacuated to Scotland but he (my dad) has what feel like very real memories of meeting that uncle, which he must have constructed from photographs and people telling stories. The irony of nothing being what you thought it was might fit with similar ironies in the prequel story like the Jedi causing their own downfall. But I guess that could only work in a much more subtle, character driven movie than this sounds to be.

Oh and being pregnant with twins makes you sleep a lot but you can still be quite yourself when you're awake. At least that's how I remember it.

[lillianmorgan.livejournal.com]

I did come out of the theater with the desire to watch the whole bunch again.
Oh yes, I agree! I came out feeling very unsettled, and they left so many things open for the next three films, I wanted to tie up all their plot points!
Re the turning point, I agree, but thought perhaps the Emperor had done some kind of Sith mind-trick on him? Well, that's my (lame) explanation anyway...
I agree about Obi-wan and Anakin - there was more chemistry there than between A & Padme, which was a bit silly. But doesn't Obi-wan tell Luke that his father was a good man? Nice tie-up there I suppose.

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

I don't think there was a mind trick, but I wish the change of mind was better developed.

I do wish I liked it more...