Yeah, I must blab a bit about Star Wars. I very much enjoyed Episode III. The weaknesses were pretty much the same as the weaknesses in the other two prequels, but less flagrant. The new trilogy improved with each installment, but we should have not expected it to be as revered as the original trilogy. It's hard to duplicate success once, much less five times. One thing kind of bugged me though - Yoda's reference to Qui-Gon at the very end. Was this stuck there as an explanation of the "blue ghosts" of old dead Jedis that come to talk to Luke in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi? Or was it just a "surprise!" moments stuck ungracefully at the end, when there was no time to elaborate, just so the audience felt like it got its money's worth? Most people I've asked seemed to think it had to do with the blue ghosts. I'm not convinced. I think it's more of a tacked-on surprise, and it didn't work. I mean, all the reviews are correct: there wasn't much that fans of Star Wars didn't know going in to this one. Anakin becomes Darth Vader, Yoda and Obi-Wan are forced into exile, and Palpatine is behind the whole stinkin' thing. But did the Lucas team really need to put some ill-explained surprise in at the last minute? I don't think it helps. Also, I was moderately disappointed in two other things: 1) Sam Jackson not being enough of a bad-ass (who would have ever thought?), and 2) Count Dooku biting it so early in the film, because more Christopher Lee is always good. Also, it was a long movie (the longest of the Star Wars films?), but that probably only bothered me because of the time of day I saw it (late afternoon on Saturday).
OK, enough complaining. Overall, I enjoyed myself very much. There were great space battles, some genuinely tense moments, and several little nuggets for the fans. Star Wars may be over, but we're left with six very entertaining films, a couple of which come very close to being great cinema. Stupid Lucas control-freak issues aside, it's good that they went out this way. No dancing Ewoks celebrating the end of this trilogy. But hey, the Ewoks were cool when I was 7. And isn't that what Star Wars is all about - kindling that childlike sense of "wow?"
- RK
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"I'm struck by the narcissism and banality of so many personal blogs." - Blaise Cronin, Professor and Dean, Information Science, Indiana University. Is corn the most banal thing possible? Certainly it's not narcissistic to think about and talk about corn. Perhaps I skew 100% banal, 0% narcissistic, then. So here it is - some thoughts about corn. Enjoy. It's nutritious!
3 comments:
I think yoda's comment was to explain qui-gon's blue ghost in the 'enhanced' version of RotJ. Plus it also adds to the tragedy of mannikin's turn to the dake side, because it turns out he didnt have to do that to save Padme...
Yeah, I wasn't too sure what was up with the Qui-Gon reference, either. Otherwise, I generally enjoyed it, thanks in no small part to Ewan McGregor. (My mad love for him doth abide!) I had been told by my roommates that it was a much "darker" film than the previous two and, thankfully, it indeed was. Jim (the S.O.) and I went to see it on Sunday and then spent a good 45 minutes discussing how it would've been nice if Anakin hadn't given in to the Dark Side so damned easily. It was just too friggin' simplistic, in my opinion. And Hayden Christiansen's monumentally poor acting didn't help any...I mean, is Darth Vader really supposed to come off as a spoiled brat? OK, I'll stop bitching. It was a fun film, and I'll probably buy it when it comes out on DVD. But only for my beloved Ewan!
Wow, you all are a bunch of damn nerds. But I knew that already.
Nessie, you are truly mantastic. But not as mantastic as Ewan (but no glimpse of his "lightsaber" in this one - I know that makes Joann cry a little).
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