Random Revenge of the Sith musings

[wordinista]

Do you suppose Revenge of the Sith is so problematic because no one had the balls to tell George Lucas when his ideas were bad?

I mean, yeah, the lava planet is visually cool, but why the heck would you want to mine lava?

Padme?  Don't get me started.  Just don't.

Anakin's dialogue?  Good lord.  "From my point of view the Jedi are evil!"  Said in the heat of battle, on a floating thingummy, on a river of lava.  It's just not... natural dialogue, yaknow?

And as we're watching all the deleted scenes it's dawning on me that they cut out a lot of really good parts.  I mean, all we get is wussy, teary Padme in impractical nightgowns and full makeup.  They cut out all of the bits where she actually gets to DO stuff.

Anakin's fall is too rushed.  He's not sympathetic enough.  The urge to bitch-slap the Dark Side out of him is strong.  There's no... pull.  He's too fucking gullible by half.  TOO gullible.

I also hate the word "younglings."  HATE it.

It's a visually stunning film.  But there needs to be more than just aesthetic brilliance.

Finally, a snippet of conversation between Bunneh and Tora-kun during our RotS viewing:

Bunneh:  "So, apparently the Dark Side does  not believe in shampoo."
Tora-kun:  "Oh, they have shampoo.  But they only have low-flow showerheads.  The Empire won't spring for the high-flow ones."
Bunneh:  "Low-flow showerheads and red light-sabers.  True evil."

Ah well.  At least John Williams didn't let me down.  Or Ewan.  Oh, Ewan.  *happysigh*  Ewan, Ewan, Ewan.  Best part of the movie, right there.  (And Yoda.  Teh bunneh has much love for teh Yoda.)

Comments

[hyanan.livejournal.com]

I mean, yeah, the lava planet is visually cool, but why the heck would you want to mine lava?

Pumice. Everyone knows Sith lords have terrible feet. XD

[w0rdinista.livejournal.com]

Wow. Low-flow showers, awful feet, and red lightsabers? Makes you wonder why anyone would go to the Dark Side at all...

The Mystery of Star Wars

[hecallaghan.livejournal.com]

And when you consider that ROTS was definitely the best in the series for my money, it boggles the mind.

I think SW is so infuriating because there are moments when it is really good, and then something happens that is so teeth-grindingly amateur and retarded that you just want to storm out in a rage. If it were consistently shit, you could just get over it and carry on with your life.

The bottom line is that it should have been written by someone else and the actors should have been directed by someone else. The visual elements are great, the writing is atrocious and getting worse instead of better. I suspect that Lucas has real problems with emotions, either writing or filming them, but has fantastic story ideas and in terms of visuals is a genius, no question. To have problems with people showing emotions is an enormous impediment when the whole film depends on people being led by their emotions.

I agree that Anakin's fall is unbelievable (it's like, literally, "You're under arrest!" to "Yeah, sure, I'll murder cute kids for you!" in about two minutes of screen time.) But I could have put up with that because my expectations were so low anyway, if it weren't for the final scene with Darth Vader, and the "Noooooooo" and the fucking *dry ice* wafting about and Haydn Christensen wriggling his skinny body about awkwardly in that fucking enormous suit.

I don't know what happened there. It was so ill-judged. It was like Lucas decided:

"Whoops! This movie looks like it's working on some level! Quickly, undermine everything we achieved in the climax!"

"Noooooooooooo!"

"Whew, that's better. Wow. That was a close one."

This is the problem with doing everything yourself, particularly if you haven't directed anything for the last 20 years, and you can afford to make movies independently. You don't have studio suits to stand behind you and tell you what to do. This is normally perceived as a good thing. Clearly however, it's a double-edged sword since anyone with any way to lean on Lucas would have had that scene cut.

Re: The Mystery of Star Wars

[w0rdinista.livejournal.com]

We totally ripped on the film throughout. -- I think you're right, though. It's frustrating because when it's good, it's REALLY good, and when it's bad, it's ABYSMAL. I mean, embarrassingly bad, where you feel mortified for the actors on-screen. Seriously -- if Ewan McGregor hadn't been in it, I probably wouldn't have bothered watching it again.

The casting is awful -- Haydn Christensen is just... no. He's just not Anakin Skywalker. The fellow who's Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins would've been a better Anakin, IMO. He conveys that struggle with darkness far better than HC. HC conveys no emotion whatsoever. At all. Ever. His only redeeming quality is that he can walk like a badass.

Anakin was just so damned annoying. And the political bullshit was so convoluted that most of the time I ignored it, nodding and smiling. And the fall. MYGOD THE FALL. Anti-climactic much? God.

And words cannot express how sorry I feel for James Earl Jones. Honestly. "NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Poor man.

AGH. And the FUCKING RIDICULOUS Frankenstein'esque scene with Darth Vader breaking off the table. OH MY GOD. HATE IT. I closed my eyes; it was too embarrassing to watch.

But yes, that is the big problem with doing it all yourself AND having the money to do it. In one of the documentaries he said he talked a lot of things over with Steven Spielberg, and I'm sorry, but if Spielberg honestly and truly likes ROTS, I would have to lose a great deal of respect for him. That is a man who excels at conveying emotion on-screen. I would love to get inside his head and find out what he really thinks of ROTS.

Re: The Mystery of Star Wars

[hecallaghan.livejournal.com]

It doesn't help that Anakin looks about fifteen in this movie.

Frankly, it is impossible to achieve tragic gravitas unless you look at least old enough to vote.

[karit.livejournal.com]

Do you suppose Revenge of the Sith is so problematic because no one had the balls to tell George Lucas when his ideas were bad?

I think that's the general understanding, yes. :D I always have low expectations (or rather, high expectations that, to anyone else, would be low expectations), so I didn't mind the problems much at all, but... looking at the movie closely, it is hard to really understand what he was thinking.

[w0rdinista.livejournal.com]

Hmm. There are a variety of very good fanfiction beta-reading groups online. They could've done wonders with the script. ;D

(which is sad, when you think about it, but probably true in many cases)

[hyanan.livejournal.com]

Do you suppose Revenge of the Sith is so problematic because no one had the balls to tell George Lucas when his ideas were bad?

I think every one but The Empire Strikes Back was problematic in some way because Lucas couldn't deal with the fact that Irvin Kershner did a better job at directing the films than he did. :P

[w0rdinista.livejournal.com]

Yes, Empire WAS good. VERY good.

Gawd.

George Lucas: How Ego Can Ruin A Good Idea

[mishakatt.livejournal.com]

We have some of the exact same complaints about the movie: Padme, Anakin's fall happening too fast, the deleted scenes. Some of those should have been in the movie, dangit. And I have to say that "NOOOOOOOOO!" at the end just, yeah. *shakes head* Is it bad that I laughed there?

I still enjoyed the movie, however. Especially once Anakin did fall. That in itself needed more explanation though, but I'm repeating myself. And I really enjoyed watching Obi-Wan and Anakin go at it with light sabers.

[w0rdinista.livejournal.com]

Hee!

Yeah, it's like, "Well thank god the fight scenes are cool."

I loved watching the practice fights between HC and EM. Hell, I just love watching EM.

And the music was unbelievable. I fucking love "Duel of the Fates." And how James Williams does everything else. He's just unreal when it comes to film scores. *happysigh*

[mishakatt.livejournal.com]

I've watched the fight rehearsals more than the movie itself. It's all so cool to watch. And Ewan is very nice to look at. So is Hayden for that matter.

What's really sad is that Hayden can act. I've seen some of his other stuff and he's not bad. So I don't get what the hell was happening with AOTC and ROTS and where his skills went.

[evilpuppy.livejournal.com]

You can be my Youngling, baaaaaaaybee!

XD