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

[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.